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so surprised, that some that had been at Pentland, Bothwell and Airdsmoss, and in other great dangers, were so seized with fear, that some of the women threw their children from them; and Mr. Cargill, in the confusion, was running straight upon the enemy. Gavin Witherspoon and other friends gripped him, and hauled him into the moss, to which the people fled. Although the dragoons fired hard upon them there were none either killed or taken that day. A ball went through Patrick foreman's hair, but his head was safe, his hour not being yet come, and that neither the time nor place he was to die.
About this time some spoke to him, that he preached and prayed short; who said, "O Sir, 'tis long betwixt meals, and we are in a starving condition, and it is good, sweet and wholesome which ye deliver; but why do yon straiten us so much for shortness?" He said, "Ever since I bowed a knee in good earnest to pray, I never durst pray and preach with my gifts; and where my heart is not affected, and comes not up with my mouth, I always thought it time for me to quit it: what comes not from my heart, I have little hope that it will go to the heart of others." Then repeated these sentences of the 51st. Psalm, "Then will I teach transgressors thy way, and sinners shall be converted unto thee." When was this then? Just when he had the experience of the foresaid things.—If all this were studied and practised, there would be fewer preachers, and snorter preachings, and fewer and shorter prayers among professors; they would not sleep and wake people, gasping and gollering, and few understanding what they are saying, as if they were to be heard for much speaking, or as if God could not, or would not hear them without they cry loud, and loving to hear themselves speak, and others to admire and adore them: But these who are long and loud in public for ordinary, will be seldom and
C 2
short
