[1695-96.] The General Assembly met on the 17th of December 1695, and continued to sit till the 4th of January 1696, no other meeting taking place during the remainder of the latter year. None of its acts are of peculiar importance, being generally of the same tenor with those which have been already mentioned and explained. The chief subject which occupied the attention of the Church was what ought always chiefly to occupy its attention-anxious care to promote, in the most efficient manner, the moral and religious welfare of the community. In this important task the Church was not less successful than zealous; and the happiest results began to appear throughout the kingdom. Some more direct countenance began to be given to the exertions of the Church by the king; the most valuable proof of which was the act of parliament respecting schools, realizing what had been long and earnestly sought by the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and by no other Church in Christendom--a school in every parish throughout the whole kingdom, so far supported by the public funds as to render education accessible to even the poorest in the community. [1697.] The year 1697 presents nothing demanding attention so far as the Church is concerned; for it is unnecessary to repeat statements respecting the steady and persevering care for the promotion of religion displayed by the Assembly in the passing of acts against profaneness and immorality-enjoining family worship -directing ministers in the discharge of their sacred duties and urging the utmost diligence in supplying the deficiencies still existing in the northern counties. [1698.] Almost the only thing which requires mention in the year 1698, is the act of parliament commonly termed the Rabbling Act. The object of this act has been often misunderstood and misrepresented; and reference has been made to it as a proof that riotous proceedings often took place at the settlement of ministers during the period when there was no patronage, to prevent which tumults was one of the reasons assigned for its restoration. What the real reasons for the re-imposition of patronage were, we shall have future occasion to show; meanwhile a very short statement will explain the cause of the passing of the Rabbling Act. It has been already shown that the pertinacious obstinacy of the northern Jacobites and Prelatists, both in refusing to take the oaths to government, and in retaining their churches, and intruding into those where Presbyterian ministers had been placed, rendered an act of parliament necessary to prevent such conduct. But their hostility remaining unchanged, they adopted another method of giving it scope without bringing themselves within the direct terms of the law. They privately instigated the lowest, rudest, and most immoral of the populace to assemble in a tumultuous manner at the churches to which Presbyterian ministers had been sent by the Assembly, or had been called by the more respectable and pious part of the congregation, and to offer every obstruction in their power; not unfrequently inflicting severe personal injury upon the ministers. These riotous mobs were often collected from other parishes, and in all cases they were persons who had no sense of religion themselves, so that their opposition was in no respect that of a conscientious resistance to the settlement among them of free scope for acting according to its nature, to the paralyzed astonishment of the Church whose powers it had contrived furtively to seize, and to the terror and indignation of the aggrieved community. In what appears to be its period of decrepitude, clinging to civil magistracy, and sophistically misinterpreting statute law, it still strives to perpetrate its old enormities, the moroseness of its aspect and the savage ferocity of its growl proving that its native malignity is unabated, however nearly it has reached the close of its baleful existence. a minister whose doctrinal opinions they regarded as unsound, whose character failed to command their respect, or by whose ministrations they felt that they could not be edified. The persons, in short, who formed these riotous assemblages were not the real congregations of the parishes where they occurred, but a mere rabble of irreligious and immoral vagrants, collected together by the Jacobite politicians and the Prelatic clergy, for the purpose of creating disturbances, and preventing the peaceful settlement of Presbyterian ministers. Those who refer to such scenes, and to the act of parliament passed for preventing them, as proving that the want of patronage leads to confusion and popular tumult, must either be very ignorant of the history of the period, or must presume largely on the supposed ignorance of others.