UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, the name of a religious body in Scotland, which was constituted in 1847 by the amalgamation of the E.',ZCESSION and RELIEF CHURCHES, whose origin and history we propose briefly to narrate.
The SECESSION Clluncrr.—The causes which led to the formation of the secession church, in order to be thoroughly understood, would require to be unfolded at much greater length than our space permits. But some notice of them, however brief, is abso lutely necessary. It is well known that the reformation from popery in Scotland was a very radical and decisive affair in regard to both the doctrine and government of the church. The people became strongly Calvinistic and Presbyterian; and after the acces sion of James to the English throne (1603), their attachment to their ecclesiastical system became stronger still. The efforts of that monarch to supplant it by Episcopacy proved unavailing, so far as the great body of the commons and gentry were concerned; hut moved by various considerations, into which religions conviction entered only as a very subordinate clement, many of the Scottish nobles adopted the church principles of their sovereign, and after the restoration (1660), supported the governments of Charles and James in their persecution of the uovenanters. See COVENANTS; SCOTLAND; SCOTLAND, OF. At the meeting of the Scottish estates in 1690, Episcopacy, which in Scotland had obtained a temporary supremacy under the rule of Sharp (q.v.) and Lau derdale, and had, besides, become synonymous with adherence to the house of Stuart, was abolished, and Presbyterianism re-established. One unavoidable consequence of this was the abolition of the right of Tat•anagP, for in a multitiide, probably the great majority of cases, the exercise of this right would nave placed the nomination to ecclesi astical benefices in the hands of Episcopalian landholders, and thereby imperiled the existence of a sound Presbyterian ministry. But although there were still many zealous Presbyterians in Scotland, especially among the peasantry, the spirit of the nation as a whole had gradually undergone a great, and, in the opinion of some, a disastrous change, so far as religion was concerned. A kind of torpor seized the upper and middle classes after the "glorious revolution," and, earnestness growing unfashionable, was sneered at as fanaticism. A proof of the latitudinarianism of the times is the fact that some hun dreds of Episcopalian curates were allowed to retain the parishes in which they had been arbitrarily stationed, on subscribing the confession of faith; and great numbers of lay men became elders in a church whose strict adherents they had themselves but recently hunted even to death. This obtrusion into the church of curates whom bishop Burnet
describes as `!the worst preachers I ever heard, ignorant to a reproach, and many of them openly vicious," produced, as may easily be conceived, a pernicious influence on the purity of ecclesiastical discipline; and in 1712, when the obnoxious law of patronage was restored, the triumph of the "court" or "moderate" party in the church may be regarded as complete. See MARROW CONTROVERSY. Violent settlements, effected by the agency of dragoons, now became frequent, and greatly irritated the people, whose petitions and appeals were almost invariably disregarded; and finally, in 1730, the assem bly enacted that in future no reasons of dissent "against the determinations of church judicatures" should be entered on record. This attempt to gag the mouths of congrega tions was more than some could bear, and in Oct., 1732, the rev. Ebenezer Erskine of Stirling, in a sermon delivered in his capacity of moderator before the synod of Stirling and Perth, denounced in solemn and impassioned words the recent legislation and spirit of the church. A committee was immediately appointed to consider the matter, and reported rather vaguely but unfavorably at the ensuing meeting of synod; in conse quence of which Mr. Erskine, after three days' "warm reasonings," was found deserv ing of censure by a majority of six. He immediately protested (as did also twelve other ministers and two elders), and appealed to the next general assembly, which sustained the decision of the synod, and ordered the rebuke and admonition to be administered "in order to terminate the process." Erskine, of course, had to submit to censure, but left a written protest on the table of the assembly, in which he declared his intention to continue testifying against the " defections" of the time. This protest was also signed by William Wilson, minister of Perth; Alexander Moucrieff, minister of Abernethy; and James Fisher, minister of liinclaveu. The assembly was indignant, and next day ordained "that the four brethren appear before the commission in August next, to express sorrow for their conduct, and retract their protest ;" on pain of being suspended from their ministry. This they refused to do, and in consequence were declared " no longer ministers of the church" (Nov., 1733), whereupon they handed in a final written protest, in which, after referring to the " defections from our reformed and covenanted principles" of the "prevailing party," they protested that they were obliged TO MAKE A SECESSION FROM THEM, and appealed unto the first free, faithful, and reforming general assembly of the church of Scotland.