hesitation in his own mind, whether to keep that appointment or not:
Yet, at last, he took one of his elders with him, and went according to
promise, and spent the whole night in prayer, explaining the doctrine of
Christ's temptation, and praising with short intermissions, &c.--And
in the morning they took courage, defying Satan and all his devices: the
man seemed very penitent, and died in a little after.

It was during the first year of his ministry, that he resolved not to go
through a whole book or chapter, but to make choice of some passages
which held forth important heads of religion, and to close the course
with one sermon of heaven's glory, and another of hell's torments; but
when he came to meditate on these subjects, he was held a whole day in
great perplexity, and could fix upon neither method nor matter till
night, when, after sorrowing for his disorder, the Lord, in great pity,
brought both matter and method unto his mind, which remained with him
until he got the same delivered.

About this time he met with a most notable deliverance, for, staying in
a high house at the end of the town until the manse was built, being
late at his studies, the candle was done, and calling for another, as
the landlady brought it from a room under which he lay, to her
astonishment, a joist under his bed had taken fire, which, had he been
in bed as usual, the consequence, in all probability, had been dreadful
to the whole town, as well as to him, the wind being strong from that
quarter; but, by the timeous alarm given, the danger was prevented;
which made him give thanks to God for this great deliverance.

When he first celebrated the Lord's supper, his heart was much lifted up
in speaking of the new covenant, which made him, under the view of a
second administration of that ordinance, resolve to go back unto that
inexhaustible fountain of consolation; and coming over to Scotland about
that time[143], he received no small assistance from Mr. Dickson, who
was then restored unto his flock at Irvine, and was studying and
preaching on the same subject.

But it was not many years that he could have liberty in the exercise of
his office, for in harvest 1631, he and Mr. Livingston, were, by Ecklim
bishop of Down, suspended from their office, but, upon recourse to Dr.
Usher, who sent a letter to the bishop, their sentence was relaxed, and
they went on in their ministry, until May 1632, that they were by the
said bishop, deposed fr