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 BX 9056 .W75 1895 
 
 Wright, Alexander. 
 
 The Presbyterian Church 
 
THE 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 
 
 ITS WORSHIP, FUNCTIONS, AND 
 MINISTERIAL ORDERS 
 
 BY y 
 The Rev. ALEXANDER WRIGHT, M.A. 
 
 MUSSELBURGH 
 
 BOinburgb an& XonOon 
 
 OLIPHANT ANDERSON & FERRIER 
 
 1895 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This short " History of the Worship of the Church of 
 Scotland, and Account of its Functions, Offices, and 
 Orders," has been written with a fourfold object. 
 
 1. To promote an improvement in the ritual of the 
 various branches of the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 2. To show that such improvements are in accord 
 with the " use and wont " of the Reformed Church 
 of Scotland. 
 
 3. To sketch in brief outline the various Functions 
 and Offices prescribed in the " Directory for the Public 
 Worship of God, agreed upon by the Assembly of 
 Divines at Westminster, with the assistance of Com- 
 missioners from the Church of Scotland, as a part of 
 the covenanted uniformity in religion betwixt the 
 Churches of Christ in the Kingdoms of Scotland, 
 England, and Ireland." 
 
 4. To indicate both the Scriptural regularity and 
 validity of Presbyterian Orders. 
 
 While I have endeavoured to point out that certain 
 ritual changes adopted by a considerable section of 
 Presbyterian worshippers are not only desirable, and 
 add to the beauty, the decorum, and impressiveness of 
 the service of the Sanctuary, but are also in reality 
 simple and undoubted returns to the usages of the 
 early Reformed Church, I have at the same time aimed, 
 by the light of the history of the Church in the past, to 
 
iv Preface, 
 
 show that some of the changes introduced in the Ritual 
 of a considerable number of Presbyterian churches at 
 present were utterly unknown to the Reformers, and 
 stand condemned both by the early practice and tradi- 
 tions of the Church of Scotland. 
 
 Such changes in the service of the Church are un- 
 worthy departures from the worship of Presbyterianism 
 in its primitive and best days, and can only be regarded 
 as a poor and meagre copying of Episcopacy in its 
 ritual and form of worship. 
 
 In writing these pages I have received valuable help 
 from Hill Burton's " History of Scotland," and from 
 Dr Leishman's article on " The Ritual of the Church of 
 Scotland." Since beginning to write on this subject, 
 Dr M'Crie's book, entitled " Public Worship of Presby- 
 terian Scotland," has been issued. To this able and 
 accomplished author I beg to express my feeling of 
 indebtedness for many facts and suggestions. To 
 these writers my best thanks are due and heartily 
 tendered. 
 
 A. W. 
 
 Musselburgh, April 1895. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Chap. ^ Page 
 
 I. History of the Worship of the Presbyterian Church — 
 
 The Reformation — Book of Common Order — Office 
 
 of Readers ........ i 
 
 II. Knox's Liturgy — Gaelic Prayer Book — Plea for an 
 
 Improved Church Service . . . . . lo 
 
 III. Form of Service in Church of Reformation — Daily 
 
 Services — The Lord's Prayer — Praise — Reading of 
 Line 20 
 
 IV. Book of Common Order — Baptism — The Lord's Supper 
 
 — Ordination — Marriage — Burial of Dead — Festivals 29 
 V. Prelatic Innovations — The Five Articles of Perth 
 
 approved of by Assembly 38 
 
 VI. Five Articles of Perth — Laud — King James' opinion 
 
 of him 47 
 
 VII. Policy of " Thorough "—The Book of Canons— Read 
 
 Prayers enjoined 56 
 
 VIII. The Liturgies in the Church after the Reformation — 
 
 First use of term *' Liturgy" — Service Book of 1616 64 
 
 IX. Laud's Liturgy of 1637 — Authorised Version — Scottish 
 
 Episcopal Communion Office 73 
 
 X. Laud's Liturgy — The Supplicants — The Tables — ^Jenny 
 
 Geddes ......... 82 
 
 XI. Protestation and Covenant — The King demands Obedi- 
 ence — Aberdeen and the Covenant ... 90 
 XII. The Glasgow Assembly of 1638 — Presbyteryz^. Episcopacy 98 
 
 XIII. How Public Worship was conducted in Scotland before 
 
 1638 — Administration of Baptism and the Lord's 
 Supper 107 
 
 XIV. Reconstruction of Presbytery — Meeting of Westminster 
 
 Assembly — Directory of Public Worship . . . 115 
 XV. The Westminster Assembly and Directory of PubHc 
 
 Worship 124 
 
 XVI. The Directory of Public Worship— Forms of PubHc 
 
 Worship 132 
 
 XVII. Directory of Public Worship — Praise — Preaching — 
 
 Burial Service ....... 140 
 
 XVIII. Directory of Public Worship — Fasting and Thanksgiving 
 
 — Marriage Service . . . . . .150 
 
 XIX. Directory of Public Worship — Baptism — Modern views 
 
 of Baptism . . . . . . . .156 
 
 XX. Celebration of the Lord's Supper — Neglect of the Ordin- 
 ance — Prayer of Consecration — The Lifters . . 166 
 
VI 
 
 Contents, 
 
 Chap. Page 
 
 XXI. The Ordination of Ministers — Bishop v. Presbyter — 
 Succession — Apostolical claims Schismatic — Presby- 
 terian orders valid and regular . . . .173 
 XXII. The Church— Office and Ministry of the Church— Ruling 
 
 Elders and their duties — The Diaconate . . .183 
 
 XXIII. The Presbyter as Minister of the Word— Nature and Office 
 
 of the Christian Minister not Sacerdotal . . .194 
 
 XXIV. The Presbyter as Minister of the Word— '' Lord's Table " 
 
 not ' ' Altar " — Sacramentarianism unhistorical — 
 Lightfoot on " Christian Ministry " . . . . 201 
 
 XXV. Public Worship under the Commonwealth — The Re- 
 
 storation — Times of Persecution — Puritan Efifects on 
 
 Public Worship 210 
 
 XXVI. PubUc Worship under Commonwealth — Public Worship 
 according to Eye-Witnesses in both Presbyterian and 
 Episcopal Churches ...... 216 
 
 XXVII. Worship in the Church of the Revolution — Decay of 
 Church Ritual — Episcopal Service of the period — 
 Assembly of 1690 and Directory of Worship . . 222 
 XXVIII. Worship in the Church of the Revolution — Episcopalians 
 
 desiring Book of Prayer — Postures during Prayer . 228 
 XXIX. Treaty of Union — Episcopalians and the English 
 Liturgy — Act of Toleration — Act securing Presby- 
 terian Worship — Revival of Laud's Liturgy among 
 Episcopalians ..... . . . 233 
 
 XXX. Psalmody Improvements — Introduction of Paraphrases 
 and Hymns — Scripture Songs — Book of Paraphrases 
 
 of 1745 . • 243 
 
 XXXI. Worship at end of Last Century — Hymns and Doxologies 
 
 — First Hymn Book adopted by Relief Church . 249 
 
 XXXII. Modern Improvements in Church Service — Use of Hymns 
 and Organs — Dr James Beattie advocates use of Organ 
 — Dr Andrew Thomson and Psalmody Improvements 254 
 
 XXXIII. ModernlmprovementsinChurch Service — The "Scottish 
 
 Hymnal " — Hymn Book for Church — Dr Robert Lee 
 
 and his Work ........ 260 
 
 XXXIV. Modern Improvements in Church Service — The Church 
 
 Service Society — The Euchologion .... 265 
 XXXV. Modern Improvements in Church Service — The Scottish 
 Church Society — Its Sacramentarian and Sacerdotal 
 features — What the *' Tablet " says .... 270 
 XXXVI. Modern Improvements in Church Service — The Free 
 Church ' * Public Worship Association " — Union of 
 Free and Liturgical Prayer — Strictures on " Scottish 
 Church Society " 279 
 
A HISTORY OF THE WORSHIP OF 
 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 In these chapters it is my object to trace the " His- 
 tory of the Worship and Functions of the Church of 
 Scotland " from the period of the Reformation to 
 the present day. My purpose is to inquire how far 
 in accord are the present forms of service in our Pres- 
 byterian Churches with the worship of the Church 
 immediately after the Reformation, and in what 
 measure modern improvements in worship are sanc- 
 tioned by the usages of the past. 
 
 The subject of the varied functions and offices of the 
 Church falls also to be dealt with, and the question as to 
 the validity of its Ministerial Orders considered in the 
 light of the teaching of Holy Scripture. 
 
 It must be acknowledged by all who know any- 
 thing of Church life in Scotland, that a strong desire 
 exists in the hearts of many of the loyalest members of 
 the various Presbyterian Churches for an improved re- 
 ligious service, and the introduction of certain forms of 
 worship which would, they allege, meet more fully the 
 requirements of their spiritual life. And, responding 
 to the call of this feeling, and assured in their utmost 
 convictions that such a demand for a richer and more 
 
2 Introductory, 
 
 devotional ritual in the Presbyterian service than the 
 general consensus of congregations admits of is not only 
 in harmony with the primitive form of worship of the 
 Reformed Church of John Knox, but is manifestly a 
 happy return to the use and wont of the Church of 
 Scotland in her best and purest days, not a few have 
 organised themselves into societies which have for their 
 aim the general improvement of worship in the Churches 
 of Scotland, and the gradual introduction of a ritual 
 service framed on the lines of the Reformed Church of 
 1560. Such being the state of feeling and desire ex- 
 pressed so openly and emphatically in many quarters, 
 it may serve some purpose, and help both those who 
 are interested in the movement and those who have 
 their fears and anxieties as to its issues, to give a brief 
 review of the history of the worship of the Presbyterian 
 Church from its beginning, and trace, as fully as the 
 history of Scotland in those early times will admit, the 
 vicissitudes and changes which overtook the forms of 
 worship from time to time in the Church of Scotland. 
 
 In 1560 the Reformation in Scotland, according to 
 the Statute Book^ was established, and Popery over- 
 thrown. The new Church, however, was not established 
 by the State, but depended for its strength and stability 
 on its supporters. It was an Ecclesiastical Revolution 
 carried by a vote of the Estates, and augured no per- 
 manency until ratified and confirmed by the Queen and 
 Parliament. Diplomacy and intrigue prevented the 
 Church from becoming an Established National In- 
 stitution at this date. It needed the strong all-powerful 
 hand of the Regent Murray, in 1567, to establish Pro- 
 testantism in Scotland. Thus recognised and put on 
 a secure footing, the Church was in a position to carry 
 out fully the reformed ideas both as regards doctrine 
 
The First Reforming Council, 1557. 3 
 
 and forms of worship. Change in doctrine concerned 
 the Reformed Church sooner than change in form of 
 worship. Even when the country as a whole had 
 taken up a determined stand against the doctrines of 
 Rome, the ritual of Rome was being devoutly adhered 
 to. For many years after the Reformation the preach- 
 ing of the gospel by the Reformers and attendance at 
 Mass was the custom, and it does not seem that such 
 action was looked upon as inconsistent. It was John 
 Knox who first raised his protest against this system, and 
 denounced it in his usual vehement and powerful way. 
 The first public step taken to separate the Reformed 
 Church from the Roman Communion, and to introduce 
 a form of worship on a reformed basis, was in 1557. In 
 that year the Lords of the Congregation met and 
 entered into a solemn bond, by which they severed 
 themselves from fellowship with the Church of Rome, 
 and as a confirmation of their changed attitude to that 
 church issued the following ordinance : — " First, it is 
 thought expedient, advised, and ordained, that in all 
 parishes of this realm the common prayers be read 
 weekly on Sunday, and other festival days, publicly in 
 the Parish Churches, with the sermons of the Old and 
 New Testament, conform to the order of the Book of 
 Common Prayer ; and if the curates of the parishes be 
 qualified, to cause them to read the same. And if they 
 be not, or if they refuse, that the most qualified in the 
 parish use and read the same." Thus, by order of the 
 Lords of the Congregation, the Romish Missal was 
 abolished from the worship of the Reformed Church, 
 and the Book of Common Prayer took its place. But 
 at first the Reformation did not spurn the real spirit of 
 the old worship, even when it protested against the 
 doctrines of Rome, and destroyed the shrines and abol- 
 
4 Introductory. 
 
 ished the priesthood of the Popish Church. While it 
 is very clear that all the churches throughout the land 
 did not in obedience to the orders issued discard the 
 use of the Missal, it is well-known that at least, in 1559, 
 in such churches as the Abbey Church of Holyrood 
 and St Giles the Book of Common Prayer and Com- 
 munion was observed according to the rites of the 
 Reformed Church. 
 
 It is now a matter beyond dispute what the Book of 
 Common Prayer was, which was in use at this early 
 period. It was the English Liturgy of Edward VI. 
 It had been published in England in 1552, and was the 
 distinct utterance of the Reformed Church of England 
 at that period. By some this book of prayer is re- 
 garded as being brought from Geneva, but the corres- 
 pondence of the time and reference to the mandate 
 regarding " the lessons from the New and Old Testa- 
 ments " — there being no " lessons " in the Geneva order 
 of prayer — prove beyond doubt that it was not the 
 Geneva book. Later, in the year 1561, when the Book 
 of Discipline was issued, there is mention made that 
 the English Liturgy was superseded by the adoption of 
 the " Book of our Common Ordour, called the Ordour 
 of Geneva," and popularly known as Knox's Liturgy. 
 In thus accepting the form of worship of the Church of 
 England, the Church of Scotland thus far took up 
 common ground in protesting against the Romish 
 Missal and Breviary, and prepared the way for a 
 closer union and assimilation of the two churches. 
 Subsequent history will tell us what a rude shock the 
 foolish policy of the infatuated Laud gave to this hope, 
 and separated for ever the two churches. 
 
 We are not in a position to say how much or how 
 little of the various offices in the English Liturgy came 
 
Book of Common Order, 5 
 
 into use in the Scottish Church. At least the prayers 
 prescribed in the Liturgy for morning and evening 
 would be used, for at this early period there is not the 
 slightest indication that there was any opposition to a 
 set form of prayers in Scotland. The book contained 
 the Confession and Absolution, and had its reference to 
 festival days and such like, but it was essentially a 
 Protestant handbook of worship, and followed closely 
 on the lines of Scripture injunctions. It was distinctly 
 a much more Protestant compilation than the Liturgy 
 now used in the Church of England, and contained 
 fewer references to those controversial points which 
 laid the present English Liturgy so open to the charge 
 of being sacramentarian in its tendencies and Popish 
 in its form of ritual and worship. And the Litany of 
 this old book of prayer would be all the more accept- 
 able to the Scottish Church on account of the prayer 
 for deliverance "from the tyranny of the Bishop of 
 Rome and all his detestable enormities," which is not 
 to be found in the Litany in use to-day. 
 
 "The Book of our Common Ordour, called the 
 
 Ordour of Geneva," and better known as Knox's 
 
 Liturgy, has an interesting and curious literary 
 
 history. Its place of birth was Frankfort-on-the- 
 
 Main. There many Protestants had congregated, 
 
 driven abroad by the persecutions under Bloody 
 
 Mar>\ There they met a body of Huguenot refugees 
 
 more numerous than themselves. Arrangements were 
 
 entered into for a joint use of the church occupied 
 
 by the French. Each party was to have liberty to 
 
 preach and administer the sacraments in the church, 
 
 and each engaged to be most careful to give no 
 
 occasion of offence to the other. The one stipulation 
 
 in regard to doctrine was that the English Protestants 
 
6 Introductory, 
 
 should approve and subscribe the same confession of 
 faith that the Huguenots held. In 1554 John Knox 
 was called to the ministry of the English congregation 
 at Frankfort. His first task was to prepare a book of 
 devotion for use in the congregation. Thus was com- 
 piled the little book afterwards used at Geneva, and 
 called "The Forms of Prayers and Ministrations of 
 the Sacraments, &c., used in the English Congregation 
 at Geneva, and approved by the famous and godly 
 learned man, John Calvin." This, slightly altered and 
 somewhat enlarged, became the "Book of Common 
 Order in Scotland." This book had a brief and stormy 
 career among those for whom it was first compiled. 
 Those who were closely attached to the practices of 
 the Church of England rose up in sternest opposition 
 to it. The battle was an eager and hotly contested 
 one, and ended at last in Knox and his book being 
 completely driven from the field and vanquished. But 
 through some who had been attached to it at Frankfort 
 it came to be known among English Protestants, and 
 was accepted for long as a simple form of worship 
 and book of devotion. Many of the Puritans used it 
 constantly, and put a high value on it. It was often 
 found bound with the Bible as a book fit for private 
 devotions. It was formally adopted by the Assembly 
 of the Church of Scotland in the year 1 564. Its formu- 
 laries were in more or less general use down to the 
 time of the Solemn League and Covenant, when they 
 were superseded by the Confession, Catechism, and 
 Directory, prepared by the Westminster Assembly. 
 When in use, the Liturgy of Knox was commonly 
 issued along with an early translation of the Psalms, 
 which was "peculiarly quaint, interesting, and ex- 
 pressive," and differs widely from our present trans- 
 
Book of Common Order. 7 
 
 lation. This book, so long in use as a book of prayer 
 in the Church of Scotland, is simpler in its forms 
 and less ritualistic than the English Book of Common 
 Prayer. The religious breadth and mode of expression 
 of the French Huguenots have largely pervaded it. But 
 the impress of the hand of the great reformer, Calvin, 
 can also be traced on its face. The Presbyterianism 
 of Scotland is indebted to Calvin and the Huguenots 
 both for its doctrinal and ritualistic system in many 
 ways. From that small republic on the Rhone have 
 gone forth an influence and power which made them- 
 selves felt in the theologies and worship of the great 
 Presbyterian Church all throughout the world. The 
 man that drew down that fire from Heaven and shot 
 its warm living glow into the very life and constitution 
 of the Reformed Churches of Europe was John Calvin. 
 His is the master-spirit which still pervades and con- 
 tinues to control, and call forth into ever-increasing 
 activity the inherent forces of the Reformed Churches 
 of Christendom. 
 
 The title-page of the earlier editions of the Book of 
 Common Order indicates very clearly the foreign origin 
 of this church liturgy. The Edinburgh edition of 1565 
 has this inscription : "The Form of Prayers and Minis- 
 tration of the Sacrament used in the English Church 
 of Geneva, approved and received by the Church of 
 Scotland." A few years later the title varied to " The 
 Psalms of David in English Metre, with the Form of 
 Prayers and Ministration of the Sacrament used in the 
 Church of Scotland." By-and-bye, as the Psalms came 
 to occupy by far the larger portion of the volume, the 
 book came to be known as the " Psalm Book." In the 
 year 1564 we find an act of General Assembly in 
 which " it has ordained that every minister, exhorter, 
 
8 Introductory, 
 
 and reader shall have one of the Psalm books lately 
 printed in Edinburgh, and use the order contained 
 therein in prayers, marriages, and ministrations of the 
 Sacraments." 
 
 The " Book of Common Order," corresponding to the 
 "Book of Common Prayer" in England, seemed to 
 have been issued in a variety of editions, suited to the 
 changed circumstances of the times. But at best it 
 had an uncertain and uneventful history, and never 
 found its way deep down in the religious affection of 
 the people in Scotland. A hundred years later we 
 shall find the book still in existence, and gradually 
 falling into neglect and disuse. But this Liturgy, how- 
 ever, proved a great benefit to the Reformed Church 
 in its early days when bereft of complete ministerial 
 efificiency, and enabled the Church to make use of the 
 talents of a body of men who came to be known as 
 the " Readers." The reader was regarded as a sub- 
 stitute for the ordained minister, so long as the fully 
 trained clergy were few. His work was simply to read 
 the Scriptures, to recite the prayers, and to exhort. He 
 could not perform the marriage ceremony or celebrate 
 the Sacraments. Quite a large number of the country 
 parishes for some time after the Reformation were served 
 by readers only. In 1581 the abolition of the office of 
 "Reader" was voted by the General Assembly, but 
 long after this date readers did duty in out of the 
 way places. On this point we find the First Book of 
 Discipline, issued in 1561, ordaining that "none ought 
 to presume either to preach or yet to minister the 
 Sacraments, but those who were ordained ministers " ; 
 but it at the same time makes provision that "to the 
 churches where no ministers can be had presently, 
 must be appointed the most apt men that distinctly 
 
The Old Chtmh Office of Readers, 9 
 
 can read the common prayers and the Scripture, to 
 exercise both themselves and the Church till they 
 grow to greater perfection." The latest that we hear 
 of the Book of Common Order, before it was super- 
 seded by the Directory of Worship, is in a proposal, 
 in 1641, to revise it along with the Confession of 
 Faith, and at the same time prepare a catechism. 
 This task was given to Alexander Henderson, who, 
 after examining it, said he found it a work far sur- 
 passing his strength. "Nor could I," he continues, 
 according to Baillie, "take upon me either to determme 
 some points controverted, or to set down other forms 
 of prayer than we have in our Psalm book, penned 
 by our great and divine reformer." 
 
 We shall, in subsequent chapters, have to touch 
 again upon the Book of Common Prayer when we 
 come to deal with the troubles and disputes which 
 arose out of the attempt to foist upon the people 
 of Scotland a religion and form of worship wholly 
 alien to their spiritual instincts and predilections. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE BOOK OF COMMON ORDER, OR KNOX'S 
 LITURGY. 
 
 In the first chapter we showed that the Reformed 
 Church of Scotland, by order of the Lords of the Con- 
 gregation in the year 1557, adopted the Book of Com- 
 mon Prayer as the service book of the Church. This 
 " Book of Common Prayer " was the English Liturgy 
 of Edward VI. This book of prayer, however, seems 
 to have had a short existence in Scotland, for in 1560, 
 three years later, the English Liturgy was superseded 
 by the adoption of " The Book of our Common Order, 
 called the Ordour of Geneva," and popularly known as 
 Knox's Liturgy. In this Liturgy of Knox, or " Psalm 
 Book " as it came in time to be called, were a confession 
 of belief, regulations as to church meetings, and man- 
 uals for discipline and the observance of fasts. In 1564 
 the General Assembly ordained that this book should 
 be used in all the churches, and in this same year it 
 was printed for the first time in Scotland, and contained 
 a form of prayer for^daily service. That this book of 
 prayer was not strictly guarded by the Church and 
 under very direct ecclesiastical authority is apparent 
 from the fact that in the many editions in which the 
 Liturgy appeared may be found several very marked 
 additions and changes, some of which savour largely 
 of the spirit of Romish times. For example, in some 
 
Set Forms of Prayer, 1 1 
 
 editions may be found several hymns translated from 
 the Romish Breviary. Among these were the " Song 
 of Blessed Mary called the Magnificat," the "Veni 
 Creator/' and the " Nunc Dimittis." There was also a 
 calendar, in which the several events of the life of the 
 Virgin, held in reverence by the Romish Church, were 
 alluded to, and there was also reference to the keeping 
 of certain saints' days. For these additions and varia- 
 tions the General Assembly is not responsible, nor had 
 they the approval or sanction of any Church court. 
 
 One feature which constituted a marked difference 
 in Knox's Liturgy as compared with the English 
 Liturgy was that it was drawn and framed so as to 
 render responsive worship impossible. The worshipper 
 was simply to follow the prayers, as they were recited 
 in succession, in silence. It does not seem that the 
 people were expected to give even an audible amen. In 
 this matter Knox was strongly of opinion, and he 
 acted upon it in the framing of his Liturgy, that the 
 people's vocal part in public worship was the singing 
 of Psalms. But although both Calvin and Knox 
 highly approved that it was conducive to the good 
 order and edification of a church to have a set form of 
 worship which every minister should without fail 
 follow in the conduct of divine service and celebration 
 of the sacraments, yet they also held as resolutely the 
 opinion that the right of free prayer both before and 
 after sermon should be defended at all costs, and 
 jealously guarded. This prayer is all that remains to 
 us in our Presbyterian service of to-day of the early 
 Reformed devotional part of worship, and stands out 
 in marked contrast to the more elaborate and beautiful 
 ritual of the early Presbyterian Church. 
 
 According to Hill Burton, complete copies of the 
 
1 2 Book of Common Order, or Knoxs Liturgy, 
 
 Liturgy, whether under the name of the Book of 
 Geneva or the Book of Common Order, are rare, though 
 several editions of it were printed at Geneva, London, 
 Edinburgh, and Aberdeen. The book was of a con- 
 siderable size, especially after the Psalms were added 
 to it, and at that time must have been very expensive, 
 and beyond the means of ordinary people to purchase. 
 To meet the wants, however, of the poorer members of 
 congregations, an abridged edition was prepared con- 
 taining the set form of prayers in use in public worship 
 and the Psalms. This small book of devotion came 
 to be popularly known as " The Psalm Book." Though 
 largely circulated at the time, it is now exceedingly 
 rare, and is absolutely unknown to anyone in Scotland 
 save to the book hunter and collector of old volumes. 
 It is both interesting and instructive to note the con- 
 tents of this small " Psalm Book." It contained " The 
 Confession of Faith," " A Confession of Sins," " The 
 Order of Baptism," " The Administration of the Lord's 
 Supper," " The Form of Prayer," " Morning Prayer," 
 *' Evening Prayer," " The Psalms in Sternhold and 
 Hopkin's Version," a few hymns, among which are the 
 Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, and the Ten Com- 
 mandments, versified and set to music, " The Veni 
 Creator," the " Nunc Dimittis," and the " Magnificat." 
 In 1567 an attempt was made to extend the benefits 
 of the Book of Common Order to the Highlanders. 
 In that year a Prayer Book in Highland Gaelic was 
 printed in Edinburgh. It was, as Hill Burton mentions, 
 an adaptation of the Book of Common Order, by John 
 Carsewell, Bishop of the Isles, being a translation of 
 the book ** adapted in some cases to the peculiar 
 manner of the Highlanders." It has the distinction of 
 being the earhest printed book in any of the Celtic 
 
Prayer Book in Highland Gaelic, 1 3 
 
 languages. The author of " Bibliotheca Scoto-Celtic," 
 says — "" This work is of uncommon rarity, and is the 
 First Gaelic Book printed." Only two copies are 
 known to exist. It was said that the two had become 
 reduced to one, and then there was a rumour, fortun- 
 ately proving unfounded, that one had been lost out of 
 the Duke of Argyll's library at Inveraray. There is a 
 copy in the British Museum. It is not complete, but 
 it is believed that its imperfections might be supplied 
 from a fragment in the library of Edinburgh University. 
 Though this Liturgy of John Knox was a far simpler 
 liturgy than the English Book of Common Prayer, and 
 was more distinctly reformed in its tone and ritual, it 
 never came to acquire such a hold on the minds of 
 either the ministers or congregations in Scotland. Its 
 authority was purely an ecclesiastical one, and owing 
 to the disturbed state of the times, and of the general 
 history of the country during the period of its exist- 
 ence, this was a shifting and precarious authority. 
 The Book of Common Order, though sanctioned and 
 approved of by the General Assembly as a book of 
 church service, was never confirmed by the Estates, 
 whilst the Book of Common Prayer was over and 
 over again confirmed by elaborate Acts of Parliament, 
 *' for the uniformity of common prayer and service in 
 the Church, and administration of the Sacrament." 
 
