promised to be with him against the appointed time. Afterwards he had much 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. 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 of the Bible, 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. into 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 should be built, and being late at his studies, the candle was burned out, and having called for another, as the landlady brought it from a room under which he lay, she saw to her astonishment, that a joist under his bed had taken fire. The consequence of this, had he been in bed as usual, in all probability had been dreadful to the whole town, as well as to him, the wind being strong: 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 the ordinance, resolve to go back unto that inexhaustible fountain of consolation; and coming over to Scotland about that time, he received no small assistance from David 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 of 1631, he and John Livingstone were, by Ecklim, Bishop of Down, suspended from their office. Upon recourse to Archbishop Usher, who sent a letter to the Bishop, their sentence was relaxed, and they went on in their ministry until May

1632, when they were, by the said Bishop, deposed from the office of the holy ministry.

After this no redress could be had; whereupon Mr Blair resolved on a journey to Court, to represent their petitions and grievances to King Charles I. On his arrival at London, he could have no access for some time to his Majesty, and so laboured under many difficulties with little hopes of redress, until one day, having gone to Greenwich Park, where, being wearied with waiting on the Court, and while at prayer, the Lord assured him that he would hunt the violent man to destroy him. And while thus in earnest with the Lord for a favourable return, he adventured to propose a sign, that, if the Lord would make the reeds growing hard by, (which were moved with the wind, as he was tossed in mind), to cease from shaking, he would take it as an assurance of the despatch of his business. To this the Lord condescended; for, in a little time it became so calm, that not one of them moved; and in a short time he got a despatch to his mind, wherein the King did not only sign his petition, but, with his own hand, wrote on the margin (directed to the depute), "Indulge these men, for they are Scotsmen."

It was while in England that he had, from Ezekiel xxiv. 16, a strange discovery of his wife's death, and the very bed whereon she was lying, and the particular acquaintances attending her; and

although she was in good health at his return home, yet in a little all this exactly came to pass.

After Blair's return, the King's letter being slighted by the depute, who was newly returned from England, he was forced to have recourse to Archbishop Usher, who wept that he could not help them. By the interposition of Lord Castlestuart with the King, they got six months' liberty. But upon the back of this, in November 1634, he was again summoned before the Bishop, and the sentence of excommunication pronounced against him by Ecklim, Bishop of Down. After the sentence was pronounced, Mr Blair rose up and publicly cited the Bishop to appear before the tribunal of Jesus Christ, to answer for that wicked deed. Whereupon he did appeal from the justice of God to his mercy; but Mr Blair replied: "Your appeal is like to be rejected, because you act against the light of your own conscience." In a few months after the Bishop fell sick; and the physician inquiring of his sickness, after some time's silence, he, with great difficulty, said: "It is my conscience, man." To which the doctor replied: "I have no cure for that;" and in a little after he died.

After Mr Blair's ejection, he preached often in his own, and in other houses, until the beginning of the year 1635, when he began to think of marriage with Catherine Montgomery, daughter to Hugh Montgomery, formerly of Busby in Ayrshire (then residing in Ireland). For this he came over to Scotland with his own and his wife's friends, and upon his return to Ireland, they were married in the month of May following.

Matters still continuing the same, he engaged with the rest of the ejected ministers in their resolution of building a ship, called the "Eaglewings," of about 115 tons, on purpose to go to New England. But about 300 or 400 leagues from Ireland, meeting with a terrible. hurricane, they were forced back unto Carrickfergus, the same harbour from which they loosed; the Lord having work for them elsewhere, it was fit their purpose should be defeated. He continued four months after this in Ireland, until, upon information that he and Mr Livingstone were to be apprehended, they immediately went out of the way, took shipping, and landed in Scotland in the year 1637.

