^V OF PKINCF^s BX 9087 .U54 V.4 Thomson, Andrew Historical sketch of the origin . UGL. HIS10EICAL SKETCH OEIGIN OF THE SECESSION CHUKCH. REV. ANDREW '"THOMSON, B.A, THE HISTOEY EISE OF THE EELIEF CHUECH. REV. GAVIN STRUTHERS, D.D. A. FULLARTON AND CO., EDINBURGH AND LONDON. 1848. EDINBURGH : FCLLARTON AND CO., PRINTERS. LEITH W A.IJC HISTOKICAL SKETCH OEIGIN OF THE SECESSION CHUKCH. PREFACE. The origin of this volume and of those which are to follow in the series, is connected to a great extent with the recent auspi- cious union between the United Secession and Relief Churches. It was believed that the ends contemplated by the Union, as well as those of general edification, would be extensively promoted by putting within the reach of the members both of the United Presbyterian and of other churches, historic sketches of the ori- gin of both sections of the united body, 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 same ends would be gained by reviving and widely circulating in the same form the early literature of the Secession and Eelief Churches. Their history and early literature are to a great extent their Testi- mony and Defence. The Historical Sketch of the Origin of the Secession Church which follows, is neither fitted nor designed to supersede more full and elaborate narratives. It is what it professes to be — a sketch— and nothing more. The History by Dr. M'Kerrow is, and must continue to be, the 'Thesaurus' of Secession History. In composing our sketch we have preferred however to draw our information for the most part from earlier documents, and have gone, wherever we could, to the fountain-head. The first two chapters and the greater part of the third were written in the manner we have described ; but we have been delighted on com- paring our own impressions with those of the Historian of the Secession, to mark the extent and accuracy of his research. For some facts in our third chapter, and for much that is contained in our fourth, we willingly acknowledge our obligations to his able work. In our account of the Marrow Controversy we have to ex- press ourselves indebted to Brown's ' Gospel Truth,' Robertson's 4 History of the Atonement Controversy,' and especially to the VI PBEPACE. able papers on this subject contained in the ' Christian Instruc- tor,' and bearing the indubitable marks of the pen of Dr. M'Crie ; while we have had beside us throughout our whole progress, the various Testimonies and public documents emitted at different periods by the Secession, ' Wilson's Defence of the Reformation Principles of the Church of Scotland,' ' Gib's Display of the Se- cession Testimonies,' ' Brown (of Haddington's) Historical Ac- count of the Secession,' with the interesting MS. volume by Mr. Brown of which the former is an abstract ; ' Struthers' History of Scotland,' ' Frazer's Memoirs of Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine,' ' Terrier's Memoir of William Wilson of Perth ; ' certain papers of much judgment and ability regarding the Secession and its Founders that are contained in the ' Christian Repository' and ' Christian Monitor;' 'Address on the Causes of the Secession, by the Rev. Andrew Sommerville,' and many other works to which reference is made in the notes appended to the narrative. We have written these pages under the strong conviction, that the cause and the persons of whom they principally treat deserve to be better known, that the interests of religion and of religious liberty would largely gain by a more extensive knowledge and just appreciation of the men and their measures; indeed, that there are no men since the days of Knox to whom Scotland owes more than the Erskines and their associates. We are not aware of any unfounded statement or illiberal sen- timent contained in our narrative, but writing under the impres- sions we have described, we must confess to party preferences, though we do not confess to party prejudices. A. T. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. CAUSES OF THE SECESSION. The Scottish Church at the Revolution. Defects in Revolution- Set- tlement. William of Orange. Episcopal incumbents admitted. Burnet's description of them. Queen Anne. Abjuration- Oath. Patronage. Opposition to it. Insinuates itself by degrees. First Process against Professor Simson. The Auchterarder proposition. • Marrow of Modern Divinity.' Imprimatur of Westminster Assembly. Publication of 'Marrow' in Scotland. Boston. Hog. Marrow Controversy begins. Committee for pu- rity of doctrine. General Assembly condemns the Marrow. The people. Representation by the Twelve Marrowmen. Debates in Commission. The Twelve Queries. Final sentence regarding the Marrow. The Marrowmen rebuked. Kid of Queensferry. Pro- hibition resisted. The Anti - Marrowmen. Second Process against Professor Simson. Boston's dissent. Professor Camp- bell of St. Andrews. Patronage in some of its ripened fruits. Scene at Bathgate. A mourner in Zion. Corruption exposed. The Rulers impatient. New blows against constitutional rights and the people's liberties. Refusal to mark reasons of Dissent. Obnoxious overture of 1732. Ebenezer Erskine. Refusal to receive representations and petitions. Embers of liberty ready to expire. A crisis. Is there no one prepared to be a deliverer? — Pp. 1-39. CHAPTER n. ORIGIN OP THE SECESSION. Portmoak. Ebenezer Erskine. A Portmoak sacrament. The past. Secret resolutions. The Synod-sermon. Extracts. Re- marks. The Synod in a storm. Proposal to censure. Mr. Er- skine's appeal. The Synod at Stirling. General Assembly. King- aldrum. Kinross. The Four Brethren. Rebuke and Protest. Curious incident. The Four Brethren recalled. Insulting treat- ment. ■ Persecuted, but not forsaken.' The Commission. An eye-witness. The Four Brethren suspended. Protest Sacra- ment at Queensferry. Growing popular interest. A net. Escape CONTEXTS. from the net. Expulsion from the Church. -The Secession. The Basis. Mistakes corrected. Moral heroism. A historic Church.— Pp. 40—76. CHAPTER IH. CONSOLIDATION OF THE SECESSION. The Three other Fathers. Comparison of Portraits. Anecdote. Gairney Bridge. The Associate Presbytery. Wisdom with courage. The Extra-judicial Testimony. Grounds of Secession as laid by its founders. Alarm in the Assembly. Excitement among the people. Semblance of reform. Censures removed. The four Brethren deliberate. Refusal to return. Reasons. Assembly of 1735, the mask on. Assembly of 1736, the mask becoming transparent. Organization. Progress. The Judicial Testimony. Accessions. Ralph Erskine. The Porteous Mob. Act of Parliament. General submission. New accessions. As- sembly of 1737, the mask falls off. Assembly of 1738, the Libel. Assembly of 1739, the Declinature. The Eight Brethren and the Assembly. The Deposition. Scenes in the parishes of the deposed ministers. The last cord dissevered. — Pp. 77—129. CHAPTER IV. RESULTS OE THE SECESSION. Refusal of Sites. Loyalty of the Seceders. Adam Gib. White- field. Unhappy alienation. Cambuslang. Act concerning the Doctrine of grace. Mr. Nairn. Progress. The Associate Synod. Lowering clouds. The Breach. Two Streams. State of Scot- tish Church. Formation of Relief Presbytery. Principal Ro- bertson. Kirk of Shotts. The dark age. Moderatism. M'Gill of Ayr. Orkney. America. Nova Scotia. Occasional storms. The Civil Magistrate. Right practice with defective theory. Prejudices subsiding. The Union. Growth of Missionary spi- rit. The Voluntary principle. Alarm in the Established Church. Church Extension Scheme. The Veto Act. Seces- sion and Relief movements towards union. Atonement contro- versy. Desire for union grows. Tanfield. The United Pres- byterian Church. Estimate of results. The Secession and reli- gious truth. Religious liberty. Religious literature. Conclu. sion.— Pp. 130-178. HISTORICAL SKETCH OEIGIN OF THE SECESSION CHURCH. CHAPTER I. CAUSES OF THE SECESSION. The Scottish Church at the Revolution— Defects in Revolution-Settlement — William of Orange— Episcopal incumbents admitted— Burnet's de- scription of them— Queen Anne — Abjuration-Oath — Patronage — Op- position to it — Insinuates itself by degrees — First Process against Professor Simson — The Auchterarder proposition — 'Marrow of Mo- dern Divinity ' — Imprimatur of Westminster Assembly— Publication of 'Marrow' in Scotland — Boston — Hog — Marrow Controversy begins — Committee for purity of doctrine— General Assembly condemns the Marrow — The people — Representation by the Twelve Marrowmen — Debates in Commission— The Twelve Queries— Final sentence regard- ing the Marrow — The Marrowmen rebuked — Kid of Queensferry — Prohibition resisted— The Anti-Marrowmen — Second Process against Professor Simson — Boston's dissent — Professor Campbell of St. An- drews — Patronage in some of its ripened frdits — Scene at Bathgate — A mourner in Z ion— Corruption exposed — The Riders impatient — New blows against constitutional rights and the people's liberties — Refusal to mark reasons of Dissent — Obnoxious overture of 1732 — Ebenezer Erskine— Refusal to receive representations and petitions — Embers of liberty ready to expire — A crisis— Is there no one prepared to be a deliverer ? While there is one great general commission which God has intrusted to the One church in all its sections, it is easy to conceive that to some of those sections there shall be committed the assertion of some dishonoured truth, or the guardianship of some violated right, which it has evi- dently been called into separate existence to vindicate. There will thus be its general commission and its denomi- A 2 THE SCOTTISH CHURCH AT THE REVOLUTION. national commission, — the former of which is to be learned from the Word of God, the latter from its own history. A concise and candid narration of the circumstances in which the Secession Church arose, will thus serve to exhibit the special commission which Providence put into her hands ; a description of the characters of those who were the chief actors in the movement, will powerfully contribute to those great moral ends which are ever gained by the con- templation of high-toned principle and sublime self-denial ; while looking back upon it from the distance of more than a hundred years, and beholding it in its consequences direct and indirect, immediate and remote, we shall have the means of judging whether it was of that insignificant na- ture in which a dishonest fear or a reckless partisanship has often sought to describe it, or whether it ought not to be reckoned among the most important and beneficial events in the ecclesiastical history of Scotland. Such a narration it shall be our endeavour to afford in the following pages. The seeds from which the Secession eventually grew, began to be sown almost at the period of the Revolution- settlement ; and it is at this point that all who would un- derstand the subject must begin their investigations. The people of Scotland — 1688 — had just emerged from a persecution of nearly thirty years, during which every expe- dient of tyranny, — fine and imprisonment, confiscation and banishment, torture and death, had been employed to break the spirit of the nation, to weaken its strength, and to impose upon the people a faith and a polity which they abhorred. At the time when the once flourishing church of France was desolated and scattered by the perfidious revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and popish confederacies were plotting the ruin of other protestant churches on the Continent, William prince of Orange had ascended by bloodless steps to the throne of the three kingdoms, and restored the long violated rights of the people. Presbyte- rianism had been established, her Confession of Faith rati- fied, and prelacy denuded of all her peculiar immunities, as contrary to the inclination of the generality of the peo- DEFECTS IN REVOLUTION -SETTLEMENT. 3 pie, ever since the Reformation, — ' they having reformed from popery by presbyters.' To a people whose faith had been held at the risk of life, and at the expense of the best blood of the land, this appeared a deliverance ' most seasonable as to the junc- ture, and surprising as to the manner, in which it was given.' Thousands looked upward to the throne of Him ' who setteth up kings,' with the adoring acknowledgment, — ' Neither was it our own sword or our own bow : but the right hand of the Lord and Ms holy arm that wrought salvation for us.' It has often been remarked, however, by those who have looked closely into this period of Scottish history, that their ecclesiastical liberties and independence were sur- rounded by very imperfect guards, and that at a time when such a bold assertion of their rights as they had sometimes made in less favourable circumstances, would have been sufficient to secure them, they spoke out timidly and faintly. And it was not long ere William made it evident, that he was not disposed to recognise what the church had only faintly asserted. Indeed, though a friend to religious liberty, he either imperfectly understood those opinions respecting the intrinsic power of the church, for which she had often contended and suffered, or was little disposed to respect them, when they interfered with his own political designs. He saw the hierarchy of England indignant at the recent subjection of prelacy in Scotland; the adherents of prelacy in Scotland itself, though not numerous, were troublesome and disaffected ; and to conciliate both, we find him strongly urging upon the General Assembly, the adoption of such measures as would favour the reception of curates or Episcopalian incumbents into the communion and minis- try of the Presbyterian establishment, upon easy terms. When we consider the hostility of these men to Pres- bytery, their approval of the recent persecutions, in which it is not improbable that many of them had personally 4 THE CURATES — BURNET S DESCRIPTION. shared, the suspected error of some of them in doctrine, and the certain immorality of others, we cannot wonder that the proposal was resisted with indignation and alarm. It was so resisted by the more zealous and staunch Pres- byterians. To overcome this resistance, the authority of Parliament was next invoked, which passed an Act declar- ing that such of the curates as offered to subscribe the Confession of Faith, to submit to the Presbyterian govern- ment, and against whom no scandal could be proved for thirty days, should be maintained in the possession of their stipends as parochial ministers. Still the proposal continued to be rejected by repeated Assemblies, which were dissolved or prorogued in consequence by royal authority, until at length the opposition was overcome, and the first heavy blow inflicted upon the Scottish Church, since the Revolution. To form a just estimate of the injurious effects of this measure, we must not look at its mere general features of oppression and intrusion. The injury would not have been irremediable, had these men, though preferring another form of ecclesiastical polity, been possessed of the more important qualities of evangelical sentiment, blame- less deportment, and earnest spirit. But the description given of them by Bishop Burnet is drawn in the darkest colours. 'They were,' says he, 'the worst preachers 1 ever heard ; they were ignorant to a reproach, and many of them were openly vicious. They were a disgrace to their orders, and were indeed the dregs and the refuse of the northern parts. Those of them that rose above contempt and scandal, were men of such violent tem- pers, that they were as much hated as the others were despised.' * Surely the recognition of such worthless men, deserved to be resisted with all the stern and immoveable resolute- * Burnet's History of His Own Times, I., 158. We have seen a volume of sermons in manuscript by one of these indulged curates, which inclined us, in his case at least, a little to modify the Bishop ? s description. TWO PARTIES FORMING-. ness of earlier times. It is to be remembered, however, that only sixty of the old ejected ministers were alive at the Revolution; these, hoary with age and prematurely weakened by years of exposure and suffering, would rapidly pass from the scene, while those who succeeded them, inheriting less of their high-toned independence, were gradually induced to yield a reluctant consent to the wishes of government. In course of time, the numbers thus admitted to the functions of the ministry and to the cure of parishes, might be counted by hundreds, and the Assembly, which, near the close of the previous century, had been found offering so decided a front of opposition to the measure as to provoke repeated prorogations, had become so pliant in its spirit in 1712 as to address Queen Anne in the following words : — ' We cannot but lay before your Majesty this pregnant instance of our moderation, — that since our late happy establishment, there have been taken in and continued, hundreds of dissenting (i. e. Episcopal) ministers, upon the easiest terms.' During the same period, a similar process of deterioration had been going on in the ranks of the eldership, and many individuals who had taken an active share in the scenes of persecution and whose hands were stained with the blood of the saints, were admitted, without acknowledgment of their crimes, to sit in the seats of the elders in her supreme courts, sway- ing the counsels and influencing the destinies of a church, which they had done all in their power to prostrate. The consequences might easily be foreseen. Two parties from this time appeared in the church, the one preaching the doctrines of her Confessions and discharging with assiduity the duties of the pastorate ; the other latitudi- narian in doctrine and earthly in spirit, — the one guarding with anxiety the liberty and independence of the church, against the dictation of civil power ; the other seeking the favour of the court and pliant to its wishes. This latter party by degrees became dominant in the counsels of the church, and under their malign influence we have now to follow the church in her various steps of degradation and 6 QUEEN ANNE — THE ABJUKATION-OATH. defection, until wounded consciences found relief, and the people's liberties an asylum, in the First Secession. The next public events tending further to promote the degradation and defection of the Scottish Church, stand connected with the accession of Queen Anne (1702) to the throne. Even the Union of the two kingdoms, which took place in the earlier part of her reign, and which has been productive to Scotland of such varied and permanent advan- tage, was not without injurious influences upon her eccle- siastical liberties. With the abolition of the Scottish Par- liament which was consequent on the Union, her protection was transferred to the hands of English statesmen, who regarded her popular constitution with no favourable eye ; and looking at her from beside the English Church, in which the royal supremacy was undisputed, were desirous of assimilating her as nearly as possible to that Erastian model. The dispositions of Anne and of her advisers, har- monised with these tendencies. One of her first acts on ascending the throne had been to dissolve the Supreme Court of the Scottish Church, when it was deliberating on an Act declaring Christ to be sole Head of the church. And this ominous commencement was followed not long afterwards by two acts passed in the same year, both tending to distract the counsels and to violate the liber- ties of the church, — the one imposing upon ministers the oath of Abjuration, the other wresting from the people the right of electing their own ministers, and commonly known as the law of patronage. The former of these, the Oath of Abjuration, was received with well-grounded suspicion. The dark shadows and gloomy remembrances of the persecuting times, still fell upon the spirits of not a few of her best ministers ; and they well knew how often the imposing of entangling oaths, had proved among the most subtle and efficient instruments of unprincipled and oppressive rulers. This suspicion was increased by the consideration that if all that was sought by its imposition was to secure their loy- alty, 1>his purpose had already been secured by the oaths THE ABJURATION-OATJJ. / of allegiance and assurance; and the oath itself was so constructed as to involve the swearer in the approbation of an English act of parliament, which provided that the successor to the crown should always be of the Episcopal communion. The last days of the holy Halyburton at St. Andrews, show us with what suspicion and sorrow it was regarded by her best ministers ; and how clearly he fore- saw that it would prove an element of division and a source of weakness even among them.* At first it was generally refused, except by the court-party in the church, who defended it from the first. In course of time, after undergoing various modifications, it was more extensively taken ; but there were those who, like Boston, were content to run all hazards, and even suffer joyfully the spoiling of their goods, rather than do violence to the convictions of conscience. ' I was made to cry out,' writes one in his Diary, referring to the ejection and fines which he anticipated as the penalty of his refusing to take the oath, — ' Lord, my worldly enjoyments, my soul, my body, my heart's blood are at thy service. I would reckon it my glory, my crown, to go to a stake, a cross, a fire, or a gibbet, for thee. I am content to be hanged, beheaded, quartered, for thee ; if thy cause require it, and if thou wilt bear me through, and be with me.'t These sentences disclose the secret mental exercises of Ebenezer Erkskine, of Portmoak, in 1712. Was he now uncon- sciously educating for that future service, to which he was at length to be called forth ? But by making manifest to the government the servility of the court-party, by supplying an opportunity of sus- pending heavy penalties over the heads of those ministers who were most devoted to the independence and purity of the church, and even introducing the seeds of alienation * Halyburton's Memoirs, p. 239. f Fraser's Life and Diary of the Rev. E. Erskine, p. 221. The penalty threatened against all who should refuse to take the Oath, was expulsion from their churches and 'an exorbitant fine of £500 sterling.' Boston's Memoirs, p. 275. 8 PATKONAGE. among the popular party themselves, the Abjuration-oath had probably served the chief purposes for which it was imposed. It was some consolation to the non-jurants, that they were supported in their steadfastness by the general voice of the people, who, looking upon the oath as a badge of slavery, admired the courage of those who had resisted its imposition, and, deserting the jurants, crowded from all parts of the country to attend on their ministry. But the restoration of the Law of 'patronage in the same year that saw the Abjuration-oath imposed, struck a yet heavier blow at the liberty and purity of the church. In her best times, the right of voting in the election of per- sons to ecclesiastical functions had been claimed by the Christian people as their inalienable right, and yielded to them by the state. ' None might be intruded upon any congregation, either by the 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.' Such were the words of the Second Book of Discipline, and the rights claimed had been fully recog- nised in the constitution given to the church at the Revo- lution-settlement. The year 1712 saw this right wrested from the people, and the most efficient instrumentality introduced for the secularising and enslavement of the church. That this was the design of the government in restoring patronage, cannot be doubted. So long as the choice of the Christian people was recognised as an essential element in the election of their pastors, the sympathy between the people and those pastors was likely to be great, the political leanings of the church would be liberal, and the influence of the government over the decisions and the policy of her ecclesiastical assem- blies, uncertain and imperfect. But let the nomination of her clergy be in the hands of the crown and of the aristocracy, and they have the power of assimilating the church to their own will, and by making her pastors dependent, making them subservient and secular. The PROPHETIC REMONSTRANCE BY ASSEMBLY. 9 voice of civil power heard within a church dictating her ecclesiastical arrangements, is the sure signal that she is enslaved. The best securities against corruption are gone, the moment the people have lost their liberty to choose their teachers, and her courts the power freely to adminis- ter her laws. The Assembly foresaw the injuries which this measure was to inflict, and by her Commission represented to par- liament that the act was calculated to ' inevitably obstruct the work of the gospel, and create great disorder and dis- quiet in this church and land,' — words which when read in the light of the next century, which record three seces- sions from her ranks, seem almost prophetic in their import, and which in all likelihood when read in the light of another century, after so many thousands have been led by experience to ponder the problem whether it is possible for a church to be established and yet remain untram- melled, are likely to appear more significant and prophetic still. At first the evils of patronage were not felt, because persons when presented to livings refused to accept them, when not accompanied by the call of the people. But this scrupulosity, as we shall find, was short-lived. In a few years the doctrine was boldly proclaimed, that the pre- sentation of the patron was sufficient ground for induct- ing the presentee; the judicatories of the church were to be found here and there succumbing and lending themselves as instruments in effecting settlements op- posed to the wishes of the people ; and where pres- byteries, retaining their attachment to rights which they believed to involve the highest interests of the church, had dignity and firmness enough to respect the feelings of the people, the Commission of Assembly, which con- tained a large infusion of patrons and of the friends of patrons, was always ready to step into the place of the presbytery, and, in the face of appeals and remon- strances from an oppressed and insulted people, to force on the most violent settlements. Who can wonder that 10 PROFESSOR SIMSON. the operation of such a system in combination with those other unfriendly influences we have described, was rapid and ruinous. We have seen men of an alien-spirit admitted into the bosom of the church, soon after the Revolution-settle- ment, — we have seen the frowns of the court ever resting upon the ministers of earnest spirit and friendly to popular rights, and withering the energies of those of feeble principle ; and now that the vacant charges, as they occur, are filled up by men that are agreeable to the taste and obsequious to the wishes of patrons, rather than because they are the choice of the Christian people, what is to be expected but that the general character of the church should soon be deteriorated and secularised. It was only the natural effect of such vitiating influences. Nor had the friends of the church long to wait for unequivocal evidence that this was the case. Both in the feeble condemnation of ruinous errors, and in the severe reprobation of precious truths, evidence was given that carried alarm and sorrow into every faithful bosom in her fellowship, that the church had ' left her first love,' and that, under the blight of heresy and earthly feeling, the bloom and beauty of her early youth were fast fading away. The issue of the first process against Mr. Simson, pro- fessor of Divinity in the University of Glasgow, in the Assembly of 1717, was the first event that discovered to the friends of the Church of Scotland how far the corrupt- ing leaven that we have seen introduced into the midst of her, had destroyed her fidelity and changed her spirit. There are grounds for thinking that the writings of such men as Archbishop Tillotson, which however elegant as compositions and correct as statements of moral duty, deal but sparingly in those great truths which are at once the glory of the Christian revelation and the instruments of our moral transformation, had found their way into Scotland very early in the eighteenth century, and that the legal and unevangelical strain of preaching which they exemplify, had become fashionable in many of the pulpits of the land. The influences we have already PROFESSOR SIMSON. 11 described encouraged these tendencies, and it is not to be wondered at that men of this class, should have been pre- ferred by patrons to a more faithful and fervent ministry. We doubt, however, whether the result in the case of Professor Simson, did not exceed the fears even of the most vigilant and desponding. Thoughtful men must indeed have been disturbed with uneasy forebodings, when they marked how the ecclesiastical leaders discouraged enquiry and prosecution, and in the face of universal report charging one of the teachers of the rising ministry with the most dangerous errors, left the enquiry to be prosecuted by Mr. Webster, one of the ministers of Edin- burgh, at his own charge, and on his own responsibility. But if the introduction of the process was thus fitted to give alarm, still more was its issue. It appeared in evidence that Professor Simson taught such unscriptural tenets as the following : — ' That heathens have an obscure objective disco- very of redemption through Christ ; that the light of nature, including tradition, is sufficient to teach men the way of salvation ; that the souls of children are as pure and holy as the soul of Adam was in his original condition, being inferior to him only as to those qualifications and habits which he received as being created in a state of ma- turity ; that no proper covenant of works was made with Adam as the representative of his posterity ; that our own happiness ought to be our chief end in the service of God ; that there is no immediate precourse of God attending and influencing the acts of his reasonable creatures ; and that there will be no sinning in hell after the last judgment.'* In these propositions it is easy to trace some of the worst and most characteristic errors of Pelagianism ; errors that reach to the very foundations of revealed truth. Did not the General Assembly then brand them with its most unequivocal condemnation 1 Did it not censure their author, and drive him from a position in which he had been industriously poisoning the very fountain-heads of * Brown of Haddington's Historical Account, pp. 18, 19. and Answers to Mr. Webster's Libel. 12 SENTENCE OF ASSEMBLY. the church's purity? No ecclesiastical penalty was in- flicted, or formal censure uttered, or error explicitly con- demned ! The Assembly thought it sufficient to declare that ' some of his opinions were not evidently founded on the word of God, or necessary to be taught in divinity, — that he had used some expressions which bear, and are used by adversaries in a bad and unsound sense, and for answering the objections of adversaries, had employed some hypotheses that tend to attribute too much to natural reason and the power of corrupt nature, which expressions and hypotheses they prohibited him from using in future.' And the Pelagian Professor was permitted to retain his chair. Such an issue was significant. Error may arise in the purest church ; the proper test of its general con- dition is, how does it treat the error when it appears 1 To describe the sentence of the Assembly as a mere act of ill- judged lenity, is to misunderstand its character. To speak thus softly of errors, proved a secret sympathy with them ; and it ought to be remembered that the sentence did not find Professor Simson innocent, but his errors almost harm- less. Such a decision might well be regarded as an acquit- tal, if not a triumph. That it was so regarded appears from the fact, that in a few years he was again before the Assembly, and his earlier errors found to have matured into full-blown heresies of a far deeper dye. But the issue of the process against Professor Simson, was not the only act of the Assembly of 1717, that awa- kened serious alarm among the most faithful ministers and attached friends of the Scottish Church. They must have noticed an ominous consistency in the fact, that while the Assembly refused to place the brand of their disapprobation upon the undisguised Pelagianism of Sim- son, they were not slow to place it upon a precious gospel truth. The Presbytery of Avxhterarder had recently in- serted in their minutes the following proposition — ' That it is not sound and orthodox to teach, that we must forsake sin in order to our coming to Christ, and instating us in cove- nant with God.' A young man on trials for license tinged THE AUCHTERARDER PROPOSITION. 13 with the errors of the times, had favoured the sentiment that we must save ourselves from the love, power and, practice of sin before we come to Christ as a Saviour, — a sentiment most natural to the self-righteous heart, but directly opposed to every line of apostolic teaching, and to the very essence of the gospel. For, as one of the faithful witnesses of those times remarked, ' Never will you for- sake sin evangelically till once Christ come to you, and you come to him ; when Christ comes into the temple, He drives out all the buyers and sellers ; therefore let Him in, and He will make the house clean.' Thus spake Ralph Erskine of Dunfermline,* referring to the proposition of this presbytery which had so faithfully ' set itself for the defence of the truth.' But the General Assembly con- demned the proposition as ' unsound ' and ' detestable,' and treated the presbytery itself with indignant severity. The enlightened friends of the gospel in the church, were at length completely aroused. They had seen the Assembly in their lenient sentence in the case of Simson, virtually throw their shield around the head of error ; and now, by wounds inflicted by that same Assembly, ' truth lay bleed- ing in the streets.' Silence in matters of personal injury may often be a seemly Christian forbearance, in the case of injured truth it becomes cowardice and treachery. Earnest consultations were held about the best means of stemming the tide of defection. The publication of old works writ- ten in an evangelical strain was suggested, as one of the best expedients for this purpose, because ' combining the greatest efficiency with the least offence ;' and this sugges- tion, which was favourably entertained, led to the first pub- lication of the ' Marrow of Modern Divinity'' in Scotland, t * Sermon?, quoted in Brown's Gospel Truth, p. 6. + The publication of works by old authors, was a resource not peculiar to this crisis. The student of Ecclesiastical History, may perhaps^ recall to mind Calvin's Commentary on « Seneca de Cle- mentia,' which appeared at an early period in the struggles of the Reformed Church in France, and was designed as a check upon tyrannical power. Sentiments were borne with in Seneca that, if put forth by Calvin alone, would have drawn down upon him the royal vengeance. 14 ' THE MARROW OF MODERN DIVINITY.' The deep interest which the appearance of this work soon excited among the people, — the important religious controversy which it occasioned, — the representations of which it afforded matter in successive Assemblies, — its inestimable value as a means of retaining thousands of the people in the knowledge of a free and unfettered gospel, when the majority of those, who were set for its defence, had sought to betray and bind it, — the impress which the work has left upon our religious literature, as well as the intimate connexion of the controversies regarding it with the rise of the Secession, will not only excuse but require our entering into a few details respecting the character of the volume, as well as of the way in which it was dragged from comparative obscurity, and thrown at so seasonable a juncture upon the Scottish mind. The ' Marrow of Modern Divinity ' was the production of Mr. Edward Fisher, a gentleman commoner of Brazen- Nose College, Oxford, distinguished among his contem- poraries for his extensive and accurate scholarship. It consists to a great extent of quotations from the writ- ings of Luther and other divines of the Reformation, chiefly illustrative of those two points which form the theme of the greatest of the inspired epistles, — the gospel method of justification and of sanctification. These quo- tations are presented in the lively form of a dialogue between Evangelista, a minister of the gospel, Nomista, a legalist, Antinomista, an Antinomian, and Neophytus, a young Christian, — the first of these being the party to whom the other three interlocutors refer their differences and difficulties, and who is to be understood as expressing the sentiments of the author. Joseph Caryl, the well-known commentator on Job, was appointed by the Westminster Assembly of Divines to revise and approve of theological works for the press ; and in 1646, while that eminent Assembly was holding its sittings, it first appeared with his note of license, in which were the following words, ' I allow it to be printed, and recommend it to the readers, as a discourse stored with 'THE MARROW' INTRODUCED TO SCOTLAND. 15 many necessary and seasonable truths, confirmed by scrip- ture, and avowed by many approved writers.' Subsequent editions appeared with the strong recommendations of other Westminster divines, such as Jeremiah Burroughs, William Strong, and others ; and stray copies having early found their way into Scotland, such was the eager avidity with which it was sought after and read, especially in the times of persecution, that it was no uncommon thing fur persons to employ themselves in transcribing the whole or even parts of the book, and for manuscript copies of it to be circulated far and wide, especially in the suffering districts. Latterly, however, it appears to have been comparatively unknown in Scotland, and an account of the chain of events by which it was once more brought into notice, affords an interesting illustration of those little provi- dences and seeming casualties, by which the wisdom of God has so often wrought out the most beneficent results for the church and the world. A pious soldier coming into Scotland about the close of the seventeenth century, had brought with him a copy of the ' Marrow,' and left it in a small farmhouse in the parish of Simprin, Berwickshire. Thomas Boston, then a young minister, had recently entered on the pastorate of Simprin, and performing his pastoral visits, in which throughout life he displayed a most exemplary diligence, he chanced to visit this farmhouse. Two old books at- tracted his notice — ' Christ's blood flowing freely,' by Salt- marsh, and the l Marrow of Modern Divinity. ' The former of these he laid aside on discovering its Antinomi- an bias, but the Marrow charmed him with its sweet evan- gelical strain, and the perusal of it marked a most im- portant era in his spiritual life. In very early youth Boston had experienced the great change afterwards so beautifully described in his ' Fourfold State,' under the preaching of the venerable Henry Erskine, in a barnhouse at Revelaw ; and even the icy and flooded waters of the Blackadder, had not prevented him from hastening alone in the very depths of winter, to hear that servant of God 16 'THE MARROW PUBLISHED IN SCOTLAND. preach. But up to the time of his reading the ' Marrow,' he had felt himself under restraint and impediment through imperfect views of the gospel, and to this volume he ascribed his emancipation from these restraints, his perception of the gospel in its full-orbed glory, and the liberty which he henceforth felt to proclaim the free and unrestricted access of all sinners to Christ as a Saviour. It was natural that a book thus intimately associated with the history of his own inward life, should be remembered by him with peculiar interest ever afterwards.* About seventeen years after this, Boston, now become minister of the beautiful district of Ettrick, sitting in the Assembly house immediately after the condemnation of the Auchterarder proposition and conversing with Mr. Drum- rnond of Crieff, was led to refer to the ' Marrow,' and to recommend it to the perusal of his friend. Pleased with the volume, Mr. Drurnmond recommended it to others, and the result, after the consultations to which we have already referred, was its publication in the year 1718, with a recommendatory preface by one of the most learned and pious ministers of the times — Mr. Hog of Carnock. When the enemy was coming in like a flood, this was the standard which was lifted up against him. Thrown at such a juncture upon the Scottish mind, the ' Marrow' told with powerful but varied effect. By some it was read with satisfaction as reflecting in clear and ener- getic language their own views of gospel truth, steering with masterly skill the intricate passage between Antino- mian and Arminian error, and fragrant with those sweet evangelic odours which refresh the soul. By others it was received with sentiments of deep and undisguised displea- sure, as opposed to all their theological notions ; and these happened, in some instances, to be the most unscrupulous ecclesiastical managers and influential men in the church. * The celebrated George Whitefield appears to have received similar advantage from the perusal of the Marrow. We find Mr. Ralph Erskine congratulating him on this circumstance in a letter, — ' I am glad the Marrow of Modern Divinity has been helpful to you, as it has beeu to many.' THE MARROW CONTROVERSY BEGINS. 17 It was easy to forecast what would follow. The ripple was already on the wave, which precedes and portends the storm. Mr. Hog saw this, and if possible still to stay the rising tempest, published early in 1719 ' An explanation of the passages excepted against in the Marrow of Modern Divi- nity.' But the contest was one, not of mere dry dogmas, but of deep convictions and religious feelings, and the expla- nation served but little to repress growing animosities. The sermon of Principal Hadow of St. Andrews, preached at the opening of the Synod of Fife on the 7th of April 1719, which was principally directed against the ' Marrow,' was the first circumstance formally to introduce the matter into the ecclesiastical courts. The majority of the Synod sympa- thising with his views, immediately requested him to pub- lish it. A controversy ensued which waged through the following four years, drawing into the field a host of con- troversialists on both sides, in the midst of which there appeared on the side of the ' Marrow' the profound theolo- gical genius of Riccaltoun. In the General Assembly of 1719 which met in May, the ' Marrow' was not named ; but such instructions were given to the Commission as proved that it was present to the minds of its members, implied a condemnation winch it was not yet felt expedient to express, and prepared the way for the dragging of itself and its friends at an early period before the supreme ecclesiastical tribunal. It was instructed to c inquire into the publishing and spreading of books and pamphlets tending to the diffusing of that con- demned proposition, (that of the Auchterarder Presbytery,) and promoting a scheme of opinions relative thereto, which are inconsistent with our Confession of Faith ; and that the recommenders of such books and pamphlets, or the errors therein contained, whether by write or print, be called before them to answer for their conduct in such re- commendations ; and the Commission are empowered to judge, in cases of doctrine that shall be brought before them, by appeals or references from Synods or Presbyte- 18 COMMITTEE FOR PURITY OF DOCTRINE. ries.' There was no lack of zeal on the part of the Com- mission in following out these instructions. A Committee was appointed under the high-sounding name of the ' Com- mittee for purity of doctrine,' which in its turn appointed a Sub-committee to 'ripen the affair,' by fixing on the works to be condemned, naming the persons to be sum- moned for examination, and preparing the interrogato- ries that were to be addressed to them. Principal Hadow was the soul and centre of this Sub- committee, and as it was known to many, that personal animosity joined with controversial rancour to whet his zeal against the venerable recommender of the Marrow, there was little difficulty in guessing either the parties or the writings, against which the enginery of the Committee would speedily be turned. Little time indeed was left for guessing. In the course of the year, four ministers were brought before the Com- mittee for examination, Messrs. Warden of Gargunnock, Brisbane of Stirling, Hamilton of* Airth, and Hog of Car- nock. The explanations and defences given by these brethren seemed to have so far soothed and satisfied the Committee, and many who had taken no active part in the controversy, but had kept watching its progress with pro- found anxiety, began to hope that all judicial proceedings would now be stopped. But that point was passed, at which controversy could be stayed. While the Committee at Edinburgh seemed to have all but succeeded in extin- guishing the fire, it was smouldering in provincial presby- teries and synods, instruments were found ready to send up injurious reports and complaints to the Committee at St. Andrews, and that Committee with its indignant head was not slow to fan the flame. The consequence was, that men looked forward to the coming Assembly with trembling interest, as likely to prove the crisis of this great controversy, and the fall or triumph of that truth which it involved. The Assembly came, — the Committee reported, and the worst fears of its best friends were realised. The Committee for purity of doctrine gave in a report REPORT OF COMMITTEE. 19 in the form of an overture, containing some propositions that were represented to have been collected from the 1 Marrow,' and ' which appeared contrary to the Scriptures and Confession of Faith ; ' and these were accompanied with some expressions culled from the same book, that were declared by the Committee to be ' exceeding harsh and offensive, passing many others that were exceptionable.' The condemned passages were arranged under five heads. 1st. The nature of faith, — under which the charge is, that assurance is declared to be of the essence of faith. 2d. Of universal atonement and pardon. 3d. Holiness not necessary to salvation. 4th. Fear of punishment and hope of reward, not allowed to be motives of a believer's obedience. 5th. That a believer is not under the law, as a rule of life. To these were added certain expressions styled Antinomian paradoxes, of which the following are a specimen: — A believer is not under the law, but is wholly delivered from it. A believer doth not commit sin. The Lord can see no sin in a believer. The passages extracted under these five heads, were so in- geniously placed and perversely withdrawn from their con- nection, as to convey the most incorrect and injurious ideas both in reference to the ' Marrow' and its friends. For, an examination of the general strain of the book, as well as of the parts from which the condemned propositions are ex- cerpted, makes it evident, that its real teaching under those five heads, instead of embodying some of the most heretical and startling dogmas, conveyed such wholesome and evan- gelical truths as the following: — That all who hear the gospel are warranted to believe it ; that faith in Christ encourages immediate access with confidence into the pre- sence of God, and the immediate hope of salvation ; that God, in the gift of his Son, has brought mercy near to every man; that holiness, while absolutely necessary, is in no sense the price or condition of salvation; that believers are not under the law as a covenant of works, in respect either of its promise, precept, or penalty, and that the law as a covenant of works, is wholly distinct from the law as a 20 GENERAL ASSEMBLY CONDEMNS ' THE MARROW. ' rule of life. — As for the so-called Antinomian paradoxes, they might have been vindicated to a protestant assembly by their resemblance to those bold propositions which Luther nailed on the door of the church at Wittenburg, and which struck the first death knell of popery in Europe ; a higher defence might have been pleaded still, that some of them are expressed in the very words of the Holy Ghost. It was in vain that Mr. Hog of Carnock and others argued the unfairness of judging of the general strain of a book by such fragmentary portions as the Committee had presented to the Assembly, insisted that even admit- ting that a few injudicious phrases and paradoxical ex- pressions might be found in the book, the same might be affirmed of ' authors of uncontested orthodoxy and emi- nence, both old and late, whose excellent meaning had hitherto procured an overlooking of such flights,' and in- vited a comparison of the passages excepted against, with others in which the errors condemned were rejected by the author. The Assembly was in no mood to listen to such reasonable demands, but refusing to look beyond the passages presented by the Committee, found as follows : — ' That the said passages and quotations which relate to the five several heads of doctrine above mentioned, are con- trary to the Holy Scriptures, our Confession of Faith and catechisms; and that the distinction of the law as it is the law of works and as it is the law of Christ, as the author applies it in order to sense and defend the six An- tinomian paradoxes above written, is altogether ground- less ; and that the other expressions above set down, ex- cerpted out of the said book, are exceeding harsh and ofien- sive. And therefore the General Assembly do hereby strictly prohibit and discharge all the ministers of this church, either by preaching, writing, or printing, to recom- mend the said book, or in discourse to say anything in favours of it ; but on the contrary, they are hereby en- joined and required to warn and exhort their people in whose hands the said book is, or may come, not to read or use the same.' THE PEOPLE JUDGE FOR THEMSELVES. 21 A prohibition so sweeping and stringent would have more beseemed that Church which boasts its Index Expur- gatorius, and ' hates the light, neither cometh to the light, lest its deeds should be made manifest ; ' and when we think that the work thus condemned and prohibited con- tained so much of the marrow of revealed and gospel truth, — ' the concurring suffrages of burning and shining lights, some of whom were honoured to do eminent and heroical services in their day,'* — it is impossible not to characterize this act as a most flagrant instance of the ' rulers dealing treacherously,' a ' wounding of Christ in the house of his friends.' It was an hour when those who were right-hearted men in Zion, were ready to clothe themselves in sackcloth, and hang their harps on the wil- lows. ' I would not,' said one minister on hearing of the Assembly's decision, — ' I would not for ten thousand worlds have been a yea in the passing of that Act.' t But, happily for the church and the world, acts of tyranny like this, often defeat themselves. The very pro- hibition of the Assembly, inflamed the curiosity of multi- tudes to see a book which had thus been interdicted, more especially as they could not but observe that its most reso- lute defenders were among the most godly ministers and eminent preachers of the land. The book was in this manner far more widely circulated than could possibly have been effected by any other means ; the peasant in his cottage was seen studying with avidity the forbidden page, — some of the most precious truths were beheld with in- creased evidence and surrounded with a new glory, and that volume which had been branded by an unfaithful Assembly as containing the poison of asps, was found to drop with sweetness as the honey-comb. It seemed as if when the rulers of the church were ready to bedim and almost quench the gospel light, it had been sud- * Preface to the Marrow of Modern Divinity by Mr. Hog of Carnook. t This saying is mentioned in a letter by the Rev. Gabriel "Wil- son of Maxton. Brown's Gospel Truth, pp. 12, 13. 22 REPRESENTATION PREPARED. denly lighted up, by invisible hands, in a thousand homes. * The first effect of this decision upon those members of Assembly who had distinguished themselves in the defence of the Marrow was stunning; its second was to lead to more energetic measures for the vindication of injured truth than ever. Men who, like Boston, found few to sym- pathize and co-operate with him in his own bounds, natur- ally sought correspondence with brethren of kindred sen- timent and feelings at a distance, such as Ebenezer Erskine of Portmoak and Mr. Hog of Carnock. Repeated confer- ences were accordingly held during the year by the aggriev- ed brethren, for deliberation about their present duty and prayer for divine direction; and in the reminiscences of those conferences which yet remain in the letters and memoirs of some of their prominent members, nothing is more apparent than that oneness of mind which usually results from the absence of worldly policy, simple trust in God, and singleness of eye in a good cause. It was deter- mined that a Representation should be presented to the next Assembly complaining of the injury that they believ- ed to have been done to various parts of Christian truth by the act of last Assembly, specifying the principal points in reference to which they felt themselves aggrieved, ex- pressing their apprehension of the effects of the Act in encouraging a spirit of legal preaching among the minis- try, and praying for its repeal. Though this important document was drawn up in a most respectful and tem- perate spirit, and even expressed a readiness on the part of its authors to believe that the Act complained of was the effect of oversight rather than of deliberate intention to wound the truth, yet its presentation must be regarded as a proceeding of singular fidelity and boldness. Its * « That struggle,' says Boston, • through the mercy of God, turned to the great advantage of truth in our Church, both among the ministers and people; insomuch, it has been owned that few public differences have had such good effects. Some glorious gos- pel truths have been in our day set in an uncommon light.' Me- moirs. REPRESENTATION SUBMITTED TO THE COMMISSION. 23 authors could not but foresee the troubles to which such a step would expose them, and that all their temporal inter- ests might eventually be placed in hazard by it ; many in- deed who were at one in sentiment with them, kept aloof from that movement for these very reasons ; and all the greater honour is due to those men, who were prepared to stand forth and brave the opposition of the Assembly, and brook all injurious consequences for the sake of truth. The following are the names of those twelve witnesses, henceforth known in ecclesiastical history by the title of the Marrowmen : — Rev. James Hog, Carnock ; Thomas Boston, Ettrick ; John Bonar, Torphichen ; John William- son, Inveresk; James Kid, Queensferry; Gabriel Wilson, Maxton; Ebenezer Erskine, Portmoak; Ralph Erskine, Dunfermline ; James Wardlaw, Dunfermline ; Henry Da- vidson, Galashiels ; John Bathgate, Orwell ; William Hunter, Lilliesleaf. The Representation had already passed the Committee of bills, and would have been brought up for discussion, when the indisposition of the Earl of Rothes, the King's Commis- sioner, led to the abrupt dissolution of the Assembly (1721). The Representation was in consequence handed over to the Commission, with instructions to prepare the whole for the meeting of Assembly in the following year. Is it pre- sumptuous to trace divine arrangement in the slight inci- dent which thus prolonged the cause? The storms of controversy continued to waft the seeds of truth into many a quarter, whither they would never have been carried in a calm. The banner thus continuing to float aloft amid the protracted conflict, gave men time to read and inter- pret the precious truths inscribed on it, even though these were sometimes written in apothegm and paradox. But our limits do not allow us to indulge in a minute narrative of the last year of the Marrow Controversy in Scotland, though it presents one of the most interesting chap- ters in its ecclesiastical history. The records and memoirs of the period describe the Representation as taken up on the following day by the Commission, and assailed in elaborately 24 THE TWELVE QUERIES. prepared speeches by Principal Hadow and his followers. Transferred on the following day to a Committee, the Mar- rowmen return the assault, when Williamson of Inveresk ' in a point of debate, fairly lays Mr. Allan Logan, minister of Culross, and Boston is encouraged by the success of an encounter with Principal Haddow.' This Committee re- ports to the Commission, which appoints another Commit- tee to prepare a vindication of the Act of Assembly against which the Representors complain. The vindication is laid upon the table of the Commission, and, after long debate, is adopted as an overture to be transmitted to the next Assembly ; and, meanwhile, the Representors are summoned to appear before the Commission at its meeting in Novem- ber. They come, unwitting of what is next to be done, and are surprised to find that instead of their complaint being considered, they themselves are treated as suspected of error, and twelve ensnaring queries, as if for the purpose of obtaining matter of accusation against them, put into their hands. ' Thus unexpectedly,' says Boston, ' did they turn the cannon against ourselves.' Such unconstitutional and insidious procedure might very fairly have been resisted by the Representee, but they now began to anticipate being cast out by their brethren, and they saw that in the event of their being thus driven forth, the cause of truth would be more effectually pro- moted, and their own reputation placed in a clearer light, by their waving their right and condescending to reply. Ebenezer Erskine accordingly prepared a draft of answers ; these were revised by Gabriel Wilson of Maxton, ' whose great compass of learning peculiarly fitted him for the task,' and the result was a document, which for luminous distinctness, argumentative power, accurate learning, and felicitous illustration, must ever be regarded as a master- piece in theological controversy. It seemed as if the minds of the Marrowmen had become whetted and invigorated by the previous warfare ; and when we consider that it was in this same year that the ' Fourfold State ' of Boston, which combines in itself the quaint genius and point of TENETS HELD BY THE ASSEMBLY. 