Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/108

451 Tealing, in the neighbourhood of Dundee. Mr Glass had been a diligent student, was deeply impressed with the importance of the ministerial character, and the awful responsibility which attached to it, and was anxious, in no common degree, about the due discharge of the various duties which it involved. In his public services he was highly acceptable; had a singular gift of prayer; and in his sermons, which, according to the fashion of the time, were seldom less than two, sometimes three, hours in length, he attracted and kept up the unwearied attention of crowded audiences. His fame as a preacher, of course, soon spread abroad, and his sacramental occasions attracted vast crowds from distant quarters; the usual concomitant, in those days, of popularity. But it was not public services alone that absorbed his attention; the more private duties of his station were equally attended to. Even so early as 1725, only two years after his settlement, he had formed within his parish a little society of persons, whom he found to be particularly under serious impressions, and with whom he cultivated a more intimate intercourse, though no part of his charge was neglected. It is probable, however, that his peculiar notions of the constitution of a Christian church were by this time beginning to be developed, and this intercourse with a detached and particular part of his charge, must have tended to hasten the process. Breach of covenant engagements, from a combination of circumstances, was at this time very generally insisted on in the ministrations of the Scottish clergy. The binding obligation of both the National Covenant of Scotland, and the Solemn League and Covenant of the three kingdoms, being universally admitted, Mr Glass began to preach against these covenants, as incompatible with the nature of the gospel dispensation and the sacred rights of conscience. A paper written by him at this time to the above effect excited a very great sensation throughout the country, and called forth some of the ablest defences of these famous deeds that have yet appeared. In the above paper, Mr Glass did not state himself as formally an enemy to the covenants, but only as an inquirer, wishing further light and information respecting them; yet it was evident to every intelligent person that he was no longer a Presbyterian. He was forthwith summoned before the church courts; and refusing to. sign the formula, and some passages of the Confession of Faith, was, by the synod of Angus and Mearns, deposed from his office, on the 12th of April, 1728.

The same year he published his " King of Martyrs," in which he embodied his views more fully matured. This book had no inconsiderable share of popularity, and it has served for a general storehouse, whence Mr Patrick Hutchison, and after him all the modern advocates of spirituality, as a peculiar and distinguishing characteristic of the New Testament church, have drawn their principal arguments. On his deposition, Mr Glass removed from Tealing to Dundee, where, several persons joining him, he formed the first church of the kind in Scotland. This small body was not without its share of the obloquy to which Independency had long been exposed in Scotland, nor were the members without their fears respecting the practicability of the scheme, being doubtful of a sufficiency of gifts in the lay brethren. When they came to the proof, however, they were agreeably disappointed; and wherever they had occasion to form churches, which was in a short time in a great many places, appear to have found no lack of qualified persons. In the year 1733, Mr Glass removed from Dundee to Perth, where he erected a small meeting-house, which was thought great presumption, especially as the handful of people that attended arrogated to themselves the name of a church. Attempts were even made to eject them forcibly from the town, and a zealous lady beholding Mr Glass in the street, was heard to exclaim, "why do they not rive [tear] him in pieces!" In the year 1739, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the same that