Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 19.djvu/291

 he agreed to give bail, but declined to promise a passive obedience. He was sent back to prison, but soon obtained his liberty and returned to Rotterdam. On 2 April 1683 proceedings were taken against him in the high court of judiciary at Edinburgh, on suspicion of harbouring some of the assassins of Archbishop Sharpe; his innocence appearing, the accusation was dropped on 17 April 1684. He did not formally demit the charge of Cambuslang till March 1688, on the death of David Cunningham, who had been appointed in his place. The act of April 1689 restored him to his benefice, but he preferred to remain in Holland. During a visit to London he was seized with fever on 17 July, and died on 25 July 1694. His funeral sermon was preached by Daniel Burgess (1645–1713) [q. v.] He married Christian, daughter of Sir George Hamilton of Binny, Linlithgowshire, and had seven children. His son Robert [q. v.] succeeded him at Rotterdam. In 1672 Fleming had the infeftment of the lands of Marbreck and Formontstoun.

Fleming's ‘Fulfilling of the Scripture,’ his best-known work, is a treatise on particular providences; it is rich in illustrative anecdote, and contains valuable material mixed with legend relating to the puritan biography of Scotland and the north of Ireland.

He published: 1. ‘The Fulfilling of the Scripture,’ &c., Rotterdam, 1669, fol. Second part, ‘The Faithfulness of God,’ &c. Third part, ‘The Great Appearances of God,’ &c. [1677?] All three parts, Lond., 1681, 12mo, two vols.; third edit., 1681, 8vo; fourth edit., 1693, 8vo; fifth edit., 1726, fol.; last edit., Edinb., 1845, 8vo, two vols.; an abridgment is published by the Religious Tract Society. 2. ‘An Account of the Roman Church and Doctrine,’ 1675, 8vo (not seen). 3. ‘A Survey of Quakerism,’ &c., 1677, 8vo (anon.) 4. ‘Scripture Truth confirmed and cleared,’ 1678, 8vo (not seen). 5. ‘The Truth and Certainty of the Protestant Faith,’ 1678, 8vo (not seen). 6. ‘The Church wounded and rent,’ &c., 1681, 4to (not seen). 7. ‘The One Thing Necessary,’ 1681 (not seen). 8. ‘Joshua's Choice,’ 1684 (previously printed in Dutch, not seen). 9. ‘The Confirming Worke of Religion,’ Rotterdam, 1685, 12mo. 10. ‘True Statement of Christian Faith,’ 1692, 8vo (not seen). 11. ‘The Present Aspect of our Times,’ &c., 1694 (not seen). Also two separate sermons, 1692. Hew Scott adds, ‘A Discourse on Earthquakes,’ 1693, by his son; also, without dates, ‘The Healing Work,’ &c., and ‘Epistolary Discourse,’ two parts (this is by his son).

[Fleming left a diary, which was not published; his rather confused list of thirty-eight memorable occurrences of his life, entitled A Short Index, &c., is printed at the end of Memoirs by Daniel Burgess, prefixed to the 1726 edition of the Fulfilling; a fuller memoir is prefixed to the 1845 edition; Hew Scott's Fasti Eccles. Scot.; Wilson's Dissenting Churches, 1808, ii. 469; Grub's Ecclesiastical History of Scotland, 1861, iii. 200; Anderson's Scottish Nation, 1870, ii. 221 sq.] 

FLEMING, ROBERT, the younger (1660?–1716), presbyterian minister, son of Robert Fleming the elder [q. v.], was born at Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, about 1660. His early education was at the school of his uncle by marriage, John Sinclair, minister of Ormiston, Haddingtonshire. He entered into a religious ‘covenant’ at the age of thirteen, and set his heart on the ministry. In 1679 his father took him to Holland, where he studied at Leyden and Utrecht. He pursued his own course of reading, gaining a wide familiarity with classics and the fathers, and with theological writers of the most opposite schools. On 9 Feb. 1688 he was privately ordained by Scottish divines in Holland, without special charge. He removed to England, and was domestic chaplain in a private family for about four years. In 1692 he accepted a call to the pastorate of the English presbyterian congregation at Leyden. On his father's death he was invited to succeed him in the Scots Church at Rotterdam, to which he was inducted in 1695.

In 1698 Fleming received a call to the Scots Church, Founders' Hall, Lothbury. His acceptance was urged by William Carstares [q. v.], and William III, who had known him in Holland, ‘signified his desire to have him near his person.’ Fleming began his ministry at Founders' Hall on 19 June 1698. The meeting-house was rebuilt for him about 1700. His position was one of great influence, though he never became a public man. William III consulted him on the ecclesiastical affairs of Scotland, and he was in friendly relations with Archbishop Tenison. Through the influence of his kinsman, John, lord Carmichael, secretary of state for Scotland, he had the offer of the principalship of Glasgow University, but this he declined. On 15 May 1701 he succeeded Vincent Alsop as one of the Tuesday lecturers at Salters' Hall, a lectureship which represented the liberal side in the Calvinistic controversy. On 7 May 1707 he was the spokesman of the London ministers of the three denominations in presenting an address of congratulation to Queen Anne on the union with Scotland. These appointments were unusual in the case of one who, like Fleming, was distinctively a Scottish presbyterian. But Fleming's views were