The year which succeeded the formation of the Syn- od of Original Seceders was the year of the disruption of the Established Church of Scotland, an event which was one of deepest interest to the Christians of Scot- land, if not of the world, but more especially to the rep- resentatives of the first seceders. The formation of the Free Church of Scotland, in a state of entire inde- pendence of all state interference, and professing un- trammelled to prosecute the great ends of Christ's Church, submissive to the guidance and authority of her Great Head alone, was hailed by the newly formed body of United Original Seceders as realizing the wishes, the hopes, and the prayers of their forefathers, who had concluded the protest which formed the basis of the secession in these remarkable words : " And we hereby appeal unto the first free, faithful, and reforming Gen- eral Assembly of the Church of Scotland." As years passed on, after the memorable events of 1843, the con- viction was growing stronger and stronger in the minds of many both of the ministers and pcoiile of the United Original Seceders that in the Assembly of the Free Church they could recognise the General Assembly to which the first fathers of the secession appealed, and that therefore the time had come when the protest of Nov. 16, 1733, must be fallen from. At length it was resolved in the synod of the body to lodge a represen- tation and appeal on the table of the Free Church As- sembly, with a view to the coalescing of the two bodies. The union thus sought was accomplished in ^lay, 1852, on the express imderstanding that the brethren of the United Original Secession Synod who thus applied for admission into the Free Church of Scotland should be alloweil to retain their peculiar views as to the descend- ing obligation of the covenants, while at the same time the Free Church did not commit itself, directly or indi- rectlv, in any way, cither to a positive or negative opin- ion upon these views. Several ministers and congre-
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gations connected with the United Original Seceders refused to accede to the union with the Free Church, and preferred to remain in their former position ; and accordingly a small body of Christians still exists hold- ing the principles and calling themselves by the name of the United Original Seceders. One congregation of Original Seceders in Edinburgh, under the ministry of the Kev. James Wright, with nut a few adherents in various parts of the country, disclaims all connection with those who adhered to the Testimony of 18-12, and professes to hold by the Testimony of 1827, thus claim- ing, in the principles which they avow, to represent the first seceders in so far as in the advanced state of the secession cause they held their principles to be identi- cal with those of the Reformed Covenanted Church of Scotland. See Marsden, Hist, of Christian Churches and Sects, ii, 290 sq. ; Gardner, Faiths of the World, ii, s. v.; Hetherington, Hist, of the Church of Scotland, p. 352, 361; Stanley, Lect. on the Hist, of the Church of Scotland, lect.ii sq. ; and the authorities quoted in the article. See also Scotland, Church of ; Pkesbyteri- ANisM IX Scotland.
Original Sin. This expression is frequently used in a twofold sense, to denote the imputation of Adam's first sin to his posterity, and also that native de- pravity which we have derived by inheritance from our first parents. The first view of the subject — the imputation of Adam's first sin— has already been con- sidered under the articles Imputation and Hopkin- SIANS. According to the second view we came into the world, in consequence of the sin of Adam, in a state of depravity. On this point the Westminster Confes- sion of Faith explicitly declares : " By this sin," refer- ring to the sin of our first parents, " they fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the fac- ulties and parts of the soul and body. They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed, and the same death in sin and corrupted nature con- veyed to all their posterity, descending from them by ordinary generation." Again, in another article the Confession teaches: "Man, by his fall into a state of sin, has wholly lost all ability to any spiritual good ac- companying salvation, so that a natural man, being al- together averse from that good and dead in sin, is not able by his own strength to convert himself, or prepare himself thereunto." This doctrine pervades the whole of the sacred writings, and may be called indeed a fun- damental and essential truth of revelation. Thus be- fore the flood we find the inspired penman declaring (Gen. vi, 5): "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagina- tion of the thoughts of his heart was only evil contin- ually." Again, after the flood, the same statement is repeated (viii, 21) : "The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." David also (Psa. Ii, 5) de- clares : " Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." The original and innate depravity of man might be deduced from the doctrine of Scripture respecting the necessity of regeneration. Our blessed Lord affirms (John iii, 3) : " Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." We are said to be " saved by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour." Such language has no meaning if it be not true that we are utterly depraved by nature. How early does this innate corruption manifest itself in children ! It is impossible for us to examine our own hearts, or look around us in the world, without having the conclusion forced upon us that the wickedness which everywhere prevails must have its seat in a heart that is "deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." The doctrine of orig- inal sin has been denied by heretics of different kinds. Socinians treat it as a foolish and absurd idea. The followers of Pelagius maintain that, notwithstanding the results of the fall, a man still retains the power, m-