fabric, as it was never before, and busied myself exceedingly; and when I came to the top of my hopes, and thought to enjoy them, the Lord came and plucked me from my hopes; thereafter I did see my own folly; and this also I observed in my father. Take example by me, and be not ensnared with the world. There be some who seek the world too carefully, and some too greedily, and many unlawfully. nd men have it so much in their mind, that they are upon the world in the morning, ere they come out of their bed, and before even they seek God. Sirs, set your hearts to take pains, in sad earnest, for the kingdom of heaven. I will tell you the heavenly kingdom is not got with a skip or a leap. I find it now, there must be thrusting, and thronging, and climbing to enter in. It is a strait and narrow way." His own omissions in the morning time, through needless toils and distractions, touched his conscience: this he confessed with regret.

He was giving a divine counsel to a friend; and resting in the midst of it, he looked up to heaven, and prayed for a loosened heart and tongue to express the goodness of God to men; and afterwards went on in his counsel, not unlike Jacob, Gen. xlix. 18. who in the midst of a prophetical testament, rested a little, and said, " I have waited for thy salvation." He gave his lady, diverse times, and that openly, an honourable and ample testimony of holiness and goodness, and all respectful kindness to her husband, and earnestly craved her forgiveness where he had offended her, and desired her to make the Lord her comforter, and said he was gone before, and it was but fifteen or sixteen years up or down. He spoke ordinarily to all the servants of the house, butlers, cooks, &c., omitting none; saying, "Learn to serve and fear the Lord, and use carefully the means of your salvation, that you put not off your accounts till the latter end of the day, as I did foolishly. I know what is generally your religion. Ye go to church, and when ye hear the devil or hell named in the preaching, ye sigh and make a noise, and it's forgot by you before ye come home, and then you are holy enough. But I can tell you, the kingdom of heaven is not got so easily as your pastor and guides would have you suppose; they are but a pack of dumb dogs. Use the means yourself, and gain some sense of God, and pray as you can, morning and evening. If you be ignorant of the way to salvation, God forgive you! for I have discharged myself in that point towards you, and appointed a man, [Mr. George Gillespie, mentioned above,] to teach you; your blood be upon yourselves. The little knowledge that you have, if you would use it carefully and with a good conscience, the Lord would lead you on farther, and teach you his ways; but your form is to ask for that master who will give you most hire, and little care you to live in good company, where you may find the means of salvation, and so ye spend the time all over in the ignorance of God." He took an oath of his servants that they should follow his advice he made a speech severally, to every one of them he was so far humbled that he said to every one of them, (the meanest not excepted,) "If I have been rough to thee or offended thee, I pray thee, for God's sake forgive me.” And among others, one, to whom he had been rough, said, "Your lordship did me never wrong;-I will never get

but betwixt my breasts locked in my heart." He asked, "When will my heart be loosed, and my tongue untied, that I may express the sweetness of the love of God to my soul?" and before the pastor answered any thing, he answered himself, "even when the wind bloweth." Being asked by the pastor, "If ever he had benefited by the word of God in public, which he had heard preached these many years;" he answered, "I never came to your communion, but I was filled with the sense of God, and Christ was powerfully borne in upon my soul, that do my best, I was not able to hold him out; but in he would be, whether I would or not; but oh! oh! my woful outbreakings, for the saints I was inclined to. The devil and temptations took me at such a time, as I could not win by unhurt, but oh! oh! strong, strong Jesus; O the depth of the love that would not want me!"

Being asked, "what was his judgment concerning the ceremonies now entered in the kirk of God ?" " I think," said he, "and am persuaded in my conscience, they are superstitious, idolatrous, and antichristian, and come from hell, and I repute it a mercy, that my eyes shall not see the desolation that shall come upon this poor church. It's plain popery that is coming among you; God help me! God forgive the nobility, for they are either key-cold, or ready to welcome popery; whereas they should resist; and wo be to a dead, timeserving, and profane ministry; they are but a company of dumb dogs." He called his lady, and a gentleman who was a friend to his lady, and had come a good way to meet him, with the pastor, caused the chamber door to be shut upon all others, and from his bed directed his speech to the gentleman, saying, "I ever found you kind and honest to me all the time of my life; therefore, I must now give you a charge, which you shall deliver to all the noblemen you know, and with whom you are acquainted. Tell them all how heavy I have found the weight of the Lord's hand upon me, for not giving testimony to the Lord my God, when I had occasion once in my life at the last parliament. For this foul fault, how fierce have I felt the wrath of the Lord my God! My soul hath raged and roared. I have been grieved to the heart. Tell them that they will be as I am now. Encourage others that stood for the Lord. Tell them that failed, that, as even they would wish to have mercy when they are as I am now, that they would repent and crave mercy from God. Would to God I had such an occasion again, to testify my love to the Lord! For all the earth, should I not do as I have done." To a gentleman, a kinsman of his, he said "I love your soul, and I love your body; you are a blessed man if you understand it, because ye may have the blessed means of the word preached beside you; and seeing you are but a tender man of body, I would not have you to drown yourself so much with the interests and troubles of this world, as I did; who knows but ye may be the next man that follows me? My greatest grief is, that I have not the occasion of good means as you have, and if you yourself make not the right use of the occasions of your means, one day they shall be a witness against you. Alas! take example by me; I was a fool, and lifted up with folly; and now when I was at the very top, I was taken by the Lord, when I least expected. The Lord hath smitten me; therefore take example

