John Anderson (theologian and controversialist)

Great anxiety was felt at the time by the presbyterian clergy in connection with the general use of the English liturgy in the episcopalian congregations, which had not been in common use among them till the beginning of the eighteenth century.

The work by which Anderson continues to be known is a ‘Defence of the Church Government, Faith, Worship, and Spirit of the Presbyterians,’ published in 1714, in reply to a work entitled ‘An Apology for Mr. Thomas Rhind, or an account of the manner how, and the reasons for which, he separated from the Presbyterian party and embraced the communion of the Church’ (Edin.

They were answered in better temper and with much ability by Professor Dunlop of Edinburgh.’ Wodrow, who speaks of him as ‘a kind, frank, comradely man when not grated,’ owns that he could be passionate and bitter, and tells how, in answer to his remonstrance with him for the Billingsgate style of his letters to Calder, he said that ‘it was the only way to silence Calder.’ After his removal to Glasgow, he seems to have fallen both in ability and character.

Though he had been the champion of presbytery, he fell under the censure of his brethren for what they considered an un-Presbyterian service—a sort of consecration sermon preached at the opening of his church.

[1] He is buried in the churchyard of his own church, now called the Ramshorn Cemetery on Ingram Street in Glasgow.