20

ASSOCIATE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.

a suspended minister of the same Presbytery, and formed what they denominate the "Free Associate Presbytery of Miami."

These defections of ministers have consequently occasioned some reduction in the number of the people; but this loss has been more than compensated to the society by the peace, harmony and order that have since prevailed.

January, 1844.

HISTORY

OF

THE ASSOCIATE REFORMED CHURCH.

BY THE REV. JOHN FORSYTH, D. D.,

PROFESSOR IN THE ASSOCIATE REFORMED SEMINARY, OF NEWBURG, N. Y.

Or the earliest Scots' Presbyterian Churches in this country, we have no very certain accounts, with the exception of a few in South Carolina. In 1680, Lord Cardron took measures for the establishment of a colony in South Carolina, with the view to afford a place of refuge to his persecuted Presbyterian brethren. This was formed at Port Royal, and the minister of it was the Rev. Dr. Dunlop, afterwards Principal of the University of Glasgow. An invasion by the Spaniards, and the English Revolution of 1688, which afforded the exiles an opportunity of returning to their native land, led to the abandonment of the colony. Numbers of private persons, however, remained in Carolina, who were gathered into congregations under the care of a Presbytery which continued to exist until about the close of the last century. Of these churches, only one now remains, the Old Scots' Church of Charleston.

During that dark period of Scottish history, from 1660 to 1688, numbers of Presbyterians were transported to the American plantations, and sold as slaves. Wodrow sets the number down at 3000. They were for the most part sent to Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. To a congregation formed of these exiles, in New Jersey, Fraser, the author of the work on Sanctification, for some years preached; he afterwards removed to New England, and from thence returned to Scotland. It is much to be lamented that the accounts of these Scottish Churches are so exceedingly scanty, inasmuch as their history is connected with that of the American Presbyterian and the Associate Reformed Churches.*

* Wodrow the historian corresponded with many of them for a long series of years; his correspondence, now in course of publication by the Wodrow Society, it is to be hoped will throw much light upon this early period of American Presbyterian history.

The earliest application to the Secession Church of Scotland for ministerial aid, was made very soon after the secession took place. In 1736, the Associate Presbytery received a letter from a number of persons in Londonderry, Chester County, Penn., requesting that an ordained minister, or a probationer might be sent to them, and promising that all the expenses of the mission should be defrayed by themselves. The condition of the Presbytery, however, was such, the demand for labourers at home was so great, as to render it impossible to do more than send to the people of Londonderry a friendly letter. (McKerrow's Hist. Secess. i. 230.) The first minister sent out to America by the Secession Church, was the Rev. Alex. Gellatly, who arrived in 1751, and after a laborious ministry of eight years, finished his course at Octorara, Penn. The Covenanters, or Reformed Presbyterians, sent out the Rev. Mr. Cuthbertson in 1751; he was followed, in 1774, by Rev. Messrs. Lind and Dobbin. As the Associate Reformed Church was made up of these denominations, a very brief survey of their history will not be out of place.

Of the Reformed Presbytery, it is only necessary to observe, that it originally consisted of those who objected to the terms on which the Presbyterian Church of Scotland was re-established at the Revolution of 1688; they considered that she had fallen from the attainments she had made, especially about the year 1646, and to which she was bound by solemn covenants. While they professed to rejoice in the blessings secured to Britain by the banishment of the house of Stuart, they still regarded the constitution both of Church and State as imperfect, and hence, while they refused to become members of the former, they at the same time declined to recognise the legality of the latter. Their most distinguishing principles, are those which relate to civil government. As these will be fully explained by a member of that communion, it is not necessary to state them in this place.

The Secession originated in 1733, and was occasioned by a sermon preached by the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine, in which he strongly inveighed against certain recent acts of the Assembly having reference to the settlement of ministers. For this sermon (preached at the opening of the Synod of Perth and Sterling) he was immediately called to account, but refused to submit to the censure imposed, appealing from the sentence of the Synod to the General Assembly. The result was the secession from the Establishment of Mr. Erskine, together with his brother Ralph of Dunfermline, Mr. Wilson of Perth, and Mr. Moncrief of Abernethy, and the formation of a body known as the Associate Presbytery. Immediately upon constituting themselves into a Presbytery, they emitted a Testimony, in which they

