Home › Creeds, Sects, and Denomina- › Creeds, Sects, and Denomina-: Scottish

Creeds, Sects, and Denomina-: Scottish

The Faith Healers, or those who uphold the doctrine of Healing by Faith, lately sprung up in our midst, may be regarded as an offshoot of the Peculiar People. The Irvingites are the followers of Edward Irving, a Scottish divine (born 1792, died 1834), who maintained that Christ was liable to commit sin in common with the rest of mankind.

The Humanitarians incline to the same belief.

The Sacramentarians are those who deny the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist: the Calvinists were originally known by this title. The Plymouth Brethren first appeared at Plymouth about the year 1830; they so style themselves because they Creeds, Sects, and Denominations. confess Christ as a fraternal community and do not recognize any order of ministers. The Perfectionists of North America are so called owing to their rejection of civil laws, on the plea that the guidance of the Holy Spirit suffices for all earthly as well as spiritual affairs. Another body of coreligionists peculiar to North America are the Hopkinsians, named after Samuel Hopkins, of Connecticut, their founder. The doctrines which they hold are mainly Calvinistic.

The Scottish Covenanters were those who subscribed to a solemn league or covenant to stand by each other in opposition to the religious and political measures of Charles I. This occurred in 1638. In less than ten years afterwards the Covenanters, having increased in numbers and power, assumed the entire direction of their own ecclesiastical affairs and styled themselves Presbyterians, a term derived from the Greek presbuteros, an elder, because they contended that the government of the Church as set forth in the New Testament was by presbyters, equal in office, power, and order. The national Church of Scotland, therefore, when at length it was recognized by the English Parliament, bore the title of the Scottish Presbyterian Church. It was, however, not long before dissensions became rife. The strictest body of the Presbyterians adopted the style of Cameronians, after the name of their leader, Archibald Cameron, who was executed in 1688 on account of his religious opinions; while an equally numerous body, headed by John Macmillan, became known as Macmillanites, and also as The Reformed Presbytery. A much later sect was that founded in 1841 by James Morison, under the designation of the Morisonians. But the most alarming split in the Presbyterian Church took place May 18, 1843, when Dr. Chalmers, with a large following, established a separate community, entitled The Free Church of Scotland.