Life and diary of Lieut. Col. J. Blackader

500 LIFE OF COL. BLACKADER. CHAP. XX.
colleague with them. I left Ayr, and returned home
to Stirling.
April 28. This has heen a remarkable day to me ;
a merciful deliverance. Returning with some friends
from a marriage-visit in the country, my horse threw
me at a place where there was an ill step. All my
face was sadly bruised and cut, but no bones broken.
I was taken up senseless and carried into a house.
There was much mercy in all this, for when my horse
threw me, my foot stuck in the stirrup ; and though
my horse be very hot and fiery, yet he stood still till
a servant came up and helped me. But they tell me
that the horse was vicious, and offered to strike at me
when I was lying on the ground. There is a great
cut just beneath my eye, but the sight is mercifully
preserved. I got a surgeon immediately, who took
care of me ; and next day got home in a chaise to
Stirling. It was the beginning of June before I got
completely recovered.
June 15. Sabbath. Serious in hearing. We have
four exercises here on the Sabbath, and we had four
different ministers ; some expressing things one way,
some another, yea, in seeming opposition to each other.
These views, I confess, stumble me. Some that are
called legal preachers, are blamed for leaning too
much to the Arminian side; while others that call
themselves evangelical, perhaps go too far to the Anti-
nomian side. Lord, teach me thyself, for I dare not
trust implicitly to any man. Lead me in the way I
should go. The righteousness of Christ is the only
foundation ; it is through his strength alone that we
can do any thing ; but yet I woidd have the necessity
of these duties pressed, Crucify the flesh, Mortify your