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cited them, by their officer, to compeer next day. They obeyed the citation; and a committee was appointed to retire with them, in order to persuade them to withdraw their protest. The committee having reported that they still adhered to their protest, the assembly ordered them to appear before the commission in August following, and retract their protest; and, if they should not comply and testify their sorrow for their conduct, the commission was empowered to suspend them from the exercise of their ministry, with certification that, if they should act contrary to the said sentence, the commission should proceed to an higher censure.

members declared that they heard him utter nothing but sound and seasonable doctrine; but his accusers, insisting on their complaint, obtained an appointment of a committee of synod to collect what were called the offensive expressions, and to lay them before the next diet in writing. This was done accordingly; and Mr. Erskine gave in his answers to every article of the complaint. After three days warm reasoning on this affair, the synod, by a majority of six, found him censurable; against which sentence he protested, and appealed to the next general assembly. When the assembly met in May 1733, it affirmed the sentence of the synod, and appointed Mr. Erskine to be rebuked and The commission met in August admonished from the chair. Upon accordingly; and the four miwhich he protested, that, as the nisters, still adhering to their proassembly had found him censu- test, were suspended from the exrable, and had rebuked him for ercise of their office, and cited to doing what he conceived to be the next meeting of the comagreeable to the word of God and mission in November following. the standards of the church, he From this sentence several mishould be at liberty to preach the nisters and elders, members of the same truths, and to testify against commission, dissented. The comthe same or similar evils, on every mission met in November, and the proper occasion. To this protest suspended ministers compeered. Messrs. William Wilson, minister Addresses, representations, and at Perth, Alexander Moncrief, mi- letters, from several synods and nister at Abernethy, and James presbyteries, relative to the busiFisher, minister at Kinclaven, gave ness now before the commission, in a written adherence, under the were received and read. The sy form of instrument; and these four nods of Dumfries, Murray, Ross, withdrew, intending to return to Angus and Mearns, Perth and their respective charges, and act, Stirling, craved that the commisagreeably to their protest when-ision would delay proceeding to an ever they should have an oppor- higher censure. The synods of tunity. Had the affair rested here, there never would have been a secession; but the assembly, resolving to carry on the process,

Galloway and Fife, as also the presbytery of Dornoch, addressed the commission for lenity, tenderness, and forbearance, towards

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James Wardlaw, minister at Dunfermline, and Mr. Thomas Nairn, minister at Abbotshal, protested against the sentence of the commission, and that it should be lawful for them to complain of it to any subsequent general assembly

The secession properly com

the suspended ministers and the cession from the prevailing party presbytery of Aberdeen represent-in the ecclesiastical courts; and ed, that, in their judgment, the that it shall be lawful and warsentence of suspension inflicted on rantable for them to preach the foresaid ministers was too the Gospel, and discharge every high, and that it was a stretch of branch of the pastoral office, acecclesiastical authority. Many cording to the word of God, and members of the commission rea- the established principles of the soned in the same manner, and church of Scotland. Mr. Ralph alleged, that the act and sentence Erskine, minister at Dunfermline, of last assembly did not oblige Mr. Thomas Mair, minister at them to proceed to an higher cen- Orwal, Mr. John M'Laren, misure at this meeting of the com-nister at Edinburgh, Mr. John mission. The question, however, Currie, minister at Kinglassie, Mr. was put, Proceed to an higher censure, or not? and the votes being numbered, were found equal on both sides upon which Mr. John Goldie, the moderator, gave his casting vote to proceed to an higher censure; which stands in their minutes in these words of the church. "The commission did and hereby do loose the relation of Mr. Ebe-menced at this date. And accordnezer Erskine, minister at Stirling, Mr. William Wilson, minister at Perth, Mr. Alexander Moncrief, minister at Abernethy, and Mr. James Fisher, minister at Kinclaven, to their respective charges, and declare them no longer ministers of this church; and do hereby prohibit all ministers of this church to employ them, or any of them, in any ministerial function. And the commission do declare the in May 1734, did so far modify churches of the said ministers va- the above sentence, that they emcant from and after the date of powered the synod of Perth and this sentence." Stirling to receive the ejected This sentence being intimated ministers into the communion of to them, they protested that their the church, and restore them to ministerial office and relation to their respective charges; but with their respective charges should be this express direction," that the held as valid as if no such sen- said synod should not take upou tence had passed; and that they them to judge of the legality or were now obliged to make a se-formality of the former procedure

ingly the ejected ministers declared in their protest, that they were laid under the disagreeable necessity of seceding, not from the principles and constitution of the church of Scotland, to which, they said, they steadfastly adhered, but from the present churchcourts, which had thrown them out from ministerial communion. The assembly, however, which met

of the church judicatories in relation to this affair, or either approve or censure the same." As this appointment neither condemned the act of the preceding assembly, nor the conduct of the commission, the seceding ministers considered it to be rather an act of grace than of justice; and therefore they said, they could not return to the church-courts upon this ground; and they published to the world the reasons of their refusal, and the terms upon which they were willing to return to the communion of the established church. They now erected themselves into an ecclesiastical court, which they called the Associated Presbytery, and preached occasionally to numbers of the people who joined them in different parts of the country. They also published what they called an Act, Declaration, and Testimony, to the doctrine, worship, government, and discipline, of the church of Scotland; and against several instances, as they said, of defection from these, both in former and in the present times. Some time after this, several ministers of the established church joined them, and the Associated Presbytery now consisted of eight ministers. But the general assembly which met in 1738, finding that the number of Seceders was much increased, ordered the eight ministers to be served with a libel, and to be cited to the next meeting of the assembly, in 1739. They now appeared at the bar as a constituted presbytery, and, having formally declined the assembly's authority, they immediately withdrew. The assem

bly which met next year deposed them from the office of the ministry; which, however, they continued to exercise in their respective congregations, who still adhered to them, and erected meeting-houses, where they preached till their death. Mr. James Fisher, the last survivor of them, was by an unanimous call, in 1741, translated from Kinclaven to Glasgow, where he continued in the exercise of his ministry among a numerous congregation, respected by all ranks in that large city, and died in 1775, much regretted by his people and friends. In 1745, the seceding ministers were become so numerous, that they were erected into three different presbyteries, under one synod, when a very unprofitable dispute divided them into two parties.

