National Church, as the best security against innovations.
In the year 1741, Robert Gordon was consecrated to the Episcopal office by Brett, George Smith, and Mawman. He was the last Bishop of the regular Nonjurors.
About the time, when the disputes respecting the Usages terminated, another breach sprang up among the Nonjurors. Mr. Perceval is of opinion, that it commenced, in the year 1733, in the consecration of Roger Lawrence, the learned author of Lay-Baptism Invalid.[1] This line, however, was not recognized by the regular body, on the ground, that the first consecrations were uncanonical. Lawrence himself was consecrated by Campbell, the Scottish Bishop, who acted by his own authority: so that the act, being contrary to the Canons, was deemed invalid. Campbell and Lawrence, therefore, were now the leaders of a new section in the already diminished numbers of the Nonjurors. Subsequently, Campbell and Lawrence consecrated Thomas Deacon, who, on his part, and by himself, appointed to the Episcopal office J. P. Brown, whose real name is supposed to have been Johnstone, a brother of the Earl of Annandale.
The name of Lawrence is well known from his learned works on the Invalidity of Lay Baptism: but probably it is not so generally known, that he was a Nonjuror. His parents being Dissenters, Lawrence was baptized in the body to which they belonged. Entertaining doubts respecting the validity of the Act, he was led to an extended examination of the whole subject, which issued in the publication of his valu-
- ↑ Perceval, 226.
