REMARKS, &c.

HAVING been brought to the bar of the Presbytery of Glasgow, upon a charge of entertaining and propagating heretical opinions, and having thereby, in some measure likewise, been dragged before the tribunal of the public, I have deemed it proper, while waiting for the decision of the former court, to make an attempt in the mean time to conciliate in my favour the impartial verdict of the latter. This I have been induced to do, by the delay necessarily attendant on the judicial investigation of a case of this kind; by the numerous surmises and idle rumours at present afloat; and by the reluctance which every man naturally feels to lie under the imputation of base and groundless calumnies. I am not vain enough to suppose myself a person of any great importance; but the cause in which I am engaged, and for which I am honoured to suffer, is no trifling one; it may well summon forth all the energies of the human mind in its support; and sorry indeed should I be, and ill should I satisfy my own conscience, if, through any neglect of mine to make this public refutation, that cause should in any respect whatever be injured or affected.

I would not have it supposed that it is my intention in this present pamphlet to enter upon and exhaust

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the entire merits of the cause; to do so would require a much longer work than I have either leisure or inclination to write, or the generality of persons would muster patience to read. It will sufficiently answer my purpose, if by means of this brief and hasty production I shall be able to fix the attention of the public, or at least of that part of it which takes an interest in the matter, upon the charges preferred against me; to point out their falsehood and futility, and by unveiling the characters and motives of my accusers, to show them off in their true light; nay, a very important object will be gained if, in some instances, people can be induced, from what may be said, to suspend their judgment until the whole affair shall be brought regularly before them. Let me indulge the hope that all this may be effected by the few simple statements and plain observations about to be made.

The charges against me are nine in number. They are contained in a paper or petition laid upon the table of the Presbytery of Glasgow, on Wednesday the 27th ultimo, but which, along with several other pamphlets, enlarging upon and explanatory of the said charges, had been previously printed, and very widely circulated both in Liverpool and Glasgow. The insult offered by this latter circumstance to the reverend court, as well as the attempt thereby notoriously made to prejudge the cause, will, it is presumed, draw down upon the petitioners the severest censures from the Presbytery at their next meeting. That reverend body, in the mean time, without sustaining the petition, merely appointed a copy of it, and of the documents referred to in it, to be transmitted to me, with a request that I should answer them. It would undoubtedly have been more gratifying to me, and would perhaps have tended

more to edification, if the petition, and those who preferred it, had at once been dismissed from the bar. But this, in present circumstances, and especially considering the mass of prejudice which by the previous conduct of my accusers had been excited against me, was what I had no right to expect. And here I beg it distinctly and once for all to be understood, that neither in what I now state, nor in any subsequent observations that may occur, do I intend to cast the slightest reflection upon, or in the remotest degree to impute blame to the members of the reverend Presbytery. I admit candidly that some of the charges brought against me are serious and weighty, and if true, deserving of the strongest reprobation; nor am I ignorant of the doubts and suspicions which bold and impudent assertions, however unfounded, are calculated necessarily to excite in the breasts, even of the most discerning; and, therefore, it is perhaps difficult to say, if after all the Presbytery could have stood justified to the world, or to their own consciences, in crushing the matter at once without further investigation. But whilst in the spirit of christian candour I make these concessions, let me trust that the statements now about to be made will convince the public, and that similar statements made at the bar of the Presbytery will convince that reverend body, that boldness and confidence are not always, nor solely, proofs of a man's being in the right; and that mine is not the only instance in which, although he who is first in his own cause may seem to be just, his neighbour cometh and searcheth him. Proverbs, xviii. 17.

I consider it proper, before taking up and answering, seriatim, the charges brought against me, to advert briefly to a few of the causes, both general and special, in which

this prosecution has had its origin. By this means, the whole affair, it is presumed, will become somewhat more intelligible.

I observe then, for the information of those who may chuse to read this performance, that I have been brought to the bar of the Presbytery of Glasgow, after every attempt had been made, unsuccessfully, to bully and intimidate me into submission otherwise. It is a melancholy fact, that in England the glorious principles of Presbyterianism are little known, or if known, are almost entirely disregarded. Out of the establishment here, particularly among what are called the Evangelical Dissenters, there are few congregations indeed, in which are not to be found certain individuals, invested with a sort of Papal dignity, and who conceive themselves to be entitled, whenever and in whatever way they please, to interfere in the spiritual concerns of the petty communities to which they belong. The result of such a state of things, may be easily anticipated. Dissenting Ministers, on this side the Tweed, are in general more or less the slaves of their people; acquire a spirit of cringing, and submissiveness, most unbecoming the pastoral office; must conform themselves, particularly to the inclinations of those who take the lead in their respective congregations, and are not unfrequently, sooner or later, the victims of their caprice. This spirit of intermeddling, so inconsistent with the genius and practice of Presbyterianism, has, I am sorry to say, reached and infected many even of the Scotch churches, situated in England. The writer of this is himself a striking proof of the truth of his own remark. Some of the very men who are now most bitterly opposed to him, and sign the accusation against him, were scarcely two years since

numbered among his warmest admirers, and his staunchest adherents. So long as he appeared to them to be a convenient instrument for the accomplishment of their designs all went on smoothly, but the moment they discovered in him symptoms of a disposition to think and act for himself,the moment they perceived that he did not consider himself their slave, and would not submit implicitly to their arbitrary dictates,―means were resorted to and measures adopted, having for their object to bring him to submission, or, if unsuccessful in this, to crush him altogether. Such a course of procedure he steadfastly resisted, satisfied that in doing so, he acted the part which a due respect to himself, and to the obligations under which he lay, as a Presbyterian Minister, demanded from him. He refused to do any act, or, (except in a way of protest,) to come under any obligation, which might be construed to imply a consciousness of guilt, or which might, in any respect whatever, affect the dignity and independence of the pastoral character. He refused especially to appear and plead at the bar of a selfconstituted tribunal, to acknowledge his accusers as having a right also to be his judges, and had the temerity to appeal from them to the only court competent either to take cognizance of or decide in the cause. A line of conduct on his part so unusual and so unexpected, contributed undoubtedly to inflame still farther the already maddened minds and irritated passions of his opponents; but was it possible for him, acting conscientiously, to avoid this? Is there any one that understands aright the principles of our national establishment, that will venture to find fault with me for my conduct in this matter? Is there any member of the Presbytery of Glasgow, conscious of discharging his duty with fidelity, and acceptable to the great body of his people, who would chuse to have his proceedings con