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

 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 country-side 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 not get 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 that parish, he lectured upon Acts xx 17. to the end; and preached upon the 3lst. verse in the forenoon “Therefore watch, and remember that for the space of three years, I ceased not to warn everyone night and day, with tears.” Asserting, that he had declared the whole counsel of God. and had kept nothing back; and protested, that he was free of the blood of all souls. And, in the afternoon, he preached on the 23d verse, “And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, A2