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4. The Mediatour was made sure of succes before he pat hand to the making of the world; and all the elect were given to him, and their salvation put in his hand, with all power in heaven and earth given to him to bring it to passe; and so he is sure to find out the man to pursuade and convert, to lead him through toutches and temptations, through fears and falls, till he bring him to peace; and this refuge of the soule is a sufficient post against all Arminians' doubts.

5. He manadges this matter in the dispensation of the gospell so wiselie, as it gives no man any reasonable ground either to presume of God's mercie, or to despair of God's grace; he tempers it so that the holiest man shall have no matter of comfort except he walke in the way of holinesse, and the wickedest man shall not be put out of hopes, but to be receaved whensoever he will turne in to seeke grace, and lyfe, and holiness in Jesus."

Dickson, as we have seen in his Life, was chosen Moderator of the General Assembly in 1639. The following is his inaugural address :

MR DAVID DICK, MODERATOUR, HIS SPEECH.

The Moderatour, at his first entrie to the place, had this preface:-"This is more than we durst have craved of God, if we had looked to our oune deserving; but since it hath beene his Majestie's pleasure who rules heaven and earth, to looke upon our gracious king, and move his heart to grant this freedome, we have reasone all of us to acknowledge God's mercie to his Majestie and to us, and to acknowledge his Majestie's goodnes, and to make verie welcome your Grace who is to represent his Majestie; and I trust this Assembly will allow me verie weill to give thankes to the Moderatour who served in this roume last, who, whatsoever you thought or said, God magnified himselfe in yow, and made your honestie, and the caus in your hand, cleare to many; and to

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APPENDIX TO THE LIFE OF MR DAVID DICKSON.

those to whom ye were most calumniat, so that both the king's Commissioner and Councell have seene that yow have beene seeking God onlie, and no other thing-and the Lord bless yow! Now, as the Commissioner spacke verie fitlie that jealousies and suspitions would be farr away, becaus they are contrare to the designes professed by his Majestie, and whereof we have this evidence; and contrare to the designes of ws ministers, who ought to be ministers of peace, ayming at nothing but God's glorie and the weill of his Church: Therefore, let us labour by all meanes to get owr hearts single; becaus in so doing owr God will helpe us. And first, to thinke of overtures, how we may extirpat all grounds of suspition and jealousie which might be in brethren's hearts, becaus of the differences of judgments about the discipline of the Church, and that ceremonies, that she has beene troubled with, may be turned in perpetuall oblivion. And seeing there is in us ane mynd and heart toward God and peace, let us think upon some overtures, how we may open the bosome of this Kirk to all these who are penitent, or in any measure sensible of their misdeservings, (not those who deserve most excepted, if the Lord gives them repentance,) seeing we are these who professed ourselves to be men seeking God, trueth, and peace. Yea, thirdlie, let us give evidence that we are single-hearted toward these that are of a contrare religion, and that we have no mynd to insnare them, or handle them so as their owne consciences, upon their owne grounds could say, considering our rules, but rather how we shall get them informed of their scruples, heard, attendit, and waited upon, and by all meanes their mynds brought to this poynt of conviction, that they know nothing but God and their owne salvation, and all in a verie moderat maner."

MEMOIRS

OF THE

LIFE AND CHARACTER

OF

MR WILLIAM GUTHRIE,

MINISTER AT FENWICK.

BY THE

REV. WILLIAM DUNLOP.

WITH ADDITIONS

BY REV. ROBERT WODROW, AND REV. ROBERT TRAILL.

NOTE.

LIKE the Memoirs of Dickson, the following account of WILLIAM GUTHRIE originally formed part of a preface to his chief Work-THE TRIAL OF A SAVING INTEREST IN CHRIST. It is to be regretted that nothing more finished or exact can be found regarding one who acted so prominent a part, and exercised so extensive an influence in his day and generation. With the addition, however, of WODROW's Remarks, extracted from his History-and a short account of Guthrie by Rev. Robert Traill, of London, also forming part of a preface to an Edition of his chief production, both of which are here subjoined, we are enabled to form some tolerable estimate of the character of another of those of whom the world was not worthy. It will be seen, from the narrative which follows, that Dr John Owen reckoned Guthrie capable of embodying more theology in a small volume than Owen himself could do in several folios. An eulogy of such a nature, from so competent a judge, makes us anxious to know exactly the mental as well as the external history of such a man-and though the few pages that follow cannot completely gratify our curiosity, they at least make it apparent that William Guthrie, as far as we know him, was not unworthy of the encomium bestowed on him by Owen, and of the admiration with which he was regarded by many of his contemporaries.

The Rev. William Dunlop, the Author of these Memoirs, was Professor of Divinity and Church History in the University of Edinburgh. He died October 29th, 1720, at the early age of twenty-eight, and Wodrow records that "his death was a great loss to the Church of Scotland." Some of his Sermons and Lectures were published towards the close of the year 1722, and have been subsequently reprinted. He is well known to have acted an important part in the ecclesiastical proceedings of his day, especially in regard to the Confession of Faith. Dunlop. was supplied by Wodrow, who was related to Guthrie, with materials for the following Memoirs.-See WOD. CORRESPOND. i. 23; iii. 186, 201, 202.

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