Reid A Cameronian Apostle AIII.
James Dodson
272 Appendix.
III.
Libel against Mr. John Macmillan, minister at Balmaghie.
[Reprinted from a pamphlet entitled—“The Pamphlet entitled A True Narrative of the Proceedings of the Presbytery of Kirkcudbright, etc., Examined and Found False . . . By a Member of that Presbytery. Edinburgh: 1705.” The libel is copied verbatim from the Presbytery Records. This pamphlet appears to have been sold at five shillings Scots, or fivepence.]
WHEREAS the calumniating or misrepresenting the Church, and ministry thereof, to people, especially when done publicly out of the pulpit; and the breach of ministers’ engagements at their ordination, and the like, after engagements and declarations by word and write, in being disorderly, disobedient, and contumacious to the commands or appointments of the judicatories of the Church, to which ministers are subject and engage to be subject; and the turning divisive or schismatic, and endeavouring to lead or seduce others thereto: are things sinful, hurtful to the Church, and offensive, and which therefore ought to be censured according to justice and equity: Yet it is of verity, that the said Mr. John Macmillan is guilty of these evils, in the instances following:—
1. The said Mr. John Macmillan did declare, that he would withdraw from the Presbytery of Kirkcudbright, whereof he is a member, for three or four Presbytery days, or longer, upon the eleventh day of May last, and did, at that time, refuse to give reasons for his so doing, albeit he was required to give them, and did withdraw accordingly.
2. Thereafter, he being sent for by the said Presbytery the same day, did come to them. And the Moderator again desiring him to give the grounds of his withdrawing from them, he did
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answer, that he withdrew not from the said Presbytery only, but from the whole National Church of Scotland as now established. And so did libel the whole National Church, as giving ground to separate from them, or declared himself an unreasonable and wilful schismatic.
3. He declared, he knew not whether this Church was Presbyterian or Episcopal, in regard the General Assembly had not, by their explicit Act, declared it to be Presbyterian; as if a Presbyterian Church could not be known to be such, except by their explicit declarative Act thereanent.
4. He did refuse to confer further with the said Presbytery, and to attend their diets, though the Moderator, in name of the Presbytery, required him so to do, and did withdraw himself immediately from them; and so, with his separation, did act disobediently and contumaciously to the Presbytery, contrary to his solemn engagements at his ordination. All which are instructed by the Records of the said Presbytery held the eleventh of May, 1703.
5. He did say, on the —— Sabbath of May last, in his preaching to the congregation at Balmaghie, that the Church of Scotland had gone off the foundation; and did acknowledge to the Presbytery the third of November last, that he spake these words; but alleged, that he spake them thus, viz.: that the Church had gone off the foundation, going back to the year 1592. As if the King and Parliament, by their Act legally establishing the Government of the Church (excepting patronages) as it was established in the year 1592, gave him ground to teach the people, that the Church of Scotland had gone off the foundation. And so, he did give people ground, by that phrase, to think that the Church was become erroneous or heretical, in not abiding by the doctrine of the prophets and apostles, or of going off from Christ the foundation, and that this Church was not upon the right foundation in the year 1592.
274 Appendix.
6. He did not keep the Synodical Fast in May last, nor read the causes thereof to the congregation at Balmaghie. He did absent from some Presbyteries after May last, and did absent from the Synods in April and October last, and did give to the Presbytery in November last, as his reason why he went not to the last Synod, his being gravelled by some hard expressions (as he called them) of some ministers in the bounds, in some of their public sermons, which were indeed against separatists and their principles. In which things, he hath acted disobediently to the Synod and Presbytery, where he hath been a member, and disorderly, and hath owned himself reached and gravelled with what is preached against separatists, and hath broken his ordination engagements. This is to be proven by the Records of the Synod and Presbytery, and people of Balmaghie.
7. Mr. John Macmillan did declare to a Committee of the said Presbytery of Kirkcudbright at Balmaghie the eighth of December, 1703, that he was not purposed to be at the Presbytery at the Kells the day immediately preceding, because he finds not that satisfaction from the Presbytery’s Answers* to the paper of Grievances given in by him that he expected, and that the Reply to the Answers will shew wherein the dissatisfaction lies, when it comes forth; whereby he testifies himself to be resolute in separating from the Presbytery, and that contrary to what he declared under his hand in his Protestation given in to the Presbytery at Polsack,† August 30, 1703, and to what he declared to the Presbytery at Kirkcudbright, November 3, 1703; and that he expects a paper to come out which will contain reasons or grounds that will warrant him to separate from the Presbytery. This article will be instructed by the Records of the Presbytery and Committee.
