File this under something few people are interested in (but, it's what I do, as my favorite saying goes, it is a shame not to know the whole of a small thing).
Since James Durham's Lectures on the Ten Commandments were edited and published after his death in 1675, there is no exact dating of when he delivered these in Glasgow in the 1650s. However, as I am re-editing the lectures for a new edition I discovered a reference I missed back when I was working on what would be the 2002 edition. Back then it was not possible to search Early English Books in text based versions of many of their 17th century books. After hitting on the right common words I narrowed the reference to Baxter, someone Durham cites a number of times in his works.
Durham remarks on lawyers in his short lecture on the 9th commandment:
This is almost without doubt referring to Richard Baxter's “A Sermon of the Absolute Dominion of God-Redeemer; and the necessity of being devoted and living to him,” in True Christianity: or, Christs absolute dominion, and mans necessary selfe-resignation and subjection. In two assize sermons preached at Worcester (London: Nevill Simmons, 1655 [sic] 1654). George Thomason in his copy made the correction and noted obtaining this work on October 11, 1654. See the text matching Durham’s description in Three Treatises Tending to Awaken Secure Sinners (1656), 66–69.
This dates the lecture series on the Ten Commandments as nearing its end as early as late 1654 or sometime in early 1655, assuming Durham was commenting based upon the first printing of the sermon obtained fairly quickly after publication and not a later printing such as in the Three Treatises of 1656. Cf. George Thomason and British Museum (Thomason Collection), Catalogue of the Pamphlets, Books, Newspapers, and Manuscripts Relating to the Civil War, the Commonwealth, and Restoration, volume 2 (Printed by the order of the Trustees of the British Museum, 1908), 85.
Assuming the earliest date this would put the series as occurring in 1654, assuming weekly lectures (my guess is the material is not extensive enough to have streched back into 1653). Durham began his ministry in Glasgow probably preaching his first sermon on 'his ordinary' which was Song of Solomon, October 19, 1651. Song of Solomon chapter one had been his text when he preached the prior year as chaplain on and off before the young Charles II or where he happened to be when not attending the King (in April in Glasgow he preached, and one Lord's Day Cromwell suddenly appeared, and he chastised the invader publicly, April 19, 1651). See The James Durham MSS III: James Durham’s 228 Sermons on Song of Solomon 2–8," The Confessional Presbyterian 13 (2017): 229.
Since James Durham's Lectures on the Ten Commandments were edited and published after his death in 1675, there is no exact dating of when he delivered these in Glasgow in the 1650s. However, as I am re-editing the lectures for a new edition I discovered a reference I missed back when I was working on what would be the 2002 edition. Back then it was not possible to search Early English Books in text based versions of many of their 17th century books. After hitting on the right common words I narrowed the reference to Baxter, someone Durham cites a number of times in his works.
Durham remarks on lawyers in his short lecture on the 9th commandment:
And as to the first point here about advocates, it is to be regretted (as a great divine in the neighbor church has most pathetically, according to his manner, lately done) as a sad matter, that any known unrighteous cause should have a professed Christian in the face of a Christian judicatory, to defend it; but incomparably more sad, that almost every unjust cause should find a patron and that no contentious, malicious person should be more ready to do wrong, than some lawyers to defend him for a (dear bought) fee!
This is almost without doubt referring to Richard Baxter's “A Sermon of the Absolute Dominion of God-Redeemer; and the necessity of being devoted and living to him,” in True Christianity: or, Christs absolute dominion, and mans necessary selfe-resignation and subjection. In two assize sermons preached at Worcester (London: Nevill Simmons, 1655 [sic] 1654). George Thomason in his copy made the correction and noted obtaining this work on October 11, 1654. See the text matching Durham’s description in Three Treatises Tending to Awaken Secure Sinners (1656), 66–69.
This dates the lecture series on the Ten Commandments as nearing its end as early as late 1654 or sometime in early 1655, assuming Durham was commenting based upon the first printing of the sermon obtained fairly quickly after publication and not a later printing such as in the Three Treatises of 1656. Cf. George Thomason and British Museum (Thomason Collection), Catalogue of the Pamphlets, Books, Newspapers, and Manuscripts Relating to the Civil War, the Commonwealth, and Restoration, volume 2 (Printed by the order of the Trustees of the British Museum, 1908), 85.
Assuming the earliest date this would put the series as occurring in 1654, assuming weekly lectures (my guess is the material is not extensive enough to have streched back into 1653). Durham began his ministry in Glasgow probably preaching his first sermon on 'his ordinary' which was Song of Solomon, October 19, 1651. Song of Solomon chapter one had been his text when he preached the prior year as chaplain on and off before the young Charles II or where he happened to be when not attending the King (in April in Glasgow he preached, and one Lord's Day Cromwell suddenly appeared, and he chastised the invader publicly, April 19, 1651). See The James Durham MSS III: James Durham’s 228 Sermons on Song of Solomon 2–8," The Confessional Presbyterian 13 (2017): 229.