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sequences to the cause of pure and undefiled religion, and religious freedom, which it is all but impossible to appreciate too highly.

Differing from the venerable founders of your Church polity in regard to one of the most solemn and important ordinances of Christian worship, and to the platform of ecclesiastical discipline and government, we are not insensible of the imperishable benefits which their writings have conferred upon the universal Church of Christ, nor ungrateful for the service which they have rendered to the interests of civil and religious liberty, by their sufferings and labours. In resisting the encroachments and corruptions inseparable from the prelatical pretensions of our national hierarchy, we have been accustomed to regard the pious and devoted ministers and members of the Kirk of Scotland, as our coadjutors and allies, and, in unyielding firmness and transparent integrity, as our examples and guides; and no part of our national history has awakened within us a deeper sympathy, or ministered more to our instruction and profit, than that which records the protracted struggles of your forefathers against the same tyranny. Your names, honoured brethren, will go down to a distant posterity embalmed with even greater fragrance than theirs, inasmuch as your magnanimity and decision in the crisis of your integrity and conscientiousness, unalloyed by an appeal to carnal weapons, will achieve a bloodless and peaceful victory for the cause, in maintaining which they fought and died, and it would ill become any of the sections of our British Zion, agreeing with you in the great and fundamental doctrines of evangelical truth, and in comparison with which the points which divide them from you are only as the chaff to the wheat, not to wish you every degree of success and prosperity which you can yourselves either expect or desire.

"We freely accord to you, as to every section of the Christian Church, and to every individual Christian, the full and candid expression, and the vigorous maintenance of your conscientious opinions; and while you will not expect us to sympathise in your avowed adherence to the principles of a state-establishment of Christianity, or in any of your movements springing legitimately and exclusively from that principle, you will permit us thus respectfully and affectionately to convey to you our deliberate conviction and our devout expectation, that your voluntary disseverance from state alliance and support, will be found to facilitate, beyond your present expectations, those sacred objects for which you have made such costly sacrifices, and which we hold in common with yourselves.

"Be assured, therefore, honoured brethren, that in all your Christian labours for the welfare of your father-land, and for the promotion of vital and saving Christianity, and in all the sacrifices already incurred, or hereafter awaiting you, of our fraternal and admiring sympathy, and of our most devout and earnest good wishes. May He who has prepared you by his grace so honourably to meet the crisis through which you have passed, and who has conferred on you the distinguished favour of occupying the exemplary position in relation to the rights of conscience and of religious freedom, so grateful to the real friends, and so confounding to the enemies or contemners of honest and independent religious profession, now assigned you, ever shield you by his favour, and direct and succeed all your purposes and efforts for his glory. We are, honoured brethren, your friends and coadjutors in the kingdom and suffer. ing of Jesus Christ. "JOHN B. TITHERINGTON, Moderator. " HENRY TREND, Secretary."

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Signed by direction of the Assembly aforesaid, on the 8th day of June last."

(ANSWER.)

"COMMITTEE Rooms, 7 NORTH ST ANDREW STREET, "EDINBURGH, 16th December 1843.

"DEAR AND HONOURED BRETHREN,-The Committee appointed by the late General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, return in the name of their constituents their heart-felt thanks for the fraternal and truly encouraging letter addressed to us by the elders and messengers of the Western Association of Baptist Churches at their annual meeting at Honiton, Devon, on the 8th of June last.

"We cannot but be gratified by the simple and fervent eulogy which you have pronounced on the writings, the labours, and the sufferings of our venerated forefathers; and the testimony-we fear we must say, the too strongly expressed testimony-which you have been pleased to bear to our firmness, and comparatively light sufferings in the same glorious cause. But most of all are we grateful for the spirit of enlightened liberality, and Christian love which breathe throughout every part of your welcome communication. We do differ, and differ conscientiously with regard to the ordinance of baptism and the form of church-government, but we are united in holding the great and fundamental doctrines of Evangelical truth; and shall our disagreement on points of minor importance prevent us from recognising in our fellow-Christians the image of Christ, and in Protestant evangelical churches sections of that universal Church of which Christ is the alone King and Head, and all his people are members?

"It is our firm belief that, if ever there shall be among Christians a perfect agreement on all the points of our common Christianity, it will be attained in the exercise of that enlightened liberality and Christian love of which you and your brethren present so bright an example.

"Meanwhile let us consider one another to provoke unto love, and to good works. Whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.' Let us be united in contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints,' and for the freedom which is essential to every true Church of Christ. And, if it be the will of the sovereign and infinitely wise God that the man of sin' should for a season recover his power, and that civil and ecelesiastical tyranny should sway its sacrilegious sceptre over the consciences of Christian men, may there be thousands of witnesses from Devonshire to the Orkneys, ready to sacrifice all for Christ, and in defence of the freedom wherewith he makes his people free.

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"We thank you for your prayers on our behalf, and in return would earnestly implore our heavenly Father to pour down on your pastors and people the Spirit of all grace, and to bless you with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. "In the name and by the appointment of the Committee..

