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at ſome private meetings with ſome of the forementioned in Garlurk, and in the Airds, where Earlſtoun then dwelt.
In harveſt 1626 I was deſired by my lord Torphichen, to come to his houſe in Calder, and being deſired by the aged miniſter of Torphichen, to preach there; after two or three weeks, the presbytery of Linlithgow kept a visitation in that church, where I got a joint call by the pariſh and presbytery, and the old miniſter, and by my lord Torphichen patron of the pariſh and maſter of the land, to be miniſter there. The old miniſter died within a month or two; I preached there a whole year, and bund ſeveral times the Lord’s prefence with me in preaching, otherways than I had found before. Means were uſed by the pariſh and the lord Torphichen, that I might be ordained. The presbytery, altho' ſome of them were but corrupt men, ſhewed themſelves willing thereunto: but Mr. John Spoiswood pretended biſhop of St. Andrews ſtopped all becauſe of my non-conformity; and when the earl of Linlithgow, lord Torphichen and ſome others, dealt with him on my behalf, (for even at that time ſome few by moyen, were ſuffered to enter into the miniſtry without conformity) he pretended that notwithſtanding of my non-conformity, he ſhould not hinder my entrance in ſome other place; but that was promiſed to one Mr. George Hanna, who thereafter was intruded upon that poor people; and the report went, that either Mr. George, or his brother Mr. James, had given the biſhop, or ſome about him, 500 merks Scots, to get that place. This oppoſition and fear of diſappointment, made the people more deſirous to hear the word; and this deſire to hear, I thought made, that the Lord furniſhed the more to be preached to them, eſecially toward the end: for, about October 1627, the presbytery of Linlithgow wrote to me, to deſiſt from preaching any more at Torphichen, and I found the two or three laſt Sabbaths I preached there, the ſweeteſt Sabbaths, altho’ ſorrowful, that I had ſeen in that place.
When I was thus forced to leave Torphichen, and was reſolved to return to my father's houſe in Lanark, and had
