46 MEMOIRS OP PERIOD V» 2 Cor. iv; 8. * ' Perplexed, but not in defpair;'” and Pfal. Iv. 22. “ Caft thy burden on the Lord, and he will fuftain thee.” Robert Kemp, anoted profeffor of the ibicter fide, intheparifli of Airth, had, on March 10. afked me, if a certain elder had fpoke to me about their calling me to be their m in ifte rth e which I having anfwered in the negative, he told me there was fuch a motion; and that if the elders would not move in it, they would prefent a fupplication to the prefbytery, for that effect. But having, on April 16. preached the Jaft fermon I had there, on the morrow after, that elder, William Colvan in Powfide, did fignify their defign to call me. I told him very ferioufly, that fuch an attempt would be needlefs: the thoughts of it were indeed terrible to me, being very fenfible of my unfitnefs for fuch a poll. But there was no probability of that project’s taking effebt, my friends being,, part of them, not acceptable to the prefbytery; and a certain perfon of eminence there, upon hearing fometime that I was to preach there, had curfed me : at the report whereof coming to me, I thought upon, and faw theufeof, that word, Matth. v. 11. “ Bielled are ye, when men (hall revile you,” &c. That Sabbath at Airth, I found, 1. That in the morning, efpecially in prayer before I went to the kirk, I was tempted to think I had been rafh in a certain bufinefs, not yet accompiifhed, I flighted the temptation, knowing it to be a device of Satan to mar me of what I was about. I thought if no time then to eonfider, whether it was really fo or not, it being a thing that could not be quickly cleared. 2. That in the forenoon I had.light, but little life ; in the afternoon I had both, and fome things uleful and fea- fonable were laid to my hand. 3. That I was helped betwixt fermons and in die afternoon, to live by faith; and I had a ferenity of mind, and contentment of heart, flowinf from dependence on the Lord. , Being refolved to part .with the prefbytery of Stirling in a little time, I had alfo got over the perplexity by the (trait aforefaid, how to difpofe of myfelf next, refigning the matter freely to the Lord ;,.till on April 20. it began to recur. I confidered then the two words, given me at the North Ferry, viz. Zech. iv. 6. and Dan. i. 11. that the former was accompiifhed already; in the nianner of my deliverance from the northern miffion, and hoping the latter would be accompiifhed too in its time. And that very day, in -the afternoon, I received a letter from my father, defiring me, on the account of private affairs, to come home; Hereby the Lord himfelf did feafonably mark out to me my way, in the which he hath by this time fulfilled that word alfo unto me. About this time .began a fecond alteration in the (train of my preaching, which by degrees, though with much difficulty in the way thereof, ripened into a more clear uptaking of the doctrine of the gol pel; which by the mercy of God I arrived at, after my fettlement in Simprin. Having been at Barhill on the 11th, I heard at Culrofs a week-day’s fermon, on the excellency of Chrift,
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