1694. In the first day and Monday of this new year 1694, that as I have formerly through most of my life past, so now I desire to renew my dedication and engagement to the Lord my God, and to join in the same witness with what herein hath been formerly with my whole heart and desire, and to offer to my dearest Lord praise, in remembrance of what he hath been through the year past, and in the whole of my life, whose gracious tender conduct hath been so wonderfully (and well hast thou, Lord, dealt with thy servant according to thy word) in all that hath befallen me, &c.
And now I do again by a surrender witness my entire commitment of myself, my poor children, my credit for the gospel, my conduct and comfort in so extraordinary a juncture to my dearest Lord, to his gracious and compassionate care and providence; together with my works, and any small design to serve him and my generation; and I do intreat new supplies of his grace and strength to secure and make his poor servant (if it were his blessed will) yet more abundantly forth-coming to him. And with hopes of acceptance I write this Jan. 1st, 1694. Post tenebras spero lucem.
R. Fleming.
But now drawing near his end in the same year 1694, upon the 17th of July he took sickness, and on the 25th died. On his first arrest, O friends, said he to such as were about him, sickness and death are serious things; but till the spark of his fever was risen to a flame, he was not aware that that sickness was to be unto death; for he told a relation, That if it should be so, it was strange, seeing the Lord did not hide from him the things that he did with him and his. Yet before his expiration, he was apprehensive of its approach: Calling to him a friend, he asked, What freedom he found in prayer for him? seems God to beckon to your petitions, or does he bring you up and leave dark impressions on your mind? This way, said he, I have often known the mind of the Lord. His friend telling him he was under darkness in the case, he replied, I know your mind, trouble not yourself for me; I think I may say, I have been long above the fear of death.
All the while his groans and struggling argued him to be under no small pain, but his answers to enquiring friends certified that the distress did not enter his soul. Always he would say, I am very well, or, I was never better, or, I feel no sickness. This would he say, while he seemed to be sensible of every thing besides pain. But the malignant distemper wasting his natural spirits, he could speak but little, but what he spoke was all of it like himself. Having felt himself indisposed for his wonted meditation and prayer, he thus said to some near him, I have not been able in a manner to form one serious thought since I was sick, or to apply myself unto God; he has applied himself unto me, and one of his manifestations was such as I could have borne no more. Opening his eyes after a long sleep, one of his sons asked how he did? He answered, Never better. Do you know me? said his son. Unto which with a sweet smile he answered, Yes, yes, dear son, I know you. This was about two hours before he died. About an hour afterwards he cried earnestly, Help, help for the Lord's sake, and then breathed weaker and weaker till he gave up the ghost, and after he had seen the salvation of God he departed in peace in the 64th year of his age.
Thus lived and died Mr. Fleming, after he had served his day and generation. His works yet declare what for a man he was; for besides the forenamed treatise, the confirming work of religion, his epistolary discourse, and his well known book, the fulfilling of the scriptures; he left a writing behind him under this title, A short index of some of the great appearances of the Lord in the dispensations of his providence to his poor servant, &c. And although the obscurity of these hints leaves us in the dark, yet as they serve to shew forth his Master's particular care over his servant, who was most industrious in observing the Lord's special providences over others, and perhaps may give some further light into the different transactions of his life, they are here inserted.
