Page:Life and prophecies of that faithful minister of God's word, Mr. Donald Cargill.pdf/28

28 if not all, of religion in theſe external parts of chriſtianity, as prayers, faſtings, and mournings, and contendings, for the teſtimony: For ſufferings of the ſame, though they were duties, in themſelves, yet whoever reſted upon them would have a cauld coal to blow at in the end: Nothing is ours but ſin, nor due to us, but the wages of it, Death. In the application of that ſermon, he gave warning of the ſnares and ſins of the Gibbites and their actings, and how dangerous it was to caſt off all miniſters: And exhorted us ta pray for faithful miniſters to ourſelves, and never content ourſelves without them; for we would not continue long found in the faith, and ſtraight in the way, if we wanted faithful guides. And, for all the reſpect that theſe divided parties of diſſenters, or rather ſchiſmatics and ſeperatiſts, pretend to, Mr. Cargill, Cameron, Shields, and Renwick, and every one of them to be their ſucceſſors, and maintaining the teſtimony which they ſealed with their blood: how little do they notice the ſententious writings and ſayings of theſe worthies? And I am perſuaded, if they were upon the ſtage this day, that none would ſpeak, preach, and write more againſt all the divided parties of them, and their antiſcriptural, wild, unprecedented principles and practices: And theſe that caſt off all miniſters this day in Scotland, if they had been living through all the periods of this church, would never have embraced any as their miniſters, nor none in other churches this day through the world. It was one of the ſententious ſayings of the reverend Mr. James Kirktoun, in his pulpit in Edinburgh, inſiſting upon Scotland's ſingular privileges above all other churches for a long time, “That there had been miniſters in Scotland that had the gift of working miracles, and propheſying, which he could inſtruct; and that he had heard French, Dutch, Engliſh, Iriſh, and other miniſters preach; and yet there have been and are miniſters in Scotland that preach more from the heart, and to the heart, than any that ever he had heard."