the greatest Gospell Minister in all Scotland? He said he thought Mr
Dickson was the greatest he ever kneu. Mr William Guthrie, Minister
at Finwick, came in one day to visite Mr Dickson, when at family ex-
ercise; he desired Mr Guthrie to pray, but he would not. Mr Guthrie
said of him, 'He went away and prayed about ten words; but I confess,'
said he, 'every word that he uttered would have filled a furlott!' Sir
Patrick Houston told me, that in the time of the servants bringing up
the meat from the kitchen to the Hall of Houston, Mr Dickson would
have read [and] sung a part of a Psalme, spoken, and prayed in that short
time. He was reconed a very wise and prudent man. My father told
me, if I be not forgot, that Mr Dickson would have kneeled in the pul-
pit a litle time with himself, before he prayed before the people publick-
ly; but that custome was taken away. It is reported of him that he was
never convinced of the evil of prælacy till he was taken with a severe
fitt of sicknes in a feaver. He had some very excellent sayings: He
said he was getting nou and then some tast and savour of heaven. He
had some very good remarks anent preaching on a text: He said, 'When
a man came to a text, it was like a man's coming to a trea; a man
should shake the trea, and then that which is ripe would presently fall
and come off, and that which was green would bide upon the trea; so a
man should not take all out of a text that might be drauen!' He was
not for Ministers bringing out to the people variouse senses and exposi-
tions upon a text; he was only for bringing that which they thought the
true meaning of a text; for Ministers bringing out severall senses to the
people, which they did not like and approve, was just like a cook bring-
ing up a peice of meat to the table, and saying, 'This is a good peice of
meat, but you must not eat it nor tast it !'-and then he brings another,
and sayes the same, 'The cook should bring up no meat but what he
is to give them to eat.' He was altogether against Ministers bringing
Latine sentences and high learned expressions to the pulpit, among poor
common people; 'for their bringing learned sentences to the people in
a pulpit, was like a cook's bringing up the spit and raxes to the table!
These are fitt to be keeped in the kitchen, to make ready the meat, but
they are not to be brought to the table.' It's said by some that Mr

VOL. III.

B

Dickson and Mr Durham went sometimes to the Craigs, about the High Kirk of Glasgou,* and made that litle peice we have called The Summ of Saving Knouledge.

He said some

"He had a wonderfull opinion of great and worthy Mr Durhame. Whenever he had passed his tryalls before them at Irwine, he sent for the people of Glasgou, and caused them give him a call. So he was ordeaned, 1647, Minister of the High Church of Glasgou. what to this purpose of Mr Durham, that He was like a great bottle full of excellent good wine, that when it did go to come out, it could not well come out, but it played buck, buck !-so Mr Durham had litle expression, but much good and great matter.'

"I heard that Mr Dickson, speaking of the Publick Resolutions and Protesters, acknouledged that the Resolutioners had a foul and black tail, for generally all or the most part of the Malignant Ministers that conformed to prælacy in 1662 wer all Resolutioners. And I can hardly find ther wer above ten or twelve Protesters that conformed in all Scotland. I knou Mr Hamiltoun, Minister at Innerkip, the great Mr Meinzies, Minister and Professor of Divinity at Aberdeen, who was the man that presented the Protestation to the General Assembly. Mr Thomas Laurie, Minister at Lesmahagou, indeed, conformed, and all these three were rebuked by God, and remarkably blasted for their conforming; but what moe through the whole kingdome [there] wer, I cannot distinctly tell. I have heard it said that the great Mr Douglass should have said that the Protesters wer men that had eyes in their head, but the Publick Resolutioners wer really pore-blind.† For, as worthie Mr James Guthrie said, 'They committed the care of a good child to a woefull nurse, that would poison the child.'

"When on his death-bed, his brother-in-lau was speaking to Mr Dickson, and said, 'That was one of his fancys.' Mr Dickson replyed, Sir, what ye call fancies, I call faith!'

"Ther was much given to this great man, Mr Dickson, who was

• On which the beautiful Necropolis is now situated.

† Purblind, near or short-sighted.

made by God one of the greatest seedsmen and fathers we had in the Church of Scotland. He was communicative of any thing he kneu. Mr Patrick Simson, if I be not forgot, told me that Mr Simson told Mr Rutherford that Mr Dickson had some children removed by death. Mr Rutherford presently called for a pen to write, and wrote a profitable Letter to Mr Dickson; 'For,' said he, 'when one arm is broken off, and bleeds, it makes the other bleed with it.'

"I heard that Mr Dickson preached much on the Book of Job, and a man who used to hear him heard another Minister preach in another place on Job; and being asked, Where that Minister preached? He said, 'It was on Job, but it was not the Job of Irwine!'

