ABERNETHY, JOHN. — Irish Presbyterian theologian of liberal views, born to a Protestant minister in Ulster, according to some at Brigh, according to others at Coleraine, in 1680, and died in December 1740.
After studying successfully at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, he was appointed pastor at Antrim, where he worked with zeal and charity, devoted to the duties of his ministry. His fine qualities caused him to be esteemed by other Presbyterian communities, which requested his services. The Presbyterian synod then ordered him (1717) to assume charge of the congregation at Usher’s Quay in Dublin. A. refused, on the pretext that his conscience forbade him to leave Antrim; indeed, protesting against the tyrannical exercise of ecclesiastical power, he set himself in opposition to the authority of his Church. Many joined his protest and formed with him a society of independent Presbyterian ministers (non subscribers) determined to vindicate the rights of individual conscience against the oppression of the synods—the Belfast Society—which, in 1726, having separated from the body of the Irish Presbyterian Church, formed a presbytery of its own. This act alienated a considerable number of Antrim’s faithful from A.; consequently, regretting what had happened, he decided to leave and in 1730 accepted charge of the community at Wood Street in Dublin. From that time dates his fame as a skilled orator. His Discourses on the Attributes of God (Dublin 1743) are celebrated. In 1731 he took a stand against the laws intended to deprive Catholics and nonconformists of political rights, since he could not accept that a citizen should be excluded from serving his country solely on account of his religious convictions. His Scarce and Valuable Tracts (London 1751) date from this period.