Moderates vs Evangelicals

THE LANDING OF William of Orange in south west England in 1688, led to the flight of James II, the end of the Stewart dynasty, and the termination of persecution for the Presbyterians in Scotland.

William was a Calvinist in doctrine and a Presbyterian in polity, but he could not afford to offend his strong supporters in the Church of England, and not least the Anglican bishops. The Scottish bishops had sent a message of loyalty to James on hearing of William’s landing. For many years after, the Episcopalian Church (’episcopal’ comes from the Greek word episkopos which the Authorized Version translates ‘bishop’) had a strong sympathy for the Stewart cause and toasted in secret the ‘Gentleman Over the Waters.’ This Church was small in number but many of the gentry belonged to it.

William, while realizing his need for the support of the English Anglicans, knew that he also required the support of the Scottish Presbyterians if he were to be accepted in Scotland. He could not rely on the Scottish Episcopalians. He had to tread a narrow ledge. Happily, he had as his adviser and chaplain William Carstares. Carstares was a Presbyterian minister who had fled from Scotland to Holland on account of persecution. He had met and become a close friend of William. Carstares got the best deal he could for the Scottish Presbyterian Church. William was in practice indifferent to church polity and not fond of dogmatic utterances. Furthermore, his main interest lay in fighting the French and he wanted peace in Britain, and not least in Scotland. Hence the Revolution Settlement of 1690 was a compromise. It abolished the bishops in the Scottish Church; re-instated the ejected ministers; restored the act of 1592 which recognised Presbyterianism as the polity of the Scottish Church; abolished patronage; restored the authority of the General Assembly and left the episcopal curates in their charges providing they were willing to accept Presbyterianism and take an oath of loyalty.

The followers of Richard Cameron, the Covenanters, refused to accept the terms, as the Covenants were not mentioned in the Settlement. Their Societies, as they called them, functioned outside the national Church. Later on, they constituted themselves the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

The Revolution Settlement had one great weakness: it permitted men to remain in the church and ministry who were neither evangelical nor presbyterian. Furthermore, those men who had accepted the Indulgence of James II were not respected. The remaining complement of the church’s ministry was made up of the survivors of the ejection of minsters who refused to accept the bishops in the reign of Charles II. From this mixture of men arose two parties - the Moderates and the Evangelicals.

The Moderates.

The Moderates, as their name suggests, believed in moderation in religious affairs. They frowned on zealous Christianity. Theirs was natural religion under the name of Christianity. They believed that human nature was essentially good, they believed in the brotherhood of all men. They avoided the truths of human depravity and the need for the new birth. They did not preach repentance and the necessity of a living faith and a godly life in a Christian. They preached on morality, social duties and natural virtue. They were easy on heresy and drunkenness and immorality among their followers, but hard on Evangelicals who spoke their mind on their inconsistencies. They rarely if ever quoted the Bible in their ministry but rather resorted to ancient Greek or Roman authorities. They had great respect for atheists and deists in principle, but little or none for earnest Christians. Some of their leaders like Blair, Hill and Robertson were men of great natural ability and strove to improve social manners, literature and learning in Scotland. But they had no gospel to preach even though men like Hill were acquainted with Reformed Theology. They called the Evangelicals who preached on the supernatural in Christian belief and experience ‘High Flyers.’ The Moderates had the numbers and influence in the General Assembly for most of the eighteenth century. They were skilful managers of ecclesiastic affairs and their policies prevailed, to the great loss of the church and the nation. They used their power in tyrannical ways. When patronage was restored in the Scottish Church in 1712 by the British Parliament, they supported it and were hand in glove with the patrons. Consequently many unsuitable ministers were forced on congregations, some with military assistance. If Presbyteries were reluctant to induct the patron’s presentee because of congregational objections, the Moderates had the answer. They appointed ‘Riding Committees’ who would do the job for the Presbytery. Through their arrogance, the Moderates brought about two secessions from the Scottish Church. One was led by Ebenezer Erskine, who was joined by three colleagues and later on by his brother Ralph, to form the Original Secession Church. The Erskine brothers were great preachers and theologians. The other secession was led by Thomas Gillespie who, with other colleagues, formed the Relief church. These two secessions syphoned off many good people from the Scottish national church.