25 Henry with the evangelical sweetness of Flavel, which has left its indelible impress upon the religious phraseology of Scotland, and still sheds holy fragrance in the cottages of its peasantry, was given to the world, — we must be struck with the way in which God was providing an antidote in the hearts of the people, to the errors and unfaithfulness of their ecclesiastical rulers. The Commission continued to 'ripen the affair' for the coming Assembly, — a work by no means rendered more easy by the replies of the twelve brethren, or less delicate by the deep and unequivocal interest which many of the peo- ple were showing in their favour. At length the month of May came with its annual Assembly (1722), and the over- ture of the Commission respecting the Representors, after undergoing many corrections and changes, was laid upon its table. The disposal of their case had become the anxious and absorbing thought of all. Personal friendship, regard for the cause which the twelve brethren maintained, as well as dread on the part of many of the consequences of a severe sentence, induced some to plead for a great modifi- cation of the Act of 1720, and others even to insist on its entire repeal. The new Act did contain some considerable modifications of that of 1720, while professing to ex- plain and confirm it ; but, even in its modified form, it was found to assert and vindicate such objectionable tenets as the following: — 1. That in the gospel, properly so called, there are new precepts, as particularly faith and repen- tance, that were never commanded or required in the moral law, either directly, or by necessary consequence. 2. That the law which believers are under, requires good works, as a federal or conditional mean of, and as having a causality in order to the obtaining of glory, and yet gives no federal right to it. 3. That the law, as to the believer, is really neither divested of its promise of life, nor of its threatening of death. 4. That the believer ought to be moved to obedience by the hopes of enjoying heaven, or any good temporal or eternal, by his obedience as a federal mean or cause thereof. The Assembly, more- 26 THE MARROWMEN REBUKED. over, 'strictly prohibit and discharge all the ministers of this church, to use by writing, printing, preaching, catechis- ing, or otherwise teaching, either publicly or privately, the positions condemned, or what may be equivalent to them or of like tendency, under pain of the censures of the church, conformed to the merit of their offence ; and do ordain the several presbyteries, synods, and commissions of the General Assemblies of this church, to take particular care that the premises be punctually observed by all min- isters and members of this church ; and, more especially, the presbyteries and synods within whose bounds any of the brethren reside who signed the Representation. And because of the injurious reflections contained in their Representation, the Assembly do appoint their Moderator, in their name, to rebuke and admonish them ; and though their offence deserves a much higher censure, yet the Assembly forbears it, in hopes that the great lenity used towards them, shall engage them to a more dutiful beha- viour in time coming.' The rebuke was meekly received by the brethren as a part of the shame which they were called to bear for the name of Christ, but they could not obey an inhibition which would seal their lips against proclaiming truths which they had declared to be above all price. Mr. Kid of Queensferry, a man of singular boldness, was chosen to lay a protest upon the table, which closed with these reso- lute sentences. ' We do protest that we look upon the said fifth Act of Assembly, 1720, as contrary to the Word of God, and to the foresaid standards of doctrine and covenants, and of what we have complained of in the foresaid eighth Act, as of dangerous consequence thereto ; and that there- fore we dare not in any manner of way, no not by silence, consent unto or approve of them, nor the Acts of Assembly relative thereunto ; and that it shall be lawful to us, agree- able to the Word of God and the standards of doctrine aforesaid in this church, to profess, preach, and still bear testimony unto the truths condemned or otherwise injured by the said Acts of Assembly, notwithstanding of the said THE ANTI-MARROWMEN. 27 Acts, and whatsoever shall follow thereupon; upon all which we take instruments and crave extracts.' Many expected that this protest, containing as it did so unequivocal a refusal of the Assembly's authority, would have led to more severe and summary measures. But a hint in the royal letter, representing the unfitness of divi- sions for the ' present feared confusions,' induced the domi- nant party in the Assembly to wink at a contempt of their authority, which in other circumstances they would doubtless have visited with their highest censures. In this case the brethren would have walked forth with Ebenezer Erskine and Boston of Ettrick at their head, and the Secession, which at length took place, have been antedated by several years. It was well that it was pre- vented, and that the Secession, when it did at length occur, should have been grounded on a yet wider basis, and carried along with it, yet more decidedly, the convic- tions and sympathies of the people. It would of course be to form much too unfavourable an estimate of the state of matters in the Church of Scot- land at this time, to suppose that these honoured men, whose faithful and heroic contendings in behalf of injured truth we have been endeavouring to trace, were the only ministers in the church that held fast by a free and unre- stricted gospel. Undoubtedly there were many others who, though they did not join with the Marrowmen in the judicial steps which they felt themselves called upon to take, yet sympathised with them in their views, and sought to ward off the censures that fell upon them. And even among those who took an active part against the Marrow- men, it is undeniable that there were to be found several men of intellectual gifts and sincere piety, whose opposi- tion to the Marrow and its defenders is to be accounted for rather on the supposition that they held inadequate and confused views of the gospel, than that they did not hold it at all. They were in much the same state of mind in which Boston acknowledges himself to have been before 28 rXFAYOUKABLE SIGNS. the Marrow fell into his hands, during his early pastorate, — living men in fetters, — like Lazarus, still having clinging to them the cerements of the grave, and needing that the divine voice, which had commanded them to come forth, should speak a second time and say, ' Loose him and let him go.' There is reason for thinking that Principal Ha- dow himself belonged to this party. And doubtless there were others who were tempted to assume a hostile attitude towards the Marrow by a too fastidious recoil from some of its strong and paradoxical expressions ; and others still from a temporizing spirit, or a dread of consequences. But even when these concessions have been made, there cannot be a doubt that those who went to swell the majority against the twelve brethren, were men of a different class, — men who approached more or less nearly to Professor Simson in their doctrinal tendencies, whose legal sentiments were in direct anta- gonism to the gospel, whose ' drowsy tinklings lulled the flock to sleep,' who, excluding from their teaching those grand peculiarities which are at once the glory and the power of Christianity, held up to their people the mere dead image of a cold morality in its room. The con- demnation of the Marrow, therefore, was justly regarded as another token of the continued defection of the church ; and strong suspicions began to be extensively awakened in the public mind, of a design in the dominant party in the Assembly to corrupt and betray the truth. Nor had they long to wait, ere circumstances arose to strengthen their suspicions, and to encourage the most gloomy fore- bodings. The course of the church was not only down- wards, but, as in the law of mechanics, it was every step with accelerated progress. We do not now refer solely to the opposition and injury which the friends of the Marrow, and those who were sus- pected of being tinctured by its spirit, were often called to encounter in the provincial judicatories, though the testimonies on this subject are painfully abundant. SECOND PROCESS AGAINST PROFESSOR SIMSON. 20 Processes were raised against several of the Marrow- men on frivolous and factious grounds ; * their translation from obscure stations in the church to places of more pro- minence and usefulness, was discouraged and opposed, and on this account Boston affirms that he was ' staked down to Ettrick ' at a period when both health and mental peace called for change; teasing and ensnaring questions were addressed to students and licentiates, to stop their way either of being entered upon trials, or ordained into churches ; while those that were of the most loose and corrupt principles were most favoured by them. ' These tilings,' says one who loved the Scottish Church with all the affection of a son to a mother, ' are too notour to be denied; and these were some of the sad and lasting effects of the foresaid Acts of Assembly, and the sad occa- sion of planting many churches with men that were little acquainted with the gospel, yea, enemies to the doctrine of grace.' f Other events soon occurred, which showed that there were men in the bosom of the church, and even in its highest places of influence and trust, that were ready to shake the very pillars of revealed truth. The unfaithful lenity shown to Professor Simson, in the process formerly raised against him for Arminian and Pelagian errors, had operated in the manner that might have been anticipated. In a second process raised against him in the Assembly of 1726, it was proved that he had not only continued to teach all his former errors, but that, em- boldened by the gentle and apologetic strain of the Assem- bly's former sentence, he had taught his students ' That the Son of God is not necessarily existent ; that the three * It was during a debate that arose in the Synod of Fife, in con- nexion with one of these processes, that on some members denying the Father's gift of Christ to sinners of mankind, Ebenezer Erskine rose and spoke in the following terms : — « Moderator, our Lord Jesus says of himself, " My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven." This he uttered to a promiscuous multitude-, and let me see the man who dare say he said wrong.* This short speech, spoken witli characteristic majesty and energy, is said to have made a pro- found impression on the members of Synod, and on all present. t Ralph Erskine's Faith no Fancy. 30 BOSTON S DISSENT. persons of the Godhead are not the same in substance ; and that necessary existence, supreme Deity, and being the only true God, may be taken in a sense importing the per- sonal property of the Father, and so not belonging to the Son.' Here was an unblushing attempt to sow Arianism in the church, and to induce its future teachers to put dis- honour on Him ' whose name is Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God.' His attempts to find support for his opi- nions in the standards of the church proved him to be dishonest as well as heretical, while his tardy recantation, when he at length saw that this course was likely to fail, was without value, because without the least evidence of sincerity. The friends of truth ardently desired that the divinity of the Saviour might be vindicated in the highest censure upon its blasphemous assailant, in reference to whom an apostle would have commanded, ' Let him be Anathema Maranatha.' They were doomed to be disappointed ; — when, the zeal of the Assembly burned, it was against another class of men. Professor Simson was merely suspended, in the meantime, from his ecclesiastical functions, while the case was remitted to the inferior judicatories, to obtain their opinion in time for the next Assembly. The majority of presbyteries gave it as their opinion that he should be deposed from the office of the ministry, as indispensable to the vindication of insulted truth. But the advice was disregarded, his suspension was merely continued, while he was left to enjoy all the privileges of church communion and the emoluments of office. This was all the censure that the Assembly saw it necessary to inflict on one who had disobeyed their former injunctions, and now ' denied the Lord that bought him.'* It was on occasion of pro- nouncing this sentence, so inadequate to the offence, that the venerable Boston rose in the midst of the Assembly, and, in the most solemn and impressive manner, uttered the following dissent : — c I cannot help thinking,' said he, addressing the Moderator, ' that the cause of Jesus Christ, * This second process terminated in 1729. PROFESSOR CAMPBELL OP ST. ANDREWS. 31 as to the great and essential point of his supreme Deity, has been at the bar of this Assembly requiring justice; and as I am shortly to answer at His bar for all I do or say, I dare not give my assent to the decision of this Act. On the contrary, I find myself obliged to offer a protest against it ; and, therefore, in my own name, and in the name of all that shall adhere to me, and if none here will (looking round the house with an air of majesty, he added) — for myself alone I crave leave to enter my protest against the decision of this act.' There was a consistency in the Acts of successive Assem- blies at this period, which proved how strongly the tide of defection had begun to flow. Mr. Campbell, Professor of Ecclesiastical History in St. Andrews, had published several tracts and treatises, in which some of the most erroneous tenets of Professor Simson were revived, and other sentiments avowed which evidently belonged to the same family of errors. In particular, he affirmed, ' That the existence of God and the immortality of the soul can- not be discovered by the light of nature, and yet that the laws of nature are a certain and sufficient rule to guide men to happiness, and that our observation of these is the great means of our real and lasting happiness. He main- tained that self-love is the chief motive and standard of all actions, religious and virtuous ; and that, seeing God him- self acts for his self-interest, we cannot act from any higher principle than our self-interest. He cast ridicule upon close walking with God and consulting him in all our ways, as enthusiasm.'' The theology of such sentiments evidently verged on the lowest rationalism ; the ethical principles bore a closer analogy to those of Seneca and Epictetus than of Scripture. They were repeatedly refuted and exposed in the writings of the day, and yet no whisper of dissatisfaction was heard in the Assembly, but their author continued to be employed in business of highest trust and importance ; * and when at length t the complaints * Index to Un printed Acts of Assembly for 1734. t Assembly 1736. 32 PATRONAGE LEAVEXIXG THE WHOLE LTJXP. from without, constrained the Assembly to a reluctant scrutiny, he was allowed to varnish over his errors with vague and unsatisfactory explanations, and dismissed from the bar of the Assembly uncensured and uncondemned. Such criminal lenity of judgment placed beyond doubt the tendencies and prevalent sentiments of the judges them- selves. How had the temple of God become polluted ! While the doctrine of the church was thus allowed by her rulers to be corrupted and betrayed, the same men were proving themselves the most willing instruments in invading the rights and liberties of her people. We have already noticed the indignant resistance with which the Act imposing patronage was first received by the Assem- bly, and the cautious policy with which its obnoxious powers were allowed to remain dormant for a series of years. And had the Assembly retained this becoming temper, the enactment would have remained comparatively innocuous, for unless the candidate accepted the presenta- tion, it was declared by the Act itself to be ' null and void,' and the Assembly had it in its power to prevent the can- didate from accepting, unless he had the call and consent of the people. But the spirit of the Assembly was gradu- ally tamed and deteriorated ; and, many years before the period of which we now write, had undergone, in reference to patronage, all those changes described by the poet in reference to vice : ' For seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace.' In the face of reclaiming congregations and remonstrating presbyteries, the Assembly lent itself as the willing tool of patrons and of the state in the effecting of violent settle- ments; — now commanding presbyteries, in the majority of whose members there still lingered the spirit of a better time, to ordain the presentee, on pain of the severest eccle- siastical censures in case of refusal ; and in other circum- stances, doing violence to the constitution of the church, and to the rights of presbyteries, as well as of the people, by sending ' riding Committees' of their number to do the SCENE AT BATHGATE. 33 work of tyranny, when it was thought inconvenient or impossible to constrain the obedience of the presbytery of the bounds. In cases where the indignation of the op- pressed and insulted people had risen to an alarming pitch, or where it was thought possible to awe them into acquiescence, the presence of the military was procured, and the hireling pastor conducted to the scene of his future ministry between files of soldiery, and amid the beating of drums and the brandishing of swords. Strange road to the affections of a people ! One scene of this kind de- scribed by an eye-witness will give a more vivid idea of the state of matters at this period, than the most lengthened general details. ' These and such like things were done to terrify the people ; and yet for all that, these gentlemen and the two ministers that were to serve the edict, being conscious to themselves of the badness of their cause, and what an evil part they were acting, thought not fit to do it until they got a troop of dragoons to be a guard to them; and accordingly, November 17, 1717, being the Sabbath day, they came to Bathgate, and when approach- ing the town, they caused beat their drum and draw their swords, and in this posture came through the town, guarding the ministers into the church, riding and strik- ing with their naked swords at the women and others standing gazing upon the wayside, which was a melancholy Sabbath in Bathgate, the Sabbath day being much profan- ed, not only by the people of the place, but by many coming from other parishes, to see a new way of propagat- ing the gospel by red-coat booted apostles, officiating as elders.' * We have already stated that it was the same men whom we have already beheld inflicting wounds upon the truth, and swelling the ranks of doctrinal defection, that showed themselves the most willing agents in trampling on the liber- ties of the Christian people ; and the explanation of this iden- tity should not pass unnoticed. Had the people been left * Letter to a minister of the gospel concerning the parish of Bath- gate, p. IS. M'Kcrrow's History of the Secession, p. 44. C 34 TESTIMONY OF A MOURNER IN ZION. to their free choice, they would uniformly have chosen men of evangelical sentiment and spirit. Indeed there is a response in the consciences of men to the peculiar doc- trines of the gospel, even when these are rebelled against by their passions, and testimonies to their divinity may thus be traced in the deepest recesses of our moral nature. The consequence has often been, that men who had never been the subjects of spiritual renovation, have yet felt in an evangelical ministry an adaptation to their case, and have preferred it to all others. An unfettered people would therefore have proved one of the most efficient barriers against doctrinal unfaithfulness, while patronage, on the other hand, was the readiest means of introducing a secular clergy and extending a corrupt faith. That patronage had already wrought out these sad results to an alarming extent might be proved from the testimonies of many who were weeping in secret over the desolations of Zion. Let one wit- ness be heard, the truth of whose sombre picture has never been set aside. ' Matters look with a very dismal and threatening aspect. Ministers are thrust in upon vacant parishes, contrary to the wishes of elders and people, in all corners of the land. Disaffected heritors interest themselves everywhere in the settlement of parishes, and they intro- duce such ministers as elders and people are averse to. Our congregations are thus planted with a set of corrupt ministers who are strangers to the power of godliness ; and therefore, neither in their doctrine nor in their walk is there any savour of Christ among them. Yea, such are becoming the prevailing party in the ministry, and too many of these are mockers at the exercises and real expe- riences of the godly. At the opening of our Synodical meeting at Perth, Mr. Thomas F , minister at Dum- barnie, preached a very loose general sermon, with a sneer and some bitter invectives against serious ministers. Some, said he, loved a popular cant, and affected to make grimaces in preaching. This same man, some short time after, when Mr. Moncrieff of Abernethy remarked on a young man's discourse before the Presbytery of Perth, that EXPOSURES OF CORRUPTION. 35 there was nothing of Christ in it, had the assurance to reply, " and must Christ still be the burden of the song 1 " Yet the Presbytery took no notice of the scandalous ex- pression — a sad swatch of the spirit that prevails among us.'* It may serve to give some idea of the extent to which the system we have been describing had now reach- ed, to mention that in one Assembly there were no fewer than twelve petitions and appeals from reclaiming congre- gations against violent settlements. These petitions and appeals, though they seldom or never succeeded in their main object, yet served the important purpose of affording to faithful ministers in the Assembly, an opportunity of exposing and denouncing the corrupt and tyrannical measures of the dominant party, — an oppor- tunity which they were not slow to embrace. It is worthy of notice, that the same men whom we have seen the most forward to stem the tide of doctrinal error, — raising their warning voice against the Arian and Pelagian errors, and standing in defence of the ' Marrow' as over the body of a wounded friend, were now the foremost in asserting the people's trampled rights, and exposing the acts of the abet- tors of patronage in all their naked deformity and treachery. These merciless exposures helped to keep alive the spirit of liberty among the people ; and the rulers, provoked by the scorching sarcasm which indignant truth was con- stantly flinging into the midst of them, determined to buttress their first act of tyranny, by another. The As- sembly of 1730 enacted that in future no reasons of Dis- sent against 'the determinations of church judicatures,' should be entered on record. This enactment took place on occasion of a sentence of Assembly enjoining the Pres- bytery of Chirnside to proceed with a violent settlement in the parish of Hutton ; against which several members craved that their dissent might be recorded. The demand was refused, and the refusal passed into a general law. Perhaps the arbitrary and tyrannical nature of this deci- * Diarv of Rev. W. Wilson of Perth, Nov. 10, 1731- Ferrier's Memoirs of W. Wilson, pp. 1(38, 169. 36 REFUSAL TO MARK REASONS OF DISSENT. sion, has not generally received its due prominence of de- nunciation, in the ecclesiastical notices of the period. For not to speak of the right which immemorial usage had given to every member of Assembly of having his dissent from obnoxious measures put on record, it seems to grow out of the very constitution of deliberative and judicial bodies, so that the moment it is removed, freedom has de- parted with it. In what other way could an individual who was aggrieved by a decision exonerate his conscience, or leave permanent and tangible testimony to succeeding generations that the tide of defection had not been allowed to flow on unresisted ? The removal of this right by the dominant party in the Assembly at this period, too closely resembled the conduct of those who put out the light that their evil deeds may escape detection or exposure, and was an unequivocal, however unwilling, confession on their part, of their secret consciousness of the unjust and un- scriptural nature of the course they were pursuing. It was a heavy blow struck at constitutional liberty. But a heavier, a more deadly blow still, was aimed at the rights of the people in the following year. Up to this time it had been the law of the church, that in the case of a patron not presenting to a vacant charge within six months after the vacancy occurred, the filling up of the charge should devolve upon the presbytery within whose bounds the vacant parish lay. The instances were by no means rare in which the patron declined to ex- ercise his right within the prescribed period ; and in such cases the presbytery, bound by no particular regulations, might yield up the choice into the hands of the people. Even this fragment of liberty was grudged to the people, and it was considered expedient to withdraw it. Tyranny never sleeps soundly or sits at ease, and the men who now guided the counsels of the Assembly, felt that while this remained, it would cherish the remembrance of former liberties, and thus keep alive the desire to regain them. An overture was accordingly introduced into the Assembly (1731) to the following effect, that ' where patrons might OVERTURE RESPECTING PATRONAGE. 6i neglect or decline to exercise their right of presentation, the minister should be chosen by a majority of the heritors and elders, if Protestant.'' The ostensible reason of this overture, was the promotion of uniformity and peace. Miserable and hollow peace that was to be purchased by- bribes and secured by bondage ! ' What difference,' ex- claimed Ebenezer Erskine, glowing with a righteous and indignant zeal, ' 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 partiality ] 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 shew respect to the man with the gold ring and the gay clothing, beyond the man with the vile raiment and poor attire. I conceive, Moderator, that our public man- agements and acts should run in the same 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.' * There was a well known regulation of the church, how- ever, to the effect that no overture could become a law until it had been sent down to presbyteries, and the majority of them had given it their sanction; and in com- pliance with this it was sent down to presbyteries, that they might consider it and report to the next Assembly. Alarm spread throughout the churches, and this alarm was increased, when the details of the overture were more closely examined and considered. It was found that the heritors were not required even to be resident in the parish ; * Speech when the Overture anent the planting of churches was passed into an Act by the Assembly, May 16, 1732. Frazer's Life, pp. 359, 360. 38 PETITIONS AGAINST THE OVERTURE. and while they must not be papists, it was not necessary that they should be members of the church ; they might be Jacobites and therefore sworn enemies to its constitution, they might be infidels and therefore sworn enemies to its faith ; and as the heritors would often outnumber the elders, the spectacle might soon be anticipated of a band of these men forcing a presentee upon a parish, in the face at once of a remonstrating eldership and a reclaiming people. And this overture was the suggestion and production of the church's own rulers ! Could it be doubted that their in- tention was to break up all connection between the people and their ministers, and to lay the church bound and bleeding at the feet of the secular power 1 Meetings were held of pious ministers for prayer and deliberation, in this hour of the church's decaying liberties. A representation of grievances and a petition for redress were prepared, in which many of the errors and defections we have described were complained against, and the As- sembly entreated to dismiss and condemn the above-men- tioned overture. A similar representation and petition was prepared and transmitted for presentation by 1,700 members of the church. Even in the presbyteries, the spirit of tame acquiescence was roused into remonstrance, and an attempt made to prevent the last shred of the people's rights, from being torn away by the ruthless and unnatural hand of their ecclesiastical rulers. The Assembly (1732) came, and the reports of presbyte- ries regarding the overture were examined. It appeared that only six recommended the adoption of the overture ; that twelve could only approve of it, on its being subjected to material alterations ; and that thirty-one expressed their entire and unqualified disapprobation. The majority of presbyteries had thus unequivocally declared against the overture. But the ruling party in the Assembly were not to be outdone. In the face of a standing law of the church, they contended that the reports of inferior courts, were only to be regarded as opinions which the Assembly might either receive or reject; and by a mode of ingenious calcula- A CRISIS HAS COME. 39 tion, which even honourable men of the world would have spurned, it was insisted that even supposing the reports of presbyteries were allowed to decide the case, the majority were in their favour, since eighteen who had not reported might fairly be reckoned as approving, and this gave them the numerical preponderance. As for the representations and petitions of the ministers and private members, they were even refused to be transmitted by the Committee of Bills ; and on the ministers presenting themselves at the bar of the Assembly to protest against this denial of their just rights, their protest was superciliously refused to be either received or recorded. How had the gold become dim ! How different was the Church of Scotland now, compared with the time when she was beheld emerging from the flames of persecution, not with corrupting bribes in her hands, but with liberties that had been bought with blood. Truth had been wounded, her pulpits were filled by a hireling clergy, ' whose voice the sheep did not know,' the privileges of the people had been tamely yielded up, and the last blow given to them by the hands of her own rulers, the consti- tutional rights of her presbyteries had been invaded, and the right of protesting and petitioning, by which wounded consciences may be relieved, and faithful men seek the removal of prevailing evils, had been wrested from them, and all this by a tyrannical Assembly, itself the slave of the secular power. A crisis had come in her history, in which if there were not men resolved to be faithful at all hazards, the fate of truth and liberty might be sealed for centuries. Was there no one ready to burst her bonds, and, passing from her pale, to provide an asylum for truth and freedom for her people ? There was. God had long been preparing him for the work to which he was now called. We have 6een him already, and he will come more fully before us in our next chapter. CHAPTER II. ORIGIN OP THE SECESSION. Portmoak— Ebenezer Erskine— A Portmoak sacrament— The past— Secret resolutions — The Synod-sermon — Extracts — Remarks— The Synod in a storm— Proposal to censure — Mr. Erskine's appeal — The Synod at Stir- ling — General Assembly — Kingaldrum — Kinross — The Four Brethren — Rebuke and Protest — Curious incident — The Four Brethren recalled — Insulting treatment — ' Persecuted, but not forsaken ' — The Commis- sion — An eye-witness — The Four Brethren suspended — Protest — Sacra- ment at Queensferry — Growing popular interest — A net — Escape from the net — Expulsion from the Church — The Secession — The Basis- Mistakes corrected— Moral heroism— A historic church. Beneath the shadow of the lofty Lomond hills, and stretching down to the margin of the beautiful Lochleven, lies the rural parish of Portmoak, in. Kinross-shire. Four little villages, Portmoak, Kinnesswood, Scotland-well, and Easter Balgedie, supply the principal population of the parish, and look down from their romantic position towards those islands, one of which is surrounded with peculiar interest by having been the scene for nearly eleven months of the captivity of Mary Queen of Scots. In this parish, Ebenezer Erskine had discharged the duties of the pastoral office, from the year 1703, nearly up to the time of which we now write.* His descent may be traced to some of the noblest families of the land ; but the greater number of our readers, it is presumed, will be yet better pleased to learn, that he was the son of a vener- able Nonconformist minister, who was ejected from his * He was born June 22, 1680. EBENEZER ERSKINE. 41 charge, and very narrowly escaped confinement in the Bass prison, and even exile, for conscience-sake, — Henry Erskine of Cornhill.* The Father of the Secession was the son of a Nonconformist ; — the spirit of the Secession and of Puritanism were at least as near of kin. From the time of his entrance on the ministry, Mr. Erskine appears to have given the most exemplary atten- tion to all the external duties of his sacred office ; but it was not till after some few years that he obtained distinct and impressive views of evangelical truth, and became the subject of that divine internal change by which we ' enter into the kingdom of heaven.' The circumstance which proved the occasion of this change, is interesting. Sitting in his study one day, he chanced to overhear a conversa- tion, on their religious experience, between his wife, Alison Turpie, and his brother Ralph. The two Christian friends were seated in a bower beneath the window of the study, which happened to be open at the time, and were freely unbosoming themselves to each other on the matters of the soul. Ebenezer Erskine was riveted by the conversa- tion, and could not withdraw himself from listening. He immediately thought with himself — ' they have ideas and feelings to which I am yet a stranger, — they possess a valuable something which I have not.' This thought formed the first seed of a new life. Conversations soon followed between himself and his wife, such as those which we may imagine to have taken place between Apollos and Pris- cilla ; the trammels of legal bondage fell from his soul ; and the glorious liberty and constraining love of a child of God, of which from that hour he became the happy subject, may be traced in the pages of a diary, which nearly half a cen- tury afterwards was brought to light, and in a ministry of almost unequalled power and success, whose blessed influ- ence, descending from sire to son, are said to have not even * Brief Memoir of Rev. H. Erskine, prefixed to Frazer's Life of E. Erakine. 42 MR. ERSKLtfE IN THE PULPIT. yet wholly passed away from the region that was favoured with it.* Contemporary writers describe him as a man who com- bined in singular union great suavity of manner with intrepidity of action, simplicity of aim with that profound knowledge of man which lies at the root of practical wis- dom ; — his bitterest enemies have never been able to estab- lish a charge against his sincerity or scrupulous conscien- tiousness. Possessed of great natural eloquence, this had all the advantage of a voice of great music and compass, of a grave and simple delivery, such as most beseems an ambassador of God, and of an outward appearance of such unusual nobility and majesty as was the theme of general remark, and commanded among his hearers universal awe. 1 1 never saw so much of the majesty of God,' said Mr. Hutton of Dalkeith, ' in any mortal man, as in Ebenezer Erskine.' Mr. Adam Gib of Edinburgh having asked a friend if he had ever heard Mr. Erskine preach, was answered in the negative. ' Well, then, Sir,' rejoined Mr. Gib with emotion, ' you never heard the gospel in its majesty.' A more striking testimony still, perhaps, was given in the reproof which one hearer, who had travelled more than twenty miles to hear Mr. Erskine preach, gave to another who complained of drowsiness, — ' man ! there is a savour coming out of that pulpit, which I think might keep any person awake.' t Long before the period of which we now write, the friends of the gospel among the ministers of the Church of Scotland, had been led to cultivate an almost exclusive intercourse with one another. This arose at once out of common views, common feelings, and common dangers. They were standing together against a common current, that was swelling and deepening every hour ; what more natural in such circumstances than that they should draw * Brown's Gospel Truth. Sketch of Life of E. Erskine, p. 95. t Frazer's Life of E. Erskine, pp. 482, 483. A PORTMOAK SACRAMENT- 43 the more closely into one 1 One of the most delightful occasions of these hallowed re-unions was the celebration of the Lord's Supper in the parish of one of the evangelical ministers. At these times, anticipated for weeks and even months before, a goodly band of gifted ministers would come together to aid in conducting the hallowed solemni- ties, and thousands of eager and expecting listeners might be seen following in their train. The importance of such meetings, is perhaps not always seen by a modern reader. It is forgotten that in many of the parishes of Scotland the gospel was by this time no longer preached, and that these sacred festivals, often occurring in the months of summer, afforded the only opportunity to mul- titudes, of listening in peace to ' the silver -trumpet's heavenly call.' At one after another of these communions, a young man, who had risen before the morning sun, and travelled often a distance of more than fifteen miles over the intervening mountains, might be seen wrapped in a shep- herd's plaid, and listening with intellectual countenance and delighted heart to the gracious words which fell from the speaker's lips. He was then an obscure teacher in a rustic day-school. Thirty years afterwards he was known throughout the land, as the author of the Bible Dictionary and the Self-Interpreting Bible. * To no sacrament did the people flock in greater multi- tudes than to that of Portmoak. Persons have been known to travel to it, even from the distance of sixty or seventy miles ; and there are records still extant, which describe the elders of the parish as commissioning wine for more than two thousand communicants. In addition to the worshippers that congregated in the church, two large assemblies met in the open air on the sides of the neigh- bouring hill, and sat unwearied, listening to successive preachers. They were occasions of high religious festival. The heavenly dews, which had been withdrawn from so many of the parishes of Scotland, because the heavenly seed * Brown's Gospel Truth, p. 13S. 44 MS. ERSKIXE IX THE PAST. was no longer sown in them, seemed to descend here with pentecostal abundance. Multitudes on their death-bed, long afterwards looked back with grateful remembrance to the hills of Portmoak, as Bethels where the God of Jacob had met with them and blessed them. Doubtless when ' He numbers up the people, he will count that this man and that man were born there.' ' They say,' writes Mr. Erskine's sister, speaking of one of these Portmoak communions, ' that to the comfortable felt experience of many, it was as great a day of the gospel as ever they witnessed.' * Such was the man whom the providence of God had long been preparing for the great work of founding a new and independent ecclesiastical body, in which the honour of Christian truth and the rights of the Christian people should be successfully vindicated, when the Scottish Church had wounded the one and betrayed the other. Ebenezer Erskine was no new and sudden friend of evangelic doc- trine and Christian liberty. We have already seen him through a space of more than twenty years, standing forth the consistent and intrepid friend of both. In 1712, we found him resisting the imposition of the Abjuration- Oath, and maintaining a good conscience by standing to the last among the ranks of the Non-Jurants. In 1717, we saw his name enrolled among those of the twelve Marrowmen; and through the successive years of the process regarding the Marrow, we behold him, along with the venerable Boston, ever foremost amid the obloquy and frown of Commissions and Assemblies, to raise up the fallen standard of truth. And at each following stage of oppression, in which the Assembly seeks to wreathe the yoke of patronage around the neck of the people, and to tear from their grasp the last remnant of privilege, he is present with every form of bold remonstance and con- stitutional resistance. This had been the character of his past public career ; * Frazer's Life of E. Erskine, pp. 202, 203. MR. ERSKLNE IN THE CLOSET. 45 and when we follow him into his closet, and trace the workings of his heart there, as these are disclosed in his diary and correspondence, we discover that these public acts were the expression of resolutions formed on his kneel,, in which he had determined to suffer anything and to lose anything, — everything, rather than turn from the path which God and conscience dictated. So early as 1714 we find him, after a sacrament at Orwell, entering in his diary the following record : — ' I recognised in secret the solemn dedication I had made of myself in public, and avowed the Lord to be my God. I was made to say that through his grace I would die for him ; and would die at a gibbet for him, if he would be with me to carry me through. my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my God.' * And in a letter to a pious sister of yet earlier date, he unbosoms himself thus, ' All the power and policy of hell, is set to work for the ruin and overthrow of the Church of Scotland. The prospect of the sifting storm, that seems to be at hand, is like sometimes to stagger and shake me, and makes my spirit to shrink within me. I know not how I shall be able to stand the storm itself, or how I shall do in the swellings of Jordan. Being as yet entirely unac- quainted, as to my own experience, with sufferings for the truth and cause of Christ, I am afraid to say with Peter, " Though all men should forsake thee, yet will not I." But this I may say, if he needs my property, my family, my very heart's blood, to bear witness to his cause and work, I am obliged, though they were ten thousand times more valuable than they are, to lay them all down at his feet, and to follow him to a Golgotha or a Calvary.' + In this way, Mr. Erskine had long been unconsciously putting on his spiritual armour for a great work. We have already seen him tried in many a well-contested struggle, but he is now to pass through a more severe and difficult ordeal than ever ; and in the hand of God to accomplish by separation, what he had long hoped to see * Frazer's Life of E. Erskine, p. 116. + Ibid. p. 163. 43 THE SYNOD-SERMON. effected by internal reform. Let us now rapidly trace the steps that led to this result. In the previous year, — September 6, 1731, — he had been transferred from Portmoak to Stirling, and this had, soon after, been followed by his being placed in the chair as Moderator of the Synod of Stirling and Perth. In this way, it fell to the lot of Mr. Erskine, before retiring from the moderatorship, to preach at the opening of the Synod at Perth, on the 18th day of October, 1732. What was it natural for a faithful minister to do, in the circumstances in which he now found himself placed ? Looking around him, he beheld error in doctrine tolerated and even sanc- tioned by the Assembly, and widely disseminated by many of its ministers, the rights of the Christian people wantonly violated, the honour of the Church laid in the dust, espe- cially by that latest Act which he had seen the Assembly pass but a few months before, in which the patronage was lodged in the hands of heritors and elders where the patron himself declined or delayed to present. He found himself too shut out, by recent arbitrary acts, from testifying against public evils, by the presenting of petitions or the recording of dissents. One sphere alone yet remained open for faith- ful and intrepid witness-bearing, and this was the pulpit. And was not the distinct and authoritative voice of God to his servant in these circumstances, t Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins V Ebenezer Erskine heard this solemn voice, and obeyed. The venerable preacher read as his text on this momen- tous occasion, the words in Psalm cxviii. 22, ' The stone which the builders refused, is become the head stone ' of the corner.' He proceeded to speak of the Church under the similitude of a building, — of the character in which Christ stands to this building as its approved, tried, living foundation-stone, — of the character of the workmen that are employed in rearing this spiritual structure, — of the error those workmen are charged with, in refusing the stone of God's choosing, and of the glory to which Christ THE SYNOD-SERMON. 47 shall be exalted, in spite of all the attempts of false builders to keep him out of his place, ' He is made the Head Stone of the corner.' His illustrations of these various points abounded with those sublime and consoling statements of divine truth, which displayed a mind bathed in the very spirit and rich in the very phraseology of scripture, and which, when given forth with the grave majesty and sweet intonations of Ebenezer Erskine, gave to his ministry, in the presence of unprejudiced hearers, so commanding a power, and threw around it so indescribable a charm. It was not until he was far advanced in his discourse that he began to allude to the evils and defections of the times ; and those allusions, when they came, seemed to grow so naturally and spontaneously out of his theme and his posi- tion, that not to have uttered them would have been like the unfaithful and timid withholding of most seasonable though unwelcome truth. Let us listen to a few of those references, and judge whether they most resemble the fierce invectives of an exasperated partisan, or the faithful and intrepid testimony of one who feels himself commissioned to proclaim ' the burden of the Lord.' Under his third head, when speaking of the builders employed to rear the spiritual fabric of the church, he utters this faithful testimony, — 1 There is a twofold call necessary for a man's meddling as a builder in the Church of God; there is the call of God, and of his Church. God's call consists in his qualify- ing a man for the work ; and inspiring him with a holy zeal and desire to employ these qualifications for the glory of God and the good of his Church. The call of the Church, lies in the free choice and election of the Christian people. The promise of conduct and counsel, in the choice of men that are to build, is not made to patrons, heritors, or any other set of men, but to the Church, the body of Christ, to whom apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers are given. As it is the natural privilege of every house or society of men to have the choice of their own servants or officers, so it is the privilege of the House of God in a 48 THE SYXOD-SERMOX. particular manner. What a miserable bondage would it be reckoned for any family to have stewards or servants im- posed on them by strangers ; who might give the children a stone for bread, or a scorpion instead of a fish, poison instead of medicine ? And shall we suppose that ever God granted a power to any set of men, patrons, heritors, or whatever they be — a power to impose servants on his family without their consent 1 they being the freest society in the world.' Those are noble sentences asserting the inalienable rights of the Christian people, and that is one of those ' winged words,' whose intense truth and pointed brevity make them immortal, ' The Church of Christ is the freest society ix the world.' Again, speaking of the error of the builders in rejecting the stone of God's choos- ing, he says, — ' The Jewish builders valued themselves exceedingly upon their connexion with the rulers and great folk in that day ; and, having joined interest with them, treated the common people, especially those who owned Christ and attended his ministry and that of his apostles, as an unhal- lowed mob, as is clear from John vii. 45, where they having sent some of their officers to apprehend Christ, the officers return, declaring that " never man spake like this man." To which the Pharisees reply, " Are ye also deceived ? Have any of the rulers of the Pharisees believed on him 1 But this people who know not the law are accursed." As if the common people had been obliged to follow them and the rulers with whom they connected themselves, by an im- plicit faith and obedience, without ever bringing their doctrines and actings to the bar of the law and testimony, to be tried there.' Farther on, he gives utterance to the following weighty sentence, which, though spoken more than a century since, sounds, alas, with no antiquated meaning, — ' I am persuaded that carnal notions of the kingdom of Christ, which is not of this world, lie at the bottom of many of the evils and corruptions in the day we live in.' THE SYNOD-SERMON. 49 And towards the close of his address, the dauntless wit- ness-bearer lifts up this sublime and thrilling testimony for the violated and dishonoured rights of Christ's Crown, — . ' A cry is gone up to heaven against the builders by the spouse of Christ ; like that, Cant. v. 7, " The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me ; the keepers of the walls took away my vail from me." A cry and complaint came in before the bar of the last Assembly, for relief and redress of these and many other grievances, both from ministers and people. But in- stead of a due regard had thereunto, an Act is passed confin- ing the power of election unto heritors and elders ; whereby a new wound is given to the prerogative of Christ and the privileges of his subjects. I shall say the less of this Act now, that I had opportunity to exoner myself with relation to it, before the National Assembly where it was passed. Only allow me to say, that whatever church authority may be in that Act, yet it wants the authority of the Son of God. All ecclesiastical authority under heaven is derived from him ; and therefore any act that wants his authority, has no authority at all. And seeing the Reverend Synod has put me in this place, where I am in Christ's stead, I must be allowed to say of this Act, what I apprehend Christ himself would say of it, were he personally present where I am ; and that is, that by this Act the corner-stone is re- ceded from; he is rejected in his poor members, and the rich of this world put in their room. If Christ were person- ally present, where I am by the Synod's appointment in his stead, he would say in reference to that Act, " Inas- much as ye have done it to one of the least of these little ones, ye did it to me." By this Act, Christ is rejected in his authority, because I can find no warrant from the word of God to confer the spiritual privileges of his house upon the rich beyond the poor : whereas, by this Act, the man with the gold ring and gay clothing, is preferred unto the man with the vile raiment and poor attire.' Thus did this faithful watchman sound his trumpet aloud, in the ears of slumbering and degenerate rulers. Shall he D 50 REMARKS ON THE SERMON. be blamed for an indecent and unwarrantable stretch of the privileges of his position, by denouncing so plainly, in such a presence, the errors and iniquities of the times ? The charge would come strangely from a people who are accustomed to point back to those as the purest times of the church, when the preacher levelled his thunders against tyrannical and time-serving courtiers, and when a Knox, with Bible in hand, did not shrink from rebuking the fol- lies and infidelities of royalty, and the pulpit exercised much of that public censorship on passing events, which, in our own days, has been transferred to the press. But we do not need to have recourse to such dubious precedents for the vindication of Ebenezer Erskine, or to remind our readers how the dominant party in the church at this pe- riod not unfrequently assailed the friends of the gospel from the pulpit, with epithets of sneering scorn and per- sonal invective. His defence rests upon far surer ground. In the last Assembly, the liberties of the people had been wrested from them ; this was the crowning act of a long course of defection, and he was now addressing many who had been accessaries to the treachery. Ecclesiastical tyranny had already shut up against him every other chan- nel of constitutional remonstrance and public protest. The pulpit alone remained free ; and was the liberty which the pulpit afforded of exonerating his conscience and raising his testimony in behalf of the people's rights, to be yielded up to artificial delicacies and conventional proprieties? No ; this earnest reformer was thinking only how he might please God, and had he confined himself to soothing gene- ralities at such an hour, we should then have held him in- capable of defence. The words in which he closed his sermon, express the spirit in which he had spoken it : ' Whenever we discern the danger coming, either from open enemies or pretended friends, or our fellow-builders going wrong, let us give the cry, like faithful watchmen, and though they be offended, there is no help for that. It is a heavy charge that is laid by God against some as above, that they were dumb dogs that could not bark, THE SYNOD IN A STORM. 51 but preferred their own carnal ease unto the safety of the church.' His fellow-builders were offended. The references of Mr. Erskine, though forming but a small proportion to the body of his discourse though growing naturally out of his theme, and expressed wherever they occurred without any of the bitterness of personal invective, yet fell upon the majority of his hearers with all the stinging power of unwelcome truth. Each seemed to feel as if the honest remonstrance had been levelled at himself, and there are few things in the world more intolerant than an uneasy conscience. In- dignant scowls were visible on many a countenance, and it was not long ere the gathering wrath burst into a storm. The necessary preliminary business which marks the opening of a Synod, was scarcely over, when the subject was introduced. 'At the afternoon meeting,' writes an eye- witness, ' Mr. Adam F , minister at Logierait, stated that Mr. Erskine, in his sermon in the forenoon, had ut- tered some things which gave offence, and moved for in- vestigation. He was immediately joined by Mr. M , minister at Aberdalgie, 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 Forte- viot, 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 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.' * The matter was intrusted to a committee, that they might prepare the case for the consideration of the court. The committee reported next day to the Synod, that they had failed in obtaining from Mr. Erskine any acknowledg- ment of fault, and, at the same time, laid on the table a paper, containing what they considered exceptionable pas- * Furrier's Memoirs of Rev. YV. Wilson, p. 196. 52 c WARM REASONINGS.' PROPOSED CENSURE. sages in Mr. Erskine's sermon, which they accompanied with their own comments. The committee, however, had found it impossible, with all their ingenuity, to rest a spe- cific charge on the excerpted passages, and felt themselves shut up to the necessity of presenting one of a general nature, the sum of which was, that Mr. Erskine had spoken disrespectfully of a large class of ministers, and of their procedure in the church courts. ' "Warm reasonings ' ensued, of three days' continuance, increasing in virulence as the discussion advanced, in the course of which it became evident that the prevailing party were resolved to visit upon this ' troubler of Israel ' the offences of years, and to crush the spirit of faithful re- monstrance and dauntless witness-bearing. It was in vain that Mr. Erskine, having with difficulty obtained a sight of the paper prepared against him by the committee, ex- posed the incorrect report which they had given of some of the phrases that he had used, and by showing the con- nexion in which the various excerpted passages had been introduced in his discourse, proved that the comments offered on them by the committee who had wrested them from their connexion, were uncandid and frivolous. It was in vain that Mr. Wilson of Perth reiterated the complaint that Mr. Erskine's words had been incorrectly reported, and that to condemn him for preaching against the Act of last Assembly, was not only to inflict serious injury upon an individual, but to introduce a new and obnoxious term of ministerial communion, — that no minister should preach against any Act of a General Assembly, even though he might be convinced in his conscience that it was un- scriptural in principle and subversive of the liberty and purity of the church ; — the Synod, by a majority of six votes, declared Mr. Erskine deserving of censure. No sooner was this decision announced, than Mr. Alex- ander Moncrieff of Abernethy entered his dissent and pro- test against it, in which he was immediately joined by Mr. Meik, the Moderator, Mr. Wilson of Perth, with ten other ministers and two ruling elders. Mr. Erskine himself pro- MR. eeskine's appeal. 