Page:Twenty remarkable passages in the life and prophecies of Mr Alexander Peden.pdf/3

 of me, for I am utterly free of it, and 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 for this surfeit of grief that she hath 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 women to be helpful to her, until she did it. 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, whiahwhich [sic] has been a great trouble of conscience to me; and