Query 5.
It is a thing very troublesome to them that have it, and would gladly be rid of it. For if the object be a thing that is so terrible, they are seen to sweat and tremble, and shreek at the apparition. At other times they laugh, and tell the thing chearfully, just according as the thing is pleasant or astonishing.
Query 6.
Sure it is, that the persons that have a sense of God and religion, and may be presumed to be godly, are known to have this faculty. This evidently appears, in that they are troubled for having it, judging it a sin, and that it came from the Devil, and not from God; earnestly desiring and wishing to be rid of it, if possible; and to that effect, have made application to their minister, to pray to God for them that they might be exonered from that burden. They have supplicated the presbytery, who judicially appointed publick prayers to be made in several churches, and a sermon preached to that purpose, in their own parish church, by their minister; and they have compeired before the pulpit, after sermon, making confession openly of that sin, with deep sense on their knees; renounced any such gift or faculty which they had to God's dishonour, and earnestly desired the minister to pray for them; and this their recantation recorded; and after this, they were never troubled with such a sight any more.
**A Copy of a Letter, written to myself by a Gentleman's Son in Straths-pey in Scotland, being a Student in Divinity, concerning the Second-sight.
SIR,
I AM more willing than able to satisfy your desire: as for instances of such a knowledge, I could furnish many. I shall only insert some few attested by several of good credit yet alive.
And, first, Andrew Macpherson, of Clunie in Badenoch, being in sute of Lord of Gareloch's daughter, as he was upon a day going to Gareloch, the Lady Gareloch was going somewhere from her house within kenning to the road which Clunie was coming; the Lady preceiving him, said to her attendants, that yonder was Clunie, going to see his mistress: one that had this second-sight in her company replied, and said, if yon be he, unless he marry within six months, he'll never marry. The Lady asked, how did he know that ? he said, very well, for I see him, saith he, all inclosed in his winding-sheet, except his nostrils and his mouth, which will also close up within six months; which happened even as he foretold; within the said space he died, and his brother Duncan Macpherson this present Clunie succeeded. This and the like may satisfy your fourth query, he seeing the man even then covered all over with his dead linens. The event was visibly represented, and as it were acted (before his eyes) and also the last part of your second query, viz. that it was as yet to come. As for the rest of the questions, viz. That they discover present and past events, is also manifest, thus: I have heard of a gentleman, whose son had gone abroad, and being anxious to know how he was, he went to consult one who had this faculty, who told him, that that same day five o'clock in the afternoon his son had married a woman in France, with whom he had got so many thousand crowns, and within two years he should come home to see father and friends, leaving his wife with child of a daughter, and a son of six months age behind him: which accordingly was true. About the same time two years he came home, and verified all that was fore-told.
It is likewise ordinary with persons that lose any thing, to go to some of these men, by whom they are directed; how, what persons, and in what place they shall find it. But all such as profess that skill, are not equally dexterous in it. For instance, two of them were in Mr. Hector Mackenzie, minister of Inverness, his father's house; the one a gentleman, the other a common fellow; and discoursing by the fire side, the fellow suddenly begins to weep, and cry out, alas ! alas! such a woman is either dead, or presently expiring. The gentlewoman lived five or six miles from the house, and had been some days before in a fever. The gentleman being somewhat better expert in that faculty, said; no, saith he, she's not dead; nor will she die of this disease. 0, saith the fellow, do you not see her all covered with her winding-sheet; ay, saith the gentleman, I see her as well as you; but do you not see her linen all wet, which is her sweat ? she being presently cooling of the fever. This story Mr. Hector himself will testify. The most remarkable of this sort, that I hear of now, is one Archibald Mackeanyers, alias Macdonald, living in Ardinmurch, within ten or twenty miles, or thereby, of Glencoe, and I was present myself, where he foretold something which accordingly fell out in 1683; this man being in Straths-pey, in John Macdonald of Glencoe his company, told in Balachastell, before the Lord of Grant, his Lady, and several others, and also in my father's house; that Argyle, of whom few or none knew then where he was, at least there was no word of him then here; should within two twelve months thereafter, come to the West- Highlands, and raise a rebellious faction, which would be divided among themselves, and disperse, and he unfortunately be taken and beheaded at Edinburgh, and his head set upon the Talbooth, where his father's head was before him; which proved as true, as he fore-told it, in 1685, thereafter. Likewise in the beginning of May next after the late revolution, as my Lord Dundee returned up Spey-side, after he had followed General Major Mac Kay in his reer down the length of Edinglassie, at the Milatown of Gartinbeg, the Macleans joined him, and after he had received them, he marched forward, but they remained behind, and fell a plundering: upon which Glencoe and some others, among whom was this Archibald, being in my father's house, and hearing that Mac Leans and others were pillaging some of his lands, went to restrain them, and commanded them to march after the army; after he had cleared the first town, next my father's house of them, and was come to the second, there standing on a hill, this Archibald said, Glencoe, if you take my advice, then make off with your self with all possible haste, ere an hour come and go you'll be put to it as hard as ever you was: some of the company began to droll and say, what shall become of me ? whether Glencoe believed him, or no, I cannot tell; but this I am sure of, that whereas before he was of intention to return to my father's house and stay all night, now we took leave, and immediately parted. And indeed, within an hour thereafter, Mac Kay, and his whole forces, appeared at Culnakyle in Abernethie, two miles below the place where we parted, and hearing that Cleaverhouse had marched up the water-side a little before, but that Mac Leans and several other straglers, had stayed behind, commanded Major AEneas Mac Kay, with two troops of horse after them; who finding the said Mac Leans at Kinchardie, in the parish of Luthel, chased them up the Morskaith: in which chase Glencoe happened to be, and was hard put to it, as was foretold. What came of Archibald himself, I am not sure; I have not seen him since, nor can I get a true account of him, only I know he is yet alive, and at that time one of my father's men whom the red-coats meeting, compelled to guide them, within sight of the Mac Leans, found the said Archibald's horse within a mile of the place where I left him. I am also informed, this Archibald said to Glencoe, that he would be murdered in the night time in his own house three months before it happened.
Touching your third query, the objects of this knowledge, are not only sad and dismal; but also joyful and prosperous: thus they foretell of happy marriages, good children, what kind of life men shall live, and in what condition they shall die: and riches, honour, preferment, peace, plenty, and good weather.