the presbytery of Glasgow be prohibited to commence or carry on any further or other proceedings against the professor on account of that sermon."

"The assembly, having heard the same report and overture, did, without a vote, agree to approve thereof, with this explanation that by the expressions in the narrative, viz. and particularly the passages chiefly excepted against, no more was intended by the committee, as by several members thereof was declared, nor is intended or meant by this assembly in approving their overture, than that the committee, and thereafter the assembly, considered the passages in the said sermon, that had been remarked upon by the presbytery of Glasgow, and another passage taken notice of by some members of the committee of assembly, but not that either the committee or the assembly had read over or considered the whole of that ser

mon.'

The above sentence has been a source of great reproach to the church, and has been loudly condemned, not only by dissenters from her communion, but by many who were disposed to put the most favourable construction upon every part of her conduct. The Reformed Presbytery, now the Reformed Synod, designated the professor's sermon, a Christless sermon, and brought forward this decision of the assembly as one proof among others, "that this church appears orthodox in little (or no) other sense than the church of England is so, viz. by subscribing the thirty-nine articles which are Calvinistical in the doctrinal parts, while yet the Arminian system is generally received and taught by her clergy." And Mr. Willison, than whom no man was more tender of his mother church's reputation, remarks, “ Had Mr. Leechman written what he saith in that sermon by way of a letter to a Deist, or an enemy to prayer, in order to prove the reasonableness and advantages of prayer, it might have passed without observation. But for a preacher of Christ to deliver such a sermon to a Christian audience, that perhaps never heard him before, and might never hear him again, and to publish it too in this form to the whole world, is to me very surprising and

• Printed Acts of Assembly, 1744.

† Act, Declaration, and Testimony, &c. fifth ed. p. 91.

offensive. For when he proposes to teach his christian hearers and readers the nature of prayer, he presents God as the object of it, merely as our Creator, without any relation to Jesus Christ, the only Mediator betwixt God and man. He never speaks of God as upon a throne of grace, nor of the merit, satisfaction, or intercession of Christ, through which prayer can only be offered acceptably to God, more than the old heathens; nor speaks he of the influence or assistance of the Holy Spirit, by which the duty is to be performed. The disposition of mind which he chiefly recommends to his hearers for acceptance with God is, an assured trust and confidence in the mercy and goodness of their Creator, without once telling them through all the sermon, (which is long) of the channel through which God's mercy and goodness doth flow to men, or that he is a consuming fire to sinners out of Christ. Nay, without noticing the scripture account of the conveyance of divine mercy, he asserts, that those who pray, trusting in their Creator's mercy, shall be heard and accepted. See Sermon, second edit. pp. 7, 8, 10, 42. I know it is said that the preacher, notwithstanding these defects, is orthodox, and that he made sound declarations for the truth before the judicatories; but in my humble opinion, let his after declarations, when in hazard of censure, be never so sound, yet the foresaid omissions in a printed sermon are so very culpable, and such a bad example to students of divinity, in one that is their teacher, that the sermon ought to have been disapproven, the preacher admonished, all preachers warned against such a Christless way of preaching, and a warm recommendation given them to observe the seventh act of assembly, 1736, concerning evangelical preaching. Nay, the presbytery of Glasgow deserved thanks for the pains they had taken to inquire into that sermon, in obedience to the said act of assembly, which enjoins all preachers to have a special regard and eye to Christ in all their sermons, and presbyteries to see that they do it. "Alas!"

he exclaims, "it seems to portend little good to this poor church, when men so little versant in the Christian mediatory scheme, or so unaccustomed to evangelical preaching and teaching, are made professors of divinity, and are intrusted with the education of young men for the holy ministry !"*

* Fair and Impartial Testimony, &c. pp. 126, 127

Mr. Robe of Kilsyth, who also published an account of this affair, observes, "that Mr. Leechman having, when a probationer, preached frequently at Glasgow, was far from being looked upon as an evangelical preacher. That he offended many good judges, by his preaching in such a philosophical and abstract way, as if he had resolved the reverse of the apostle's determination, 1 Cor. ii. 2., and that some ministers gave him serious cautions and warnings concerning this. That a sermon preached by him before the synod of Glasgow and Ayr, and afterwards published, did not remove the discontent, for though the mysteries of religion and peculiarities of Christianity were mentioned, yet, both in prayer and sermon, it was done in such a sparing manner, comparatively with other subjects, as if they were but the less principal objects of Christian knowledge and faith. That his publishing his sermon upon prayer, in 1743, increased the offence. And that upon his being elected professor of divinity, the offence became more general, and was then accompanied with a deep concern lest that election might prove of evil consequence to the purity of doctrine and the ministry of this church, for it was observed by many, that sermons without Christ, and consisting of morality, without that relation to the gospel of Christ which alone can render it acceptable in the sight of God, and preachers of them were increasing, and they were afraid that the youth taught by the author of the sermon in debate would come forth rather more exceptionable than their teacher, as is ordinary in such cases.' How fatally these melancholy anticipations have been fulfilled, the neglected and the half empty parish churches in many places of the country, but too abundantly testify.

