^RV OF PfilWCf^ 'iOGlCAL SE V\\^$ ,-\ ADDRESS, The Publishers of the Volumes of the Early Literature and History of the United Presbyterian Church have now completed the issue to their subscribers of the Volumes stipulated for during the first year. When their Prospectus was issued, it contained the following proposal : — "Assuming that 20,000 subscribers shall be obtained, there will be four volumes published annually, or a volume every three months, costing thus Is. 6d. each. The publishers feel so confident of the liberal support of the Body, that they guarantee at least three volumes in the year." As respects the number of these volumes they have perhaps only fulfilled to the letter the terms of their Prospectus, but as regards their character, matter, and style of getting up, they have not only, as it will be admitted, exceeded any jDromises held out in it, but have even surpassed their own expectations on the occasion of its being issued. When ofiering in that prospectus these publications to the Church at the minimum of price which every improvement in print- ing machinery, and the most extensive sale ever before realized, had yet enabled the trade to accept from the public, they were aware they incurred some risk of having their proposal undervalued and their motives misconstrued. The connexion between extensive sales and low prices, and the necessity of having a numerous constituency to act upon in order to command extensive sales, is not always, is not perhaps at all, before the mind of the public. 2 Cheap books are produced as clieap travelling is effected, by machinery of very recent origin. The steam-press and the stereotype produce the same re- sults, and upon the same principles as the locomotive and the rail. Both classes of machines must however be employed by great numbers, otherwise they re- main unproductive: both are effective in their result of cheapness, in proportion as they are extensively used; and the probabilities of the extensive use of both depend upon the numbers of their constituencies. The constituency of the railway is the numerous population to which it is contiguous; of the press it is that to whose sympathies its subjects appeal. The Publishers of the Early Literature and History of the United Presbyterian Church knew they could not command a constituency extending over every order, party, and sect in the Empire, — such as reads the amusing and instructive papers of the Messrs. Cham- bers. They could not even calculate upon one com- posed of all Protestant and Evangelical Britain, like the spirited publisher of the Puritan Divines. They had not behind them an organized committee, representing and comprising injEluential men of all denominations, sustained by immense subscriptions and a stock and capital of a quarter of a million, the accumulations of nearly fifty years, like the Keligious Tract Society. They had seen some organizations for the issue of cheap books, appealing to and supported by large constituen- cies, suspended or discontinued. They have witnessed other speculations of a similar nature, like that for the publication of Henry's Commentary on the Bible, after having ruined the projector, terminate, — even though the machinery and stock had passed into other hands at considerably under cost value, — in the new pro- prietor being constrained to raise the prices once and again to the public. Notwithstanding these compara- tive failures however, and with the knowledge that they had the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and that Church alone, to appeal to in support of the scheme, they undertook to supply a series of publica- tions inferior to none of those referred to in cheapness, and superior to any of them in comparative originality and attractiveness, provided only that a sale of 20,000 copies were secured. To ensure such a circulation no effort was spared on their part. Circulars were addressed, and in many instances a second and third time, to every minister in the denomination, inviting them and their sessions to suggest a local agent who should undertake to procure subscribers. Endeavours were made to excite atten- tion and a favourable interest in every channel that seemed fitting and available. It seemed but reason- able that an undertaking of this character, whose suc- cess was to result in supplying a religious body of moderate extent with its literature and history at prices fully as cheap as any works that have yet appeared although adapted to command a national sale, should be aided by the ministers and sessions of that association. It would be at once unjust and ungrateful on the part of the publishers not to acknowledge, — and they are pleased at having this opportunity of doing so, — that as well on the part of their committee and of the reverend Authors and Editors, as on that of the lead- ing Ministers and Sessions throughout the kingdom, they have received that aid with a readiness and an effect which has fully realized all that they could have anticipated, — an aid, that had it been universally ren- dered, would have placed the circulation, if not at the full number of 20,000, at least so near to it, as would have induced them to carry out, even if without profit to themselves, their conditional promise of giving four volumes in the year to each of their subscribers. The depressed state of trade throughout the kingdom has no doubt contributed, in some, perhaps in a great, degree, to limit tlie circulation of the volumes. But a misapprehension of the motives of the publishers and the object of the undertaking has, they apprehend, contributed still more to the production of this result. The scheme was not theirs; it was proposed to them, after careful consideration, by a highly re- spectable and influential portion of the ministers and elders of the body, and solely with a view to the advantage and edification of the church. unless it had been so proposed, it is not at all probable that the scheme would have suggested itself to the mind of the publishers. If in numerous instances their re- quest to have parties suggested to them who might act as congregational agents has not been responded to, and the entire proposal has been treated as a book- seller's scheme with which the parties had nothing to do; if, in consequence, there are still nearly 150 con- gregations amongst whom as far as they know not a single copy circulates; and if in certain fishing villages which could be named there are more subscribers than in towns whose population ranges from 20,000 to 50,000; — these circumstances are not otherwise here referred to than as explanatory of the reason why the anticipations of a circulation of 20,000 has not been attained, not even reached by one half, and why there- fore instead of the conditional issue of four volumes, they have been constrained to abide during the pre- sent year by the guaranteed issue of three. The publishers, however, are neither disappointed nor discouraged by the results of the scheme as far as yet carried out by them. The union of the bodies is recent. The experiment was a new one. It is not to be wondered at, that some parties should doubt of its acceptability or that others should question its suc- cess. The publishers are grateful for the measure of support their undertaking has met with, and for the kind opinion expressed by many as to the part in it J executed by tlieni. They are not less sensible of the valuable assistance rendered them in the selection of subjects by the Committee of consultation, nor of the great obligation under which they as well as the com- munity lie to the reverend Gentlemen who have con- tributed their writings and editorial labours. Under the same advice and with similar facilities they confi- dently trust the volumes yet to be published will give equal satisfaction, and merit increased support. The following volumes are in preparation, and will be issued as regularly as is in the power of the pub- lishers to accomplish; and as nearly as possible at the rate of one volume every four months. Instead of annual subscriptions and prepayment, however, the price of the volumes will be collected by the local agents at the time of delivery. Should their circula- tion, as the publishers are disposed to hope may not long hence be the case, reach 17,500, that price will be, in the terms of their original proposal, viz. One Shilling and Sixpence per volume; until it reach that number^ however, it will continue as heretofore to be Two Shillings :— 1st, Devotional writings of Boston and Bain, with Introduc- tion, by Professor Macmichael. 2d, Life and select "Works of MoncriefF by the Rev. Dr. Young. Life and select Works of Fisher by the Rev. Dr. Brown. Illustration — Portrait of Moncrieff. 3d, Sermons of R. Erskine, with Memoir by the Rev. Wm. Pringle. Illustration — Portrait of R. Erskine. 4th, Fisher's Catechism, first half, edited, with Introduction, by Rev. Dr. Brown. During the remainder of the present year, subscrip- tions will be received for the volumes already issued on the same terms as heretofore, but as they cannot be reprinted in small quantities at the same cost as when thrown off by thousands, the charge for them will be raised, after 1st January 1850, to Thcpe Shil- lings per volume. OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. VOLUME I. (^Scottish Press, 15th July, 1848.) '' This is the fii-st vohime of ' The Early Literatiu-e and History of the United Presbyterian Church,' and, in so far as the spuited publishers are concerned, it is a perfect mai-vel of cheapness, accuracy, and ele- gance. It also contains a beautiful engraving of the fann- stead of Gairney Bridge. But the literary execution of the work, which is the Erincipal matter, is quite in keeping with the ' goodly outside, and the istorical sketches of the two denominations, now so happily one, are extremely creditable to the research, taste, and ability of the parties to whom the task was assigned. With considerable diversity of style, as might be expected from their age and original structm-e of mind, it is manifest that each of them has a clear, forcible, and graphic pen ; and considerable tact has been exercised by them both, in selecting the prin- cipal incidents in the early history of the churches, and thus throwing an interest around their nan*ative, which it could not have possessed had they attempted to introduce more into their hmited space, and, in- stead of gi^ang us a pictm-esque statement of facts, had presented us merely with an expanded table of contents." (North British Mail, 9th Aug. 1848.) " We have read this volume with great pleasure. We have missed from our literature an authentic history of the origin of these churches ; but that is now suppHed ; and in it we have a concise and comprehen- sive, as well as able and complete account, of the firet beginnings of the Secession and Relief Chm-ches, now happily united into one. It is worthy of the United Church and of the spirited publishers; and every member of the United Presbyterian Chm-ch, both male and female, ought to have tliis series in their library. " Mr. Thomson and Dr. Strathers have done their parts well, and the historic sketch of each section of the now United Church is written with much abihty, vnth great candour, and with acute discrimination," (^Fi'ee Ch2irch Magazine, Sept. 1848.) " This beautiful volume is the first issued in connection with the Pub- lication Scheme of the United Presbyterian Chm-ch. We cannot speak of the merits of the whole volume, having found time to read only the tirst portion by Mr. Thomson. But in it the scheme has had a most OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 7 happy commencement. Considering the extent and richness of the field to be travelled over, and the small space (not two hmidred pages) at Mr. Thomson's disposal, his ' Historical Sketch ' is a singularly felici- tous production. It is written in a peculiarly graceful and attractive, and, ■s\'ithal, terse and %'igorous style, the pictorial passages, in which it abounds, are characterized by extreme taste and beauty, and as a whole it deserves high praise. Mr. Thomson has perfoi-med a senace to his own denomination, the value of which tliey will not easily appreciate ; and the volmne, we have no doubt, -will find its way into the hands of many who, although they were never connected with the Secession, yet will thankfully recognise in her history and labours a blessing from the Lord to their country." {Glasgow Examiner, Uh Sept. 1848.) " Mr. Thomson ably sketches the rise of the Secession, and Dn Struthers beautifiiUy naiTates the origin of the ReUef Church. The production is well timed, following as it does the foraial union of these important bodies. Both writers display many of the essential requisites of the liistorian, Lnpartiahty and candour are predominant through- out, while there is no lack of fideUty and honesty. We commend the book to the United Presbyterian Church." (Aberdeen Banner, 22(7 Sept. 1848.) " This volume is the first of a projected series connected with the Pubhcation Scheme of the United Presbyterian Church. With great appropriateness it has been devoted to a sketch of the distinctive history of the two denominations lately so happily amalgamated under that title. To the members of that church it must possess a peculiar mterest, but we make no doubt the volume will overstep denominational confines, and be extensively read by many connected with other rehgious bodies than the one under whose auspices it is put forth. Both authors have done their parts well. Mr. Thomson's especially is a most attractive sketch. It is Aviitten in a rich, flowing, vigorous, and attractive style ; and its perusal has afforded us high pleasure. We most cordially recommend the work." (London Christian Times, Zd Nov. 1848.) " We regard these publicarions as a happy omen. The present gene- ration can have no better legacy than a record of the struggles and suf- ferings of their predecessors. In these days, when principle is so often sacrificed to expediency, it must be a seasonable lesson to call to mind the heroes of a fomier century who battled manfully wath prevailing corruptions, and at all hazards preserved their fidelity to the gi-eat cause of Evangelical truth and hberty. That the spirit of the Fathers of the United Presb}-terian Church may yet continue to stir and animate all their children in the truth — that their love for a pure Gospel and a Free Church may never cease to be cherished by their numerous and increas- ing posterity — that their consistency in scenes of trial, and their im- SAverving allegiance to Christ and conscience, may be known, remem- bered, and imitated, is the instructive object of these serial volumes. " The task assigned to Mr. Thomson has been executed with great 8 OPINIOXS OF THE PRESS. spiiit and fidelity. He gives a very luminous and succinct account oi the doctrinal controversy whicli immediately preceded and paved the way for the Secession. His statements are accompanied with well-ar- ranged documentary e^^dence ; scenes of interest are sketched with vivid and pictm-esque eflfect ; and such is the elegance and hvehness of the diction, that the mterest of the reader never flags. It is altogether an attractive composition, combining popularity of style with exact and careful investigation of facts. " The contribution of Dr. Struthers is very similar, but more discus- sive toward the conclusion. It is occasionally quaint, but always gra- phic. The subject is one with which Dr. Struthers has been long famUiar, and he treats every portion of it with masterly power and precision. " The typography and getting up of the volumes are also excellent indeed ; they are from the press of Messrs. A. Fullarton & Co., Edin- burgh. The cost of the volumes is so very small, that the pubhshers can only be remunerated by a very large circulation. The boon to the United Presbyterian Chm-ch is great, and we hope that every family will appreciate it, and have its ovra copy of these ' Fathers.' Other volumes of similar utility are yet to follow. The friends of truth and liberty in other chm*ches may receive both instruction and dehght from these interesting volumes. The Founder of the Secession was the son of an Enghsh pastor, ejected by the Act of Uniformity, and the Father of the ReUef was trained mider Doddridge. The United Pres- byterian Church is thus intimately aUied to English Puritanism and Nonconformity." (Glasgow Citizen, 9tk Sept. 1848.) " The story of the origin of the Secession and Pielief Churches (now- conjoined) is ably and agreeably told by Messrs. Thomson and Struthers. A more interesting volmne we have rarely met — clear, simple, and forci- ble in its narrative, and hvely and graphic in style and expression. We return our thanks to the able Avriters for the pleasure it has aflPorded us, and warmly commend it to the pubUc attention." (Christian Treasury, Edinburgh, Oct. 1848.) " The work itself is, throughout, one of the highest interest. Mr. Thomson has a singularly felicitous style, which stamps eveiy page of liis narrative with beauty. The ' History of the Secession ' is in itself full of interest, but as told by our author, it is invested mth many ad- ditional charms." (Evangelical Magazine, Sept. 1848.) " In di-awing the attention of our readers to this instructive and excel- lent volume, we would request them to reflect what a powerful sym- pathy has always existed between the pious in England and Scotland, whenever interests of evangehcal reUgion have been at stake. We are struck -with finding that while God was raising up a Watts, a '\Miite- field, a Wesley, and a Fletcher to rouse the churches in the southern part of the island from the lethargy into which they were sinking, he v,-as also employing in the north the Bostons, the Erskines, the Willisons, OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 9 and the Gillespies to perform a similar work among their own comitry- men. Mr. Thomson gives an interesting and able sketch of the eflforts which were made at an earher stage by Boston, Webster, and other kmdred spirits to stem the ton-ent of worldliness which was fast setting in on the church ; and then of the measures of silencing and suspension which were adopted against ^lessrs. Ebenezer Erskine, Wilson, ]\IoncriefF, and Fisher, which compelled them, however reluctantly, to adopt the step of secession from the EstabUshment. We perfectly agree with the remark of Mr. Thomson, that ' there is considerable danger of our not fonning a sufficiently high estknate of the self-denial and the faith manifested in the movement which we are now describmg.' Mr. T., after tracing the first proceedings of the Secession fathers and the accessions which were made to their number from time to time, takes, in a single chap- ter, a rapid masterly survey of the results of the Secession upon the re- ligious and the moral condition of Scotland. Of the sound judgment and good feeling with which the whole is written, we cannot give a bet- ter proof than Ms excellent remarks upon the objections which some en- tertain to the very notion of a historic church. " The latter portion is written by Dr. Struthers, author of the ' His- tory of the Relief.' The writer, therefore, travels over ground vnth which he is famihar, and every sentence shows him to be perfectly at home with his subject. He draws with a power of truth which has all the eftect of keenest sarcasm, the proceedings of the fashionable ecclesi- astics of the last century, after they had expelled the Erskines from the church, and intimidated their friends ; the high hand with which they put down all popular rights in the election of ministers; and the man- ner m which they strained the law to compel Mr. Gillespie to take part in an ordination at Dunfermline against his strongest con\-ictions of duty. " We very cordially congratulate the United Presbyterian Church on the auspicious union which has been formed between the two oldest and leading branches of secession from the EstabUshment; and especially do we congratulate them on the circumstance that there has been no con- cealment, compromise, or abandonment of principles by either party, and that the ministers of the Rehef Church will in their state of Union find a larger scope for the exercise of their Christian sympatliies. We can scarcely too highly commend the kind, generous, and Christian spu-it which breathes in Dr. Struthers' pages; the skill and graphic power which distinguish his slightest touches, and the full and satisfactory ac- count from authentic sources of the great doctiines which have fi-om the beginning been taught in all the pulpits of the Relief body ; and we most unfeignedly join in the devout aspirations with which the writer closes his subject." (Scotsman Newspaper, 18th Oct. 1848.) '' If one wishes to know the ecclesiastical history of Scotland for the last century and a quarter, it is necessary that he make himself ac- quainted with the origin and progress, the principles and position, of the United Presb}-terian Church, which holds so important a place among the rehgious bodies in Scotland, and which in its two sections, now amalgamated, has confessedly exerted a mighty influence on the 10 OPINIONS OP THE PRESS. moral and social condition of this countiy. The subject possesses an in- trinsic and relative importance which will draw to it, not merely the members of that denomination, but the student of general history, and every one who Avishes to be thoroughly informed upon those questions of doctrine and church discipline which are mixed up with the earher and later secessions from the Estabhshed Church. The volume before us will not only supply the general reader vnth luminous and full %'iews on the subject, but will be very suitable as a manual to direct the re- searches of the inquii-er who may wish to examine more in detail the historical facts which are here concisely stated. The writers have exe- cuted their task admirably ; and henceforth their volume will be pointed to as the guide to an acquaintance with this chapter of Church History, Full of their theme, and admirers as well as followers of Erskine and Gillespie, the authors have in nothing extenuated the weaknesses and errors of their predecessors ; and we like their narrative all the better that it has not the blemish of indiscriminate eulogy. The fluency and elegance of Mr. Thomson's style lend a charm to his sketch to which no reader can be insensible. His views, too, are characterised by breadth ; and in the reflections which he occasionally intprmingles vdih his facts, we are furnished with glimpses at once delightful and instnictive, of the philosophy of the history. His estimate of the men who originated the Secession, and of the movement with which their names are associated, is calm and judicious ; and a candid reader will scarcely fail to obtain from his graceful story a correct appreciation of the importance of the era on Scottish Church History, which dates with Ebenezer Erskine and his associates." (Perthshire Advertiser, 12th Oct. 1848.) " The little volume before us is an interesting chapter of the ecclesias- tical history of Scotland. While it will be peculiarly interesting to the members of the United Presbyterian Church, the members of other churches -will find that it throws a gleam of light upon theu- own re- spective communities. It is, in fact, the history of crises or epochs in the National Estabhshment, and treats of principles, policy, and events which, in due time, issued in the memorable Disruption, and laid the foundation of the Free Church. There is a remarkable similitude in the immediate causes which drove the Erskines and Fishers, the Guthries and Bostons, the Chalmerses and Candhshes, out of the church of their fathers. " These causes are traced with a clear eye and steady hand, and, so far as we perceive, wdth much unpailiahty and fau-ness, by the Rev. Mr. Thomson. " The history of the Relief Church, by Dr. Struthers, is, in its leading outlines, a repetition of the histoiy of the previous secession, as regards the separation of both from the parent stock. Each of the authors has the rare gift of condensation — which is a merit as well as a gift, and entitles them to our meed of praise. They have written their sketches vdth good taste and in good style. Terse nervous brevity is the charac- teristic feature of a work which we can honestly recommend co the general public, and especially to the members of the United Presby- terian Church." OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 11 (JJnited Presbyterian Magazine^ Aug. and Xov. 1848.) "The projectors of the present series have judiciously limited them- selves to selections from the more importcint productions of the fathers af the United Presb}i:erian Church ; at the same time varying these by original works illustrative of the character of the wiiters, and of the time in which they lived. The first volume of the series is now before Qs; it is a production of first-rate excellence; and if the volumes which are to foUow fulfil the promise thus held out, we venture to predict that the undertaking vdW meet with briUiant success. "Mr. Thomson's sketch of the origin of the Secession Church displays all the author's characteristic excellencies, and is clear, elegant, succinct, and comprehensive. He (Mr. Thomson) has done his subject the full- est justice. He has not produced a mere compilation of details, or an epitome of a general history, but a narrative that bears evidence of hav- mg been fused in his own mind, and cast afi-esh. This gives it the charm of novelty, and makes it arrest the attention and maintain it to the close. The style is felicitous. With a tendency, not unfrequently, to season it -with epigrammatic point, it is yet easy, flowing, rich, and warm, kindling, as it rises -with the subject, into the fii-e of true elo- quence. The manner in which Ebenezer Erskine in the second chapter, and Wilson, MoncriefF, and Fisher in the third, are introduced and por- trayed ; the description of the first Sabbath in the parishes of the Se- ceding ministers after the deposition ; and the medallions of the distin- guished ministers of the denomination, that closes the nan-ative, are illustrations of this. The spirit of the reflections interwoven with the narrative is of the most healthful kind — a thorough sympathy with our seceding fathers, with neither an unreasoning adherence to them in aU they said and did, nor unreasonable hostihty toward all mth whom they came into coUision. We have read ^\-ith peculiar delight the brief, yet perspicuous and most complete account of the ilaiTow Controversy. Such sketches as these present the subject in a form so condensed as to be capable of being read by all, and at a price so low as to be capable of being purchased by all. " The narrative of Dr. Struthers is worthy of his high reputation as the historian of the Rehef Chm-ch, and displays on a miniature scale all the tidehty and spirit of the full-length portrait. There is a vigour, a point, and raciness in his style that give mterest to all he touches ; a keen sarcasm on occasion intermingled, that borrows its edge from its trath- tulness, and yet shed over the whole that wai-m glow of Christian charity which becomes one who argues so stoutly for the unrestricted commu- mon of the saints. The great interest of the narrative centres, of course, in Gillespie himself; and it is impossible to read it without both loving and admiring the man for that singleness of eye and heart which formed the prominent feature of his character. We know few cases in the his- tory of the church that show so strikingly how much may be done by a man undistinguished by genius, by splendid talents, or glowing elo- quence, but possessed with a firm conviction of duty, and a resolute de- termination to follow its path, fearless of consequences. The naiTative is enriched by many profoimd philosophical remarks, never needlessly intruded, and always arising naturally out of the events related. For the graphic power of Dr. Struthers in description, we may refer to his 12 OPINIONS OF THE PEESS. account in this chapter of Boston's first sacrament, on the Ana at Jed- burgh. Dr. Struthers refers with laudable piide to the steadfast testi- mony borne by the Rehef Church in regard to the spiritual natui'e of Christ's kingdom, and to free communion, to the reproach it bore for that testimony in other days, and to the growing homage it is now re- ceiving. " It would be unjust to deny their meed of praise to the enterprising publishers. They have ' set apples of gold in pictures of silver.' The style in which these two volumes are got up in exterior, accompanying engravings, and general appearance, places the series unquestionably at the head of all similar pubUcations we have yet seen. They have laid the church under a debt of gratitude which we hope to see acknowledged in the support given to their spirited undertaking." (English Presbyterian Messenger, Feb. 1849.) " The United Presbyterian Church has acted wisely in furnishing its members with these popular histories of the two bodies which now com- pose it ; and the brethren to whom it has intrusted the compilation have executed their task with vigour and good-will. Dr. Struthers has told succinctly and clearly all that an ordinary reader desires to know of the rise and progress of his church. It is impossible to read its history and not sympathize most thoroughly with its reluctant founder, Gillespie. The victim of arbitrary and oppressive proceedings, and a man of deeply ex- ercised and unostentatious piety, the pupil of Doddridge, and the lover of all good men, no nature could be more remote from the schismatic or the sectary. On the other hand, there is something very admh-able in his calm and faithful adherence to con\dctions in which he was almost sohtary, and which promised him Httle except a life of persecution and poverty. " Mr. Thomson has a great advantage over Dr. Struthers in his more affluent materials. The Secession boasts a copious Hterature, and its early records have been carefully presented. Mv. Thomson has collected his materials diligently, and has employed them skilfully. His sketch is hvely and eloquent, abounding in anecdotes and pictm^esque delinea- tions of persons and incidents, and m eveiy page betokens scholarship, taste, and accomphshment. Whilst glowing with affection for the fathers and founders of the Secession, it bewrays no bitter nor vindictive feehng towards those who did not foUow them ; no vaunting nor cen- sorious feeling towards those who do not follow now. It is such a book as a Scottish Seceder should have written ; it is such a book as a catho- lic Christian should write. " To Dr. Struthers and Mr. Thomson we are deeply indebted. In narrow limits they have -wTitten two eventful chapters of Scottish eccle- siastical histoiy, and have given us a welcome supplement to the his- tory of Dr. Hetherington, and the sketches of Mr. M'Crie. And we hope that even amongst Clnistians of other communions the perusal of these narratives will ehcit many prayers for the now United Churches." {British Banner, loth Nov. 1848.) " There is something unusually graceful in this pubhcatiou. Readers, conversant with the Mstory of sect and party, in Scotland, are aware OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 13 that, until lately, the Secession Church and the Relief Church, although one in doctrine and in polity, were two distinct bodies. The Secession Chui'ch was both the elder and the stronger ; but the Relief Chiu'ch, from the outset, was the more enUghtened and cathohc on certain mat- ters affecting civil and reli^ous liberty, and the intercommunity of Christians: Hutchinson published a work, at the outset of the Relief body, which sufficed to confer lasting distinction on his name, although, we regret to say, that name is but little known. But, at length, the Secession Chm-ch, -ndth respect to light on the matters referred to, not only overtook her younger sister, but even advanced, and was accom- panied by her in their noble entei-prize of Scriptm-e discovery vnth re- spect to the kingdom of Clu-ist. These two bodies, assisted by the In- dependents and others, earned on that memorable warfare which resulted in the Disniption of the Scottish Establishment, — a warfare by which they have laid the whole Christian world mider a debt of obligation. They have now ceased to be two, and constitute one body, under the new designation of the Scottish Presbyterian Church. Consequent upon this event, the two excellent magazines of the respective bodies were merged, and, Avith like propriety, the histories of the two bodies, prior to the Union, are here presented in a cheap and popular form, in a single volume. The original production of the volumes separately was a valuable sendee, and their united pubHcation cannot faU to prove useful to the community newly-formed, as well as instructive and ediiying to the pubUc at large. JMr. Thomson is well and favourably known, and this work will conduce not a httle to his reputation. Dr. Struthers, who was first brought into general notice by his ' History of the ReUef Church,' added to his reputation by his famous Essay — alike praised and censured — which appeared some few years ago in the Union Volume. It is to be regretted, we think, that a man of his knowledge, spuit, \i~ gour, and penetration, does not write more. Although the volume may appear principally calcidated for the meridian of Scotland, yet it will constitute very interesting and instructive reading in the south, and it deserves a place in eveiy Nonconformist hbrary." (^Eclectic Review, Feb. 1849.) " The union of the United Secession and the Relief Churches is an event fuU of hope for the interests of dissent in Scotland. They have a glorious vocation in Scotland. May they have wisdom to act worthily of it ! Constituted of large masses of the people, above the average of intelligence and moral worth, they have a power to -ndeld in this war of moral and spiritual fi-eedom, from which we anticipate the best results. Tlie instniction of their people in the liistory of then- piinciples, is a wise, and vrCd be a fruitfid, course. The Presbyterian Dissenters will, in these volumes, and in those which are to succeed them, learn to vene- rate the integrity and manhood of their heroic fathers — and may be themselves — and train their children to be, men of a ' stalwart ' bearing like them. The volume before us is creditable to its twin authors. Dr. Struthers is well known in the historic vein already ; he has reduced his history in a style as workman-like as he showed in its original constrac- tion. This is no mean praise. Mr. Thomson's virgin pen is prophetic of some good work to his day and denomination. His style is popular, 14 OPIXIOXS OF THE PRESS. his spirit liberal, his principles just, his selection of materials judicious ; his work, as a whole, well adapted to its purpose. '' The United Presbyterian Chm-ch, in originating and sanctioning this series, have wisely resolved not to be themselves publishers. Even if the work wei-e to be equally well and cheaply done by doing it them- selves, which we much doubt, we have serious questionings of the right of religious bodies to invade, for mere pm-poses of economy, the province of legitimate trade. A spiritual church should entangle "itself as httle as possible with seculaiities in any shape. Judging by this first volume in the series, the -n-isdom of their scheme is determined. The ]\Iessrs. Fullarton, of London and Edinburgh, have undertaken all the I'esponsi- bihties of pubhcation ; and certainly, of aU the cheap series, we have seen nothing more handsome and mviting, both in its internal and ex- ternal execution, than this first volmne of the United Presbyterian series." VOLUME IL (London Christian Times, 3d Nov. 1848.) " The second volume of the issue consists of a selection of Ebenezer Erskine's Doctiinal Sermons. They are marked by sunplicity, earnest- ness, and fulness of thought. The ^^ews of Evangelical tnith contained in them are broad and impressive. Bradbmy said of them, that they are distinguished by ' a strong force of argmnent, and a happy flow of words, that they are a clear defence of those doctrines which are the ground and pillar of the trath.' Her\'ey, m his ' Theron and Aspasio,' says, ' Were I to read to the edification of my heart in tnie faith, sohd comfort, and evangelical holiness, I woidd have recom'se to Mr. Erskine, and take his volumes for my guide, my companion, and my famihar friend.' Mr. Smith, the editor, has displayed his usual tact and discri- mination in the selection he has given. Both volumes have beautifully engi-aved frontispieces — the first, a ^^gnette of the farm-house of Gair- ney Bridge, Kinross, where the first Secession Presbjlery was organised ; and the second, a fine likeness of Ebenezer Erskine." (Glasgow Examiner, 11th Nov. 1848.) " This is the second volume of a cheap series now issuing from the press under the auspices of the United Presbyterian Chm-ch, The volume consists of fomteen sennons, entirely doctrinal, selected by the editor under the conviction that such discom^ses were peculiarly suitable to the present state of the religious world. But although doctrinal, the greatest stickler for practical sermons ■«-ill find the doctrinal discussion so practically treated, and the connecting traths so forcibly home home upon the conscience, that they cannot fail to quicken and excite to m- creased obedience. It is not oiu: intention to enter into any critical exa- mination of these discourses, nor is this needed. The name and writ- ings of the revered author are well known, not only in that body of which he may be regarded as the father, but the name Ebenezer Erskine is of itself a snfficient passport to every rehgious family in every part of tlie ci\ihzed world. Than LIr. Smith, Ave are of opinion, a more judi- OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 15 cious common-sense editor could not have been found in the whole united body. We are assiu-ed tliat in preparing these discourses for the press he has introduced nothing of his own — not even a single sentence. The volume is got up in the customary neat style of the publishers." (Scottish Guardian, 10th Nov. 1848.) " For the publication of this elegant edition of Erskine, we are in- debted to the United Presb}i;erian Church, which, follo\ving the example of the Free Church, has commenced the publication of a series of cheap religious books, the works of the fathers of the Secession, and other early writers. Mr. Smith, who was fitly chosen to edit Erskine's sermons, mentions that he was limited by his instructions to a selection of the doctrinal discom-ses only, and to such of these as more particularly exhibit the author's ^ws on the leading doctrines of the gospel. He has, in accordance with this design, included in the selection all the ser- mons bearing upon the points for which the celebi-ated " Marrowmen" contended. Beyond the duty of selecting, which has been perforaied with judgment and discrunination, the editorial task only extended to collation and correction, in which Mr. Smith has shown a laudable de- gi-ee of care and accm-acy, gi^^ng his chm-ch and the rehgious public, who will receive the gift vnih. thankfulness, a creditable edition of a work which has long been held precious by the pious people of Scotland, and which contributed so poweifully, under the Di\-ine blessing, to the revival of pure religion in our country at a period when IModerarism prevailed in the pulpits, as it niled in the courts and counsels of the Established Church. The volume is adorned by a beautiful portrait of Erskine, copied from the original in the possession of Mr. Walter Wardlaw, of this city." (United Presbyterian Magazine, Nov. 1848.) "We must bear "watness to the great judgment and care with wliicli Mr. Smith has discharged the duties of editor. For seciu-ing the ob- jects he had in view, he has chosen a judicious course. To have given entire discourses, would, from their gi-eat length, have been to occupy the volume -svith but a few, and to have given extracts disjoined from their connexion, would have been to mar their effect. A plan between these has been adopted. ^\Tiat is not doctrinal, has, in each discom-se, been excluded, and the whole re-arranged as far as the omissions ren- dered it necessaiy. We have compared several of the sermons thus re-cast with the original forms, and have admired ]\Ir. Smith's discrimi- nation in selecting, tact in re-an-anging, and scrupulous fidelity in pre- senting Ebenezer Erskine as he really spoke and taught. The volume is an admirable one, and -will do much, we trust, to make the names of these sermons again familiar in our chm-ches as household words ; to increase in ministers the desire to give, and in members the taste to receive, that piure milk of the word ■nith which they e'f ery where abound." (Belfast Monitor, Jan. 1849.) " As full and clear exhibitions of the glorious Gospel, as developing the experience of believers, and as specimens of searching and faithful appeals to the conscience of the sinner, these discom-ses have few equals in our language. The editor has made a very judicious selection, and 16 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. the discourses contained in this volume are among the most powerful and useful that Mr. Erskine preached and pubUshed. Some of them — such as God^s regard to worthless man — the broken law magnified — the rainboio of the Covenant — the believer exalted in imputed righteotisness — the assurance of Faith — a7id the Stone rejected by the Builders^ are well known, and have always been justly prized as displa}Tng the sovereignty and freeness of the Gospel, and holding forth a faithful banner for the truth. We give this volume om* fullest recommendation, and shall re- joice most cordially in the pubUcation of many such volumes by the Council of the United Presbj-terian Chm-ch." (Perthshire Advertiser^ 14th Dec. 1848.) " Ebenezer Erskine has a name and reputation in the churches. He is well known as an able expounder of the ■^^ews of human life and des- tiny designated evangelical. The most orthodox ^\•ill find him up to their mark on this point. He debases human nature, and exalts di\dne grace and sovereignty, to the utmost limits which the most literal apphcation of sacred wiit" permits. In short, he is an able, and we must add elo- quent, exponent of the Cahinistic theology, which is, and has been, the creed of Scotland for centuries. Ebenezer Ersldne is an historical name, and a re-issue of his Select Discourses wUl meet with more general ac- ceptance on that account." (^Aberdeen Banner, loth Dec. 1848.) "* * A most fitting and appropriate selection * * * This hand- some volume is a most valuable one. ^ LIVES OF EBENEZER ERSKINE, WILLIAM WILSON, THOMAS GILLESPIE, FATHEES OF THE UXITED PRESBYTERIANS CHURCE. REVS. JAEES^'HARPER, D.D., JOHX TADIE, LLD., WILLLOf LLM)SAY, D.D., PKOFESSORS OF THEOLOGY TO THE USITED PRESBYTERIAN CHCKCH. A. I'ULLARTON & CO.: EDINBURGH, DUBLIN, AND LONDON. 1849. edixburgh: F'JLLAKTOX AND CO., PKINTEES, LEITH WAI MEMOIR OF THE REY. EBEIEZER ERSKIIE, A.M., lAIEER OF THE SECESSION CHURCH. BY X\MES HARPER, D.D., MINISTER OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CONGREGATION, NORTH LEITH, AND PROFESSOR OF STSTE.MATIC AND P.VSTORAL THEOLOGY TO THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. PREFACE. To the friends of the Scottish Secession of 1 733, no apology is necessaiy for embodying among the memorials and writings of the United Presbyterian Fathers a Life of Ebenezer Erskine. If true that public questions frequently take their form and colour from those that handle them, it will follow that, to estimate great movements aright, we must take into account the spirit and pur- pose of the men. The life of Ebenezer Erskine and the pi'ogress of the Secession are mutually illustrative. They are indeed often blended — thus rendering it impossible to pursue the line of biogi-aphical narrative without stepping into the track of public histor}'. But for this very reason it is all the more obvious, how much it is akin to the plan of the present series to find, in the goodly fabric which Erskine and his compeers were instrumental in raising, a tablet on which to record their graces and services — to the glory of Him who made them what they Avere, and in whose name they " did exploits." For a memoir of Ebenezer Erskine, suitable and somewhat ample materials exist. Besides brief notices in one or two works of general biography, the sketch by the Rev. John Bro^^-n,* the delineations of personal character which may be gleaned from the richly furnished pages of Dr. M'Kerrow, f and numerous writings and documents relative to the controversies of the pe- riod, the biographer of Erskine has now the advantage of his Life and Diary by the Rev. Dr. Eraser, a work replete with in- teresting matter, digested by an able, accurate, and candid pen — my obligations to which I have had frequent occasion to ac- knowledge. Why attempt anything more than an abridgment of Dr. Eraser's volume? Such a work, it was apprehended, would have been de- ficient in ease, while it would have involved a servile adoption of another's views, even when a motive might be felt to form an independent, and perhaps somewhat modified opinion. These reasons led to the composition of a new and original biography — so far as the latter term may be applied to a performance which,, while based on a careful examination of sources and authorities, embraces so many materials which have been pro- vided by the previous industry of others. * Gospel Truth Illustrated. f Historj' of the Secession. J. H. Leith, March 17, 18i9. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Parentage — Bii*th — Education — License — Ordination at Portmoak — ^laiiiage — Eminent Piety of Mrs. Erskine — Deep religious impressions of Mr. Erskine — Increased Spirituality — Acceptance and success in the Ministry — Personal and domestic afflictions. — Pp. 7 — 31. CHAPTER n. Act of Toleration — Occasion — Motives — Management — Marrow Contro- versy — Act of Assembly 1720 — Representation — Queries — ^Answers — Act of Assembly 1722 — Views of Mr. Erskine — Spirit manifested by him.— Pp. 32—50. CHAPTER m. Mr. Erskine's Translation to Stirling — Pastoral labours — Assembly 1732 — Speech by Mr. E. — Synod's Sennon — Found censurable — Defence of his conduct — Assembly' 1733 — Mr. E. rebuked — Procedure of Com- mission — Loosed from his charge — Assembly 1734 — Act reponing Mr. E. — His refusal to retm-n, with the grounds of it — Mr. E. not a Sec- tarian — Libelled and deposed — Scene of his ejection. — Pp. 51—74. CHAPTER IV. Ersldne's correspondence with "NVhitefield — "WTiitefield at Dunfermline — Rupture with the Associate Presbytery — Cambuslang revival — Mr. Erskine's conduct in reference to it— Covenants renewed — ^Act concern- ing the doctrine of gi'ace — Rebellion 1745 — Mr. Erskine's loyalty — Breach of the Associate Synod — Mr. E. Professor of Divinity — Domes- tic and personal afflictions — ^last iUness and death — character — Notices of his family.— Pp. 75—88. MEMOIR REV. EBENEZER ERSKIiXE. CHAPTER I. Parentage — Birth — Education — License — Ordination at Portmoak — Mai-riage — Eminent piety of j\Irs. Erskine — Deep religious impressions of Mr. Erskine — Increased Spirituality — ^Acceptance and success in the Ministry — Personal and domestic afiiictions. Ebenezer Erskine was the fourth son of Henry Erskine, of the Erskines of Shielfield, in Berwickshire, — a branch of the ancient house of Mar. His father, who was the ninth of twelve children, was born in 1624. Having at an early period embraced the Presbyterian cause, he prosecuted his studies with a view to the ministry. After license in the usual form, he was ordained at CornhiU, in Northumberland ; but in what year is uncertain. One account bears that he was ordained in 1649;* another not till ten years later, t The latter date we apprehend to be nearest the truth. Among other domestic notices in a small MS. volume of Mr. H. Erskine's, which we have seen,!t there occur the names of his children, with the dates of * Wodrow. f Calamy's Continuation, &c. Palmer's Noncon. Memorial. X Tliis interesting family relic, which is in the possession of my honoured friend and colleague, the Rev. Dr. Bro^vn, contains the names of the children of Ralph Erskine, father of Henry. Instead of multiplying to thirty-three, as the story goes, they were twelve in number. 8 LIFE OF EBENEZER ERSKINE. their birth, from which it appears that of his three eldest, one was born at Galashiels, and two at Wooler. Hia fourth child, Katharine, was born at Cornhill in August 1659. From these things we infer the correctness of Ca- lamy and Palmer, whose statement bears that he was minister of Cornhill only three years. Mr. Erskine's ministry at Cornhill, though of brief du- ration, was accompanied with no small measure of success. At first the people very generally regarded him with aver- sion ; but the holiness of his life, and the prudence of his deportment, together with his unfeigned zeal for their temporal and spiritual good, soon wrought a striking change in their sentiments towards him, not unaccompa- nied with pleasing proofs that many of them had profited by his unwearied labours that they might not receive the grace of God in vain. From this field of usefulness Mr. E. was ejected by the Act of Uniformity in 1662. For many years after, his life was passed in retirement, partly at Dryburgh ; but not without annoyance from the persecuting zealots of those unhappy times. He was repeatedly called before the com- mittee of the Scottish Council to answer charges of sedi- tion and disobedience, because he presumed to exercise his ministry without conforming to the new order of things. On his refusal to swear that he had not altogether refrained from the duties of his ofl&ce, and to " give bond that he would preach no more at conventicles," he was heavily fined, and committed to the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, to be afterwards sent to the prison of " the Bass." On his petition for a commutation of the sentence into leave of exile from the kingdom, his request was granted. For a length of time he lived in obscurity in Northumberland, where, nevertheless, he found opportunities of doing good, and where it was also given him to sufier for Christ's sake. On the proclamation of King James's Indulgence in 1687, Mr. Erskine took charge of a small Presbyterian congregation at Whitsome, near Berwick. His residence LIFE OF EBEXEZER ERSKINE. 9 here, which was short, was chiefly memorable that it was under his ministry in this place the celebrated Thomas Boston received his first religious impressions. After the Revolution, Mr. E. was admitted to the parish of Chirnside, of which he continued minister till his death in August, 1696. His departure took place in the midst of his family ; and the circumstances of it as relfl,ted by Br. Calamy,* are peculiarly interesting from the impression which they ap- pear to have made on the young hearts of his sons Eben- ezer and Ralph. Long after, the scene was referred to by them as one of their hallowed recollections. " The Lord helped me," says Ebenezer on one occasion, "to speak of his goodness, and to declare the riches of his grace in some measure to my own soul. He made me tell how my father took engagements of me on his deathbed, and did cast me upon the providence of his God." Ralph, in like manner, more than thirty years after the event, put on record, " I took special notice of the Lord's drawing out my heart towards him at my father's death." t Mr. Henry Erskine w^as twice married. His first wife died in 1670 after a lingering illness. She was the mother of eight children — one of whom, Philip, conformed to the church of England, and, receiving episcopal orders, held a rectory in the county of Northumberland. Few traces remain of his intercourse with his father's family. Another child of the first marriage became afterwards well known as Mrs. Balderstone of Edinburgh, a woman of superior intelligence, of simple-hearted and devoted piety. Her correspondence with her step-brothers evinces the warmth of their mutual affection, and much free and confiding in- terchange of sentiment on religious subjects. Mr. Erskine's second wife was Margaret Halcro, a native of Orkney, who, to the lustre of a highly honourable ex- traction, added the incomparably higher honour of genuine Christian worth. The second Mrs. Erskine was the mother * Continuation. j Memoir of Rev. H. Erskine. 10 LIFE OF EBEXEZER ERSKIXE. of seven children — five sons and two daughters. Henry, the eldest, was cut off by a decline in the same year with his father. The second emigrated to Caledonia with his step-brother William, who died on the passage. Hugh, the third son, died an infant. Ebenezer and Ralph lived to be eminently instrumental in the accomplishment of a work which will transmit their names with honour to distant generations. Of the early childhood of Ebenezer not much is known. The place of his birth has hitherto been matter of conjec- ture. There is a tradition that his parents were imprison- ed in " the Bass," and that the subject of our memoir was born there in 1682. But this is without foundation, the sentence of imprisonment, as above stated, not having been put in execution. Dr. Fraser thinks it probable that Ebenezer was born at Dryburgh. This conjecture it is now in our power to verify by an extract, which we give literatim from the MS. volume above referred to, '• Eben-ezer was borne June 22d, being Tuysday, at one o'clock in the morning, and was baptized by Mr. Gab: Semple July 24th, being Saturnday, in my dwelling house in Dryburgh 1680." The education of Ebenezer appears to have been con- ducted under the immediate eye of his father, till he was qualified for attendance on the classes of an university. A reference to his early days, in an " Abbreviate" written by him of the life of his father, gives us reason to beheve that his youth afforded hopeful indications of a pious dis- position. '- Some time prior to his death, Henry Erskine was heard to say, that he would desire to live no longer than to see his son Ebenezer, then in the 16th year of his age, succeed him in the work of the ministry." In his 14th year he matriculated at the university of Edinburgh, where he held a bursary on the presentation of Pringle of Torwoodlee. He laureated in June 1697. Whatever value his degree may have as a proof of profi- ciency at his time of life, there is little doubt, when we consider the advantages of his childhood, and the promise LIFE OF EBEXEZER ERSKINE. 11 of usefulness which his father so feelingly recognised, that he must have given himself to his academical studies with becoming assiduity, and have made good progress in the branches both of a literary and theological education. On leaving coUege, Mr. Erskine was engaged as tutor to the family of the Earl of Rothes. He also officiated in the capacity of domestic chaplain. This was a truly Christian household, if we may judge from the character of the Earl himself, and from the arrangements maintained by him for the instruction and welfare of his family. That Mr. Erskine's residence here was mutually advantageous and agreeable, may be inferred from the affection between the parties that survived during future years, and on the Earl's part was testified by repeated acts of kindness to Mr. E., especially during the agitations to which the oath of abju- ration gave rise, when the course Mr. E. took exposed him with many others to the penalties of law. Mr. Erskine was after the usual trials licensed by the Presbytery of Kirkcaldy, on the 11th of February 1703. In course of the same year he received an appointment to preach in Portmoak. So acceptable were Mr. Erskine's ministrations, that an unanimous call was presented to him to fill the vacant charge. In those days the mode of set- tling vacant parishes was by a call from the heritors and elders, with the concurrence of the parishioners; and in this case all parties were united in their choice. In sus- taining the call the Presbytery of Kirkcaldy was not less cordial ; Mr. Erskine, however, had some difficulties in ac- cepting the charge, of what nature does not appear ; but so intent were the brethren upon his settlement, that the Presbytery acceded to the condition of granting him an " act of transportability,"* in the event of his finding any * The act so denominated was a form resorted to in cases in which a minister found himself labouring " imder insupportable grievances in a parish." The Presbyteiy, on being persuaded of the existence of such obstacles to his comfort and usefulness, might " declare him capable to receive a call to any other charge, without the parish being called as ha^-ing any interest ; " the minister in the meantime contuiuing to exer- 12 LIFE OF EBEXEZER ERSKIXE. grievances connected with his incumbency which it might not be in their power to redress. His very accurate and judicious biographer seems in doubt whether the insufficient state of the church and manse, which the heritors were unwilling to repair, might not be felt by him as a discour- agement, or whether he might not be apprehensive of trouble from persons in the parish disaffected to the Pres- byterian interest. If we were under the necessity of mak- ing a conjecture on the subject, it would be to the effect that Mr. Erskine's fears had reference to obstructions to his work, not to the dilapidated condition of the buildings, — a difficulty not likely to appear formidable to a person of Mr. Erskine's fortitude, and one besides, which at the time of his ordination could not be known in the full ex- tent of the evil, seeing it was after the settlement of Mr. Erskine that the question of "repairs" engaged the atten- tion of the Presbytery. Mr. Erskine's settlement in Portmoak took place in Sept. 1703, Compared with other parochial charges that of Portmoak was of small extent, so that the prospect of diffi- culties which at first discouraged him could not have arisen from the amount of pastoral duty he was about to under- take. It is indeed true, that the oversight of souls is a work the arduousness of which is not to be estimated merely by numbers ; and that, however few the sheep committed to the pastor's care, if he know the worth and feel the love of souls, he will reckon his charge to feed them a trust of liigh and solemn responsibility. But it does not appear that Mr. E's. difficulties were of the kind now referred to, since they were connected with the peculiar circumstances of the par- ish at the time. Undoubted, too, as were Mr. Erskine's integrity of purpose and seriousness of disposition, there is reason to beheve that his views of di\'ine truth were at first defective ; indeed there is ground to conclude that at that period he knew not the gospel as the power of God to his cise his office and to enjoy the benefice as formerly, " till an occasion of removal be oSered.''—Steu:arfs Collectiom, Book I., Title iii. LIFE OF EBENEZER EKSKINE. 13 own conversion. Certain it is, that he dates his experience of a thorough and saving change at a time posterior to his ordination, and describes as then taking place a quickening in the divine life such as may justly be regarded as a crisis in his moral history. Six months after his ordination at Portmoak, Mr. Erskine married Alison Turpie, daughter of a writer in the town of Leslie. The union was eminently blessed of God. Ilis wife was a person of decided godliness, and soon proved a help meet for him in spiritual as well as in temporal things. Of the great advantages which he derived from her conversation on religious subjects, especially in the time when his own views were comparatively dark and de- fective, he once and again makes grateful mention. For this Mrs. Erskine had been qualified by long training in the school of temptation and of spiritual conflict. Her course at the beginning was beclouded so as almost to plunge her into inconsolable despondency. Of the sympa- thy which her case excited among friends, and the reco- very of peace in believing which Mrs. E. had granted her, her husband gives a somewhat particular narrative in re- flections written on her death. It is in this part of his diary he refers most explicitly to the spiritual mindedness of his spouse, as particularly helpful to his own improve- ment, and therefore we deem this the most fitting place for a few reminiscences on the subject, as they are found in his diary. " About the third year that she and I were married, the Lord was pleased to plunge her into the greatest depths of humiliation that I ever knew. Before she fell into these depths, she told me, that the Lord gave her such a disco- very of the glory of Christ, as darkened the whole creation, and made all things appear as dung and dross in compari- son of him. This view, she said, was but a transient glance or glimpse of his glory ; and immediately upon this dis- covery, she got such a sight of the enmity and unbelief of the heart, and of the strength of its opposition to Christ, and the way of salvation through him, that she fell under 14 LIFE OP EBENEZER ERSKINE. the most dreadful apprehensions of her having sinned the unpardonable sin ; and that what she had met with was only a taste of the good word of God, and of the powers of the world to come, spoken of in Heb. vi. 6. that was a terrible scripture to her, and also Heb. x. 26 — 29. For a month or two the arrows of the Almighty were within her, the poison whereof did drink up her spirits ; and the terrors of God did set themselves in array against her. The law of God in its majesty, authority, and spirituality, was set before her. The particular sin she complained of was her unbelief. In those depths she continued till the Lord moved me to call some neighbouring ministers to join in prayer on her behalf, particularly Mr. Andrew Ward- rope in the parish of Ballingry ; Mr. Andrew Thomson of Orwell ; Mr. John Shaw, then minister of Leslie ; Mr. John Currie of Kinglassie. Every one of them prayed by turns with her in my closet, and conversed with her ; but no re- lief appeared till Mr. "Wardrope proposed that she should pray with them before they parted. She was exceedingly averse from it ; yet being constrained to it, and being in an agony of spirit through the terrors of God, she at last complied. " But oh ! that her words were now written and printed in a book, — that they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever ! For to the conviction of all pre- sent the Spirit of God spoke out of her. There was not, I suppose, a dry cheek among all the ministers or others of the family that were present. Her expressions were full of the Spirit, — so suited to the case of her soul, and in such a heavenly eloquence, that if a general assembly of minis- ters had compiled and studied it, they could not have been better digested. The Lord indeed gave her the Spirit and helped her to pray. When she arose from prayer, though the Lord had melted her soul and the souls of all present by her heavenly words and frame, still she continued to charge herself with the unpardonable sin, and to conclude that she was but a castaway. The Lord however heard the voice of her weeping ; for that same day he was pleased LIFE OF EBENEZER ERSKIXE. 