* This In a It has been stated that the rabbles alluded to were caused by irreligious and immoral vagrants. expression may seem to require explanation. pamphlet written by the celebrated Fletcher of Salton, in the year 1698, entitled, "Second Discourse concerning the Affairs of Scotland," it is stated that the beggars and vagrants who infested the country, subsisting solely by charity, or by riot and pillage, amounted to at least two hundred thousand people. It was no difficult matter to collect together sufficient numbers to create a rabble, or riotous mob, ready to engage in mischief and depredation of any kind on the shortest notice, out of such a formidable host of lawless and degraded vagrants; and to them recourse was most unscrupulously had by those who wished to harass the Church of Scotland, and disturb the peace of the country. But the question forces itself upon the mind, "What led to the existence of such a dreadful amount of poverty and crime in Scotland at that period? This, too, can be easily and satisfactorily explained. Twenty-eight years of tyranny and persecution had wasted the land, reducing many of its most fertile districts to the condition of a wilderness, and throwing a vast proportion of the middle and industrious classes into a state of deep poverty. The inevitable consequence was, that nearly all the lowest classes of the population were both thrown completely out of employment by the ruin of the class immediately above them, and habituated to idleness, vagrancy, and pillage, by the encouragement and example of the devastating soldiery, and the use made of them to assist in destroying the property of the respectable Presbyterians. Thus the existence of two hundred thousand vagrants, by whom the country was so grievously infested, was one of the direct results of the attempt to establish Prelacy in Scotland; and it was no wonder that such people were ready, at the instigation of those around whose paths of carnage they had so long prowled and battened, to rush anew to their wonted task of perpetrating insult and violence against the persons of Presbyterian ministers, and of interrupting the most sacred ordinances of religion. It deserves also to be stated, as a point of principle, in answer to those who wish to represent the Revolution Settlement of the Church of Scotland as decidedly Erastian, and the Church itself as abandoning its own fundamental principles, and not having the courage to assert its own intrinsic powers, that in 1698 the Commission of Assembly published a paper, termed, "A Seasonable Admonition," in which the following passage occurs" We do believe and own, that Jesus Christ is the only Head and King of his Church; and * See the act itself,-the tracts and pamphlets of the period,— and the Patronage Report. that he hath instituted in his Church officers and ordinances, order and government, and not left it to the will of man, magistrate, or church, to alter at their pleasure. And we believe that this government is neither Prelatical nor Congregational, but Presbyterian, which now, through the mercy of God, is established among us; and we believe we have a better foundation for this our church government than the inclination of the people or the laws of men."* The occasion of publishing this paper was to vindicate the conduct of the Church from the accusations brought against it by the Cameronians, and to prove that there was no just reason for these people to continue in a state of separation from the Established Church. [1699.] It is unnecessary to repeat that the Assembly of 1699 continued to pursue the laudable example set by its predecessors, in the most strenuous exertions to promote vital religion throughout the community. But it may be observed, that this Assembly expressed its approbation of the "Seasonable Admonition," and thereby gave to that faithful assertion of Presbyterian principles the sanction of the assembled Church. [1700.] The year 1700 presents little demanding peculiar attention. In an act appointing a national fast, one of the causes mentioned by the Assembly is, “Our continued unfaithfulness to God, notwithstanding of our solemn covenants and engagements. This may fairly be regarded as proving that the Church of Scotland had not abandoned the ground occupied by the fathers of the Second Reformation, but continued to acknowledge the binding and descending obligation of her National Covenants. In the parliament of the same year an act was passed for securing the Protestant religion and the Presbyterian church government, and for preventing the growth of Popery. This was caused by the jealousy which was entertained respecting the probable effect of the alliances which the continental politics of William led him to form with Popish powers, together with the activity displayed by Popish and Jacobite emissaries in endeavouring to propagate their political and religious tenets, which were justly regarded as alike hostile to civil liberty and religious truth. [1701.] The General Assembly held in the year 1701 was called to discharge a duty of a different kind from any that had for a considerable time occupied the attention of the Church. This was the condemnation of heresy, and the deposition of one of its ministers for holding and defending heretical opinions. Dr George Garden, one of the ministers of Aberdeen, had espoused the wild enthusiastic notions of Antonia Bourignon, and written a book in defence of them. Refusing to retract his opinions, the Assembly first condemned the opinions themselves as heretical, and then deposed him from the office of the ministry. It would be inexpedient to state here what these heretical opinions were; but it may be mentioned in passing, that some of them are much akin to several