Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/201

Rh by himself, to paralyse his efforts, to narrow the sphere of his influence, and to circumscribe his expression of thought and feeling; an expression which had long been painful and was now thought to be dangerous to the party that had long been dominant in the Scottish church, and were charged with corrupting her doctrines and labouring to make a sacrifice of her liberties at the shrine of civil authority. That they were guilty of the first of these charges was alleged to be proved beyond the possibility of contradiction, by their conduct towards the presbytery of Auchterarder, with regard to what has since been denominated the Auchterarder creed, so far back as the year 1717; by their conduct towards the twelve brethren, known by the name of "Marrow men," along with their acts against the doctrines of the book entitled, "The Marrow of Modern Divinity," in the years 1720 and 1721; and, more recently still, by the leniency of their dealings with professor John Simpson of Glasgow, who, though found to have, in his prelections to the divinity students, taught a system of Deism rather than Christian theology, met with no higher censure than simple suspension. The students, it was insisted, could be equally well instructed from their tamely submitting to take the abjuration oath, and to the re-imposition of lay patronages, contrary to the act of union, by which the Scottish church was solemnly guaranteed in all her liberties and immunities so long as that treaty should be in existence. That this grinding yoke had been imposed upon her in an illegal and despotic manner by the tory ministry of the latter years of queen Anne was not denied; but it was contended, that those powers which the church still possessed, and which she could still legally employ, had never been called into action, but that patrons had been encouraged to make their sacrilegious encroachments upon the rights of the Christian people even beyond what they appeared of themselves willing to do, while the cause of the people was by the church trampled upon, and their complaints totally disregarded. In the contests occasioned by these different questions, Mr Erskine had been early engaged. He had refused the oath of abjuration, and it was owing to a charge preferred against him by the Rev. Mr Anderson of St Andrews, before the commission of the general assembly, for having spoken against such as had taken it, that his first printed sermon, "God's little remnant keeping their garments clean," was, along with some others, given to the public in the year 1725, many years after it had been preached. In the defence of the doctrine of the Marrow of Modern Divinity, he had a principal hand in the representation and petition presented to the assembly on the subject, May the 11th, 1721; which, though originally composed by Mr Boston, was revised and perfected by him. He also drew up the original draught of the answers to the twelve queries that were put to the twelve brethren, which was afterwards perfected by Mr Gabriel Wilson of Maxton, one of the most luminous pieces of theology to be found in any language. Along with his brethren, for his share in this good work, he was by the general assembly solemnly rebuked and admonished, and was along with them reviled in many scurrilous publications of the day, as a man of wild antinomian principles, an innovator in religion, an impugner of the Confession of Faith and Catechisms, an enemy to Christian morality, a troubler of Israel, and puffed up with vanity in the pride and arrogancy of his heart, anxious to be exalted above his brethren. These charitable assumptions found their way even into the pulpits, and frequently figured in Synod sermons and other public discourses. Owing to the vehemence of Principal Haddow of St Andrews, who, from personal pique at Mr Hogg of Carnock, the original publisher of the Marrow in Scotland, took the lead in impugning the doctrines of that book, Mr Ebenezer Erskine and his four representing brethren in that quarter, James Hogg, James Bathgate, James Wardlaw, and Halph Erskine, were treated with