It was really a surprise to me that the last Assembly went into the act we have now passed; and I know well it was a force put upon some members, which brought them in to the terms in which it stands. Perhaps exceptions will be made at the very modest terms of your Synod's act.

I have heard it reasoned many times, that commissioners from Presbyteries cannot be bound up by their constituents from following the light they receive in reasonings in a superior judicatory; and if they find new light and reasonings advanced so strong as to make them alter their opinion they had taken up before they heard them, they must in conscience act as they find cause. And it is said this is the very foundation upon which delegate judicatories must stand; and without this there can be no room for them. How far this reasoning holds, I must leave to your riper consideration.

That there was a vote upon the ipsissima verba, in this circumstantiate case, I well remember. But how far a vote in a circumstantiate case will go to fix a general rule in all doctrinal processes, or in any after case that comes before succeeding General Assemblies, I cannot well say. I don't mind there is any express canon laid down to bind to the ipsissima verba, which is binding to this Church, neither can any Assembly fix a rule in this kind without first transmitting it to Presbyteries.

These are some of the things that offer themselves to me, as to what may cast up when the Instructions of your Reverend Synod come in; and I only suggest them, that you may be in a readiness, if there be any weight in them, to remove them.

Believe me, that I very fondly desire an established correspondence with you, and the more frequent it be, it will be the more acceptable. I heartily sympathise with your brethren with you under your pressures, and heartily wish the Government, for its own sake, as well as the Church's, may give some effectual redress. I beseech you send me a copy of that letter Mr Archer tells me you have, as to the present state of things with you. I am near an end of the History of our Sufferings, but have nothing

almost beyond Tay. I wish any thing that can be got were hastened to Mr Spence or me. Oblige me by frequent writing to, Rev. Dear Brother, yours most affectionately.

Fcb. 5, 1718.

LETTER CII.

To Mr John Erskine, at Edinburgh.

[JOHN ERSKINE of Carnock was the eldest son of Lieutenant-Colonel Erskine, by his second marriage to Anne, eldest daughter of William Dundas of Kincavel. He made choice of the profession of law, and became a member of the Faculty of Advocates in 1719. He seldom pleaded at the Bar, which is said to have been owing to the feebleness of his voice, and constitutional modesty ; but was much respected for the extent of his legal knowledge, and the judiciousness of his opinions in matters connected with his profession. Upon the death of Mr Alexander Bain, Professor of Scots Law in the University of Edinburgh, about the beginning of 1737, Mr Erskine was appointed to the vacant chair. The duties of this office Mr Erskine discharged with much ability, and, from the interest excited by his lectures, the number who attended the class for Scots Law was greater than at any former period. He used as his text-book, for several years, Sir George M'Kenzie's Institutions; but, in 1754, he published his own " Principles of the Law of Scotland," 8vo, which, from that time, was his text-book. This work has reached the eleventh edition, and is much esteemed by the legal profession. After having taught the Scots Law class, with great reputation, for twenty-eight years, he resigned his professorship in 1765, and employed himself during the remainder of his life in preparing for the press "The Institutes of the Law of Scotland," a work which was not, however, completed during his life, nor published till 1773. It contains the substance of his lectures in the University, and is still considered a book of high authority in the law of Scotland.-(Bower's History of the University of Edinburgh, vol. ii. p. 317.) Mr Erskine died at Cardross, on the 1st of March

1768, in the 73d of his age. year "He had none of his father's peculiarities," says Sir Henry Moncreiff, "and the general character of his mind appears to have been extremely different from his. With greater mildness and equality of temper, and much more acquired knowledge, he had less inclination for the bustle of public life, and seems to have taken scarcely any interest in party contentions, either in the Church or in the State. His activity was in a great measure confined within the sphere of his literary or professional occupations, and of his private and domestic pursuits. His public reputation, as well as his personal virtues, entitle his descendants to place his name in the list of their most respected ancestors."-(Life of Dr Erskine, p. 10.) Mr Erskine was the father of the celebrated John Erskine, D.D., one of the ministers of Edinburgh, by his first wife, Anne Melville, of the noble family of Leven and Melville.-ED.]

Feb. 7, 1718.

