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affirmed that out of their curioſity they opened his coffin. to ſee his corpſe, and yet he had no ſmell, though he had been forty days dead.
All the foregoing articles I was aſſured of, except the 40th, which is ſaid he ſpoke to John Clark in Muirbrock, within the bounds of Carrick, in the year 1685, and has been paſſing from hand to hand in writ. I ſent a friend twenty miles to him, for the certainty of it; and although he was my old acquaintance, he delayed to give it. But I am informed, that ſome other friends, enquired at the ſaid John, who owned that the 40th paſſage was all one, for ſubſtance, with what Mr. Peden ſaid to him.
There are other two paſſages I have often heard, and doubt nothing of the truth of them, though the times and places be not mentioned, viz. One day preaching in the fields, in his prayer he prayed earneſtly for the preſervation of the people: and again and again he prayed for that man that was to loſe his life. The enemies came upon them the ſame day, and fired upon the people, and there was none of then either wounded or killed, ſave one man, and he was ſhot dead. Another time he was preaching, and giving a very large offer of Chriſt, in the goſpel terms; an old woman being ſitting before him. he laid his hands on each ſide of her head, and rocked her from ſide to ſide, and ſaid, "Thou witch-wife, thou witch-wife, thou witch-wife, I offer Chriſt to thee! Quit the devil's ſervice, thou haſt a bad maſter; thou wilt never make thy plack a babee of him: But if thou wilt break off and renounce the devil's ſervice, I promiſe thee, in my Maſter's name, that he will give thee ſalvation." After this, there was a diſcernable change in her practice; and when ſhe was a-dying, ſhe confeſſed that ſhe was either engaged in the devil's ſervice, or was engaging; and expreſſed her thankfulneſs that ſhe had the happineſs to hear Mr. Peden at that time.
