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Government, in this respect, wisely and earnestly co-operated with the Church; and in consequence there has subsisted a harmony and a kindly intercourse between pastors and their congregations, endearing to the community the ecclesiastical polity under which these blessings are enjoyed, and which have been highly instrumental in the wide dissemination of religious instruction.

Of late years, however, the practice of conjoining professorships with church benefices, which had occasionally prevailed in university seats, has been extended to cases where the parish was at a distance from the college, and in which the residence would be disregarded, or, at all events, the minister was subjected to authority over which the church had no controul. This was viewed, from its commencement, by many of the clergy, as a lamentable abuse; but the efforts to remove it were defeated or set aside by the General Assembly. At length, upon the sanctioning, by that supreme judicatory, of one settlement which plainly implied that there was no limit to the union of parishes with any literary, or in fact any, situation, and which was thus a virtual overturning of the ecclesiastical constitution, more vigorous exertions were called forth, and the Assembly enacted a declaratory law, requiring the strict observance of residence, as having been at all times enjoined by the law of the church. Strange as it may appear, this enactment was opposed by the leading men of the Moderate party, who were anxious to retain the power of gratifying their devoted adherents with double livings; and, under pretence that the law had not been constitutionally sanctioned, but in truth for the purpose of defeating its object, they prevailed upon many of the Presbyteries to remonstrate against it. It was accordingly repealed; but the general feeling respecting the importance of residence was so strong, that it was found necessary to propose an overture, having the same object with the declaratory law. This overture was transmitted to Presbyteries as a new statute; and it was approved by an immense majority of the inferior judicatories: so that in the Assembly immediately succeeding its transmission, it was enacted as a permanent statute *.

It is not without some foundation believed, that, notwithstanding this admirable law, the leading persons of the Mo

A full account of this important subject is given in a pamphlet by Dr. Cook, entitled "An Inquiry into Residence and Pluralities," which also contains the learned author's able and eloquent speech before the General Assembly, in support of the original constitution, and the purity of the Scottish Establishment.

derate party would endeavour, if a case occurred, to sanction the union which it prohibits. But, whatever may be in this, there is too much reason to dread that the evil which it was framed to remedy may be introduced by an indirect transgression of it. The practice is gaining ground, of clergymen, who can afford to surrender a part of their livings, procuring the appointment of helpers and successors-a description of persons who, without any law recognising them, have been admitted into the church-and of devolving upon them the duties of the benefice. It is plain that in this way residence may be violated, and curacy may in part prevail,-a system wholly inconsistent with the constitution of this church, and likely to prove ruinous to it. It is suspected that the attention of the church will again be soon directed to this interesting subject, and that the sentiments of the clergy will be divided upon it; but the same feelings and views which guarded against the improper union of offices and benefices, will, it is hoped, once more triumph, and preserve, at least in theory, the purity of her ecclesiastical constitution. There has indeed been displayed, of late years, by many members of this church, that spirit of independence and that freedom of judgment by which her founders were distinguished, and through which alone, in the present state of public sentiment, her vigour can be preserved.

To the increase of this third party, as it may be termed, though not in the strict sense of the word, it is in a high degree favourable that the great points which so long agitated the church have ceased to be regarded as of prominent interest; and that there are no topics which, upon general principles, much divide the Moderate and the Popular clergy. The former do indeed make strenuous efforts to retain their ascendency; but they are guided, it is feared, more by the desire of securing power, and of retaining the countenance of the existing political administration, than by ecclesiastical views; and they have frequently resisted a measure, merely from its having been proposed by their opponents, although, had it proceeded from themselves, they would, in perfect consistency with the maxims which they profess to hold, have given to it their strenuous support.

This, however, is ground which cannot long be successfully occupied; for it must soon be discerned, by the less conspicuous members of the party, that they are in fact fighting for the secular promotion of a few individuals; and it may be expected that they will at length shrink from sacrificing for

such an object the opinions which they conscientiously entertain.

