Page:Life and prophecies of Mr Donald Cargill.pdf/15

15 Clydesdale and Lothian about a mile distant. Mr. Cargill sent two men whose names I could mention, to desire them to come and hear sermon and that he might converse with them, several of them being his acquaintances. John Gibb answered. He had left the land, and deserted the testimony; they did not want him nor any other minister: it was never better with them, than since they parted with all of them. He came and stood on a chair, and had nothing to rest upon with his Bible betwixt his hands, as his ordinary was at all times when I heard him. I well remember, he sang the first verse of the 37 Psalm, For evil-doers fret thou not, &c. and lectured upon the 21st chapter of 1st Kings, from the 17th verse, of what passed betwixt Ahab and Elijah, and Ahab's outward humiliation; where he had many sententious notes: And preached upon that text, Amos iv. 12. ''Therefore this will I do unto thee, O Israel! And because I will do this unto thee prepare to meet thy God, O Israel!'' He insisted upon the foregoing judgements that had proven ineffectual, and few had returned unto him; but this was a nameless judgement, or a non-such stroke. He went to Darngavell, in Cambusaethen parish, upon the side of the muir. He sent for them next day; when they came they had a long reasoning in the barn; the sum and substance of it is to be found in that letter he sent to the women in the Correction-house, which is published in the Cloud of Witnesses. Two things they required of him, before they could join and own him as their minister. 1. That he would confess publicly his sin in leaving of the land. 2. That he would engage to preach to none but them, and those that joined with them He answered, That he did not see that to be sin in leaving the land in such a time, and so short a time, in his circumstances; and he hoped that he had been useful to not a few where he had been; and to preach to none but them, was a dreadful restriction to his ministry; for his commission was far more extensive to go and preach and baptise all nations, and to preach the gospel to every creature; and if his trumpet would sound to the ends of the earth, he would preach Christ to all. Gibb and Jamie carried pistols upon them, and threatned all that came to seek their wives or others from them, which frighted some. B 2