1© MEMOIRS OF PERIOD Ix. whoaby that time, I think, had got good of the,gofpel, and did much balance the influence of an heritor in the parifh at firlt, and friendly to me, having bought the eflate of Drygrange, re- .moved to it with his family about the Martinmas the tame year. Thus three of the molt valuable of my feven 'elders. were taken' from- rue. Adam Linton foretaid was alto an elder, and a good man; and he and his family from the beginning really friendly ; and thofe of them who remain, continue fo hill : but they had about them a great meaf'ure of' the haríhnefs of the temper of the country. But James Biggar, an elder, with his family, were the family which was the molt comfortable to me as aminifter of the gofpel. So it was all along,' and fo it continues to this Clay. May the bleffing of God, whole I am, and whom I ferve," rett on them, from generation to generation ! May the glorious gape! of his Son catch them early, and maintain itS ground in them to the end ; of the which I have teen tome com- fortable inilances already ! Several of them have, ppf late years, been carried off by death ; but they have been cornfBrtable to me in their life, and in their death too. By the means aforefai.d,and otherwife too, the current ofholy Providence was fo tirong againft me, that I had much ado to bear up before it : but trill God's calling me to the place remained clear, plain and unperpiexed. Howbeit the Lord pitied. In the end of the year, James, Ion to Waiter Bryden aforefaid, came in his father's room, an elder, and very well filled up his fa- ther's room every way. And I lived in a particular friendthip with both father and fon while they lived. From the time of my fettling here, the great thing I aimed at in my preaching, was to imprefs the people with a fenfe of their need'of Chrifl, and to bring them to confider the foundations of practical religion. For the which ends, after Tome time fpent in dire& preaching the need of Chritt, and handling the parable of the wife and foolilb builders, forne of which fermons are written in thort-hand chara&ers, I did, on May 9, 1708. begin an ordi- nary, the fame, for túbftance, as in the brit years of my minifiry in Simprin, but profecuted after another manner. That part of it which contained the doétrine of man's fourfold fiate then be- gun, was ended this year on the 16th of Ontober. Theconduft of Providence in leading to a fecund attempt on that fubjeCt, was the more remarkable, confidering what the farne Providence had dèfigned it for, unknown to and unlooked for by me, till theevent dilcovered it felt' years after. And thepreaching of thefe fermons Of the Fourfold State, through the mercy of God, was not in vain. Thereafter I proceeded in the remaining part of that ordinary, viz. the nature and neceflity of holinefs. Mean while, on Oa. 30. I began to preach catechetical do&r ne; and I went through the whole catechifm, from the
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