Page:Life & prophecies of Mr. Alexr. Peden.pdf/3

 and would neither eat or drink, but said, I have got what I was seeking and I will be vindicated, and that poor unhappy lass will pay dear for it in her life, and will make a dismal end, and for this surfeit of grief that she hath given me, there shall never one of her sex come into my bosom: And, accordingly, he never married. There are various reports of the way that he was vindicated: Some say the time she was in child-birth. Mr Guthrie charged her to give account who was the father of that child, and discharged the women to be helpful to her, until she did it. Some say that she confessed, others that she remained obstinate. Some of the people, when I made enquiry about it in that countryside, affirmed, that after the Presbytery had been at all pains about it, and could get no satisfaction, they appointed Mr Guthrie to give a full relation of the whole before the congregation, which he did; and the same day the father of that child being present, when he heard Mr Guthrie begin to read, he stood up, and desired him to halt, and said, "I am the father of that child, and I desired her to father it on Mr Peden which has been a great trouble of conscience to me, and I could get no rest till I came home to declare it." However it is certain, that after she was married, every thing went cross to them; and they went from place to place, and were reduced to great poverty. At last she came to that same spot of ground where he stayed upwards of 24 hours and made away with herself.

2. After this he was three years settled minister at New Glenluce in Galloway; and when he was obliged, by the violence and tyranny of that time to leave the parish he lectured upon Acts xx 17 to the end, and preached upon the 31st. verse in the forenoon, "Therefore watch and remember that for the space of