a reflex, making me love my Saviour, and adhere to him again. The sparks and embers of this love shall fly up and down in this bed, so long as I lie in it."

To another kinsman he said, " Learn to use your time well. Oh, alas the ministry in this country are dead. God help you; you are not led right; ye had need to be busy among yourselves. Men are as careless in the practice of godliness as if godliness were but words, signs, and shows; but all these will not do the turn. Oh! but I find it hard now, to take heaven by violence, and to thrust in at it." To two gentlemen, neighbours, he said, "It is not rising soon in the morning, and running to the park or stone-dyke, that will bring peace to the conscience, when it comes to this part of the play. You know not how I have been beguiled with this world. I would counsel you to seek that one thing that is necessary, even the salvation of your souls. Be continually casting up your accounts: let not your reckonings be behind as mine were; but count with your own souls every day and every night." To a cousin, [Robert Gordon,] bailie of Ayr, he said, "Robert, I know you have light and understanding; and though you have no need to be instructed by me, yet have you need to be incited. Care not overmuch for the world, but make use of the good occasions and means you have in your country; for here is a pack of dumb dogs that cannot bark; they vaguely talk to you of terror and of comfort, but without any sense or life." To a young cousin, and another young gentleman that was his friend, he said, "You are young men, and you have far to go, and it may be some of you have not far to go, and if it fall out that your journey be short, however it is dangerous. Now are you happy, because you have time to lay your accounts with Jesus Christ. See therefore that your reckoning be made daily, lest you be taken, as I am, to make your accounts, and to have all your senses to seek about you. Suffer not therefore this example that you see of me to slip unobserved, but make your best use of it. I entreat you to give your youth to Jesus Christ, for it is the most precious offer and acceptable gift you can give him. Give not your youth to the devil and your justs; and then reserve nothing to Jesus Christ but your old rotten bones. It is to be feared that then he will not accept you: learn therefore to watch and take example by me."

He called Mr. Lamb,* who was the bishop of Galloway, commanding all who were within the chamber to remove, and had a long conference with him; exhorting him earnestly not to molest or remove the Lord's servants, and not to enforce or inthral their consciences to receive the Five Articles of Perth, or do any thing against their consciences, but to behave himself meekly towards them, as he would wish to have mercy from God." The bishop answered, " My lord, our ceremonies are of their own nature but things indifferent, and we

Andrew Lamb was translated from the See of Brechin to that of Galloway in 1619, on the death of bishop Cowper.-Keith's Catalogue of Scottish Bishops, p. 167. He died in less than three months after Kenmuir, and was succeeded by Sydserf, a man of a totally opposite character.

impose them for decency and order in God's kirk. They need not stand so scrupulously on them as matter of conscience in God's worship." Kenmuir replied, "I am not to dispute with you, but one thing I know, and can tell you from dear experience, that these things indeed are matters of conscience, and not indifferent; and so I have found them: for since I did lie down on this bed, the sin that lay heaviest on my soul, and hath burdened my conscience most, was my withdrawing of myself from the parliament, and not giving my voice for the truth against these things which they call indifferent; for in so doing, I have denied the Lord my God.” When the bishop began to commend and encourage him for his well-led life, and did put him in hopes of health, and praised him for his civil carriage and legal behaviour, saying he was no oppressor, and without any known vice, he auswered, "That's no matter: a man may be a good civil neighbour, and yet go to hell." The bishop answered, "I confess, my lord, we have all our faults;" and thereafter insisted in long discourse, which Kenmuir thought impertinent. This made him interrupt the bishop, saying, "What should I more? I have got a hold of Christ, and Christ of me. God be with your lordship."