of those with which religion has been disturbed in our own times. [1702.] The year 1702 began its round in the midst of gloomy anticipations, which were too soon and too completely realized. When the Assembly met on the 6th of March, the commissioner, the Earl of Marchmont, communicated to them the melancholy intelligence of his majesty's dangerous illness, and warned them to expedite the despatch of all imperatively necessary business, and to prepare a Commission empowered to watch over and maintain discipline and order in the Church, whatever might take place. The Assembly * Seasonable Admonition, p. 5. manifested equal propriety and judgment in the appointment of this Commission. All the old and experienced ministers of the period antecedent to the persecution, who were still alive, were first nominated, and to them were added a sufficient number of such others as were most distinguished by experience and ability, ready to meet the possible exigencies of a crisis so dangerous. For it was well understood that the Jacobites anticipated an immediate change of measures upon the demise of William and the accession of Anne; and the Prelatists confidently expected a degree of direct favour more answerable to their wishes than the toleration or the comprehension schemes of the reigning monarch. King William died on the 8th day of March 1702, in the fifty-second year of his age, having reigned thirteen years and one month. By the Church of Scotland his memory will ever be much and justly revered, as having been, under Providence, the instrument by whom she was delivered from Prelatic tyranny and persecution. But it cannot be concealed, and ought not to be forgotten, that his systematic treatment of the Presbyterian Church was both unwise, ungrateful, and injurious. | If he did not succeed in bringing her under an Erastian yoke, it was not for want of inclination to have done so. But by the gracious support of God she was enabled to be faithful to her Divine Head and King, and He did not forsake her in her hour of trial and danger. And though the Church did not in all points take the high ground to which her principles ought to have led her, and yielded compliance in matters where she ought to have maintained an attitude of uncompromising firmness, yet, remembering her wasted and weak condition, the many perilous and distracting circumstances surrounding her, and even the biassing influence of gratitude to her earthly deliverer, it seems but just to say, that instead of harsh upbraiding censure, the conduct of the Church deserves, upon the whole, the tribute of grateful approbation. In the parliament which met in June, after the accession of Queen Anne, an act was passed, similar to those passed on former occasions, securing the Protestant religion and the Presbyterian church government. This was thought necessary, on account of the danger apprehended from the intrigues of the Jacobites, who entertained sanguine anticipations of favour from James's daughter which they could not expect from William. The proposals for a union between England and Scotland which had latterly engrossed much of William's thoughts, were again renewed and considerably forwarded, though in the midst of much hostility and opposition. [1703.] The prospect of peace and security to the Church began again to darken in the year 1703. The language of the queen's letter appeared less favourable than previous communications of the same kind for several years past. Her majesty renewed her assurance of protection to the Presbyterian church government, "as that which she found acceptable to the inclinations of the people, and established by the laws of the kingdom." It was feared that this might be regarded as equivalent to a denial of its claim to any higher and more sacred authority. But the Assembly, in their answer, and especially in an address to her majesty, did not hesitate to assert their true position. In the latter document their language is peculiarly strong and explicit; reminding her majesty that the Reformation from Popery in Scotland was by presbyters, that the Claim of Right had declared against Prelacy as a great and insupportable grievance,—and that by the acts of parliament founded thereon, "Pres byterian church government was settled, as agreeable Knowledge. Thus, in the midst of all her perils and to the Word of God, and most conducive to the ad- all her contests, did the Church of Scotland persevere vancement of true piety and godliness, and the estab-in discharging her duty to her Head and King, by prolishment of peace and tranquillity, and therefore to be the only government of Christ's Church within this kingdom.' On a subsequent session, on the thirteenth day of the Assembly's meeting, the records of several synods were under consideration, in which the intrinsic power of the church courts to meet and deliberate in all spiritual matters on their own sole authority was very strongly stated; but while the Assembly was preparing to express full and entire concurrence in these sentiments, the commissioner, Lord Seafield, rose and proceeded to dissolve the meeting in her majesty's name. This was met by an immediate though brief remonstrance, and by protests from great numbers of the members; and though the Assembly did not continue to sit, there being no peculiarly urgent business before it, and having already continued thirteen days, the dissolution did not take place till the next day of meeting was named, and the meeting concluded with the usual solemnities.