and would not restrain the profanation of the Lord's-day committed in his bounds; therefore the Lord would cast him out of his house, and none of his posterity should enjoy it: which accordingly came to pass; for although he was in a good external situation at this time, yet henceforth all things went against him, until he was obliged to sell his estate; and when giving the purchaser possession thereof, he told his wife and children, that he had found Mr. Welch a true prophet *."

"But though Mr. Welch had, upon the account of his holiness, abilities, and success, acquired among his subdued people a very great respect, yet was he never in such admiration as after the great plague which raged in Scotland in his time. And one cause was this: The magistrates of Ayr, forasmuch as this town alone was free, and the country about infected, thought fit to guard the ports with sentinels and watchmen; and one day, two travelling-merchants, each with a pack of cloth upon a horse, came to the town, desiring entrance, that they might sell their goods, producing a pass from the magistrates of the town from whence they came, which was at that time sound and free; yet, notwithstanding all this, the sentinels stopt them till the magistrates were called; and when they came, they would do nothing without their minister's advice; so Mr. Welch was called, and his opinion asked. He demurred, and putting off his hat, with his eyes towards heaven for a pretty space, though he uttered no audible words, yet continued in a praying posture; and after a little space told the magistrates, they would do well to discharge these travellers their town, affirming with great asseveration, the plague was in these packs: so the magistrates commanded them to be gone, and they went to Cumnock, a town about twenty miles distant, and there sold their goods; which kindled such an infection in that place, that the living were hardly able to bury their dead. This made their people begin to think of Mr. Welch as an oracle t."

"Another wonderful story they tell of him at the same time :-The Lord Ochiltree, the captain, being both son to the good Lord Ochiltree, and Mr. Welch's uncle-in-law, was indeed very civil to Mr. Welch; but being for a long time,

through the multitude of affairs, kept from visiting Mr. Welch in his chamber, as he was one day walking in the court, and espying Mr. Welch at his chamber-window, asked him kindly, how he did, and if in any thing he could serve him? Mr. Welch answered him, he would earnestly entreat his Lordship, being at that time to go to court, to petition king James in his name, that he might have liberty to preach the Gospel; which my Lord promised to do. Mr. Welch answered, My Lord, both because you are my kinsman, and for other reasons, I would earnestly entreat and obtest you not to promise, except you faithfully perform. His Lordship answered, he would faithfully perform his promise; and so went for London. But though, at his first arrival, he was really purposed to present the petition to the king, when he found the king in such a rage against the godly ministers that he durst not at that time present it; so he thought fit to delay it, and thereafter entirely forgot it.

"The first time that Mr. Welch saw his face after his return from court, he asked him what he had done with his petition. His Lordship answered, he had presented it to the king, but that the king was in so great a rage against the ministers at that time, he believed it had been forgotten, for he had got no answer. Nay, said Mr. Welch to him, my Lord, you should not lie to God, and to me; for I know you never delivered it, though I warned you to take heed not to undertake it except you would perform it; but because you have dealt so unfaithfully, remember God shall take from you both estate and honours, and give them to your neighbour in your own time: which accordingly came to pass, for both his estate and honours were in his own time translated to James Stuart, son of Captain James, who was indeed a cadet, but not the lineal heir of the family.

"While he was detained prisoner in Edinburgh castle, his wife used for the most part to stay in his company, but upon a time fell into a longing to see her family in Ayr, to which with some difficulty he yielded; but when she was to take her journey, he strictly charged her not to take the ordinary way to her own house, when she came to Ayr, nor to pass by the bridge through the town, but to pass the river above the bridge, and so get the way to his own house, and not to come into the town; for, said he, before you come thither, you

shall find the plague broken out in Ayr; which accordingly came to pass *.

* "

The following occurrence reminds us of Gosner's life of Boos.

"An honest minister, who was a parishioner of Mr. Welch many a day, said, 'That one night, as he watched in his garden very late, and some friends waiting upon him in his house, and wearying because of his long stay, one of them chanced to open a window toward the place where he walked, and saw clearly a strange light surround him, and heard him speak strange words about his spiritual joy t."

I conclude with an instance of judgment, and one of mercy.

"He was some time prisoner in Edinburgh castle before he went into exile; where, one night sitting at supper with the Lord Ochiltree, who was uncle to Mr. Welch's wife, as his manner was, he entertained the company with godly and edifying discourse, which was well received by all the company except a debauched Popish young gentleman, who sometimes laughed, and sometimes mocked and made wry faces; whereupon Mr. Welch brake out into a sad abrupt charge upon all the company to be silent, and observe the work of the Lord upon that profane mocker, which they should presently behold; upon which the profane wretch sunk down and died beneath the table, to the great astonishment of all the company ."

