of labor, without an occasion to lift up their special testimony in defence of those truths and doctrines, for which their fathers and brethren had to contend in Great Britain, and which contendings indeed gave rise to the Secession at first. But their new troubles sprung up from a quarter, whence none had been anticipated.

A Synod, called the Synod of New-York and Philadelphia, [now the General Assembly Church of the United States,] organized on Presbyterian principles, and professing a general adherence to the standards of the Westminster Assembly, had already, for some time, existed in the American Colonies.*

This

The Presbytery of New Castle, belonging to this Synod, embraced within its limits some of the same territory occupied by the labors of the Associate Brethren. Presbytery appears to have regarded Messrs. Gellatly and Arnot as intruders, and to have treated them accordingly. They had been but a short time engaged in their new field of labors, when this Presbytery issued a Warning against them, in which the Associate Brethren are not only denounced as schismatics and separatists, but the whole Associate Church is charged with holding and teaching error concerning the gospel offer the nature of faith-the obligation of the religious covenant engagements of our Reforming forefathers on their posterity. And, not content with these weighty charges, the New Castle Presbytery declared the Secession in Scotland to be schismatical, and represented the Associate Brethren as seceders from the Presbyterian Church in America as well as in Scotland.

These brethren considered themselves now called upon, in Divine Providence, not only to vindicate their right, in obedience to the call and appointment, which they had received to come to this country to preach the gospel; but also to vindicate the necessity of the Secession in Scotland, and to give a full and distinct statement of the doctrines and views of the Associate Church on the points on which they deemed her doctrines had been unfairly exhibited by the New Castle Presbytery. They alleged that they could not be chargeable

*The adherence to the Westminster Confession of Faith, required of the minis-> ters belonging to the Synod of New-York and Philadelphia, contained an exception, of what not only the Synod itself, but what any Presbytery subordinate to it, might judge "not essential in doctrine, worship and government." But these non-essential particulars are not specified. Query? Can not the troubles which have, for some years past, and are still (1838) rending that numerous body, be legitimately traced to this exception, as their source?

with seceding from the Presbyterian Church in America, as they never had been in union with her. For, although the Presbyterian Church, which the Associate Brethren found in existence in this country when they came, possessed in general an adherence to the acknowledged standards of the Church of Scotland, yet no ecclesiastical connection existed between the churches in the two countries. And those standards had never been adopted as the bond of union, or terms of fellowship by the church in this country. The Associate Brethren found themselves under the necessity of meeting the false and injurious statements in this Warning, in a manner as public as they had been made.

They accordingly published their remarks on the statements in the Warning of the New Castle Pesbytery. These remarks, which were contained in a pamphlet of about two hundred and fifty pages, were from the pen of Mr. Gellatly, and give evidence, not only of very clear and sound views on these important points of scriptural doctrine, but also of a strong and vigorous mind, ardently and conscientiously attached to truth.

The controversy was carried on for some time by individuals, with a considerable degree of spirit, and, as is too frequently the case in such controversies, not without the use in some instances, of more sharpness in language than would be approved by either party, when the heat of controversy was

over.

But the Associate Brethren then complained, and the Associate Church ever since has complained, that the injurious and groundless statements were never retracted by the Presbytery of New Castle. Nor to this day have they been renounced by the Synod, or any judicatory of that church, to which the Presbytery was responsible.* For it is a principle held by the Associate Church, that religious societies have a continued existence in the succession of their members.

But the result of this controversy was, on the whole, favorable to the spread of the principles of the Associate Presbytery, as it was a means of making them more extensively known. The applications for preaching and the dispensation of the sacraments, greatly increased. The brethren of the Associate Presbytery having surmounted the opposition made to them at the opening of their labors, and the favorable manner in which their principles and their labors were received by serious people in many parts of the country, scem

* Narrative, page 42.

ing to indicate the mind of Providence that the cause which they professed would be maintained, began to think of measures which would tend to the permanent establishment of the Presbytery in this country.

The principal settlement of the adherents to the Associate Presbytery, was in Octorara and Oxford, in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. From these places Mr. Gellatly received a call to become their stated pastor. This call he accepted, and accordingly made these places the principal scene of his labors, and his residence so far as the general interests of the now thriving society, and the frequent calls to labor in new places, would permit.

The term of Mr. Arnot's appointment being limited, it was necessary he should return to his congregation and family. The demand for more laborers was, in the meantime more pressing and increasing. The Associate Synod of Edinburgh being informed of the circumstances of the Presbytery, resolved to send them more ministerial aid. Accordingly the Rev. James Proudfit was sent over, before the expiration of Mr. Arnot's appointment. Thus the Presbytery was continued ; and as soon as practicable after Mr. Arnot's return, Messrs. Matthew Henderson and John Mason were sent over; and Mr. Smart,* also, near the same time, who remained but a short period, and returned to Scotland.