15 in some measure to calm her spirit, and to break the strength of the temptation, so that though she did not feel full clearance, she had more quiet and composure of soul. The Lord particularly blessed a little book, which Mr. Cur- rie left her, called Collings on Desertion, Temptation, 50 lilFE OF EBENEZER ERSKINE. shall have my crown and rejoicing in the day of the Lord. And therefore, whatever might have been the particular views either of persons or judicatories, or however unfa- vourable their sentiments or sentences have been meant, yet I can freely declare they have not crossed my inclina- tion in that determination ; and I have no manner of re- sentment against the judicatories of the church on that head, for whom I desire to have all due deference in the Lord." In January 1724, three and a half years after the death of his first wife, Mr, Erskine married Miss Grace Webster, daughter of Mr. James "Webster, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, — a name which stands honourably connected with the prosecution of Professor Simson of Glasgow, for various errors, at a time when, in such contendings for the truth, consistent friends were few, and church judicatories showed no haste to be faithful. Mr. Erskine's mother died at Portmoak the January fol- lowing, after a widowhood of thirty years, a great part of which she passed alternately under the roofs of her two sons. She was a woman of good understanding and of much energy; her life was godly, and, according to the testimony of her sons, she died happily in the Lord. CHAPTER III. Mr. Ersldne's Translation to Stirling — Pastoral labours — Assembly 1732 — Speech by Mr. E. — Synod's Sermon — Found censurable — Defence of his conduct — Assembly 1733 — Mr. E. rebuked — Procedure of Com- mission — Loosed from his charges — Assembly 1731 — Act reponing Mr. E. — His refusal to return, wth the grounds of it — Mr. E. not a Sec- tarian — Libelled and deposed — Scene of his ejection. It was during these two years of domestic change in which affliction and mercy were mingled, that the church courts had their attention engaged with the attempt by the pa- rish of Kirkcaldy to obtain Mr. Erskine's settlement among them. The discussions to which this movement gave rise were formerly referred to as illustrative of the ill-feeling and unfair treatment to which, in connection with the Marrow Controversy, Mr. E. was subjected. In other re- spects there is nothing of importance in that affair to re- quire more particular narration. In hope, no doubt, of better success, the parish of Kin- ross gave him a unanimous call in 1728. The call was sus- tained by the Presbytery of Kinross without, so far as ap- pears, any objection or delay, and transmitted to that of Kirkcaldy, by whom it was presented to Mr. Erskine. The form was observed of receiving reasons for translation, and answers by the people of Portmoak, after which Mr. E. expressed his desire to remain at Portmoak. The presby- tery decided agreeably to his wishes. The cause was taken by appeal to the Synod of Fife and to the Assembly, but in both cases with the same result. A few years after, in May 1731, Mr. Erskine was called to Stirling. The choice was again unanimous and cordial. When the matter came before the Presbytery of Kirkcaldy, Mr. E. expressed the affection which he felt for the people of 52 LIFE OP EBENEZER ERSKINE. Portmoak, but left the question of removal to tlie presby- tery. The presbytery decided in favour of translation, — a decision in which he immediately acquiesced. Rumour accounted for his altered views of duty by various consi- derations, — contentions that had sprung up in the session to cool his attachment to his present charge, — decKne of zeal among his people in profiting by his ministry, — causes which, if existing, were likely enough to operate in the way alleged. Whatever were the grounds on which Mr. E. accepted of the invitation to remove, his consent will not be imputed to levity or ambition by any one who con- siders his previous course of retired labour and unobtru- sive usefulness, and the duration of his connection with Portmoak, — eight and twenty years — notwithstanding re- peated openings for a change. It is certain that, in leav- ing the good people of Portmoak, he did not in any degree forfeit their esteem and affection ; they appear to have felt that, having had the benefit of the most and best of his days, they had no cause to complain ; such indeed was the hold he had of their hearts, and such the savour of his work among them, that several members of his original flock removed their abode to Stirling, that they might continue to enjoy the privilege of his ministry. Mr. Erskine's translation to Stirling took place in Sep- tember 1731. The charge into which he was inducted had been lately erected in addition to the original collegiate church of the parish. His place of worship was the " West Church," a building of popish times, that had not till now been statedly used as a Protestant place of worship. At Stirling his acceptableness and usefulness as a mini- ster of Christ sufiered no abatement. In every part of his work his diligence was unwearied and his faithfulness ex- emplary. He found like-minded coadjutors in the mini- sters of the town, Messrs. Hamilton and Muir. The for- mer in particular, now advanced in years, was a man of an excellent spirit, and a zealous feUow-labourer with Mr. E., according to his strength, in promoting the power instead of the form of godliness in the parish. LIFE OF EBEXEZER ERSKIN'E. 63 " Early in the year 1737 these two ministers, in order to prevent the profanation of the table of the Lord, formed a resolution to examine privately all that should be admitted, and to appoint diets for that effect. They determined, at the same time, with the concurrence of a large majority of the session, to read from the pulpit an advertisement with respect to intended communicants, — giving notice that none should apply for admission to that ordinance who were ignorant of the first principles of religion, or hostile to the distinguishing tenets of the Church of Scotland, or habitually negligent of secret and family worship, or who absented themselves without a sufficient apology from pub- lic worship, or from diets of catechising, or that were un- godly and immoral in their practice." This was no common amount of labour, for the exami- nation embraced the whole body of communicants ; and stiU more rare, we apprehend, was the rule of discipline be- come, which Messrs. Hamilton and Erskine declared their intention to apply. Mr. E. seems to have carried the same assiduity into all the duties of his office. "Besides at least six volumes on ' Catechetical Doctrine,' " says Dr. Eraser, " written at Portmoak between 1717 and 1723 inclusive, he has left in all forty-seven note-books of evangelical, sacramental, and miscellaneous sermons ; fifteen of which books were composed subsequently to his trandation to Stirling. Most of them consist of 220 pages ; and all of them, with the exception of a few words in com- mon hand interspersed, are written in short-hand charac- ters. Each may contain on an average about thirty-six sermons of an hour's length. He left also several volumes of expository discourses, including a series of Lectures on the Epistle to the Hebrews, studied and delivered imme- diately after his admission to his second charge." * At the time of Mr. Erskine's translation to Stirling, eccle- siastical affairs were hastening to a crisis, which was destined * Life, p. 311. 54 LIFE OP EBENEZER ERSKINE. to issue in the determination of questions vitally affecting the interests of Christian liberty and the character and fu- ture usefulness of the Church of Scotland. The year which was memorable to not a few as the date of Mr. Erskine's entering on a more conspicuous station, witnessed the first step by the General Assembly which, in another brief twelvemonth, constrained him to lift his decisive testi- mony against encroachment on the people's rights. It was in the Assembly of 1731 the overture was brought forward " concerning the method of planting vacant churches," and which, being transmitted to presbyteries according to the prescribed order in such cases, was at the same time adopted as an interim act. Next Assembly passed the overture into a standing law in disregard of the adverse judgment of a majority of presbyteries, so far as ascer- tained. In vain had a representation against the pro- posed law, when it was passed as an overture, been pre- sented by upwards of 40 ministers, besides elders ; and a complaint and petition to the same effect from fifteen hundred people. And equally in vain did Mr. E., being that year a member of Assembly, demand that his dissent should be received and recorded. His claim was barred by the Assembly's tyrannical act of 1730, forbidding the entering of reasons of dissent in the inferior judicatories, — an act which the Assembly made to apply to its own pro- ceedings. Mr. Erskine's speech on this occasion is one of the memorabilia which Dr. Eraser's research has discovered among Mr. Erskine's papers, and which, if not very impor- tant as a link in his history, is at least an agreeable illus- tration of the consistency of his conduct, and the intrepidity of his spirit when duty summoned him to the breach. " An extempore speech I had in open Assembly when the overture anent the planting of churches was passed into an act by the Assembly, May 16, 1732. "Moderator, " I find, by the reading of the minutes, that the Dissent that was entered yesterday by some mem- LIFE OF EBENEZEB, ERSKINE. 55 bers of the Assembly is not marked, and I crave that it may be marked, it being a privilege common in every free country. Moderator, the reason why I insist that it may be marked is, that I consider this act of Assembly to be without warrant from the word of God, and inconsistent with the acts and constitution of this church since our Re- formation, particularly in our books of Discipline. As I said before in the Assembly, viz., in the case of Kinross, so, Moderator, I now say it again : I know of no ecclesias- tical authority under heaven but what is derived from Christ, the exalted King of Zion. It is in his name and authority that we are met and constituted in a national Assembly. He is the alone foundation that God hath laid in Zion. His righteousness is the foundation of our justi- fication and acceptance before God ; and his authority as a King is the alone foundation of all government and disci- pline — laws and acts — that are to be imposed upon his church. And in regard I do not see upon what part of the word this act is founded, I therefore conclude that it wants the authority of Christ, and that the Assembly, in this particular, has gone off from the true foundation of government. " We are charged with the custody and feeding of his lambs, his sheep, his little ones. It is not the world's great ones, or rich ones, that we are intrusted with. No, Moderator ; and yet by this act, the privilege of his little ones is conferred upon heritors, and the great ones of the world. I am so far from thinking this act conferring the power upon heritors beyond other men, to come and choose ministers of the Gospel to be founded on the word, that I consider it diametrically contrary to it. What difference does a piece of land make between man and man in the affairs of Christ's kingdom which is not of this world ? Are we not commanded in the word to do nothing by par- tiality ? whereas here is the most manifest partiality in the world. We must have ' the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ,' or the privileges of his church, ' without respect of persons ;' whereas by this act we show respect to this man 56 LIFE OF EBENEZER ERSKINE. with the gold ring and gay clothing beyond the man with the vile raiment and poor attire. I conceive, Moderator, that our public managements and acts should run in the channel with God's way, not diverging. We are told that ' God hath chosen the poor of this world rich in faith.' It is not said he hath chosen the heritors of this world, as we have done, but he hath ' chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom.' And if they be heirs of the kingdom, I wish to know by what warrant they are stript of the privileges of the kingdom. " Moderator, I consider that by this act the Assembly have sunk one of the principal branches of our Reformation inserted in our books of Discipline ; I mean the right of the Church and members thereof to choose their own pastors — a privilege with the custody of which we are intrusted. Our worthy forefathers handed down this among other branches of the Reformation at the expense of their blood and treasure. And that I may not be accessory to the be- traying of a trust which we are obliged to hand down in safety to our posterity and the generation following, I in- sist that my Dissent may be marked in the Records of this Assembly." What course was now open to Mr. Erskine and his friends for exonerating their consciences and resisting the course of defection ? They had still freedom of speech in the pul- pit ; and that freedom Mr. E. felt himself shut up to use. He testified to his people against the mal-administration of the church courts and the backslidings of the times. When he was thus prepared fearlessly to lift up his voice with all the publicity he could command, an occasion pe- culiarly opportune presented itself which he was not slow to embrace. Having been chosen Moderator of the Synod of Perth and Stirling, it became his duty to preach at the opening of next meeting of synod. His discourse was in- tended for the times, and accordingly contained a bold but not a railing denunciation of the evils referred to. He spoke as a strenuous advocate of the right of God's people to the free election of their pastors, instead of being limited LIFE OF EBENEZER EESKIXE. 5/ or coerced in their choice. In the sermon Mr. E. refers to the principles of the Church of Scotland, as asserted in her books of discipline, in proof of the defection from scriptural views of the people's rights which he charges on the act of Assembly. His sentiments, however just and sound, being in advance of the practice of the church as prescribed and fettered by the act of settlement at the Revolution, it is not to be wondered at that the protestation on behalf of the people's claim proved distasteful to many of his synod- ical auditors ; but that which was most calculated to stir their resentment, was the freedom with which he charac- terized the act of Assembly, and by consequence reflected on the supreme court itself. For a son of the church to speak of the Assembly as " giving a wound to the authority of Christ" by this its act — an act which, " whatever church authority may be in it, wants the authority of the Son of God," — was language not likely to be heard where it was spoken without indignation and rebuke. Mr. Erskine's unanswerable defence of his conduct was, as stated in his prefatory note to the printed sermon, " that there is now no other way left to bear testimony against such things but by warning the world against them by press or pulpit ; representations and petitions from ministers or church members at the bar being utterly disregarded, and no ac- cess to enter any protest or dissent against these proceed- ings in the public records for the exoneration of conscience or the information of our posterity, that such things did not pass in our day without a struggle and testimony against them." It has been alleged as an inconsistency in Mr. Erskine, that he lifted his protest against the act of Assembly with a vehemence calculated to destroy the church's peace, though he had himself entered the ministry of the church under a law of settlement the same as that which was enacted by the Assembly of 1732, — nay, more, that he had continued in the church under the yoke of patronage re- imposed by the government of Queen Anne. Mr. Erskine's defence was, that " tiU the act of patronage there were no 68 LIFE OF EBENEZER ERSKIXE. Bettlements but where the body of the people concurred in the election, and that in the practice of the church, till of late, they were allowed to vote." He did not, it is true, secede from the church on account of the Patronage Act ; but at that time the church reclaimed against its imposition. Mr. E. had full liberty to join with others in condemning the measure both in the church courts and in the pulpit ; and 80 strong was the feeling against it among the people that patronage, though legalized, was not extensively put in practice for some years after the passing of the act in ques- tion. By and bye, from stealthy beginnings to bolder and more undisguised intrusion, presentees laid aside their re- serve, and church courts played fast and loose with their principles, and a course of ecclesiastical oppression advanced apace to its extremity. One of the results of the contest was, on the part of Mr. E., the very proof of sincerity de- manded, namely, his "taking joyfully" expulsion from the Establishment, now that the alternative lay between mother church and honest principle. Equally invalid is the charge as regards the alleged identity of the act of settlement 1690, and the act of As- sembly 1732. On a cursory perusal they may appear the same ; but on two points there is a certain and not incon- siderable difference. The one act was the enactment of the state to which the church submitted ; the other was the act of the ecclesiastical courts themselves restricting the liberties of the church in a case in which they were invested with an unchallenged power of legislation. The difference here is not small in the indication afforded of the state of opinion among the church's rulers. Besides, in the nature of the two acts themselves there was a point of dissimilarity to which no small importance has been at- tached. " According to the act 1690," says Willison, " the election was not to be held as finished until the man was proposed to the congregation, and their approbation had ; and if they disapproved, the affair was to stop as unfinished until the presbytery gave their judgment whether to pro- ceed in it or not ; but the act 1732, holds the election as LIFE OF EBENEZEE ERSKINE. 59 finished by the votes of the heritors and elders, and the man to be legally elected and called to be minister of the parish before the consent of the people be asked."* In a word, the Assembly was considered as by its act annihilat- ing the call — hitherto regarded by the church as an essen- tial element of a regular vocation to the ministry. The defence of Mr. Erskine's consistency, on the grounds just referred to, seems to be called for, seeing that the sentiments which he advanced in his synod sermon were avowed by him as those which he had understood and held as the principles of the Church of Scotland. Had he undergone a change of view, and pleaded his right to follow the light of better information and of fuller evidence of the truth, his vindication would have been equally conclusive, although he would have stept elsewhere than into a synod- ical pulpit to lift his testimony and to make his defence. The Synod's condemnation of Mr. Erskine's conduct, and his refusal to submit to the censure of rebuke at their bar, brought the affair to the Assembly at its meeting in May 1733. From this stage of the business as a question in the church courts, to its termination of the process in 1740 by the deposition of Mr. E. and his protesting brethren, his life is almost entirely a matter of public history ; and ac- cordingly this, the most eventful period of Mr. E's career,, is that on which, — confining our narrative as much as pos- sible to biographical details, — we have least to say. The great aim of the Assembly of 1733, appeared to be to push the process against Mr. E. to a speedy and decisive conclusion. As an earnest of the temper in which they were prepared to proceed, they decided one of the most aggra- vated cases of forcible intrusion, that of Kinross, in open and utter disregard of the declared sentiments of both presbytery and people. " The parishioners had given a call to a ]Mr. Francis Craig, but another person, Mr. Stark, had received the presentation. As this latter gentleman had scarcely a single vote, the presbytery of Dunfermline re- * Fair and Impartial Testimony. fc*0 LIFE OF EBEXEZER ERSKINE. fused to ordain him." The Commission effected the settle- ment by a committee of their appointment ; at the meet- ing of the Assembly above-named, complaints were brought against the presbytery of Dunfermline that they had re- fused to enrol Mr. Stark ; for this recusancy the offenders were sharply rebuked at the Assembly; they were com- manded to encourage and strengthen the hands of Mr. Stark in the work of the ministry ; members of presbytery were prohibited on pain of censure from offering, and the pres- bytery from receiving, any protest or dissent against the settlement, and the presbytery was enjoined to appear be- fore the Commission in August to report concerning their own obedience.* With this hopeful beginning, the Assembly next day, May loth, gave judgment in Mr. Erskine's cause. The other protesters against the Synod's deed, Messrs. "Wil- son, Moncrieff, and Fisher, having been refused a hear- ing, Mr. Erskine's appeal was considered ; and the Assem- bly found that he had vented expressions tending to dis- turb the peace and good order of the church, approved of the proceedings of the Synod, and appointed Mr. Erskine to be rebuked and admonished at their own bar, which was done accordingly. Mr. Erskine's protest, which the other brethren adhered to, against the decision of the Assembly, — the refusal by the Assembly to insert it in their minutes, or even to hear it read, — the tabling of it by the parties as they left the house, — the incidental manner in which it was picked up by a member of court, and brought under the notice of the Assembly, — the outburst of offended dignity which ensued, — the recal of the protesting brethren to hear the Assem- bly's good pleasure that they should withdraw their pro- test, — their refusal — together with the reference of the cause to the Commission, with powers to suspend the brethren from the exercise of their ministry in the event of their adherence to their paper of protest, and to loose them from * M'KeiTOw, vol. I. 00. LIFE OF EBEXEZER ERSKINE. 61 their respective charges if they should disregard the act of suspension, — and the issue of all this in the brethren's doing what the Assembly hoped by menace to prevent, and in the Commission's carrying into effect the instructions of the Supreme Court step by step, with unfaltering pur- pose, — these are events which the prevailing party, bent on the suppression of popular influence in the manage- ment of church affairs, crowded into the brief space of a few months, thereby giving birth to a train of consequences which they were too impetuous to anticipate and found themselves equally impotent afterwards to control or to counteract. Under protest against the measures of the ruling party, and unheeding of the Commission's hasty acts of censure, Mr. E. with the other brethren continued to discharge all the parts of their pastoral office in their several parishes and churches, no man hindering them. Public sympathy was with them ; and their prosecutors were beginning either to cool in their anger, or to fear the consequences. At the meeting of next Assembly a spirit of conciliation prevailed. Three acts were passed designed to secure the return of Erskine and his associates to their place in the church ; and all these acts partook of the character of con- cessions. First of all, the Assembly repealed the act 1730, " discharging the recording reasons of dissent," and the act 1732, "anent the method of planting vacant churches." A few days after, an act was passed, empowering and re- commending the Synod of Perth and Stirling to take mea- sures for uniting the four brethren to the communion of the church. Same day, the Assembly by another act de- clared that ministerial freedom was not, nor shall be under- stood to be impaired by the late process against Mr. Ebe- nezer Erskine and others. On the first Tuesday of July following, the Synod of Perth and Stirling, agreeably to appointment of Assembly, met at Stirling and reponed the brethren ; the Presbytery of Stirling soon after the meeting of Synod elected Mr. Erskine in his absence to the Moderator's chair, and by a 62 LIFE OF EBENEZER ERSKINE. deputation of their number acquainted him with their choice, and invited his acceptance. Mr. E. declined the honour, and in a letter * to the Presbytery gave reasons for remaining in a state of secession from the judicatories of the Established Church. His brethren concurred in this — though Mr. Wilson for a time had his doubts respecting the path of duty. This was a turning point in the history of the new de- nomination, for such was the character which the move- ment now assumed. Mr. E. and his friends still cherished the hope that a time would come, when a return to their duty on the part of the courts of the Establishment would warrant the return of the Seceders to its pale. But to the most sanguine this must have appeared a distant and doubtful prospect, after the overtures for reunion in 1734 were deliberately and firmly declined. As this conduct of the brethren alienated many of their friends in the Estab- lishment who had hitherto favoured their cause ; and has given occasion to the opponents of the Secession since to assail the motives and principles of its originators, and as Mr. Erskine from his prominence in the movement has ever been the main object of attack, it is necessary to consider this part of the case with some degree of atten- tion. If we view the question between Mr. E. and the Assem- bly on narrow and merely technical grounds, making our decision to rest simply on Mr. Erskine's reasons of protest against the deed of Assembly, it might with some show of reason be alleged that the acts of the Assembly 1734, es- sentially modified, if they did not altogether remove Mr. Erskine's grounds of secession. The protest by Mr. E. homo- logates the testimony of his Synod sermon against the inno- vations of the Assembly on ministerial freedom, and on the rights of the people; and particularises the act 1732 as an encroachment ; but this act having been now rescinded as illegal and informal, and the due freedom of the pulpit * Printed in Chiistian Repository for August 1819. LIFE OF EBENEZER ERSKINE. 63 having also been asserted, what, it may be asked, remained of the grounds of protest ? We admit there is some force in the question; but to judge fairly of the case, we must enquire whether in the circumstances of the times, and in the temper and spirit of the church courts, these steps of amendment were a sufficient guarantee against ecclesiasti- cal oppression. The Assembly of 1733 had confessedly gone wrong ; — were the acts of the Assembly 1734 an ade- quate pledge against a similar course for the future 1 Two considerations shut us up to the negative. As a repre- sentative and changing body, the Assembly of one year is not a certain expositor of the mind of the church. The very fact we are referring to is proof of this. Did not the decisions of 1734 run counter to those of 1733. Is it not pleaded that the merit of the Assembly's measures in 1734 lay in this very opposition ? From these things it clearly follows, that the true spirit of the "judicatories" was to be learned from a course of procedure, and not from the acts of a particular Assembly, especially when there were ob- vious reasons of policy for retracing their steps at the time. That the subject was so considered by the brethren, and that in their view the course of administration was such as to render it a matter of duty to maintain the separate po- sition which they had assumed, we know from their pub- lished statements. In addition to their official documents, the following expression of opinion is valuable as coming from one of the wisest and most dispassionate of Mr. Er- skine's associates : " It was not violent intrusions, it was not the act 1732, neither was it any other particular step of defection considered abstractly and by themselves, upon which the Secession was stated ; but a complex course of defection, both in doctrine, government, and discipline, carried on with a high hand by the present judicatories of this church, justifying themselves in their procedure, and refusing to be restrained."* The justness of these views was fully evinced by subsequent events, and has been ad- * Wilson's Defence, p. 40. 64 LIFE OF EBENEZER ERSKINE. mitted by writers on the opposite side, who allow them- selves to speak of Mr. E. and his brethren as popular dema- gogues, and of his sermons as things to be sneered at, which the notice of the church courts saved from oblivion. * Another consideration here, is the fact that the rescissory acts of the Assembly did not go the length of annulling the sentence against Mr. E. and his friends. Not only was there no admission of injustice done him, but the Synod of Perth and Stirling was prohibited to "judge of the legality or formahty of the former proceedings in this affair." To what was this to be attributed 1 Was there no party or person in the Assembly prepared to do this act of justice? Doubtless there were such ; and their refraining from the attempt is explicable only on the supposition that, consti- tuted as the Assembly was, they knew the attempt to be hopeless. It is necessary, however, in writing the life of Mr. Er- skine, to defend his reputation against insinuations still more disparaging to him personally; — that he kept his ground because he felt his honour committed, and that the Assembly did not win him back because it did not pay court to the favourite of the people. Now, we cannot but think that this point is of all others the one on which the defence of Mr. E. is most triumphant. The whole course of the Assembly, Synod, and Presbytery, when seeking his return, was complimentary to him as an individual. The supreme court rescind acts to reconcile him, and appoint the Synod to make advances to him and his brethren, and to say not a word to them of censure for the past. The Synod re- pone them without waiting for the shghtest hint from the brethren of a readiness to return. "With still greater alacrity of complaisance to the wounded pride of Mr. Erskine, the presbytery beckon him to the Moderator's chair, and so long as there is a hope of his condescending to accept of it, they keep it vacant in token of respect. As a mere personal matter then, the deference shown him was so unctuous * Sir H. Moncrieff's Life of Dr. Jolm Erskine. LIFE OF EBENEZER ERSKIXE. 65 and flattering, that had he been the weak and vain man which some represent, he could not have resisted the temp- tation. A weak man might have been excused if in Mr. Erskine's circumstances he had imagined himself vaulting into the saddle while the presbytery held the stirrup, and with studied civiUties attended him as he rode over re- scinded acts and recanted charges to the Hall of the As- sembly amidst \ the abashed looks of humbled dignitaries and the shoutings of a triumphant people ! These things in view, what motive is conceivable for his standing aloof but that of public duty ? His return to the courts of the Establishment would have carried the people with him ; he would have resumed his place with eclat ; such a result would have been equally a mortification to his enemies and a victory to himself and his friends. What then could restrain him but a concern for the cause which was in his hands, in comparison with which all personal considerations — the fear of bad report Avhen enemies pre- vail, and the, applause of men on the day of triumph — are to be held " as the small dust of the balance ?" The charges then of schism, of opinionativeness, and of self-importance which have been so freely brought against Ebenezer Erskine, we hold to be not only unsubstantiated, but disproved by fair reasoning and by admitted facts. An incident that has come to our knowledge* may be intro- duced here, not as of itself of much importance, but as il lustrative of the unschismatical spirit of the founder of -the Secession : — After Mr. Erskine's removal from Portmoak, a delay took place in filling up the vacancy caused by disputes about the patronal rights. At length the Commission of Assembly, in 1734, gave the heads of families the privilege of unfettered election. By undue influence and a palpable manoeuvre, an unpopular candidate, named Douglas, pro- cured a majority of votes. A committee of presbytery being appointed to induce the supporters of the other can- * Communicated from an authentic source by the Rev. Dr. M'Kelvie. 3 E 66 LIFE OF EBENEZER ERSKINE. didate to accede to the settlement, they presented a de- claration to the effect, that, though they could not depart from their objections, yet, to show their " respect for the judicatories of the church who had had this affair under their consideration," and their love of peace, they would fall from their appeal, and " take a further trial of Mr. Douglas," and that it would be their joy and rejoicing if, upon experience, they should not find occasion to with- draw from his ministry. Previous to the day of ordina- tion, an influential member of the congregation wrote to his former pastor, Mr. Erskine, asking his advice. This was in 1735, and as occurring a considerable time after Mr. E. had been loosed from his charge by deed of As- sembly, his reply deserves a place as a specimen of the spirit of the man under circumstances of no small provo- cation : — " Stirling, 2m April, 1735. " Dear Friend in Christ, " At present I cannot see what is advisable for you, unless it be, when the edict is caUed, to go in a band to the presbytery and declare that you resolve to countenance this ordination of Mr. Douglas upon the terms of your declaration given in the last presbytery, to which you desire your adherence to be marked this day. As for the presbytery minister that comes with your de- claration, it is what you cannot help or hinder, neither are you much concerned with it, it being only a resolution of their own, and which you do not require to homologate, neither can it be binding on you in case what you fear you should undergo afterwards. I pray the Lord may prevent your fears, and make Mr. Douglas a blessing to the church of Christ, and to my dear people in Portmoak particularly. " Yours as obedient in our dearest Lord, " Ebenezer Erskine." LIFE OF EBEXEZER ERSKINE. 67 Will any one venture to say that this was the advice of a man who was actuated by a spirit of vindictiveness or by the paltry ambition of being the founder of a sect ? In every view the circumstances through which jNIr. E. had passed were a criterion of his principles as a Christian and of his temper as a man. We say with confidence, he stood'the test. On the other side he has been accused of introducing into his sermons " inflammable matter," and of manifesting "intemperance" in the management of his cause.* But we look in vain for something in the way of proof to justify the charge. If a plain statement of the right of the church's members to a voice in the ap- pointment of the church's rulers be " inflammatory," Mr. E. was guilty as alleged ; but to accuse a man as an in- cendiary for maintaining such a principle is language fit only for the mouth of a despot or a slave. We admit that in pleading for the scriptural right of the people to a direct vote as well as free consent in the election of their mini- sters, and in vindicating this their unfettered privilege as a principle recognised by the Church of Scotland in former times, Mr. E. put his own interpretation, — in some points debateable, — on the earlier documents and procedure of the church ; but Mr. E. was not singular in this, as the rea- sonings of members of the Establishment evinced in the con- troversies of his days and not less fully in those of our own. Of intemperance of language and of personal attacks his writings are honourably free. The corrupt measures of the time are indeed characterised with the plain speech of a man deeply in earnest ; but when he and his brethren speak of their opponents, it is commonly under such phrases as " the prevailing party," " the ruling side," " the managers in the present course of defection." If examples of scurri- lity could be found in Mr. Erskine's testimonies against ecclesiastical corruption, they may surely be looked for in the extracts of his sermon, for which the Synod of Perth and afterwards the Assembly found him censurable. These were * ^NIoncriefF's Life of Dr. Erskine. 68 LIFE OF EBENEZER ERSKIXE. published by order of the Assembly* as the grounds and the vindication of the proceedings against him. To take an example or two : — The first charge was, " that the strain of a great part of the (Sjmod) sermon appears to compare the ministers of this church with the most corrupt teachers under the Old Testament." To this Mr. E. replies :— "The charge is not, nor can it be, proven by any passages ili my discourse, for I know there is a great body of faithful ministers in the Church of Scotland with whom I do not reckon myself worthy to be compared." In a strain quite in keeping with this commencement, he proceeds to reply to the particulars of the charge. On another head it was alleged, " That he charges our forefathers with a sinful silence or negligence in not testifying, after the late Re- volution, against encroachment in the times of Popery and Prelacy." Mr. E.'s answer is, " I have a very great regard for the instruments of our deliverance at the Revolution, particularly the godly ministers who survived the flood of persecuting tyranny, and my own father among the rest ; yet I hope the reverend Synod will excuse me, though I do not look upon these earthly ministers or those who have succeeded them to this day as infallible," &c. &c. This is very remote from the style of a railer, and might suffice to put many professors of a more polished taste to shame. In Mr. Erskine's personal appearances before the church courts there was no v/ant of respect to their authority, while he maintained his rights with a promptitude and presence of mind that sometimes put his prosecutors out of counte- nance. The scene before the Commission in August 1733, when the pride of power was high and mighty, was equally characteristic of the domineering and arbitrary spirit of the " prevailing party," and of the self-possession, penetration, and firmness of the object of their attack. It is clear that they were resolved to carry everything with a high hand, * A Narrative of the Procedure of the Judicatories of the Church of Scotland with relation to Mr. Ebenezer Erskine, &c. ; Edinbui-gh, 1739. LIFE OF EBENEZER ERSKIXE. 69 and that they hoped to make very short work of the mat- ter. Mr. E. and his friends had prepared written defences. These the Commission refused to hear, insisting upon pleadings viva voce. Mr. E. (the others having been re- moved) stood to his right to make his defence, either " by Vfoim or writ," as he judged best. No browbeating could move him. He saw the necessity of keeping to his pur- pose that he might bring out the case in his own vindica- tion more fully and correctly than he could hope to do by speaking on the spur of the moment in answer to questions designed to perplex or mislead him ; and also, that his de- fences given in in writing and with due formality, might be engrossed in the process for his vindication. This was not at all to the mind of the prosecutors, who, finding him inflexible, asked if " his paper was a retractation of his pro- test or not," to which he replied, " The court was abun- dantly able to judge upon their reading his answer." Very captious this, it will be said ; Ebenezer will not so much as say whether his paper is or is not a retractation of his pro- test, but snarlingly telfs them they will learn on reading it. Let us judge by the result. Erskine knew his men ; by his firmness he carried his point for himself ; and what followed ? A committee of the Commission met next morn- ing with the protesters to induce them to retract ; this they refused to do. On the report of this to the Commis- sion by their committee, " Messrs. Wilson and Moncrieff were asked if they agreed to the truth of the report. They answered in the afl&rmative ; upon which advantage was taken to refuse a reading of their written answer, which obhged the said two brethren to deliver themselves viva voce."" An eye-witness of one of those scenes in which, as we judge, Mr. Erskine triumphed both in management and in temper, describes it as follows: — " I saw Mr. Ebenezer Erskine then standing at the bar in a most easy and un- daunted, yea, majestic appearance, amidst warm and brow- beating reasonings against the refusal which he then made, 70 LIFE OF EBEXEZER ERSKINE. particularly by the Earl of Isla. Before the Commission found themselves obliged to reverse their forenoon's reso- lution against receiving any written answers to their ques- tion, and before what is narrated in the preface to the re- presentation, a proposal was agreed in for allowing him to read such parts of his representation as contained a direct answer to their question. The paper being then haiiided over to him, he entered upon the reading of it, beginning with the address and title. The Moderator immediately stopped him, telling him that he w^as to read only such parts as contained a direct answer to the question. Mr. E. replied that these would come in due order. This pro- duced new reasonings, which issued in his being allowed to read the whole paper ; and he did so in a very deliberate manner and with a very audible voice: Mr. Archibald Rennie, who was next year intruded into the parish of Muckhart, holding the candle to him as it was then late."*^ Equally defensible in our view was the firmness with which Mr. Erskine and his brethren dissented from a pro- posal of accommodation made by the Commission in No- vember 1733, that " if the next General Assembly shall de- clare that it was not meant by the act of the last Assembly to deny or take away the privilege and duty of ministers to testify against defections ; then we shall be at liberty, and willing to withdraw our protest against the said act of Assembly ; and particularly we reserve to ourselves the liberty of testifying against the act of Assembly 1732 on all proper occasions." It is one of the many alleged proofs of " intemperance and pertinacity " which various assailants of Erskine and his brethren have adduced, that to this fair and moderate proposition they refused to accede. But what was the proposition 1 Did it do justice to Mr. Erskine ? Was not the bearing of it rather the reverse? Did it not imply that, so far as concerned him personally, it should remain unmodified — untouched; but that so far as the sentence * MS. Note by Mr. Gib quoted by Dr. ]\I'KeiTow and ^Ir. Thomson. LIFE OF EBENEZER ERSKIXE. 71 due to him might be supposed to impair ministerial free- dom, thus far it should be held as of no effect ? Thus viewed, the committee of the Commission gravely proposed that the intent and operation of the decision should stand as before, but that an inference that some drew from it should be disavowed by the Assembly, and that this should be accepted by the party censured as a basis of accommo- dation. Besides, in the words of the brethren, " any de- claration that a subsequent Assembly can make, cannot remove the ground upon which we protested against that decision, in regard that any act and declaration of the fol- lowing Assembly, though agreeable to the word of God, can never take away the ground of protesting against a wrong decision of a preceding Assembly." What is there, we would ask, in all this but the conduct of men who un- derstood their cause, and who adhered to it from principle ? To the irreproachable temper and deportment of Mr. E. during these agitations, the most decided testimony was borne by various parties, — the Presbytery, Kirk-session, Magistrates and Town Council of Stirling. One sentence from the representation to the Commission by the Town Council may suffice : — " We beg leave to represent that we have always lived in good friendship with Mr. Erskine after now two full years' acquaintance ; that we find him to be a man of a peaceable disposition of mind and of a religious walk and conversation, and to be every way fitted and qualified for discharging the office of the ministry amongst us, and that he has accordingly discharged the same to our great satisfaction ; that therefore our being deprived of his ministerial performances must undoubtedly be very moving and afflicting to us, and that the putting of the aforesaid act to execution, we are afraid, will in all likeli- hood be attended with very lamentable circumstances, con- fusions, and disasters, not only in this place in particular, but also in the church in general." In giving an account of Mr. Erskine's life we are led into this course of remark in illustration of his character and in vindication of his conduct. For a full defence, dealing more with the pub- i^J. LIFE OF EBENEZEU ERSKIXE. lie and less with the personal view of the case, the reader may have recourse to the " Reasons by Mr. E. Erskine, (fcc. why they have not acceded to the judicatories of the Estab- lished Church." From the sentence of the Assembly loosing Mr. Erskine and the brethren from their charges to their final expulsion from the Established Church, and their deposition from the ministry in 1740, little occurs in the personal history of Mr. E. that calls for notice, apart from those events which form the public history of the period ; nor is there in these events any new development of character, however fitted they may be to serve as increasing illustration of those high principles and virtues, of which full proof had already been given in the labours of his ministerial and in the con- tendings of his public life. The incident that chiefly calls for notice was a trial that befel him about four years after the adverse sentence of Assembly in 1733. Actuated by feelings that had every appearance of personal estrange- ment, five elders of the West Church, of which Mr. E. was minister, commenced a course of opposition and annoyance to him that gave rise to some painful scenes. Their hos- tility was the more remarkable that their names, with one exception, are found at the Kirk-session's address to the Commission in the process against Mr. E., bearing aflfec- tionate testimony to the acceptable gifts and blameless life of their minister. But in the progress of the controversy, a 2\Iy. ]Mackie, who had been intruded into the parish of St. Ninians, ingratiated himself with a party of the West Church session, and succeeded so far as to induce them to take a course very hurtful to the peace and comfort of their minister. An occasion of open complaint occurred in the practice which, as mentioned before, Messrs. Hamilton and Erskine had adopted to exclude scandalous and unqualified persons from the fellowship of the church. This resolu- tion was exclaimed against as arbitrary and incompetent ; the case was carried to the General Assembly, who declared the minority to be the kirk-session of Stirling ; and under sanction of the magistrates, " the five " placed themselves LIFE OF EBENEZER ERSKINE. /3 at the church doors as the legal guardians of the money collected for the poor. Mr. Erskine from the pulpit de- nounced such conduct, as an Erastian intrusion on the independence of the church, and summoned "the five" by name and sirname to appear before the judgment seat of Christ to answer for their conduct. It is to be ad- mitted, that Mr. Erskine's zeal in this instance exceeded the limits of discretion. But the provocations which he received were many; and in the commencement of the strife he had the fuU concurrence and support of his vener- able colleague, Mr. Hamilton — who died soon after — ^and the cordial co-operation of more than two-thirds of the ses- sion to the close. Along with his other associate brethren, — now eight in number, — Mr. Erskine was libelled before the Assembly 1739 for following insubordinate and divisive courses; and by the Assembly of next year was cast out of the church and deposed from the ministry. Notice was forthwith given to the presbyteries and to the magistrates of the re- spective burghs concerned, that they might give effect to the Assembly's sentence of exclusion from the pulpits of the Establishment. In several of the cases the civil authorities were reluctant and slow to interpose. It was otherwise, however, with the magistrates of Perth and Stirling. On the Sabbath morning after the decision of Assembly, Mr. Erskine, on proceeding to the church, found the doors locked against him. Protesting with great solemnity against his exclusion, he withdrew. The multitude would have forced an entrance, but this Mr. E. forbade. Re- pulsed in his attempt to obtain admission to the church, Mr. E., accompanied by the people, repaired to an open space in the vicinity of the town ; and there, under the walls of the castle, lifted up the banner of truth, with a spirit unbound and free as the breeze that wafted the solemn accents of his message to the ears of the listening multitude. The traditionary remembrances of this day's work are those of vivid and profound impression. A similar scene took place at Perth, where Mr. Wilson 74 LIFE OF EBENEZER ERSKINE. demanded admission in the face of the magistrates, who, with their guards, were valorously drawn up in battle ar- ray to defend the " legal synagogue " from invasion by the minister of peace. Mr. jMoncrieff of Abernethy, with a juster sense of what was fitting the occasion, refused to occupy the pulpit, although no one hindered him. The ejection of the Associate brethren from their pa- rishes and temporalities, followed of course their " declina- ture" of the church's jurisdiction; nor would it have ac- corded with the self-denying and martyr-like spirit of the men to have clung to their parochial charges after they felt themselves necessitated to renounce both the com- munion and authority of the courts of the Establishment. But the spirit of intolerance would be satisfied with no- thing less than the denuding of Mr. E. and his brethren of the ministerial character. The men whose zeal for the doctrines of grace was looked on with disfavour by many, and whose advocacy of the people's rights was offensive to still more, behoved to lie under the ban of the highest cen- sure as no longer fit to be ministers of Christ. Such haste to depose, and the painful betrayal of a spirit that is not of God in the grounds of censure or the manner of its inflic- tion, is one of the presumptuous sins of ecclesiastical au- thority. To this lordly arrogance, churches that lean on the arm of the state have ever shown a constitutional proneness. Intolerance is the inherent vice of pri^'ileged corporations. If it be alleged that churches with less temp- tation have sometimes imbibed the same spirit, we do not deny the mischievous tendency of bad example, and admit that, so far as its influence has been felt, the fact is to be mentioned for a lamentation. CHAPTER IV. ErsMne's correspondence with ^\^litefield — 'WTiitefield at Dunfermline — Kupture vriih the Associate Presb}i:ery — Cambuslang re%'ival — ]\Ir. Erskine's conduct in reference to it — Covenants renewed — Act concern- ing the doctrine of grace — Rebelhon 1745 — i\Ir. Erskine's loyalty — Breach of the Associate Synod — ^Ir E. Professor of Di\4nity — -domes- tic and personal afflictions — last illness and death — character — Notices of his family. From 1733, when the Associate Presbytery was formed at Gairney Bridge, Mr. Erskine and his brethren, though retaining their parochial charges, occupied in some respects a distinct ecclesiastical position. By their de- position in 1740 their denominational character became fuDy defined and estabhshed. As their design in originally seceding was to bear witness against the corrupt adminis- tration of the church courts, with the intention to resume their place in the Establishment when such a measure of reform should be effected as would admit of their return, they continued to maintain their testimony on the ground they at first adopted, till they were driven from it by the deed of Assembly. Without relinquishing in any point the principles which they had avowed from the beginning, they now prosecuted with growing ardour and unrelaxing energy the course that belonged to them as an organised and independent body. Attracted by the accounts he had heard of the Associate Presbytery, and deeply interested in some sermons of the Erskines which had come into his hands, the cele- brated George Whitefield commenced a correspondence with the brothers, which speedily led to their invitation of Mr. W. to Scotland, to take part with them for a time in their labours. Their motive in this was not secta- /6 LIFE OF EBEXEZEH ERSKINE. rian. " It would be unreasonable," says Ebenezer Erskine in a letter to Mr. Whitefield, " to propose or urge that you should incorporate as a member of our presbytery, and wholly embark in every branch of our reformation, unless the Father of lights were clearing your way thereunto, which we pray he may enlighten in his time so as you and we may see eye to eye. All intended by us at present is, that when you come to Scotland, your way may be such as not to strengthen the hands of our corrupt clergy and ju- dicatories." * * * " We preach not upon the call and invitation of the ministers, but of the people, which I suppose is your own practice now in England ; and should this also be your way when you come to Scotland, it could do the Associate Presbytery no manner of harm." Whitefield came as invited ; and though much caressed by the church party in Edinburgh, he refused co-operation with them till he had conferred mth the Seceders. An in- terview took place between them at Dunfermline. It ended in a rupture. The authentic accounts of the conference are somewhat general and scanty ; but it is easy to gather from the statements on both sides, that the Seceders re- quired more of Whitefield than it was reasonable to expect. Their object was to make him a convert to the jus divinum of Presbyterian government, which might have been seen from the first to be a fruitless attempt upon one who avowed neutrality and almost indiS'erence on points of the kind. It is equally plain, that the Associate brethren expected of Mr. Whitefield a closer identification with them in their public capacity, than was consistent with those views of his mission as an evangelist on which he had act- ed hitherto, and which he had unequivocally avowed in his correspondence with the Erskines. The mistake of the Seceders lay in expecting Whitefield's co-operation with them on such grounds ; and in making overtures to him on the subject, unless they had been prepared to hold min- isterial communion with him on a more general basis than the distinctive principles of their own Association. On the other hand it is equally plain, that on this point White- LIFE OF EBENEZER ERSKIXE. 77 field had no cause to complain of being taken at unawares, after the significant hints of Ebenezer Erskine's letter. We cannot however form a just estimate of any question of the kind as it affects the character of parties, by looking merely at its abstract merits. And if we take into account the spirit of the times, the reflection to which we are led is, that on the subject of toleration and the " communion of saints," the Seceders were not as yet in advance of thsir age. We can see nothing in a comparative view of the case, in which the church party had any cause to triumph. Whitefield was indeed cordially welcomed into various of their pulpits ; but if the church courts connived at certain of their number who leant to this liberal policy, they were at the very time in the course of tramphng on every vestige of popular rights in their public administration ; and if the Seceders acted on narrow \TLews in their rupture with the great preacher, it was in the very heat of their disin- terested contendings for the liberties of God's heritage, and under the burden of obloquy and persecution for righteous- ness' sake. Not to lose sight of Ebenezer Er-skine's individual share in this affair with Mr. Whitefield, it is gratifying to have it to record, that his conduct in the Dunfermline confer- ence was in harmony with the spirit of his previous cor- respondence with Mr. W., and such as to contrast favourably with the spirit of others, and to secure Whitefield's un- abated personal esteem. " I wish all were like-minded with your honoured father and uncle ; matters would not then be carried on with so high a hand." * It is painful, however, to think that from this time for- Avard all personal intercourse between Ebenezer Erskine and Mr. AVhitefield appears to have ceased. Shortly after, Mr. W. being in Stirling, sat in the tent where Mr. E. was preaching, and at the close of the discourse rose to address the people. Mr. Erskine would not stay to hear him ! + To such extent may good men forget themselves. White- * Letter from 'Mr. W. to one of Mr. E.'s sons. + M'Kerrow, vol. i. 207-. 78 LIFE OF EBENEZER ERSKINE. field's conduct from first to last, was in accordance with the resolution expressed in his letters to stand "neuter" on points of order and government, so that the disappoint- ment of the Erskines and their friends arose, from no decep- tion of his, but from their own too sanguine expectations. Matters unhappily did not rest here. The " Cambuslang Work," and Mr. Whitefield's concern with it, were subjects of discussion on both sides ; the friends of the church ap- pealing to the revival as Heaven's owning of the church against the Seceders, — these in turn depreciating the move- ment and its promoters. On the part of some of the Asso- ciate brethren exceedingly rash and presumptuous things were said, for which the authors afterwards expressed their sorrow. Ebenezer Erskine took no such prominent part as others in the dispute ; but that his sentiments in the main coincided with them, we know from the Act of the Asso- ciate Presbytery on the subject, which the best friends of their cause will be the last to defend. Mr. Erskine had no hand in framing the deed ; but he was Moderator of Presbytery at the time of its appointment. In the renewing of the Covenants by the Associate Pres- bytery, Mr. E. took an active part. He preached at the meeting held for this purpose at Stirling in December 1743, and read the bond which the Presbytery had previously adopted, to be sworn and subscribed by the members. By a subsequent act the Presbytery made the renewing of the covenants a term of ministerial and Christian communion, — an unwise and unwarranted rigour which not a few — Ebenezer Erskine among the number — saw cause after- wards to repent. It was at this period of the Secession that the presbytery emitted their famous act concerning the doctrine of grace ; Mr. Erskine being the senior member of the committee appointed to frame it. It was a document after his own heart. His zeal for truth found welcome utterance in the testimony borne anew, against prevalent errors from the time of Simson downwards. Already we have seen Mr. E.'s determined bearing in the ^Marrow controversy. Al- LIFE OF EEEXEZER ERSKIXE. 79 though his position was not so prominent in the earlier con- troversy, his diary and discourses bear witness to th6 glow- ing zeal with which he cherished in his heart, and upheld in his ministrations, the divine honours of " Christ the Lord." Mr. Erskine's loyal zeal in the rebellion of 1745 is well known. Animated by his example, the Seceders of Stir- ling took arms in support of the government, and were formed into a regiment for the defence of the town. Mr. Erskine's courage was not only ardent, but had an air of the chivalrous. " One night when the rebels were expect- ed to make an attack on the town, he presented himself in the guard-room fully accoutred in the military garb of the times. Dr. John Anderson, late Professor of Natural Phi- losophy in the University of Glasgow, and Mr. John Burns, teacher, father of the Rev. Dr. Burns, Barony parish in that city, happened to be on guard the same night ; and surprised to see the venerable clergyman in this attire, re- commended to him to go home to his prayers as more suit- able to his vocation, ' I am determined,' was his reply, ^ to take the hazard of the night along with you, for the present crisis requires the arms as well as the prayers of all good subjects.'"* This trial past, another came quickly. Our task relieves us of the painful duty of entering on " the breach." But in a Life of Ebenezer Erskine, we cannot avoid glancing at the disaster, although but for the purpose of learning to hum- ble ourselves for the frailty of human nature ; to adore the wisdom of God who made the wrath of man to praise him ; and to acknowledge the inherent vitality of a cause which, to the disappointment of the vaticinations of hostile on- lookers, did not sink under the opprobrium of so grievous a rupture, Mr. E.'s views were those of the " Burgher" party, regarding the lawfulness of the disputed clause in the burgess oath. These views it is no part of ours either to condemn or to defend; but as marking the spirit of * Life by Fraser, p. 439. 80 LIFE OF EBEXEZER ERSKIXE. the man, let it be mentioned, that he did not indulge in asperity towards brethren who differed from him, and that he advocated the opinion that the point contested was one on which honest difference might exist, and mutual for- bearance ought to be exercised. Amidst the alienations and separations that followed, he stayed himself on God, and hoped for good out of evil ; — " Here is comfort that the great Manager of the house is looking on ; he permits and overrules aU these confusions and disorders for his own holy and wise ends for the trial of faith and patience, and to show his own skill in bringing order out of confusion ; and when he has performed his whole work in jNIount Sion and in Jerusalem, he will reign among his ancients glori- ously." * INIr. Moncrieff, professor of Divinity to the Associate Synod at the time of the disruption, having adopted the opposite views of the Burgess oath, the section of the Se- ceding body to whom Mr. Erskine belonged, appointed him their professor. The duties of this office he executed in 1748, and resigned the chair in 1749. Years and infirmities were now increasing upon him. Fresh bereavements too occurred to weaken him in the way. On the 15th March 1751, he lost his second wife; and his brother Ralph died on the 6th November 1752. " When the interesting intelligence of his dear brother's decease was communicated to him, he said with great emotion, " And is Ralph gone ? He has twice got the start of me ; he was first in Christ and now he is first in glory." Amid all his bereavements and afflictions, he made Jehovah his confidence and hope. " Many of God's billows are going over me," says he in a letter to a friend, " yet still I hope the Lord will command his loving-kindness in the day-time, and his song shall be with me in the night." t No longer able for the labours of the ministry, he had the happiness of seeing his nephew, ]Mr. James Erskine, * V>'orks, vol. ii. p. 349. f Dr. Fraser. LIFE OF EBEXEZER ERSKIXE. 81 ordained as his colleague in the commencement of 1752. Mr. E. was so well as to be able to preach on the occasion. But his remaining strength speedily gave way ; though his good-will to his Master's service suffered no abatement. Within a few weeks of his death, to gratify the earnest wishes of his people, he went from his bed to the pulpit, and preached on the words of Job, ch. xix. 23. " I know that my Redeemer liveth," (fcc. The following letter to his daughter Alice, wife of Rev. James Scott, Gateshall, was written at this period, and is the last memorial extant of his pen. Stirling, — — 1753. " My dear Alice, '• My nephew James read me your let- ter to him yesterday, which brought me under a new sym- pathy with you, on account of the death of your dear uncle Ralph, and the staggering condition of your father. Ac- cording to the course of nature it was my turn to have gone off before him. But the will of the good and sove- reign Grod has determined otherwise, and that I should tarry behind for a while in this weary wilderness. It seems I am not yet made meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of saints in Hght, but need to be more beaten in the wil- derness with the hammer of affiction before I come to the upper temple and sanctuary. But good is the will of the Lord. '• As for the state of my health about which you appear so anxious, I bless the Lord I have no formed sickness ; only I have borne, and am still so much afflicted with pain, that I am still unable to follow the work of the ministry. I am mostly confined to my bed. I sometimes get up, but in a httle I am forced to return to my bed again through pain, which abates as to the severity of it whenever I get to bed, in so much that my tottering hand becomes steady, and both body and mind are more easy. This letter is a proof of what I say, for it is wrote in bed — leaning on my elbow. I could neither have written so much, or so well, 3 F 82 LIFE OP EBENEZER ERSKINE. had I been sitting at the table. The Lord makes me to sing of mercy on this account, that my bed is made to ease me, and my couch to comfort me ; nor am I, like poor Job, scared with dreams or terrified with visions. Many a time my meditations of Him are sweet in the silent watches of the night. Many, many a time, the Lord says, ' I am the Lord thy God;' and then follows, ' my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, thou art my God.' ' Thine am I, David, and on thy side will I be, thou son of Jesse.' " On Sabbath last, in the afternoon, as the people were very urgent to see and hear me, I went from my bed to the pulpit ; and after preaching half an hour from these words, ' I know that my Redeemer liveth,' I returned from the pulpit to my bed again. — I begin to weary on my elbow. " Your affectionate father, "E. Erskine." The closing scene we give in the words of Dr. Eraser. " His last sermon was hterally preached from his bed to a company assembled in his room, where he baptized a child, after discoursing on a text with which he had particularly wished to finish his ministry, viz. Psalm xlviii. 