1731. MRTHOMAS BOSTON. 40 .danger, ruffled my fpirit ; but it was calmed, ere Providence fet on the way of help by a furgeon ; who, when he came, difco- vered one falfe ftep more, viz. that the pea had been put in the belly of the mufcle, not between two mufcles. About that time I obferved, on a particular emergent, what I had often obferved before, the neceffity and advantage of a principle of juftice and reafon, and acing therein, in cafes where fofter principles have no ground left them to ftand on. Meanwhile the catechifing of the parifh was interrupted ; and I fat inthe pulpit when I preached. But my foul rejoiced to obferve, how my gracious God and Matter ftill timed the hardeft ofmy trouble, fo as it had been defigned, that it fhould be over before the Sabbath Mould return. But with this trou- ble of my leg there was joined'fore eyes, occafioned by my fit- ting in the bed writing, in the fun-light, on the Tuefday before the furgeon came : fo that, for fome nights, leg and eyes were to be buckled up with their refpe Liveapplications at once ; and one night a dint of the toothach joined them. The callous fub- fiance was got away by degrees ; and onNov. 7 at night, what day I had,intimated from the pulpit a diet of catechifing again, the-fore appeared clofed. That week the tranfcribing what I hadwritten onGen. xxiii. being ended ; that I might afterward proceed as I fhould have access, I fet myfelf to fill up the paffages and account of my life fromwhere I had left off, Jan. 9. While I was going on in that, there came to my hand on Saturday, Nov. 13. a letter from Mr Hogg, bearing, his writing once more to Mr G. and intreating his friends at London to get the MS. on the covenant from him'; and propofing to me to review the notes on the Crook in the Lot, for publication *, and advifingof a motion to call nieto Jedburgh, which he had ; and withal obfcurely hinting fomething of carrying me to a more healthy air, out of. Etterick. As for the própofal of a new work for me, I found myfelf content to be employed whatever way the Lord himfelf fhould point out. As to that relating to Jedburgh, I neither hoped nor feared it, confidering my circumfiances. But the Taft did touch me very near, being ignorant of the particular, or what might be of it : I confidered how matters were, in all outward appearance, making towards my tranfportation to the grave ; and havinga terror of making a Rumble near the end of my journey, I cried from the bottom of my heart, ' Wilt not thou who haft faved me from death, keep my feet from falling ?' I could not but obferve the mercy, that I was not quite forgotten * Mr Bolton, in compliancewith this propofal, did, fome time before his death, begin to tranfcribe, and prepare for the prefs, his fermons on this fubjedt; but was preventedby his growing frailty from finiping the tranfcript. What remained, was tranfcribed from the original MS. by another hand ;' and they were published in 1737, with an excellent preface by his dear friends MVleff. Colden, Wilfon, and David- Son. 3E
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