53 tested and appealed to the next General Assembly, in which he was followed by his son-in-law, Mr. James Fisher of Kinclaven, after which Mr. Erskine retired, insisting that meanwhile all further procedure against him should be stopped. Undeterred by this formidable minority, and un- checked by Mr. Erskine's own appeal of the case to the revision of a higher court, the Synod proceeded in the cause, and gave it as their judgment that he should be re- buked and admonished to-morrow at their bar, on account of the passages in his sermon reported by the committee ; and, in the event of his not being present to-morrow, that he should be called up at their meeting in April next, and rebuked and admonished there in terms of the sentence. It is one of the surest marks of a corrupt church when ec- clesiastical offences are visited with greater severity than doctrinal errors or immoral acts. Winter passed, and the Synod assembled at Stirling in April of the following year, but neither party showed any inclination to withdraw from the position they had assumed. The opponents of Mr. Erskine, still hoping to crush his spirit of bold resistance by ecclesiastical authority and the dread of consequences, showed every determination to carry out their measures against him with the utmost rigour ; and even a petition from a number of his elders, urging a reversal of the sentence against him, was first refused to be transmitted by the Committee of Bills, and when laid on the table of the Synod itself, refused to be read. Mr. Erskine, on the other hand, convinced that God had intrusted to his hands important principles to vindicate, and precious and imperilled rights to assert, thought not of personal consequences, but set his face like a flint, know- ing that to succumb in such circumstances was to betray. Mere power is an impotent tiling when it has to deal with a good conscience and an honest heart. Showing respect to all the constitutional forms, Mr. Erskine obeyed the call of the Synod, and appeared before them ; but when he saw them proceeding to execute their sentence of rebuke and admonition, he informed them that he adhered to his 54 THE SYNOD AT STIRLING. — ADHERENCE TO APPEAL. appeal, and having with difficulty obtained permission to speak, read the following paper, immediately after which he withdrew : — ' According to the utterance given by the Lord to me at Perth, I have delivered his mind, particularly with rela- tion to some prevailing evils of the day, which to me are matter of confession, and therefore I dare not retract the least part of that testimony. I am heartily sorry that ever the Reverend Synod should have commenced a process against me for what I am persuaded was nothing else but truth, especially when they have never yet made it appear that I have in the least receded from the word of God, and our approven standards of doctrine, worship, discipline, or government. Every man hath his own proper gift of ut- terance, and according to the gift bestowed on me, so I expressed myself at Perth ; and if I had given offence by any expressions uttered by me at that time, I should very willingly retract and beg pardon. But I hope my Reve- rend brethren will excuse me to say, that I am not yet convinced of any just ground for a rebuke and admonition.' Thus ended the second scene in those movements which were gradually gathering around them the popular interest, and hurrying on to some momentous crisis. We are now to behold the cause transferred to the wider field, and maintained amid the still more hostile influences of the General Assembly. No meeting of Assembly had been anticipated with such profound interest and eager anxiety since the Union, as that which convened at Edinburgh, May 3d, 1733. The Rev. John Gowdie, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, was chosen Moderator ; the Marquis of Lothian sat as Commis- sioner. Two decisions which were given soon after the Assembly commenced its sittings, gave unequivocal indi- cation of the spirit which prevailed among the reigning party, and coming immediately before the introduction of Mr. Erskine's case, were generally understood to be in- tended to intimidate him and his supporters into abject acquiescence. They certainly proved the vital importance GENERAL ASSEMBLY. — KINGALDRUM, KINROSS. 55 to the interests of religion and liberty of the position he had assumed, and must have produced an earnest desire in every true friend of these endangered interests, that no in- fluence might tempt him to withdraw or to recoil. One of these was the case of the parish of Kingaldrum, to which a few heritors, not resident in the parish, and some of whom were not even members of the Scottish church, had lately presented an individual as minister. The presentee was intensely unacceptable to the parish- ioners of Kingaldrum, whose wishes had never been thought of as an element in the choice. Every elder in the parish opposed the settlement, and all the heads of families ac- tively concurred in the opposition, with the exception of four, who remained neutral, a boy, a minor, whose guardian sided with the heritors, and one resident heritor, who af- terwards retracted his vote, and joined with the parish in op- posing the settlement. Yet the General Assembly sanc- tioned the appointment of the heritors, insisted that it should take effect as quite valid in itself, and in harmony with the Act of the last Assembly ! This was surely to ' glory in their shame.' The other case displays the same unscrupulous readiness on the part of the ecclesiastical rulers, to strain their autho- rity to the farthest pitch of insult and oppression. A Mr. Robert Stark had been violently intruded on the parish of Kinross. In consequence of the disgraceful circumstances connected with his settlement, the majority of the Presby- tery of Dunfermline, in whose bounds Kinross is situated, refused to receive and enrol him as a member of Presby- tery ; while the inhabitants of Kinross, disgusted by the tyranny which had forced upon them an unacceptable pre- sentee, unanimously deserted his ministrations, and sought the enjoyment of Christian ordinances in the neighbouring parishes. This was quite a case to attract the sympathy and interest of the rulers in the Assembly. It did so. Those ministers of the Presbytery who had shrunk from recognising an intruded and obnoxious presentee, were sharply rebuked for their scruples, and commanded to meet 56 THE FOUR BRETHREN. forthwith and judicially enrol Mr. Stark into their fellow- ship, on pain of yet severer censures ; while they were pro- hibited by a special act, and with similar menaces, from administering the sacraments to any person from the parish of Kinross, without the consent of its minister. This was indeed to rule with a high hand ; and it is difficult to say whether the sentence was more arbitrary in its aspects to- wards the Presbytery or towards the people. To the one it presented the alternative of enduring the heaviest ecclesias- tical censures, or performing an act which, in the peculiar circumstances, must have savoured of farce and dissimula- tion. To the other it offered the choice of attending on the ministrations of a hireling whom they had every reason to despise, or of being treated as l a heathen man and a publican.' Mr. Erskine could not misapprehend the spirit of these Acts. They told him what he himself might expect in case of continued resistance, and were doubtless meant to over- whelm him with confusion and dismay. But there was no quailing at his heart as he looked around him on a frown- ing Assembly, and forward into a darkening future. The greater number of those, indeed, who had embarked in the cause now withdrew, either persuading themselves that they had sufficiently discharged their duty by their syno- dical dissents, or alarmed by the dread of consequences which they had not courage to meet. But when his case was called he was ready at the bar, and three friends were beheld by his side, prepared from henceforth to make his cause their own; — William Wilson, minister of Perth, Alexander Moncrieff, minister of Abernethy, and James Fisher, minister of Kinclaven. The first step of the Assembly after the cause was intro- duced, ot once declared the arbitrary and unconstitutional spirit that was to control its proceedings. Messrs. Wilson and Moncrieff having claimed it as their right to be heard in support of their dissent from the deed of their own Synod, were peremptorily denied this reasonable demand ; while the lips of Mr. Fisher were as effectually sealed by REASONS OF APPEAL. 57 the refusal of the Committee to transmit his reasons of ap- peal. Mr. Erskine alone was permitted to be heard in support of his appeal ; and this was done in a document, which, for pointed brevity of statement, triumphant argu- ment, clear elucidation of great principles, respectful ad- dress combined with independence of feeling, deserves to be ranked among the most valuable ecclesiastical docu- ments of the age. Indeed, it is one of the good effects of such struggles as we are now describing, that they not only vindicate important privileges at the time, but by eliciting great principles and throwing them abroad upon the public mind, sow the seeds of future struggles and future triumphs. The history of one age, thus becomes the teacher of the next. * A watchman,' he exclaims in one place, ' must exoner himself upon the peril of his soul. 'Tis true he ought not knowingly to sound a false alarm. But whether is it safer for the city to have a false alarm sounded upon an appre- hended danger, or to have the mouth of the watchman stopt that he cannot sound an alarm, when the danger is real and the city falling into the hands of the enemy 1 ' Again, — * The Synod, according to the method of their procedure against me, seemed to look upon this act as a term of ministerial communion which it can by no means be, in regard it had no being, when the appellant or any other minister admitted to the ministry before its en- actment, was ordained; and if this act be a term of ministerial communion, why not other acts? and so we shall have as many terms of communion as there are acts of Assembly.' Again he says, — ' It cannot be supposed that any think- ing man ever engaged to be subject (as was said) to all acts of Assembly that might take place after his subscrip- tion, unless they were agreeable to, and founded upon, the word of God Our subjection to judicatories is only in the Lord, from which no argument can be drawn for a sinful silence as to acts and constitutions, which seem to us to be against Christ's interests and authority over his church.' 58 REBUKE AND PROTEST. These defences had no effect upon the mind of Mr. Erskine's judges, except to aggravate in their opinion his original offence. By a majority of votes, the Assembly found the expressions vented by Mr. Erskine and contain- ed in the minutes of the Synod's proceedings, with the answers thereto made by him, to be offensive, and to tend to disturb the peace and good order of the church ; and 1 therefore approve of the proceedings of the Synod, and appoint him to be rebuked and admonished at their own bar in order to terminate the process.' The rebuke and admonition were administered accord- ingly, but could Mr. Erskine silently submit to the re- straints which they imposed ? This would virtually have been to fall from the noble testimony against public evils which he had been maintaining, to pledge him to a crouch- ing and cowardly silence in the case of future unconstitu- tional and unscriptural acts, and to fling from him the commission of contending for injured truth and vindicat- ing violated rights, which the Providence of God had so evidently put into his hands. The intrepid Reformer did not hesitate about his course, but producing a paper in which he protested against the censure that had been in- flicted on him, and declared his adherence to all the testi- monies he had formerly emitted against the Act of 1732, craved in his own name and in that of his three brethren who stood beside him at the bar and had adhibited their written assent to it, that it might be publicly read and recorded in the minutes of the Assembly. This request was, of course, refused, on which the brethren left the paper on the table of the Assembly, and withdrew. It was in these words, — ' Although I have a very great and dutiful regard to the Judicatories of this church to whom I own my subjection in the Lord ; yet in respect the Assembly have found me censurable and have tendered a rebuke and admonition to me for things I conceive agreeable unto, and founded upon, the word of God and our approven standards ; I find my- self obliged to protest against the said censure, as import- CURIOUS INCIDENT. 59 ing that I have in my doctrine at the opening of the Synod of Perth, October last, departed from the word of God and the foresaid standards : and that I shall be at liberty to preach the same truths of God, and to testify against the same or like defections of this church, upon all proper occasions. And I do hereby adhere unto the testimonies I have formerly emitted against the Act of Assembly 1732, whether in the protest entered against it in open Assembly, or yet in my synodical sermon : craving this my protest and declaration to be insert in the records of Assembly, and that I may be allowed extracts thereof.' It is evident that when the brethren quietly withdrew* from the Assembly after laying this protest upon its table they had not the most remote intention of formal separa- tion from the Established Church, but that remaining in her communion, they meant to testify against public evils, in the use of that liberty for which they had protested. But on what trivial circumstances do the most important events often depend 1 ' Had the nose of Cleopatra been a little longer,' says Pascal in one of his pregnant sentences, ' it would have changed the history of the world.' And but for a seemingly insignificant occurrence, the Secession might never have occurred, and Mr Erskine and his friends have died in the bosom of the Established Church. The Assembly had already proceeded to other business, when the paper which Mr. Erskine had left, having fallen over the table, attracted the attention of a member of court, — ' Mr. James Naismith, minister at Dalmeny, a fiery man in the corrupt measures of that time.' As he perused the document, his countenance was observed to kindle with indignation, and no sooner had he finished its secret peru- sal, than he passionately called on the Assembly to stop and consider the insufferable insult which he reckoned had been cast upon them, in the contents of that paper. The protest was read by him with stentorian voice, the Assem- bly appeared all in a flame, and determined now to have recourse to summary measures, they instantly commanded their officer to seek out the four brethren, and cite them 60 THE BRETHREN RECALLED BEFORE THE ASSEMBLY. to appear before the bar of the Assembly on the morrow. It was not till about an hour before midnight that they received their summons ; — the Lord was ' leading the blind by a way that they knew not.' On the morrow the four brethren, in obedience to the summons of the Assembly, appeared at their bar. With- out any question being addressed to them, they were at once instructed to retire with a Committee that was ap- pointed to deal with them on the subject of their protest. That Committee soon returned, and studiously withholding the reasons assigned by the brethren, simply reported, that 1 they continued fully resolved to adhere to their paper and protest.' And then the Assembly, as if eager to terminate the process, and resolved that nothing should be allowed to restrain them from the purpose of their heart, without allowing the parties who were so deeply interested in their decision to open their mouth at the bar, imme- diately ordained to the following effect : — ' That the four brethren appear before the Commission in August next, to express sorrow for their conduct and retract their protest ; that in the event of their refusing to submit, the Commis- sion is empowered and appointed to suspend them from the exercise of their ministry ; and that if they shall then act contrary to the sentence of suspension, the Commission at their meeting in November or any subsequent meeting, is instructed to proceed to a higher censure.' The very forms of justice were disregarded, in the pre- sent instance, by those haughty ecclesiastics. For respect even to the shadow and letter of justice, should evidently dispose those who sit in judgment, to allow the utmost latitude of defence to those who are cited before them, and whose interests are deeply involved in the decision. This is one of those forms which no circumstance should be allowed to violate, and which having their foundation in natural justice, have often proved the invaluable safe- guards of human rights. What shall we think then of such a decision summarily passed against these four brethren, while all inquiry is foreclosed and defence inter- INSULTING TREATMENT. 61 dieted. Hasty decisions are a sure indication that faction or fear is sitting as judge. How true is the remark of Milton that, from the foundation of the world, error has never dared an open encounter with truth, or tyranny with an honest cause. Had the great poet - republican been present in the Scottish Assembly, and seen these four champions first gagged and then condemned, would not his own words have sprung to his lips, ' Presbyter is priest writ large.' On the sentence being intimated to the brethren they offered to read a short paper as their joint speech, to the following effect : — ' In regard the venerable Assembly have come to a positive sentence without hearing our defences, and have appointed the Commission to execute their sen- tence in August, in case we do not retract what we have done ; we cannot but complain of this uncommon proce- dure, and declare that we are not at liberty to take this affair to an avisandicm,'' — i. e. to take the matter into fur- ther consideration. Then came the crowning act of these unscrupulous rulers, the mere imagination of which makes the blood still mantle on our cheeks. No sooner had they begun to read this paper, than the officer of the Assembly was ordered to exclude them from the house ! Doubtless the intrepid witnesses ' went out from the midst of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.' — They had now reached the last turn in that long and winding avenue, at the end of which was liberty. Let us follow them to its termination. A natural desire arises in our minds, to know something of the state of mind of these servants of God when they retired from the public struggles and contentions of Assem- blies, to the more secret reflection of their own homes. How much better is the character of Paul understood, for example, when his epistles are placed side by side with the contemporary passages in the Acts of the Apostles. Some- thing similar to this has been enjoyed in tracing previous parts of the contendings of these four brethren ; and it is gratifying now to be able to present a passage which discloses 62 c PERSECUTED, BTTT NOT FORSAKEN.'* to us the secret feelings of Mr. Erskine at this juncture, and marks the calm composure with which he looked forward on the future. In closing the preface of his celebrated Synod- sermon, which issued from the press during the storm, he thus seeks to satisfy the anxious interest with which he knew his case was regarded by thousands. ' If any of the author's friends and well-wishers be afraid of further trouble to him upon account of this sermon ; let them know that, through grace, he chooses rather to suffer with the oppressed mem- bers of Christ, than to enjoy all the ease and pleasure of those who oppress them in their spiritual liberties ; which, being the purchase of the Redeemer's blood, will be reck- oned for before the scene be ended.' Here was the hidden secret of his dauntless bearing in Assemblies and Commissions. ' He endured, as seeing Him who is in- visible.' Mr. Erskine was not mistaken in supposing that his case was regarded by multitudes with deep and trembling in- terest ; and this not more for his own sake, than for the sake of the integrity and peace of the Church, which they plainly saw the rash and tyrannical conduct of its rulers had now brought into imminent hazard. The consequence was, that when the month of August came, and the Com- mission assembled, numerous representations were laid upon its table, expressive of the most serious apprehen- sions, and earnestly pressing the importance of caution and delay. That from the Presbytery of Stirling, con- tained the following interesting testimony, ' Mr. Erskine's character is so established amongst the body of professors of this part of the Church, that we believe even the authority of an Assembly condemning him, cannot lessen it.' But only a small part of this representation was per- mitted to be read, while those from the presbyteries of Dunblane and Ellon, and from various town-councils and kirk-sessions, were treated with that supercilious contempt which gives to the proceedings of the ecclesiastical rulers at this period, whenever popular rights are concerned, the doubtful merit of svstem and consistency. MR. ERSKINE REFORE THE COMMISSION. 63 The treatment of the four brethren themselves, was in the same spirit. Feeling the extreme delicacy and impor- tance of their position; unable, moreover, to shut their eyes to the unfriendly temper of the majority of their judges, they had wisely prepared written defences of their conduct, suited to the different characters which they sus- tained in the process, as appellants from, or protesters against, the decision of the Synod, which they proposed to lay upon the table as their representation. They were in- formed, however, that the Commission had resolved to read none of their papers, and that they were now required to answer separately and viva voce to the question, ' whether they were now willing to retract their protestation, and to declare their sorrow for their past conduct.' Mr. Er- skine, to whom the question was first addressed, firmly replied that as it was the undoubted privilege of a person, when sisted before any court, to make his defence either in word or writing as he might think proper, he was not dis- posed to wave this right on the present occasion; and, therefore, insisted that the paper he had laid on the table, should be read and sustained as his answer to the question of the court. More than two hours were spent in seeking to draw from Mr. Erskine a viva voce reply, and when at length he was removed, the privilege was yielded to him by a reluctant vote. At this time, there mingled among the spectators in the Commision, one who witnessed its present proceedings with overwhelming interest. He was then an unknown youth of nineteen, pursuing his studies at the University of Edin- burgh, but had already become the subject of a divine change, through the reading of the introductory part of Luther's commentary on the Galatians. Having been pre- sent at several previous Assemblies and Commissions, the ingenuous but keen-eyed student had noticed with aston- ishment and disgust the doctrinal defections and tyrannical proceedings of the ecclesiastical rulers, and his sympathies had gradually been gathered around the few faithful men who had been struggling for years to stem the current. 64 DESCRIPTION BY AN EYE-WITNESS. The name of this youth was Adam Gib, who two years afterwards cast in his lot with Mr. Erskine and his friends, and, for half a century, was known as one of the most vigor- ous and unflinching defenders of their principles and cause. At the end of his own copy of his well-known work, still in the possession of his descendants, — ' The Display of the Secession Testimony,' Mr. Gib has left, written with his own hand a description given with all the vividness of an eye-witness, of Mr. Erskine's appearance on this occa- sion. ' I saw Mr. Ebenezer Erskine,' says he, ' then standing at the bar in a most easy and undaunted, yea majestic appearance, amidst warm and brow -beating reasonings against the refusal which he then made, particularly by the Earl of Isla. Before the Commission found them- selves obliged to reverse their forenoon resolution against receiving any written answers to their question, a proposal was agreed in for allowing him to read such parts of his representation as contained a direct answer to their ques- tion. The paper being then handed over to him, he entered upon the reading of it, beginning with the address and title. The Moderator immediately stopped him, telling that he was to read only such parts as contained a direct answer to the question. Mr. Erskine replied that these would come in due order. This produced new reasonings, which issued in his being allowed to read the whole paper. And he did so in a very deliberate manner, with a very audible voice ; Mr. Archibald Rennie, who was next year intruded into the parish of Muckart, holding the candle to him, for it was then late.' The l warm and brow-beating reasonings ' here described, were such as these brethren had often been called to bear, in their successive appearances before the Church- courts ; and we understand human nature but slightly, if we do not perceive that such a course of treatment, ex- tended through a lengthened period, is really more difficult to bear than one short and splendid scene of suffering. How much of the true spirit of the Christian martyr may THE FOUR BRETHREN SUSPENDED. 65 there be, without the imposing solemnities of the scaffold or the stake ! The representation by Mr. Erskine, which was the only one permitted to be read, was one of those masterly pro- ductions of which not a few were produced during this contest. It has been remarked of a great statesman of the last age, that in speaking on any subject, his train of ob- servation was commonly such as not only to bear conclu- sively on his present object, but to embody great principles of wider application and imperishabls value ; resembling the river which while it is bearing the richly freighted vessel to its destined port, is at the same time silently depositing particles of gold upon its banks. We confess to have been struck with this in more than one of the ecclesiastical documents of this period; and that which Mr. Erskine now laid on the table of the Commission, would, in various parts of it, warrant the remark. It exhibits, in a series of uncommonly perspicuous and well connected paragraphs, the principles taught in the Bible respecting the kingly office of Christ, — the indepen- dent and spiritual nature of his kingdom, — the adaptation of its laws and ordinances to the welfare of his subjects,— the merely administrative nature of all church power, — the fallibility of church judicatories, — the right of private judgment, and the duty binding on the members of the church, and especially on its office-bearers, to protest against, and seek to have removed, those perversions of church authority whose tendency is to corrupt the truths of this spiritual kingdom, or to degrade and enslave its people. On these principles he especially vindicates the course which he and his brethren had taken against the Act of Assembly, 1732, and shows how they are unable, with the approval of their consciences, to withdraw the protest, or to silence the testimony which they have raised against it. As might be anticipated from the experience of the past, his noble and conclusive vindication had no effect upon the minds of the majority of Mr. Erskine's judges. 63 PROTEST. — SACRAMENT AT QUEENSFERRY. The Commission ' suspended the four brethren from the exercise of the ministerial function and all the parts there- of;' though it is pleasing to add that several ministers and elders, members of Commission, dissented from the deed. No sooner was the sentence formally intimated, than the four brethren protested in their own name and in that of all who should adhere to them, — That this sentence was in itself null and void ; that it would be lawful and warrant- able for them to exercise their ministry as hitherto they had done, and as if no such censure had been inflicted ; and that if in consequence of this sentence, any minister or probationer should exercise any part of their pastoral work, the same would be held and reputed as a violent in- trusion upon their pastoral labours. Papers were at the same time given in by some of the elders of their respec- tive congregations, in which they protested against the sentence, and declared their continued and devoted adher- ence to their ministers. Thus did the rent widen, by every new stroke of ecclesiastical vengeance. It was not a time for Mr. Erskine and his friends to compromise their position, by refraining to do in fact what they had in their protest declared their continued right and warrant to do. Accordingly, we find them at once fearlessly betaking themselves to the discharge of all their pastoral functions. Mr. Erskine on his way home from the Commission, assisted his friend Mr. Kid of Queens- ferry, one of the Marrowmen, in the dispensation of the Lord's Supper, and on the Sabbath morning gave out the following lines of the fifty-first psalm, on which he is said to have thrown out some touching observations ; ' My closed lips, Lord, by thee Let them be opened; Then shall thy praises by my mouth Abroad be published.'* We can almost suppose that one of the sustaining thoughts that would arise to the mind of the venerable witness, was * Frazer's Life of E. Erskine, p. 3S3. POPULAR INTEREST AND EXCITEMENT. 67 that he was not a sufferer for his sins but for the truth, and doubtless this was one of those periods, to which he afterwards looked back with such grateful and adoring re- collections from his death-bed, when he said, ' 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.' * During the three months that intervened between the period of their suspension and the next meeting of the Commission in November, before which they were summon- ed again to appear, the interest in the cause of the four brethren, had extended itself far and wide throughout the land. Every one saw that a crisis was at hand, and yet no one could tell how it would terminate, and in what way it would affect the interests of the brethren, or the integrity and future prosperity of the church. Men therefore felt anxious to delay a crisis, whose consequences when it came might be so disastrous, and they even hoped that by its being delayed, it might in some way or other at length be averted. The consequence was that when November came and the Commission assembled, addresses and resolutions were presented in their behalf from seven different Synods, imploring that they might be treated with clemency and forbearance, and that the court would abstain from pro- ceeding to inflict a higher censure. Several presbyteries also petitioned in the same spirit, and one had even courage enough to express it as their opinion that the sentence of suspension already inflicted, had been a ' stretching of church authority.' Which then shall give way ? Might or right? Shall ecclesiastical tyranny relax its grasp? or shall enlightened conscience fling from it its testimony ? Obedient to the instructions of the Assembly, the four brethren appeared before the Commission in November, but with no tone or attitude of unworthy compromise. On the contrary, they at once intimated their unswerving * Frozer's Life of E. Erskine, p. 459. 68 ESCAPE FROM THE NET. adherence to all their former representations and protests, and acknowledged that since their suspension in August, they had exercised all the parts of their ministerial office, as if they had been under no such censure. The numerous petitions that had been laid on the table of the Commission urging a lenient course, as well as expressing dread of the consequences of unrelaxed severity, induced many members to insist that the process against the brethren should not, in the meantime, be prosecuted further. The question was accordingly put to the Commission, and it was carried only by the casting vote of the Moderator and amid numerous dissents and protests, that they should proceed immediately to a higher censure. At this anxious juncture, another committee was ap- pointed to meet with the suspended ministers, with in- structions to endeavour, if possible, to correct their mis- takes and persuade them to a dutiful submission. With some, this arrangement doubtless originated in an honest desire to put a check upon undue severity and to avert the calamities which they saw impending over the church ; with others, it was doubtless intended as a show of leniency to the public, and if possible to bring the brethren into a false position ; with others, it was the suggestion of a fear that shrinks from the fruits of its own acts, when it be- holds them near, — ' willing to wound and yet afraid to strike.' And men of principle are far more in danger of being entangled by these subtle nets, than of falling before a more direct assault, as the annals of church history sadly demonstrate in a thousand instances. But happily, Mr. Erskine and his friends were not to add another pain- ful example. No proposal was made to them which did not involve a dangerous concession and even a sinful com- promise ; and alive to the fact that not only their own per- sonal interest and character were now involved in their position, but the general interests of truth and liberty, they determined to avoid the slightest departure from the prin- ciples on which their opposition to the church-courts was founded, or to endanger the great cause which Providence EXPULSION FROM THE CHURCH. 69 had intrusted to them, for what was likely to prove a dis- honest and hollow peace. They accordingly declared them- selves incapable of adopting the proposals of the com- mittee. The crisis had now come, and the rent in the Scottish Church, was seen widening even to its foundations. On the committee's reporting that the four brethren continued of the same mind as formerly, the Commission immediately proceeded to the final determination of the case. The question was stated thus, ' Loose the relation of the said four ministers to their respective charges, declare them no longer ministers of this church, and prohibit all ministers of this church from employing them in any ministerial function; or, depose them simpliciter,' — when it carried loose by a great majority, those members who had formerly voted against proceeding to a higher censure, not being able to vote consistently on either side. Looked at from the distance of more than a century, and seen in many of its results, this decision must be regarded as one of no common moment, and therefore it is natural that we should interweave with our narrative the very terms in which it was announced and recorded. On the 16th of November, 1733, the Commission of the General As- sembly of the Church of Scotland, passed sentence against the four protesting ministers in the following words: — ' The Commission of the General Assembly did, and hereby do, loose the relation of Mr. Ebenezer Erskine minister at Stirling, Mr. William Wilson minister at Perth, Mr. Alex- ander Moncrieff minister at Abernethy, and Mr. James Fisher minister at Kinclaven, to their said respective charges ; and do declare them no longer ministers of this church ; and do prohibit all ministers of this church to employ them, or any of them, in any ministerial function. And the Commission do declare the churches of the said Mr. Erskine, Mr. Wilson, Mr. Moncrieff, and Mr. Fisher, vacant, from and after the date of this sentence. And ap- points that letters from the Moderator and extracts of this sentence be sent to the several presbyteries within whose 70 REMARKS. bounds the said ministers, have had their charges, appoint- ing them, as they are hereby appointed, to cause intimate this sentence in the foresaid several churches, any time be- twixt and the first of January next. And also that notice be sent by letters from the moderator of this Com- mission, to the magistrates of Perth and Stirling, to the Sheriff-principal of Perth, and Baillie of the regality ^ of Abernethy.' Thus were these faithful servants of God cast out of the church. While it had only been after long delay and with much reluctance, that these rulers had been brought to sus- pend from his ministerial functions one who had boldly blas- phemed the name of Jesus and taught others to do it, and while they had allowed him to remain in undisturbed pos- session of all his ecclesiastical emoluments, — these holy men and faithful witnesses, who had vented no heresy, who stood unchallenged with any immoral act, who had done violence to no constitutional law, whose only fault had been their faithful testifying against repeated and growing defections in doctrine and government, their endeavouring to bring back the church to that purer model, to gain which her first martyr had burned and her last martyr bled, and especially their continuing to protest and refus- ing to be silent against a measure which even the most unscrupulous partisan of modern times will admit to have been unconstitutionally passed and irregularly imposed, were driven from a church whose doctrines they loved, and whose order they venerated, denuded of their office, ex- posed to penury, and branded with reproach. Had the majority of those rulers been as zealous for the honour of Christ, as for their own authority, how different, in both cases, would have been their sentence. The reading of the sentence, carried a pang of sorrow to the heart of some of the most faithful of those ministers who had sat in the Commission. They felt that, with many of the rulers around them who had joined in passing the unrighteous decree, their only bond of connexion was ec- clesiastical and external ; while with those whom they now THE SECESSION. 71 saw driven forth, it was spiritual, endearing, and perpe- tual. No sooner, therefore, was the sentence read, than seven ministers lodged their protest against it, declaring their right to complain of it to any subsequent Assembly, to testify against the various acts of Assembly that had occasioned it, and to hold communion with their 'dear brethren,' as if no such Act had ever been passed against them. Of these seven ministers, three afterwards cast in their lot with the four brethren ; two others, Mr. Gabriel Wilson of Maxton, and Mr. Henry Davidson of Galashiels, ' wearied with the contentious chicanery ' of successive Assemblies and Commissions, soon after withdrew from the communion of the Scottish church, and formed a church at Maxton on the congregational model ; and one Mr. Currie of Kinglassie, became the bitter asperser of the four brethren, for which he is said to have been rewarded with substan- tial gifts.* Immediately after this, the four brethren were called, and the sentence of their expulsion from the church announced to them. Their minds were fully prepared for the course which it now became them to take. They first read, and then handed to the clerk the following protest, which, as it not only stands connected with so momentous a crisis in the personal history of the four brethren, but forms the basis of the Secession, must be regarded as a document of public and permanent interest. Its tenor is as follows : — 'Edinburgh, November \Qth, 1733. We hereby adhere to the protestation formerly entered before this Court, both at their last meeting in August, and when we appeared first before this meeting. And further, we do protest in our own name, and in the name of all and every one in our respective congregations adhering to us, that, notwithstanding of this sentence passed against us, * The General Assembly of 1741, sanctioned a grant to Mr. Cur- rie of sixty pounds sterling, as a reward for his pamphlets written against the Seceding ministers. Struthers' History of Scotland, 11., p. 57. 72 THE BASIS. our pastoral relation shall be held and reputed firm and valid. And likewise we protest, that notwithstanding of our being cast out from ministerial communion with the Established Church of Scotland, we still hold communion with all and every one who desire with us to adhere to the principles of the true Presbyterian covenanted Church of Scotland, in her doctrine, worship, government, and discipline, and particularly with all who are groaning under the evils, and who are affected with the grievances we are complaining of, and who are, in their several spheres, wrestling against the same. But in regard the prevailing party in this Established Church who have now cast us out from minis- terial fellowship with them, are carrying on a course of defection from our reformed and covenanted principles, and particularly are suppressing ministerial freedom and faithfulness in testifying against the present backslidings of the church, and inflicting censure upon ministers for witnessing, by protestations and otherwise, against the same : Therefore we do, for these and many other weighty reasons, to be laid open in due time, protest that we are obliged to make a secession from them, and that we can have no ministerial communion with them, till they see their sins and mistakes, and amend them. And in like manner we do protest, that it shall be lawful and warrant- able for us to exercise the keys of doctrine, discipline, and government, according to the word of God and Confession of Faith, and the principles and constitutions of the Cove- nanted Church of Scotland, as if no such censure had been passed upon us ; upon all which we take instruments. And we hereby appeal unto the first free, faithful, and reform- ing General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. (Signed) ' Ebenezer Erskine. 1 William Wilson. ' Alexander Moncrieff. 'James Fisher.' A glance at this important document, may serve to cor- rect more than one popular mistake that has been allowed MISTAKES CORRECTED. 73 to obtain extensive credence, and in so far to diminish, in general opinion, the value of the steps which these servants of God now felt themselves constrained to take. Thou- sands suppose that patronage was the sole grievance in which the Secession originated, whereas it is distinctly re- ferred in this authoritative document to a lengthened course of defection, both in doctrine and government, such as we have endeavoured in the preceding pages to trace, — a defection rendered insufferable, at length, by the closing up of every constitutional channel by which faithful testi- mony might be maintained against it, and its corrupting current stemmed and dried up. The four brethren seceded, as they themselves express it, l for many weighty reasons.' Nor will any one who conscientiously acquaints himself with the real facts of the case, ever be guilty of the bold injustice of associating Ebenezer Erskine and his friends with those dreaming schismatics who aspire after a state of ecclesiastical perfection perhaps not attainable on earth, or with those troublesome sectaries who mistake the spirit of division for the spirit of purity, whose pertinacious zeal is generally proportioned to the insignificance of the object for which they contend, and who would withdraw the churches from their high vocation, to wonder at them, while they sit at their chosen and congenial exercise of ' weighing atoms and dividing straws.' Ebenezer Erskine and his associates were not sectaries but reformers. They separated from a degenerate church to carry on a work of reformation without her, when every constitutional means of promoting that work within her pale, had been wrested from their hands. They disobeyed their ecclesiastical rulers, when obedience to them would have been dishonour to Christ. The alternatives set before them were unfaith- ful silence or expulsion, and they nobly and instantly pre- ferred the latter. If they are condemned, it is only on principles that would condemn the Reformers and the Pu- ritans, — principles that would raze the very foundations of Protestantism, and overwhelm the bulwarks of religious liberty. 74 MORAL HEROISM. Looking back upon the moment when these four brethren walked forth from the presence of that court which had so rashly and wickedly condemned and expelled them, we can almost imagine their feelings to have resembled those of Calvin when banished from his native land. ' I am driven forth,' said he, ' out of my native land. Every step to its borders costs me tears. But since the truth may not dwell in France, neither can I. Her destiny is mine.' * Not that they did not gladly own that there were ' dear brethren,' whom they had left behind them, who loved the truth ; this is owned in the words of their protest, which not more attests their fidelity than their charity. But the prevail- ing character of the rulers in the church was different, as had been proved by their measures, and therefore it was that they had ' come out from among them and been sepa- rate.' There is considerable danger of our not forming a suffi- ciently high estimate of the self-denial and the faith mani- fested in the movement which we are now describing. To judge of it aright, we must look at it, not from the midst of present scenes and modern sentiments, but from amid the scenes and sentiments of the age in which it took place. Then that which in our day would stand little above an act of commonplace virtue, will be seen to rise at once to the dignity of high moral heroism. The Seceders were ven- turing upon what, in Scotland at least, was an untried ex- periment, whose consequences to themselves they could not possibly forecast. There was a mysterious grandeur, too, around the national church in the eyes of the multitudes in those times, which all its defection and corruption had not sufficed to dispel, while every thing like separation was confounded in the minds of indiscriminating thousands with schism. They beheld the men of power and rank joining with those who sat in the high places of ecclesias- tical authority in frowning upon their conduct, nor could • Life of John Calvin, by P. Henry of Berlin. Bibliotheca Sa- cra, 11., p. 500. A HISTORIC CHURCH. 70 they be sure that these would not speedily invoke upon them the vengeance of the civil power. Their movement, moreover, whatever might be its moral grandeur, wanted that external magnitude which tends to awaken sympathy and to impress with awe ; nor had that enlightened public opinion yet been called into being and elevated to power, which, in our own day, is the grand court of appeal from the decisions of tyranny and injustice, and which sooner or later reverses them all. Yet amid the frowns of power, and with the consciousness of weakness, surrounded with all the difficulties of an untried experiment, uncheered by the loud and universal voice of popular acclaim, and with no earthly prospect seemingly before them but that of reproach and want, did these four brethren, believing that they heard the voice of God, and that He had given them a commission to discharge and a testimony to bear, ' go forth like Abraham, not knowing whither they went.' Who would be ashamed of such a noble ancestry ! We are aware that it has become the fashion, in some quarters, to mock at the idea of a historic church, but the wisdom or the folly of thus mocking, altogether depends on the meaning we attach to the phrase. If it be meant by it that the authority of the founders of a denomination is to be final, that their very errors are to be stereotyped and themselves canonized, and that their children and descend- ants are to be restrained from taking any step in advance of their discoveries and attainments, then are we prepared to become mockers too. But what Protestant has ever used the word with such an unprotestant meaning ? The phrase has another sense, at once protestant and holy. Are there not such things as transmitted duties as well as transmit- ted privileges] May not the providence of God, in the events of a particular country, visibly raise up a particular denomination, whose special work it shall be to assert and vindicate great truths and invaluable rights, until they shall have triumphed in a universal acceptance ? And may there not be hallowed associations connected with the rise of that church, and with its first assertion of those princi- 76 HISTORICAL RECOLLECTIONS. pies, which it shall be at once the advantage and the duty of succeeding ages to cherish and hold sacred ? The man who should deny this, would show that he knew little either of human nature or of the laws of God's providential admin- istration, and in seeking to show himself liberal would only prove himself absurd. Historical recollections, such as those, for example, which stand connected with the origin of the Secession, are like the venerable elms and stately cedars which surround some ancient mansion, whose roots are interwoven with its foundations, whose branches add to its beauty and defence, and beneath whose ample shadow it is pleasant for the children who inhabit the mansion, often to converse and meditate. We have no sympathy with the Gothic violence that would level these associations with the dust, or with that shallow wisdom which, in looking for- ward on the future, would contemn the past. CHAPTER III. CONSOLIDATION OF THE SECESSION. The Three other Fathers— Comparison of Portraits— Anecdote— Gairney Bridge— The Associate Presbytery — Wisdom with corn-age — The Extra- judicial Testimony — Grounds of Secession as laid by its founders — Alarm in the Assembly — Excitement among the people — Semblance of reform— Censures removed — The Four Brethren deliberate— Refusal to return— Reasons — Assembly of 1735, the mask on— Assembly of 1736, the mask becoming transparent— Organization — Progress— The Judicial Testimony— Accessions— Ralph Erskine — The Porteous mob— Act of Parliament — General submission — New accessions — Assembly of 1737, the mask falls off— Assembly of 1738, the Libel— Assembly of 1739, The Declinature— The Eight Brethren and the Assembly— The Deposition — Scenes in the parishes of the deposed ministers — The last cord dis- severed. Having thus described the act of Secession, it may reason- ably be expected that, in entering on our present chapter, which is intended to narrate the infant struggles of the new body, we should devote a few paragraphs to brief notices of the three brethren who were associated with Mr. Erskine in the important movement, and afterwards contributed so much by their wisdom, eloquence, energy and prayer, to its consolidation. The materials that have descended to supply the substance of such notices are not abundant. The Fathers of the Secession simply following the dictates of principle, could not forecast the remoter consequences of their measures, and probably never dreamed of the magnitude and influence to which the new eccle- siastical community they were forming would eventually grow ; and there is no reason to suppose that their con- temporaries and followers looked into the future with more sanguine anticipation or prophetic certainty. This 78 WILLIAM WILSON. was not the state of mind to ensure the preservation of abundant memorials. Besides, men when they are deeply in earnest forget themselves, and doubtless these sincere and simple-minded Reformers, struggling through a long series of years to preserve the lustre of dishonoured truth, or to restore betrayed rights, were the last to think of picturesque attitude or dramatic effect. Even the remi- niscences that have descended, it is neither our intention nor our province to exhaust. This interesting work has been committed to other hands, and all that we intend is to select a few such facts as shall make our readers fami- liar with the mental features of the men whose move- ments we are tracing, and by showing that the course pur- sued by them in seceding was in harmony with the whole current of their previous life, expose the recklessness of those writers who for want of an explanation more suitable to their prejudices have, in utter ignorance or perversity, referred the Secession to disappointment on the part of its founders, or vindictiveness, or spleen. William "Wilson,* whose name immediately follows that of Ebenezer Erskine in the Deed of Secession, was the son of parents who had both been sufferers for con- science sake, in those years of imprisonment, confiscation, and bloodshed, which had preceded the Revolution. His father, Mr. Gilbert Wilson, a pious man and a Presbyterian, on account of his refusal to conform, had, under the reign of the second Charles, been deprived of his paternal acres, and even his moveable goods ; and subsequently, as the per- secution grew hotter, and its agents more numerous and unscrupulous, had been compelled to seek concealment during a whole winter in the bleak moorlands of Mearns ; and afterwards to flee to the hospitable shores of Holland. His mother, the daughter of a landed proprietor in Forfar- shire, had for the same reason been disowned and disin- herited by her' proud and intolerant parent. Gratitude fur the blessings of the Revolution which at length dawned « Born at Glasgow, Nov. 9, 1G90. WILLIAM WILSON. 79 upon Scotland led them to dedicate their son, from his birth, to the Christian ministry. This dedication was, at a very early period, owned of God. From the pages of a Diary, which, after the lapse of nearly a hundred years, the laborious application of a descendant unexpectedly succeeded in deciphering, he is found to have entered into secret and solemn covenant with God at the early age of fourteen, and subsequent pages of the same interesting document, afford the most pleasing evidence of that simple reliance on the divine atonement, that cheerful self-dedication, that sensitive shrinking from the very thought of sin, that frequent and solitary musing on heavenly themes, and close walking with God, which are the best indications of a flourishing- piety, and the surest harbingers of an eminent ministry. Mr. Wilson's preparatory studies were pursued with such systematic application and avidity that he scarcely allowed himself time for bodily rest, in consequence of which he had obtained, at a comparatively early period, a very extensive and accurate acquaintance with the writers on systematic theology, especially those of the Dutch school, excelled the greater number of the ministers of his age in his mastery of the languages in which the scriptures were written, and became such a proficient in Latin, that throughout life he could speak it with fluency and ease. While ardently pursuing these preparatory studies, the principle of the young student was severely put to the proof by the offer of a relative to make him heir to the large maternal possessions in Forfarshire, of which his mother had been disinherited on account of her faith, on condition of his abandoning the thought of becoming a Presbyterian clergyman, and assuming the profession of Episcopacy, — an offer which he resisted with such instant decision as effectually secured against its ever being re- peated. This was fit training for a Secession Father. By the time that he had concluded his theological curri- culum, the party in the Church of Scotland that opposed the rights of the people, and were unfriendly to evangelical 80 WILLIAM WILSON. truth and vital piety, had in many presbyteries become the majority; in consequence of which young men of earnest religion began to find difficulty in procuring license to preach. This was the case with Mr. Wilson in his native Presbytery of Glasgow. It belongs to the pro- vince of the biographer however rather than to ours, to describe the various forms in which this malign influence pursued him, first casting obstacles in the way of his ad- mission to examinations and trials, and afterwards quick- ened and directed by the heretical Professor Simson, seek- ing to prevent his settlement over the parish of Dairy in Ayrshire, to which the eager and unanimous voice of the people invited him. His principle was only strengthened by this ordeal of opposition, and he waited patiently until providence should present to him an open door. Such an open door was already provided, for soon after he re- ceived a unanimous invitation from the Town Council and Session of Perth, accompanied by the concurring suffrages of the people, to become the third minister of that city. He was accordingly ordained over this impor- tant charge Nov. 1, 1716, where he continued to exercise a ministry of great influence, acceptability, and success, up to the time of the Secession. The renowned Christian soldier and patriot, Colonel Gardiner, was a frequent and cherished member of Mr. Wilson's family-circle, as we know him to have also been in the hallowed circle of Dr. Doddridge at Northampton.* As he had just entered on his ministry at the com- mencement of the Marrow controversy, Mr. Wilson felt himself restrained by his youth and inexperience from taking a prominent place in that momentous strug- gle. But he watched it from the first with intense interest, and was present from the beginning at the prayers and deliberations of the friends of the Marrow. * Remarkable passages in the Life of Colonel Gardiner by Dod- dridge. Also Sermon by Doddridge on Rev. ii. 10. preached on occasion of the death of Colonel Gardiner. ALEXANDER MONCRIEFF. 81 In the Later contests in behalf of Christian truth and popular right, we have seen him gradually coming into prominence ; and at length, when decided measures became necessary, and when many, through the influence of an unworthy fear or a temporizing policy, withdrew from the struggle, he was found in that little band of faithful men who were ready to follow conscience into whatever sacri- fices and perils it might lead them, and into whose hands God was about to commit the guardianship of interests of no common value. In every great movement, men soon find their appropriate sphere of action, and Mr. Wilson's peculiar gifts and habits immediately decided his vocation in the new ecclesiastical community. He was the calm thinker, the wise counsellor, the man of business in the infant church. The greater number of its early public documents were the production of his pen; and in his ' Defence of the Reformation-principles of the Church of Scotland,' the most complete and triumphant vindication of the Secession that has ever been written, he proved himself in his command of temper, in his luminous argument, in his perfect mastery of the merits and details of his subject, and in the ease with which he detected and exposed the sophistries of assailants, one of the ablest controversialists of his age.* Some of the facts that are to be embodied in the present chapter, will more fully illustrate his character. Alexander MoxcRiEFF,t whose name stands third in the list of the four brethren, was well worthy to oc- cupy that position of honour which belongs to those who ' suffer shame for the name of Christ.' His forefathers for several generations, had been the proprietors of Culfargie an extensive estate on the banks of the Earn in Perth- shire, and one of his ancestors, like the father of William Wilson, had suffered confiscation and exile for conscience sake, in the days of Charles II. The roots of the Secession thus go back at once to the struggles of the Scottish cove- nant and of English puritanism. * Ferrier's Memoirs of W, Wilson, passim. t Born July 1695. F 82 ALEXANDER MOXCRIEFF. Mr. Moncrieff's parents were persons of eminent piety, so that from his youth he enjoyed the inestimable privilege of religious education and example. This advantage was not lost upon the young man, for at a very early period he became the subject of deep religious impressions, and at the age of seventeen these impressions appear to have ma- tured into a divine change. This change was followed by an unreserved dedication of himself to the ministry of the gospel, his sense of the grandeur and responsibility of which gave the best promise of success in the discharge of its duties. ' I hope,' says he in his diary, ' God is putting on my clothes and fitting me out for going in the quality of his ambassador, which is far sweeter to me than if he were to encircle my head with an earthly crown.' ' Do not I long, oh Lord, if thou wilt give me thy own call and be with me, to have the happiness of commending Christ to others 1 Oh ! commend him effectually to my own soul.' * Having completed a course of philosophical and theolo- gical study at the university of St. Andrews, he sought to accomplish himself still more perfectly for the functions of the ministry by a course of foreign study, and sailing from Scotland in 1716 for Leyden in Holland, placed himself under the tuition of the celebrated Markius in the univer- sity of that city, where he prosecuted his studies with all the intense assiduity of an ardent and pious mind. While residing at this foreign seat of learning, he watched with much anxiety the progress of ecclesiastical affairs in Scot- land, and having heard of the prosecution raised against Professor Simson for his erroneous tenets, and been appriz- ed of the time when it was likely to be taken up by the Assembly, discovered at once the strength of his piety and his zeal for truth, by setting apart a portion of time to supplicate the direction of God to the Assembly in this particular emergency. Returning to Scotland, Mr. Moncrieff was soon after- * Christian Magazine, viii. 9k ALEXANDER MONCRIEFF. 