On the morrow, the bishop came to him, and said, " My lord, how do you do?" My lord answered, “I thank God, as well as a saved man, hastening to heaven, can do:" After that he gave the clerk of Kirkcudbright a most divine and grave counsel. concerning his Christian courage, and how he should walk in his particular calling. He caused him to hold up his hand, and swear by the Lord, that he should never consent, but oppose the election of a corrupt minister or magistrate. He said to his coachman, " You will now be apt to go to any man that will give you most hire; but do not so: go where ye may get best company; though you get less wages, yet will ye get the more grace, because your calling is subject to drunkenness and company." He made him hold up his hand and promise before God to do so. To two young serving-men, who came to him weeping to get his last blessing, he said, "Content not yourselves to be like old divines, with a superficial view of religion to make a show of, blessing yourselves in the morning for a fashion only: yea, though you should pray both morning and evening, yet that will not avail you, except likewise ye make your account every day. Oh! ye will find few to direct or counsel you: but I will tell you what to do: first pray to the Lord fervently, to enlighten the eyes of your mind; then seek grace to rule your affections. You will find the good of this when you are as I am." He took their oaths to strive to do so. And as he counselled them, he gave also many divine and powerful exhortations to several individuals, insomuch that they could hardly all be written at length. He caused every man to hold up his hand, and swear in his presence, that by God's grace, they would forsake their former sins, and follow his counsel.

After he had exhorted many friends and servants, as they were going out of the chamber, he said to them, "I have somewhat yet to say; be not deceived with the world; for me, I have played the fool, and brought the house of Kenmuir to the perfection of a complete

fabric, as it was never before, and busied myself exceedingly; and when I came to the top of my hopes, and thought to enjoy them, the Lord came and plucked me from my hopes; thereafter I did see my own folly; and this also I observed in my father. Take example by me, and be not ensnared with the world. There be some who seek the world too carefully, and some too greedily, and many unlawfully. nd men have it so much in their mind, that they are upon the world in the morning, ere they come out of their bed, and before even they seek God. Sirs, set your hearts to take pains, in sad earnest, for the kingdom of heaven. I will tell you the heavenly kingdom is not got with a skip or a leap. I find it now, there must be thrusting, and thronging, and climbing to enter in. It is a strait and narrow way." His own omissions in the morning time, through needless toils and distractions, touched his conscience: this he confessed with regret.

He was giving a divine counsel to a friend; and resting in the midst of it, he looked up to heaven, and prayed for a loosened heart and tongue to express the goodness of God to men; and afterwards went on in his counsel, not unlike Jacob, Gen. xlix. 18. who in the midst of a prophetical testament, rested a little, and said, " I have waited for thy salvation." He gave his lady, diverse times, and that openly, an honourable and ample testimony of holiness and goodness, and all respectful kindness to her husband, and earnestly craved her forgiveness where he had offended her, and desired her to make the Lord her comforter, and said he was gone before, and it was but fifteen or sixteen years up or down. He spoke ordinarily to all the servants of the house, butlers, cooks, &c., omitting none; saying, "Learn to serve and fear the Lord, and use carefully the means of your salvation, that you put not off your accounts till the latter end of the day, as I did foolishly. I know what is generally your religion. Ye go to church, and when ye hear the devil or hell named in the preaching, ye sigh and make a noise, and it's forgot by you before ye come home, and then you are holy enough. But I can tell you, the kingdom of heaven is not got so easily as your pastor and guides would have you suppose; they are but a pack of dumb dogs. Use the means yourself, and gain some sense of God, and pray as you can, morning and evening. If you be ignorant of the way to salvation, God forgive you! for I have discharged myself in that point towards you, and appointed a man, [Mr. George Gillespie, mentioned above,] to teach you; your blood be upon yourselves. The little knowledge that you have, if you would use it carefully and with a good conscience, the Lord would lead you on farther, and teach you his ways; but your form is to ask for that master who will give you most hire, and little care you to live in good company, where you may find the means of salvation, and so ye spend the time all over in the ignorance of God." He took an oath of his servants that they should follow his advice he made a speech severally, to every one of them: he was so far humbled that he said to every one of them, (the meanest not excepted,) "If I have been rough to thee or offended thee, I pray thee, for God's sake forgive me." And among others, one, to whom he had been rough, said, "Your lordship did me never wrong;—I will never get