Mr. Arnot having returned home, greatly aided the cause of the Presbytery, by his influence with the Synod, and among the people. He continued to take a peculiarly deep interest in the prosperity of the Associate Church in America during the whole period of his long and useful life.

Several ministers and probationers arriving from Scotland, the affairs of the Presbytery continued in a prosperous condition; but without any occurrence worthy of special notice, until after the death of Mr. Gellatly; which event took place March 12, 1761; a little less than five years after his arrival.† The loss of this eminent servant of Jesus Christ, who had been so completely identified with the interests of the Associate Church in America, produced a deep sensation, not only throughout the infant society in this country, but also among its friends in Scotland. He was removed in the forty-second year of his age, and from a sphere of usefulness from which the highest expectations might reasonably have been entertained.

* Two grandsons of Mr. Smart's are now in the ministry, in the Associate Church, in this country.

+ See Appendix A.

But the church's loss was his gain. His Great Master saw fit to remove him from a field of labor which his bodily constitution, already enfeebled by too much exposure, was but little qualified to endure; and from a scene of contention and trouble, which shortly came upon the church; to that place of repose, where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest."

The applications to the Presbytery for supply of preaching, were no longer confined to the eastern section of Pennsylvania. Petitions were numerous from various parts of Pennsylvania, New-York, Virginia, and the Carolinas.* Several ministers and probationers having been sent in, and some having returned, the intercourse between the Presbytery and Synod was frequent and harmonious; and nothing occurred to interrupt this harmony until the year 1765. In the preceding year the Rev. Dr. Thomas Clark, belonging to that division of the Secession, called the Burgher Synod, emigrated, with the greater part of his congregation, from Ireland to this country. The people who emigrated with him, divided when they arrived in New-York; a part went to Long Cane, in South Carolina; the remainder, with their minister, went up the Hudson, and after remaining a short time near Stillwater, removed to a place then called New Perth, now Salem, Washington county, New-York. Mr. Clark, whose views of the grounds and principles of the Secession seem to have been very distinct and clear, made application to the Associate Presbytery for admission. After some conference with him, and explanation, certain articles were drawn up, explanatory of the terms upon which he was received, and upon which he consented to join the Presbytery. The basis of these articles was a recognition of the Secesssion Testimony. His admission took place in 1765. This transaction appears to have been entered into, in good faith, and with the best intentions, both upon the part of the Presbytery and of Mr. Clark; and were it not for what shortly followed, it might not have been worthy of particular notice. For Mr. Clark seemed to give up, wholly and sincerely, all connexion with, and partiality for, the peculiarities of the Burgher Synod. The drawing up and signing of articles of admission distinct from the public, and already ratified standards of the church, however consistent with them, seems to have been the only error in this matter, into which the Presbytery fell.

But to this may, doubtless, be traced the step taken by the

* Life of Marshall, page 7.

+ lbid. page 10.

Presbytery two years afterwards, in the case of Messrs. Telfair and Kinloch; which led to the interruption for some time, of the intercourse between the Presbytery and Synod.

Mr. Telfair and Mr. Kinloch, both from the Burgher Synod in Scotland, the former ordained, the latter a probationer, made application also to be admitted into the fellowship of the Presbytery, in the year 1769. They agreed to and subscribed the same articles which Mr. Clark had subscribed, but not without some alterations and additions, which were, however, deemed small and unimportant at the time by the Presbytery. In the additions it was expressly stipulated that neither party shall justify the Burgess oath, nor the censures inflicted on those who held the lawfulness of it; and that they look upon themselves as standing on the same footing as before the rupture." It was further agreed that the individuals should not be required to break off any connection which had subsisted between them and the body to which they had respectively belonged in Scotland.*

66

It may be justly viewed with some surprise, that men as discerning and honest as Mr. Marshall, and some others who were then in the Presbytery, did not see the absurdity of such a course, on the part of the Presbytery. For, notwithstanding that the Secession Testimony was recognized, as containing the principles upon which they united, yet the individuals admitted understood it as a union between themselves as Burghers, and the Associate Presbytery, as Anti-Burghers: and the former considered themselves still subordinate to the Burgher Synod in Scotland.†

Had it been practicable to have followed up this plan, the Presbytery would have been a mixture of various denominations, subject to the jurisdiction of two distinct religious bodies: the difference between the two Synods in Scotland, being still on the increase.

This measure was, however, much disapproved of by the Synod of Edinburgh, and not well received by the people. The Synod complained that the Presbytery received some, on terms different from that of simply assenting to the publicly received standards, which was the term upon which all should be received; and they for some time refused to grant them any further supply.‡

* Vindication of the Associate Presbytery, page 8.

+ In the trial concerning the Spruce-street Meeting-House, more than twenty years afterwards, Mr. Telfair declared on oath, before Judge Rush, that this was his understanding of it.

Marshall's Life, page 10.

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