(Signed) "PAT. M'FARLAN, Convener."

No. VII.-From the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists.

"To the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland. "Reverend and dear Brethren,-The Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, feeling that it behoved them to labour in their own sphere, without ostentation, have always been reluctant to obtrude themselves upon the notice of other Churches; but the great events that have lately taken place in Scotland have created such thrilling interest in our minds, that we cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of expressing the cordial sympathy and unbounded admiration with which we have regarded all your proceedings.

"The principles for which you have been called to contend we consider of vital importance. They could not be kept in abeyance, and much less could they be openly denied or compromised, without unfaithfulness to the Great Head of the Church. We are sensible that the boundary between the respective functions of the Church and the State cannot be very easily defined, and that men whose view's on the whole are sound and scriptural, may differ as to the duty of the civil magistrate to assist in the diffusion of religious knowledge. But when the spiritual independence of a Christian Church is in danger, and when its ministers are under the necessity of sacrificing either the rights and privileges of the people whom God has committed to their care, or their own emoluments, it appears to us that there can be no longer any room for doubt or difficulty. This was your position; you received strength according to your day. You have witnessed a good confession'-you have acted as became the followers of Knox, and Melville, and Henderson. Highly as we always thought of your sincerity, we must confess that you have more than fulfilled our expectations. This is the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes;'

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and we desire to lift up our hearts in thanksgiving to the God of all grace, who has enabled so many of our brethren in Scotland to be faithful in the hour of trial, and to obey God rather than man.

"It was to us a matter of deep regret that your claims and motives were so long and so generally misunderstood. It would seem that in this age of expediency it required some signal act of self-denial to convince the world of the existence of Christian integrity. But you have given a new proof of the power of true religion; and however unintelligible your principles might be in the abstract, we feel assured that when they are thus embodied in a 'Free Presbyterian Church,' they cannot fail to command the attention and the assent of all unprejudiced minds.

"Amidst the dark signs of the times in which we live, we rejoice in the homage that has been paid by our Scottish brethren to our common Lord as King; and to his word as the supreme law in his blood-bought Church. We rejoice likewise in your unanimity,—in the unprecedented liberality of your congregations,—in the catholic spirit you have manifested in the arrangements you have made for the education of future ministers, and in the increasing prosperity of your missionary schemes. But above all, we rejoice to learn that you are determined to adhere to the great doctrines of the Reformation-to preach a free gospel-and to count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.' Here lies the secret of your strength. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.'

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Finally, beloved brethren, our prayer for you is, that you may stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free;' and 'the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen settle you.'

"By authority of the quarterly meeting of Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, held at Pwllheli, the 6th day of September, 1843.

(ANSWER.)

"HENRY REES, Moderator.
"ROGER EDWARDS, Secretary."

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"REVEREND AND DEAR BRETHREN,-The Committee appointed by the late General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, to answer addresses and congratulations from other Churches, return their hearty thanks to you for your brotherly letter, sent by authority of your quarterly meeting at Pwllheli, on the 6th day of September last.

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Though the body to which you belong has not been in the habit of obtruding itself on the notice of the Christian world, your faith and patience, and your labours in the service of our Divine Master, have long been known to many of the ministers and other members of the Free Church of Scotland. We have rejoiced, and shall continue to rejoice in the almost perfect agreement which subsists, between our Church and yours in doctrine and discipline. We know that you entertain the same sentiments towards us; and are more gratified than we can express by your declaration of cordial sympathy with us in the proceedings which have led to the recent disruption of the Church of our fathers.

"To the approbation given by you and other churches, differing from us in points of minor importance, to our principles and conduct, we ascribe in some measure the wonderful success which, under the Divine blessing, has crowned the planting of the Free Church of Scotland. Our people, instructed in the Scriptures, and the Westminster Confession and Catechisms, have not been slow to perceive that the doctrine of Christ's supremacy is indeed a vital doctrine—and, confirmed in that belief by the concurrent testimony of almost all the Evangelical churches in Christendom, they have withdrawn in immense numbers from an Establishment from which the glory had departed-and have willingly shared with us the distinguished honour of wit

nessing for Christ, and the sacrifices and privations which we have been called to make in our present circumstances. Some of our people, especially in the northern counties, are still exposed to hardship by the cruel and oppressive conduct of infatuated landholders; but we believe their adherence to principle is unshaken. In other places our churches are built and occupied by grateful—and, we trust we may add with respect to many of them, devout worshippers.

"Our collections for our Five Schemes' are large beyond our expectation. If we cannot boast of being joined by many rich and noble of this world, we appear to have carried along with us thousands who are rich in faith and in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate.'

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"It were a blessed reward, of which we are altogether unworthy, if our testimony for the vitally important doctrine of Christ's Headship were to attract the attention of men at a time when anti-christian error is obtaining so favourable a reception in this so-called Protestant country. We have good reason to hope that it has opened the eyes of some in the higher and influential classes; but whether that shall be the result of our testimony or no, the path of duty is clear, the issue is with the Lord.

