“Sept 26, 1649—The qlk daye Mr. Hew Binnen made his Latin lesson, de scientia media, and sustenit the disputt thairupon, and was approven in both. The following ministers were present, Mr. Patrik Gillespie, Mr. David Dicksone, Doctor Jhone Strang, Mr. Zach. Boyde, Mr. George Young, Mr. Hew Blair, Mr. Gab. Conyngham, Mr. David Benett, Mr. Matthew Mackill. Mr. Wm. Young, Mr. Arch. Dennestoune, Mr. Jhone Carstaires, Mr. James Hamilton.” The presbytery “ordaines Mr. Hugh Binnen to make ye exercise this daye fyfteen dayes, and the rest of his tryels to be ye said day.” Id.
On the 10th October, 1649, after Mr. Hugh had “exercised”—“compeared the laird of Pollok and the parochineris of Govane, and desyred that Mr. Hew Binnen might preach to them the next Lordis daye, qlk was granted, and he ordained to go and preach yr.” Id.
On the 24th Oct., 1649, “Compeared the parochineris of Govane, and gave in ane call to have Mr. Hew Binnen to be their minister.” Id.
“December 19, 1649—The qlk day Mr. Hew Binnen handled the contraversie, de satisfactione Christi, and sustenit the disputt upon the theses given in be him, and was approven.” Id.
On the 2d January, 1650, his admission to the ministerial charge of the parish of Govan is appointed to take place “next Fryday.” The minister who presided on that occasion was Mr. David Dickson, who was one of the professors of Theology in the University of Glasgow. Id.—Ed.]
[Dr. John Strang, who was the son of Mr. William Strang, minister of Irvine, was born in the year 1584. He studied at the University of St. Andrews, where he took the degree of master at sixteen. After having been a regent in St. Leonard's college for several years, he was ordained in 1614, minister of Errol, in the Presbytery of Perth. When Cameron le grand, as he was called, (Vide Bayle's Dict. Art. Cameron) resigned his situation as principal of the University of Glasgow, Dr. Strong succeeded him. He died at Edinburgh, on the 20th of June, 1654, in the seventieth year of his age and was buried near his distinguished predecessor, Principal Boyd. At his death, an old friend and very learned man, Andreas Rawinæus octogenarius, composed some Latin verses, as an affectionate tribute to his memory. These may be seen in a short Life of Dr. Strang which was written by Baillie and prefixed to Dr. Strang's work, De Interpretatione et Perfectione Scripturæ, Rotterodami, 1663. It is from this Life the preceding particulars respecting the learned author have been taken.
It appears to have been chiefly through the influence of Archbishop Law, who was his cousin, that Dr. Strang was made principal of the University of Glasgow. When the latter understood that Trocheregius wished to be reinstated in his office, a correspondence took place betwixt them, which is in the highest degree honourable to the feelings and character of Dr. Strang. This correspondence is inserted by Wodrow in his Life of Robert Boyd of Trochrig (Wodrow MSS. vol. xv. pp. 99-104 in Bib. coll. Glasg.). Butler represents Dr. Strang to have been an acute philosopher, and second to none in the kingdom as a disputant (nullique ad hunc usque diem, in nostra gente, hac in parte secundus. Vita Autoris, ut supra.) The strongly expressed commendation of such a man was no mean compliment to Binning's talents and learning. Wodrow says he was told by a neighbouring clergyman, Mr. Patrick Simson, minister of Renfrew, who was ordained the same year that Binning died, and who lived for some years after the commencement of the following century, “yt qn they were seeking to get old principal Strang out of the colledge, ye principal said, ‘Ye are seeking to get me out of my place, qm have ye to fill my room? I know none, unless it be a young man newly come out of the school, viz., Mr. Hugh Binning’ ” (Analecta, vol. iv. p. 171. MSS in Bib. Ad.)—The Presbytery Records show that the common head which was presented to Binning was not, De concursu, &c, but one closely allied to it: De scientia media.—Ed.]
[Mr. James Durham, minister of the Inner High church, Glasgow, was the son and heir of John Durham of Easter Powrie, now named Wedderburn, a considerable estate in the parish of Muirhouse, and county of Forfar (Old Stat. Acc. of Scot., vol. xiii, pp. 162, 163). In the time of the civil wars, and before he contemplated being a clergyman, he was a captain in the army. He held the office of king's chaplain, when Charles the Second was in Scotland. The description which “Old Aitkenhead, who had it from the gentlewoman,” gave, of Cromwell's visit, in April 1651, to the High church of Glasgow, where Mr. Durham was preaching, is this: “The first seat that offered him was P. Porterfield's, where Miss Porterfield sat, and she, seeing him an English officer, was almost not civil. However he got in and sat next Miss Porterfield. After sermon was over he asked the minister's name. She sullenly enough told him, and desired to know wherefore he asked. He said because he perceived him to be a very great man, and in his opinion might be chaplain to any prince in Europe, though he had never seen him nor heard of him before. She inquired about him, and found it was O. Cromwell” (Wodrow's Anal., vol. v. p. 186, MSS in Bib. Ad.).
Mr. Durham sided neither with the Resolutionists nor Protestors. For this he was strongly blamed at the time by Principal Baillie, who took a keen part in the controversy, (Let. and Jour., vol. ii. p. 376) though after his death, he recorded, in the following terms, his opinion of Mr. Durham's character and talents. “From the day I was employed by the presbytery to preach, and to pray, and to impose, with others, hands upon him, for the ministry at Glasgow, I did live to the very last with him in great and uninterrupted love, and in high estimation of his egregious endowments, which made him to me precious among the most excellent divines I have been acquainted with in the whole isle. O, if it were the good pleasure of the Master of the vineyard to plant many such noble vines in this land!” (Durham's Commentary upon the book of Revelation, Address to the Reader, p. vi). The work written by Durham, entitled, “The Law Unsealed, or a Practical Exposition of the Ten Commandments,” has commendatory prefaces prefixed to it, by two distinguished English puritans, Dr. John Owen, and Mr. William Jenkyn. Dr. Owen wrote likewise a preface to the Clavis Cantici, or an Exposition of the Song of Solomon, by James Durham, minister at Glasgow, 4to, 1669. Doubts have been expressed, however, whether Wood, in his Athenæ Oxomenses, (vol. ii, p. 747, Lond. 1721) was warranted to attribute this preface to Owen, “as the preface is anonymous” (Orme's Life of Owen, Append., p. 505). But the only copy of the work, which is in my possession, (Glas. 1723) has attached to it the name of “John Owen, May 20, 1669.”
The widow of Mr. Durham, who was the daughter of Mr. William Muir of Glanderston, a branch of the family of the Muirs of Caldwell, was, in 1679, twice committed to prison, for having in her house religious meetings, or conventicles, as they were called in those days of relentless tyranny and oppression. On one of the occasions, she was taken to Edinburgh, and imprisoned there, along with her sister, the mother of Principal Carstairs. Wodrow's Hist. of the Suff. of the Church of Scot., vol. iii, pp. 10, 54.—Ed.]