The burgess oath, in some of the royal boroughs of Scotland, contains the following clause: "I profess and allow with my heart the true religion presently professed within this realm, and authorised by the laws thereof. I will abide at and defend the same to my life's end, renouncing the Romish religion called Papistry." Messrs. Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine, James Fisher, and others, affirmed that this clause was no way contrary to the principles upon which the secession was formed, and that therefore every Se ceder might lawfully swear it. Messrs. Alexander Moncrief, Thomas Mair, Adam Gib, and others, contended, on the other hand, that the swearing of the above clause was a virtual renunciation of their testimony; and this controversy

was so keenly agitated, that they || are erected into six different presbyteries, united in one general synod, which commonly meets at Edinburgh in May and September. They have also a synod in Ireland, composed of three or four different presbyteries. They are legally tolerated in Ireland; and government, some years ago, granted 500l. per anuum, and of late an additional 500l.; which, when divided among them, affords to each minister about 20%. over and above the stipend which he receives from his hearers. These have, besides, a presbytery in Nova Scotia; and, some years ago,

split into two different parties, and now meet in different synods. Those of them who assert the lawfulness of swearing the burgess oath are called Burghers; and the other party, who condemn it, are called Antiburgher Seceders. Each party claiming to itself the lawful constitution of the Associate Synod, the Antiburghers, after several previous steps, excommunicated the Burghers, on the ground of their sin, and of their contumacy in it. This rupture took place in 1747, since which period no attempts to effect a re-union have been successful. They remain un-it is said, that the Burgher and der the jurisdiction of different synods, and hold separate communion, although much of their former hostility has been laid aside. The Antiburghers consider the Burghers as too lax, and not sufficiently steadfast to their testimony. The Burghers, on the other hand, contend that the Antiburghers are too rigid, in that they have introduced new terms of communion into the society.

What follows in this article is a farther account of those who are commonly called the Burgher Seceders. As there were among them, from the commencement of their secession, several students who had been educated at one or other of the universities, they appointed one of their ministers to give lectures in theology, and train up candidates for the ministry.

Where a congregation is very numerous, as in Stirling, Dunfermline, and Perth, it is formed into a collegiate charge, and provided with two ministers. They VOL. II.

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the Antiburgher ministers residing in the United States formed a coalition, and joined in a general synod, which they call the Synod of New York and Pennsylvania. They all preach the doctrines contained in the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms, as they believe these to be founded on the sacred scriptures. They catechise their hearers publicly, and visit them from house to house once every year. They will not give the Lord's supper to those who are ignorant of the principles of the Gospel, nor to such as are scandalous and immoral in their lives. They condemn private baptism; nor will they admit those who are grossly ignorant and profane to be sponsors for their children. Believing that the people have a natural right to choose their own pastors, the settlement of their ministers always proceeds upon a popular election; and the candidate, who is elected by the majority, is ordained among them.

Convinced that the charge of souls government, and discipline; and is a trust of the greatest import- they so far differ from the Disance, they carefully watch over senters in England, in that they the morals of their students, and hold these standards to be not only direct them to such a course of articles of peace and a test of orreading and study as they judge thodoxy, but as a bond of union most proper to qualify them for and fellowship. They consider a the profitable discharge of the simple declaration of adherence pastoral duties. At the ordina- to the scriptures as too equivocal tion of their ministers they use a a proof of unity in sentiment, beformula of the same kind with that cause Arians, Socinians, and Arof the established church, which minians, make such a confession of their ministers are bound to sub-their faith, while they retain senscribe when called to it; and if timents which they (the Seceders) any of them teach doctrines con-apprehend are subversive of the trary to the scriptures, or the great doctrines of the Gospel. Westminster Confession of Faith,They believe that Jesus Christ is they are sure of being thrown out the only King and Head of the of their communion. By this means, uniformity of sentiment is preserved among them; nor has any of their ministers, excepting one, been prosecuted for error in doctrine since the commencement of their secession.

church, which is his body; that it is his sole prerogative to enact laws for the government of his kingdom, which is not of this world; and that the church is not possessed of a legislative, but only of an executive power, to be exThey believe that the holy ercised in explaining and applyscriptures are the sole criterion of ing to their proper objects and truth, and the only rule to direct ends those laws which Christ hath mankind to glorify and enjoy God, published in the scriptures. Those the chief and eternal good; and doctrines which they teach relathat "the Supreme Judge, by tive to faith and practice are exhiwhich all controversies of religionbited at great length in an Explaare to be determined, and all the nation of the Westminster Assemdecrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers, doctrines of men and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the scriptures." They are fully persuaded, however, that the standards of public authority in the church of Scotland exhibit a just and consistent view of the meaning and design of the holy scriptures with regard to doctrine, worship,

bly's Shorter Catechism, by way of question and answer, in two volumes, composed chiefly by Mr. James Fisher, late of Glasgow, and published by desire of their synod.

For these fifty years past, the grounds of their secession, they allege, have been greatly enlarged by the public administrations of the established church, and particularly by the uniform execution of the law respecting patronage,

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