 In an able paper on *' Presbyterian Liturgies," by 
 Dr Hodge, one of the greatest authorities of his day 
 on ecclesiastical matters, attention is called to the 
 prevalence of an opinion which he pronounces errone- 
 ous and untrue ; that the use of a liturgy in public 
 worship is a peculiarity of Episcopal Churches. For 
 nearly a hundred years after the Reformation the 
 Church of Scotland possessed and used a liturgy 
 
14 Book of Common Order, or Knoxs Litttrgy. 
 
 Similar to that which had been adopted in Geneva 
 and used by the Huguenot Churches in France, and 
 both the Lutheran and Calvinistic Churches on the 
 Continent continue to this day to use a liturgical 
 service. When we keep in remembrance the Liturgies 
 of Calvin, of Knox, and of the Reformed Churches in 
 general, we shall be able to refute the assertion con- 
 stantly made and hurled at those who are working 
 for an improved service in the public worship of our 
 churches, that such a wish, even though in time it 
 might result in the adoption of a Liturgy or Book 
 of Common Prayer, is a hankering after and a desire 
 to return to Prelatical ceremonialism and Anglican 
 ritual. 
 
 What is really wished for, on the part of those 
 who are anxious to see an improvement in the con- 
 duct of our Presbyterian public worship, is not change 
 for the sake of novelty, or the copying of any ritual 
 or part of a ritual used by the other churches, but a 
 simple and honest return to the **use and wont" of 
 primitive times, and of that period extending from 
 1560 to 1650, when Presbyterianism may be seen in 
 its best forms and moods, as it passed from the plastic 
 hands of Knox, and was suffused with the spirit and 
 aspirations of a Reformed nation. All along the de- 
 cades of this nineteenth century there has been a 
 section of Presbyterians in the different churches who 
 have acquired the easy and thoughtless habit of charg- 
 ing with the fault of innovation any attempt made to 
 bring the form of church worship more into harmony 
 with the order of service known to be observed in the 
 Church of the Reformation, and repeatedly we have 
 heard such being reproached as untrue and disloyal 
 to the spirit of Presbyterianism, and even to their 
 
Plea for an Improved Church Service, 15 
 
 ordination vows. This reproach has been borne 
 silently and with great patience by men loyal in their 
 deepest feelings to Presbyterianism, but such re- 
 proaches have not daunted them ; for in their sin- 
 cerity of purpose and love for their Church, they 
 were prepared to face misunderstanding and obloquy 
 also, if so be they might succeed in accomplishing 
 what they had set before them as a lofty task and 
 duty. And all throughout the fight against prejudice 
 and ignorance they were strengthened in their en- 
 deavours by the assurance that time and a fuller 
 knowledge and appreciation of the history of the 
 Church in the past were on their side, and that the 
 Presbyterian Churches of Scotland would gradually 
 wake up to the discovery that the desire on the part 
 of so many of their most devoted members for a 
 general improvement in the service of the Church 
 was not an evil but a good thing, a most praiseworthy 
 aspiration, and that in all legitimate attempts made 
 toward the realisation of this desire the Presbyterian 
 Church was happily finding its way back to the stand- 
 point of the Church of the Reformation, and was in 
 the process of serving itself heir to the rich bestow- 
 ments conferred upon it by Knox and the other 
 Scottish Reformers. 
 
 But in this laudable attempt to bring the public 
 worship of the Presbyterian Churches more into con- 
 formity with the ritual of the Early Reformed Church 
 of Scotland, the utmost care must be taken that this 
 movement does not degenerate into a poor and foolish 
 copying of Anglican ceremonialism. Simply to adopt 
 Episcopal forms of worship, to recite the prayers and 
 collects of the English Church Prayer Book, and to 
 use her peculiar phraseology in the conduct of public 
 
1 6 Book of Common Order ^ or Knox's Liturgy, 
 
 worship as so many Presbyterian ministers are doing, 
 is to commit the Presbyterian Churches to a course 
 utterly alien to the life and practice, the traditions and 
 aspirations of the Reformed Church of Scotland, and 
 will inevitably lead, if persevered in, to a radical 
 change in her constitution and government, and create 
 a deep and lasting division between the different 
 branches of the National Church of our land. Any 
 attempt made to improve the service of the Church can 
 be deemed legitimate and worthy of being fostered, only 
 in so far as such improvements are clearly sanctioned 
 by the practices of the Reformers and the " use and 
 wont " of the Reformed Church in her earliest stages. 
 The desire manifested by a large contingent of the 
 Presbyterian clergy to introduce into the Church 
 services certain forms and a mode of ritual which have 
 from time immemorial been associated with Episcopal 
 worship fills many loyal Presbyterians with strange 
 apprehensions and alarm, and naturally gives rise to a 
 well founded belief that it is the aim of such a party 
 to land the Established Church in a full blown Epis- 
 copacy. *' Ask for the old paths . . . and walk therein," 
 so reads the motto of an advanced Society of the State 
 Church. But surely if the members of this Society 
 read the history of the Reformed Church of Scotland 
 aright, and ask for the old paths, they will find that in 
 making any approach towards Episcopalian ritual, and 
 adopting even in a modified way its practices, they are 
 tampering with the historic continuity of the Reformed 
 Church, and failing in that loyalty and faithful adher- 
 ence to the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, which 
 their solemn ordination vows bind them above all 
 other things to maintain. The struggle made by the 
 Reformers and our forefathers against Episcopacy, the 
 
Presbyterian v. Anglican Worship. 17 
 
 increasingly alarming approach of modern Episcopacy 
 to the doctrines and ritual of Rome, the traditions of 
 Presbyterianism with its aspirations and desires for a 
 form of worship clearly approved of and sanctioned by 
 Christ and His apostles, all stand out clear and con- 
 spicuous as danger signals, with their solemn un- 
 gainsaying warnings that Scotland, Presbyterian in 
 heart and loyal to its old religion, will not be dragged 
 from its old moorings or consent to part with that faith 
 and form of worship which were secured to it by Knox 
 and Melville, and consecrated and hallowed by the 
 blood of the Martyrs. 
 
 The Order of Service. 
 
 It may prove interesting to some to know what was 
 the form of public worship for nearly one hundred 
 years after the Reformation in the Presbyterian Church. 
 First of all, there was "daily" service. The larger 
 churches, such as St Giles' and the Abbey Church of 
 Holyrood, were open every day and public prayers 
 were recited. People were in the habit of frequenting 
 them and using them for private devotion. Sermons 
 were preached on one or two days of the week. On 
 the Lord's day there were two services. The first one 
 was held very early in the morning, sometimes as early 
 as four o'clock, when the communion was to be ad- 
 ministered ; but the usual hour was eight o'clock. For 
 the ordinary Sabbath service three bells were rung. 
 One to tell that the hour of worship was at hand, the 
 second for the Reader's service, the last for the sermon. 
 The congregation having assembled, first of all engaged 
 for a short time in private prayer. The reader then 
 took his place at the reading desk or " lectern," read 
 
1 8 Book of Common Order, or Knoxs Liturgy, 
 
 the Common Prayers and sometimes the Ten Com- 
 mandments and Apostles* Creed. He then gave out 
 certain psalms to be sung, the singing of which was 
 followed by the " Gloria Patri." He next read chapters 
 of the Bible from the Old and New Testaments. 
 After an hour thus spent the bell was rung for the third 
 time, and the minister entered the pulpit and knelt in 
 private prayer. He then commenced with a "con- 
 ceived" prayer, chiefly for "illumination," and pro- 
 ceeded with the delivery of his sermon. At the close 
 of the sermon he then read or repeated one of the 
 prayers of the Liturgy, and concluded with the Lord's 
 Prayer and the Creed. After this there followed a 
 psalm and the benediction. 
 
 The A ttitude in Prayer. 
 
 The custom of standing at prayer, so long and 
 strenuously regarded as of the very essence of Pres- 
 byterianism, was not the attitude adopted in prayer 
 by the Reformed Church. Kneeling was the Scottish 
 usage so long as the Book of Common Order was in 
 use. Not to kneel at prayer, was at that early period 
 according to Calderwood, among the " superstitious 
 rites entered in the kirk." Kneeling, however, was 
 forbidden at the time of receiving the communion. 
 Kneeling on the bare pavement was the custom in the 
 days of Knox and for long afterwards. It may be that 
 the habit of sitting at prayer arose when pews by 
 degrees encroached upon the floor and blocked up the 
 pillars. But it is very clear that "sitting at prayer" 
 was one of the evils which the Commonwealth brought 
 to Scotland, when the old order changed and made 
 way for the new. After the restoration of Episcopacy 
 
Kneelmg at Prayer — The Reformed Usage. 19 
 
 in 1 66 1, sitting at prayer was denounced as irreverent, 
 and standing came into practice. George Gillespie 
 tells us that sponsors knelt at baptism, and Alexander 
 Henderson told the Assembly at Westminster that 
 congregations in Scotland knelt at the consecration 
 prayer at communion. It would be well, it would be 
 most seemly and right, if the Churches in Scotland 
 returned to the reverent attitude of kneeling at prayer 
 adopted by the reformers, and once for all put an end 
 to the slovenly and unhallowed custom of sitting, or as 
 as it has been ironically styled " hunkering," when 
 engaged in one of the most solemn and awful of the 
 functions and service of our holy religion and worship. 
 If the Scottish people as it has been said, as a rule 
 put little or no faith in the authority of the Church 
 from the days of the Apostles till the times of Refor- 
 mation, they at least in their respect and deference to 
 the opinions of the Reformers, to whom Scotland owes 
 so much, should aim at making their service of worship 
 a truer transcript of the order of service in use in 
 Reformation times, and show by their adoption of an 
 improved form of worship that they are in a position to 
 make a difference betwixt the old and orderly functions 
 of worship sanctioned by John Knox and those 
 " sectarian conceits," as Baillie called them, which 
 eame from England, and almost took the life out of 
 Presbyterianism. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE FORM OF SERVICE IN THE REFORMED CHURCH. 
 
 It is beyond doubt that the posture during prayer at 
 public worship immediately after the Reformation was 
 that of kneeling. In a volume of Alexander Hender- 
 son's Sermons, published a few years ago, there is a 
 preface in which, as the Book of Common Order re- 
 quired, he calls the congregation to pray, saying, " Let 
 us now fall down before the Lord our God," and at the 
 close of one of the sermons says, " I would have all of 
 you to bow your knees." This reverent and very seemly 
 attitude in prayer was the rule in at least the Presby- 
 terian Church in Scotland until the days when the 
 Independents from England invaded Scotland under 
 Cromwell, and left their stiffening and rigid influences 
 on the entire service of the Reformed Church. 
 
 We are met by a striking fact at this period of the 
 Church's history in Scotland, that the Episcopalians 
 were in the habit of standing in prayer, in opposition to 
 the Presbyterians, who made it a sacred duty to kneel. 
 The First Book of Edward VI., to which the Episco- 
 palians were closely attached, and which they followed, 
 though by many regarded as very favourable to Popish 
 customs, treats kneeling at public prayer as optional ; 
 while the Genevan discipline, to which the Presbyterians 
 were devoted, enforces it, and with great explicitness 
 says, " That great irreverence which is found in divers 
 
Daily Services ifi Reformed Chtu^ch. 2 1 
 
 persons, who at public and private prayers do neither 
 uncover their heads nor bow their knees, shall be re- 
 formed, which is a matter repugnant unto piety, and 
 giveth suspicion of pride, and doth scandalise them 
 that fear God." 
 
 For nearly a hundred years after the Reformation 
 there were daily morning and evening prayers in most 
 of the larger churches throughout the land, and it was 
 quite a customary habit for the people to make their 
 way to the open churches to engage in their private 
 devotions, and the church was sacredly regarded as the 
 place where baptism and marriage should be celebrated, 
 and this rule was enforced by the Ecclesiastical Courts. 
 Daily service was continued after the Directory super- 
 seded Knox's Liturgy, and the Church had lost the 
 first fresh invigorating breath of the Reformation. In 
 some places at the Restoration, in 1660, daily service 
 was restored, but by the end of the seventeenth century 
 it had almost entirely disappeared. Indeed, under the 
 long, dismal reign of Moderatism during last century 
 the order of Church service had assumed such a barren 
 and base form that its like could not be seen in any 
 other Church in Christendom, and the opportunities for 
 public worship had gradually in the majority of parishes 
 dwindled down to a forenoon Sabbath service. All 
 devotional feeling and desire for prayer and praise as 
 an element in all true public worship had passed away, 
 and at this single service preaching came to be regarded 
 as the sole requirement in the public worship of God. 
 Nothing can be drearier and more unedifying in the 
 history of any nation than an account of the religious 
 life and ecclesiastical well-being of Presbyterianism 
 during the eighteenth century and the first three 
 decades of the present. 
 
2 2 Form of Service in the Reformed Chtcrck. 
 
 Reading of the Holy Scripture. 
 
 The Book of Common Order makes no mention of 
 the reading in public worship of Holy Scripture. So 
 long, however, as the office of reader was continued, 
 reading both from the Old and New Testament was a 
 part of the order of public service. But the Book of 
 Discipline which was adopted by the Church in 1561, 
 but which was never ratified by Act of Parliament, is 
 much more explicit and authoritative on the subject, 
 and says, "We think it a thing most expedient and 
 necessary that every kirk have a Bible in English, and 
 that the people be commanded to convene and hear the 
 plain reading and interpretation of the Scripture as the 
 kirk shall appoint." 
 
 It also enjoined that each book of the Bible should 
 be begun and read through in order to the end, both as 
 regards public and private devotions, and that there 
 was to be no " skipping and divagation from place to 
 place of Scripture, be it in reading or be it in preaching." 
 For long this good and salutary injunction was carefully 
 followed, but in time, with the decay of Church life and 
 the rampant and all-prevailing death-like influences of 
 Moderatism, this sacred duty of reading from the Scrip- 
 ture was given up, and in many churches ministers 
 simply read the verse from which they preached their 
 sermons. It was quite customary in certain quarters, 
 even thirty years ago, to hear people say that their 
 object in going to church was not to hear ministers read 
 the Bible, for this they could do themselves at home. 
 What they did demand simply was to hear the sermon 
 preached. With such feelings it is no wonder that in so 
 many of our churches worship shrivelled up and as- 
 sumed the bare meagre form of preaching or exposition 
 
The " Three Nocent Ceremonies T 23 
 
 of Scripture. This was a sad departure from the spirit 
 and traditions of the Church of Knox and Andrew 
 Melville, but by degrees the better instincts of many 
 Presbyterians are tending towards the adoption of a 
 service more in harmony with the " use and wont " of 
 the Church of the Reformation, and one which meets 
 the requirements and spiritual aspirations of a very 
 large section of worshippers in the different sections of 
 the Presbyterian Church of to-day. In regard to private 
 prayer on entering the church, it seems very clear that it 
 was the custom of ministers on entering the pulpit to en- 
 gage in a kneeling posture in silent prayer, but all bow- 
 ing towards the Communion altar, which was a Popish 
 fashion, was forbidden. In later years a keen and bitter 
 controversy took place regarding this custom of private 
 prayer on entering the church. This was occasioned 
 by the Independents who had carried from England 
 certain views relating to the "Three Nocent Cere- 
 monies " as they were called — viz. : The ministers 
 bowing for private devotion, the singing of the Doxo- 
 logy at the end of the Psalms, and the use of the Lord's 
 Prayer. To all these old Scottish usages the Indepen- 
 dents gave a strenuous opposition and prevailed. In 
 regard to the order of worship followed in the churches, 
 the Book of Common Order directs that when the 
 people are assembled the minister is to exhort them 
 diligently to examine themselves, and the minister or 
 reader was instructed to exhort the congregation, and 
 say — " Come, let us worship and fall down before the 
 Lord our Maker, let us try our ways, confess and for- 
 sake our sins, and lift up our hearts and hands to God 
 in the heavens, saying ; " and the Directory, proceeding 
 on the same lines, instructs that " The congregation 
 being assembled, the minister after solemn calling on 
 
24 Form of Service in the Reformed Church, 
 
 them to the worshipping of the great name of God, is to 
 begin with prayer." How far these old injunctions 
 have been followed by the Presbyterian Churches in 
 Scotland, we all know too well. The authority of both 
 the Book of Common Order and the Directory was 
 utterly disregarded, and every minister in the order and 
 conduct of public worship did that which was right in 
 his own eyes. All idea of uniformity in the service of 
 the sanctuary vanished, and the whims and devisive 
 courses of ministers triumphed. A gradual return is 
 however being made to the original order of divine 
 service in many churches, and the call to prayer is by 
 degrees taking the place allotted to it in the old 
 Directories. 
 
 The Lord's Pi'ayer. 
 
 The use of the Lord's Prayer in the service of public 
 worship is one of the best and most seemly returns to 
 primitive and Reformation times that can be mentioned. 
 For long, strange to say, in our land it was not merely 
 never used in the Church services, but was regarded 
 with suspicion and aversion. This too, was the work 
 of the Sectaries and Independents. By the Book of 
 Common Order it was enjoined, and was recited in all 
 the Reformed Churches at home and on the Continent. 
 About 1640 certain Sectaries began as they themselves 
 said to " scunner it," and to call it a " threadbare prayer." 
 It was enjoined by the Directory, but for all that 
 opposition to its use increased, and by the end of the 
 seventeenth century it was never used in the churches. 
 At the Restoration those imbued with Episcopalian 
 sentiments adopted it, but the Presbyterians held 
 altogether aloof from favouring it. In fact, so far did 
 
opposition to Use of Lord's Prayer. 25 
 
 they go in hostility to it, that in spite of its inculcation 
 on the part of our Lord, and its general use in the 
 Primitive Church, it was denounced by the majority of 
 the people in Scotland in its use as a rag of Popery. 
 In early Reformation days the recital of the Lord's 
 Prayer was followed by the Apostles' Creed. In 1662 
 during the episcopate of the saintly Leighton, we find 
 the Archbishop counselling his clergy and flock to the 
 use of the old Scottish Order, and complaining of the 
 neglect even among Episcopalians of the Lord's Prayer, 
 the Doxology, the Decalogue, and the Creed. He 
 presses the reading of a lesson from each Testament 
 with a portion of the Psalter by the minister. He is 
 found complaining also of the habit of sitting at prayer, 
 and exhorts the ministers to induce the people to give 
 up that " irreverent deportment." It is certainly 
 something to be able to say, that to-day, with our 
 healthy desire to return to primitive usages and an 
 improved form of worship, no service would be deemed 
 complete and satisfactory without the recital of the 
 Lord's Prayer. 
 
 Praise. 
 
 In the new form of religious service in the Reformed 
 Church there was one thing which served as a compensa- 
 tion for much of the ritual and ceremonial of the old 
 Romish Church which had been abandoned. This was 
 the luxury of song in congregational vocal music. If 
 the Presbyterian Church is indebted to the Genevan 
 French Church for its constitution and devotional 
 service, it owes to Germany its musical service of vocal 
 praise. One of the most conspicuous of those who did 
 much for the cultivation of Church music in Scotland 
 
26 Form of Service in the Reformed Church, 
 
 after the German model was Wedderburn, belonging to 
 Dundee. Congregational singing in time and under 
 the direction of such proficients in the art, became one 
 of the most striking characteristics of the Reformed 
 Church. The best life and feeling of deliverance of a 
 people who had torn themselves away from the bondage 
 of a corrupt Church expressed themselves in a glad out- 
 burst of song. Versions of the Psalms in metre to aid 
 the memory came into use. Their popularity became 
 unbounded, and wherever there was a gathering of 
 people they were sung. Indeed, in all the Reformed 
 Churches, congregational singing came to be regarded 
 as the responsive part of the Church ritual. The 
 accepted Psalter in the Scottish Church for long was 
 that of Sternhold and Hopkins. By-and-bye the 
 Psalter of Tate and Brady took its place, until it in turn 
 was superseded by Rous' Psalms and the Directory. 
 
 But it is very evident that the Reformed Church did 
 not hold the belief that nothing but the Psalms of David 
 ought to be used in the service of the sanctuary. To 
 the original Psalm Book at a very early date were 
 added metrical paraphrases of New Testament passages, 
 the Decalogue, the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Mag- 
 nificat, and Veni Creator. From the date of the 
 Reformation the Doxology was in use in Scotland. 
 The new Psalter, however, adopted by the Westminster 
 Divines and which in Scotland took the place of the 
 old Psalm Book, contained no hymns, but in 1647 the 
 General Assembly appointed Zachary Boyd to revise 
 those which had previously been in use, with a view of 
 adding them to the Psalter. Nothing came of this 
 instruction owing to the distracted nature of the times, 
 and the growing influence of the Sectaries from England. 
 So far was the opposition on the part of these Sectaries 
 
Se'Tvice of Praise forbidden by Sectaries. 27 
 
 carried, that by certain of them " prescribed praise " 
 was put in the same category as " prescribed prayer " 
 and denounced as unlawful and unscriptural, and in 
 time praise in public worship was given up altogether 
 by them. By degrees Scottish Presbyterianism yielded 
 to such malign influences, and before long a party arose 
 in the Church objecting to the use of hymns in public 
 worship, and denounced them as unscriptural. To 
 meet in some way the scruples of such extremists the 
 use of the Gloria Patri was given up, and a few years 
 later a determined assault was made on the Doxology, 
 and in spite of the efforts of such men as Calderwood, 
 who had fought stoutly against all prelatical innovations, 
 and was deeply imbued with the spirit of the Reforma- 
 tion, it too had to be abandoned. 
 
 Reading the line. 
 
 The old custom of reading the line during praise, 
 though for long regarded as of the very essence of 
 Presbyterianism is distinctly of English origin. At the 
 Reformation, and for many years afterwards, it was 
 altogether unknown. It was practised in the Estab- 
 lished and Nonconforming Churches across the border, 
 owing to the backward state of education, and was 
 carried to Scotland by the Sectaries, who came in the 
 train of Cromwell. At first the custom was most dis- 
 tasteful to the Scots, and resented by them as a reflection 
 on their education. But in time it made way, and came 
 to be looked upon as part of the Reformed service, and 
 so secured for itself the air and dignity of an old and 
 venerable institution. History could tell many a 
 doleful tale of how many a congregation was rent 
 asunder in its wrangles over this matter, and how 
 
2 8 Form of Service in the Reformed Church. 
 
 many good and true, though misguided, men and 
 women fought for the reading of the line as if it were 
 the very principle and soul of their religion, and thought 
 that in preserving this rag of Anglicanism and English 
 Dissent they were preserving the essential life of 
 Presbyterianism. Happily, in the fuller light of history, 
 these prejudices have vanished, and to-day they have 
 disappeared like leaves when autumn has blown. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE V. BOOK OF 
 COMMON ORDER. 
 
 At a very early stage of the history of the Reformed 
 Church the necessity of having a common polity for 
 the guidance and safeguarding of the Protestant Church 
 was felt. Thus, as early as 1560, the great Council of 
 the Land committed the charge to certain ministers to 
 draft and submit to Parliament rules, relating to the 
 common doctrines, worship, government, and discipHne 
 of the Church. The work was gone into with all due 
 earnestness and expedition, and the book containing 
 the policy and discipline of the Reformed Church was 
 submitted to the Lords of the Congregation. This 
 book came to be known as the First Book of Discip- 
 line. It dealt with matters not only affecting faith and 
 practice, but also enforced with great stringency cer- 
 tain rules of life and conduct which many were unwill- 
 ing to submit to. This book was laid before the 
 General Assembly of 1561 and approved of, but the 
 Parliament refused to ratify it. A majority, however, 
 of the Lords of Council approved of it, and declared it 
 to be " good and conform to God's word in all points." 
 In the " Book of Discipline " there are repeated refer- 
 ences to the " Book of Geneva," " Our Book of Common 
 Order," and the " Common Prayers." This book is, 
 beyond doubt, the Service Book compiled for the use 
 
 29 
 
30 Book of Discipline v. Book of Common Order. 
 
 of the British Congregation at Geneva, and popularly 
 known as " Knox's Liturgy." 
 
 In a very short time this " Book of Common Order " 
 superseded the English Prayer Book in use, and as 
 early as 1564, we find the General Assembly passing 
 an act requiring a uniform order to be observed in all 
 the churches, in the administration of sacraments, the 
 solemnisation of marriage and burials " according to the 
 Book of Geneva." 
 
