The Sun.
London, England, 1841-09-17 00:00:00

MORNING.' s'
1 CHURCH OF SCOTLAND:—.")
r
1,,-ei,:ave been r,,quei,tecl; on
fo:1•.)v i statement :
In c sequence of a statement Ma& attire ni, et-
ing of the Commission of Assembly;. and afterwii-ds in
various ways anxiously and industriously repeated and
impresSed on the public, that the Minority 'hake,.
view to adopt measures for excluding the majority, Or
office-bearers from the Established Church, and to wrest
from that Church its spiritual powers and independence,
it is thought right tb give the following plain account of
what is actually the state of the case :
The minority are convinced that it is their imperative
duty, as ministers and elders of the Church of Scotland,
•as established by law, and endowed by statute with cer-
tain privileges, to yield obedience to the solemn judg- •
ments of the Supreme Courts of the kingdom in what-
ever relates to the civil rights of individuals, these
Courts deciding that such rights are really affected.
The majority, on the other hand, professing their will-
ingness to render to the Supreme Courts obedience in •
all things of a civil nature, yet claim for themselves
the unqualified and irresponsible right of determining
what things are to be so regarded. They maintain that,
whatever, in their Ecclesiastical Courts, they shall ad-
judge to be spiritual, must be held to be so by all the
members of the Church, although this judgment may
be in express opposition, even as regards temporal lute
rests, to the decision of the Civil Courts. In ether words,
they arrogate to themselves the high prerogative tilde-
fining and controlling
.the jurisdiction of the Supreme
tribunals of the country. In conformity with this doc-
trine, they have regulated their procedure. They have
already deposed several ministers for no other reason—
whatever is sometimes pretended—than that they have
acted in conformity to the injunctions of the Supreme
Civil Court, the jurisdiction of which, in such cases,
has hitherto been recognised by the Church Iterself. Nut
contented with this, they have avowed their intention of
subjecting to punishment various clergymen who have
held communion with these ' ministers, under the con-
scientious persuasion that the sentence of deposition is,
in the circumstances, null and void—who declared in the
General Assembly their intention of doing so—and who •
thus, in effect, protested that, in the course they intended
to pursue, they should not be held as acting in contempt
of the authority of the Church legitimately exercised.
It is hence quite manifest that the two parties differ
fundamentally .in their conception of the constitution of
the Established Church of Scotland, arid that if this
difference, not merely in 'theory, but in practice, con-
tinues, they cannot act together as 'members of that
Church. It thus became necessary, with a .view to the
unity and efficiency of the Establishment, to consider
whether any remedy could be 'devised for what is uni-
versally admitted to be a deplorable evil. The most de-- •
sirable remedy would have been such a modification of
opinion, on the part of the Church itself, as would have
preserved harmony in reference to the respective pro-
vinces of the spiritual and civil powers, and at the same
time have given the utmost security for the induction of
well-qualified and useful ministers. The minority, suffer-
ing as they do from the arbitrary procedure of the MA'.
jority, have unceasingly wished that such modification
should beoffected. When, however, it became apparent
that, notwithstanding their forbearance, they were to
be proceeded against and thrust out of the Church,
they felt called upon by a regard both to their principles
and character, and to the peace and best interests of
the Church, in the event of the majority persisting in the
course thus threatened, to appeal to the competent autho-
rity in terms of provisions explicitly made in the Confes-
sion of Faith itself, that it might be declared which of
the the two parties was to be held as constituting the
Establishment, and entitled to its privileges and en-
dowments.

Matters cannot long remain as they now are. One of
the parties must yield; or the competent authorities must
decide between them. it would be'strange indeed if -the
minority did not use every constitutional means to de-
fend themselves against extrusion from the Establish-
ment, with which they are threatened, and to maintain
inviolate those principles which they conscientiously be-
lieve to be essential to the preservation of the National
Church of Scotland, and the subversion of which must
be its ruin. If the questions at issue can be determined
by the Civil Courts, as the 4th resolution of the last
meeting of the Commission of assembly implies, the mi-
nority will hold themselves bound by these decisions—
the majority being equally bound. If not the Legisla-
ture must interfere.

If it shall be found by the competent authorities that
the majority, as they frequently declare, have not in any
of their proceedings violated the law, or if, granting that
the law has been violated, it shall ultimately be decided
that it is expedient to give to the Church Courts juris-
diction to the extent which they now claim, the majority
would remain, as they now- are, the influential members
of the Establishment. Upon this supposition, it would
be the duty of the minority, acting upon their principles,
and absolved by the State itselffrom that obligation under
which they conceived themselves to lie in relation to the
law, either to conform to what had been thus sanctioned
by he Supreme Power, or to retire from the Establish-
ment. If, on the other hand, it shall be determined that
the principles of the minority are not only in perfect con-
formity with the constitution of the Church as now esta-
blished, but essential to its being upheld by the State,
the majority, on their part, must either yield, or, with-
drawing from the Church, form a separate society of
Christians. This, however, will be the consequence of
their own judgment or state of mind, and cannot, with
the slightest foundation of reason, be imputed to the act
of the minority, whose sole object is to defend themselves,
and to preserve the peace and unity of the Church.
The Minority have also been charged with being de-
sirous to Erastinise the Church, or in other words, to de-
prive it of its purely spiritual rights, and subject it en-
tirely to the civil power. The extremely violent and ex-
aggerated manner in which this charge has been urged,
will go far, they think, to defeat its object. and to satisfy
the public that it is without foundation. The professions
which have of late been lavishly made of an anxious de-
sire to retain the minority as fellow-labourers• in the
Church, are so many proofs that, in the estimation of
loading members of the majority, the minority are not the
inconsistent and unworthy Churchmen which they are
sometimes represented to be. They hold, and have always
held, although they do not on every occasion reiterate
the terms of their faith, that " there is no other Head of
the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ;" and that " as
King and Head of the Church, he bath appointed a
Government in the hand of Church officers," which is
" distinct from" the Government of " the Civil Magis-
trate." They claim ,for the Church the powers which
exclusively belong to it. They have no fear of any
attack being made upon the Church of their land, so as
to divest her of her peculiar powers ; and they will yield
to none in zeal for their preservation, and their uncon-
trolled exercise, if from any quarter they shall be assailed.
There is a field of spiritual power within the proper pro-
vince of the Church with which no Civil Court would,
for a moment, think of interfering, or could interfere,
and this is recognised and secured to the Established
Church by the law of the land. Any attempt to wrest
it from the ministers and other office-bearers of the
Establishment would be at once defeated, and would ex-
cite the indignation and call forth the strenuous opposi-
tion of every friend to the best interests of the Church,
and to the steady influence of pure and undefiled religion.