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Untitled Article
Under these , nevertheless , he was much relieved by the happy change in public affairs , which occurred towards the conclusion of 168 ^ . Both as a pastor and a tutor , * he found his usefulness considerably increased ; and he had a large share in the task of improving the discipline and the judicial forjnularies of the Scottish church . In the spring of 1692 , he was appointed Professor of Theology in the University of Glasgow : in the autumn of the
same year , he was a second time married ; and in his domestic as in his public relations he appears to have been eminently respectable and happy . But sedentary habits and close study brought on complaints which frequently assail literary men , and which were tending to shorten his days . In 1706 , he was deprived by death of his son and promised colleague , Alexander Wodrow : and within the next eighteen months he himself was removed from the world .
Various domestic circumstances and anecdotes are recorded in this volume ; and not a few which regard the existing state of the Church of Scotland , the sufferings of its ministers and members , and the mode in which theology was then taught . On these and on some kindred topics we proceed to transcribe passages by which we ourselves have been impressed . The following paragraphs introduce the memoir :
" When I bave a design of making all the collections I can now recover concerning" the Jives of persons in this church and nation [ the Scottish ] remarkable for piety and usefulness , the apostolical rule [ 1 Tim . v . 4 ] of shewing first piety at home , and requiting parents , seems to lead me to begin with my worthy and excellent father . " Jn many respects , I may be reckoned a most unfit hand for writing his life , being so nearly related to him $ and could I have thought of any who would have undertaken this , they should have cheerfully have had all my materials communicatf to them . But if in many respects I am unfit for this task , in other respects I must look on myself as " in case to give not a few matters of fact relative to him , which others have not had opportunities of knowing ; having enjoyed the happiness of living under his parental care till I was about twenty-nve years of age , and any short hints he saw fit to leave behind him with respect to . himself , with his publick discourses , and other learned and pious performances of his , being in my hands . "—Pp . 1 , 2 .
Mr . Robert Wodrow thus prefaces his account of his father's descent and parentage : " There is a natural kind of inclination in the most part to know and inquire into their descent , and the forefathers whence they come . Whence this flows , I need not here inquire : it may be there is more of pride and a foolish fondness to those we are sprung of in this than any real advantage . It ' s a very awful consideration , that , if the computation of a very great man hold , could we run up our descent to about one hundred and thirty generations , we tvould [ shouldj land in the first Adam , who was of the earth , earthy . The great matter here ^ is to know , that as we have born the image of the earthy , so we bear t ; he image of the heavenly . "—P . 5 .
Passing over some less interesting notices , we select a passage which describes an academical usage : "It was then [ 1659 ] customary to have at their publick graduations [ in the University or Glasgow ] what came under the name of an Invocation , the
* Afterwards , when appointed Professor , lie resigned the pastoral charge . The number of his pupils was very considerable . tWe scrupulously retain the phraseology of the times and people .
Untitled Article
^ 0 % Life Professor Wodrow .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1829, page 402, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2573/page/34/
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