United Presbyterian Church, a religious body in Scotland, constituted in 1847 by the amalgamation of the 'Secession' and 'Relief' Churches, as described in the church history of Scotland (Vol. IX. p. 245). The dissatisfaction felt by the stricter Presbyterians with the Revolution Settlement is described at CAMERONIANS. The Marrow Controversy (q.v.) contributed to increase the discontent with the church; but the immediate cause of the formation of the Secession Church was the restoration in 1712 of the obnoxious Law of Patronage (for which see FREE CHURCH). Violent settlements, effected by the agency of dragoons, now became frequent, and greatly irritated the people; and finally, in 1730, the Assembly enacted that in future no reasons of dissent 'against the determinations of church judicatures' should be entered on record. This attempt to gag the mouths of congregations was more than some could bear, and in October 1732 the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine of Stirling, in a sermon delivered before the synod of Stirling and Perth, denounced the recent legislation and spirit of the church. A committee appointed to consider the matter reported at the ensuing meeting of synod; and Erskine, after three days' 'warm reasonings,' was found deserving of censure. He immediately protested (as did also twelve other ministers and two elders), and appealed to the next General Assembly, which sustained the decision of the synod. Erskine left with the Assembly a written protest, which was also signed by William Wilson, minister of Perth; Alexander Moncrieff, minister of Abernethy; and James Fisher, minister of Kinclaven. The Assembly ordained that the four brethren should appear before the Commission in August and retract their protest, on pain of being suspended from their ministry. This they refused to do, and in consequence were declared 'no longer ministers of the church' (November 1733); whereupon they handed in a final written protest, in which they declared that they were obliged to make a secession from them, and appealed to the first free, faithful, and reforming General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
At first composed of only four ministers, the 'Secession Church' rapidly began to gather strength. Little Christian societies were everywhere formed, which were gradually supplied with pastors either from the Establishment or from youths trained to the work of the ministry by Erskine and his friends. The 'four brethren' drew up a testimony declaring their reasons for separation. What they sought was the vindication of what they held to be evangelical truth, much more than of the mere right of popular election. So much popular indignation was excited by their deposition that it was thought desirable by the majority of the Moderate party to make certain concessions to the Evangelicals, or Marrow party. The General Assembly of 1734 passed some measures distinctly favourable to the latter party, and empowered the synod of Perth and Stirling to remove the censures from the four brethren, and to restore them to their respective charges; but Erskine declined to be 'reposed.' In December 1736 appeared the pamphlet commonly known as the Judicial Testimony, which is a sort of survey of the whole ecclesiastical history of Scotland from the Reformation downwards. In 1737 four other ministers joined the original four. In 1738 the commission of Assembly libelled the 'eight brethren,' and summoned them to appear before the Assembly of 1739, which they did; and after a year of grace the General Assembly of 1740 solemnly pronounced their deposition, and the connection between Erskine and the church of his fathers was for ever at an end.
In 1747 a rupture or 'breach' took place in the new body on the question of the burgess-oath, some affirming that this oath could not be taken by any consistent Seceder, and others insisting that it could, and that the question regarding it ought to be matter of mutual forbearance. The party condemning the religious clause in the burgess-oath formed the General Associate Synod, or, popularly, the Anti-burgher Synod; the party tolerating it, the Associate or Burgher Synod. Subsequently a second split occurred in each of these in regard to the province of the civil magistrate, and two other minor denominations were formed, the one assuming the designation of the Constitutional Associate Presbytery, or Old Light Anti-burghers (1806), and the other that of the Original Burgher Presbytery, or Old Light Burghers (1799). After holding aloof from each other for more than seventy years, the Burghers and Anti-burghers began to approximate once more, and finally, in 1820, the 'New Light' sections were solemnly reunited. The Old Light sections, amongst whom Dr M'Crie was the most notable man, united in 1842 as the 'Original Seceders,' of which, after union of part with the Free Church, a remnant still forms a separate but small communion. At the date of the 'breach' the number of Secession congregations was 32; when the reunion took place it had increased to 262. Henceforward the history of the Secession Church exhibits a course of uninterrupted prosperity. Ere long the Seceders came under the liberalising influences of the new-born enthusiasm for foreign missions, and started stations in Canada, Jamaica, Trinidad, Calabar, and elsewhere; and in 1847 the Secession maintained more than sixty missionaries. Further, the Secession Church began to assume an attitude more distinctly antagonistic to the Establishment. Though it has never formally avowed the voluntary principle (see VOLUNTARISM, STATE RELIGION), yet the fact that it has maintained itself ab initio by voluntary effort has had the effect of determining the great majority of the pastors and people to adopt this principle. The 'Voluntary Controversy' (1829-34) between leading divines of the Establishment and of the Secession served to strengthen the voluntarism of the Seceders, and brought them more closely into connection with the Relief Church, whose theoretical voluntarism was perhaps still more pronounced. In the 'Atonement Controversy' both bodies adhered to the liberal evangelical theology of the Marrow. But the Rev. James Morison, for what were thought his extreme views, was separated from the United Secession Church in 1841, and founded the Evangelical Union (q.v.). The desire for union between the two denominations now became stronger than ever. Committees were appointed, and conferences held; and at length, on the 13th May 1847, in Tanfield Hall, Edinburgh, the union of the Secession and Relief was formally accomplished, and the two churches formed themselves into one body under the designation of the United Presbyterian Church.
After the expulsion of Erskine and his friends from the Church of Scotland the assemblies became more determinedly 'moderate' than ever. Never were forced settlements more frequent than about this period; but relief was felt to be a necessity, and relief came in the person of the Rev. Thomas Gillespie, minister of the parish of Carnock, near Dunfermline. In 1749 a presentation by the patron to the parish of Inverkeithing proved so extremely unpopular that the presbytery of Dunfermline refused to proceed with it. After various intermediate steps the Assembly of May 1752 ordered the presbytery to induct the presentee on Thursday the 21st. The presbytery did not meet on Thursday—at least a quorum did not; and on Friday six ministers of the presbytery, including Gillespie, handed in a 'representation,' explaining why they could not obey the commands of the supreme court. They were warned by the moderator, and informed that if they remained obdurate one of them should be deposed. Gillespie was ultimately fixed on as the most suitable sacrifice, and without libel or any formal process whatever, he was arraigned, condemned, and deposed. Out of 158 members present, only 56 voted.
The Relief Church, it will thus be seen, was founded simply on an assertion of the right of congregations to elect their own ministers. In 1758 Thomas Boston, minister of Jedburgh, son of the great Boston (q.v.), threw in his lot with Gillespie; in 1761 the congregation of Colinsburgh, in Fife, did the same. The Relief had now got a footing, and steadily increased. At the union in 1847 they numbered 113 congregations, while the Secession numbered 384 congregations; so that the United Presbyterian Church commenced with 497 churches, and a membership estimated at more than 140,000.
The career of the United Presbyterian Church as a corporate body has been one of uninterrupted prosperity. In point of doctrine it adheres (like all the other Presbyterian churches of Scotland) to the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms. But in 1879 a Declaration Act was adopted, setting forth more