14. ' This God is our God for ever and ever j he will be our God even unto death.' " His private conversation with relatives and other kind inquirers, during his last illness, was at once cheerful and edifying. He often expressed himself in language to this effect : ' I have always found my times of severe affliction my best times. Many blasts I have endured through life ; but I had this comfort under them — a good God, a good conscience, a good cause.' When one of his elders thus ac- costed him : ' Sir, you have given us many good advices ; may I ask what you are now doing for your own soul ? ' * I am just doing with it,' he repHed, ' what I did forty years ago ; I am resting on that word, " I am the Lord thy God.'" Another friend, surprised at the serenity and LIFE OF EBEXEZER ERSKINE. 83 cheerfulness he possessed in the immediate view of death and eternity, put the question, ' Sir, are you not afraid of your sins 1 ' ' Indeed no,' was his answer, ' ever since I knew Christ I have never thought highly of my frames and duties, nor am I slavishly/ afraid of my sins." " To another of his relations who came to see him, and began to comfort him thus : ' I hope you get now and then a Mink to bear up your spirit under your affliction,' — he promptly returned this spirited reply : ' I know more of words than of blinks. Though he slay me yet will I trust in him. The covenant is ray charter ; and if it had not been for that blessed word, my hope and strength had perished from the Lord.' To his beloved children he un- bosomed himself in the most endearing manner, mingling consolation with his dying counsels : ' Though I die, the Lord liveth. I have known more of God since I came to this bed, than through all my Kfe.' " During the night on which he finished his earthly career, Mrs. Fisher, having come from Glasgow to visit her dying father, was sitting in the apartment where he lay, and en- gaged in reading. Awakened from a slumber, he said, ' What book is that, my dear, you are reading V ' It is your sermon, father,' she replied, ' on that text, " I am the Lord thy God." ' ' woman,' said he then, ' that is the best sermon ever I preached.' The discourse had proved very refreshing to himself, as weU as to many of his hear- ers. A few minutes, after that expression had fallen from his lips, he requested his daughter to bring the table and candle near the bed ; and having shut his eyes, and laid his hand under his cheek, he quietly breathed out his soul into the hamls of his Redeemer, on the 2d of June 1754. Had he lived twenty days longer, he would have finished the seventy-fourth year of his age; and had he been spared three months more, he would have completed the fifty- first of his ministry, having resided twenty-eight years at Portmoak, and nearly twenty- three at StirUng." As our narrative has been conducted with a view to bring 84 LIFE OF EBEXEZER ERSKIXE. out the prominent features of Mr, Erskine both in his public and private capacity, and to vindicate his good name from charges which we deem uncharitable and unjust, we feel ourselves in a great measure relieved from the task of attempting in form a delineation of his character. We shall confine ourselves to a very few remarks. It would be fooHsh to claim for Mr. E. a first place as a man of intellect or of genius ; but we think it must be plain to every candid observer, that no man could have passed through the trying events which were crowded into his personal history, and accomplish what he did, whose men- tal endowments were not of a superior order. The origina- tor of a great rehgious movement; a leader in impor- tant theological controversies; the vindicator of popu- lar rights; the pulpit orator who thrilled the hearts of thousands ; the debater who stood his ground in church courts, when numbers and authority, and the pride of place conspired to browbeat and overbear him — the person in whom these things were realized — and such was Ebenezer Erskine, — must be admitted to have been in point of capa- city no common man. Many pronounce dogmatically on the talents of others, from some particular indication or single test, and conse- quently from a narrow view of the case on which they sit in judgment. In this way the mere belles lettres critic set- tles the question of a man's standing by the qualities of his style. Tried by this test alone, Mr. E. would not rank as he ought. His composition is often careless ; his expressions quaint and homely ; and especially, his diction on topics of experimental rehgion, has a familiarity and an unction which the fastidiousness of classical taste, the dry aesthe- tics of the dialectician, and the cold temperament of the mere professional ecclesiastic wiU regard as the verbiage of mediocrity, because the sentiment itself they contemn as a proof of weakness. To such tribunals of taste we do not aUow that Ebenezer Erskine is amenable; it is not by such verdicts that we can consent he shall stand LIFE OF EBENEZER ERSKIXE, 85 or fall. We appeal from the criterion that deals with the rhetoric of words, to the test of sound doctrine, of doings and of facts. Piety was the most conspicuous, as it was the crowning excellence of his character. Its influence was all-pervad- ing. In the pulpit, and in the courts, and in the whole tenor of his conversation, a lively and habitual sense of divine things was seen. Far from that formality of pro- fession which would confine religion, as it is emotional, to rare and special occasions, Mr. E.'s whole cast of thought and expression was devout. In " the manner of his com- munication," when pleading his cause before judicatories, where he was sure to be called fanatic for his godly sim- plicity, there was the same savour of spirituality which so thoroughly imbued his public ministrations. From these, and from his diary, we learn, that his spirit of piety was fed from the highest and most inspiring source, — "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." " The glorious Emmanuel " was the constant theme of his meditations ; his person and work he regarded as the substance and life of the gospel, and felt to be the "power of God," for transforming the soul from glory to glory, and elevating it with holy joy. Of these things his private reflections on occasion of Professor Simson's second process, give striking proof of deep and delightful experience. His moral courage was conspicuous, and no doubt was a main secret of his power and success. It is impossible to mark his course without recognising his earnest con- scientious conviction, his straightforwardness of purpose, his readiness to suffer loss in pursuing the path of duty ; and hence his fearlessness of man's frown in maintaining the law of his God. On the field of public controversy this element of his character was signally manifested ; and of course in the more retired walks of pastoral duty he failed not to prove himself an instructor who rebuked with all authority. It was such qualities as these that took hold of the popular mind, and made his very pre- sence commanding, rather than the dignity of his per- 86 LIFE OF EBENEZER ERSKINE. sonal appearance, which, had it not been the mirror of a nobler grace within, would not have so suddenly subdued the passions of a rabble, as described in the following anecdote : — " Soon after the commencement of the Secession, while the public mind was greatly agitated by the ecclesiastical occurrences then taking place, some highly applauding and others keenly reprobating the procedure of the Associate Presbytery, several inhabitants of a parish in the vicinity of Stirling (the parish oi Airth, it is said) requested Mr. Erskine to come and preach to them, which he consented to do. A number of the parishioners, however, displeased at the request, after mutual consultation, determined to prevent the sermon. The friends of Mr. Erskine were equally zealous, and resolved that he should not be hinder- ed. Both parties having assembled in great numbers, and having taken their measures by placing themselves opposite to one another, on the ground that lay between the house where the minister stopped, and the appointed place of meeting for worship, the hour arrived, and nothing short of a fierce conflict was immediately dreaded. Mr. Erskine, however, no sooner made his appearance than the turbulent passions of his enemies were completely allayed. He stepped forward with so cool and collected an air, and with so much composure and dignity, that an instantaneous impression was produced in his favour. As he walked betwixt the hostile ranks, the two parties seemed to rival each other in expressing their respect, and they speedily mingled their voices in one song of praise. The psalm which he gave out on that occasion was sufficiently appropriate — Psalm xxvii. 3. ' Against me thoiTgli an host encamp, My heart yet fearless is,' &c." * Of Mr. Erskine's numerous children, — at least fifteen in number, — several died in infancy and in early childhood. His eldest son Ebenezer betook himself to a seafaring life, * Life by Fraser. LIFE OF EBENEZER ERSKIXE. 87 and died abroad. — David gave proofs of precocious talent when prosecuting his studies at the University ; but his nervous system became unhinged, and he never recovered vigour and decision sufficient for close apphcation and public usefulness. His correspondence with his sister, Mrs. Scott, discovered pleasing traits of sprighthness and piety. He died at Edinburgh in 1800. — Jean, Mr. Erskine's eldest daughter, was married to the Rev. James Fisher, his well-known fellow-labourer and fellow-sufferer in the Secession struggle. — Another daughter, Margaret, was married to Mr. James Wardlaw of Dunfermline, but died early. — Anne, after residing for a time with her uncle Ralph, then a widower, was married to Mr. James Jeffray, bookseller, Stirling, whom she survived. She was a person of lively and pious disposition. — Alison, the youngest daughter, became the wife of the Rev. James Scott of Gateshall. She was a woman of strong character and of eminent piety ; and lived to a venerable age. She died at Edinburgh in 1814. — Of Mr. E.'s children by his second wife little is known. Two sons, James and Alexander, died abroad. Mary is the only daughter of the second marriage who is known to have reached maturity. She had the privilege of waiting on her aged parent in his last illness, and survived him many years, — having died at Glasgow, unmarried, in 1786. Mr. Erskine's labours as an author consisted principally in the publication of occasional sermons. His first ap- pearance from the press was caused by an unprovoked and unmerited attack upon his doctrine by a brother whose hostile attempts in this way have already been adverted to. He was afterwards induced, by the solicitations of hearers, to give to the public from time to time discourses which had proved especially useful. PubUshed thus occa- sionally and in a separate form, a collection was made of these discourses by his son-in-law, Mr. Fisher, after the author's death, and printed in four volumes ; to these in the later editions of his works are added the contents of a fifth, which was edited by jMr. David Erskine, agreeably 88 LIFE OF EBENEZER ERSKIJfE. to directions which he had received from his venerable parent. The only other publication that is certainly known to be Mr. Erskine's, is a pamphlet on the rupture regarding the Burgess' Oath, entitled " The True State of the Question," (fee. But his pen was employed conjunctly with others in various performances, which did good service to the church. His share in the framing of papers relative to the Marrow controversy is mentioned above. To what extent he took part in the documents issued at differ- ent times by the Associate body is not ascertained. Along with his brother Ralph, he was engaged in his old age in compiling the Synod's Catechism. The materials for this valuable work furnished by " Ebenezer, extended from the eighth to the twenty-eighth question, those by Ralph from the seventy-sixth to the ninety-fifth."* The high estimation of his works by competent judges, and the happy influence they have had on the holiness and comfort of many, bear witness that, being dead, he YET SPEAKETH. * Dr. Fraser. LIFE AND TIMES THE REV. WILLIAM WILSON, A.M., :mixister of the gospel, perth, professor of theology to THE associate PRESBYTERY, AST> ONE OF THE FOLTfDERS OF THE UNTIED PRESBYTERIAN^ CHURCH. BY JOHN EADIE, LLD. " For monuments made of wood are subject to be burnt ; of glass, to be Droken; of soft stone, to moulder; of marble and metal (if escaping the teeth of time), to be demoUshed by the hand of covetousness; so that, in my appre- hension, the safest way to secure a memory from oblivion is (next to his o-wn \Trtues) by committing the same in writing to posterity."— Thosias Fuller, 1662. PPiEFATORIAL XOTE. Like most ministers of his day, Mr. Wilson kept a diary, in Avhich were punctually registered his own history and experi- ence, interspersed with brief notices of such contemporaneous events as were of interest and importance. These papers had been carefully preserved among his descendants, though it would seem that, after the third generation of them had passed away, the short-hand characters which Mr. Wilson had employed coidd no longer be read. The Rev. Andrew Femer of Newarthill, his great grandson, after repeated experiments and failures, suc- ceeded, however, during the autumn of 1829 in deciphering the venerable record. The same gentleman, from his intimate con- nection Avith various branches of Mr. Wilson's family, had also gi'adually collected a number of authentic anecdotes concerning his great grandsire's life and career. Possessed of such mate- rials, Mr. Terrier was immediately induced to publish a Memoir of iVIi'. Wilson, — in which these traditionary reminiscences were incorporated with extracts from the private journal. Such a publication was of good service to the church, as it embodied a large amount of valuable information which might soon have been lost beyond recovery. The main authority for the state- ments in the following pages is this printed diaiy ; and out of it, verified by other papers, and illustrated by Mr. Wilson's own sermons and other extant works, has the present biography been constnicted. Every reader wiU perceive our obligations to Dr. Terrier,* and he has expressed to us his hearty acquiescence in the work we have undertaken. To pronounce any critical judgment on the merit of his volume will not be expected from us, nor need we point out how, in arrangement and combination, it ma- terially difters from our own attempt. We have no higher aini than to give our churches such a truthful portraiture of a good, earnest, upright, and able man, as may qualify them to sympa- thize with his spirit, imitate his excellences, and appreciate his labours. Gl.\^gow, Ca^ibridge Street, March 1849. * Dr. Fenier is now pastor of a congregation in Upper Canada. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Ls'TRODUCTORY. — Pp. 95, 96. CHAPTER n. Wilson's parentage — Youth — Piety — Studies — Temptations and Li- cense.— Pp. 97—106. CHAPTER ni. Period of Probation— Religious experience — Acceptability as a preacher — Opposition from Moderatism— Disappointment of the parish of Daiiy — Call from Perth, and ordination. — Pp. 107 — 117. CHAPTER IV. Labours — Trials — Integrity and self-denial — GroA\-th in grace — Minis- terial success. — Pp. 118 — 127. CHAPTER V. Lawsuit abandoned — Personal and domestic incidents — Maniage — Re- peated family bereavements — Comfort in God, and hope in Him who is our Life.— Pp. 128—134. CHAPTER VI. Ministry, earnest and faithful — Theology, sound and sanctified — Specimen of peroration — Conflict with deists in Perth — Synod sennon.— Pp. 135—144. CHAPTER Vn. Corruption of the Church — E. Erskine's Synod sermon — Memorable 10th of October — Wilson's boldness in defending Erskine — His preparation of pubUc papers— Suspension. — Pp. 145 — 163. 94 CONTENTS. CHAPTER Vm. Wilson's hopes of return to the Establisliment at length abandoned- Peace of mhid — Vindication of his chai-acter — Necessity of traming young men for the ministiy — Wise resolution of the Associate Presby- tery — Unanimous choice of Wilson as their Professor — His peculiar qualifications for the responsible chai'ge, and his success as a Teacher of Theology.— Pp. 164r— 170. CHAPTER IX. Seceding ministers hbelled — Deposed — Scene of Wilson's expulsion — Se- cession ^^ndicated — Meeting in the Glovers' Yard — Blessing and Wealth of the Glovers' Corporation — Wilson's health injured by open- air preaching — Debility — Last Sermon — Death — " His household after him."— 171— 183. CHAPTER X. Wilson's Works — Sermons, with illustrations of different styles — His Magnum Opus, the "Defence" — Its merits — Mr. Currie defeated, but solaced by a pecuniaiy gift — WUson's character — Talent — Attain- ments — Energy — Spirit — Cathohcity — Whitefield — His service to " his own generation by the vnR of God."— Pp. 184 — 210. LIFE OF KEY. WILLIAM WILSON CHAPTER I. rS'TRODUCTORY. To offer an humble tribute to the memory of one who, in a period of deep degeneracy, " witnessed a good confession," and to whom his Lord intrusted a " banner," to be " dis- played because of the truth, " — to teach the present genera- tion what they owe to the men of a former age, who main- tained the sole Headship of Christ in the midst of virulent scorn and hostility, — to show how God selects a servant, and adapts his studies, experience, and early labours, so as to prepare him for duty and nerve him for trial, — to deepen the assurance that error and intolerance only exhaust their efforts in vain against the cause of truth and freedom, is the object of the following biography. A brief sketch of the life of one who, according to com- petent testimony, " had all the excellencies of both the Erskines, and excellencies peculiar to himself," will be an interesting study to those who regard the " Secession" as an auspicious and memorable era in the history of the Church of Christ in Scotland. His position, indeed, has not been so conspicuous as that of his illustrious colleagues, nor has his fame been cherished with those hallowed recollections which have gathered round the Erskines. It was the 96 LIFE OF THE KEV. WILLIAM WILSOX. eminent task of Ebenezer Erskine to preach the sermon which hastened on the crisis, and the genius of the author of the " Gospel Sonnets" has won through its homely min- strelsy a wide renown ; while "Wilson was cut oflf " in his fuU strength," and left behind him few works of a practical and popular character. But from the commencement of the agitation, he cordially espoused the cause of liberty and evangelical doctrine, and identified himself with all the struggles of the protesting ministers. His influence among them was great ; for, combining zeal with discretion, and firmness with forbearance, he possessed a temperament happily suited to the delicate circumstances in which he found himself frequently placed. His counsels guided and controlled the party with whom he acted, and his prudence united their energies with successful dexterity. He com- posed the majority of their formal pleadings and documents, and pubHshed the best defence of their procedure. While he lived there was harmony among the brethren in all their schemes and deliberations ; and, perhaps, had he been spared a few years longer, the melancholy " Breach" might have been prevented, or greatly modified in its nature and results. Such, in fine, was the value placed on his learn- ing and piety, such the confidence reposed in his talents and character, that he was unanimously chosen the first professor of divinity to the infant church. But his health speedily sunk under these accumulated labours ; and he was the first, too, of the Four Fathers who left the scenes of toil and sufiering for those of reward and glory. Wilson has therefore a special claim on the homage and gratitude both of our ministers and people ; and this imperfect record of his life and times may aiford gratification to those who at the distance of a century are reaping the reward of his honest and consistent attachment to those leading principles which characterize the faith and the con- stitution of the United Presbyterian Church. CHAPTER II. Wilson's parentage — Youth — Piety — Studies — Temptations — an d LiccnBC. The father of the Rev. William Wilson had owned a com- fortable freehold near Kilbride in Lanarkshire, but during the reign of the second Charles he was dispossessed of his property and lands by the despotic government and ruthless hierarchy which ruled Scotland in those days with sword, faggot, and gibbet. Obliged to spend a dreary and homeless winter in the Moor of Mearns, Gilbert Wilson, proscribed and impoverished, fled at length to Holland, where so many victims of tyranny found a timely refuge. On returning from this exile at the Revolution, he united himself in marriage to Isabella Ramsay, daughter of a Mr. Ramsay of Shielhill, an estate of some value in Forfarshire. This lady had, however, been disinherited by her father, and virtually banished from his household, because she had renounced Episcopacy ; but she had found a happy asylum with an aunt, who was wife to the sainted martyr of Stirling, James Guthrie. The subject of this memoir, the eldest child of Gilbert Wilson and Isabella Ramsay, was born in the Gallowgate of Glasgow, on Sab- bath the 9th of November, 1690, and was named William, in honour of the Prince of Orange. In the train of this illustrious prince, who had now ascended the British throne, Wilson senior had come back from his temporary sojourn in Holland. The son of such parents must have heard much from them in his earliest youth fitted to foster within him the views and principles which he afterwards so nobly defended. The memory of those wrongs which iniquitous laws had inflicted on his father, and of the cruel injury 98 LIFE OF THE done to his mother by her proud and heartless parent, nourished in his breast that hatred of oppression, that in- tegrity of purpose, and that dauntless obedience to his own convictions, which his writings evince and his life exempli- fied. After enjoying such a preliminary education as the cir- cumstances of his family afforded — for the government had so far compensated his father as to give him a situation in the Customs at Greenock — young Wilson entered the uni- versity of Glasgow. We know not what was his early pro- ficiency, or what rank he won among his fellow students. At the end of his curriculum, however, he obtained the de- gree of Master of Arts, an honour perhaps more at that day than at present a proof and reward of meritorious dihgence and considerable attainment. As a student, and especially after he had formally entered on the study of theology, his exertions were both methodical and laboriouis." In striving to obtain fresh information, he forgot'not previous lessons. His whole w'ork, as a candidate for the ministry, was " sanctified by the word of God and prayer." . There dwelt wdthin him a living principle of piety, which shed a hallowing influence over his preparatory training and pur- suits. He did all " in the name of Christ." Classics and philosophy were to him only inferior accomplishments. His end was to win souls, and to that end everything was sub- ordinated. Whatever sphere of mental discipline was deemed likely to give him solidity of thought, rvariety of illustration, facility in argument, or power of address, 'fbat he cultivated with unwearying industry, and in a spirit of humble dependence on Him who " increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man." His aim was to be " a scribe, instructed unto the kingdom of heaven ;" and therefore, the period of his youth spent at college and hall was no pastime. He believed that the work of the ministry demanded all the preparation which he could secure, w'as worthy of all the talent he possessed, and all the assiduous toil and ardent prayer by which his original powers might be developed and matured. With a mind- so tutored and REV. ^YILLIAM WILSOV. 99 solemnized, so earnest to qualify itself for serving that. Master to whose sacred work he had been so frequently offered in parental dedication, so keenly alive to the neces- sity of present improvement, and the responsibilities of future office, we wonder not to see him note down, for his private guidance, the following division of his time : — " Rise at six in the morning, in summer at five. ' Time divided : ' From rising till nine — Prayer and Scripture reading. From nine to eleven — Natural Philosophy and Biblical Criticiim. From eleven to twelve — Latin. From twelve to two — Hebrew and Greek. From two to five or seven — Systematic Theology. From six to seven — History. From seven to nine — Common-place Book. The rest in prayer. •'Prayer also at. teii{ ' at two, and at six, at lying down and rising up; read three chapters of the Bible every day; reiij} through the Hebrew Scriptures, three chapters a-day. *• Glasgow, 2d June, 1710." * About the period at which Wilson entered college, or in 1705, his mother died ; and his father survived her only six years. These bereavements naturally produced a deep impression on the mind of the pious orphan. The love of Ills mother, especially, was the means of cherishing his youthful piety. Her prayers had often been breathed over liim,— " the son of her vows ;" her instructions had early fur- nished hi^mind with the "first principles of the oracles of God ^" and while she had folded him to her bosom, she had at the same time lent him to the Lord. A mother's influ- ence often produces an impression, which, received in in- fancy and nursed in youth, forms the character and decides the destiny. The memory of his mother quickened him in his studies, and mingled itself with many of his religious exercises. Feeling devoutly grateful for such a mother, his tender heart bowed under its bereavement without a murmur ; and, while the tear of filial affection was dropt over her ashes, his prayer was to profit by the trying dis- * From one of Mr. Wilson's MSS. 100 LIFE OP THE pensation. His father being also in a few years removed, the stripling was thrown on the care of Him who is the " Father of the fatherless." But his faith in God preserved him from that feeling of utter desolation, which is so often felt in such circumstances. From his parents' grave he looked up to heaven and cried, " my Father, thou art the guide of my youth !" Over their sepulchre he took their God to be his God ; pledged himself to walk in their steps, and to follow out their ardent wishes in preparing himself for that office which they had regarded as the most momentous and honourable under heaven. And, as from this period he felt himself sustained by a firmer confidence in God, and was conscious of being urged on by nobler impulses and purer aspirations in the prosecution of his studies, he realised the truth and pathos of the psalmist's statement, " When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up." The words of the Christian poet aptly describe his sensations and prospects — • "My boast is not, that I derive my birth From loins enthroned, and sovereigns of the earth, But higher far my proud pretensions rise — The son of pai-ents passed into the skies." But new temptations presented themselves. His uncle now possessed the estate of Shielhill, and Wilson was his legal heir. His mother's firmness had already been tried, but she yielded not. Mrs. Wilson had visited her brother after her father's death, and was accompanied by her son, now twelve years of age. The laird questioned her as to her intentions with regard to his nephew ; when she honestly replied, that her highest aim was to see him a Presbyte- rian minister. He promised to leave the property to him, if his connection with the Church of Scotland were dis- solved ; and if his mother would train him in the Episco- pal faith and Jacobite politics of her family. Her reply was a simple and decided refusal, wliile her enraged brother scornfully shouted with an oath, — " That no Presbyte- rian should ever heir his lands." Wilson lived for some months with the same gentleman after his parents' decease, REV. WILLIAM ^YILSON. 101 and toward the conclusion of his course in theology. His uncle was still reluctant to leave the estate to more dis- tant relatives ; and the youth was again plied with argu- ments and threats ; was promised all if he would qualify for orders in the Episcopal communion ; and menaced with utter exclusion if he persisted in his present purpose. But " none of these things moved " him— either to feign a modified compliance, or hold out any hope of ultimate concession. lie would not receive the inheritance on such a condition as his uncle proposed. The prospect of being a landed proprietor did not dazzle his imagination, or fetter his conscience. The dread of his relative's displea- sure did not alarm him. He rejected his uncle's terms, and left Shielhill to finish liis studies and become a licentiate in the Church of Scotland. The uncle did not relent. He kept his word,— for it had been confirmed with Herod's imprecation,— and bequeathed his lands to other branches of the family. To a young man left in Wilson's destitute circumstances, succession to such an inheritance was no ordinary inducement. But he had counted the cost. His principles were too precious to be hghtly given up,_were adopted too deliberately to be easily shaken,— and were endeared by too many hallowed reminiscences to be carelessly exchanged for 'a few fields or woods, an elegant mansion, or the honours and station of a rural squire. The poor and friendless youth chose rather " to suffer affliction with the people of God." Thus had he been tried and approved ere he entered the service of the Church. The spirit in which Wilson studied theology was a " right spirit." He had indeed " feared the Lord from his youth ;" and having very early given himself to the Lord, he also gave himself to the Church *■ by the will of God." He was not more than fourteen years of age when he made this public profession of his faith. Religion was to him '' the one thing needful." It was his life. From his first consciousness of its influence, and recognition of its claims, it directed his thoughts, animated his movements, 102 LIFE OP THE and inspired his energies. It gave a tone to all his en- gagements. It did not present itself to his mind as an intellectual abstraction, or dwell within him as a lifeless assemblage of inert and powerless opinions. He did " all in the name of Christ." When he was indeed a young disciple, he had entered into a very minute and laboured analysis of his feelings and convictions. Often did he sit in judgment on his state; and his decisions are gen- erally tinged with severity against himself. He felt that life and death hung in the balance, — and in God's sight he attempted to ascertain his spiritual condition. In forming such an estimate, he looked not to the standard of current Christianity around him, but to the unerring verdict of the divine law. His inquiries into his rehgious views and feelings comprised an examination of mind and heart, conscience and daily life, — united to a review and comparison of past experiences, and wound up with ear- nest resolutions to attain a higher spirituality, and a more elevated tone of thought and feehng in time to come. Nothing he dreaded more than being the dupe of any lurking bias, or the victim of any secret process of self- satisfaction. The portions of his diary, wliich detail the frequency and fidelity of these secret exercises, afford e\-idence that they were occasionally conducted in a mor- bid spirit. The sudden and repeated variations which he notes in his spiritual moods — the rapid alternations of light and gloom, of gladness and perplexity, which he so quaintly describes as characterising his changing " frames," seem to have proceeded in part from the very modes of self-inspection in which he indulged, and to have been created, or at least greatly multiplied, by the fitful mus- ings of a juvenile fancy on the momentous themes of salvation and eternity. He seems also to have overlooked many of those physical causes, which often cloud the spirits, and not to have given its due weight to the combined in- fluence of a vast number of external circumstances, which tend insensibly to elevate or depress the susceptible heart of the young, and of such as are naturally under the REV. WILLIAM WILSOX. 103 guidance of warm impulse and emotion. That peculiar habit which led Wilson and so many others of that period to trace so accurately the succession of religious phases within them, might have been corrected by looking less into themselves, and more beyond themselves, to the faith- ful Redeemer,— by ceasing to subject their own mutable souls to a keen and tremulous scrutiny, for the purpose of fixing their gaze oftener and more steadfastly on the great propitiation. From within there arises despondency ; from above there descend strength and tranquillity. " Thof wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee." When Wilson began the study of divinity, he formally gave himself to God. He adopted the method of a written dedication, and "subscribed with his hand unto the Lord." Nor was this a solitary instance of pious conse- cration. He often renewed it, and so it became a " cove- nant not to be forgotten." The following is a copy of one out of many forms used by him, and preserved among his papers. " I, William Wilson, do declare that my coming and now entering on the study of theology, is (or, at least, the desire of my soul is that it should be) for God's glory and the good of souls; and that I now, in his name and strength, desire to betake myself to that study (unless, in some manner, he thinks fit to call me otherwise). And, therefore, I do beg that he may be pleased to give me capacity, memory, and other qualifications for this end; and make good his promises of assisting me by his grace. " I pray that God may, out of the depths of his good- ness, give me prudence and resolution to apply my mind to ray study, that I may not linger, but come through with credit and success; and, for his name's sake, that he may honour me to be an instrument of glory to him in my bodv and soul. And I do promise, in his strength, to spend my time better than hitherto, and not to trifle the same away, but to lay it out for God, in my day and gen- eration, improving it for his glory. And, I do bless him, who hath, in any manner, determined my mmd to the 104 LIFE OF THE great study of theology, and bless him I have opportunity for the same, and plead that he may be forthcoming with his Spirit, that I may apply my mind to my studies. " I do devote myself, with all my heart, to serve God in the gospel of his Son, in my day and generation ; and I desire to guard against seeking myself in this most solemn work, and pray for pardon, through the blood of Christ, for all my past sins, and to be kept from wavering in my studies ; and, — in hope of God's gracious assistance in pro- moting my end, and giving all that is necessary for the study, — I do subscribe all this with my own hand, this 1st day of November, 1708, — the dreadful God being wit- ness, — " William Wilson." Mr. Wilson's religious exercises were always of a solemn, interesting, and decided character, — and he often wrote down for his own improvement, his peculiar spiritual wants, as well as the blessings which he longed to possess. Especially as he was in the habit of attending " commu- nions " in Glasgow and its vicinity, did he note his reli- gious desires, along with the special thoughts and hopes which he wished to occupy his mind on those propitious occasions. These he terms his "errands" — the definite aspirations of his soul — which he prayed to be realised during the services of a sacramental Sabbath. To show the fervour of his longings, and the singleness of his pur- pose in enjoying and improving the means of grace, the following specimen of these " errands " may suffice : — " I desire, in commemorating the death of Christ, " 1st. To get a lively sense of God upon my soul, that I may walk with God, and may win to clear and distinct uptaking of God, especially in prayer. *' 2d. To get a more holy and heavenly frame of spirit. " 3d. To get freedom from my spiritual enemies ; and that God would make himself known in the breaking of bread. " 4th. To get a strengthening meal, for supporting and establishing my soul. REV. WILLIAM WIL30X. 105 " 5th. To renew the covenant, and set the seal to it again. *• 6th. To got sin pardoned and subdued. " 7th. To get clearness about going to the North. " &th. To get more concern for the glory of Christ. " In a word, I desire to meet with Christ, to get true faith made up in him, pollutions cured, and all needful blessings from him. " Also all the errands drawn up for Mearns communion, on the 26th of June 1709." The mind so disciplined and the heart so seriously ex- ercised were well prepared to preach the gospel. He Avho has received salvation is alone qualified to impart its blessings to others. The mora experience in the divine life the student has enjoyed, the more fitted is the preacher to exhibit Christ and his gifts, to press sinners to come to a Saviour, and to instruct and edify the people of God. To be Christ's is the best preparation for preaching Christ. He who has accepted the invitation can repeat the welcome he has enjoyed ; — " Restore unto ma the joy of thy salva- tion, and uphold me with thy free spirit : then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee." The Presbytery of Glasgow, within whosa bounds Mr. Wilson resided, seem to have had no liking to this young aspirant to the ministry. The evil genius of Professor Sim- son swayed them. This man, who occupied the chair of theology in the University, appears to have been prone to indulge in rash speculations and pernicious subtleties, — which at length assumed the chilling aspects of Socinian error.* There saems to have been in tha west of Saotland also a spirit of hostility to evangelical religion, with a malignant effort to discourage all manifestations of its * Simson, on reading Pictet's Theology with his students, said, that when Christ was called summm Deiis, (supreme God,) the expression was to be taken cum grano sails — witli considerable modification. Such an application of the Latin proverb was as repugnant to good taste as to sound diviuitv. 106 LIFE OP THE KEY. WILLIAM -WILSOIf. power and longings in candidates for the pulpit. It amazes us to read that any presbytery should frown upon a youth for no other seeming reason, than his adherence to evangelical principles, his attachment to sound theology, and to those principles and polities'^' which so many reckoned essential to the real prosperity of the Church of Scotland. But Providence unexpectedly came to the aid of the persecuted student. He had been accidentally brought into contact with some ministers of the Presby- tery of Dunfermline, by whom he was warmly encouraged, and at length was invited to apply for license among them- selves. The usual trials prescribed on such occasions were satisfactorily performed by him, and at length he was li- censed to preach the gospel on the 23d of September 1713. Ralph Erskine being moderator, delivered a suitable ad- dress to the licentiate, and enjoined him to depend on God and seek his glory. Two days afterwards Mr. Wilson preached his first public sermon in Saline, at the week- day exercise which Mr. Plenderleith, the pious and useful incumbent, had established in the parish church. * As for example, in liis views of tlia Oatli of Abjuration. CHAPTER III. Period of Probation — Religious experience — Acceptability as a preacher — Opposition from Moderatism — Disappointment of the parish of Dab/ — CaU from Perth, and ordination, Enterino now on a new sphere of labour, the probationer again gave himself to great " searchings of heart." The work which he had assumed was momentous and respon- eible. No office on earth can be compared to it in honour and dignity. It deals with unchanging truth and immor- tal souls, and its results stretch into eternity. It is charged with the salvation of a perishing world, and it beseeches men " in Christ's stead." It speaks in love, but it must be faithful to its awful commission. To veil the mouth of the pit, or throw a shading cloud over the burning lake, is treachery and cowardice in their most awful forms. That office is indeed important which studies the con- stitution of man, in order to ascertain his diseases and remove them, and so be instrumental in prolonging his life, confirming his health, and increasing his enjoy- ment ; but the physician's duty refers only to the body which must die, and to the life that now is, and speedily passes away. That office is important which educates the ignorant, and trains the wayward, which reclaims the outcast and restores the criminal, and labours to promote the interests of science and civilization ; but the province of such philanthropy is bounded by the present horizon, takes charge of interests referring rather to the mind than to the soul, and seeks the social advancement and intellectual progress of the human race, during the brief and uncertain period of their earthly sojourn. That 108 LIFE OF THE office is important which unfolds the resources of a nation, secures to them the blessings of a free and patriotic go- vernment, under which peace is maintained and commerce is diffused by sound policy and sagacious treaties ; but the enterprise of the statesman busies itself with those created relations which l)elong only to earth, and not with those spiritual destinies which are connected with the " house- hold of God." The office of the Christian ministry is more momentous than all of them. It treats of the councils of eternity and immortal well-being of man. It illustrates the means by which he is saved from wrath and recovered from impurity. It tells him how he may obtain true dig- nity and usefulness, and how he may arrive at the possession of a peace so pure and rapturous as to be a foretasting of those pleasures which are at God's right hand for evermore. What in other spheres is enthusiasm, is in ours but sobriety, — " Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God ; or whether we be sober, it is for your cause." '' Who is sufficient for these things 1 " The pressure of responsibility is truly over- whelming. The heart is apt to faint beneath the load, or re- linquish the task in despair, and it is only saved from de- spondency by the assurance that Christ gives no command to which he does not annex a cheering promise, and en- forces no duty for the performance of which he does not impart sufficient grace. Such trains of meditation occupied Mr. Wilson's mind at the commencement of that career, for which all his pre- vious studies had been but a conscientious preparation. His thoughts and longings took the following shape, as they found a place in his diary. He had been engaged only one Sabbath in preaching, Avhen, in the retirement of his closet, he gave utterance under deep impression to this interest- ing soliloquy : — " I. What I should do before preaching. " 1st. When called to preach, go to the Lord by prayer, imploring his counsel and presence, and seeking of him if he has any errand to send, that he may send thee. " 2d. When time is allowed to prepare for preaching, RE7. WILLIAM WILSON. 109 never neglect preparation-work, but be diligent in medita- tion and prayer, seeking a word from the Lord. " 3d. If Providence order it so, that you are called un- expectedly to preach, without having any time to prepare by studying ; and, if it be so ordered, that the Lord's work would be marred wert thou not to preach, never refuse to preach, — never stand : go in the name and strength of the Lord, — he has thus called thee. " 4th. Whatever preparation you may have for preach- ing, never lippen to your preparation. " 5th. Never content yourself in your preparation, but deliver what the Lord gives in the time of delivery, though you had no thought of it before. " 6th. Seek always a text from the Lord, when the Lord sends thee an errand, and seek, too, what he would have thee to say. Seek explanation and application from the Lord himself. Seek the unction of the Spirit from God himself. " 7th, Depending upon the Lord for method and matter, seek that he may direct thy mind to conceive, and thy hand to write. " 8th. Let the* glory of God, and the honour of Christ, be still before thee. Seek not youriplf, but Christ. Seek not your own things, but the things of others, especially the good of immortal souls. " II. What I should do when going to the pulpit, " 1st. Go with a holy awe and dread of God, — a dread lest God leave thee for thy great unworthiness and vileness. " 2d. Go, depending on the Lord Jesus, for strength and for support.. '• 3d. Labour to have a weight upon your spirit, and a sense and fulness upon your own mind of the truths you are to deliver to others. " 4th. Regard not men, nor the presence of men. This is a snare in itself, and is very unbecoming a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let there be an awe and dread of God upon thy spirit, swallowing up the fear of man. "5th. Seek not self; fight against self: beware lest this 110 LIFE OP THE root of bitterness springing up trouble you, provoke the Lord to desert you, and to withdraw his countenance. This is the thing I have most reason to fight against. It is that which may do much harm, if it prevaileth ; and it is that which besets me most. " 6th. Beware of pride, and being lifted up with thy gifts ; — doting too much on these, or lippening to these. " 7th. In the pulpit, let your soul only be fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ, as appearing and standing for him, as having nothing in yourself, but standing in need of all from him. " 8th. Deliver the truth of God, as the very truth of God, and not as the word of man. '' 9th. Conceal not the Lord's righteousness in the great congregation. Conceal none of the truths of Christ that come in your way to deliver. Let not the fear of men over- awe thee, or keep thee from speaking the truths of Christ. " 10th. Be much in ejaculatory prayer, when in the pul- pit, both for yourself, and for the hearers. " 11th. Study a grave and solid way of delivering the Lord's truths, that they may have weight with others ; and seek this of and from the Lord himself. " III. What I should do when I come from the pulpit. " 1st. Beware of being puiFed up if thou hast been helped. This may provoke the Lord to withdraw from thee again. Beware of lippening to, boasting of, or de- pending on, thy being helped. ''2d. Inquire into your carriage into the pulpit, and your frame in the pulpit. Ask yourself in what manner you delivered the Lord's truths, and what you delivered. " 3d. Pray for success and a blessing on what you have delivered. " 4th. Be thankful for what you have gotten in public, and mourn for shortcomings. " 5th. Take heed unto thyself, and unto thy doctrine ; continue in them ; for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee." We should indeed be greatly disappointed if duty so REV. WILLIAM WILSON. Ill auspiciously commenced were not well perfonned. The preaching of a man who had subjected his soul to this secret and salutary discipline, must have been faithful and earnest — no slovenly formality, no showy and heartless exhibition of ability and rhetoric. To preach for the mere sake of applause, or for the purpose of creating admiration at his intellectual acuteness, or imaginative pictures, was a species of vanity that never could be laid to his charge. Baptized with the Holy Ghost, he spoke with solemnity and unction on the things of the great salvation. There is no doubt that his preaching must have improved with age and experience. But even in his youth, and before he was ordained to a pastoral charge, his sermons seem^ to have been free from those juvenile excrescences which often characterise first appearances in the pulpit. Though he was a young man, his mind was ripe, and his piety matured, while his whole deportment was marked by a staid solemnity. We can easily understand why in later years his discourses were so acceptable to persons, who relished a sermon in proportion to the spirituality of its tone, and the rich fulness of evangelical truth which it contained. Our anticipations are therefore gratified when we find Ralph Erskine noting in his private record,—" I was quickened and refreshed in the time of Mr. Wilson's sermon. I heard with pleasure and joy, without weariness, and with much application" Mr. Brown of Haddington too, whose testimony no one will undervalue, has declared, " Mr. Wilson was a man of great fervour, and frequent in wrestling with God; a man that, together with his learning, evidenced much prudence and moderation ; and who, in preaching, evidenced the greatest concern, heaven- liness, mildness, and majesty, that ever I heard. I can recollect that when sitting on the Brae of Abernethy heai'- ing him, I got more insight into that marrow of the gospel * my God,' than ever I got before or since." But under the baneful influence of patronage, neither talent nor piety could ensure a speedy settlement to a pro- bationer in the Church of Scotland. The patron at that 112 LIFE OF THE period had unlimited power, — and gratified his own caprice without respect to the edification of the people. Unless a young man found means of ingratiating himself with those parochial " lords over God's heritage," or some interested friend recommended him to their favourable regards, all spheres of public usefulness were closed against him. The autocrat laid his hand upon the pulpit, and none were allowed to enter but his own creatures or nominees. Sad intolerance, insolent oppression, — when the man of acres felt him endowed with the right to judge for the whole people of a parish, and expected them to succumb without a murmur to his haughty dictation, even when one without mind or character, piety or acceptability, was summarily thrust upon them as their spiritual teacher. The licentiate, whose father was neither factor nor farmer on some estate — who might have never been so lucky as to be received as tutor into a nobleman's household — who could not fawn upon manorial greatness, or bring himself under a pledged betrothment to some poor and distant relative, who ranked herself as niece or cousin of the squire — such a candidate for the ministry might weary himself with labours, only to pine away under the sickness of " hope deferred." It was rarely that unaided goodness could secure a field of labour. In the case of Mr. Wilson, the enmity of moderatism so far defeated itself. The presbytery of Glasgow refused to license him ; and yet, when licensed by the presbytery of Dunfermline, his proficiency, zeal, and pious ardour gave him immediate popularity. He had been brought into some notoriety too by his appearance as a witness in the process against Pro- fessor Simson. The evidence of a student so faithful, so diligent, so trustworthy and orthodox as Wilson, must have deeply galled the enemies of evangelical truth, and friends of a cold and supine ministry.* Accordingly, we • Professor Simson was so cominced of liis accurate knowledge of sound doctrine, and of his coi-dial attachment to it at all hazards, that he expressly excepted against Wilson as a witness, and his testimony was accoi'dingly not received- REV, WILLIAM WILSON. 113 find that the parish of Dairy in Ayrshire, learning by rumour of Mr. Wilson's gifts, longed to hear him preach in their vacant pulpit. He came to them, in accordance with the ^Yish of the patron, which had been expressed in a letter to the synod of Glasgow and Ayr in October 1715. The people of Dairy were greatly edified, and expressed a fervent anxiety that he should be their pastor. But Dairy was too near GlasgoAV, — the influence of Professor Simson was paramount in the presbytery of Irvine. They were alarmed at a man of Wilson's known sentiments being located among them ; for Simson had assured them, that if this young probationer were settled in Dairy, the people would flock to him in such crowds, that the neigh- bouring churches would be left without an audience. *' The presbytery," says Mr. Wilson in his diary, in re- ference to his proposed settlement in Dairy, " care not much for it, fearing I may be of difierent principles." " My opposition to Professor Simson," he adds, " is at the bottom of all." But he bore the disappointment patiently — looking in faith to the supreme Disposer of events, — " desiring," as he adds, " to put a blank in the Lord's hand, and to submit to his will and way." The parish of Dairy was thus robbed of its choice, the clergy being the prime instruments in thwarting its laud- able desires. But the parishioners continued to cherish a warm attachment to the object of their choice. Long after this period, in the year 1736, and after the Secession had originated, Mr. Wilson, in the course of a tour through the west of Scotland, preached in Dairy. An immense crowd collected around him. He preached from a tent to the vast assemblage. The patron was startled at the con- course, as he was riding homeward from the parish church, and on learning its nature, drew near and heard the con- clusion of the discourse. Mr. Fisher of Glasgow was along ■with Mr. Wilson, and both were invited to breakfast with the patron on the following morning. According to the report of one of the company, the sister of the entertainer, the conversation was animated and interesting, and of 8 H 114 LIFE OF THE course turning frequently on recent events and discussions in the Church of Scotland. " Yet," she said, " she had ob- served that any argument they had was conducted chiefly between her brother and the little man, (meaning Mr. Fisher,) and that when they seemed to be at any loss about facts, or to have any difficulty to solve, or to be of different sentiments, the matter was referred to the big man, (meaning Mr. Wilson,) to whose judgment they paid the greatest deference, and who acted the part of an um- pire between them, and that generally both acquiesced in his opinion." It is added, that the patron's chaplain or tutor, on being warned of the coming of two Seceders, absconded and prolonged his absence, on what pretext we know not, till both gentlemen had taken their departure. This expectant was wise in his own generation, — ^if he sym- pathised with the Secession, he abstained from showing it. It might have lost him a presentation, or cast him under suspicion ; and if he was a keen supporter of the Assembly, he consulted his safety in shrinking from its vindication in the presence of men who had been the victims of its jealousy and oppression. The lamentable condition of the Church of Scotland at that time is almost incredible. The treatment of Mr. Wilson was but a specimen of its tyrannous hostility to evangeli- cal truth. The people asked " bread," they received a " stone." The gospel, in its freeness and purity, was denied them. Their rights were torn from them, and their petitions for redress were either scorned as the ravings of a weak fanaticism, or scowled upon as the proofs of political disaffection. The General Assembly upheld patronage and condemned the "Marrow" with. the same sturdy vehe- mence. The people of Scotland were tantalized with a ne- gative gospel, and fettered with parliamentary enactments. The Assembly poisoned their faith, wrested away their privileges, and bade its bondmen feed on a theology mean and meagre as " the husks which the swine did eat." No wonder that resistance on the part of the early Seceders was so popular. Thousands were prepared to leave a y ./ REV, WILLIAM WILSOIT^ 115 church, which openly stigmatized the " doctrines of grace," and branded its members with a degrading vassalage. They were ready to depart from Babylon, — from a com- munity whose office-bearers fed themselves, and not the flock, and over whom the appeal of the old prophet was repeated by many a sorrowing, many an indignant heart — "Ye eat the fat and ye clothe you with the wool, but ye feed not the flock; the diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost, but with force and with cruelty have ye ruled them."* So felt the pa- rish of Dairy. It writhed under the galling burden and appealed to the synod, but it felt itself to be only " kick- ing against the pricks." The majority of the courts were reckless in their contempt of the people and their claims, and laughed at the fretted and chagrined petitioners. Moderatism was in the ascendant, and beneath its chilling shade piety and freedom pined away and died. But the Master had a sphere of work for his trained dis- ciple. A door of usefulness was opened at Perth. So- journing for a brief period at Pitcaithley, to drink of its mineral waters, for the confirmation of his health, Wilson happened to preach in Perth, and, according to his own testimony, he preached " with much enlargement." His sermons produced a deep sensation, and excited the people to create a third charge, that the youthful evangelist might fill it. His call was unanimous, and the striking and unusual circumstances attending it induced him at once to accept it. The usual trials were assigned him, in all of which he acquitted himself to the satisfaction of the presbytery, and on the 1st of November 1716 was he solemnly ordained as third minister in the city of Perth. With what solemnity of feeling he refers to this epoch of his life ! To him it was a momentous crisis, — the day on which " Ezekiel xxxiv. 3, 4. 116 LIFE OP THE his imagination had long been fixed, and his prayerful an- ticipations had often been directed. As it drew near, his heart mused in secret, and sought anew to be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Again was he seriously urgent as to his own interest in Christ, and his decided call to take the oversight of souls. So he braced and tightened up his spirit for its arduous vocation. On the evening preceding the day of his ordination, one might have seen him in the hallowed secrecy of his retirement, — alone and in the felt presence of God, giving utterance to these honest, pre- cious, and appropriate meditations, and as he noted them in his diary, his brow relaxed, and his countenance bright- ened up, while a tear of joyous satisfaction trembled in his eye and fell upon the paper, — the seal of his sincerity and the witness and fruit of that relief which his self-examined bosom experienced. '•' 31st October, 1716. — This day I set myself to the in- quiries, and to seek preparation for the solemn work of to- morrow. " Question 1st. Am I interested in Christ 1 ^^ Answer. I have great work before me, but, alas! I am very unfit for it, and need more grace from Christ to en- gage in it aright. Oh, for a day of power. I cannot say that I want the grace of Christ altogether. I think he has done good to my soul. He has proved and helped me. He has determined my soul to make choice of him for ray por- tion, — for my all, — for my righteousness, and strength, and glory,— and I will say of the Lord, he is my God. '•' Question 2d. Have I a call to Perth 1 "Answer. On this subject I find the following things :— " 1st. That the door was shut upon me in Dairy. Though the people were for it, yet the presbytery opposed it. I cannot take the language of this Providence to be any other than this, — that the Lord has no service for me there. "2d. I find the call from Perth unanimous; all the godly desiring it, and praying for it. I therefore cannot stand out against it, lest I should fight against the call of God. AM WILSc/ BEV. WILLIAM Wl 117 " 3d. I have had no hand in this ca .'. I have been most passive in it. It has pursued me, when I fled from it. " 4th. It is a quiet and orderly gospel call, — free of the encumbrances which are very common in our day, — no presentation from a patron, or anything of this kind. " 5th. The people of Perth could never fix upon any, till they fixed upon me. " 6th. This day I have surrendered myself to the service of Christ in Perth, though not with the liberty and free- dom that I would fain have. But, all these things being put together, I cannot say but that the movement is of the Lord. Oh ! that he may come and take service of my hand in Perth, and that I may see a remnant brought unto him. " 7th. I must remark, that my education and turn of mind seem to be fitted for a public place, such as Perth. I was brought up in a public place. I cannot live in a solitary place without prejudice to my health : and my temper and habits require a public place to stir up the gift that is in me. Lord, give me wisdom from above, furniture for the great work before me, and enable me to be diligent and faithful in discharging the solemn duties of the ministry. " To-morrow is the day of my ordination. It is Mr. Black who is to preach the ordination sermon. Lord, help thy servant, and help me." What candour, integrity, and piety characterise such an ingenuous revelation of Mr. Wilson's feelings and prospects ! CHAPTER IV. Labours — Trials — Integrity and self-denial — Growth in grace — MinLs- terial success. As a settled pastor, Mr. Wilson's duties were now many and onerous, and he set himself to them with resolute vigour, and humble dependence on the grace of God. His first sermon was an earnest of his future ministry, — of its point, precision, and evangelical oneness of aim, — and was founded on the text, " Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." Nor can we suppose that, as a pastor, he was remiss in any duties which belong to household ministrations, — or, indeed, to any department of labour recognised by him who would be " a workman needing not to be ashamed," and whose highest ambition is to make " full proof" of his ministry. Such fruits can- not in ordinary cases appear at once : it would be wrong to expect them, — the blade precedes the ear. But the grace of God does not work miracles, nor exempt its possessor from either the laws that govern or the frailties which cling to his mental and physical nature. The first year of a minister's hfe in a settled charge is specially trying. The great business to which he has solemnly given himself, and to which he has been formally set apart, is begun, and he earnestly covets to commence under favourable and auspi- cious impressions. In the midst of novel and multipUed labours, he learns dependence upon God in a form and with a depth he had not felt before. The energies of mind, the powers of body, the aspirations of piety, are concentrated on the enterprise. Materials of thought laid up in past years are LIFE OF THE REV. WILLIAM WILSON. 119 brought into eager requisition. Sanguine anticipations of unrivalled success are gradually lowered, and the young pastor is effectuaUy trained " not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think." The exhaustion of daily toU in preparing for the pulpit, and the recurring ex- periences and conscious failures of the speaker in it, soon lead one no longer to overrate his abilities or his powers of oratory. And many things concur in making this period of a pastor's labours a crisis in his history. The desire to henefit the people absorbs the wish to please, and the sermon is composed without any such minor impurities of motive and hopes, as are insensibly blended with the studies and pubUc appearances of one who officiates in a vacancy. An awful responsibility weighs upon the heart, and fills it occasionally with unutterable tremors. The prospect of the coming Sabbath dawning upon the mind, mingling with the evening reminiscences of a Lord's day not yet concluded, —yea, and haunting the spirit with mystic menace through aU the hours of the intervening week ; preparation for its services begun in idea, if not in act, while those of its pre- decessor are scarcely finished, and continued for six days with perpetual anxiety and chequered success ; the torment produced by the want of leisure to elaborate the manu- script, so as to bring thoughts into elegant and rythmical expression ; the delicious agony with which some half formed idea is held, or the dim sketch of some figure is seized ; the constant attempt to generalize a very brief ex- perience so as to lay down fixed principles of action for guidance in future years ; the painful efi'ort to know and to be able to recognise all the members of the flock, and gather somewhat of their character and history; the visit of consolation to the afflicted in their anguish, the poor in their destitution, the mourners in their solitude, or to the spiritually distressed in their gloom and sorrow ; the word of reproof to the wanderer, and of discipline upon the refractory, mingled with those sensations of melancholy disappointment which such painful incidents originate ;— all these elements of labour and obhgation combined, and 120 LIFE OF THE laid at once upon the youthful minister, yet tender and untried, are more than enough to overpower him ; and often, in the earlier epoch of the pastorate, do they fret and fatigue the spirit, so that it sinks into exhaustion and lassi- tude. Such severe probation also weakens the nervous system by the continuous strain and pressure upon it, ex- cites or aggravates all constitutional debilities — especially if there be any tendency to those ills which are often borne "for the stomach's sake," and the "frequent infirmities" to which studious and sedentary life is generally exposed. But years and training bring new faculties ; and while the duties vary not, the soul, in God's grace, acquires energy to meet them, ay and to relish them. To all these mental agitations, Mr. Wilson seems to have been no stranger ; a dark cloud occasionally settled down upon him, and a feel- ing of weariness and despondency crept over him ; but he gradually surmounted all difficulties, and was speedily en- abled, with unfettered energy, to do the work of " an able minister of the New Testament." " Oh ! what deadness and flatness," he exclaims, " do I feel. Alas ! I have no frame for preaching. Lord, come and make me to live before thee I " * Preaching was, in truth, the work of his heart. His studies were imbued with the spirit of prayer. He watched for souls ; " travailed again as in birth " for them ; was " instant in season, out of season ;" and his labour was " not in vain in the Lord." But he was not without trials in such a field of labour ; the earlier years of his incumbency were not free from pecu- liar embarrassments. The charge from its nature was one of delicacy, for his two colleagues officiated in the same edifice. Three men, though engaged in the same work, could not be supposed to be of the same temperament : occasional jar- rings must have happened. One may easily imagine a few piquant scenes, in which co-operation lowered itself into rivalry, and latent jealousies suddenly blundered into a momentary manifestation, while constitutional infirmities * Diaiy, 10th November, 1716. REV. WILLIAM WILSON. 