n he went to the country,
many a time parties of the guard were sent in quest of him, and
sometimes he would meet them in his return, and pass through the midst
of them unknown. When he was one time lodged in a remote part of the
suburbs of Edinburgh, a captain, with a party, searched every house and
chamber of the closs, but never entered into the house he was in, though
the door was open.

Again, when he was lurking in a private family without the walls of
Edinburgh, a party was sent to apprehend him. Providentially he had gone
out to walk by the house; the party, observing him by his gravity to be
a minister, said one to another, That may be the man we are
seeking.----Nay, said another, he would not be walking there. Again,
when he was advertised that the soldiers were coming to search for him
in his own house, he lingered till another minister came to him, and
said, Sir, you must surely have a protection from heaven, that you are
so secure here, when the town is in such disorder, and a general search
to be made. Immediately he went off, and in a little after Mr. Moncrief
went out; and was not well down stairs before the guard came up and
searched his house. He took a short turn in the street, and came back
just as the guard went off.

But the persecution growing still worse, he was obliged to disperse his
family for some time. He was solicited, when in these circumstances, to
leave the kingdom, and had an ample call to Londonderry in Ireland, yet
he always declined to leave his native country, and, in his pleasant
way, used to say, He would suffer where he had sinned, and essay to keep
possession of his Master's house, till he should come again. He had a
sore sickness about the beginning of June 1680. In which time he uttered
many heavenly expressions. But he recovered and continued in this the
house of his pilgrimage until harvest 1688, when he died, and got above
all sin and sorrow, after he had endured a great fight of affliction to
obtain a crown of eternal life.

He was mighty in prayer, and had some very remarkable and strange
returns thereof. His memory was savoury a long time after his death.
Many could bear witness, that God was with him of a truth. He left many
seals of his ministry in Fife, and was a most faithful and painful
minister. His sufferings are a little hinted at in the fulfilling of the
scripture, though neither he nor his persecutors are mentioned there.
The relation runs thus:

"The firs