Page:Some remarkable passages of the life and death of Master Alexander Peden.pdf/4

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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, that in the time she was in child-birth, Mr. Guthrie charged her to give account who was the father of that child, and discharged 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 countryside) affirmed, that after the presbytry had been at all pains about it, & 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 that child was present: and when he heard Mr. Guthrie begin to read, stood up, and desired him to halt, and said, I am the father of that child, and I desired her to father it upon Mr. Peden, which has been a great trouble of conscience to me, and I could get no rest till I came home to declare it. However, it is certain that after she was married, and every thing went cross to them, and wandred from place to place, and were reduced to great poverty, at last she came to that same spot of ground where he stayed upwards of 24 hours, and made away with herself.

2. After this he was three years settled minister at new Glenluce in Galloway and when he was obliged by the violence and tyranny of that time to leave that parish, he lectured upon the 20th chap. of the Acts from the #(illegible text) verse to the end, and preached upon the 31st verse in the forenoon, 'Therefore watch and remember, that by the space of three years, I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.' Asserting that he had declared the whole counsel of God, & had keeped nothing back, and protested that he was free of the blood of all souls. And in the afternoon he preached on the 32d verse, And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them that are sanctified.' Which was a weeping day in that kirk, the greater part could not contain themselves: he many times requested them to be silent, but they sorrowed most of all that he told them that they should never see his face in that pulpit again. He continued until night, & when he closed the pulpit door, he knocked hard upon it three times with his bible, saying three times over, I arrest thee in my Master's name, that never none enter thee, but such as comes in at the door as I did. Accordingly, neither