+ Regarding their cause as rapidly rising towards the reassumption of superiority, the Prelatic party attempted to procure from parliament an exemption from the necessity of taking the oaths to government; and anticipating success, they proceeded to renew their intrusion into parishes, and in several instances took forcible possession of the churches. But their precipitation | and violence tended to defeat their object. The Duke of Argyle and the Earl of Marchmont procured the passing of an act for the protection of Presbyterian church government, expressed in the very terms of the Assembly's address to the queen, quoted above. To narrate the further proceedings of this parliament, and in particular the passing of that remarkable act for protecting the interests and liberties of Scotland from suffering through foreign influence, is the appropriate task of the civil historian. It is merely alluded to here for the purpose of showing that the Scottish character was resuming its native bold and independent spirit, in proportion to the growing influence and energy of the Presbyterian Church, and enabling the nation to assume such an attitude as to convince English statesmen that it could not be trampled upon with impunity. Had it been otherwise, Scotland might very soon have become an English province, but an incorporating union would never have taken place. 66 [1704.] When the Assembly met in 1704, no time was lost in asserting the inherent rights and intrinsic powers of the Church. In the answer to the queen's letter the following significant passage occurs: We are now again, with your majesty's countenance and favour, met in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, in a national Assembly."§ The synod records, to avoid the ratification of which had been one great cause of the precipitate dissolving of the preceding Assembly, were deliberately produced, approved, and ratified, so that nothing was gained by the civil power, and nothing lost by the Church; or rather, the civil power was weakened by the failure of the attempted aggression, and the Church gained in character and moral strength. Some very important steps were taken by this Assembly, with regard to providing schools and other modes of religious instruction for the Highlands, which subsequently ripened into that noble institution of Christian benevolence, the Society for Propagating Religious *Acts of Assembly, year 1703, p. 16. Willison's Testimony, p. 31. Acts of Parliament; Lockhart's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 65. § Acts of Assembly. moting the growth and welfare of His spiritual kingdom. [1705.] The year 1705 presents little of importance to demand attention. The records of the Church prove that great care continued to be taken to promote the interests of religion in every part of the kingdom, particularly in the Highlands. But the public mind was deeply occupied with those two great political subjects, -the settlement of the order of succession to the throne, and the proposals for union between Scotland and England. The latter was the more important of the two, and caused the most intense anxiety in both kingdoms. It was felt by all parties, that unless a union upon satisfactory terms could be accomplished, a fierce devastating war was not unlikely to arise, in which Scotland would certainly receive aid from France, and both countries might sustain irreparable injury. Mutual apprehensions of danger served to counterbalance the mutual jealousies of the two kingdoms; and commissioners were appointed by the two parliaments to meet and arrange the preliminaries of a Treaty of Union. In passing this act, the Scottish parliament expressly restricted the commissioners from treating at all about the government, worship, and discipline of the Church.* The nomination of the Scottish commissioners was left to the queen, which prevented the intrigues of the parties who wished to prevent the Treaty of Union from being concluded. [1706.] Several valuable acts were passed by the Assembly of 1706, respecting the internal purity and efficiency of the Church. One of these was of considerable importance, enjoining presbyteries to be more frequent and conscientious in visiting the several parishes within their bounds, for the purpose not more of stimulating than of encouraging ministers in the discharge of their important duties. An act was also passed appointing a national fast, for the purpose of supplicating the Divine direction respecting the Treaty of Union, on the consideration of which the nation was about to enter, "that all might be done to the glory of God and the good of the Church;" and the commission was directed to pay particular attention to the deliberations of parliament, and to be ready to assist with advice, or to warn by remonstrance, as might be necessary. The Scottish parliament met on the 13th of October, to commence those deliberations which should end in the termination of its separate existence. The Duke of Queensberry was