"How near I was brought to death in my infancy, given over and esteemed a burthen to my friends, so as my death was made desirable to them; I being the refuse of my father's children, yet even I was then God's choice, and in a most singular way restored. 2. That remarkable deliverance, in receiving a blow by a club when a child, which was so near my eye as endangered both my sight and life. 3. The strange and extraordinary impression I had of an audible voice in the church at night, when being a child I had got up to the pulpit, calling me to make haste, &c. 4. That I, of all my father's sons, should be spared, when the other three were so promising, and should thus come to be the only male heir surviving of such a stock. 5. That solemn and memorable day of communion at Gray-friar's in the entry of the year 1648, where I had so extraordinary a sense of the Lord's presence, yea, whence I can date the first sealing evidence of my conversion, now 40 years past. 6. The Lord's gracious and signal preservation and deliverance given me at Dumbar fight. 7. These solemn times and near approaches of the Lord to my soul; the first at Elve when I went there, and the other a little after my father's death in the high study. 8. The scripture Acts xii. was given me to be my first text, and how I was unexpectedly and by surprize engaged therein. 9. The great deliverances at sea going to Dundee, the first time in company with the duke of Lauderdale, the other in company with Mr. Gray of Glasgow. 10. That extraordinary dream and marvellous vision I had twice repeated, with the inexpressible joy after the same. 11. These memorable impressions and passages about my health, when it seemed hopeless, at my first entry upon the ministry, and the strange expression of Mr. Simpson of Newmills. 12. The Lord's immediate and wonderful appearance for me in my first entry to the ministry, with that extraordinary storm on the day of my ordination, and the amazing assault which followed the same in what befel, wherein Satan's immediate appearance against me was so visible.—13. The great and conspicuous seal given to my ministry from the Lord, in the conversion of several persons, with that marvellous power which then accompanied the word on the hearts of the people. 14. That signal appearance of the Lord and his marvellous condescendence in my marriage lot, and in the whole conduct of the same. 15. My deliverance from so imminent hazard of my life in my fall from my horse at Kilmarnock. 16. The Lord's marvellous assistance at the two communions of Cathcart and Dunlop, with the great enlargement I had at the last of these two places at the last table. 18. That as my entry to my charge was with such a bright sunshine, so no less did the Lord appear at my parting from that place, &c. 18. The Lord's special providence as to my outward lot after my removal thence, in many circumstances that way. 19. The gracious sparing my wife so long, when her life was in such hazard in the years 1665 and 1672. 20. The preservation I had in going over to Fife in the year 1672. and the settlement I got there. 21. The dream at Boussay, wherein I got such express warning as to my wife's removal, with the Lord's marvellous appearance and presence the Thursday after at St. Johnston's. 22. That extraordinary warning I got again of my dear wife's death, and of the manner of it at London in the year 1674. 23. These two remarkable scripture places given me at West Nisbet in my return from London 1674. viz. that in Rom. iv. in the forenoon, and that in Psal. cxv. in the afternoon. 24. Those great and signal confirmations given me at my wife's death, and that great extraordinary voice so distinct and clear which I heard a few nights after her death. 25. These special confirmations given me at my leaving my country at West Nisbet, Ridsdale, Stanton, and the first at sea from the Shiels. 26. These solemn passages to confirm my faith from Heb. xi. and Exod. xxxiii. and at other times at London, and the last night there before I went away. 27. These extraordinary and signal times I had at my first entering at Rotterdam. 28. These two marvellous providences that did occur to me at Worden, and about the business of William Mader. 29. The marvellous sign given me of the state of my family, in what happened as to the sudden withering of the tree, and its extraordinary reviving again at my first entry to my house at Rotterdam. 30. The great deliverance from fire in the high street. 31. The good providence in returning my diary after it had been long lost. 32. The special providence in preserving my son from perishing in water. 33. The surprizing relief when cited by the council[244] of Scotland to appear, with that sweet resignation to the Lord which I had then under such a pungent trial. 34. The remarkable event of a warning I was forced to give that some present should be taken away by death before the next Lord's day. 35. The Lord's immediate supporting under a long series of wonders (I may truly say) for which I am obliged in a singular way to set up my Ebenezer, that hitherto hath the Lord helped. 36. The remarkable appearance of the Lord with me (which I omitted in its place) in the strange providence relating to Mr. Monypenny's death in Preston-pans. 37. The solemn providence and wonder in my life, my fall under the York coach in August 1654, when the great wheel went over my leg, so as I could feel it passing me without hurting, far less breaking my leg, as if it had been thus carried over in a just poise, to let me see how providence watched over me, &c. 38. The comfort God gave me in my children, and those extraordinary confirmations I got from God upon the death of those sweet children whom God removed from me to himself."
Now, reader, go and do thou likewise, for blessed is that servant, whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing, Matth. xxiv.