121 were awkwardly fretted into a betrayal of their nature and direction by those significant looks and shrugs which usually accompany certain inarticulate expressions of sur- prise or dissent. Had such little discoveries of varying disposition been all, they might have been overlooked or borne with ; but this juxtaposition originated deeper and more rancorous asperities. The elder colleague, Mr. Black, who had been twice translated ere he was inducted into the parish of Perth in 1698, was fallen into years, and seems to have been a man of mild and equable nature, venerated by Mr. Wilson, and respected by the people, who, in a document presented to the Assembly, describe him as " distinguished by long continued and indefatigable ministerial labours." The second colleague, at the period of Mr. Wilson's induction, was a Mr. Fleming, whose incum- bency had commenced in 1713 ; he died in 1721, about four years after Mr. Wilson's ordination. The person appointed to succeed him was a man singularly unqualified for a united charge. From the period of his induction, in July 1721, till his death, in January 1733, Mr. Stewart was a source of continued annoyance. Mr. Wilson had to some extent opposed his settlement at Perth, as he belonged to that party in the church which was at once inimical both to the liberties of the people and to the rigid orthodoxy of the clergy. Yet we find in the diary of that date a hearty prayer for Mr. Stewart's success in Perth. Wilson's own temper was mild and tranquil, and he possessed no little of that charity which " sufiereth long and is kind ;" Stew- art was fickle and unsettled ; was not long in Perth when he wished back again to his rural charge, but the Synod refused to retranslate him. Fixed down in the "Fair City" against his will, his irritated nature was provoked and dis- contented ; a paltry ambition had taken hold of him, and even excited him to indecent and puerile competition. Out of humour with himself, he teazed and galled his col- league by his proud demeanour, and sought to overshadow him by officious and conceited intermeddling. Wilson could have borne such contumely for himself, but he grieved for 122 LIFE OF THE the cause of Christ. That cause, so dear to him, suffered from these unhallowed exhibitions, and at one period almost induced him to leave the scene of it, and seek tranquillity in a country pastorate. The parish of Rhynd called him, and almost got him. His only motive in ever for a moment cherishing a thought of leaving Perth was the desire of being liberated from his yoke-fellow ; but even this trial, with all its annoyances, could not break the pastoral tie, — " none of these moved him" to seek the dissoiution of his connection with the church in Perth. The temptation indeed was a strong one, and his mind wavered. The Presbytery, on whom, he devolved the matter, decided for his continu- ance, and he cheerfully acquiesced in the decision. At Mr. Stewart's death, Wilson was relieved from this impedi- ment ; and very freely, in his diary, does he speak of the occurrence and its results. His sketch of his colleague is somewhat graphic and severe in its details : for example — he writes, " he could not endure any one to be equal in esteem with himself; neither could he be pleased with any- thing unless he was the chief manager or doer himself." Nay, he represents him as carrying this proud and pee- vish temper into the very pulpit, and using it, as he says, " for the purpose of tearing and misrepresenting my ex- pressions." So annoyed and grieved was he with such conduct, that he adds, " often I was as one in agony, and so burdened and pressed down, as to be weary of my life." But Mr. Wilson improved this dispensation, and we find him recording the following meditations, which evince the candour of his judgment, and the severity of the bur- den which he had borne so meekly for years : — " 1st. I cannot but condemn myself for impatience many times under my trial. I wearied of it. I sometimes was ready to murmur at the providence of God in trysting me with a collegiate life. Yet I was fully satisfied that, how- ever trying the dispensations of Providence might be to- wards me, and particularly in this place, the Lord is righteous and holy. His work is perfect, he is a God of truth, and without iniquity. REV, WILLIAM WILSON. 123 " 2d. During the whole course of my conflict, I had fre- quent special support and countenance in preaching. I was enabled to publish the doctrine of the free grace of God through Christ Jesus. I got some more confirming and more satisfying views of the mystery of grace, when I was withstood and opposed by a loose and very legal strain of preaching. I sometimes desired to pity and pray for my opponent. " 3d. I lost nothing in the affections and esteem of any of the godly in the place. " 4th. There was in the observation of all who knew Mr. S formerly, a remarkable withering and languishing in his gifts. He was not what he once was. He lost the regard that sometimes was given him, — an argument that we ought not to be high-minded, but fear. When he died, he was little lamented. I shall not be more particular, but both I and others might learn from this example godly fear, humility, and self-diffidence. " But, 5th. I have no pleasure to write what may reflect upon any, especially upon one who is now gone to his place, and, I hope, is with the Lord. Yet, this being the issue of one of the most considerable trials of my wilder- ness lot, I could not pass it over in silence." There w^as another incident toward the commencement of Mr. Wilson's ministry, which illustrates that integrity by which he was always distinguished. The third charge in Perth seems to have been created for him, and no means of legal support were attached to it. The absence of this claim to temporal sustenance by law did not intrude it- self into his calculations when he entered upon the charge. He was not afraid of labouring without hire. He had a generous trust in his people, and felt that in sowing spiritual things, he would be remunerated by a temporal harvest. But the magistrates had effected the matter in a way which appeared to their civic wisdom as a stroke of clever policy. They were trustees of a fund bequeathed for •some benevolent purpose, and this they appropriated to the payment of Mr. Wilson's salary. Before his ordination, 124 LIFE OF THE he was not aware of this fraudulent generosity, but no sooner was he informed of it than he nobly refused to touch one penny derived from such a source. The cor- poration took advice as to their power of aUenating such monies from the donor's express commands, and found that they had gone beyond their prerogatives. The presiding judge at the trial was struck with the fact that the first objections had been made by him, who was to reap benefit from the misappropriation, and commenting with admira- tion on the young man's disinterested honesty, his Lord- ship proposed a mode of raising his stipend, in which all parties acquiesced. The method adopted was some species of general assessment. At Mr. Stewart's death, however, Mr. Wilson was declared second minister, according to the following minute of the Town Council : — " Perth Coukcil House, Monday, 22d Octoher 1733. " The Magistrates and Town Council, considering that the lands called Blackfriars and Charter House, which were in the town possession past memory as a fund for one of the town's ministers' stipend, were of late declared to be- long to the hospital of this burgh, and taken from the town by a decree of the Lords of Council and Session, affirmed by the House of Peers of Great Britain ; and that now the town has only funds for stipends to two ministers : There- fore the said Magistrates and Town Council, as patrons of the kirk and parish of Perth, do hereby translate Mr. Wil- liam Wilson, one of the ministers of this burgh, who was third minister, to the stipend which was payable to Mr. William Stewart, the second minister, now removed by death ; and they do hereby, as patrons foresaid, present the said Mr. William W^ilson to the said second minister's sti- pend from and since Michaelmas last, and in all time com- ing during his incumbency as one of the ministers of this burgh." The traits of Mr. Wilson's character which are thus brought to light were ever prominent. Nothing would he take from a '•' thread to a shoe-latchet," — if integrity, no REV, WILLIAM WILSON. 125 matter in how slight a form, was compromised. He kept "a coiisciencs void of offence," — his "eye beamed keen with honour." Providence trained him for entering at length upon a sphere of action which originated in his own convictions, and into which he threw himself without any of those mercenary calculations which pecuniary interests might dictate, or a languid and homeward prudence might suggest. '• Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee." Mr. Wilson's final secession was no reckless adventure, hazarded from momentary impulse, or necessi- tated by the mere force of circumstances. It was an act in unison with his character, and for which, by a train of uniting experiences, he had been disciplined and matured. When the epoch arrived, he was found faithful. The man was there when the hour struck. He had learned the mighty strength of trust in God. The Master said to his servant, '•' Do this," — and he did it. The pastor's piety was tenderly nursed amidst his oner- ous toils. He kept his " own vineyard." The interests of his own soul were not neglected amidst professional labours for the welfare of others. He preached to himself as well as to his fellow-men. His heart did not suffer ossification during the mechanical labours of critical study and weekly composition. how he wrestled for his own salvation, while he bore his people on his heart before the Lord in earnest and effectual intercession ! How he watched over all his frames " with a godly jealousy ! " What grief and doleful lamentation when he lost any evidence of his spiri- tual progress, and felt the stirrings and promptings of the new life tame and low within him ! What pantings after a fuller draught of divine felicity ! What aspirations after a bolder faith and a richer love ! What fond longings to know Christ yet more fully, to walk with him yet more nearly, to be like him yet more closely, and to preach him yet more cordially, — with warmer interest and mightier power ! How he delighted in the view of an approaching com- munion where he was to assist, to note down his "errands" again as in earlier times, and what specialty in his own 126 LIFE OF THE private exercises during similar solemnities in his own congregation ! Three years after his ordination, on a calm retrospect of his ministerial career, and when the first excitement had passed away, how solemnly does he place himself before the judgment seat, and review the spirit, motives, and character of his pastoral labours, and with what eagerness of soul he cries, that the Lord would give him " some token for good, some sense of his presence and blessing in pubhc work, and some gracious help in going forward in it." " Give thy Holy Spirit to me, Lord, and in me come to thy people." Such a ministry must have been blessed, — such prayer and painstaking could not be without their reward. Those breathings for the Spirit must have brought down his rich and copious influences. The seed cast in prayerful expectancy upon a furrow so anxiously prepared, and watered with the dew from on high, brought forth the " fruits of righteousness." Christ's truth faithfully proclaimed will always take effect. But these results are often not matter of human record. " The day will declare." The secret history of converted and sanctified spirits is laid up before the throne. The accu- mulated fruits of a faithful ministry, in all their various forms, are scarce to be appreciated by human calculation, for they resemble the quick and stealthy progress of the shadow upon the dial. You see that it has moved, but you cannot say it moves. The eye is not sharp enough to detect it in movement, though its march be without pause or cessation. The impressions created by the preaching of the cross are so subtle and so numerous, — so complex in hue and aspect, — so variously adapted to mind and heart, con- science and life, in all the shifting diversities of spiritual temperament, — so suited to the careless and the active, the wayward and the sluggish, the grave and the impetu- ous, the cheerful and the downcast, in correspondent forms of doctrine, reproof, and correction, — that they can neither be analysed nor gathered up by any human ingenuity. The effect may picture out its cause, but it does not ex- hibit the process of its hidden operation. So it was in REV. WILLIAM WILSON". 127 Perth. Multitudes under Mr. "Wilson's labours " were edified," and " there was much joy in that city." No wonder that, when this servant of Christ was called to a neighbouring parish, the idea of parting with him deve- loped the strength of that hallowed aifection with which he was cherished. " The whole people of Perth," he records with touching simplicity, " cleave to me with the utmost affection. All of them did in the strongest manner ex- press their unwillingness to part with me. None of the godly," he subjoins, "in the town or country had freedom about my going away; and it would have been a hard matter to have put my thoughts against the general voice of serious people." CHAPTER V. Lawsuit abandoned — Personal and domestic incidents — Maniage — Re- peated family bereavements — Comfort in God, and hope in Him who IS om- Life. Mr. Wilson had been advised to defend at law the claim which it was supposed he had on his uncle's property in Forfarshire, — for the testy Nonjuror had disinherited him, and given his estates to the son of a sister, who was younger than Mrs. Wilson. Wilson, in right of his mother, was thought to be the legal heir ; and there was no reason why a right so important should not be enforced. Accordingly, when in Edinburgh, he went to consult counsel, and was directed to a Mr. Alexander. But this gentleman, who had for some time been an invalid, died just as Wilson stood at his door and asked admission to his house. Such a singular circumstance had a powerful effect on Wilson's mind. It seemed to him to be a peal from heaven, carry- ing with it the solemn question — " What shall a man profit though he gain the whole world ?" He was so struck that he abandoned all idea of a lawsuit. This course was in unison with his own placid and forgiving disposition ; and he preferred some private arrangement, which might not involve him in the tedious and expensive agonies of a pro- tracted litigation. The business was finally settled by arbitration, though we are not aware of the nature or amount of compensation which Mr. Wilson asked or re- ceived. At all events, the property was left as his uncle had willed it.* It is to be remembered too that at this * Unless we know the natm-e of the titles, by which the property of his grandfather was held, we cannot decide on Mr. Wilson's claim. K LIFE OF THE REV. WILLIAM WILSON. 129 period he was but a young man — without any settled iacome — without a call or presentation. His meekness might surprise us, and some might even brand it with the name of slackness, did we not perceive from his diary how conscience reigned supreme in all his deliberations. We lind the following entry about December 1 703 : — " Being at Edinburgh, I was occupied about a business that was very perplexing. I had no clearness to engage in a law process, on the affair of my uncle's property, for the following reasons : — " 1st. I deemed it not my right to sue for this property, as my uncle had the power of doing with hi^ own what he pleased, and had thought proper to leave none to me. " 2d. Being a preacher of Christ's gospel, I thought I should not so entangle myself with the affairs of this Ufe. " 3d. After all, I was made to confess, before the Lord, my sin in meddling with a matter of this kind at all ; and I sought that the Lord would bring me out of it with cre- dit and honour, by a friendly arrangement in private, that so the gospel of Christ might not be injured." We know not how intimacy sprung up between him and the family of the deceased advocate, — whether he had the uncle had no restriction on his power of dispasal, it is clear that he could dispose ot the land to any person he pleased, pro%dded his deed of disposal were executed in liege j^oustie, — that is, that he survived its execution sixtv days, or went to kirk or market without support, othermse the deed might be reduced as vhra vires. On the other hand, if the prior titles contained any prohibitive or restrictory clauses, these must have influenced the deed of disposal. But generally in heri- tage ab infestato, the rules are, — 1. Primogeniture and preference of males ; 2. The male issue failing, and their issue too, the female issue inherit, p7'o indiviso, as heirs portioners, the issue of those who have deceased taking their mother's portion. In this case Mr. Wilson, in his mother's right, would have inherited her portion. Though the estate had been entailed, yet the entail must have terminated by the fact that it fell to heirs portioners, unless pre%ious provision had been made against such a result. We apprehend that Mr. Wilson was excluded by some such process as that last mentioned — the young man who got the property took his mother's name — still it is conjecture, for we are ignorant of the terms of the settlement. But when the other party consented to arbitration, it is cleai- that they were not quite sm-e of their tenure. 130 LIFE OF THE gone back to condole with them in their bereavement, or whether an introduction from some other quarter brought him into contact with the fatherless Misses Alexander. Seven years afterwards, and in the fifth year of his minis- try in Perth, he married one of them, named Margaret, — a young lady, who proved herself worthy of such a union. Of all their twelve children only three reached maturity ; and the grandson of Mary, the youngest of them, bore the name of William Jameson, — a name endeared to all our churches, — a name that was the symbol of all that is simple in character, lovely in temper, elevated in aim, unwearied in zeal, and enterprising in action. The sepul- chre of this fallen missionary has hallowed the soil of Old Calabar. Mr. Wilson's domestic trials were severe, — for bereavements in his household were numerous. Often had he to exclaim with the sweet singer, " I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." The pang of bereavement had often smitten his heart, — and one after another of his offspring had he seen carried away to the cold and lonely grave. His son George died in infancy ; his eldest son, William, lived till he was eleven ; and Marjory, his eldest daughter, died, in incipient womanhood, at the age of six- teen. Another daughter, Elizabeth, was removed at the early age of nine. The infant, that could only smile its happy recognition, — the restless prattler, that could but lisp its parents' name, — the boy and girl, in the bud oi early promise, and who had become the dearer as they grew older, had been taken from him in the mysterious sove reignty of God. " God taketh away, and who can hinder him," — He taketh away, and none of his people would hinder him. Such discipline must have matured Mr. Wilson's graces, and wrought " in him the peaceable fruits of righteousness." The bereaved father was thus fitted to become the sympathizing friend and pastor in the house of mourning. His diary abounds with many remarks on the illness and death of the varied members of his household. His own spirit, in its pensive sadness, looked to God. When one member of his attached circle REV. WILLIAM WILSON. 131 suffered, he suffered with it, and found relief in prayer. Every pang that shook the frame of his suffering babes, came with a quiver to his own soul, and urged him anew to fervent petition and peaceful resignation. By the year 1729 he had lost two children ; and in the month of August, that year, all his four surviving ones were seized with small-pox, — an epidemic always loathsome, and at that period attended with great danger. With what sim- plicity is this afflictive event narrated ! " In the month of August, 1729, there was great distress in my family. Some time in July Mr. Ebenezer Erskine's daughter came to my family sick. Her sickness proved to be the small-pox. She was very ill, but the Lord re- stored her. As she recovered, all my four children fell sick. My daughter Isabella on the 11th, George and Marjory on the 12th, and William on the 14th. They were all very ill. I was in great distress about them. On the 22d, when the small-pox was about the height, they seemed to be all in danger. It was a very bad pox. The Lord was now threatening to bereave me of all my children at once. The 22d and 23d days of this month were heavy days to me. I was helped to exercise some measure of concern about the souls of my children. The Lord in his providence seemed to be striving against me, and to say that I had sinned. On Sabbath morning, about four o'clock, on the 24th of August, the Lord was pleased to remove by death my son George. The night before, I was helped to pray, with some earnestness, for his eternal salvation, and to part with him to the Lord. I was helped to be silent under this stroke, and to hope that the Lord had taken him to himself. " This morning my other children, especially Marjory and William, seemed to be in great danger. No hopeful symptoms of recovery appearing about them, I went alone, weighted and heavy, not knowing what to think of this speaking providence, — the Lord threatening to bereave me of all my children at once, — to ' write me childless ' in one day. I thought how my pleasant children, a few days 132 LIFE OF THE before, were all about me ; now, said I, are they all to be taken from me 1 Oh ! what can be the voice of the rod ? I went to prayer, and was helped to pour out my heart before the Lord, and to acknowledge my iniquities with grief and sorrow, also the Lord's holiness and righteous- ness, though he should take all my children from me, I laid them down at his feet, and said, Let him do what seemeth right in his sight, only ' give them their souls for a prey.' I was much enlarged about my son William. I cried that he might not be spared, unless it were for the service and glory of God. I was helped to give him away to the Lord ; and, if he should live, I did dedicate him to serve the Lord in the gospel of his Son, praying that the Lord might caU him, and furnish and fit him, if it were his holy will, for that great and honourable work, I came from prayer no more uneasy about my children. I preached that evening with some measure of enlargement, — and buried my son George the next day. It pleased the Lord that my three children recovered. Oh ! that they may live before the Lord. " Tuesday, 24th March, 1730. — About half-past one in the morning, my son Gilbert was born. He was baptized on the Thursday following by my colleague, Mr. Thomas Black. The Lord has given me this son instead of George, whom he was pleased to take from me." These sentences pourtray Mr. Wilson's heart. Apathy did not belong to his nature. His sensibilities were keen indeed, but they had been sanctified as they had been developed. His children were to him his second self; his heart bled over their agonies, yet he could give them to God without a murmur. There was a struggle indeed when the idea of parting first and faintly crossed his mind, and there were terror and sorrow when nearness of separation alarmed him, but at the throne of grace his spirit was quieted, his rufiled heart was subdued, and soothing hopes and antici- pations filled his bosom, ^ There might be a sob, but its language was, " Thy will be done." His religion did not dis- play its power only in public duty and professional labour, it REV. WILLIAM WILSON. 133 dwelt within him, and enabled him to exemplify the graces the possession of which he enforced on others. No feature of his Kfe had been so conspicuous as his earnest desire to follow the leadings of providence, and ascertain the will and coun- sel of God. The same tendency of his confiding soul is seen again in these domestic trials. When the Lord gave, he accepted with gratitude ; when the Lord took again, he surrendered without reluctance. He mourned, but he did not murmur. It was not stubborn acquiescence to an un- avoidable fate, but pliant submission to a Father's will. The oak that yields not to the storm is torn and broken, and its glory is strewn over the plain ; but the elastic willow that bends to the blast, recovers itself when the wind is lulled again. To be able to say, " not my will, but thine be done," prepares the spirit for every issue. Mr. Wilson could say so in genuine humiUty. God's will became his will. From the depth of his sorrow he rose to elevated peace and assurance. And when the little coflfin, with the beloved name on its lid, was hidden from his view, and the dull sound of the earth covering it up fell upon his ear, he might weep, — for "Jesus wept," — yet he forgot not Him who is " the resurrection and the life ;" and his faith rising and looking above and beyond the mournful wrecks of present mortality, anticipated the coming of that happy epoch, when the dust shall be raised, and death shall be con- quered ; *' And God the Lord from every eye Shall wipe off every tear." Thus repeated trials brought renewed consolation. What pathos in those brief expressions of the preceding extract ! " I was helped to pray for his eternal salvation, ' give them their souls for a prey.' " And his prayers were heard. His children gave him comfort on their death-bed. The ex- perience of ]\Iarjory resembled that of an aged saint. Ehza- beth, who was only nine when she died, asked her father to pray with her in her sickness. On his asking her what she wished him to pray for, she replied, " Pray, father, that I 134 LIFE OP THE REV. WILLIAM WILSON. may be made sure of my interest in Christ, and may have a safe passage to glory." The health of his children was precious, and if paternal anxiety and suffering could have preserved them, none of them had died. To have received his infant or his boy back to his arms, with the recovered bloom of health upon his cheek, would have been to him the inspiration of a " new song." But he felt that the soul was beyond value, that salvation was " the one thing need- ful." His "heart's desire and prayer" for his offspring was not so much that they might recover, as that they might be saved. He wrestled with God that he would give them the better blessings, would redeem and prepare them for immortal glory, and take them home to that world which is alike exempted from the weakness of infancy and the decrepitude of age ; where the little children, "of whom is the kingdom of heaven," are clad in immortal youth and beauty, and have come to " the fulness of the stature of perfect men in Christ Jesus." He hoped to meet them in heaven, that world of life, where change and separation are for ever unknown. Conscious of being in the covenant him- self, he was earnest for his " seed," and hopeful of their salvation ; and though his hearth had been so often thinned, he anticipated a happy reunion with his numerous young ones preceding him in death, — " No wanderer lost, — a family in heaven." CHAPTER VI. Miuistrv, earnest and faithful — Theology, sound and sanctified — Specimen of peroration — Conflict with deists in Perth — Synod sermon. In the midst of such trials, and also surrounded by many enjoyments, Mr. Wilson continued to labour in Perth. He might lament the scantiness of visible fruits, but he was cheered by various indications of the power and spirituality of his labours. His sermons show that while he ever in- sisted on the leading truths of the gospel, and pressed them home with great simplicity and pointed earnestness on the hearts and consciences of his hearers, he endeavoured to improve public events, and read those lessons which pro- vidence is so often commissioned to teach the world and the church. Still the burden of his message was Christ the Saviour of sinners. His modes of appeal are often vehe- ment and striking. He never tired of this theme ; and if ever he becomes eloquent, it is in unfolding the richness and suitabihty of the divine Redeemer. His published sermons may be taken as a specimen of his ordinary pulpit ministra- tions. As the majority of them were not published till after his death, it is evident they were not intended for publication, and they may therefore be looked upon as fair and average samples of his preaching. They fully bear out the remarks we have made as to the prominence given to leading truths in his discourses. He opens up doctrine with correctness, analyses character with acuteness, explains duty with lucid succinctness, unriddles a case of conscience with subtle facility, extracts a warning from some public occurrence with natural promptitude, and utters a passing lamentation over ecclesiastical degeneracy with genuine 136 LIFE OF THE pathos ; but his spirit rises, his energy is excited, his periods brighten, and his style becomes terse and nervous as Bax- ter's when he exhibits Jesus and his cross, and invites sinners to believe and be saved. Thus in his sermon from Micah iv. 10. he says, " Oh, if the Lord Christ would be pleased to proclaim this redemption among you this day, not in word only but with power, and in the Holy Ghost ; liberty to the captives ! Oh, captive sinner, whoever thou art, in thy natural state thou art in captivity and in bonds, — a bond-slave to sin, a bond-slave to Satan ! Why, we tell you good tidings of great joy; to you is proclaimed liberty and freedom, — redemption is proclaimed unto thee. Thus saith the Lord, to you, prisoner, to you, dark and dead sinner, go forth and show yourselves ; show your- selves to be sinners needing a Saviour ; show yourselves to the Saviour, to the Redeemer, to Him who is the mighty God, mighty to save you, — the Lord of hosts, able to save you, — the merciful God, willing to save you. ' Thus saith the Lord, I that speak in righteousness am mighty to save,' Isaiah Ixiii. 1. Mighty to save from the tyranny and power of Satan ; mighty to save from the tyranny and power of unbeKef ; mighty to save from the prevailing evils in thy heart, let them be never so great, never so strong ; he is a mighty and strong Redeemer ; a Redeemer not only by price but also by power ; he paid a price of infinite worth and value for you, and will not you come and take salvation from him ? He is a powerful Redeemer : he hath an arm that is full of power, an omnipotent arm that can with one stroke (so to speak) break asunder the strongest gates of brass, and cut in pieces the strongest bars of iron. He is not only willing, but 'able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.' Behold, sirs, on this last day of the feast, our Lord Jesus stands and cries, prisoners, go forth and show yourselves ; captives, go forth out of Babylon ! Haste, haste, haste ; flee out of Babylon, escape for thy life ; flee out of the Babylon of a natural state, it is the city of destruction ; haste, flee for your RET. WILLIAM WILSON. 137 lives, flee to a Saviour, flee to a Redeemer ; he is stand- ing (so to speak) with arms wide open to receive you ; the arms of his love are wide open to receive you ; the arms of his mercy and grace are wide open to receive you ; haste, flee into the city of refuge for thy life ! the arms of the Saviour are stretched out to embrace you with God's wel- come, with the welcome of God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. then, child of the Devil, come and be the child of God. swearer, come and speak the language of Canaan, the heavenly dialect, the pure language of the city above. servant of Satan, come and be the servant of the living God. Thou art yet out of hell ; and, whilst thou art out of hell, thou hast access to a Saviour, access to a Redeemer. filthy sinner, come and be washed from aU thine idols: though thou hast lien among the pots, and be as black as hell with the stain of sin, yet come, thou shalt appear ' as the wings of a dove, whose wings are covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.' "What should hinder thy coming to him who is a Redeemer by price and power ; one that hath infinite power to bring thee, to draw thee, to lead thee, to guide thee ? 0, who can speak forth the glory of this Redeemer, the infinite excellency of this Redeemer ! that some of this com- pany, that never yet knew this Redeemer, that are in the Babylon of a natural state, would* this day take hold of his grace, proclaimed in this gospel, and would by faith appre- hend proclaimed liberty, liberty to captives, and the open- ing of the prison to them that are bound!" These press- ing invitations and remonstrances are from the heart, out of whose abundance he spake. His motto was truly that of the apostle, " I am determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified." His theology was a li\'ing thing, and his preaching never had the tedious languor, cold formality, or heartless mono- tony of a dead orthodoxy. It is evident, moreover, that his sermons were pervaded by the language of his own experience. Prayer was his delight, and he rejoiced to expatiate on its duty and privilege. He often spoke of 138 LIFE OP THE those varying frames which he had felt, but never, in- deed, adduces himself as illustration, fie shrunk from such self-given publicity. Yet it is evident from the ease with which he describes spiritual changes, and the fresh colouring with which he pictured them, that he drew the secret from his own consciousness, with the feeling that many before him were no strangers to those exercises of experimental godliness. But whatever his more immediate theme, Christ was still the centre. We find, at the same time, that Mr. Wilson was a faith- ful watchman. Whatever the form of the threatened or approaching evil, the trumpet gave a " certain sound." The notes of its peal were frequent and startling. The refined maxims of a heathen ethics were in that day rising into repute in Scotland, and so we hear him testifying against such a system, '•' as a deep plot of Hell to pluck up by the roots the true spring and ground of all acceptable obedience unto God," a system inculcated by men to whom nothing is more " nauseous" than the doctrines of "regeneration by supernatural grace, and a vital union with the Lord Jesus Christ in order to the bringing forth of holiness in the heart."* Glancing evidently at the " moderate " preaching so preva- lent around him, which omitted depravity and dwelt on good intention, neglected faith and rested in sincerity, we find him exclaiming, — " Some speak of a good heart toward God, — of a sincere heart and the like, — but they know not what they are saying. The heart that is right with God, is the heart that is sanctified by the word of faith." f And he always witnessed against current error. If the Headship of the Lamb, his sovereignty and dominion over Zion, — the hill of his holiness, be attacked (as it was " by the late act of Parliament anent Captain John Porteous") then a testimony was at once given for it.+ The incidents of humble life were not beneath his regard, especially if he felt that his * Sermon on the " Blessedness lost in the first Adam to be found in Christ the second Adam." Page 35. f Sermon on 1 Cor. xvi. 13 ; page 31. j Sermon on Rev. xiv. 4; page 49. REV. WILLIAM WILSON. 139 Master's honour and interests were involved. Some " itine- rant" had been carrying round the country a picture of Christ in agony, and exhibiting it as a common spectacle to be seen for a few pence. Mr. Wilson felt aggrieved at such profanity, and dwells upon it in one of his discourses, — " All carnal representations of Christ and his sufferings for a profane or common use are a high contempt of the person, death, and mediation of the Lord Jesus. If it is an abomination in the Church of Rome to frame images or pictures of him for a rehgious use, it is no less an abomi- nation to carry about a pretended picture of Christ in his sufferings, to expose it as a common show for money under a pretence of showing a fine piece of paint ; this is a most profane prostituting of the sacred mysteries of our holy Christian religion. I am bold to warn you against such an abominable practice ; it is with a witness, a trampling under foot the Son of God, and a counting of the blood of the covenant wherewith loe are sanctified an unholy, or, common thing." * It would appear that the showman had been maltreated by the mob who surrounded him, and that some of Mr. "Wilson's enemies affirmed that the crowd had been insti- gated by his preaching. In short, he did the work of an evangelist. To use a few phrases of his own quaint but expressive language : when he urged on sinners their helpless and miserable condition, he insisted that they had "no moyen" to pro- cure pardon or any blessing. Dwelling on the media- tion of the Son of God, he rejoiced to expatiate on the truth that the grace, the love and mercy of the Father have " a vent through Him." Urging the necessity of union to Christ, his favourite vocable was that He is the only " conduit " of spiritual blessing. Telling his audience of the fulness and adaptation of Christ's blessings, he con- gratulates them on "the furniture provided" for them in Jesus. Should any be backward to a public testimony for Christ, he lamented it, for it " boded ill." Should any feel * Sermon on Psalm Ixxii. 17 ; page 58. 140 LIFE OP THE perfection to be yet far from them, he bade them not despair, but urged them "aye to be minting at it." If in the application of his discourses he had a " Use " for reproof, he had generally one for direction and encouragement. Mr. Wilson's preaching and labours in Perth had one token of their power which was also unequivocal evidence of their success. The fire that melts the wax only hardens the clay. That old burden which Isaiah was commissioned to dehver, and which was fulfilled in Christ's own ministry and in that of the Apostle Paul, was again verified in Perth, — " The heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed ; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be con- verted, and I should heal them." "^ The enemies of Christ were enraged at his servant. They " which believed not were mad with envy." They could not preserve neutrality. IndilFerence nursed itself into profanity, and passed from sullen inattention into foul and flagrant deism. " Certain lewd fellows of the baser sort," had formed themselves into a kind of club to give concert and unity to the publication of their blasphemies. They had forwarded to Mr. Wilson an " unsubscribed missive," and sent it to his house by " an unknown hand," — while they had taken pains to give it publicity in Perth and the sur- rounding country. Mr. Wilson's own character was as- sailed. For personal calumny he cared not, but the cause of truth might be so far in jeopardy ; and this apprehen- sion led him to preach a series of sermons on the leading truths of the gospel, founded on Psalm Ixxii. 17, — " And men shall be blessed in him." The discourses are styled the "Blessedness lost in the first Adam to be found in Christ the second Adam." He modestly says in his " Ad- vertisement to the Reader," " I do not grudge to take hold of the occasion which those infidels had given me to cast in my mite in speaking from the press for Him ' whom men * Acts 5x\'iii. 27. REV. WILLIAM WILSON. 141 despise and whom the nations abhor.' " These sermons in their published form are greatly compressed. They con- tain simple and succinct views of the leading truths of the gospel, with occasional strictures on national degeneracy, and the folly, waywardness, malignity, inconsistency, and dangers of deism. They are prefaced by a dedication to the gentlemen of the Deistical Principles in or about the Burgh of Perth. He teUs them plainly,—" As for the mali- cious insinuations contained in your invidious queries, wherewith your paper is swelled, and whereby you slyly attack my character, I am not afraid that they shall do the least hurt or prejudice unto it ; and, if you have any con- science at aU, I am persuaded I have a testimony in your own breasts that there is no truth in any of your wicked and railing insinuations. Therefore I shaU not take any farther notice of them, than to tell you I am not surprised with the treatment you give me, I am warned of it : I have the honour to be his servant in office who has told me, that 'the disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord ;' and, ' If they have caUed the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household V Matt. x. 24, 25. But it is not at me only, it is at revealed rehgion, it is at the gospel through me, that your envenomed arrows are directed : and though you have not the assurance to come from behind the cur- tain to own your wickedness, yet you have pulled off the mask in your paper when you declare, that you reckon the doctrines of the gospel, which I am honoured and caUed to preach, are airy speculations concerning faith, mere phan- toms in reUgion, which are nowhere to be found but in school divinity, or in the brains of a hot enthusiast, &c. It is for this reason that I have addressed you under the character I have given you, and I do not think that I should have done you any injury though I had designed you cc^iot, that is without God. Your wickedness has more aggra- vating circumstances in it than theirs to whom this char- acter is given by the Spirit of God. Ephes. ii. 12." . . . And he adds with no little naivete—'' It will unriddle a 142 LIFE OF THE great part of your mission when I tell you what is the spring of all your malicious resentment against me : it is because I concurred with the Session of Perth in their en- deavours to suppress the profane diversions of the stage * in the school, a practice that has an evident tendency to cor- rupt the minds of our youth, and to debauch them in their morals ; yet the master of the school did, with a particular insolence, despise the friendly advice and admonition of the Session by their committee, under a pretence that he was accountable only to the Presbytery for his management in the school : it is l3ecause I endeavour to declare from the pul- pit against the overspreading wickedness and profaneness of the age, and those seminaries of it, or peculiar incentives to it, which go under the name of assemblies and balls : it is because I warned the people of my charge against that indignity done to the Son of God, by an unknown stranger, in his carrying about a pretended picture of him in his sufferings for a common show: it is because I joined with the Session of Perth in the regular steps they took for bringing to a fair and impartial trial a very flagrant report of scandal in the master of the Grammar School ; and for this the Session of Perth, the most considerable body of this kind in the bounds of the Presbytery, and who are daily wrestling against a torrent of profaneness, must be lashed with your virulent tongues and pens. It is for the above, and the like reasons, that you hiss like serpents or adders in the path against me ; and yet you have the assur- * It is probable tliat tlie " diversions of the stage" referred to in this address to the deists, may either have been aldn to the " mysteries," which were so often represented during the middle ages, and which con- sisted of some radely dramatised scenes taken from Scripture, — or that they wei*e in character hke the popish plays, in which figured such fan- tastic heroes as the Lord of i\Iisi-ule, the Boy Bishop, and the Abbot of Fools. Such mummeries, which evidently sprung from the old pagan Saturnalia, were not only puerile and gi-otesque, but often vicious and debauching. Remains of such old customs clung to the parochial schools of Scotland till a veiy recent period. On Fastern's-e'en (that is, the evening preceding the fast of Lent) it was customary for school-boys to bring each his cock to the school, for the purpose of enjoying the bar- "barous amusement of cock-fighting. This period was the juvenile carni- val of Scotland. KEY. WILLIAM WILSON. 143 ance to pretend, in your missive, a respect to the doctrines of morality : but you have confirmed me that it is my duty to hold on in what, by way of ridicule, you term the beaten path, even though the reproofs of the world should gall and torment you. " It is like some may think I have paid you too great a compliment when I have taken any notice of you at all ; but I assure you, if you continue in your profane banter, I shall never judge it worth my while to make any return unto you. In the meantime, I sincerely wish you well ; and it is my daily prayer for you, that you may be re- claimed from the error and wickedness of your way. " Perth, Sept. 16th, 1735." " William Wilson. Thus was Wilson a " workman that needed not to be ashamed." He had but one end, and he steadily pursued it. He felt himself supported in this arduous task " by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left," To labour publicly and "from house to house" was his chief desire. And we cannot suppose that in the church courts he was silent and inactive. His praise was in the churches, for he belonged to the reforming party, — a party dis- tinguished by the purity of its character, the multipli- city of its labours, and the patience of its hopes, not more than by the virulent opposition it encountered, and the scorn and obloquy which it called down upon itself from the dominant party in the Establishment. In 1727 he preached the usual sermon at the opening of the Synod of Stirling and Perth. In this discourse we have both lucid statement and pointed appeal, — and it is well named " The Watchman's Duty and Desire." There is in it no conceal- ment, no evasion of truth, yet the censure is not mere vitu- peration. Its language of complaint is that of fond and faithful regret wrung from a wounded spirit. He loved the Church of Scotland, but he felt that there was in it a lamentable defection over which he mourned, and against which he was bound to strive. He made no attempt to 144 LIFE OF THE REV. WILLIAM WILSOX. heal '-^ the wound of the daughter of Zion lightly." Silence would have been association in crime, the language of con- gratulation would have been a siUy hypocrisy, and words of bland apology would have been a weak affectation of loyal attachment. When Mr. Wilson felt that the degeneracy of the Church was deep, rapid, and shameless ; that Christ crucified was not preached with honest fulness and cordial sincerity ; that the rights of the people were violated with- out remorse ; and " the freest society in the world " was bowing to a vassalage as mean as it was degrading ; — when such convictions had been gathering strength from daily evidence and vexed his "righteous soul," — he believed, and he could not but speak, — no matter who might be offended, no matter what bitter fruits he might reap from his cou- rageous fidehty. " Prophesy smooth things !" no, rather " let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth." Mr. Wil- son's sermon excited no open manifestation of hostility. They who did not relish it concealed their dislike. In five years more the prevaihng party in the Church became bolder. Apostacy ceased to blush at a violated covenant and a treasonable surrender of the Crown Rights of the Re- deemer. It " refused to be ashamed." It courted publicity. Enraged at the charges which Ebenezer Erskine had made and substantiated in his famous Synod sermon, — galled be- yond measure at his audacity in speaking of rights which they had sold, and of privileges which they had been bribed to barter away, — they proudly doomed him to a formal censure, in the vain hope of suppressing the last elements of spiritual liberty, of effacing the last vestiges of a public testimony. The attempt was a noted failure. It aimed at prolonging bondage, but it both created and proclaimed a jubilee. It originated the first Secession, and gave birth to the United Presbyterian Church. The tenth day of October, 1732, was a momentous day for Scotland. The voice of deliver- ance chose for its oracle the 22d verse of the 118th Psalm, — " The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner." That text was a favourable omen, — and it awoke the propitious thunder with which it was hailed. CHAPTER VII. Corruption of the Claurch — E. Erskine's Sjnodseiinon— Memorable lOtli of October — Wilson's boldness in defending Erskine — His preparation of public papers — Suspension — Address to his people — Firmness — Loosed from his chai-ge by the Assembly — Meetmg at Gaimey Bridge. The agitation that followed Mr. Erskine's sermon was an index to the state of the Church. The discourse was indeed calm and judicious, but honest and thorough in its statements. The sensation it produced proved how deeply it was needed. The life of the Church had been waning. Ichabod might have been written on the portals of many of its sanctuaries. The soul of its earlier reformers had fled, — their mantle had not been caught by their suc- cessors. Men had been intruded into the pastorate " for a piece of bread." The facile remnant of the old Episcopacy, having thrown off the surphce, had been retained in many parishes to read homilies instead of prayers. A dull and leaden weight bore down the ecclesiastical assemblies, — the " spirit of judgment" had left them, and they had not only been gradually trained down into requisite indifference, but they even boasted of the laxness of their polity, as an evidence of their attachment to the court and government. They fawned upon " the powers that be," intoxicated the Royal Commissioner with mean adulation, and were but too happy to forward the sinister designs upon the liberties of the Kirk, which the crooked policy of the state had devised. The power of the pulpit was gone, — the preach- ing of a free and unrestricted gospel was frowned upon, — the sermon fuU of doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruc- tion in righteousness, had degenerated into a brief and pithless essay, disguised from Seneca or diluted from Epic- 3 K 146 LIFE OF THE tetus. It had no spirituality of tone or unction, — and brought no comfort or satisfaction to the weary and anxious sinner. It neither moved the careless nor refreshed the godly. Pious people went to church and came home again, feeling that in their sad experience the words of the pro- phet had been reahzed, for their anticipations so often dis- appointed reminded them of the scene thus described, — "It shall be even as when an hungry man dreameth and behold he eateth, but he awaketh and his soul is empty ; or when a thirsty man dreameth and behold he drinketh, but he awaketh and behold he is faint and his soul hath appetite.""^ But the dereliction was not universal. Good men and true were found in various parts of the country, — "faint yet pursuing," " perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken." By their prayers and ministrations the best of the laity were greatly blessed and edified, and often felt themselves on the eve of adopting the old thanksgiving of Ezra,t — " And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the Lord our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bond- age." The "swatches" which Mr. Wilson gives of many of the ministers are truly mournful, proving that the majority were reckless of principle, the mere abettors of a supple policy, and the haters of evangehcal truth, while many were by no means either consistent in their conduct or exemplary in their lives. Wilson had from the commencement of his ministry in Perth felt a deep sympathy with all reforming movements in the Church. That excellent system of truth the " Mar- row " had been condemned by the Assembly, and a brand put on a free and complete exhibition of the gospel. Many faithful men were deeply grieved at this unworthy proce- dure, and laboured to secure some modification of the As- sembly's sentence. Wilson joined with those ministers as early as 1721, and attended their private meetings and pro- • Isaiah xxix. 8. f Ezra is. 8. P.EV. WILLIAM WILSON. 147 longed consultations. "There was," he records, "much sweet satisfaction in so meeting, and in our praying and conversing together." These efforts only exasperated the reigning faction in the church. But the friends of truth were not disheartened by years of fruitless toil and anx- iety. In 1731 it was agreed to draw up a represcntion and petition to the General Assembly; and, perhaps at Mr. Wilson's suggestion, a meeting of the friends of truth took place at Perth in February 1732. The paper was subscribed by 42 ministers and three elders. But this protestation met with such treatment as might have been expected, — the " Committee on BUls " refused even to transmit it. Another paper, signed by fifteen hundred of the laity, shared a similar fate. That same year the Assem- bly violated the " Barrier Act," in their haste to extend and strengthen the law of patronage. Mr. Wilson comments on this act in strong language. "By this means," he says, " the godly were grieved and wounded, congregations were rent and broken, the wicked were hardened, many were tempted to look upon religion as all a cheat, deistical principles prevailed, profanity and wickedness abounded through the land." This melancholy statement is not overcharged. Christ was wounded in the house of his friends. But man's extremity is God's opportunity. Ebenezer Erskine was the herald of divine interference on the 10th October, 1732. The cause was apparently trivial, — but the effects could not then be calculated. The course and destiny of divine truth are beyond the sphere of human vision; and it is not till after "many days" that the results surprise and delight the spectator.* * The following lines aflford a beautiful symbol of the truth contained in the text : — I shot an arrow into tlie air, — It fell to the earth, I knew not where; For, so swiftly it flew, the sijfht Could not follow it in its flighL I breathed a song into the air, — It fell to the earth, I knew not where; For who has sight, so keen and strong, That it can follow the flight of song. 14S LIFE OF THE In the debate "wliich this synod sermon occasioned, "Wilson took a prominent part. Agreeing with the senti- ments of the discourse, he at once and cordially identified himself with the preacher. The notes in his ' diary ' on this critical transaction are very full. They are a species of reflections written four years after the events, and after himself had been suspended, — and they are recorded " for the sake of my children, especially if any shall survive me." He adds, with his usual humility, that he writes down among other things the part " I judged it my duty to take from time to time, wherein I had a remarkable series and train of trials and mercies, of difficulties and outgaits ; and at the time when I write this (April 1736) I know not what the issue may be." "At the afternoon meeting," he writes in the same paper, " Mr. Adam F , minister at Logierait, stated that Mr. Erskine, in his sermon in the forenoon, had uttered some things which gave offence, and moved for investigation. He was immediately joined by Mr. M , minister at Aberdal- gie, a hot, violent man, — a plague on the presbytery of Perth, and most active always in a bad cause. He was also joined by Mr. M , then at Forteviot, now at St. Ninians, a man more smooth and subtle than his brother, but his hand still as deep in a course of defection. Mr. Robert C of Glendoig, advocate, elder, reasoned also very warmly for censuring Mr. Erskine ; he is a man that follows the fashion of the present time, — his principles and conduct in the judicatories appear to be of a piece ! " Thus the debate began. With men of such character as those sketched by Wilson, Mr. Erskine could be no favourite. His words, however, took effect, — but little did he dream of the momentous results. Wilson at once ascribes to its true cause the sensation produced by the synod ser- mon ; for though Mr. Erskine made no particular applica- LoxG, LONG aftem'ards, in an oak, I found the arrow still un broke; And the song, from beginning to end, I found again in the heai't of a frientL LosGFJiLLOw's Poems. REV, WILLIAM WILSON. 149 tion, the consciences of many of his audience could not but tell they were pointed at, — they felt themselves sketched in the portraiture of the Jewish builders. The discussion continued three days, during which Wilson was neither silent nor supine. He moved that the discussion should drop, and pleaded the incompetency of the synod to censure Mr. Erskine, because the clauses picked out of the sermon were inaccurate representations of what Mr. Erskine had really said, — ^because, if opposition to the Act of 1732 be liable to blame, new terms of ministerial communion are introduced ; and because the synod in threatening a penalty on free-speaking was going beyond its province, and had no warrant from the Assembly for such unconstitutional procedure. Wilson's reasonings were opposed ; but he rose again and vindicated his allegations — affirmed the right of ministerial speech — dwelt upon the contemptuous way in which representations had been recently treated — solemnly warned the synod of its perilous position, and foretold that a rent in the church would inevitably follow, if the judica- tories should censure Mr. Erskine for his faithful freedom. He was met with tame remarkings on order and submis- sion, and constitutional methods of obtaining redress. His bold challenge brought upon him scowls without ar- gument. The tone of his opponents was bitter, but their logic was naught. Their wrath was exuberant; and at length, by a majority of six votes, the synod pronounced Mr. Erskine censurable. Against this sentence a protest and appeal was taken, in which Mr. Wilson heartily joined. The part he had taken in the debate gave him "much peace." His mind could not as yet forecast what might be the result, yet he ^v^as assured that good would follow. The appeal was brought up before the next Assembly in 1733. Mr. Wilson hesitated about going to Edinburgh, thinking that his appearances in synod had sufficiently exonerated his conscience. But he felt that more was demanded of him, and he was present in the Assembly. But it refused to hear him on the grounds of his protest. It cared not for his oratory, and relished not his intrepidity. 150 LIFE OF THE It interposed a sullen veto, and deemed its own authority a sufficient justification for the rigorous interdict. With- out hesitation, and with an apparent gratitude for the occasion, it confirmed the sentence of the synod; and, without regard to any pleading in arrest or modification of judgment, it appointed Mr. Erskine to be rebuked forth- with at its own bar. The Assembly seems to have rejoiced in this opportunity of revenge, — and longed to regale itself with the spectacle of a reformer bowing to its stern decree. Wilson again joined in Ebenezer Erskine's protest, along with Messrs. Fisher and MoncriefF; — the " Four Brethren" were now leagued. Their confederates had shrunk and withdrawn. They were better without the fainthearted. The paper on which the protest was written had almost been forgotten, as it had accidentally fallen over the table on which it had been laid, — but it was too precious to perish so easily, — for it was the charter of a disenthralled church ! The Assembly, on coming to the knowledge of it, were fired with indignation. They could scarcely credit the existence of such audacity. It surprised them out of their propriety, and they summoned the four protesters to appear next day. They obeyed the abrupt citation. A committee was appointed to converse with them; but their convictions of duty remained unchanged. The com- mittee reported that the four brethren were unmoved by any means they had employed. The victims themselves were not allowed a hearing. Their persistence was deemed enough to condemn them, and they were commanded to with- draw and await the decision of the Court. An act and sen- tence, prepared by a committee, was read and sanctioned against them, ordering them to appear at the Commission in August, and to retract, on pain of being suspended from the exercise of their ministry in the first instance, and of being deposed should they still continue refractory. This iras- cible magniloquence did not overawe them. They oQered to read a very mild complaint, but were refused. They only asked to take the affiiir to an avisandiim — they wished some period for deliberation. But the enraged REV. WILLIAM WILSON. 151 Assembly could not now brook their very appearance, — and could scarce command patience enough to order its otficer to expel them from the house. And, with the usual courtly forms, this gallant Assembly was the same day dissolved. In the interval Mr. Wilson prepared a representation for the Commission in August, in which Mr. Moncrieff joined him. This paper calmly stated the whole case without colouring or reserve; enumerated the weighty reasons which led them "into this quarrelled and con- demned step ;" vindicated with meek dignity the various points of their procedure; solemnly avowed that they should be " guilty of dissimulation " if they either retracted or professed penitence ; asked anew, with powerful reitera- tion, in what their sin consisted ; argued at length on prin- ciples of scripture and Protestantism for freedom and plain- ness of speech as the privilege and duty of the ministers of Christ ; and concluded with a noble declaration of alle- giance to Christ, despite of any penalty which might be pronounced upon them. The peroration of this eloquent paper is as follows : — "Upon the whole, we cannot but declare before the reverend Commission, that we have no freedom to submit to them. And, further, we are obliged to protest, like as by these presents we do protest, for ourselves, and in the name of all the ministers and members of this church ad- hering to us ; as also, in the name of all, and every one in our respective congi-egations who shall adhere unto us, against any censure that may be inflicted upon us, affecting our ministerial office, or the exercise thereof, as null and void in itself; and that it shall be lawful and warrantable for us to exercise our ministry, as hitherto we have done, and as if no such censure had been inflicted upon us ; in regard, we are not convicted of departing from any of the received principles of this Church, or of counteracting our ordina- tion vow^s and engagements; but, on the contrary, are sentenced to censure, by the late General Assembly, for protesting against a decision, whereby we are brought 152 LIFE OF THE under these new and unwarrantable terms of ministerial communion above mentioned, which we look upon as in- consistent with the Word of God, and our ordination vows and engagements ; as also, for all the above reasons and causes why we cannot retract our paper given in to the late General Assembly. And, further do we protest, that, if in consequence of any censure inflicted upon us, whether of suspension, or of a higher nature, any minister or pro- bationer shaU exercise any part of our ministerial work in our respective congregations, the same shaU be held and repute as an intrusion upon our ministerial labours. As also, we protest, that if any other minister shall be settled in our congregations, that the same shall be held and re- pute as an intrusion upon our pastoral charges ; and that the people of our respective congregations shall not be obliged to own, acknowledge, or submit unto such as their lawful pastors, seeing we were ordained to take the over- sight of them, with their own caU and consent, and with consent of the presbytery unto which we were received, and have not been convicted of receding from our ordina- tion vows and engagements. And, lastly, we protest, that whatever bad effects may follow upon the course taken with us, we shall not be chargeable with them. " If, notwithstanding of all we have represented, the Commission shall think fit to be the executioners of this unjust sentence against us, then, adhering to this our re- presentation, and our above protestation, we commit our cause to him that ' judgeth righteously,' in whom we de- sire to hope, and on whom, through his grace, we will wait till he make 'the righteousness of Z^on go forth as brightness, and the salvation of Jerusalem as a lamp that burneth.' " William Wilson. " Alexander Monckieff." But this paper was also refused, and they were forced to make an oral statement of a similar nature. The crisis was at hand. Several presbyteries and sessions had, in KEV. WILLIAM WILSON. 