they have remained mute and silent,
which indeed evidences them not to be truly deserving of the character
of _venerable_ and _reverend_, which they assume to themselves, but
rather that of an association; or, in the words of the weeping prophet,
_an assembly of treacherous men_: Jer. ix, 2.]

[Footnote 3: See pages 68, 69, preceding.]

[Footnote 4: Mr. _Andrew Clarkson_ originally belonged to the community
of Old Dissenters under the pastoral inspection of the Rev. Mr. _John
McMillan_ senior; was educated and lived in communion with them, till
upwards of the age of thirty years; during which time he wrote and
published a book, entitled, _Plain Reasons, &c._, setting forth the
grounds why Presbyterian Dissenters refused to hold communion with the
revolution, church and state; but, having no prospect of obtaining
license and ordination among them, in regard they had then no ordained
minister belonging to them but old Mr. _McMillan_ alone, it appeared
that, from a passionate desire after these privileges, he left his old
friends, and made his application to the Associate Presbytery, who
treated him as above narrated.]

[Footnote 5: Mr. _John Cameron_, then a probationer and clerk to their
Presbytery.]

[Footnote 6: These people, referred to above, very unjustly designate
themselves such _who adhere to the testimony for the kingly prerogative
of Christ_. They did at first, before their agreement with the
Presbytery, and ever since their elopement, do still profess to appear
for what they call _An Active Testimony_, conform to the rude draft of a
paper commonly known by the name of the _Queensferry Paper_ or
_Covenant_ (see _Cloud of Witnesses_, Appendix, page 270). After their
_activity_ had carried them the length of avouching the most
inconsistent anti-predestinarian, Arminian schemes of universal
redemption, and not only to a total separation from the Presbytery, and
rejection of their judicial authority, but even to an open denial of the
protestative mission of the ministers therein, and of all others; the
most part of them were, in God's holy and righteous justice, left to
receive and submit to the pretended authority and ministrations of
_William Dunnet_, a deceiver, destitute of all mission and authority,
whom they were afterward obliged to abandon In 1771, they published a
pamphlet entitled, _A short Abstract of their Principles and Designs_.
In this they cunningly evade the acknowledgment of our Confession of