 A broad mark of distinction was made by the com- 
 pilers of the Reformation standards in matters relating 
 to public worship. Such things as were by them 
 deemed to be " absolutely necessary in the Church of 
 Christ, such as the preaching of the word, the adminis- 
 tration of the sacraments, prayer, catechising, and 
 discipline," they laid down clear and well-defined rules 
 regarding ; but in matters which might be looked upon 
 as simply profitable and edifying, they left ministers 
 and congregations to determine according to their 
 wisdom and discretion. In all matters absolutely 
 necessary the principle by which they were to be 
 guided was, that such things must have divine sanction 
 in the form of scripture warrant. On the other hand 
 such things as prayers for the dead, saints' days, festi- 
 vals and such like, as involving a violation of this prin- 
 ciple, and having no divine sanction in the Word, were 
 abolished and declared to be " Inventions of the 
 
 Papists." 
 
 Baptismal Service, 
 
 The Book of Common Order gave special directions 
 regarding the administration of the sacraments. It 
 rejected the Romish theory of seven sacraments as 
 unscriptural, and affirmed positively that the Lord 
 Jesus instituted only two sacraments, to wit, " Baptism 
 
Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 3 1 
 
 and the Supper or Table of the Lord Jesus, called the 
 Communion of His Body and Blood." In the " Order 
 of Baptism," among the Romish practices which the 
 Book of Common Order condemns are baptism by 
 women, and baptism in private. Baptism, says the 
 Common Order, is not ordained of God to be admin- 
 istered " In private corners, as charms or sorceries, but 
 left to the congregation and necessarily annexed to 
 God's Word as seals of the same." For many years 
 this rule was enforced, but during the troublous times 
 which followed, and the dark days of Moderatism, this 
 Church law fell into abeyance. So long as the Scottish 
 Church remained in close fellowship with the Reformed 
 Churches on the Continent the custom of having god- 
 fathers and godmothers, commonly known as witnesses, 
 continued. But this very old church form was rigidly 
 opposed by the Independents, who came to Scotland 
 in Cromwell's train, and who denounced it as not 
 merely '' Indifferent, but simply evil." The very 
 appropriate custom also of both repeating and assent- 
 ing to the Apostles' Creed, on the part of the person 
 presenting the child for baptism, was likewise de- 
 nounced by the Independents as Popish, and in time 
 every trace of the old liturgical baptismal form van- 
 ished and disappeared altogether. 
 
 The Lord's Supper. 
 
 The service prescribed by the Book of Common 
 Order for administering the Lord's Supper was of the 
 simplest kind. It adhered strictly to scripture rule. 
 The direction of the rubric is to this effect — "The day 
 when the Lord's Supper is administered, which com- 
 monly is used once a month, or so oft as the congrega- 
 tion shall think expedient, the minister useth to say as 
 
3 2 Book of Discipline v. Book of Common Order. 
 
 followeth." Then are read the words of Institution, 
 as found in ist Corinthians xi. chapter, followed by an 
 address which in time came to be called " Fencing the 
 table." The exhortation being ended, the minister 
 coming to the table, offers a prayer of thanksgiving. 
 The elements were then distributed, while the reader 
 rehearsed several verses from scripture bearing on the 
 passion of our Lord. A few words of prayer followed, 
 a psalm was sung, the benediction pronounced, and 
 the service ended. Sitting at the Communion table 
 and communicating in that attitude was the form 
 rigidly adhered to. The Anglican posture of kneeling 
 was deemed idolatrous. There were no Communion 
 fast days at this early period. Communion Thanks- 
 giving Monday dates back it is said to 1630, when 
 there was the remarkable revival at Shotts in connec- 
 tion with the preaching of John Livingston. Although 
 the early Reformers aimed at having the Communion 
 celebrated once a month, it seems clear that the prevail- 
 ing custom of the people at the time of the Reformation 
 was to communicate only once a year. To this Popish 
 habit the people in Scotland long adhered, and to this 
 very day in many parishes the practice still holds its 
 ground. Presbytery and Prelacy alike in Scotland are 
 guilty in this respect, and past Church history could 
 tell of many years in succession passed ^^dthout any 
 observance of the Sacrament of the Supper. 
 
 Ordination of Ministers. 
 
 The service used at the ordination of ministers was 
 essentially Scottish. From 1560, until the introduc- 
 tion of Episcopal ordination from England in 161 2, all 
 ministers were admitted to office according to a '^ Form 
 and order of election," drawn up in 1560, and sub- 
 
Ordination of Ministers, 3 3 
 
 sequently appended to the Book of Common Order. 
 During the days of Episcopal rule, a new ordination ser- 
 vice appeared, framed on Anglican lines, but adhering 
 largely to the spirit of the Book of Common Order. 
 One thing is noteworthy in connection with the form of 
 ordination service drawn up in 1560. It is this, there is 
 no mention made in it of the " Laying on of hands." 
 And so for many years this same form was used at the 
 ordination and admission of all ministers, without the 
 mention of this old and apostolic custom being observed. 
 It may have been the case, as some suppose, that the 
 primitive ceremony of the imposition of hands was by 
 certain Presbyterians at the time deemed unnecessary, 
 as the miracle of the giving of the Holy Ghost at its 
 first institution had ceased, but it is clear that if this 
 opinion prevailed for some time the Church of Scotland 
 very soon returned to a better state of mind on this 
 question. In an "Epistle to the Faithful," written 
 in 1 57 1, Erskine, the superintendent of Angus, writes 
 and describes the mode of admitting ministers to be 
 " Public, by imposition of hands by the pastors, with 
 admonitions, fasting, and prayers passing before." 
 
 While it cannot be denied that the First Book of 
 Discipline treated with considerable indifference the 
 admission of ministers, and that down to the very 
 close of the sixteenth century both the Church and 
 the people failed to put the high value on the ordina- 
 tion of ministers as apostolic practice entitled them 
 to do ; yet in the face of this it can be maintained 
 that the Reformed Churches abroad, with the sanction 
 and authority of Calvin, insisted that * The election 
 of ministers shall be confirmed by prayers and im- 
 position of hands always avoiding superstition." So 
 far as the question of the validity of the orders of 
 
34 Book of Discipline v. Book of Common Order, 
 
 Presbyterian ministers arises, the Scottish Church has 
 never for a moment entertained the slightest doubts. 
 It rests in the untroubled assurance that the orders 
 of her ministers are not only valid, but in the direct 
 succession of the apostles. The Church of Scotland 
 has alwaj^s treated with indifference the Episcopal 
 theory of apostolical succession as regards men. 
 What is of far greater concern to her as a Church 
 of Christ is apostolical succession of faith and doctrine, 
 and believing that she has this, she rests content, 
 assured that Christ who is the one Head and King 
 of his Church on earth, and her Chief Shepherd and 
 Bishop, continues to bless her ministrations, in the 
 preaching of the Evangel of Jesus on earth, and in 
 the administration of the Sacraments. And if she 
 is asked what her antecedents are, and in what way 
 she is connected with the holy apostolic Church on 
 earth, she would in the outset refuse to derive her 
 authority or ministerial orders either from Rome 
 or Canterbury, for she claims an order and succes- 
 sion better and more honourable than even these 
 can boast of. An order and succession essentially 
 national and Celtic, representing the oldest and purest 
 Christianity in Scotland, a living, and healthy and 
 evangelical faith, carried directly from the very birth- 
 place of the religion of Jesus, and preserved by the 
 Culdee Church of the first centuries. 
 
 Marriage Ceremony. 
 
 The General Assembly at a very early period of 
 its history required that bands of marriage or " book- 
 ing," should be published. Forty days had to elapse 
 between " booking " and the day of marriage. At 
 first it was enjoined that all marriages should be 
 
Solemnisation of Marriage. 35 
 
 solemnised in Church, and at the close of the morn- 
 ing service in the face of the congregation. In 1579 
 the Assembly, however, relaxed this law, and granted 
 leave to parties to marry on a week day, but always 
 in church. Ministers were rebuked frequently for 
 infringing this requirement of the Book of Discipline, 
 and performing the marriage ceremony in houses. 
 The practice of placing a sum of money in the hands 
 of the Parish Authorities as a pledge that the marriage 
 proclaimed would be celebrated is of early date. The 
 money lodged was seldom reclaimed, and was set 
 apart for the upkeep of the poor. By-and-bye this 
 custom came to be regarded as necessary dues of 
 the Church, and eventually assumed the name of 
 proclamation fees. There are few traces of any 
 service or ceremony of betrothal in Scotland, such as 
 we find even to this day on the Continent. One 
 marked difference between the marriage service of 
 England and Scotland was the use of the ring. In 
 the " Form of solemnisation of matrimony," in the 
 Book of Common Order, there is no mention of the 
 use of the ring. From 1552 to the present day the 
 ceremony of the ring in the marriage service of the 
 Church of England has been strictly adhered to. The 
 Scottish Church objected to the use of the ring, on 
 the broad ground that there was nothing in scripture 
 to sanction its use, and that it was associated with 
 both Pagan and Popish practises. It seems strange 
 that in this old service of marriage no prayer is in- 
 serted or directed to be said, except the benediction 
 at the close. 
 
 Burial of the Dead. 
 
 All the old Reformed service books attach little 
 importance to burial ceremonies. Indeed they rather 
 
^6 Book of Discipline v. Book of Common Order. 
 
 forbid than encourage public or private services at 
 funerals. The Book of Discipline dwells on the 
 dangers which might attend funeral services, and 
 seeks to guard against superstition and idolatry in 
 the form of singing and chanting at the grave. It 
 even sets itself against preaching and reading at 
 funerals, as these might be associated in the minds 
 of the people with masses and prayers for the dead. 
 Even funeral sermons were discouraged, and have 
 never found great favour in Scotland. All that was 
 enjoined was " That the dead be conveyed to the 
 place of burial, with some honest company of the 
 Kirk, without either singing or reading. Yea, without 
 all kind of ceremony heretofore used, other than the 
 dead be committed to the grave, with such gravity 
 and sobriety, as those that be present may seem to 
 fear the judgments of God and to hate sin, which is 
 the cause of death." Knox's Liturgy is also very 
 guarded in the liberty granted to the minister at 
 burials. The minister may after the burial, if it 
 seems good to him, repair to the church, accompanied 
 by the mourners, and there make " Some comfortable 
 exhortation to the people, touching death and the 
 Resurrection." 
 
 Feasts or Festival Days. 
 
 The Reformation Church abolished all Feast Days 
 or Festivals. This was done on the broad principle, 
 that whatever was not sanctioned by scripture should 
 have no place in the worship of God. But besides 
 being repugnant to Christ's Evangel, all such festivals 
 were looked upon as inventions of the Papists. They 
 could not be tolerated. In thus acting the Church 
 of Scotland followed a different course from that 
 adopted by the other Reformed Churches of Europe. 
 
Feasts 07^ Festival Days. 3 7 
 
 The Lutherans, the Anglicans, and the Swiss Churches 
 had retained many feast days and the leading festivals 
 of the old Romish Church, such as the Nativity, the 
 Passion, the Resurrection, the Ascension and the out- 
 pouring of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, 
 and in doing so had thus far established a common 
 bond of fellowship and Church life amongst their 
 various communions. The Book of Discipline not only 
 denounces the observance of Saints' Days, it con- 
 demned the keeping of Christmas and Easter, " because 
 in God's scripture they neither have commandment 
 nor assurance." But the question of the observance 
 of Church Festivals did not become a burning one 
 until James VI., in his infatuated zeal, attempted to 
 force the Scottish nation to observe the five great 
 festivals of the Anglican Church, and embodied this 
 order in the notorious Articles of Perth. Then the 
 full rage and hostility of the people were roused 
 against the edict, and so bitter and determined was 
 the opposition of the nation to the Articles, that 
 when they had in deference to the King's command 
 received the approval of the Assembly, they were 
 very partially enforced, and by few obeyed. Twenty 
 years later, in the exercise of a fuller liberty, the Act 
 was rescinded, and the observance of these days was 
 by statute forbidden. No serious attempt after the 
 Restoration was ever made to revive their observance. 
 Gradually dislike to all such festivals deepened, and 
 in time aversion to such became a characteristic mark 
 of the Scots, and to a certain extent continues to be 
 so at the present day. But more and more the observ- 
 ance of such days as Christmas and Easter is being 
 regarded in Scotland with indifference, and purged 
 from any Popish taint, the keeping of them as Church 
 festivals is tolerated and allowed without protest. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 PRELATIC INNOVATIONS. 
 
 The Church of Scotland had thus established itself on 
 a strong Presbyterian basis. It had successfully with- 
 stood much opposition, and by degrees had won the 
 loyalty and affection of the majority of the Scottish 
 nation. But its troubles were not all over. Its noblest 
 struggles for liberty and spiritual independence were 
 yet to be encountered. The beginning of the seven- 
 teenth century and the accession of James VI. to the 
 throne of England in 1603 ushered it into a time of 
 peril and conflict, which only came to an end at the 
 Revolution in 1688, when the unfortunate Stuart 
 dynasty collapsed for ever and James VII. fled as 
 an exile to France. During the opening years of the 
 seventeenth century King James was not in a position 
 to meddle much with Scottish affairs. He was too 
 deeply involved in matters pertaining to his new realm. 
 Still he was not altogether unmindful of his " Ancient 
 Kingdom of Scotland." He had plans of his own in 
 view for it, and in time he would attempt to work them 
 out to his heart's content. Meanwhile he was feeling 
 his way and biding his time, but his brain was busy 
 with projects which had for their end the assimilation 
 of the Church of Scotland to the Church of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 To prepare the way, however, for the contemplated 
 38 
 
Prelatic Innovations. 39 
 
 changes in church government and order, alterations 
 were being made from time to time in the Book of 
 Common Order. Revisions of the vulgar translation of 
 the Bible, of the Psalter, and of the Service Book be- 
 came frequent. Behind the sanction of the Assembly 
 there was the dark hand of the King. Royal pressure 
 and dictation were apparent. The general drift was 
 towards Episcopacy. Scotland in its forms of church 
 worship must be conformed to England. 
 
 The first marked step taken by the King to carry 
 out this idea of conformity was to have the Scottish 
 Parliament declare in 1606 that he was *' absolute prince, 
 judge, and governor over all persons, estates, and causes, 
 both spiritual and temporal," and that the old order of 
 prelates, along with their rights, privileges, livings, and 
 Parliamentary status should be revived. This latter 
 declaration was an open and clear announcement that 
 the King would tolerate no form of Church polity but 
 that of Episcopacy. A blow was to be aimed at Pres- 
 byterianism from which it would retreat stunned and 
 wounded to death. This was dealing in a very high- 
 handed and despotic way with the government of the 
 Church of Scotland. But the King having altered its 
 government and polity, was determined to go a step 
 further. He would proceed to deal with the worship 
 and ritual of the Church. So we find that a royal pro- 
 clamation was issued at the Cross of Edinburgh, requir- 
 ing all ministers to celebrate Holy Communion on 
 Easter Day, the 24th April 1614, and calling upon all 
 members to communicate in their respective Parish 
 Churches. 
 
 But a further step was taken, and one still more in- 
 dicative of the King's designs. Towards the close of 
 1614, orders were issued from London that in the judg- 
 
40 Pj^elatic Innovations, 
 
 ment of the King a " form of divine service is lacking 
 in the Church," orders for the election of bishops, form 
 for marriage, baptism, and the administration of the 
 Holy Supper, and a service for confirmation, " most 
 profitable for children, but wanting in our Church." 
 And at the General Assembly which met at Aberdeen 
 in 1616, and which was called together for the express 
 purpose of sanctioning the proposals of the King, the 
 following " instruction," sent by His Majesty was pro- 
 posed to this effect :— " That a Liturgie be made and 
 form of divine service, which shall be read in every 
 church in common prayer, and before preaching every 
 Sabbath, by the reader, where there is one, and where 
 there is none by the minister before he conceive his own 
 prayer, that the common people may learn it, and by 
 custom serve God rightly." To this the Assembly, pre- 
 sided over by the King's Commissioner, pliantly agreed; 
 and to give effect to the resolutions passed a committee 
 of four was appointed with instructions to revise the 
 Book of Common Order, and to set down a form of 
 service to be used in all time hereafter. 
 
 As a proof of how far the King's designs were shaping 
 themselves into action, and an approach was being 
 made towards the establishment of Episcopal govern- 
 ment in the Church, Spottiswoode, who had but 
 recently been created Archbishop of St Andrews, and 
 thus made Primate of all Scotland, announced to those 
 Lords and Barons, Archbishops, Bishops, and Commis- 
 sioners from Presbyteries who met at the Aberdeen 
 Assembly, that he claimed a royal warrant to preside, 
 and having made this statement, he stepped into the 
 Moderator's place without election. 
 
 For many years the King had been deeply engaged 
 in matters which concerned his new State. But he had 
 
Attempts to Establish Episcopacy. 41 
 
 made a promise that when the affairs of the country' 
 permitted him to leave England, he would pay a visit 
 to his '* ancient kingdom." That time had come, and 
 preparations were being made to give him a loyal and 
 hearty reception. But on all sides there were dark fore- 
 bodings. Suspicions and fears were aroused in the 
 breasts of not a few. Changes suggestive of Prelacy 
 were being made in the Royal Chapel of Holyrood. A 
 project for establishing a choir of singers had been 
 started and orders issued for decorating the walls of 
 the chapel with pictures and wooden sculpture. The 
 Presbyterians in Edinburgh, more numerous and zealous 
 than ever, were alarmed. They protested against any 
 such Popish innovations, and by their resolute and 
 determined opposition so alarmed the King that orders 
 were given not to send on the pictures to Edinburgh. 
 But though the King yielded on this point to the wishes 
 of his subjects, we know from a letter written by him at 
 this time and from his subsequent action, that it was 
 by no means his intention to let matters rest. The 
 King entered Scotland on the 13th May 1 61 6, and 
 remained there till the 5th August 161 7. He was 
 everywhere received with deference and flattery. Royal 
 receptions and pageants were numerous. There was 
 no lack of congratulations and good-will. But the 
 King was bent on carrying out his designs regarding 
 the Church. Before leaving for England he attended 
 a Session of the States for perfecting the structure of 
 the new Episcopalian hierarchy by the restoration of 
 the Dean and Chapter of each See. Provisions were 
 made for the election of bishops, and a measure was 
 passed for the restoration of the temporalities of the 
 Deaneries, Canonries, and Prebendary stalls, so far as 
 these temporalities could be recovered. This certainly 
 
42 Prelatic Innovations. 
 
 augured badly for the future of Presbyterianism. No 
 wonder Presbyterians were alarmed and regarded the 
 measure as "like to cut the cords of the remanent 
 liberties of our kirk." A vehement protest was issued 
 by the Presbyterian ministers and presented to the 
 King. But the leaven of Anglicanism had already 
 done its work, and the King treated the protest with 
 a sort of veiled contempt. He had made up his mind 
 to make Episcopacy the order of the Reformed Church 
 in Scotland, on the principle so briefly and laconically 
 expressed by himself, " No Bishop, no King." 
 
 The Five Articles of Perth. 
 
 During his stay in Scotland, the King took full and 
 ample opportunity of showing his leanings towards 
 Episcopal worship. In Holyrood Chapel he had 
 services in which all the ceremonials of the English 
 Church were performed in the most ostentatious and 
 pompous manner. The King seemed very much 
 pleased with himself and his religious performances, 
 and like a child who has become passionately attached 
 to some new diversion, he wished all his subjects to be 
 of the same mind as himself. What the King had long 
 brooded over in regard to the assimilation of the 
 worship of the Scottish Church to that of England at 
 last took shape. His scheme of Church uniformity 
 was formulated under Ave heads. This scheme he had 
 resolved to submit to the Assembly for its approval 
 which was summoned to meet at Perth in 1618. The 
 measure, embracing five distinct points, came to be 
 known in history as " The Five Articles of Perth." 
 The Articles embrace the following particulars : — 
 (i) Kneeling in the act of communicating ; (2) Admin- 
 
The Five Articles of Perth. 43 
 
 istering the Communion to sick persons in private ; 
 (3) Baptising in private; (4) Confirmation; (5) The 
 observance of the five holy days — Christmas, Good 
 Friday, Easter Day, Ascension Day, and Whitsunday. 
 The General Assembly at its meeting in 161 8 passed 
 the article regarding the injunction as to holy days. 
 Some of the other articles had a stormy passage, and 
 gave rise to endless discussions and vehement protesta- 
 tions. The first article was the most important of all, 
 and struck most deeply at the religious feelings and 
 predilections of the nation. It enjoined that the Sacra- 
 ment of the Lord's Supper should be received by the 
 communicant in an attitude of kneeling. Nothing 
 could have been designed more calculated to rouse 
 the suspicions and fears of loyal Presbyterians than the 
 command that the communicant should appear 
 kneeling as a suppliant in partaking of the Com- 
 munion. The custom of kneeling at Communion was 
 not only deemed as an Anglican innovation and thus 
 to be withstood by all loyal Presbyterians, it was 
 stigmatised as idolatrous, and as savouring of the dis- 
 carded Romish abomination of bending the knee and 
 worshipping the Host at Mass. To yield to this was 
 to undo all that the Reformers had done in Scotland 
 for the pure worship of God and the building up of His 
 true Church in the land, and to open the door for the 
 return of Popery in all its worst forms. Two alter- 
 natives confronted the Reformed Church in Scotland 
 as they did the Church of England, either to abolish 
 all the old acts regarded as symbols of reverence or 
 devotion or retain so much and guide the spirit of their 
 use in the right direction. The Scottish Church, in its 
 dread of Popery and hatred to all that was idolatrous 
 or superstitious in worship, followed the first course, 
 
44 Pj^elatic Innovations, 
 
 and made as clean a sweep as possible of all religious 
 symbolism. 
 
 The Articles of Perth though intensely disliked by 
 the nation as a whole and detested on account of their 
 prelatical taint, were all the more strenuously opposed 
 on account of the way they were forced upon an un- 
 willing people. Had they been recommended rather 
 than enforced their reception might have been different. 
 Simply to command the Scottish nation in the name of 
 the King to receive such and such articles as part of its 
 faith or practice of worship was just the very way to 
 rouse the spirit of a proud and independent people, and 
 to kindle into a white heat the strong religious passions 
 which have characterised them. On the day that the 
 Articles were brought under the notice of the members 
 of Assembly which met at Perth, the Dean of Win- 
 chester entered the Assembly and read a royal letter 
 to this effect : — " The greater content there is among 
 yourselves, the greater is our contentment. But we 
 will not have you to think that matters proposed by us 
 of that nature whereof these articles are, may not with- 
 out such a general consent, be enjoined by our 
 authority. This was a mis-knowing of your places, 
 and withal a disclaiming of that innate power which we 
 have by our calling from God, by the which we have 
 place to dispose of things external in the Church as we 
 shall think them to be convenient and profitable for 
 advancing true religion amongst our subjects. There- 
 fore let it be your care, by all manner of wise and 
 discreet persuasions, to induce them to an obedient 
 yielding unto these, as in duty both to God, and as 
 they are bound. And do not think that we will be 
 satisfied with refuses or delays or mitigations, and we 
 know not what other shifts have been proposed ; for 
 
The Articles Carried by the Assembly. 45 
 
 we will content ourselves with nothing, but with a 
 simple and direct acceptation of these articles in the 
 form by us sent unto you." 
 
 The Articles were carried in the Assembly by a 
 majority of eighty-six to forty-one. The Assembly 
 was without doubt a packed and brow-beaten one, and 
 many were unfairly coerced by all manner of threats 
 and sinister influences to vote for the articles. Even 
 Spottiswoode, who presided, admitted that he disliked 
 the articles, and would have voted against them but for 
 the king's command. But by those who opposed them, 
 the antagonism was of the most determined and resolute 
 nature, and was shared in by the majority of the nation. 
 Two-thirds of the congregation refused to receive the 
 sacrament on their knees. Such a victory could not 
 be followed up with any advantage. 
 
 The Articles having been thus passed by the As- 
 sembly were passed by the Estates in 1621, in a House 
 unusually full. Sanctioned by the Estates they had 
 now received the highest possible warrantry of the 
 Scottish realm. During the discussion which took 
 place therefore, there was very deep interest manifested 
 by the outsiders, and Calderwood, the careful historian 
 of the Church, who seems to have been present at the 
 meeting, tells us in the following account how " God 
 appeared angry at the concluding of the Articles : " 
 " The Grand Commissioner rising from the throne to 
 ratify the Acts by touch of the sceptre, at that very 
 moment the heavens sent in at the windows of the 
 house, which was dark before by reason of the darkness 
 of the day, an extraordinary great lightning ; after the 
 first a second and after the second a third more fearful. 
 Immediately after the lightnings followed an extra- 
 ordinary great darkness, which astonished all that were 
 
46 Prelatic Innovatioiis. 
 
 in the house. The lightnings were seconded by three 
 loud cracks of thunder. Many within the ParHament 
 House took them to be shots of cannon out of the 
 Castle. It appeared to all who dwelt within the com- 
 pass of ten or twelve miles that the clouds stood right 
 above the town and overshadowed that part only. The 
 beacon standing in the entry of Leith haven was 
 beaten down with one of the blasts of thunder. After 
 the lightning, darkness, and thunder, followed a shower 
 of hailstones, extraordinary great, and after all, rain in 
 such abundance that it made the gutters run like little 
 brooks." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 RATIFICATION OF THE FIVE ARTICLES OF PERTH. 
 
 The Five articles of Perth, so obnoxious to the religi- 
 ous feelings of the Scottish people, were carried in the 
 General Assembly by a majority of eighty-six to forty- 
 one. They were passed by the Estates in 1621 in a 
 crowded house. This Act of the Estates authorising 
 the Five Articles is the only statute in the records of 
 the Scottish Parliament which legislates on matters of 
 religious ceremonials. "According to the English 
 doctrine of statute law," says Hill Burton, " the Act 
 called ' a ratification of the five Articles of the General 
 Assembly of the Kirk holden at Perth' would be 
 actual law at the present day, but, accordiug to the 
 practice of Scotland, it passed into oblivion and thus 
 ceased to be law ; " and he further remarks, " it is 
 another peculiarity of Scots legislation that although 
 the Act 'statutes and ordains' the Articles 'to be 
 obeyed and observed by all his Majesty's subjects as 
 law in time coming,' there is no punishment or penalty 
 laid on those who disobey the injunction." 
 
