Page:Life and prophecies of that faithful minister of God's word, Mr. Donald Cargill.pdf/27

Rh alone in theſe days. The godly, and zealous, and faithful unto the death, Mr. John Blackadder, was at the Cowhill, in the pariſh of Livingſtone, in the year 1675 in the month of Auguſt: He went into the fields in the evening, being a retired place; when he came in he was very melancholy: Some friends enquired, what made him ſo ſad? He ſaid, he was afraid of a very dangerous infectious miſt to go through the land that night, that might have ſad effects, of many deaths and great dearth to follow; and deſired the family to cloſe door and window, and kep them as long cloſe as they might, and take notice where the miſt ſtood thickeſt and longeſt, for there they would ſee the effects ſaddeſt; which they did: And it remained longeſt upon that town called the Craigs, being within their ſight, and only a few families; and within a four months thereafter, 30 corpſes went out of that place, and bad crops followed for three years, the meal was at half a crown the peck: But, lo, in the year 1678 there was ſuch a crop, that the Lothian barley was ſold at four pound the boll, and the peaſe at forty pence; and for that we got ten thouſand Highlanders, five hundred Engliſh Dragoons, the whole Militia of the kingdom, and all the ſtanding forces caſt in upon the Weſt of Scotland at Bothwell-bridge: And, as they ſaid, they came to deſtroy, and deſtroy they would; and yet there was abundance for them all, and the inhabitants alſo.

After Mr. Cargill left the Under-bank-wood, he preached at Loudon-hill upon a week day, the 5th of May. He deſigned only to preach once, and baptize ſome children: His text was. No man that hath followed me in the regeneration, ſhall be a loſer, but great gainers. In his conference lately with the Gibbites, finding ſo much of Peter's religion among them, that they had left all and followed him, made him to inſiſt in ſhowing that it was not every pretended way of following Chriſt he would either regard or reward; holding forth the great danger and ruin to place ſo much,