83 wards invited to the pastoral care of Abernethy in Perth- shire, where he was accordingly ordained, in harmony with the wishes of the parishioners, in 1720. He found the church, at the period of his entering on his pastorate, in the heat of the Marrow controversy ; and though a differ- ence of opinion with the Marrowmen in regard to some of the details of their procedure, prevented him from for- mally joining himself to their ranks, all his doctrinal con- victions and sympathies were with the movement. A few years after, his zeal for purity of doctrine and native in- trepidity of character became manifest in connection with the issue of the second process against Professor Simson. Dissatisfied with the sinful leniency of the sentence passed by the General Assembly on that occasion, he craved liberty, though not a member of court, to express his sen- timents, and, on the floor of the house, declared his disap- pointment and alarm that one who had impugned a funda- mental doctrine of the gospel had been so feebly and ina- dequately condemned ; — a declaration which he soon after- wards followed by the publication of an elaborate and learned treatise in defence of our Lord's Supreme Divinity. This last act gave significant indication of that intrepid conscientiousness which was to mark the whole of his future life. We have already seen him joining with Mr. Erskine in his protest against the sentence of the Synod of Stirling and Perth, passing with him from the Synod to the Assembly, and standing by him in all his subsequent processes at the bar of Assemblies and Commissions, and at length cast out, grasping and sustaining along with him the standard raised against the impurity and tyranny of the Scottish Establishment. This fearless and unhesi- tating following out of his convictions in the face of all difficulties and dangers, seems to have been the distinguish- ing feature of this third Father among the honoured Four. With this fearless intrepidity in his intercourse with man, Mr. Moncrieff combined in a remarkable degree the spirit of prayer. Not satisfied with the morning and evening seasons of retirement for devotion, he seized upon 84 JAMES FISHER. frequent opportunities during the day ; every event seemed to afford him an errand upwards, and when at any time a convenient opportunity did not occur for retirement, he had recourse to ejaculatory petitions, and at his common meals, or in the midst of conversation or preaching, was observed to pause and 'dart up' a brief request to heaven. He resembled those inhabitants of the deep which cannot remain long beneath the surface of the waters at a time, but must come up frequently to breathe. ' See,' said a woman to her neighbour on occasion of one of these short devotional pauses in his preaching, ' Culfargie * is away to heaven, and has left us all sitting here.' Ardent in tem- perament like Nehemiah, this Founder of the Secession, like him also, laid the foundations of the wall in prayer. t Of James Fisher, the last and youngest of the four brethren, the reminiscences are the least abundant. Born on the 23d day of January, 1697, at Barr in Ayrshire, of which parish his father Thomas Fisher was minister, he was ordained minister of the parish of Kinclaven, Perth- shire, in the beginning of the year 1726. He early became alive to the imminent perils to which the interests of reli- gion were exposed through the course of doctrinal corrup- tion and tyranny pursued by the dominant party in the Scottish Church, and soon attached himself to that band of faithful men whom he beheld struggling against the swelling current, and striving to bring back the church to the purity and freedom of better times. He was one of those six ministers who met in 1731 to consider what measures it might be necessary to adopt for the accom- plishment of these desirable ends, and who prepared the Representation that was presented to the next General Assembly, complaining of grievances, and craving their * The name of the paternal estate into the possession of which Mr. Moncrieff, some time before this, had come. Scottish readers do not need to be told how common it is in many parts of Scotland to designate landed proprietors by the name of their estates. The custom was still more common a century ago. t Christian Magazine for March and April 1804-. PORTRAITS COMPARED. 85 redress.* We have seen the fate of that faithful document and of others conceived and presented in a similar spirit. We have also witnessed the noble steadfastness with which he stood by Mr. Erskine in the 'warm reasonings' and ' browbeatings' of church courts, and cast in his lot with him when older men drew back, content to purchase liberty at the price of worldly advantage. Contemporary writers describe Mr. Fisher as a man of uncommon elevation and spirituality of mind, and tradi- tional recollections represent his public ministrations, especially after he was transferred to the wider field of Glasgow,t as unsurpassed either in sentiment, diction, or manner by any preacher of the age. The theology of Scotland owes him a deep and permanent debt of grati- tude, as the principal author of that elaborate and compre- hensive system of catechetical divinity which was prepar- ed at a later period of his life and which popularly bears his name. J On the whole, were we called on to mark the distinguish- ing qualities in each of the Fathers of the Secession, we should speak of Ebenezer Erskine as the man of pulpit eloquence, who was most fitted by his years, experi- ence, readiness in debate, and nobly majestic appearance to be the leader in an important and difficult movement ; — of William Wilson as the man of prudent deliberation, ¥ looking before and after,' putting his check upon all un- necessary and fruitless action and undignified violence, labouring and thinking much in secret, and doing far more than to superficial onlookers he might seem to do; — of Alexander Moncrieff as the man whose bold and ardent spirit never thought of difficulty when it had found out duty, and who was peculiarly fitted to urge on the hesitating, * Frazer's Life of E. Erskine, pp. 496—500. t October 8, 1741. + He bore his share in the preparation of the first part of the Synod's Catechism; while the whole of the second part is the pro- duction of his pen. There is some reason to hope that tin's standard work will appear in the present series, edited by one singularly com- petent for the task. 86 ANECDOTE. and to prevent a wise caution from degenerating into a temporizing expediency ; and of James Fisher as combin- ing in himself much of the pulpit eloquence of one Father and much of the business habits of another, and, when we add to this his uncommon spirituality of mind, as uncon- sciously preparing to seize the descending mantle of these elder Fathers whom he was destined long to survive, * and to carry on the cause of the Secession when they had gone up to their reward. The well-known anecdote that has been preserved of Mr. Wilson, seems to establish the general accuracy of the mental portraiture which we have thus attempted to give of the Fathers of the Secession. Conversing with his friends in that spirit of easy pleasantry with which the best and busiest minds find it useful at times to unbend themselves, it was asked to what they might best compare the four brethren. Various comparisons were suggested. At length, when the question was proposed to Mr. Wilson, he replied that he did not see anything they could be better compared to, than the four living creatures in Ezekiel's vision. ' Our brother Mr. Erskine has the face of a man. Our friend Mr. Moncrieff 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 Majesty, courage, spiritu- ality, patient industry, are the qualities evidently pointed at in this stroke of pleasantry. Having thus looked at the countenances of the four brethren, and as it were made ourselves familiar with their features, we shall now be prepared to follow their steps with the greater interest from the door of the Commission where we beheld them, at the conclusion of our last chap- ter, leave their protest and proclaim their secession. Their circumstances were new, difficult, and untried. 2so * Died September 28th, 1775. f terrier's Memoirs of W. Wilson, p. 357. GAIRNEY BRIDGE. 87 instance had ever occurred in which men were driven from the fellowship of a church for contending for the purity of its recognised constitution ; they were therefore without the guiding lights of historic precedent. The course they had taken, moreover, was such as to turn all eyes to their procedure ; and one rash step taken at this period of weakness and inexperience, in the face of an or- ganized, vigilant, and powerful majority in the Assembly, would prove disastrous at once to themselves and to their cause. How often, alas ! have injustice and tyranny driven good men into extremes, and changed the wise Reformer into the factious and undiscriminating sectary. It was not so with Mr. Erskine and his associates. The first step taken by them was worthy of men who felt themselves intrusted by Providence with an important stewardship, and knew that it was only by his blessing that they could rightly fulfil it. They entreated not the favour of princes and magistrates, but like Ezra and his devout companions by the river Ahava, ' afflicted themselves before God to seek of Him a right way.' On the 5th day of December 1733 — about three weeks after their expulsion from the Established Church, — the four brethren, according to previous appointment, met at Gairney Bridge, a small village about three miles south- ward of Kinross, to confer about the measures most suit- able for them in their unprecedented circumstances. Messrs. Ralph Erskine of Dunfermline and Thomas Mair of Orwell were also present on this interesting occasion, but took no part in the deliberations. The first day of their meeting, was entirely occupied in prayer, humiliation and devout converse. On the following day the same ex- ercises were resumed, after which they proceeded to the serious consideration of the question, ' Whether it was ex- pedient for them in their present situation to assume a judicative capacity 1 ' ' After much and serious reasoning,' says Mr. Wilson of Perth, ' the four brethren did all, with one voice, give it as their judgment that they should pre- sently constitute into a Presbytery ; and the Rev. Ebenezer 88 THE ASSOCIATE PRESBYTERY. Erskine was, by their unanimous consent, desired to be their mouth to the Lord in this solemn action ; and he was enabled, with much enlargement of soul, to consecrate and dedicate them to the Lord and to the service of his church, particularly of his broken and oppressed heritage in the present situation into which, by the holy and wise provi- dence of God, they were brought ; and after prayer he was chosen Moderator of their Presbytery. I hope,' adds the venerable writer, ' they felt and experienced something of the Lord's gracious countenance and special presence.' * Who can doubt that they did 1 How much of what has happened since may have been an answer to those prayers ! That humble meeting beneath the thatched roof at Gairney Bridge, is surrounded with a new interest, when we look at it in connection with the results of a century of years. It is like taking our place at the fountain-head of a river that has flowed far, and fertilized many provinces; or like standing by the cradle of a Father of nations. Various weighty reasons were assigned by the four brethren, for thus forming themselves into a Presbytery. Their number was sufficient for enabling them to act formally under this designation, and they were thereby only assuming the powers for which they had protested in their deed of Secession. Moreover, besides declaring in this manner their attachment to what they esteemed the scriptural model of church government, they hoped that by this means they would more effectually secure against the risings of disorder in their infant community ; while they would have a new and more special claim to the pro- mise of the divine presence among them. It was reason- able to expect too that, as a Presbytery, they would be in a better position for dispensing the ordinances of religion to the multitudes throughout the land who felt themselves aggrieved by the ministration of intruders, and unedified * Defence of the Reformation Principles, &c, p. 4S0. ■ There was, I thought, much of the Lord with them; and 1 found my heart frequently warmed and drawn out in prayer with them.' Ralph Erskine in his Diary. Frazer's Life of R. Erskine, p. 207. BOLDNESS WITHOUT RASHNESS. 89 by the preachers of 'another gospel;' while their influ- ence in stemming the current of defection, was certain to be greater when they had the advantage of frequent con- sultation, common measures, and compacted effort.* But while thus boldly assuming at once a presbyterial form, it marks the grave wisdom of the Seceding Fathers that they resolved to abstain, in the meantime, from all judicial acts, and to confine themselves at their meetings to conference, mutual exhortation, and prayer. To have pro- ceeded farther at the first would have indicated a desire to remain separate, while the attitude in which they wished to stand to their brethren from whom they had been constrained to withdraw themselves, was that of men willing to return to their fellowship so soon as they re- turned to their duty, and thus made the way back to their communion honourable and safe. It was true the hopes of such a retracing of their steps on the part of the rulers in the Assembly were faint ; but the four brethren would not presumptuously anticipate providence. It was no contradiction to this wise resolution that the four brethren appointed two of their number to prepare a statement of their reasons for separating from the com- munion of the leading party in the church judicatories. Such a statement had been promised in the Protest which they laid upon the table of the Commission at the moment of Secession, in which they spoke of ' many weighty rea- sons to be laid open in due time,' and was demanded by a regard for the great interests to whose defence they were committed, as well as for their own character, which had already become the subject of misrepresentation and assault. A document with this design was accordingly prepared by Messrs. Wilson and Moncrieff, under the title of ' A Testimony to the doctrine, worship, government, and discipline of the Church of Scotland, or reasons by (the four brethren) for their protestation entered before the Commission of the General Assembly,' and after having * Gib's Display, p. 36. 90 THE EXTRA-JUDICIAL TESTIMONY. been considered and approved by the brethren, at a meet- ing held by them in March, was commanded to be publish- ed and brought into general circulation in such time as to anticipate the next meeting of the General Assembly. This paper, which came to be known in after times by the name of the First or Extra-judicial Testimony, is a production of much ability, and as it contains the four brethren's own deliberate and authoritative exposition of their case, it may reasonably be considered as affording the best means of ascertaining the true nature of the Secession, and judging of the validity of its grounds. As documents of this kind, however, do not usually fall into the hands of the general reader, and as from their official and abstract form, they are apt to be turned from with a repulsive air, it will be proper that we here interweave with our narrative a brief compend of the reasonings and explanations contained in it, that the student of this inter- esting period of Scottish ecclesiastical history may, as much as is possible, have the CLse before him at one view, and hear how the Seceding fathers themselves sustained their pro- test, and vindicated their formation of themselves into a distinct religious fellowship. Such a compend, besides its other obvious uses, will serve to dispel the misapprehensions of that numerous class of persons who confound the unjust and arbitrary treatment of the Fathers of the Secession, with the reasons of the Se- cession. The causes of the Secession were various and had long been accumulating ; the expulsion of Mr. Erskine and his friends only announced that the occasion had come when it should take place. It fixed the date of the move- ment, rather than supplied its grounds. Men were not in- vited to join themselves to their standard from sympathy with them as sufferers, but because, as they affirmed, the ecclesiastical and religious condition of the Church of Scot- land had become such that all who would preserve their rights and perform their duty to conscience and truth, were bound to make common cause with them as witness- bearers. This distinction has been too generally overlooked, FIRST GROUND OF SECESSION. 91 but it is necessary to be seen, in order to our understanding the nature of the Secession, or duly appreciating its grounds. 1. The first ground of Secession adduced by the brethren, referred to the long series of inroads that had been made upon the constitutional rights and liberties of the church. They ac- cused the prevailing party of ' breaking down our beauti- ful Presbyterian constitution,' and they adduced a multi- tude of facts, with which their more recent ecclesiastical history had been thickly strewn, to substantiate the charge. It had been provided by repeated acts of the church, passed in her best times, as an invaluable barrier against tyran- nical inflictions or rash innovations, that no acts of Assem- bly could become binding and permanent rules of the church, until they had been remitted for the consideration of the various presbyteries, and the general voice of those presbyteries given in their favour. But this goodly fence had been broken down in several instances, — especially in the Act of Assembly, 1732, respecting the settlement of vacant parishes, which was passed in opposition to the expressed opinion of the great majority of the inferior courts, and in the Act prohibiting the recording of reasons of dissent, which was passed without consulting the inferior courts at all. While the manner in which these Acts had been imposed violated the spirit of their whole Presbyterian constitution, the Acts themselves shook to its foundations their ecclesi- astical framework, and subverted some of their dearest rights. Immemorial usage, as well as many express acts, had secured to ministers and elders the right of recording reasons of dissent, — a right of highest moment, both as af- fording an opportunity to faithful men for publishing to posterity their opposition to corrupt measures, and of ex- empting themselves from the charge of being participators in the guilt of the authors of those measures. And this right had been wrested from their hands at the moment when its exercise was most emphatically needed. While the Act regarding the settlement of vacant congregations, which lodged in the hands of a few an important privilege 92 FIRST GKOUXD OF SECESSION. which Christ had conferred upon all, and made external rank the ground of invidious distinctions in the house of God, where all were to be on a level, was an attempt to frame laws where Christ had only given them authority to admin- ister his laws, nay, to frame laws in opposition to his laws, and a daring to lord it over God's heritage. The same lordly and prelatic spirit was manifested in their promoting the intrusion of presentees upon reclaiming congregations, in their threatening the highest ecclesiastical censures upon those who lifted their voice against such unconstitutional proceedings and refused to become parties to their perpe- tration, and in the extraordinary and undefined power as- sumed by the Commissions of the church, and the commit- tees of that Commission, which, travelling from place to place, took the work of presbyteries out of their hands, and at once, in disregard of the wishes of the people, and defi- ance of the remonstrances of presbyteries, conducted the most important affairs of the church in a manner the most arbitrary and absolute. ' What is the difference,' say these four faithful witnesses, ' betwixt fourteen diocesan prelates taking the power of trial and ordination out of the hands of all the presbyteries in Scotland, and a commission of the General Assembly, whereof thirty-nine makes a quorum, divesting all the presbyteries of Scotland of this inherent right and privilege, when their sinful and unwarrantable orders are not obeyed ? For our part, we know none ; ex- cept that the former exercise their lordly dominion over the heritage of God in a plain consistency with their de- clared principles, when the latter do it under a Presbyte- rian mask, but in a direct inconsistency with their pro- fessed and known principles.' Yes, they looked for Pres- byterianism, and they now beheld despotism ; the name alone remained, and the Secession was to restore and en- shrine this invaluable bulwark at once of ecclesiastical order and of popular right. Let us now hear the second charge. It is put with equal force and truth. 2. The ruling party were pursuing such measures as did SECOND GltOUND OF SECESSION. 93 either actually corrupt, or had the most direct tendency to cor- rupt, the true doctrine contained in their excellent Confession of Faith. Their reluctant entrance on the case of Professor Simson, the lenient sentence inflicted on him, after it had been proved that he had been throwing dishonour on that 'name at which every knee should bow,' and when the majority of presbyteries were calling for his excommuni- cation ; the open 'countenancing and caressing' of Professor Campbell by assemblies and commissions, at the very time when he was known to be spreading the most erroneous tenets ; their continued and systematic refusal to publish any act confirmatory of the truths that had been assailed, or condemnatory of the dangerous errors that had been propa- gated, though such a measure had been repeatedly recom- mended and urged by synods and presbyteries, and even so- licited by the friends of truth in England and Ireland, who were alarmed by the spread of Arianism in those countries ; all these facts were justly held by the Seceding fathers as substantiating this weighty accusation. And of late years, the canker which was local before, had spread itself throughout the church, and among her minis- ters there appeared a general falling away from the sim- plicity of the truth. One class seemed to occupy them- selves with exhibiting the credentials rather than expound- ing the contents of the gospel ; or while presenting their hearers with 'dry and sapless disquisitions on moral virtues,' as habitually abstained from alluding to those evangelical discoveries which arc divinely intended and alone fitted to awaken the spirit of obedience, as if no divine revelation had ever been given to the world, and their text-book had been Seneca and not the Scriptures. While another class, instead of proclaiming the divine method of justification through the faith of Christ, the grand theme of the Chris- tian ministry, represented the gospel as a new law, in which faith, repentance, and sincere obedience, were an- nounced as the ground of a sinner's acceptance before God, and Christ spoken of indeed as the model of virtue, but seldom named and never held forth as the Saviour of men. 94 SECOND GROUND OF SECESSION. The one class of shepherds left their sheep to perish in the wilderness, the other led them to the pitfall ; — both kept them away from the fountain of life. 1 Upon which account,' say these faithful witnesses, with sad and homely truthfulness, ' we judge this generation and our poor posterity in the utmost danger of losing the gospel, through the pre valency of a corrupt and unsound ministry. If a man have any little acquaintance with what they call the belles-lettres, or gentlemanly learning, — if he have the art of making his compliments and address to a person of quality, — if he can accept of a presentation from a patron and be a fit tool to carry on the measures of the ruling party in the church, — that is the man that shall find en- couragement in our assemblies and commissions, though he know not how to speak a word in season to a weary soul. No regard is had to a man's acquaintance with experimen- tal religion and the power of godliness upon his own soul, according to the acts of the church in former times. But on the contrary, if there be a man who has an air of piety and religion, however well polished by the Lord for edify- ing the body of Christ and for overthrowing the works of the devil, for which purpose the Son of God was manifested, the prevailing party have an evil eye of jealousy upon that man, as a person of dangerous and divisive principles. And if a clear gospel call to such a man offer from the body of a Christian people, he must be set aside, and a hue and cry raised against him, as though an enemy were coming into our borders. By these and the like methods of manage- ment, it looks as if a faithful ministry in a few years shall be gradually wormed out of Scotland, and our posterity left without the knowledge of the gospel, and our cove- nanted work of reformation buried in perpetual oblivion.' This was indeed a sombre picture, and yet its darkest hues might be verified from the testimony of contemporary writers. ' This generation,' say they, ' and our posterity are in the utmost danger of losing the gospel' — what if these faithful men were now raised up as God's instruments for preserving it. Assuredly no commission could be more THIRD GROUND OF SECESSION. 95 momentous or honourable. But the indictment is not yet closed, — 3. The prevailing party were also chargeable with imposing new and sinful terms of ministerial communion, inasmuch as ministers were now restrained from testifying against the present course of defection and backsliding, on pain of ecclesiastical censures. This complaint was principally supported by reference to the case of Mr. Erskine, when he had been declared worthy of rebuke, first by an inferior judicatory, and afterwards by the Assembly, for testifying against a measure which he believed to be injurious, un- constitutional, and unscriptural. The general prohibition was not indeed conveyed in express terms, but it followed unavoidably from that sentence, for if Mr. Erskine was restrained from testifying against the obnoxious act, so of course was every other minister ; and if their lips were to be sealed against one measure, why not against all 1 and, indeed, from the nature of the case, the restraint was likely to be the most arbitrary where the measure was the least capable of defence. They might thus see their whole Presbyterian constitution subverted, the people's rights trampled under foot, and the gospel itself laid in the dust, and be restrained from uttering any voice of remonstrance or alarm. Terms of communion like these, which were unknown when they were ordained to the ministry, could on no account be submitted to. They were contrary to their vows of ordination, in which they had solemnly en- gaged that they would ' to the uttermost of their power, in their station, assert, maintain, and defend the doctrine contained in the Confession of Faith, and our Presbyterian Church government and discipline.' They were contrary to the law of Christ, which bade them not shun to declare the whole counsel of God ; and, therefore, say these honest and resolute men, ' if the superior power and authority of Jesus Christ commanding us, be contrary to your authority, it must in such an event cast the balance with us.' Surely this was no slight or shadowy grievance to conscientious men. But all had not even yet been told. 96 FOURTH GROUND OF SECESSION. 4. The ruling 'party had persisted in their corrupt courses, notwithstanding all attempts to reclaim them. They had to charge them, not with an occasional divergence merely, but with a systematic and long continued defection. And this had gone on, until all the ordinary means of checking arbitrary proceedings, and obtaining a redress of grievances, had been exhausted. Presbyteries had petitioned and synods had remonstrated ; representations had been sent up from almost every quarter of the church, and in almost unlimited number, and in general had either on some fri- volous grounds been refused to be read, or referred to a select committee, as a decent way of consigning them to oblivion. A similar treatment awaited the commissioners from inferior courts, when, in the name of their consti- tuents, they occasionally appeared at the bar of the Assem- bly, claiming a redress of grievances. Their claim was either at once rejected by the ready vote of predetermined majorities, or refused to be considered on the excuse of want of time; though, as they are seasonably reminded by the Seceding Fathers, ' while they had no time to con- sider the weighty grievances that the flock of Christ were groaning under, the last Assembly found time to intrude ministers into the parishes of Stow and Kingaldrum, and to pass severe and unjust sentences against themselves.' 5. This was the crowning charge of alL As if to leave to faithful men no alternative, and to make the course of duty plain and indubitable, not satisfied with disregard- ing their representations and petitions against corrupt and tyrannical courses, these had been made the ground of cen- sure; on their protesting against such censure as impos- ing fetters on their ministerial fidelity and liberty, they had been suspended from their sacred office, and on their refusing to yield obedience to a sentence of suspension arbitrarily inflicted on them because of their resolute and unflinching witness-bearing, they had been cast out of the communion of the church. What remained for them then but to maintain, in a state of separation from the church, what they were no longer permitted to do in a state of FIFTH GROUND OF SECESSION. 97 communion with her. They must either abandon their duty, and drop the testimony which they had so nobly borne, and which involved such precious interests, or they must secede. There seemed but one course open for hon- est men ; they had already entered it, and they were re- solved to follow it. ' Therefore,' say they, looking back upon these " many and weighty reasons," ' it is not only warrantable for us, but we are laid under a necessity to lift up a testimony in a way of secession from them against the present current of defection, whereby our constitution is subverted, our doctrine is corrupted, and the heritage and flock of Christ are wounded, scattered, and broken, that we may not partake with them in their sins, and may do what in us lies to transmit unto succeeding generations those valuable truths that have been handed down to us by the contendings and wrestlings of a great cloud of wit- nesses in Scotland, since the dawning of reformation light amongst us.' A calm review of these reasons, authoritatively set forth by the Seceding Fathers themselves, will serve more than one useful purpose even at the present hour. It will show the broad foundation on which their Secession was based, not any one grievance, but ' a complex course of defection both in doctrine, government, and discipline, carried on with an high hand.' It will expose the utter injustice and ingratitude of those epithets of ' popular demagogues ' and ' intemperate and obstinate disturbers,' with which even some men of eminence* have associated the honoured names of the Secession Fathers, and stooped to do the foul work of faction. An irresponsible and complicated despotism had supplanted their popular Presbyterian constitution, — the leprosy of error had spread itself throughout the ma- jority of her ministry, — every constitutional form of remon- strance had been disregarded, and at length, not only dis- regarded, but forbidden, — if these were frivolous grounds * For example, Sir H. Moncricff in his Life of Dr. Erskine. Appendix, No. I. G 98 ALARM IN THE ASSEMBLY. of separation, what would be deemed serious and sufficient ? ' They had not gone out with haste, neither had they gone out by flight.' And as for schism, it can only be ap- plied to the Secession in utter oblivion of all its peculiar features. The violent measures of the church judicatories. in thrusting them out from their communion, relieved them from settling the delicate question ; — ' Whether the evils that prevailed in the Scottish Church were such in themselves as to warrant a separation from her fellowship,' and reduced them to the choice between sinful silence and separation ; — could it be schism to prefer the latter alter- native ? The mandate of their ecclesiastical rulers requir- ing them to sin, was the voice of their Lord commanding them to secede. We have already stated that this document was issued and in general circulation prior to the meeting of the General Assembly in May. Its bold tone of remonstrance and exposure, supported by statements which every one knew to be truths, spread alarm throughout the ruling party in the supreme judicatory ; and the numerous de- fenders of corruption and abettors of tyranny, quailed before the charges of four honest men. Nor were there wanting other unequivocal indications that they had car- ried their oppressive measures too far for the temper of the times, and that a very general sympathy, and even admiration, was arising among the people in behalf of the Seceding Fathers. In those days when information on general subjects was less widely disseminated, the minds of the people were intensely turned to questions and mea- sures of an ecclesiastical nature, and the proceedings of the ecclesiastical rulers freely canvassed and often well under- stood ; in consequence of which the brethren came to be looked upon by multitudes, and those usually the most serious and thinking part of the community, as the friends of truth and the representatives of popular rights, and to be regarded with the admiration and enthusiasm due to sufferers in their cause. It was not to be wondered at, that, in the parishes of the seceding ministers, these feel- EXCITEMENT AMONG THE PEOPLE. 99 ings should in some cases assume a somewhat irregular and tumultuous form. When Mr. Adam Ferguson, minis- ter at Killin, went to intimate the sentence against Mr. Wilson from the pulpit of the old church of Perth, he was prevented, as he complained in a letter to the Commission, by a l tumultuous multitude' which met him at a distance from the city and forcibly resisted his entrance. A similar reception awaited Professor Campbell of St. Andrews on his proposing to intimate the sentence against Mr. Moncrieff from the pulpit of the church at Abernethy ; and on his being refused protection from the Sheriff-substitute of Perth, for which he had previously taken the precaution to apply, he lodged a protest against the refusal of the Sheriff and wisely desisted from the attempt. * But far beyond their own immediate parishes, the interest was circulating and deepening. Prompted by zeal for religion and liberty, and no doubt in some cases borne away by sympathy, multitudes were to be found leaving their native parishes, especially where the minister had been introduced by a forced settlement, and travelling sometimes great distances to attend on the ministrations of the seceding ministers. When the Lord's Supper was dis- pensed at Abernethy in the spring of 1734, the concourse of people from all parts of Scotland was so unprecedented^ great as to awaken universal astonishment. These occurrences were not unmarked by the ecclesias- tical rulers, or the voice in which they spoke to them mis- understood. They saw plainly that they had carried their severities to an impolitic excess, and that when they had hoped to extinguish opposition, they had awakened a spirit of resistance which any additional severities would rapidly extend. Nor were they blind to the fact that there was still a party in the Assembly who sympathized with the four brethren, and whom a continuance in their present course, and still more additional severities, might so exas- * Index to Unprinted Acts of Assembly, 1734. Struthers' His- tory of Scotland, vi. 3. 100 SEMBLANCE OF REFORM. perate as to render the rupture yet wider, by tempting them to cast in their lot with the Seceders. To retain these brethren in their ranks, therefore, to quell the popu- lar excitement, and if not to restore the four brethren, at least to disarm them of their present influence, they determined, for the time, to assume a policy of conciliation and concession. They would yield up the administration in part into the hands of the orthodox and reforming party, securing at the same time that nothing should be conceded which could not afterwards be recovered, and would wait for a more convenient season when they could safely return to those measures for spreading latitudinari- anism and formality in their pulpits, and extinguishing the popular element in their ecclesiastical constitution, which they had so long prosecuted with so high a hand. Accordingly, when the Assembly met in May 1734, it appeared to have fallen under the influence of a new and more genial spirit. To a sanguine and superficial onlooker, it might almost have seemed as if the ' free, faithful, and reforming Assembly' to which the four brethren had appealed, had already come. The barrier acts were con- firmed. The Act prohibiting the recording of reasons of dissent and that concerning the planting of vacant churches which had been the matter of representation by the brethren before their secession, and of complaint in their testimony now, were declared to be 'no longer binding rules of this church.' On a complaint by the parish of Auchtermuchty and the presbytery of Cupar against the Commission, for proceeding in the settlement of a minister at Auchtermuchty who was obnoxious to both, the Com- mission was declared to have exceeded its powers, and, contrary to the usual practice, the settlement annulled. A Committee was appointed to prepare an overture for checking the unscriptural style of preaching that had be- come so prevalent in the church, and for directing minis- ters to the more edifying and efficient discharge of their duty. An act was passed declaring that due ministerial freedom was not impaired or restrained by any thing con- CENSURES REMOVED FROM THE FOUR BRETHREN. 101 nected with the process against Mr. Erskine and his brethren. And on the last day of their sittings, another act was passed empowering the Synod of Perth and Stir- ling to remove the censures from the four brethren and to restore them to their respective charges. And the Synod of Perth and Stirling did accordingly assemble at the latter place, July the second, 1734, and ' by virtue of the foresaid delegated power and authority, with one voice and consent, take off the sentences pronounced by the Commission of the General Assembly, 1733, against the foresaid four brethren, declaring the same of no force or effect for the future, unite and restore them to ministerial communion with this church, to their several charges, and to the exercise of all parts of the ministerial function therein, as fully and freely as there never had been act, sentence, obstacle, or impediment whatsoever in the way thereof in time past.' * Was not the way now opened for an honourable return to the bosom of the Church from which they had been so painfully separated 1 Many imagined that it was, and ex- pected that they should instantly hear the brethren ex- pressing their high satisfaction with these symptoms of reformation, and acknowledging that all the ends which they had sought by their secession had already been gained. The reforming party in the Assembly, headed by the vener- able Willison of Dundee, mistaking the mere temporary connivance of the ruling party for evidence of a reforming spirit, were particularly sanguine of this result. Even the amiable Mr. Wilson of Perth, as unsuspicious of duplicity in others as he was incapable of it in himself, misled by the specious aspect of some of these concessions, in a letter to Mr. Erskine soon after the meeting of Assembly, ex- pressed a hope that it might yet be practicable for them to return into the bosom of the Church.t And with such confidence did the Synod which had restored the brethren * Extract of the proceedings of the Synod of Perth and Stirling, &c. — Struthers' History of Scotland, vi. 12. t Ferrier's Memoirs of W. Wilson, p. 27S. 102 WHAT IS DUTY? calculate on their ready acquiescence, that, in Mr. Erskine's absence, they elected him to the Moderator's chair. Cer- tainly every consideration of mere private and present in- terest pleaded strongly for their return, early friendship, worldly emolument, personal ease, love to the church of their fathers, — but one question remained, what was duty ? and on this the Seceding Fathers took time to deliberate. Repeated meetings were accordingly held by them for the purpose of calmly considering what was their duty in the new position in which the recent proceedings and decisions of the church judicatories had placed them, and the unanimous conclusion in which their deliberations terminated, was that the way had not yet been opened for an honourable and ' untainted return.' Most readily did they acknowledge the honest zeal of some of their brethren in the last Assembly to bring about a substantial reforma- tion, nor were they reluctant to admit that some good measures had been passed, and thus part of their causes of complaint removed, but they were unable to shut their eyes to the fact that while individual cases had been grappled with, no adequate measures had been taken for removing the prolific sources in which they originated, and that the whole seemed rather the grudging and qualified concession of policy and fear, than the first movements of a spirit of sincere and progressive reformation. For example, they had repealed the act prohibiting the recording of reasons of dissent, and the act respecting the settlement of vacant congregations simply on account of the informality with which they had been imposed, but without any acknowledgment of their sinfulness. In one instance they had shown a disposition to respect the popu- lar rights and to prevent a violent intrusion, but no un- equivocal statement of principle had been put forth declaring the acceptance of presentations contrary to the wishes of the people to be censurable, and thus placing a permanent guard against the recurrence of the evil. Cer- tain measures had been taken to prevent the increase of doctrinal error, and the continued connivance at this on MEASURES MORE SPECIOUS THAN SOLID. 103 the part of the church courts had been one principal ground of Secession, but thosa measures must remain a dead letter so long as the propagators of error both from the pulpit and from the chair, remained unchallenged and uncensured. The Act concerning ministerial freedom, instead of dispel- ling, rather confirmed all that had been dreaded from their procedure against Mr. Erskine, inasmuch as it declared that ' due freedom was not impaired or restrained by the late Assembly's decision in a particular process,' from which the conclusion seemed to follow, that Mr. Erskine, in the sermon that gave rise to the process against him and his brethren, in protesting against the decision of the Assem- bly, had transgressed the boundaries of due ministerial freedom, and consequently had received the treatment which their misconduct and irregularity deserved. And as for the deed of Assembly appointing their restora- tion to the communion of the church and to their minis- terial status, they were constrained to express their entire disappointment and dissatisfaction with it. For they could not but observe that the greatest care was taken to avoid any admission that the sentences expelling them from the church had been illegal or unjust. The Synod was instructed to remove those sentences, not because they were admitted to be wrong, but because they were discov- ered to be inexpedient, ' considering the lamentable conse- quences that have followed and may yet follow upon the separation of these brethren.' * But suppose the probabi- lity of such ' lamentable consequences ' to be diminished, might not the same course of conduct be resumed, and the very deed which they had now repealed be referred to as a precedent. The church judicatories, from the dread of lamentable consequences alone, had sent ' to thrust them out privily,' and it was a fit occasion for replying, * Nay, verily ; but let them come themselves and fetch us out.' The Seceding Fathers concluded that they could not return to the communion of the church, either with honour to * Unprinted Acts of Assembly, 1731. 104 REFUSAL TO RETURN. themselves or with safety to the great interests which they had undertaken to defend. If they went back, it must be as favoured criminals, not as justified men, and without any tangible evidence that the great ends for which they had seceded had been secured, — the healing of her corrupt clergy, and the placing on a firm basis the rights of her people. Till this was done, they must continue to rear their Secession-banner. ' I humbly conceive,' says Ebenezer Erskine, in a faithful and spirited letter to the Moderator of the Presbytery of Stirling, ' there is a great difference betwixt a positive re- formation and a stop or sist given to a deformation. I am far from derogating from the stand made by the worthy members of the last Assembly against the career of the corrupt party. But allow me to say, that to me any thing done appears rather a check or restraint upon those men for a time, than any real cleanly reformation. ' Some brethren call us to come in and help them against the current of defection. But now that the hand of Pro- vidence has taken us out of the current against which we were swimming, and set us upon the Reformation-ground by a solemn testimony and constitution, it would be vain for us to endanger ourselves by running into the current again, unless our reverend brethren who call for our help, can persuade us that our so doing will turn the current and save both them and ourselves.' Again, — ' There is a difference to be made betwixt the Established Church of Scotland and the Church of Christ in Scotland ; for I reckon that the last is in a great mea- sure driven into the wilderness by the first. And since God in his adorable providence has led us into the wilder- ness with her, I judge it our duty to tarry with her for a while there, and to prefer her afflictions to all the advan- tages of a legal establishment.' * — The determination was worthy at once of the penetration and the principle of the Seceding Fathers. # Frazer's Life of E. Erskine, pp. 397—403. REASONS OF REFUSAL. 10") They were not long in giving to the world the grounds of this determination, in a document entitled ' Reasons by (the four Seceding ministers) why they have not acceded to the judicatories of the Established Church,' and the pro- ceedings of following assemblies were sufficient to confirm their worst fears, and to show how justly they had esti- mated the real temper and tendencies of those who now guided the councils of the church. When the Assembly of 1735 soon afterwards convened, it seemed to be swayed alternately by opposite principles, a wish to conciliate on the one hand, and an impatient desire to follow out its hidden purposes on the other. In some instances the severity of former deeds was partially relaxed, in others new measures of almost equal severity were unscrupulously passed. In the case of various congregations that had deserted the ministry of intruders, and to whom the incumbents of sur- rounding parishes had been forbidden to administer sealing ordinances, the prohibition was withdrawn, and the pres- byteries in which they were situated permitted to treat them with a measure of indulgence. But as if to dash the hopes which these indications might have awakened, when the petition of Mr. Archibald Rennie, who had been ob- truded on the parish of Muckhart, and towards whom the parishioners, with scarcely an exception, had manifested the strongest dislike, praying that he might be enrolled a member of the Presbytery of Auchterarder, and that of Mr. James Pursell, who had been similarly obtruded on the parish of Troqueer, who prayed for a similar benefit, were laid before the Assembly, the cases were remitted to the respective synods in which those parishes were situ- ated, with injunctions to ' continue their endeavours to obtain harmony in those quarters,' injunctions which had only one meaning in those times, as requiring the Synod to enrol the intruder and to bring the people to submit to his ministry. In the same spirit of arbitrary dictation and contempt of the popular voice, a call was appointed to be moderated in the parish of Carriden, ' expressly and exclu- sively in behalf of the presentee.' How easy was it to see 106 ASSEMBLY OF 1735. — ARBITRARY DECISIONS. in all this the ruling party gradually and cautiously resum- ing the reins of administration, which they had seemed for a moment to renounce, but from which their hearts had never been estranged. Still the four brethren waited in the faint hope that a sufficient number might yet be found among her rulers to breathe a purer spirit into her coun- cils, and, in the face of numerous solicitations from people in various quarters of the land, to dispense among them the ordinances of religion, resolved to abstain, for another year at least, from judicative acts, and to confine them- selves in their meetings of presbytery to conference and prayer. This was not like the course of ' popular dema- gogues ' or ' ambitious schismatics,' to see the tide of popu- lar interest floating up to their feet, and yet refuse to enter, until God called. The Assembly of 1736 proved itself still more arbitrary and corrupt than its predecessor. The mask of concilia- tion which it had been found convenient to assume in 1 734, was not, indeed, as yet thrown aside, but it had become so transparent that every one might detect the genuine fea- tures that lurked beneath. Loud professions were so con- tradicted by its practice, the instructions it emitted by its own application of them, that the record of its unfaithful- ness reads like farce, and the rulers seem to have added to the sin of trampling on the popular rights the offence of sporting with the popular credulity. For example, they passed an act, declaring ' that it was, and had been, since the Reformation, a principle of this church, that no minister should be intruded into any parish contrary to the will of the congregation, and seriously recommending to all judi- catories of this church to have due regard to the said prin- ciple in planting vacant congregations ; ' * and yet, when the parishioners of Denny appeared at their bar, with a com- plaint against the sentence of the Commission appointing the settlement of Mr. James Stirling as minister of that parish, they did not hesitate, in the face of a unanimous * Printed Acts of Assembly, 1735. ASSEMBLY OF 1736. — THE MASK TRANSPARENT. 107 remonstrance from the congregation, to dismiss the com- plaint, and instructed the Presbytery to use adequate mea- sures to bring them to submit to the decisions of the church and to the ministry of the intruder. In like manner, while they turned the overture of a former Assembly into a stand- ing Act, enjoining upon the minister of the church a more evangelical strain of preaching, and requiring professors of divinity to explain and recommend this manner of preach- ing to their pupils, they dismissed uncensured from their bar an individual who was known by his public writings to have substituted a shallow system of heathenish ethics in the room of Christian truth, to have scoffed at experi- mental religion, and laboured to undermine some of the most peculiar and precious doctrines of the gospel of Christ. These shameless inconsistencies proved to serious and dis- criminating onlookers the utter hollowness and insincerity of the reforms of 1734, that they were blossoms which were never intended by the ruling party to ripen into fruit ; they told the reforming party that what they had mis- taken for power was only the effect of connivance, and that when they had begun to imagine themselVes leaders they were only dupes, while it proclaimed to the Seceding Fathers that the period for waiting was past, and that that of resolute and vigorous action had come, and that it was ' not only their duty, but high time for them to proceed to the exercise of government and discipline.' Even Mr. Wilson of Perth, who had been the most reluctant to aban- don the hope of a favourable change in the councils and measures of the church opening the way for an honourable return to her communion, ceased from this time to indulge the fond imagination, and acknowledged that ' when he had observed the conduct of the judicatories since the year 1734, he had been gradually cleared, and more and more confirmed that it was their duty to continue in a state of Secession.' * Accordingly, soon after the Assembly of 1736, the four * Defence of Reformation Principles, &c, p. 357. 108 ORGANIZATION. brethren met, and believing that their course had now been made plain to them by Providence, resolved to act in a judicative capacity, and to carry out in a state of Secession from the judicatories of the church, those great objects which events had proved it impossible for them to accom- plish in a state of communion with them. In many cor- ners of the land, the people were fainting and ready to perish under the ministrations of heretical and unfaithful teachers, they resolved to bless those regions with a pure and unfettered gospel. Thousands were groaning under the yoke of patronage, and such as had withdrawn from the ministry of incompetent men and intruded hirelings had in many instances been subjected to excommunica- tion ; the Secession would gather together these torn and scattered sheep, and afford to aggrieved consciences an asylum where the privileges of the church might be en- joyed without the sacrifice of freedom or the violation of conscience. The ruling party in the church, instead of carrying on the work of reformation to which she was pledged by her very constitution and history, and raising her testimony in vindication of dishonoured truth, and against prevalent and deadly errors, had, in various in- stances, placed its brand upon truth and screened erro- neous men ; the Seceding Fathers would stand forth as witnesses in the midst of the land, and lifting up the fallen testimony, ' display a banner because of the truth,' and carry forward the work of reformation. These seemed to them to be the chief objects embodied in their commission, and to accomplish this commission they now assumed the form and functions of a distinct and re- gularly organized religious community. The words of a holy and far-seeing patriarch of the Church of Scotland, who had often mourned over the incipient tokens of defec- tion which he beheld in his day, seemed now about to be fulfilled, ' I apprehend,' said he, ' that matters will not be right till the Lord shall bring a Church out of the bowels of this Church.' Nor were the Seceding Fathers slow, when once the PROGRESS. 109 course of duty had been plain to them, in seeking to fulfil the various parts of their commission. Overstepping the boundaries of their own parishes, to which they had hith- erto almost entirely confined themselves from a fastidious regard to presbyterial order, they visited many of the suf- fering districts, and everywhere found a people ready to re- ceive them. Little societies were formed in many of these, which continued to meet for prayer and conference, and in this way not a few of those congregations were formed, which, after the lapse of more than a hundred years, still rank among the most stable and vigorous in the Secession. Eager applications poured in upon the presbytery from all quarters for a regular and permanent connexion with the new body, and the regular administration of Christian ordinances ; and even from Ireland, whither the seeds of the Secession had already been borne by the hands of a pious sailor, there came a petition from nearly three hun- dred families. This induced the presbytery to take young men on trials for license ; and that the cause might be duly sustained and extended, they appointed Mr. Wilson of Perth Professor of Theology, to train young men who should be sent up from those praying societies, or otherwise properly recommended, for the work of the ministry. The Secession never fell into the wild dream from which even the least enlightened of the churches are now rapidly recovering, of building up the church by the hands of rude and unedu- cated men. * On the 3d of December of the same year, the four bre- thren emitted a most elaborate document, under the name of ' An act, declaration, and testimony for the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of the Church of Scotland, and commonly known as the Judicial Testimony.' In the First or Extra-judicial Testimony, the defections of the Church of Scotland were only specified in so far as these were made the grounds of Secession, in this the * It is a remarkable fact that each of the Four Brethren in suc- cession eventual!}- filled the Theological Chair. 