Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/105

Rh toral duties, but one who never entered deeply into ecclesiastical business, and who was at no time a political intriguer. His sole crime was, that from a conscientious feeling, he would not be present or take any active part in a violent settlement, and they must be strangely fond of stretches of ecclesiastical power, who will pronounce the deposition of such a man in such circumstances, either praiseworthy or wise.

The sentence of deposition was pronounced on Saturday. On Sabbath, the day following, he preached in the fields at Carnock to his people, from the words of Paul, "For necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel." He told his hearers, that though the assembly had deposed him from being a member of the established church, for not doing what he believed it was sinful for him to do, yet, he hoped through grace, no public disputes should be his theme, but Jesus Christ and him crucified, and then went on to illustrate his text, without saying any thing in justification of himself, or in condemnation of the assembly.

He preached in the fields till the month of September, when he removed to the neighbouring town of Dunfermline, where a church had been prepared for him. At the following meeting of assembly, in 1753, an attempt was made by the evangelical party in the church, to have the sentence of deposition rescinded; but, though some of those who voted for his deposition, stung by their own consciences, or moved by sympathy, expressed their regret in very poignant language, yet the motion was lost by a majority of three.

He laboured in Dunfermline for five years, without any ministerial assistance, and during that period, he dispensed the sacrament of the Lord's Supper thirteen times, preaching on these occasions commonly nine sermons, besides the exhortations at the tables. When he first determined to celebrate the Lord's Supper in his congregation at Dunfermline, he requested the assistance of some of the evangelical ministers in the church of Scotland; but from fear of the censures of the assembly, they refused him their aid.

The first minister who joined Mr Gillespie in his separation from the church of Scotland, was Mr Boston, son of the well known author of the Fourfold State. The parish of Jedburgh becoming vacant, the people were earnestly desirous that Mr Boston, who was minister of Oxnam, and a man of eminently popular talents, might be presented to the vacant charge. No attention, however, was paid to their wishes. The people of Jedburgh took their redress into their own hands, they built a church for themselves, and invited Mr Boston to become their minister; and he resigning his charge at Oxnam, and renouncing his connexion with the church of Scotland, cheerfully accepted their invitation. He was settled among them, 9th December, 1757. He immediately joined Mr Gillespie, to whom he was an important acquisition, from his popular talents, and extensive influence in the south of Scotland. Though associated together, and lending mutual aid, they did not proceed to any acts of government, till by a violent settlement in the parish of Kilconquhar, in Fife, the people were led to erect a place of worship for themselves, in the village of Colinsburgh, to which they invited as their pastor, the Rev. Thomas Collier, a native of the district, who had for some time been settled at Ravenstondale, in Northumberland, in connexion with the English Dissenters. At his admission to the charge of the congregation formed in Colinsburgh, on the 22d of October, 1761, Mr Gillespie and Mr Boston, with an elder from their respective congregations, first met as a presbytery. In the minute of that meeting, they rehearsed the circumstances connected with their separation from the church of Scotland, and