་

"Mr Dickson was much exercised when he was young, and went to severall Ministers and Christians and discoursed with them; and used to say, when he was going to belive in Christ, he sau ane army of Devills standing between him and Christ; and never a person satisfied him till he came to that great and worthy person, the Laird of Carletoun, John Cathcart; and the expression he had to Mr Dickson was this, 'Though you heard a voice from heaven saying to you, 'Mr David Dickson, see that ye belive not on my Son, Jesus Christ,' you are not to regard it, for you have the written word to warrand you to belive; for if we or an angell from [heaven] preach another Gospell than that you have received, let him be accursed!'

"He used to say that men that had evil wifes, the best way to deal with them was to make much of them, and buy them many bonnie things.

"At that time when the Parliament 1621 wer ratifying the Articles of Perth, ther wer severall worthy Ministers met together for prayer at the house of the Sheens, a litle from Edinburgh, and they wer all the time greatly straitned in prayer till once the Articles of Perth wer ratifyed, and then Mr David Dickson was put to pray, and he prayed with great liberty and enlargment of spirit; sheuing in prayer his great faith and assurance of God's dispersing that black cloud, and that he would once more gloriously appear in his . (. was pre

sent,) told Mr James Rouat, Minister at Kilmarnock, who told it me,

that when Mr Dickson had prayed, they wer all as sure of a gloriouse delivery as if they had it in their hand.

"These are but a feu hints that are imperfect as to the life of that great man, Mr David Dickson, late Professor of Divinity at Edinburgh. Mr Patrick Simson told me ane expression of his, but I cannot well resume it. He was speaking of his being taken from place to place, from Irwine to Glasgou, from Glasgou to Edinburgh: He had something to this that God had made him to be so weaned to his oun will, purpose, and so submissive to God, that God had made use of him as a shoewhang* or lingell, that he might nou seuf him to what place he pleased.

"He had that expression, that the Lord had sent the English army among us [to] learn our Divinity the better; or, by them, taught us to learn our Divinity the better. I referr you to what Mr Livingston sayes of this great man in his remarks.

"He dictat to Mr Patrick Simson at Inverary a short Commentary on all Isaiah, which I have seen and read."

MR GEORGE HUTCHESON.

"He was first Minister at Cummonell, then transported to Edinburgh. He had great difficulty to win throu the Colledge because of his poverty. He was truly a very good, great, learned, and wise man ; and as I heard my father, and worthy Mr Paton of Barnwell, say to me, he was tainted in his youth with Arminianisme, and was a mighty, strong, and subtile advocate for it. Mr Dickson said of Mr Hutcheson, of all that ever he had met with, Thou George Hutcheson was one that was the worst to deal with;' he had such a strong naturall reach of reason. Mr Dickson bade him go away to God, and tell him that he had such high pouer of free-will. He himself said, that error of the Arminians was so pleasant and taking to corrupt nature, that if a man had a good measure, with his strong naturall witt and reason, nothing would turn that man from that

Shoe-string, generally a cut of tough leather.
Calmonel, not far from Ballantrae, in Ayrshire.

† Sew, attach.

dreadfull error but the true grace of God. When afterward he came to speak of the Arminians in his preaching, he used to call them, 'Deceit full Arminians, and cursed Socinians !'

"He was a man of a brave large countenance, and very merry and facetious. Mr J. Tran said to me, Mr Hutcheson was one of the best Mr and greatest expositors of Scripture that ever he kneu in Scotland. John Baird used to call him, 'Blessed Mr Hutcheson.' He was most happy and blessed in his expression. I helped him,' said Mr Baird to me, 'to midwife his excellent exposition on Job to the world; for I transcribed a great deal of it to him.'

"Ther was a certain Minister who came to worthy Mr Ralf Rodger, and told him he had received bad impressions of Mr George Hutcheson by the reports that had been spread of him. Mr Rodger said, 'Go to Mr Hutcheson himself, and converse with him a while, and he will soon remove from you all these.' It was Mr John Campbell, late Minister at Craigie; and he did so, and conversed with him a while, and sau he was a great and good man above many; he was made to admire at the great grace and gifts given him.

"I heard Mr Ralf Rodger say, that he had read that peice of Mr George Hutcheson's on the Westminster Confession, and he was but come to the Trinity, and he said he had writt seven quair,* and that it was so correct that it needed very litle to put it in the press, and if he had lived to have perfected it, [it] would have been one of the greatest common-places [which] ever had seen the light.

"Mr Hutcheson wrote to my father, after he came to Kilbarchan, 1672, and had these expressions in his Letter, speaking of these Ministers who preached in the feilds: They are preaching the people from us; they will, in a litle time, preach them from themselves, and all others. Bread-corn must be bruised, honest Ministers must not want exercise, though it should come from freinds; that they being broken or ground smaller thereby, this may the better contribute to fitt them for the feeding of the Lord's people!'

• Quires of paper, or above 672 pages.