110 THE JUDICIAL TESTIMONY. whole of the ecclesiastical history of Scotland from the Reformation downwards is rapidly traced, the various oc- casions of improvement noticed and judicially approved, and the numerous instances of defection and relapse marked and judicially condemned. These are represented as just causes of ' the Lord's controversy ' with his church, and fit occasions of humiliation and sorrow. The errors which had recently appeared in the church, and which were still unremoved and unrepented of, are there pointed out, and the opposite truth, as declared in the Confession of Faith, distinctly declared, and, in short, an explicit and satisfac- tory enunciation and exposition given of almost every essential doctrine in the scheme of revealed truth. This, the Seceding Fathers insisted, the circumstances of the times required that the judicatories of the church should have done, and seeing those judicatories had neglected their duty, they felt themselves called upon to raise the fallen standard, and aiming still at progressive reformation, ' serve themselves heirs ' to the faithful witnesses and con- fessors of earlier times. It must be confessed that it is impossible to speak of this important document with unqualified approval. The occasional historical inaccuracies which occasioned the jubilant notes of Mr. Currie of Kinglassie and other em- bittered partisans,* will indeed awaken the surprise of no one who thinks of the long and often uncertain field over which the historical review extends. But the glowing and almost romantic terms in which the Testimony speaks of the covenanting periods, are such as a calm estimate of some of the principles and practices of those periods must considerably reduce and qualify. The sentiments expressed on the repeal of the penal statutes against witchcraft and on certain questions that touch on the rights of conscience, are such as prove that on the former of these points they were still trammelled by the illiberal notions of the age, and that on the latter they were only feeling their way to * Currie's Essay on Separation, passim. REMARKS ON THE JUDICIAL TESTIMONY. Ill the solid ground which their descendants have happily reached. While their unfriendly references to the Union with England show us, that on this subject they had not yet risen above the prejudices of the church which they had left, whose Assembly, it is well known, for a long course of years annually specified the Union as a ground of national fasting. But with these qualifying statements, the Judicial Testimony claims to be spoken of as a most precious document published to the church, at a most sea- sonable juncture. In its clear and scriptural declarations on those intimately related subjects, the Headship of Christ, the independence of the church and the right of the people to choose their own pastors, as well as in the fresh statement and elucidation of fundamental truths flung abroad upon the public mind when general attention was turned to their movements, it must have accomplished great good, arresting the advance of error, establishing unsettled minds in the truth, and proving an extensive educator of the general mind. The infant cause proceeded with vigour, the congrega- tions of Abernethy and Kinclaven formally connected themselves with the presbytery, to which their respective sessions sent up a representative elder, and new congrega- tions began to be organized in various districts. Every thing indicated consolidation and progress. And while the conduct of the Assemblies of 1735 and 1736 had con- firmed the four brethren in their resolution to continue their secession, it had gradually been loosening the attach- ment of other good men to the Establishment, by dispelling every lingering hope of internal reform. The consequence was that, at the first meeting of the Associate Presbytery in 1737, their hands were strengthened by the accession of the Rev. Thomas Mair of Orwell, and the Rev. Ralph Erskine of Dunfermline, to their little band. It will be remem- bered that both of these ministers had taken part in the protest against the deed of Assembly that had driven the four brethren out of the church ; in the interval they had joined in laying upon the table of the Assembly a detail of 112 ACCESSIONS. grievances, which they earnestly besought them to redress, and the history of the two past years shows how little their honest efforts had availed to stem the swelling current.* Nevertheless, the diary of Ralph Erskine proves that it was only by slow degrees that his course was opened up to him, and that when he at length consented to sever his connexion with the Scottish Church, it was done, not in the spirit of anger and chagrin, but in the sorrowful spirit of one who mourned the corruption that drove him from her fellowship.t The language of this good man on signifying to the Associate Presbytery his adherence to the Secession, displays a beautiful combination of discriminating con- scientiousness with enlarged charity. 'By joining with the said brethren,' says he, ' I intend no withdrawing from ministerial communion with any of the godly ministers of this church who are wrestling against the defections of the times, although they have not the same light with us in every particular. Nor do I hereby intend to preclude my- self from returning and joining with the judicatories of this church, upon their returning to their duty. I am sensible what a bad tendency division naturally has, and desire to shun all divisive principles and practices contrary to the doctrine, worship, government, and discipline of the Church of Scotland, agreeable to and founded upon the word of God; and I judge it my duty to endeavour through grace to follow after that peace which has truth for the ground and ornament of it. Yet the safest way for preserving peace being to cleave to Jesus Christ, who is the centre of all true and holy union, and to advance the truth as it is in him, I therefore think myself obliged, leaving events to the Lord, to take the present opportunity of joining in what I reckon a faithful testimony for it, such as I have no access * Scots Magazine for 1752, p. 510. Frazer's Memoirs of R. Erskine, p. 210. t ' I set aside a part of this day for prayer. I was thoughtful about that great business of Secession, and sought the Lord would £ive me light.' Diary, Jan. S, 1737. Frazer's Memoirs of It. Erskine, pp. 212,213. RALPH ERSKINE. 113 to promote, in connexion with the judicatories of the na- tional church.' * There is not one word either of schism or of bigotry in these sentences ; how much is there of the spirit of the Christian reformer ! The four brethren unanimously declared that they expressed substantially their own posi- tion and sentiments.t The accession of such a man as Ralph Erskine at this juncture to the ranks of the seceding Fathers, must have operated not a little to the advantage of their cause. With powers of natural eloquence equal to those of his elder bro- ther, he perhaps even surpassed him in melting pathos, in mental acuteness, and in his command of those ' thick-com- ing fancies ' which, by riveting the attention and interest- ing the imagination, secure for truth a lodgment in the memory. The consequence was, that he already possessed an eminence and acceptability as a preacher in which he was excelled by no contemporary, while his general charac- ter was justly held by all in high veneration. His Gospel Sonnets, too, many of which had already been given to the world, in which divine truth is often presented in quaint par- adoxes and happy conceits, had obtained a universal circula- tion among the Scottish peasantry, and though, like the cocoa nut, the wholesome nourishment was sometimes contained in a rough shell which it was difficult to break, even edu- cated men overlooked the occasionally unpolished diction and inharmonious rhymes for the sake of the solid and sav- ing truth of which they were found to be the vehicle. That indeed must have been no common man, to whom White- field owned himself indebted for a more clear and evange- lical theology, J whose writings the author of ' Theron and Aspasio ' preferred above all other uninspired productions as the companion and solace of his dying hours, § and whose * Act concerning the Admission of the Rev. Ralph Erskine and Mr. Thomas Mair as Members of Presbytery. t Brown's History of the Secession, p. 25. J Frazer's Memoirs of R. Erskine, pp. 316 — 324>. Also, Letters by the Rev. G. Whitefield, passim. i Brown's Life of Hervey, p. 397. 114 THE PORTEOUS MOB. words the great Andrew Fuller acknowledged had awak- ened him to conviction and melted him to tears. * The ad- dition of such a man to the little band of Reformers, an addition so manifestly the fruit of deliberate conviction, was a large increase at once to its intellectual efficiency and to its moral power. We are not surprised that in tracing his visits to the suffering districts in this and following years, scarcely a place is named which did not eventually become the seat of a Secession church, t An event occurred about this time which, both as put- ting to the test the reigning spirit in the judicatories of the Scottish Church, and bringing out in practical contrast the fearless attachment to principle and independence of the Seceders, undoubtedly told with considerable influence at the moment in advancing their cause, — we refer to what is commonly known in history by the title of thePorteous mob. The leading incidents connected with this affair, forming as they do one of the most extraordinary chapters in the records of the last century, and even seized upon because of the stir- ring adventure, the mighty opposition of contending pas- sions which they exhibit, as well as the partial mystery that envelopes them, as a fit theme for the arts and embellish- ments of fiction, belong rather to the province of civil than of ecclesiastical history, and therefore do not properly come within the range of our narrative. We can only remind our readers of the more prominent features in that strangely chequered and exciting event, — of the condemnation of Wilson and his associate for the robbery of a custom- house on the coast of Fife, in order to indemnify them- selves for the losses they had sustained through the vigi- lance of the revenue officers, — of the strong sympathy with Wilson felt by the Scottish populace, who in those days looked upon smuggling as but a venial offence, — of the in- * Memoir of Andrew Fuller, bv his Son, prefixed to his Works, p. 11. 1 We meet with the following among other places in his Diary, — Denny, Balfron,\V. Linton, Cambusnethan, Kilmaurs, Kilmarnock, Kilwinning. THE PORTEOUS MOB. 115 crease of this sympathy into admiration by the courageous and successful attempt of Wilson to rescue his associate, on the Sabbath before the execution, — of the dread on the part of the authorities that the people, borne away by their enthusiasm, would attempt to rescue Wilson from his fate, and their consequent surrounding of the scaffold with a large body of the town-guard, who were supplied on the occasion with guns and ammunition, and placed under the command of Captain Porteous, — of the immense multitude beholding the execution with outward calmness, but their exasperated feelings at length bursting out in indignant reproaches, while some began to pelt the guard with stones, — of the guard immediately firing on the multitude, killing some, and wounding others, who had had no share in the violence, — of the immediate imprisonment of Porteous, and his subsequent trial and condemnation to death, as having exceeded his authority, and occasioned the loss of so many lives without a sufficient cause, — of the unexpected reprieve of Porteous by royal authority, when the people had as- sembled in vast multitudes to behold his execution, — of their deep vows of vengeance, — of their reassembling in the evening, securing the city gates, cutting off all communi- cation with the Castle, disarming the city-guard, forcing the doors of the jail, and dragging the unhappy man from the chimney in his cell, where he had concealed himself, putting him to death by suspending him from a dyer's pole, in the place where Wilson, a few weeks before, had per- ished. So bold a defiance of law, committed with such evident deliberation and concert, excited the astonishment and in- dignation of the government, and it was determined to use every effort to discover the perpetrators, and to inflict upon them severe and summary vengeance. On the assembling of Parliament, an act was passed, ordaining all persons who were charged with being accessory to the murder of Cap- tain Porteous, on pain of death to surrender themselves for trial within a limited time, adjudging all persons to the same punishment who should be found guilty of concealing 116 MANDATE OF PARLIAMENT. the fugitives, offering pardon to guilty persons who should give evidence against their associates, and promising a re- ward of £200 to informers, who should also be admitted as witnesses. One is apt to imagine, in reading such provi- sions as these, so repugnant to the spirit of constitutional liberty, that he is studying by mistake some of the despotic and sanguinary edicts of the age that preceded the Revo- lution. But the provisions that bring this event into such strange connexion with the ecclesiastical history of the period are the following : — Every minister of the Church of Scotland was required to read this act from the pulpit, in the time of public worship, on the first Lord's day of every month, for one whole year. Whosoever refused obedience was, for the first offence, declared incapable of sitting or voting in any church judicatory ; and for the second, inca- pable of taking, holding, or enjoying any ecclesiastical benefice in Scotland. And these ecclesiastical penalties were appointed to be executed by the Court of Session, or any court of justiciary, upon a summary complaint at the instance of his Majesty's advocate ! It has been supposed by some, that an impression pre- vailed at this period among those in power, that the Scot- tish clergy in general had not been sufficiently careful to inculcate upon the people a spirit of submission to civil authority, and that this extraordinary injunction, while intended to aid in detecting the active parties in the assas- sination of Porteous, was also meant to humble the clergy, and impress them with the real dependence of their posi- tion. Most certainly it had all the appearance of studied insult and deliberate invasion of their authority. The hours sacred to religion were commanded to be profaned by an act most uncongenial and revolting ; those who were sent forth as the heralds of peace were required to be- come the heralds of earthly and sanguinary laws ; human power, without disguise, stepped within the sacred circle of ecclesiastical authority, where it was profanity for it to tread, and wresting the keys of discipline and gov- ernment from the hands of their rightful possessors, pro- MANY OF TUE SCOTTISH CLERGY SUCCUMB. 117 ceeded at once to dictate and to administer its laws. What was this but degrading the ministers of the gospel into a state of mere political servitude, and the man who should obey the insulting mandate, when associated with such penalties, would be acknowledging this bondage, and assuming with his own hand the servile badge. Men looked on to see how far the ministers of the Church of Scotland would bow to this assumption of Erastian su- premacy. Some there were who scorned to obey a mandate which at once violated their consciences and trampled on their rights, and nobly set at defiance all the threatened pen- alties. But by far the greater number ignobly succumbed ; some, attempting an impossible compromise between con- science and the fear of man, read only part of the insulting document, or reserved the reading of it till the people had dispersed, while others read the whole at the set times, and throughout the prescribed period. But the general con- duct of the ministers was abject and servile, nor was any voice ever raised against the invasion of their own and their Master's prerogative, either by the Assembly or by the inferior judicatories. Who can wonder that the spirit of alienation spread wider and deeper among the people. Multitudes, aggrieved and offended by the timid servility of their ministers, left their parish churches on the first reading of the act, and placed themselves under the minis- trations of those who had resisted the command, or more frequently still, swelled the ranks of those little societies which had sought liberty, and found it, in secession. Two other ministers left the Establishment in the midst of these commotions, and, adopting the testimony of the Associate Presbytery, increased their numbers to eight, the Rev. Thomas Nairn of Abbotshall and the Rev. James Thomson of Burntisland. It would be a truly uncongenial and monotonous task to continue describing the numerous cases of violent set- tlement that deform the history of this and the following years. The spirit of corruption and oppression, as if in revenge for the restraint which events had put on it for a 118 ASSEMBLY OF 1737. — DENNY. time, overleaped the barriers, not only of consistency but of decency. In the one Assembly of 1737, the immediate follower of that which had issued its formal declaration of the right of the people to elect their own ministers, we find Perth, Duffus, Monikie, Madderty, and several other places enumerated, as the scenes of violent intrusions, and the decision in the case of Denny, which anew appeal brought up before this Assembly, displays such an utter contempt not only of the popular will but of the rights of conscience, as is sufficient of itself to brand a whole church with dis- honour. It will be remembered that the Presbytery of Stirling had been commanded by the last Assembly, in the face of its own act, to proceed to the settlement of the presentee at Denny. This command the presbytery, basing its refusal on the general principle so ostentatiously pro- claimed, had ventured to disobey. A few heritors, proba- bly non-resident, lodged a complaint before the Assembly. What then was its decision ? The presbytery were blamed for refusing to obey the instructions of the last Assembly, and enjoined to proceed forthwith to the settlement of the presentee, as they would be answerable to the next As- sembly. In the event of their continued refusal, the Synod of Perth was instructed to take up the case, with this most scandalous provision, that they should not be at liberty to consider the question whether it was right for them to obey or not. Should the majority of the synod prove refractory also, any ten or more of their number were at liberty to proceed as above directed, and the settlement would be valid. And should ten men not be found in the synod sufficiently servile for this work, the commission was once more confidently looked to as the forlorn hope and ready agent of corruption, and appointed to convene at Edinburgh, in the Old Kirk Aisle, on the third Wednesday of November or March respectively, in order to take on trials and ordain Mr. James Stirling as minister of Denny. * Thus recklessly were the rights of the people, their spiritual * Acts of Assembly, 1737. PROGRESS OF SECESSION. 119 interests which were utterly neglected while this case ' dragged its slow length along ' from one Assembly to another, and the consciences of presbyteries, all trampled under foot by the hoof of ecclesiastical authority. It was well for the religion and the liberties of Scotland that a body had arisen which stood forth as the bold denouncer of such tyrannies and the earnest redresser of such wrongs. And that many in Scotland now began to see this, is proved by the fact that, in one year, applications were laid upon the table of the Associate Presbytery from more than seventy societies, adhering to their testimony and praying to be congregated and supplied with the blessings of a regu- lar ministry. The rulers in the church were agitated by a new alarm, as they looked around them on the progress of the Seces- sion, the mingled boldness and caution of its leaders, and the unequivocal and deepening interest of the people. They looked and wondered ' whereunto all this would grow.' What was to be done? Conciliation had been attempted by a show of concession, and had failed. They had hoped that the lapse of time would diminish the popu- lar excitement, every year had beheld its increase. Two alternatives only remained, — to yield to the claims of the Seceders, and enter on a course of substantial reformation, or pursuing the course on which they had long been pro- ceeding, to break in sunder every link of connexion with these troublers of their peace, trust to their authority and influence, and set them at defiance. They preferred the latter alternative. It only remains then that we trace with rapid pen the various steps in the process by which the last bond of connexion was severed between the Seced- ers and the corrupt judicatories of the Establishment, and the Secession stood forth distinctly and visibly before the world, as a separate and independent religious community. When the Assembly met in 1738, a representation was laid upon its table from the Synod of Perth, complaining of ' the disorderly practices of certain Seceding ministers. 1 The Assembly entertained the complaint as well founded, 120 ASSEMBLY OF 1738 — THE LIBEL. and appointed the Commission to take all proper steps for duly sisting the separating brethren before the next As- sembly, there to answer for their irregular conduct. This appointment was accompanied with an earnest recommen- dation to all the ministers, elders, and members of the church, to use every proper means for reclaiming ' the poor deluded people'* who had been carried away by this divi- sion, and for preventing the increase of the schism. The Commission, prompt to obey the injunctions of the Assembly, framed a libel against each of the Seceding ministers, and duly serving it upon them individually, cited them to appear before the next Assembly, c to meet at Edinburgh the tenth day of May, 1739 years, within the Assembly house there, in the hour of cause.' The charges contained in the libel were, substantially, their separation from the church, their erecting themselves into a presbytery, their emitting an Act, Declaration and Testi- mony, their condemning the judicatures of the church, their leaving their own parishes and administering ordinances in different parts of the country, their taking some persons under probationary trials, and licensing one or more to preach the gospel, all of which were characterized in the libel as 'high crimes.' t Severe epithets came readily enough to the minds of these rulers, when their hearts were in their work. Over the bold heresies of Professor Campbell they had satisfied themselves with the most soft and soothing generalities, scarcely presuming 'to hint a fault or hesitate dislike;' the honest adherence of these good men to principle in the face of authority and the acts to which this adherence led, were high crimes. ' If the Judi- catories of this National Church,' said William Wilson, ' had done Ijheir duty, the Seceding Brethren would not have had ground for their association, or for such a pro- cedure.' X When the Assembly met, they resolved, after deliberat- * Acts of Assembly, 1738. t Index to Unprinted Acts of Assembly, 1739. t Defence of the Reformation Principles, &c, p. 171. THE EIGHT BRETHREN AT THE BAR OF ASSEMBLY. 121 ing two days on the subject, to proceed on the libel trans- mitted from the Commission. Meanwhile the eight brethren had met and passed an act entitled ' The Declina- ture,' * in which they disclaimed the Assembly's authority over them, and maintained their ' own independent right, liberty and determination, in the name of Christ, to exer- cise all the functions of their ministry,' in as full and ample a manner as hitherto they had done. The grounds stated by them in their declinature, were substantially the same as their grounds of Secession. How could they sub- mit to the judicatories of the church, when those judica- tories were employing their authority against its constitu- tion and interests. Their course of defection from which nothing had sufficed to reclaim them, absolved the Se- ceding brethren from obedience, and practically shut them up to the necessity of renouncing their authority, that they might have respect to God's. It had been the defence of Reformers in Scotland before, and it was valid now. On the 18th day of the month, the eight brethren having been called, appeared as a constituted presbytery at the bar of the Assembly. The Moderator intimated to them on their entrance, that notwithstanding all that had passed, the Assembly was willing to receive them with open arms, if they would return into the bosom of the church. Strange generosity to men who had been denounced as schismatics, and at that moment stood charged in the libel with ten ' high crimes.' The Rev. Thomas Mair replied as Modera- tor of the Associate Presbytery, that they had come to the Assembly's bar as a constituted Presbytery, and that he was ready, as their mouth, to read an Act which expressed their united judgment. On this reply the Assembly commanded the libel to be read, immediately after which Mr. Mair read the Declinature, and then having delivered it to the Moderator of the Assembly, he and the other members of the little band withdrew. It was the last occasion of t Gib's Display, pp. 165—171. 122 THE DEPOSITION. formal intercourse between the Seceding Fathers and the Scottish Church. Astonished and irritated by the consistent and immove- able firmness of the eight brethren, which the Assembly characterized as ' unparalleled boldness/* they would in all likelihood have proceeded at once to depose them from the ministry; had not the protest entered by Mr. Willison and others, when the libel was first resolved on, showed them that there were still men in their ranks whose sym- pathies were with the Seceders, and that severe or preci- pitate measures against them, might possibly lead to new desertions. The deposition therefore which they declared to be merited was postponed to another year, but the next Assembly was strongly recommended to avoid further de- lay, and unless the Seceding ministers in the meantime re- traced their steps, to inflict the censure and expel them from the church. On the twelfth day of May, 1740, the Assembly proceed- ed to consider the recommendation of the last Assembly respecting the Seceding brethren, and on the 15th pro- nounced upon them the sentence of deposition from the holy ministry. ' 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, actually Depose Messrs. Ebenezer Erskine at Stirling, William Wilson at Perth, Alexander Moncrieff at Abernethy, James Fisher at Kinclaven, Ralph Erskine at Dunfermline, Thomas Mair at Orwell, Thomas Nairn at Abbotshall, and James Thom- son at Burntisland, ministers, from the office of the holy ministry, prohibiting and discharging them, and every one of them, to exercise the same or any part thereof within this church, in all time coming.' t Might it not have been asked, as the Roman judge had once asked regarding their divine Master, ' Why, what evil had they done 1 ' But the * Printed Acts of Assembly, 1^ f Acts of Assembly, 1740. SCENES IN PARISHES OF DEPOSED MINISTERS. 123 depositions of Assemblies are no more valid than the anathemas of popes, when they are essentially unjust. Assuredly this act was not ratified in heaven. Though no act of ecclesiastical authority could deprive these excellent men of their flocks, the Assembly's sen- tence deprived them both of their places of worship and emo- luments ; and care was taken that the Moderator should immediately write to the civil authorities in their respec- tive districts, informing them of the sentence and request- ing that they should at once be dispossessed. To the honour of the magistrates in some places, the Seceding brethren were allowed to retain their pulpits, till new places of worship were reared for them. This was the case with Mr. Ralph Erskine at Dunfermline and with Mr. Thomson at Burntisland. But in other cases the treatment was far different, and occasioned scenes in some instances of touching pathos, in others rising to the morally sublime. At Abernethy Mr. Moncrieff, with characteristic determination, refused to enter the pulpit of the parish church after his deposition, and exposed to the winds and snows of a whole winter, preached to his people in the open air. Mr. Nairn at Abbotshall was allowed to retain undisturbed possession of his church un- til the month ef October, when the heritors ' at their own hands,' says Mr. Wilson in his Defence, ' locked the church and church-yard doors, and nailed iron plates on the key- holes of the said doors ! ' * At Stirling on the first Lord's day after Mr. Erskine's deposition, the church bells were forbidden to be rung, and the people on assembling at the usual hour found the doors of the church and churchyard made fast to prevent their entrance. The exasperated multitude were about to pro- ceed to violent measures to effect an entrance, but their venerable pastor having made his appearance, and ex- pressing his disapproval of all violent measures, succeeded in dissuading them from the attempt. Then in the prc- * Continuation of Wilson's Defence, p. 91. 124 STIRLING. sence of the immense multitude whom the interesting occasion had brought together, he lifted up the pulpit bible which according to the custom of the times he had brought with him from his house, and with that ma- jestic manner which was so natural to him, and with awfully impressive solemnity of tone protested as in the divine presence that he was now obeying the dic- tates of duty, and that not he but his opposers were re- sponsible at the judgment seat of God for the scenes of that day. The words spread a thrill of deep emotion throughout the vast assembly — more especially as they looked on the grey hairs and majestic form of the venera- ble sufferer ; but every thought of violence had given way to holier feelings, and quietly retiring to a convenient spot in the open air, they listened to the ministrations of this dauntless witness, whom they now began to regard not only with the affection due to a pastor, but with something of the veneration claimed by a martyr. The place selected for the solemn service was such as to harmonize with the state of mind of the worshippers, and to provide the vast multitude with a fitting sanctuary. To this day the visitor to Stirling is guided to a verdant and elevated spot that rises to the northward of that ancient seat of kings. Here, — with the frowning ramparts of the castle rising above him — rich and waving plains be- neath, amid which the ' many-linked ' Forth seeks his majestic way and begins his strange and mazy circles as if loath to leave so fair a scene, with far in the distance the noble Grampians raising their bold and rugged pinnacles into the clouds, — did this Father of the Secession gather together his scattered sheep, and rear, as it were in visible form, the standard which bore inscribed on it 'Christ's crown' and ' His people's rights.' The first portion of the sixtieth psalm was given out by Mr. Erskine to be sung, and very appropriately opened the services of the day : — " Lord, thou hast rejected us, And scatter'd us abroad : PERTH. 125 Thou justly hast displeased heen; Return to us, God. The earth to tremble thou hast made ; Therein didst breaches make: Do thou therefore the breaches heal, Because the land doth shake." A solemn prayer followed ; after which the venerable man read as his text those words of Matt. viii. 27. ' But the men marvelled, saying, what manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him.' The sermon which followed was one which those who heard never could for- get. The occasion, the scene, the subject all tended to elevate both speaker and hearers into a higher region, and made holy eloquence sound like inspiration. It was a day of deep and varied emotions. Some were saddened to tears when they thought of the precious minister whom the Church of Scotland had driven from her pale, in others joy in the truths which they had heard swallowed up for the time all other feelings, while hoary headed men felt the recollections of youth suddenly revived, and those who had been active in the proceedings of that day, seemed to their minds to have ' served themselves heirs to the iniquity and wickedness of some of their forefathers in that place, who stoned that eminent seer and faithful martyr Mr. James Guthrie.'* But the scenes at Perth have been the most minutely recorded, and form unquestionably one of the most inter- esting pages in the early history of the Secession. We give the description almost entirely in the words of Mr. Wilson's respected descendant and biographer. ' On the morning of the Lord's day, when the Assembly's instructions to the civil powers, just that morning received, were to be carried into effect, Mr. Wilson and his interest- ing family, who were very regular in their domestic habits, were observed by the servants to be in a state of uncom- mon concern. Though the cause was in a great measure * Frazer's Memoirs of E. Erskine, p. 414. Wilson's Continua- tion of Defence, p. 91. 126 PERTH. — THE MAGISTRATES. unknown to the domestics, they perceived that something unusual had occurred. The breakfast table was laid at the usual hour: but Mr. and Mrs. Wilson continued closely shut up in their chamber, and seemed, in deep thoughtful- ness, to forget their wonted habits, and to be so entirely engaged in intercourse with God, as to be above the cares of this life, and to forget, or not to feel, the common crav- ings of nature. ' Mr. Wilson remained in his chamber till the hour of public worship. On leaving it, he went directly to the church. As he left the house to proceed, on this trying day, to the discharge of his ministerial duties, an aged do- mestic, long an inmate of the family, — the same who in earlier times had served his father in the Mearns moor with daily nourishment, when he was driven from his house and his property by the violence of the persecution, — ven- tured to accost him in the language of friendly caution, " Tak care what ye're doin', Mr. William," said she, for so from early habits she still sometimes called him, " tak care what ye're doin', for I fear if things gang on this way, I'll get ye're food to carry to the muir, as I did ye're father's before ye." ' Mr. Wilson, in the prospect of these movements, took along with him Mr. Andrew Ferrier, writer in Perth, a gentleman of the highest respectability, and with whom he was in habits of friendship. In company with him, Mr. Wilson proceeded, with his usual dignified composure and gravity, towards the House of God. An immense multi- tude had assembled on the streets around the building. An expectation that something more than common was to take place had been very generally excited. The doors were shut ; and the magistrates of the city, with their badges of authority and guards, were drawn up in front to obstruct Mr. Wilson's entrance. In this they might pretend to be in the discharge of their duty ; but doubtless, here, as in other places, magistrates had a discretionary power to de- cline exercising the rigour of their authority. 'Mr. Wilson, undaunted, advanced to the main entrance. PERTH. THE GLOVERS YARD. 127 and addressing those authorities who guarded it, demanded admission by an authority higher than theirs. " In the name of my Divine Master," said the venerable pastor, " I demand admission into his temple." The demand was thrice made in the same manner, and thrice met with a de- termined and stern refusal. On this there was a simulta- neous stir in the crowd, and those who had seen or heard the repeated demands and refusals of entrance, became in- dignant and impatient, and were about to stone the civil authorities of the city, and to force an entrance for the minister they loved. But, perceiving their designs, Mr. Wilson, with affectionate and commanding dignity, turned to the crowd, and firmly forbade the execution of their pur- pose. " No violence," said he, " my friends ; — the Master whom I serve is the Prince of Peace.'''' 1 Mr. Ferrier, in the mean time, having endeavoured in vain to procure admission for his minister, solemnly pro- tested against the conduct of the magistrates ; and on re- marking that they could justify themselves neither before God nor men for their proceedings that day, — was told in reply, that " they would take men in their own hands, and would answer to God when they were called." ' At this interesting juncture, the Deacon of the Glovers' Corporation stepped forward, and said to Mr. Wilson, that if he would accept of the Glovers' Yard for the services of the day, he was most welcome to it. The kind and season- able offer was most readily and thankfully accepted. Thither he immediately retired, followed by an immense concourse of people. An erection was soon obtained, where he might conveniently conduct the public worship of God. 1 In the mean time, " Mr. John Hally, then a probationer, 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 the pulpit." ' During these proceedings, Mr. Wilson was quite com- posed. The trying scene had not unfitted him for the dis- charge of those duties in which he delighted, and his sphere of usefulness was, by these events, much extended. Many 128 PERTH. THE GLOVERS' YARD. thousands more than the church could have contained nocked around him in the Glovers' Yard, some, doubtless, prompted by curiosity alone, but by far the greater num- ber deeply interested in the occurrences of the times, and determined to adhere to their godly minister. ' There was something highly appropriate, and peculiarly expressive of the feelings of this excellent Father of the Secession, in the psalm with which he commenced, in the open air, the public solemnities of the Sabbath : — " He was no foe that me reproach'd, Then that endure I could ; Nor hater that did 'gainst me boast, From him me hide I would. But thou man, who mine equal, guide, And mine acquaintance wast: We join'd sweet counsels, to God's house In company we pass'd." ( The prayer, we doubt not, accorded with the peculiar circumstances in which he and his fellow-worshippers were placed, — breathing the devout feelings of his heart, — show- ing how resigned he was to the disposing will of the God of providence, — and how anxious he was that the events of the day in particular, and of the times in general, might be rendered subservient to the Divine glory and to the prosperity of the church. ' When he opened the sacred volume the text he read produced a thrill in every heart, and especially among the more thoughtful part of the audience : " Let us go forth THEREFORE UNTO HIM, WITHOUT THE CAMP, BEARING HIS RE- PROACH." ' The devotional exercises of this eventful Sabbath were throughout solemn and interesting, and much calculated to make a deep and lasting impression on those who wit- nessed them. When the work of the day was over, Mr, Wilson, on returning home, went directly to his study, tired and worn out with his anxieties and exertions. Isa- bella, his eldest daughter, then but twelve years of age, but who, attended by one of the servants, had witnessed the whole extraordinary scene, — a scene which she dis- THE LAST CORD DISSEVERED. 129 tinctly remembered as long as she lived, and often men- tioned to her family with the deepest interest, — felt very curious to understand from her father the meaning of what had taken place, but not liking to ask him, she hung about the door of his apartment till he observed her, and per- ceived what were her feelings and wishes. He then called her, and said, — ' Bell, this has been a day of trial, but we have reason to be thankful that it has not been a day of shame. If any one ask you, Bell, why your father lost his kirk, you may just say, as good Mr. Guthrie, before his death, directed my mother to say of him, if she were asked why he lost his head, — " that it was in a good cause." ' * The last link which had bound the Seceders to the Estab- lished Church was now effectually severed, and the Seces- sion Church stood forth among the nations as a witness for truth and freedom. She had come out of a Reformation church ; but it was not the .first time since the days of Lu- ther that a Reformation church had itself needed to be re- formed. It is at this point especially that we must take our stand, and looking down the intervening century, mark how far she has discharged the commission which her God put into her hands, and estimate what has been the mea- sure of her beneficent influence upon the religion of Scot- land and the religious privileges of her people. This we shall endeavour to accomplish in our concluding chapter. * Ferrier's Memoirs uf W. Wilson, pp. 326— 243. CHAPTER IV. RESULTS OF THE SECESSION. Reflisal of Sites— Loyalty of the Seceders— Adam Gib— Whitefield— Un- happy alienation — Cambuslang— Act concerning the Doctrine of grace — Mr. Nairn — Progress — The Associate Stnod — Lowe ring clouds— The Breach— Two Streams— State of Scottish Church— Formation of Relief Presbytery— Principal Robertson— Kirk of Shotts— The dark age— Mo- deratism — M'Gill of Ayr— Orkney — America— Nova Scotia— Occasional storms— The Civil Magistrate— Right practice with defective theory- Prejudices subsiding — The Union— Growth of Missionary spirit— The Voluntary principle— Alarm in the Established Church— Church Ex- tension Scheme— The Veto Act — Secession and Relief movements to- wards union — Atonement controversy — Desire for union grows — Tan- field — The United Presbyterian Chdrch— Estimate of results — The Secession and religious truth— Religious liberty— Religious literature — Conclusion. The meeting beneath the thatched roof at Gairney Bridge, or the period at which the Brethren were deposed, — either of these may be taken as the point from which to measure the progress of the Secession during the century and more that has intervened since. It is not our province minutely to trace the subsequent history of the Secession, detailing the proceedings of its Synods from year to year ; but it seems necessary, in order to accomplishing the main design of this concluding chap- ter, that we should point out the great landmarks or periods of the century, noticing their characteristic fea- tures and salient points, while we gratefully and confi- dently refer the reader for more abundant details to the ample and accurate pages of Dr. M'Kerrow's History. The first period, beginning with the deposition of the eight brethren, was chequered by more than one trying occurrence. Among the more ignorant classes and ' lewd REFUSAL OF SITES — LOYALTY OF THE SECEDERS. 131 people of the baser sort,' popular disturbances were raised to disturb the meetings of the Seceders, while the same spirit of opposition showed itself among men in power in the refusal of sites for churches, and in threats of intimi- dation addressed to tenants and dependents whose piety or sense of justice led them to sympathize with the Seces- sion. It was a hardy child that Providence was now rear- ing, destined for long and faithful service, and it was fit that it should be thus ' nursed on the rock and cradled by the storm.' In nothing perhaps did the virulence of the corrupt party that had deposed them show itself more than in in- sinuations against the loyalty of the Seceders, — insinua- tions much more dangerous a century ago than now. Even in the house of Lords some years before, the Duke of Argyle had thrown out the infamous surmise that they were to be blamed for the Porteous mob, an event of which they were as innocent as the first Christians of the burning of Rome in the days of Nero. Providence afforded them in the rebellion of 1745 an early opportunity of answering the gratuitous calumnies. Among no class of men in Scotland did the cause of the Pretender find more resolute resistance, and the house of Hanover more enthusiastic supporters than among the Scottish Seceders. Their loyalty was not only earnest but exuberant, for to their minds there seemed at once involved in the struggle their civil rights and the interests of protestantism. A regiment was formed almost exclusively of Seceders. When the Pretender was under- stood to be approaching Stirling, Mr. Erskine, though now advanced in years, presented himself at the castle dressed in military costume and ready to mount guard for the night.* When the troops of the Pretender at length en- * Some gentlemen on guard, surprised to see the venerable minis- ter in such unclerica] attire, recommended him to go home to his prayers as more suitable to his vocation. ' I am determined,' was iiis spirited 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.' Frazer's Life of E. Erskine, p. 439. 132 ADAM GIB AT COLIXTON. tered Edinburgh, a company of the Seceders who -were post- ed at one of the most important stations were the last to abandon their position. And at Colinton in the neigh- bourhood of Edinburgh, Adam Gib preached from a tent to a large concourse of people, and while the armed and frown- ing followers of Charles were standing on the outskirts of the audience, represented to his hearers the imminence of the crisis, and urged them to uphold, even to the loss of all things, the present government and dynasty. The Seceders showed themselves as ready, in this unbought loyalty, to ' render unto Cseesar the tilings which were Caesar's,' as they had shown themselves in their secession to ' render unto God the things which were God's.' Even before the period of these loyal manifestations by the Seceders, an unhappy feud had occurred between them and one who had been accomplishing for England what they had seceded in order to accomplish for Scotland, the revival of vital religion among the people, which in both countries had suffered incalculable injury from the unfaith- fulness and inaction of the National Church. Occupying towards their respective countries a somewhat similar re- lation, nothing seemed more natural or desirable than that George Whitefield and the Erskines should regard each other with mutual interest and affection, and encourage each other in the great mission to which they appeared in the providence of God to have been simultaneously called. This mutual interest and affection did indeed exist for a time, but it is impossible to remember without deep regret that it was soon followed by serious misunderstanding, open rupture, and even mutual reproach. "We have no in- tention to enter fully into the merits of the controversy between the great English evangelist and the Scottish Se- ceders, and yet, even in a sketch like this, it is impossible to avoid touching on it, more especially as in the wars of religious factions it has often been referred to since at the expense of modern Seceders with undistinguishing severity, as a convenient instrument of assault where a little odium gathered from the past might help out the purposes of pre- WHITEFIELD AXD THE SECEDERS. 133 sent argument. The partiality would be highly blameable that would vindicate or excuse the first Seceders in this matter, the prejudice would be unpardonable that would load them with unmeasured reproach, or bring out either Whitefield or his later associates free of blame. The principal elements in the case were these : The Er- skines hearing of the extraordinary success of Whitefield in England, entered into correspondence with him, ex- pressing their joy at his movements, and informing him at the same time of their own proceedings and success. White- field replied in terms of high respect and affection, congra- tulating the Seceders on their position and prospects, ex- pressing the deepest interest in their success, and longing for personal intercourse with men whom he so greatly lov- ed, and from whom he believed he might obtain the greatest advantage. This was followed by an invitation on the part of the Seceders to Scotland, both that they might enjoy the pleasures of mutual intercourse, and Scotland receive the benefit of his extraordinary ministry. Mr. Whitefield was at the same time reminded with a manly and prudent fore- sight that does the Seceders honour, of the peculiar posi- tion in which they stood to the Scottish Church, as having left its communion on account of its crying abuses, and the suggestion was thrown out that close fellowship with the ministers of the Establishment would seriously weaken their position, and give to a corrupt body, which had just driven them from its pale, the benefit of his moral influence and amazing popularity. They were ready to welcome him to Scotland though there might be a difference between him and them on certain points, and their hope was that intercourse and prayer would diminish those differences and make their unity complete. Mr. Whitefield wrote ac- cepting the invitation, concurring in the hope of more com- plete harmony of view as the result of their communica- tions, and wishing to sit at the feet of these venerable men and be taught. He came to Scotland, and, waited on by Ralph Erskine at Edinburgh, went with him to Dunfermline. There the 134 UNHAPPY ALIENATION. other Seceding brethren welcomed the great preacher, and hailed his visit as the harbinger of blessed results. A con- ference was soon proposed between them and Whitefield, and that conference was the unhappy occasion of aliena- tion and rupture. Encouraged by the strong expressions in Whitefield's letters, in which he had confessed his im- perfect knowledge on many points, and his willingness to receive light, the Seceders offered to converse with him on the question of Church government. He was gathering around him thousands of converts, it was necessary for the permanent success of his labours that these converts should be cared for and formed into churches, the question there- fore seemed one that did not admit of long delay, what was the form of Church government sanctioned by Scripture. Was it Episcopacy 1 Was it Presbytery ? They were anx- ious to convince him in behalf of the latter model. Mr. Whitefield declined to entertain the question, angry feelings were awakened, — Whitefield, invited by the minis- ters of the National Church, became more identified with them in his labours, — the Seceders began to use language regarding him unduly depreciating, while he in his turn began to utter unfavourable predictions regarding them which were not destined to be fulfilled. ' The Seceders,' said he, ' are building a Babel which will soon fall about their own ears.' He would be a bold and reckless partisan who should pronounce either the Scottish Seceders or the English preacher blameless. If the former were too prompt in in- viting conference with Whitefield on disputed points, it should be remembered that his own letters had encouraged the thought that such a conference was desired. If the Seceders expected more regard for their position than was reasonable, he on the other hand displayed an indifference to that position which was extremely irritating, and inconsis- tent with his own previous professions. The Seceders have been blamed for wishing that Whitefield should preach only from their pulpits or in places provided by them, we join in the condemnation; though we find some difficulty in CAMBUSLANG. 13f> discovering the quarter from which it can consistently come. Greater instances of illiberality have been repeat- edly displayed in our own times, without the many palliat- ing circumstances that render the fault of the Seceders comparatively venial, and we may boldly turn to every leading denomination in Scotland, and say, ' Let him that is without guilt among you, throw the first stone.' The same candid consideration of circumstances is ne- cessary in judging of the conduct of the Seceders, when not long afterwards Whitefield returned to Scotland a second time, at the invitation of ministers of the Establishment, and obtained such a remarkable blessing upon his ministry in the revivals at Cambuslang. No Christian now will fail to ac- knowledge in that work, with all its physical excitement and disorder, a revival from on high. But the Seceders, looking too exclusively at its cases of temporary excite- ment and disorder, spoke of the whole in terms of unwar- rantable doubt, and even in some instances of condemna- tion. For this they are to be blamed ; but let us at the same time do the Seceding Fathers justice, and keep in mind how that work of God was attempted to be turned by the partisans of the Established Church to the worst purposes of faction and corruption. ' See,' said they to the Seceders, '■you have left the Establishment, but the Spirit of God has not.' The Seceders might have replied triumph- antly, that the same plea might have been urged by a Ro- manist in defence of the Church of Rome, and used to place the brand of schism upon the glorious Reformation. God had always had a people in that apostate church, and had sometimes produced in particular sections of it remarkable revivals ; and yet the command of God, at those very mo- ments of revival, was, ' Come out of her my people.' Did the conversions by the pastor Oberlin amid his alpine recesses consecrate the corruptions of that Romish communion to which the simple-minded evangelist continued nominally to adhere? But the Seceding Fathers, instead of reject- ing the presumptuous conclusion, denied the fact, and this denial was one of the worst errors ever committed by 136 ACT CONCEBNEfG THE DOCTRINE OF GRACE. these good men. It is pleasing to think that at a later period even the severest among them blamed himself — and that Whitefield and Ralph Erskine were afterwards re- conciled with mutual embraces and tears. It is remarkable, that even amid these disturbances and dissensions the cause of the Secession advanced. Let us trace its progress. Disentangled from the Established Church, the brethren had lost no time in giving themselves to their proper work, and emitting seasonable documents, such as they imagined to be demanded by the claims of truth and the position of eccle- siastical affairs. One of the most valuable documents ever authoritatively put forth by the Secession Church owes its existence to this period ; we refer to the 'Act concerning the doctrine of grace,' which, after elaborate preparation and anxious revision, appeared in 1742. In this Act, the Se- cession Fathers raise the standard of the Marrow doctrine, for which they had so nobly struggled in the Establish- ment, and proclaim its doctrine as their own. It was the first work emitted by them after their deposition, and it is difficult to name a better use that could have been made by them of their liberty. With the ignominious brand of the Assembly still imprinted on the Marrow, consistency as well as duty seemed to demand of the Seceders that they should embrace the earliest opportunity of formally declar- ing their undiminished love for its momentous and living verities. With a measure of prolixity that ill suits the taste of the present age, and with the occasional appear- ance of those strong and paradoxical expressions that de- form the Marrow itself, the Act is distinguished by those clear exhibitions of a free gospel resting on the basis of an all-perfect atonement — those representations of 'grace reigning through righteousness,' and producing in the re- ception of it the spirit of an unconstrained and happy obedience, which give strength to personal holiness and its greatest power to a Christian ministry. It was well that such an act should at once strike the key-note of Secession preaching. ME. NAIRN. CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 137 Scarcely had the ' Act concerning the doctrine of grace ' been published, when the adoption of sentiments by Mr. Nairn that were believed to be subversive of civil govern- ment, occasioned a declaration by the Seceders on the power and province of the civil magistrate, — a declaration which proved that the views of the Seceders on this point were already in advance of the Establishment which they had left behind them, and which, in the principles which it embodied, and in the discussions and controversies of which it formed the repeated material, contributed much to lead minds both within the pale of the Secession and beyond it, to sound and enlightened views on the rights of conscience. The following paragraph, defining with distinct and vig- orous hand the true province of civil magistracy, became memorable in many a subsequent controversy. ' The pub- lic good of outward and common order in all reasonable so- ciety, unto the glory of God, is the great and only end which those invested with magistracy can propose, in a sole respect unto that office. And as, in prosecuting this end civilly, according to their office, it is only over men's good and evil works that they can have any inspection, so it is only over these which they must needs take cognizance of for the said public good ; while, at the same time, their doing so must be in such a manner, and proceed so far allenarly, as is requisite for that end, without assuming any lordship immediately over men's consciences, or mak- ing any encroachment upon the special privileges and busi- ness of the church. And moreover, as the whole institu- tion and end of their office are cut out by, and lie within, the compass of natural principles, it were absurd to sup- pose, that there could or ought to be any exercise thereof towards its end, in the foresaid circumstances, but what can be argued for and defended from natural principles ; as indeed there is nothing especially allotted and allowed unto magistrates, by the word of God and the Confessions of the reformed churches, but what can be so.' * The prin- * Gib's Display, p. 311. 138 PROGRESS. THE ASSOCIATE SYNOD. ciple contained in these sentences needed only to be fol- lowed out to its legitimate results, in order to place the Se- ceders as the unflinching antagonists of every form of ma- gistratical intrusion or coercion in regard to ecclesiastical affairs. It was the little leaven in the three measures of meal, destined to leaven the whole lump. The infant cause continued to strengthen and extend on every side, and gave every indication that it was obtaining a growing hold upon the public mind. Licentiates were seen leaving the Establishment and adhering to the stan- dard and testimony of the Seceders ; applications for sermon came from so many quarters that to have attended to them would have required on the part of the brethren an almost constant absence from their own flocks ; congregations were already organized in England and Ireland ; and in one year the number of students attending the theological hall exceeded those attending any of the universities, ex- cept Edinburgh.* To meet the inconveniences arising from the increase of the body, the ministers and elders were arranged into three presbyteries under one synod, and at the first meeting of the Associate Synod, about thirty set- tled congregations and thirteen vacancies were reported as connected with the Secession in Scotland alone. But a dark cloud was already lowering over the church. An intricate and irritating discussion had been introduced into the Synod respecting the religious clause of certain burgess-oaths which were required to be taken in some of the towns of Scotland. Some asserted that this oath could not be taken by any consistent Seceder; others insisted that it might, and that the question regarding it should be made matter of mutual forbearance.t The controversy * Letter of R. Erskine to Whitefield.