declared that they had not separated from the Church of Scotland, but only seceded from "the prevailing party;" they appealed to the "first free reforming assembly" for an adjudication of their case, they declared their faithful adherence to all the Canons and Confessions of the church, and they particularly and strongly testified against the unsound doctrines, as well as the mal-practices which, for some years previous, had been creeping into the church. This testimony they required all who afterwards joined with them to approve; a step this, eminently injudicious, inasmuch as it was a large addition to the ancient terms of communion-bred among them a spirit of High Church exclusiveness, and was the remote cause of their subsequent unhappy divisions. In 1746 a dispute arose among the Seceders relative to the Burghers' Oath. By this time the Presbytery had reached the dignity of a Synod, numbering about forty ministers, and as many congregations. The point in debate was a clause in the oath required of those admitted to the freedom of the Royal Burghs, to this effect, that they professed the true religion as then professed in the kingdom, and "renounced the Romish religion, called Papistry." One party maintained that the taking this oath was inconsistent with the position occupied by Seceders; the other party held that there was no such inconsistency, inasmuch as the oath was no more than a recognition of the Protestant faith, as held forth in the standards of the Reformed Church of Scotland. The former were called Anti-burghers, and insisted upon making abstinence from the oath a term of communion, the latter were termed Burghers, and opposed any such restriction. The dispute, which was carried on with much vehemence and animosity, produced a division of the Synod into two distinct bodies, each claiming the name and the succession of the Associate Synod; but they were popularly known by the names just mentioned. The numbers were about equal at the time of the separation, and the growth of the two bodies in succeeding years was very nearly equal. The first effect of this breach was a change in the old Testimony to meet the new condition of things. There were, thus, in 1747, two Secession bodies, each having its own distinctive Testimony. In this state the Secession body continued until 1796, when the Burghers were again divided by a dispute respecting the power of the civil magistrate circa sacra. The subject had been in discussion for some years, one party (a very small one) holding that the magistrate was bound not only to profess the true religion, but also to maintain it at the expense and by the power of the state; the other, forming the large majority of the Burgher Synod, approached, in their views, very nearly to what has since been termed the voluntary principle, though

they did not absolutely condemn the principle of a civil establishment of religion. Connected with this question, was another respecting the binding obligation of the Solemn League and Covenant; the former party asserting the obligation of these ancient instruments upon posterity, in the strongest manner, the latter admitting it only in a very modified sense. This dispute resulted in the separation of a small party from the Synod, in 1796. They were called the Old Light Burghers; while the majority were known as the New Lights. In 1806, the Anti-burgher branch of the Secession was agitated by the same questions, and a small body, headed by Prof. Bruce of Whitburn, and the late Dr. McCrie, the eminent historian, seceded from the Synod, in consequence of a change in the Testimony on the subject of the covenants, and the magistrate's power, and formed themselves into a body called the Constitutional Presbytery; but the two parties were popularly known as the Old and New Light Antiburghers. There were thus four distinct bodies of Seceders, all equally strenuous advocates of Presbyterian government and order; all observing the same forms of worship; and the ministry in each branch being equally distinguished for evangelical sentiment. Yet each had its own Testimony, an approbation of which was demanded as a term of communion.

To finish this brief sketch: in 1820 the two principal branches of the Secession, viz: the New Light Burghers and Anti-burghers, united themselves into one body under the name of the United Secession Church. The two Synods contained at this time about 150 ministers, each; their reunion took-place just seventy years after the breach, and in the same building, Bristo Street Church, Edinburgh, where the division had occurred. Into this union the Burghers entered unanimously; but a small party of the Anti-burghers, with Professor Paxton at their head, refused to go with their brethren. These dissenters in 1827 joined the Old Lights, (Dr. McCrie's party.) While in 1837 the Old Light Burghers returned to the communion of the Established Church, thus leaving at the present time but two branches of the Secession, viz: the United Synod, numbering some 400 churches, and the Old Light Anti-burghers with 40 or 50.

The earliest missions to this country, were sent out by the Antiburgher Synod. Having received in 1751, a very earnest application from Rev. Mr. Alexander Craighead, of Octorara, for ministerial aid, the Synod appointed Messrs. James Harne, and John Jamieson to proceed as missionaries to America. These appointments having not been fulfilled, the Synod in 1752, passed a very stringent "act concerning young men appointed to missions in distant places," to