DEAR SIR,-Yours of the 4th was more than satisfying.' Without any compliment, I never had any account that satisfied me so much as this; and I now understand more of the constitution of the Church of Holland than ever. Their Synods are delegate meetings like our General Assembly, and they have delegates of delegates like our Commission, which I own is the branch of our constitution most liable to exception. Let me know how many Presbyteries or classes may be in every Synod. Are there ruling elders from every congregation in their classes? Do their Parochial Sessions agree with ours? Do their appeals lie from the Deputati Synodi to the next Synod? Let me have the minister's name and subject of the book at Rotterdam that hath made such a noise. Give all you can further recover as to Fagel's Testament, and the foundations alleged for patrons. It seems being so very late, they cannot found on the old claim :

"Patronum faciunt dos, ædificatio, domus."s

I would likewise know their method of calls; if heads of families consent, and the Session call; if they have written and signed

This letter is not extant among Letters to Wodrow. ? A mistake for fundus.

calls; if there be presentations by the magistrates or the Ambachtsheers in write.

Give me the state of the universities-the balance 'twixt Cocceians and Voetians—the state of real religion in the Provinces-the success of the East India Company in propagating Christianity—the method in dispensing the sacrament of the Supper, if at tables, if the minister speaks in time of communicating, if the words of the institution are pronounced at the distribution-the accounts of their care of their poor-their correction-houses-if any societies for reformation of manners or charity schools-and whatever you remarked singular in their civil policy or economy-their present divisions, and the strength of the Barnavelt and Arminian party. You'll have heard of Mr Anderson's affair at Dumbarton, and that he was continued. I am, yours most affectionately.

LETTER CIII.

ACCOUNTS OF FOREIGN CHURCHES, IN ANSWER TO QUERIES.'

Rev. William Wright to Wodrow.2

Kilmarnock, Feb. 13, 1718.

DEAR BROTHER,-I communicated the contents of your last to our brethren of this Presbytery. They seemed not unwilling to go in to pay their guineas for the Commissioner, but they want first to know his errand and instructions, of which they have no knowledge; and, therefore, in this point, you'll be pleased to satisfy them. Of the last year's Commission, they say, that as they were not subscribers, so nobody ever so much as dreamed of any thing from them, which I believe to be true. Mr Robison tells me you will expect

In Letter to Mr C. Tough, supra, p. 301.

Letters to Wodrow, vol. xx. No. 45

nothing from the Presbytery, though they complain of being unacquainted with and neglected in your affairs.

I had last week a letter from my cousin, Mr Charles Tough, the contents of which he desires me to communicate to you, as the researches of a conversation with Dr de la Fay their minister at Utrecht, and is as follows:-"There are no general Synods in Holland, for reasons best known to the magistrate; but the provincial Synods correspond with one another as ours do at home. The Dutch Churches are grievously under the influence of the magistrate; fasts and thanksgivings are only appointed by the magistrate. The Church discipline is strict enough for prosecution of scandal, but its exercise is wholly invalidated by the magistrate; for if any scandalous person is refused the communion, he goes to another congregation, and enlists himself a member there, and though, by the rules of discipline, no Church should receive one that has belonged to another without testimonials, yet, by the laws of the land, there's nothing required to qualify a man for church membership and communion but a competence of knowledge, and so they dare refuse no man except for ignorance of the common principles, by which means, people that live in adultery, especially if they are people of condition, can and do oblige a church to give them communion. The exercise of discipline, however, (as well as the rules of it,) is strict enough for prosecuting their brethren in cases of heterodoxy, who are cited to their judicatories, and in case of non-compearance are suspended, and after contumacy excommunicated. But this is not owing to any authority in the Church, but to the connivance of the magistrate, who encourages and foments divisions among the clergy for his own interest, according to the common maxim, Divide et impera, and confirms and disannuls their sentences as they subserve his interest; as is evident in the case of this city Utrecht, where the ministers were once all Voetians. Their unanimity made them an eye-sore to the magistrates; who, jealous of their growing power, brought in some of the ablest Cocceians. It was lucky for these that the Voetians were but weak men, and mean preachers; whereupon, they became popular,