153 the meantime, sent up papers in their behalf. The city and session of Perth were not indifferent spectators, and the situation of their minister filled them with pain and alarm. The session despatched to the Assembly a respect- ful remonstrance. It described Mr. AVilson's multifarious labours, urged lenity and forbearance on the court till Mr. Wilson might attain to more light, solicited delay as a " singular favour," and thus concluded : — " And as this would be a singular favour to us, we are hopeful it would be no less to the church, especially in our bounds ; and that the reverend Commission shall have no cause to repent their lenity in this matter. May it there- fore please the reverend Commission to grant our earnest request,— and your petitioners shall ever pray. This in name and by appointment of the foresaid kirk-session is signed by " Tiios. Black, Moderator." The magistrates and town council of Perth were not behind the session. Their paper is of the same kind,— full of affection for Mr. Wilson— gratitude for his labours— ardent desire for their continuance— great alarm at the thought of their interruption by the threatened censure of last Assembly,— and humble and fervent supplication for a postponement of the sentence :— " May it, therefore, please the reverend Commission, in their clemency to 'Mr. Wilson and sympathy to this burgh, to agree to delay the affair concerning him,— and your petitioners shall ever pray. Signed the 6th of August, 1733, in name and in presence of the said magistrates and town council, by " Pat. Crie, Provost." The Commission was made of " sterner stuff" than to be swayed by their Christian representation. Such an appeal to their clemency and sympathy gave them but a firmer re- solve to show no mercy. What though Mr. Wilson should suffer ? his obstinacy had provoked them ! What though his labours in Perth should be terminated, his church 154 LIFE OF THE dispersed, and the city spiritually damaged ? their dignity must be upheld, and the majesty of their self-willed au- thority vindicated ! Had Wilson been immoral, he might have been screened, — had he been indolent, he would never have been troubled, — had he been heretical, indul- gence might have been shown him, — but he had dared to speak against Acts of Assembly, he had moved his Hp against the deeds of the church, and therefore summary punishment must be meted out to such aggravated and flagrant crime without mitigation or respite. Mr. Wilson and the three protesters were therefore suspended. Mr. Wilson's session, admiring his fidelity and heroism, joined in a protest against the tyrannous edict — " We, the under- scribing members of the kirk-session of Perth, do hereby, in our own name, and in the name of all who shall adhere to us in the said congregation, testify our adherence to Mr. Wilson, one of our ministers, notwithstanding of the sentence inflicted upon him ; and in regard some of us came with a petition from the kirk-session, which was presented to the reverend Commission, but neither read nor regarded, we protest we shall be at liberty to complain to the next General Assembly, and hereupon take instru- ments. Signed by us at Edinburgh, 9th August 1733. '' William Ferguson. " Colin Brown. " Da. Robertson. " James Davidson. " Pat. Scioch. " Al^x. M'Ewen." At the same time Wilson wisely resolved that his people should have a thorough acquaintance with the cause of dispute between himself and the Assembly. Accordingly he addressed to them a judicious and dispassionate state- ment, which gives a full and impartial view of the entire movement. He was not ashamed of the part he had taken, — of the course he had pursued. So thoroughly was he convinced that he was contending for the cause of God and REV. WILLIAM WILSON. 155 truth that he needed not to write with suspicious reserve. He wished but a candid hearing. He threw himself, not on the affectionate and forgiving indulgence of his parish, but he honestly appealed to the divine testimony,— to the con- stitution of the Church of Christ,— and to the uniform tenor of his own sermons and exhortations on the vital points of ecclesiastical freedom and popular suffrage. And thus, in the fulness of his heart and earnestness of his convictions, he wrote — " Unto the inhabitants of the burgh and parish of Perth, grace and peace be multiplied. " The occasion of publishing the following discourse, de- livered in your hearing, is a report made by the reverend presbytery of Perth to the Commission of the late General Assembly, at their meeting in August last,— the tenor whereof follows : — " Perth, July 25, 1733. " The Presbytery having caused read the Act of the late General Assembly, with respect to Mr. Ebenezer Erskine, .minister of the gospel at Stirling, and the brethren that adhered to his protest, whereby they appoint the several presbyteries, of which the said brethren are members, to report to the Commission in August, and subsequent meetings of it, their conduct and behaviour with respect to the Act of Assembly. And this presbytery having made inquiry as to the behaviour of two of their brethren that joined the said Mr. Erskine in his protest, since said last Assembly, they find, — that there is not only a common fame, but some members of the presbytery, who have of late heard the two brethren preach, did declare, that they continue in their sermons to reflect upon the proceedings of the late and preceding Assemblies. And the presbytery appoints the report hereof to be laid before the Commis- sion of the General Assembly, to meet at Edinburgh the second Wednesday of August next to come. After the presbytery had agreed to the above report, it was moved, that it might be added, as a further evidence of the guilt of these brethren, — that some members, who had occasion 156 LIFE OF THE to hear these brethren of late, refused to inform the pres- bytery if or not they did in their sermons reflect on the judicatories of the church, which, even in justice to these brethren, they were bound to do, had they been innocent. Then the question being put — Add this as a clause to the report or not 1 Roll called, and votes marked, — it carried, nemine contradicente, Add the said clause. This report of the presbytery was resolved upon, at the close of their meeting, when some had gone off; but two reverend brethren having returned about the time when they were concluding the above report, dissented from it, and with them a ruling elder. My brother, Mr. Moncrieff, who was also concerned in it, was not present at this meeting of presbytery, and I was obliged to leave them before any thing about the said report was moved, being to preach our ordinary week-day's sermon next day ; but though there is little more than the breadth of one of our streets betwixt them and me, yet they thought fit to lay this general charge against me before the reverend Com- mission, — Of reflecting upon the proceedings of the late and preceding Assemblies, — without acquainting me in the least with it. If it is agreeable to the rules of the gospel, or to common justice and equity, to receive a report of this nature against a brother, or to table such a general accusation, in so public a manner, against him without •once hearing him upon the cause, I leave it to others to judge. I am credibly informed the '^ermon I delivered on the Sabbath evening after the celebration of the sacra- ment of the Lord's Supper in this place, was the only preaching of mine that was mentioned as giving occasion to the common fame that the Presbytery's report bears, and as the ground of their general accusation. I am not con- scious to myself that I delivered anything contrary to my duty, or improper for you to hear upon that solemn occa- sion ; and therefore I thought it was needful, for the sake of truth itself as well as for my exoneration, to make the following discourse as pubhc as the general charge against me has been. * * * REV. WILLIAM WILSON. 157 " It is now seventeen years since 1 had your unanimous call, to come and labour amongst you in the work of the gospel. The countenance and encouragement you have always given me, and your particular interest in me, oblige me to give you some account of my late conduct, for which I am condemned in so pubHc a manner. " The sibboleth of our divided and distracted times, is that Act of Assembly, 1732, concerning the settlement of vacant churches. By it, the power of electing and calling ministers is given to heritors as such ; yea, the Act is laid in such terms, as, though all the elders and people of a congregation are reclaiming, yet the majority of the heri- tors, whether they have their residence in the parish or not, whether they are of the communion of the Church of Scot- land or not, may impose a minister upon them, unless the reclaiming people can fix error in doctrine, or something scandalous in walk and practice, on the man who is the heritors' choice. This appears to me to be contrary to the laws and institutions of the Lord Jesus, the only Lord and lawgiver unto his Church and people, being contrary to the apostolic practice and example recorded in the New Testament; an encroachment upon the rights and char- ters of the sheep and flock of Christ, and also cross to the end and design of the giving of a gospel-ministry unto the Church. " It cannot be pled that heritors, as such, have any right or title from the Word of God to elect or call ministers. Civil honour ought to be given to every one to whom it is due ; and harmony betwixt heritors and the people of a parish, in an aifair of such importance unto them, as it is most desirable, so it ought to be endeavoured by all proper and expedient means : but to give an ecclesiastical trust and privilege, by a Church Act and constitution, to any set of men, upon the account of their heritage or other worldly considerations, appears to me to be contrary to the nature of Christ's kingdom, which is spiritual. And, as it involves the judicatories of Christ's House in debates and questions about the civil rights and titles of heritors, which do not 158 LIFE OF THE belong unto them, so it cannot be vindicated from that par- tial ' respect of persons ' condemned by the Word of God, wliich, in matters of this kind, admits of no difference be- twixt ' the man with the gold ring and goodly apparel, and the poor man in mean raiment,' James ii. 2 — 5. To impose a minister upon a reclaiming and dissenting people, who yet make a professed subjection to the ordinances of the gospel, and declare themselves willing and ready to submit to the ministry of such as are settled amongst them, accord- ing to the rules of the Word, appears to me to be contrary to the apostolic example and practice recorded in the New Testament. I shall only touch at two passages, the one in the first and the other in the sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, — they are both made use of by our reformed divines in their pleadings against the tyranny and oppres- sion of the Church of Rome. . . . What is now passed against me I know, and what I am farther threatened with I may partly know, yet I cannot see everything that my above conduct may expose me unto : but whatever I may be called to endure or suffer, according to my present views, it is stated upon the three following points. The first is, — That any ecclesiastical ordinance or constitution, contrary to the laws and institutions of our Lord Jesus, the only Lord and lawgiver unto his Church and people, is in itself sinful, and therefore can have no binding force nor authority over any of the oflEice-bearers or members of the Church of Christ: and such the Act of Assembly, 1732, appears to me to be, for the reasons I have already given. The second point (and which is yet a more immediate ground upon which our present testimony is stated) is this, — That the ministers of the Church of Scotland ought, upon all proper occasions, to declare, even from the pulpit, the sin- fulness that is in any ecclesiastical act and constitution, or the sinfulness and unwarrantableness of such proceedings of the Church judicatories, whereby the heritage and flock of God are oppressed, and whereby our constitution is wounded, by the opening of a wide door for the bringing in of a corrupt ministry into the Church of Christ ; espe- REV. WILLIAM WILSON'. 159 cially when the ordinary means of representations and in- structions unto our several General Assemblies have been tried, but without success. This is what the Word of God, our Presbyterian principles, and our ordination vows and engagements, oblige us unto. This is our duty, as we are watchmen set upon Jerusalem's walls, and appointed to sound the trumpet, and to give the alarm of approaching danger to the city of God. The third point is, — That this freedom and liberty of testifying publicly, upon all proper occasions, against the public sins and defections of a church, ought not to be suppressed or restrained ; and if it is suppressed or restrained by an ecclesiastical act or deci- sion, then it is the duty and privilege of the ministers and members of the Church to testify against any such sentence and decision as what fixeth the ministers of the Church under sinful and unwarrantable terms of ministerial com- munion. And this is what is our case with respect to our protestation against the foresaid decision of the late General Assembly. We have declared in our representa- tions to the last meeting of the Commission, that we did not intend by our protestation to impugn the power and authority of the General Assembly to censure any of the ministers and members of this Church upon just and relevant grounds, or the exercise of that power and authority accord- ing to the Word of God, and the known principles of this Church ; and that our foresaid protestation is only a solemn attested declaration and testimony against a wrong deci- sion of the General Assembly, which lays a restraint upon ministerial freedom and faithfulness : and this protestation we could not retract, because such a retractation might have been justly constructed, not only to be a submitting unto a decision that lays such a sinful embargo upon ministers, but also a giving up with what is a proper and legal mean of testifying, before a church judicatory, against an unwar- rantable sentence and decision. As these are the points upon which I am singled out, together with my other three brethren, as the object of the heavy and severe censure contained in the act and sentence of the late General 160 LIFE OF THE Assembly against us, so I hope I have no ground to be afraid or ashamed to own them. " The Church of Scotland has been honoured to bear wit- ness in a special manner to the kingly office of Christ, and that unto him it belongs to give laws and ordinances unto liis own house, and instructions unto his ministers, who are obliged ' to teach all things whatsoever he hath com- manded them.' And the above points, upon which our present testimony is stated, are the same, upon the matter, with that which a great cloud of witnesses in Scotland have borne testimony unto since the dawning of the Reformation light amongst us ; and though I should be exposed to suffer trouble as an evil-doer, even unto bonds, for the same, yet may I hope 'the Word of the Lord is not bound,' 2 Tim. ii. 9. .... I am not convicted of anything before the judica- tories of this Church, either in doctrine or practice, contrary to the Word of God, our Confession of Faith, or Presbyterian principles ; and therefore it is my duty to endeavour to fulfil that ministry among you which I have received from the Lord, and to preach his word, out of season as well as in season ; and all that I desire of you is, that you may pray for the supphes of the Spirit of Jesus unto me, that I may be enabled unto the faithful discharge of my duty amongst you; as also that you may receive the word of reconciliation which I am honoured to bear ; and that, whatever I may be exposed unto in the discharge of my duty, you may not be ashamed of my bonds. " The burgh of Perth was honoured, at the very dawning of Reformation light, first of all the burghs in Scotland, to make a noble stand for our Reformation rights and pri- vileges, in opposition to the idolatry and ecclesiastical tyranny of the Church of Rome, under which the whole land groaned at that time; and ye have distinguished yourselves in a zealous concern for, and by a steady adhe- rence unto, our civil and religious liberties, particularly in the year 1715, when many of you suffered banishment from your own habitations, and endured some other hardships, after you were overpowered by force and violence, and REV. WILLIAM WILSON. 161 obliged to give way to the superior number of those who came against you, and made this place for some time the seat of their displayed banner against the revolution in- terest, our late sovereign King George, and the Protestant succession in his royal family. But our good and gracious God did scatter these clouds — he restored you to your habitations — he preserved this place, when some neigh- bouring villages were laid in ashes ; and he has followed you since that time with a series and train of remark- able blessings. All these lay you under so many obliga- tions to a steadfast perseverance in the truths and way of the Lord. " My present situation may, I hope, apologize for the length of this preface. I intend not in it the irritation of any, but to discharge myself of what I judge to be a debt I owe to the people of my pastoral charge in a particular manner, whatever the consequences of this whole affair towards myself may be. As for the discourse immediately following, my design, in the several preachings on that subject, was, according unto the measure of the grace of Christ given unto me, to recommend unto you the faith of our Lord Jesus, and a steadfast perseverance in the same. " That you may know the truth as it is in Christ, and that you may be rooted and built up in him, and may be established in the faith, is the prayer of him who is one of your pastors, more willing than able to serve you in the work of the gospel. " William Wilson.* "Perth, Sept. 22, 1733." The Commission met again in November, — but their spirit had not changed. The victory which they imagined they had won over their recusant members was not to be * Preface to his sermon named ' Stedfastness in the Faith Re- commended,'— a discourse preached on the Sabbath evening after the celebration of the Lord's Supper at Perth, July 22, 1733. To which is prefixed a short account of the occasion of publishing this, together with some reasons for his condemned conduct, directed by the author to the people of his pastoral charge. 162 LIFE OP THE lightly given up. Wilson and his colleagues " were dealt with," as the phrase is — were alternately flattered and men- aced. The special point of inquiry naturally was — Whether the suspended brethren had obeyed the sentence passed upon them, and had abstained from all ministerial labour ? The inquiry was a vain one. The four ministers avowed that they had felt as free to labour as if the sentence had never been pronounced. Their suspension had meanwhile created some sympathy in the church, — and seven synods and two presbyteries had laid remonstrances on the table of the Commission, praying them to pause ere they pro- ceeded to the harsh extremity of final deposition. But the Commission was not to be mollified, and the casting vote of the Moderator only carried the Court to another question, — Whether the suspended brethren should be simply loosed from their respective charges, or at once be deposed from the oflSce of the holy ministry? The majority voted that they should be loosed, — declared to be no longer ministers of the Established Church, — and incapable of discharging any of its ministerial functions. In a paper dated 16th November, 1733, the brethren protested against this sen- tence, and formally declared their secession, — " therefore do we, for these and other weighty reasons, to be laid open in due time, protest, that we are obhged to make a seces- sion from them, and that we can have no ministerial com- munion with them, till they see their sins and mistakes and amend them." The brethren had separated without any definite under- standing. Mr. Wilson went home to Perth, rejoicing that he " was counted worthy to suffer shame for His name." No course of future procedure had been planned, — he " went out, not knowing whither he went." According to usual form, a minister was appointed to read the sen- tence against him from that pulpit he had so long occu- pied. The minister who assumed this task was Ferguson of KiUin,* — a man quite adequate to the work, for it was * As the scene of his pastoral labours appears to have been changed, he is sometimes called the minister of Logierait. REV. WILLIAM WILSON. 1C3 he that made the proposal in the synod of Perth that Ebsnezer Erskine's sermon should be taken into consider- tion, and its author censured. But the chafed populace rose in rebellion, met him at some distance from the city, resisted his entrance into Perth, and so prevented him from carrying into effect the commands of the Commission. The intimidated deputy, in writing to the Commission, represents this opposition in strong terms, as if it had been a civic rebellion. A few weeks afterwards, at Gair- ney Bridge, on the 6th of December, 1733, the Associate Presbytery was solemnly constituted. These peculiar circumstances in which Mr. Wilson was placed did certainly try him, but he says, " the Lord pities, upholds, and supports me." " I am now a wonder to many, and my mother's sons are angry with me, yet I have peace that I am in the way of duty." To be con- temptuously flung out of a church, for attachment to which his father had been exiled, his mother disinherited, and himself had made cheerful sacrifices, — to be rudely severed from the chosen sphere of his labours, and the people whom he loved, — to be suddenly denied the ordinary means of maintenance for himself and his family, without prospect of any new source of support, — to be laid under the ban of the Assembly at a period when ecclesiastical censures had scarcely been divested of their popish terror, and when dissent was an unknown and perilous novelty, was indeed a trial so great and formidable, that nothing could have upborne him but faith and a good conscience, with the assured hope of acceptance from Him in whose cause such labours had been undertaken and such hazards incurred. CHAPTER VIII. Wilson's hopes of retui-n to the EstabUshment at length abandoned — Peace of mind — Vindication of his character — Necessity of training young men for the ministry — Wise resolution of the Associate Presby- tery — Unanimous choice of Wilson as their Professor — His peculiar qualifications for the responsible charge, and Ms success as a Teacher of Theology. The ignominy and injustice heaped on Mr. Wilson did not destroy within him aE hopes of adjustment and final recon- ciliation. Longer than any of his brethren did he cherish the idea of returning to the Estabhshment. Hope against hope lingered in his heart. He would not credit the notion that the church was so fallen and perverse, so utterly inimical to every species and amount of reforma- tion. One Assembly however passed after another, but no vital redress was proposed. Several new acts indeed were passed, and old edicts repealed, inclining to purity and liberality, and speaking the language of a fettered forbear- ance and of conditional restoration to the ejected brethren. Wilson was encouraged by such procedure to write to Ebenezer Erskine, expressing his anticipation of the possi- bility of ultimate return to the Estabhshment. His record of his own feelings at this period is thus given by himself in his " Defence." " I own that after the meeting of Assem- bly 1734, I was in much perplexity about our continuing in a state of Secession. It occasioned many thoughts of heart unto me, to understand what was duty in the pre- sent case. But as I had no hesitation about my duty when I did, together with my three brethren, declare a secession from the judicatories of this church, in our pro- testation before the Commission, November 1733, so when REV. WILLIAM WILSON. 165 I have observed the said judicatories, since the year 1734, I have been gradually cleared, and more and more con- firmed that it is our duty to continue in a state of Seces- sion. ... I desire to bless the Lord who cleared my way, and led me by his good hand upon me to join my brethren, though the unworthiest among them." Espe- cially after the Assembly of 1736, his mind was set at rest, and he was quite prepared to form a separate ecclesiastical organization. His advice had for some time postponed such definite procedure, for the other three brethren had less hesitation in "proceeding to any step of jurisdiction," but now they all felt warranted to go forward to " the exercise of government and discipline." A " Testimony" was also published, in the preparation of which Wilson had a prin- cipal share ; and which he afterwards defended with vi- gour and success. In this year too the brethren felt all restraints taken ofi" them, and preached the gospel to large audiences in various parts of the country. Parochial boundaries and designations were no longer to be regarded. The cause was God's, and they were bound to advocate it at all times and in all places. Mr. Wilson was now a dissenter — a member of a sepa- rate church. His secession had been forced upon him. When he raised his voice in defence of Mr. Erskine's synod sermon, he little dreamed of the issue, and would have recoiled from it with horror. But providence pre- pared him for it step by step; and his courage rested on the calm decisions of an enhghtened conscience. His zeal was " according to knowledge." It was neither wounded pride, nor intemperate haste, nor constitutional temerity, nor love of power and pre-eminence, nor fond- ness of popular applause, nor reckless desire of innova- tion, that brought Mr. Wilson out of the EstabUshment; for, during the whole process, he exhibited humility, mo- desty, prudence, and forbearance ; and he was marked by a conscientious reluctance to take one unnecessary step, utter a harsh censure, or do a provoking action. And, because he did nothing rashly, was he the firmer when 166 LIFE OP THE deliberation was over, and the moment for decision had arrived. There was even tardiness in erecting a separate jurisdiction, and in encouraging the people to leave the national church. Mr. Wilson waited, and was sickened through "hope deferred," ere he coalesced with the brethren, who had already felt it to be " full time to proceed to the exercise of the powers with which they were intrusted by the Head of the Church, for the vindication of his truths and ordinances, and for the relief of the Christian people, by supplying them with sermon." Mr. Wilson's language is eloquent in its concinnity and terseness, when he enu- merates the grievances which led to the Secession. " It was not," he sums up, in answer to his opponent, " it was not violent intrusions, it was not the act of 1732, neither was it any other particular step of defection, considered abstractly by themselves, upon which the Secession was stated ; but a complex course of defection both in doc- trine, government, and discipline, carried on with a high hand by the present judicatories of this church, justifying themselves in their procedure, and refusing to be re- claimed." * And well might he add, when vindicating his party from the sin of schism, — " the Secession was not declared till some ministers were thrust out, — ' they have not gone out with haste, neither have they gone out by flight.' "t The preceding narrative plainly shows that these Se- ceders were virtually expelled from the national church, because they resisted its despotic mandates. They hoped for reformation, after they had left it, but there was " burn- ing instead of beauty." The " free, faithful, reforming General Assembly," to which they had appealed, came not. Wilson notes this declension very faithfully. An attempt had been made, as he describes it, to " relax the Four Brethren " from the sentences passed upon them, but it rested only " on some political considerations." Violent settlements in the parishes of Cambusnethan, * Defence 40. f Do. 32. REV. WILLIAM WILSON. 167 Denny, Troquire, iation PRCfciPLES of the Church OF Scotland; with a continuation of the same. "Wherein the excep- tions that are laid against the conduct of the Associate Presbytery, as also againsttheu- Judicial Act and Testimony, by the Rev. Mr. Cur- RIE in his Essay on Separation, are examined ; and the injmious reflec- tions cast Ttpon our reforming period from 1638 to 1650 in the aforesaid Essay are discovered. By William Wilsox, A.M., Lluiister of the Gospel at Perth. Revelation ii. 25. — " But that which ye have already, hold fast till I come." JuDE 3. — " Earnestly contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints." The other mottos on the title page of the " Defence" are the follow- ing: — " ^Vheu the greatest part of a chm-ch maketh defection from the truth the lesser part remaining sound, the greatest part is the church of Sepa- ratists : though the manifest and greatest pai-t in the actual exercise of REV. WILLIAM WILSOX. 191 Seceders at first seem to have been contemned by their opponents. They were too weak and too few to excite any other feeling than pity. Their gathering strength, however, soon created alarm, and they were not long in meeting with a literary antagonist, — a man of some penetration and energy, — whose lack of argument was compensated by a bitter hostility. Their conduct was fiercely attacked, and themselves maligned. They were held up as demagogues and apostates, as turbulent and impracticable fools. Their papers and memorials were analysed with the impassioned acuteness of a little mind, which occupied itself so keenly in the detection of minor errors of reference and language, as to overlook the leading truths and principles for which Wilson and his bretliren contended. Mr. Currie did his work with peculiar zest, for he had once warmly sym- pathised with the Seceders, and now sought to cover his apostacy by a bold attempt to crush and extinguish the infant cause. He had kissed, and he now betrayed. The sophistries of his Essay could scarce have imposed upon himself, and he vindicated the Acts of Assembly with an effrontery from which even their prime originators would have shrunk. Accordingly he laboured to show that there were no grounds for Secession, — that the whole movement was an ultroneous and unnecessary innovation, the work of zealots who were so weak as to expect the formation of discipline be tlie church, yet in the case of right discipHne the best, though fewest, is the chui-ch. — Rutherford's Due Rights p. 255. *'Plausibile quidem nomen pacis; sed maledicta est pax quae tanta jactui'a redimitur, ut nobis pereat Christi doctrina, qua sola, in piam et sanctam unitatem coalescimus." — Cah'in in Acta Apost., p. 200. The mottos on the title page of the " Continuation" are — " Zion thy God confess," Psalm cxlvii. 12. " Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, Let the Lord be glorified," Isaiah \xx\. 5. How many editions the book went through has not been stated. The edition we possess is dated 1769. The first edition is dated, — Edinbm-gh, printed by T. Lumsden and J. Robertson for J. Jaffray, Bookseller in Stirling, 1739. The first echtion of the " Continuation" is dated 1741. On the inside of the title page of the "Defence" is the following caveat: — " The author expects that no person will presume to print this ' De- fence ' without special hcense from himself." 19^ LIFE OF THE a perfect church, or so fanatical as to make no allowance for such as held not their peculiar opinions, — or so soured by repeated failures in attempting to enforce their views that they proudly revolted from a party whom they could neither convince nor control. He attempts farther to prove that their reasoning was futile and their spirit sectarian, — that all history was against them from the Acts of the Apostles down to the period of the Covenant, — that they were guilty of schism without precedent or apology, as their departure sprung not from misunderstand- ing but deep and sinful ahenation of feehng. It is thus very plain that Mr. Currie could not comprehend what is meant by integrity, nor feel the sovereign homage which should be paid to principle. The value of a good con- science, he was not qualified to estimate. But if he pos- sessed not the requisite faith and heroism to become a Seceder, he needed not have attacked so rabidly the men whom he once professed to admire and applaud. His cow- ardice might have been buried under a pall of silence. The General Assembly of 1741, however, were so satisfied with the work of their unscrupulous partisan, that they sanc- tioned a grant to him of £60. In truth the insinuations and calumnies of Mr. Currie's assault are authorised and repeated in the minutes of the General Assembly, on which his Essay is only a lengthened commentary. They had a fellow-feeling with their champion. In an act of ]May 17th, 1738, the Assembly denounces "the unwarrantable Seces- sion" gone into by men, "notwithstanding their own solemn engagements to the contrary at their ordination and admission." The Assembly virtually affirms in such a condemnation, that if a man has once been ordained a minister in a church, he can never leave it without being guilty of perjury. Is not this dictum as tyrannous as the odious canon law of the English Church ? The Assembly then condemns the "Act, Declaration, and Testimony;" adding, — " and that nothing may be wanting to promote their end, they appoint and keep fasts in different corners of the country, to which there is a resort of several thou- REV, WILLIAM WILSON. 193 fiand persons of both sexes, and too raany of them, as there is good ground to think, conie there with other vieios than to promote religion,* — and, moreover, that their schism may not die with them, they have authorised one of their num- ber to teach divinity." ..." And in the meantime, the General Assembly earnestly recommends to all the ministers, elders, and members of the Church to endeavour in their respective stations, and by all means proper for them, to reclaim those poor deluded people who have been carried away by this division, and to prevent the seducing of others.f Mr. Currie met in Mr. Wilson with an opponent more than a match for him. Wilson was admirably qualified to do battle for the good cause. It was so thoroughly his own that he needed no prompting to the combat, while his identification with all the seceding movements gave him a complete mastery over the subject. Calm, shrewd, and energetic, he easily defeated the libeller. From one pro- position to another he chases him with manly argument and refutation. He leaves the flying foe no refuge. Every accusation is met with dignity and truth, and his conscious rectitude of purpose preserves him from the employment of fallacy and vituperation. Wilson needed not to resort to the common artifices of controversy. His aim was not victory, but right ; and he was as superior to Currie in temper as in reasoning. Throughout his book he shows * WTiether the Assembly meant to insinuate against the morality or the pontics of those great crowds that attended Seceder preaching on week days, we know not, — perhaps both are included in the inuendo. About the same period, the Duke of Arg}de broadly hinted in the House of Lords during a debate on the Porteous riots, that the " few fanatical preachers lately started up" in Scotland had some concern in raising those mobs and defying the law. Dr. M'Kerrow tells us how these vast concourses of worshippers were sometimes treated, — that fire was set to the heath or furze round about them, or that on pretence of being en- gaged in the chase, an incessant discharge of muskets was kept up in their Aacinity by a number of their persecutors. t Acts of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from M.DC.XXXVIII. to M.DCCC.XLIL, by the Church Law Society, vol. ii. p. 647. 3 N 194 LIFE OF THE that he has no relish for hard names and opprobrious epi- thets. He breathed no vengeance against his persecutors, and recounted not his wrongs with laborious minuteness. He felt his power over Mr. Currie, and now and then shows his consciousness of it by the occasional raillery in which he indulges. Wilson proves that the man whom the As- sembly delighted to honour understood not the principles of church government and communion, points out how Mr. Currie misstates the question at issue, — how he dimin- ishes and palliates the amount of corruption in the Estab- lishment, — how his " exceptions" prove too much, and tell as forcibly against the Protestant Reformation as the pre- sent Secession, would condemn the one as well as the other, and vindicate adherence to the Church of Rome, as well as to the Church of Scotland, — how he confounds illustra- tion with evidence, — how he signally and ludicrously fails in his references to Scripture, — how even the "human authorities" adduced by him are either misquoted or mis- construed, — how he refuses the evidence of the most pal- pable facts and most unexceptionable testimony, — how the parallels he draws between the circumstances of faithful ministers in former times and the Seceders of that day form no truthful or appropriate analogy, — how he maligns the best Assemblies of the best period of the Scottish Church, — and how his Essay, failing altogether in its aim, should lead its author to serious reconsideration, under the im- pression of that answer which Jerome is said to have given to Rufinus — " Never blush to change thy opinions, for neither you nor I, nor any person alive are of so great authority, as to be ashamed to confess we have erred.""* Currie makes in his Essay too many solemn protestations of his integrity, and their very number throws suspicion upon them. Wil- son blandly says, " Though I have given several particular instances of things which are neither truth nor fact, yet I shall charitably judge. Only I wish he had been more tender in making such solemn appeals and attestations, » Defence, p. 330. REV. WILLIAM WILSON. 105 which appear to me to be equivalent to a solemn oath ; or I wish that at least he had better advised what he has written, before he had ushered in his Essay to the world with such weighty and awful attestations."* Currie was adventurous enough to publish a "Vindication" in answer to Wilson's "Defence." Wilson again replied to him in his " Continuation," and fairly annihilated him, by convincing him of the grossest obliquity of judgment, in misrepre- senting the point of debate and shunning to discuss it, in justifying procedure which he could not but in his own heart condemn, in clothing silly sophisms with de- ceitful verbiage, and in proving traitor to the cause of God and truth. This " Defence" and its " Continuation" were Wilson's great contribution to the cause of liberty and religion, and they form a masterly vindication of the principles and procedure of the Secession. The style of these two works is as admirable as their spirit. It is dignified and vigorous, few Scotticisms are to be found in it, and it is equal in classic purity to the best writers of that period. As a specimen of luminous and dispassionate controversy, it is a marvel among the remains of ecclesias- tical disputation. The volume has of course lost much of its interest now, for opponents like Mr. Currie have disap- peared. Yet it must have been a useful publication in its time, full of encouragement to the new church, as it en- abled them to meet the every-day objections of their ad- versaries. The Seceders of a past age studied Wilson's work, — and with the " Marrow " as the index to their theology, and the "Defence" as the palladium of their Church, they feared no assailant. Mr. Wilson also published a Tract on the grounds of the Secession in the form of a " Letter from a Member of the Associate Presbytery to a Minister in the Presbytery of Dunfermline," with a post- script on Mr. Currie's Essay. Again in this brochure does he maintain his ground against corruption and tyranny, using the awful appeal of the prophet Jeremiah : " Why • Defence, Preface, p. siii. 196 Lli'E OF THE then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a per- petual backsliding ? They hold fast deceit and refuse to return," Jer. viii. 4, 5. In fine, the candour and equanimity of Mr. "Wilson in those publications are ever to be admired. The "rude dialect" of Mr. Currie he would not imitate, nor yet his " misapplied quotations, with his reported private sto- ries and hearsays." Currie had said with great asperity of the Seceders — " Have they not whet their tongue like a sword, and bent their bows to shoot their arrows — even bitter words ? and have they not drawn their pen and dipt it in gall, pul)lishing to the world that their mother at this day has gone off from the founda- tion?" Wilson notices such charges calmly and firmly, but offers no retaliation. Nay, though Currie calls the " ' Defence' a common enemy to the success of the glorious gospel of Christ," Wilson is content not to avenge himself by a similar charge. — " It is alleviating," he gently says, " to me that the Lord and Master of the house was treated after the same manner." Wilson was filled with the pro- per spirit, and provocation was lost upon him. While Currie's pages, amid sharp retorts and acrimonious per- sonalities, were " full of sound and fury, signifying no- thing," Wilson's serenity of nature was unrufifled, and look- ing down with composure upon the spiteful efforts of his adversary, he could write in these strains of noble elo- quence : — " I am heartily sorry for that bitterness of spirit that I see breathing throughout the whole of this essay. What- ever contempt IMr. Currie may pour upon the Seceding brethren, and whatever hard names he may think fit to bestow upon them, I wish he had treated the cause and testimony they hold with more of meekness and fear. He seems to be confident (preface, p. 12) that, upon reading his book, his readers may see that there is a good deal more to be said in vindication of the Church of Scotland, and against separation from her, than some ,of them ima- gined, namely, such as are much disobliged already at some REV. WILLIAM WILSON. 197 for not joining the Seceding brethren ; yet I doubt not but the Seceding brethren have very much likewise to say for themselves, and I am sorry they have so much to say : I sincerely wish that matters were otherwise stated in the present judicatories of this national church, and that there were no such grounds of secession from them. Our re- verend brother has given sufficient ground and matter of irritation from the way and manner whereby he has man- aged the argument. Every one of us have much reason to be jealous over our own spirits : therefore, I pray, that our contendings upon this subject may be only and singly for truth, and that they may be governed with a disposi- tion and temper of spirit becoming the gospel of Christ ; and LET TRUTH HAVE THE VICTORY, AND LET GoD HAVE ALL THE GLORY." * The man who can feel and write in this spirit, possesses the real secret of success, — he conquers by his tranquillity. Mr. Currie's Essay would long ago have sunk into obscu- rity, had not Wilson's reply given it an unenviable immor- tality. Mr. Wilson's general character may be easily gathered from the preceding pages. He was a man fitted and pre- pared for his time. The youthful training he had enjoyed, from parents who had both been persecuted for their attach- ment to the cause of truth and country, the wrongs inflicted on himself by his maternal relations, the enmity which Professor Simson had manifested towards him, the deep piety of his own spirit, his large intelligence, his thorough education, his honest and incorruptible heart, Avere so many pre-arranged gifts and circumstances, by which he was dis- ciplined for the combat he was to sustain with reigning profligacy and corruption. The foundation was laid in his early piety. This holy element guided and strengthened all his purposes. " The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." Rescued in his youth by the influence of religion from turbulent emotions and distracting vanities, * Defence, p. 569. 198 LIFE OF THB his mind rose freely and easily into the regions of truth. Many principles which others have to reason out by a laborious process were at once apparent to him by a species of sanctified intuition. He truly reahsed the deep truth that is hidden under the seeming paradox of Anselm, — Neque enim qusero intelligere ut credam, sed credo ut intelligam. Nam qui non crediderit non experietur, et qui expertus non fuerit, non intelliget, — " I seek not to under- stand that I may beheve, but I believe in order that I may understand. For he that is without faith is without expe- rience, and he who is without experience is without under- standing." * Piety brightened his intellectual vision, and the discovery of truth was ever associated with the ad- vancement of purity. His intellectual relinement was robed " in the beauties of holiness." All his varied ac- quirements were brought to bear with undeviating aim on the promotion of God's glory and the best interests of his fellowmen. His mental treasures were humbly laid at the foot of the cross. He was " a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith." He felt prayer to be the breath of the spiritual life, and always recognised the hallowed connexion between the closet and the pulpit. His great- ness sprung from his goodness, for he acknowledged the Lord in all his ways. Nay, he delighted himself in God, and so felt God's light on his mind, and the love of God shed abroad in his heart. The instincts of the " new crea- ture " always led him to covet a sense of the Divine favour. High raptures he does not seem to have enjoyed. He might not mount up with wings as eagles, — yet he ran and was not weary, he walked and was not faint. He was but a young man when he gave himself to God, — " subscribing M'ith his hand unto the Lord," — j^nd his last public service was the writing out of the first bond to be used as the basis of a public covenant in the Secession churches, — so similar were the beginning and the termination of his career in spirit, — both of them an act of unreserved consecration to * Anselmi ProsoL 1 De fide Trinitatis. EEV. WILLIAM WILSON. 199 Jehovah. In liis entire life he realised the cheering truth, and felt, — " God always, everywhere, and all in all." The character of Wilson's mind may be ascertained from his writings. He made no pretensions to originality, or uncommon penetration and refinement. He thought clearly, soberly, forcibly, and to the point. He could not boast of a hvely imagination. Striking and profound thoughts like those of Foster seldom occur in his work. His reasoning is distinguished not by its brilliancy, but by its acuteness and manly tone, and by a resolute grasp of the argument which it never forgoes. His motto is, ' On- ward, and by the straightest path.' He had little time for abstruse speculation, but was usually engrossed with matters of popular interest and practical moment. His ideas are in general lucidly and succinctly arranged. We are never at a loss as to his meaning. His style is both nervous and perspicuous. His thoughts are not overlaid with tawdry verbiage or contorted with harsh unnatural circumlocutions. His apprehension was quick and his memory tenacious. The greatness of his mind lay in the balance and harmony of all its powers, and not in the pre- dominance of any one of them, though we might say that he was distinguished especially by the possession and exer- cise of a sound, vigorous, and discriminating judgment. He was endowed with no little of that precious faculty which Scottish philosophers have named common sense, and which even the German metaphysicians have recognised and pointed out by a loftier appellation. We are sorry that we are not able to verify these criticisms by any extended illus- trations taken from his Lectures on Divinity. Many of these were written on an interleaved copy of the Medulla. This favourite volume was recently possessed by the late Prof. Bruce of Whitburn, but after some inquiry we are unable to find where it now reposes. It would have given us pleasure if we could have selected a few paragraphs from his academical prelections and given them as specimens 200 LIFE OP THE both of his teaching and his Latinity. "We would not (for we have not the means of judging) pronounce him equal in metaphysical shrewdness to Ralph Erskine, for the germs and leading principles of what was afterwards termed the Scottish school of philosophy are to be found in the writings of that accurate and popular theologian. The intellectual attainments of Mr. Wilson were superior and extensive. He laid a good foundation in youth, and the superstructure was compact and well-proportioned. His acquaintance with the various systems of philosophy, his knowledge of Church history, his multipUed references to the best books on the subjects which he discusses, are the evidence and fruit of continued study and application. He had a special antipathy to the logic and theology of Professor Campbell,* — which were truly eccentric and con- tradictory, flimsy in substance, and arrogant in spirit, the product of an ill-balanced mind that deemed originality to consist in extreme opinions. Professor Campbell, in his Oratio de vanitate luminis naturce, had by the excess of a juvenile logic so exaggerated his theme, as to affirm that the light of nature cannot enable men to discover the existence of a Grod, — a statement in utter opposition to the Apostle's argument in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, when he affirms that the Gentile world is without excuse in refusing to recognise and worship the one Supreme Creator. Again in another publication, where he attempts to prove that " the apostles were no enthusiasts," Campbell carries his argument to the absurd length of maintaining that they were so ignorant of their Master's character and claims as between his death and resurrection to deem him an impostor, and thus in maintaining that they were not visionaries, he thought it requisite to make them fools and sceptics. He missed the mark by the boyish feat of overleaping it. The mind of Mr. Wilson could not bear * Campbell was Professor of Divinity and Church History in the University of St. Andrews, and was acquitted by the Assembly of 1736, of certain charges of heresy which had previously been brought against Mm. His acquittal was no credit to the Assembly. BEV. WILLIAM WILSON. 201 this imbecile rashness, this proneness to doat upon an argument and push it to unwarrantable excess. He was himself distinguished by a judicious moderation — and by an anxiety never to overstrain a principle, or carry a de- duction beyond its legitimate boundary. Not less did he feel an invincible repugnancy to the Ethics of Prof. Camp- bell, and he seems to have thought that the system of Aristotle was superior to that which was taught in some of the Scottish Universities.* Wilson seems to have been at home in the writings of the best divines, such as Calvin, Turretine, and Owen, and to have been familiarly acquainted with the synodical deeds of the Protestant churches of France and Holland. His own theology was of that type of Calvinism which is to be found in the " Marrow of Modern Divinity," — in which the two cardinal truths are so fully exhibited — that every sinner is welcomed — and that no one trusting in Jesus can be lost ; and that while the Saviour has a " seed secured," no sinner is beyond the pale of invitation. In short, he understood well the nature of the universal applicability and limited application of the work of Christ. He was keenly hostile to every form of error which robbed the gospel of its peculiar characteristics as a system of remedy and restora- tion. What his own system was, may be learned in part by the testimony he bears against opposing errors, — to wit, the errors which were so prevalent in the national church — and which were so leniently dealt with by the vener- able Assembly. They are thus characterised : — '• Doctrines, whereby the federal headship of the first Adam was im- pugned and denied, and consequently the true and proper imputation of his first sin to his posterity is overthrown ; doctrines, whereby the heinous desert of original sin im- puted and inherent is diminished ; as also doctrines, whereby universal grace is established, in so far as it has been asserted at the bar of our Assemblies, that there is an implicit offer of grace, and an obscure revelation of * Defence, p. 316. 202 LIFE OF THE the remedy provided for sin, made to those that live with- out the church, by the works of creation and providence including tradition ; as likewise, in so far as a connection is established, either from the gracious nature, or from the promise of God, betwixt the serious endeavours of the heathen and a fuller and clearer revelation of the remedy unto them ; and betwixt the serious endeavours of those that are within the church, and special and saving grace ; — doctrines also whereby the absolute dominion of God over the free actions of the rational creature, and the creature's absolute dependence upon him in working, as well as in being, are subverted, and consequently a special part and branch of divine providence impugned ; doctrines likewise, whereby our faith of the truth of divine revelation is, according to Mr. Locke's scheme, ultimately resolved into a series and train of moral argu- ments and reasonings." * Thus was he orthodox in opinion, and the " form of sound words " was precious also in his estimation. He seems not only to have possessed considerable powers of extemporaneous address, so as to be named the " tongue of the Associate Presbytery," but also to have had a talent for business. He was shrewd without being subtile, and prudent without the employment of plot or stratagem. He not merely spoke and planned, but he also acted. Labour indeed was the sphere of his being. According to an anecdote which has been often rehearsed, he on one occasion, and in a vein of pleasantry, happily pictured out his relation to his colleagues. " Our brother Mr. Erskiue," said he, " has the face of a man ; our friend, Mr. ]\Ioncrieff, has the face of a lion ; our neighbour, Mr. Fisher, has the face of an eagle ; and as for myself, I think you will all own, that I may claim to be the ox : for as you know, the laborious part of the business falls to my share."t He was always " abounding in the work of the Lord." — He lived to labour, and he felt his strength to be in Je- * Defence, 77. f Feiricr, 357. REV. WILLIAM WILSOX. 203 hovah. He might truly have adopted the sentiment of Augustine — da quod jubes — et jube quod vis, Deus meus — " give, my God, what thou commandest, and then com- mand what thou wilt." It was with His own that he served God. Yet though he was " in labours more abundant," he was never " exalted above measure." His humility was con- spicuous. " Less than the least of all saints," is the spirit of the records found in his Diary. Eminence was forced upon him, he never courted it. At an early period when the Brethren proceeded in a meeting of presbytery to a '• voluntary humiliation," and each confessed his guilt in not exhibiting more courage and fidelity during the pro- cess against Prof. Simson and was solemnly admonished at the bar, Mr, "Wilson, though he had not been a member of Assembly nor even present in the court, yet sought the infliction of a similar censure, because when the decision absolving the arch-heretic was reported to the presbytery of Perth, he had not in any way signified his non-concurrence. The three Brethren, however, refused to censure him, as they thought him less culpable than themselves in the circum- stances. Mr. Wilson was at the same time of a mild nature and playful temperament. He had much of the " gentle- ness of Christ." No vindictive emotion ever crossed his spirit or shaded his countenance. He loved his enemies — he prayed for his persecutors. Referring in the " Defence" o the memorable scene of his expulsion, there is no self- gloriation on the one hand, nor the indulgence of a venge- ful spirit on the other. The doors being shut upon him- self, he quietly adds — " Whereupon one Mr, John Haly, then a probationer, being employed by Mr. David Black to preach that day, being attended by the said Mr. Black, was with the assistance of the magistrates thrust into his pulpit. I pray the Lord may give them repentance for and the forgiveness of their iniquity, and that it may not be laid to their charge, nor to the charge of that place."* * Defence, 419. 204 LIFE OF THE Mr. Wilson and his coadjutors had many warm, sym- pathisers at the commencement of the struggle, but their zeal soon evaporated ; and though he was no doubt disappointed at their shortcoming, yet nowhere do we find him employing the language of censorious denun- ciation against them or their cowardice. His intimate friend Mr. Palmer, minister of Forgandenny, was among those that stood aloof when the hour of trial came. Not long after, Mr. Palmer was seized with severe affliction, and Wilson, without any feeling of prejudice or estrange- ment, was his frequent visitor and showed him unremitting kindness. During one visit, and when the conversation had become close and confidential, Wilson said to the sufiierer, " Brother, I think you should have stood forth with me and some others, and borne an open testimony against those indignities which you have often lamented and which are so injurious to your Master's cause and in- terest at this day." The dying minister rephed, " Yes, brother, I have always been deficient in courage and zeal for my Lord and jNIaster, but I hope, by the riches of his mercy, that this sin and all my other sins shall be as the iniquities of Israel, wliich shall be sought for and there shall be none, and as the sins of Judah which shall not be found."* Such a scene of frank and brotherly inter- course did honour to both. — It proved the warmth and cordiality of Wilson's nature — to maintain a tender friend- ship after the controversy had been opened, and expected allies had withdrawn from his support. He could not pass a severe and sweeping judgment on the whole of those who remained in the Establishment, though he condemned their errors. And all the while there was no little firmness manifested by himself, when decision was required. He had nerve to be a martyr, for his meek and affable spirit could not be moved from truth and principle. There was at the same time no moroseness about him. He was happy and mirthful. His wit and conversational talent made * Fraser's life of K. Erskine, 204. REV, WILLTAM -WILSON. 205 him a delightful companion, and his gentlemanly manners as well as his Christian attainments made his society prized by such men as Colonel Gardiner. Measured by the times in which he lived, Wilson was also a man of liberal and catholic spirit. -Like liis shadow His kindness lengthened, as his sun declined." Along with the best men of his day, he held indeed very strict terms of communion, and reckoned acquiescence in nume- rous denominational peculiarities quite essential to churcli fellowship, — as indispensable as faith in the leading truths of the gospel. If there was bigotry in this opinion, it be- longed to his creed, not to his heart. His views of the magis- trate's authority in sacred things were in advance of the age, only in so far as they related to patronage and the tyranny of heritors. Patronage and the power of heritors in obtruding ministers on reclaiming congregations he heartily reprobated. But he did not feel that the Secession Church sustained any loss in not being joined to the State. No doubt he must have seen that its very liberty consisted in the absence of state control or protection. Yet, like his contemporaries in Scotland, he held that the magistrate should punish the violation of the first as well as the second table of the law. In this notion "Wilson was not singular, — it was held by the majority of the early Reformers. The general principle of the Scottish Reformers was that the judicial law of Moses was of perpetual authority. John Knox and Peter Dens use the same argument for punish- ing heretics with death. They should die because they are like those who falsify the " coin of a king," says the First Book of Discipline, while Dens, by a marvellous coincidence in the employment of the same figure, aflfirms that they resemble falsarii jteciinice, and should be extirpated. The good Samuel Rutherford, all but canonised among us, held that "punishment even to blood and death" stands yet against idolaters and apostates " in the plenitude of moral obligation." In that once popular book, the " Hind let Loose," assassination as a means of " taking off principal 206 LIFE OF THE instruments and promoters of war " in support of error is vindicated with no little dialectic ingenuity. Similar opinions were not confined to Scotland. Calvin did not condemn the burning of Servetus,* — nay, Servetus himself maintained that blasphemy was a crime worthy of death. Beza justified at full length the penalty inflicted on Serve- tus, and the gentle Melanchthon wondered that any should disapprove of it. Bucer maintained that the Spanish fanatic should be torn in pieces, and Turretine avowed that capital punishment should fall without mercy " on all such pests and human monsters." About the same period in England, and at Cranmer's solicitation, Joan of Kent and George van Pere were consumed to ashes ; and a few years afterwards the archbishop himself was led out to the stake. The smoke that arose from the pile of Servetus mingled in the air with that which was ascending from those blazing fires in France where five Genevan disciples of Calvin were ex- piating the crime of heresy. By the General Assembly of 1647, "Liberty of conscience" is held to be synonymous with " liberty of error, scandall, schism, heresie," (fcc. The principles of religious liberty were not clearly compre- hended, — good men had been trained in a bad school. Wilson had quite a horror at the views of " one Roger Williams t who disturbed the churches in New England" * Calvin, — Spero capitale saltern fore judicium, — letter to Farel during the trial of Servetus, August 20th, 1553. Hoc crimen (blasphemia), est morte sirapliciter dignum et apud Deum et APUD HOMIXES, — Sei-vetus, in his work called Restitutio^ published in Januar}' 1553. That is to say in January 1553 Servetus ^\TOte that men should punish blasphemy with death, and when that same year the magistrates of Geneva brought him to trial for the very crime he had so denounced, Cabin hoped that sentence of death would be pronounced upon him. f And yet Roger Williams was one of Nature's noblemen, — a man far in advance of his age. He was educated for the English bar as a pro- tege of Sir Edward Coke, but aftenvai*ds took orders, — became a Puritan, landed in Boston in 1631, maintained at all hazards the rights of con- science, and wisely and resolutely opposed the establishment of a Theo- cracy in New England. The worthy men whom he opposed imitated Archbishop Laud, by whom themselves had been exiled, and banished Eoger Williams from the colony. Williams took refuge among the In- dians for a season, and idtimat^ly founded the state of Rhode Island. REV. WILLIAM WILSOX. 