352 MEMOIRS. OE PERIOD . %T. the Lord had diftreffed my family;, and blown on my worldly fiabflance ; withal the eallern gable of the manfe, which was built for me from the foundation twenty-one years before, was in hazard of falling ; and my glebe lay defolate, without a furrow drawn or to be drawn in it, through the ruins brought upon it by the inbreaking of the brook aforementioned. , This con- junélure occafioned thoughts of heart to me. But for force years paft I have obferved, and to this day do obferve, it to he a time, wherein thé Lord's hand is in afpecial manner' ftretched out againft his own, in their perfbnal and domeftic concerns, their bodies, relations, or fubflance, -or all of them together, thereby filling ,up the want of the trials, which his people for- merly lead, by perfecution, from the hands of men and this whilé I loókat home within theparith, and abroad through the land, fo, far as my acquaintance goes. So that it is evident, that whatever be the iffue of thefe things, judgment is begun at the houfe of God. Mean while the affair of the unhappy Profeffor Sirnfon above mentioned, touching his fubverting the fundamental, doétrines of the neceffary exiltence, independency, and fupreme Deity of the Sonof God, &c. whichhad been beforefeveral precedinggeneralaf- femblies, was to be determined by thethen enfuinggeneral aflèm- bly ; and I was chofen to be a member thereof, as I had been in the years 1726 and 1727, which I could not attend, in refpe& of my domeftic circumftances, which now were as bad, if not worfe. Li this pinching 'trait, betwixt the public and my private cafe, I refolved to move as the Lord Mould be pleaded to point out my way. April 15. My wife's cafe continues at an extremity. Ye fterday, fhe having hardly as much life as to fpeak, I; was called to Ealter Buccleugh to a lick man. With difficulty I got,away; and the Lord was with me there. Coming home, juft at the end of the rnanfe, I'metan exprefs, calling,me to Etterick houfe. So having juft alighted, and feen her, I went thither ; and. found the man agonizing, and he died a little after I came away This conduól of Providence appeared kind, though trying. On the- Sabbath, I think, with difficulty fhe, got told me, that, in her experience, none of the good things the Lord had fpoken had failed : efterday, that ¡he was refolved never to part with Chrift : at night, that the was like a bird on the fide of it wall, griping with its claws. I have pleaded again, with fubrniion,, for a breathing before our fun go down. Toward the end of that month of April, I received a long letter, in Latin, from Mr Peter Du Pont, minifterof the French church at Edinburgh, impugning the e'ray on the accentuation ; Which had been put into his hands by advice of Mr. John Flint aforefaid, who declared him the faid Mr Du Pont to be the perfon in that place molt capable to judge in the matter. Thereto I quickly Made a return in Latin alto..,, Thus was I
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