e6 MEMOIRS OP PERIOD Iv. 'went into the pulpit. And withal I have oftenwondered, how, confideringmy temper, I got confidence to give out that pfalm on that occafion : but the obvious difficulty on that head was then, for any thing I know, hid from mine eyes, which were fix- Jed depending on God alone, according to his word. They ap- pointed me a popular fermon on John i. 16. againft their next meeting, with the reft of my trials, if I `could get them ready. A Churnfide, June 15. I- delivered my popular fermon on the forefaid text, as alfo a chronological difcourfe in Latin ; which, with the other difcourfes aforementioned, areyetin retentis. The fame day, all the reft ofmy trials, viz. in the languages, and ca- techetics, were taken the which lait are now, and have been for many years, taken firft, with more reafon. Thus all my tri- als being expeded, I was that day licenfed to preach the gofpel, as a'probationer for the holy minftry, near about three years from my entering on the ftudy of divinity. And looking on myfelf as a child ofProvidence, and confidering the manner of my edu- cation, I cannot but obferve the kind conduét of that Providence in carrying me through fundry ftates of life, and parts of the country, in that fhort time allotted for me, in the charaáter of a ftudent. PERIOD IV. From my being licenfed, till I removed into the bounds of the prefbytery of Stirling. BEINGBEING licenfed to preach the gofpel, I paffed two years and months in the chara&er of a probationer ; the firft part of the fame in my native country, the fecond in the bounds of the prefbyteryof Stirling, and the third in my native country again, where I was fettled. Thefe Years brought in continued fcenes of trial tome ; being, through the mercy of God, gene- rally acceptable to the people but could never fall into the good graces of thofe who had the 'ftroke in the fettling of parifhes. Having, on the 18th of June, ftudied, and once mandated, the firft fermon I preached, and having gone to a fellowfhip- meeting, and upon my return fallen again to work, I was fó con- fufed, that I lay grovelling on the ground for forne time in great perplexity, withing I had never undertaken that work. But re- covering myfelf, I betook myfelf to prayer ; and thereafter it came fo eafily to hand, that I taw the finger of God in it. According to the impreflionswherewith I was prompted to en- teron trials, I began my preaching of the word ina roufing ftrain ; and would fain have fet fire to the devil's nett. The firft text I preached on, the Sabbath after I was licenfed, was Pfal. 1. 22. ; the fecond, Matth. vii. 21. ; the third on a week-day, Hof. xiii. 13.'; the fourth, Pfal. 1. 21. ; the fifth, Ezek. ix. 4. the fixth, Prov. xxix. 1. and the feventh, Matth. iii. 7. Thus I went
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