Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/210

238 consisted at first only of the four brethren; for though Messrs Ralph Erskine and Thomas Muir were both present at its constituting, they were only spectators. Though they had thus put themselves in a posture to work, they did not proceed for some years to any judicative acts, further than publishing papers relating to the public cause in which they were engaged; these were a review of the narrative and state of the proceedings against them, issued by a committee of the commission of the general assembly, published in March, 1734; and a testimony to the doctrine, worship, and government of the church of Scotland, or reasons for their protestation entered before the commission of the general assembly, in November, 1733, &c. This has been since known by the name of the extrajudicial testimony. In these papers Mr Erskine had his full share, and they had an effect upon the public mind, which alarmed the ruling faction in the church not a little, and drove them upon measures which could hardly have been anticipated. The friends of the seceders indeed made an extraordinary bustle, many of them from no sincere motives, some of them anxious to heal the breach, and others of them only anxious for a pretext to stand by and do nothing in the matter. The leaders of the assembly, too, fearful of the consequences of a system that was untried, were willing to concede something at the present time, to outraged orthodoxy, knowing well that though they could not recall the past, they might yet, by a semblance of moderation, preserve on their side a number of the more timid of the friends of the seceders who had not yet declared themselves, by which the schism, though not totally healed, might be greatly circumscribed. Accordingly, the next assembly when it met in the month of May, 1734, was found to be of a somewhat different complexion from a number that had preceded it There was still, however, as one of its members and its great admirer has remarked, "the mighty opposition of great men, ruling elders, who had a strong party in the house to support them," and who took effectual care, that nothing should be done in the way of reformation, further than might be justified by a calculating worldly policy. In passing the commission book, sundry reservations were made of a rather novel kind, and among others, the sentence passed against Mr Erskine and his three brethren. The act of 1730, forbidding the registering of dissents, and the act of 1732, concerning the planting of vacant churches, were both declared to be no longer binding rules in the church. The synod of Perth and Stirling were also empowered to take up the case of Mr Erskine, and without inquiring into the legality or justice of any of the steps that had been taken on either side, restore the harmony and peace of the church, and for this purpose they were to meet on the first Tuesday of July next. Never had any synod before this such a task enjoined them. The preceding assembly had enjoined its commission to do all that had been done toward Mr Erskine and his friends. This assembly enjoins the synod to reverse all that had been done by the commission, but with the express promise, that they shall not take it upon them to judge either of the legality or the formality of the proceedings they were thus ordered to reverse. Upon what principle was the synod to proceed? If the sentence of the commission was pronounced on proper grounds, and the subjects of it had given no signs of repentance, the assembly itself could not warrantably nor consistently take it off. This, "the great men, the ruling elders, who had a strong party in the house to support them, were perfectly aware of; but there were a few men, such as Willison, Currie, and Macintosh, who they knew had a hankering after the seceders, and whom they wished to secure upon their own side, and they served them by an act more absurd, than any of those that had occasioned the secession; an act requiring a synod to reverse a sentence, that either was or ought to have been pronounced in the name of the Lord Jesus