III. Scottish, or New Indepemlents. — In Scotland Inde- pendency originated with John Glas (q. v.). The Bap- tists there, as elsewhere, are Independents. The regu- lar Congregationalists are also numerous. See Cosgke- GATioxALisTS. Apart from these, there is a body called "New Independents." " In December, 1797, Robert Hal- dane (q. v.) formed a ' Society for Propagating the Gos- pel at Home.'' The object of this society was to send forth men to preach the Gospel in those parts of Scotland where they conceived that this blessing was not enjoyed in its purity, or where it was not regularly dispensed. Adopting the opinion that it is the duty of every Cliris- tian who knows the Gospel, and is duly qualified, to preach it to his fellow-sinners, James Haldane, brother of Robert, IMr. Aikman, and others, travelled through the greater part of Scotland, and preached. In a short time the Messrs. Haldane separated from the Church of Scot- land, and soon after two other ministers of the National Church, Inncs and Ewing, resigned their charges, and united with the Haldaues and their associates. A dis-
tinct society was soon formed, at the head of which were the Haldanes; and hence its members have been also called Ilaldanites, or Haldanite Independents. Large places of pubUc worship, denominated Taberiiacles, were erected, at Robert Haldane's expense, in the principal towns, where tlie Word of God was declared to numerous assemblies, both by these ministers and others from va- rious denommations in England. At the expense chief- ly, if not solely, of Robert Haldane, academies were also formed at Edinburgh, Dundee, and Glasgow, for the ed- ucation of young men for the work of the ministry, who, when deemed qualified for preaching the Gospel, were to be employed as itinerants, mider the inspection and comitenance of the ' Society for Propagating the Gospel at Horned Thus a succession of teachers was secured.
" The doctrines of the Scottish Independents are Cal- vinistic, and they reject all articles of faith or creeds of human composition. They say that the Scriptures are a di\-ine and infallible standard, and that consistent In- dependents dare not adopt anj^ other. They insist that the Scriptiures contain a fidl and complete model and system of doctrine, government, discipline, and worship," and that in them we may find a luiiversal rule for the direction of Christians in their associated state, as well as all necessar}' instructions for the faith and practice of individuals. They require Scripture for everything, even for such things as could not be contained in Scrip- ture. Hence they reject the authority of the civil mag- istrate in matters of religion, and receive the Scri])tures, and nothing else, as binding in the worship of God. They conceive the Church of Christ, as exhibited in Scripture, to be an association which has no head on earth, and which, as a body, can receive no laws from any one, except from Christ alone. They consider a National Church as 'the verj' essence of Antichrist.' They lay it down as a fundamental principle that a Christian Church ought to consist of believers, or of those who give evidence of their knowuig and believ- ing the Gospel, miited together on the profession of its truths, and walking agreeably to them. They differ from the more early Independents in admitting Chris- tians of all religious denominations to commmiicate with them in the Lord's Supper, provided they have reason to think them real Cluristians, and in considering all asso- ciation of mmisters, for giving council and advice to the churches in matters of doubt, as unnecessary and mi- scriptural.
'■ As to Church government, they believe that the apos- tolical churches, according to the model of which it is their great and professed object to conform, were entirelj' independent, none of them being subject to any foreign jurisdiction, but each one governed by its own rulers, and by no other laws than those written in the Word of God. They say that a true Chinch of Christ is a so- ciety formed for the same purpose as the chinches plant- ed by the apostles, and whose constitution is the same as theirs. A deviation in these particulars renders it imworthy of the name. According to them, when the word Church in Scripture, in its religious sense, does not denote a single congregation of saints, it always refers to the whole body or kingdom of Christ, part of which is in heaven and part on earth ; which body does not consti- tute two churches, a visible and an invisible, but one church or family, consisting of different parts. Ihcy admit that all churches, that is, congregations, are con- nected together as being Christ's subjects, but they insist that they are dependent only on their King, in whose hands the supreme authoritj' rests. AVhile they teach that mdependent churches have no authority over each other, they allow that they maj' receive the advantage of each other's opinion on any matter of importance. They conceive that bishop and elder were, in a]X)stolic times, s}-nonymous terms ; that the stated officers in all the churches then were elders and deacons, and, of course, that they are the only offices essential to a Church of Christ, and that there is no difference, in any respect, between elder and deacon, except in the offices to which
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