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"Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath us made free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of
bondage."-GAL. v. 1.

EDINBURGH:

JOHNSTONE AND HUNTER, 15 PRINCES STREET.
ROBERT THEOBALD, 26 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.

J. R. MACNAIR & CO., 19 GLASSFORD STREET, GLASGOW.

M.DCCC.LI.

EDINBURGH:

PRINTED BY JOHNSTONE AND HUNTER,

104 HIGH STREET.

THE

FREE CHURCH MAGAZINE.

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THE DISRUPTION, AS VIEWED AT ROME. | THERE has been published a collection of the different addresses sent to the Free Church of Scotland, after she had, by the grace of God, emancipated herself from the trammels which Erastianism sought to throw around her. It is not too much to say, that congratulations poured in from all within reach of us that love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and truth. We could expect none from the effete Establishment of our own land, and the Establishment of England has no organ through which to address us, although it had been disposed. But, with these two exceptions, addresses from all bodies, commonly reckoned Christian, were sent or brought to the Free Church of Scotland. Van Diemen's Land, America, Ireland, and the Continent of Europe, all combined to offer their sympathies, their congratulations, and approval.

Hitherto we have heard little of the estimate in which we are held by Rome. From time to time, indeed, her advocates and allies have joined issue with our antagonists, and by sneers from one, and sophisms from another,* have indicated plainly how they regard us. But we have never yet learned directly from Rome what sentiments are cherished there what constructions are put on our ments-what anticipations entertained regarding our position, by the men who cluster round the Vatican, and crowd the levees of the pope. We are now able to gratify our readers on the subject.

reasoning here is peculiarly Papal. Substituting Popery for Christianity, or the pope for Christ, it is assumed that ruin must be the final portion of all who are not adherents of Rome.

-as

But without adverting to the Vice-rector's reasonings, let us attend to his statement of facts. He is careful to quote Dr. Johnson's words regarding Knox -"the Ruffian of the Reformation "-and dwells with a hankering wish that it may be true, on the noted discovery of Tytler (whom he calls "a Presbyterian historian") regarding the Reformer's complicity in the death of Rizzio. With a partiality to Rome that can easily be explained, he gives a glimpse of our first Reformation, and the ecclesiastical system then set up. The Confession of Faith, the Books of Discipline, the Treaty of Union-are next adverted to, briefly, but on the whole intelligently; while the benefits conferred on Scotland by its Reformed Church are reluctantly confessed, and violently explained away. These, however, are only glanced at, and the Rector hastens to the topic he had undertaken to discuss, "la scelta de' ministri per le parrochie "-" the election of ministers to parishes"the origin of the Disruption. It is sufficiently amusing now to see ourselves Italianized into Non-Intrusionisti, or the men who argued that after the patron had premove-sented, "la congregazione ha un illimitato potere di opporvisi e di rigettarlo per qualsivoglia motivo"-while the Intrusionisti, or Moderati, in like manner euphonized, have their views also set before the citizens of Rome, that a judgment may be pronounced between us. The Veto, Auchterarder, The Court of Session, Strathbogie, The House of Lords, and other noms de guerre, are all introduced like uncouth foreigners into the Rector's gentle Italian; and he sums up his allusions to them by remarking, with obvious satisfaction, that the Government, when appealed to, stood firm, reckoning the patron's rights "one of the conditions in virtue of which the Presbyterian Church was placed under the patronage and protection of the civil power." His language regarding the actual disruption is as follows: "The Non-Intrusionist ministers, perceiving that there was no hope of obtaining a dominant Church according to their ideas, declared in the General Assembly of 1843 that they could no longer continue united with the legal Church, with the sacrifice of their own opinions and their own conscience." "This declaration," he adds, " was the signal for the breaking up of the Presbyterian Church."

We have before us a pamphlet-" Sullo Scisma accadut nel 1843, nella Chiesa Presbyteriana di Scozia, Dissertazione ""A Dissertation on the Schism which happened in 1843 in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland." The author is "Vice-rector of the Scottish College" at Rome, and his dissertation bears to be extracted from the Annals of Religious Knowledge for 1844." We may therefore regard it as embodying the views entertained regarding us in what the Puseyite, Froude, called "Christ's holy home," &c. Let us for a moment inquire what they are.

The author, who, judging from his name (Peter Grant), is a Scotsman, regards it as inevitable that schism must go on increasing indefinitely among us, because we are "cut off from the centre of unity, Rome" -Rome being substituted for Christ-and, this done, we are treated as hopeless schismatics. Founded on the sand, he says, and not upon the rock, we are subject only to change and disgrace; and, along with the countless sects that already exist, our doom, he determines, is-to be dissipated for ever, by a process of gradual exhaustion. It will be noticed, that the

* See Free Church Magazine for May 1847, p. 155. No. XLIX.

It is at this point that the author first begins to manifest his strong Moderate leanings regarding the principles at stake and the parties contending. In explaining the intensity of the struggle, he is careful JANUARY, 1848.

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