The Moderates delayed the introduction of foreign missions into the Scottish church on the ground that learning and culture must precede missionary enterprise. They hindered the work of home mission by barring from Church of Scotland pulpits men like George Whitfield and Charles Simeon, great evangelists of the Anglican Church, and by discouraging the work of evangelistic laymen like Robert and James Haldane. The brothers, once loyal to the Kirk of Scotland, founded independent churches in Scotland. (Robert Haldane wrote a classic commentary on Romans.)

The Evangelicals.

While the Moderates had control of the machinery of administration, the Evangelicals were neither lacking in numbers nor zeal in their Lord’s service. They rarely organized themselves to form a party in the Assembly, being too taken up with preaching and teaching. They grieved over the state of the church but did not leave it. Many souls were brought to Christ and built up in their faith through their ministry. There were great theologians and preachers among them, like Thomas Halyburton, Thomas Boston, John MacLaurin, Willison of Dundee, John Inglis and John Erskine, just to name a few. John Erskine was Assistant Minister to Robertson the Moderate leader. When Robertson one Sunday morning preached on Virtue, and stated that if she could only be seen on earth in all her beauty men would embrace her, young John preached at night that Virtue had come down in all her beauty in the person of Christ and men had crucified him!

There were revivals of true religion in some parts of the country. Rev. McCulloch of Cambuslang had a tremendous work of grace done in his parish with the able assistance of George Whitefield (before the Assembly banned him). Hundreds were brought to Christ and many Christians had their spiritual life deepened.

In this time of spiritual quickening, Prayer Societies (we would call them Fellowships) sprang up all over the country because people wanted to pray together and share Christian experiences. They were not intended to be churches but informal fellowships for mutual encouragement. They were frowned on by Moderates but the wise Evangelical ministers encouraged them and gave them rules to guide them so as to avoid extremes.

God blessed the Scottish kirk and toward the end of the century the Evangelicals were growing in number and influence. One great leader was Andrew Thompson who was a man of culture, of great depth of mind, a fervent evangelist and teacher of God’s Word. His mantle fell upon Thomas Chalmers one of the greatest men and preachers that Scotland ever produced. He was like other ministers a Moderate until the grace of God laid hold of him. He at one time put secular studies before his ministry. He was seven years in the ministry before his conversion. But when the Lord converted him, he threw all his energies and talents into Christ’s service. His consuming passion was to see Scotland permeated with the gospel and its godliness. He also desired to see all God’s people engaged in the task and considered that his Church and other churches too, were only of worth and significance as they fulfilled this task.

Under the leadership of Chalmers, the Evangelicals finally won control of the Assembly and in the 1830’s brought a new breath of life to the Church of Scotland. It was among the brightest periods in the history of the Church. Under a Church Extension scheme of which Chalmers was chairman, two hundred new churches were built to reach the masses who were neglected and ignorant. Foreign Missions were begun including a mission to the Jews. The ministers of Chapels of Ease - churches built by voluntary support and legally outside the national parish system - were given full status, and a Veto Act put an effective brake on intrusions of unwanted ministers on congregations. These last two actions of the Assembly were to be the occasion of a storm that would split the Church of Scotland and lead to the Disruption. But meanwhile so great had been the divine blessing on the Church that when the Disruption came, there were 474 godly ministers ready to sacrifice their worldly all to be true to Christ and their conscience, hundreds of divinity students, many hundreds of elders and thousands of people ready to share their hardships. The Moderates had done their best to keep out of the pulpits Evangelical licentiates and ministers and this was not hard to do when many of the patrons were their friends and supporters. But a Sovereign God brought to himself not a few of the Moderate ministers who then became earnest preachers, teachers and leaders of the Reformed and Evangelical Faith. We must never despair of any ecclesiastical situation. All things are possible with God.

<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 Next > End >>

< Prev		Next >

[ Back ]

PCEA login

Moderates vs Evangelicals

The Moderates.

The Evangelicals.