ates shall
go down, and after them shall arise a party called presbyterians, but
having little more but the name, and these shall as really as Christ was
crucified without the gates of Jerusalem on mount Calvary bodily, I say,
they shall as really crucify Christ in his cause and interest in
Scotland, and shall lay him in his grave, and his friends shall give him
his winding-sheet, and he shall ly as one buried for a considerable
time; O then, John, there shall be darkness and dark days, such as the
poor church of Scotland never saw the like, nor ever shall see if once
they were over; yea, John, this shall be so dark that if a poor thing
would go between the east sea-bank and the west sea-bank, seeking a
minister to whom they would communicate their case, or tell them the
mind of the Lord concerning the time, he shall not find one. John asked,
Where the testimony should be then? He answered, In the hands of a few,
who should be despised and undervalued of all[221], but especially by
these ministers who buried Christ; but after that he shall get up upon
them, and at the crack of his winding sheet as many of them as are
alive, who were at his burial, shall be distracted and mad with fear,
not knowing what to do; then, John, there shall be brave days such as
the church of Scotland never saw the like, but I shall not see them, but
you may.

About this time as he was preaching in the day-time, in the parish of
Girvin, and being in the fields, one David Mason, then a professor, came
in haste trampling upon the people, to be near him. At which he said,
There comes the devil's rattle-bag; we do not want him here. After this,
the said David became officer and informer in that bounds, running
through rattling and summoning the people to their unhappy courts for
non-conformity, at which he and his got the name of the devil's
rattle-bag.----Since the revolution, he complained to his minister, that
he and his family got that name.----The minister said, Ye weel deserved
it, and he was an honest man that gave you it; you and yours must enjoy
it; there is no help for that.

It is very remarkable, that being sick, and the landlord, where he
stayed, being afraid to keep him in his house (the enemy being then in
search of hiding people), made him a bed among the standing corn; at
which time a great rain fell out, insomuch that the waters were raised,
and yet not one drop to be observed within ten feet of his bed, while he
lay in that fie