Page:Brief historical relation of the life of Mr. John Livingston Minister of the Gospel.pdf/25

( 25 ) company, but joining himſelf to religious people, and all the exerciſes of God’s worſhip in public and private,and ordinarily morning and evening uſed to go alone to prayer, and would weep at sermons, and by ſnch ſigns, theſe who were acquainted with him underſtood, he would expreſs many things of the work of God upon his heart, ſo that upon his earneſt deſire, by the conſent of all the miniſters who uſed to meet at Antrum, he was at laſt admitted to the ordinance of the Lord’s ſupper. I was abundantly clear in my mind, that the Lord approved our intention and endeavour, and was as ready in making ail ſorts of preparation as any of the reſt, yea, during all that time, Mr. Blair and we that were in my mother’s houſe, ſpent one day in the week, in fasting and prayer, for a bleſsng to our undertaking; yet I often told my wife long before our outſetting, that it gave me in mind, we would never go to New-England; but I laid not ſo great hold on that, as thereafter I found I had reaſon to do. Finding that it would be the end of summmer before we could be ready to go, I went in March 1636 to Scotland, to take leave of my father and other dear friends there; and went to moſt of all the places where I had haunted before, and ſound in the midſt of much mutual grief, my heart often well refreſhed both in publick and private: I came back in the end of April. In Auguſt, all the reſt of the honeſt miniſters were depoſed, viz. Meſſrs. Cunningham, Ridge, Bryce, Hamilton, and Culvert. June 30. my eldeſt ſon John was born, and was the next day after ſermon baptiſed in our own houſe. We had much toil in our preparations, and many hindrances in our out-setting, and both ſad and glad hearts in taking leave of our friend's. At laſt about the ninth of September 1636. we looſed from Loch-ſergus, but were detained sometime with contrary winds in Lochryan in Scotland, and grounded the ship to ſearch ſome leaks in the keels of the boat. Yet thereafter we ſet to ſea, and for ſome ſpace had a fair wind, till we were between three and 400 leagues from Ireland, and ſo nearer the banks of Newfoundland, than any place of Europe: but if ever the Lord, ſpake by his winds and other-diſpenſations, it was made evident to us Rh