The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-02 00:00:00

THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.
FIRST SERIES OF RESOLUTIONS PASSED By THE CONVOY
CATION OF MINISTERS ON SATURDAY, THE 19TH
OF NOVEMBER, 1842, AND CONCURRED IN BY 427
MINISTERS.

L That according to the recent, and, as it appears
to this Convocation, unconstitutional decisions of the
supreme civil courts, and the interpretation which
those decisions, if allowed or sanctioned by the su-
preme power in the State, would put upon the civil
law—the obligation to receive and admit a qualified
presentee, imposed by the law of patronage on the
presbyteries of the ChurchAis Ocivil obligation, such
as may be enforced by the ordinary compulsations of
civil law; and in particular, that the rejection of a
presentee in respect of the dissent of the congregation,
according to the fundamental principle and law of the
Church is not merely an act to which the civil courts,
may refuse to give civil effect, but is in itself a civil
wrong or offence, which may be dealt with accord-
ingly by the civil courts.
2. That other decisions of the civil courts, and in
particular the decision of the Lord Ordinary in the
case of the deposition of the Strathbogie ministers,
imply an assumption of a jurisdiction in the most
sacred functions of the :worship and government of
the Church, especially in the matter of the deposition
of ministers, to the erect of reducing the sentences of
spiritual courts in the exercise of discipline over mi-
nisters and members of the Church.
3. That these claims to jurisdiction in spiritual
matters, on the part of the civil courts, are based
chiefly, if not altogether, upon the Act of Queen
Anne restoring patronage—an Act from the first
unjustifiable, and recently interpreted in a sense to
which the Church cannot conscientiously submit, and
to which she cannot consent to accommodate her
ecclesiastical procedure.
4. That as the principle involved in these decisions,
and particularly in the recent Auchterarder judg-
ment, is that of the supremacy of the civil courts over
those of the Established Church in the exercise of
their spiritual functions ; so the members of the Con-
vocation declare that no measure can in conscience be
submitted to by them which does not effectually pro-
tect the Church against the exercise of such jurisdic-
tion by the civil courts in time to come, and in par-
ticular fully prevent all future encroachments of the
nature specified in the preceding resolutions.
5. That in all their past contendings the members
of this Convocation have been actuated, and they trust
that in all their future proceedings they will continue
to be actuated, by a deep conviction of the value and
excellence of the civil and ecclesiastical constitution
under which they live ; and that one of the chief
causes of their present anxiety arises out of their im-
pression that the tendency and inevitable result of the
recent decision of the civil courts, especially if these
shall be finally sanctioned as the law of the land, must
be as entirely subversive of the Constitution as they
are repugnant to the principles of this Church and the
consciences of her office-bearers.

SECOND SERIES OF RESOLUTIONS PASSED BY THE CON-
VOCATION OF MINISTERS, ON TUESDAY, THE 22D OF
NOVEMBER, 1842, AND CONCURRED IN BY 354