 King and People in Opposition. 
 
 King James exerted his power and authority to a 
 great extent to compel the people in Scotland and especi- 
 ally in Edinburgh to conform to all the innovations and 
 
 47 
 
48 Ratification of the Five Articles of Perth. 
 
 changes of the five Articles. His zeal was unbounded, 
 and he went the length of making it a term of holding 
 any office under the Crown that government servants 
 at least should show their conformity to the Articles 
 by attending the church services on the holidays. The 
 fifth clause of the Articles — the observing of holidays — 
 drew forth the sternest opposition of the nation. The 
 " Youle Vacance," corresponding to the Christmas 
 holidays in Episcopal Churches, was absolutely abhor- 
 rent to the religious feelings of multitudes. It not only 
 savoured too much of Popery, but infinitely worse of 
 Pasranism and of old heathen times. And what added 
 fuel to such opposition was the fact that the King, 
 in his vehement zeal for church festivals and the keep- 
 ing of Holy Days on the part of Presbyterian Scotland, 
 was relaxing the observance of the Lord's Day in 
 England, and had issued a proclamation permitting all 
 sorts of games and sports and merry makings after 
 Divine service. That the King was bent on carrying 
 out his purpose in regard to the innovations is seen in 
 the way in which he treated the Scottish Bishops, who, 
 seeing the opposition w^hich was gathering, desired that 
 too much pressure should not be put on tender con- 
 sciences in demanding absolute submission to the 
 Articles. " We will have you know," writes the King 
 to my Lords the Bishops, " that we have come to that 
 age as we will not be content to be fed with broth, as 
 one of your coat was wont to speak ; and think this 
 you are doing no less than the protestation itself." 
 But the repugnance to the articles grew more and more 
 formidable and determined. The loyal citizens of 
 Edinburgh became passionate in their opposition. 
 They would not yield to the dictation of the King in 
 matters of religion and conscience, and rather than play 
 
Ref^ising to Kneel at the Lord's Supper. 49 
 
 fast and loose with their own most sacred convictions 
 they were prepared to withstand the full force of the 
 King's wrath and disapprobation. One thing Presby- 
 terian Scotland had made up its mind to do, was not 
 to kneel or bow down in the attitude of suppliants in 
 receiving the Lord's Supper. The King, restless and 
 watchful, kept his eye on Scotland, and through his 
 correspondents was fully alive to all that was going on. 
 Very frankly Thomas Hamilton, late Lord Advocate, 
 whom the King commissioned to see to the carrying 
 out of the Articles, wrote to him, on the i6th April 
 1623, an account of the order observed in Edinburgh 
 at Easter. It was " not so gracious " as he could have 
 wished. The clergy had done their work worthily and 
 well, " but the number of communicants was small ; 
 no strangers — few of the town's people of good sort." 
 In the College Church the number of communicants 
 was large, " but very few of them kneeled." 
 
 The opposition became more and more determined. 
 It began to assume shape and expression. Numbers 
 banded themselves together and took an oath binding 
 them, both to hold aloof altogether from communicating 
 and even from the company of those who knelt. Pam- 
 phlets were circulated denouncing in plain terms the 
 Five Articles and all who adhered to them. The King 
 retaliated by threatening to remove the seat of Govern- 
 ment and the courts of law from Edinburgh. A certain 
 William Rigg, an influential and well-to-do citizen of 
 Edinburgh, who had been concerned in the circulation 
 of the pamphlets, was menaced by the King with con- 
 fiscation. This high-handed threat spread alarm, and 
 the citizens denounced it as outrageous, full of danger, 
 and without precedent. Even the friends of the King 
 felt he had gone too far, and they sent him a protesta- 
 
 D 
 
50 Ratification of the Five Articles of Perth. 
 
 tion drawn up in very humble terms. It had the 
 desired effect. The King had become aware of the 
 danger of the course he was pursuing, and that the 
 subjects of his ancient kingdom were prepared to resent 
 any further interference with their reHgious convictions. 
 There must be an end to this foolish policy and arbi- 
 trariness of his Majesty, and the Corporation of Edin- 
 burgh, along with the Bishops and his most loyal 
 subjects, took the utmost pains to impress firmly upon 
 him the resolution they had come to. Deferring to 
 these persuasions, the King showed his tardy and im- 
 perfect repentance by issuing at the close of the year 
 1624 the proclamation, to the effect that " His Majesty 
 following his accustomed gracious inclination, rather to 
 pity nor to punish the errors and faults of his people; 
 and by a loving and fatherly behaviour, patiently to 
 abide some time of their amendment, and by gentle 
 and fair means rather to reclaim them from their un- 
 settled and evil-grounded opinions, nor by severity and 
 rigour of justice to inflict that punishment, whilk their 
 misbehaviour and contempt merits." Thus ended King 
 James' last public act affecting his Scottish subjects. 
 The nation at large had plainly indicated that in 
 matters concerning faith and religion it would not be 
 coerced, and by its resolute and solid resistance to the 
 arbitrary dictation of the King had given express warn- 
 ing that if the time came when loyalty to the earthly 
 sovereign and loyalty to the King of Kings should be 
 brought into collision in such a crisis, good men would 
 be compelled to obey God rather than man, and, to be 
 true to their deepest convictions of what was right, 
 would be forced to resist every attempt made to de- 
 prive them of their inalienable gift of religious liberty 
 and convert them into mere tools and creatures of a 
 
L aud — King James Op in ion of Him . 5 1 
 
 despotic ruler. It would have been well if Charles I. 
 had, by what really did take place, learned this lesson 
 and come to understand the character of the subjects 
 of the ancient kingdom of Scotland which he was about 
 to govern. Certainly he would have saved the land of 
 his birth from much misery and bloodshed and years 
 of deepest anguish, and possibly his own life, which he 
 blindly sacrificed to the infatuated idea of the divine 
 right of kings and an imperious self-will. 
 
 Laud's Baleful Influence. 
 
 It is at this time we get the first view of a man who 
 was to figure largely in the history of both England 
 and Scotland and who was destined to bring untold 
 misfortunes by his despotic measures to both countries. 
 This was William Laud, who subsequently became 
 Archbishop of Canterbury. This wily priest and 
 ecclesiastic was the bete noir of his day. By-and-bye 
 he came to exercise unbounded ascendancy over Charles 
 I., and goaded him on in his sinister and tyrannical 
 ways to the bitter and melancholy end. King James 
 had discerned well what sort of man he was, and 
 trusted him not. Writing in 1621, when asked to pro- 
 mote Laud to the See of St David's, the King says — 
 " The plain truth is, that I keep Laud back from all 
 place of rule and authority, because I find he hath 
 a restless spirit and cannot see when matters are well, 
 but loves to toss and change and to bring things to 
 a pitch of reformation floating in his own brain, which 
 may endanger the steadfastness of that which is in 
 good pass, God be praised. I speak not at random. 
 He hath made himself known to me to be such an 
 one, for when three years since I had obtained of the 
 
52 Ratification of the Five Articles of Perth, 
 
 Assembly of Perth to consent to Five Articles of order 
 and decency in correspondence with this Church of 
 England, I gave them promise by attestation of faith 
 made that I would try their obedience no farther anent 
 ecclesiastical affairs, nor put them out of their own 
 way, which custom had made pleasing to them with 
 any new encroachment. Yet this man hath pressed 
 me to invite them to a nearer conjunction with the 
 liturgy and canons of this nation, but I sent him back 
 again with the frivolous draught he had drawn. For all 
 this he feared not mine anger, but assaulted me again 
 with another ill-fangled platform to make that stubborn 
 Kirk stoop more to the English pattern. But I durst 
 not play fast and loose with my word. He knows 
 not the stomach of that people ; * but I ken the story 
 of my grandmother, the Queen Regent, that after she 
 was inveigled to break her promise made to some 
 mutineers at a Perth meeting she never saw good day, 
 but from thence, being much loved before, was despised 
 by her people.' " When we read all this in the light 
 of subsequent events, we are bound to acknowledge 
 that the King showed a certain prophetic sagacity in 
 the discernment of the character of Laud, and foresaw 
 the course which the restless spirit and perverse 
 ambition of the man "to bring things to a pitch of 
 reformation floating in his own brain " would inevitably 
 lead to. 
 
 A ttempt to introduce a new Prayer Book. 
 
 It appears that if the Perth Articles had been 
 readily accepted other changes in the form of worship 
 and religious service were to have been introduced. 
 King James' design was to "make that stubborn Kirk 
 stoop more to the English pattern." The Book of 
 
Atte^npt to introduce a New Prayer Book. 53 
 
 Common Order was to disappear, and its place was 
 to be taken by a liturgy more in harmony with the 
 Service Book of the Church of England. Spottiswoode 
 had been made Archbishop of St Andrews, and with 
 his elevation the new order of things was to be intro- 
 duced. The first step in the carrying out of the 
 change was taken by the King himself in his instruc- 
 tion to the General Assembly of 16 16 as follows — 
 " That a uniform order of liturgy or divine service be 
 set down to be read in all kirks on the ordinary days 
 of prayer, and every Sabbath day before the sermon, 
 to the end the common people may be acquainted 
 therewith and by custom may learn to serve God 
 rightly." At the same time orders were given for the 
 preparation of a confession, catechism, and canons. 
 This liturgy was drawn up and revised by members 
 appointed by the Assembly, and was regarded from 
 the first as a liturgy of compromise. The prayers of 
 the Book of Common Order were retained and com- 
 bined with large selections borrowed from the English 
 liturgy. Everything that might offend the religious 
 feelings of the Scottish people was carefully avoided. 
 The language of the Book of Common Order was 
 strictly preserved, for it had become dear to the heart 
 of congregations. The new Prayer Book was ordered 
 to be printed and published, but owing to the deter- 
 mined opposition on the part of both the clergy and 
 laity to the Five Articles, the publication of the book 
 was indefinitely postponed. Nothing more was done 
 in the matter till the year 1629, when Charles I. began 
 to interfere with the affairs of the Scotch Church. 
 Then a draft of the book was sent to him for review, 
 and the result of his consultation with the Scottish 
 bishops and especially with Laud was the resolve to 
 
54 Ratification of the Five Articles of Perth, 
 
 impose on Scotland the English liturgy pure and 
 simple. The liturgy of compromise passed out of 
 sight, and was not heard of again. Other and more 
 drastic measures were to be proceeded with, and the 
 restless spirit and prelatic tendencies of Laud were 
 about to show themselves in a way which would arouse 
 the most passionate opposition of the entire Scottish 
 nation. 
 
 A third attempt was made to come to some determin- 
 ation, whether the English liturgy or a distinctive 
 Scottish one should be the Common Service Book for 
 Scotland, when Charles I. accompanied by Laud made 
 a visit to Scotland to be crowned in 1633. Through 
 all the ceremonials of the Coronation, one thing was 
 very apparent, and to some it was like the skeleton at 
 the feast, the desire on the part of the King to flaunt 
 in the face of the people of Scotland the ritual of the 
 Church of England ; and the design of this became 
 very evident when the King on his return to London 
 took up the matter of readjusting the robes of the 
 clergy. A change from black robes to white ones was 
 the King's wish, and in insisting upon this change the 
 first great act of war in the contest about " the whites " 
 began. Naturally the Presbyterian ministers resented 
 any such change, believing that these innovations 
 savoured not only of prelacy, but Popery also. If the 
 King and his advisers were most resolute that the 
 Scottish ministers should conform to the ritual of the 
 English clergy, the Presbyterians were as resolute in 
 their resistance to the change. 
 
 But what Charles had devised, he would without fail 
 endeavour to carry out. All opposition must be put 
 down, and blow upon blow struck to overawe the 
 stubborn Kirk and Nation. The supplications of the 
 
Laud made A rchbish op. 55 
 
 people were disregarded, a new diocese was created — 
 that of Edinburgh, the Church of St Giles being the 
 Cathedral, and William Forbes, the first Bishop of 
 Edinburgh, was consecrated in 1634. But a more 
 important step was taken, and one foreboding disaster 
 to Scotland and full of bad auguries — Laud was made 
 Archbishop of Canterbury. He had for long meddled 
 in the affairs of Scotland. Now he would dictate the 
 ecclesiastical policy of the country, and reduce the 
 State to absolute subjection to the Church. The 
 pressure of his hand was soon felt, and Bishops and 
 Presbyters — the clergy and laity alike — found out what 
 a despot this restless priest was. It soon became 
 apparent to every Scottish Presbyterian that he was 
 working for the old Church which had been discarded 
 and against the Reformation, and was intent upon 
 undoing all that John Knox and the noble band of 
 Reformers had done for Christ and His evangel in 
 Scotland. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE POLICY OF "THOROUGH" AND THE BOOK 
 OF CANONS. 
 
 Very soon after his return to London Charles I. 
 announced his decision to Spottiswoode that he in- 
 tended to have a liturgy framed, for the Scottish 
 Church, " as near as can be to this of England." This 
 book took some years to frame and was principally 
 the work of Laud. It appeared in 1637. By this 
 time the King had completely succumbed to the in- 
 fluence of the Earl of Strafford and Laud, and the 
 term " thorough " was an indication of the policy 
 then pursued, and shows clearly the character of the 
 keen, relentless, and despotic spirit which filled the 
 mind of the proud churchman. The haughty, dark, 
 and arrogant nature of Strafford — very clever, but full 
 of sinister and ambitious designs and void of all 
 truthfulness — made him a dangerous adviser and 
 minister of a king who himself aimed at absolute 
 despotism. The policy " thorough " was to be applied 
 without partiality in all matters civil and religious 
 to England, Scotland, and Ireland alike. 
 
 The whole course of things has now changed. We 
 have, under the arbitrary rule of Charles I., crossed 
 the line between the past and the present. We have 
 no longer King James on the throne, a garrulous 
 egotist, obstinate in some matters, but weak in pur- 
 56 
 
Re stilt of the Policy of Thorough ^ 57 
 
 pose, passionately and with a foolish vehemence 
 proclaiming his absolute will and then yielding and 
 confessing defeat by retiring from the controversy 
 he has raised, but Charles I., with a steady policy 
 and a fixed resolve in all things, backed up by a 
 Government, grave, resolute and earnest, pressing 
 forward and intent upon carrying out their plans 
 and brooking no defeat. But on the other side, there 
 is an opposing force, more and more smarting under 
 the pressure of the rulers, and in its union and co- 
 operation becoming increasingly alive to its strength. 
 Bit by bit this opposition becomes as stern, as solid 
 and as determined in purpose as the aggressive and 
 obnoxious Government and prepares itself for the 
 inevitable contest. The history of the times will show 
 how this policy of "thorough" wrought in Church 
 and State, and what was the issue of this new order 
 of things. 
 
 The immediate result of the policy of " thorough '* 
 as applied to ecclesiastical affairs in Scotland was 
 the preparation of two directories, for the better 
 government of the church and improvement of public 
 worship. In 1636, a document was issued, called 
 " Canons and constitutions ecclesiastical, gathered and 
 put in form for the government of the Church of 
 Scotland, ratified and approved by His Majesty's 
 royal warrant and ordained to be observed by the 
 clergy and all others whom it may concern." The 
 second directory was a new service book or liturgy 
 intended to have been published at the same time 
 as the canons, although it actually appeared fifteen 
 months later. The publishing of these two acts of 
 dictation in succession roused the indignation of the 
 Scottish nation and brought about that political 
 
58 Policy of " TJiorough " and Book of Canons. 
 
 storm and crisis which continue to this day to leave 
 their traces deeply marked on the history of Scotland. 
 
 The issuing of the " canons," although not so well- 
 known as the publishing of the new service book, 
 was in substance not less important and less significant 
 in its aims and results. This book was evidently 
 framed conjointly by the Scottish bishops, but was 
 recast subsequently by the master hand of Laud. 
 Laud's aim was to have the canons " well-fitted for 
 Church government and as near as conveniently may 
 be to the Canons of the Church of England." Accord- 
 ing to Hill Burton there is throughout in these canons 
 a " tone of reverend piety suited to the occasion, 
 which yet never overloads the composition so as to 
 render the practical precepts to which it is directed 
 in any way obscure," while the book plainly enforces 
 a scheme of prelatical policy in marked contrast to 
 the Presbyterian directory drawn up by Andrew 
 Melville in the Second Book of Discipline, yet it 
 cannot be asserted that any distinct Popish mark 
 or tendency pervades the Canons. The book opens 
 with a denunciation of all foreign and usurped authority 
 in the Church and levels excommunication against 
 any who affirm "that the King's Majesty hath not 
 the same authority in cases ecclesiastical that the 
 godly kings had among the Jews and Christian 
 Emperors in the Primitive Church." The canons 
 were comprised under nineteen heads or chapters, 
 some of which gave instructions as to the administra- 
 tion of the sacraments, the conducting of public 
 worship, the conduct and deportment of the clergy, 
 and the imparting of exhortations to Christian life 
 and duties. There is no place, however, in the 
 Church organisation laid down for General Assemblies, 
 
Read Prayers enjoined, 59 
 
 Presbyteries, or any other form of Presbyterian govern- 
 ment. According to two canons, no Presbyter or 
 Reader was henceforth to pray in public ex tempore ; 
 but all preachers were to exhort their hearers to join 
 with them in prayer, using some well-known forms 
 of expression and always concluding with the Lord's 
 Prayer. Another canon, while condemning the adora- 
 tion of the bread in the Eucharist, required " that the 
 Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper be received 
 with the bowing of the knee, to testify the devotion 
 and thankfulness of the receivers for that most ex- 
 cellent gift." It was also enjoined that in time of 
 public service " no man shall cover his head," but 
 "all persons shall reverently kneel when the con- 
 fession and other prayers are read and shall stand 
 up at the saying of the creed." The duties of a 
 Presbyter are defined after this manner, that "either 
 he personally or by a qualified representative read 
 or cause to be read divine service according to the 
 form of the Book of Common Prayer," and as in- 
 dicating the intention of the authorities responsible 
 for the issuing of the " canons " to introduce the 
 service book which some time afterwards came into 
 use, it was ordained "that in all meetings for divine 
 worship before sermon the whole prayers according 
 to the Liturgy be deliberately and distinctly read," 
 while in his visitation of the sick the Presbyter was 
 to instruct and comfort them " according to the 
 Book of Common Prayer." 
 
 One clause in the canons is particularly noteworthy 
 and should not be overlooked. It provides that each 
 church shall have a Bible and Prayer Book at the 
 charge of the parish : — " The Bible shall be of the 
 translation of King James, and if any parish be un- 
 
6o Policy of " Thorough " and Book of Canons. 
 
 provided thereof, the same shall be amended within 
 two months at most after the publication of this con- 
 stitution." 
 
 An interesting fact in connection with the issuing 
 of the canons is stated by Hill Burton. It is not 
 commonly known that the " authorised version " of 
 the Bible so highly prized in Scotland, and almost 
 exclusively used, was first of all enjoined by Laud 
 in one of the clauses of the canons, as the transla- 
 tion of Holy Scripture to be read in the public 
 service of the Church. No General Assembly or any 
 ecclesiastical authority in Scotland has ever authorised 
 or adopted our present " authorised version " in pre- 
 ference to any other. It would seem therefore that 
 the only place where the version of the sacred writing 
 so long and so universally used in Scotland had the 
 sanction of anything like an ecclesiastical authority 
 was in the obnoxious and repudiated canons drawn 
 up by Laud. But in spite of this injunction the old 
 version of the Bible which had long been in use in 
 Scotland held its ground. It was to Geneva, rather 
 than to England, that Scotland was indebted for her 
 Bible as well as her form of worship. And the very 
 fact that Laud aimed at suppressing the use of this 
 version among the Puritans in England, among whom 
 it was regarded with the greatest favour and venera- 
 tion, strengthened in the minds of the Scottish nation 
 their preference for the book. It took many years 
 to wipe out of the memory of the people all recollec- 
 tions that the " authorised version " had been enforced 
 upon them by the authority and command of the 
 King and the English nation before they would 
 be persuaded to adopt it as their version in public 
 worship, and even when convinced of its superior 
 
Arbitrary Doings of the King. 6i 
 
 merit as a translation its circulation and use were of 
 very slow growth. Alike by Royalist and Episcopalian 
 historians this high-handed measure of the King in 
 issuing the "canons" is denounced as both impolitic 
 and despotic in the extreme. Speaking of the authority 
 from whence the canons came, Hill Burton says — 
 " In this it may safely be said that they stand alone 
 among the State papers of Christian Europe. Who- 
 ever may have given personal help in their prepara- 
 tion, they were adopted by the King and were as 
 much his sole personal act as if he had penned them 
 all alone in his cabinet and sent them as a despatch 
 to those who were to obey their injunctions. A 
 complete code of laws for the government of a Church 
 issued by a sovereign without official consultation 
 with the responsible representatives of that Church 
 is unexampled in European history." And Clarendon, 
 the Royahst historian, admits " It was a fatal inad- 
 vertency, that neither before or after these canons 
 were sent to the King they were never seen by the 
 Assembly, or any other association of the clergy 
 which was so strictly obliged to the observation of 
 them ; nor so much as communicated to the Lords 
 of that kingdom." 
 
 So arbitrary were these proceedings regarded by the 
 entire nation, that even the indignation and protest 
 of cavaliers were called forth. They saw, though 
 loyally attached to the King's person, that a huge 
 blunder was being perpetrated and would only result 
 in disaster to the nation at large. Here is what 
 James Gordon, parson of Rothiemay, and a member 
 of a cavalier family, and withal closely wedded to 
 Episcopacy, has to say about these obnoxious canons 
 — " This Book of Canons which had the same common 
 
62 Policy of '* Thorough " a7id Book of Canons. 
 
 parents as the Service Book felt the like fate, and 
 sober men thought that by such a damnatory sentence 
 it got but justice. The informality of its introduc- 
 tion was notorious. For many sober ministers, who 
 otherwise favoured the bishops, were startled with 
 these canons and thought them grossly extravagant, 
 as betraying too great neglect of all the Church in 
 the introduction of them, and a too great usurpation 
 of power to themselves in the canons there set down. 
 The Book of Canons being overthrown, the next 
 book which was brought to the test was the Book 
 of Ordination, another whelp of that same litter with 
 the two former." 
 
 The " Book of Ordination " referred to here by 
 Parson Gordon, and which was a companion of the 
 Book of Canons, has now dropped out of literature 
 and history, no copy of it being now known to exist. 
 It was evidently also the work of Laud, and was 
 compiled as the Archbishop admits at the instigation 
 of the King on finding that in the old ordination 
 service there were several defects, one being that the 
 order of deacons was made a lay office, " at which 
 His Majesty was much troubled, as he had great 
 cause, and concerning which he hath commanded me 
 to write that either you do admit of our book, or 
 else that you amend your own in their gross over- 
 sights." 
 
 Pursuing his reckless and tyrannical course, King 
 Charles was determined to silence all who in any 
 way disapproved of the measures he had adopted. 
 It was ordained and decreed that " Whosoever affirmed 
 the form of worship contained in the Book of Canons, 
 now established under His Majesty's authority, to 
 contain anything repugnant to the scriptures, to be 
 
Presbyterian Ministers threatened. 63 
 
 corrupt, superstitious, or unlawful, should be excom- 
 municated and not restored till after his repentance, 
 and a public revocation of such wicked errors." And 
 it was likewise decreed and ordained that all Presby- 
 terian ministers who refused to conform to the in- 
 structions of the canons, or were found guilty of 
 using any other form in the public service than the 
 one now prescribed, '' Be visited with deprivation of 
 licence or of cure." 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE LITURGIES IN THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND 
 AFTER THE REFORMATION. 
 
 The forcing of the Book of Canons roused the spirit 
 of the nation and exasperated the feelings of all classes 
 of the people throughout Scotland. Presbyterians and 
 Episcopalians, Puritans and Royalists alike felt that 
 a grievous injustice was being done to the nation, and 
 the powers and privileges of Parliament were being 
 tampered with by the high-handed and arbitrary way 
 the King had imposed his views upon the people. All 
 independence of thought and religious liberty were in- 
 fringed by such action, and the King's subjects were 
 by degrees coming to feel that they were only looked 
 upon as so many creatures to be treated according to 
 the will of their Sovereign Despot. Bit by bit Scotland 
 was to be coerced into conformity in all her civil and 
 religious institutions to England, and the machinery 
 was being perfected for the accomplishment of the 
 plan. 
 
 The real intention of the King was at length seen 
 in the issuing of the new service book. There was no 
 longer any dubiety in the minds of men what was 
 aimed at. The country roused itself to oppose the 
 King's designs. A crisis had come in the history of 
 Scotland, and the people were determined to hold their 
 own against their ruler's despotism, and every encroach- 
 64 
 
A New Service Book for Scotland, 65 
 
 ment of their prerogatives and privileges as his subjects. 
 They had been preparing themselves for the contest 
 for some time, for they had foreseen what had long been 
 the aim of Charles. Already he had insulted and en- 
 raged their feelings by his policy, and the time was 
 now come that if they would have their independence 
 in religious matters secured to them they must act. 
 
 Scotland had been threatened with the new Service 
 Book at the time when the Book of Canons was issued, 
 but for some cause or other its publication was delayed. 
 The delay possibly arose from the fact that the Scottish 
 Bishops who were associated with Laud in compiling 
 the liturgy had a difficulty in agreeing as to what 
 would be acceptable to the Scottish people, and through 
 fear of the opposition that was sure to be raised, 
 cautioned delay. Then it is well-known that it was the 
 King's wish, in the interests of uniformity, that the new 
 Service Book for Scotland should be the Book of 
 Common Prayer used in England, but men like the 
 crafty Spottiswoode, Archbishop of St Andrews, Max- 
 well, Bishop of Ross, and Wedderburn, Bishop of 
 Dunblane, knowing something of the minds of their 
 countrymen and their aversion to any closer conformity 
 to Episcopacy than they were subjected to, disapproved 
 of introducing the Book of Common Prayer without 
 very considerable revision and alterations. To a 
 certain extent at least the advice of the Scottish Bishops 
 was yielded to. They were commanded to draw up a 
 Service Book which they believed the nation would 
 receive, and submit it to the consideration of the King 
 and his councillors. For final revision, these proposals 
 of the Bishops, were put into the hands of Laud, Juxon, 
 Bishop of London, and Wren of Norwich. 
 
