290 MEMOIRS OF PERIOD XI. make one? yet had he the refidue of the fpirit ; and wherefore one ? that he might reek a godly feed : therefore take heed to your spirit and let none deal treacheroufly againft the wife of his youth." This text had been fbr many months in my view, but could never reach the fenfe á# it : and that week it fell in my way to be direEtly confìdered.' It colt me many thoughts, and particular petitions to the Father of lights for the meaning of it: but then I was helped to believe, that Í would get it in due time. And accordingly I at length reached it. But going to write it, I looked to the following verfe, which I prefently law did not agree, but unhinged all again. This gave nie a new damp. But, through the fame divine aflìftance, I quickly perceived that verse miftaken too, and fell on the true reading of it; whereby it beautifully agreed, and fet all right again. The kind cotuluét of Providence in there Matters, that week parti- cularly, is great in my eyes; and the paflàge frotn Jurieu's Critical Hiftory, which I had never before obfervèd, was fent me moft feafonably. By the difpofal of,that holy Providence which all along bath' kindly and wifely balanced my worldly affairs, tho' my tenement in Dunfe had been profitable to me while I was at Simprin, yet after my removal to Etterick; it afforded the little profit and much trouble. For which caufe, I had fold it to my brother John : but hedying, that bargin flew up. But, about this time, it was fold for good and all to John Dunfe there; my eldeft fon, where major, ratifying the fale, on the occafion above men- tioned. In the fpring- feafon this year, I was greatly indifpofed and weakened, fometimes fearing when I lay down at night, I fhould not rife in the morning. Great alto was the diftrefs of the parifh, and my toil by that means. Having ended my fer- nions on the catechifmApril 3. ; on the 10th I entered, by the call of providence, on Plhl. xc. 12. " So teach us to number our days," &c. And on the 27th we kept a congregational Taft for the great frcknefs and mortality*. There Was not one of my family, fave myfelf only, that had not been one way or other laid by, for a time, during that period of general frcknefs: But the loth day of Mtty this year, was a day remarkable above many to me and my family ; being that wherein my wife . was feized with that heavy trouble, which hath kept her all along fince that time unto this day, in extreme diftrefs : her imagination being vitiated in a particular point ; and thatim proved and wrought upon, by the grand adverfary, to her great difquietment : the which has been ftill accompanied with bodily infirmities and maladies, exceeding r greatand numerous. Never- thelefs, in that complication of trials; the Lord hath beenplea_ `'The fermons preached on this occafron are annexed to the author's Bodyof Divinity, vol. 8. p. 606, and may be ufefully read on fuch oçcaflons, whichare not infrequent.
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