Page:Life and prophecies of Mr Alex. Peden (1).pdf/8

8 known public man, worthy of all credit, who was also under the same sentence, who lived in the parish of Dalmeny near the Queensferry.

11. When they arrived at London, the skipper who received them at Leith was to carry them no farther. The skipper who was to receive them there, and carry them to Virginia, came to see them, they being represented to him as thieves, robbers, and evil-doers; but when he found they were all grave Christian men, banished for Presbyterian principles, he said, he would sail the sea with none such.— In this confusion, that the one skipper would not receive them, and the other would keep them no longer, being expensive to maintain them, they were all set at liberty. It was reported, that both the skippers got compliments from friends at London; however, it is certain they were set free, without any imposition of bonds or oaths; and their friends at London, and on their way homewards through England, shewed much kindness unto them.

12. That dismal day, June 22 1679, at Bothwell bridge, that the Lord’s people fell and fled before the enemy, he was forty miles distant, near the border, and kept himself retired until the middle of that day, that some friends said to him, “ Sir, the people are waiting for sermon.” He said, “ Let the people go to their prayers; for me, I neither can nor will preach any this day, for our friends are fallen, and fled before the enemy at Hamilton; and they are hanging and hashing them down, and their blood is running like water.”

13. After this, he was preaching in Galloway: In the afternoon he prayed earnestly for the prisoners taken at and about Bothwell; but in the afternoon when he began to pray for them, he halted and said, “Our