des 
während 
Jahrh. 
367 
Wenig Trost in der That konnten die Menschen damals aus 
ihrer Religion ziehen. Nicht nur der Teufel, als Urheber alles 
Uebels, sondern selbst Er, den wir als Urheber alles Guten an- 
erkennen, war in den Augen der Schottischen Prediger ein grau- 
sames, rachsiichtiges Wesen, vor Zorn sprühend wie sie selbst. 
Sie blickten in ihren eigenen Busen und dort fanden sie das Bild 
ihres Gottes. Nach ihnen war er der Gott des Schreckens, nicht 
der Gott der Liebe. 108) Ihm schrieben sie die schlimmsten Leiden- 
Leben ein Ende zu machen. „The eloud lasted for two years und some months." .    
„The arrows of the Almighty did drink up my spirits; night aml day his hand lay 
heavy upon me, so that even my bodily moistuc was turned into the drought of 
Summer. When I said sometimes that my eouch would euse my complaint, I was 
filled with tossings to the dawning of the day."     „Amidst all my downcastings, 
I had the roaring lion to grapple with, Who likes well to flsh in muddy waters. He 
strongly suggested to me that I should not eat, because I had no right to food; or 
if I ventured to du it, the enemy assured me, thet the wrath of God would go down 
with my morsel; und that I had forfeited a right 1:0 the divine favour, und, therefore, 
had nothing to do with any of God's creaturos."     „H0weve1','s0 violent were the 
temptations of the strong enemy, that I froquently forgot to cat my 'b1'ead, aud durst 
not attempt it; and when, through the persuasion of my wifc, I 9.1: any time did it, 
the enemy through the day did buifet me in a violent way, assuring me that the 
wrath of God had gone over with what I had taken."     „The enemy after all 
did so pursue me, that he violently suggested to my soul, that, some time 01' other, 
God wQuld suddenly (lestroy me as with a thunderclap: which so iilled my soul with 
fear and pain, that, every now and then, l looked about me, to receive the divine 
blow, still expeeting it was a eoming; yea, many a night 1 durst not sleep, lest I 
had awakened in everlastiug fiames." Stevensorüs Rare Oordial, p. 11-13. Ein anderes 
armes Geschöpf sagt, nachdem er 1740 eine von Smitods Predigten gehört hatte: 
"Now, I saw myself to be a. coudemned erimiual; but I knew not the day of my 
exeeution. I thought that there was nothing between me and hell, buf the brittle 
thread of natural life."     „And in this dreadful eonfusion, I durst not sleep, 
least I had awakened in everlastiug iiames."     „Am'1 Satan violently assaulted me 
to take away my own life, seeing there was no mercy for me."     „Soon after 
this, I was again violeutly assaulted by the tempter to take away my own life; he 
presented to me a knife therewith to do it; no person being in the house but myself. 
The enemy lmrsued me so close, that I eould not endure so much as to see the knife 
in my. sight, but laid it away."     „One evening, as l was upon the street, Satan 
violently assaulted me to go into the sea and drown myself; it would be the easiest 
death. Such a fear of Satan then fell upon me, as made my joints to shake, so thut 
it was much for me to walk home; und when I came to the door, I found nobody 
within; I was airaid to go into the house, lest Satan should get power over me." Memoirs 
of the Life und Experienoes of Marion, Laird of Greenock, p. 13, 14, 19, 45, 223, 224. 
403) Binning sagt, "that since the ürst rebellion" (that is, the fall of Adam), 
"there is nothing to {Je seen but the terrible eountenanoe of an angry G011." Binniny's 
Sermzms, III, 254.