Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/104

450 sue, in the circumstances ; and said that it was more than high time to put a stop to the growing evil of inferior courts assuming the liberty of disputing and disobeying their decisions. The ruling party in the assembly were prompt in obeying these orders of the lord commissioner. They acted with more energy than prudence or tenderness. When the 1 nverkeithing case came to be considered, the assembly sent the presbytery from their bar to Inverkeithing with orders to complete Mr Richardson's induction: they enjoined every member of presbytery to be present at the admission: they changed the legal quorum from three to five. These orders were issued by the assembly on Monday; the induction was appointed to take place on Thursday, and the members of the presbytery were ail commanded to appear at the bar of the assembly, on Friday, to report their fulfilment of these orders.

On Friday when the members of the Dunfermline presbytery were called upon, it appeared that only three had attended at Inverkeithing, and they not being the number required by the decision of the assembly to constitute a presbytery, did not feel themselves authorized to proceed to the admission. Of the other six, Mr Gillespie and other five pleaded conscientious scruples, and gave in a paper in defence of their conduct, quoting in their justification, the language of the assembly itself, who in 1736 had declared, that "it is, and has been ever since the Reformation, the principle of the church, that no minister shall be introduced into any parish contrary to the will of the congregation; and therefore it is seriously recommended to all judicatories of the church, to have a due regard to the said principle in planting vacant congregations, so as none be intruded into such parishes, as they regard the glory of God, and the edification of the body of Christ."

The assembly paid small regard to their own former declarations thus brought under their notice. They felt, indeed, that it would be rather trenchant and severe, by one fell swoop to depose six ministers all equally guilty: they resolved, however, by a majority, to depose one of the six. This was intimated to them with orders to attend on the morrow. Next day Mr Gillespie gave in a paper, justifying a statement made in their joint representation, that the assembly had themselves stigmatized the act of 1712, restoring patronages, as an infraction of the settlement made at the union. The proof of this statement, which had been questioned in the previous "day's debate, he proved by quotations from the assembly's act of 1736, made at the time when they wished to lure back and reconcile the four seceding brethren the founders of the Secession.

After prayer to God for direction which, in the circumstances of the case, and in the predetermined state of mind in which the ruling party in the assembly were, was a profane mockery of heaven, they proceeded to decide which of the six should be deposed. A great majority of the assembly (a hundred and two) declined voting; fifty-two voted that Mr Gillespie should be deposed, and four that some one of the others should be taken. The moderator then pronounced the sentence of deposition on Mr Gillespie. He stood at the bar to receive it, and when he had heard it to an end, with the meek dignity of conscious innocence, replied, "Moderator, I receive this sentence of the General Assembly of the church of Scotland, with reverence and awe on account of the divine conduct in it. But I rejoice that it is given to me on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but to suffer for his sake."

This hard measure dealt to him, excited general commiseration and sympathy even among the ministers of the church. He was humble and unassuming, a quiet, retired student, not one versant in the warfare of church courts. Sir H. Moncrieff, in his Life of Dr Erskine, testifies, that he was one of the most inoffensive and upright men of his time, equally zealous and faithful in his pas-