The opposition that has lately and perseveringly been made (in 1821 and 1822), by the leaders of the Moderate party, to the election as Moderator in the General Assembly of the Rev. Dr. Cook, the learned and candid historian of the Reformation and of the Church of Scotland, and the misrepresentations which were employed to render that opposition successful, have made, I understand, a deep impression upon the minds of numbers who were compelled to join in it; and will contribute, it is hoped, to open their eyes to the wisdom, as well as to the obligation, of voting and determining, in all cases, agreeably to the tenor of their instructions, for the glory of God, and the real good of that ecclesiastical society with which they are connected. And I certainly do not envy the feelings of any of its members who do not view that amiable, excellent, and able divine, as one of its brightest ornaments, and, instead of opposing his appointment to such an ephemeral and sorry pre-eminence, do not regret that their church has no situation of honour or emolument at all adequate to his sterling merits.

MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS.

The state of the Church of Scotland, since the Revolution, has been no less favourable to the constitutional rights of the king, than to the liberties of the subject. Her ministers, at their admission, take the Oath of Allegiance, in testimony of their attachment to the civil government; and the sincerity with which they take it, as well as the well-directed zeal with which they discharge the important duties of their office, is fully evinced by the well-known fact that the members of their communion have been all along among the most loyal and most religious of his majesty's subjects. We We may therefore now conclude that Presbyterianism is not necessarily inimical to Monarchy, as was long and very justly suspected *; and that, while its abettors have not forgotten to fear God, they have learnt to honour the king. There is no sacramental test in Scotland; but an oath is required of all who are admitted to the office of a magistrate in the Royal Boroughs, &c., to support the church as established by law in those

Even Calderwood, in his " Altare Damascenum," says, "Naturâ insitum est omnibus regibus in Christum odium." And that the whole force of Presbyterianism was turned against kingly government in and about 1644, is candidly acknowledged by Dr. Cook, in his " History of the Church of Scotland,” vol. iii. p. 93.

privileges which she derives from the law of the land. It does not oblige him to communicate with the Established Church; nor to adopt all the articles of her faith; nor even to approve of her constitution: so that members of the Church of England have full and free access to all the offices of Scotland, while members of this church are incapacitated from holding any offices in England, where they are exposed to the same laws which affect other Dissenters. At the same time, though the question has never been judicially decided, there is not a doubt, that a certificate from the Presbytery within which a Scotsman has resided for a certain time, that he is, bona fide, a member of the Established Church of Scotland, would supersede the operation of the Test and Corporation Acts, on his receiving a military commission in England*."

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Patronage was abolished in Scotland, A. D. 1649; was revived at the Restoration; was partly abrogated at the Revolution; and again revived in 1712: and the ranks of Dissenters there have been thronged, perhaps, from no other cause so much as from the abuse of patronage, notwithstanding this church has still a veto, and can set aside any presentee, not merely on the ground of his moral or literary qualifications, but, "generally, on the principle that it is not for the cause of edification that his presentation should be sustained +."

• British Critic for August 1807, p. 202; and for December 1810, p. 576 + See Dr. Chalmers's "Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns," vol. i. chaps. 5 and 6.

HAVING thus considered the several Episcopal churches throughout the world, among which, together with the Kirk of Scotland, are included all the churches that enjoy the benefit of a civil establishment, I now proceed to give a brief account of the various Dissenting Communions in Great Britain; to which will be subjoined a view of all the other subdivisions of the Christian world, under the head of "Miscellaneous Sects and Denominations."

Of the various sects and parties that have separated from the Church of England, the most noted are

The Protestant Dissenters (so called, кar' εžoɣn), compre-
hending the three following denominations-viz.
English Presbyterians,
Independents, and
Baptists;

And the Methodists *.

Of those that are separated from the Established Kirk of Scotland, the chief are

The Cameronians, or Old Dissenters,

Seceders,

Members of the Relief Synod,

Scottish Baptists,

Glassites, or Sandemanians,

Bereans, and

Scottish (or New) Independents.

Of all these, in their order.

The Quakers form another numerous and distinguished body of Dissenters, who may be said to have broken off from the Church of England; and, viewed in that light, they doubtless have a claim to be ranked here, and before the Methodists. But they are a society so very distinct from all others who dissent with them from the Established Church, and they have a system of policy so peculiar to themselves, that, when we speak of Dissenters in general, we seldomn mean to comprehend the Quakers, but usually name them by themselves.

In compliance with this custom, the account of the Quakers will be reserved to that part of this work below, which treats of "Miscellaneous Sects and Denominations.”

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