direct
evidence, may be referred to, as furnishing us with some other grounds for
believing that the anonymous writer of the "Brousterland" preface was the
retired minister of Eastwood. The statement is, that the writer of the
letter, who was much younger than his two brothers, the ministers of
Tarbolton and Eastwood, had "heard" that they "had some thoughts of
publishing Buchanan and Knox's Lives," written by their father.

It is to be regretted that none of Binning's writings were published by
himself, or in his own lifetime. The indulgence of the reader is on this
account justly claimed for them. We cannot be certain that the author's
meaning has been always correctly expressed. And every one accustomed to
composition must be aware, that in transcribing, or revising what has been
previously written, even with some degree of care, the change of a single
expression, or the insertion of an additional word, or the transposition
of a solitary clause in a sentence, often makes the meaning of the writer
infinitely clearer, and gives a new character altogether to his style. But
we ought also to bear in mind, that the following sermons were prepared
for a country audience, and that they were the ordinary weekly production
of a very young clergyman, struggling with bad health, and burdened with
the performance of various other arduous duties. Many, I have no doubt,
will think this apology for the author unnecessary. The facts now stated,
however, when taken into consideration, must increase their admiration of
Binning, his copiousness, his variety, both in regard to matter and style,
the beauty of his imagery, the grandeur of his conceptions, his felicitous
application of the language of scripture, being all the more wonderful,
when viewed in connexion with the unfavourable circumstances in which his
sermons were composed.

The discourses of Binning are unquestionably a very favourable specimen of
the talents and learning, as well as of the piety of the clergy of
Scotland in his day. At the same time, that class of men have not had
justice done to them. Adopting the tone of their persecutors, it was long
the practice of court sycophants, and others, to ridicule and calumniate
them. Their sermons were burlesqued, sometimes through ignorance, and
sometimes through malice. Many of them were printed from the notes, or
imperfect recollections of pious but illiterate persons. And if a minister
was known to possess any portion of ec