207 by his "violent urging" against Mr. Mather and others " that the civil magistrate might not punish breaches of the first table in the laws of the ten commandments." Wilson did not see that the state-connection was the prin- cipal source of those ecclesiastical evils his resistance to which had led to his ejection from the national Church. But he could still say,—" grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." Concerning a man whose opinions were creating no little stir in Scotland, he writes,—" Mr. Whitefield gives satisfaction to the churches that he lies open to light and is pointing toward reforma- tion, and may the Lord, who I hope has shined into his soul and given him some clear discoveries of justification and salvation by the free grace of God, through the imputed righteousness of our Lord Jesus, — enlighten him more and more, and particularly with respect to the worship, order, and government of the House of God." * Mr. Carrie seems to have said that George Whitefield, not having been called by a congregation and ordained by a presbytery, could not, according to Wilson's arguments, be recognised as a lawful minister, but Wilson could by no means assent to such a doctrine in all its stringency and without any exception, and his reply is worthy of him,—" There is a vast difference between ordinary cases and extraordinary, such as Mr. Whitefield appears to be." An extraordinary case like Whitefield's, in which there was such marked peculiarity, he admitted did not come under ordinary rule, and he was willing to salute the English apostle as one of " the messengers of the churches and the glory of Christ." In fine, amidst all the trials and commotion which beset Mr. AVilson, he had yet hope in God that the issue would be for His glory. His faith enabled him— "To see Death still producing life, and Evil still Working its own destruction. He could behold The strife and tumults of this troubled world With the strong eye that sees the promised day * Defence, p. 435. 208 LIFE OF TUE REV. WILLIAM WILSO?f. Dawn through the night of tempest. Thus his heart Was healed and hai-monised." His faith has been rewarded. He saw the " day " afar off, though his death did not permit him to enjoy the early fruits of his toil and prayer. He had preached but a few months in the sanctuary which his people had erected for him, when death released him ; but we have entered into his labours, and now we revere him one of the honoured founders of the United Presbyterian Church. He had no feeling of jealous rivalry with his three fellow-labourers when he was alive, and we will not now enter into any minute or invidious comparison of their respective merits. Only we think that from various circumstances his just fame has been somewhat overshadowed by the merited eminence of the Erskines. He was a younger man than either of them, but the one of them survived him eleven and the other thirteen years. He had not the popular talent and commanding oratory of Ebenezer Erskine, nor the fervid and glowing eloquence of Ralph, but with a power of mind equal to either, and an influence in matters of consultation superior to both, he was not less useful to the infant church. "We conclude with merely repeating what has been said of him, that "he was at once the master spring of the whole brethren and the regulator which kept them together." Thus lived and died the Rev, "William "Wilson, — ^lived in usefulness and died in honour and peace. To com- memorate the worth and virtues of his deceased friend, Ralph Erskine composed an epitaph both in Latin penta- meters and English couplets ; the homely sculpture of which, on the tombstone that covers ]\Ir. Wilson's grave in the Greyfriars' bui'ying-ground, is given in reduced but accurate fac-simile on the following page. The tablet con- tains also a brief inscription for one of his grand-sons. The names of his wife and children are carved on the margin, — and the last text from which he preached is appropriately engraven on this humble memorial. jMONHMENTUM __ _ . , ]01J PASTOsis^PERTHENSiS' QUI IN 0"^° sao JiSTx Chklsto obui: Anno /741 p-TATIS 51 JBTIPi:RIBAS^gT0Il.TTVIISI)0CTOB. QTIE DISERTHS. NTQJC SHEER AS THO "VOLAS^HIC LICET OSSACLLRANT. MAG-imM EDUNT NOJIEN TUA DICTA DlDACTJCA MAJaS CELJCAAaTACOMES MAXIMUM ET XLBERilXS More bbave thekt Davids I^tghtt^ men ^ThIS CHAM^IOIvr FOUGIHT IT FAiEL In- .TRUTHS DEI£1TCE_, BOTH. BY THE PEN The ruLPJT. aehd the ChaLr. _ He sjood -with H13 Assoei^a^ES ieue To SCOTIANDS SoLEMlsr, OATiT- AnD TAUGHT TO JEIEISTOER HoiAGE DuE To God and _Cesar both. Earth: ragxtntgU from his Sacred tost Debahrd the / "V^OETHY SAGE; Hjia57'im Erowit "^d^ent a^Eiirious Host To VENGE THE SACRTLEDE- MqXLBN ZiON YOItR ElI/AH'.S GrOKE Ajto I^^Zafted to the Setes. McrURN till His EiRY CaR BRiTTGi- DO"Wl!]- I JA Soul, ofetpai^ SiEZE6N,«>-?vr\-5"^vovf tF. Z . E , 6>y>?vf> ; ^'^^ ,'vl I !^ . a)ri(UXu/r SnUoc. yululoniu. . . Jtdoiua/rw mu/ta/m dbmcLe/mtuj. Oklt/Q ^wm 1119; Mtatif 16, .^ Qtio £^eiu vomit ^ jsCTHcniHo 'mmi. LIFE AND TIMES OF THE REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE, FATHER AND lOUNDER OF THE RELIEF CHURCH. BY WILLIM LINDSAY, D.D. PREFACE. Ix preparing the following Memoir, the Author has consulted all the sources of information that were accessible to him, and he has spared no pains to procure as many as possible. There are various parts of the Life of Gillespie, respecting which it would be very desirable to have fuller information; but it is questionable whether it can now be obtained. In the belief that Mr. Gillespie's numerous letters to Dr. Doddridge might disclose some new facts in his life or feelings that were cherished by him, the Author applied, through a friend in London, to the Trustees of the Library where he understood Dr. Doddridge's manuscripts to be preserved ; but on account of certain changes and removals that have taken place, the object of his search could not be found. The Author would take this opportunity of ex- pressing his weighty obligations to Dr. Struthers, whose History of the Relief Church he has constantly consulted. And having had occasion to compare the various representations of facts there given, with the original documents upon which they are grounded, he cannot refrain from expressing his sense of its singular fidelity and accuracy. In not one single instance did he alight upon a place where any representation was given, not perfectly warranted by the documents. His estimate of the value of Dr. Struthers' history, always high, has been raised by the enquiries he has had occasion to make in writing this brief Memoir. W. L. Glasgow, March, 18-i9. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Importance of Christian Biography — Eminent worth of the Founders of the Secession and Relief Churches — Their memory to be cherished by the whole United Presbyterian Church,— Pp. 217—219. CHAPTER n. Gillespie's Parentage — Character in youth — Concern of his Mother about his soul — Interview with Boston — Blessed effects of it — Influence of Boston's views on those of Gillespie — Dedication of himself to the Ministry — Preparatory studies at Edinburgh, Perth, and Northamp- ton — Influence of Doddridge upon his mind — Licence and Ordination in England.— Pp. 220—226. CHAPTER m. Presentation and Call to Camock — Probable reasons of his renewed connexion with the Church of Scotland — Fidelity of his ministry — Character of his preaching — Inward conflicts — Effects of them upon his labours — Popularity and success — Careful preparation for the pul- pit — Structure of his discourses — Constant desbre to see fruit of his ministry.— Pp. 227—238. CHAPTER IV. Eevival at Kilsyth — Gillespie's connexion with it — His view of its cha- racter — Treatise on Temptation composed — Analysis of the work — Style and execution of it — Specimens — Strong views which it em- bodies of Satanic agency — Robert Hall's view of the same subject — Essay on Immediate Revelations composed — Plan of the work — Sound principles advanced in it — Specimens — Duration and success of Gilles- pie's ministry at Camock. — Pp. 239 — 257. CHAPTER V. Law of patronage — Strong opposition to it — Violent settlements — Reftt- sal of some Presbyteries to effect them — Assembly's determmation to 216 CONTENTS. compel their submission — ]\Ir. Richardson presented to Inverkeithing — Dmifermline Presbytery repeatedly refuses to settle him — Case brought before the Assembly — Assembly's peremptory injunction to the Presbyteiy — Continued refusal of the Presbytery — Representation given in by six members of the Presbytery — Second representation by Gillespie alone — Effect of it upon the court — Sentence of deposition — Demeanour of Gillespie while recei\Tng it — Views that have been taken of this sentence. — Pp. 258 — 281. CHAPTER VI. Gillespie preaches during the summer under the open sky — Attended by vast multitudes — Removes to a chm-ch in Dunfermline at the approach of whiter — Enjoys the sympathy of his own people — Receives the countenance of Christian friends at a distance — Letter from President Edwards — Eifort made in the succeeding Assembly to repone Gilles- pie — Complete failure of it — Formal constitution of the Church at Dunfermline — Principles of it — Labours of Gillespie as a Dissenting Minister — Isolated position — Interchange of services with Boston of Jedburgh— Formation of the fii-st ReUef Presbyteiy. — Pp. 282 — 297. - CHAPTER Vn. Gillespie's labours after the institution of the Rehef Presbytery — Respect that was paid to him by the rest of the body — Gradual decline of his vigour — Last illness — Peace of mind he enjoyed — Death — Character — Alleged deshe on his part that his chureh should return to the Establishment.— Concluding remarks.— Pp. 298 — 306. LIFE OF REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE, CHAPTER I. Importance of Christian Biography — Eminent worth of the Founders of the Secession and ReUef Churches — Their memory to be cherished by the whole United Presbyterian Church. Biography is a branch of History, and in some respects it is more interesting and instructive. In History you are presented with the movements and sentiments of masses of mankind, which form a subject of great complexity; but Biography sets before you the course of an individual, which you can follow with ease. The study of history gives scope for the exercise of the higher faculties of the mind, and in order to form a just conception of its multi- farious objects and their connexions, you must possess the power of extensive combination and generalization; but the records of an individual life come more within the limits of individual experience, the facts and the lessons suggested by them are more easily apprehended, and the interest excited is stronger because more concentrated. You feel therefore a much greater sjmapathy with an in- dividual, while you are tracing his progress step by step through life, than you can possibly do with the fortunes of a multitude of men; just as one case of violent death minutely described will produce a deeper impression upon the heart, than an account of thousands who have fallei; in some fierce and fatal struggle. 218 LIFE OP THE The interest too of biography is greatly increased, when the individuals whose career is considered have given an impulse to society which has continued down to our own times, and their names and influence still survive in insti- tutions with which we ourselves are connected. In this case they are viewed by us with a feeling akin to filial reverence. Every step in their progress is followed with interest. The smallest circumstances which can be dis- covered respecting them appear important. Perceiving in our own situation the effect of influences which have been transmitted from them, perhaps through several genera- tions, we feel the same interest in the study of their his- tory, which leads families of note to preserve the genealo- gical tree of their descent, and to trace its branches with unceasing pleasure. They are our forefathers, and they may perhaps have exercised a greater influence over our thoughts and feelings, than those from whom we are descended according to the flesh. There are no biographies which should have greater charms for the followers of Christ, than those which record the experience of eminent Christians and describe the suf- ferings and struggles of men, who have laboured to uphold the interests of religion and to throw back the flowing tide of corruption. Ever as man's depravity perverts the truths of the gospel, and deforms the church with base and earthly accompaniments adverse to the growth of Christian character, God raises up men of distinguished ability and goodness, who feel that it is a duty specially devolving upon them, to defend the faith once delivered to the saints, and to maintain the freedom with which Christ hath blessed his people. These men, better entitled to be accounted the successors of the apostles, if any with pro- priety could be so styled, than some others who have arro- gated to themselves the designation, deserve our highest reverence ; and their memory should be afiectionately cherished, both out of gratitude for the services they have rendered to religion, and as the means of stimulating suc- ceeding generations to the imitation of their example. REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 219 The founders of the Secession and Relief Churches, now happily united into one body, were men of distinguished attainments and of high Christian principle ; and they are justly entitled to the admiration of the whole community, for the eminent services which they rendered to the cause of religion in our native land. They stood in very similar positions. They opposed at periods not far asunder the corruption which was fast overspreading the Church of Scotland ; and because they would not violate their con- sciences, and join in trampling upon the rights of the Christian people, they were expelled from her pale. They did not spontaneously retire, which might have exposed them to the charge of a schismatic spirit ; but they were driven out, because they refused to obey injunctions which they believed to be sinful. They would have been satisfied with the right of protesting against prevailing errors and unchristian impositions ; but when they were not only pre- vented from exonerating their consciences, but even re- quired to be active in carrying out measures which they believed to be dishonouring to Christ and injurious to the church, disobedience was their only alternative, and diso- bedience was followed by expulsion. To the members of the whole United Presbyterian Church the biographies of these men, whether they be- longed to the one section of the church or to the other, are now possessed of equal interest ; for, with slight modi- fications, it was the same great cause of Christian truth and liberty in which they toiled and suffered, and the union of their descendants brings them all now into a similar relation to the whole body. In the foregoing part of this volume the lives of two of the distinguished men who were instrumental in founding the Secession Church are embraced ; and here there is to follow an account of the good and upright Mr. Gillespie, whose deposition at a somewhat later period gave rise to the Relief denomination. The lives of these fathers are united in one volume, because the churches which they founded now compose one body. CHAPTER II. Gillespie's Parentage — Character in youth — Concern of his Mother about his soul — Interview with Boston — Blessed effects of it — Influence of Boston's views on those of Gillespie — Dedication of himself to the Ministry — Preparatory studies at Edinburgh, Perth, and Northamp- ton — Influence of Doddridge upon his mind — Licence and Ordination in England. Thomas Gillespie, who was bom in 1708 at Clearburn in the parish of Duddingstone, was the son of parents who were eminently distinguished by reHgious principle. His father died when he was very young ; but his mother, who was a woman of singular energy and discretion, was equal to the augmented responsibilities of her new situation, and strove to act the part at once of father and mother, both to him and to the children of her husband by his first mar- riage. She provided for the temporal wants of her family by carrying on the business of their departed father, which was that of a farmer and brewer ; and God, who filled of old the widow's cruse with oil and enlarged unseen her store of meal, abundantly prospered her endeavours. And while she was dihgent in business, she was also fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. The religious improvement of her household engaged her continual attention, and alike by her example and her counsels she laboured to guide them in wisdom's ways, and to strengthen the bonds of affection by which they were knit together. Nor were her efforts unsuccessful. She secured the lasting esteem and affec- tion even of her step-children, who were fully sensible of their obligations to her ; and her own son owed his con- version under God to her maternal solicitude. What a blessing to a family is a pious and prudent mother, and when that mother is a widow, how often does Provi- . LIFE OF THE REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 221 dence most strikingly bless and prosper her efforts! It is surprising what a number of the best and greatest men that have lived, have ascribed their advancement and steadfastness to the early instructions of an affec- tionate and faithful mother. It is recorded of the illustrious "Washington that through life he cherished the profoundest respect for his mother, whose widow- hood commencing at an early period had been devoted most assiduously to the training of her family ; and Mrs. Sigourney describes her as having possessed the lofty character of a Roman matron, with a heart of deep and purified affections and a majesty that commanded the reverence of all. At the head of a large household, whose charge devolved solely upon her, the energy and dignity of her character preserved subordination and harmony. To the inquiry what was the course pursued in the early education of her illustrious son, she rephed, " the lesson to obey."* Let mothers be strenuous in exerting for God the influence which their finer sense of propriety, their more affectionate disposition, and their almost uninter- rupted presence amongst their children give them over the young and tender heart. Thomas Gillespie, the only son of his mother, and the youngest of all his father's family, was naturally an object of interest to the whole household, and no efforts were spared to promote his improvement. But though he con- ducted himself with propriety, and was chargeable with nothing openly vicious or immoral, yet he did not feel in early youth any deep concern for the state of his soul. He was upright and sober and dutiful, but the pious heart of his mother was not to be satisfied with any thing, short of a thorough surrender of himself to God. Not only, therefore, did she herself endeavour with all the earnestness of mater- nal affection to awaken him to a sense of the infinite value of his soul, and pray for the blessing of heaven upon her efforts ; bift she took every opportunity of bringing him * Sigoumev's Letters. Hailford: 1835. Page 58. 222 LIFE OF THE tinder the influence of pious and experienced men. It is mentioned by Dr. Stewart, son-in-law of Dr. Erskine,* that on one occasion when they had gone together to a sacramen- tal solemnity at some distance from home, she introduced him to Mr. Boston of Ettrick with an account of her anxieties in reference to him, being desirous that the counsels and prayers of that eminent servant of God might be brought to bear upon his mind. And there is reason to believe that it was at this time his conversion took place. Mr. Boston, whose experience admirably fitted him for such a task, entered into close conversation with him respecting his prospects for eternity ; and the solemn and affectionate appeals which he made to his conscience were so blessed by the Spirit of God, that they effected a complete revolution in his views and feelings. From that day it was apparent that his soul had turned unto the Lord, and his whole subsequent demeanour attested the reality and extent of the change which he had undergone. Perhaps even pious parents are too ready to content themselves with the simple communication of reli- gious instruction to their children, satisfied if they are free from any flagrant immorality, and hoping that the grace of God may gradually work its way into their hearts. The example of Gillespie's mother, and the success which at- tended her efforts, show that besides mere instruction, there ought to be pointed and cogent and varied dealings with the conscience of each individual child, directed to the special purpose of effecting conversion ; and where such efforts are made with unwearied diligence, and with an ear- nestness of prayer similar to that which made Jacob say, " I will not let thee go except thou bless me," there is every ground for expecting that God will bestow the indispen- sable help of his grace. There is something of promise, as well as of precept, in the words of Solomon, " Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." As there is good ground for believing, that it i^as through * Quarterly Magazine, 1798, p. 13. REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 223 Boston's instrumentality Gillespie was brought to the sav- ing knowledge of the truth, it is reasonable to suppose that the views of the tried veteran would have great in- fluence in moulding the theological sentiments of the young disciple. Boston was no common man. Thoroughly im- bued with evangelical principles, intrepid in defence of the right, the foe of all arbitrary proceedings, he was one of the lights of his age, a truly great divine as Jonathan Edwards styles him, and at the same time a man of prompt and vigorous action. His Fourfold State, not to mention his other works, has been to Scotland, something like what the Pilgrim's Progress has been to the empire. He made a bold stand along with the Erskines and the other Mar- rowmen, in defence of the doctrines of grace and the free unrestricted preaching of the Word ; and he was greatly instrumental in checking the progress of those unsound notions about works being necessary to guide the sinner to Christ, which were threatening to overspread the land. His views too respecting the constitution of Christ's king- dom, and the liberties and privileges of Christ's people, were far in advance of his times. The divine right of churches to choose their own office-bearers was maintained by him ; he felt the evil of that commixture of the church with the world, which appears to be inseparable from a national estabUshment of reUgion ; he seems even to have anticipated the time when the church would be wholly disconnected from the state ; and he was ready to hold communion with aU who loved the Lord Jesus Christ, though they might differ from him in smaUer matters.* It is impossible to glance at these views, and not to feel persuaded, that the influence of Boston must have given a colouring to the whole stream of GiUespie's thoughts : the sentiments of the spiritual father already pointed to the result, which his son in the faith was ultimately guided to. The doctrinal system of GiUespie and his views of church order bore the same stamp as those of Boston ; and * Sermons on Communion Edinbm-gb, 1752. Page 157. 224 LIFE OF THE it is an interesting fact that the son of Boston was the earliest associate of Gillespie in his state of separation from the Established Church. The influence of the elder Boston had moulded them both, and prepared them unconsciously for mutual co-operation on a field which as yet was un- known to them. The change which had taken place in Gillespie's reli- gious condition, after his first interview with Boston, led him very speedily to think of devoting himself to the work of the ministry ; and with this view he became a student in the university of Edinburgh, where he pursued his studies for a number of years. He does not seem even then to have been altogether satisfied with the state of the Church of Scotland, for when his course of theological study was nearly completed, he proceeded to Perth, it is said in com- pliance with the wishes of his mother who had joined the Secession, and placed himself under the care of the Rev. Mr. Wilson, Professor of Theology to the Associate Synod, whose life is recorded in a preceding portion of this volume. His stay in Perth, however, was exceedingly short, amount- ing only to about ten days. His reasons for leaving the Associate Hall are not very clearly known ; but there is some ground for supposing, that his dissatisfaction arose from the views he found prevailing there, respecting the terms of Christian communion, and the obligation of the covenants. From Perth he proceeded to Northampton to the Academy superintended by Dr. Doddridge, and he took with him letters of recommendation from distinguished ministers of the Church of Scotland, who all bore testimony to his piety, integrity, and proficiency in learning. His time at the university had been faithfully devoted, alike to the cultivation of his intellectual powers, and to the ad- vancement of his soul in spiritual gifts. Dr. Erskine men- tions the names of the ministers who supplied him with testimonials, and states that he had lived with them on terms of intimacy ; and their well-known eminence, as well as their faithful advocacy of sound doctrine, and their liberal views of church government, supply an evidence of REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 225 the habitual bent of his mind and strain of his feelings. His friendships lay among the most pious and faithful min- isters of the church. It was the uncorrupted gospel of Christ in which he deUghted, and the sympathies of his mind and heart were all in favour of the spiritual rights of congregations. The changes he made resulted not from changeableness of disposition, but from the earnest longing of his soul for the enjoyment of sound doctrine, in con- nexion with liberal principles of church government and communion. These steps of his student life exhibited the germ of principles, which afterwards expanded into firm resistance of ecclesiastical oppression ; and they also gave an indication of what was a marked feature of his charac- ter all his days, a complete indifference to consequences, so far as they affected himself personally, when principles were concerned. Certainly the changes which he made were all such as must have seemed adverse to his worldly interests. At Northampton Gillespie became a great favourite with Doddridge. There was a strong congeniality of sentiment between them, and there can be no doubt that the influ- ence of the EngUsh nonconformist, confirmed Gillespie in his views of Christian communion and of the rights of con» gregations. Doddridge was now in the full zenith of his usefulness, a man of consummate ability and of great in- fluence, faithful in supporting the standard of a pure Christianity amid abounding defections, and at the same time singularly free from a sectarian spirit ; dispassionate, cool, and forbearing ; disposed to love the image of Christ wherever it appeared, and looking for the defence of the truth, not to the sword of the magistrate, but to moral and spiritual weapons. Sympathy of feeling and similarity of views were the motives which brought Gillespie to Northampton, and the result of his sojourn there was to impart to his principles a strength and consistency, which carried him triumphantly through great trials at a subse- quent period of his life. When Providence has work for men to perform, they are often prepared for it, long before 3 P 22G LIFE OF THE REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. the time, by influences and events whose special purpose they do not at first perceive. Having completed his course of study, GiUespie was licensed to preach the gospel on the 30th October, 1740, and ordained to the work of the ministry on the 22d Jan- uary 1741, by a respectable class, says Dr. Erskine, of dis- senting ministers. Dr. Doddridge acting as moderator. The mature age of thirty-two, which he had now reached, view- ed in connexion with the fact that he was under twenty when he turned his attention to preparatory studies for the ministry, shows the thorough discipHne through which he passed before he ventured to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ. And not only was the time ample, but it is well known that he was a singularly hard student, and continued so all his days. Immediately after his ordination he returned to Scotland, and brought with him very strong recommendations from Dr. Doddridge, Job Orton, and others, who describe him " as a deeply-expe- rienced Christian, well qualified for the important work of the ministry, and one who bade fair to prove an ornament to his holy profession, and an instrument of considerable usefulness to the souls of men." * If the correspondence which it is known was regularly carried on between Dod- dridge and Gillespie from this period, and which there is reason to believe stiU survives, were accessible, much light might be thrown upon Gillespie's views at this time, and some facts recovered respecting his earlier years. * Preface to Treatise on Temptation, p. iiL CHAPTER III. Presentation and Call to Camock — Probable reasons of his renewed connexion -n-ith the Church of Scotland — Fidelity of his ministry — Character of his preaching — Inward conflicts — Effects of them upon his labom-s — Popularity and success — Careful preparation for the pul- pit — Structure of his discourses — Constant desire to see fi-uit of his ministry. Shortly after his return to Scotland, Gillespie received from Colonel Erskine of Carnock a presentation to the parish of Carnock, and also in due course a regular call from the con- gregation. The deed of his ordination in England was laid by him upon the table of the Presbytery of DunfermUne, in whose bounds Carnock lay, and on the 19th August, 1741, his admission to Carnock was appointed to take place. It is mentioned both by Dr. Erskine and Dr. Stewart in their short memoirs of GiUespie, that when he was required to sign the Confession of Faith at the table of the presbytery, he objected to its doctrine " respecting the power of the civil magistrate in religion, but was permitted to sign with an explanation of his meaning." The precise nature of this explanation has not been recorded ; but there can be little doubt, when his own views and those of Dod- dridge are considered, that its object must have been to claim for the church the power of regulating her own affairs independently of the magistrate. Dr. Stewart's remark on the modified subscription of Gillespie is this, — " It is not to be doubted but that like many other excellent men he acted in this subscription with conscious uprightness ; for the tenor of his conduct through life, both as a man and a minister, showed inflexible sincerity and readiness to sacrifice his worldly 223 LIFE OF THE interest to the dictates of conscience."* And Dr. Erskine seems only to attach the more weight to his sub- scription, on account of the single exception which he felt himself called upon to make. " This, to aU acquainted with his disinterested integrity and aversion to every thing of artifice and disguise, must be a sufficient confutation of the accusations raised against him, as secretly of Congre- gational principles and an enemy to Presbyterian church government." t Here the question naturally presents itself, Why did Gillespie return to the Estabhshed Church after having once left it ? The fact of his making objection to the doctrine of the Confession of Faith respecting the civil magistrate's power in rehgious matters, shows that his mind was somewhat loosened from the principles upon which religious establishments rest. Yet the probability is that he did not see all the consequences of the views he had adopted, but allowed the propriety of a civil establish- ment of religion, while at the same time he objected to the employment of the magistrate's power, in regulating the afiairs of the church and opposing erroneous doc- trines. If we are to suppose that the views of Dod- dridge throw any light upon the reasons of Gillespie's conduct, it will appear that the fact of the Church of Scotland's being an established church was of compara- tively small importance in his eyes, and that he joined her rather as a body of whose ecclesiastical constitution and doctrines he approved, than for the sake of the civil sanctions which these had received. Having breathed the free air of Northampton, and having firmly embraced the comprehensive principle of the communion of all saints, he was ready to join the Church of Scotland, pro- vided only he were not held bound by what seemed to him the sense of certain clauses in the Confession ; and his explanation being admitted, he imagined that he * Quarterly ^Magazine, vol. i., p. 14. I Preface to Treatise on Temptation, p. iv. REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 229 would be free to prosecute the great ends of his ministry, without having his conscience trammelled by unscriptural exactions. Whether he regarded the intrusion of ministers into congregations as coming under the head of the exer- cise of civil power in the church, and therefore considered his exception to the magistrate's power in religion as for- mally exonerating him from the approbation of such in- trusion ; or whether, without adverting to the connexion which undoubtedly exists between intrusion and the exer- cise of civil power in the church, he satisfied himself like the great body of the popular party with the purpose of doing all in his power to oppose intrusion, may perhaps admit of some doubt. Yet there is a passage in his Trea- tise on Temptation,-^ where he describes the thrusting in of a man upon an unwilhng and reclaiming congregation, as taking place in legal establishments ; and then makes mention of a different evil in connexion with the settle- ment of ministers, which congregations voluntarily asso- ciated and dissenting from establishments require to guard against : which seems to intimate that he considered in- trusion as having its root in the exercise of civil power in the church, and that probably therefore he viewed the exception which he had made in presence of the Presbytery to the magistrate's power, as freeing him, though belonging to the establishment, from the responsibility of violent settlements. At all events it is certain that from the very first he considered the free call of a church as indispensa- ble to the formation of the pastoral relation. Admitted to Carnock, Mr. Gillespie devoted himself with singular fidelity and zeal to the discharge of his pastoral duties . Having himself deeply felt the power of the gospel, he was indefatigable in his endeavours to bring others to the knowledge and belief of the truth. The discourses which he delivered to his people were prepared with the utmost care, as the manuscripts of them still existing abundantly testify, for he counted it criminal to serve the Lord with * Pp. 145-147. 230 LIFE OP THE that which cost him nothing. They were also eminently evangelical. A crucified Saviour was the great theme of his preaching, and all the doctrines and duties of religion were exhibited in the light which streams from this cen- tral principle. By the preaching of the cross some persons understand little more than the simple exhibition of Christ's blood as the source of pardon and acceptance with God. Mr. Gillespie took a far more comprehensive view of the subject. He handled all the diiterent doctrines of Scripture according to the measure of their importance : he minutely described and faithfully enforced all the duties of morality : it was his object to traverse with his hearers the whole field of divine truth. But whatever doctrines he might treat, or whatever duties he might enforce, they were always presented in connexion with the cross, and the evangelical element, thoroughly pervading the exhibition given of them, constituted their life and power. Of moral duties enforced simply as such, and irrespectively of gospel sanctions and motives, Mr, Gillespie knew nothing. Dr. Stewart mentions* that he had in his possession many volumes of Mr. Gillespie's manuscripts, containing about 800 discourses, + from an examination of which he says, he can testify that, while Mr. Gillespie was particularly noted as a preacher of free and sovereign grace, yet he neglected no part of divine revelation, but was most faithful in lay- ing before his hearers the whole counsel of God, according to his understanding of it, both respecting doctrine and duty. From his letters to President Edwards it appears that, while Mr. Gillespie looked to the Spirit of God for the only power which could awaken and convert the soul, he yet prominently held it forth as the duty of every sinner in- stantly to repent and believe the gospel. He had a strong faith in the efiicacy of the Word, as the Spirit's instrument applied to the conscience, which made him expect imme- diate results from the exhibition of the truth to the souls * Quarterly Slagazine 1798, p. 20. f Preface to Treatise on Temptation, p. vii., note. REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 2-31 of men ; and he preached therefore with a fervour cor- responding to the magnitude of the changes, which he hoped and trusted he might be the means of producing. In addressing sinners his grand object was, not to make them hope for converting grace in waiting upon God at the pool of ordinances, but to prevail upon them instantly to renounce their opposition to God, and as perishing sin- ners to accept his proffered mercy. He reasoned with them as rational and immortal beings who had an interest of infinite value at stake, which might in a moment, if God so willed it, elude their grasp for ever ; and while he urged and entreated them to be reconciled upon the spot to God, he prayed that the Holy Ghost might carry home the truth with heavenly power to their consciences. " Though," says he, in one of the letters referred to, " the sinner never Avill beheve on the Lord Jesus, till he has received a saving manifestation of his glory by the work of the Spirit ; yet every sinner, we know, is indispensably bound at all sea- sons by the divine authority to believe instantly in the Lord Jesus. Also, as it may be the last call the sinner is to receive in the dispensation of the Word, we are bound to require him instantly to believe, whatever he does or does not feel in himself." * There was another element in Mr. Gillespie's preaching which imparted to it a peculiar power. Few Christians have been more tried than he was by painful conflicts in his own bosom respecting his spiritual state, and few have made more strenuous eiforts to maintain unbroken com- munion with God. He had a very tender conscience. He was always jealous of himself, and watched his heart with peculiar vigilance. In his letters to President Edwards he gives a very affecting account of the deep despondency which often seized him, and mentions that he sometimes feared he should be quite borne down, and carried away by the deluge of the foe. He had a strong sense of the realities of the invisible world. He felt himself painfuUy beset with * Works of President Edwards, Lund. 1840, Vol. i. page cxs:/i. 232 LIFE OP THE temptations of the devil, which harassed his mind, sometimes with vain, sometimes with vile thoughts, sometimes with thoughts of a duty neglected at the proper time, and some- times even with the words of Scripture, and in a variety of other methods ; and though he strove earnestly by prayer and meditation on heavenly things to gain the victory over the enemy, his heart would remain a stranger to peace. In dependence upon the Lord he endeavoured by medical, moral, and religious means, which he believed to be all ad- vantageous and expedient in their place, to procure deliver- ance from his despondency or to alleviate its anguish, but it was all in vain. There was no relief for him, comfort was a stranger to his bosom; his mind was distressed by the thought of his diminished relish for divine things ; his heart was rendered callous by cruel constant buf- fetings, and when he cried, the Lord heard him not. And the grand question with him under all these sore temptations was, how he should recover the savour of spiritual truths and objects. There was in fact no incon- siderable resemblance between his experience and that of Luther ; but as in the case of the great Reformer his con- flicts only gave vigour to his efforts, so in the case of Gil- lespie the more he was tried, the more earnestly he laboured in the discharge of his official duties. Indeed it cannot be doubted that his inward conflicts were an important part of the training by which God prepared him, not only for the stand he afterwards made in defence of the liberties of the church, but also for the efficient discharge of his du- ties as a minister of the gospel. In a letter to a friend in Edinburgh, Mr. Davidson of Galashiels, one of the twelve Marrowmen who had signed the famous representation to the General Assembly in 1721, says : " I notice with pleasure in yours the success of Thomas's ministry, even in the midst of his sore conflicts ; the latter certainly are necessary for him, and kindly and wisely designed by a Father's love." * He was intimately acquainted with the * Davidson's Letters, page 89. REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 233 workings of the human soul, under the influence of temp- tations and doubts and fears, and all his discourses were largely imbued with the element of feeling and experience. He spoke from the heart to the heart ; and having felt the pangs of internal disquiet, he could always address a word in season to those who were in distress and anguish of mind.* And not only were his discourses generally instinct with experimental feeling, but at particular times he preached discourses of a very peculiar cast, which, though they ap- peared strange to persons who had little experience of in- ward conflicts, and were even censured by some as improper or unnecessary, were yet singularly blessed to others who were deeply sunk in sorrow and on the brink of despair. At communions he often entered deeply into the con- sideration of certain exercises and conflicts of the soul, which are seldom minutely handled from the pulpit, but which, having had experience of all their anguish himself, and having considered them with peculiar care, he was enabled to treat to the singular benefit of many. Yet like a wise steward who rightly divideth the word of God, Mr. Gillespie, who knew that it was by far the smaller part of his hearers who needed such discourses, or could profit by them, gave to the bulk of his preaching quite a different colouring. "Instead of confining himself," says Dr. Erskine, who was a stated hearer of his for a considerable time, " as many do, to subjects suited to his peculiar genius, he considered what was most needful for the bulk of his hearers, keeping back from them nothing profitable, but declaring to them the whole counsel of God, giving law and gospel, comfort and terror, privileges and duties, their proper place. I never sat under a ministry better calculated to awaken the thoughtless and secure, to caution convinced sinners against what would stifle convictions or prevent their issuing in conversion, and to point out differences between vital Christianity and specious counterfeit ap- * Edwards' Works, London, vol. iii. page cxL 234 LIFE OF THE pearances of it. If I have wandered from the original design of this preface by enlarging on these matters, and if I have expressed myself with some degree of warmth, is there not a cause ? When under a load of unjust abuse and ridicule, Mr, Gillespie's meekness has kept him silent as a deaf man that heareth not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs ; that surely is no reason why his friends, and the friends of the cause in which he has suffered, should be silent too. The benevolent will not severely censure my stepping a little out of my road, to defend a worthy character insidiously and cruelly attacked." * When Mr. Gillespie's careful preparation for the pulpit is considered, the variety of the subjects which he handled, the evangelical complexion of all his discourses, and his deep acquaintance with the workings of the human heart, it will readily be conceived that he must have been a highly acceptable preacher. And it is known that he was so. His popularity was great, not only in his own parish, but also in all the places which were favoured with his occasional ministrations. And this was the more remark- able, as his delivery was singularly uncouth : but the genuine excellence of his discourses and the fervour with which they were delivered overcame the obstacle of a deficient manner, and gathered multitudes around him to hear the truth from his lips. And God was pleased to bless his ministry with remarkable success. His sermons were admirably adapted for awakening and converting sinners, for comforting and establishing the minds of believers, and for delivering those who were agitated and depressed by the art and violence of the tempter, and the gloomy workings of their own minds. The careless were arrested by the heart-searching appeals which he addressed to them ; the hypocritical were startled by the delineations he presented of the form as contrasted with the power of godliness ; and the downcast were raised, and guided by * Essay on the Continuance of Immediate Revelations of Facts and Fatui-e Events in the Christian Church, Preface, pp. vii. viii. REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 235 him to the fountain of heavenly joy and pence. On Sacra- mental occasions especially, as all accounts agree, he was singularly felicitous in adapting his addresses to the dif- ferent workings of the human mind, and his presence at such times was hailed in the various places which he was in the habit of visiting as a signal blessing.* It appears from Mr. Gillespie's manuscripts, of which the writer of this memoir has had the opportunity of ex- amining a few volumes, that his method of preaching was highly textual. It was his object in every discourse to bring out fully the precise truths contained in the par- ticular passage under consideration, and to enforce the warnings and lessons which it might appear to suggest. He follows the stream of thought indicated by his text, passing for the most part from clause to clause, and point- ing out the connexion between the various members of the verse. In a discourse, for example, upon Matt. iii. 10, " And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees ; therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire," he first considers the import of the statement that the axe is laid to the root of the trees, then points out the persons who are indicated by the trees that bring not forth good fruit, and finally describes their doom as set forth in the words " hewn down and cast into the fire." The following are a few extracts from what is said respecting the import of laying the axe to the root of the trees : — " The Lord's patience towards a generation who enjoy the dispensation of the gospel, or a sinner who sits under the dropping of it, knows bounds, however long it may be continued, and will at length come to a period. The Lord pronounced concerning the generation before the flood, whose wickedness was great, and every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts only evil continually, who, it is to be presumed from Gen. ix. 5, 6, had filled the earth with cruel murders, that his Spirit would not always strive ■ Quarterly Magazine, vol. i. p. 21. Pi'ef. Gillespie on Temptation, p. v. 236 LIFE OF TUB with man, for that he also was flesh, wholly carnal, a very mass of sin, and that his days or time of trial should be an hundred and twenty years. And that was a type and evidence of the manner in which the Lord would act to- wards churches and generations in after ages. " The Lord makes solemn trial of persons and societies during a particular season limited and fixed by himself, and that is their day, given to them for attaining the saving knowledge of the things that concern their peace and everlasting happiness. And if during that season they do not know them, prize and embrace them, for the ends of God's appointment, then in his righteous judgment they shall be hid from their eyes, so as never to be savingly per- ceived by them. The Lord will take away the means of grace from such persons, or them from the means of grace, or will not bless them for their conversion and sal- vation. " "When the Lord makes such trial of persons, as he made of the Jews by the ministry of John the Baptist, as he made of the people in Judea and the dwellers in Galilee by Christ's personal ministry, and as he does by the dis- pensation of the gospel and particular messages sent to persons and societies by his servants in after ages ; it is with the utmost danger, if they are careless, of their being given up to their own hearts' lust, and suffered to walk on in their own foolish and sinful counsels to their everlasting destruction. The time at length comes when the Lord, who will not be mocked, gives a solemn eflicacious com- mission to his gospel to seal the salvation or damnation of hearers, to become to them the savour of life unto life, or the savour of death unto death. " The Lord's work and that of the Spirit becomes so criti- cal in the case of sinners, who have enjoyed a day of grace and merciful visitation perhaps long, that a very little time is to fix their state for eternity. The voice of the Lord to them is, ' behold now is the accepted time,' if you will not now accept the Saviour, you never shall have another offer of him ; ' behold now is the day of salvation,' if you receive REY. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 237 not the right to salvation by faith acted on the Saviour this day, it may be out of time for you to think of it to- morrow. There may be no possibility of your then attain- ing it. God may this day swear in his wrath that you shall not enter into his rest, if you do not this day submit to the righteousness of God the Redeemer. " When the axe is laid to the root of the tree, it is imme- diately, it may be said instantly, to be cut down. This consideration suggests the awful idea, that perhaps some sinner in this worshipping assembly is never to rise from the spot where he now sits, or to depart from the place where he now stands, but is in a few moments to be dealt with according to the following part of the verse, that is, ' cut down and cast into the fire.' When others return to their homes, he shall have gone to his long home, and shall have entered into the eternal world, without the possibility of alteration in his state for ever, a most strik- ing and awful consideration ! " In his preaching and in all his ministerial duties Mr. Gillespie kept constantly in view the conversion of sinners and the edification of saints. He sought by exhibiting the terrors of the law and the saving mercy of the gospel, to awaken men to a sense of their danger, and to persuade them to lay hold of Christ ; and he watched over his flock with paternal solicitude as one who must give account, rejoicing when he saw them walking worthily of the gospel, and grieving when they appeared to decline. What he wanted to see was fruit of his ministry, an increase of faith and love and new obedience among his people ; and his eye was perpetually searching for some manifestation of the grace of the Spirit. He was in the habit of corre- sponding with the Rev. Mr. Davidson of Galashiels, and it would appear that he sometimes unfolded to him, in the confidence of Christian friendship, the hopes and fears he felt in reference to the success of his ministry : for we find Mr. Davidson, in a letter dated 16th March, 1744, comforting Mr. Gillespie under some disappointments he had met with : " I do notice in yours some uneasiness on account 238 LIFE OF THE REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. of some disappointments you have met with from some persons in the parish, of whom you had formerly conceived a favourable opinion, and had hopes of a good work begun, and matters have turned out quite contrary to expecta- tions." * Of Mr. Gillespie it might truly be said that he had no greater joy than to see the people of his charge walking in the truth. It was his constant desire that Christ might be formed in them, the hope of glory, and that he might be instrumental in preparing them for an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in Christ Jesus. * Letters to Christiijn Friends by the Rev. Henry Davidson, Minister of Galashiels, p. 70. CHAPTER IV. Re\ival at Kilsyth — Gillespie's connexion with it — His view of its cha- racter — Treatise on Temptation composed — Analysis of the work — Style and execution of it — Specimens — Strong \ievfs which it ein- bodies of Satanic agency — Robert Hall's view of the same subject — Essay on Immediate Revelations composed — Plan of the work — Sound principles advanced in it — Specimens — Duration and success of Gilles- pie's ministry at Caruock. It was near the commencement of Mr. Gillespie's minis- try at Carnock that the famous revivals of rehgion took place at Cambuslang and Kilsyth ; and as might be ex- pected both from his peculiar temperament of mind, and from his habit of looking constantly for the Spirit's help, he took a deep interest in them. Being an intimate friend of Mr. Robe, the minister of Kilsyth, he went there repeatedly to witness the effects produced by the ordinances of reli- gion, and to aid in proclaiming the gospel and guiding awakened souls to the only source of peace and comfort. And his labours were remarkably blessed. j\[r. Robe men- tions that of all who visited him and lent him assistance, Mr. Gillespie was the one who most signally appeared as the instrument of God. During one visit of ten days, he laboured constantly from morning to night along with Mr, Robe ; and it was his conviction that many of those with whom he conversed exhibited all the signs of a real operation of the Spirit upon their hearts. They had strong views of the evil of sin, — they seemed vile in their own eyes, — they felt their need of an interest in the redemption of Christ, and so far were they from being car- ried away by enthusiastic persuasions of their own con- version, that they were generally jealous of themselves, and afraid of prematurely taking the consolations of the gos- pel. And they also gave evidence of cherishing love to 240 LIFE OF THE those in whom the image of Christ appeared ; and they felt a desire, so soon as any measure of peace was infused into their own minds, of seeing others brought to the know- ledge of the truth, that they too might receive the pre- cious mercy of the gospel and share the joys of salva- tion. All these marks, which certainly are very far from savouring of a fanatical spirit, are described by Mr. Gil- lespie, in the attestation he wrote after returning from Kilsyth, as having fallen under his own observation; and they show that whatever irregularities and excesses might appear in the conduct of some at that time, un- doubtedly there was a real work of the Spirit in the re- vival at Kilsyth. It is testified too that many of the parties who were awakened during that period of excitement, continued, after it had passed away, steadfast in the faith, and maintained a consistent deportment tiU their dying day. It was during the first years of Mr. Gillespie's ministry at Carnock that his "Treatise on Temptation" was written, though it was not published till after his death. The subject was one that had occupied much of his thoughts ; and having himself for many a year endured sore conflicts in his own mind, and been borne down by a load which threatened to overwhelm him, he was well qualified by experience to write profitably on the subject. It is pro- bable that the plan of the treatise was formed, and some part of it composed before his ministry commenced at all ; for he was urged by Dr. Doddridge so early as the year 1743 to complete it for publication, and it is known that all of it that has been published was written before 1744. Mr. Gillespie's modesty however prevented him from appearing spontaneously before the world as an author ; and it was not till after he had gone down to the grave that the '' Trea- tise on Temptation" was published. His faithful friend, Dr. Erskine of Old Greyfriars' Church, Edinburgh, into whose hands his manuscripts came, considered it his duty to publish it ; and he has prefixed to it a preface in which he speaks very highly both of the work and of the author. REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 241 lie mentions that Mr. Gillespie reviewed the work towards the close of his ministry at Carnock, but was prevented from completing it " by the hurry and tigue of body and mind to which his peculiar circumstances after his deposi- tion subjected him. In consequence of this, not one-third of his plan is executed, and the church is deprived of his remarks on those branches of it which his genius, train of thought, experience, opportunities of observation, and course of study most qualified him to have handled to ad- vantage ; and which if so handled bade fairest to be greatly and extensively useful. That one in Mr. Gillespie's retired situation could not give a full delineation of the rocks on which the wisdom, \-irtue, and happiness of mankind suffer shipwreck is not surprising : but that with few helps and advantages, and numerous discouragements, he could plan such a work, and execute it so far as he has done, must give the candid and impartial reader a high idea of the extent of his genius and the solidity of his judgment. What is pubhshed is complete of itself, and independent of what was further intended."* In another preface pre- fixed to the " Essay on the Continuance of Immediate Re- velations," Dr. Erskine takes occasion to speak of the " Treatise on Temptation," and says, " that Mr. Gillespie's modesty had in a great measure concealed from the public his abilities, and prevented his appearing as an author ; " and he characterises the work as an excellent treatise, com- posed in a sententious style, much resembling that of Lord Bacon, and weU suited to point out the rocks on which the \drtue, happiness, and usefulness of mankind have in all ages so often suffered shipwreck, t The plan of Mr. Gillespie's work on temptation is a very comprehensive one. The object of it is to exhibit the various sources of temptation to which men are exposed in life, and the watchful care which is necessary in order to maintain a conscience void of offence towards God and * Treatise on Temptation, Prefiice, pp. is. x. f Essay on the Continuance of Immediate Revelations, Preface, p. vii. 3 Q 242 LIFE OF THE towards men. And it is truly astonishing what an endless variety of dangers are pointed out by the author : not a rock or quicksand in the ocean of life seems to have escaped his observant eye : all are carefully marked in the valuable chart which he has constructed for the Christian voyager. The work comprehends twelve sections, which are devoted to the consideration of different temptations assaihng men in different circumstances and situations. You have the temptations described which are adapted to the different ages of life, to different natural constitutions, to different natural tempers, to different positions in society, to differ- ent relationships, to different employments, to different abilities natural and acquired, to different inclinations and views, to different characters of men, to different ages of the world, to different nations and places, to the different situations of men in respect of the things of God as ignor- ant, erroneous, sceptical, profligate, self-righteous, secure, &c. And under each of these general divisions you have a minute analysis of all the different cases which come under it, and of all the different temptations which are adapted to each particular case. In reference, for ex- ample, to the different ages of life, you have the tempta- tions described to which children are liable, those past childhood, those in the vigour of youth, those in their prime, those in the decline of life. In reference, again, to different relationships, the temptations of parents and of children are pointed out, of husbands and of wives, of masters and of servants, of magistrates and of subjects, of ministers and of congregations, of teachers and of persons under instruction, &c. And under the head of different conditions, the temptations of the rich and of the poor, of persons in prosperous and in adverse circumstances, of persons who are their own masters, and of those who are dependent upon others, are aU made to pass in review be- fore the reader. And as the plan of Mr. Gillespie's Treatise on Tempta- tion is a most comprehensive one, so it has been executed, so far as the author has gone, with much judgment, and REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 243 the work displays a deep acquaintance with human nature and with the feelings and tendencies of the human heart. It is not possible for any one to read it without finding a variety of passages under the different heads, which will point out dangers to which he himself is exposed, and sug- gest the means which ought to be employed for guarding against them. Among the innumerable positions, situa- tions, and states of mind which are described, every person will find some, probably a considerable number, which his own heart must tell him correspond exactly to his own case. As in a faithful mirror, each may see in Mr. Gilles- pie's pages a representation of his own feelings, tempta- tions, and dangers, delineated as accurately as if his own heart were the reflected object. The work too is written in a very forcible and compact style, though somewhat rugged and occasionally obscure. Every sentence is full of thought. You feel that you are reading the pages of a man who was most thoroughly in earnest, and whose one object was to warn men of dangers lying in their path. With great terseness of language, and with a singular freedom from the peculiarities of dic- tion which are to be found in many preachers of his day, he enforces his weighty counsels ; and strives to awaken the consciences of men, and to stir them up to a sense of their danger, and to strenuous resistance of the temp- tations which beset them. As the Treatise on Temptation is now seldom to be met with, the following paragraphs are presented as specimens of it. In the Introduction some general remarks are made upon the nature of temptation. " All temptations may be reduced to two kinds ; those of allurement, where the object or contrivance by which the devil leads to sin, is in order to attain, increase, secure, what is pleasant or profitable, really or in appearance ; and those that are terrifying, where his engine is to keep from obedience, or engage in transgression, from fear of prejudice or ruin, in person, reputation, estate, friends, advantages possessed or expected, present or future, real or imaginary. 