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17th century Scottish Christian writer

Robert Baillie (30 April 16021662) was a Church of Scotland minister who became famous as an author and a propagandist for the Covenanters. In Baillie's engagement with the theological and liturgical controversies of the mid Seventeenth Century, Baillie sought to reconcile his strong belief in maintaining Kirk unity with a firm adherence to a Christian doctrine dictated by the divine 'truth' revealed in Scripture. Two large volumes of Baillie's sermons survive in manuscript. He was also conscientious in ensuring that copies were made of his outgoing correspondence and other documents with a view to creating a body of evidence which could be used to prepare a historical account of the Covenanters. This material remains a valuable source for historians of the period.

Baillie was born in the Saltmarket, Glasgow, the eldest son of James Baillie, a merchant and burgess of Glasgow, and his wife, Helen Gibson. He was educated at the High School of Glasgow and the University of Glasgow, graduating with an M. A. in 1620. He was licensed by Archbishop James Law and became a regent of Philosophy in the University, and tutor to the son of Alexander Montgomery, 6th Earl of Eglinton. He was ordained to Kilwinning on 25 May 1631 and admitted burgess of Glasgow 6 July 1631. In 1638 he represented the Presbytery of Irvine at the Glasgow Assembly, when Presbyterianism was re established in Scotland. In 1639 he accompanied Lord General Alexander Leslie and the Scottish army as chaplain to Lord Eglinton's Regiment during the Bishops' Wars. In 1640 he was appointed by the Covenanters to draw up an accusation against Archbishop Laud. On 11 August 1642 he was translated to the Tron Kirk in Glasgow. In the same year, Baillie was made Professor of Divinity at the University of Glasgow, holding the chair jointly with David Dickson. In 1643 he was selected as one of the five Scottish clergymen who were sent to the Westminster Assembly. In January 1647 he presented the completed Confession of Faith and a version of the Psalms in metre to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. In 1649, Baillie was one of the commissioners sent to Holland for the purpose of inviting Charles II to Scotland, and of settling the terms of his admission to the government. He continued to take an interest in religious controversies during the Interregnum, but was not active politically. In 1661 he was made Principal of the University of Glasgow in place of Patrick Gillespie. He died the following year, in August 1662.

Baillie accepted the liturgical changes introduced by James VI's Articles of Perth (1618), even elaborating an exhaustive defence of kneeling at communion in protracted correspondence with David Dickson, the minister for the parish of Irvine. However, he denounced William Laud's Scottish Prayer Book (1637) as "popish" and "idolatrous". His critical analysis of the intentions of its Canterburian authors is set out in his A parallel or briefe comparison of the liturgie with the masse book, the breviarie, the ceremoniall, and other Romish rituals and Ladensium autakakrisis of 1641.

In the Resolutioner versus Protester schism in the Church of Scotland during the Cromwellian invasion of Scotland, Baillie sided with the Resolutioners. His ecclesiology saw the church as an ecclesia mixta, comprising both reprobate and elect. He rejected the Protestors' more exclusive vision of a church of visible saints in which membership (and by extension the ability to hold church office) should be restricted to godly "true" believers. Baillie's concern was to maintain church unity and combat the threat posed by sectarians. Of the Resolutioners, Robert Douglas was, by head and shoulders, the acknowledged leader. His ministerial supporters included David Dickson, Baillie, and James Wood. Among the Protesters the most outstanding ministers were James Guthrie, Samuel Rutherfurd, Andrew Cant, Patrick Gillespie, and John Livingstone; and, of the elders, Wariston and Sir John Cheisly; the two most strenuous fighters being Guthrie and Wariston. Baillie's mentor Robert Blair urged him to disengage from the Resolutioner – Protestor conflict and concentrate on his academic writing. Accordingly, during the 1650s Baillie immersed himself in his teaching at the University of Glasgow and writing treatises on Hebrew and biblical chronology.

In correspondence with William Cunningham, 9th Earl of Glencairn, John Maitland, 2nd Earl of Lauderdale and James Sharp after the Restoration, Baillie made it clear that he thought the episcopal settlement Charles II imposed on Scotland was a mistake, but he did not oppose the return of bishops publicly. When, in 1662, he met Andrew Fairfoul, the recently consecrated Archbishop of Glasgow, he greeted him cordially, but made a point of not acknowledging his status.

A complete memoir and a full notice of his writings can be found in David Laing's edition of the Letters and Journals of Robert Baillie (1637–1662), Bannatyne Club, 3 vols. (Edinburgh, 1841–1842). Among his works are Ladensium αὐτοκατάκρισις, an answer to Lysimachus Nicanor by John Corbet in the form of an attack on Laud and his system, in reply to a publication which charged the Covenanters with Jesuitry; Anabaptism, the true Fountain of Independency, Brownisme, Antinomy, Familisme, etc., a sermon [in which he criticises the rise of the early Baptist churches in England such as those led by Thomas Lambe]; An Historical Vindication of the Government of the Church of Scotland; The Life of William (Laud) now Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Examined (London, 1643); A Parallel of the Liturgy with the Mass Book, the Breviary, the Ceremonial and other Romish Rituals (London, 1661). La densivm AUTOKATAKRISIS : the Canterburians self conviction : with a postscript for the personat Jesuite Lysimachus Nicanor (1641) https://archive. org/details/ladensivmautokat00bail
A dissuasive from the errours of the time : wherein the tenets of the principall sects, especially of the Independents, are drawn together in one map, for the most part in the words of their own authours and their maine principles are examined by the touch stone of the Holy Scrptures [sic] (1645) https://archive. org/details/dissuasivefromer00bail
Errours and induration are the great sins and the great judgements of the time : preached in a sermon before the Right Honourable House of Peers, in the Abbey Church at Westminster, 30 July 1645, the day of the monethly fast (1645) https://archive. org/details/erroursind00bail
Operis historici et chronologici libri duo : in quibus historia sacra & profana compendiosè deducitur ex ipsis fontibus, a creatione mundi ad Constantinum Magnum, & quaestiones ac dubia chronologica, quae ex V. & N. Testamento moveri solent, breviter & perspicuè explicantur & vindicantur. Una cum tribus diatribis (MDCLXVIII [1668]) https://archive. org/details/operishistoricie00bail
The letters and journals of Robert Baillie 1637–1662 (Volume 1) (1841)
The letters and journals of Robert Baillie 1637–1662 (Volume 2) (1841)
The letters and journals of Robert Baillie 1637–1662 (Volume 3) (1841)