commissioner, and the Earl of Seafield chancellor. When parliament met, the whole nation was roused to the most intense and feverish anxiety and excitement as to what might be the possible result of their deliberations. The Jacobites beheld in a union the ruin of all their hopes; the Prelatists anticipated support from the Church of England if the union could be effected without the express confirmation of the Presbyterian establishment, but if that were ratified, they dreaded that their own restoration to power would be for ever precluded; the Presbyterians generally were painfully apprehensive that the liberty, and even the permanent existence, of the Church would be greatly endangered by the union, from the ascendency of the Prelatic Church of England in a united parliament, and the presence of the prelates themselves in the House of Peers; and the Cameronians regarded the measure as the consummation of national guilt, being a direct violation of the great covenants by which both kingdoms were solemnly bound. The court party alone had any *Carstares' State Papers, p. 750. real wish for a union with England; yet such was the effect of so many and such conflicting grounds of hostility, that the antagonists merely neutralized each other, and rendered any well organized and vigorously combined opposition impossible. In this we cannot but see the hand of a superintending Providence, bringing order out of chaos, and overruling the elements of danger to the production of peace and safety. Again retiring from the province of the civil historian, which the discussion of such subjects would lead us to invade, we shall but state that, after a long and highly animated debate, it was carried, that an entire incorporating union should take place, and not merely one of a federal character. Before proceeding to consider the articles of the union, the parliament then directed its attention to the security of the Presbyterian Church. The importance of this was fully understood by all parties, and gave rise not only to a new trial of strength, but to a series of intrigues by those who sought to prevent the union, and of earnest and anxious prudential management by those who favoured that measure and were friendly to the Church. The Jacobites now pretended great zeal for the Church of Scotland, and declaimed on the danger to which it would be exposed by a union, a danger which they themselves were the first to realize at a subsequent period. The Commission, which had been directed by the Assembly to meet and watch over the welfare of the Church, was greatly agitated by the dubious and gloomy aspect of affairs. But they were not allowed to fall into the pit dug for them by their enemies. The Divine Head of the Church continued to protect the interests of his spiritual kingdom, and to defeat the councils of the most cunning adversary. They joined no political party, they yielded not to the deceitful persuasions of their foes, they did not give way to distempered fears,-they uttered no violent and unwary declarations,-they even exerted themselves to calm the excitement which pervaded the nation, and which they might have easily roused to a fierce and universal convulsion.* At length an Act of Security was passed, in which the acts confirming the Confession of Faith and the Presbyterian form of church government were ratified and established, "to continue without any alteration to the people of this land in all succeeding generations;" and it was further declared, that this ACT OF SECURITY, "with the ESTABLISHMENT THEREIN CONTAINED, shall be held and observed in all time coming, as a FUNDAMENTAL AND ESSENTIAL CONDITION OF ANY TREATY OF UNION to be concluded betwixt the two kingdoms, WITHOUT ANY ALTERATION THEREOF, OR DEROGATION THERETO, IN ANY SORT, FOR EVER."+ It would be very difficult, if not impossible, for language to convey more clearly and strongly the idea, that the Church of Scotland was thus intentionally placed beyond the power of the united parliament to interfere in the slightest degree with her constitutional rights and privileges; since the maintenance of her integrity unimpaired, intact, inviolable, was itself the very basis of the union, without which it would not have taken place, to interfere with which was declared to be beyond the power of the British parliament, and any infringement of which was necessarily equivalent to a virtual dissolution of that great international treaty. The remaining Articles of Union were proposed and carried with comparative ease. And at length, after they had been accepted and ratified by the English parliament, and returned to Scotland, they were regis *Carstares' State Paper, pp. 754-758. + Act of Security, Appendix. Carstares' State Papers, p. 760, "The Archbishop of Canterbury said, that he believed the Church of Scotland to be as true a tered by the Scottish parliament on the 25th of March 1707, and on the 22d of April the parliament of Scotland adjourned to meet no more. [1707.] The General Assembly met at Edinburgh on the 8th April 1707. Before their meeting the Articles of Union had been ratified by the Scottish parliament, and sent to London for the ratification of that of England. In the queen's letter to the Assembly the following sentence occurs: "We take this opportunity of renewing to you our assurance, that you shall have our protection in the free enjoyment of all the rights and privileges that by law you are possessed of;" and it is rather remarkable that her majesty makes no allusion to the topic of receiving into the Church those of the Episcopalian dissenters who should be willing to subscribe the Confession of Faith, and conform to Presbyterian government. The most important act passed by this Assembly was one respecting the Form of Process. This subject had occupied the attention of the Church for several years, and had, according to the Barrier Act, been transmitted to the presbyteries by the preceding Assembly. It was now ratified, and has ever since continued to form the chief rule of the Church of Scotland for the direction of the various ecclesiastical judicatories in the matters which come before them. It is not undeserving of notice, that this important act, completing the judicial arrangements of the Church of Scotland, took place at the very juncture of the Union, and was accordingly placed, of necessity, within the protection of the Act of Security, before the Scottish parliament, by which it was ratified, had ceased to exist. Thus the Confession of Faith, the form of church government by Sessions, Presbyteries, Synods, and General Assemblies, the mode of worship,-the rules of discipline,--and the process of judicial proceedings, -were all rendered as secure as the most solemn and conclusive national enactments,-the Revolution Settlement, the Act of Security, and the Articles of Union, -could make them. If they have since been thwarted, violated, or impeded, the blame must rest upon those who presumed to tamper with national faith, or who, in their endeavours to put a forced construction upon the letter of subordinate laws and statutes, grievously misconceived or utterly forgot the principles and the spirit of the constitution. One very pernicious act was passed at this time, which has ever since continued to operate most injuriously to the best interests of the Church and people of Scotland. The lords of the Court of Session were appointed to be commissioners of teinds, and power was given to them to determine "the transporting of kirks," that is, the removal of a church from one part of the parish to another, according to the fluctuation of the population which may have rendered such a measure expedient,-and, by implication, the building of an additional church for the accommodation of an increased population. The consent of three-fourths of the heritors, in point of valuation, is declared by the act to be necessary to warrant this removal.* The effect has been, that the narrow and selfish policy of the heritors has generally been strong enough to prevent the concurrence of a sufficient number to procure the removal, however glaringly necessary for the accommodation of the people; crystallizing, as it were, the Church of Scotland into a state of rigid immobility, and rendering her unable to adapt her arrangements to the changing necessities of the country. How strangely ignorant, to say the Protestant Church as that of England, though he could not say it was so perfect." * Dunlop's Parochial Law, p. 32. least, statesmen and legislators have always been of what is most conducive to the true welfare of a nation, and especially, how ready to employ every practicable mode of hampering the movements and obstructing the exercise of the native energies of the Christian Church, and, in particular, of the Church of Scotland. But this, and all such hostile or jealous measures, maybyterian Church; and he will have little difficulty in be fairly viewed as the instinctive testimony given by worldly men to the spirituality of her character, with which they cannot sympathize, and which they regard with the natural enmity of the fallen mind. By the Treaty of Union the Church of Scotland was placed in a new position, fitted to try severely the vitality and the power of her constitutional principles. The Act of Security had indeed precluded the British parliament from interfering with her doctrine, government, and discipline, as they existed before the passing of that act; but the removal of the seat of civil government from Edinburgh to London was certain to have an injurious effect upon the Scottish nobility and gentry, in alienating them from the Church of their native land, and accustoming them to the forms, ceremonies, want of discipline, and Erastian subserviency, of the Church of England. It was, therefore, to be expected, that early and persevering attempts would be made, both by the British Legislature and by our own Anglicized countrymen, if not to alter the government of the Church of Scotland, at least to reduce it to that condition of political thraldom in which the Church of England was held. That this should be desired by mere politicians, need excite no wonder; for it is not political sagacity, but spiritual enlightenment, which enables men to perceive and understand what are the true and essential principles of the Christian Church. They are naturally incapable of understanding on what terms alone a true Church can enter into an alliance with the State; and they therefore always regard the Church as a