Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/207

Rh Guthrie made no din" in that assembly. The last public appearance he made while minister of Stirling was in 1647, when the king was delivered by the Scots to the English parliament. He was among the number of those who exonerated themselves of any share or approval of that transaction;" and as for the body of the ministry throughout the kingdom," says he, "the far greater part disallowed it; howbeit, loathness to be deprived of their function and livelihood restrained them from giving a testimony."

It has been already stated, that the Scottish clergy do not appear to have placed much confidence in Mr Guthrie; and from his opposition to many of their favourite measures, this is little to be wondered at. In 1647, when the parliament declared for "the engagement," the ministers declaimed against it, as containing no provision for the support of their religion; but Guthrie and some others preached up the lawfulness of the design, and although no notice was taken of this at the time, no sooner was the Scottish army defeated, than they were considered proper subjects of discipline. "Upon November fourteenth, [1648], came to Stirling that commission which the General Assembly had appointed, to depose ministers in the presbyteries of Stirling and Dunblane, for their malignancy, who thrust out Mr Henry Guthrie and Mr John Allan, ministers of the town of Stirling," &c.

From the period of his dismissal from his charge, till after the Restoration, Guthrie lived in retirement. He is mentioned by Lament of Newton, as "minister of Kilspindie in the Carse of Gowrie; but the Rev. Mr Macgregor Stirling, in his edition of Nimmo's History of Stirlingshire, merely says that lie lived there. In 1661, when Mr James Guthrie was executed on account of his writings, Henry Guthrie became entitled bylaw, and was indeed invited by the town council, to resume his duties at Stirling, but he declined on account of bad health. He was well known to the earl of Lauderdale, and was recommended durton. He had during his retirement devoted his attention to the study of church government, and had become convinced, "that a parity in the church could not possibly be maintained, so as to preserve unity and order among them, and that a superior authority must be brought in to settle them in unity and peace." With this conviction, and with a sufficient portion of good health for this appointment, he accepted the diocese, and remained in it till his death, which happened in 1676.

The only work which bishop Guthrie is known to have left behind him, is his "Memoirs, containing an Impartial Relation of the affairs of Scotland, Civil and Ecclesiastical, from the year 1637 to the Death of King Charles I." written it is believed, at Kilspindie. The impartiality of his " Relation is often questionable, nor could we expect that it should be otherwise, at a period when both civil and ecclesiastical dissensions ran so high. In point of style it forms a striking contrast to most of the other histories of that time, which, however valuable otherwise, are often tedious and uninteresting.

GUTHRIE,, one of the most zealous of the protesters, as they were called, during the religious troubles of the 17th century, was the son of the laird of Guthrie, an ancient and highly respectable family. Guthrie was educated at St Andrews, where, having gone through the regular course of classical learning, he commenced teacher of philosophy, and was much esteemed, as well for the equanimity of his temper as for his erudition. His religious principles in the