Biggar and the House of Fleming

614
BIGGAR AND THE HOUSE OE FLEMING.
Wm. Johnston, John's Close, Burrowfield,
John Steel, John's Close, Croftland,
Mrs. Bowe, Cruckdale Croft and Meadow,
Miss Bradfute, John's Cross and Old Style,
Miss Bradfute, Park in Bogs,
George Bertram, Park do.
John Forrest's widow. Park do.
John Craig, Park do.
Dr. Wilson, Park do.
Alex. Steel, Park do.
John Black's Heirs, Park do.
John M'Ghie, Park do.
William Cleghorn, Park do.
Thomas Wyld, Park do.
William Vallance, Park do.
£3


6


3
7
6
8 18
8
5
14
6
7
7

15


7
10

17
17

9
9

6


8
5

11


7
10

8


£954 11 10J
No. III.
REASONS OF PROTEST AGAINST THE DECISION OF THE GENE-
RAL ASSEMBLY TO SETTLE MR. PEARSON IN THE CHURCH
OF BIGGAR.
Though it hath been often a matter of dispute what number of subscrip-
tions were necessary to constitute that call upon which the Church can pro-
ceed to the settlement of a minister, yet there is not any one instance in
which this Court hath ordered a settlement to proceed without something
which had at least the form and the name, however little it might have of
the nature, of a call ; but in the present case, the Assembly hath ordered a
settlement to proceed according to the rules of the Church, although to this
moment the call is a sheet of blank paper, without a single name. The con-
currence came eleven months after the moderation of a call ; and was, there-
fore, strictly inadmissible in any form. If the unauthenticated extrajudicial
subscriptions of, or a promise to subscribe, a call, were to be regarded, why
not turn them into a legal shape, and remit for that purpose to the Presby-
tery to moderate a call de novo f The regular course was plain ; nor was
there the smallest reason for deviating from it by an extraordinary stretch of
power. By ordination a mutual relation is constituted, and for this purpose
the consent of both parties is equally essential. In what manner the consent
of the people is to be expressed, hath been clearly laid down in the law and
practice of the Church ; and when it is not thus expressed in what is gener-
ally named a call, or something equivalent to a call, an ordination is an ab-
surdity, if not worse. " That no person shall be intruded into any office of
the Church contrary to the will of the congregation to which he is appointed,"
nay, " that it is not lawful for any person to meddle with an ecclesiastical