ranguing, exclusive of Christ and his most
perfect righteousness (which is so common and frequent in all parts of
the land), and opened a door for introducing _Baxterian_ principles,
which, in consequence hereof, have since very much prevailed. Another
evidence of this church's unsoundness and unfaithfulness in doctrine, is
their excessive, sinful lenity toward the most gross heretics.
Notwithstanding _Arminian_ and _Pelagian_ heresies, and _Arian_
blasphemies, have been publicly taught; and although true godliness, and
the effectual working of the Spirit on the souls of men have been
publicly exposed as enthusiasm, and many other damnable heresies vented,
yet this church has never lifted up the faithful standard of a judicial
testimony, in condemnation of these heresies, and in vindication of the
precious truths of Christ thereby impugned. And when the ministers and
members of this church have been processed before her assemblies, and
convicted of maintaining many gross errors, no adequate censure has been
inflicted. This particularly appears in the case of Mr. Simpson,
professor of divinity in the college of Glasgow, when processed before
the judicatories of this church, in the years 1715 and 1716, for several
gross errors; such as, "That regard to our own happiness, in the
enjoyment of God, ought to be our chief motive in serving him, and that
our glorifying of God is subordinate to it: that Adam was not our
federal head;" and other _Arminian, Socinian_ and _Pelagian_ heresies,
all to be found in his answers to Mr. Webster's libel given in against
him, and clearly proven: yet was he dismissed with a very gentle
admonition. Which sinful lenity encouraged him, not only to persist in
the same errors, but also to the venting of _Arian_ heresies among his
students.

Accordingly, he was again arraigned before the assembly's bar in the
years 1727-28-29, when it was found clearly proven that he had denied
the necessary existence of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the numerical
Oneness of the Three Persons of the Trinity in substance and essence,
with other damnable tenets. Yet when these articles, whereby he had
attempted to depose the Son of God from his supreme deity, were proven,
and when (as one of the members of this church, in his protest against
the assembly's sentence, said) the Son of God was, as it were, appearing
at the bar of that assembly, craving justice against one who had
derogated from his essential glory, and bl