is a hard thing to die well;" and then turning her discourse to Mr Wemyss, Chyrurgeon: "You are a young man; I assure you it is a hard thing to die well; I find so. I cannot come at it." Here again she desired Mr Halyburton to pray. After prayer she still breathed out desires after Christ. "O come to me, Lord, sweet Lord Jesus Christ, and take me into thy mansions. O he delays his coming; he is long a-coming." Mr Halyburton did show her Christ's willingness to entertain the greatest of sinners upon their application to him. This he said in answer to what she had said of the greatness of her sins, which she alleged was the cause of Christ's refusing to come to her.

Immediately after this, she got some light, and recovered out of her damp, and then broke forth with extraordinary tenderness : "O Mr Halyburton, commend the goodness of God to my children, and give my Lord (Elcho) the best of your advice." After this, she lay silent for a while, and then cried out with a loud voice, "I bless God I have lived to this time, that I might say this; tell my Lord Elcho that I command that the saltpans go no more on the Sabbath-day." To which Mr Halyburton replied: "My Lord has already signed a positive order, discharging them from going for the future on the Sabbath." One of the company desired her to try and get some rest. "What!" replied she, "shall I rest when I have my salvation work to work out? I shall never sleep more." And then she proceeded to breathe out her earnest desires after Christ: "Come, come, come, sweet Lord Jesus;" and then she said, "Will he never come to such a one as I am ?" To which Mr Halyburton replied: "If you are willing to come to him, he is willing to come to you." To which she replied with great earnestness and fervency: "OI fly, I fly, I fly." Then she desired Mr Halyburton to read something out of the Scriptures to her. He read in the 6th chapter of John, from the 35th to the 45th verse: "And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life; he that eateth of me shall never hunger, and he that drinketh of me shall never thirst. But I also say unto you, that you also have seen me, and believe not. All that the Father hath given shall come unto me,

and him that cometh unto me, I shall in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day. The Jews then murmured at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? Jesus, therefore, answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him; and I will raise him up at the last day."

After this she broke forth in commendation of God's goodness and mercy, and she said she saw it was good to wait on God, and they are no losers who wait on him. Then she fell out in commendation of God's free grace. She asserted herself a monument of it. Now she acknowledged she had been sinfully peremptory, desiring life in the words of Hezekiah, before she fell into her damp. She told that the great account why she desired life was to take care of the religious education of her children. Afterwards, speaking of the pain she had endured, she said, "These burnings are indeed very severe, but I have no reason to complain, since they are not the everlasting burnings which I deserve." At every sentence she ended by saying, "O come, sweet Jesus!" At length she said, with a great deal of tenderness and affection, "O he is come in the twinkling of an eye, he is come." Then she said, "O happy Kirkaldy, happy Kirkaldy, it was a happy occasion for me. I hope I got good. I bless God that you were not out of the family before this time." It was feared by the company that much speaking might occasion some distemper; therefore, to prevent this, Mr Halyburton was desired to use arguments with her to try and get some rest. At this time she seemed not so near death as

she was. When, on Mr Halyburton saying to her, "Madam, you were just now commending God as good, and indeed all that know him will bear this testimony; I hope then you will not refuse any thing God enjoins as a duty, and surely, beyond all question, he enjoins us to use all proper means for preserving the health of our bodies. Now, Madam, it is judged by those who understand, that it is proper for your Ladyship, on this occasion, to endeavour to get some rest. Will you then compose yourself to rest, in compliance with your duty ?" "Yes, Sir," replied she, with great calmness. After this, for a while she lay silent, and then began to whisper softly with a prayer, which she began with acknowledgment of sins, original and actual, and particularly of unbelief. As she went on she raised her voice; expressions that followed her affections were warm, and lively, and full of faith. To the astonishment of all present, she seemed to triumph. The first and greatest part of the prayer respected her spiritual condition, and in that she discovered not only a clear and distinct sense of sins, original and actual, but withal a solid conviction of the necessity, excellence, suitableness, sufficiency, and efficacy of Christ's mediation. Moreover, she constantly expressed her reliance on it, renouncing all other things pretending to any usefulness to the same end. The expressions are lost that she used, they flowed so fast, which was contrary to her usual way of speaking. They were so surprising, and she continued so long in prayer, that our memories could not retain them. She expressed herself readily in pertinent Scripture phrases, evidencing thereby her acquaintance with the Scriptures, the word of God. Towards the close of her prayer, she prayed particularly for the family, and did make it appear she was in a very composed frame, and had a distinct view and understanding of all things belonging unto it. She omitted nothing that might tend to its good. She prayed for her husband. She begged the Lord would enable him to devote himself and family to God, and to be an exemplary pattern in his station and generation, and if the Lord should give him another yoke-fellow, she prayed she might be of more use to him in engaging him to

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A RELATION OF MY LADY ANNE ELCHO.

God's ways, than she had been. She cast over her children upon God, as to their education. She forgave her enemies, praying that they might be forgiven of God, and were it the Lord's will, they might come to where she hoped ere long to be. Then, with extraordinary tenderness, even with more than what she evinced on other occasions, she said, "Lord, I never ate bread, nor drank wine at thy table; thou knowest it was want of opportunity; but, however, the blood of sprinkling cleanseth from all sin, and I hope to be washed in that. Lord, pardon the want of a due regard to thy servants; thou knowest I did it ignorantly." When prayer was ended, she discoursed a little to those about her of the danger of deferring repentance to the last; and then she said, "Mr Halyburton, is there anything I should order?" He replied, "Madam, there are two things:1 one to give a testimony to the goodness of God's way; the other is to make sure of their own interest in it. And seeing you have expressed your full confidence of your own salvation, and given a plain and devout testimony to the goodness of God's way, I think indeed the greatest part of your work is done." Whereupon she immediately cried out, "I would not come back again into a vain world for millions, tripled millions." After this she lay silent about half an hour, having told she had no more to say. After this silence, her fever grew high, which occasioned ravings for an hour's time, but without anything extravagant. When she spake of God in her ravings, it was with the greatest regard and reverence that any person could speak. After this hour's raving, she lay silent, struggling with the pains of death, for at least an hour, and then breathed out her soul without any great wrestling. This was the more strange, because she spoke as strong two hours before as any present could speak.

This was about five o'clock on Wednesday, February 22, 1700.

1 Another copy here inserts the clause-"That are the business and concernment of a dying Christian."

2 The dates are differently given in different copies.

INDEX.