When I was accused of being the Author of the Ecclesiastical Characteristics.

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MODERATOR,

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T cannot but give me fome pain to think upon my ing obliged to ftand at your bar, in fome fort as a pannel or accufed perfon. At the fame time, this is greatly alleviated, by the confideration that I am now called to a regular defence of my character, which has been long abused in the most virulent manner, when I had no opportunity of speaking for myself. But Sir, before coming to the particular objection which has been pleaded before you, it is neceffary that I fhould endeavor to remove the great odium that has been, by fome in the world, industriously thrown upon me. Those gentlemen at the bar, by whom I am now constrained to this apology, perhaps know who it was that taught certain perfons who knew nothing of me, to reprefent me as a firebrand, as violent and contentious, unfit to be a member of any quiet fociety. This is a character, Sir, which I am most unwilling to bear, and which, if I am not greatly mistaken,

is most unjustly imputed to me, from any paft part of my conduct. I call upon all thofe, with whom I have lived many years in prefbytery, to say if they will lay this to my charge. The apoftle James tells us, that " if any "man offend not in word, the fame is a perfect man.”— Perfection I do not plead; but any comparative guilt in this refpect, I do abfolutely refufe, I call particularly upon my nearest neighbor, a minifter and co-prefbyter, who ought furely to be an unfufpected witnefs, because we have hardly ever agreed in any principle of church government; yet there hath not been the leaft jealoufy or drynefs between us as men, nor even as Christians or minifters; and yet difference in opinion, has often caufed fuch things between very good men. I have alfo, Sir, been many times a member of this Synod, fometimes when debates were pretty high, and may fafely affirm, that I have been as far from indifcretion and violence, as any of those who accufe me. I was none of thofe, in April 1753, who in the committee of overtures, fpun out the time purposely with long fpeeches till the fynod's hour was come, and then would not fuffer the committee to come to any decifion; but unless the fynod were immediately conftituted, threatened, with apparent paffion and fury, to withdraw, and constitute a separate fynod altogether. Probably Mr. P, and Mr. M, may be able to inform you who the perfons were; and I affure you from my own knowledge, that fuch conduct in clergymen was very aftonishing and offenfive to fome of the laity. I have been told that at the admiffion of the Rev. Mr. Baine in Paisley, the perfon who admitted him among other advices told him to beware of a party spirit; and in this, another member faid he fpoke the fenfe of the whole prefbytery. I am convinced there are fome perfons who by a party spirit mean a perfon, having different principles from themfelves, and that no meekness of temper, no purity of character, no humanity in his carriage, will in that cafe, fave an opponent from fuch an imputation. But if by a party pirit be understood a regard to the perfon as much as the cause, and profecuting their own purposes in a violent and illegal manner, without candor or charity to those who

differ from them, I know none who have a jufter title to the character than fome members of that reverend body. Several inftances might be given in their past conduct, to juftify this obfervation; fome of which perhaps I fhall afterwards mention; the reft are well enough known, and indeed, it feems to be generally agreed by the world about them, that they are not over patient of mixture.

This, Sir, very plainly appears from the cafe now before you. This prefbytery have refused leave to grant even of a call to me, upon a presentation and unanimous application from all concerned; and affign this reason for it, that there is a report of my being author of a book, which they say in their minutes is of a very bad tendency to the interefts of religion, and injurious to the characters of many minifters of this church, and therefore they appointed a committee, &c. The injury done to the town of Paisley, it is the business of the congregation to complain of, and they have done it, and wait for redress from you. The injury done to me, I beg leave in a few words, to reprefent to this venerable Synod.And here, Sir, I do not complain of their taking into confideration any book that they fhall be pleased to think contrary to the interefts of Religion, and should have been well fatisfied to hear of a motion for cenfuring irreligious books come from that quarter. I wish if ever it come from any quarter they may faithfully inspect it. But fir, I complain that they have joined my name to a certain book with which they are not pleased, and then passed a fentence condemning it, when I was not and could not regularly be before them. This is a cafe that This is a cafe that may have important confequences. All I defire is equity and juftice, and that surely I have a right to claim. The prefbetery of Paisley, Sir, had a right to accufe me if they pleased before the prefbytery of which I am a member. But they had no right at all to condemn or even to judge me themselves, and much less when I was not heard.-Perhaps it will be faid they have not found me guilty, but proposed a peaceable manner of trying whether I was fo or not; but Sir have they not found by their fentence the relevancy of the crime, against which, as well as the proof, any accufed perfon has a right to be heard.

The injury they have done me and the unjust and ty rannical method of their proceedings appear in the most evident manner from the fituation in which I now stand, and the manner of the caufe being pleaded before you-You fee with what difficulty they were hindred, or rather that they could not be hindered, from entering into the merits of the caufe, and endeavoring to perfuade the Synod to condemn this book to which they have joined my name, before they have fo much as let me know the nature and form of the procefs againft me, and when I have had no opportunity to fee and answer their charge.-This is against all rule, for by the form of process it ought to have begun at the prefbytery of Irvine; and whether it be taken up upon the footing of a fama clamosa, or a libel from a particular accufer, there muft ftill be virtually a libel in the view of the court-But by bringing it in here in the manner they have done and pleading upon it, they are endeavoring to get a law made, as it were ex post facto, upon which I may be condemned hereafter; and they have reduced me to the neceflity of pleading in defence of a book with which I do not, nor ever did pretend any connection, unless I would give a fanction to a method of proceeding pregnant with tyranny and injuftice. So that though I come to the Synod for juftice it is really hardly poffible for you fully to grant it, because you cannot wholly understand the bad effects of the Prefbyterys wrong procedure. I am fenfible Sir, that it would be giving up the very point which I am chiefly to plead, if I fhould enter into the merits of the cause so far as to confider the particulars contained in this book; whether they are just or unjust, true or falfe. But I muft beg leave to confider a little in general whether the crime of which they think proper to fufpect me was fo certainly and felf-evidently relevant that they might take it for granted, and affert it in their minutes, without fo much as having the book before them, or mentioning the offenfive paffages; which I fhould think were neceffary even in the worft book that can be conceived-and to all this join my name without fuffering me to be heard.