1696. í. MR THOMAS BOSTON. 19 fchool. But my bufinefs was increafed toward. the latter end of the year, teaching two boys of Kennet's to read. My pupil died afterward in his youth, while I was at Simprin: I gave myfelf to my Rudy, kept a correfpondence with the neighbouiing minifters, there being an Epifcopal incumbent in the parilh when I went thither, and converted much with fòme ferious Chriftians about the place. . Though I was not properly the chaplainof the family, norhad, that I remember, any particular order from the- mailer of the fa-, mily, and neither laird nor lady were at home for a confideiable time after I went thither ; yet finding myfelf providentially fet- tled there, in the character I bore, I judged myfelf obliged in contcience to feek the fpiritual good of the family, and to watch over them, and fee to their manners. Accordingly 1 kept up family- worfhip, catechifed the fervants, preffed the carelefs to fe- cret prayer, reproved and warned againft finful praótices, and earneftly endeavoured the reformation of the vicious. This courfe not having the dared effeót on.fbme,.created me 'a great deal of uneafinefs- tòr the molt part of the time I wao there : the which arofe efpecially from an ill-difpofed and incor- rigible woman, who was fteward, atnd íb did of courfe fometimes extend itfeif to my entertainment ; which I bore with, that I. might not mix quarrels on my private interefî with thofe I was engaged in for the honour of God. And this principle 1 have-all along, in the courfe ofmy minifi;ry, aimed to Wtlk by. Mean while the united preíbyteries of Stirling and Dumblane meetingat Tulliallan, a neighbouring parifh, June 22. a motion was made to give me a piece of trial ; which I refuted : but after- ward Mr George Turnbull, a grave learned man, then minitier at Alloa, now at Tinninghame, gave me a text, John viii. which I received, declaring it to be without view unto my enter- ing on trials before the prefbytery, being convinced I wad not ripe for it. On that text I wrote a difcourfe, and gave it him. Afterward he Chewed me, by aletter, what he judged amifs in it ; but was pleated to add, that he obferved a very promifng gift in it. Thereafter Mr Thomas Buchanan, then minitter at Tulliallan, afterward at Dunfermline, gave meanother text, viz. Acts xx..28. on which alto I wrote a ditcourfe, not unfatisfying to him. Both there difcourfes are in retentis. My circumftances continuing uneafÿ through the meansafore- faid, Mr Turnbull did, on the 7th of September, by appoint- ment ofthe prefbytery, defire me to wait on them., bringing my teftimonials along with me, on defign to enter me on trials. He alfo fpoke to Kennet about my removing out of his family ; an opportunity ofmy going into the family of-Colonel Erfkine, then governor of Stirling cattle, offering at that time :.but Kennet íhewed an unwillingnets to part with me; in which I believe he was very ingenuous, being a man that hád, force, good thing roofed in him. Wherefore, though I inclined to I could notin-
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