John Livingstone

He described himself as “timorous and averse to debate.” You could have fooled me. I can’t detect a trace of timidity in him when he was called on the carpet for refusing to comply with the Act of Conformity of 1662 (called the Glasgow Act in Scotland).  Clergy who refused to lead worship according to the directives of the Book of Common Prayer were evicted from their churches in England and Scotland. John Livingstone (also spelled Livingston—1603-1672) was summoned to appear before a tribunal in Edinburgh along with sixteen fellow nonconformist ministers for refusing to abide by the Conformity Act. Although John had locked horns with the established Church of England in the past over compliance issues, in recent years, he had settled into ministry at a small church in Ancrum, Scotland. He expressed surprise that one like himself who had “lived so obscurely should be taken notice of.” The fact that he was sixty years of age and in compromised health mattered little to his interrogators. He was charged with “turbulence and sedition” for refusing to take an Oath of Allegiance to King Charles II as sovereign over the church. John held his ground, declaring boldly that “Jesus Christ is the only head of the church.” He was found guilty of treason and given forty-eight hours to vacate Edinburgh and two months to flee the king’s dominion. When he requested permission to visit his wife Janet and their seven children before exile, he was flatly refused. He left on foot in the dead of winter and secured passage on a ship bound for Holland, where he joined with other similarly banished Scottish ministers. He wrote an affectionate farewell letter to his church, praying for God to “establish, settle and strengthen you in the Lord of all grace who calls us unto his eternal glory by Jesus Christ.” His resolute hope was expressed in a letter to a friend, “O, to believe in the darkness and stormy midnight, that the sun will comfortably rise tomorrow.” He wrote a second letter to his congregation in 1671, a year before his death, including the cogent words that function as a prayer. They are worth posting in some prominent location to bring us back on point again: