Page:Brief historical relation of the life of Mr. John Livingston Minister of the Gospel.pdf/29

( 29 ) Wiile we were at Irvine, the Lord called home ſweet Mr. Robert Cunningham, miniſter at Holywood, March 29. 1637. for both he and all the reſt of the depoſed miniſters, were forced to fly out of Ireland. He had many gracious expreſſions of the Lord’s goodneſs to him, and his great peace in regard of the cauſe of his ſuffering, and ſpoke much and well to the presbytery of Irvine, who came to ſee him the day before he died. A little before he died, his wife ſitting on a low bed where he lay, and having her hand on his hand, he was in prayer, commending to God his flock of Holywood, and his dear acquaintance and children, at laſt he ſaid, And, O Lord, I commend unto thy care this gentlewoman; who is now no more my wife; and with that he gently thruſt away her hand, and after a while he ſlept in the Lord. In the beginning of June, my wife went to Ireland, being ſent for to be with her mother who was dying, becauſe I might not go myſelf, I ſent my brother Samuel with her. After the death of her mother, ſhe returned in September next, and came and remained in Lanerk, where the 7th of January following, ſhe brought forth her ſecond ſon William. All that Summer 1637. I had as much work of preaching in publick, and exerciſes in private, as any time before; partly in Lanerk, partly in the Weſt, and at communions in divers places, in the Stuarty of Kircudbright and Presbytery of Stranrawer, whiles I was waiting at the Port, for my wife’s coming out of Ireland.

This Summer, ſeveral minifters in Scotland were charged with horning, to buy and receive the ſervice-book, which ſtirred up great thoughts of heart through the land, beſide a tumult in Edinburgh, by ſome of the common people at the firſt reading of the ſervice-book. The true riſe of that bleſsed reformation in Scotland, began with two petitions againſt the ſervice-book. the one from the Weſt, and the other out of Fife, which met together at the council-door in Edinburgh, the one not knowing of the other. After that about the 20th of September, a great many other petitions were preſented againſt the ſervice-book: Theſe being denied by the king, the number of the petitioners, and