Page:Twenty remarkable passages in the life and prophecies of Mr. Alex. Peden, late minister of the gospel at New Glenluce, in Galloway.pdf/3

3 God will vindicate me in his own time and way. He went home, and walked at a water side upwards of 24 hours, and would neither eat nor drink, but said, I have got what I was seeking, and I will be vindicated, and that poor unhappy lass will pay dear for it in her life, and will make a dismal end! and this surfeit of grief that she has given me, there shall never one of her sex come into my bosom. And accordingly, he never married. There are various reports of the way that he was vindicated: some say, the time she was in child birth Mr. Guthrie charged her to give account who was the father of that child: and discharged the woman to be helpful to her, until she did t.—Some say; that she confessed, others, that she remained obstinate. Some of the people, when I made enquiry about it in that country-side, affirmed, that after the Presbytery had been at all pains about it, and could get no satisfaction, they appointed Mr. Guthrie to give a full relation of the whole before the congregation, which he did; and the same day the father of the child being present, when he heard Mr. Guthrie begin to read, he stood up, and desired him to halt, and said, "I am the father of that child, and I desired her to father it on Mr. Peden, which has been a great trouble of conscience to me; and I could not get rest till I came home to declare it." However, it is certain, that after she was married, every thing went cross with them, and they went from place to place, and were reduced to great poverty. At last she came to that same foot of ground where he stayed upwards of 24 hours, and made away with herself.

2. After this, he was three years settled