, an eminent Presbyterian divine of the seventeenth century, was born at Glasgow in the year 1599. His father, Mr. Thomas Baillie,
, an eminent Presbyterian divine
of the seventeenth century, was born at Glasgow in the
year 1599. His father, Mr. Thomas Baillie, was a citizen
of that place, and son to Baillie of Jerviston. Our Robert Baillie was educated in the university of his native
city where, having taken his degrees in arts, he turned
his thoughts to the study of divinity and, receiving orders
from archbishop Law, he was chosen regent of philosophy
at Glasgow. While he was in this station, he had, for
some years, the care of the education of Lord Montgomery, who, at length, carried him with him to Kilwinning;
to which church he was presented by the earl of Eglintoun. Here he lived in the strictest friendship with that
noble family, and the people connected with it; as he did
also with his ordinary the archbishop of Glasgow, with
whom he kept up an epistolary correspondence. In 1633,
he declined, from modesty, the offer of a church in Edinburgh. Being requested in 1637, by his friend the archbishop, to preach a sermon before the assembly at Edinburgh, in recommendation of the canon and service book,
he refused to do it; and wrote a handsome letter to the
archbishop, assigning the reasons of his refusal. In 1638
he was chosen by the presbytery of Irvine, a member of
the famous assembly at Glasgow, which was a prelude to the
civil war. Though Mr. Baillie is said to have behaved in
this assembly with great moderation, it is evident that he
was by no means deficient in his zeal against prelacy and
Arminianism. In 1640 he was sent by the covenanting
lords to London, to draw up an accusation against archbishop Laud, for his obtrusions on the church of Scotland.
While he was in England, he wrote the presbytery a regular account of public affairs, with a journal of the trial
of the earl of Strafford. Not long after, on his return, he
was appointed joint professor of divinity with Mr. David
Dickson, in the university of Glasgow, and his reputation
was become so great, that he had before this received
invitations from the other three universities, all of which
he refused. He continued in his professorship till the
Restoration but his discharge of the duties of it was interrupted for a considerable time, by his residence in
England for, in 1643, he was chosen one of the commissioners of the church of Scotland to the assembly of divines
at Westminster. Though he never spoke in the debates
of the assembly, he appears to have been an useful member, and entirely concurred in the principles and views of
its leaders. Mr. Baillie returned again to his own country
in the latter end of 1646. When, after the execution of
Charles I. Charles II. was proclaimed in Scotland, our professor was one of the divines appointed by the general assembly to wait on the king at the Hague; upon which occasion,
March 27, 1649, he made a speech in the royal presence,
expressing in the strongest terms his abhorrence of the
murder of the late king and, in his sentiments upon this
event, it appears that the Presbyterian divines of that
period, both at home and abroad, almost universally
agreed. After the restoration of Charles II. Mr. Baillie,
Jan. 23, 1661, by the interest of the earl of Lauderdale,
with whom he was a great favourite, was made principal
of the university of Glasgow, upon the removal of Mr.
Patrick Gillespie, who had been patronised by Cromwell.
It is said by several writers, that Mr. Baillie had the offer
of a bishopric, which he absolutely refused. Though he
was very loyal, and most sincerely rejoiced in his majesty’s
restoration, he began, a little before his death, to be extremely anxious for the fate of Presbytery. His health
failed him in the spring of 1662. During his illness he
was visited by the new-made archbishop of Glasgow, to
whom he is said to have addressed himself in the following
words “Mr, Andrews (I will not call you my lord), king
Charles would have made me one of these lords but I do
not find in the New Testament, that Christ has any lords
in his house.
” Notwithstanding this common-place objection to the hierarchy, he treated the archbishop very
courteously. Mr. Baillie died in July 1662, being 63 years
f age. By his first wife, who was Lilias Fleming, of the
family of Cardarroch, in the parish of Cadder, near Glasgow, he had many children, five of whom survived him,
viz. one son, and four daughters. The posterity of his
son, Mr. Henry Baillie, who was a preacher, but never
accepted of any charge, still inherit the estate of Carnbrae,
in the county of Lanerk, an ancient seat of the Baillies.
Mr. Baillie’s character ha% been drawn to great advantage,
not only by Mr. Woodrow, but by an historian of the opposite party. His works, which were very learned, and
acquired him reputation in his own time, are 1. “Opus
Historicum et Chronologicum,
” Amsterdam, A Defence of the Reformation of the Church of Scotland, against Mr. Maxwell, bishop of Ross.
” 3. “A Parallel betwixt the Scottish Service-Book and the Romish
Missal, Breviary,
” &c. 4. “The Canterburian Self-Conviction.
” 5. “Queries anent the Service-Book.
” 6. “Antidote against Arminianism.
” 7. “A treatise on Scottish
Episcopacy.
” 8. “Laudensium.
” 9. “Dissuasive against
the Errors of the Times, with a Supplement.
