declared that they had formed themselves into a presbytery for the relief of Christians oppressed in their privileges.
The number of congregations in connection with the Relief rapidly increased. It afforded an asylum for those who desired to have the choice of their own ministers, yet could not accede to the peculiarities of the Secession. Relief from patronage, the assertion of the people's right to choose their own ministers, the extending of their communion to all visible saints, to all sound in the faith and of holy life these were the distinguishing peculiarities which marked the Relief. They were distinguished from the two bodies of the Secession by their permission of occasional hearing, their disregard of the covenants sworn by our Scottish ancestors, their neglect of the duty of covenanting, and their not restricting their communion to their own Christian societies. These peculiarities provoked the reproaches of the Secession writers of the day. In the progress of time, however, a large section of the Seceders came to be of one mind with their Relief brethren on all matters of doctrine and discipline. In the year 1847 the two bodies were joined together under the designation of the United Presbyterian church. This respectable denomination now (1853) numbers 505 congregations, with an aggregate attendance of 400,000. The Relief and United Secession churches were both opposed to the principle of an Established church; and although the voluntary principle of the United Presbyterian church is not formally avowed in her standards, it is distinctly implied in her position and actings.
It has been said, that Gillespie cooled in his attachment to the Relief, in the latter part of his life, and that he even expressed a wish that his congregation should join the Established church, as a chapel of ease. This last assertion is certainly questionable. It has been contradicted by Mr. Smith, in his Historical Sketches of the Relief Church, who, holding a charge in Dunfermline, and living among the personal associates of Gillespie, may be reckoned a competent witness as to what was known of Mr Gillespie's sentiments. He states, that the church and part of the congregation were carried over to the Establishment by the undue influence and representations of Mr Gillespie's brother; and that Mr Gillespie had no difference with his brethren as to the constitution and principles of the Relief church. He never discovered to his people any inclination to be connected again with the Establishment. His disapprobation of the church which deposed him, continued to the end of his days. He was, however, dissatisfied with some of his brethren for the willingness they showed to listen to the application of Mr Perrie (1770), to be received into the body. Perhaps, too, his being thrown into the shade in the conduct of the public affairs of the body, by the active business habits of Mr Bain, after his accession to the Relief, might heighten his chagrin. These circumstances, operating on the tenderness of temper incident to old age and increasing infirmities, seem to have created in his mind a degree of dissatisfaction with some of his brethren ; but that he repented of the steps he had taken in the formation of the presbytery of Relief, or that he had changed his sentiments on the terms of communion, on the impropriety of the civil magistrate's interference in ecclesiastical affairs, or similar points, there is no evidence.
The only productions of Gillespie that have been published are, an Essay on the Continuance of Immediate Revelations in the Church, published in his lifetime, and a Treatise on Temptation, in 1774, after his death, both prefaced by Dr J. Erskine of Edinburgh. The first is designed to prove that God does not now give to any individuals, by impressions, dreams, or otherwise, intimations of facts or future events. He argues the point solidly and sensibly, and with some ingenuity. From his correspondence, it appears that the topic had occupied his thoughts much. He corresponded with Doddridge, Harvey, and president Edwards; and his correspondence with Edwards was published in the Quarterly
