Page:Brief historical relation of the life of Mr. John Livingston Minister of the Gospel.pdf/30

( 30 ) and their demands encreaſed, for they deſired not only exemption from the ſervice-book, but alſo from the five ceremonies of Perth, and the high commiſsion court, and theſe things being denied, they at laſt deſired freedom from Epiſcopacy, and a free Parliament, and General Aſſembly: When theſe things were ſtill denied, and their number had ſo encreaſed, that in ſome ſort they were the wholebody of the land: they considering that the Lord’s controversy with them was the breach of covenant, did in the beginning of March 1638. renew the national covenant, which had formerly by authority of king and parliament several times been sworn.

I was immediately ſent poſt to London, with ſeveral copies of the covenant, and letters to friends at court of both nations. To avoid diſcovery, I rode in a gray coat, and a gray montiro-cap. One night riding late, the horſe and I fell to the ground; where I lay about a quarter of an hour as dead, the firſt thing I diſcovered when I came to myſelf, I found the guide ſitting under me, and crying and weeping, yet it pleaſed the Lord I recovered, and got to Ferybridge, where after a day or two’s ſtay, I did in two days come to London, but one of my eyes and part of my cheek being blood ſhot, I did not go to the street, but Mr. Eleazar Borthwick delivered the letters for me. Some friends and ſome of the Engliſh nobility came to my chamber, to be informed how thatters went. I had been but a few days there, when Mr. Borthwick came to me and told me, that the marquis of Hamilton had ſent him to me, to ſhew he had overheard the king saying, I was come, but he ſhould endeavour to put a pair of fetters about my feet: Wherefore fearing to be way laid in the poſt-way, I bought a horſe and came home by St. Albans, and the Weſter-way.

I was preſent at Lanerk, and at ſeveral other pariſhes, when on a Sabbath after the forenoon ſermon, the covenant was read and ſworn; and may truly ſay, that in all my lifetime except one day at the kirk of Shots, I never ſaw ſuch motions from the Spirit of God; all the people generally, and moſt willingly concurring; where I have ſeen more than a