subordinate court, erected by the State, receiving directions from it, and necessarily subservient to it in the discharge of all its functions. And the fatal facility which the Prelatic form of church government has always shown of adapting itself to the capricious designs of statesmen, and submitting to their baneful control, has necessarily given it a recommendation in their eyes, which the Presbyterian form cannot possibly obtain, without first becoming unfaithful to its own principles. of the British parliament, from the period of the Union till now, with as much fairness and candour as he can ; and especially let him trace accurately, and with unprejudiced mind, the conduct of the faithful minority, testing it as rigidly as he will by reference to the fundamental principles and avowed standards of the Presdeciding who have been the defenders, and who the betrayers and the foes, of civil and religious liberty,by whom the cause of vital religion and national welfare has been promoted, and by whom retarded,-by whose ill-requited exertions the interests of the Redeemer's spiritual kingdom within our land have been maintained, and by whom they have been betrayed and violated, through the influence of secular motives, and in the spirit of a base subserviency to narrow-minded and worldly politicians. CHAPTER IX. FROM THE UNION TO THE RISE OF THE SECOND SECESSION IN 1752. Position of the Church of Scotland at the Union-Memorial respecting the Poor, and beneficial Management of the ChurchPolitical Movements in England, and Jacobite Intrigues in Scotland-Rise of erroneous Opinions in the Church of ScotlandJacobite Intrigues; Case of Greenshields-Hostility of the British Parliament under the Administration of Harley and BolingbrokeAct of Toleration-Oath of Abjuration-Act reimposing Patronage-Ineffectual Attempts of the Church to prevent its Enactment Examination of the Spirit, Tendency, and Intention of that Act-Argument to prove it essentially invalid-Assertions in its Preamble refuted-Conduct of the General Assembly-Remarks-Causes of the Weakness of the Church-The Cameronians -Effects of the Abjuration Oath-Case of Burntisland-Commencement of the Process against Professor Simson for HeresySecond Rabbling Act-Death of Queen Anne-Memorial against Patronage-The Rebellion-Professor Simson-The Auchterarder Case-First " Riding Committee"-Progress of unsound Opinions, how caused-Act restricting Patronage-Origin of the Marrow Controversy-Conduct of the Assembly-The Representers-First Case of Intrusion-Professor Simson--Boston and others-First direct Acceptance of a Presentation-Origin of the First Secession-Partial Change in the Conduct of the Assembly -Act against Intrusion-The Secession completed-Revivals at Cambuslang and Kilsyth-Violent Settlements-Opinions of the Court of Session-New Policy of the Moderate Party-Case of Inverkeithing-Deposition of Mr Gillespie-Origin of the Second Secession, the Relief, in 1752-Moderate Manifesto. The danger to which the Church of Scotland was exposed by the Union was very greatly increased by the admission of so many of the Prelatic curates, in weak compliance with the pernicious policy of William. It would have required the united energy and determined front of the entire Presbyterian Church to have promptly By the Act of Security, which was the basis of the met, and triumphantly resisted, every attempted en- Union, the Church of Scotland obtained the clearest croachment of the British parliament upon her secured recognition of her own principles, and the strongest rights and privileges. But this, with such a numerous ratification of her rights and privileges, which could be band of cold friends and treacherous mercenaries within conveyed by legislative enactments and secured by the her own camp, was impossible. From this time forward, solemn pledge of national faith. Yet were those prinaccordingly, the Church of Scotland presents the me- ciples as much disliked by statesmen as they had ever lancholy aspect of a declining and unfaithful Church, been; and at the very time when the ratification was assailed by enemies without, and corrupted and betrayed given, a powerful party was secretly plotting the vioby worse and more deadly foes within her own com- lation of those rights and privileges for the security of munion. To trace faithfully the sad steps of her defec- which the faith of the sovereign and the united kingtion must be now our painful and unwelcome task; with dom was pledged. The Jacobites, who wished the the perfect certainty of being compelled to record deeds restoration of the exiled Stuart race, knew well that and give expression to sentiments which will rouse the the establishment of the Presbyterian Church was the fierce rage of many, but with the deliberate determina-main obstacle to their resumption of power in Scotland; tion to state the truth, be offended who may, and whatever amount of hostility may be thereby provoked. Let the intelligent and thoughtful man mark well the course of the Church of Scotland's procedure, as well as that and the not unnatural sympathy which the English Episcopalians felt for their Scottish brethren of that persuasion, induced them to take every measure in their power for the discouragement and depression of |