The Erskines, however, were not only successful preachers and pastors, but were reformers. When they disliked a thing, they said so. They refused to take the oath of abjuration, not because they were Jacobites, or disloyal to the House of Hanover; but because the oath seemed to imply an approval of Episcopacy, and because its avowed design was the security of the Church of England.
In other ways, they also made themselves singular. The dominant party in the Church of Scotland were, if not hostile, yet indifferent, to the most important doctrines of religion. To correct prevailing and tolerated heresies, an old book was re-published, entitled "The Marrow of Modern Divinity," and consisting chiefly of extracts from Luther and other eminent Protestant divines. The dignitaries of the Kirk condemned the book. The Erskines heartily approved of it. A fierce controversy arose out of this.
Again: in 1712, Parliament revived the law respecting patronage in the Church of Scotland. This led to great excitement, and great wrongs. At the General Assembly in 1730, there were twelve cases of appeal against the intrusion of obnoxious ministers. The Assembly not only dismissed the appeals, but enacted that, henceforth, no reasons of dissent "against the determination of Church judicatories" should be entered on the record. Angry discussions followed. Ebenezer Erskine, in 1732, laid before the Assembly a "representation of grievances," signed by himself and others, and spoke accordingly. In the same year, as moderator of the Synod of Perth and Stirling, he opened the Synod, by preaching a sermon, in the course of which he remonstrated against the act of the preceding Assembly with regard to the settlement of ministers, alleging that it was contrary to the word of God, and the established constitution of the Church. For this, the Synod passed upon him a vote of censure. Erskine appealed to the General Assembly; but the censure of the Synod was confirmed, and Erskine was appointed to be rebuked and admonished at the bar of the Assembly. He refused to submit to this. His brother Ralph and the other ministers, already mentioned, sympathised with him. Further agitation followed, and the result of the whole was, the following charges were preferred against them:—
1. That they had seceded from the Church of Scotland by a total withdrawing from attendance upon, and submission to, its judicatories. 2. That they had formed them selves into a Presbytery, and had exercised judicial presbyterial power, not only over their own congregations, but also over the whole church. 3. That they had published a printed paper, not only assigning the grounds of their own irregular conduct, but condemning the Church and the judicatories thereof. 4. That they had administered the sacraments to persons of other congregations, without the knowledge or consent of the ministers who had the pastoral oversight of such persons. 5. That they had ordained elders, and had appointed and kept fasts in different parts of the country, to the neglect of their own proper ministerial work. 6. That they had licensed one or more persons to preach. 7. That they had, "in a pretended judicial manner," annulled "the sentence of the lesser excommunication," pronounced, by the presbytery of Dumblain, upon Archibald Edmund, and had baptized the said Archibald's child. 8. That they had taken upon them to excommunicate David Lesley, in the parish of the West Kirk, near Edinburgh. 9. That they had preached, and had baptized several children, in the parish of West Kirk, without proper certificates from the ministers of the said parish, etc., etc.[451]
Such, in substance, were the accusations which the two Erskines and their friends were summoned to answer, in the presence of the General Assembly, on the 10th of May, 1739. The accusations were disregarded, and the recusant ministers were expelled. Up to this period, the whole of the inhabitants of Scotland, with the exception of a few Popish, Episcopalian, and Cameronian Dissenters, belonged to the Established Church of the country. Now was instituted a new sect, "The Associate Presbytery," or "United Secession Church."[452]
That the Church of Scotland, as well as the Church of England, needed a reformation, is a fact which cannot admit of doubt. Abundant evidence might be adduced in proof of this. The following selections must serve as specimens.
On December 3, 1736, the Erskines and their associates drew up an "Act, Declaration, and Testimony, for the Doctrine, Worship, Government, and Discipline of the Church of Scotland," in which it was alleged:—
"1. No due care has been taken in licensing young men as probationers for the holy ministry. Many have been licensed, who, by their general and loose harangues in the pulpit, discover their ignorance of Christ and Him crucified, and their estrangement from the power of godliness. There is as little of Christ to be found in their sermons as in the systems of heathen morals.
"2. The acceptance of presentations has become fashionable; and the judicatories of the Church, instead of checking this corrupt practice, have so far encouraged it, that the settlement of presentees has been appointed, when almost the whole parish was dissenting and reclaiming.
"3. The conduct of the General Assemblies of the Church has not been equal and impartial in matters of doctrine.
"4. Several arbitrary acts and decisions have been framed and passed by the General Assemblies of the Church, whereby the government of the house of God has been undermined, and the discipline sinfully perverted.
"5. All the above-mentioned steps of defection and apostasy are followed with many evident signs and causes of the Lord's departure; such as abounding profanity, impiety, and the vilest immoralities of all sorts, wherewith the land is greatly polluted. The profane diversions of the stage, together with night assemblies and balls, these sinful occasions of wantonness and prodigality, are encouraged and countenanced in the most considerable cities of the nation. Popish errors and delusions abound more and more; and the abominable idolatry of the mass is openly frequented, yet no proper or effectual remedies are applied against this growing evil. Church discipline is not duly exercised against Papists, according to former laudable acts and constitutions of this Church. The penal statutes against witches have, of late, been repealed, contrary to the express letter of the law of God. The power of religion is daily decaying through the land; the very form of it is despised by many, and rested upon by others. Our nobility and barons, who have sometimes displayed heroic zeal, have generally burst the Lord's bonds asunder, insomuch that the very form of family worship is either despised or neglected by the most part of them. Our burgesses and commons, for the most part, know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgments of their God. The ministers in the house of God are under a more than ordinary restraint of the Spirit of God; and he that speaks against the prevailing evils makes himself a prey."
This is a dark picture; and the following is not brighter. It is taken from a sermon, by Ebenezer Erskine, published in 1736, and entitled, "The Tabernacle of David ruined by Man, and reared up by the Mighty God."