All that summer after Mr Blair's arrival, he was as much employed in public and private exercises as before, mostly at Irvine and the country around, and partly at Edinburgh. But things being then in a

confusion, because the service-book was then urged upon the ministers, his old inclination to go to France revived; and upon an invitation to be chaplain of Colonel Hepburn's regiment (newly enlisted in Scotland for the French service), he embarked with them at Leith. Some of these recruits, who were mostly Highlanders, being desperately wicked, and threatening upon his reproofs to stab him, he resolved to quit that voyage. Calling to the shipmaster to set him on shore, without imparting his design, a boat was immediately ordered for his service; at which time he met with another deliverance, for, his foot sliding, he was in danger of going to the bottom; but the Lord so ordered, that he got hold of a rope, by which he hung till he was relieved.

Robert Blair's return gave great satisfaction to his friends at Edinburgh, and the Second Reformation being then in the ascendant, he got a call to be colleague to Mr Annan, at Ayr, in the spring of 1638; and upon May 2, at a meeting of the Presbytery, having preached from 2 Cor. iv. 5, he was, at the special desire of all the people thereof, admitted a minister. He stayed not long here; for having, before the General Assembly held at Glasgow in 1638, fully vindicated himself, both anent his affair with Dr Cameron while regent in the University, and his settlement in Ireland, he was, for his great parts and known abilities, ordered to be translated to St Andrews. But the Assembly's motives in this did prove his detriment for some time, and the burgh of Ayr, where the Lord had begun to bless his labours, had the favour for another year. But the Assembly held at Edinburgh, 1639, being offended at his disobeying, ordered him peremptorily to remove to St Andrews.

In the year 1640, when King Charles I., by the advice of the clergy, had caused burn the articles of the former treaty with the Scots, and again prepared to chastise them with a royal army, the Scots, resolving not always to play after-game, also raised an army, invaded England, routed about 4000 English at Newburn, had Newcastle surrendered to them, and within two days were masters of Durham. This produced a new treaty, more favourable to them than the former. With this army was Mr Blair, who went with Lord Lindsay's regiment; and when the treaty was on foot, the Committee of Estates and the army sent him up to assist the commissioners with his best advice.

Again, after the rebellion in Ireland, 1641, those who survived the storm supplicated the General Assembly, in the year 1642, for a supply of ministers, when several went over, and among the first Mr

Blair. During his stay there, he generally preached once every day, and twice on Sabbath, and frequently in the field, the auditories being so large; and in some of these he also administered the Lord's Supper.

After his return the condition of the Church and State was various during the years 1643 and 1644. In August 1643, the Committee of the General Assembly, whereof Mr Blair was one, with John, Earl of Rutland, and other four Commissioners from the Parliament of England, and Messrs Stephen Marshall, and Philip Nye, ministers, agreed to a solemn league and covenant betwixt the two kingdoms of Scotland and England. And in the end of the same year, when the Scots assisted the English Parliament, Mr Blair was by the Commission of the General Assembly appointed minister to the Earl of Crawford's regiment; with which he stayed until the King was routed at Marston Moor, July 1644, when he returned to his charge at St Andrews.

The Parliament and Commission of the Kirk sat at Perth in July 1645. The Parliament was opened with a sermon by Robert Blair; and, after he had, upon the forenoon of the 27th (a day of solemn humiliation), preached again to the Parliament, he rode out to the army, then encamped at Forgandenny, and preached to Crawford's and Maitland's regiments, to the first of which he had been chaplain. He told the brigade that he was informed many of them were turned dissolute and profane; and assured them, that though the Lord had covered their heads in the day of battle (few of them being killed at Marston Moor), they should not be able to stand before a less formidable foe, unless they repented. Though this freedom was taken in good part from one who wished them well, yet was it too little laid to heart; and the most part of Crawford's regiment was cut off at Kilsyth, in three weeks afterwards. After the defeat at Kilsyth, several were for treating with the Marquis of Montrose, but Mr Blair opposed it; so that nothing was concluded until the Lord began to look upon the affliction of His people. For the Committee of Estates recalled General David Leslie, with 4000 foot and 1000 dragoons, from England, to oppose whom Montrose marched southward, but was shamefully defeated at Philiphaugh, September 13, many of his forces being killed and taken prisoners, and he himself hardly escaping.

On the 26th, the Parliament and Commission of the General Assembly sat down at St Andrews (the plague being then in Edinburgh). Here Mr Blair preached before the Parliament, and also prayed before