— Frazer's Life of E. Er- skine, p. 431. t The clause ran in the following terms, and was contained in the oath imposed upon burgesses in the towns of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Perth: — 'Here 1 protest before God and your Lordships, that I profess and allow with my heart, the true religion presently pro- fessed within this realm, and authorized by the laws thereof; 1 shall abide therein, and defend the same to my life's end; renouncing the Roman religion called Papistry. 1 LOWERING CLOUDS. THE BREACH. 139 increased in bitterness, more especially when the interest was caught by the people, and in 1747, only fifteen years after the Secession, the contending parties who had so nobly stood side by side against the corruptions of the Establishment, were separated into two, and began to launch against each other mutual denunciation and invec- tive. This was the memorable and mournful 'Breach' which marks the second great period in the history of the Secession. Alas ! that any of its landmarks should also be the monument of its unhallowed wars ! — We can imagine it to be the wish of some that this event in the history of the Secession should be wholly passed over or hidden in oblivion. But this, even were it practicable, would not be right. We may learn nearly as much from the errors of the church as from its excellencies ; while no good can possibly be obtained from undistinguishing panegyric. Inspired wisdom does not withhold the information that ' the contention was sharp ' between Paul and Barnabas, and that they departed asunder the one from the other, though it does not dilate upon the painful rupture, and it may be well, in reference to the present matter, to imitate both the fidelity and the brevity of the inspired example. At the same time, while we should be faithful in record- ing and severe in condemning this painful occurrence, no- thing can well be more injurious than an indiscriminating censure. Let it be admitted that, in the stormy conten- tions which ended in the breach, there was a mournful dis- play of unhallowed human passion ; still, a calm and un- prejudiced onlooker might have marked throughout the contest on either side, the working of a sincere though im- perfectly enlightened conscientiousness. It was not the squabble of opposing ecclesiastical factions for power or secular advantage, but the stern unyielding struggle of men who were haunted with a morbid dread of lowering or defacing the testimony which they had raised. The lesson which these good men now needed to learn was that which the present age of the church seems destined pre- eminently to develop, — that there are many points on which 140 TWO STREAMS. men may conscientiously differ, and which ought to be left to each individual's personal conviction ; — and the meaning of the burgess-oath was one of these. Luther, at the Refor- mation, forgot this principle, and his vehemence divided between the churches of Germany and Switzerland. The Fathers of the Secession forgot it, and hence a degree of un- bending obstinacy, made stronger by their very conscien- tiousness, growing into alienation and fierce contention, and ending at once in the rupture of private friendships and of public bonds. ' Each spake words of high disdain And insult to his heart's best brother.' ' The Lord had divided them in his anger, and covered the daughter of Zion with a thick cloud, giving them also the wine of astonishment to drink.' The breach is almost the only dark spot in the history of the Secession, and it is the only fact in its history of which many of its ene- mies and detractors seem to be aware. The history of the Secession has now to be traced in two streams, according to the course taken by the two eccle- siastical bodies into which it was divided.* But, as hap- pened with Paul and Barnabas after their contention and separation, their alienation from each other did not disturb their fidelity to the great interests to which they were mutually consecrated and sworn. Each continued to rear high the Secession banner in all its integrity and amplitude; each continued to watch over the fidelity of the other, and by that over-ruling providence which so often educes good from seeming evil, the lessons and the liberties which the Secession provided were probably borne into a greater number of places by the two separated bands, than they would have been had they remained one. ' Here is comfort,' Ebenezer Erskine long before had said in one of his sermons, — ' Here is comfort in case of rents, * The party condemning the religious clause in the Burgess-oath was called the General Associate, and the other the Associate Synod. — In popular language, the former was better known as the Ami- burgher, and the other as the Burgher Synod. STATE OP THE SCOTTISH CHURCH. 141 divisions, and manifold disorders in the visible church, as there is at this day Here is comfort, that the great Manager of the house is looking on ; he permits and over- rules all 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 Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, he will reign among his ancients gloriously.' * And yet had the rulers in the Scottish Church been care- ful to improve the advantage which this division offered them, they might doubtless have recovered much of their lost influence and power. The unseemly wranglings which both preceded and followed the breach, must have greatly diminished for a time the moral power and attractiveness of the Secession ; and an honest repentance and timely con- cession at such a juncture, if it did not extinguish the Se- cession, must at least have checked its growth. But far different was the policy which the leaders in her councils showed themselves inclined to pursue. At the period of the breach they were advancing in their career of corrup- tion and oppression, resolved to maintain their position not by the redress of the people's grievances, but by the suppression of their complaints and the extinction of their power ; and it does credit at once to the discrimi- nation and to the conscientiousness of the Scottish people, that many of them preferred contention to corruption, es- pecially where that contention, however unduly fierce, had its root in principle, and would rather have liberty with controversy than peace with bonds. Indeed, during the fifteen years that had elapsed since the Secession, the rulers in the Scottish Church had ad- vanced many steps nearer to the goal at which they had long- been pointing, the complete extinction of the popular ele- ment in her constitution and policy, and the subjection of the people to an ecclesiastical oligarchy, themselves the willing tools and instruments of the State. The Willisons * Works, II. p. 349. 142 THE RELIEF PRESBYTERY. — PRINCIPAL ROBERTSON. and others who, after the Secession, had continued to offer a feeble resistance to patronage, and had succeeded in ob- taining an occasional concession, had ere this time passed from the scene, and men had inherited their office on whom their mantle of piety and charity had not descended. Individual members of Presbytery whose consciences were aggrieved by violent settlements, were not even al- lowed the option of absence from the unhallowed proceed- ings, which still continued to be dignified with the name ordination ; and in some instances where a minister refused to degrade himself, and violate his conscience by prostitut- ing the solemn services of religion to the purposes of ty- ranny, he was summarily deposed from his sacred office for his so-called contumacy. It was in circumstances like these that the venerable Thomas Gillespie of Carnock, ( one of the most inoffensive and upright men of his time,' says Sir Henry Moncrieff, was driven from his charge,* and, rejoic- ing that he was 'counted worthy to suffer shame for His name,' became, in the formation of the Relief Presbytery, the honoured founder of a second Secession. It was not however till about the year 1763, when Dr. Pa- trick Cumin having withdrawn from the management, Prin- cipal Robertson became the leader of the Assembly, that the system of patronage reached its full maturity and shed its ripened fruits. It remained for this accomplished man, but most unscrupulous leader, to proclaim the principle, and even boldly act it out in the measures of the Assembly during a long course of years, that the call is not necessary to constitute a presentation valid, and that the presenta- tion of the patron is in every case sufficient reason for the Presbytery's taking measures for the ordination of the pre- sentee. A minority still insisted that the concurrence of the elders and heads of families should be regarded as essential, but even this party was small and diminishing, while the strictly popular party had by this become extinct. It is easy to imagine the scenes with which the working * May 23, 1752. KIRK OP SIIOTTS. EAGLESIIAM. 143 out of such principles as these must have desolated Scot- land, doing violence to some of the most cherished rights, and shocking some of the most sacred feelings of her people. For a time, protests were taken against the ordination of obnoxious presentees, and occasionally these were sus- tained by the inferior courts, but advocates and lawyers were there rife with precedents and bristling with quibbles, ' like quills upon the fretted porcupine,' and prepared in the name of the patron to carry the case by appeal to the bar of the Assembly, by whom it was sure to be confirmed. Such a process as this often occupied a series of years, during which the reclaiming parish was handed over to neglect, the worst passions permitted to spread, and the people taught by what they experienced to look upon the patron as a tyrant and the ministers of re- ligion as his tools, too often alienated not only from the ecclesiastical system under which they had been trained, but from religion itself. The proceedings connected with the ordination of the pre- sentee, who was thus forced by ecclesiastical authority upon an oppressed and indignant people, often formed too consist- ent a close to the litigation and dictation of General Assem- blies. The exasperated parishioners sometimes rose in a body to resist the induction of the presentee, and more than once succeeded in carrying away the members of Presbytery or the agents of the committee, as they were journeying to the place where a farce was to be enacted under forms of prayer. Troops of soldiers came in the course of time to be introduced into the parishes previously to an ordination ; those who were to ofliciate on the occa- sion, as well as the presentee himself, were conducted to the spot under military escort, and an ordination became associated in the minds of thousands with the brandishing of sabres and the prancing of cavalry, far more than with the laying on of hands and prayer, or the exchange of mutual benediction. The scenes at Kirk of Shotts and Eaglesham, for example, form among the darkest pages 144 THE DARK AGE. in the ecclesiastical history of the last century, and are such as the blindest partisan of the Scottish Church might well seek to bury in oblivion. A system of such unchristian oppression and violence as this, rigorously pursued during a long course of years, must have operated with an influence the most unfavour- able upon the religious condition of the Scottish Church, at once secularizing her spirit and deteriorating the char- acter of her ministry. For, apart altogether from the exasperating and alienating effect upon the people of a forced settlement, and the impression so naturally left up- on their minds, that the emoluments and immunities of the benefice were uppermost in the thoughts of their rulers, rather than the responsibilities of the ministerial office or the spiritual interests of the people, what must have been the character of the men who would submit to be so in- truded, or consent to form a spiritual relation dependent for its success upon mutual affection and confidence, by means of aids and appliances from which every thing in Christianity and in Christian hearts instinctively recoils. It is when we thus look at patronage in its indirect as well as direct operation, not only wresting from the hands of the Christian people a Christian right, but opening up the way for the introduction into their pulpits of an un- sound and secularized ministry, that we see the iniquitous system in its true character, and account for the stern and uncompromising opposition that was long raised against it by the best of the Scottish people. That the system of patronage as administered in its fully developed spirit under the long reign of Principal Robert- son, operated with the most vitiating and malign influence upon the character of her ministers, and through them upon the religious state of the people, is confessed by all who have looked into the ecclesiastical history of the period. Even the manly irony of Witherspoon in his ' Ecclesiastical Charac- teristics,' has not coloured the picture with too deep a shade. It was emphatically the dark age of the Scottish Church, when Moderatism sat on her icy throne and spread apathy MODERATISM. M^GILL OP AYR. 145 • and numbness among the multitudes that owned her sway. 1 A morality without godliness — a certain prettincss of sen- timent, occasionally served up in tasteful and well turned periods, the ethics of philosophy or the academic chair, rather than the ethics of the gospel ' * — a ministry which might tickle the ear, but had no sting for the conscience or thrilling influence on the affections, and which was ut- terly powerless to heal the maladies of our moral nature — a ministry which after having solemnly assented to a Cal- vinistic creed, unblushingly taught Arminian, Pelagian, and Socinian errors, or as frequently withheld all positive statement of theological truth, and contented itself with soothing generalities — a ministry that not always maintain- ing an outward moral decorum, sought to commend itself by external polish rather than by the discharge of its high embassy, as the stern reprover of sin, the guide to salva- tion, and the healer of the broken-hearted ; such a ministry now spread its deadening influence throughout the parishes of Scotland, and but for the light which was now shining on many corners of the land from other sources, would, in all likelihood, have succeeded at length in freezing the cur- rent of vital godliness, and extinguishing the lamp of evan- gelic truth. The notorious case of Dr. M'Gill of Ayr, de- monstrates how far the leprosy of error had spread in the Assembly, towards the close of the last century, and how ready its rulers were to betray their most sacred trust. In an ' Essay on the Death of Christ,' published in 1780, he had represented our Lord as a mere man, denied the neces- sity and reality of his atonement, spoken of man's obedience as more precious and acceptable to God than the blood of Christ, and in short taught, either openly or covertly, the deadliest dogmas of Socinianism. Two years were permit- ted to elapse ere the Assembly could be induced to turn its attention to the heretical treatise : at length when the re- presentations of some pious people constrained them to call • Description in Sermon by Dr. Chalmers, on occasion of the death of Dr. Andrew Thomson of St. George's Church, Edinburgh; 146 THE SECESSION WIDENING HER BORDERS. ORKNEY. the author to account, he was dismissed with a censure so gentle as to have all the effect of acquittal ; and when an attempt was made to revive the process a second time, the case was refused a hearing ! It is when we thus contem- plate the state of the Church of Scotland during the greater part of the last century, both in its betrayal of Christian truth, and of the rights of the Christian people, that we see the value of the Secession Church, as the faithful guar- dian of both. Such had been the work of the Secession in both her branches, since the breach of 1 747. Regarded with looks of high disdain from their lofty ramparts, by the leaders of the Assembly, and with many a confident prediction, uttered from the same quarter, of its speedy annihilation, the Secession continued steadily to advance in spite at once of their contempt and their prophecies. The friends of the Establishment even suffered themselves to be misled at times by appearances. In the progress of years the people having learned from experience the utter fruitlessness of opposition, ceased to protest against the admission of an obnoxious presentee, and this was sometimes hailed as an indication that the spirit of the people had spent its force, and was calming down into tame acquiescence. But the fond wish in such a case was father to the thought. The op- position had not ceased, it had only assumed another form, — a form less turbulent but more perilous ; for the oppress- ed and insulted people beholding in the Secession a refuge at once from tyranny and error, quietly withdrew from the parish Church, often taking with them the majority of the parishioners, and leaving the forced incumbent to perform his mechanical service to almost empty walls. In this way did the Secession gradually spread itself over the land, and the Church of Scotland cease to be the Church of the people. In no part of Scotland perhaps has its beneficial influence been more extensively felt or visibly displayed, than in the interesting group of the Orkney isles. The ministers of the Establishment in this remote region, away from inspec- tion and influence, appear to have been peculiarly faithless AMERICA. NOVA SCOTIA. • 147 and inefficient, and the bleak and barren aspect of many of the islands formed but too faithful a type of the igno- rance and spiritual barrenness of the people. It was in the year 1795, that a Secession minister, in compliance with an invitation from a little band of Chris- tians, crossed the stormy Pentland frith, and planted the standard of the Secession in Kirkwall, the small but ancient capital of the Orcadian isles. His ministry very soon awakened a general interest, and was rewarded with many conversions and the formation of a large and flourishing church. From this point the gospel 'sounded out' to the neighbouring islands, the Secession gradually growing in the confidence and affection of the people, until at length there was scarcely an island of any extent on some part of whose shores an humble meeting-house could not be de- scried, — the token to the grateful islanders of privileges which the grace of God had taught them to prize. There is no home-mission of the last century more interesting than this, and none whose fruits have been more genuine or abundant. Its prayer-meetings are numbered by hun- dreds and their frequenters by thousands, while the liberal- ity that has sometimes been manifested in the missionary cause has risen almost to a primeval standard. These Or- cadian wastes have justly been styled the Hephzibali and the Beulah of the Secession Church.* Long before the attention of the Secession was particu- larly drawn to the Orkney islands, a profound interest had been taken by both branches, in Ireland and the American colonies. Indeed, the Secession standard had been raised in Ireland almost simultaneously with its rise in Scotland ; while to different parts of America, such as Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Nova Scotia, so affectionate a regard was shown, that much of the time of Synods was spent in read- ing and considering the correspondence from those regions, and providing for the increased supply of their necessities ; and scarcely a year elapsed in which one or more ministers * Eclectic Review. New Series, xii. p. 439. 148 OCCASIONAL STORMS. might not be seen crossing the Atlantic, to swell the ranks and to aid in the evangelic labours of Presbyteries, that amid American prairies and by the banks of American rivers, were seeking to secure to the new world the highest blessings of the old. While the two Synods were thus gradually extending themselves in Scotland, and not unmindful of the regions beyond, it would be foolish to imagine that an ecclesiastical body could pass through the larger portion of a century, without being at times perplexed by difficulties and agitat- ed by storms. Such had been the occasional experience of the Secession in both its branches during the period of their separation. Few things indeed are more remarkable or pleasing than to mark with what vigilance they watch- ed over the doctrinal purity of their denomination, and strove to ' hold fast the form of sound words.' Questions about matters of mere indifference, such as that which was raised in the Smytonite controversy,* were indeed wisely and summarily dismissed by them, as things which both a regard for peace and inspired authority required them to avoid. But remembering that by their very historical po- sition they were pre-eminently set for the defence of the truth, they displayed an almost sensitive fidelity whenever it was suspected that the leprous taint of error was among them, and never rested until they had put away the evil thing from the midst of them. Matters like these never seriously disturbed their peace, for in their zeal for the form of sound words they were cordial and unanimous. But there was one question which, appearing in various forms and in connection with various circumstances, re- peatedly engrossed the deliberations and threatened the peace of both Synods ; the question, namely, regarding the power of the civil magistrate in matters of religion. Many * Mr. Smyton, minister of Kilmaurs, considered the lifting of the bread and the cup before the prayer at the Lord's supper, as an es- sential part of the ordinance, and insisted that those brethren whose practice differed from his own in this matter, should be authoritatively enjoined to adopt his method. The Suiod wisely ruled that the question should be made one of mutual forbearance. THE CIVIL MAGISTRATE AND THE CHURCH. 149 circumstances contributed to bring it into prominence before the Church courts. Their position as unendow- ed, naturally turned their thoughts with sensitive interest to the questions regarding magistratical authority in the Church, the well known chapter in the Westminster Con- fession, which in its obvious meaning assigns power to the magistrate in sacred things, and the growing scruples which individuals at licence and ordination felt in giving unqualified assent to this part of the Confession, kept it before their attention. The question even arose in another form. The covenanting periods of the Scottish Church had been looked back upon by the seceding Fathers as the brightest periods in the ecclesiastical annals of Scot- land, and strong approbation expressed of the movements of that period; but suppose that approbation to be ex- pressed in any thing like unqualified terms, would not the introduction of civil authority and temporal penalties into the region of conscience and religion, be thereby involved ? This was the question which more than any other concen- trated on it the attention of the assembled representatives and rulers of the Secession at this period. A distinguished living writer* has well remarked, how incorrect and un- philosophical it is to fix upon some artificial epoch as mark- ing the rise of some new sentiment in a community ; but were we to venture a judgment in reference to the state of opinion on this question in the Secession Church, in what may be called the second period of her history, w r e should say that sound in feeling and practice she had not yet grasped and proclaimed the true theory on which that feel- ing and practice are based, and that the adoption and an- nouncement of a fully developed principle w r as more at least the work of the third period than of the second. In- dividuals were clear and strong in their convictions, but the whole body was not leavened. The Seceders, indeed, from their founders downwards, never seem to have attach- ed any great importance to secular emoluments, or to have * Isaac Taylor. — Spiritual Despotism. 150 RIGHT PRACTICE WITH DEFECTIVE THEORY. been enamoured and entranced by the beautiful dream of a State church, such as their imagination pictured, or to have supposed that a church acquired any new glory by being endowed ; nay, in one of the ablest documents emitted from one of their sections at this period, they had already come to speak of the ' old rusty hoop ' of an endowment ; but still it was no part of their work as founders rigorously to define the province of the magis- trate, and to declare his utter exclusion from all control in ecclesiastical affairs. The true principle had indeed been announced by Adam Gib in the first period, but it was not yet seen in all its results, the process was being wrought out in the second period, it was to be perfected in the third. That we are right in the statement that the Seceders had already arrived at the proper practical position on this im- portant question, appears from the circumstance of their introducing into the formula of ordination a qualifying sentence, in which it is declared that the candidate, while acknowledging the Westminster Confession of Faith to be the confession of his faith, is not to be understood as ap- proving of any thing in those books which teaches, or may be supposed to teach, compulsory or persecuting doctrines in religion. While on the other hand, that they had not yet reached the solid ground on which all interference or compulsion in matters of religion may be consistently con- demned, appears from the language of some of their decla- rations, in which they still cling to the idea of a via media, and, while eschewing all coercive measures, admit that the magistrate might within certain limits exercise a legitimate and salutary control in ecclesiastical affairs. The great prob- lem, in short, was now being wrought out, every new dis- cussion was throwing new light on the subject, and in a little longer the result would be proclaimed, and theory and practice seen to harmonise. The discussions which agi- tated the Secession on this subject are well known to have been the occasion of throwing off from both Synods a few ministers and congregations, that clung to high notions of magistratical authority in the church. Each of these became PREJUDICES SUBSIDING BETWEEN THE TWO SYNODS. 151 the nucleus of a distinct religious denomination, the one as- suming the name of the ' Constitutional Associate Presby- tery,' and the other that of the ' Original Burgher Presby- tery.' In common speech they are better known as the ' Old Light Antiburghers ' and the ' Old Light Burghers.' Though the former of these has contained in it some names of high and merited literary celebrity, neither has ever attracted much popular interest or sympathy. They were looking backward, while the world was advancing. They had moored their vessel to a harbour from which the tide was ebbing never to return. More than seventy years must now be supposed to have elapsed since the mournful division took place in the ranks of the Secession. During this long period the two bodies had gradually been spreading themselves over the land, occasionally indeed crossing each other's path, but far more frequently occupying a distinct position. The original actors in the breach had long since passed from the earth, and in the world of unclouded light seen eye to eye. The angry feelings and prejudices that had been connected with the breach had gradually subsided, and after the lapse of two generations, had almost entirely faded away. Now and then a hostile javelin yet passed between them, — but it was feebly thrown, and the feuds, no longer sustained by popular sympathy, refused to be revived. Intercourse among the ministers and elders of the two Synods in the healing atmosphere of Bible and Missionary Societies, drew out mutual esteem and dispelled all lingering preju- dice. Intercourse among the people in religious meetings, and in the common action to which those meetings led, produced the same salutary feelings. The cry for union was raised from one quarter and responded to from all. Petitions and representations covered the tables of both Synods and elicited a most cordial consent. The prelimi- naries of union were peacefully arranged. And on the 8th of September 1820, in Bristo Street meeting-house, Edinburgh, the place where seventy-three years before the breach had occurred, the two Synods, amid the solem- 152 THE UXIOX. nities of devotion, and in the presence of an immense* con- course of people that wept for joy, were again united, and became one rod in the hand of the Lord. In 1747 when they had separated, the number of con- gregations belonging to the Secession were thirty-two; at the period of this auspicious consummation they had in- creased to two hundred and sixty-two. Though separated for so long a period no truth had been abandoned by either party, and now rearing a common standard, receiving from heaven a double blessing, and breathing a new spirit as the effect of their union, the united body entered upon the third and most prosperous period of its history. This period comes into too close contact with the present hour, either to require or to warrant more than the most cursory detail. Its chief actors are still in the midst of us, its impressions are still vivid upon our minds. His- tory demands perspective. The mellowing power of dis- tance is necessary to the discerning of proportions and to the due appreciation of events. But were we called upon to mark the more prominent features of this period of the Secession-history, which beginning with one union and ending with another has closed upon us but yesterday, we should point especially to three, — the rapid increase of its churches in Scotland, the remarkable development of the missionary spirit among its people and the consequent spread of its missions, and the more aggressive attitude as- sumed by it towards the Established Church, as the result of the almost universal adoption by its ministers and peo- ple of what has commonly been termed the Voluntary principle. In no previous period of its history had its congregations increased on so rapid a scale. Its numbers gave it confi- dence ; its union increased its moral power, and, in every succeeding year, places of worship, reared by the spontane- ous liberality of its people, were rising in the various cor- ners of the land, so that in less than thirty years, more than a hundred new congregations have added strength and power to the united body. RAPID GROWTH OF THE MISSIONARY SPIRIT. 153 The growth of the missionary spirit during the same period has been still more remarkable. This spirit indeed was not new in the Secession, as past statements have shown, but hitherto it had wanted organization, concen- tration, and development, and it is the glory of this epoch that these qualities were now given to it, and that the Secession began to assume its proper position in the front rank of missionary churches. No longer satisfied with sending out an occasional missionary, or forward- ing an occasional contribution to destitute regions, or allowing the liberality of its people to find its way, as it might, into the treasury of some general society, it was de- termined to adopt a mission of its own, which should ga- ther round it the interest and enlist the prayers of the people, and continue extending in proportion as the liberal- ity of the people enlarged. And the grain of mustard-seed has become a tree. Canada was first selected as an appro- priate sphere of operation, then Jamaica and Trinidad, and then, as the first step into the interior of Africa, the shores of Old Calabar. Timid men trembled and doubted as each new scene was measured out, but the growing and steady munificence of the people each time rebuked and dispelled their fears. The missionary spirit was seen rising every year to a higher figure ; sometimes in one year the funds increased by thousands. Individual congregations in several instances undertook the entire support of individual missionaries. More recently mission-premises were erect- ed and office-bearers chosen, who should give themselves wholly to the oversight and control of missionary opera- tions, and in 1847 the Secession-church was found to be supporting a staff of more than sixty missionaries. So quick and steady a development of the missionary spirit in the Secession church is one of the noblest features in its later history. Contemporaneously with these efforts to extend the church in foreign regions, was the spread of opinions on the subject of civil establishments of religion that placed her in a somewhat new attitude towards the Scottish 154 SPREAD OP THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE. church. Hitherto the attention of Seceders had been more turned to the corruptions of the Established Church, now the conviction began to seize hold of multitudes that the very principle on which an established church is based is essentially unsound and sinful, and that corruption and bondage, instead of being accidental to such a relation, necessarily flow from such an unhallowed union. So long- as the Seceders formed but a small minority in the land these sentiments were not so apt to occur to their minds ; but when once they found themselves a numerous and en- larging body, they could scarcely fail to have their eyes opened sooner or later to the injustice and anomaly of an established creed and an endowed ministry. Moreover, the suspicion that an early attempt would be made to en- dow the Roman Catholic priesthood, led thousands to can- vass anew the general question of ecclesiastical endowments. Pamphlets, written with great ability, condemning the very principle of State churches as unscriptural, unjust, and injurious, were thrown abroad upon the public mind, and found it to a great extent prepared. For the civil ma- gistrate to establish one form of religion, it was said, is to intrude into the sacred domain of conscience, and, appear- ing as a dictator where he should only appear as a disciple, to violate its rights. To endow a form of religion professed by a certain number of his subjects, is to inflict political injustice on the rest, by making them contribute to the support of a system of which they conscientiously disap- prove, and by creating invidious distinctions among sub- jects who are equally dutiful and loyal, to sow the seeds of discontent and disorder. Moreover, there is no authority in the Christian code for ecclesiastical establishments ; on the contrary, its divine Author has laid down a law, which imposes upon the members of the church the duty of sus- taining its temporalities, — a law which, among Christians, has proved itself not only sufficient for self-support but for self-extension. And was it to be supposed that the State would confer this special boon upon the church without receiving corresponding concessions ? Endowment was the THE VOLUNTARY CONTROVERSY. 155 price of submission ; and the only security for a church continuing permanently free was in being self-sustained. These appeals to justice, to sound policy, to the word of God, found a response in the bosoms of thousands. The ministers and members of the Secession Church were all but unanimous in adherence to them ; they assumed, in consequence, a more aggressive attitude towards the Estab- lished Church than ever, not only exposing her corruptions, but assailing her constitution, from which those corrup- tions were declared to spring, and insisting that as the only means of her reformation and independence, the golden shackles which bound her to the state should be dissevered. Among the writings which powerfully contributed to awaken and extend the agitation, we cheerfully make espe- cial mention of those by Dr. Marshall of Kirkintilloch. The Seceders have been reproached for having abandoned the ground occupied by their Founders and Fathers on this long agitated question, and epithets have been applied to them in connection with it, which those who used them would now be the readiest to recall. It cannot be denied that on this point they are in advance of their founders, though perhaps the more correct statement of the case would be, that they have become more consistent, and connected a sound practice with a principle that will sus- tain and guide it. Is this to be blamed? Or can any idea be more monstrous or unprotestant than that which would fix upon any past era of the church as the perfect model for the future, any deviation from which is apostasy 1 Did Calvin betray and belie the principles of the Reformation, because he went further than Luther ? Was it not the very announcement of the Seceders from the beginning that they lay open to light, and that they were called to carry on the Reformation-work to higher stages of perfection as Providence should open up their way ? Lias not every great era of the church been distin- guished for the development of some new principle 1 How preposterous indeed to imagine that a church should pass through a century of discussions and events with the word 156 ALARM IN THE ESTABLISHMENT. of God in her hand, and not on some subject or other obtain a clearer understanding or reach a more solid ground! And having obtained a clearer understanding and a more solid ground, did not honesty and true consis- tency as well as magnanimity demand that they should openly avow the change 1 The friends of the Established Church regarded this movement for a time with dignified silence, hoping that the storm would spend itself, and then pass away. This may happen with mere passion, but not with the deep con- victions of Christian men. The storm grew wilder, and as these convictions were favourably discussed in many public journals, expounded in enthusiastic public meetings, and even began to be echoed in parliament, it filled the minds of churchmen with dismay. Defences came forth from the adherents of Established churches, and the whole land re- sounded with the Voluntary controversy. But the defence of the Established Church was not con- fined to mere discussion. Measures were at the same time had recourse to, with the view at once of weakening the strength of evangelical Dissenters, and by imposing certain restraints upon the exercise of patronage, of popularizing the Establishment, and demonstrating, in contradiction to the charges of Dissenters, their independence, in all strictly ecclesiastical matters, of State control. A party had before this time arisen in the church, evangelical in sentiment, — earnest in feeling, — warm in their attachment to the na- tional church, — though by no means at this period friendly to popular election, in the full extent of that privilege, disposed to recognise, in some form or other, the voice of the people in the appointment of ministers, — and strong in their conviction and assertion of the independent juris- diction of the church in its ecclesiastical affairs. It was by them that the two measures we have referred to were introduced before the Assembly, and carried. The former of these was a scheme of Church-extension, in which it was proposed to raise funds for the building of places of worship in connexion with the Establishment, CHURCH-EXTENSION SCHEME. — THE VETO ACT. 167 that should provide accommodation, not merely for the ad- herents of the Established Church, but for the entire popu- lation of Scotland, and having reared the chapels, to apply- to the government for endowments. In this way the la- bours of hundreds of Dissenting ministers were overlooked, the accommodation which they provided disregarded, and the conscientious attachments of thousands of the Dissent- ing people, imagined to be capable of being undermined by the offer of free accommodation, set at nought, while injury was proposed to be added to insult by endowing those churches out of the national funds. Higher and purer mo- tives were doubtless at work in the advocacy and arrange- ment of this scheme, but the design was avowed to weaken the strength of the Dissenters. They were to be undersold in the market of church-accommodation by funds which they themselves were to be compelled to supply. The in- dignation of the Seceders and other dissenting bodies was roused against a scheme which sought their ruin, while it branded them with contempt, and a stern and energetic opposition was organized against it, and continued until it gained its object. The chapels arose, but the endow- ments were withheld ; the scheme failed in its hostile ob- jects, and the property itself eventually passed from the hands of the party that had reared it. The whole history of this measure demonstrates the false position in which an established church stands towards those which are un- endowed, and how far even good men may be carried when they are seized upon by the spirit of factious domination. The second measure was the Veto Act, in which the General Assembly declared the concurrence of the people to be essential to the validity of a presentation, and con- ferred on the people the power of a negative on the patron's appointment. It was an imperfect boon, since all that the people obtained by it was the right of rejection and not the right of choice ; but still it was sufficient to bring the church into collision with the civil courts, and to test the assertion of ecclesiastical independence, which the popular party had so often and confidently advanced. Instances 158 TENDENCIES TO UNION. soon occurred in which the people exercised their newly acquired power, and vetoed the individual whom the patron had nominated — presbyteries sustained the act of the peo- ple, and refused to admit the presentee to trials — and pa- tron and presentee alike complained of the invasion of their civil rights, and carried their complaint before the civil courts. The Court of Session decided in behalf of the pa- tron, and found that the Assembly, in passing the Veto Act, had exceeded its powers. The question was appealed to the House of Lords, by whom the decision was confirmed. Government was then applied to in the emergency, and asked to pass an act similar in its provisions to the Veto, but it refused the boon. And then was seen the sublime spec- tacle of hundreds of ministers walking forth from an Estab- lishment which they now found to be enslaved, abandoning valuable emoluments and immunities for the sake of liberty and independence, and, in the formation of the Free Church, becoming the founders of a third Secession. It was amid the controversies and struggles which we have just described, that a friendly spirit was being formed and fostered between the Secession and Relief churches, which in a few years was to terminate in another union. Similar in their origin, and not unlike in their history, beholding the Established Church from the same standing point, it was not to be wondered at, that when the Voluntary con- troversy arose, the two bodies should be found thinking alike on this question, and launching their mutual protes- tations both against the corruptions of the Established Church and against the system from which those cor- ruptions rose. The church-extension scheme, which was aimed alike at the prosperity of both denominations, had led the two bodies to combined deliberation and concerted action, and increasing their knowledge of each other, had increased their mutual esteem. The thought of union began to be mooted and freely canvassed in both denomi- nations. Overtures began to be laid upon the tables of both Synods, praying for more regular and friendly inter- course between the two, and pointing to union as the de- GROWING DESIRE FOR UNIOtf. 159 sired result. These overtures were favourably entertained, friendly deputations passed from each Synod to the other at their annual meetings, and committees of the two Synods met together in the interval, for the frank interchange of opinion and sentiment, and paving the way to the desired consummation. Still the people, in either body, were not prepared. No formal opposition, indeed, was raised against union, but there was still a deficiency of positive interest and desire, and both Synods, aware that increased know- ledge of each other would make the desire for union more earnest and universal, and that even a measure good in itself might be entered on prematurely, wisely delayed, feeling that the desired event must be the fruit of conviction and not of stimulants, and stand more intimately connected with the closet even than with the platform or the church- court. While movements were thus steadily tending to union, the controversy regarding the extent of the Atonement arose in the Secession, and for a time turned its thoughts away from union with other bodies, to the preservation of its own integrity. The ordeal was severe, sifting, consolidat- ing, purifying. Casting off from itself men of extreme sentiments, it came forth occupying the same middle ground on the great question which had agitated it, which the Erskines had occupied and their descendants held fast. And while ungenerous aspersions had been cast on their doctrinal purity by certain parties during the protracted discussions, the Relief came forward honourably to declare their undisturbed and undiminished confidence. The desire for union now became stronger than ever. In the conferences between the committees of the two bo- dies, the most perfect agreement was discovered on every point essential to an honest and immediate incorporation. Agreed as to the rule of faith and obedience, the word of God, — agreed as to the symbol or confession of their faith, the Westminster Confession and Catechisms, which both bodies received with the same modifications, — agreed as to the ordinances of the Christian church and the mode of 160 TAXFIELD. their observance, — agreed as to the form of church govern- ment, the terms of communion, and entire independence of the secular power, — similar in their historic origin, in their denominational mission, in their denominational sympa- thies, — they could unite without compromise, without re- nunciation or concealment of conscientious conviction. The question with thousands no longer was, is it possible to unite ? but, would it not be sinful to remain separate 1 The state of Scotland, the condition of the heathen world, the reproach of past divisions, the glory of Christ, every thing sacred and solemn, called them to become one ; while the spirit generated and the healthy impulse given by the formation of the Evangelical Alliance, no doubt con- tributed to hasten the result. And the union at length came, the fruit now of ripened conviction and unanimous desire. It is not our province to describe the arrangements and formalities which pre- ceded and prepared for it.* The 13th of May, 1847, was the day agreed upon by the two Synods, and Tanfield Hall, Edinburgh, a scene already rendered memorable by ano- ther sublime event, was the place chosen for this auspicious union. The Synods proceeded about mid-day from their usual place of meeting to the appointed scene. Hundreds of people had come from other parts of Scotland to witness the event ; and many of these, along with thousands of the inhabitants of Edinburgh, lined the streets on the way to Tanfield. On the arrival of the two Synods, the spacious hall was found crowded with an immense assemblage, deeply interested and solemnized. The members of the two courts took their position in a reserved space in the middle of the hall, and were arranged in alternate benches, so as to be mingled with one another. The proceedings were begun with the singing of psalms and prayer. The Clerks read the minute of their respective Synods agree- ing to union ; the Moderators of the two Synods then giv- * We invite the reader for abundant details to ' Narrative of the Origin, Progress, and Consummation of the Union,' by Dr. Mac- kelvie. TIIE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 161 ing to each other the right hand of fellowship, declared the union formed. Their example was followed by the min- isters and elders; the immense audience, catching the spirit of the scene, exchanged the same tokens of Christian regard ; the countenances of some were beaming with hope, some were melted into tears, but all were grateful and glad ; and the two churches, merging their denominational name, but not their denominational mission, became one, under the designation of the United Presbyterian Church. It was one of those happy thoughts which are given in answer to prayer, that led the United Church to introduce into the basis of Union, its eighth, and its concluding arti- cles. "What a noble pledge is given in the eighth article, we trust to be fitly redeemed in great enterprises that shall awake whole nations to life : — ' That this church solemnly recognises the obligation to hold forth, as well as to hold fast, the doctrine and laws of Christ ; and to make exertions for the universal diffusion of the blessings of his gospel at home and abroad.' * And to our mind there is moral sublimity in the closing paragraph, in which, at the very moment when the church has spread to the breeze her new denominational banner, she makes this her very occasion for recognising and pro- claiming the universal brotherhood of the saints : — 1 And, in fine, the United Church regard with a feeling of brotherhood all the faithful followers of Christ, and shall endeavour to maintain the unity of the whole body of Christ, by a readiness to co-operate with all its members in all things in which they are agreed.' ' Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good.' It was just a hundred years from the ' Breach' that the union of the Secession with the Relief was consummated, and a hundred and fifteen years from the time when the four seceding Fathers held their first meeting at Gairney 162 ESTIMATE OP RESULTS. Bridge. At the moment of their union with the Relief in 1847, the number of her ministers had increased from four to 402, and the united body numbered in all 518 ministers. It seems a question very natural at the conclusion of such a sketch as we have attempted, — how far has the Seces- sion discharged the high trusts committed to her, and wrought out the ends for which she appears to have been called into separate existence? 1. Looking at the Secession Church, then, in its most im- portant aspect, as commissioned to preserve the gospel to Scotland, when there was imminent danger that without some such separate organization and formal testimony, it would have been ' wormed out of the land,' the admission we anticipate will be unanimous that she has been faithful to her trust. She has had her faults, her seasons of for- mality, her unseemly wranglings, her unhappy breach, but in this first and highest element of her commission she stands unimpeached and unimpeachable. The same gospel for which the Marrowmen struggled, and with which the Erskines and their noble associates thrilled the thousands that hung on their lips at their high sacramental solemni- ties, and which they hastened to write on their Secession- banner in their ' Act concerning the doctrine of Grace,' is at this hour preached from the pulpits of their descendants ; nor is it possible to point to a period during all the hun- dred and fifteen years of her separate history, in which she has bedimmed the holy light which it was given her to watch, or her trumpet emitted an uncertain sound. The doctrinal terminology may have varied, but the doctrine has remained the same ; and though some have been ready to suspect in the variation of phrases a lapsing from the truth, inquiry has ever served to dispel the over-jealous fears. Variety of phrase may spring from freedom of thought, as well as from change of sentiment, and we must beware of attaching the same value to the frame, as to the picture which it helps to preserve and enshrine. It is a fact on which though her children may not dwell with boasting, they ought to dwell with gratitude, that the THE SECESSION AND RELIGIOUS TRUTH. 1G3 Secession from 1732 till now, has not only in her confes- sions but in her living ministrations held forth the word of life, and that the hands that have held it forth — often in the midst of opposition, and obloquy, intolerance, and con- tempt — have never once been polluted by a bribe. The real importance of this fact is never seen by us until we realize the condition of the Church of Scotland con- temporaneously with the rise and infant struggles of the Secession. The friends of the gospel at that period within the Established Church, were few and diminishing, and al- most became extinct when the Willisons and others passed from the scene. Had the Erskines remained in the Esta- blishment, their testimony would in all likelihood have perished with themselves, and the lamp of evangelical light gone out in Scotland. It is only when we imagine what the religious condition of Scotland would in all likelihood have soon become had there been no Secession, and the tendencies of the Scottish Church in the downward path to error and indifference remained unchecked, that we duly appreciate the course taken by the seceding Fathers. Even in spite of their secession indeed, the course of the Church of Scotland for a long period was retrograde, but with the rise of the Secession the people no longer depended upon the Church of Scotland exclusively for instruction, and our land owes it to her above all others that when the doc- trines of grace were unfashionable, and their preachers re- garded with contempt by the literary potentates of the age, her ministers maintained an unchanging fidelity to evangelic truth, and were instrumental in no small degree in at length arousing the dormant energies of the Esta- blished clergy, and awakening in their ranks the almost forgotten sounds of an evangelic and life-giving ministry. 2. As regards the high interests of religious liberty, it is difficult to over-estimate the important position that the Secession Church has occupied in Scotland. Her founders came out from the Established Church that they might preserve one of the most important Christian rights, and both they and their descendants have been true to their 164 THE SECESSION AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. pledge. Indeed the noble contendings of her Fathers against patronage, leading them to the study of the consti- tution of the Church, made them assume a firmer and more consistent ground. They insisted on the right of popular election in its full and scriptural extent, — that every mem- ber of the congregation, of whatever sex or social status, should enjoy the right of choice. The more they thought and wrote on this matter, they saw that any modification must be arbitrary, and that if the right was modified, it might eventually be withdrawn. The people of the Seces- sion have uniformly shown themselves most jealous for the enjoyment of this right in all its integrity, and her Pres- byteries have as uniformly and cheerfully assented to its uncontrolled exercise. The good effects of this have been various. Called upon in this way to perform a most important duty, the people have been trained to interest themselves in their own affairs, and in attending to their own interests have acquired that habit of exercising individual judg- ment, which stands closely connected with the continu- ance of ecclesiastical and civil liberty. Our churches have thus been normal schools of Christian freedom, and in some measure realized the model described by a living historian, ' each church a little democracy — the re-union of these a confederation.'* In the preservation of this privilege, moreover, they have felt from the first that there was involved the preservation of another more momentous still. Patronage brought with it another evil worse than itself. It was the most effective instru- ment of placing a hireling ministry in the pulpits of Scot- land, and of gradually wresting from the people the bread of life. Had it not been for the Secession, it would have ac- complished this. And therefore in contending for the right of popular election and preserving it, the first Seceders were not merely insisting on the possession of a barren right, but contending for what they knew to be one of their surest bul- * Luther and Calvin, by J. H. Merle D'Aubigne, D.D. INFLUENCE BEYOND HER OWN FELLOWSHIP. 165 warks against deadly error, and a secularized ministry. It is true that in later times patronage has sometimes been the means of introducing an evangelical minister into a parish, it ought to be remembered however that the exist- ence of evangelical and unendowed bodies has placed the patron in a new position, and that the fear of driving away the people from the Establishment by an obnoxious pre- sentation, has very often been the true secret of such ap- pointments. What the patron has sometimes done in such cases, the people would uniformly have done had they been left to themselves. It would be difficult to estimate how far the Seces- sion has been the instrument of impregnating other re- ligious parties with sound principles on the subject of popular rights. When a church is historically associated with some great principle, as the Secession has been, it be- comes the public teacher of that principle, and is continu- ally holding up by its very position a protest against the opposite abuse, and keeping the disputed matter before the public mind. The very resistance offered to it is often a confession of uneasy convictions and conscious weak- ness. How far the first Secession may thus stand connect- ed with subsequent secessions it is impossible to say. We know that the seed of truth must have time to germinate ; and that the principles announced in one age have often become the springs of action in the next. Nor is this the only matter connected with the rights and liberties of the people, in behalf of which the Secession has exerted a powerful and beneficial influence. We have already had occasion in the body of our sketch to notice her position on the great question of the power of the civil magistrate in matters of religion. Her very origin led her from the first to feel and act aright on this point. One of the first things done by the Fathers after their Se- cession was to resist an injunction of the government re- quiring them to read from their pulpits the infamous Por- teous act. One of the first public documents emitted by them declared the province of the civil magistrate to be confined 166 THE SECESSION AND RELIGIOUS LITERATURE. to civil matters. As their history advanced, their tone and attitude became more decided, even when they failed to announce the fully developed principle, and exception was taken against every sentiment in the Westminster Confes- sion that taught, or might be supposed to teach, compulsory doctrines in matters of religion. Their position as unen- dowed made them feel that their safety as a denomination depended on the minds of the people being occupied with enlightened sentiments on the rights of conscience, and the institutions of the country being pervaded and animated by them. The consequence is, that on every question in which the rights of conscience are involved, the tone of her people is expected to be decided and unanimous. It is long since they, in common with the other dissenters of the land, have been looked to as constituted by their ec- clesiastical relation and history the hereditary guardians of Christian liberty. 