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Kay's Originals Vol. 2

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 85 dated 10th February 1766, resigning his charge, in which he expresses himself in the following terms :- “I now inform you, as Moderator, that I entirely give up my charge of the High Church in this town, and the care of the flock belonging to it, into the bands of the Presbytery. They know not how far I am advanced in life, who see not that a house for worship, so very large aa the High Church, and commonly so crowded too, must be very unequal to my strength ; and this burden was made more heavy by denying me a Session to assist me in the common concerns of the parish, which I certainly had a title to. But the load became quite intolerable, when, by a late unhappy process, the just and natural right of the common Session waa wrested from us, which drove away from scting in it twelve men of excellent character.” After stating these and other grievances to the Moderator of the Presbytery, he further proceeds :- ‘‘I would earnestly beg of my reverend brethren to think that this change in my condition, and the charge I have now accepted, makes no change in my former creed, nor in my cordiatregard to the constitution and interest of the Church of Scotland, which I solemnly engaged to support more than thirty years ago, and hope to do so while I live. At the same time, I abhor persecution in every form, and that abuse of Church power of late, which to me appears inconsistent with humanity-with the civil interests of the nation-and destrnctive of the ends of our office as ministers of Christ.” In consequence of this letter, and his connecting himself with the Relief Presbytery, Mr. Baine was cited to appear before the General Assembly, 29th May 1766. Having cornpeared, and been heard at considerable length, in an elaborate and keen defence, he was declared by the Assembly to be no longer a minister of the Church of Scotland. Immediately after his deposition, Mr. Baine published a pamphlet, entitled “ Memoirs of Modern Church Reformation ; or the History of the General Assembly, 1766, with a brief account and vindication of the Presbytery of Relief.” In this publication, consisting of letters to a reverend friend, he gave an amusing account of the procedure of the supreme ecclesiastical court in his case, and indulged in some acrimonious remarks on the conduct of the leading members of the moderate party. The pamphlet, now scarce, and indeed almost out of sight, is a curious and interesting document. Mr. Baine had in the meantime entered on the duties of his new charge. The Chapel in South College Street, which was the first in Edinburgh belonging to the Relief Presbytery, was opened for public worship on Sabbath, 12th January 1766. At that period the city did not extend so far south as it does now, South College Street being then a portion of Nicolson’s Park, one of the suburbs. To this chapel he was inducted by the Rev. Mr. Gillespie, late of Carnock, on the 13th of the following month, only three days subsequent to the date of his letter to the Presbytery of Paisley resigning his charge of the High Church. It has been remarked by one of his biographers, that when he took this step he did not contemplate an entire separation from the Established Church ; and that, in evidence of his considering himself still belonging to its communion, he is said, after his admission to South College Street Chapel, to have conducted his new congregation to the neighbouring Church of Old Greyfriars (at that time under the pastoral care of his old friend the venerable Dr. Erskine), in order to partake of the sacrament of the Lord‘s Supper. The Establishment, however, viewed the matter in a different light; and various
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