Page:Some remarkable passages of the life and death of Master Alexander Peden.pdf/28

 This murder was committed betwixt 6 and 7 in the morning: Mr. Peden was about 10 or 11 miles distant, having been in the fields ail night; he came to the betwixt 7 and 8, and desired to call in the family, that he might pray amongst them; when praying, he said, Lord, when wilt thou avenge Brown's blood? Oh, let Brown's blood be precious in thy sight! and hasten the day when thou wilt avenge it, with Cameron's, Cargil's, and many others of our martyrs names; and O for that day when the Lord would avenge all their bloods! When ended, John Muirhead enquired what he meant by Brown's blood? He said twice over, What do mean! Claverhouse has been at the Preshil this morning, and has cruelly murdered John Brown; his are lying at the end of his house, and his poor wife sitting weeping by his corps, and not a soul to speak comfortably to her. This morning aft rafter [sic] the sun-rising, he saw a strange apparition in the firmament, the appearance of a very bright clear-shining star, fall from heaven to the earth; and indeed there is a clear-shining light fallen this day, the greatest Christian that ever conversed with.

38. After this, two days before Argyll was broken & taken, he was near Wigtoun in Galloway; a considerable number of men were gathered together in arms to go for his assistance; they pressed him to preach; but he positively refused, saying, he would only pray with them; where he continued long, and spent some part of that time in praying for Ireland, pleading, that the Lord would spare a remnant, and not make a full end in the day of his anger; and would put it in the heart of his own, to flee over to this bloody land, where they would find safety tor a time. After prayer, they got some meat, and he gave every one of his old parishioners, who were there, a piece out of his own hand, calling them his bairns: then he advised all to go no further; but, said he, for you that are my bairns, I discharge you to go your foot-length, for before you can travel that length, he will be broke; and tho' it were not so, God will honour neither him nor Monmouth, to be instruments of a goood turn to his church, they have dipt their hands so far in the persecution. And that same day that Argyll was taken, Mr. George Barclay