Soon after the secession of Mr. M'Millan from the Established Church, he was joined by Mr. John M-Neil, a licentiate, who, having adopted Cameronian views, had also seceded. These two faithful and zealous ser- vants of Christ traversed the country, preaching every- where, and encouraging the adherents of the Covenant. In 1712 the Covenants were renewed at Auchensaugh. Amid many trials and persecutions the cause went stead- ily forward ; and in 1743 Mr. M'Millan, who had hitherto stood alone as an ordained minister, Mr. M'Neil never having been ordained for want of a presbytery, was joined by the Rev. Thomas Nairn, who had left the Se- cession Church in consequence of his having embraced Cameronian views. There being now two ministers, a meeting was held at Braehead on Aug. 1, 1743, when a presbytery was for the first time formed under the name of the "Reformed Presbytery."
One of the first acts of the newly organized Church was to despatch missionaries to Ireland, and by the blessing of God upon the labors of these men, and oth- ers who speedily followed, a fully organized and inde- pendent section of the Reformed Presbyterian Church was formed in the sister isle.
In Scotland a Declaration and Testimony was pub- lished in 1741, and the Covenants were renewed in 1745, at Crawford-John, in Lanarkshire ; but notwithstanding these steps, which were so well fitted to promote unity of sentiment and feeling, a few years only had elapsed when a division took place in the Reformed Presbytery, two of the brethren. Messrs. Hall and Innes, having separated from their communion in consequence of their having imbibed heretical opinions on the subject of the atonement. The two brethren, after seceding from the Presbytery, formed themselves into a new presbytery at Edinburgh, which at length became extinct. The Re- formed Presbytery, in reply to their misrepresentations, found it necessary to issue a treatise in defence of their proceedings in the case of the erring brethren, as well as in refutation of the doctrine of an indefinite atone- ment. In 1761 a very important step was taken by the Reformed Presbytery, the emission of a Testimony for the whole of the Covenanted Reformation as attained to and established in Great Britain and Ireland, particu- larly between the years 1638 and 1649 inclusive.
From this time the Reformed Presbyterian Church went steadily forward, adhering to their peculiar prin- ciples with unflinching tenacity; and amid much ob- loquy, misunderstanding, and even misrepresentation, from the other religious denominations around them, witnessing boldly, and without compromise, for a Cov- enanted Reformation. Their numbers in many parts of Scotland increased beyond the means of supplying them with ministers. This was unhappily the case, for a considerable time, in various districts of the coun- try. But at length such was the increase of ministers connected with the body that in 1810 three presbyter- ies were formed, and in the year following a general synod was constituted for the supervision of these pres- byteries. Since that time so rapidly has the denomina- tion advanced in numbers that in the year 1859 the synod included six presbyteries, which consisted in all of thirty-six ordained ministers and eight vacant con- gregations. The synod met annually either in Edin- burgh or Glasgow. The Divinity Hall met during the months of August and September, when the students, in five sessions, received the instructions of two pro-
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES 528 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHES
as these were received by the Church of Scotland as standards of union and uniformity for the- churches in the three kingdoms, and feel themselves bound by the sacred pledge given in the Solemn League and Covenant to adhere to them as such. They tlms take i In ir stand upon the principles of the first and particularly of the second Reformation, which took place between the j eat 1638 and 1650, and which embodied in its proceedings and settlement all the valuable attainments of the Hist Reformation and carried them to a greater extent. They own the morality of public covenanting, and the contin- ued and perpetual obligation of the National Covenant of Scotland, and of the Solemn League and Covenant, upon all ranks and elates in these lands, and acknowl- edge the duty of renew in- these covenants in a 1 1
suited to the circumstances. As Presbyterians, they hold that the Lord Jesus Christ, the alone king and head of his Chureh. ha- appointed a particular form of government to take place therein, distinct from civil government and not subordinate to the Bame, and that Presbyterial Church government is the only form laid down and appointed bj the Lord Jesus Christ in his Word. As they believe that Church communion con- sists in the joint profession of the truths and observance of all the ordinances which Christ has appointed in his Word, and that the visible unity of the Church lies in the unity of her visihle fellowship, they regard free communion as an obvious violation of thai unity, and hold ii to he unscriptural. and thai the practice encour- ages persons to continue in corrupt communions, by leading them to conclude that there is no conscientious ground ofdill'erenee between them and the persons who make no scruple of occasionally joining with them in the intimacies of Church fellowship. In the worship of (on! they make use of the Psalms of David only, be- lieving that they were delivered to the Church by the Holy Spirit to lie used as the matter of public praise, and they regard hymns of human composition as un- suitable to the worship of God, and tending to endan- ger the purity both of the worship and the doi trines of the ( 'hurch.