3. In estimating the influence exerted by a religious de- nomination on a country, it is necessary to enquire what have been the character and amount of its contributions to the literature of that country] In the living voice of an educated ministry, the Secession has from the first held no secondary place in forming and purifying the general mind. But in what degree have its ministers given writ- ings to the church which have taken rank among its standard and popular literature, and promise to exert a permanent influence on the Scottish mind ? When we re- member that her ministers have from the first been a working clergy, — in addition to the labours that stand more immediately connected with the pulpit, giving much of their time to the private duties of the pastorate, it is surprising how many honoured names in the roll of her pastors stand among the contributors to the Christian literature of the land, and have received the unequivocal stamp of public approbation. ' Sacrifice to heroes,' it has been finely said, ( is reserved until after sunset ;' * on this * Hamilton of Leeds. THE ERSKINES. 167 principle we abstain from naming living authors, and in such a sketch as this, must even confine our reference to the more prominent of those, who by their works have shown themselves the benefactors of the church, and shed honour on the religious denomination to which they belong. We mention first of all the sermons of the two Erskines, Ebenezer and Ralph, as having contributed in no small de- gree to enrich the popular theology of Scotland. No doubt these works derive an extrinsic interest from the fact of their having been produced by men, who were the founders of a new religious denomination, and also from their having been thrown upon the Scottish mind, at a period when they served as a most efficient antidote to doctrinal error and religious indifference. But even when these accidental circumstances are • forgotten, they possess an intrinsic value, which accounts for the fact that they are still extensively popular after the lapse of a century, in which many an able volume has passed into oblivion ; and that at the bookstalls of Holland at the present hour, few religious writings are more frequently enquired for by the Dutch peasant than the works of ' Ershjna? We know not where we shall find in the popular theology of Scot- land, except in the writings of Boston of Ettrick, any ser- mons that contain a richer vein of evangelical truth, presented not in the dry forms of scholastic dogmatism, but with all the energy of earnest men and ambassadors of Christ. Modern fastidiousness may accuse them of pro- lixity, and their numerous subdivisions may contrast un- favourably with the smoother flow of modern eloquence, but they are full of those life-giving words which have been found in all ages to exert a mysterious power over the heart of man. In one excellence they are pre-emi- nent, and, except in some parts of Bunyan, are unsurpassed even in our rich puritan theology. We refer to the thrill- ing appeals to sinners, which in the close of many of their sermons extend from page to page, and seem instinct with the very spirit of him who wept over Jerusalem. The power of such passages even when read is sometimes won- 168 MICHAEL BRUCE. derful, and when preached to listening thousands on a mountain-side by men who passed from their closet to their pulpit, and with all the accompaniments of impassioned action, must have told upon their hearers with amazing power. — We have already had opportunity in an earlier part of this sketch to refer to the works of the other Se- cession Fathers. No name throws a greater lustre over the early litera- ture of the Secession than that of Michael Bruce the poet. Struggling with all the disadvantages of poverty and in- firm health, borne down by the hard and ill-requited toils of a village schoolmaster, and dying at the early age of twenty-one, he has yet left behind him in his c Lochleven,' and especially in his Odes to Spring and to the Cuckoo, * writings of high poetic excellence. The exquisite finish of these two last-named pieces is such, that no word could be changed without injury to the whole, while their beautiful sentiment, their tender sadness and fitful turns of thought, remind us of the iEolian harp swept by the soft breezes of spring, and emitting sounds ever changing, ever beautiful, and ever sad. It needed not Lord Craig's touching picture of the pale youth looking through the sashed window fringed with honeysuckle which his own hands had train- ed, or his own premonition of the ' Churchyard's lonely mound, "Where melancholy with still silence reigns, And the rank grass waves o'er the cheerless ground,' to make us return to the perusal of such verses again and again. Edmund Burke pronounced his Ode to the Cuckoo to be the most beautiful lyric in the English lan- guage ; it is a stronger proof of the poetic merit both of it and of his Ode to Spring, that many of their lines have become as household words, a part of the current coin of * We here assume that the 'Ode to the Cuckoo' is the genuine production of Michael Bruce and not of Logan. We feel that we may safely and confidently do this, after the conclusive statements of Dr. Mackelvie in his interesting memoir of Bruce. ADAM GIB. BROWN OF HADDINGTON. 1G9 literature and of refined conversation which thousands quote, without knowing the golden mine from which they were originally brought. We pass the names of Adam Gih, the vigorous thinker and sturdy polemic, with whom few dared to measure arms, and those of the Swanstons, elder and younger, each distinguished as the author of an excellent volume of ser- mons, to mention one who has gathered around him a wide and sustained reputation, John Brown of Haddington. Though called to struggle with unusual difficulties in youth, and only coming under a systematic education at an age when Scottish students are generally passing into official life, he acquired such an extensive learning and by such rapid steps, that the superstitious and illiberal spirit of some actually hinted the suspicion that he owed his remarkable advancement to Satanic aids. It was a beautiful reply of Ralph Erskine to such absurd and narrow fancies, ' I think the lad has a sweet savour of Christ about him.' With astonishing powers of mental application, a memory that lost nothing which it ever received, and uncommon habits of arrangement, he combined a deep piety, which seemed to give him a new faculty by imparting to all his powers a double impulse, and rendered him one of the most valu- able contributors to the theological literature of his age. His Bible Dictionary is a rich storehouse of solid learning, with none of that trashy speculation which has become fashionable, and helps to display the author more than to illustrate his theme. Many subjects discussed in the Dic- tionary have no doubt been more perfectly elucidated since, but it resembles the first invention on which others have only improved ; while his ' Self-Interpreting Bible,' rich in devout reflection, and in those happy meanings which are often suggested to piety when they are withheld from learning, has become the property of the general church, and in the pious households of the land rests on the same shelf with the 'Pilgrim's Progress' and the 'Fourfold State.' William Macewen, the author of the well-known and 170 MACEWEN. DR. LAWSON. popular work on the types, claims a passing notice. A rigid learning may perhaps charge him at times with too ingenious analogies, and even with making persons and institutions typical for which there is no inspired autho- rity; but his warm imagination and glowing style have accomplished for this interesting department of revelation, what the more tame and homely mental qualities could not have achieved. He has thrown a lustre and beauty around many Jewish rites and institutions, exhibited their majesty, consistency, and unity, illuminated some of the least un- derstood parts of the Old Testament revelation, and made the mild beams of Calvary shine into some of the darkest recesses of the Jewish temple. Succeeding the venerable Brown of Haddington in the theological chair of his denomination, and resembling him in more than one of his mental characteristics, we know of no name in the Secession that is mentioned with more of that tender respect which has been rendered sacred by affection than that of Dr. Laxvson of Selkirk. With a sim- plicity of manners truly child-like, he united a learning that might have given renown to half a bench of bishops. His extraordinary powers of memory even throw those of Sir James Mackintosh into the shade, for it has been con- fidently asserted that had the Scriptures in the tongues in which they were originally written, by some strange event, perished from the earth, the inestimable treasure could have been restored to the world from the memory of Dr Lawson alone. It is an unquestionable fact that having gone from Selkirk to Haddington on one occasion to teach the students, and forgotten to carry with him his Hebrew Bible, he conducted his examinations from memory alone, and detected with promptitude and accuracy the minutest blunder of his pupils in the reading of the text. On more than one question connected with religious liberty, he was in advance of his age, and by some of the pam- phlets which he gave to the world on these subjects, did much to liberalize the feelings of his contemporaries, while his mild temper and ingenuousness found a way into the ARCHIBALD HALL. JERMENT. — WILSOX. 171 minds of many for unpalatable truths. As an expositor of scripture, Dr. Lawson has given to the world several volumes of sterling excellence. He seems to have chosen the by-paths and less frequented regions of the sacred volume in which to search for hidden treasure. His lectures on Joseph, Ruth, Esther, and the Book of Proverbs, are mark- ed by the same characteristics, — learning substantial but unobtrusive, solid thoughts that would oftener appear pro- found were they not so pellucid, and did they not seem to flow from his mind with such perfect ease, massive good sense, and a gentle charity shining from his own heart and casting its mild radiance on every page. Archibald Hall of London, in his elaborate treatise on ' Gospel-worship,' and in his work on ' Faith and the in- fluence of the Gospel,' has given evidence of a masculine understanding richly stored with theology, and in the latter work has done much to disentangle an important subject from artificial distinctions that had only served to compli- cate and mystify what they professed to explain ; while in common with the venerable Dr. Jerment, he contributed by the excellence of his regular ministrations to draw honour around the cause of the Secession in London. But the name among Secession authors which, beyond all others, is best known in purely literary circles, is that of Dr. Jamieson. He has acquired a more than European reputation. Not that his theological writings alone could have accomplished this result, though his ' Uses of Sacred History' abounds in valuable matter ; his answer to Priest- ley is a masterly vindication of one of the main pillars of revealed truth, produced at a time when there were giants in the field ; his history of the Culdees is a work of fine re- search and curious disclosure, carrying the lights of history through Cimmerian gloom into the earlier era of a simpler worship and a purer faith, and adding a new page to the ecclesiastical literature of Scotland. It is his Dictionary of the Scottish language that is his great work — the pedes- tal of his fame. When we consider the laborious research, the philosophical discrimination, the knowledge of national 172 DR. BELFRAGE. — BRUCE. customs and modes of thought, the perception of nice shades of meaning and unexpected affinities, which were displayed in the production of this work, we shall not be surprised that it was looked upon as one of the literary wonders of the age that produced it, or think the opinion which was long since expressed too extravagant, that it was not only sufficient to put honour on a denomination but on a kingdom. Perhaps no writer that has arisen in the Secession has more enriched the age with valuable works of a devotional and practical character than Dr. Belfrage of Falkirk. His numerous volumes are elegant vessels filled to the brim with the honey of evangelical sentiment. The vein in which above all others he excels is that of tenderness, and we do not wonder that in treating on congenial themes, especially at communion-seasons, his whole congregation was often melted into tears. There was a certain luxury in such sacred sorrow. His sacramental addresses abound in beautiful applications of historical passages of Scripture to the purposes of devout meditation. In this connection let us also name as most useful writers and saintly men, John Brown of Whitburn, and Samuel Gil- fillan of Comrie. We shall not be restrained from mentioning in these notices of eminent writers whom the Secession has pro- duced, the names of Professor Bruce of "Whitburn, Profes- sor Paxton and Dr. M'Crie of Edinburgh, though they be- came connected eventually with one of those smaller sec- tions of Seceders to whose origin we have already referred. Professor Bruce was remarkable at once for the strength and the versatility of his mental powers. In learned re- search, in theological discussion, in popular essay, in paro- dy and satire, and even in poetry he appeared as an author, and in almost all of them excelled. It is to be lamented that his excellent and varied gifts were too much given to themes of temporary interest, and that the very versatility of his talents was unfavourable to his concentrating his energies upon some great work worthy of himself. PAXTON. — m'crie. 1 73 Professor Paxton has left behind in his ' Illustrations of Scripture/ a standard work, in which the fruits of much research are presented in a form at once popular, elegant and instructive. Dr. M'Crie stands in the foremost rank not merely of Secession authors, but of ecclesiastical historians. No writer of history ever prepared himself for his task by a more conscientious and untiring research, passing from the beaten path of earlier historians into strange bye-roads of inquiry, and gathering rich material from rare pamphlet, dim manuscript and dusty tome. The great novelist in his hands was shown to be a mere surface-historian, a mere student of costume and form, and even some historians were shown to have been little more than novelists. We believe it to have been an honest confession on the part of the great Edinburgh Reviewer, that it would have required some years of reading fitly to review the ' Lives of Knox and Melville.' M'Crie lives in the age which he describes, is familiar not only with its prominent events, but with its principles, its opposing interests, its prejudices, and its errors. He knows its leading characters not merely in their personal history, but in the features of their coun- tenance, and writing with all the freshness and interest of an onlooker, transfers to his history the very form and pressure of the age. While his narrative is woven with great skill, it com- mands interest by legitimate means, the judicious selec- tion of incidents, the mixture of action and even adven- ture with less exciting details, and the shrewd sagacity with which he makes history teach her ' grim lessons in black print.' But he never aims at that dramatic effect which deforms some modern histories, and which while it increases the popularity of their writers is sure to diminish their fame. There is no dazzling of the reader by a display of fireworks. Dr. M'Crie is the true historian of the Scot- tish Reformation, for he has looked at it from the only proper standing point, and beheld ' God in history.' It is matter of just regret that the biographer of Knox 174 DR. DICK. did not live to finish the life of Knox's great master, — great alike in thought, in counsel and in action, the Re- former of his own age, the theologian of all ages, — John Calvin. His sermon on the penitent thief has been pronounced by a competent judge* worthy to be placed beside that of M'Laurin on ' Glorying in the Cross of Christ.' As there could not be a juster tribute, so there could not be a higher praise. Dr. Dick succeeded to the Theological Chair on the death of Dr. Lawson, and encircled it with fresh honours. A good many years before his elevation to this dignity, he had given to the world an ' Essay on the Inspiration of Scripture,' which in perspicuity of statement, compactness of matter, logical arrangement and energy of argument, military discipline of thought, and elegance of diction obtained for it an early and unchallenged place among the theological classics of the land. His Lectures on the Acts extended his fame if they did not elevate it, and are beau- tiful models of that expository style of preaching which has helped so much to make the religion of Scotland sound and vigorous, by making her people mighty in the Scriptures. His Lectures in Theology given to the world after his death were a precious legacy to the Church. They display the varied strength of his finely balanced mind. He does not lean upon the past ; and still less does he despise it, but presenting in the seemly drapery of his own elegant style all that is truly valuable in earlier systems, rejects all those refinements and subtleties which so long vitiated and deformed a sound theology, and for which the Church was indebted to Aristotle rather than to Paul. Equally free from the mental vices of the present age as of the past, he never falls into obscurity in the silly affectation of originality, but is uniformly understood by others be- cause he always understands himself. It is justly said of Paley, that one great excellence of his Natural Theology • Brown's Hints to Students. POLLOK. — GRAHAM. — BALLANTYNE. 175 consists in a judicious selection from earlier works, reject- ing all that is insignificant, and retaining all that is essen- tial, and thus making his illustrations more pointed by making them less cumbrous and elaborate. The remark applies to Dr. Dick when compared with the earlier and more elaborate of our dogmatic Divines. Listening with profound respect to the elegant instruc- tions of Dr. Dick, there might have been seen in the later years of his professorship a student with intellectual coun- tenance, large dark eye, pale cheek, and consumptive form. One day he had delivered a discourse that was deformed by some extravagances, and which had provoked some se- vere criticisms from his fellow-students ; but under these extravagances the more discriminating eye of the professor had detected the marks of a genius that was soon to lead to fame. He was not mistaken, for that student was Ro- bert Pottok, and not long after he published to the world the ' Course of Time.' The greatest critics of the age, not blind to the defects of this great work, but more generously alive to its extraordinary merits, hastened to place upon his brow the poet's crown, and public opinion has since amply confirmed the award. Writers of inferior power have written of late depreciatingly of Pollok, and almost de- nied him his right to fame. This is the retribution of a too extravagant praise. Many had begun to claim for him a place almost equal to Milton, — a demand which has for the time created a reaction that threatens to dethrone him from his proper eminence. But the reaction will be tem- porary. And when these unfavourable influences have passed away, it will be owned that the ' Course of Time' is instinct with that living fire of genius which secures immortality ; and that however far beneath Milton in actual attainment, Pollok has yet drank at the same spring, and that few since the days of Milton have soared upon a bolder wing or with a nobler and purer aim. Few men of more powerful understanding have appeared in the Secession than Graham of Newcastle and Ballantyne 176 FERRIER. — JA5IIES0N. — WAUGH. MITCHELL. of Stonehaven. We name them together, because the fame of both stands intimately connected with the question of ' Civil Establishments of Religion.' The work of Mr. Graham, entitled ' Review of the Ecclesiastical Establish- ments of Europe,' is decidedly a great work, and though many master-minds have since been applied to the subject, stands unsurpassed in profound and comprehensive thought, range of historical knowledge, or even eloquence. It is the work that has taught those other minds which in their turn have taught the multitude. The treatise of Ballantyne, ' Comparison of Established and Dissenting Churches,' is clear, calm, and philosophic ; fit to produce conviction ra- ther than to rouse to action, but when once the people were roused by more stirring writers, invaluable as artillery to be drawn into the battle-field of controversy. His ' Exa- mination of the Human Mind' gives proof of powers that eminently suited him for the region of abstruse inquiry ; and, had he lived to complete his course of investigation in a succession of volumes, there is reason to think that he would have done much to illuminate some of those abstruse questions that connect theology with metaphysics, and taken rank with those illustrious names that have already made Scotland so prominent and eminent in the school of mental and moral science. The grave has but recently closed upon others, such as Ferrier of Paisley, and Jamieson of Methven, who have just written enough to show the indubitable stamp of ge- nius, and from whose gifted pens men would willingly have welcomed a far larger tribute. We name also, among those from whom the Church would gladly have welcomed more, Dr. Waugh, whose name is embalmed among those of the honoured founders of the London Missionary Society — whom the Church in all its evangelical sections loved to claim as a Father, and whose image comes almost the readiest to our minds when we are musing on charity ; — Dr. Mitchell of Glasgow, the successful prize essayist — the model pastor — whose very life was a sermon, and his very look a benediction — whose excellent gifts were almost hid- PEDDIE. — HEUGH. — DUNCAN, (fee. 177 den in his more excellent graces ; — Dr. Peddle, in his youth the gifted controversialist, who in his answer to Dr. Por- teous, full of fine irony and quaint humour, not only demolished an assailant but produced a literary gem, — throughout his long and honoured life the sagacious coun- sellor, whose sentences often sounded like proverbs or epi- grams, the gifted lecturer, to whom at the end of a minis- try of more than sixty years the people still loved to listen; — Dr. Ileugh, the graceful and vivacious preacher — the public- spirited philanthropist, whose very leisure was more active than most other men's activity, who perhaps more than any other man has left in the present character of the church the impress of his own missionary heart ; and in the ' Ireni- cum' of his last days cast, in an hour of peril, upon the heaving billows of controversy, won for himself the bless- ing of the peace-maker; — Dr. Duncan, amid the mass of whose ponderous learning there might often be discover- ed original and ingenious thoughts ; and Dr. Balrner, clothing theological truths in a new drapery of beauty, so diffident of himself that his cautious doubts were sometimes mistaken for bold speculations, richly furnished with the stores both of modern literature and of earlier theology, in his Essay on Christian Union, to which he gave the finishing touch on the week of his death, showing with what mastery and grace he could use his pen when he gave forth his ripened thoughts on congenial themes. These honoured men have left to the Church which they adorned, not only a legacy of blessings but of responsibili- ties. The extent of her fellowship — the magnitude of her missionary undertakings — the relation in which she stands to many public questions, and to other ecclesiastical bodies, make us forecast her future history with trembling hope, that kindles into earnest supplication. Her strength lies where it has lain from the beginning, in faithfully adhering to those high interests for the preservation and extension of which God at the first called her into separate being. Let the doctrines of grace, the life and soul of all preach- ing, continue to be the delight of an educated and pious M 178 CONCLUSION. ministry, — let her name be identified with every movement that tends to secure the rights of conscience and the tru3 freedom of the Church, — let her place her confidence, both for her maintenance and extension, in that principle which God has given her, and entertain a horror of every hu- man scheme which would purchase freedom from difficul- ties by submitting to be fed by the hand of the State, — let her cling in faith, even should she be called to stand alone among the Presbyterian churches, to ' heaven's easy artless unencumbered plan,' remembering that there is no public loss which an ecclesiastical body can sustain, so great and irreparable as the loss of moral power, — let her bear in mind that the laws of Christ's house were only made for Christ's people, and that therefore in proportion as a com- munion is free does it need to be pure, — let her follow on with unfaltering step in that missionary career to which she has anew pledged herself in her recent marriage-cove- nant, the bond of union, and God will assuredly fulfil to her the promise — ' As I have been with thy fathers, so shall I be with thee.' THE HISTORY EISE OF THE BELIEF CHUECH. PREFACE. Every Book should partly be judged of by the abundance and kind of materials which the Author had at the time in his pos- session. When a large store of important facts and interesting incidents have been placed at his disposal, it may naturally be expected that he should produce a striking and finished produc- tion ; but if he has to search for them and gather them, in out- corners as the Israelites did the straw wherewith to make their bricks, little should be said though the tale should be somewhat deficient. Neither should it be wondered at though he should sometimes gather stubble instead of straw, and the brick made therewith should be somewhat of an inferior quality. It is a circumstance deeply to be regretted, that the Original Minute Book of the Synod of Belief, and all its accompanying documents, have been consumed by that all - destroyer, Time. There remains only two or three tattered leaves of it as a me- morial, that such a thing once was. Its fragments now indicate that it has perished beyond the possibility of recovery. To sup- ply such a hiatus is no easy matter, and after the most diligent search among the Magazines of the period, and Congregational records, it has only been very imperfectly done. This fact na- turally long acted as a discouragement to the writing of the His- tory of the Denomination. There was a danger, however, that even what was known as to the origin of the Body should be still farther lost. The pamphlets of that day were becoming scarce in the market. The last remains of the generation who had heard Gillespie, Boston, and Bain preach, were dropping into the tomb. Floating reminiscences were passing into oblivion. A general desire was expressed by many individuals, and even a minute was made by the Synod that the thing was desirable. The work was accordingly executed in 1839, and a History of the Relief Church was published on the responsibility of the Au- thor, for all the facts and opinions which it contains. Recourse was had to every source of information which was open to him, and every thing was gleaned therefrom which he considered of any value. It is believed there are letters of Gillespie's in exist- ence, both in London and America, which would throw light upon his struggles for religious liberty. Access to them may yet be procured. The following Sketch of the Rise of the Relief Church, is of necessity in a great measure the same with that contained in the 182 PREFACE. History. A considerable portion of it has been recast or re- written so as to give it unity, and to fit it for the purpose for which it is to be published. The Relief is here described not as in the History as a church amid other churches, but rather as a church by itself. Other churches are not referred to save where it was imperatively necessary for understanding some fact in the Relief history. When other denominations are mentioned, it is done neither scornfully nor fawningly, but as truth and honesty seemed to require. That I should laud in other churches what the Relief Church condemned in them, since I approve of its principles, would be requiring of me what I would require of no man writing the history of his own denomination. Though this sketch is necessarily much shorter than the his- tory, as I have confined myself mainly to the rise of the deno- mination, yet some portions of it are more full than what had formerly been given. Particularly, I have supplied from the writings of Hutchison a more ample view of the doctrine and ec- clesiastical polity held and acted on in the Relief Church. This I thought necessary to meet the ends of this publication, and that new brethren living in parts of the country far from Relief churches, might have an opportunity of confirming those favour- able impressions which were produced at the time of the union. When two are agreed, there is no reason why they should not walk together in unity and love. As the Fathers preached the same doctrine, so will it also be found on trial to be on the part of their Children. It is gratifying to find that the Christian people, who are generally very good judges of what is scriptural, instructive, and edifying, are calling preachers without any refer- ence to the schools of theology in which they have been educated, and it is confidently believed that the series of publications now begun from the writings of the Secession and Relief Fathers, will bring out the truth, that they were far more one even from the period of their origin than what they ever dreamed of. In time kindred particles have been attracted towards each other, and like two drops of water touching and coalescing they are now one. Something more would have been said towards the close about the principles of the union now so happily consummated, had it not been understood that in the first part of this volume the happr event had been portrayed by the hand of a master. I have no intention to put patches upon what is already clothed in warm and beautiful diction, but rather to leave it unimpaired to produce its own delightful impression. I shall only say, that were there more love and less pride of party among evangelical Christians, their united forces would speedily conquer the world. Union is strength — for vitality, defence, and warfare. G. S. Glasgow, June 28, 1848. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH ORIGINATED THE RELIEF CHURCH. The Relief Church founded by the Rev. Thomas Gillespie — State of the Church of Scotland at the period of his deposition — Declension of the Established Church from the period of the Revolution — Majority of country ministers still orthodox — Rise of the Secession — Popular mea- sures resorted to* for the purpose of bringing them back — The split among the Seceders — Its injurious effects — Re-enactment of the law of patronage — Law for bridling presbyteries — Augmentation of stipends —Struggles for Relief.— Pp. 187—196. CHAPTER II. THE HISTORY OP GILLESPIE — HIS CHARACTER — AND THE CIR- CUMSTANCES WHICH BROUGHT HIM TO THE BAR OF THE AS- SEMBLY. Born at Clearburn — Father dies — Piety of his Mother — grieved with his want of religion — Introduces him to Boston — Saving change produced — resolves to be a minister — Joins the Secession Hall — leaves it — goes to Northampton — studies under Doddridge — Licensed and ordained by the English Dissenters — Returns to Scotland — Presented to the parish of Carnock — Signs the Confession, with an explanation as to the power of the civil magistrate — His character and qualifications — His views of Christ's kingdom — Settlement of Mr. Richardson at Inverkeithing — Evangelical party had not freedom of conscience to carry it into eftect — Contest between the Popular and Moderate party. — Pp. 197 — 208. CHAPTER III. THE DEPOSITION OF GILLESPIE. Character and policy of Principal Robertson — He prosecutes the enforce- ment of patronage — Torphichen settlement — Linlithgow presbytery censured — Cuming chosen Moderator — The Royal Commissioner enjoins 184 CONTENTS. the Assembly to insist on absolute submission — Dunfermline Presby- tery sent from the bar of the Assembly to admit Mr. Kichardson — Five made a quorum for a concealed purpose — Presbytery disobedient — Plead the dictates of conscience — Their representation to the Assem- bly — One to be deposed — Gillespie, for his fidelity, singled out — His defence, and deposition — Admirable composure when he receives his sentence — Leaves the Church of Scotland — The pithy salutation of his wife — His first sermon as a Dissenter — Spence, Hunter, and Daling suspended from their judicial functions — The pompous and worthless speech with which Cuming closed the Assembly — Patronage trium- phant — Gillespie's deposition condemned — Results of his deposition. — Pp. 209—230. CHAPTER IV. ATTEMPT TO RESTORE GILLESPIE — ITS FAILURE — GILLESPIE A DISSENTER. Gillespie during summer preaches in the open air — driven to the high- way — Controversy about his deposition — Wotherspoon's Characteris- tics written in his defence — Letter of sympathy from President Ed- wards — The Elders take a deep interest in his case — Their address to their brethren in the eldership — Gillespie gets a place of worship fitted up for him in Dunfermline — Overtures of his friends — Meeting of As- sembly — Authoritative speech of the Royal Commissioner — Discussions in the Assembly — Gillespie's sentence confirmed — Why he was a Dissenter — Refuses to ask re-admission into the church of Scotland — Sets up a church of liberal Presbyterian principles — Holds communion with all who hold the Head, Christ — His old friends l-efuse to assist him — Dispenses the sacrament of the Lord's supper without any min- isterial aid — Is amply supported by his congregation. — Pp. 231 — 254. CHAPTER V. ACCESSION OF BOSTON AND COLIER — FORMATION OF THE RELIEF PRESBYTERY. Boston, senior, a native of Dunse — When a child, lay with his father in prison to keep him company — Disliked all persecution for the sake of conscience — Opposed to patronage — A friend of free communion — His son, Thomas, early manifests a liking to the same principles — Settled at Ettrick — Translated to Oxnam — The town of Jedburgh anxious to obtain him — Gives in his demission — Accepts of a call from the peo- ple of Jedburgh — Great joy at his induction — Success of Ins ministra- tions — First sacrament on the Ana — Scene august and impressive — Gillespie comes to the second dispensation of the Supper — Touching meeting between Boston and Gillespie in the pulpit — Assembly enjoin the translation of Dr. Chalmers — People dissent from the Establish- CONTENTS. 185 ment, and build a church at Colingsburgh — Call Scott of Hexham — Being disappointed, they invite Colier — He accepts of their call — Re- lief Presbytery formed at Colingsburgh, 22d Oct. 1761— Their first minute — Principles embodied in it. — Pp. 255 — 288. CHAPTER VI. THE EXTENSION OF THE RELIEF PRESBYTERY — ITS PRINCIPLES. Accessions to the Relief Presbytery— The Presbytery attacked— Charges against the Relief — Hutchison answers — Confession qualified — Fall of man — Adam a federal head — Covenant of peace — Incarnation of the Son of God — Interposition of Christ — Extent of his atonement — Means of salvation — Regeneration — Justification — Covenant of works an- nulled — Kingdom of Christ — Gospel church voluntary — Civil magis- trate — Other churches — Terms of communion — National covenanting —Smith's views.— Pp. 289—321. CHAPTER VII. DISPUTES ABOUT FREE COMMUNION — CONCLUSION. Free communion — Minute of Synod — Neil's Sermon — Breach — Expla- nation — Principles settled — Mistakes — Success — Union. — Pp. 322 — 3o3. * THE HISTORY EISE OF THE BELIEF CHUBCII. CHAPTER I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH ORIGINATED THE RELIEF CHURCH. The R-elief Church was somewhat late in its origin. Its principles, however, were ancient as Christianity itself. Its founder was the Rev. Thomas Gillespie,- minister of the parish of Carnock, who was deposed in the year 1752, by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, because he conscientiously refused to execute one of its arbitrary injunctions. The occurrence when viewed by itself may appear exceedingly trivial, but when taken in connection with the long train of events which preceded it, and the consequences which ensued, it acquires a magnitude and importance which challenge the investigation of every one who would study or understand the religious history of Scotland. A new era dates from the deposition of Gilles- pie. The arm of ecclesiastical authority was uplifted for his destruction. The attempt to crush him signally failed. As in the pounding of spices, it only rendered his name more savoury, and diffused to a wider extent the principles for which he contended. Truth and liberty sprung from the ecclesiastical grave which was dug for him. At the period of his deposition the Church of Scotland was in a very cold, lifeless and declining state. It was 188 THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH overrun with negative if not with undisguised heresy. Its leading men, who were called 'Moderates,' because of their moderation as to doctrine and discipline, were openly hostile to the doctrines of grace. They did not refuse to sign the Confession of Faith, but they were very shy as to preaching its truths, spoke of it as containing antiquated notions, hinted in quarters where they thought themselves safe that they did not believe some of its doctrines, and constructed their discourses so as to indicate an Arian or Arminian cast of sentiment which could not be mis- understood. They nattered human nature as to its ability to obey the moral law. What the apostles would have called sinful pleasures they called human weaknesses. The Gospel was spoken of simply as a kind of remedial dis- pensation to mitigate the severity of the moral law, to afford help for the sincere performance of good works, and to place motives of recompence before the mind for the cultivation of virtue. The pungency of sin, the doctrine of salvation by grace, and joy in the atonement, were thrown into the shade. Honesty and friendship, temperance and charity, as enforced by the sages of Greece and Rome, were the themes on which they were wont to expatiate in polished language and well-turned sentences. To be orthodox was to be without learning and taste ! Justification, adoption, and sanctification were rude scholastic terms. Learned allusions, and nights of fancy clothed in a kind of half poe- tic dress, occupied the room of simple, grave, scriptural, and experimental preaching such as Scotland in her best days had been accustomed to hear. The younger clergy were also laying aside the plain and somewhat austere manners of Scottish Presbyterians, and aping the gait, looks, dress, and easy manners of the men of fashion who had been at London and seen the court. They were be- coming apt scholars in practising the gaieties of life, which they called polite accomplishments, but which the pen of inspiration called ' the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.' Discipline, except for one or two of the grosser breaches of the moral law, was falling -into ORIGINATED TIIE RELIEF CHURCH. 189 disuse, and even these were now compounded for by money. Prayer often ceased to be made in the minister's family circle. The religious exercises on Sabbath were short, formal, bland and pointless. The modish minister ascended the pulpit with the graceful ease of a gentleman, sweeten- ing his words as he wiped his mouth with his white per- fumed handkerchief, while a few of the richer heritors, the poorer having mostly gone elsewhere, came and smiled, and bowed, and listened to his essay of thirty minutes and went away. Religion was no longer a thing of deep ear- nestness. Such was the philosophic and effeminate state of the Church of Scotland among its younger clergy about the middle of the eighteenth century. From the period of the Revolution (1688), its declension as to vigour of character, soundness in the faith, attachment to the crown-rights of Jesus and the liberties of the people, had been sudden and deplorable. The usual excuses for this great declension are, that about three hundred Episcopal ministers were received into the Presbyterian Church of Scotland at the Revolution Settlement on very easy terms, and that they corrupted her greatly in point of doctrine and discipline, — Farther, it is said that Principal Robertson rose like a spoiler, and took away all independence and strength out of her, and made her the passive and obsequious slave of the State. The Principal after 1752 did become the rising leader of the moderate party, and for many years thereafter held the reins with a firm unwavering hand ; but he did not open his mouth in the Assembly till 1751, so that the Assembly was corrupted, deteriorated, and was helping with a will- ing hand to bind the yoke of patronage around its own neck long before he appeared. He was himself an embodiment of the temper of the Assembly at the period when he be- came a licentiate of the Church, though like some other children he speedily went far beyond his compeers and teachers. Besides, it seems a base slander to say that the Episcopal ministers who conformed at the Revolution cor- rupted the Church of Scotland. The far greater number 130 THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH of them had their abode in the north-east of Scotland, where Episcopacy at one time greatly prevailed ; whereas it was about Edinburgh and Glasgow, in Ayrshire and in Galloway, which were famous covenanting districts, that men arose who were slavish in their political principles, and who denied and corrupted the pure doctrines of the gospel with Pelagian and Arian tenets. Let the real apos- tates from the doctrines of salvation by grace bear the blame, and not those who were innocent. On this point the truth for some reason or other has not generally been told. An honest mind which has no old covenanting theory to support, will be at no great loss to discover the welling fountain of the evils which so speedily overflowed the Re- volution Church. She was no longer the same popular institution which she once was after she was fairly and fully taken into connection with the State, and supported out of the Treasury. Instead of being a Church protesting against tyrannical Acts of Council, she was now an expecting Church spreading out her lap for royal favours. She might indeed deceive herself by thinking that she was still as in- dependent as when she sat upon her native hills and defied prelatic kings attempting to force their Liturgy upon her, but insensibly she bowed to the throne that sustained her, and by little and little withdrew from the people, and adopt- ed the obsequious and worldly maxims of the Court. The visits made now and then by the Scottish clergy to London on matters connected with their Church, had amost injurious influence upon their Calvinistic principles, and their pres- byterian zeal for popular election and Church purity. England was evidently the very land for priests to dwell in. Their work was easy and well paid. They preached lit- tle, and what they read on Sabbath from a velvet cushion was clothed in soft and sweet Arminian terms, while they themselves rolled in wealth and dwelt in palaces. Dr. Witherspoon, who lived at the time, in his parable of the corporation of servants, * refers to this as the source whence * Works, vol. vi. p. 341. ORIGINATED THE RELIEF CHURCH. 191 the Church of Scotland after its full establishment by the State received its most deleterious influences. ' By this time' (the time we are writing about), 'the servants had not only degenerated in point of fidelity and diligence, but had made great encroachments upon the Constitution it- self. They had a prodigious hankering after the high sounding titles and immense revenues which were given to servants in the neighbouring province. It grieved them to hear, and sometimes when sent upon business to that country, to see that some of the overseers ' (Bishops, Deans, Rectors, &c.) ' lived in splendid palaces and were carried about in chariots, while they themselves were still obliged to wear the dress of servants and generally to walk a-foot. Gladly would they have introduced these offices into their own province, but the great men who had hitherto assisted them dreaded the expense and would not agree to it.' Throughout Scotland at large, however, there was still in country districts a majority of ministers who were orthodox, pious, and faithful in the discharge of their ministerial duties, and when they combined and exerted themselves in return- ing elders of the right stamp, they could out-vote and control the court party, which had its strength among the loung- ing expecting advocates of the Parliament House of Edin- burgh, who got themselves made elders to rule the Kirk, and to make her the passive instrument of the State. During the long pending process between the Erskines — who no- bly originated the Secession — and the General Assembly, before it issued in their complete separation from the Es- tablishment, and when the country was roused to prevent if possible the breach, the popular party were for several years the governing party in the General Assemblies of the Church. The Moderates, about the year 1735, allowed them to have their own way, and many petty and salutary reforms were accomplished. A commission, composed of two ministers and Colonel John Erskine of Carnock, ruling elder, was sent to London, to use every means to have the Patronage act repealed. They addressed the King, and pled ' the discontents and divisions' which were beginning 192 THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH to appear, as reasons why l the Church and people of Scot- land should have their just right and privilege as to the settling of ministers restored to them.' Their efforts in high places, as might have been predicted, proved unsuc- cessful. The Assembly, in 1736, was still mainly composed of the popular party, and being desirous, at least outwardly, to please the country and propitiate the Seceders, it put on record, printed, and dispersed over the land ' An Act against the intrusion of Ministers into vacant Congrega- tions.' This act we shall yet have occasion to quote as an important element in the deposition of Gillespie. At present it is sufficient to refer to it. The Seceders, in spite of all the threatening and coaxing measures which were employed, having refused to return into the bosom of the Church, the popular party in the Assembly again relaxed their efforts, and gave way to the Moderates. The pending case of the Seceders was thereafter termi- nated. The Erskines viewing the Kirk from a new posi- tion, saw her more spotted and defiled than they had pre- viously supposed. When brought for the last time to the bar of the Assembly they bravely declined the authority and jurisdiction of the Established judicatories, and the Assembly deposed them as ministers of the Church of Scot- land, and cast them out of her communion. After this rupture the Church as a whole greatly suffered, though the Evangelical portion of it was stirred up in different locali- ties to be faithful and diligent above measure. Several revivals throughout the country soon took place, in which they were greatly aided by the presence and preaching of Whitefield. The rebellion in 1745 broke out. The Govern- ment fawned upon the ministers of the Establishment, ard attempted to make them its spies and informers. Several of them became soldiers, and commanded corps of volun- teers. The Seceders split among themselves. All fear in regard to them covering Scotland with churches at the moment ceased, and the Kirk chuckling over their conten- tions, allowed her zeal of rivalry to go out, and soon became worse than ever. In the secession of the Erskines and their ORIGINATED THE RELIEF CHURCH. 103 adherents, it had lost not a few of its most able, eloquent, and faithful ministers. The corruption which had begun at the head in Edinburgh, now threatened speedily to per- vade the whole corporate body. Every violent settlement throughout the country added another to the number of those who protected heresy, who discouraged discipline, conformed to the world, and bound the yoke of patronage closer and firmer upon the necks of the Christian people. The brave peasantry of Scotland, many of whose fathers liad spilt their best blood for the attainment of that liberty wherewith Christ had made his people free, murmured loud and deep over the piece-meal loss of their privileges and freedom, and were ready to clap their hands at those 'dumb dogs,' as they called them, who would not ' bark ' for the warning and protection of the flock. As the Moderate clergy (using the designation for the sake of distinctness) were very unpopular from their doc- trine and manner of life, and could expect access to no pastorate through popular favour, they on their part were greatly stirred up to discountenance the free election of ministers. They strenuously encouraged and strengthened the hands of the patrons in having their presentees ordain- ed in the face of the greatest opposition. Parliament had re-enacted the law of patronage so far back as 1712, and bound the yoke upon the neck of the Church of Scotland. She was too free and independent however at once tamely to put it on, and the Church courts having as they thought the trial and ordination of ministers in their own hand without let or hinderance, and making at the time common cause with the people, set the patrons for a long period at defiance, and managed to have the popular candidate ordained. But patronage being the law both of the State and Church, it gradually made way. The continual drop- ping of water wears away the hardest rock. Popular elec- tion, it was said, was found to gender heats and contentions. The principal heritors disliked to be voting with their farm- servants, and the clergy often had their favourites whom, though unpopular, they wished to succeed. The court 194 THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH party hanging about the Court of Session, which was the focus of arbitrary and what they called constitutional mea- sures, together with that portion of the clergy who clave to them, and who thought it vulgar to be consulting the people, helped on the working and adoption of the old Po- pish law of patronage, and denuded the people of their scriptural right to choose their own office-bearers. The popular or orthodox party in the Church, though now the minority in the Assembly, continued for several years suffi- ciently strong in the Presbyteries to render in a great mea- sure nugatory the power of the patron. If they did not manage, with a good body of lay elders to back them, on some plea or other, to get the presentee set aside, and to get appointed what was called ' a moderation at large,' they refused to take any part in his ordination ; and if the Presbytery were unanimous in this judgment, the matter stood still, unless the General Assembly sent a committee of their number, which they not unfrequently did, to per- form the ungracious work, often rendered more unseemly and ungracious, by the presence of a troop of dragoons opening the way through the people to the pulpit. Two things about the year 1750 greatly hastened on submission to the law of patronage, which the people of Scotland at large regarded as an intolerable grievance and oppression. First, some of the patrons carried what they called their legal rights before the Court of Session. It was found by their Lordships, ' That Presbyteries refusing a presentation duly tendered to them in favour of a qualified minister, against which presentation or presentee there lies no legal objection, and admitting another person to be minister, the patron has right to retain the stipend as in the case of a vacancy.' This stringent law for bridling Presbyteries was enforced about this time, both in the case of Stoddart of Culross, and Dick of Lanark. The adminis- trators of the criminal law of the country also stepped for- ward and inflicted imprisonment, scourging, pillory, and banishment to the penal colonies upon those who in a tu- multuous manner opposed the admission of the patrons' ORIGINATED THE BELIEF CHURCH. 105 presentee. Men and women, who gloried in Presbyterian freedom gained by the shed blood of their venerated mar- tyrs, were banished across the seas as vagabonds, because they would not tamely receive the man to feed their souls whom they conscientiously believed came to lull them into spiritual sloth, rather than to quicken them and feed them with the bread of heaven. Secondly, the General Assembly began to set its heart upon an augmentation of stipends throughout the country at large. Many of them felt themselves greatly pinched by the smallness of their incomes. They had proved them- selves true to the house of Hanover during the rebellion, and some very flattering letters were addressed to them by the Government. It was therefore considered proper before Royal gratitude had time to cool, to present a humble peti- tion for pecuniary aid at the door of the national treasury, and to importune and obtain its favours. The aristocracy of Scotland, however, who feared that the augmentation would come out of those unexhausted teinds which they held in their hands, strenuously opposed the measure. Among other things, they circulated a printed statement among the members of the British Parliament, that the Presbyteries of Scotland were often disobedient to the law of the land as to patronage, setting aside the patrons' pre- sentee, and getting a call moderated for some other person, and that they in justice could be entitled to no augmenta- tion till they showed that they were obedient to the statute law of the country as to their Church. The Church knew or feared that this argument would be used against them, and like men of great worldly prudence, at the very meet- ing of Assembly (1750) at which they appointed deputies to prosecute the scheme of augmentation in London, they also recommended to their Commission ' to consider of a method for securing the execution of the sentences of the Assembly ' as to presentations, and in the mean time ' if any Presbyteries were disobedient and did not execute the sentences of this Assembly, in the particular causes which have been determined by them, the Commission are em- 196 THE CHURCH AND THE PATRONS. powered to call such Presbyteries before them, and censure them as they shall see cause.' This prospective reforma- tion as to obedience to the injunctions of the Assembly about the settlement of the patrons' presentees (for these were the only injunctions disputed and resisted by Presby- teries) did not however smooth the way for obtaining the desired augmentation. The House of Commons in the mean time cushioned the matter. From all that transpired the clergy could not but learn, that submission to the law of patronage was by the Government and principal heritors of Scotland expected of them. Having got their lesson, they henceforth proved themselves very apt scholars, and had recourse to the most stringent measures to procure the settlement of the patrons' presentee. A fresh crisis was thus hurried on. A whole community however could not suffer themselves to be trodden in the dust and to have pastors placed over them by f a riding committee' from Edinburgh, without struggling for their ancient freedom and seeking relief. There is a point at which oppression becomes intolerable ; and to a religious people no oppres- sion is half so galling as that which is spiritual. An instru- ment was unexpectedly found, to be the mouth of God to a generation who were enslaved, groaning under oppression and eagerly panting for relief. Relief came. CHAPTER II. THE HISTORY OF GILLESPIE HIS CHARACTER — AND THE CIR- CUMSTANCES WHICH BROUGHT HIM TO THE BAR OP THE ASSEMBLY. The person who was to be the instrument for bursting the tetters which the tools of Government, for selfish and se- cular purposes, were now binding upon the Church of Scot- land, and who was destined to set up a new ecclesiastical organization, was the Rev. Thomas Gillespie, minister of Carnock. He was born in the year 1708 at Clearburn, in the parish of Duddingston near Edinburgh. His father was a farmer and brewer. He was the only child of a se- cond marriage. His father having died while he was yet a child, his education and support devolved upon his widow- ed mother, who was a person sincerely religious, very in- dustrious, and possessed of much sound discretion. Little is known of the first years of Gillespie's life. The general fact has been handed down, that in early life he manifested no appearances of vital piety. This greatly dis- tressed his mother, yet she did not despair of a saving change being wrought upon him. As her own advices and prayers seemed to fail in producing the desired effect, she prudently and assiduously brought him under the awaken- ing influences of a preached gospel ; took him to those tent preachings and sacramental occasions throughout the coun- try, where the most able and heart-stirring discourses and appeals were to be heard, and latterly when he was about twenty years of age, introduced him to Boston of Ettrick, the well known author of the Fourfold State of Man, and mentioned her extreme sorrow that lie had hitherto re- 198 gillespie's conversion. mained callous and indifferent about his personal salvation. Boston dealt faithfully and affectionately with him in the presence of his mother, concerning his eternal interests. His admonitions were signally blessed. A visible change almost immediately thereafter ensued. The young raw youth was quickened. He was rendered thoughtful. From the period that his heart was touched with a sense of reli- gion, he turned his thoughts towards the Christian ministry, as a profession in which he might honour his Saviour, gra- tify the bent of his own inclinations, and labour for the good of men. Before he had finished his course of academic and theo- logical education in the University of Edinburgh, his mo- ther had separated from the Church of Scotland, and con- nected herself with the Church of the Secession. She heartily sympathized with the Erskines and their coadjutors, in their strenuous advocacy of the doctrines of the Reforma- tion, and their efforts to stem the tide of error and relaxed discipline which was threatening to deluge the land. By her advice, her son in the last year of his theological course withdrew from the Divinity Hall in Edinburgh, and went to Perth and enrolled himself a student of divinity in the Hall of the Secession. Having conversed with the Rev. Mr. Wilson the professor, ' and understood on what plan of principles they were going,' he was dissatisfied with their views, and in the course of ten days thereafter voluntarily left it. With ample attestations, from a considerable num- ber of the most distinguished ministers of the Church of Scotland, of his piety, prudent and exemplary deportment, progress in philosophical and theological literature, and spiritual gifts, he repaired to the academy at Northampton, presided over by the celebrated Dr. Doddridge, where he finished his theological course. He was also, while resid- ing in England, licensed and ordained to the office of the ministry at large by a number of Independent ministers : Dr. Doddridge presiding on the occasion. In the spring of the year 1741, he again returned to Scot- land, and connected himself with the Established Church. HIS ORDINATION. 