Note 35 — Chapter XVI · BRITISH FREETHOUGHT IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

See The State of the Process depending against Mr. John Simson, Edinburgh, 1728. Simson always expressed himself piously, but had thrown out such expressions as Ratio est principium et fundamentum theologiæ, which “contravened the Act of Assembly, 1717” (vol. cited, p. 316). The “process” against him began in 1714, and dragged on for nearly twenty years, with the result of his resigning his professorship of theology at Glasgow in 1729, and seceding from the Associate Presbytery in 1733. Burton, History of Scotland, viii, 399–400. ↑