 While it is perfectly true that the resistance of the 
 
66 Liturgies after the Reformation. 
 
 Scottish nation, which showed itself in a most marked 
 and determined form at this crisis of the history of 
 Scotland, was in the main directed against the en- 
 croachments of Episcopacy, religious ceremonials, and 
 prelatical church government, yet it cannot be as- 
 serted beyond controversy that the indignation called 
 forth against the Service Book in question was an 
 indication of the uniform and settled antipathy and 
 conscientious aversion of the congregations of the 
 Scottish Churches against a liturgy or any prescribed 
 form of prayer. The use of a liturgy in public worship, 
 we have already stated in a former chapter, is not a 
 peculiarity of Episcopal Churches. The Reformed 
 Churches on the Continent, both Calvinistic and 
 Lutheran, continue to this day to use a liturgy. The 
 Presbyterian Church of Scotland for a considerable 
 period used the Book of Common Order, and at this 
 very time this same book was in use, and might have 
 continued to have been used for generations, had there 
 been no interference on the part of the King in the 
 religious service of the nation. Many Presbyterians, 
 not cognisant of this fact, and knowing little or nothing 
 of the history of the worship of their church, are too 
 much inclined to regard with perfect horror any desire 
 on the part of their fellow-worshippers for a set form 
 of prayer to be used in public worship, as alike treason- 
 able to the very spirit and genius of Presbyterianism, 
 and a foolish and culpable hankering after Episcopacy 
 and Anglican ritual. Indeed, the contention and re- 
 sistance arose, not on the question so much of using 
 this or that service book, but on the question of com- 
 pelling congregations to give up their old form of 
 service, and take another lying under the suspicion of 
 being drawn up by those tainted, not only with Prelacy, 
 but Popery also. 
 
First Use of the Term Liturgy. 67 
 
 Old Service Books. 
 
 The service books in use in the Reformed Church 
 of Scotland, before the introduction of Laud's in 
 1637, are now pretty well known to the student of 
 Church history. The first Service Book in use was, 
 beyond doubt, the second Prayer Book of Edward VI., 
 published in 1552. Its use was recommended and 
 ordained by the Protestant Lords and Commis- 
 sioners of Scotland, who had entered into a " common 
 band " to further the Protestant religion in the 
 land, and to do all in their power " to have faithful 
 ministers purely and truly to minister Christ's evangel 
 and sacraments to His people." King Edward's 
 second Prayer Book had, it is evident, a very short 
 existence in Scotland. In the First Book of Discipline, 
 laid before the General Assembly in 1560-61, we find 
 repeated references to a book which is called " The 
 Book of Geneva," " Our Book of Common Order." 
 This book popularly came to be known as " Knox's 
 Liturgy," and had been used by the British exiles 
 formed into a congregation at Geneva. It very soon 
 superseded the English Prayer Book, and had a very 
 important place in congregational worship in Scotland 
 till at least 1641, when it in turn was superseded by 
 the Directory of Worship. The first time we actually 
 find the term " Liturgy " used to express a set form 
 of prayers in Scotland is in 1616. For although the 
 word " Knox's Liturgy " has become associated in the 
 popular mind with the " Book of Common Order," this 
 service book is not exactly a liturgy in the sense in 
 which the term is now understood. It is much in the 
 form of a directory of public worship, and contains no 
 responses or litany, and was never called a liturgy by 
 
68 Liturgies after the Reformation. 
 
 Knox himself, or those associated with him in his 
 work. The word " Liturgy " first received expression 
 in a finding of the Assembly which met in Aberdeen in 
 1616, and which was known to be the stronghold of 
 Episcopacy. This Assembly ordained " that due 
 uniform order of liturgy or divine service be set down 
 to be read in all kirks on the ordinary days of prayer 
 and every Sabbath before the sermon, to the end the 
 common people might be acquainted therewith, and 
 by custom may learn to serve God rightly." And 
 further, the Assembly agreed " to revise the Book of 
 Common Prayers contained in the Psalm Book, and to 
 set down one common form of ordinary service to be 
 used in all time hereafter." This action on the part of 
 the Assembly in 16 16 was repudiated afterwards by 
 the Church, as savouring of prelacy and opposed to 
 the legitimate order and form of Presbyterian worship. 
 As the result of the resolution of the Assembly of 
 1616, a service book or some form of liturgy was 
 drawn up by a committee, and was transmitted to 
 King James, who revised it, and " it was remitted 
 with the King's observations, additions, expunctions, mu- 
 tations, accommodations to Scotland again." Nothing 
 further, however, was heard of this book, and .it 
 completely dropped out of sight. According to Hill 
 Burton, there is in the British Museum a manuscript 
 prayer book, which he believes to be the liturgy thus 
 framed, and finally transcribed for the press. And in 
 it there is a note in the writing of the time, that it was 
 the Service Book intended for Scotland before Laud 
 took the affair into his own hands. " This book," Hill 
 Burton further adds, "has no litany, and it is rather 
 an enlargement of the old Book of Common Order than 
 an adaptation of the English Book of Common Prayer. 
 
The Sei^ice Book of i6i6. 69 
 
 Care was taken that everything flagrantly offensive to 
 the feelings of Scottish congregations should be avoided. 
 There is nothing in the book regarding vestments, the 
 sign of the cross in baptism, and the ring in marriage. 
 One of its chief novelties is the appointment of lessons 
 for the day in a calendar, appointing the portion of 
 Scripture to be read on each. A rubric in it preserves 
 the memory of an old usage : — " It was the ancient 
 custom of our Church upon the Sundays at afternoon 
 to sing the 1 19th Psalm, which we think best to be still 
 retained in use by singing a section of the same before 
 sermon and another after." In its reference to other 
 parts of public worship it keeps very closely to the in- 
 junctions of the First Book of Discipline, and it pre- 
 serves much of the language of the prayers of the Book 
 of Common Order so well known to Scottish congrega- 
 tions and so highly prized by them. A large Anglican 
 element pervaded the sacramental services, and in this 
 lay hid the intention of its authors and their designs 
 in introducing it. In the order for the administration 
 of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the book was 
 a compromise between the simple communion table 
 of Presbyterian worship and the altar consecrated and 
 set apart in the east of the Church as found in Epis- 
 copal churches. 
 
 This book got the length of receiving the sanction 
 of King James, and a licence was granted to a printer 
 in Edinburgh to have it published. But difficulties 
 arose, and its publication was indefinitely postponed. 
 In 1629 we again hear of it. A draft of it was sent to 
 London to King Charles, and the result was that by 
 the advice of Laud and other Councillors this " liturgy 
 of compromise " was withdrawn on the understanding 
 that the English Liturgy was to be imposed on Scot- 
 
70 Liturgies after the Reformation. 
 
 land pure and simple. Although this Service Book 
 of 1616 never came to be used and very soon passed 
 into oblivion, yet from the very fact that it had 
 obtained the approval of the Assembly and a large 
 and influential section of the Church, it shows what 
 the tendency of the prelatical party in the Church was, 
 and is an indication of how far this party was prepared 
 to go under the guidance and dictation of the wily 
 arch-priest Laud. 
 
 King James was either too cautious or too timid to 
 press the acceptance of the Service Book of 16 16 on 
 the Scottish nation. But the King, wishful to carry 
 out his projects, set himself to the task of summarising 
 his scheme of uniformity of worship with Episcopal 
 usage under five heads, which came to be known sub- 
 sequently in history under the name of the Five 
 Articles of Perth. These Articles were passed by 
 the Assembly which met at Perth in 16 19, and the 
 attempt to force them upon the people may be re- 
 garded as the beginning of that long period of strife 
 and tumult through which Scotland passed. These 
 Five Articles, which gave such deep offence to the 
 Presbyterians and evoked such bitter and determined 
 opposition on their part, were as we have already 
 stated : — (i). Kneeling at communion ; (2), private 
 administration of the Lord's Supper ; (3), private 
 administration of baptism ; (4), confirmation ; and (5), 
 the observance of the Church festivals or holy days. 
 Indeed, so far had King James been able to carry 
 out his prelatical policy in the Scottish Church, and 
 execute his scheme of uniformity with Episcopalian 
 usage, that it seemed that in a short time the Book of 
 Common Order was likely to pass into disuse and 
 its place taken by a new Book of Common Prayer, 
 
E^iglish Prayer Book. 7 1 
 
 thus extinguishing every mark of the old Reformed 
 Presbyterian Church worship of Scotland and convert- 
 ing it into a poor bare imitation of the Prelatical 
 Church of England. Even Spottiswoode, created by 
 the King Archbishop of St Andrews, and himself a 
 pervert from Presbyterianism, in the heat of a contro- 
 versy with Thomas Hogg, minister at Dysart — a great 
 champion of Presbyterian worship and full of detesta- 
 tion to the Five Articles of Perth — thought to brow- 
 beat Hogg and silence him by telling him " that 
 although his prayers had up till now been in keeping 
 with the usage of his church and the precepts of the 
 Book of Common Order," very soon all this would be 
 changed, that ministers would not be allowed to con- 
 ceive prayers as they pleased, but would be " tied down 
 to set prayers." 
 
 During all these repeated attempts to introduce 
 a new Service Book into Scotland, the Book of 
 Common Order held its place in the religious affec- 
 tions of the people. Although it had never been 
 confirmed by the Estates or by Acts of Parliament 
 as the English Prayer Book had been over and over 
 again, it had been adopted by the Church as a whole, 
 and for nearly a hundred years after the Reformation 
 the Church of Scotland may be said to have possessed 
 and used a Liturgy or at least a Prayer Book. No 
 doubt many congregations had no great love for the 
 book, and by some it was never used. On the other 
 hand, some congregations preferred the English Prayer 
 Book to the Book of Common Order. But what is 
 clear and beyond dispute is this, that from the Refor- 
 mation up to this time the Church of Scotland had 
 definite rules and directions for public worship, a set 
 form of prayers, canons for the administration of the 
 
72 Liturgies after the Reformation. 
 
 sacraments, ordination of ministers and other Church 
 functions set down in the Book of Common Order, and 
 to which ministers had to conform as to a prescribed 
 order. The conclusion we feel bound to arrive at as 
 the result of the study of this portion of Scottish 
 Church history is, that the feelings of personal and 
 national exasperation which were roused at this crisis, 
 and the long and severe contest into which the country 
 was dragged in consequence of the attempt made by 
 the King to impose on the Church of Scotland the 
 Liturgy of 1637, commonly known as "Laud's Liturgy," 
 did not originate in any deep-rooted and conscientious 
 abhorrence of a Liturgy as such or a set form of prayer, 
 but must rather be regarded as the nation's resolute 
 and righteous protest against the particular form and 
 arbitrary manner in which the new Service Book was 
 introduced, and the unyielding determination of Scot- 
 land's loyalest and best sons to oppose the despotic will 
 of the Sovereign in any attempt to tamper with their 
 most sacred conviction, or interfere in any way with 
 their religious liberties. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 laud's liturgy of 1637. 
 
 The attempt to introduce Laud's Liturgy into the 
 Churches of Scotland brought about a momentous 
 crisis in the history of the nation. The country was 
 stirred to its very depths, and every succeeding genera- 
 tion has felt and responded to the influences which 
 sprang out of that movement. If the many waves of 
 thought and religious commotion have greatly subsided 
 and the mighty tides of spiritual enthusiasm and pas- 
 sionate zeal have sunk to rest, the ground-swell of that 
 solemn and determined outburst of the religious feeling 
 and conviction of the nation continues to roll up and 
 spend its strength on the life of the nineteenth century, 
 and affect the opinions and pious belief and sentiments 
 of the people of Scotland. No one event of a religious 
 nature, with the exception of the Reformation in 1560, 
 has created such a deep and lasting impression on the 
 mind and imagination of Scotsmen, and has contributed 
 to make them and Scotland what they are, as did this 
 arrogant and high-handed attempt on the part of Laud 
 to introduce the new Service Book of 1637, commonly 
 known as Laud's Liturgy. 
 
 Let us look at the contents of this Service Book 
 which created such a crisis in Scottish history. It is 
 beyond doubt that Laud was mainly responsible for 
 the form and substance of this book. It was he who 
 gave to it its final touch and adjustment. It was he who 
 
 73 
 
74 Land's Lihirgy of i6^y. 
 
 goaded on the King from day to day to have the book 
 sent down to Scotland and made the Service Book of 
 the Presbyterian Church. At his trial in after days, 
 when the whole fabric of his ambition had fallen to 
 pieces, and he lay prostrate stripped of all his glory 
 and pride — a prisoner in the hands of his enemies, he 
 attempted to transfer the odium of his despotic action 
 from himself to others. Having to clear himself of the 
 charge that the liturgy which he aimed at forcing upon 
 Scotland savoured strongly of a tendency to Romanism, 
 he pleaded that it was his own sincere wish simply to 
 extend the English Book of Common Prayer to Scot- 
 land, but that he was overruled in this desire by the 
 Scottish prelates, who would have changes introduced, 
 and that these changes had been the cause of all the 
 offence and disturbance. " I was clear of opinion," he 
 said, " that if His Majesty would have a liturgy settled 
 there, it were best to take the English Liturgy without 
 any variation, that so the same Service Book might be 
 established in all His Majesty's dominions, which I did 
 then and do still think would have been a great happi- 
 ness to the State and a great honour and safety to re- 
 ligion," and further, " afterwards the Scottish bishops 
 still pressing His Majesty that a liturgy framed by 
 themselves and in some few things differing from ours 
 would relish better with their countrymen, they at last 
 prevailed with His Majesty to have it so, and carried it 
 against me, notwithstanding all I could say or do to the 
 contrary. Then His Majesty commanded me to give 
 the Bishops of Scotland my best assistance in this way 
 and work. I delayed as much as I could with my 
 obedience, and when nothing could suit, but it must go 
 on, I confess I was then very serious and gave them the 
 best help I could. But whensoever I had any doubt, I 
 
Laud's Attempt to explai7i his Action. 75 
 
 did not only acquaint His Majesty with it, but writ 
 down most of the alterations in His Majesty's presence." 
 So pleads William Laud, '' the little, low, red-faced man 
 of the narrow forehead and melancholy Vandyke air," 
 the ill-adviser of his master and the fatuous editor of 
 the ill-timed and unfortunate Service Book. 
 
 The process of drafting, revising, and recasting of the 
 new liturgy went on for several years, but it was at 
 length issued in 1637. It appeared with the stamp of 
 royal authority and with the King's approval. The 
 King takes upon himself the responsibility of the 
 appearance of the changes and the new matter it 
 contained. A document found in Laud's chamber in 
 the Tower^ purporting to be a proclamation of Charles L, 
 and signed at Whitehall, April 19th, 1636, goes to con- 
 firm the King's entire responsibility in the issuing of 
 the book. 
 
 The title page of the book served as an index of what 
 it contained, and what the Scottish people were to ex- 
 pect. It ran as follows : — " The Book of Common 
 Prayer and administration of the Sacraments, and other 
 parts of divine service for the use of the Church of Scot- 
 land." This was followed by *' A proclamation for the 
 authorising of the Book of Common Prayer to be used 
 throughout the realm of Scotland." The book was 
 addressed to certain civil authorities, enjoining them 
 forthwith to " Command and charge all our subjects 
 both ecclesiastical and civil to conform themselves to 
 the public form of worship, which is the only form 
 which we (having taken the counsel of our clergy) think 
 fit to be used in God's public worship in this our king- 
 dom." And all archbishops and bishops, and other 
 presbyters and churchmen, were ordered " To take a 
 special care that the same be duly obeyed and observed, 
 
^6 Laud's Liturgy of 1637. 
 
 and the contraveners condignly censured and punished ; 
 and to have special care that every parish betwixt and 
 Pasch next procure unto themselves two at least of the 
 said Books of Common Prayer for the use of the parish." 
 This preface Hill Burton characterises as " A very 
 offensive secular document," written to " flare in the 
 face as it were of those for whom it was destined." 
 And he adds, " Surely it may be safely said that the 
 history of Christianity cannot show another instance of 
 a book of devotion announced in such a fashion." 
 
 Fully to understand the determined and passionate 
 opposition which the Scotch people showed to the in- 
 troduction of the book it must be borne in mind, that 
 they not only regarded it as a gross national insult that 
 any English institution should be forced upon them, 
 and that they should be subjected to the arbitrary will 
 either of King or prelate in religious matters : but in 
 this new Service Book they detected a base and in- 
 sidious attempt to plot against the Protestantism of the 
 land, and by degrees restore Popery in Great Britain. 
 The long-suffering patience of Scotland was first to be 
 tested, and if the attempt succeeded, and the Presby- 
 terian Church of the country succumbed to the subtility 
 and despotic power of the arch-priest Laud, then Eng- 
 land in turn would become an easy prey to his Roman- 
 ising tendencies. That Laud intended to go further 
 than he did in the direction of a more pronounced 
 Romanised Service Book, I think, is very clear from 
 his correspondence, and from the various notes and 
 emendations which he made on his own copy of the 
 liturgy, which fell into the hands of Prynne. His 
 correspondence and these variations referred to lead 
 us to conclude that he meant a good deal more than 
 what lies on the surface of a letter addressed to Bishop 
 
Use of the Apocrypha. 77 
 
 Wedderburn, the most pronounced of the prelatical 
 party in Scotland, " And whereas you write that much 
 more might have been done if the times would have 
 borne it, I make no doubt that there might have been 
 a fuller addition. But God be thanked this will do 
 very well and I hope breed up a great deal of devout 
 and religious piety in that kingdom. Yet, I pray, for 
 my further satisfaction at your best leisure draw up 
 all these particulars which you think might make the 
 Liturgy perfect whether the times will bear them or 
 not ; and send them safe to me and I will not fail 
 to give you my judgment of them, and perhaps put 
 some of them to further use, at least, in my own 
 particular." 
 
 So far as the contents of the Liturgy of 1637 go, it 
 must be confessed that in verbal phraseology, at least, 
 it was framed according to the King's desire *' as near 
 as may be" after the pattern of the English Service 
 Book. Still, differences of a very marked character 
 exist, some of them ^savouring far more of the spirit 
 and principles of the Reformed Church Creed than are 
 found in the old English Service Book. Thus the 
 English word " Priest," always suggesting a Popish 
 derivation and tendency, was brought back to its 
 original form of " Presbyter " in Laud's Liturgy. 
 
 In the new Service Book apocryphal scripture almost 
 disappeared. In England, the canon, as fixed by the 
 sixth of the thirty-nine articles, finds as regards the 
 Books of the Apocrypha, that following the precept of 
 St Jerome, they are matter which "the Church doth 
 read for example of life and instruction of manners, 
 yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine." 
 The only lessons taken from the Apocrypha and in- 
 serted in Laud's Liturgy are so few that it almost 
 
y^ Laud's Liturgy of it 2^1- 
 
 seems as if there had been an intention on the part 
 of the compilers to pass over it altogether. King 
 Charles, however, as if aiming to preserve some of the 
 apocryphal lessons, issued instructions to the effect 
 "that you insert among the lessons ordinarily to be 
 read in the service — out of the Book of Wisdom the 
 I, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 chapters; and out of the Book of 
 Ecclesiasticus the i, 2, 5, 8, 35, and 49 chapters." 
 When the canon of scripture was fixed for Scotland 
 by the Westminster Divines in 1643, ^he real Pro- 
 testant belief of the nation was expressed as follows : 
 — " The books commonly called Apocrypha not being 
 of divine inspiration are no part of the canon of the 
 scripture, and therefore are of no authority in the 
 Church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved or 
 made use of than other human writings." One very 
 decided change was made in Laud's Service Book, 
 and at first it gave great offence to the bulk of Presby- 
 terian congregations. King James' version of the 
 canonical scripture — our splendid authorised version 
 of which every Scotchman to-day is so justly proud, 
 and which has in no way suffered in the estimation 
 and reverence of the entire English-speaking com- 
 munity throughout the world by the publication of 
 the revised version — was ordered to be used to the 
 exclusion of the Genevan version which had become 
 so familiar to Presbyterian Scotland. James I. had 
 never concealed his dislike to the popular Geneva 
 Bible. The whole tone of its politics and theology, 
 as exhibited in the marginal notes, was utterly dis- 
 tasteful to him, and this dislike he very soon showed 
 in the directions which he gave to the translators 
 of our authorised version, "for marry withal he gave 
 his caveat that no notes should be added, having 
 
The Romish Mass in the Backgro^md. 79 
 
 found in those which were annexed to the Genevan 
 translation some notes very partial, untrue, seditious, 
 and savouring too much of dangerous and traitorous 
 conceits." This aversion to the Genevan version of 
 scripture King Charles I. seemed to inherit from his 
 father, and the result was its exclusion from any of the 
 lessons of the new Service Book. 
 
 But without controversy the greatest difference 
 between Laud's Liturgy and the text of the English 
 Prayer Book was in the communion office. The most 
 important change occurred when the consecration 
 prayer was reached. The rubric in Laud's Liturgy 
 required that the " Presbyter standing up shall say 
 the prayer of consecration as followeth. But then 
 during the time of consecration he shall stand at such 
 a part of the holy table where he may with the more 
 ease and decency use both his hands." The whole of 
 the suspicion and danger seemed to lurk in the veiled 
 instruction to " use both hands," and at once was in- 
 terpreted as signifying the Popish custom of the priest 
 in the elevation of the host with his back to the people. 
 Thus the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was by 
 stealth to be converted into the Romish Mass, and 
 an adoration of the elevated host, a religious ceremonial 
 in which the people were simply spectators and wor- 
 shippers afar off. One word, showing at least the 
 tendency of the framers of the Service Book, and 
 pointing suspiciously to a belief in the doctrine of 
 transubstantiation, is found in the following injunction 
 — "When all have communicated, he that celebrates 
 shall go to the Lord's table and cover with a fair 
 linen cloth or ' corporal ' that which remaineth of the 
 consecrated elements." The offence lay in the word 
 " corporal." This was the name given to the cloth 
 
8o Laud^s Liturgy ^1637. 
 
 in which a dead body was wrapped for burial, and 
 according to the traditions of the Romish Church the 
 laying of it upon the consecrated elements was typical 
 of the act of Joseph of Arimathea ; "and when Joseph 
 had taken the body, he wrapt it in a clean linen cloth." 
 The word " altar," always offensive to Presbyterians 
 for good and scriptural reasons, took the place in the 
 Service Book of the simple word " table " found in the 
 English Liturgy. Thus it may be seen that all such 
 changes in the Communion service ran directly counter 
 to the custom and religious feeling of Scottish Presby- 
 terians, and were found to rouse the suspicion and 
 hostility of the nation. 
 
 It is commonly supposed that the Episcopal Church 
 of Scotland adheres exclusively to the Communion 
 office as laid down in Laud's Liturgy of 1637. This 
 is, however, not the case. The Communion office in 
 common use among Scottish Episcopalians dates 
 only from the reign of George III. The office of 
 1637 in the consecration prayer contains the words 
 regarding the elements of bread and wine, " That they 
 may be unto us the body and blood of Thy dearly 
 beloved Son." The office of the reign of George III 
 on the other hand reads — " May become the body 
 and blood of Thy most dearly beloved Son." Thus 
 it is more pronounced in its statement of the doctrine 
 of transubstantiation than Rome herself is, and defines 
 more clearly in such teaching the change supposed to 
 take place in the sacred elements than even the old 
 Sarum Missal does, which reads — " That it may be 
 made to us the body and blood of Thy most beloved 
 Son." 
 
 Speaking of Laud's Liturgy, Hill Burton remarks 
 that " Nothing was wanting, even in trifling details, 
 
Scottish Episcopalian Communion Office, 8i 
 
 to complete the hostile position. The book itself was 
 a folio very conspicuous in size for the period. There 
 had arisen in Scotland a strong feeling against pictures, 
 especially in works of devotion, and there had been 
 some angry remonstrances about copies of the bible 
 brought from Holland with decorated capitals. To 
 feed their excited spirit, the Service Book was amply 
 decorated with pictorial capitals and other illustrations, 
 and was, as far as the art of the day could accomplish, 
 brought to a parallel with the most brilliant specimens 
 of illuminated breviaries and missals." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE LITURGY TUMULTS, THE SUPPLICANTS, 
 THE TABLES. 
 
 The crisis at last came. What was for some time 
 feared by those who knew how deeply the Presbyterians 
 resented the interference of Charles I. in their forms of 
 public worship took place, and the insulted feelings of 
 the nation expressed themselves in a very forcible 
 way. The fire of resentment and pent-up indignation 
 of the people broke out suddenly and with surprising 
 effect, and having after long suppression and conceal- 
 ment discovered itself, brooked no interference until 
 it had swept away every trace of despotism on the 
 part of King or prelate. The Service Book by royal 
 command was to become the ritual of all the churches 
 in Scotland in the Easter of 1637. But for some 
 reason or other this arrangement was fallen from, and 
 a time of grace was granted before the final blow was 
 struck. This delay only served to accentuate and 
 intensify the feeling of irritation roused among all 
 parties. But the nation was not kept in suspense 
 very long. A royal warrant was issued that on the 
 1 6th of July the ministers of Edinburgh should from 
 their pulpits announce that the Service Book would be 
 used in their churches on the following Sabbath. The 
 customary prayers from the old Book of Common 
 Order having been read, preparations were then made 
 82 
 
Jenny Geddes' StooL Z'^ 
 
 for the introduction of Laud's Liturgy. Some display 
 and pomp were intended to grace the proceedings. 
 The Archbishop of St Andrews was present, the 
 Bishop of Edinburgh was to preach, and the Dean, 
 robed in surplice and gown, to read the service. No 
 sooner had he opened the book and commenced to 
 read than there arose from all parts of the great 
 cathedral such a clamour and confused noise, which 
 grew louder and more vehement as the reading was 
 continued, and almost immediately passed from mere 
 excitement and stormy indignation into a passionate 
 outbreak of violence. Books and missiles were thrown 
 from all directions, and the Bishop of Edinburgh, who 
 vainly attempted to allay the storm which had arisen 
 and call the rioters to order, narrowly escaped a blow 
 on the head from a stool. 
 
