Alexander Peden
Brief Sketch of his Life
Alexander Peden was born about 1626 at Sorn in Ayrshire.
After University, he became schoolmaster at Tarbolton, where Guthrie was then
minister. He was also precentor and clerk of session to the same church.
He
was ordained about 1658 to the charge of New Luce, in Galloway. The Restoration
of 1660, followed by the persecution, led to Peden's departure from his parish.
As he left the pulpit for the last time having preached on Paul's address to
the elders at Miletus, he closed the door, and knocking three times on it,
repeated three times: 'I arrest thee, in my Master's name, that none ever enter
thee but such as come in by the door, as I have done.' Strange to say, none of
the curates ever entered that pulpit.
After the Revolution, a Presbyterian
minister opened it and preached to a large congregation. Peden then became a
wanderer. In 1666 a proclamation was issued against him by the Council, because
he had held conventicles and administered baptism. Should he refuse to obey, he
would have forfeited his life. For about seven years, he evaded his
persecutors, having hidden for a part of the time in Ireland.
In 1673, he
was taken prisoner to Edinburgh and sent for confinement to the Bass. Five
years later sentence of banishment was pronounced against him. But at
Gravesend, all the prisoners were liberated, and at once returned to Scotland.
Under various disguises he struggled to survive spending much time in Ireland.
On one occasion he hired himself as a servant.
In 1685 he came back to
Scotland, evidently willing to share in the honourable sufferings of the
persecuted remnant there. As the ship on which he was crossing to Scotland lay
becalmed, Peden prayed: 'Lord, give us a loof-full of wind; fill the sails,
Lord, and give us a fresh gale, and let us have a swift and safe passage over
to the bloody land, come of us what will.' The winds came while he prayed,
filled the sails, and carried the vessel to Scotland. As he parted from his
fellow passengers on landing, he said: 'My soul trembles to think what will
become of the indulged, backslidden, and upset ministers of Scotland: as the
Lord lives, none of them shall be honoured to put a right pin in the Lord's
tabernacle, or assert Christ's kingly prerogative as Head and King of His
Church.'
At this time he met with many remarkable deliverances from those
hunting him. Several horse and foot soldiers came once close to him and a
number of companions. A slight elevation of ground coming in the course of the
pursuit between them and their pursuers, Peden called a halt, and uttered this
memorable prayer, 'Lord, it is Thy enemy's day, hour, and power; they may not
be idle, but hast Thou no other work for them but to send them after us? Send
them after them to whom Thou wilt give strength to flee, for our strength is
gone. Twine them about the hill, Lord, and cast the lap of Thy cloak over Old
Sandy and these poor things, and save us this one time, and we will keep it in
remembrance, and tell it to the commendation of Thy goodness, pity, and
compassion, what Thou didst for us at such a time.' A mist covered the hill,
and Peden and his friends were safe.
As the end of his life drew near,
Peden took himself to his home parish of Sorn - to a near relative who lived
there, but still he could not frequent his friend's house, and for safety he
had a cave dug for himself, and a bush placed as a covering over the cave's
mouth. That cave was the House of God and the Gate of Heaven. It was here that
he left his last charges with his friends regarding the cause of Christ in the
land. Some short time before his death, Peden had an interview with James
Renwick. 'Before you go,' said Peden at the close of the interview, 'you must
pray for me, for I am old, and going to leave the world.' After Renwick prayed,
Peden drew him near and kissed him, and said, 'Sir, I find you a faithful
servant to your Master. Go on in single dependence on the Lord, and you will
get honestly through.' Then Peden prayed fervently as he alone could pray, that
the God of Jacob would be Renwick's defence, a covering for his head in the day
of battle. A few days afterwards, this tempest-tossed saint cast anchor in the
haven of eternal rest.
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