then under awakenings, and enabled them, by the holiness of their after-lives, to give evidence of the gracious change then wrought on their hearts. And this leads to speak,

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IV. Of the fourth sort in the parable, compared to the good ground hearers. I do not here speak of those who were as good ground before 1742, but of those whose hearts were then made good: who in hearing the word were then made to receive it so as in their after-life to bring forth the fruits of righteousness, though in different degrees, in some thirty-, in some sixty-, in others a hundred-fold. temper of mind and course of life agreeable to the gospel, this is fruit that will abound to the account of those with whom it is found. And, glory to God, setting aside all those that appeared under awakenings here in 1742, who have since remarkably backslidden, whether persisting in their backsliding, or returning from it, there is a considerable number of the then awakened that appear to bring forth such fruits. I do not talk of them at random, nor speak of their number in a loose, general, and confused way; but have now before me, at the writing of this, April 27th, 1751, a list of about four hundred persons awakened here at Cambuslang in 1742, who from that time to the time of their death, or to this, that is, for these nine years past, have been all enabled to behave in a good measure as becometh the gospel, by any thing I could ever see, and by the best information I could get concerning them by word or writing, from others of established characters for religion, who knew them and their manner of life all along.

But that what I say in this matter may not be misunderstood, I remark,

First, Negatively, 1. I do not hereby pretend to say, that they are free of all faults and follies, as if nothing at all amiss could be justly charged on any of them; but would only say, that after much inquiry made, from what I know, they have been helped, since the time of their awakening to their death, or to this time, to carry in a good measure, suitable to their Christian profession, proper charitable allowances and abatements being made for involuntary infirmities and imprudencies, common to them with other Christians in this imperfect state; and that they have not been suffered to fall into any thing gross or openly offensive in their life.

2. I do not pretend to say that this list before me is complete, or contains the whole number of those awakened here in 1742 that persevere. It is to be hoped that many of those quite unknown to me may be as good Christians as any of those that are in it. It is but very lately that I got particular accounts of a considerable number of them who are choice practical Christians of whom I knew nothing before. Opposers at no great distance, hearing of the falls and miscarriages of some of the awakened, immediately raised a great clamour and noise, as if all were come to nothing; and that noise, it seems, has reached Holland and other distant places: but there is ground to suspect, that the more narrow the inquiries into this work and what the effects of it are, it will still appear in a more favourable and advantageous light.

3. It is not meant that all the regularly behaving

subjects of that work are yet alive to answer for themselves. It may be hoped in charity that many of them are gone to heaven: but those only of the now deceased subjects of this work are reckoned in this number who, from the time of their awakening here in 1742 to the time of their death, were enabled to persevere in the ways of God, without falling openly into anything offensive or unsuitable to their Christian profession. exceptionable of all others, as having by an edifying life given evidence of the gracious change wrought on their hearts, and then finished their course; and several, though not all of them, having finished it with joy, and died triumphantly, and in the full assurance of eternal life.

And these are the most un

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4. When I mention the work here in 1742, and such comfortable abiding effects of it; I would not have that work as producing any of those blessed effects ascribed to any creature, but that the entire glory of it should be given to God whose work it was. is true that there were many ministers then came here, from places near and more remote, and some of them men of great eminence, who preached here at my desire, and I used also to preach along with them at their desire; and several of these ministers, after public worship was over, also joined with me in exhortations to souls appearing in spiritual distress, who resorted to the manse. But what could all these avail without the Divine power and blessing? whoever plant or water, it is God that gives the increase: ministers are but instruments in his hand: no praise was due to the rams' horns, though Jericho's walls fell down at their blast. If God will vouchsafe

that his Spirit shall breathe through ministers, or by his word in the mouth, it is God and not the means must have the praise. It is very fit and reasonable, that he who builds the temple should bear the glory : and Christ is both the foundation and founder of the church, and of every particular living temple in it, and even all in all: and therefore let all the glory be ascribed to him.

5. When I speak of so many persevering subjects of the work here in 1742, I do not pretend to determine that all these are converted. A true believer may, without extraordinary revelation, be infallibly assured, that he himself is in a state of grace, and shall persevere therein to salvation; and yet this is not the attainment of every true believer, nor perhaps of the greater part of believers: but the like assurance is not to be expected, in an ordinary way, with respect to the goodness of the state of others; "the white stone and new name" is known absolutely to none but those that receive it: the gift of discerning spirits, so as to have an absolute infallible knowledge of the goodness of another's state, is quite miraculous ; and whatever of this gift obtained in the apostolic and primitive times, for any man now to pretend to it seems to be an assuming of what belongs to God alone; and to run into this plan in church-matters is to turn all into the wildest disorder and confusion. But.

Second, and Positively: Whatever justly determines us to entertain favourable sentiments of others' being true Christians, and in a gracious state, will be found to agree to those persons I speak of; though no doubt, with a diversity, as among an equal num

ber of other Christians. The holiness of some Chris tians shines so clearly in their lives as suffices to found a moral certainty, or very high degree of probability, and even to exclude all reasonable ground of doubt concerning the goodness of their state; while others afford ground but for a lower degree of probability, yet enough on which to found a judgment of charity that they are in a gracious state; some of both these sorts are, no doubt, to be found among the persons of whom I now speak.

Now there are these two things especially upon which we found our charitable thoughts of others as true Christians, namely, a christian profession, joined with an answerable conversation, leaving the certain and final judging of hearts and states to God, who only can judge them with infallible certainty, we are bound in charity to think men are good men as long as their profession of faith and lives are agreeable to the word of God, the only rule of faith and life.

Some indeed further require, that persons who would have a place in their charity should give some account of their experiences of the grace of God: and this is what a great number, perhaps above a fourth part of the persevering subjects here in 1742, have done they gave me very particular accounts of God's dealings with their souls, in their first awakenings and outgates, with their following soulexercises and experiences, distresses, deliverances, and comforts, in 1742, 1743, and 1744, and some of them also continued these accounts to 1748. And I set down very many of these from their mouths, always in their own sense, and very much also in their own words: and many of these accounts have