themselves into a Synod. A resolution to that effect was passed in the Presbytery of Pennsylvania at their meeting in Philadelphia, May ⚫ 1st, 1800. After setting forth the reasons for this, they "Resolved, that this Presbytery will, if the Lord permit, constitute themselves into a Synod, or court of review, known and designated by the name of the Associate Synod of North America. To meet in Philadelphia® on the third Wednesday of May, 1801, at eleven o'clock A. M. That Mr. Marshall open the meeting with a sermon, and then constitute the Synod. The rest of the day to be spent in solemn prayer and fasting."

The Synod met pursuant to this appointment. The roll then consisted of seventeen ministers. These were divided into four Presbyteries, viz., the Presbytery of Philadelphia, the Presbytery of Chartiers, the Presbytery of Kentucky, and the Presbytery of Cambridge. At this time there were also several probationers preaching under the care of the Synod. Until the year 1818 appeals might be taken from this Synod to that of Scotland. But at that time it was declared a co-ordinate Synod by the General Associate Synod of Scotland.

From this period until the present time, this society has regularly increased in members and ministers. It is perhaps worthy of remark, that her members have increased in a greater proportion than her ministers.

About the year 1820 an attempt was made to form a union between this church and the Associate Reformed Synod of the West, who had separated from what was at that time the General Associate Reformed Synod, on account of the latitudinarian principles of the latter. A correspondence was carried on between the two bodies for some years, and nearly every obstacle to a union seemed to be removed, but the attempt was at length abandoned. This result seemed to be owing in a great measure to the nature of the last communication from the Associate Reformed, the tenor of which was unconciliating and unkind.

Between the years 1838 and 1840, six or seven ministers were deposed or suspended for various offences. These have since formed themselves into a Synod, and have assumed the name of the Associate Synod of North America. Two ministers, also, in the south, one in South Carolina and the other in Virginia, who had been suspended on account of their connexion with slavery, have also assumed the name of the Associate Church. These have united, or are about to be united, to the Associate Reformed Synod of the South. A minister of the Presbytery of Miami has also joined with

a suspended minister of the same Presbytery, and formed what they denominate the "Free Associate Presbytery of Miami."

These defections of ministers have consequently occasioned some reduction in the number of the people; but this loss has been more than compensated to the society by the peace, harmony and order that have since prevailed.

January, 1844.

HISTORY

OF

THE ASSOCIATE REFORMED CHURCH.

BY THE REV. JOHN FORSYTH, D. D.,

PROFESSOR IN THE ASSOCIATE REFORMED SEMINARY, OF NEWBURG, N. Y.

Or the earliest Scots' Presbyterian Churches in this country, we have no very certain accounts, with the exception of a few in South Carolina. In 1680, Lord Cardron took measures for the establishment of a colony in South Carolina, with the view to afford a place of refuge to his persecuted Presbyterian brethren. This was formed at Port Royal, and the minister of it was the Rev. Dr. Dunlop, afterwards Principal of the University of Glasgow. An invasion by the Spaniards, and the English Revolution of 1688, which afforded the exiles an opportunity of returning to their native land, led to the abandonment of the colony. Numbers of private persons, however, remained in Carolina, who were gathered into congregations under the care of a Presbytery which continued to exist until about the close of the last century. Of these churches, only one now remains, the Old Scots' Church of Charleston.

During that dark period of Scottish history, from 1660 to 1688, numbers of Presbyterians were transported to the American plantations, and sold as slaves. Wodrow sets the number down at 3000. They were for the most part sent to Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. To a congregation formed of these exiles, in New Jersey, Fraser, the author of the work on Sanctification, for some years preached; he afterwards removed to New England, and from thence returned to Scotland. It is much to be lamented that the accounts of these Scottish Churches are so exceedingly scanty, inasmuch as their history is connected with that of the American Presbyterian and the Associate Reformed Churches.*

* Wodrow the historian corresponded with many of them for a long series of years; his correspondence, now in course of publication by the Wodrow Society, it is to be hoped will throw much light upon this early period of American Presbyterian history.

