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234 posed to befriend Mr Erskine on this momentous occasion. Multitudes, It was well known, approved of every word Mr Erskine had said; but when it was made apparent with what a high hand they were to be treated, if they took any part in the matter, even those who wished him a safe deliverance might be afraid to take his part Probably he himself was not without painful misgivings when he beheld the tide of authority thus rolling resistlessly along; but he had committed himself, and neither honour nor conscience would allow him to desert the prominence on which, in the exercise of his duty, he had come to be placed, though, for the time, it was covered with darkness, and seemed to be surrounded with danger. His appeal to the assembly he supported by reasons alike admirable, whether we consider their pointed bearing on the subject, the piety that runs through them, or the noble spirit of independence which they breathe. The reasons of his appeal were five, of which we can only give a feeble outline. 1st, The imbittered spirit of the greater part of the synod, by which they were evidently incapable of giving an impartial judgment. 2nd, The tendency of such procedure to gag the mouths of those, who, by their commission, must use all boldness and freedom in dealing with the consciences of men. 3d, Because, though the synod had found him censurable, they had condescended on no one part of the truth of God's word, or the standards of this church, from which he had receded. 4th, The censured expressions, viewed abstractly from the committee's remarks, which the synod disowned, are not only inoffensive but either scriptural or natively founded on scripture. The fifth reason regarded the obnoxious act of assembly, against which he could not retract his testimony, and which the synod, by their procedure, had made a term of ministerial communion, which, for various reasons, he showed could not be so to him. On all these accounts, he claimed, "from the equity of the venerable assembly," a reversal of the sentence of the synod. To Mr Erskinc's appeal Mr James Fisher gave in his name as adhering. Reasons of protest were also given in by Mr Alexander Moncrief and a number of ministers and elders adhering to him, fraught with the most cogent arguments, though couched in the modest form of supplication rather than assertion. But they had all one fate, viz. were considered great aggravations of Mr Erskine's original offence. The sentence of the synod was confirmed, and, to terminate the process, Mr Erskine appointed to be rebuked and admonished by the moderator, at the bar of the assembly; which was done accordingly. Mr Erskine, however, declared that he could not submit to the rebuke and admonition, and gave in a protest for himself, Mr Wilson, Mr Moncrief, and Mr Fisher, each of whom demanded to be heard on their reasons of appeal, but were refused,—Mr Moncrief and Mr Wilson, immediately by the assembly, and Mr Fisher, by the committee of bills refusing to transmit his reasons, which were, in consequence, left upon the table of the house. The paper was titled, "Protest by Mr Ebenezer Erskine and others, given in to the assembly, 1733." "Although I have a very great and dutiful regard to the judicatures of this church, to whom I own subjection in the Lord, yet, in respect the assembly has found me censurable, and have tendered a rebuke and admonition to me for things I conceive agreeable to the word of God and our approven standards, I find myself obliged to protest against the foresaid censure, as importing that I have, in my doctrine, at the opening of the synod of Perth, in October last, departed from the word of God, and the foresaid standards, and that I shall be at liberty to preach the same truths of God, and to testify against the same or like defections of this church upon all proper occasions. And I do hereby adhere unto the testimonies I have formerly emitted against the act of assembly, 1732, whether in the protest entered against it in open assembly, or yet in my synodi-