and must not only have our affections moved, but our judgments must be satisfyed.' Mr Henderson was very well pleased with what he said; and he said, That is very true, Jacobe: Ye are men, and must have your judgment satisfied;' and so he enquired at Mr Wood, If he had read any of their Presbyterian wryters? And he declared he had never seen any of them, when he named them to him. And so Mr Henderson lent him Altare Damascenum,' and desired Mr Wood to peruse it seriously. Accordingly he read it, and was intirely gained thereby. He declared his judgment was fully satisfyed with what he had read in that book. As for his Arminianism, he had been seduced and corrupted by one Panter, a corrupt Arminian Doctor of Divinity in Saint Andrews. "Mr Wood was one day in his chamber, praying his alone; and he was praying that God would grant him such and such things. It was presently born in upon him with a sort of power, What needest thou seek that from me, which is in the power of thy oun free will?' With which he was so struck, that he could not stay any longer on his knees, but got presently up, and went away to vieu his papers where all his Arminian errors were, and he then sau them all to be a mere refuge of lyes, and so was intirely gained to be a great enemy to all Arminian errors. This account I had from the late Reverend Mr William Tullidaff, late Principal of St Leonardius College, in St Andrews. I heard him tell this account of Mr Wood, when Mr Tullidaff was Minister of Kilburnie in the Wast. Mr Wood used to say that he owed much to God for these two great points of truth against Arminianisme and Prelacy, for with a strong hand he had been brought off these errors." MR WOOD "Was a man of acute judgment and clear witt. Mr Hastie said to me, he never heard one more pungent and pathetick in application then Mr Wood was. Though great Mr Rutherford differed from Mr Wood in some things about the Publick Resolutions, yet he had alwayes a great esteem of him, and respect to him for his honesty. One day Mr Wood in some meeting, where severalls were present, fell upon that business about the Publick Resolutions. Mr Rutherford did not at all medle with Mr Wood; but whenever Mr Honnyman fell upon that affair, Mr Rutherford rose up and took him up very sharply, though it was to the same purpose with what Mr Wood had spoken. Mr Blair, after they came forth, said to Mr Rutherford, Prefecto, Brother, you are very censurable for your partiality this day.' Wherein, Sir,' said he, am I censurable for partiality?' Mr Blair answered, ' In that you let Mr Wood win away without ever contradicting him; but when my poor colleague fell upon that same purpose, you fell on him most severely!' Mr Rutherford answered, I know Mr Wood to be very far wrong in that particular; but yet I know he both is and will prove an honest man ; but for your colleague, my heart did rise much against him, because he is a knave, and will prove a knave!' Mr Andrew Donaldson, Minister of Dalgety, was present, and heard him say (viz. Mr Rutherford) this to Mr Blair, and he lived to see all this fulfilled; to see Mr Wood shew himself an honest man, and die so, and also to see Mr Honnyman prove a knave, and die so! "This Mr Donaldson told Mr Hastie, Minister at Glasgou, from whom I had this account; and Mr Hastie told me also that Mr Donaldson told him that after the sad Revolution 1661, Mr Donaldson did meet with the great man Mr Wood at Edinburgh, and Mr Wood was more then ordinary kind to Mr Donaldson; and he said to Mr Donaldson, ‘I see, nou, that the Protesters had the right end of the string; but,' said he, I was greatly against you, because I thought alwayes ye were for separation, which I alwayes greatly abhorred. But, O,' said he, to see one fair day in the Church of Scotland!' But Mr Donaldson answered, But how will you get that nou, brother?' He was so kind as that he desired to know where Mr Donaldson's chamber was (at Edinburgh,) that he might come and see him? Mr Donaldson answered, It was not yet come to that; but he desired to knou where Mr Wood's chamber was, that he might come and wait upon him? It's reported, when Mr Rutherford was a dying, Mr Wood came and saw him, and prayed with him; at which he was not at all moved, but when Mr Honnyman came to see Mr Rutherford, and prayed with him, Mr Rutherford weeped all the time that Mr Honnyman was praying; and being enquired what made him weep so at Mr Honnyman's prayer, and not at Mr Wood's? Said he, Mr Wood and I will meet again, though we be now to part, but, alace, for poor Honnyman! he and I will never meet again in another world!