182 



SECESSION. 



the establishment. They appear to have cherished 

 the hope that the assembly would see the propriety 

 of rescinding some of her former acts, and grant 

 that liberty which they required. These men have 

 sometimes been represented as obstinate schismatics, 

 wishing to divide the church for things of trifling 

 or minor importance. But on a careful examina- 

 tion of the whole proceedings, it appears, even by 

 the confession of eminent members of the church 

 of Scotland, that they were actuated by an enlight- 

 ened and honest zeal; and that they looked on a 

 secession as a painful measure, to which they were 

 compelled. They would willingly have remained 

 in the bosom of the church, if liberty had only 

 been granted them to testify against her corrup- 

 tions; but this was denied: they were violently 

 expelled. In these circumstances, they deemed it 

 their duty, the better to exhibit truth and testify 

 against error, to constitute themselves into a regular 

 church court : this they did, after fasting and prayer, 

 designating themselves, " The Associate Presby- 

 tery." Of course those who had befriended them in 

 the church courts, began to show a difference of 

 opinion on this part of their conduct. Soon after, they 

 framed a " Testimony to the Doctrine, Worship, 

 and Discipline of the Church of Scotland." In this 

 testimony the seceding brethren declared their 

 zealous adherence to their ordination vows, and to 

 the standards of their mother church; and likewise 

 their intention to maintain church fellowship with 

 all her ministers and members who faithfully op- 

 posed her defections, as opportunity offered. 



In the next assembly, 1734, a very different spirit 

 was manifested; numbers lamented the undue 

 severity which had been exercised toward the four 

 brethren, and were anxious that they should be 

 restored to their former standing in the church. 

 Several of the more obnoxious acts were rescinded, 

 and the synod of Perth authorized to unite the four 

 brethren to the communion of the church, and 

 restore them to their respective charges. The 

 seceding ministers were no doubt glad to see a dis- 

 position in the assembly to return to the good old 

 way; but while they thought it did not give a 

 more decided and formal condemnation of those 

 errors in doctrine which several of its members, as 

 they insisted, held and promulgated, and also several 

 acts of assembly, which had been in force several 

 years previous to the assembly of 1734, they could 

 not accept the boon offered by the synod. The 

 assembly evidently was anxious to have the seceders 

 restored, and felt no small disappointment at their 

 refusal. Both parties, indeed, seemed desirous of 

 an amicable settlement of their differences. As a 

 proof of this, at least on the one side, the seceders, 

 for nearly two years and a half, held their meetings 

 of presbytery for almost no other purpose than 

 prayer and conference, wishing and waiting for an 

 untainted return. But they thought they ob- 

 served the assembly manifesting much careless- 

 ness with regard to matters both of doctrine and 

 discipline. They now began to supply with sermon 

 such of the Christian people as petitioned for it; 

 and appointed one of their number, Mr Wilson of 

 Perth, to educate such students as might present 

 themselves for the office of the ministry in con- 

 nection with them. 



In December, 1736, they published a second Testi- 

 mony to the Doctrine, Discipline and Worship of the 

 Church of Scotland. In it they marked out and 

 condemned what they considered the leading de- 

 fections of both church and state from 1650, and ex- 



' posed the errors of Professors Simson and Camp- 

 bell, showing 1 that they were opposed to the word 

 of God and the standards of the church. Mr 

 Ralph Erskine, minister of Dunfermline, and Mr 

 Thomas Mair, minister of Orwell, acceded to the 

 associate presbytery in February, 1737. In Sep- 

 tember following, Mr Thomas Nairne, minister of 

 Abbotshall, and in June next year Mr James Thom- 

 son of Burntisland, also acceded. 



The plain and bold statements in the Second 

 Testimony, and the multitudes who were leaving 

 the church and placing themselves under the pas- 

 toral care of the seceding ministers, roused the in- 

 dignation of the leading men in the assembly. 

 The consequence was, the eight brethren were 

 libelled and cited to appear before the assembly. 

 1739. The assembly intimated their willingness 

 to drop the libel, forget all that was past, and 

 receive them into full communion. To this the 

 brethren would not agree, but gave in a paper called 

 The Declinature, in which they denied the assembly's 

 authority over them or any of their members, and 

 declared that "the present judicatories of this na- 

 tional church are not lawful nor right constituted 

 courts of Christ." For such conduct the assembly 

 now found them worthy of the highest censure, 

 but, delaying to inflict any censure at that meeting, 

 earnestly recommended the next assembly fo pro- 

 ceed against them, "unless they returned to their 

 duty and submission." In conformity with this re- 

 commendation, the assembly, in 1740, deposed them 

 from the office of the ministry, and appointed that 

 intimation of this sentence should be given to the 

 civil authorities in the different places of their resi- 

 dence, that they might be expelled from their 

 churches. But neither the summary measures of 

 the assembly, nor the reproach which the seceders 

 incurred, prevented the rapid increase of their num- 

 bers. In little more than five years after the en- 

 actment of their Declaration and Testimony, the 

 associate presbytery consisted of twenty ministers. 

 In order to counteract the Arminian opinions which 

 prevailed in the national church, the presbytery, in 

 1742, published " An Act concerningthe Doctrine of 

 Grace," in which that doctrine, "as revealed in the 

 Holy Scriptures and, agreeably thereto,, set forth 

 in our confessions of faith and catechisms, is as- 

 serted and vindicated," &c. The secession now 

 rapidly increased meeting-houses were built in al- 

 most every corner of the country, in which the 

 gospel was preached by such of her ministers as 

 the Christian people chose to call. Owing to the 

 number of ministers in the associate presbytery, it 

 was found necessary to divide it into three pr%sby- 

 teries, to meet in one synod, under the name of 

 the associate synod. This synod held its first 

 meeting at Stirling, March 1745, when among 

 other business it was called to consider the lawful- 

 ness of certain oaths, especially that termed 

 the burgess oath, necessary to be sworn previous 

 to holding office, or becoming a freeman in some 

 burghs. There was much warm discussion in the 

 synod, with regard to this oath; the first clause of 

 which, by many, was deemed exceedingly objec- 

 tionable, viz. " Here I protest, before God and your 

 lordships, that I profess and allow with my heart, 

 the true religion presently professed within this 

 realm, and authorized by the laws thereof; I shall 

 abide thereat and defend the same to my life's 

 end, renouncing the Roman religion, called Papis- 

 try." Those who held that this oath, as taken by 

 seceders, was proper, or that it was indifferent, 



