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 successfully studying at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, he was assigned as a pastor to Antrim, where he worked with zeal and charity, devoted to the duties of his ministry. His fine qualities earned him the esteem of other Presbyterian communities who requested his services. The Presbyterian synod then ordered him (1717) to take charge of the congregation at Usher's Quay in Dublin. Abernethy refused, under the pretext that his conscience forbade him from leaving Antrim; indeed, protesting against the tyrannical exercise of ecclesiastical power, he opposed the authority of his Church. Many joined his protest and formed with him a society of independent Presbyterian ministers (non-subscribers) determined to assert the rights of individual conscience against the oppression of the synods—the Belfast Society—which in 1726 separated from the body of the Irish Presbyterian Church and formed a separate presbytery. This act alienated from Abernethy a good number of the faithful in Antrim, whereupon, regretfully, he decided to leave and in 1730 accepted the care of the community at Wood Street in Dublin. From that time dates his fame as a skilled orator. Notable are his Discourses on the Attributes of God (Dublin 1743). In 1731 he opposed the laws by which Catholics and nonconformists were to be deprived of political rights, as he could not admit that a citizen be excluded from serving his country solely on account of his religious convictions. Dating from this period are his Scarce and Valuable Tracts (London 1751).