199 In a short time thereafter, he received a presentation from Colonel Erskine to the parish of Carnock, and afterwards got a regular call from the parish and congregation, lie produced the deed of his ordination by Dr. Doddridge and other dissenting ministers in England, to the Presbytery of Dunfermline who sustained it ; and having signed the Confession, with ' an explanation respecting the power of the civil magistrate ' in religion, he was ordained minister of Carnock, about four miles west of Dunfermline. All accounts agree that he was a man of good talents, respectable attainments, deep piety, and of great fidelity and earnestnsss in the discharge of his official and pastoral duties. He was modest, retiring, timid, and somewhat of a nervous and desponding state of mind. He spent much of his time in tears, prayers, and in watching over the pro- gress of religion in his own heart. He was engaged in a continual warfare with the temptations of Satan, his own corrupt desires, and worldly inclinations. In the earlier part of his ministry, he feared greatly lest by the evil one he should be overcome. He cried mightily to Christ, and used all the means prescribed in Scripture, and suggested by divines, for quenching the darts of Satan, and promot- ing in his soul the growth of vital piety, so that heaven might not frown but smile upon him. The rigorous in- ternal watching and discipline, which he continually kept up over his own spirit, gave a very decided direction and tone to his preaching. It was of a solemn, experimental, and heart-searching character, and was greatly prized by those who were truly in earnest about their salvation. The cast of his preaching was also no doubt modified in part by those revivals which he witnessed, in the first years of his ministry, at Kilsyth and elsewhere, in which he had taken a deep interest, and where he was a fellow-worker for good, along with Robe and the celebrated WhitefiekL The Rev. Mr. Robe says in his narrative, that he was his principal assistant, ' and but for him, humanly speaking, many of the distressed must have miscarried, or continued much longer in their spiritual distress.' Being a sincere 200 his views of Christ's kingdom. believer in the doctrines of grace, and being also of what is called the 'Marrow' or Boston school of divinity, he had great freedom in making free and unlimited offers of salvation to his hearers, and in plying their consciences with the acceptance of mercy and grace upon the very spot. He spoke like one who had it in charge to convert men by every sermon which he preached, and every appeal which he made. His opinions as to the kingdom of Christ were so en- lightened, liberal, spiritual and scriptural, that the wonder is, that ever he was found within the pale of an Established Church. He held that the kingdom of Christ was not of this world, — that for civil authorities to claim power in matters of religion was invading the authority of Jesus, — that magistrates were not the last resort in religious causes, — that they were not to make their conscience the stand- ard, and their belief the rule to their subjects, — that they were not to infringe the right of private judgment, — emit penal or other statutes against conscientious convictions. And farther, that patronage was antichristian, — that pa- trons, heritors, and town councillors, are not to thrust a minister upon an unwilling and reclaiming congregation, — that the people should not forbear to make opposition to the measure if attempted, — and that for ministers of reli- gion to countenance the exercise of patronage was a notable instance of the art of Hell for ruining souls.* A person trained up at the feet of Dr. Doddridge, and holding sentiments such as these, was not likely to give his countenance or support to the settlement of a minister in the midst of an unwilling and reclaiming congregation. His own opinions in this matter were no doubt fortified by those of his friend Col. Erskine, who was the principal heritor in his parish, and who had been Commissioner, as we have already stated, from the Assembly in 1735, to London to procure the repeal of the Patronage Act. Gil- lespie must have been plastic as a piece of clay, and utterly * The History of the Relief Church, pp. 32-25, and authorities there quoted. richaiidson's presentation. 201 w ithout principle, if he, after recording these things as his deliberate opinions in a book which he intended to publish, and which was published after his death, could yet take an active part in a violent settlement. It was not long after these things were written in his volume on Temptation, that his honesty was tried, and his firmness of principle was put severely to the test. He bore the shock, — made the sacrifice, and was found faithful. The following were the circumstances. Truly they were not of his own seeking. The Rev. Andrew Richardson, minister of the parish of Broughton, Presbytery of Biggar, was presented in 1749 to the parish of Inverkeithing, by the patron, Captain Philip Anstruther, which presentation he accepted, and the pa- tron of course requested the Presbytery of Dunfermline, to which Inverkeithing belonged, to take the necessary steps for his translation and induction. A call was moderated. The adherents were very few, mostly non-resident heri- tors. The people had set their affections upon Mr. William Adam, minister of a Dissenting congregation at Painswick, England. For him they moderated a kind of irregular call among themselves, laid it upon the table of the Presbytery, and insisted upon its prosecution. The two calls could scarcely however be regarded as ' competing calls,' for the latter was certainly irregular, and seems never to have had any weight attached to it. The majority of the Presbytery, after examining carefully into the case by sending a deputation of their number to Inverkeithing, narrowly to sift the matter on the spot, re- fused to take any active hand in carrying the settlement into effect, as the people at large were very strongly opposed to it. All the elders except one refused to submit to the ministry of Mr. Richardson. The general interests of re- ligion within the parish and throughout the whole bounds of the Presbytery, were in danger of being greatly injured. The cause was carried by appeal before the Synod of Fife, and the Commission of the Assembly (1750), which enjoin- ed the Presbytery of Dunfermline to proceed forthwith to 202 INYERKEITHING SETTLEMENT. the admission and settlement of Mr. Richardson at Inver- keithing. It was the firm refusal of the Presbytery to pro- ceed to the induction of the presentee, notwithstanding the injunction of the Commission, that brought the ques- tion again into discussion, which had of late occupied much of the attention of the Church, whether inferior judicato- ries were bound contrary to their conscience to carry into effect the sentences of superior courts. The patron and the callers of Mr. Richardson maintained that they were, and said that inferior courts refusing to obey the sentences of superior courts was destructive of all government, parti- cularly Presbyterian government, which consisted in the parity of pastors and subordination of Church judicatories. And farther, that a refusal to induct would disturb the peace of the parish, and produce turmoil and confusion throughout Scotland. They also pinched the recusant Presbytery by reminding them that every minister at the period of his admission into the Church, was bound by the sacred tie of an oath to obey the lawful sentences of the superior judicatories; and that their refractoriness pro- ceeded from the contemptible fear of losing some of their hearers. They ridiculed them as being ' people ridden.' In answer to these things, the majority of the Presbytery af- firmed that they had laboured to disabuse themselves of all mistakes and ill-grounded scruples, and still that they found such difficulties remaining that they could not ac- tively proceed with the settlement. They held that there were few maxims plainer in the whole system of natural and revealed religion, than that every man has a right to judge for himself in the regulation of his conduct, — that no man can give a blind and implicit obedience safely to the decisions of any body of men however venerable their au- thority, — and that every man must be determined by his own sentiments after a full and impartial inquiry. ' All sober-minded Protestants,' said they, ' who have thought on these matters, are agreed that this right of private judg- ment is inalienable.' It could not be renounced by ten thousand oaths, and they had never renounced it, for in INVERKEITHING SETTLEMENT. 203 their ordination vow there was an express qualification — they vowed submission in the Lord, and this was well known to all. They did not deny that the sentences of courts of the last resort must take effect, and that con- sequently the admission of Mr. Richardson in virtue of the sentence of the Commission must now be consummated, but there were other ways of doing it than by disannulling the right of private judgment, and compelling men to do it contrary to their conscience. While they rejected the doctrine of ' implicit obedience to the sentences of supe- riors as being unconstitutional, and not necessary for the government of the church, they equally repudiated the charge of being blindly led by their people.' They said smoothly but cuttingly, ' we think it expedient to lead the people softly, quite agreeably to the temper and practice of the apostles, and the greatest of them, in whom it was not meanness of spirit, but the natural effect of that true great- ness of mind and goodness of heart which his deep con- ceptions of God and the sublime spirit of the gospel in- spired, to be gentle to all men, and in lesser things to exer- cise forbearance towards the brethren, as a rule of pru- dence necessary for the more extensive success of the gospel.' * There were also some matters of lesser moment which set the majority of the Presbytery a little on edge. Their superiors had so far intermeddled in the affair as to get the pastoral relation between Mr. Richardson and his parish dissolved without their concurrence ; and since they had taken one active step in the matter, the Presbytery thought they should take the remainder and complete the induc- tion. They would not finish a disagreeable business which others had begun. If there was honour or disgrace in it, let it be all their own. The Commission had carried into effect many such settlements throughout the country dur- ing the last twenty years, by a committee of their number, • See Appendix to Antipatronage Report. Inverkeithing Settle- mem. 204 INVERKEITHING SETTLEMENT. and why stop short now and single them out, and com- pel them to do what they believed to be a sin 1 It was in these circumstances that the cause came again before the Commission in March 1752. It had been twice there before, and on the last occasion (November 1751) the Dunfermline Presbytery had been enjoined to admit Mr. Richardson to Inverkeithing, with certification that if they did not execute the sentence, the Commission would pro- ceed against them to a very high censure. They thus came before the Commission judicially condemned. Their con- science however did not condemn them. They were grave and pious men, acting according to the word of God, and afraid to do aught injurious to the interests of religion. They pled before the Commission, that the authority of the Supreme Court could effect the settlement without them. As inferiors they acknowledged they had no right to oppose it, but neither was it right to force them to execute it when it was contrary to their conscience, and when they were convinced, after weighing the matter most seriously, that it would mar the success of the gospel in their bounds. As honest men they assured the Commission, they could not support themselves with the reflection that they had merely acted in obedience to their superiors, and therefore ' it was the deed of their superiors and not theirs.' This distinction could not weigh with them in the determination of their conduct. The authority of man could not super- sede the authority of God. Sin was still sin. The Commission felt the power of their appeal. They abrogated the sentence of censure passed in the way of threat by a former Commission ; and to harmonize the authority of the Church and the conscience of the Dun- fermline Presbytery, they relieved them altogether of the matter, and enjoined the Synod of Fife as their Committee to complete the settlement. This was a somewhat dexter- ous expedient in pinching circumstances. It preserved intact the authority of the Assembly ; it secured the admis- sion of the presentee; and it saved the Presbytery from acting contrary to their convictions. The rights of the INVERKEITHING SETTLEMENT. 205 Christian people however were to be sacrificed. The pa- tron's power was to be silently acquiesced in as supreme. The Moderate party should have been satisfied with these things. At every fresh settlement they were abridging the power of the people. The last shreds of it were all but an- nihilated. An over anxiety, however, to draw the strug- gling fish ashore before it is all but dead, often snaps the line and gives the fish again to the open stream. Dr. Ro- bertson and his friends were resolved to carry the principle of passive obedience in Church Courts, as well as to effect the Inverkeithing settlement, and therefore they dissented from the sentence of the Commission and appealed to the As- sembly : and thus the great question of implicit obedience came to be wrought up with Gillespie's deposition. There was only one minister above ten years' standing who sign- ed the dissent and appeal. It was the young men against the Fathers. It was no longer the mere settlement of Richardson, but a great constitutional principle, which was felt by both parties in the Church to be at stake. Men of the greatest talent engaged in the contest. The struggle was kept up for several years ; and ultimately a new party, as will yet appear, was raised up in Providence, headed by Gillespie and unshackled by the State, who held the great principles of forbearance in lesser matters, and the divine right of the Christian people to elect their own office-bearers. Things now began seriously to threaten an approaching contest which would shake the Church of Scotland to its foundation, and consolidate the power of the section which was successful in the struggle. Reasons of dissent from the judgment of the Commission, resolving to inflict no censure on the Presbytery of Dunfermline for their diso- bedience in relation to the settlement of Inverkeithing, were drawn up by Dr. Robertson, and subscribed by Dr. Blair, Mr. Home, and others. It was the work of six weeks, and every word is said to have been balanced with the ut- most care. They were not men who would allow a sloven- ly document to pass out of their hands. These ' Reasons ' were answered by the Commission in a paper of consider- 206 INTERKEITHING SETTLEMENT. able length, which is understood to have been mainly drawn up by Dr. Webster. The two papers, published at the time in the Scots Magazine, contain the most authentic docu- ments extant of the general principles of the two great parties into which the Church was then divided.* In examining carefully these two documents, which have been called ' the Manifestoes' of the Moderate and Popular party, it is evident that the turning point of the contro- versy was the relative estimation in which they held the civil establishment of the Church. The Moderate party considered that the Church should be a Government insti- tution, which should be under arbitrary authority, and yield prompt and passive obedience like the different corps of an army ; and that Church censures should tame all re- cusants to the decrees of that Assembly, in which royalty presided, and where the Royal crown overshadowed the Moderator's chair. Whereas the Popular party held the adventitious circumstance of the Church being established and endowed, cheap indeed, and that its pastors in all their decisions about inducting ministers according to the law of the land, were merely civil functionaries, and that it was a prostitution of the discipline of Christ's house to censure any minister ecclesiastically for what was at most a mere po- litical offence. They were so far from considering a civil establishment as being required under the gospel, that they held it was an abuse of Christian discipline even to em- ploy it for its support. It is a remarkable fact, that in neither of these papers re- ferred to is there any reference to the law of Christ upon the point at issue. The Confession and Acts of Assembly are quoted, but the popular party strangely forgot to fortify their pleadings for liberty of conscience in external matters by appealing to the practice of the apostolic Churches, in which every one was allowed to do that which was right in his own eyes, about meats and drinks and outward ob- servances, if he held the great essential truths of Christi- * Morren's Annals. Stewart's Life of Robertson. Cook's Life of Hill. Scots Mug. 1752. TACTICS OP THE MODERATES. 207 anity. Compulsion in lesser things was unknown. Every man was to be fully persuaded in his own mind, and if there were differences of opinion about secondary matters, still they were to forbear with each other, as members of the same Church and disciples of the same Master. ' Let us, therefore, as many as be perfect be thus minded ; and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereunto we have at- tained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.' This overlook was the more inexcusable, as the Confession of Faith, which is the law of the Church of Scot- land, says nothing about an establishment of religion, nor how it is to be sustained by Church censures ; while in its principles of free communion it evidently presupposes Chris- tians to differ in lesser matters. When the Confession was silent as to the mind of the Church about the tenor of Scripture, the appeal should have been direct to the word of God. The Moderates prepared for the approaching struggle in the ensuing Assembly with great circumspection and dili- gence, and employed every agency which they thought would secure their triumph, and impose absolute obedience upon every member of the Church. The matter of contest was, in some respects, of the same kind as that which originat- ed the Secession. If carried, it was to be even far more op- pressive to tender consciences. Then, it was contended, that no man in his ministrations should be at liberty in the pulpit to denounce the decisions and corruptions of the Church ; but now every minister was to be compelled to execute, contrary to his conscience, every decree of the Assembly, whatever was its unconstitutional character, and whether it was founded on the mere enactments of civil Government or upon the laws of Christ. The strict discipline and blind obedience of the army was to be intro- duced into the house of God, where liberty of private judg- ment is indispensable, and which enters to a certain extent into the very nature of Church fellowship. The friends of absolute obedience being fully aware of 208 TACTICS OF THE MODERATES. the importance of the contest, resorted to cautious and vi- gorous measures to secure their end, and regain the ground which they had unexpectedly lost in the Commission. To pre-occupy public favour, their reasons of disssnt, instead of being quietly carried up and laid on the Assembly's table, which was the constitutional mode, were published in the Scots Magazine for April ; so that they were widely circulated before the meeting of the Assembly, and yet their opponents had not the means of meeting them in public with their answers. Their manifesto did not and could not appear in the same popular periodical till after the meet- ing of the Assembly in May. The Magazine was not pub- lished till the end of the month. The cause was then ter- minated. Care was also taken to get a great number of the Moderate party returned as representatives, so as to secure a powerful majority. The Moderator of the Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale, Gilbert Hamilton of Cramond, in his official character, preached and published a sermon on the 5th May, in which he prejudged the case. He point- edly called upon the rulers of the Church 'to exercise their authority against those who bid defiance to its judicature, lest they should be hardened in their lawless contumacy.' This was whetting the sword for the battle. It was inia- CHAPTER III. THE DEPOSITION OP GILLESPIE. The person who was the main instrument in accomplishing the deposition of Gillespie, was the Rev. William Robertson of Gladsmuir, better known as Principal Robertson, and for many years after his translation to Edinburgh in 1756, the acknowledged leader of the Moderate party. He was the son of the Rev. Mr. Robertson, Old Greyfriars, Edin- burgh. His father was a Calvinist of respectable attain- ments, courteous manners, and a useful practical preacher. To his son he gave an excellent education, and, from what- ever motives, put into his hands Arminian works in divin- ity, which led him to adopt opinions at variance with the standards of the Church. The Principal was of a low school on theology, and preached on Christian character and prac- tice, overlooking in a great measure those evangelical prin- ciples from which all holy practice must proceed. For the first six or seven years of his ministerial life, he never spoke in the Assembly, nor was he known in the Church as a person who was likely to rise to that position which he afterwards attained. He was known to be of the Moderate side of the Church, an accomplished scholar, and a favourer of patronage. A casual circumstance strongly enlisted his feelings in its behalf, and brought him forward as the eloquent, able, and unshrinking advocate of high Church principles and practice. In 1750, Mr. Syme, who was his personal friend, and who a few months afterwards married his sister who lived with him, was ordained at Alloa by a Riding Committee of the Assembly. Not a member of the Presbytery was present. Mr. Robertson however was o 210 TORPHICHEN SETTLEMENT. there. The settlement was most unpopular. It was attended by mobbing, violence, and the effusion of blood. Four com- panies of soldiers on the day of ordination overawed the mul- titude. The Court of Justiciary afterwards convicted, fined, banished, and imprisoned some of the inhabitants for their riotous conduct. The ardent and vigorous mind of Robertson was roused, and as the Assembly at its meeting that year, as already noticed, had indicated its mind that measures should be taken to make Presbyteries execute all settle- ments, if enjoined by the Assembly, he bent all his intel- lectual strength and eloquence upon the accomplishment of this object. He could not but feel the disgrace of his brother-in-law to be great, having been ordained by stran- gers assisted by soldiers, without the presence of a single member of Presbytery. A scripturally constituted mind would have set itself to devise some moral means to remedy such an abuse of patronage and ecclesiastical domination, but he resolved to crush the opposition of the people, and to compel all ministers with a scrupulous conscience about patronage, either to yield to the arbitrary injunctions of the Assembly, or quit the Establishment. It was not long till he had an opportunity of insisting upon absolute submission to the arbitrary injunctions of the Assembly by all the Presbyteries of the Church, ay, and by every member thereof. At the meeting of the Assembly next year (1751), the case of the parish of Torphichen came before the Supreme Court. The settlement of Mr. Watson the presentee had already been twice ordered by the Assembly to be carried into effect by the Presbytery, and twice they had passively resisted. The opposition in the parish was so great, that their usefulness in their own congregations would to all appearance be destroyed if they should attempt it. Now was the opportunity for Robertson and his friends, who were resolved to accomplish universal subordination. Accordingly, Home of Athelstaneford (the author of the tragedy of ' Douglas') first came forward as the abettor of absolute submission to the power of the Church. He was followed by Robertson. They were both young men, LIXLITIIGOW PRESBYTERY CENSURED. 211 and had never spoken in the Assembly before. Their aim was to get the Linlithgow Presbytery censured and sus- pended from the office of the ministry, as a warning to all other refractory members who should plead conscience for not obeying the injunctions of the Supreme Court. They managed to get them censured, but the Assembly, though keenly urged by Robertson, refused by a great majority of votes to suspend them. To suspend a whole Presbytery, would have been a vigorous and rigorous sentence indeed ! Even the vote of censure was considered by many as a measure of extreme severity, and a gross prostitution of the censures of the Church to maintain a mere civil enactment. On the day of settlement not a member of the Presbytery of Linlithgow attended. It was accomplished by a Riding Committee, of which Robertson was convener. He preach- ed and presided on the occasion, and showed that he was resolved to carry forward, over tender consciences and the remonstrances of the people, his arbitrary measures. As the rising leader of the Moderates and the champion of Church authority, Robertson was not a little discomfited by the sentence of the Commission in March 1752, already referred to, in which they not only refused to inflict censure upon the recusant Dunfermline Presbytery, but even freed them from obedience to a sentence of the Commission of the Church, because it was contrary to their conscience to carry it into effect. This was flying in the face of his views of Church government. What had conscience to do with obedience to an enactment of the Church ? Like a giant struck down he rose from his fall with fresh fury. Full of great mental resources, he roused himself to gigantic efforts. By his dissent and appeal to the Assembly, he had suspended for a time the victory of the popular and ortho- dox party. He knew he would thereby get them as rebels sisted at a bar where kingly authority would back and sup- port priestly domination. His measures were diliberately taken. His manifesto, as noticed already, was carefully drawn up and timeously published. A majority of parti- sans were secured. The willing ear of the Royal Com- 212 CUMING CHOSEN MODERATOR. missioner was bespoken ; and he with all the ' kingcraft ' possible, was to give his countenance and support to the maintenance of absolute authority. As very much depended upon the chairman in a popular Assembly rightly guiding the debate, and as few members, unless called upon by the Moderator, then ventured to ad- dress the House, the Moderate party took care to get a person elected to that office, who was not only favourable to their views, but who would give weight to their decision. They fixed on their best man. The Rev. Patrick Cuming, pro- fessor of Church History, Edinburgh, the leader of the Moderate party, who had the support of Government, and who was acknowledged to be its mouth-piece, was there- fore exalted to the chair. He had been Moderator in 1749, but as an onslaught was to be made on the liberties of the Church and strong opposition was expected, he in the most barefaced and anomalous manner was made Moderator again, that all might see what the Earl of Isla, who had the management of Scotch affairs, and who em- ployed Cuming as his tool, had his heart set upon accom- plishing. The other Government officers also lent their aid. The Earl of Leven was that year the Royal Commis- sioner to the Assembly. He was a bold outspoken man, who was accustomed in his opening speeches to tell the Assembly what he wished them to do. He was no ' looker- on,' as the Commissioner has been softly called. He did not whisper by his clerks in Committee-rooms what the Government expected of the Church, but honestly and openly told them what was their duty as an Established Church. On the present occasion he charged them more directly as to the proper line of their procedure, than ever a judge did a jury, and no one protested against his language as being destructive of their independence as an ecclesiastical court. ' The main intention,' said he, 'of your meeting is frustrated, if your judgments and decisions are not to be held final ; if inferior courts continue to assume that liberty they have taken upon themselves, in too many instances, of disputing and disobeying the decisions of their TACTICS OF THE MODERATES. 21 o superiors ; it is now more than high time to think of put- ting a stop to this growing evil, otherwise such anarchy and confusion will be introduced into the Church as will inevitably not only break us into pieces among ourselves, but make us likewise the scorn and derision of our ene- mies.'* Nay, he even went a step farther, and told them that they were so to punish the delinquents, as 'effectually to restrain others from following their very unjustifiable example.' The Lord Advocate, William Grant, afterwards Lord Prestongrange, who had formerly been Procurator and principal Clerk of the Church, lent his influence also to the moderate party, and openly avowed in the Assem- bly, ' that they would enlighten the consciences of some ministers through their stipends.' t Every kind of politi- cal influence and of ecclesiastical power was thus com- bined and brought to bear upon the Dunfermline Presby- tery ; and long before the Inverkeithing case came on, the line of procedure was chalked out, and it was resolved that they should have a heavy sentence inflicted upon them, that others ' seeing might fear.' The affair of Inverkeithing was taken up on Monday the 18th of May. The matter was very hurriedly proceeded in. Dr. Robertson opened the debate in a speech which was an echo of ' the Reasons of Dissent,' and which his friends have lauded as being argumentative and convinc- ing, and which made a deep impression on the Assembly. He was seconded by Mr. Home, so that the champions of implicit obedience on the part of the inferior judicatures were still the same as last year in the case of Torphichen, only he who formerly wielded the sword now carried the shield, and certainly it was a more befitting situation for him. The Commission were also heard in vindication of the sentence by which they had refused to censure the Dun- fermline Presbytery, and had appointed the Synod of Fife to complete Mr. Richardson's induction. The mind of the Assembly was already made up. It had no patience. It • Scots Magazine, May 1752. f A Loud Oy, p. 24. 214 INYERKEITHING INDUCTION ENJOINED. was so niggard of its time that it did not allow Robertson's Reasons of Dissent * to be read, and of course it consigned also, in this way, the long and pungent answers to them, which had been prepared by Webster, to a silent grave. This was any thing but an injury to Dr. Robertson and his friends, as their paper had been printed in the most widely circulated periodical of the day, but it was a serious evil to the popular party that their document was not allowed to see the light, and disabuse the minds of some at least of false and erroneous impressions. The Assembly without a vote condemned the conduct of the Commission. This was the first feather plucked from the popular party. Dr. Robertson now saw his principles clearly in the ascendant. Gillespie was a member of court, t and must have seen that sad havoc was about to be made of the conscientious scruples of the Dunfermline Presbytery. He was not left long in doubt. The Assembly instantly proceeded to appoint the Pres- bytery of Dunfermline to meet at Inverkeithing, on the Thursday of that same week, for the admission of Mr. Richardson, ordered all the ministers to attend, appoint- ed five ministers a quorum to execute the appointment, and required every member of the Presbytery to appear at the bar of the Assembly, on Friday at twelve o'clock, and give an account of his conduct. This was a peremptory and sweeping motion, and it was carried by 102 votes to 56. The temper of the House was apparent. They were resolved either to see their sentence obtemporated, or to punish the '' rebellious ' Presbytery on the spot. There was to be no more dallying and pleading of conscience. Mes- sengers had to leave summonses at the dwellings of the ministers ; but they hastened across the Forth and passed on at the Assembly's commandment. The most stringent part of the sentence was its fixing five ministers as a quorum. Three is the usual number, * Review of the Constitution of the Church of Scotland, p. 11. t Minutes of the Assembly, 1752. PRE8BYTERY DISOBEDIENT. 215 but in this instance they insisted on a ' rigour beyond the law ;' and the motive was too apparent not to be visible. Three members of Presbytery were will- ing to induct Mr. Richardson, and had the appointment run in the usual form, they would have executed the ap- pointment, the others would have absented themselves, and the Presbytery would have escaped censure. Mr. Richardson would thus have slipped quietly into his bene- fice. The recusants, however, would not have been reach- ed, and therefore the Assembly made a long arm, and so constructed their sentence that either some of them must bend to the authority of the Court, or the induction could not take place. By summoning the whole of them back to the bar of the Assembly on Friday, to account for their conduct, they secured to themselves the opportunity of sifting them, rebuking them, or instantly deposing them. If they did not yield, they thus compelled them to come in with the weapons of rebellion in their hands, and to abide the consequences. From this sentence a great number of members dis- sented, as making a very material alteration in the consti- tution of the church ; according to which three ministers were sufficient to constitute a Presbytery, as bringing the members of the Presbytery of Dunfermline, who had openly declared they could not with a good conscience con- cur in the settlement, under the unhappy necessity of dis- obeying an express appointment of the Assembly, and as preventing the admission of Mr. Richardson, seeing there were three ministers who were ready to admit him. They farther urged that he could have been admitted as in former cases by a Committee of the Assembly, without bearing hard upon the consciences of any. The extending of the quorum to five they state with pungency, — and its truth is its pungency, — ' shows by the by, that the interest of Mr. Richardson was but a small part of the plan.' * The * Letter from a Gentleman in Edinburgh to a Friend in the Country, page 4, 1752. 216 PRESBYTERY COMPEAR. sharpest darts, however, were now counted by the moderate party as stubble. They felt themselves well armed, and having the power they were resolved at all hazards to crush the popular agitators, and teach them that they must tamely submit to those in authority over them. The Dunfermline Presbytery was called upon Friday. As might have been expected there had been no meeting of Presbytery, and Mr. Richardson had not been inducted. Three of the members of Presbytery, Messrs. Liston, Aber- dour, — Bathgate, Dalgetty, — Thomson, Dunfermline, had been at Inverkeithing on Thursday, caused the bell to be rung, went to church, waited from 11 o'clock a.m. till 2 p.m., but could not proceed to execute the appointment of the Assembly, as there were only three of them. They were not a quorum. Messrs Stark, Torryburn, and Stark, Kinross, had also been at Inverkeithing on Thursday, but they had taken care to keep out of the way of the other three bre- thren, and as they found the people in a state of great ex- citement, they did not venture to take any hand in the settlement. Before the bar of the Assembly, Stark of Kin- ross gave in his submission to the authority of the Court. ' As he was sensible of the straits of his brethren, and of the bad effects of disobeying the authority of the Church, he was willing to expose himself to all hazards, and concur with the other three brethren who had shown their readi- ness in obeying the Assembly's appointment, in case it should be thought proper to renew it,' * Pretty language to use about ordaining a minister ! Six of the members of Presbytery with the terrors of deposition before them, still refused to take any active hand in the settlement, and gave in a humble representation to the Assembly stating their difficulties, the scriptural grounds on which they were acting, and declaring, that ' as honest men they were will- ing to forego every secular advantage for the sake of a good conscience.' The document, which we here insert, will be found throughout respectful, unimpassioned and firm. * Anti-patronage R.eport. Appendix, p. 70. presbytery's defence. 217 Unto the very Reverend, The Moderator, and the Rev- erend and Honourable Members of the Venerable Assem- bly of the Church of Scotland, met at Edinburgh, May 1752 : The humble Representation of the Ministers of the Presbytery of Dunfermline, whose names are here- unto subjoined. c We cannot but be deeply affected with our present si- tuation, in being obliged 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 judi- catory of this Church, which it is so justly entitled to ex- pect 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 set- tlements by presentations, where there was but a small concurrence;* which settlements have already produced a train of the most unhappy consequences, greatly affect- ing 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 apprehension as this, was it any wonder, or was it * That is, very few in the parish who could be brought to attend on the ministry of the presentee, or to be willing to have him for their pastor. 218 presbytery's defence. inconsistent 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 con- currence of persons residing in the parish, as might give sufficient weight and influence for promoting the great ends of the ministry ? '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 grie- vance 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 judicatories 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 recommendation, we humbly apprehend, to be strong- ly supported 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 committees of the Presbytery, to lessen the opposition to Mr. Richardson in the parish of Inver- keithing, 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 particular order of our ecclesiastical superiors, or contributing our part to the establishment of measures, which we can neither re- concile 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 language ASSEMBLY S PROCEDURE. 219 of holy writ, of scattering the flock of Christ ; not to men- tion what may be the fatal consequences of such settle- ments to our happy civil constitution, 1 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 acted as honest men, willing to forego every secular advan- tage for conscience sake. ' In such an event, this, through grace, shall be our sup- port, 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. Daling, Thomas Fernie, and John Spence; and dated, Edinburgh, 22d May, 1752.'* After their paper was read, the Moderator recommended them to consider their situation, and implored them to take advantage of the opportunity which they still had of saving themselves from the displeasure of the Church. The Assembly expected they would have yielded, and sacrificed their consciences at the dictates of human authority. They however uttered not a word. Parties being removed, a debate ensued. The panels at the bar — for so they must now be called — had given ample cause to provoke discus- sion on the part of their opponents. They had not resiled one hair's breadth from the great principles which they had all along maintained, that the obedience which they owed to their superiors was ' in the Lord,' — that ' patron- age was a national calamity,' — that by the ' laws of the Church and of the Lord Jesus Christ, no minister was to be intruded upon a people,' — that ' they would take no active part in Mr. Richardson's induction,' — that they were willing to suffer ' for the sake of a good conscience,' and that amid their present trials they were supported by the • A Letter from a Gentleman in Edinburgh to his Friend in the Country, pp. 5—7- 175^. 220 ONE TO BE DEPOSED. conviction that ' they had not neglected the duties of their ministry.' The great majority of the old and venerable ministers in the Assembly who had any name for religion spoke in their behalf; but the younger ministers, who are hit off in Wotherspoon's 'Characteristics' as destitute of religion, and aping the man of fashion were all violent against them. It would have been too much however to have deposed them all. Popular indignation would have burst out against the Assembly, and six would have form- ed the nucleus of another Secession, as numerous and powerful as that of the Erskines. Their aim was to strike quick — to strike safely for the Church — and to strike terror into the heart of all. At length it was carried that one out of the six should be deposed. They separated without de- termining which of the six should be sacrificed, and with- out indicating any probable judgment about the fate of the other five. This was a piece of refined cruelty. It was designed to serve a purpose, and break their spirits. Every one of the six during the night felt the sentence of deposi- tion lying heavy upon his heart, and visiting his flock and family. Next day they were called in, not together, but one by one, and asked if they had any thing to offer in the way of explanation or retractation. If they had come in together they would have sustained each other and acted as one body. The policy was, divide and conquer. The plan in part succeeded, though not to the extent which was wished. Stark, Fernie, and Hunter all shifted their ground a little, and intimated more or less that there was a prospect in altered circumstances, and in an increased concurrence at Inverkeithing, of their giving their countenance to the induction. Their consciences were evidently yielding. Where there is a wish there will be found a way. Messrs. Daiing and Spence would say nothing, and continued firm, neither provoking anger nor beseeching favour. Last of all came Mr. Gillespie. Instead of feeling any misgivings, he had prepared himself with fresh arguments. As they were avowedly Constitutionalists, he drew an arrow from the gillesfie's representation. 221 quiver of the Constitution, and galled them by a reference to the minutes of the Church herself. He read to them the following paper, — f Unto the Very Reverend, The Moderator, and the Rev- erend and Honourable Members of the Venerable Assem- bly of the Church of Scotland, met at Edinburgh, May 1752: The humble Representation of Thomas Gillespie, Minister of the Gospel at Carnock. 4 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 patronage has been considered as no small grievance to this Church, not to say inconsistent with our Union settlement :" 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 repre- senting 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 human 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, corL XKBhas produced agre ■*< r number of eminent men than any other country in the world. The present work is a full, complete, and comprehensive collection of the Lives of these, adapted for ready reference and popular perusal." — Author's Preface. Boston. The Select Works of the Rev. Thomas Boston of Ettrick, with a Memoir of his Life and Writings. Edited by the Rev. A. S. Patterson, Minister of Hutcheson- town Free Church, Glasgow. In one volume, Royal 8vo. with Portrait, price IGs. cloth, or in 15 parts at Is. each. 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A Work every way cal- culated to uphold and advance the character of the literature of Ireland. The typography is beautiful, and the graphic illustrations excellent." — Dublin Evening Mail. " A Biographical History of Ireland has been long wanting, and if this Work be completed as it has been commenced, it will go far to supply the deficiency." — Athenceum. John. Lectures on Chapters XIV., XV., and XVI. of St. John's Gospel. From the Manuscripts of the hate J. B. Patterson, Minister of Falkirk. In one volume, 12mo., price 5s. cloth boards. Landscape. In the Press. Landscape Illustra- tions of the Bible : nearly 100 Splendid Views of Bible Scenery, from Drawings after Original Sketches by Turner, Roberts, C. Stanfield, Harding, and other Eminent Artists; Engraved by W. and E. Finden. With Descriptive Letter-Press. To be completed in about 16 parts at 2s. 6d. each, Small Quarto. Lectures on the Inspiration of the Scriptures. By Leonard Woods, D.D., United States. 12ino., 2s. boards. Maclean. {In course of Publication, four volumes out.) The Miscellaneous vVorks of Archibald Maceean, one of the Pastors of the Baptist Church, Edinburgh, with a Memoir of the Author. In six volumes, 12mo., at 3s. Gd. each, boards. " Archibald Maclean is one of a class who have done great things for true Christianity." — British Banner. M'Kerrow. See Secession Church, History of. Martyrs, Book of. See Fo.ve. Mahan. See Engineering. Map-making. A Manual of Map-making and Me- chanical Geography, with Map of the World and numerous Wood-cuts. By Alexander Jamieson, LL.D., 12mo. boards, 2s. ; cloth, gilt, 2s. 6d. Medicine. See Family Physician. Medicine. A Dictionary of Medicine, designed fur popular use, by Alkxanof.u Ma( aii.ly, M.D. In one volume, 8vo. price 13s. boards, or in twelve Parts at Is. each. M idler. See Ancient Art and its Remains. 12 Natural History. Popular Natural History, or the Characteristics of Animals portrayed, in a series of illustrative Anecdotes, by Captain Thomas Brown, F.L.S. &c, &c. In three volumes, cloth, gilt and lettered, at 4s. each ; or in ten Parts at Is. each. " This pleasant work exhibits a correct appreciation of what is required by young people, mingling a clever and clear description of the structure and habits of the brute creation, with a series of very interesting anec- dotes. It is in its coloured illustrations, and altogether got up in a man- ner highly creditable to the publishers."— Manchester Times. " Contains an immense fund of agreeable and useful reading, well fitted to interest as well as to instruct youth, published at a price so low as to astonish us, even in this age of extraordinary competition in the publish- ing trade." — Nottingham Journal. Nicholson, Peter. See the Builder and Wwkmaris Director. Ornamentist. The Ornamentist ; or Artist's Man- ual in the various branches of Ornamental Art ; being a series of Designs selected from the Works of Deitterlein, Blonde!!, Berain, Messonier, Le Pantre, Zahn Boetticher, and the best French and German Ornamentalists, with an Introductory Essay on Ornamental Art, by W. B. Scott, of the Government School of Design, Newcastle. Eighty-two plates of figures, beautifully executed in Lithography. In one volume, large imperial 4to., price £2 5s., cloth lettered. Ornamental Designs for Furniture and House Decoration. See Furniture. For Brass, Iron, and Glass Work. See Brass, Iron, and Glass Work. For Silver and Gold Work. See Silver and Gold Work. Ramsay. In the Press. The Works of Allan Ramsay, with Life of the Author, by George Chalmers; and an Essay on his genius and writings, by Lord Woodhouselee. A new edition, with Illustrative Notes, Map of Scenery of Gentle Shepherd, Portrait, and other appropriate Engravings. In three volumes, imperial 18mo., price 3s. 6d. cloth, or in 9 Parts at Is. each. Redemption. A History of the Progressive De- velopment of the Plan of Redemption ; or, the Divine proce- dure towards the human race, from the Fall of Adam to the close of the canon of Scripture, an unfolding of the scheme of Redeeming mercy; with a Practical View of the facts, doctrines, precepts, and institutions of Divine Revelation. By the Rev. Daniel Dewar, D.D., LL.D., Principal, &c. In one volume, imperial 8vo., with Hlustrations, price 22s. cloth boards, or in 20 Parts, at Is. each. 13 Relief. An Account of the Rise of the Relief Church. See Fathers and Founders of the United Presbyterian Church. Ridgeley. See Divinity, a body of Robertson. The Journal of a Clergyman during a Visit to the Peninsula, in the Summer and Autumn of 1841. By the Rev. William Rouertson, Minister of New Grey friars, Edinburgh. In one volume, demy 8vo., price 4s. boards. Rural Cyclopedia. In course of Publication. The Rural Cyclopedia; or a General Dictionary of Agriculture, and of the Arts, Sciences, Instruments, and Practice, necessary to the Farmer, Stockfarmer, Gardener, Forester, Landsteward, See. §'c. Edited by the Rev. John M. Wilson. Richly illus- trated with appropriate Engravings. In three or not exceed- ing four volumes, imperial 8vo. price 22s. 6d. each; or in Divi- sions at 5s. and Parts at 2s. 6d. each. " This is one of a class of publications of the day, having reference to agriculture, which indicates the higher tone and wider range of topics now deemed pertinent to the business of husbandry."— Economist. " Laboriously and intelligently is the Editor going through his arduous work, establishing in its progress not only that he is an extensive reader, but a philosophic and practical observer of nature. His suggestions and advice on the culture of our most valuable crops, and, indeed on the gen- eral management of farms and gardens, if generally adopted, would make the labour of the agriculturist much more profitable than it now is." — Sheffield Iris. " It is very difficult to conceive how so large a mass of information, in a great measure novel, can be collected every month, and offered at so low a price." — Liverpool Chronicle. " Every farmer's son, at least, if not every farmer in the kingdom, ought immediately to possess himself of a copy of this Cyclopedia." — Ctvmberlavd Pacquet. " We congratulate Mr. Wilson on his auspicious commencement of his editorial labours ; in the name of the community interested in farming and the kindred professions we may almost take upon ourselves to express the obligation they are under to him for this very excellent work." — Sun- derland Times. Sabbath. The Sabbath School Teacher; designed to aid in elevating and perfecting the Sabbath School System. By the Rev. John Todd, Pastor of the First Congregational Church, Philadelphia. 12mo. 2s. cloth. Secession. History of the Secession Church. By the Rev. John M'Kerrow, D.D., Bridge-of-Teith, revised and enlarged edition, with Portraits and other illustrative Engrav- ings, and a Supplement, containing a full account of the Liter- ature of the Secession Church. In one volume, demy 8vo., price 16s., or in Fifteen Parts, at Is. each. n Secession. History of the Origin of the Secession Church. See Fathers and Founders of the United Presbyterian Church. Scotland. The Topographical, Statistical, and His- torical Gazetteer of Scotland, adapted to all the recent Statis- tical, Municipal, and Ecclesiastical arrangements, and illus- trated with Maps, Plans of Cities, and numerous Views. In two volumes, imperial 8vo., price £2, cloth boards; or in 18 Parts, at 2s. ; or 36 at Is. each. " Beyond all comparison the most perfect Book of the kind in exist- ence. Without a rival for the completeness of its details, while in type, size, paper, and illustrations, it is altogether a suporb production."— Glas- gow Courier. " The standard authority as a Topographical. Statistical, and His" torical Gazetteer of Scotland. The most complete, and for its size, the cheapest Work of this description ever published. — Scotsman. " The very best Work of the kind I ever read in any language." — Letter of Mr. SJier'iff Alison to the Publishers. Scotland. The Comprehensive Gazetteer of Scot- land ; being a complete Geographical, Historical and Statistical Account of the Counties, Parishes, Cities, &c. of Scotland. In one thick volume, imperial 18mo, price 14s., or in 12 Parts at Is. each. Scotland. Scotland Illustrated, in a Series of Picturesque Views, with Descriptive Letterpress, and an Essay upon the Scenery of the Highlands, by Professor Wilson. In one volume demy 4to., Eighty Splendid Engravings on Steel, elegant and rich cloth boards, price £1 5s., or in twenty Parts at Is. each. " In this beautiful, cheap, and strictly national Work, few localities, re- markable for their history, scenery, fame, or beauty, have been omitted : the letterpress tells their stories, and tells them well." — Glasgow Courier. Scott. A Commentary on the Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, according to the authorised A'er- sion, by the Kev. Thomas Sjott, Rector of Aston, Sandford. A new edition, with an Introductory Essay, and numerous addi- tional Notes, by the Rev. William Symington, D.D., Glasgow. In three volumes, royal quarto, richly illustrated with forty engrav- ings of Scripture Scenery and Subjects, in the highest style of art, price £4 4s., or in 38 monthly parts, at 2s. each. Scottish Poets. In course of Publication. The Scot- tish Poets of the Eighteenth Century, popular series, best edi- 15 tions, with Original Notes, and appropriate illustrations on steel. Class 1st. — Writers in the Scottish Language. 1. Allan Ramsay. Life and Works, ./. > In one volume. afe, S ( In four volumes 2. Robert Fergusson. Do. do. ) 3. Robeut Burns. Do. do. In five volumes. 4. Robert Tannaiiill. Do. do. 5. James Wilson. Clyde, a Poem, and Li Imperial 18mo., price 3s. 6d. each volume, cloth. Scripture. The Scripture Gazetteer ; and the Scripture Natural History : or an account of all the states, local- ities, rowers, places, Sfc, and of the animal and vegetable creation, Sj-c. mentioned in the Holy Scriptures, with an Essay on the study of Sacred Geography, by William Fleming, D.D., Professor of Moral Philosophy, Glasgow. In two volumes, royal 8vo., fine paper, with Maps, Views, &c, price 20s. cloth hoards. Scripture. The Scripture Biography: or Lives of all the remarkable persons mentioned in the Old and New Testa- ments, with an Essay on the study of Sacred Biography. By the Rev. George Scott, Leith. In one volume, royal 8vo., fine paper, with 9 Illustrations on Steel, price 14s. cloth boards. Silver. In course of Publication. Ornamental Designs for Silver and Gold Work, Diesinkers, Enamellers, Modellers, Engravers, &c, selected from the works of the best French and German Ornamvntidists, with an Introductory Essay on Ornamental Art, by W. B. Scott, Government School of Design, Newcastle. To be completed in about 20 Parts, at Is. 6d. each ; illustrated by upwards of 700 figures in Litho- graphy. Imperial 4to. Table. The Lord's Table: being forty addresses to Communicants, and two Sermons for the Morning and Even- ing of a Communion Sabbath. By the Rev. Henry Thomson, D.D., Penrith. In one volume, small 8vo., price 3s. 6d. cloth boards. Tales. In course of Publication. Historical Tales of the Scottish Wars, embracing the Martial Achievements of Scotland. In three volumes, small 8vo., with Illustrations, price 12s. cloth, or in 10 Parts at Is. each. These Tales consist of a series of HUtorieUes, or narratives connected with Scottish History, constructed on the same principle as Sir Walter Scott's Tai.es of a (Jrandfathkr. and carefully selected and compiled from the most authentic Histories, Chronicles. Diaries, and Original Man. uscripts, preserved iu the public libraries and in private collections. 16 Tannahill. The Works of Robert Tannahill, with Life of the Author, and a Memoir of Robert A. Smith, the musical composer. By Philip A. Ramsay. Clyde, a Poem, by James Wilson, with Life of the Author, by John Leyden, M.D. In one volume, imperial 18mo., with Portrait and Vignette, price os. 6d. cloth. Taxidermist. The Taxidermist's Manual; or the Art of Collecting, Preparing, and Preserving Objects of Natural History, designed for the use of Travellers, Conservators of Mu- seums,' and Private Collectors. By Captain Thomas Brown, F.L.S., 7th edition, with Engravings, royal 18mo., price 3s. 6d. cloth. Thiers. The Historical Works of M. A. Thiers ; or the History of the French Revolution, and of the Consulate and Empire to the end of the year 1808. An original trans- lation, by T. W. Redhead, Esq. Illustrated with 40 Engrav- ings on Steel, of Portrait? and Scenes of the most authen- tic character, by the first artists. In two very handsome volumes, imperial 8vo., price £2 4s. cloth, rich, or in 10 Parts, at 4s. ; 20 at 2s. and 40 at Is. each. "M. Thiers has advantages in writing such a history which no English- man could possess. His great talents also are unquestionable. The nar- rative is given with much spirit and vividness, and the translation seems to us to be admirably done. The illustrative engravings add greatly to the interest of the work."— Leeds Times. " Of the talents of the translator, Mr. Redhead, we can speak highly, both from the perusal of this work, and formerly, of his version of La- martine's Holy Land. Altogether, the now famous History of the Revo- lution and the annals of the Consulate and Empire, from the pen of this eminent French writer and statesman, will be a treasure to libraries, public and private."— Scotsman. " As a whole, perhaps there is not a more interesting work in the Eng- lish language than the volume before us."— Belfast Vindicator. Watson. The Select Works of the Rev. Thomas Watson, comprising his celebrated Body of Divinity, in a series of Lectures on the Shorter Catechism, and various Sermons and Treatises. In one volume, imperial 8vo., price 13s. or in 12 Parts, at Is. each. fl'llf i'hi The0l09ical Seminary-Speer Library 1 1012 01060 0031