The earliest application to the Secession Church of Scotland for ministerial aid, was made very soon after the secession took place. In 1736, the Associate Presbytery received a letter from a number of persons in Londonderry, Chester County, Penn., requesting that an ordained minister, or a probationer might be sent to them, and promising that all the expenses of the mission should be defrayed by themselves. The condition of the Presbytery, however, was such, the demand for labourers at home was so great, as to render it impossible to do more than send to the people of Londonderry a friendly letter. (McKerrow's Hist. Secess. i. 230.) The first minister sent out to America by the Secession Church, was the Rev. Alex. Gellatly, who arrived in 1751, and after a laborious ministry of eight years, finished his course at Octorara, Penn. The Covenanters, or Reformed Presbyterians, sent out the Rev. Mr. Cuthbertson in 1751; he was followed, in 1774, by Rev. Messrs. Lind and Dobbin. As the Associate Reformed Church was made up of these denominations, a very brief survey of their history will not be out of place.

Of the Reformed Presbytery, it is only necessary to observe, that it originally consisted of those who objected to the terms on which the Presbyterian Church of Scotland was re-established at the Revolution of 1688; they considered that she had fallen from the attainments she had made, especially about the year 1646, and to which she was bound by solemn covenants. While they professed to rejoice in the blessings secured to Britain by the banishment of the house of Stuart, they still regarded the constitution both of Church and State as imperfect, and hence, while they refused to become members of the former, they at the same time declined to recognise the legality of the latter. Their most distinguishing principles, are those which relate to civil government. As these will be fully explained by a member of that communion, it is not necessary to state them in this place.

The Secession originated in 1733, and was occasioned by a sermon preached by the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine, in which he strongly inveighed against certain recent acts of the Assembly having reference to the settlement of ministers. For this sermon (preached at the opening of the Synod of Perth and Sterling) he was immediately called to account, but refused to submit to the censure imposed, appealing from the sentence of the Synod to the General Assembly. The result was the secession from the Establishment of Mr. Erskine, together with his brother Ralph of Dunfermline, Mr. Wilson of Perth, and Mr. Moncrief of Abernethy, and the formation of a body known as the Associate Presbytery. Immediately upon constituting themselves into a Presbytery, they emitted a Testimony, in which they

declared that they had not separated from the Church of Scotland, but only seceded from "the prevailing party;" they appealed to the "first free reforming assembly" for an adjudication of their case, they declared their faithful adherence to all the Canons and Confessions of the church, and they particularly and strongly testified against the unsound doctrines, as well as the mal-practices which, for some years previous, had been creeping into the church. This testimony they required all who afterwards joined with them to approve; a step this, eminently injudicious, inasmuch as it was a large addition to the ancient terms of communion-bred among them a spirit of High Church exclusiveness, and was the remote cause of their subsequent unhappy divisions. In 1746 a dispute arose among the Seceders relative to the Burghers' Oath. By this time the Presbytery had reached the dignity of a Synod, numbering about forty ministers, and as many congregations. The point in debate was a clause in the oath required of those admitted to the freedom of the Royal Burghs, to this effect, that they professed the true religion as then professed in the kingdom, and "renounced the Romish religion, called Papistry." One party maintained that the taking this oath was inconsistent with the position occupied by Seceders; the other party held that there was no such inconsistency, inasmuch as the oath was no more than a recognition of the Protestant faith, as held forth in the standards of the Reformed Church of Scotland. The former were called Anti-burghers, and insisted upon making abstinence from the oath a term of communion, the latter were termed Burghers, and opposed any such restriction. The dispute, which was carried on with much vehemence and animosity, produced a division of the Synod into two distinct bodies, each claiming the name and the succession of the Associate Synod; but they were popularly known by the names just mentioned. The numbers were about equal at the time of the separation, and the growth of the two bodies in succeeding years was very nearly equal. The first effect of this breach was a change in the old Testimony to meet the new condition of things. There were, thus, in 1747, two Secession bodies, each having its own distinctive Testimony. In this state the Secession body continued until 1796, when the Burghers were again divided by a dispute respecting the power of the civil magistrate circa sacra. The subject had been in discussion for some years, one party (a very small one) holding that the magistrate was bound not only to profess the true religion, but also to maintain it at the expense and by the power of the state; the other, forming the large majority of the Burgher Synod, approached, in their views, very nearly to what has since been termed the voluntary principle, though