"We thank you for the visit of your beloved and much respected professor, Mr Edwards. It was very refreshing to our Assembly.

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Farewell, dear and honoured brethren. May you also stand fast in the Lord. May the Lord bless you and make you a blessing.

"In the name and by appointment of the Committee,
"PAT. M.FARLAN, Convener."

(Signed)

VIII. From the Board of Congregational Ministers residing in and about London and Westminster.

"At a Meeting of the Board of Congregational Ministers residing in, and about the cities of London and Westminster, held on Tuesday, October 3, 1843. "It was resolved,

"That this Board regards with deep and solemn interest the secession from the Established Kirk of Scotland, of the ministers, elders, and people now engaged in laying the foundation of the Free Protesting Presbyterian Church in that country, as a procedure most honourable to the Christian integrity and courage of those beloved brethren, and fraught with important consequences to the interests of vital Christianity, such as cannot be confined to the kingdom of Scotland, or to the present age; nor can this Board allow well understood differences of judgment on many not unimportant questions to prevent the expression of its feelings of high admiration for the devoted homage to truth and conscience displayed by these brethren, in withdrawing from a Church dear to them by so many ties, and in which all their temporal interests were involved. This Board therefore assures the brethren of the Free Protesting Presbyterian Church of Scotland of its confidence and affection, of its wishes for the full success of their efforts to secure truth, liberty, and purity in the Church they are forming-and of its devout supplication that they may be long and largely favoured with the blessing and grace of Jesus Christ the Lord.

"That this Board has observed with great delight the renewed proof afforded on this memorable occasion of the energy of the Voluntary principle in providing the pecuniary resources required by Christian Churches in the generous contributions and sacrifices made by both the ministers and people of the Free Protesting Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and in the assistance rendered by the sympathy of many non-endowed churches in England and America; and this Board entertains a cheering hope that the Free Protesting Presbyterian Church of Scotland, thus independent of the State, and separated from it, will become more pure in communion, more enlarged in fellowship with other churches, and more efficient in promoting the great interests of Christianity, than, in the firm conviction of this Board,

any Church can be under the restraints and secular influences inseparable from its establishment and endowment by a national legislature.

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That a copy of the above resolutions, signed by the Chairman and Secretary, be forwarded forthwith to the Reverend Thomas Chalmers, D. D., LL. D. &c. &c., Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, and that he be respectfully requested to lay them before that body at its next session. Signed on behalf of the Board,

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"ALGERNON WELLS, Chairman. "JOHN ROBERTSON, Secretary."

(ANSWER.)

"COMMITTEE ROOMS, 7 NORTH ST ANDREW STREET, "EDINBURGH, 16th December 1843.

"The Committee appointed by the late General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, to answer addresses and congratulations from other Churches, return their warmest acknowledgments to the Board of Congregational Ministers residing in and about the cities of London and Westminster, for the resolutions agreed to by the Board at its meeting on Tuesday, the 3d day of October last.

"It is not only most pleasing to us-but is the cause of much thankfulness to God, that the disruption which has lately taken place in the National Church of Scotland, though unspeakably painful in many respects, has been made the occasion in the good providence of God, of re-opening the door of mutual intercourse between other Christian Churches and our own. We fondly hope that it may lead also to mutual co-operation in the accomplishment of the glorious object which we profess to bave in view-the universal diffusion of gospel truth in our own, and in every land. Though differing from one another in points of comparatively minor importance, we rejoice in the persuasion, that in these times of peril, we hold the great Protestant doctrine of submission to the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament as the only infallible rule of faith and manners.

" Guided by this vital principle, we trust that we shall ever be found eagerly and cordially uniting with Evangelical Churches of every denomination in resisting the progress of error, and in disseminating far and wide the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus.

"We return our cordial thanks to you for the sympathy and pecuniary aid which we have received from the Congregational Churches in England, and offer up our fervent prayers for the success of your ministerial labours, and the spiritual prosperity of the people under your pastoral care.

"In name and by appointment of the Committee,

"To the CONGREGATIONAL MINISTERS,

“PAT. M‘FARLAN, Convener."

Residing in and about the cities of London and Westminster.

No. IX.-From Congregational Churches in Sussex, 1843.*

"To the Free Church of Scotland, from the Ministers, Office-bearers, and Members of Congregational Churches, with other friends of religious freedom and Christian truth, in the county of Sussex.

"CHRISTIAN BRETHREN,-The proceedings in which you have recently asserted the high demands of conscience, and of Divine authority, have so much affected and interested us, that we beg to convey to you this our expression of Christian sympathy and congratulation.

"The noble stand which you have made for the supremacy of Christ in his kingdom, will render ever memorable the 18th of May 1843. If the step be not unprecedented, it is at least worthy of your high character and standing in the Church of

• This is the address referred to by Dr Chalmers (see page 21) as being seventeen yards long.

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