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* These Answers were also printed in pamphlet form in 1705, price 2d.—Ed.
† Polsack, a house, now disappeared, near Laurieston in Balmaghie.—Ed.
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8. The said Mr. Macmillan did acknowledge to the said Committee that he declared to the congregation at Balmaghie, the first Lord’s day of November last, that it was well known that, in time bypast, there had been a difference betwixt some and the Presbytery, and there was expected some sort of agreement; but, for anything he could see, there is no such agreement like to be; and that he spake of “clubbing” with the Presbytery, by which he contradicts his agreement with the Presbytery on the Wednesday immediately preceding the said Sabbath, as the Records of the Presbytery will prove, and his own acknowledgment of the said agreement on the Friday thereafter, to some persons of his own parish, mentioned in the Records of the said Committee; whereby also he evidences levity and unconstancy unbecoming a minister of the Gospel, and disrespect to the Presbytery and Agreement with them, in calling his Agreement with them “some sort of agreement” and a “clubbing.”
9. He said to the congregation at Balmaghie, the said first Sabbath of November last, that there were once three that stood for the truth, but now he knew not but there was but one; and that, though they should all leave him, he resolved to stand where he was. This article to be proven by the people of Balmaghie, who were his hearers that day, and the Committee’s Records, to whom he acknowledged the same in part. By this article, he accuses the Presbytery, Ministry, and People of this Church, of not standing for the truth, and declares his own resoluteness and stiffness in his separating course from this Church, and breach of agreement with the Presbytery.
10. He did say to the congregation, the said day, that he laid his account to be persecuted by the ministry for these things. This to be proven by the elders and people of Balmaghie who heard him that day, by which he justifies himself in his separation and expressions above mentioned, against this Church and
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Presbytery, and his breach of his solemn engagements at his ordination, and agreements with the Presbytery, and stigmatizes the Ministry as persecutors.
11. He desired the people of Balmaghie, on the Lord’s Day, the twenty-first of November last, to stick by him; and if they would not, he would stand to his hazard. To be proven by Adam Glenholm, servant to Garvarie,* and the people of Balmaghie who heard him that day. By which he evidences himself to be making a faction or party in the Church, to concur with and support him in separation.
12. He did declare to some of his parishioners, on Friday the fifth of November last, that the Presbytery and he were agreed; and when he was desired to tell why he declared himself so far against the said Agreement on the Sabbath thereafter, he answered that, when he went to his studies the said Friday at even, they did not go with him, and that he had not freedom in prayer, and therefore he spake so on the Sabbath thereafter anent the said Agreement. This to be proven by George Mackguffog in Drumlane, an elder of the parish, and ——. In this he seems to be enthusiastic,† or to reason loosely and inconsiderately.
13. When the said Committee did interrogate the said Mr. Macmillan (1), if he would adhere to the Agreement at Kirkcudbright, the third of November last, according to the Presbytery’s minutes? he answered that he could not give answer that night whether he would or not. (2), If he would abide by these things which he acknowledged that night, he spake in public, that are contrary to the Agreement or not? he answered that he was not ripe to tell his judgment of that yet. (3), If he would engage, and give it under his hand, thereafter to exercise his ministry orderly, according to Presbyterian principles
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* Garvarie, may be Darngaffroch.
† i.e., under a delusion.—Ed.
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be subject to the Presbytery and other judicatories? he answered that he would give in no answer to this that night. These are proven by the Records of the said Committee. And by which answers he declines and shifts* to declare himself to the Presbytery and their Committee, so as he is obliged by Presbyterian principles, his solemn engagements at his ordination, his subscription in his Protest and Declarations, and Agreement recorded in the Presbytery’s Records; and without declaring himself satisfyingly as to which, and engaging as to these, he cannot be suffered to teach publicly, and act as a minister of this Church.
For all which things libelled, the said Mr. John Macmillan ought to be sentenced and censured by the Presbytery of Kirkcudbright, within whose jurisdiction he exercises his ministry, and hath offended as above; according to the Word of God, Acts of the General Assemblies of this Church, and laudable practice of the discipline thereof in such cases.
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* Evades.—Ed.