6.

33 Memoirs of the First Years of James Nisbet, one of the Scottish
Covenanters, written by himself, Append. p. 287. Edin. 1827.

34 Pp. 54-58.

35 P. 486. See also Life of the Author, p. xliii. _note_.

36 Verse 1193.

37 Mr. Alexander Peterkin, the annotator of the Records of the Kirk of
Scotland, before presenting his readers with a long extract from the
"Whigs Supplication," (ver 94-113) describing an armed body of
Covenanters, gravely declares, it was "taken from a MS copy of a
doggrel poem (by Cleland it is thought), which the editor presented
some years ago to the Library of the Antiquarian Society of
Edinburgh." See Rec. of Kirk of Scot. p. 533.

38 Baillie's Letters, vol. ii. p. 360.

39 Rec. of Kirk of Scot. pp. 627-633.

40 Records of Presbyters of Glascow.

41 P. xvii.

42 Pp xxv, xxvi.

43 "The sermons preached at conventicles, which are ordinarily
circulated, are a very unsafe rule by which to judge of the talents
of the preachers, and the quality of the discourses which they
actually delivered. We have never been able to ascertain that one of
these was published during the lifetime of the author, or from notes
written by himself. They were printed from notes taken by the
hearers, and we may easily conceive how imperfect and inaccurate
these must often have been. We have now before us two sermons by Mr.
Welsh, printed at different times; and upon reading them, no person
could suppose that they were preached by the same individual.{~HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS~} We
have no doubt that the memory of Mr. Peden has been injured in the
same way. The collection of prophecies that goes under his name is
not authentic; and we have before us some of his letters, which
place his talents in a very different light from the idea given of
them in what are called his sermons and his life." (Review of Sir
Walter Scott's Tales of my Landlord written by Dr. McCrie, Christian
Instructor, vol. xiv. pp. 127, 128)--We are cautioned not to judge of
the talents of Samuel Rutherford as a preacher "from the sermons
printed after his death, and of which it is probable he never
composed a single sentence." (Murray's Life of Rutherford pp.
221-223)--And says Patrick Walker, the simple compiler of the "Life
and Death of Mr. Daniel