 According to the most accurate accounts of con- 
 temporaries, the disturbers were largely made up of 
 females and of the common mob of the city. One of 
 the Stewarts of Coltness, in whom much reliance can 
 be placed, declares that it was " the constantly believed 
 tradition " that many of the female rioters were 
 prentices in disguise, and that the first stool was 
 thrown by the wife of John Mein, merchant in Edin- 
 burgh. If this be so, then we have a much more real 
 and substantial historical figure than the shadowy Jenny 
 Geddes, whose name has been popularly associated with 
 this well-known incident. 
 
 A contemporary, describing this memorable scene, 
 says — "A number of the meanest sort of the people, 
 most of them waiting-maids and women who use in 
 that town for to keep places for the better sort, with 
 clapping of their hands, curses, and outcries, raised 
 such an uncouth noise and hubbub in the church, that 
 
84 Liturgy Tumults, Supplicants, Tables. 
 
 not any one could either hear or be heard." The 
 accounts of this affair given in the notes upon the 
 Phoenix edition of the Pastoral Letter, if not absolutely 
 reliable, are yet interesting : — " After a world of arbitrary 
 proceedings the Common Prayer Book was sent down 
 into Scotland, where the king had no more right to 
 send it than into the Mogul's country. But the old 
 herb-woman at Edinburgh put an end to that game, 
 for hearing the Archbishop who watched the rubric 
 directing him that read the book, to read the collect 
 of the day, she made a gross mistake and cried, * The 
 deel collick in the wem of thee,' and withal threw her 
 cricket stool at his head, which gave a beginning to 
 the war of Scotland." And Gordon in his history tells 
 us how " the gentlewomen did fall a-tearing and crying 
 that the mass was entered amongst them, and Baal in 
 the Church. There was a gentleman who was standing 
 behind a pew and answering ' Amen ' to what the 
 Dean was reading ; a she-zealot hearing him, starts 
 up in choler. * Traitor,' says she, ' does thou say 
 mass at my ear } ' and with that struck him in the 
 face with her bible in great indignation and fury.' " 
 The excitement caused by these tum.ults spread from 
 Edinburgh throughout the country. Indeed, the com- 
 motion was so great in the capital that the authorities 
 thought it safe to suspend all gatherings for public 
 worship. Amid fear and uncertainty surging all round, 
 the bishops gave instructions to the clergy " that neither 
 the old service nor the new established service be used 
 in this interim," and that there should only be the 
 sermon prefaced and followed by prayer. But things 
 assumed a more melancholy and gloomy look, for 
 Gordon tells us in his history that " in Edinburgh itself, 
 for a month's space or thereby after the first tumult. 
 
King Charles enforces the Service Book, 85 
 
 there was a kind of vacancy of divine service upon the 
 week days, the churches standing desolate without 
 either preaching weekly, as the custom was, or morning 
 and evening prayer daily, which looked like a kind of 
 Episcopal interdict which the town was put under, 
 which did but heighten the rage of the people, who 
 were already in a distemper and discontentment." 
 King Charles was not long in taking measures to 
 enforce the use of the new Service Book. Letters of 
 horning were issued, and the machinery of Scottish law 
 was set in motion to compel ministers and remonstrat- 
 ing congregations to receive it on pain of fine and 
 forfeiture. But these high - handed and arbitrary 
 attempts of the Crown were stoutly opposed by certain 
 leading ministers of the Presbyterian party, on the 
 ground that the book had not received either the 
 warrant or authority of the General Assembly, which 
 from the Reformation had always given directions in 
 matters of God's worship, or by any Act of Parliament, 
 which in things of this kind had always been thought 
 necessary by His Majesty and the Estates. The 
 question came on for trial before the Privy Council, 
 and the result was that the letters of horning extended 
 to the buying of the book and no further. Thus the 
 use of the new Service Book as a ritual was to all 
 intents and purposes "suspended." 
 
 All this gave deep offence to the King and Laud, 
 who were watching keenly the turn affairs were taking. 
 Laud set himself to scold those whom he held respons- 
 ible in the matter, and writes to them that His Majesty 
 " hath great reason to think himself and his Govern- 
 ment dishonoured by the late tumult of Edinburgh, 
 and therefore expects that your lordship and the rest 
 of the honourable council set yourselves to it that the 
 
S6 Liturgy Tumtclts, Supplicants, Tables. 
 
 Liturgy may be established orderly and with peace, 
 to repair what hath been done amiss." But the King, 
 utterly ignorant of the real state of the mind of the 
 people of Scotland regarding all such religious questions, 
 and presuming that all that was necessary to impose 
 his will and the new Service Book on Presbyterian 
 congregations was a stricter attention and enforcement 
 of duty on the State officials, issued a brief, stern order, 
 that the Council bring " the rude and base people " 
 guilty of the tumult to punishment. The clergy were 
 to be aided in their attempts to carry out the King's 
 command, and the irresolute and timid Council were 
 expressly told in plain and severe terms that the King's 
 absolute wish was that the Service Book be stringently 
 enforced throughout the country. Such sharp and 
 imperative action on the part of the Crown called forth 
 all the pent-up wrath which had been gathering in the 
 breast of an insulted nation, and biding its time to 
 show what its strength and power of resistance were 
 capable of doing. 
 
 The Supplicants. 
 
 The deep feeling of wrong experienced by the nation 
 at this juncture of affairs expressed itself in a variety 
 of petitions or " suppHcations," as they were called, 
 addressed to the Council. Those who signed these 
 petitions came to be known by the significant term 
 " supplicants." These were of all ranks — noblemen, 
 gentry, ministers, burgesses, commons, and even 
 children and servants of Edinburgh. They all 
 combined in their prayer for having the Service 
 Book and Book of Canons recalled, and desired 
 that there should be no alterations from the uniform 
 practice of public worship in the realm since the first 
 Reformation, and that the liberty conferred on the 
 Church by the State of serving God and conducting 
 
 I 
 
The Supplicants and the Kmg's Answer, ^j 
 
 their service of worship should not in any way be im- 
 paired or infringed. The supplicants were most 
 anxious in their petitions to show the utmost loyalty 
 and reverence to the king's person, and to be regarded 
 in any action that they were being forced to take as 
 most faithful subjects of the Crown, and obedient in 
 all lawful service. But they took care to make it very 
 clear to the King that they held the bishops respons- 
 ible as the prime stirrers-up of all the mischief, and 
 demanded that they should be removed from the 
 Council board and from all interference with the 
 affairs of the Kirk of Scotland. To the many sup- 
 plications which poured upon the King from all 
 quarters, there was no direct answer, nothing to 
 indicate that His Majesty was disposed to yield in 
 the slightest to the supplicants, or grant even a truce. 
 The excitement of the nation was intensified, the 
 suspense became irritating and acute, and from ex- 
 citement and suspense the feelings of the people 
 passed into a spirit of opposition and determined 
 resistance. Edinburgh became the rallying-ground 
 for all the supplicants, and all eyes were turned to 
 the capital, where the battle for religious liberty was 
 destined to be fought. After long and weary waiting 
 the king's answer came at last, but it was sadly dis- 
 appointing and exasperating. The reply to the 
 petitions came in the form of three exacerbating 
 proclamations calculated by their very harshness to 
 wound more deeply than ever the feelings of people 
 already smarting under the sense of injustice and 
 wrong. The object of the first proclamation was to 
 drive the crowd of strangers who had come up to 
 Edinburgh as supplicants from other parts of the 
 country back to their own homes within twenty-four 
 hours of the proclamations, failing which they shall be 
 
88 Liturgy Tumults, Supplicants, Tables. 
 
 denounced rebels and put to the horn, and all their 
 moveable goods be amerced. The second proclama- 
 tion threatened to make Edinburgh a desolation by- 
 removing the Council and the Supreme Courts — the 
 representatives of royalty and central government. 
 And the third denounced a book which had become 
 obnoxious to the Crown, though very popular in Scot- 
 land — Gillespie's " Dispute against the English Popish 
 ceremonies obtruded on the Church of Scotland." The 
 first result of these proclamations was to rouse the fury 
 and wrath of the mob of Edinburgh. This was no 
 light matter in itself, as is well-known in the history 
 of Scotland, but the fire soon spread, and the gloomiest 
 apprehensions of coming danger and of storm filled 
 the breasts of those who most desired peace. 
 
 But the supplicants would not give themselves up 
 to despair ; one supreme effort must be made, and the 
 whole country would join in giving voice and emphasis 
 to a new supplication addressed to the King. This 
 final appeal in its opening ran thus : — " We, noblemen, 
 barons, ministers, burgesses, and commons," and in its 
 prayer sought relief not only from the Service Book, 
 but also from the Book of Canons, and all interference 
 on the part of the bishops in religious matters. While 
 the supplication was couched in most respectful and 
 courteous terms, yet all throughout there was visible a 
 tone of determination and spirit of resistance if driven 
 to it. 
 
 The Tables. 
 
 It was when the mental tension and expectancy of 
 the nation were at their very height, and all ears were 
 strained to catch the reply which was daily looked for 
 from the king, that an affair occurred which, as Hill 
 Burton says, was a mere simple arrangement for the 
 peaceable transaction of the business on hand, but in 
 
The '* Tables'' and their Constitution. 89 
 
 its effects was one of the most momentous events in 
 the history of that eventful period. For the better 
 carrying out of the object which the various sections 
 of the supplicants had in view, and the guarding 
 against the dangers which are so closely associated 
 with the political action of large crowds, it was agreed 
 that instead of these sections working separately, they 
 should act in concert and as one great body through 
 committees or representatives. For this purpose 
 the different classes were divided into nobles, lesser 
 barons, burgesses, and clergy. Each of these sections 
 was to elect four representatives, and so was created 
 the well-known and powerful body, known in history 
 as the Tables. To this dehberative body of sixteen 
 men were committed the entire interests of the sup- 
 plicants. The consent of the Council had been granted 
 to the constitution of the Tables, and then they were 
 recognised by the highest authority in the land as a 
 body with a definite task to do. In name the Tables 
 were made up of sixteen persons who were to transact 
 certain business with the Council and hold their seats 
 for a fixed time for the carrying out of what was 
 entrusted to them. But in reality they were a most 
 powerful corporation, having behind them the entire 
 nation and a reserve of strength and influence which 
 made them not only the rival of the Council, but its 
 superior and all-powerful comptroller. The supplicants 
 were fortunate in the choice of their delegates. The 
 Tables did great and noble service for the country, and 
 remained a powerful institution until it was superseded 
 by the meeting of the Estates, and having so thoroughly 
 arranged their business, the supplicants, we are told, 
 "returned every one to their own homes, ready to 
 return upon the first call of their new representatives, 
 which they had established in their place." 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 PROTESTATION AND COVENANT. 
 
 The supplicants had entrusted their interests to the 
 sixteen who had been chosen as delegates for the rest, 
 and were empowered to treat with the Council in all 
 matters relating to the special business on hand. 
 These sixteen representative delegates came to be 
 known under the name of the Tables, or more 
 commonly the Green Tables. Wherever the Council 
 sat, it was arranged the Tables should sit also. 
 Carrying out the command of the King, the Council 
 removed from Edinburgh, and made Linlithgow the 
 seat of government. Thence, by order of the King, a 
 proclamation was issued. It gave no satisfaction what- 
 ever beyond the assurance on the part of the Sovereign 
 that he had no love for Popery. What was wanted by 
 the country — an immediate withdrawal of the offensive 
 Liturgy and the Book of Canons — he would not give. 
 This refusal on the King's part served only to rouse 
 the feelings of the supplicants. A new form of suppli- 
 cation was devised which assumed the shape of a Pro- 
 testation. This Protestation was characterised by a 
 firm and decided tone, and while its terms breathed 
 the utmost loyalty, it yet was strongly coloured with 
 menace and defiance. It was meant to make clear to 
 the King and his Council, in presenting the demands of 
 the supplicants in such a form, that if no heed were 
 90 
 
The " Protestation. " 91 
 
 paid to their prayers all responsibility for certain conse- 
 quences that might follow would be laid on the proper 
 shoulders. Under the guidance of some of the ablest 
 lawyers of the day the supplicants had taken this bold 
 and determined step ; and assured that all their actions 
 could be justified in the eye of the law, and knowing 
 their strength, they were bent on prosecuting their 
 plans to the utmost. Thus matters stood in the open- 
 ing days of 1638. But week after week passed and 
 there was no answer from the King to the Protestation. 
 After many long and weary months the answer at last 
 came. It was exasperating. The King was perfectly 
 willing to take upon himself the entire blame for what 
 had happened ; but the Bishops must be protected at 
 all costs. One thing the nation must do, it must accept 
 the new Service Book, and become subservient to its 
 sovereign's wish. All subjects who would not comply 
 with such orders would be punished and treated as 
 traitors. This order was met by a counter-protestation 
 and despatched to the Council, and in taking this 
 further step the supplicants also took the greatest 
 pains to make it clear that they were determined to 
 stand by the religion and " the laws and liberties " of 
 their country \ that their opposition was against the 
 Bishops, and that they held them and not the King as 
 responsible for what has happened. The " Protestation " 
 which figures so largely in these stirring transactions of 
 the time came to be regarded as next in importance to 
 the Covenant itself It was the ordinary and legal way 
 which any subject might claim for preserving his rights 
 in the Courts of Assembly or Parliament if that subject 
 deemed his case had not been fully heard, or being 
 heard is grieved by an injustice in the sentence. That 
 it was regarded by the Council as no empty declama- 
 
92 Protestation and Covenant. 
 
 tion, but a weighty State document, is evident from the 
 fact that the Council tried by all possible means to 
 evade its reading. But so resolutely did the suppli- 
 cants pursue their object, that wherever the proclama- 
 tion was made there the protestors were ready with 
 their counterblast. 
 
 Another step was now taken fraught with immense 
 significance. It was suggested by Johnston of Warris- 
 ton that the old Covenant of 1557 be renewed. This 
 was a master-stroke of policy. The signing of such a 
 bond would weld the nation together into one compact 
 whole to co-operate with each other for the purpose set 
 forth in the document. Every conceivable show of 
 publicity was given to the signing, and we are told that 
 it was done with tumultuous enthusiasm, "with such 
 mutual content and joy as those who having long be- 
 fore been outlaws and rebels are admitted again into 
 covenant with God." The place selected for the carry- 
 ing out of this national act was Greyfriars Churchyard. 
 Such a place, so full of the associations of the past, was 
 calculated to call forth whatever was heroic and inspir- 
 ing in the nature of the people. Tremendous en- 
 thusiasm seized the breasts of all classes. The usual 
 cold and reserved character of the Scots was inflamed. 
 Excitement and fervour glowed like a white heat in the 
 heart of the nation. The signing of the Covenant 
 became the one all-absorbing interest of the com- 
 munity. A contemporary tells us that " Gentlemen 
 and noblemen carried copies about in their portman- 
 teaus or pockets, requiring subscriptions thereunto, and 
 using their utmost endeavours with their friends in 
 private to subscribe. It was subscribed publicly in 
 churches, ministers exhorting their people thereunto. 
 It was also subscribed and sworn privately. All had 
 
The Covenant a7td Covenanters, 93 
 
 power to take the oath, and were licensed and welcome 
 to come in ; and any that pleased had power and 
 licence for to carry the covenant about with him, and 
 to give the oath to such as are willing to subscribe and 
 swear. And such was the zeal of many subscribers, 
 that for a while many subscribed with tears on their 
 cheeks ; and it is constantly reported that some did 
 draw their own blood and used it in place of ink to 
 underwrite their names. Such ministers as spoke most 
 of it were heard so passionately and with such frequency 
 that churches could not contain their hearers in cities, 
 some of the devouter sex, as if they had keeped vigils, 
 keeping their seats from Friday to Sunday to get the 
 communion given them sitting ; some sitting alway 
 before such sermons in the churches for fear of losing a 
 room or place of hearing, or at the least some of their 
 handmaids sitting constantly there all night till their 
 mistresses came to take up their place and to relieve 
 them." From this time the name supplicants falls into 
 disuse, and the far more renowned name, '^Covenanters," 
 takes its place. Pledged thus in the sacred National 
 Covenant, the noblest, wisest, and best of Scotland's 
 sons and daughters had solemnly vowed to encounter 
 every peril and sacrifice, even life itself, rather than 
 give up their most precious birthright and inheritance, 
 their religious liberty. 
 
 But as yet no concession had been wrung from the 
 King, and Charles had even gone the length of return- 
 ing the great supplication sent to him with the seal 
 unbroken. Thus aggrieved and wounded to the quick, 
 the Covenanters prepared themselves, by a determined 
 resolution and unswerving boldness, to make their 
 demands known to the King. The time for mere 
 temporizing was passing away ; now conscious of their 
 
94 Protestation and Covenant. 
 
 power, they frankly make their claims known. They 
 were : — The abolition of the Court of High Commis- 
 sion, the withdrawal of the Book of Canons, the Book 
 of Ordination, and the Service Book, a free Parliament, 
 and a free General Assembly, and such were regarded 
 as "the least that can be asked to settle this Church 
 and kingdom in a solid and durable peace." 
 
 The only answer which at first King Charles would 
 deign to grant to the demands of his Scotch subjects, 
 the Covenanters, was to send to Scotland the Marquis 
 of Hamilton, his kinsman — the descendant of the 
 daughter of James H. He was to come "as Commis- 
 sioner, with power to settle all." His arrival was 
 looked forward to with considerable expectation. His 
 reception was an enthusiastic one, but he astonished 
 and provoked the supplicants by announcing, after 
 some considerable and tedious parleying, that "the 
 rescinding of the whole covenant" was the only way to 
 make peace with the King. Hamilton had brought a 
 proclamation with him from the King, and it was 
 known beforehand that its terms were more likely to 
 aggravate the feelings of the nation than to heal them. 
 The dreaded proclamation was at last issued. In it 
 the King scolds his turbulent and disobedient subjects, 
 yet grieves "to see them run themselves headlong to 
 ruin," but is " graciously pleased to try if by a fair way 
 we can reclaim them from their faults, rather than to 
 let them perish in the same." He, however, abjures 
 Popery, and declares that he is " resolved to maintain 
 the true Protestant religion already professed within 
 this our ancient kingdom." But in answer to their 
 demand for the withdrawal of the hated Service Book, 
 he answers the supplicants by saying — " We do hereby 
 assure all men that we will neither now or hereafter 
 
The King demanding Obedience. 95 
 
 press the practice by the foresaid canons and Service 
 Book, nor anything of that nature, but in such a fair 
 and legal way as shall satisfy all our loving subjects 
 that we neither intend innovation on religion or laws." 
 
 The words of the proclamation were carefully and 
 cunningly drawn, and might mean a great deal or very 
 little. They were intended to delude, not to satisfy, the 
 demands of men characterised by great sagacity and 
 determination. The proclamation in its terms admits 
 that in the past the Service Book has been pressed in 
 an unfair and illegal way. Still it is the wish of the 
 King to press the said book, and the people must 
 simply make up their minds to carry out his wish. 
 Such concessions, followed by such demands, only 
 added fuel to the flames, and made the fire of opposi- 
 tion burn all the more fiercely. Already there were 
 signs, even in the Council, of setting at defiance the 
 royal authority if matters were pushed further. 
 
 Hamilton returned to London and announced to the 
 King the result of his mission. There was grave dis- 
 cussion among His Majesty's advisers regarding the 
 determined attitude of the Scottish nation, and a com- 
 promise was planned which was hoped would somehow 
 meet the claims of both parties. But whatever feeling 
 of compromise was entertained by the advisers of the 
 King, it is abundantly clear from instructions sent by 
 the King to Hamilton at this time, that he had no in- 
 tention of granting in the slightest any of the demands 
 of the Covenanters, and only wished to win time that 
 he might be in a position to suppress them by force. 
 In this same communication he says, "This I have 
 written to no other end than to show you I will rather 
 die than yield to those impertinent and damnable 
 demands ; " and in a postscript he adds, " as the affairs 
 
96 Protestation and Covenant. 
 
 are now, I do not expect that you should declare the 
 adherence to the covenant traitors until, as I have 
 already said, you have heard from me that my fleet 
 hath set sail for Scotland, though your six weeks should 
 be elapsed. In a word, gain time by all the honest 
 means you can, without forsaking your grounds." 
 
 But a sudden and surprising change came — a new 
 act in the drama of Scottish Church history, as startling 
 as it was unexpected. An entire surrender on the part 
 of the King was announced. A free General Assembly 
 is to be granted and a free Parliament. The Service 
 Book, the Book of Canons, the Court of High Com- 
 mission, and the Five Articles of Perth, are all to be 
 abolished. The bishops are to be handed over to the 
 Assembly for trial, and Scotland is to be left undis- 
 turbed with its Covenant, and nothing but goodwill is 
 to be heard on all sides. Further in the history of 
 Scottish affairs and of the Church we shall see what 
 this sudden change of policy meant, and what it por- 
 tended. 
 
 But meanwhile the work entrusted to the Tables 
 went on. In every parish in Scotland there was a local 
 authority set up to arrange that every adult member 
 should either sign or give in his adhesion to the Cove- 
 nant. The organisation was so complete that few were 
 able . to evade the pledge. Even in the Highlands, 
 regarded by many as the stronghold of both Popery 
 and Episcopacy at that period, the Covenanters met 
 with remarkable success. Inverness, Ross, and other 
 districts north of the Moray Firth, adhered to the Cove- 
 nant In Sutherland, Rothes tells us, " it was professed 
 by all, that it was the joyfuUest day that ever they saw, 
 or ever was seen in the north, and it was marked as a 
 special mark of God's goodness towards these parts, 
 
opposition to the Covenant in the North. 97 
 
 that so many different clans and names, among whom 
 was nothing but hostility and blood, were met together 
 in one place for such a good cause, and in so peaceable a 
 manner, as nothing was to be seen or heard but mutual 
 embracements, with hearty praise to God for so happy 
 a union." 
 
 The one district which refused to accept of the Cove- 
 nant was that which owned the city of Aberdeen for its 
 capital. It could boast of its wealth, its scholarship, its 
 noble families, and had a reputation alike for culture 
 and commerce quite European. Over this large dis- 
 trict the Marquis of Huntly seemed to rule like some 
 great feudal autocrat. It was known to be the rallying- 
 ground of the devotees of the old abjured Romish faith, 
 but it was also the stronghold of a large and vigorous 
 Episcopal community. Among such religionists it was 
 not expected that there would be any sympathy for the 
 Covenanters, but it seems very clear that on the other 
 hand they would have none of Laud's innovations, and 
 desired to see things as they were — the bishop with his 
 Episcopal functions overseeing with his limited powers 
 the district entrusted to him, and the Book of Common 
 Order with its plain and simple ritual, to which the 
 worshippers by " use and wont " had become devoutly 
 attached. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE GLASGOW ASSEMBLY OF 1 638. PRESBY- 
 TERIANISM AND EPISCOPACY. 
 
 The change of policy on the part of the King towards 
 the Covenanters soon became apparent to the nation. 
 It was intended to deceive. It was simply a manoeuvre, 
 and was designed in order, if possible in the long run, 
 to gain the King's purpose. With a view of sowing 
 dissension among the Covenanters, he commanded the 
 Marquis of Hamilton to subscribe in his name the 
 National Covenant as sworn in 1581, and to demand 
 that all his faithful subjects in Scotland do the same. 
 What the King really meant by this move, was by an 
 underhand and clandestine way to have Episcopacy 
 recognised as the religion professed by the nation. 
 What he was not able to accomplish by the exercise 
 of his own arbitrary will or by royal authority, he 
 aimed by the use of ambiguous phrases and a piece 
 of chicanery to effect. Prelacy, not Presbyterianism, 
 was to be understood as the religion professed by 
 Scotland. But the Covenanters were not to be cajoled 
 or deceived. So when Hamilton proposed to them to 
 subscribe the King's Covenant, as the Covenant of 
 1 58 1 was called, they stoutly refused, alleging that 
 they had already subscribed the Covenant with abjura- 
 tion of Prelacy and all its evils, and that to sign the 
 King's Covenant would be a violation of their obliga- 
 
 I 
 
The Glasgow ''Free General Assembly T 99 
 
 tions, and " thus to play with oaths as children do with 
 their toys, without necessity." 
 
 All the designs and manoeuvres of the King to 
 outwit, intimidate, or breed dissension among the 
 Covenanters were attended with failure, and he was 
 under the necessity of yielding to the demands of the 
 Scottish nation, and summoning " a free General 
 Assembly," which was indicted to meet at Glasgow 
 on Wednesday, November 21, 1638, over which the 
 Marquis of Hamilton was to preside as the King's 
 Commissioner. Accordingly this memorable Assembly 
 met in the Cathedral Church of Glasgow on the 21st 
 November 1638. It was an eminently solemn and 
 historic meeting. It was attended by men of the 
 highest rank in the nation, and by divines noted for 
 their learning and wisdom, and its deliberations were 
 accompanied by results momentous and far-reaching 
 in their influence and sweep. The Assembly consisted 
 of 140 ministers, 98 ruling elders, 17 of whom were 
 noblemen, and the rest were made up of knights, landed 
 proprietors, and burgesses. Many of the noblemen 
 and gentlemen, fearing that the King's Commissioner 
 would overawe the Assembly by force, came to the 
 meeting attended by their retainers in arms. The 
 Lord High Commissioner, the Marquis of Hamilton, 
 sat on a canopied throne, surrounded by the chief 
 officers of State. Among the ecclesiastics there were 
 no bishops or church dignitaries, for in such an 
 Assembly all were to be regarded simply as " Ministers 
 of the Word." The Assembly elected as moderator 
 the venerable and well-known Alexander Henderson, 
 a man noted for his tact and wisdom, and to whose 
 firmness and consummate skill the Assembly owed the 
 dignity and order with which all its affairs were con- 
 ducted. 
 
lOO Presbyteriants7n and Episcopacy. 
 