The assembly, which sat down on the ninth of May, 1745, Dr. William Wisheart, moderator, Alexander, earl of Leven, commissioner, had the Scripture Paraphrases, now in use in the church, laid before them, which they referred to a committee, in order to their being printed for the inspection of presbyteries. They also passed an act with regard to the widows' fund, which was now in full operation, and an act concerning the character and behaviour of ministers and probationers; which, with the

asual number of contested settlements, seem to have been the principal matters brought before them.

"The associate presbytery, considering that, agreeably to scripture precepts and patterns of perpetual obligation and use, the reformation of religion in Scotland, had, through the several periods thereof been carried on in a way of covenanting, wherein the kingdoms of Scotland, England, and Ireland, did concur, anno 1643; and that in pursuance of covenant engagements then come under, our Confession and Catechisms were established, and a great pitch of reformation, as to the worship and govern ment of the church, was attained unto, did, in a very early part of their progress, appoint a committee of their number to prepare and lay before them an overture for renewing the national covenant of Scotland, and the solemn league and covenant of the three kingdoms, in a manner agreeable to their present circumstances." This overture, after sundry readings, various reasonings, and several amendments made thereupon, was approven of at Edinburgh, on the twenty-first of October, 1742, the same day in which they passed the act concerning the doctrine of grace. This approval was by an unanimous vote of all present, with the exception of Mr. Thomas Nairn, who had adopted the particular views of the old dissenters, or as they are vulgarly called Cameronians, with respect to the present civil government; and contended for renewing the covenants in the express words used by our ancestors, with an exception of some particulars, where there must be an alteration of the phrase, as was done by the old dissenters at Auchensaugh, near Douglas, in the year 1712.*

The presbytery, desirous of proceeding in a matter of such vast importance with all due deliberation, agreed that there should be access for all members, present or absent, to propose any difficulties they might feel on the subject, against next meeting, and in this state the matter was left from one meeting to another, till the twenty-third of December, 1743; Mr. Nairn, however, at the very first meeting of presbytery, which was at Stirling, December the twenty-third, 1742, formally dissented

* Reasons of Dissent by Mr. Nairn.-Gib's Display of the Secession Testimony, &c. &c.

from the paragraph that respected the old dissenters; and two other brethren having some scruples about the said paragraph standing in the confession of sins, as they conceived that the reduplication of the bond thereupon would amount to a blending of civil and ecclesiastic matters in the oath of God, in renewing the covenants, which is not competent unto a church judicatory, the presbytery did unanimously, these scruples being still insisted upon, translate the paragraph complained of into a separate act, at Edinburgh, on the third day of February, 1743, on which day Mr. Nairn gave in to them reasons of dissent and secession, and withdrew himself from their communion.

The presbytery having appointed a committee of their number to prepare a draught of answers to Mr. Nairn's reasons of dissent, together with a declaration and defence of their principles, respecting the present civil government, the same was laid be fore a meeting of presbytery at Stirling, on the fourteenth of September, 1748, and on the twenty-ninth of the same month, was approved of, and soon after published by presbyterial appointment, with the above mentioned act of the twenty-third of February, 1743, appended to it. This is a performance which does great credit to the principles and to the talents of the associate presbytery-laying down the true principles of liberty without any alloy of licentiousness-marking the limits of civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, with a precision that has been seldom attempted, and while its direct object is to vindicate and enforce the authority of the prince, it most successfully exhibits the duty and the privilege of the subject.

After all this opposition from within, and still more from without, the presbytery having passed their act for renewing the covenants, at Stirling, on the twenty-third of December, 1743, continued their meeting to the ensuing week, and on the twenty-eighth day of that month, which was observed as a day of public fasting, all the ministers then present did join in a public acknowledgment of sins, and with uplifted hands, before a numerous congregation, in the following engagement to duties:-" We all, and every one of us, thongh sensible of the deceitfulness and unbelief of our own hearts, and however frequently perplexed with doubts and fears anent our actual