Series 6 > McCulloch examinations of the Cambuslang revival (1742) > Volume 6

20
EXAMINATIONS OF PERSONS UNDER SPIRITUAL CONCERN II
[49/-] c.h. A man of 40 years.1
I was put to school when a child, but would not apply my self to learn to
read, only I learnd the Letters & to read the Catechism2 some way; & was
entred in the Psalm Book when I left the school; but when I came to be about
twelve years of age, I took a fancy to learn to read, thinking I would not
be like another man when I came to be of age if I could not read: and these
with whom I liv’d being me inchne to learn to read, both gave me liberty to
learn & put me to it and so I proceeded till I could read the Bible tolerably.
But for Prayer in secret I never usd so much as a form of any thing of that
kind, till I came to be a man, if it had not been that I would sometimes, tho
but seldom, have gone to my Knees, and said Lord keep me: and that was all
my Prayer. After I came to man’s age, I would sometimes have gone to my
knees & prayed for some space of time, at once: but it was only at some rare
times when I took it in my head, like a freak, when any thing provokd or
vexed me. But after I was
[50/-] But after I was married, I began to thrive very fast in the world;
and then I thought it was a very odd thing that God in his Providence should
make me to thrive so fast in the world, & that I should never acknowledge him
for it: upon that I fell to pray both in my Family & by my self, and went on
in a custom of doing so for some time, till one night that I was in the stable
giving my horse his supper, and after I had done so []3 when I had fall’n
down on my knees there, to pray; and just as I was going to do so, I thought
I saw like a long black man before me, and heard him as it were whisper to
me, What art thou going to do? Is there such a thing as a God? At which
I fell into a great Fright, but continued for some little space on my knees,
thinking I would not not rise till I got praying, but the apparition and the
terror continuing, I could get nothing out but, God keep me. And with that
I got up, & away to my house in a great hurry & confusion. But after that,
for about six years (viz. till the year 1742) I left off all praying both by my
self & in my Family, tho’ frequently urged to it by my Wife, both because of
the Fright I had got when last at it, & because I turnd very near an Atheist in
Opinion, so that a very little arguing by a man, speaking in favours of Atheism
1 Thomas Foster — the shorthand text in McCulloch’s ‘Index of persons’ names who gave
the foregoing accounts to Mr. McC’ states: from Ridley-Wood.
2 Shorter Catechism. The humble advice of the assembly of divines, now by the authority of Parliament
sitting at Westminster, concerning a confession of faith: With the quotations and texts of the scripture
annexed. Presented by them lately to both Houses of Parliament. Printed at London; And reprinted
at Edinburgh by Evan Tyler, printer to the King’s most Excellent Majesty, 164.7. (London;
Edinburgh: Evan Tyler, 1647)..
3 Insertion [‘tho the place was dark’]: McCulloch.