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

EXAMINATIONS OF PERSONS UNDER SPIRITUAL CONCERN II
87
[199/—] b.d. A Woman about 36 years of Age.1
I was traind up in my Childhood in a Religious way by my Parents, & usd all
along to go to Publick Ordinances on the Lords day, and to pray for ordinary
twice a day in Secret, and often read the Bible by my Self with some delight.
When I was about thirteen years of age I fell under some concern about
Salvation a little before the Sacrament was to be dispensed in the Place where
I livd, and had a great Inclination to have come to the Lords Table to take my
Baptismal Engagements upon my Self: and accordingly went there, and tho’
I cannot Say I met with anything Sensibly there, yet I found from that time
a great desire after that and all other Gospel Ordinances, and was careful to
attend them when I had Opportunity. I am much indebted to the mercy of
God for Restraining Grace, in keeping me all along my Life free of anything
vicious & shameful before the World. But when I went to Service, that delight
I had in Ordinances & duties of Gods worship, much abated, & I turn’d more
carnal earthly in my disposition, & indulgd my Self in much vanity [200/—]
my Conversation, & in carnal mirth and jollity []2 tho’ not directly sinful,
yet blunted my desires after Spiritual things. But while I was going on in this
way, my Re some of my near Relations dying, I was much affected with their
death, and began to turn more thoughtful again about Soul-Concerns. And for
a long time after that, I attended on Publick Ordinances with much Concern,
and found my Case often described in the Ministers () Sermons whom I usd
i then to hear, and the Word coming close home to my Conscience, and for
■ about ten years time after this I always thought myself to be a hypocrite; yet
, I durst not then keep away from the Lords Table, for I thought that would
' be Rebellion, & I could not think of being guilty of that: And every week I
s usd to think long for the Return of the Sabbath, and still to be counting how
f many days were yet to it: & on Saturday’s-Evenings, I would have begun to
I reckon the time to the Sabbath in hours, that now there were but so many &
1 so many hours remaining till the Lords day would begin, & the thought of
I its being so near at hand, was matter of joy to me.
For about three years time before the [201/—] Awakening brake out at
f. Camb. I was in a great strait betwixt the two, whether I should continue to
I hear my Parish Minister (. .) or if I should break off altogether & join the
Seceders. I went as often on Week-days as I could have access to hear the
Seceding ministers, even to the injuring my bodily health & weakening my
1 Isobel Provan — the shorthand text in McCulloch’s ‘Index of persons’ names who gave
the foregoing accounts to Mr. McC’ states: daughter of Robert Provan, tenant in Calder.
Taught to read the Bible when a child, got the Catechism to heart, and retained it.
^2 Insertion [‘which’]: McCulloch.