Christian Examiner (Newspaper) - June 1, 1843, London, Middlesex AND 01 JUNE I PRICE PER Free Presbyterian Church in 465 A Charge to the Bishop of Part Succession an Unscriptural The Gospel in connexion with the Second Advent of The Complete Suffrage 471 American Collegiate 472 Proposed Essays on Ecclesiastical Death of Joseph of 472 Homerton 472 472 Correspondents and PAGE 473 Political Examiner Parliamentary 473 The Established Church in 473 Ecclesiastical 473 A Poetical Defence of The Relation of Baptized 475 Original Poetry To the AntiSlavery 476 Reviews of Books by Smith and Payne Smith King 476 Monthly List of Books received for 478 479 FREE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE Rubicon is passed the battle has been vic tory is won the blue banner waves in triumph over five a free and protesting Presbyterian Church in Scotland All honour to the men who have thus cast with their families and into the of and with more than Spartan to conquer or to fall They have not fallen have nobly and a monument more durable than that which proudly stood on Duras shall tell the story of their moral heroism to gener ations yet Were we wrong when we wrote of this band of nearly twelve months ago and at a time when in many minds there existed lurking suspicion that they would prove recreant to their for their talents we respect their energy we admire their labours we honour their piety we love Sooner than con demn their or attack their or impugn their we would condemn our on this to per our pen to never ending Whatever maybe said of them by the ignorant or prejudiced however their acters may be attacked by the or their motives misunder stood by the they are engaged in a great and good and esteem them very highly love for their works With but little qualification beyond what the language we could wish to be not only altogether such as they these These bonds they have and emancipated from the control of the secular they thus raised to the honours and the privileges of Christs For the homage they have rendered to the dictates of and for the reverential regard they have evinced for the authority of we say and yet all honour to the and people of the free and protesting Presbyterian Church in Scotland We are quite aware how some of our own brethren may found on these expressions of confidence and good the charge of inconsistency against They may remind us of our former exposition of the difference which exists between the views of the and our own principles may ask do you hold common with these whose conduct you so much eulogise Are they not advocates of the of ecclesiastical establish ments Have they done more than secede from the existing establishment Would they not accept of an establishment of their Church at any and of a national endowment for its provided the state would grant the boon on their own principles have they ever contended for popular rights Has not the struggle now brought to a been a con between two by them thought to be but by the state declared to be supreme and subordinate Why then applaud these as if they had contended for your own and made sacrifices for the cause of and impartial not merely for Church but for the whole Christian people We at that these are questions which maybe pro and which we are bound to answer and we take leave to that it is our intention to answer them in the prosecution of this great At we deem it necessary merely to remind our that if the principles for which our bre thren in Scotland have sacrificed their and what probably they valued their status as ministers of an Established had placed them at a greater distance from us and our than they had been before their secession occurred even however much we might lament the cata would not prevent us from admiring and applauding the moral heroism of the How much more may we admire the act and applaud the when the movement is ably toward us and liberty and when we feel an entire sion that the church never can obtain the abstract establishment to which they profess their adherence and that now they will become attached to the voluntary principle even now they practically and only theoretically to abandon it and return to the iron despotism of the compulsory they will be among the first to regard as a turning again to those weak and beggarly whereunto they shall have no desire again to be in For the work they have done we honour them and with cordial we say to whereto we have already let us walk by the same let us mind the same if in any we are persuaded there is ye be otherwise God shall reveal even this unto We shall now proceed to inform our readers of the mode in which the secession was reserving the discussion of the principles involved in and of the momentous results likely to follow and on this side of the Tweedy for The Assembly met on Thursday the 18th day of as moderator for the past year took the and instead of proceeding as to constitute the meeting by arranging the roll of its tie took a preliminary objection to the constitution of the and solemnly read the following protest for himself and his adhering The great im portance of this and the permanent interest which will necessarily attach to induce us to give it the ministers and elders chosen as Commissioners to the General Assembly of the Church of indicted to meet this but precluded from holding the said Assembly by reason of the cir hereinafter set in consequence of whicha Free Assembly of the Church of in accordance with the laws and of the said cannot at this time be that the by their rejection of the claims of right adopted by the last General Assembly of the said and their refusal to give redress and protection against the jurisdiction and the coercion of late repeatedly attempted to be exercised over the Courts of the Church in matters by the Civil have recognised and fixed the con ditions of the Church as henceforward to subsist in Scot to be such as these have been pronounced and declared by the said Civil Courts in their several recent in regard to matters spiri tual and whereby it has been inter alia declared That the Courts of the as now and members are liable to be coerced by the Civil Courts in the exercise of their spiritual functions and in in their admission to the office of the holy and the constitution of the pastoral and that they are subject to be compelled to intrude ministers on reclaim ing congregations in opposition to the fundamental principles of the and their views o the Word of and to the liberties of Christs That the said Civil Courts have power to and in the preaching of the gospel and administration of as authorised and enjoined by the Church Courts the That the said Civil Courts have power to suspend spiritual cen sures pronounced by the Church Courts of fie Establishment against