244 LIFE OF THE " He inverts the order that God and nature have fixed in the operations of the soul of man, if there is a distinc- tion of faculties in it, which has been doubted. However that matter be, it is certain, to act rationally and religi- ously is to judge of a thing as directed, whether it is lawful or unlawful, true or false; then having judged, to choose it or refuse it, as good or evil ; next to have the desire going out towards it as beneficial in any respect, or to make it, as hurtful, the object of one's aversion. He makes one go the contrary way ; to apprehend the thing of advantage, as such to choose it as good, then to be- lieve it lawful and true. Thus he makes the affections sway the will, and that to determine the understanding, which should lead all. This appears from his procedure with our first parents. He represented the beauty of the fruit, the happy effects of eating it, denied the threatening, and questioned the command. " He proceeds by degrees. He well understands that if what he points to, were at first laid open, the soul would be apt to reject the suggestion with abhorrence. Thus he tempts, first to presume upon duty, or in its performance ; then to remissness in it, afterwards to indifference about it ; next to neglect it ; then to nibble and tamper with smaller sins ; upon that, to excuse them in others ; this done, to commit them one's self ; which makes way for a sin or evUs of a deeper dye ; and in this course he advances, till the soul becomes drenched in evil, if the Lord by common restraining grace, or that which is saving and special, pre- vents it not." * Speaking of the temptations to which the prosperous are exposed, Mr. Gillespie says : " Those in prosperous cir- cumstances in any kind, Satan tempts to think all is secured to them : they shall continue so, and die in their nest, as Job expresses it. When healthful, he suggests to them they are in no danger of the diseases under which others groan, and in that way makes them forget their * Pages 4, 5. REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 245 latter end, as if it never would happen. He represents it a thing certain, their life shall yet be of long continuance, and that, therefore, they may form and execute plans re- specting their outward condition, yet a long while ; and there will be time enough to be more serious, and taken up about their eternal state, a great many years after. He represents misfortunes and calamities as what they are m no danger of, and by such means effectually keeps them from either praying against them or preparing for them. He tempts to carnal security, thinking they shaU have peace, though they go on in the way of their own hearts, disregarding the Lord, and the operation of his hands ; not trembling because of him nor being afraid of his judg- ments ; to pride, overweening conceit of themselves, un- submissiveness of spirit, rebellion against the Lord ; to unaffectedness with the misery of others. He tempts believers in prosperity to fail of self-examination ; to con- clude because aU goes well with them outwardly, there is no need to accompUsh a diUgent search, and to commune with their own heart; to hurry over, if not to neglect, spiritual exercises ; to flatter themselves they are so the favourites of heaven, that the Lord will bestow needful covenant blessings upon them, though they do not labour for them in the way of duty as others do ; to despise the afflicted, and to conclude they are worse than others, and that the Lord contends with them for some singular "* provocation. . " He disposes subjects to listen to the suggestions and surmised of evil and designing men, giving bad impres- sions of magistrates, supreme or subordinate, in order to impose on them and lead them into practices tending to their own ruin as well as the hurt of the pubHc ; to neglect to pray for magistrates, though such prayer is prescribed by the Lord's authority, 1 Tim. ii. 2, and is a means of procuring from him national blessings ; to desire a change not only in the administration, but the form of Pases 71, 73. 246 LIFE OF THE the government, from a fickle perverse humour and ex- pectation of some advantage to result from such change, that thus guilt may be contracted and a disposition cherished, which he may improve for cursed purposes if a meet opportunity shall be presented ; to seek when under embarrassments or poverty, to better their condition by public disturbances and confusions, and for that end to embark in any desperate attempt that may be set on foot, the teeming womb of inexpressibly greater misery than that they proposed to free themselves from, or per- haps of utter ruin to themselves and others ; to unthank- fulness to the Lord for the blessing of lawful authority under which they may live peaceable lives ; to disregard the mercy of the civil sword protecting them from violence, insult, or injustice, in possession of liberty and property, that thus they may provoke the Lord to take away the hedge, and to show them the worth of the despised mercy of government by being deprived of it. He produces in the minds of some, indifference about, and contempt of all religion, that they may compUment the prince with their conscience, and in order to obtain his favour, em- brace any scheme of principles, however absurd and im- pious, which he is disposed to introduce and propagate. For he knows that they who have done violence to con- science, and to whom all religions are alike, easily will be prevailed upon to embrace the rehgion, be it what it may, that is most suited to promote their outward interest." * " Satan tempts the supreme magistrate to aspire after an arbitrary power, paramount to all law, — a power to dispose of all things in the commonwealth, and to determine con- cerning them by his mere will and pleasure. If he gains this favourite point, he well knows how to turn the idolized power into a dismal calamity to its possessor, as well as to millions of others. That this may be brought about, he does all he can to render magistrates impatient of the just restraints and limitations they are under by * Pages 124, 128. KEY. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 247 the laws and constitution of the commonwealth. He excites them to listen to courtiers and flatterers, who give a false representation of things for their own ends, and to use no proper methods to see things with their own eyeb, a course in many instances pernicious to them as weU as to their subjects ; to enact things hurtful and oppressive to those under them; to refuse access to the injured to apply for redress, and to deny redress when application is actually made ; to persecute for conscience' sake, and to make their conscience the standard, their belief the rule, to all their subjects.* " He leads them, through the solicitation of courtiers, or to promote ends foreign to the advantage of the public, to neglect persons well qualified to discharge a trust, and to bestow places of power, and offices of importance in the commonwealth, on men not duly fitted in respect of capacity or integrity. That active spirit, who interferes in human afiairs, in a manner to be known and believed only by diligent observation and experience, plies this engine in all lesser societies, as well as in kingdoms and states. He excites rulers to oppress subjects in their dif- ferent interests and concerns, that thus he may rob them of their afiections and diminish their influence ; to be wedded to their own opinion and neglect to advise with wise and faithful counsellors, that he may hurry them into dangerous or destructive designs ; to rashness and unrea- sonable boldness in conduct, by which he engages them in projects and attempts fatal to themselves and the body- politic ; or to the opposite extreme of pusillanimity and dastardliness of spirit, by which they are led to sufier evil practices in the subjects, without calling them to proper ac- count, and to receive insults from foreign princes and states derogatory to their honour and ruining to their interests, without using the means Providence has furnished them with for obtaining redress, reparation, and proper security against anything of such kind in time to come. He in- * Pages Hi, llo. 248 LIFE OF THE fluences the prince to make, in the management of affairs, his own supposed interest and advantage the alone rule of his conduct ; and, regardless of the treasure and blood of his subjects, to involve himself and them in hazardous wars, in order to acquire that to which he has not the least shadow of right ; to exact repetition of the same oath from a person, to the dishonour of the Lord, debauching of conscience, and rendering the solemnity of an oath, and so its weight and influence, stiU less. He tempts magistrates, supreme and subordinate, to abuse the power they are vested with; to partiality in the administration of justice, a regarding of the persons of men, poor or rich, being moved by pity to wrest judgment in the case of the one, by fear or reward to do it in that of the other ; and to respect friends, and determine in their favour, right or wrong. By this engine the grand deceiver debauches the conscience of the judge, wounds the spirits of the injured, and intro- duces and promotes the practice of injustice.""^ " That cruel mahcious spirit has a pecuHar ascendant over men in adversity. He forms the conclusion in their minds, ' the Lord is partial in his distributions ; ' and suggests they have as good right to health, ease, honour, riches, or whatever else they want or are deprived of, as others who enjoy them. He brings them to aggravate their miseries and distresses, that they may become insupportable, or the afflicted persons may break out in such tragical complaints as shall be unworthy of their profession and privileges if they are saints, and bring reflection on the Lord's way, or will tend to sour more their own spirits, or to sadden the hearts of them with whom they reside and are conversant, or to whom they stand related. He pushes the afiiicted who are of resolute spirits, and some others of the dis- tressed, to the extreme of despising the chastening of the Lord, and disregarding and overlooking his hand. He makes them refuse to comply with the call of Heaven in the dispensation, and to practise stoutness and stubborn- * Pa;;res 116, 118. REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 243 ness of spirit, a frame of mind which, especially in such circumstances, the Lord abhors. That course he follows with persons of natural courage and firmness of mind. He pushes persons of weak spirits, under distresses, diseases, or other miseries, to the opposite extreme, of fainting under Divine rebukes, losing hope, sinking under discour- agement, and into it ; limiting the Lord ; apprehending the worst in every case ; racking, harassing, and tormenting themselves by brooding over their fears. His method with them under maladies is to excite them to make an idol of means, put them in the place of the Lord, and expect all from them ; or to shght and neglect them, and thus to tempt the Lord by not using his appointment, and expect- ing, what is almost equal to a miracle, that he should work relief for them not in his stated and ordinary way. Sometimes he makes afflicted saints backward to take the comfort the Lord allows and to which they have the best right ; and influences them to place a part of their religion in sadness and a morose behaviour, and to think it would be presumption, or at least unsafe, to rejoice in the Lord at such a season." * The foregoing extracts supply a specimen of what largely pervades the whole of Mr. Gillespie's work on Temptation, viz., the strong views which he entertained respecting the perpetual agency of the prince of darkness in human affairs. That such agency exists, and produces results of very great magnitude, no one who regulates his faith by the Scriptures can possibly doubt. Does not our Lord say to Peter, — " Simon, Simon, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat 1 " Luke xxii. 31. Does not Peter say to Ananias, — " Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost ?" Acts v. 5. And are we not assured that Satan entered into Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, immediately before his betrayment of Christ ? John xiii. 27. How numerous are the references in Scripture to the works of the devil, to the resistance which he is constantly offering * Pases 74, 75. 250 LIFE OF THE to the kingdom of Christ, and to the snaras which he spreads to entangle the feet of unwary sinners ! The personahty, in- deed, of Satan and his concern in human affairs are taught, not in one or a few passages of Scripture, but throughout the Sacred volume. But perhaps Mr. Gillespie's " Treatise on Temptation" loses somewhat of its power, in consequence of the unusual frequency with which he refers to Satanic agency as prompting men to sinful conduct. There is some justice in the remark which was made, in a letter to Gilles- pie himself from a friend, the Rev. Henry Davidson of Galashiels, whom he had allowed to read the manuscript, who, after stating that the treatise contains a most com- prehensive account of the artful management of the deceit- ful heart in conjunction with the wicked one, adds, — "his agency in the matter of sin is (no manner of doubt) of vast extent ; and yet it is possible that many things sinful in our frame and conduct may be unjustly fathered on him, which are really the pure production of that powerful and deceitful devil within, viz, the old man." * Still Mr. Gillespie, in all the descriptions which he gives of the temptations of the devil, has the single object in view of warning his readers against them, and his language never once suggests the idea that they extenuate in the smallest degree the guilt of those who yield to them. His principle is, Satan may tempt, and in God's providence he is permitted to do so ; but it is our part to resist his allure- ments, and he has no power to compel us to sin against our own will. Temptations may abound from without, but sin can only be our own act. The whole treatise in fact is written in the spirit of the very striking words of Peter, — " Be sober, be vigilant ; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour : whom resist steadfast in the faith," 1 Pet. V. 8, 9. And perhaps it is because in the present day we too little realise, what is an undoubted scriptural truth, that Satan does tempt mankind, that we are apt to regard * Davidson's Letters, p. 148. REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 251 Mr. Gillespie's pictures of temptation as somewhat over- charged with the element of Satanic influence. Perhaps the safer course for us, since we possess no sure criterion for distinguishing those temptations which take their rise solely within ourselves, from those in which the enemy of souls has a hand, is, like Mr. Gillespie, to cherish a habi- tual conviction that we are exposed to the assaults of an unseen foe, and that we ought therefore constantly to dread his stratagems and to guard against his attacks. His devices are many. Paul makes mention of his wiles and fiery darts, and we probably suffer most from them, when we are least alive to the fact of their existence. Eph. vi. 11, 16. It was the opinion of Robert Hall, whose sobriety of judg- ment none will question, that the subject of Satanic influ- ence was one of great moment, and that it was strangely neglected in our times ; and for the purpose of drawing attention to it, he prepared three discourses for pubHcation, but the manuscript by some singular accident was lost. In some fragments of other discourses upon the subject, he furnishes a very satisfactory answer to an objection which almost unavoidably strikes the mind in reading Mr. Gillespie's treatise, viz., that to ascribe to Satan such an interference in the moral concerns of the world, as is im- plied in his incessantly tempting men to sin, is to suppose him omnipresent, a supposition repugnant to the nature of a finite being. " It must be confessed the scriptures of the New Testament teach us to conceive of Satanic agency as concurring in almost every act of deliberate sin : he is said to have filled the heart of Ananias, to have entered into Judas after he had taken the sop, and to be the god of this world who worketh mightily in the children of disobedience. To infer from thence, however, that any proper omnipre- sence is attributed to this apostate spirit betrays inatten- tion to the obvious meaning of the inspired writers. We are taught to conceive of Satan as the head of a spiritual empire of great extent, and comprehending within itself innumerable subordinate agents. What their number may be it is vain to conjecture ; but when we reflect on the mag- 252 LIFE OF THE nitude of the universe, and the extensive and complicated agency in which they are affirmed to be engaged, we shall probably be inclined to conjecture that it far exceeds that of the human race. Conceiving Satan to be the chief, we easily account for the extent of the agency he is affirmed to exert in tempting and seducing the human race, not by supposing him to be personally present wherever such an operation is carrying on, but by referring it to his auspices and considering it as belonging to the history of his em- pire. As innumerable angels of light fight under the banners of the Redeemer, so there is every reason to con- clude the devil also is assisted by an equally numerous host of his angels, composing those principalities and powers over which Jesus Christ triumphed in the making " a show of them openly.""^ The only other work of Gillespie's which has been given to the public, is an essay on the continuance of im- mediate revelations of facts and future events in the Christian Church. It was published about three years before his death, in 1771, not however by himself but by his faithful friend Dr. Erskine, who writes a preface to it, in which he speaks in terms of the warmest approbation both of the author and of the essay. It would appear that it was Dr. Erskine's high estimate of the work which led him to urge upon Mr. Gillespie the duty of publishing it ; for he describes it as judiciously and thoroughly canvass- ing the subject, and he adds, that hitherto Mr. Gillespie's modesty has in a great measure concealed from the public his abilities and has prevented his appearing as an author.f The time when this essay was written is not stated, though probably it was many years before its publication ; for Mr. Gillespie was never disposed to transgress the Hora- tian rule of suppression till the ninth year, and it is plain too, that it took its rise from the extensive prevalence of certain visionary notions about impressions and im- pulses, which Whitefield's visit to Scotland had been * Hall's works, vol. v. p. 58. Note.— P^GS-TO. f Preface p. vii. REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 2o3 the means of leading many excellent people to adopt. Gillespie was a warm admirer of Whitefield, and con- sidered him as specially designed in the providence of God to arouse the churches from the lethargy into which they had fallen ; but he totally disapproved of the practice, too much countenanced by Whitefield of making impres- sions and impulses a rule of conduct, and of regarding them as immediate revelations from heaven. In a letter to President Edwards, dated 24th Nov. 1746, he laments that so many wise and good people should allow themselves to be drawn away by the notion, that the casual turning up of particular texts, and impressions suddenly made upon the mind, and other such things were employed by God for revealing facts and future events to his people ; and he describes the hurtful consequences which he had known these ideas to be the means of producing in many cases. It is probable, therefore, that the essay was written shortly after the year 1746, though not published till 1771.* j\Ir. Gillespie handles the subject of supposed immediate revelations with great propriety ; and the calm and rational views which he advances will appear the more remarkable and the more creditable to the soundness of his judgment, when his strong constitutional tendency to melancholy is considered, and the sore internal conflicts with which he was tried, which might have predisposed him to the very notions he opposes. The plan of the essay is very simple. The arguments are first stated, by which it had been sup- posed that the continuance of immediate revelations from God to the church might be established; and then the arguments are presented, by which the author thinks the existence of any such revelations in our day may be dis- proved. The second part of the essay embraces answers in detail to the arguments advanced in favour of im- mediate revelations from heaven, and a consideration of the exceptions that might be made to the arguments directed against immediate revelations. And the conclu- * President Edwards' Works, vol. i. p. cxxv. 254 LIFE OF THE sion is finally drawn that the written word is the only rule of faith and manners to the church. As this essay is now seldom to be seen, a few ex- tracts may not be unacceptable, as a specimen of Mr. Gillespie's method of handling the subject. It must have been very serviceable to the cause of truth, at a time when fanatical and enthusiastic notions were leading many to lay more stress upon vague impressions and sug- gestions than upon the oracles of the living God. Refut- ing arguments in favour of continued revelations ; Mr. Gillespie says : " To the argument, that there have been innumerable instances of such immediate revelations as certain facts, it is answered, — No facts are of force in op- position to the express declarations of the Holy Ghost in Scripture, or the native result of such divine testimonies. Many, if not almost all, supposed predictions of future events, by holy and intelligent men, it is more than pro- bable, were only applications of scripture prophecies and examples to nations, persons, circumstances, and events, declaring how it was to be expected the Lord would act toward them, leaving a latitude to his sovereignty, who will not be limited. It is affirmed. Archbishop Usher foretold things to come : but he only told what appeared to him likely to happen to the church of Christ, and in the world, in consequence of his carefully studying the book of Revelation. What is little attended to, the Bible is a history of Providence, as weU as a rule of faith and practice : from it is to be learned how the Lord, keeping his ordinary course in providence, will deal with churches and nations of such disposition and practice, as those re- lated in the Scripture ; and by this rule, men mighty in the scriptures have told what events were to be expected in certain circumstances ; which actually took place, and were counted predictions, when such persons were far from pretending or imagining that they had received immediate divine revelations. To this efiect it is told, that Mr. Thomas Hogg, minister at Kiltearn, in Ross-shire, one of the most holy and wisest of ministers, was in prison at EEV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 2do London for nonconformity, in the reign of James II. of England ; one Dr. Gordon, who wished to have him set at liberty, said to him, ' If you will tell whether the events of the King's reign are likely to be favourable or adverse, I will get you liberated.' Mr. Hogg answered, ' Doctor, I thought you knew me better, than to suppose that I believe there are now any immediate divine revelations.' He answered, ' Whether you believe so or not, do as I desire, and you shall be brought out of prison.' " On being allowed time as required, Mr. Hogg said to the Doctor, ' Tell the King, I have been reading the books of Kings and Chronicles, to see if I could find a king like his majesty, or subjects like his majesty's subjects; and I discern, that if God keeps his ordinary course of procedure in providence, the events of his majesty's reign are not like to be favourable but adverse.' Mr. Hogg was liberated ; and every one knows King James was driven from his throne by the nation for invading their civil and religious rights, and died an exile in France." * In illustrating the dangerous consequences of the views he is opposing, Mr. Gillespie says, " There is the utmost need of all caution and accuracy, in treating this argu- ment, in writing, preaching, conversation, or practice ; for Satan leads poor souls into ruining snares by mistakes in the matter. One who never was exercised to godliness (on the contrary is evidently immoral) shall have Is. liv. 5, or some such passage, warmly impressed on his mind, at a communion season or under affliction; the person concludes, this is the Lord telling him, he is his God and husband. AH endeavours by Christians, during his life, or at death, to break the ruining snare, are inefiectual ; the poor soul goes to the grave with a lie in the right hand, saying, when told 'their spots are not the spots of the Lord's children,' — ' The Lord told me, going to such a communion, or in the time of it, he my Maker was my husband, and 1 believe him ; he is my husband, after all * Essay on Immediate Eevelations, pages 13, 14, 256 LIFE OF THE you can say.' Others exercised about the salvation of their soul, and convinced of sin in some degree, but who never got a saving discovery of Christ, and of the way of salvation through him, and thus were never led to seek from the Lord saving faith in him, so as to attain and act it, shall have such texts as Is. xliii. 25 ; Matt. ix. 2, warmly, with continuance, impressed on their mind by the devil; they conclude, this certainly is the Spirit of the Lord, testifying that they are the children of God. Thus they fall short of real conversion ; and if the Lord shall not mercifully break the dangerous snare, an unwise son or daughter not only stays long in the place of the breaking forth of children, Hos. xiii. 13, but per- ishes in it for eternity. Other well inclined or serious and pious persons, understanding that Christians who are of great character, are accustomed to get scriptures im- pressed on their minds, as discoveries of duty, or intima- tions of events to have place in their lives, shall choose their employment, relations, connections, or residences, in short, undertake nothing in life or business, but by scrip- ture impressed on their minds, and think they are under the leading of the Spirit of Christ in the whole, when de- ceived by the devil, till the Lord breaks the snare, by making them attend to Prov. xix. 27 ; John x. 5, or some such passages, or by instrumentality of persons who had been thus ensnared, or by some other means."* Mr. Gillespie's ministry at Carnock continued from 1741 till 1752, a period of eleven years, during which he laboured with unwearied diligence and with much success, taking an interest in every thing that related to the prosperity of the kingdom of Christ. His whole delight lay in the study of the Scriptures and in the discharge of his pastoral duties. The large number of sermons he composed, the interest he felt in such occurrences as the revival at Kil- syth, the minute attention he paid to the different situa- tions of men and the different dangers to which they were * Essay on Immediate Revelations, pages 20, 21. REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 267 liable, and the concern he experienced on account of the enthusiastic notions that were countenanced by one whom he admired, make it plain that to the fuU measure of his ability he was labouring to support and extend the cause of Christ, and to protect the truth of God from the admix- ture of human elements. The modesty of his nature, how- ever, prevented him from taking much part in the pubUc affairs of the church ; and it seemed as if he were destined to pursue the even tenor of his way to the last, in the se- cluded sphere where providence had placed him. No one would have fancied that he was likely to become the founder of a religious party. But events over which he had no con- trol summoned him into the arena of strife, and as he could not belie the dictates of his conscience, he was compelled to place himself in opposition to the ruling party within the church to which he belonged. The peaceful years he had spent at Carnock were now to end. A cloud is col- lecting around him, charged with elements which are soon to burst upon his head, and to drive him from the com munion of the Church of Scotland, in which he has laboured with so much zeal. We must now view him as a sufferer for conscience' sake, not less certainly an object of interest than before, but rather deserving of our warmer admira- tion. CHAPTER V. Law of patronage — Strong opposition to it — Violent settlements — Refu- sal of some Presbyteries to effect them — Assembly's detei-mination to compel their submission — i\Ir. Richardson presented to Inverkeithuig — Dunfermline Presbytery repeatedly refuses to settle him — Case brought before the Assembly — Assembly's peremptory injunction to the Presbyter}' — Continued refusal of the Presbytery — Representation given in by six members of the PresbyteiT — Second representation by GiUespie alone — Effect of it upon the court — Sentence of deposition — Demeanour of Gillespie while receiving it — Views that have been taken of this sentence. The comparative freedom of election, which had existed in the Church of Scotland from a period shortly posterior to the Revolution, was abolished by Act of Parliament in 1712, and the law of patronage was restored. This en- croachment upon the liberties of the church was keenly resented at the time by the great body both of ministers and people, and strenuous efforts were made to procure a reversal of the obnoxious statute. The General Assembly repeatedly applied to the legislature on the subject, and represented the great evils which the appointment of ministers by patronage would necessarily produce in Scot- land. The church courts even refused in most cases to pro- ceed upon the presentation of the patron if there was not also a valid call from the people, and actually sometimes set- tled ministers without any presentation at all, on the simple ground of the people's invitation. Presentees forbore to avail themselves of their legal rights, unless they were coniirmed by a proper call from the parish ; and this rendered it easy for presbyteries to set the law of patronage at defiance.* But a very few years produced a total change of feeling in the * Scots Magazine, 1751, p. 329, &c. LIFE OF THE REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 259 judicatories of the Church. The presentation of the patron gradually came to be regarded as constituting of itself a valid claim to the spiritual oversight of the parish ; and the call of the people, though still moderated, degenerated into an empty form, which could only serve as the memorial of liberties which had once been enjoyed. The call, where only one person could be called, and who, whether called by a majority or by a trifling fraction of the parish, was sure to be inducted, was like the privilege conceded to the Roman senate of choosing an emperor, when some conquering leader, the idol of the army, already had possession of the city, and surrounded the senate-house with his troops. The lion on one occasion gave free permission to the beasts of the forest assembled in public meeting, to choose any one of all their number for their king ; but when he adverted to his own claims, he very significantly showed his teeth and shook his paw, and none but himself was even pro- Still there was a large party among the oflSce-bearers of the Church who retained their hostility to the settlement of ministers on the mere ground of a presentation ; and these were the men who at the same time were most evan- gelical in their sentiments, and most laborious in the dis- charge of their duties as ministers of the gospel. The majo- rity of them would have preferred the complete abolition of patronage, and would have given the initiative in the ap- pointment of ministers to the members of the church ; but they were all persuaded that, even with patronage con- tinued as a legal right, the call of the people, freely given, was indispensable to the completion of any settlement. They held that the principle of non-intrusion, laid down in very express terms in the " Second Book of DiscipUne," — " None might be intruded upon any congregation, either by prince or any inferior person, without lawful election and the assent of the people over whom the person is placed, as the practice of the apostolical and primitive kirk and good order craved," — was a fundamental principle of the consti- tution of the Church of Scotland, and that whatever the 260 LIFE OF TUE State might enact, it was the duty of the Church, at all hazards, to hold this principle fast. They were ready to concur in the settlement of any presentee, when the people over whom he was to be placed were satisfied, or even offered no resistance ; but they considered it a sinful act to force a minister upon any congregation, who were decidedly opposed to his settlement. It violated their consciences to be accessory to such proceedings ; for they did not see what benefit a people could derive from the labours of their minister, unless there was some cordiality of feeling between them, and they considered that the instruction and improvement of the people were the great ends which all the ordinances of religion were designed to serve. Let these ends be defeated, and churches might as weU be abolished at once. In aU presbyteries there were some men who held these views, and in many the decided majority were of this mind. But the party, in Avhose view the presentation of the patron was the essential point, while the call of the people was but a form, were predominant in the General Assembly. Hence resulted the strange anomaly of enactments made by the supreme court, which it was found impracticable in many cases to carry into effect through the ordinary judicatories of the Church. The Assembly appointed settle- ments, but the presbytery on whom the completion of them devolved w^ere unable with a good conscience to proceed : because the parish, whose spiritual interests were involv- ed, refused their concurrence. For many years the prac- tice was adopted of appointing in such cases commit- tees of the Assembly to act along with the presbytery, which, outnumbering the ordinary members of the pres- bytery, or the members opposed to violent settlements, carried out the will of the Assembly ; and disregarding all opposition from the people, yea trampling their rights in the dust, consigned them to the spiritual superintendence of men who were the objects of their fixed dislike. Many a settlement was thus effected, which gave a sore wound to the interests of religion, by alienating the minds of the KEY. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 261 people from religious ordinances, and by introducing men into the ministry who cared but little for the flock of God. And every settlement of this kind increased the power of the dominant party in the Church, and broke down the party who were the friends of evangelical religion and of the liberties of the Christian people. An intruded minister was not likely to join the ranks of those who had opposed his settlement. At length the fatal seeds, which for many years the friends of arbitrary measures had been sowing, began to produce their appropriate and bitter fruits. The Assembly felt itself strong enough to dispense with the clumsy expe- dient through which it had hitherto controlled the refrac- tory presbyteries, and a concurrence of circumstances, which it would be foreign to our present purpose to detail, led to the requirement that every presbytery should do its own work, in executing the decisions of the supreme court. At the meeting in 1750, it was agreed that the Commission of the Assembly should be empowered to call disobedient presbyteries before them, and to censure them as they should see cause. It was scarcely possible that this change of policy should fail to produce some great collision, for while the Assembly was determined to give effect to every presentation against which no legal objection could be made, there were stiU some presbyteries which, notwithstanding the Court of Session's decision that where a presentation was set aside on other than legal grounds, and the man of the people's choice inducted, the stipend should be disposed of as if the parish were still vacant, refused, on the plea of conscience, to take part in forcing a minister upon a reclaim- ing people. They would rather sacrifice the temporalities than the liberties of the church. One of the first cases which sprang up under the new scheme of policy, was that which led to Mr. Gillespie's de- position. Mr. Andrew Richardson, already an ordained minister of the Church of Scotland, received a presentation in 1749 to the parish of Inverkeithing, within the bounds of the Dunfermline presbytery ; but when the call was 262 LIFE OF THE moderated, only a few of the parishioners give it their sup- port, and those mostly non-resident heritors. The great body of the people, and all the elders with the exception of one, were decidedly opposed to the reception of Mr. Richardson as their minister. In these circumstances, the presbytery, after sending a deputation to investigate the state of matters on the spot, and finding that nothing could abate the strong opposition of the parish to the pre- sentee, felt themselves unable, with a good conscience, to proceed in the business, and refused to induct Mr. Richard- son. When the case came by appeal before the Commis- sion of the Assembly, the presbytery of Dunfermline were enjoined to proceed immediately with the settlement of I\Ir. Richardson ; but as they did not find, on making a fur- ther attempt to remove the opposition of the parish, that they were able to effect any change in their views, they per- severed in their refusal, pleading that it was contrary to their consciences to take an active part in forcing a minister upon an unwilling people. Again the case was carried before the Commission, who renewed their former injunction to the presbytery, at the same time giving them to under- stand that a second refusal would bring down upon them a very severe censure : but as threatening cannot alter the consciences of honest men, nor make that right which was wrong before, the presbytery were unable to take any other view of the subject than they had formerly done, and the injunction of the Commission was not obeyed. Matters were now assuming a serious aspect, and when the case came before the Commission for the third time in March 1752, the presbytery pled their cause with so much power, and so forcibly represented the hardship of the position in which they were placed in being required to do what they believed to be sinful, that the Commission, with the view both of relieving them and of avoiding a collision, departed from the injunction which they had given, and appointed the Synod of Fife as a committee to complete the settle- ment of Mr. Richardson. And here the case might have ended, as many a similar one had done before, and the sole REV. THuMAS GILLESPIE. 263 effect of it have been to add a new link to the chain of spiritual despotism, which the rulers of the church were binding around her. But the friends of absolute power were not to be satis- fied with the mere settlement of Mr. Richardson : he must be settled by the very men who had repeatedly declared that it was contrary to their consciences, to intrude a minister upon a people who were opposed to his admission. And therefore the sentence of the Commission, releasing the presbytery of Dunfermline from the obnoxious duty and confiding it to the Synod of Fife, was protested against, and an appeal was made to the next meeting of the Gen- eral Assembly itself. The brief interval between the meeting of the Commis- sion and the meeting of the Assembly was strenuously em- ployed by both parties in preparing for the great contest, which was to decide whether presbyteries were to be forced to carry out the decisions of the supreme court, however much their own consciences might feel aggrieved by them, or whether the old method of appointing special commit- tees in such cases should still be employed. The friends of absolute submission who were to appear as protesters against the lenient judgment of the Commission, were re- solved to strain every nerve for subduing the refractory spirit of the inferior courts ; and for this purpose they pre- pared their reasons of dissent with uncommon care, circu- lated them most widely before the Assembly met at all, and took measures to have a decided majority of their own friends returned as representatives. When the General Assembly met, the Royal Commissioner, who was certainly much more than what he has been styled in recent times, an onlooker of the proceedings, very plainly intimated the line of procedure which it was expected they should fol- low ; and represented to them that " it was now more than high time to think of putting a stop to the growing evil of disobedience to the decisions of the superior court." And mention was even made by some of enlightening the con- sciences of certain ministers, through their stipends and 264 LIFE OF THE through their wives and children, which could only mean one or other of the two following things, either that it was expected the fear of want would make them belie their convictions, or that it was supposed their plea of conscien- tious scruples was mere hypocrisy. The first shape in which the case of the Dunfermline Presbytery appeared before the Assembly, was the protest against the decision of the Commission exonerating them from the duty of settling Mr. Richardson, The protesters triumphed, and the judgment of the Commission was set aside. It was decided that the Commission should have j)ersisted in requiring the presbytery, without any regard to their scruples of conscience, to proceed with the settlement at Inverkeithing. Much ability was displayed on both sides of the question. For a full view of the arguments that were employed by both parties, the reader is referred to Dr. Struthers' admirable History of the Relief Church, where both in the text and in the appendix much valuable information is given on the subject, and the opposing views are weighed in the balance of a sound judgment. The necessary brevity of this narrative, and its exclusive concern with Mr. Gillespie, do not admit that more refer- ence should be made to the details of the question, than is necessary to place his conduct in a clear light. Only it may be remarked, that taking the question as it then stood, there are weighty considerations on both sides, which must have occasioned mutual perplexity to thoughtful minds. Undoubtedly there was much force in the argument of the protesters, that in a presby terian church the decisions of the supreme court must be held as final, and that inferior judi- catories should consider themselves bound in conscience to give them efiect, it being always in the option of any indi- vidual who cannot conscientiously do so, to retire from the body. And the claim which was made by some of the popular party, that every minister should be left to judge for himself, how far in consistency with the Word of God he could yield obedience to his ecclesiastical superiors, was one which, if fuUy allowed, w^ould go far to disorganise any REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 265 society. There must always be a limit beyond which a church cannot tolerate difference of opinion among its members, otherwise it could have no fixed principles. On the other hand, the plea of the Presbytery of Dunfermline that, considering it sinful as they did, and ruinous to the interests of religion to obtrude a minister upon a reclaim- ing congregation, they could not in conscience take part in a violent settlement was most undoubtedly a valid plea ; and it was impossible for them as honest men to act other- wise than they did : the sneers which their plea of con- science excited in some quarters were most unworthy of Christian ministers, and most insulting to that book which says we must obey God rather than man. The dominant party should have considered that, while undoubtedly their abstract principle was a sound one, that the supreme court of a Presbyterian Church was entitled to the obedience of the inferior courts, it was at the same time incumbent upon the supreme court to beware, that they did not ele- vate any merely human institutions to a level with the Word of God, and teach for doctrines the commandments of men. Now as they could not pretend that patronage was an institution of Christ, or had any other foundation than an Act of Parliament, they ought to have seen, if they were not themselves prepared as they should have been to attempt its extirpation, that at least it was one of those things in reference to which there was room for the exer- cise of great forbearance in dealing with brethren who could not concur in the unbending enforcement of it. The su- preme court of a Presbyterian Church has a right certainly to claim the obedience of the inferior courts, but there is the corresponding duty of enforcing nothing that is doubt- ful, and of leaving room for a judgment of discretion in matters of smaller moment. The supreme court ought to beware what it claims; for it may err as egregiously in claiming too much, as any inferior court can err in yielding too little. It may adopt such unconstitutional procedure as to render resistance on tlie part both of presbyteries and of individuals a bounden duty. Zbb LIFE OF THE The fact indeed seems to be, that the difference between the two parties in the Church of Scotland was too great at that time to permit them to live together consistently as one body. On the one hand subserviency to the state, a system of patronage which treated the communicants of the church as if they were children, the enforcement of that system with an insulting disregard of the judgment and feelings of those who were most concerned, together with an alarming indifference to the interests of vital godliness, and the substitution of a cold morality in the room of the life-giving doctrines of the gospel; on the other hand, a conviction that patronage, even when mildly administered, was in its own nature a great evil, that the stern enforce- ment of it was ruinous to the cause of religion, that the fa- vour of the state was a small matter compared with the spiritual well-being of the community, coupled with an ad- herence to the grand principles of evangelical religion, and great fidelity in the discharge of ministerial duties : these were elements which could not coalesce, the natural ten- dency of things was to a separation, and the wonder is, not that some left the Established Church, but that so many of the popular party were able with a good conscience to re- main in it. In judging of the difference between the Dun- fermline presbytery and the General Assembly, we must not simply look to the fact, as the advocates of the Assem- bly did, that the one was the supreme court and the other the subordinate; but we must consider whether the re- quirement of the Assembly was consistent with the law of Christ, whether it was consistent even with standards which the Church of Scotland still professed to venerate. Was it right in an Assembly which but a few years before, viz. in 1736, had spontaneously declared patronage to be a grievance prejudicial to the security of the church, to threaten men with censure for still holding and acting upon the same opinion, not for being opposed to the mild administration of patronage, but for refusing to be the instruments of enforcing it to the spiritual ruin as they believed of a particular parish ? Few we believe in the pre- RET. THOMAS GILLESPIE, 267 sent day will scruple to describe the conduct of the Assem- bly of 1752 as thL,t of a tyrannical majority. Their depen- dence upon the secular power, and their desire of strength- ening their relations in that direction, were producing the results to which the connexion of a church with the state seems to have a natural tendency to lead. The sentence of the Commission, releasing the presbytery from a duty which bore so hard upon their consciences, being now overturned by the Assembly, the presbytery itself became the party with whom the supreme court had to deal directly. And the ordinary course of procedure would have been simply to ordain that the presbytery, without any unnecessary delay, should proceed to com- plete the settlement at Inverkeithing ; the consequences being now plain which would follow any farther refusal. But the dominant party, flushed with the victory they had gained, w^ere resolved to make short work of the whole business ; and therefore they themselves fixed a day for the induction, — Thursday of the same week, — and ap- pointed the presbytery to meet at Inverkeithing and ad- mit Mr. Richardson. They carried, by a large majority, " that the Assembly now appoint the presbytery of Dun- fermline to meet at Inverkeithing on Thursday next and admit Mr. Richardson ; that all the members be ordained to attend ; that there be at least five ministers as a quo- rum to execute this appointment, and that each minister of that presbytery be required to appear at the bar of the Assembly the day thereafter and give an account of his conduct."* This appointment, from which however a great many members dissented, showed that the Assem- bly, while they were determined to have Mr. Richardson settled at Inverkeithing, were even more bent upon finding some victims in the Presbytery, on whom the weight of their displeasure might fall, that they might fur- nish the example of punishment which the Royal Commis- sioner had spoken of in his address. The enactment was * A Letter from a Gentleman, May 22, 1752, page 3. 268 LIFE OF THE a net skilfully contrived to catch, in its multiplied meshes, all who had scruples of conscience on the subject of intru- sion. It was known that three ministers, the number sufficient to constitute a quorum, were willing to induct Mr. Richardson, and therefore the simple command of the Assembly that the work should be, not deliberated upon, but done on a specified day, was sufficient to have ensured its completion. The unusual requirement therefore that every minister should be present at the induction, and that every minister should appear at the bar of the Assembly on Fri- day, to answer for his part in the proceedings, showed that nothing less than the complete subjugation of the Presbytery, and the violation of all their scruples, would satisfy the court. And the arbitrary extension of the usual number of a quorum from three to five was pecu- liarly disgraceful, because it rendered it impossible for the settlement to take place at all, unless at least two indivi- duals did what they had repeatedly declared they believed to be sinful. Who would have expected such an appoint- ment from a court, professing to honour that word which declares, that to him that esteemeth anything to be un- clean, to him it is unclean ? When Friday came, it was found that the induction at Inverkeithing had not taken place, only three members of Presbytery having attended, who were of course prevented from proceeding by the Assembly's change of the number of a quorum. Some members of Presbytery ofiered one excuse at the bar of the Assembly, and some another, but six of the brethren, — among whom was Mr. Gillespie, — gave in a written document explanatory of the difficulties in which they were placed, and of the reasons upon which they were acting. The paper, while it shows all due respect to the Assembly, firmly and fearlessly defends their principles. The following is a copy of it : — " Unto the very Reverend, the Moderator, and the Re- verend and Honourable Members of the Venerable Assem- bly of the Church of Scotland, met at Edinburgh, May 1752: The Humble Representation of the Members of the REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE, 269 Presbytery of Dunfermline, whose names are hereunto subjoined. " We cannot but be deeply affected with our present situation, in being obhged to stand at the bar of this venerable Assembly, to answer for non-compliance with any of their appointments. " But, as this venerable court is so good as to allow us to speak in our own behalf, we shall therefore beg leave humbly to represent some of those things which have all along straitened us in the execution of the orders we re- ceived, and which still lay such difficulties in our way, as we are not able to surmount, — and this we hope to do with that plainness and honesty, and at the same time with that decent and dutiful respect to the supreme judicatory of this church, which it is so justly entitled to expect from us. •'We need scarce observe how unjustly we have been represented, as having no other difficulty but the unrea- sonable fear of opposing the ill-grounded prejudices of our people. " Nor need we inform this house that ever since the act restoring patronages, in the end of Queen Anne's reign, there has been a vehement opposition to all settle- ments by presentations where there was but a small con- currence,* which settlements have already produced a train of the most unhappy consequences greatly affecting the interest of religion ; and, if turned into the stated and fixed rule of procedure, will in all probability be attended with every fatal effect. Now, under such a view and ap- prehension as this, was it any wonder, or was it incon- sistent with that obedience which we owe to our earthly superiors in the Lord, that we should demur and stop short in carrying a settlement into execution, where, in our apprehension, there was by no means such a concur- rence of persons residing in the parish as might give suffi- cient weight and influence for promoting the great ends of the ministry ? * i. e. yerj few in the parish who could be brought to attend on tlie ministry of the presentee or to be wiUing to have him for their pastor. 270 LIFE OF THE " The Assembly know well, that it appears from their own acts and resolutions, entered into their records, that the law- of patronage has been considered as no small grievance to this church, not to say as inconsistent with our union settlement. " And we find it declared. Act 25th of May 1736, ' That it is, and has been since the Reformation, the principle of this church, that no minister shall be intruded into any parish contrary to the will of the congregation ; and there- fore it is seriously recommended by the said act to all ju- dicatories of this church to have a due regard to the said principle in planting vacant congregations, — so as none be intruded into such parishes, as they regard the glory of God and the edification of the body of Christ : ' which re- commendation we humbly apprehend to be strongly sup- ported by the principles of reason and the laws of our Lord Jesus Christ. " And we must be permitted to say, that, after repeated endeavours used by the committees of the Presbytery, to lessen the opposition to jMr. Richardson in the parish of Inverkeithing, matters still remain in such a situation, that we are brought to this unhappy dilemma, either of coming under the imputation of disobedience to a parti- cular order of our ecclesiastical superiors ; or contributing our part to the establishment of measures, which we can neither reconcile with the declared principles nor with the true interest of this church. " On the whole, we cannot help thinking that, by hav- ing an active hand in carrying Mr. Richardson's settle- ment into execution, we should, as matters now stand, have been the unhappy instruments, to speak in the lan- guage of holy writ, of scattering the flock of Christ, not to mention what may be the fatal consequences of such set- tlements to our happy civil constitution. " If the venerable Assembly shall, on this account, judge us guilty of such criminal disobedience as to deserve their censures ; we trust they will at least allow that we have REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 271 acted as honest men, willing to forego every secular advan- tage for conscience' sake. " In such an event, this, through grace, shall be our support, that not being charged with any neglect of the duties of our ministry among those committed to our care ; we are to suffer for adhering to what we apprehend to be the will of our great Lord and Master, whose we are, whom we are bound to serve in all things, and on whom we cast all our care. " Signed by " Robert Stark, " David Hunter, "Thomas Gillespie, " Alex. Darling, " Thos. Fernie, and " John Spence. " Dated Edinburgh, 22d May, 1752." The representation of their case made in this paper by the six Brethren exhibits no symptom of a disposition to yield. They avow their conviction that patronage is a great evil, and that the intrusion of ministers into par- ishes is ruinous to the interests of religion ; and they for- tify their views by quoting from the recorded acts of the Assembly itself a recommendation, in the very spirit of which they had acted. They contemplate the likelihood of their being called upon to suffer for conscience' sake ; and while they make no merit of their constancy, they yet de- clare that if the event should prove adverse to them, it will be their support through grace, that not being charged with any neglect of the duties of their ministry among those committed to their care, they suffer for adhering to what they apprehend to be the will of their Lord and Master. Such a paper should have made the Assembly pause, be- fore censuring men for refusing to do what they declared they believed to be sinful, for following in fact a recom- mendation, which the Assembly itself had strongly en- forced upon presbyteries. But times were sadly changed. 272 LIFE OF THE The document of the six brethren was regarded as an aggravation of their offence. And accordingly, after much discussion and the proposal of various measures, the older ministers pleading for moderation and the younger urging violent measures, it was at length agreed by a decided majority (93 to 65) that one of the six should be deposed from the office of the ministry : which was a most unrea- sonable decision, for if the fault laid to their charge really unfitted them for being ministers of the gospel, then the whole six should have been cast out from the sacred office. They all stood in precisely the same position, and not one of them had as yet taken a single step beyond the rest. In these circumstances to determine on the deposition of one, it might be any one of them, was a proof that expediency and not righteousness was the prin- ciple that regulated the whole proceedings. It was a mockery of discipline to decide on subjecting to depo- sition some one, of six who were aU equally chargeable with the alleged offence. If any one of them had stood forth prominently as the ringleader, then there might have been something like consistency at least, in decid- ing that he should bear a heavier punishment than the rest ; but in the absence of all difference between the par- ties, to decide that some one of them should be deposed, was a most anomalous procedure. It was not agreed at the time who should be the indi- vidual subjected to deposition. It might be any one of the six. The selection Was left to be made on the follow- ing day. Though there was but little of justice or morality in this proceeding, there was great skill ; for the tendency of it, and probably the anticipated effect, was to make the six brethren vie with one another in stretching their con- sciences as far as possible. The victim would probably be the man who adhered most firmly to what they had all declared they regarded as a matter of conscience. When the Assembly met next day, the six brethren were called in one by one, obviously with the view of overawing them, and they were asked whether they adhered to their REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 273 former representation, or whether they had any explana- tion of it to give. Five of them simply adhered, with more or less firmness, to what they had already stated ; but Mr. Gillespie presented an additional paper, not modi- fying the original document, but strengthening its positions by a further appeal to the records of the Assembly itself. The approach of danger, instead of inspiring him with fear, augmented his firmness. Retiring and modest in ordinary circumstances, he was bold and fearless when principle was at stake. The following is the paper which Mr. Gillespie read : — " Unto the Very Reverend, the Moderator, and the Rev- erend and Honourable Members of the Venerable Assembly of the Church of Scotland, met at Edinburgh, May 1752: The Humble Representation of Thomas Gillespie, Minister of the Gospel at Carnock : " That whereas, in the Representation given in to the General Assembly yesterday, it was set forth amongst other things, ' That it appears from their own Acts and Resolu- tions entered into their Records, •' That the law of patron- age has been considered as no small grievance to this Church, not to say inconsistent with our Union settle- ment :' And whereas this paragraph expressed, as it is apprehended, in the softest terms, was considered by some members as an aggravation of our non-compliance with their order: I humbly beg leave to lay before this house a paragraph or two taken from a paper entitled, The Grounds of the Claim of the Church of Scotland for the Redress of the Grievance of Patronage entered into the Records of the Assembly on the 22d of May, 1736. There, after re- presenting the laws respecting our Church, the Assembly will find these remarkable words, ' That notwithstanding the security of this our happy Establishment, in all its parts, was as great and solemn as it was possible for hu- man laws and constitutions to devise or execute ; yet in prejudice of that security, as we apprehend, the Act in the tenth year of Queen Anne was passed, restoring to patrons the power of presenting,' &c. 274 LIFE OF THE " And the said paper concludes with these words, ' That this grievance was brought upon us contrary to the Estab- lishment of this Church made at the glorious Revolution, and solemnly confirmed and secured, as an essential con- dition of the Union of the two kingdoms.' It is now sub- mitted, if we have ofiended by saying as above, That the law of patronage has been considered as no small grievance to the Church, not to say inconsistent with our Union set- tlement.' And I humbly crave that the whole of the fore- said grounds of claim may be read, and that this my re- presentation may be entered into the Records of the Court, or kept, in retentis, with other papers. (Signed) " Thomas Gillespie." So far from aiding his cause, this representation of Mr. Gillespie, though it certainly contained an argumentum ad hominem, which ought to have silenced his enemies, was regarded as a new ofience. The statement of the first paper, " That it appears from their own acts and resolu- tions entered into their records, that the law of patronage has been considered as no small grievance to this Church, not to say as inconsistent with our Union settlement," had been commented upon as an aggravation of the fault of the six brethren. Mr. Gillespie, though he must have keenly felt the unreasonableness of such comments, yet satisfies himself with simply quoting from the " Grounds of Claim of the Church of Scotland, (fee," two sentences, " that notwithstanding the security of this our happy Establishment, in all its parts, was as great and solemn as it was possible for human laws and constitutions to devise or execute ; yet, in prejudice of that security, as we appre- hend, the act in the tenth year of Queen Anne was passed, restoring to patrons the power of presenting," &c. ; and " that this grievance was brought upon us contrary to the establishment of this Church made at the glorious Revolu- tion, and solemnly confirmed and secured as an essential condition of the union of the two kingdoms." And then he submits whether, when the Assembly itself had placed REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 275 such sentiments upon its own records, it could with any propriety be regarded as an offence for him and his breth- ren to say " that the law of patronage has been considered as no small grievance to the Church, not to say inconsistent with our Union settlement." Nay, the General Assembly had expressed themselves far more strongly ; for, as the author of a Letter to his Friend in the Country already referred to, remarks, there is another clause which Mr. Gillespie might have quoted from the same document, viz., " that it is well known, and has always been declared, that the foresaid act of Queen Anne, restoring patronages, was imposed upon this Church by means of persons of our own country who were enemies to the Protestant succes- sion, as they soon afterwards discovered in the strongest manner ; and enemies to this Church by reason of her in- violable adherence to that succession; and was by them intended to afflict and oppress this Church, and create discontents among the people therein, and to open a door for patrons arbitrarily to impose upon the people as min- isters, persons proper for instilling into their minds prin- ciples of disloyalty and disaflfection to our present happy constitution." * It could only, therefore, be the felt and undeniable truth of what Mr. Gillespie affirmed, which rendered his second paper more offensive still than the first. His request that the whole of the document from which he had quoted might be read from the records was not acceded to, for it would have exhibited a triumphant vindication of his conduct ; and his own representation was so far from receiving any favourable consideration, that the very fact of offering it was regarded as a high presumption. The Assembly were not in a mood to brook any farther delay. Discussion was a waste of time. The victim for a sacrifice now stood plainly singled out. The chase was at an end, the object of pursuit was hunted down, and all was eagerness for the final consummation. After prayer to God for direction, which, considering the * Letter, p. 9. 