The other occurrence took place in the south of France. "There was in his house, amongst many others who boarded with him for good education, a young gentleman of great quality, and suitable expectations, and this was the heir of Lord Ochiltree, captain of the castle of Edinburgh. This young nobleman, after he had gained very much upon Mr. Welch's affections, fell ill of a grievous sickness, and, after he had been long wasted with it, closed his eyes and expired, to the apprehension of all spectators, and was therefore taken out of his bed, and laid on a pallet on the floor, that his body might be more conveniently dressed. This was to Mr. Welch a very great grief, and therefore he stayed with the dead body full

*

pp. 101, 102.

† p. 96.

† pp. 100, 101.

three hours, lamenting over him with great tenderness. After twelve hours, the friends brought in a coffin, whereinto they desired the corpse to be put, as the custom is: but Mr. Welch desired, that for the satisfaction of his affections, they would forbear it for a time; which they granted, and returned not till twenty-four hours after his death were expired; then they desired, with great importunity, that the corpse might be coffined, and speedily buried, the weather being extremely hot yet he persisted in his request, earnestly begging them to excuse him once more; so they left the corpse upon the pallet for full thirty-six hours; but even after all that, though he was urged, not only with great earnestness, but displeasure, they were constrained to forbear for twelve hours more. After forty-eight hours were past, Mr. Welch still held out against them; and then his friends perceiving that he believed the young man was not really dead, but under some apoplectic fit, proposed to him, for his satisfaction, that trial should be made upon his body by doctors and chirurgeons, if possibly any spark of life might be found in him; and with this he was content. So the physicians are set to work, who pinched him with pincers in the fleshy parts of the body, and twisted a bowstring about his head with great force; but no sign of life appearing in him, the physicians pronounced him cold dead, and then there was no more delay to be made: yet Mr. Welch begged of them once more that they would but step into the next room for an hour or two, and leave him with the dead youth; and this they granted. Then Mr. Welch fell down before the pallet, and cried to the Lord with all his might, and sometimes looked upon the dead body, continuing in wrestling with the Lord, till at length the dead youth opened his eyes, and cried out to Mr. Welch, whom he distinctly knew, O, sir, I am all whole, but my head and legs; and these were the places they had sore hurt with their pinching.

"When Mr. Welch perceived this, he called upon his friends, and shewed them the dead young man restored to life again, to their great astonishment. And this young

nobleman, though he lost the estate of Ochiltree, lived to acquire a great estate in Ireland, and was Lord Castlestuart, and a man of such excellent parts, that he was courted by the Earl of Stafford to be a councillor in Ireland; which he refused to be, until the godly silenced Scottish ministers, who

suffered under the bishops in the north of Ireland, were restored to the exercise of their ministry; and then he engaged, and continued so for all his life, not only in honour and power, but in the profession and practice of godliness, to the great comfort of the country where he lived. This story the nobleman himself communicated to his friends in Ireland *."

The following letter, inserted in an old number of the Evening Mail, contains an extract from the works of M. de la Harpe, a French Academician, and afterwards a true convert to Christianity.

'Sir,-Having just perused some part of the "Select and Posthumous Works" of the celebrated M. de la Harpe, of the French Academy, which were recently published at Paris, in 4 vols. quarto, I beg leave to submit to you the following extract, which has appeared to me so extraordinary in its nature, and so striking in its contents, that you may perhaps be disposed to insert it in your interesting journal, for the consideration and reflection of your readers. The Editor makes no remarks upon it, but relates it simply in these words :-" It appears to me to be but yesterday-and it was, nevertheless, in the beginning of the year 1788. We were at the table of a brother academician, who was of the highest rank, and a man of talents. The company was numerous, and of all kinds— courtiers, advocates, literary men, academicians, &c. We had been, as usual, luxuriously entertained; and, at the dessert, the wines of Malvoisie and the Cape added to the natural gaiety of good company that kind of social freedom which sometimes stretches beyond the rigid decorum of it. In short, we were in a state to allow of any thing that would produce mirth. Chamfort had been reading some of his impious and libertine tales; and the fine ladies had heard them without once making use of their fans. A deluge of pleasantries on religion then succeeded. One gave a quotation from the Pucelle d'Orleans; another recollected and applauded the philosophical distich of Diderot,—

"Et des boyaux du dernier prêtre

Serrez le cou du dernier roi."