David Dickson

David Dickson was born in 1583 in Glasgow, Scotland.^L He obtained his Master of Arts degree from the University of Glasgow and was appointed professor of philosophy and Greek there in 1610. He was ordained a minister in 1618 in Irvine, Ayrshire, and had an extraordinarily fruitful ministry. He was suspended between 1622 and 1623 by Archbishop Spottiswood for his Presbyterian beliefs against Anglicanism. When he returned, he resorted to street preaching with great fruit. Dickson was then highly instrumental in preparations for the National Covenant and in the Presbyterian movement. In 1640, Dickson became professor of divinity at Glasgow University, transferred to Edinburgh University ten years later, and thence to St. Giles. A large portion of the ministers of the Church of Scotland who were active in the Westminster Assembly were trained by Professor Dickson. He was ejected from his professorship and the ministry in 1662 due to his refusal to compromise his Covenanter beliefs and died of broken health two months later. It was about 1650 that he and James Durham produced The Sum of Saving Knowledge.