Sir John Fletcher,
King's Advocate, Mr. Patrick Scougal, minister of Saltoun, was the son of
Sir John Scougal of that ilk, Mr. John Nevoy, minister of Newmills, was
the brother of Sir David Nevoy of that ilk, Mr. James Hamilton, minister
of Cambusnethan, was the son of Sir John Hamilton of Broomhill, and
brother of the first Lord Belhaven, and to mention no others, Mr. Robert
Melvil, minister at Culross, was the son of Sir James Melvil of Halhill.

One of the distinguishing peculiarities of Binning is his rejection of the
endless divisions and subdivisions which, along with their subtle
distinctions, were borrowed from the schoolmen, and which disfigured and
incumbered the sermons of that age. In Scotland, as well as in England,
before his time, sermons were formed as Dr. Watts expresses it, "upon the
model of doctrine, reason, and use."(50) Those sermons often contained
much excellent theology, which was faithfully and aptly applied to the
heart and life. But the numerous parts into which they were divided, must
have marred their effect, and operated as a restraint upon the eloquence
of the preacher. This was plainly the opinion of Binning. "Paul speaks,"
says he, "of a right dividing of the word of truth, (2 Tim ii. 15) not
that ordinary way of cutting it all in parcels, and dismembering it, by
manifold divisions, which I judge makes it lose much of its virtue, which
consists in union. Though some have pleasure in it, and think it
profitable, yet I do not see that this was the apostolic way."(51)
Binning, accordingly, had the courage and the good taste to adopt in
conjunction with Leighton, a more simple and natural manner of preaching.
After a building was completed, he did not think it added either to its
beauty or convenience, to retain the scaffolding. For this, he was
censured at the time, by Robert Baillie. But whoever will read the sermon
of that learned divine, entitled "Errors and Induration," which was
preached by him in Westminster Abbey, in the month of July, 1645, will not
be astonished to find, that Baillie disapproved of a mode of preaching,
which was so completely at variance with his own. "He has the new guise of
preaching," said Baillie, speaking of Mr. Andrew Gray, who was the son of
Sir James Gray, and one of the ministers of the High Church of Glasgow,
"which Mr. Hugh Binning and Mr. Robert Leighton began, [not] containing
the ordinary way of expounding and dividing a text, of raising doctrines
and