Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/116

  &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;Thus may'st thou laugh when thou shall see &emsp;&emsp;&emsp;Remorse reclaim her home to thee; &emsp;And where thou begg'st of her before, &emsp;She now sits begging at thy door.

We submit that such elegant sentiments as these, expressed in such elegant language, are an honour to their author, to his age, and country.

B

, one of the most eminent, and perhaps the most moderate, of all the Scottish presbyterian clergy during the time of the civil war, was born at Glasgow, in 1599. His father, Thomas Baillie, citizen, was descended from the Baillies of Lamington; his mother, Helen Gibson, was of the family of Gibson of Durie; both of which stocks are distinguished in presbyterian history. Having studied divinity in his native university, Mr Baillie, in 1622, received episcopal orders from Archbishop Law, of Glasgow, and became tutor to the son of the Earl of Eglintoune, by whom he was presented to the parish church of Kilwinning. In 162G he was admitted a regent at the college of Glasgow, and, on taking his chair, delivered an inaugural oration, De Mente Agente. About this period he appears to have prosecuted the study of the oriental languages, in which he is allowed to have attained no mean proficiency. For some years he lived in terms of the strictest intimacy with the noble and pious family of Eglintoune, as also with his ordinary, Archbishop Law, with whom he kept up an epistolary correspondence. Baillie was not only educated and ordained as an episcopalian, but he had imbibed from principal Cameron of Glasgow, the doctrine of passive resistance. He appears, however, to have been brought over to opposite views during the interval between 1630 and 1636, which he employed in discussing with his fellow-clergymen the doctrines of Arminianism, and the new ecclesiastical regulations introduced into the Scottish church by Archbishop Laud. Hence, in the year 1636, being desired by Archbishop Law to preach at Edinburgh in favour of the Canon and Service-books, he positively refused; writing, however, a respectful apology to his lordship. Endeared to the resisting party by this conduct, he was chosen to represent the presbytery of Irvine in the General Assembly of 1638, by which the royal power was braved in the name of the whole nation, and episcopacy formally dissolved. In this meeting, Baillie is said to have behaved with great moderation; a term, however, which must be understood as only comparative, for the expressions used in his letter regarding the matters condemned, are not what would now be considered moderate. In the ensuing year, when it was found necessary to vindicate the proceedings of the Glasgow Assembly with the sword, Baillie entered heartily into the views of his countrymen. He accompanied the army to Dunse Law, in the capacity of preacher to the Earl of Eglintoune's regiment; and he it was, who has handed down the well known description of that extraordinary camp. -- "It would have done you good," he remarks in one of his letters, "to have cast your eyes athort our brave and rich hills, as oft as I did, with great contentment and joy; for I was there among the rest, being chosen preacher by the gentlemen of our shire, who came late. with Lord Eglintoune. I furnished to half a dozen of good fellows, muskets and pikes, and to my boy a broad sword. I carried myself, as the fashion was, a sword, and a couple of Dutch pistols at my saddle; but I promise, for the offence of no man, except a robber in the way; for it was our part alone to pray and preach for the encouragement of our countrymen, which I did to my power most chearfully." (Letters, vol. i. p. 174.) He afterwards States, "Our soldiers grew in experience of arms, in courage, and favour, daily.