Page:Brief historical relation of the life of Mr. John Livingston Minister of the Gospel.pdf/17

( 17 ) wakened peaceably, and thought it had been day, and for a little ſpace kept my eyes ſhut, and neither heard any noiſe, nor felt any ſmell: but within a little while, opening my eyes, I ſaw the flame of the bent, burning within two ells of the bed whereon I lay; for a great fire in the room below, making ready the meat for the reapers, had fired a joyſt of the chimney, the end of the which came into the room where I lay. The fire was betwixt me and the door of the chamber; I roſe and took my breeches, my bible and watch, giving my books and any things elſe I had for loſt; I got out of the door and called up thoſe of the houſe. It pleaſed the Lord, that in a ſhort ſpace they got the fire quenched; whereas in all appearance, had I ſlept a quarter of an hour longer, the fire had ſeized on the roof of the houſe covered only with ſtraw, and ſo not only houſe and goods but our lives had been confumed.

I got not above a year’s quiet miniſtry in Killinchie, for in harveſt 1631, Mr. Robert Ecklen biſhop of Down, ſuſpended Mr. Blair and me for nonconformity, but the occaſion was, that the ſummer before we had been in Scotland, and had preached in ſeveral parts, but eſpecially at a communion in the Shots, which procured that the biſhops in Scotland, eſpecially Mr. James Law in Glaſgow, ſent information againſt us, by one Mr. Henry Leſly then dean; afterward biſhop of Down; He and Sir Richard Beaten lord chief baron of Ireland, who uſed to come to the affize Circuits in the north, ſtirred up the biſhop againſt us; but we were ſhortly after reſtored: for worthy Meſſrs; Dunbar, Welſh, Hamilton, and Culvert, went to Tradeth, to doctor James Uſher primate of Armaugh, not only a learned but a godly man, altho’ a biſhop. Thither came alſo Sir Andrew Stuart, after lord Caſtle-Stuart to deal for us. The primate very carefully dealt for us with the biſhop, fo that we were at that time reſtored. But the biſhops of Scotland ſent to the king information againſt us by Mr. John Maxwel, called biſhop of Roſs, and thinking that nonconformity would not be a crime ſufficiently hainous, they informed that we ſtirred up the people, to Rh