countrymen, who had emigrated to the north of Ireland. While they were
permitted to preach, they had been highly useful ; but the Irish prelates did
iiot long allow them to remain unmolested : they felt the progress of their
opinions, and with a zeal, which, in attempting to promote, often defeats its
own cause, determined to silence, or oblige the presbyterians to conform. In
1637, Robert Blair and John Livingston, against whom warrants had been
issued, after secreting themselves near the coast, came over to Scotland. They
were received by Mr Dickson at Irvine, and were employed occasionally in
preaching for him. He had been warned that this would be seized upon by
the bishops as a pretext for deposing him, but he would not deviate from what
he considered his duty. He was, therefore, again called before the high commission court; but we are only told, that "he soon got rid of this trouble, the bishops' power being now on the decline."
In the summer of the same year, several ministers were charged to buy and receive the Service Book; a measure which produced the most important consequences. Mr John Livingston, in his autobiography, has truly said that the subsequent changes in the church took their rise from two petitions presented upon this occasion. Many others followed, and their prayer being refused, increased the number and demands of the petitioners ; they required the abolition of the high commission, and exemption from the Perth articles. These were still refused, and their number was now so great as to form a large majority of the ministers and people. The presbytery of Irvine joined in the petition, at the instigation of Mr Dickson, and throughout the whole of the proceedings which followed upon it, we shall find him taking an active, but moderate part.
When the general assembly of 1638 was convoked, David Dickson, Hubert Baillie, and William Russell, minister at Kilbirnie, were appointed to represent the presbytery at Irvine, and " to propone, reason, vote, and conclude according to the word of God, and confession approven by sundry general assemblies." Mr Dickson and a few others were objected to by the king's party, as being under the censure of the high commission, but they proved the injustice of the proceedings against them, and were therefore admitted members. He seems to have borne a zealous and useful part in this great ecclesiastical council: his speech, when the commissioner threatened to leave them, is mentioned by Wodrow with much approbation ; but the historian has not inserted it in his memoir, as it was too long, and yet too important and nervous to be abridged. A discourse upon Arminianism, delivered at their eleventh session, is also noticed, of which, principal Baillie says, that he "refuted all those errors in a new way of his own, as some years ago he had conceived it in a number of Sermons on the new Covenant. Mr David's discourse was much as all his things, extempore; so he could give no double of it, and his labour went away with his speech."[1] An effort was made at this period by John Bell, one of the ministers of Glasgow, to obtain Mr Dickson for an assistant, but the opposition of lord Eglinton and that of Mr Baillie in behalf of the presbytery of Irvine, were sufficient to delay, though not to prevent, the appointment.
In the short campaign of 1639, a regiment of 1200 men, of which the earl of Loudon was appointed coroner (or colonel), and Mr Dickson, chaplain, was raised in Ayrshire. The unsatisfactory pacification at Berwick, however, required that the Scots should disband their army, and leave the adjustment of civil and ecclesiastical differences to a parliament and assembly. Of the latter court, Mr Dickson was, by a large majority, chosen moderator; a situation which he filled with great judgment and moderation. In the tenth session, a call was presented to him from the town of Glasgow, but the vigorous inter-
- ↑ Baillie's printed Letters and Journals, i. 125.