NISTERS.
1. That while the Church most solemnly protests
against the ',invasion of her jurisdiction by the civil
courts, as contrary to the word of God, the Confession
of Faith, and the Constitution of this kingdom; and
while, in this particular, she is entitled, in the judg-
ment of the brethren now assembled, to declare,
as the General Assembly in the claim of rights
has declared, that the assumption by the civil
courts of authority in matters spiritual, and espe-
cially in the ordination, admission, or deposition
of ministers, and the other proceedings there set
forth, is in violation of the law establishing the
Church, which was made unalterable by the Act of
Security and the Treaty of Union ; and that whatever
is done in the exercise of that assumed authority
ought therefore to be held as in right or de jure, it is
null and void and of no effect ; still, whatever the
nation in these circumstances might do, it is not the
duty of the Church, as a kingdom not of this world,
which has not and cannot have any power of the
sword, or any secular dominion whatever, to plead
her title thus acquired and secured to the temporal
benefits of her establishment, in opposition or resist-
ance to the supreme power of the State, except in the
way of remonstrance, protest, and serious warning.
2. That as, on the other hand, it is the bounden
duty of the Church and of her faithful Ministers, to
represent to the supreme power of the State the nature
of the invasions of the civil courts upon the spiritual
provinces so, on the other hand, the refusal on the
part of the State of such a remedy as has been de-
clared indispensable to meet the emergency, cannot be
otherwise construed than as being a recognition and
sanction by the State of the principle which the deci-
sions of the civil courts involve.
3. That the brethren now assembled fully recognise
the intrinsic authority and final jurisdiction of the
civil magistrate or ;the supreme power of the Sto.to to
the exercise of all civil functions, and in the discharge
of all the duty which he owes towards the Church of
Christ ; and in particular they acknowledge the right
of the civil magistrate to fix the terms on which he
Church,bi, and in the use of which
as a right which he is to
to resist him ; and hence,
utwhsi
the
I ocenhs tuba
rbi
cs i
los
is
nt hnrene
ts poisentitledility
accordingly, as the Church being essentially
independent of the civil magistrate in her
spiritual province, is not bound, and is not
at liberty to conform her procedure in the
government of Christ's house to the orders of the State,
or of any courts of the State, against her convictions
of duty founded on the word of God, so neither is she
warranted in prescribing to the civil magistrate, or
requiring him to act according to her views, whether
in the administration of civil affairs generally, or in
what he does towards religion or about things sacred,
as in his giving to the Church, or withholding from
her, the civil countenance and support ; nor may the
Church resist his determination in these matters,
since, in both departments of his duty, the civil ma-
gistrate is always bound to act according to his own
conscience, under the rule of the word of God, and on
his responsibility to God.
4. That it is the duty of the faithful ministers of
this Church not to continue to receive the endow-
ments or emoluments secured to them by the civil
law, or to involve themselves in the manifold incon-
veniences and serious evils of a protracted struggle
with the civil power, after it shall appear that the
supreme power of the State, by refusing to relieve
them from interference of the civil court in things
spiritual, does thereby substantially and effectually
sanction the condition which the civil courts would
attach to their holding of these endowments or emolu-
ments, and to which they never Scan submit or yield
obedience, viz., the condition of subjection to civil
control in matters spiritual, and of being bound,
against their consciences, to intrude ministers upon
reclaiming congregations.
5. That it is the duty .of the ministers now assem-
bled, and of all who adhere to their views, to make a
solemn representation to her Majesty's Government,
and to both Houses of Parliament, setting forth the im-
minent and extreme peril of the establishment, the
inestimable value of the benefits which it confers on
the country, and the pain and reluctance with which
they are forced to contemplate the possibility of the
Church's separation, for conscience sake, from the
State respectfully calling
upon the rulers of this na-
tion to maintain the Constitution of the kingdom in-
violate, and to uphold a pure establishment of religion
in the land ; and, finally, intimating that as the endow-
ments of the Church are, undoubtedly, at the disposal
of the supreme power of the State, with whom it
rests either to continue to the Church her possession
of them, free from any limitation of her spiritual ju-
risdiction and freedom, or to withdraw them alto-
gether, so it must be the duty* of the Church, and
consequently
inina of the brethren now assembled, if
no
dependence on the grace of God, it
s
measurermsuch as they have declared to be indispen-
sable
be granted, to tender the resignation of those civil
advantages which they can no longer hold in consistency
with the free and full exercise of their spiritual
functions, and to cast themselves on such pro-
vision as God in
His providence may afford, main-
taining still unco
mpromised the principle of a right
scriptural connection between the Church and the
State, and solemnly entering their protest against
the judgments of' which they complain, as, in their
decided opinion, altogether contrary to what has ever
hitherto been understood to be the law and Constitu-
tion of this country.
* Twenty-one of the above 354 adherents added the
following explanation to their concurrence
" While diagreeing
from the doctrine which seems
implied in the resolutions, that the silence of the Legis-
lature constitutes an obligation on our consciences to
regard the terms of compact between Church and State
as altered, we adhere, in so far that the silence of the
Legislature, after
of Christian expediency, oblige to leave the Esta-
cy , us
a reasonable time will, on the ground
blishmsnt."

The town of Thetford, in Norfolk, has been thrown
into a state of unpleasant ferment during the last few
days, in consequence of a solicitor, hitherto consi-
dered of the highest respectability, having suddenly
absconded, leaving liabilities incurred by him to the
amount, it is supposed, at the lowest, of 20,0001. He
had appointed Friday last for meeting some very heavy
mortgage accounts, and for handing over the amount
for a farm which he had recently purchased ; and his
non-appearance on that and the following days, led to
the above unpleasant discovery. His absence has
almost created a panic in the neighbourhood, as from
his extensive transactions in mortgages, conveyances,
and other monetary matters, it is impossibleto calculate
at present the extent of his defalcations.
Wednesday,la Court of Directors was:held at the
East India House, when Lestock Robert Reid, Esq.,
was appointed a provisional member of Council at
Bombay.
Another portion of the Berlin-Stettin railroad was
opened on the 16th ult., namely from Neustadt to
Angermunde.