 It was soon apparent to all that the King's permis- 
 sion to convene a " Free Assembly " was anything but 
 sincere. It was only a part of the game he was playing 
 with the design of over-reaching the Covenanters, and 
 to carry out in the long run his own high-handed 
 measures. In his private correspondence with 
 Hamilton, the King shows his true character. He 
 is double-minded in all his ways, and while outwardly 
 professing good-will to Covenanting subjects, he is 
 secretly telling his Commissioner to use all his endea- 
 vours to divide the Assembly by sowing division be- 
 tween the clergy and laity, and, failing in this, he was 
 to protest against all that was being done. 
 
 After debating for fully a week the question regard- 
 ing clerical independence and royal supremacy, and 
 the Assembly having put itself in order for the trans- 
 action of business, it was suddenly announced by the 
 Commissioner that the King had withdrawn his counte- 
 nance from the Assembly. Thereupon Hamilton, on 
 perceiving that it was the intention of the Assembly to 
 proceed to the business for which it had been convened, 
 rose up, and having protested against all that was done 
 in the name of the King, as head of the Church, dis- 
 solved the Assembly. A proclamation was then pub- 
 lished at the market cross. It forbade all further 
 meetings of the Assembly, and required all the 
 members "to depart furth of this city of Glasgow 
 within the space of twenty-four hours, and to repair 
 home to their own houses, or that they go about their 
 private affairs in a quiet manner. 
 
 The departure of the Commissioner gave no inter- 
 ruption to the important business on hand. The 
 Assembly at this memorable crisis refused to acknow- 
 edge the supremacy of the King in matters spiritual. 
 
Obeying God rather than Man. loi 
 
 While professing the most absolute loyalty to the 
 King's person it could not consent to barter away the 
 spiritual liberties and independence of the Church, and 
 confess that the Church was the creation of any earthly 
 sovereign or ruler. The headship of Christ over his 
 Church as a doctrine which our forefathers fought for 
 and gave their lives to secure and maintain, was too 
 dear for the Assembly of 1638 to give up at the bidding 
 of Charles L, and so the members of that Assembly 
 chose to " obey God rather than men/' " not fearing the 
 wrath of the King." Acting boldly therefore in accord- 
 ance with their sincerest convictions, the Assembly 
 prepared a protestation which was read in the presence 
 of the Commissioner in his act of retiring, in which the 
 Assembly declared, "in the name of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, the only Head and Monarch of His Church, 
 that, the King and his honour, this kingdom and her 
 peace, this Assembly and her freedom, and the safety 
 of ourselves and our posterity in our own persons 
 and estates, we profess with sorrowful and heavy but 
 loyal hearts we cannot dissolve this Assembly." 
 
 The first business of importance completed by the 
 Assembly after the Commissioner retired was the 
 repeal of the acts of preceding Assemblies from 1606 
 downwards, including the Five Articles of Perth. Then 
 the Service Book, the Book of Canons, and the Book of 
 Ordination were repudiated. Then came the important 
 trial of the bishops, fourteen in number, and their 
 censure of "declinature." Of these two archbishops 
 and six bishops were excommunicated, four were de- 
 posed, and two suspended. The Assembly, after 
 declaring Episcopacy to have been abjured by the 
 Church of Scotland, unanimously voted its removal, 
 andjestored Presbyterian government in all its integ- 
 
I02 Presbyterianism and Episcopacy. 
 
 rity. No matter for the Acts of Parliament passed 
 under King James. The Assembly, acting for the 
 nation, make a clean sweep of the whole. 
 
 The Assembly, having sat from the 21st November 
 to the 20th December, was dismissed by the Moderator 
 in an eloquent address. After apologising for his own 
 weakness in the part he had taken and thanking the 
 members of the Assembly for their diligence and 
 fidelity, he said — " And now we are quit of the 
 Service Book, which was a book of slavery and service 
 indeed — the Book of Canons, which tied us in spiritual 
 bondage — the Book of Ordination, which was a yoke 
 put upon the necks of faithful ministers — and the 
 High Commission, which was a guard to keep us all 
 under that slavery. All these evils God has rid us 
 of, and likewise of the civil places of kirkmen, which 
 was the splendour of all these evils, and 'the Lord 
 has led captivity captive ' and made lords slaves," 
 The address being finished, the 133rd Psalm was 
 then sung, and the Apostolic blessing pronounced. 
 Thereafter the Moderator dismissed the Assembly 
 with these memorable words — " We have now cast 
 down the walls of Jericho, let them that rebuildeth 
 them beware of the curse of Hiel, the Bethelite." 
 "And so," says Baillie, "we all departed with great 
 comfort and humble joy, casting ourselves and our 
 poor Church in the arms of our good God." 
 
 It may be readily acknowledged that the original 
 demands of the Covenanters fell far short of the 
 abolition of Episcopacy. They would have been un- 
 doubtedly satisfied in their first overtures to the King 
 with a limitation being put on the power of the 
 Bishops and their subjection to the authority of the 
 General Assembly, and the cancelling of the Five 
 
Episcopacy the Root of at I the Evils. 1 03 
 
 Arthles of Perth, and the repeal of the Court of 
 High Commission. But as time went on and ecclesi- 
 astical difficulties deepened, and became more acute 
 and exasperating, they came by degrees to see that 
 Episcopacy was the root of all the evils they com- 
 plained of, and that the sooner it was swept out of 
 the land the better. The King, by his growing im- 
 periousness, his proud temper and hopeless insincerity, 
 had bit by bit driven our Presbyterian forefathers to 
 a prcper apprehension of the dangers he was plunging 
 the country into, and a fixed determination to resist 
 to the utmost every encroachment on their civil and 
 religious liberties. Out of this great struggle then 
 the Church had once more risen victorious; she had 
 made good her claims of managing her own spiritual 
 affairs, and arranging her ritual of worship, and upheld 
 what was most important of all, and which she deemed 
 as her inalienable birthright, her spiritual independ- 
 ence as a Church of Christ. It was not by any 
 formal and repeated assertion of such principles that 
 she secured such privileges, but by simply acting on 
 them. She made Scotland see her spiritual power, 
 she made the King and the Court and the Bishops 
 feel them, and she did all on this high and sacred 
 ground, that she might use these spiritual powers for 
 carrying out what she deemed was her Master's work 
 and mission in the world. 
 
 At this stage we might take a rapid glance at the 
 result of these fifty years through which the Church 
 has passed. We have seen how King James, with 
 his subservient bench of English Bishops, aimed at 
 establishing Episcopacy in Scotland, and overthrow- 
 ing the liberties of the country. Adroitly and with 
 some measure of success he managed to so hoodwink 
 
I04 Presbyterianism and Episcopacy. 
 
 and browbeat the Assembly that it was converted 
 into a tool for its own subjection. Every artifice was 
 used in order to carry his purpose — flattery, vioience, 
 deceit, bribery, imprisonment, and banishment — it 
 mattered not what weapon, if only by the exercise 
 of it he carried his purpose. Then came Charles, his 
 son and successor, more determined, subtle, despotic, 
 and bigoted, imposing his Book of Canons and 
 Liturgy, thwarting an indignant and insulted nation 
 in all its remonstrances, threatening to use force to 
 coerce an unwilling and angry people to adopt 
 forms of worship alien to their religious instincts and 
 predilections, till Scottish endurance, tried to its very 
 utmost, grew resolute and defiant, and prepared to 
 resist the arbitrary will of the King. But amid all 
 the storm and provocation Scottish principle asserted 
 itself, the conscience of the people would not be 
 tampered with, the inevitable must be faced, and 
 through much tribulation those who were contending 
 for the liberties of the Church entered into freedom 
 and rest. Episcopacy, with all its show and pomp, 
 its prelatic assumptions and spiritual despotism, 
 together with the whole fabric of kingly supremacy 
 and arbitrary authority, was swept away. The Presby- 
 terian Church, free in her spiritual independence to 
 serve Christ, her only head — the nation banded to- 
 gether as one man to contend for civil liberty as 
 dearer than life, that, says Dr Thomas Brown in his 
 " Church and State," was the outcome of the long 
 conflict. For the time the Church stood fast. But 
 there was something even higher and better than all 
 this. The upholding of the spiritual liberties of the 
 Church and the contending for a pure and scriptural 
 form of public worship and Presbyterian government 
 
spiritual Liberty and Religious Revival 105 
 
 had gone hand in hand with times of religious revival 
 throughout the land. Thus in regard to the signing 
 of the Covenant, Stevenson in his history says — 
 " All Presbyterians whose writings of that time we 
 have seen bear witness that a great measure of the 
 Divine presence did remarkably accompany that 
 solemn action, and that its happy influence was 
 everywhere felt and seen. The Lord from heaven 
 did testify His acceptance of that Covenant, by the 
 wonderful workings of His Spirit in the hearts both 
 of pastor and people, to their great comfort and 
 strengthening in every duty, above any measure that 
 ever hath been heard of in this land." 
 
 What then was the reason, we may ask, of this 
 most emphatic protest on the part of the Church 
 and nation against the King's authority } It is very 
 clear Prelacy, which had been imposed on the nation 
 for thirty years, had become hateful to it. Against 
 it both as a political and church system the people 
 had risen. Episcopacy was conceived to be alien to 
 the religious feelings of Scotland, and was a form of 
 spiritual despotism which the genius and condition of 
 an intelligent and independent nation naturally would 
 resist and seek to overthrow. " Presbyterianism," 
 says Dr Rainy in his reply to Dean Stanley, " meant 
 organised life, regulated distribution of forces — freedom 
 to discuss, authority to control, agency to administer ; 
 Presbyterianism meant a system in which every man, 
 first of all the common man, had his recognised place, 
 his defined position, his ascertained and guarded 
 privileges, his responsibilities inculcated and enforced 
 — felt himself a part of the great unity with a right to 
 care for its welfare and to guard its integrity. From the 
 broad basis of the believing people the sap rose through 
 
1 06 Presbyterianism and Episcopacy. 
 
 Sessions, Presbyteries, Synods, to the Assembly, and 
 thence descending, diffused knowledge, influence, 
 organic unity through the whole system. Our fathers 
 felt instinctively that the changes thrust upon them 
 threatened to suppress great elements of good — not 
 mere forms alone, but the life which these forms 
 nourished and expressed. When Episcopacy shall 
 have trained the common people to care, as those 
 of Scotland have cared, for the public interests of 
 Christ's Church, and to connect that care with their 
 own religious life as a part and a fruit of it, then it 
 may afford to smile at the zealous self-defence of 
 Scottish Presbyterianism." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 HOW PUBLIC WORSHIP WAS CONDUCTED IN SCOTLAND 
 BEFORE 1638. 
 
 The Testimony of Eye- Witnesses, 
 
 Before proceeding with the history of the worship 
 of the Scottish Church, and narrating the consequences 
 of the meeting of the memorable General Assembly at 
 Glasgow in 1638, let us endeavour from the records of 
 the time and the testimony of eye-witnesses to gain 
 some notion regarding the form in which public 
 worship was conducted prior to the introduction of 
 Laud's Liturgy. Divine service was held on Sabbath 
 morning at the early hour of eight o'clock. The 
 service began by the reader entering the desk, reciting 
 the prayers from Knox's Liturgy, and reading certain 
 portions of holy scripture, before the minister entered 
 the pulpit. On entering the pulpit, the minister 
 kneeled down and engaged first in silent prayer, and 
 then led the public prayer of the congregation. 
 
 The attitude of the people during prayer was that 
 of kneeling. The unseemly attitude of "hunkering" 
 at prayer so prevalent in Presbyterian Churches to-day 
 w^as given up by our forefathers for very shame in an 
 age which made much less of outward decorum than 
 we do. It was the practice of the officiating minister 
 at some part of the service to repeat the Lord's Prayer 
 and the Doxology. But it is very clear that the right 
 
io8 Public Worship in Scotland before 1638. 
 
 of ** conceived " or free prayer was strenuously upheld, 
 and ministers, though attached to Knox's Book of 
 Common Order and its prescribed ritual, practised free 
 prayer before sermon. Congregational singing formed 
 a very important part of public worship. Great pains 
 had been taken to instruct the people in this depart- 
 ment of divine service, and this in time they took 
 a very hearty interest in. After sermon, which was 
 followed by praise and prayer, the congregation was 
 dismissed with the apostolic blessing. 
 
 From well accredited sources we can with the 
 utmost certainty state that the uniformity of Presby- 
 terian worship was not to a very considerable extent 
 affected by the attempts which had been made from 
 time to time with such persistency to introduce 
 Episcopacy into Scotland. The Scottish people be- 
 lieved in Presbyterianism, and were closely and 
 religiously attached to its simple ritual and forms 
 of worship. We possess the testimony of various 
 contemporaries of the period, who, in their peculiar 
 and characteristic way, give us in outline descriptions 
 of the ritual practised in the Presbyterian Churches at 
 this time. One of these contemporaries is a certain 
 William Cooper, at first a Presbyterian minister, but 
 eventually a Bishop of Galloway. This man published 
 in 1623 a controversial treatise. This treatise assumes 
 the form of a dialogue or controversy between what 
 the author calls a ''Catholic Christian" and a " Catholic 
 Roman." One of these controversies is supposed to 
 take place on the Sabbath, and at the suggestion of 
 the " Catholic Christian," both proceed to a Presby- 
 terian church to attend the service and take part in 
 public worship. According to the Bishop this is what 
 they saw and heard. " First of all the reader, on entering 
 
The Testimony of Eye- Witnesses. 109 
 
 his desk, offers prayer and supplication for the people, 
 who meanwhile kneel reverently. Then the congrega- 
 tion open their psalm books and join in praise ; after 
 this the reader opens the Bible and reads a portion of 
 the scriptures. These exercises and devotions alto- 
 gether occupy an hour. The utmost decorum and 
 reverence characterise the service, and all is engaged 
 in in the common tongue of the people. This part of 
 the service was brought to a close by the ringing of 
 a bell." This, by the way, was known as " the third 
 bell." The first bell was rung at an early hour to 
 prepare the people setting out; the second, at the 
 beginning of the reader's service; and the third, to 
 mark the time when the minister entered the pulpit. 
 On entering the pulpit the minister engaged in a con- 
 ceived or unwritten prayer. Having read a short 
 passage of Scripture, and selected his text, he proceeds 
 with his sermon. The sermon being finished, a prayer 
 is said, a psalm sung by the congregation, and the 
 benediction is pronounced. 
 
 A second witness who bears his testimony regarding 
 the ritual practised in the Presbyterian church of this 
 period is Sir William Bereton. He is an Englishman, 
 and belongs to the strict Puritan party. He visited 
 Scotland in 1634, and has left an account of his travels, 
 which were some time ago given to the world. His 
 account of the state of ecclesiastical affairs in Scotland 
 has a peculiar interest for us, as it is the account of 
 one in many ways foreign to the habits and customs 
 of the people, and it is the description of the religious 
 life and form of public worship practised at the very 
 time when Charles I. was doing his utmost to introduce 
 into Scotland Episcopacy and its ritual. He says— 
 " Upon the Lord's day they do assemble betwixt eight 
 
no Public Worship in Scotland before 1638. 
 
 and nine in the morning and spend the time in singing 
 psahns and reading chapters in the Old Testament, 
 until about ten o'clock ; then the preacher comes into 
 the pulpit, and the psalm being ended, he reads a 
 printed and prescribed prayer, which is an excellent 
 prayer ; this being ended, another psalm is sung, and 
 then he prays before sermon, and concludes his sermon 
 betwixt eleven and twelve o'clock; and during the 
 intermission many continue in the church until the 
 afternoon exercise which begins soon after one, is 
 performed in the same manner as the morning, save 
 the chapters then read are out of the New Testament, 
 and they conclude about four o'clock." 
 
 His remarks on the celebration of Baptism are 
 remarkably interesting, and while in some of his state- 
 ments he reminds us of certain things which many 
 of this present generation have never seen, he at the 
 same time suggests to our minds by allusion to customs, 
 now dropped out of use, that we have suffered some 
 of the usages of our Presbyterian fathers to fall into 
 abeyance. Referring to the administration of baptism, 
 he speaks of the minister as standing in the pulpit, to 
 which is fixed ''a frame of iron, shaped and propor- 
 tioned to a basin, wherein there stands a silver basin 
 and ewer." And continuing, he says — " The minister 
 useth an exhortation of gratitude for God's great 
 goodness in admitting them to this privilege, and 
 demanding from the witnesses (who are many, some- 
 times twelve, sometimes twenty) according to a printed 
 form of baptism ; the parent receives the child from 
 the midwife, presents the same unto the preacher, who 
 doth baptise it without any manner of ceremony, giving 
 a strict care of Christian and religious education, first 
 unto the parent, then to the witnesses." 
 
Administratio7i of the Lord's Supper. 1 1 1 
 
 The same traveller describes the mode in which the 
 Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was administered. A 
 long narrow table was placed in the middle aisle, at 
 which the majority of the communicants sit as is the 
 custom in the Dutch and French Reformed Churches. 
 But Sir William significantly remarks that then as in 
 our own day English Church ceremonies were creeping 
 into the Scottish Churches, and considerable pressure 
 was being put upon the worshippers as regards kneeling 
 at the Supper. Here and there throughout the 
 country, especially in Ayrshire, he found that strong 
 attempts were being made by certain parties to in- 
 troduce what came to be known as the '' nocent 
 ceremonies." The expression " nocent " or hurtful 
 ceremonies hails from England, and was one which 
 had been used in that country at an early stage of 
 the Puritan movement. The three "nocent cere- 
 monies " were the Pater Noster or Lord's Prayer, the 
 Gloria Patri, and kneeling in the pulpit. On coming 
 to the town of Ayr he found the people in a state of 
 excitement and ferment, and found on inquiry that the 
 town minister had roused the ire of his parishioners by 
 demanding that the communicants should kneel while 
 partaking of the Lord's Supper, and that to show their 
 opposition to such an Anglican custom the people on 
 Easter day, when the minister went to the communion 
 table, left in a body, leaving the minister absolutely 
 alone. The remaining witness, whom we adduce for 
 our object, was the celebrated Alexander Henderson. 
 He was parish minister of Leuchars, and was both a 
 statesman and theologian. He figures largely during 
 the covenanting period, and rendered services to the 
 Church second only in importance to these of John 
 Knox. He was held in the highest repute and venera- 
 
112 Pttblic Worship in Scotland before 1638. 
 
 tion by his contemporaries, and was elected to the 
 responsible and honourable position of the Moderator- 
 ship of the General Assembly of 1638. At a later date 
 he was sent by the Scottish Church as one of the 
 Commissioners to the Westminster Assembly, and gave 
 weighty counsel during all its important deliberations. 
 In 1 64 1 a small treatise entitled "The Government 
 and Order of the Church of Scotland " appeared. The 
 authorship of this pamphlet was for long a matter of 
 great uncertainty, and as it bore no name on its title 
 page it was supposed for long, owing to its contents, 
 to be the work of some English Puritan. It is now 
 believed beyond dispute that Alexander Henderson 
 wrote the book. The design of the author is evidently 
 twofold. First he aims at showing, in opposition to 
 certain beliefs which seemed to have prevailed in 
 certain quarters, "that the true government of the 
 Church of Scotland was not Episcopal but Presby- 
 terian," and in the second place he completely over- 
 throws the inaccurate and misleading assertion "that 
 they had no certain rule or direction for their public 
 worship, but that every man, following his own extem- 
 porary fansie, did pray and preach what seemed good 
 in his own eyes," by alluding to " the form of prayer, 
 administration of the sacraments, admission of ministers, 
 excommunication, solemnising of marriage, visiting of 
 the sick, which are set down before their Psalm Book, 
 and to which the ministers are to conform themselves ; 
 for although they be not tied to set form of words, yet 
 are they not left at randome, but for testifying their 
 consent and keeping unity they have their directory 
 and prescribed order. Nowhere hath preaching and 
 the ministry more spiritual and less carnal liberty, 
 the Presbytery and Assemblies encouraging to the one 
 
Form of Public Worship. 113 
 
 and restraining from the other." According to 
 Henderson, divine service was held twice every Lord's 
 Day, and that there were occasional and week-day 
 services, " which in cities and towns used to be at 
 least two days every week." Public worship began, he 
 says, always with prayer and reading some portion of 
 scripture both from the Old and New Testaments, and 
 then the whole congregation joined in singing some 
 psalm. A sermon was then preached, which was 
 followed by prayer, confession, and thanksgiving. 
 Then another psalm was sung, and after the psalm 
 a prayer for a blessing upon the preaching of the 
 Word. The prayer ended, a psalm is sung, and the 
 people dismissed with a blessing. 
 
 The service in the afternoon of the Lord's Day 
 differed in some slight ways from that of the morning, 
 and is thus described — " In the afternoon either the 
 same order, in all things almost, is followed in per- 
 forming the parts of public worship, or some part of 
 the catechism is expounded ; and thereafter so much 
 time as may be spared is bestowed in catechising some 
 part of the parish, warned particularly to attend." 
 
 Fifty years later certain slight changes may be 
 traced in the form of public worship, but which are 
 quite immaterial. Instead of the reader undertaking 
 the public reading of Holy Scripture on the Lord's 
 Day, the minister charges himself with that duty, as 
 well as with that of expounding its meaning. The 
 custom of lecturing on a psalm or some other passage 
 of scripture seems to have become quite common on 
 the part of the minister, and was regarded by congrega- 
 tions with great favour, and greatly tended to edifica- 
 tion. The custom still prevails in some churches, but 
 is gradually disappearing. 
 
114 P'i^blic Worship in Scotland before 1638. 
 
 What may be gathered from the recitals of such 
 authorities is this, that for fully half a century before 
 Laud's attempt to introduce his liturgy into the service 
 of the Church of Scotland, and during all these times 
 of religious excitement, which attended those attempts 
 of the Crown to assimilate Presbyterian worship to that 
 of Episcopacy, the form and outline of the church 
 service in Scotland were in substance Presbyterian. 
 Congregations, in spite of the favour and preference 
 bestowed on Anglican ceremonies and worship by 
 royalty and those in authority, were attached to the 
 simple forms of Presbyterian ritual, and were deter- 
 mined to hold to them at all costs. And further, this 
 conviction is irrefutably borne in upon our minds and 
 strengthened the more we study the history of the 
 religious struggles of those times and their outcome, 
 that " Episcopacy," as Alexander Henderson forcibly 
 puts it, ** was never the Face nor Order of that Church. 
 In the most part of their Assemblies have they conflicted 
 with it, and by the strength of God obtaining the 
 victory both of old and much more of late, they may 
 well number it among their spoiles." 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE RECONSTRUCTION OF PRESBYTERY — MEETING 
 OF WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY. 
 
 The Glasgow Assembly of 1638 was, as we have 
 already pointed out, a remarkable one in the history 
 of the Scottish Church. By the resolutions passed at 
 that meeting of the highest Ecclesiastical Court, the 
 Church of Scotland may be said to have reached the 
 stage of the Second Reformation. Every trace of pre- 
 latic interference was, with a steady and resolute hand, 
 wiped out, and a hearty return to Presbyterian govern- 
 ment and worship initiated. All the acts of preceding 
 Assemblies from 1606 downwards were annulled and 
 declared " never to have had, nor hereafter to have, any 
 ecclesiastical authority." The Five Articles of Perth, 
 the Service Book, the Book of Canons, and the Book 
 of Ordination, were by one stroke repudiated, and of 
 the fourteen bishops six were deposed and eight both 
 deposed and excommunicated. Thus this memorable 
 Assembly did all it possibly could do to put an end to 
 the encroachments which Episcopacy had made on the 
 worship and government of the Church of Scotland, 
 and to bring it back to the position which it occupied 
 at the Reformation as a Presbyterian Church. 
 
 Such independent and thorough-going action on the 
 part of the General Assembly naturally raised the 
 wrath of the King. The breach between him and his 
 
 "5 
 
1 1 6 The Reconstruction of Presbytery. 
 
 Scottish subjects had widened. What he could not do 
 by argument, persuasion, and cunning diplomacy, he 
 was determined to effect by the sword. His mind was 
 set upon using force against Presbyterian Scotland. 
 
 But meanwhile things were moving rapidly in the 
 north of Scotland. Scot was about to draw the sword 
 against Scot. The Tables were determined to subdue 
 the city of Aberdeen and the district around, and to 
 compel the people there to sign the Covenant. There 
 were several sharp skirmishes between the Covenant- 
 ing army and the cavalier party. The cause of the 
 Covenant triumphed, and Aberdeen lay at the mercy 
 of the Tables. The contest was, however, of short 
 duration, but the first blood was drawn in that great 
 war which by and by was to shake both England and 
 Scotland to their centres. 
 
 King Charles gradually became involved in strife 
 and violent contention with his English subjects, and 
 deeming it prudent in the circumstances to concentrate 
 his forces and prepare for action nearer home, he ar- 
 ranged a treaty of peace with the Covenanters, and 
 orders were forthwith issued that all acts of hostility 
 should cease upon both sides. 
 
