h a masterly pen was able to
give them. The good effects his discourses had upon the hearers, and the
importunity of many judicious and experienced Christians to have them
published, that they might have the same influence on such as should read
them, encouraged some worthy ministers to revise and print them. And since
these sermons have for a long time had the approbation both of learned
divines and serious Christians, they need not any recommendation of mine.

The first of his works that was printed,(122) is entitled, "The Common
Principles of the Christian Religion, clearly proved, and singularly
improved, or a Practical Catechism, wherein some of the most concerning
foundations of our faith are solidly laid down, and that doctrine which is
according to godliness, is sweetly, yet pungently pressed home, and most
satisfyingly handled." Mr. M'Ward speaking of this performance, says,
"That it was not designed for the press, that it contained only his notes
on those subjects he preached to his flock, and which he wrote (I suppose
he means(123) in a fair hand) for the private use and edification of a
friend, from whom he had them, and when put into his hand to be revised,
he says, he did not so much as alter, or add one word, to make the sense
more plain, full, or emphatical." This book is an excellent exposition of
the Westminster Catechism, so far as it goes, viz. to the twenty first
question, "Who is the Redeemer of God's elect?" Mr. Patrick Gillespie
writes a preface to the reader, wherein he expresses his high opinion of
it in the following encomium. "In this book Mr. Binning explains many of
the fundamental articles of the Christian faith and had he lived to have
perfected and finished this work, he had been upon this single account
famous in the church of Christ." The Assembly's Catechism has had many
expositions by pious and learned ministers, some of them by way of sermon,
and others by way of question and answer. But this, so far as it goes, is
not inferior to any. A learned layman, Sir Matthew Hales chief justice of
the king's bench, the divine of the state in King Charles II.'s reign,
judged the Assembly's Catechism to be an excellent composure, and thought
it not below him, or unworthy of his pains to consider it. For in the
second part of his "Contemplations moral and divine," we have his most
instructive meditations upon the first three questions. These had been the
employment of his _horoe sacroe_, and it is