—and this made me weep.' Mr Wood, it's said, regrated much his reading so much in the night time, for he found it had greatly im paired his health, and done him great prejudice as to his body; for when Mr Rutherford would be going in to his studie in the morning, Mr Wood very readily met him coming in from his study to his bed, which was about four o'clock in the morning! It's said, he wished he had never read much after ten o'clock at night. Mr Wodrow, the late Professor of Divinity in Glasgow, told me this, that Doctor Colvin, Professor of Hebrew in the College of St Andrews, said, that neither Mr Wood, Mr Rutherford, nor himself, any one of them would make a good masoun, take them separately; but put all these three, Mr Rutherford, Mr Wood, and Mr Colvin together, they would make a good masoun: For Mr Rutherford was fit for digging the quarrie, and bringing out a great heap of materials; Mr Wood was fit for polishing the stone; and Mr Colvin, being didacticos, was fit for laying the stones; and all these three together made a good masoun! Mr Wood had, at his death, a great combat and wrestling about his interest in Christ. Mr Wood was, indeed, most excellent about handling new controversies. I hear he was resolved to answer Stillingfleet's Irenicum. That was his infirmity, to be too hot, and so sometimes did overun himself with his passion. I heard Mr Wood said of his brother-in-law, Mr John Carstairs, We are in some case to hold to our brother some way in lecturing and preaching; but for prayer he far surpasses us all, and goes very far out of all our sight." I heard, when Mr Wood was a dying, when some were lamenting his loss, that they knew feu or non fit to supply his place: He said, he kneu of one, viz. worthy Mr Vilant, that could do it very well; but he said he was like the singed cat, that did not promise much to outward appearance! And I heard Mr William Wetch [Veitch] (being lately at Glasgow) tell me that he was with Mr Wood at Edinburgh in 1661, after Mr Sharp herford weepe enquired vir: at Mr Woods be now to pa et again in said, regrated it had gr is body; for morning. M is bed, was become Primate. Mr Wood was desireous to see that traitour, [MR ROBERT DOUGLAS.] "Mr Walkinshaw, Minister of Badernock, my uncle-in-law, told me that Mr Ramsey, Minister of Old Kilpatrick, going to see the great Mr Douglass, he met Mr Vilant coming out from Mr Douglass. He knew him not. Mr Douglass said to Mr Ramsey, 'Do you know that litle man, Mathew?' He said, 'No, Mathew, though that litle man promises not much to look to; yet,' said he, 'I could venture to set that litle man to plead our cause of Presbytry against all the fourteen Prelates his alone, and to venture the cause on him; for,' said he, he is like the signed cat, indeed!' "I heard old Mr Patrick Simson say, he heard old Mr Douglass preach in Pencaitland when he was eighty years of age, upon these words in xliii. Psal. 1, Plead my cause against an ungodly nation:' He uttered that day some prophetick-like words, and said, 'If ever God plead the cause of a nation, he will plead thy cause, O Scotland, against an ungodly nation of men!' He told me also, that great Mr Douglass was begotten by his father, one Mr Douglass, in adultery; and that his father, Mr Douglass, was a bastard of Queen Mary's, begotten upon her when she was prisoner in Lochleven; yet, said he, God made him a great man for both great wit and grace, and more then ordinary boldness and authority, and aufull majesty appearing in his very countenance and carriage."† • In allusion to a proverbial saying, "He is like the singit cat,-he is better than he is bonny." What follows on this and the succeeding page of the MS. consists of notices relative to Mr Robert Bruce and Mr David Calderwood, and are deleted by Wodrow, as having been transferred by him to his "Biographical Collections." [MR RUTHERFORD.] "I have heard several things anent Mr Rutherford from an excellent Minister, Mr James Urquhart, Minister in Kinloss, in the North, in Murray. He said to me, in 1692, that he kneu many great and good Ministers in this Church; but for such a peice of clay as Mr Rutherford was, he never kneu one in Scotland like him, to whom so many great gifts were given; for he seemed altogether to be taken up in every thing that was good, and excellent, and usefull for his generation. He seemed to be alwayes praying, alwayes preaching, alwayes visiting families, alwayes visiting the sick, alwayes catechising, alwayes teaching in the schools, alwayes writing treatises, alwayes reading and studying! Mr William Tullidaff said to me, that many times he thought Mr Rutherford would have flown out of the pulpit when he came to speak of Christ, the Rose of Sharon! Then he was as a fish in the ocean, he was never in his right element but when he was speaking of Christ, and commending him. A certain person told me he would have fallen asleep speaking of Christ. He had two quick eyes, and when once he entered into the pulpit he held them up toward heaven. One day when Mr Dunlop, late Minister of Paisley, Glanderstoun,* and some other worthy Ministers and Elders were present, hearing Mr Rutherford preach at Edinburgh, he fell upon these sad differences of the Protestation and Publick Resolutions. After he had been a while discoursing on these differences, he breaks out in these expressions: Wo is us for these sad differences and divisions, that makes us lose the fair scent of the Rose of Sharon,' and then he fell out in commending of Christ, going over all His precious titles and stiles about half-a-quarter or a quarter of a hour; and Glanderstoun said, in the meantime, Now, you are right, hold you there!' He was born in a parish called Creiling,† near Jedburgh, a son of an heretor there. When he was a child, there is a tradition anent him there in • Mure of Glanderston, in the parish of Neilston. + Crailing. |