Extract from Account of the Life and Writings of John Erskine

Extract from Account of the Life and Writings of John Erskine By Sir Henry Moncreiff-Wellwood (1818)

John Erskine was undoubtedly the leading Scottish evangelical in the early eighteenth century.  His essay,” A Humble Attempt to promote Frequent Communicating” argued for frequent, indeed weekly communion and a biblical simplicity in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper

“The essay by which he intended to promote the more frequent dispensation of the Lord's Supper, was connected with an overture, which had probably originated with himself, circulated through the church by the synod of Glasgow and Ayr, and transmitted to the Assembly; proposing that this ordinance should be dispensed in every parish at least four times in every year, and in all the parishes of the same presbytery on the same day; and that there should be only a single sermon preached on a week day preceding the communion Sabbath, in place of the multiplicity of sermons which had till that time been in use.

There were certainly strong reasons for the proposal which was the object of this essay, as well as for many of the alterations which were suggested to render it practicable.

The subject had been under the consideration of the presbytery of Edinburgh in 1720, who, without going as far as the overture from the synod of Glasgow and Ayr, had abridged the number of sermons, *and made an arrangement by which the Lord's Supper was to be dispensed in one or more of the congregations within the bounds of the presbytery, in every month of the year. But no change had hitherto been made in other districts of Scotland, where, because the inconvenience attending the common practice was obviously greater, there was more occasion for reformation.

Dr Erskine discussed this subject with singular ability and learning, and his essay is, in point of execution, equal to any one of his other publications. He states, from the original authorities, the doctrine and practice of the early ages of the church; the decisions of Councils, and the opinions of the Fathers on the subject, with the practice of the reformers and of the reformed churches down to the latest period, as far as he had been able to procure them. He then represents the practice introduced into Scotland, immediately after the Reformation, and the circumstances in the times of persecution, from which a different mode was adopted. He points out the inconvenience attending the multiplicity of sermons which had been first brought into practice, when the Lord's Supper was dispensed under the rod of persecution; and which was still continued when the circumstances were no more the same; and he shews how unnecessary and inexpedient the same number of sermons becomes in different times; placing, in a very striking and forcible light, the arguments which then pressed on his own mind in support of the synodical overture.

He had an able and respectable coadjutor who published on the same subject, the Reverend Mr Thomas Randall, then minister of Inchture, and afterwards of Stirling — a man whose learning, ingenuity, and eminence as a Christian pastor, entitled him to the first distinctions in the church to which he belonged, as much as the variety of his conversation, and the cheerfulness of his private intercourse, have secured to him the affectionate and perpetual remembrance of his friends. No individual could have had a better claim to be heard on a subject so important to the edification of the people, and which he was, in every respect, so competent to discuss.

From very different topics he maintained the same argument with Dr Erskine; equally zealous in promoting the object; and detailing, with more minuteness, the inconvenience of the practice which prevailed, and some pernicious effects ascribed to it on what was then the condition of the country.

Mr Randall's pamphlet (probably in manuscript) had reached Dr Erskine, after he had written, but before he had circulated his own publication. With the unassuming modesty which was natural to him, and which is more or less to be found in almost every transaction of his life, he thought it necessary, after he had read it, to subjoin to what he had printed the following note: "Though Mr Randall handles the argument in a different method from me, and "there are very few particulars in which "we coincide, yet I think myself bound to "acquaint the public, that they would not have been troubled with this hasty essay, if I had seen Mr Randall's papers before composing it…" So humble and unpretending was the mind of Dr Erskine, even on a subject which he had thoroughly examined, and on which he admits that his argument had not been anticipated! So much had he imbibed the spirit or the evangelical rule which enjoins "every man to "esteem his neighbour better than him*' self."

The subject discussed in these pamphlets was certainly of very serious importance. A more frequent dispensation of the Lord's Supper than was at this time usual in Scotland, was unquestionably an object which deserved all the zeal and attention which it excited. The overture from the synod of Glasgow went perhaps somewhat farther than the circumstances required, or than was suited to the general situation of parishes in Scotland. But the thing attempted was, notwithstanding, though not in its full extent, in a great degree attained. The argument in Dr Erskine's and Mr Randall’s essays went a great way to lessen the evil of which they complained. The Lord's Supper has, from that time, been more frequently and more uniformly dispensed, and in no small proportion of the parishes the number of sermons connected with it has been at least considerably abridged.

Footnote:

* Before this time, the practice since the Revolution had uniformly been, that three sermons should be preached on a fast-day, in the middle of the week preceding the Sunday appointed for the dispensation of the Lord's Supper, two on the Saturday, one in the morning and another in the evening of the Sunday, and two on the Monday. In some congregations in Scotland, the same practice is still continued, though the Lord's Supper is more frequently dispensed.

The people ate attached to this multiplicity of sermons from the usage of their ancestors, who introduced it in more difficult times, and have transmitted it to their descendants, with other memorials of their piety and zeal under the hardships which they suffered; hardships which they endured with a magnanimity of principle, which the frequency of their religious exercises had no small influence in sustaining; and which, if their posterity are worthy of their origin, neither malignity nor wit can ever render contemptible in their eyes.

But the same expedients are not necessary in times of general quiet and security. The presbytery of Edinburgh might have safely gone farther than they did go, in abridging the number of sermons; and though they might have had to combat the prejudices, they would have certainly added greatly to the comfort of the people.