semblies in Scotland, and was sent into England in the double
capacity of a divine and plenipotentiary. He knew how to rouse the people
to war, or negotiate a peace. Whenever he preached, it was to a crowded
audience, and when he pleaded or argued, he was regarded with mute
attention."(45) Mr. William Guthrie, minister of Fenwick in the county of
Ayr, was another of Binning's contemporaries. His memory, like that of
other Scottish ministers of that century, has suffered from his name
having been attached to sermons falsely said to be his, at least in the
form in which they have been printed. Let any person, however, of
unsophisticated taste and true piety read "The Christian's Great
Interest," which was the only work published by Guthrie himself, and it
will not surprise him that a church, which had many such village pastors,
should have fixed itself in the affections of the nation at large, and
that instructed by such men, the humblest classes of the community should
have had so much religious knowledge, as Bishop Burnet(46) somewhat
reluctantly admits they possessed. The wife of Wodrow the historian was
the granddaughter of William Guthrie.(47) In his Analecta, Wodrow says, it
was well ordered that Mr. Guthrie died in Angus, "for his congregation
would have idolized his grave had he died among them." He also mentions
that his Treatise was highly valued by Queen Mary, who caused it to be
translated into the French language, and to whom it had been presented by
Mr. William Carstares, chaplain to William III, and afterwards Principal
of the University of Edinburgh, that Archbishop Tillotson commended it as
one of the best written books in the language, and that Dr John Owen
declared, he valued it so highly, he had made it his vade mecum.(48)
Contrary to the general belief, the ministers of Scotland, in Binning's
time, not only included among them many individuals, who were highly
esteemed on account of their talents, literature, and piety, but a great
number of them "were related to the chief families in the country, either
by blood or marriage."(49) Binning himself, and Mr. William Guthrie
minister of Fenwick, were the sons of respectable landed proprietors. Mr.
Gabriel Semple, minister of Kirkpatrick of the Muir, was the son of Sir
Bryce Semple of Cathcart, Mr. James Hamilton, minister of Dumfries, was
the nephew of Lord Claneboy, afterwards Earl of Clanbrassil, Mr. David
Fletcher, minister of Melrose, was the brother of