(j MEMOIRS OP PERIOD, flocking hither from beyond feas ; and things great and fmall were let a-going; to prepare people for receiving what was a_ hatching, Sitting at meat in time of the fynod at Kelfo, in the houle of a Prefbyterian filly woman, I was furprifed with, and filled with indignation at, the fight of the piéture of Chrift on the crofs, hanging on the wall over againft me. Lodging, in time of a communion, in a certain houle of Come diftin&tion, I got a loam bafon to wafh my hands in, with the Jefuits motto in the bottom thereof, J. H. S. And many other fuch arts were then tired to catch the people, while the great artifices for corn- palling the deign were going on fuccefsfully. Withal, there were mighty fears of an intended maffacre. But national fafts were very rare, as they have been all along Circe the Union unto this day. Wherefore on. Feb. 17. 1714, we kept a congregational fall, upon the account of the afpe6t of affairs at that time, more particularly declared in our feffion's a6t thereanent, of the date Feb. 14. 1714. I preached that day on Pfil. lxxiv. 19. " O deliver not the foul of thy turtle dove unto the multitude of the wicked." Which fermon agreeable to the ftate of that time, being in retentis, may be confulted `. On the Sabbath immediately following, I entered, in ink catechetical ordinary, on the fecond command ; upon which I did for fome time fut myfelf to difcover the evil of Popery, and of the Englifh fervice. With refpeét to the former, I explained to the people the national covenant at large, judging the cafe of the time a fufficient call thereto. The latter I infifted on as par- ticularly, and as much as I thought to be for edification, from the pulpit ; yet not fo much as I fain would have - done ; which 'was the occation of the blank left in that part of my notes on the commands ; the which, it teems, I had forne thoughts of filling up afterwards, for my own fatisfaátion ; which yet was never doné f.' The aforefaid copy of the Fourfold State having been reviled by feveral minitters, I went in the fin-rimer to Edinburgh, with my dear friend Dr Trotter; on purpotr; to fpeak with a printer' on that head. And while I was there, I was free, willing, and refolved to venture it into the world. Büt a friend there, at that time a ftudent, now a minifter, advifed to delay it upon the ground of the fear of the pretender's coming in. This being fo feafible, I could not in modefty refute the advice : but after that, my courage in the cafe abated and funk. Aug. 24. This day the facrament was adminiftered. There were 103 tokens given out to parifhioners, whereof 23 to new communicants_; and there were never fo many communicantsof this parifh before. The work was begun on Thurfday with a ', This fermon was publifhed in the author's Body of Divinity, vol. 2. by way ofá note on the fecond command; and was alfo printed feparately, with an addition of part of another fermon, on account ofthe great increafe of Popery in Scotland. See theauthor's Body of Iivinity,vol. 2. p. 512, 2, 4. notes.
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