” 10. “A
Reply to the Modest Enquirer,
” with some other tracts,
and several sermons upon public occasions but his “Opus
Historicum et Chronologicum,
” was his capital production. The rest of his writings, being chiefly on controversial
and temporary subjects, can, at present, be of little or no
value. But his memory is perhaps yet more preserved by a
very recent publication, “Letters and Journals, carefully
transcribed by Robert Aiken containing an impartial account of public transactions, civil, ecclesiastical, and military, both in England and Scotland, from 1637 to 1662 a
period, perhaps, the most remarkable that is to be met
with in the British History. With an Account of the
Author’s life, prefixed and a Glossary annexed,
” Edinburgh,
, one of the most famous divines of the seventeenth century, among the French Protestants, was born at Glasgow, in Scotland, about the year 1580, and educated
, one of the most famous divines of
the seventeenth century, among the French Protestants,
was born at Glasgow, in Scotland, about the year 1580,
and educated at the university of his native city. After
reading lectures on the Greek language for a year, he began his travels in 1600, and at Bourdeaux evinced so much
ability and erudition, that the ministers of that city appointed him master of a college which they had established
at Bergerac, for teaching Greek and Latin; and from this
the duke de Bouillon removed him to the philosophical
professorship at Sedan, where he remained for two years.
He then went to Paris, and from Paris to Bourdeaux,
where he arrived in 1604, and began his divinity studies, and in 1608 was appointed one of the ministers
of Bourdeaux, and officiated there with such increasing
reputation, that the university of Saumur judged him worthy to succeed Gomarus in the divinity chair. Having
accepted this offer, he gave his lectures until 1620, when
the university was almost dispersed by the civil war. He
now came over to England with his family, and was recommended to king James, who appointed him professor
of divinity at Glasgow, in the room of Robert Boyd, of
Trochrig, (whom Bayle and his translators call Trochoregius), because he was supposed to be more attached to the
episcopal form of church government. This situation,
however, not suiting his taste, he returned to Saumur in
less than a year; but even there he met with opposition,
and the court having prohibited his public teaching, he was
obliged to read lectures in private. After a year passed in
this precarious state of toleration, he went in 1624 to Montauban, where he was chosen professor of divinity, but
having declared himself too openly against the party which
preached up the civil war, he created many enemies, and
among the rest an unknown miscreant who assaulted him
in the street, and wounded him so desperately as to occasion his death, which took place, after he had languished a
considerable time, in 1625. Bayle says, he was a man of
a great deal of wit and judgment, had a happy memory,
was very learned, a good philosopher, of a chcarful temper,
and ready to communicate not only his knowledge, but
even his money: he was a great talker, a long preacher,
little acquainted with the works of the fathers, obstinate
in his opinions, and somewhat troublesome. He frankly
owned to his friends, that he found several things still to
reform in the reformed churches. He took a delight in
publishing particular opinions, and in going out of the
beaten road; and he gave instances of this when he was a
youth, in his theses “De Tribus Frederibus,
” which he
published and maintained at Heidelberg, although yet
but a proposant, or candidate for the ministry. He also
mixed some novelties in all the theological questions
which he examined; and when in explaining some passages of the holy scripture, he met with great difficulties,
he took all opportunities to contradict the other divines,
and especially Beza; for he pretended that they had not
penetrated into the very marrow of that science. It was
from him that monsieur Amyraut adopted the doctrine of
universal grace, which occasioned so many disputes in
France, and will always be found, at least upon Amyraut’s
principles, to be too inconsistent for general belief. Cameron’s works are his “Theological Lectures,
” Saumur,
Myrothecium
Evangelicum.
”
was born at Glasgow in 1682, and educated in the university of that
was born at Glasgow in 1682, and educated in the university of that city,
where he took his degrees, and was ordained minister at
Monimail in Fifcshire. In 1722 he was promoted to be
professor of moral philosophy in the university of Glasgow;
and for the use of his students wrote some learned notes
on “PufYendorfi de officiis hominis.
” He intended to
have published a system of moral philosophy on a new
plan, but did not live to see it completed, as he died at
Glasgow in 1738, aged 56. His son Frederick Carmichael was born at Monimail i<i 1708. He received his
education in the Marischal college, Aberdeen, where he
took his degrees, and was ordained minister at Monimail
in 1737, on the presentation of the earl of Leven. In
1743 he was translated to Inveresk; and in 1747 he was
elected one of the ministers of Edinburgh, having previously declined an offer made him of the divinity chair in
the Marischal college, Aberdeen. In 1751 he was seized i
with a fever, which put an end to his life, aged 45. He
has left one volume of sermons, which in justness of sentiment and elegance of expression are equal to the best discourses in the English language.
was born at Glasgow, where his father was principal of the university,
was born at Glasgow,
where his father was principal of the university, 1692.
In 1712 he took the degree of A. M. and afterwards spent
two years in the university of Utrecht, having at that time
some thoughts of applying himself to the study of the law;
but he was diverted from that resolution by the persuasions
of Mr. Wishart, then principal of the college of Edinburgh,
by whose interest he was promoted to be regius professor
of divinity and church history, 1716. In the discharge of
his duty, Mr. Dunlop procured great honour: but his labours were not confined to the professional chair; he
preached frequently in the parish churches in Edinburgh,
and his sermons were delivered with such elegance and
justness of thought, that multitudes flocked after him. Increasing daily in promoting useful knowledge, and acquiring
the approbation of the virtuous of every denomination, he
adorned his profession by the most exalted piety, and lived
equal to the doctrines he taught. In the arduous discharge
of these important duties, he contracted a disorder which
brought on a dropsy; and after a lingering illness, he died
at Edinburgh 1720, aged twenty -eight. His works are:
Sermons in 2 vols. 12mo, and an “Essay on Confessions of Faith.
” He was an ornament to learning, and esteemed as a man of great piety and worth.