On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    and I find that Scotland is thus supplied with places of worship , and clergymen of the Established Presbyterian faith : Cong . Mid . Parish Churches for ( in round

    numbers ) 900 970 Chapels of Ease ( Ministers chosen and paid by Congre- > gation ) for 55 55 Chapels in the Highlands depending on the Royal Bounty 38 38 Chapels depending on the Society for propagating Christian Knowledge . . . 7 7

    1000 1070 Scotland thus exhibits , by a close enumeration , one thousand places of worship , and one thousand and

    seventy ordained and regularly-officiating clergymen , for a population , after dededucting about 340 , 000 for Dissenters , of 1 , 7 ^ 0 , 000 persons , * at a cost , if the estimate I have made above is

    correct , ( and I believe it is rather above the truth , ) of little more than 250 * 000 / . a-year . I now turn to the Dissenters , who , I will confess , are rather my favourites , although I have not the honour of belonging to their body . The

    United Associate Synod of the Secession Church ( as the greatest body of the Dissenters have chosen to designate themselves ) require of their candidates for the office of clergyman precisely the same course of education as is required by the Established Church ; namel y , a four or five years '

    attendance and study of the ancient languages , mathematics , belles-lettres , and moral and natural philosophy , at some of the Scotch colleges , and an attendance afterwards , during five years , on their own Professor of Theology , by whom the same doctrines are taught as those in the theological chairs of the Established Church .

    The United Synod , in reference to the members who adhere to its communion , corresponds to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland . Its jurisdiction ? is exercised in the

    * A vast proportion of this latter number ( exclusive even of very young children , and superannuated and bed-ridden persons ) will not , and , in a great measure , from want of church accommodation , cannot receive religious instruction publicly at all .

    Untitled Article

    same manner as that of the Assembl y over the Presbyteries and kirk-sessions under its inspection . The doctrine , ' the discipline , and form of worship , are precisely the same in this

    Synod as in the Established Church . And the chief reasons which they had in the year 1732 , and which they still have , for their separation from the Established Church , are set forth in

    a short summary of principles Which they published in the year 1820 , to be " The sufferance of error on the part of the Established Church * with > out adequate censure : The settling of ministers by patronage ^ in reclaiming congregations : The neglect or

    relaxation of discipline : The restraint of ministerial freedom in testifying against maladministration ; and the refusal of the prevailing party to be reclaimed / 5 To persons at all acquainted with the history of this sect , it is very clear

    that they could very soon be amalgamated with the Established Churchy were it not for the despotic law of patronage , which , as it has hitherto most unfortunately been administered , has tended to alienate a considerable

    proportion of the population of Scotland from the Established Church , and prevented the voice of the people from being heard in the appointment of the established instructors , whom they are , notwithstanding , obliged by

    the law to pay . Wherever the rigat of presentation , which is possessed by an oligarchy contemptible in point of numbers , has been exercised with discrimination , and with a due regard to the feelings of the people , it has been found that dissent either dwindles into

    insignificance , or drags on a sickly and precarious existence . The magistrates of our large towns , for reasons to which I have already adverted , now take special care in the appointments to the vacant livings in their

    gift ; and the consequence is , that dissent is there making no progress , nay , is rather on the decline . To the honour of many patrons , and particularly those of the female class , a similar care is beginning evidently to

    be taken in appointments to country parishes ; and even patrons whose regard for religion is held even by themselves at a very low estimate , are cautiously looking out , in spite of political engagements and partisanship 8 ^ for young men to fill their churched

    Untitled Article

    ^ 342 Established and Dissenting Churches in Scotland .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1825, page 342, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2537/page/22/