Baillic, ROBERT

Baillic, ROBERT, Presbyterian divine, was born at Glasgow in 1599, and educated at the university of that city. In 1622 he received episcopal ordination, and was shortly after presented to the parish church of Kilwinning. In 1637 he refused to preach in favour of Laud's service-book; and in 1638 he sat in that famous General Assembly which met in Glasgow to protest against the thrusting of Episcopacy on an unwilling people, but conducted himself with greater prudence and temperance than was quite agreeable to his excited brethren. However, he soon threw himself eagerly into the national cause, and served as a chaplain in the Covenanting army at Duns Law (1639). In 1640 he was selected by the Scottish leaders to go to London, with other commissioners, and draw up charges against Archbishop Laud. On his return to Scotland in 1642, he was appointed joint-professor of Divinity at Glasgow, along with Mr David Dickson. In 1643 he was again sent to London as a delegate to the Westminster Assembly of Divines, where he conducted himself in an unobtrusive manner, but cordially concurred in the doctrines which were drawn up. It is curious to notice that, though he had himself experienced the injustice of intolerance, he yet, like almost every other theologian of his age, vehemently discarded the principle of toleration, and asserted the divine right of Presbytery with no less emphasis than Laud did that of Episcopacy. In 1649 he was chosen by the church to proceed to Holland, and to invite Charles II. to accept the Covenant and crown of Scotland. He performed his mission skilfully; and, after the Restoration, through Lauderdale's influence, he was made Principal of Glasgow University. He died July 1662. His pamphlets and larger works, fourteen in number, are well-nigh forgotten; but his Letters and Journals, edited by David Laing for the Bannatyne Club (3 vols. 1841-42), are a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the times.