276 LIFE OF THE circumstances, one cannot help contemplating with rather painful emotions, the question was put which of the six brethren should be deposed, and it was carried by 52 to 4 that Mr. Gillespie should be the man, while 102 gave no vote at all. The state of the vote on this occasion presents a very melancholy picture of the position of the General Assembly. The whole number that actually voted was 56, while 102 refrained from voting altogether. We must suppose, there- fore, that about two-thirds of the whole members of court disapproved of the proceedings, or at least could not bring themselves to see that deposition was a deserved punish- ment, in the case before them. Why, then, did they allow a minority of the Assembly to perpetrate, in the Assembly's name, what the majority felt to be an unjustifiable sever- ity? Must Ave suppose that the influence behind the Moderator's chair controlled the conscientious convictions of a majority of the court ? If no royal commissioner had been there, or if no sound had gone forth from his seat, would the result have been the same ? These are ques- tions which have an intimate bearing upon the subject of the independence of Established churches, not theoretically but practically considered. It is worthy of notice, that, of the 56 who voted, almost the whble, viz. 52, voted against Mr. Gillespie. Why was there so much unanimity here 1 Some have suggested one reason and some another, but Dr. Struthers has undoubt- edly pointed out the true reason, when he exhibits the fact that the minutes of the Assembly describe the depo- sition of Mr. Gillespie as " a censure adequate to repeated acts of disobedience, adhered to tenaciously when at the bar.""^ With these words of the Assembly itself before us, we need search for no other reason, than the one which they suggest. It was Mr, Gillespie's second representa- tion, in presenting which he stood alone, and the tri- umphant appeal which he made to the recorded proceed- * Stinithers' History of the Relief Church, p. 95. REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 277 ings of the very court that was trying him, which turned against him the whole force of the Assembly's indigna- tion, and made them single him out as the individual, on whom the first and heaviest blow should fall. Immediately after the vote the Presbytery were called in, and the sentence of deposition, in reference to Mr. Gil- lespie, was pronounced from the Moderator's chair in the following words : " The General Assembly did, and hereby do, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the sole King and Head of the Church, and by virtue of the power and authority committed by him to them, depose you, Mr. Thomas Gillespie, minister at Carnock, from the office of the holy ministry, prohibiting and discharging you to ex- ercise the same, or any part thereof, within this church in all time coming : and the Assembly did, and hereby do, declare the church and parish of Carnock vacant, from and after the day and date of this sentence." While the Mode- rator was pronouncing this sentence, Mr. Gillespie, we are informed, stood the picture of dignified innocence and meekness. His calm and temperate bearing drew tears from the eyes of many who were present. He listened at- tentively and respectfully, and the reply which he made before retiring deserves to be written in letters of gold : " Moderator, I desire to receive this sentence of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland pronounced against me, with real concern, and awful impressions of the divine conduct in it ; but I rejoice that to me it is given, in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake." These words, together with the meek- ness and at the same time the dignity with which they were uttered, produced a powerful impression upon the court ; and it is declared by one, who seems to have been, an eye-witness, and who wrote a record of the transactions the following week, that his warmest opposers were greatly moved, and seemed to feel some relentings for what they had done. Dr. Erskine, too, says that the Christian meek- ness, and the dignity of conscious innocence, with which he received his sentence, were such as excited a high esteem 278 LIFE OF THE for him in not a few who had concurred in voting his de- position * When a blow of unmerited severity is struck, it often wounds the perpetrator as sorely as the individual who receives it. Passion subsides when its victim is pros- trate, and conscience and kindlier feelings make their voice again to be heard. The conduct of Mr. Gillespie during the whole of this trying scene was worthy of the highest admiration. He stood alone when the storm reached its height, and as nothing but a sinful submission could save him from its fury, he braved it to the last. He had the consciousness that he was acting conformably to the dictates of his own conscience, and to what he beUeved to be the principles of Scripture, and the principles even of that Church which was casting him forth as unworthy of her communion ; and the Master whom he served, the same Jesus who sup- ported the soul of the first martyr under his sufferings with a vision of heavenly glory, stood by him in the hour of trial, and his inward ear was blessed with the consola- tory words, " what I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." It was no immorality for which he was suflTering, — it was no departure from the doctrinal principles of the Church of Scotland that was laid to his charge, — it was no remissness in the discharge of his duties as a minister of the gospel in his own parish of which he was accused : it was simply the refusal to do an act which he believed to be sinful, and which the very re- cords of the Assembly itself reprobated in terms of con- demnation quite as strong as those which he himself had employed. How could he feel, therefore, otherwise than fully satisfied with the part he was acting? The storm of persecution may rage around him, but he enjoys peace in his own bosom, and a soothing sense of the divine presence. Obloquy and reproach may be heaped upon his head, but he can say that he rejoices to be counted worthy to suffer for the sake of Christ. * Preface to Treatise on Temptation, p. v. REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 279 The unprecedented rapidity with which this case — a case of deposition, one of the most solemn subjects a church court has to deal with, and involving consequences of the gravest character — was hurried on to its very last stage, is deserv- ing of the severest condemnation. In the space of twenty- four hours, without a libel, without any formal process, Mr. Gillespie was arraigned, condemned, and deposed. The fault, such as it was, was committed on Thursday, the trial l>egan on Friday, and Saturday witnessed the supposed of- fender thrown out as a vile thing from the communion of the Church of Scotland. It will be difficult to find a parallel to this in the proceedings of any church court in any age or country. Though the oflfence had been one of the most flagrant immorality or of the blackest heresy, still the common forms of justice would have required that the proceedings should be conducted in a more deliberate manner ; how much more, then, was this necessary when the fault — if for the sake of argument we must call it so — sprang from the declared fear of doing a sinful action? Mr. Gillespie's support under the sudden blow which came down upon him, was found in the consciousness of innocence, and in the precious promises of his divine Master ; and as Paul, in the hour of distress, felt a satis- faction in thinking that he was suflfering like Christ,* so it might furnish some consolation to Mr. GiUespie to re- flect that, if the revolution of a day had witnessed his case begun and carried to its final issue, the same thing had happened to the blessed Saviour in whom he trusted. The speed of the Assembly could plead as a precedent the speed of the Sanhedrim. The conduct of Mr. Gillespie on the occasion of his de- position, has been defended by some of the most eminent ministers even of the Church of Scotland. Dr. Erskine describes his sentence as " a hard and unconstitutional one, passed upon him for refusing to bear part in a settlement, which he thought he could not be active in * Colos. i. 21. 280 LIFE OF THE without violating his ordination- vows ;" and this tried and faithful friend regards his conduct in the case as displaying both his integrity, and his forbearing and forgiving spirit. * And Sir Henry Moncrieff, in his Life of Dr. Erskine, expresses very similar sentiments. "Mr. Gillespie in particular, on whom the severest cen- sure fell, was charged with nothing but his absence from Inverkeithing on the day appointed for the induction of the presentee; for, excepting his attendance, he had no official duty imposed on him, which could have been affected by his absence. It has always been admitted by those who had best access to know him, that nothing but what he considered as a sense of duty had prevented him from obeying the appointment of the Assembly. He was indeed one of the most inoffensive and upright men of his time. He was equally zealous and faithful in his pas- toral duties, and his private life was irreproachable. His talents were certainly underrated by those who marked liim out among his brethren as the most eligible victim of a disobedience in which so many were associated. But he liad done nothing to distinguish him from the rest. He had never entered deeply into ecclesiastical business, and was at no time a political intriguer. And when all these circumstances are considered, there was at least great rea- son to have hesitated in pronouncing on him a sentence of deposition." And in reference to the " striking and im- pressive reply which Mr. Gillespie made to the Modera- tor," Sir Henry adds, " Whether he was well or ill informed, no man suspected that this scriptural expression of his feel- ings did not come from the sincerity and the fulness of his heart." + It would be easy to multiply quotations from the writ- ings of Churchmen, presenting similar views of the treat- ment which Mr. Gillespie received from the Church of . * Dr. ErskiQe's preface to Essay on Continuance of Immediate Reve-, lations, p. \i. f Accomit of the Life and Writins^s of John Erskine, D.D., by Six- Henry Moncrieff Welhvood, Bart., D.D., p. 460. REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 281 Scotland, but it is altogether unnecessary. It is not likely there are many now, whether they be Churchmen or Dis- senters, who will maintain the justice of the punishment which was inflicted upon him, or say that with the views he entertained he could have acted otherwise than he did. One would hardly think it credible, but for the historical evidence of the fact, that an individual of blameless repu- tation, and of distinguished ministerial fidelity, should ever have been expelled from a Christian church, for being re- strained by scruples of conscience from actively concurring in particular measures, for which it was not even pretended any scriptural authority could be pled, and against which the expelling church herself had but shortly before made a solemn protest that stood unrepealed upon her records. Such an occurrence demonstrates that there were princi- ples at work which made it absolutely necessary, for the sake of the true interests of religion, that extensive sepa- rations should take place. CHAPTER yi. Gillespie preaches during the summer under the open sky — Attended by vast multitudes — Removes to a church in Dunfermline at the approach of winter — Enjoys the sympathy of his own people — Receives the countenance of Christian friends at a distance — Letter from President Edwards — Effort made in the succeeding Assembly to repone Gilles- pie — Complete failure of it — Formal constitution of the Church at Dunfermline — Principles of it — Labours of Gillespie as a Dissentuig ^Minister — Isolated position — Interchange of senices -with Boston of Jedburgh — Formation of the first Rehef Presbytery. On the very day when Mr. Gillespie ceased to be a min- ister of the Church of Scotland he returned to Carnock, and on the following day, which was Sabbath, an immense multitude assembled from aU the surrounding country to hear the truth from his Ups. He felt that, deposed as he had been for no immorality — for no violation of the law of Christ, but simply for refusing to violate his con- science — he could not refrain from preaching that gos- pel to which he had solemnly devoted himself; and the first text which he chose exhibits the principles by which he was actuated in continuing to discharge the du- ties of a minister — " For necessity is laid upon me ; yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel." He made no attempt, however, to evade the sentence which had been pronounced upon him. He would not allow the bell to be rung on the Sabbath morning. He would not enter the pulpit of the church, from which he had been excluded by the court which possessed the legal right to dispose of it. But he preached under the broad canopy of heaven, where no human power had a right to inter- fere with him. And it is mentioned by the gentleman whose letter has been repeatedly referred to, that his discourse turned upon the great and important truths of the gospel. He made no assault upon his enemies ; he LIFE OF THE REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 283 dwelt not upon his own wrongs, but stated that, although he had been depo^d from being a minister of the Estab- lished Church for not doing what he believed to be sinful, " yet he hoped, through grace, no public dispute should be his theme, but Jesus Christ and him crucified." He ex- pressed thip desire that he might be enabled always to re- member, that the wrath of man worketh not the righteous- ness of God ; and accordingly he uttered not one reflecting word upon the treatment he had received, but, suppressing the feelings that must have existed within him, he strove to enforce the truths of the gospel upon the hearts and consciences of his hearers. This was a singular triumph of meekness and moderation. Few in the circumstances could have altogether abstained from giving utterance to their feelings in reference to the Assembly's decision, nor could Mr. Gillespie have been greatly blamed, though he had denounced their injustice in very strong terms. But he preferred to be silent on his own personal wrongs. The sacrifice he had made for conscience' sake sufficiently attested his views of the great principles that were now at stake in the Church of Scotland ; and being no longer connected with her, he felt that, having already given his testimony most emphatically against her grow- ing degeneracy, his great business was to preach the truth as it is in Christ, and to labour for the conversion of sinners. And it was the prayer at the time of one who took a deep interest in his case, '• that his great Lord and ]VIaster might continue to animate him with the same spirit of wisdom and meekness, that he might fulfil the ministry which he had received of the Lord Jesus, having a conscience void of offence towards God and towards man."* Mr. Gillespie's first sermon after his deposition was preached in the church-yard of Carnock, beside the church which had so often echoed to his voice ; but he was soon obliged to leave this spot and betake himself to another, from which however he was also speedily driven, and lat- * Letter from a Gentleman, p. 11. 284 LIFE OF THE terly he was compelled to take up his position on the public highway, where, during the whole summer and autumn, lie proclaimed the unsearchable riches of Christ to immense multitudes of people. The novelty of the circumstances, the earnest sincerity of the man, the suffering he was enduring for conscience' sake, and the general conviction that was felt of the righteousness of his cause, gave a new power to his preaching, and many hearts were impressed with the truth that never before had felt its divine influence. God abun- dantly blessed his labours ; the very face of nature seemed to smile upon him ; and it was remarked that there was scarcely an inclement Sabbath day during the whole of that season. There was no roof above his head, but the vault of heaven. What mattered it 1 The church could not have held the thronging crowds that gathered round the preacher, and the melody of their praise was not the less sweet, that it rose unobstructed to the skies, and echoed all around. It is not improbable that that summer's preaching was the most successful and the most signally blessed, of any similar amount of labour in Mr. Gillespie's career either before or after ; and I doubt not that the man with the strait-laced conscience, scornfully so de- scribed, enjoyed a peace in his own bosom preaching be- side a hedge, which looser consciences did not feel under the vaulted roof of the gorgeous cathedral. Besides the parishioners of Carnock, a considerable body of people from the neighbouring town of Dunfermhne now regularly attended the ministrations of Mr. Gillespie ; and various reasons made it most suitable for all parties that, when the season changed and the covering of a roof be- came necessary, Dunfermline should be the place where their meetings should be held. Accordingly, a house was purchased there, and fitted up as a church, and the con- gregation began to assemble in it for worship in the month of September. The great body of Mr. Gillespie's former congregation followed him to Dunfermline ; all the elders of the parish adhered to him, with the exception of one ; and these old friends, together with the numbers that REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 285 joined him in Dunfermline and from the neighbourhood, formed a numerous and most respectable congregation. And there existed among them the warmest attachment to their minister. They felt that he was a man whose heart was in his work ; he had given most unequivocal proofs of stern integrity and of conscientious regard to the Christian rights of congregations ; and his ministrations were faithfully directed to the great end of making them wise unto salvation. Whatever reproaches, therefore, might be heaped upon him in some quarters, he was honoured among his own people, and their generous sympathy with him in his trials was a great support and comfort to his heart. Under his own roof, too, he found a hearty appro- bation of the course he was pursuing, for the partner of his days was a noble-minded woman, who was ready to encounter the greatest poverty with her husband, rather than enjoy wealth as the fruit of his abandonment of prin- ciple. Nor did he fail to receive the approbation and coun- tenance of Christian friends at a distance. Multitudes throughout Scotland regarded him as suffering in a most righteous cause, and he was honoured as a martyr to the liberties and independence of the church. Nay, beyond the limits of Scotland his opposition to tyranny and the suffer- ing to which he was on that account subjected, drew forth the sympathy and admiration of some of the best Chris- tians and ablest divines of the age. From England the pens of Doddridge and Hervey, and Whitefield and others, sent him assurances of their thorough conviction that he was in the path of duty, and expressions of the warmest esteem and friendship. And across the broad Atlantic there came to him from one, whom Robert Hall has de- scribed as the greatest of the sons of men, the most affec- tionate expressions of brotherly and Christian regard and hearty approbation. Only a short time before Mr. Gil- lespie had written to President Edwards, sympathising with him in the singular position in which he was placed at Northampton, in consequence of an effort to maintain 285 LIFE OP THE purity of communion in his church ; and now, when the cup of trial has been put into his own hands, he receives from the same quarter a reciprocation of sympathy. Loving the same Master, they loved one another, shared each other's griefs, and poured consolation into each other's hearts. The following is an extract from a letter, dated Stockbridge, 24th November, 1752, which must have been very sweet and soothing to Mr. Gillespie's feelings. " Thus far, perhaps, if the truth were known, it would appear that some of your most strenuous persecutors hate you much more for sometliing else, than they do for your not obeying the orders of the General Assembly. I do not pretend to know how the case is ; I only speak from what I have seen and found here in America, in cases somewhat similar. However, it is beyond doubt that this proceed- ing wiU stand on the records of future time, for the last- ing reproach of your persecutors ; and your conduct, for which you have suffered, will be to your lasting honour in the church of God. And what is much more, that which has been condemned in you by man, and for which you have suffered from him, is doubtless approved by God, and I trust you will have a glorious reward from him, for the cause you are in, is the cause of God ; and if God be for us, who can be against us '? If he justifies, what need we care who condemns 1 Not only is the mercy of God, dear bro- ther, manifested in its being granted you to suffer for his sake, but his mercy is to be taken notice of in many of the circumstances of this suffering ; particularly that he has excited so many to appear for you ; that you had the major part of the presbytery which you belong to with you in the affair, though God has honoured you above all the rest in caUing you to suffer for his name ; that the major part of the Commission of the General Assembly did, in effect, approve of the conduct of the presbytery, judging it no censurable fault ; that no greater part of the Assembly had a hand in your deposition ; that so many of God's people have on this occasion very boldly appeared to befriend you as suffering in a righteous cause, openly condemning the REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 287 conduct of your most bitter persecutors, and testifying an abhorrence of their conduct ; and that many have ap- peared Hberally to contribute to your outward support ; so that, by what I understand, you are likely to be no loser in that respect, by which your enemies wiU perhaps be en- tirely disappointed. And above all, that you have been enabled, through the whole of this affair, to conduct your- self with so much Christian meekness, decency, humility, proper deference to . authority, and composure and forti- tude of mind : which is an evident token that God will ap- pear for you, and also that he will appear against your enemies. When I received your kind letter, soon after my dismission from Northampton, so full of expressions of sympathy towards me under what I suffered, I little thought of your being so soon under sufferings so similar ; but, seeing God has so ordered it in his providence, my prayer and hope is, that he would abundantly reward your sympathy in my case. ' Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.' "* The fact that but a third part of the General Assembly had voted for Mr. Gillespie's deposition, and that it was very generally disapproved of throughout the country, gave rise to the hope that, at their succeeding meeting, the supreme court might be induced to reverse it. Very strenuous efforts were therefore made throughout the year, by those who were favourable to the independence of the church, and friendly to Mr. Gillespie, to secure this result. Meetings of ministers were held, pamphlets were published, plans of procedure were devised, and high hopes were entertained, of all which a full account is given by Dr. Struthers, in his " History of the Relief Church." t But Mr. Gillespie himself remained a passive spectator. There is a probabihty indeed that he was present at two meetings of ministers, held the month after his deposition, and convened for the purpose of de- * Edwards' Works. London, vol. i. p. cxciv. f Struthers' History, p. 102, &c. 288 LIFE OF THE vising measures of reform ; but he totally disapproved ol their scheme, because he seems to have felt that the con- nexion of their measures with his case would make them fail of any good effect. At least this is the only inter- pretation I am able to put upon a somewhat obscure sen- tence in his letter to Mr. Laupsley, — " I declared my abso- lute disapprobation of their scheme, because they were not to assist and employ me, as what would fail of any good effect for that reason." What he desired was, that the friends of the independence of the church should make a vigorous and united effort, not for reponing him as its main design, but for throwing back the tide of arbitrary power that was threatening to overwhelm the church. It was the very general wish of those who were favourable to Mr. Gillespie, that he should himself present a petition to the Assembly, praying to be reponed ; but tliis he abso- lutely refused to do. A petition indeed to this effect was transmitted from the heritors, elders, and heads of families in the parish of Carnock ; * but Mr. Gillespie himself would do nothing of the kind, and his reason was, that he felt it would be sinful in him to take any step whatsoever towards re-union with the church, till the sinful term of communion which the Assembly had imposed upon him was removed out of the way by the reversal of the sentence of deposition passed against him.f And the result showed the wisdom of Mr. Gillespie's conduct ; for when the Assembly met, though those who were considered his friends were the majority, yet the principle laid down by the Royal Commis- sioner, and pretty generally acceded to by the court, was, that the acknowledgment and submission of the offending brother were necessary to pave his way for being again received into the bosom of the church. But this condition was a complete bar to Mr. Gillespie's restoration. He did not feel that he had done wrong in refusing to take part in Mr. Richardson's settlement. On the contrary, he was * Smith's Sketches, p. 6. f Letter to Laupsley, quoted in Dr. Struthers' History, p. 119. REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 280 persuaded that for him to have obeyed the AssemLly's mandate Avould have been sin, and therefore it was im- possible for him to make the acknowledgment and sub- mission referred to. That Mr. Gillespie would have re- turned to the Church of Scotland if he had been simply reponed, and good reason had been given for believing that arbitrary rule was crushed, seems pretty clear from the fact, that during the interval between the two Assem- blies, though he regularly preached to his people, he yet took no step towards the constitution of a session, but patiently waited the event of the Assembly's proceedings in 1753. At the same time it does not appear that he was very anxious about returning, or entertained any strong hope that such a thorough cure of the evils which afflicted the church, would be effected as would warrant his return. His refusal to make any application himself, though urged to this step by all his friends, pretty clearly indicates his views. And it is mentioned by Mr. Smith, who succeeded him in Dunfermline, that, besides patron- age, there were other evils in the Church of Scotland which had weaned his affections from her. " The law of patronage, — unfriendly to presbytery, disagreeable to our countrymen, and, in our opinion, contrary to the word of God and sound reason, — is a yoke of bondage to which he never could submit, and the promiscuous admis- sion of members to receive baptism and eat the Lord's supper, was a grievance which deeply affected his con- science. * The result of the proceedings of the Assembly of 1753, so similar to those of 1752, and that too after all the efforts which had been made during the course of the year, made it plain to Mr. Gillespie and to his people, that lie need not hope for restoration but on terms to which he could not submit ; and therefore, with their concurrence, he proceeded immediately to constitute them into a church with regular office-bearers, that they might enjoy all the » Snnth's Skotrhe«, p. 7. 3 T 290 LIFE OF THE ordinances of Christ's house. The principles upon which the society was based were the doctrinal principles of the Church of Scotland and her presbyterian form of govern- ment ; for though nothing seems to have been said ex- pressly of these points, yet neither Mr. Gillespie nor his people had any quarrel with them, but only with what they regarded as a departure from them. And what pre- vented Mr. Gillespie from seeking connexion with any other denomination was the views he entertained re- specting Christian communion, which he considered ought to be maintained between all who love the Lord Jesus Christ, though they might differ from one an- other in smaller matters. This was not a notion hur- riedly taken up by him when he found himself stand- ing alone, to draw friends around him from various quarters. Reference has already been made to the in- fluence, which his early connexion with the author of the "Fourfold State" and with Dr. Doddridge had in giving this turn to his sentiments, and he cherished the same principles through life, and considered that the churches of the Reformation were bound to love and ac- knowledge one another, and to reciprocate Christian in- tercourse. Mr. Gillespie's views on this point have often been misunderstood. But in fact, they are explained by himself with great clearness. The short announcement of them, which he made previous to the first dispensation of the Lord's supper in July 1753, is sufficiently explicit and well guarded : " I hold communion with all that visibly hold the head, and with such only." It was not promiscuous communion which Mr. Gillespie proclaimed, but the com- munion of saints, the free and unrestricted intercourse of those who gave evidence that they loved Christ. Any wider communion than this Mr. Gillespie abhorred. According to the quotation made above from Mr. Smith, the promis- cuous admission of people to baptism and the Lord's sup- per was regarded by him as a very great grievance. And in his work on "Temptation" he describes laxness in the administration of discipline, and the sulFering of persons REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 201 immoral and scandalous to live in the full communion of the church, as a means by which the inveterate enemy of the honour and interest of Christ attains the trampling under foot ofhis authority, which appoints the most care- ful separation in this matter of the precious from the vile. Among the evils of such lax communion, he describes a va- riety, such as wounding the tender Christian, hardening the wicked and profane, drawing down spiritualjudgmentsupon the society, weakening discipline, and rendering it inetFec- tual when applied. * Mr. Gillespie had very high ideas of the importance of purity of communion to the spiritual well-being of the church ; but at the same time he con- sidered that, if it was wrong to admit to fellowship per- sons of doubtful Christian character, it was equally wrong on the other hand to exclude those who gave evidence of loving Christ. Churches might differ in some respects from one another, and yet their allegiance to one common Lord might require their mutual recognition, and lay a solid basis for mutual intercourse. " Communion with all who hold the head, and with such only," was Mr. Gil- lespie's motto. Mr. Gillespie had always been a very laborious minister, but after his expulsion from the Established Church, he became more laborious than ever. He was instant in season and out of season. Especially on sacramental occasions an uncommon amount of labour devolved upon him. As his former friends, wQio had made common cause with him in the attempt to withstand the encroachments of arbitrary power, now declined to assist him when he was out of the church, which he felt to be a great grievance, he was under the necessity of performing all the work liimself ; and this he did without abridging any part of the numerous services. Thursday and Saturday, and Sab- bath and Monday, had their full complement of work, and the nine sermons, and seven or eight table ad- dresses, which he delivered, were fully and distinctly * Treatise on Temptation, p. 136. 292 LIFE OF THE written out, because he counted it criminal to serve the Lord with that which cost him nothing.* And besides these labours on sacramental occasions, he held a meeting with his people every Wednesday evening for religious ex- ercises, and expounded the Holy Scriptures to them. It is amazing that such excessive labour did not altogether destroy him. But he received strength proportioned to his necessities. In labours abundant, he was supported by the grace of God. He had the testimony of a good con- science, he enjoyed the smile of his Divine Master, and he laboured in the midst of a most attached and admiring people. His heart was in his work, the hearts of his people were engaged for him at a throne of grace ; and he was enabled, though sometimes almost at the point of faint- ing, to accomphsh, single-handed, for several years, the heavy labours of sacramental solemnities. If he was highly honoured as a consistent witness for the truth in a time of great declension, it was not an honour allied with ease which he enjoyed, but an honour that brought with it haxd and exhausting toil. It was no common warfare which Providence assigned to him, but he was enabled to persevere to the end. The ministrations of Mr. Gillespie were attended by many from considerable distances. His communions espe- cially attracted great numbers of serious persons from Edinburgh, Glasgow, and other quarters ; and they are described as having been peculiarly impressive and profit- able — worthy of being called " times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord." In the interesting memoir which has been published of Mr. Alexander Clark of Broughton, it is mentioned that that excellent individual, when a young man, had often waited at Dunfermline on the ministry of Mr. Gillespie ; and the labours of " this holy minister " are described as having been eminently blessed of God, and his exhortations as having been distinguished by warm piety, and as flowing from a heart that felt the influence of sacred * Treatise on Temptation, preface, p. vii. REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 293 truth. In their passage across the ferry, Mr. Clark, and those who accompanied him, were accustomed to join in singing praise to God. Many of the people who were strangers were frequently engaged in prayer during the whole night previous to the Sabbath, and beheld on their knees the first dim approaches of the morning, which ushered in the day that commemorates the Saviour's resurrection. The sloping grounds were covered with persons who lis- tened to the message of salvation with devout attention, and were really interested in the truths delivered.* In a small manuscript volume containing notations made by Mr. Gillespie shortly after his deposition, there are a number of texts of Scripture marked, and described as suitable to the circumstances in which he was now placed. From the strain of these we may gather some- thing of the feelings, with which he looked upon the state of the Church of Scotland, and upon the treatment which he himself had experienced. He seems to have been deeply persuaded that a time of great degeneracy had come upon the church, — that those who ought to have maintained her liberties had proved traitors to her best interests, — and as to himself, he felt painfully that he had been forsaken by men who professed to have the same object in view as himself, and to be actuated by the same principles. Yet he trusted that the Lord would bring good out of evil, and that right-hearted men would be raised up for doing the work of God. Among the passages noted are the following : Isa. xxxvii. 3 ; Matt. xxiv. 12 ; Jer. xxx. 17 ; Phil. ii. 21 ; Ps. xciv. 15 ; Ezek. xxviii. 24 ; Isa. lix. 15 ; 1 Tim. iv. 16. Read- ing over these passages, one is not surprised at the remark, which, though he seldom referred to his own case in the pulpit, he made on the occasion of being refused assistance by his former friends : " I think I can say at my leisure what David said in his haste— all men are liars." Mr. Gillespie stood alone for a period of about six years * Memoir of Alexander Clark of Broughton, Edinburgh, publis'.:ed by W. Oliphant, 1824, pp. 52—54. 294 LIFE OF THE laboriously discharging the duties of his office, and his church supported the ordinances of religion cheerfully and respectably. It is difficult for us in these days, when the problem of self-sustaining churches has been triumphantly solved, to form an idea of the faith and trust in Providence that were displayed by such men as Gillespie, when they relinquished, for conscience' sake, what were esteemed the advantages of the Establishment. Dissent was compara- tively an untried field. It was like the wilderness of waters into which Columbus first directed his adventurous prow. If honour, then, be justly due to the compact body who, in our own times, have retired from the Establishment, be- cause they felt themselves unable to assert her spiritual in- dependence, and have resolved to maintain the unfettered gospel of Christ for themselves ; how much greater admi- ration is due to the first Dissenters, who went forth, at the call of duty, in far more trying times, like Abraham of old literally not knowing whither they went ! Mighty fleets have plowed the broad ocean since the days of Co- lumbus, to which his tiny vessels were as nothing ; but the moral heroism of the discoverer of America has never been approached by any subsequent navigator. The early Dis- senters were few and despised : they had but little experience of what it was possible to do for religion apart from the state. They only felt that they could not submit to the unright- eous exactions which were made upon them ; and, driven out for their non-compliance, they knew not what was to become of them. But, supported by the testimony of a good conscience, they trusted in God, and, like Paul, they found that his grace was sufficient for them. The shield of a kind Providence covered them in the day of trial, and they were enabled to fight the battles of truth and righteousness. Truly it might be said of them, that they bore the burden and heat of the day. When Mr. Gillespie retired from the bar of the Assembly, where the sentence of deposition had fallen so suddenly upon him, it was a very dark prospect that met his view ; and yet never was he heard to utter a murmur about the sti- REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 295 pend and the position he had abandoned, or to express any fears about his future support. He obeyed the call of duty, and left the consequences to God. It is true that he was treated with great kindness by his people, who rallied round him as a distinguished confessor of the truth, and that his temporal circumstances, so far from being injured, by his expulsion from the Established Church, were rather improved after he began to preach the gospel untrammelled by state enactments. But of this he knew nothing when he sacrificed his all upon the altar of Christian duty. He must rather have supposed that he had reason to dread a very different result. After Gillespie had stood alone for a period of six years without receiving ministerial assistance from any quarter, the first individual who applied to him for an interchange of services was Mr. Boston of Jedburgh. Of the reasons of his withdrawment from the Established Church, in which he had been a minister for upwards of twenty years, and of the auspicious circumstances in which he lifted up the standard of religious liberty in Jedburgh, a full and most interesting account is given by Dr. Struthers in his History of the Relief Church. Gillespie and Boston were placed in very similar positions, and there were many causes to draw them to one another. Their churches both existed in a state of separation from the Establishment: it was the same abuse of ecclesiastical power which had led to their institution. And there were also strong personal ties to bind the two men to one another. The author of the Four- fold State was the father of them both. The elder Boston, who brought up his own son most assiduously in the fear of God, and had the satisfaction of seeing him evince very early proofs of piety, was also, as we have seen, the instru- ment in providence of Gillespie's conversion, and his views had a great influence in moulding the sentiments of them both. From him sprang the comparatively loose hold which the principle of an Establishment had upon their minds, for even he had contemplated the advantages which a separation of the church from the state would confer 296 LIFE OF THE upon the cause of genuine religion ;* and to him also may be traced up the views which they both entertained re- specting the communion of saints ; for while the elder Boston — as we learn from the son's preface to the father's sermon on Schism — was tenacious of what he judged truth, he could at the same time love, esteem, and honour breth- ren who differed from him, and very freely hold communion with them.t So that the author of the Fourfold State may, in some sense, be regarded as the founder of the Relief Church ; for, if he did not actually lay the founda- tion of the building, he at least cleared and marked out the ground where it was to stand, and gave shape to the views of the two workmen who were to commence the structure. Gillespie and Boston did not immediately proceed, when they began to assist one another, to associate themselves formally, along with their churches, into an ecclesiastical body. This important step was not taken till three years afterwards, when the people of Colingsburgh, disgusted with a violent settlement in the parish, apphed to them for assistance ; and then having duly inducted Mr. Colier, the man of the congregation's choice, they, along with him and representative elders from the three churches of Dun- fermline, Jedburgh, and Colingsburgh, formed themselves into a presbytery for the relief of Christians oppressed in their Christian privileges. This took place at Colings- burgh, in the new church which the congregation had reared, on the 22d Oct., 1761 ; the whole proceedings were conducted in a very orderly manner ; solemn prayer was offered up by Mr. Gillespie for the Divine direction and blessing ; and the first act of the new presbytery was to appoint a day of thanksgi\ing to God for his goodness in the harvest just ended. The deed recording the consti- tution of the presbytery may be seen at length in Dr. Struthers' History.^ The formation of a new religious Memoirs, p. 177. f Preface to Sermon on Schism. X History of the Relief Chui-ch, pp. li>8— 161. RET. THOMAS GlLLESriE. 297 body was one of the most important transactions in which Mr. Gillespie was ever engaged. It was the natural con- sequence of his deposition; for the same causes which had led to that result were still at work ; and he felt, in common with Mr. Boston, that if they did not take some step towards the relief of oppressed congregations, their retirement from the EstabUshed Church would fail of producing any permanent good. At the same time it is obvious that Mr. Gillespie was not actuated by any- thing like ambition in becoming the founder of a new party ; for more than nine years passed away after his de- position before he took any step towards that object, and even when he did move, it was only in consequence of what he esteemed a clear call in providence. He made no application to the people of Colingsburgh ; but they applied to him, and they applied to him repeatedly, before he would consent to preach or baptize among them : and, in fact, it was not till every member of the Presbytery, under whose care they were placed, refused them religious privileges, that he considered it was incumbent upon him to aid them under their oppression. This was a very pro- per reserve on the part of Mr. Gillespie, and shows that, in founding a new body, he proceeded with the utmost caution, and waited till events made it appear to him an imperative duty to move. But both he, and the Fathers of the Relief Church generally, were undoubtedly wrong in continuing afterwards to act very much upon the same principle. There is a great difference between the first institution of a new denomination and the subsequent maintenance of it. The founding of a new religious party is a very grave question, and the utmost caution and de- liberation are necessary before adopting such a strong mea- sure ; but when once it has been felt to be duty to set up a separate standard, then all the reasons which warrant this first step equally require that no eifort be afterwards spared to maintain the cause in efficiency, and to extend its blessings wherever they are needed. CHAPTER VII. Gillespie's labours after the institution of the Relief Presbytery — Rr spect that was paid to him by the rest of the body — Gradual dedine of his vigour — Last illness— Peace of mind he enjoyed — Death — Character — Alleged desire on his part that his church should retui-n to the Es- tablishment — Concluding remarks. Mr. Gillespie survived the institution of the Relief Pres- bytery for a period of twelve years. He continued to labour with earnestness and zeal in the cause of his Mas- ter; and was much honoured by the brethren who had gathered around him. It is understood, indeed, that to- "wards the close of his life he was somewhat offended that his views, in some particular cases, were not adopted. At the first his influence in the body was naturally very great, both as being the founder of it, and as having suffered much in the cause of Christ ; but when the number of the presbytery became considerably larger, and when increasing infirmities prevented him from being so regularly present, it could not but happen that his influence would be less felt. As one generation goeth and another cometh, so the influ- ence of individuals in any society gives place, after a time, to the influence of others who are younger than themselves ; and it is probable that Mr. Gillespie made too little allowance for this unavoidable tendency in human affairs. He was rather of a quick temper, and some of the proceedings of his brethren gave him considerable offence. He had no difference with them as to the constitution and principles of the Relief Church ;* but he was much offended on ac- count of the views taken by some of them, particularly in * Smith's Sketches historical of the Relief Church, p. 27. LIFE OF THE REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 299 reference to Mr. Pirie's case. Yet, though the other mem- bers of the body exercised their own judgment on the merits of such questions as came before them, this did not interfere with the respect that was felt for him as a tried veteran in the cause of Christ : he was honoured by the whole body, and he was honoured by multitudes who were not connected with the body at all. Reverence was shown to him as a man who had suffered much for conscience' sake ; and, though it was with him a light and Httle thing to be approved or condemned by man,* yet it must have gratified him to receive the respect of those who were con- cerned for the prosperity of Christ's cause. As he advanced into the vale of years the consequences of the extraordi- nary labours he had undergone began to appear, in the diminution both of his mental and bodily vigour ; and yet, amid increasing infirmities, he was able to preach almost to the last. And he enjoyed in his own bosom those con- solations which it was his delight to administer to others. It does not appear that he was now harassed with those sore conflicts which had agitated his bosom in the earlier period of his life : he had gained the victory over his great enemy through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ : and it is testified by his friends that peace with God, and peace of conscience, afforded him a joy which the world can neither give nor take away. In his last sickness, which was not of long duration, his soul prospered and was in health. Nor was the peace he enjoyed shaken by the approach of the King of terrors. The Saviour, whom he had served in the days of his vigour, supported him in the hour of weakness and trouble ; and when his bodily strength was wasting rapidly away, his faith continued firm, and he felt himself strong in the Lord. He vvas enabled to meet death with undiminish- ed serenity of mind, and he enjoyed a good hope through grace of a blessed and glorious immortality. As he had lived by the faith of the Son of God, so he died confiding his soul to the merciful and faithful High Priest of the * Dr. Erskine's Preface to Treatise on Temptation, p. ix. .500 LIFE OF THE Church. His earthly warfare was accomplished on the 19th January, 1774, and then a new stage of being began with him, which earthly pen may not describe. What we call the end of life, is to the believer but the end of sin and sorrow and pain ; what v/e call death, is to the follower of Christ but the commencement of a life of holy and unclouded blessed- ness. Viewed from the land of eternal peace and joy, the death of time will appear not death, but the development of a new and higher life. The spirit returns to God who gave it, when the frail body is laid to commingle with the kin- dred earth. Lord, strengthen our faith, that we may be enabled to dedicate our earthly being wholly to thee, and so may exchange, when our eyes close upon this world, its conflicts and trials and labours, for the pleasures which are at thy right hand for evermore ! May we die the death of the righteous, and may our latter end be like his ! The mortal remains of Mr. Gillespie lie in the Old Abbey church of Dunfermline, under the roof of that same build- ing from which, as he retired on the day his name was taken from the roll of presbytery, the sneer followed him, — " ]\Iake way for the man with the strait-laced conscience." Gillespie's dust sleeps within the walls of the church which so often resounded with the impassioned eloquence of Ralph Erskine ; and not far from the grave of Gillespie is the grave of Ralph Erskine. They loved and served and suffered for the same Master while they lived, and their ashes await together the glorious redemption of the resur- rection day. Between the resting-place of Gillespie and that of Ralph Erskine, is the sepulchre of Robert the Bruce, who achieved the liberties of Scotland on the field of Ban- nockburn, truly the father of his country, and the source under God of no small portion of the blessings we enjoy at the present moment. How different might have been the destiny of Scotland if she had become by conquest a depen- dency of England ! How different too might have been the position of Scotland, if no check had been given to ecclesias- tical tyranny and corruption, by the proceedings of Gillespie and the Fathers of the Secession ! Kational independence REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 301 is a great blessing, but religious liberty and the pure gos- pel of Christ are greater blessings still. The hero of civil freedom is worthy of all honour, and the world has not been backward to acknowledge the claim ; but the day will declare whether the champions of a pure Christianity, wield- ing not carnal but spiritual weapons, have not occupied a loftier position, and better deserved to be enshrined in a nation's heart. Truly Dunfermline is an honoured place, having the ashes committed to her care of the heroes of the civil and religious emancipation of Scotland. Mr. Gillespie was a man of truly apostolic excellence, and to him might the language of inspiration be applied, with the utmost sobriety of meaning : " He was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost." Conscience was the power that bore sway in his soul ; and when he was persuaded that anything was duty, he took his course at once, with a noble indifference to the personal consequences that might be in- volved. This supremacy of conscience was the true source of Mr. Gillespie's greatness. He was not a man of command- ing talents, — he was not a man ambitious of distinction, — he was not a man of large acquaintance with the world ; but he was a man of singular uprightness and integrity of char- acter, — of guileless simplicity, — of stern conscientiousness. His goodness was his greatness. His intellectual abilities, indeed, were of a very respectable order, and few men were more faithful in studying the word of God. He was thor- oughly versed in the holy Scriptures, and in the leading works on theology, and the circle of his reading embraced also the most important works in morals and philosophy, such as Cudworth and Bacon. He was a well furnished divine, and the weight of his character, and the great spi- rituality of his mind, gave a singular power to his preach- ing, which has been uniformly described by all competent persons as possessed of a deep and searching character. There might be a want of poUsh about his thoughts ; but the genuine earnestness with which they were enforced, made way for them into every heart. His style exhibits none of the minuter graces of diction ; there is but little in 302 LIFE OP T.nE it of the play of fancy or imagination ; his ideas are cast in a rough strong mould ; and you feel that you have to do with a man who cares far more about what he is sayings than about the dress in which it is presented. And Mr. Gillespie's manner was conformable to his cast of thought, — uncouth and ungainly. Yet the little man, deeply in- terested himself, full of activity and life, nimble in all his movements, stirred up the consciences of his hearers, and secured the closest attention from all. He was a most im- pressive and successful preacher of the gospel. Few men have been more free from the taint of a worldly spirit than Mr. Gillespie. The relinquishment of his posi- tion and means of support, when he was deposed by the General Assembly, seems scarcely to have cost him a thought : it does not appear from aught that can be dis- covered that he made it the subject of complaint at all When he returned to Carnock he was offered the stipend for the current half year, but he refused it on the ground that he had not fully laboured for it. It is also related of him that on one occasion during his ministry in Dunferm- line, when there was much distress and poverty in the town, the oflSce-bearers of the church called upon him with his half-year's stipend, which he desired them to retain for distribution among the poor, saying that he had what would suffice him till the next term. The managers, who knew that Mr. Gillespie was unthoughtful about his worldly aiFairs, almost to the extent of being improvident,* with a * That the expression employed in the text is not too strong appears from another incident of eai-Iier date. When his young wife was brought home to the manse at Carnock, and after she had gone through the house vnth the interest of one whose home it was now to be, she said something about the sinews of war that would be needful for the summer campaign. Mr. Gillespie apparently had not thought much of this, nor been in the habit of troubling himself with money matters ; for his reply was, that he would call John, the beadle, and see what remained on hand. John, the chancellor of the minister's exchequer, had not a more favourable report to give of the state of affairs than greater chancellors often have ; and the young wife, who doubtless would thenceforth act the part of chancellor herself, was obhged to de\'ise measures for battling tnrough the half year. It was a singular blessing to Mr. Gillespie with such habits as these, that he became connected vdih a wife so prudent and REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 3(^'3 fatherly care of his interests, refused to take back the money, and left it lying on the table as they retired. Few ministers, with the numerous claims to which they are liable on all hands, could afford to make such an offer ; but cer- tainly the incident furnishes a striking proof of the bene- volence and generosity of Mr. Gillespie's character, and doubtless he would not himself neglect in private the ob- ject to which he had shown himself so warmly alive. In his manners Mr. Gillespie was somewhat rigid and austere. Naturally of a warm temper, and rather inflex- ible, he adhered very tenaciously to his own opinions. He had mixed but little with the world, and he had no taste nor aptitude for driving his ends by a subtle policy. Guileless himself, he was unsuspicious of others, and somewhat apt to be imposed upon. He felt in his soul that he had suffered for righteousness' sake, and he rather gloried in the persecutions he had endured than lamented them. The excellencies of his character were all of a solid rather than of a showy kind, and he was acknowledged, even by his enemies, to be eminently pious and thoroughly conscientious. Warm with zeal, and unwearied in labours, he was the instrument of accomplishing much good, and his memory deserves to be cherished with affectionate re- verence. More accomplished, more learned, more talented champions of the cross there have been, but few have sur- passed Thomas Gillespie in blamelessness of life, and de- voted disinterested zeal for the cause of Christ. It has often been said that Mr. Gillespie, before his death, became indifferent to the interests of the body which he had been the means of founding ; and even ad- vised that his congregation should go back after his de- cease to the Established Church. This appears an exceed- ingly unlikely story, though it is affirmed by Dr. Erskine in his preface to the Treatise on Temptation. But it is active as Mrs. Gillespie was, whose affection and principle made her willing to encounter all the sacrifices connected with his deposition, while at the same time she was better able than he was to take the management of temporal matters. 304 LIFE OF THE certainly strange that nothing of the kind was ever lieard of till the day of Mr. Gillespie's funeral, when his brother Robert, who, at one time, had been a warm friend of the Relief cause, but whose views were now completely changed, called a number of the original subscribers to the church together, and the heirs of some of those who were gone, that they might consider what should now be done with it. He proposed that they should seek admis- sion to the Established Church as a Chapel of Ease ; but the subscribers were not at all prepared for such a step, and therefore the meeting separated without coming to any decision. Efforts were then made in private to gain over individuals to the view which had been proposed ; and a notice was even published in the newspapers " that Mr. Gillespie intended to have abandoned his former prin- ciples, by turning his meeting-house into a Chapel of Ease." The remark of Mr. Smith upon this alleged change is the following : " This, no doubt, would appear to the public a strange reverse of sentiment, and altogether unexpected : he once felt that yoke most grievous, he usually in public prayed for the people who supported him in that ministry which he received from the Lord, and uniformly disap- proved of that church which unjustly endeavoured to take it from him."* It is obvious, therefore, that the imme- diate successor of Mr. Gillespie in Dunfermline, who had every opportunity of ascertaining the truth, had never been able to learn from any member or ofSce-bearer of the church that Mr. Gillespie, during his lifetime, had ever directly or indirectly made such a proposal, and he treats the whole as a ridiculous story, Nay, he broadly affirms, " that the progress of the Relief in Scotland, on Presby- terian principles, gave him great joy. Though he differed with some of his brethren, yet he never discovered to his people any inclination to be connected again with the Establishment. His disapprobation of that church which deposed him continued to the end of his days, and he reprobated her conduct with a severity perhaps too great." t » Historical Sketches of the ReUef Church, page 29. f Ibid. p. 28. REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. 305 How then are we to account for the statement of Dr. Erskine, who must be allowed to stand far above the suspicion of saying anything for which he did not suppose he had good grounds 1 Doubtless he received his informa- tion from Mr. Robert GiUespie, who was now his factor for the estate of Carnock ; for it was subsequently to the death of Gillespie that the Treatise on Temptation was pubhshed, and it is in the preface to it that Dr. Erskine's statement first ap- pears. "With Mr. Robert Gillespie the story seems plainly to have originated ; and how far the new situation which he occupied may have swayed him to be over-zealous in driving his purpose of securing the Dunfermline church to the Establishment, it is impossible to say ; but it is cer- tain that there is not a particle of evidence, that such a thing as the alleged intention of Mr. Gillespie was ever heard of before his death. And in fact the whole story seems as unlikely a thing as could well be imagined. No- thing had occurred in the proceedings of the Church of Scotland at all calculated even to modify Mr. Gillespie's sentiments, but quite the reverse. The rigorous measures under which he suffered had rather been on the increase. And as to himself personally, the same hostility which had led to his expulsion continued to pursue him all his days ; for not long before his death it had been proposed in the Assembly, in the shape of an overture from the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr,* when the rapid increase of Dissenting churches was exciting alarm, that the sentence of deposition against him should be commuted into a sentence of exclu- sion, but even this poor mitigation of the rigour with which he had been treated had been negatived by an overwhelm- ing majority. What was there therefore to produce in Mr. Gillespie the idea, of either going himself to the Establish- ment, or of persuading his congregation to go? With Mr. Smith, therefore, we may regard it '"'as astonishing that Mr. Gillespie in the end of his life, in the full posses- sion of all his ministerial and Christian privileges, and under no temptation whatsoever, should be represented by his friends as desirous to be stript of his j udicial capacity, 306 LIFE OF THE REV. THOMAS GILLESPIE. and willing to give up his right to rule his own flock, in order that he might be honoured to come again under the yoke."* On the ground of the facts embodied in the preceding narrative we may assert for Mr. Gillespie a title to the grateful remembrance of the religious public in Scotland. Very diiferent views prevail now, from those that were current at the time, respecting the principles involved in his deposition ; and it ought to be recollected that it was through his exertions and suiferings, and the exertions and sufferings of men similarly situated, that the change has been brought about. If self-denial and disinterested zeal, and laborious effort for the spread of the pure gospel of Christ constitute any claim to the respect of succeed- ing times, the name of Thomas Gillespie ought to be held in great and lasting veneration; and the tribute to his memory ought to be all the more cheerfully paid, on ac- count of the obloquy that long was heaped upon his head. The church whose faithful pastor he was in DunfermUne, although but few survive who were even born in his day, are rearing a beautiful monument to his memory, in the shape of a new church, which is to bear his name : the most appropriate and best situated monument that could have been thought of, which, while it cherishes the re- membrance of his zeal and piety, contributes directly to the support of the very principles tha# were dear to his heart and engaged the labour of his life. May that monu- ment stand for generations yet to come ! May the blessing of heaven come down upon those who are thus uniting to honour a faithful servant of Christ ! And may the beau- tiful house which they are rearing continue, after the presjeiit generation is sleeping in the tomb, the happy seat of piety and truth and Christian love ! Establish thou, Lord, the work of their hands, yea the work of their hands establish thou it. * Smith's Sketches, page 29. FUtLAKTON A>'D CO., FKINTEKS, EDINBURGH. J^ /^w 1 T><»t^ Due 'inceton Theological Semmary-Speer Library 1 1012 01152 6771