 It is very clear that if things had gone well with the 
 King he was determined to make short work of the 
 Covenanters and their cause. He had made formidable 
 preparations for reducing Scotland to absolute obedi- 
 ence. He was to lead an army of thirty thousand horse 
 and foot in person towards Scotland, and to summon all 
 the nobility to wait upon him and give their services. 
 The garrisons of Berwick and Carlisle were to be 
 strongly fortified, and a fleet was to be sent to ply 
 along the coast for the stopping of trade. The Earl of 
 Huntly's forces were to be strengthened in the North, 
 
The Covenanters Arming. 1 17 
 
 the Earl of Antrim was to land in Argyleshire, and the 
 Earl of Strafford, with an Irish contingent, was to sweep 
 down on the West, and Scotland was to be completely 
 at the mercy of the King. But meanwhile the Cove- 
 nanters were not idle. They had assumed a bold and 
 determined front. They had now become conscious of 
 their strength and would not be intimidated. A Scots 
 army had been raised and placed under the command 
 of the renowned soldier Leslie. In that army there 
 was a large representative force of the territorial aristo- 
 cracy of Scotland, who looked upon that " old little 
 crooked soldier," Leslie, with profound awe, and yielded 
 to his wisdom and authority in all things. A spirit of 
 religious enthusiasm ruled the entire army. The force 
 in all numbered twenty-two thousand footmen and five 
 hundred horsemen. To show what was the strength of 
 that feeling of religious zeal which ruled Scotland at 
 this time, it may be instructive to note that in mere 
 proportion to the number of the inhabitants of Scot- 
 land, it was such a feat, as Hill Burton remarked, as if 
 a British War Minister of the present day could place 
 an army of some six hundred thousand effective men 
 on the march. But the pacification of Berwick mean- 
 while put an end to any outbreak of hostilities, and 
 transferred the questions at issue first to the General 
 Assembly of 1639, and by and by to a meeting of the 
 Scottish Estates. At both of these meetings the King, 
 who was always ready to promise much, but perform 
 little, had promised to attend. But he changed his 
 mind. The Assembly met at Edinburgh, with the Earl 
 of Traquair as Commissioner. It was soon apparent 
 that the King's attendant was to yield as far as possible 
 to his Scottish subjects. All that he required the 
 General Assembly to do was that, in confirming the 
 
1 1 8 The Reconsti'uction of Presbytery. 
 
 abolition of Episcopacy, nothing should be said abusive 
 of that form of Church government, as Popish or other- 
 wise, but that it should be simply condemned as " con- 
 trary to the constitution of the Church of Scotland." 
 " Acting on this suggestion the Assembly passed an 
 Act, containing the causes and remedies of the bygone 
 evils of this Kirk." It enumerated the Articles of 
 Perth, the establishment of Bishops, the Service Book, 
 Book of Canons, and the other grievances of the 
 Church, and declared them to be still abjured and 
 unlawful. Thus with the King's sanction the Second 
 Reformation was inaugurated, and the extinction of 
 Episcopacy was enacted. The whole Assembly wept 
 for very joy. The Lord had turned again the captivity 
 of Zion, and old divines who had come through the 
 storm and worry of the conflict were like them that 
 dream. There were in that Assembly venerable minis- 
 ters who had seen Presbyterianism at its best, as 
 modelled on the lines laid down by Melville and Knox, 
 and full of wonder and gratitude for all that God had 
 done for them, and the great change that had come 
 over the King's mind towards their Church, "could 
 scarce get a word spoken for tears trickling down along 
 their grey hairs like drops of rain or dew upon the top 
 of the tender grass, and yet withal smiling for joy." 
 One minister, old Mr Livingstone, who had seen the 
 ancient glory of the Church and mourned under the 
 eclipse, and who had lived to see the brightness, ex- 
 claimed, " And now I have seen it, and bless the Lord 
 for it, and beg the blessing from heaven upon our 
 gracious majesty." 
 
 But in this matter, as in so many other matters, 
 Charles I. was playing a double part. While display- 
 ing such friendliness to the members of the Assembly 
 
King Charles actmg a Double Part, 1 1 9 
 
 and to the cause of Presbyterianism, he was at the same 
 time acting the role of a dissembler, and carrying out a 
 secret correspondence with the Bishops. Six days 
 before the opening of the Assembly the King addressed 
 a letter to Spottiswoode, styling him as " right trusty 
 and well-beloved councillor and reverend father in 
 God." In that letter the King declares that he cannot 
 comply with the proposal of the Bishops to prorogate 
 the Assembly, but he says, " We do hereby assure you 
 that it shall be one of our chiefest studies how to rectify 
 and establish the government of that Church aright, 
 and to repair your losses which we desire you to be 
 most content of, " and you may rest secure, that though 
 we may perhaps give way for the present to that which 
 will be prejudicial both to the Church and our Govern- 
 ment, yet we shall not leave thinking in time how to 
 remedy both." 
 
 But the breach between the King and his English 
 subjects had gone on deepening and becoming more 
 acute, and in course of time assumed the form of that 
 long and bitter contest with the Parliament, and finally 
 ended in the defeat and execution of the King. Yield- 
 ing at length to pressure which he could not resist any 
 longer, the King summoned both Houses of Parlia- 
 ment to meet at Westminster, and on the 3rd of 
 November 1640, the famous " Long Parliament " 
 began its sittings. 
 
 Meeting of Long Parliament. 
 
 In this Parliament events of great moment followed 
 each other with startling rapidity. Bills were passed 
 in quick succession, abolishing the Court of High Com- 
 mission and the Star Chamber. Every form of civil or 
 
I20 The Reconstruction of Presbytery, 
 
 religious despotism must be swept away. By the Act 
 of September loth, 1642, it was ordained that the Pre- 
 latic form of Church government should be abohshed 
 from and after the 5th of November 1643, and that an 
 Assembly of divines should be held to complete the 
 necessary arrangements. A bill to this effect was pre- 
 sented and rejected by the King. Convinced that His 
 Majesty would make no concessions on behalf of civil 
 or religious liberty, the Parliament resolved that they 
 would delay no longer, but turn the bill into an ordin- 
 ance, and convene the Assembly by their own authority. 
 This important ordinance, calling together the memor- 
 able Westminster Assembly of Divines, is dated June 
 12, 1643. This ordinance was accepted by the two 
 Houses, but wanted the assent of the King. It is 
 generally prefixed to editions of the Westminster Con- 
 fession of Faith. It affirmed itself to be '' an ordinance 
 of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament 
 for the calling of an Assembly of learned and godly 
 divines and others, to be consulted with by the Parlia- 
 ment of the Government and liturgy of the Church of 
 England, and for the vindicating and cleaning of the 
 doctrine of the said Church from false aspersions and 
 interpretations." It is expressly stated in the docu- 
 ment itself by those who convened the Assembly that 
 it is their express wish " that such a government shall 
 be settled in the Church as may be most agreeable to 
 God's holy word, and most apt to procure and preserve 
 the peace of the Church at home, and nearer agreement 
 with the Church of Scotland and other reformed churches 
 abroad." 
 
 Meeting of Westminster Assembly. 
 
 The members of this Assembly were not elected by 
 
Members of Westminster Assetnbly. 1 2 1 
 
 the Churches, but by Parliament. They consisted of 
 ten Peers, and twenty members of the Commons as 
 lay-assessors, and a hundred and twenty-one ministers. 
 By the same authority, certain Commissioners for Scot- 
 land were invited to attend the Assembly. These were 
 Baillie, Henderson, Rutherford, and Gillespie, ministers ; 
 Robert Douglas, the reputed grandson of Queen Mary, 
 was also named as the fifth clerical member, but he 
 never attended. The lay elders consisted of the well- 
 known Johnston of Warriston, a sagacious and far- 
 seeing statesman, Lord Cassilis, and Lord Maitland, 
 better known in later times as the notorious renegade, 
 Duke of Lauderdale. Other lay members were added 
 subsequently, of w^hom Argyle, Balmerinoch, and 
 Loudon were most conspicuous. From the history 
 of the proceedings of the Westminster Assembly, it 
 appears that the question regarding ritual innovations 
 which had troubled the Church in Scotland was one 
 which would bring many angry discussions and dis- 
 sensions to the different sections of the Assembly. 
 The English Independents, aided by a variety of 
 Sectaries, who were daily on the increase, had com- 
 menced an agitation not only against the use of the 
 doxology and kneeling in the pulpit, but also against 
 the repetitlon'of the Lord's Prayer in public worship and 
 the Apostles' Creed before the celebration of the sacra- 
 ments. Indeed, their aim was to set aside all set forms 
 of prayer, and dispense with even the simplest rubrics 
 of ritual. The favourers of departure from use and 
 wont argued that it was in the interests of purity and 
 simplicity of worship that they advocated the giving up 
 of those old forms of service so dear to the hearts of so 
 many worshippers, and contended in opposition to the 
 Scottish Commissioners, who pressed hard for the re- 
 
12 2 The Reconstruction of Presbytery. 
 
 tention of " use and wont " in the public service of 
 worship, that such forms were opposed to the spirit 
 and aims of the Church in primitive and apostolic 
 times. If such a man as Samuel Rutherford yielded 
 to these ** novations," it was well-known, from Baillie's 
 words, that he did so simply for the sake of peace. 
 
 As a result of these wranglings and unseemly dis- 
 putations, it was agreed by the Assembly that an Act 
 should be drawn giving authority for the compilation 
 of a Scottish Directory for Public Worship, containing 
 references to the tendencies to introduce innovations 
 and practices which brought dispeace and hurt to the 
 Church. Accordingly an Act was drafted to that effect, 
 and in terms thereof it was ordained " that a Directorie 
 for divine worship, with all convenient diligence, be 
 framed and made ready, in all the parts thereof, against 
 the next General Assembly, to be held in the year 
 1644." The concluding sentences of the Act were 
 directed against such as favoured the " novations," 
 and forbade, " under the pain of the censures of the 
 Kirk, all disputation by word of writing in private 
 or public, about different practices in such things as 
 have not been formerly determined by this Kirk, and 
 all condemning one of another in such lawful things 
 as have been universally received, and by perpetual 
 customs practised by the most faithful ministers of the 
 gospel and opposers of corruption in this Kirk, since 
 the first beginning of reformation to these times." 
 
 The Act that was drawn up authorising the compiling 
 of a purely Scottish Directory for worship, and which 
 was drafted by Alexander Henderson, seems not to 
 have been carried into effect. Though approved of 
 by the Assembly of the Church of Scotland, it never- 
 theless fell to the ground, and had to make way for the 
 
Directory of Public Worship, 123 
 
 larger scheme contemplated by the members of the 
 Westminster Assembly. Yielding to the desire ex- 
 pressed by the varied sections of the Church repre- 
 sented in that Assembly for a general directory of 
 worship for the Churches both in England and Scot- 
 land, communications from both the Houses of Parlia- 
 ment, and from **the Assembly of Divines in the 
 Church of England," were addressed to the Assembly 
 of the Church of Scotland, asking co-operation in 
 drawing up a general directory of worship for the 
 use of the Churches, that "the two kingdoms," as it 
 was expressed, " might be brought into a near con- 
 junction in one form of Church Government, one 
 Directorie of Worship, one Catechisme, etc., and the 
 foundation laid of the utter Extirpation of Popery 
 and Prelacie out of both kingdoms." To these letters 
 of invitation the Assembly of the Scottish Church gave 
 hearty and cordial replies. The Parliament of England 
 was informed that the Church of Scotland had " nomi- 
 nated and elected " certain ministers of good word and 
 ruling elders, men highly approved of by their brethren, 
 " to repair unto the Assembly of Divines, now sitting 
 at Westminster, to propound, consult, and treat, and 
 conclude with them in all such things as may conduce 
 to the utter extirpation of popery, prelacie, heresie, 
 schisme, superstition, and idolatry, and for the settling 
 of the so much desired union of this whole island in 
 one form of Church Government, one Confession of 
 Faith, one common Catechisme, and one Directorie 
 for the Worship of God." A similar reply was sent 
 by the Scottish Church Assembly to the " Right 
 Reverend the Assembly of Divines in the Church of 
 England," couched in the most courteous and brotherly 
 terms. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE WESTMINSTER ASSEMBLY AND THE DIRECTORY 
 OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 
 
 One great and lasting fruit of the labours of the West- 
 minster Assembly divines was the drawing up of the 
 Directory of Public Worship. It was for the most part 
 the work of the Scottish Commissioners, and betrays 
 the master hand of Alexander Henderson all through- 
 out. There was little difficulty in the Assembly in 
 carrying it through its several stages and securing its 
 approval. The suggestion for the compiling of a direc- 
 tory of worship or liturgy, hereafter to be in the Church, 
 had come from the Lords and Commons. Amid the 
 distracted state of ecclesiastical matters, it seemed good 
 to them that a directory of worship should be drawn up 
 by the Assembly, so as to form the absolute rule through- 
 out the three kingdoms. An order to this effect was 
 transmitted by both Houses to the General Assembly. 
 By large sections in the three kingdoms this order 
 seems to have been received with immense satisfaction. 
 This we learn from a statement by Samuel Rutherford, 
 who says in his " Free Disputation against pretended 
 Liberty of Conscience " — " It rejoiced the hearts of the 
 godly in the three kingdoms when the Houses passed 
 an ordinance for the Directory of Public Worship, to be 
 used in all the three kingdoms, and laid aside the Book 
 of Common Prayer and burdensome ceremonies, upon 
 
 T24 
 
Directory of Public Worship. 125 
 
 a resolution professed to the world, according to the 
 Covenant, to reform religion according to the Word of 
 God and the example of the best Reformed Churches, 
 which was accordingly approved and ratified in the 
 Parliament of Scotland. If we then turn back again 
 from that uniformity, what do we also but pull down 
 and destroy what we have builded ? Especially since 
 uniformity, which we sware to endeavour in our cove- 
 nant, is cried down by familists and antinomians, and 
 all external worship and profession of Christ before 
 men as indifferent, and all religion intrenched into only 
 things of the mind and heart, upon a dream that the 
 written Word of God is not our rule obliging us, but an 
 inward law in the mind beyond all ordinances, must 
 regulate us now under the gospel." These words of 
 the learned and godly divine clearly indicate what was 
 the drift of the times, and what attitude men such as 
 Samuel Rutherford and others like-minded assumed 
 towards such tendencies. They saw a general indica- 
 tion among large sections of the religious bodies in 
 England to rebel against all outward forms of ritual 
 and liturgical services, and to set themselves loose from 
 all prescribed formulae of doctrine and worship ; and 
 noting this, with a quick and wide discernment and an 
 understanding of the temper of the times, they were 
 prepared to sacrifice much that was dear to them, and 
 consecrated through long usage, if so be they might 
 find some middle course or foundation which would 
 constitute something like a firm basis for the formation 
 of one great National Church which would include not 
 only Scotland, but England and Ireland also. This 
 basis or safeguard they believed would be found in the 
 Directory of Worship drawn up by the Assembly, and 
 endorsed by both Houses of Parliament. 
 
1 26 The Westminster Assembly, 
 
 It is interesting at this stage of the history of the 
 Church to mark the growing feeling which was showing 
 itself not only among the English dissenters, but also in 
 Presbyterian Scotland, against all set forms of prayer. 
 The peculiar circumstances of the times had brought 
 this about in both countries. The attempt on Laud's 
 part to force his new Service Book upon Scotland occa- 
 sioned in the minds of many Presbyterians the first 
 revolt against the use of liturgical services. The severe 
 measures adopted by the Star Chamber at the Arch- 
 bishop's dictation against the English Puritans deep- 
 ened their natural dislike to the Church Service Book, 
 and their determination to have it swept away. Yet 
 many years after the Reformation, the Book of Common 
 Order used by the Church of Scotland was greatly 
 esteemed by English dissenters and followed as a ser- 
 vice book in public worship. The very fact that it had 
 the stamp of Geneva upon it was sufficient to invest it 
 with interest in the estimation of the Puritans, and 
 render it a safe guide in worship. But the times had 
 changed ; other influences were at work, and the old 
 Scottish Prayer Book had lost its hold of the people and 
 fallen into forgetfulness. Dissent in England had 
 struck against all books and forms of public prayer. 
 
 Scotland, also, had felt the beat of the tide, and had 
 responded to it. The struggle against Laud's attempt 
 to foist on the Presbyterian Church the new service 
 books by degrees brought about a changed attitude 
 towards the Book of Common Order. The Scottish 
 people lost their affection for their old Service Book, 
 and in an incredibly short period it fell into disuse 
 altogether. The latest edition of their Service Book is 
 dated 1643. Thus these ecclesiastical struggles had 
 the result of bringing the Puritans of England and 
 
 I 
 
The Growing Influence of Brownism, 1 2 7 
 
 Scottish Presbyterians into common sympathy with 
 each other. Both were determined not to yield to the 
 dictates of a spiritual tyranny as wielded by Laud, and 
 both were prepared to lose much that was dear to them 
 rather than barter away or be dispossessed of their 
 spiritual independence. Such help to worship as ser- 
 vice books and set forms of prayer might, in the pres- 
 sure of the circumstances, have to be sacrificed ; but 
 liberty in all matters of religion and conscience, the 
 inalienable right of every individual, must be contended 
 for and secured in the face of all opposition, and at all 
 costs. 
 
 In the Westminster Assembly the Scottish Commis- 
 sioners put themselves to no trouble to uphold the 
 Book of Common Order. They clearly perceived that 
 if the English Book of Common Prayer was doomed to 
 be set aside as the real cause of all the trouble brought 
 to Scotland through the attempted introduction of the 
 new Service Book, they must not advance any claim for 
 the re-introduction of the old Service Book of Scotland. 
 The loss of the Book of Common Order was regarded 
 by them as being fully compensated for by the enforce- 
 ment of the Directory of Public Worship in the three 
 kingdoms. No doubt the Scots divines came to see 
 by and by that they had been greatly deceived, and 
 that all their hopes for a common directory of worship 
 for the three kingdoms were frustrated ; but they acted 
 with a fixed and steady principle all throughout in 
 their deliberations, and aimed at preserving the 
 Churches of the three kingdoms as closely as possible 
 in the principles and religious order of the Reformation. 
 Brownism, or extreme Independency, with its inflexible 
 hatred to all ritual and outward ceremonials, became 
 the dominant and controlling power of the hour, and 
 
128 The Westminster Assembly, 
 
 swept away with an unsparing hand English and Scot- 
 tish service books alike. The Directory, in which so 
 many hopes of a reconstructed Presbyterian Church 
 were centred, was soon discarded by the English Puri- 
 tans, and never became the absolute rule throughout 
 the Churches of the three kingdoms. The ordinance 
 of the English Parliament of 1645, setting aside the 
 Book of Common Prayer and establishing the Direc- 
 tory, and ordering it to be observed in the Churches of 
 England, Scotland, and Ireland, very soon became a 
 dead letter, and was never re-enacted. 
 
 The part which the Assembly of the Church of Scot- 
 land took in the completion and perfecting of the 
 Directory as a service book to be used by the English 
 and Scottish Churches must not be overlooked. When 
 the Directory had passed out of the hands of the com- 
 mittee of the Westminster Assembly, it was sent for 
 approval and revisal to the General Assembly of the 
 Church of Scotland. Gillespie and Baillie were sent 
 to the General Assembly, which met in Edinburgh on 
 the 23rd January 1645, bearing a communication from 
 " The Synode of Divines in England," referring to the 
 Directory just drawn up, and explaining in what way 
 the Westminster Divines regarded the book. ''We 
 have perfected," they wrote, " and transmitted a Direc- 
 tory for Worship to both Houses of Parliament, which 
 we hope will be the joy and comfort of all our godly 
 and dear brethren in all His Majestie's kingdoms and 
 dominions. We have not advised any imposition which 
 might make it unlawful to vary from it in anything. 
 And albeit we have not expressed in the Directory 
 every minute particular which is or might be either 
 laid aside or retained among us as comely and useful 
 in practice ; yet we trust that none will be so tenacious 
 
The Assembly approves of the Directory. 129 
 
 of old customs not expressly forbidden, or so averse 
 from good examples although new, in matters of lesser 
 consequence, as to insist upon the liberty of retaining 
 the one, or refusing the other, because not specified in 
 the Directory ; but be studious to please others rather 
 than themselves." 
 
 Gillespie and Baillie addressed the Assembly con- 
 vened at Edinburgh, and read a letter of greeting and 
 good wishes from their fellow-commissioners in London. 
 Thereafter the Directory was read "from end to end," 
 and a committee was appointed to examine and revise 
 the said Directory. The work of the committee was 
 done in the space of a week, and on the 3rd February 
 1645 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, 
 having approved of all the committee had done, passed 
 an Act for the " establishment and putting in execution 
 of the Directory for the Public Worship of God." After 
 allusion to '' an happy unity and uniformity in religion 
 amongst the Kirks of Christ in these three kingdoms 
 united under one soveraigne " as a thing " long and 
 earnestly wished for by the godly and well-affected 
 amongst us," the deliverance of the Assembly prefaces 
 its approval of the Directory in these words— "And 
 now this great work being so far advanced, that a 
 Directory for the Public Worship of God in all the 
 three kingdoms being agreed upon by the Honourable 
 Houses of the Parliament of England, after consulta- 
 tion with the Divines of both kingdoms there assembled, 
 and sent to us for approbation . . . ; the General 
 Assembly having most seriously considered, revised, 
 and examined the Directory aforementioned, after 
 several public readings of it, after much deliberation, 
 both publickly and in private committees, after full 
 liberty given to all to object against it, and earnest 
 
130 The Westminstei^ Assembly, 
 
 invitations of all who have any scruples about it, to 
 make known the same that they might be satisfied, 
 doth unanimously, and without a contrary voice, agree 
 to and approve the following Directory in all the heads 
 thereof, together with the preface set before it, and 
 doth require, decern, and ordain, that according to 
 the plain tenor and meaning thereof, and the intent 
 of the preface, it be carefully and uniformly observed 
 and practised by all the ministers and others within 
 this kingdom whom it doth concern." 
 
 The Scottish Parliament showed the same unanimity 
 and good-will as did the Assembly in its approval of 
 the Directory. Without a contrary voice the Estates 
 of Parliament, at a meeting convened for this purpose, 
 ratified and approved in all the heads and articles of 
 the book, and added its authority to the Act of the 
 General Assembly. 
 
 The only alterations, and they were of no great im- 
 portance, which the committee of the General Assembly 
 made on the Directory submitted to their revisal were 
 accepted by both Houses of Parliament. The one re- 
 ferred to the administration of baptism, the other to 
 the celebration of marriage. 
 
 We learn from the original and characteristic letters 
 of Baillie that the Scottish Commissioners would have 
 consented to a more liturgical form of public worship 
 than we have in the Directory, and were very anxious 
 to retain all the Scottish usages, but that they were 
 overruled by others. They were powerless in the face 
 of the strong spirit of Puritanism which prevailed in 
 the Assembly, and their aim was not to create faction 
 and division, and rush to extremes, but to find some 
 common basis on which all sections of the Church 
 could agree, and raise up a great and powerful National 
 
I 
 
 Printing and Publishing of Directory. 1 3 1 
 
 Church, which would be a bulwark against the wiles and 
 encroachments of Romanism and the pretensions and 
 spiritual tyranny of Prelacy. 
 
 Before giving permission to the King's printer to 
 issue a Scottish edition of the Directory, one other 
 step was taken by the Assembly in the shape of a 
 precautionary measure. A remit was made by the 
 Assembly to the committee, whose duty it was to 
 carefully safeguard the uniformity of the Church in 
 matters of public worship, to give its judgment in 
 certain matters of detail, and to report, and the com- 
 mittee having done so, the Assembly having considered 
 seriously the judgment of the committee, " approved 
 the same in all the articles thereof, and ordains them 
 to be observed in all time hereafter," 
 
 Every possible step having been taken by the 
 Assembly, and the greatest care exercised to have 
 nothing in the Directory contrary to the tastes and 
 usages of Presbyterian worshippers, and opposed to 
 the principles and custom of the Reformed Church 
 of Scotland, an order was issued for the printing and 
 publishing of the Directory. The work being speedily 
 executed, there issued from the Edinburgh printing 
 press of one Evan Tyler, the King's printer, the said 
 book, entitled, "A Directory for the Public Worship 
 of God throughout the three kingdoms of Scotland, 
 England, and Ireland ; with an act of the General 
 Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland for establishing and 
 observing this present Directory." 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE DIRECTORY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP— ITS CONTENTS. 
 
 The Directory was formally sanctioned by the General 
 Assembly of 1645. It was, however, passed with certain 
 qualifying statements, one of which referred to the ad- 
 ministration of the Lord's Supper and its celebration, 
 according to the usages of the Scottish Church. 
 
 The Directory sets forth the order of service and the 
 administration of the ordinances of the Church. It is 
 not a ritual, for although it contains prayers, it does so 
 merely in outline, and aims at simply giving the material 
 and tenor, not the very words to be used in the different 
 church offices. The preface clearly declares how the 
 material given is to be used. The aim of the Directory 
 is said to be that "the general heads, the sense and 
 scope of the prayers, may be known to all " ; while, at 
 the same time, the officiating minister " may be careful 
 to furnish his heart and tongue with other and further 
 materials." Neal, the Independent, says that it " passed 
 the Assembly with great unanimity, those who were for 
 set forms of prayer resolving to confine themselves to 
 the very words of the Directory, while others made use 
 of them only as heads for their enlargement." 
 
 The history of the Directory is altogether an unfor- 
 tunate one. Its authority was of limited extent. It 
 was destined to be treated by friends and foes alike 
 with little respect. It was very soon scorned and 
 13a 
 
The Curiotis Fate of the Directory, 133 
 
 thrown overboard by the triumphant majority. After 
 the Restoration, the English Nonconformists, amid the 
 troubles of the civil war and vigorous reign of Indepen- 
 dency during the Commonwealth, treated it as a thing 
 of no repute. Even in Scotland it has had scanty 
 respect and reverence paid to it. The Presbyterian 
 Churches, until of late, studiously disobeyed its injunc- 
 tions. Ministers who followed its instructions and form 
 of public worship were regarded as innovators, and as 
 following "divisive courses." The writer, when an 
 assistant in a large and influential church in the heart 
 of Scotland, attempted to follow the Directory by in- 
 troducing public worship with prayer. This could not 
 for a moment be tolerated. The venerable pastor of 
 the congregation peremptorily put a stop to all such 
 presumed innovations, by saying to his young assistant, 
 " Never mind what the Directory says, follow me." If 
 ever it had any real influence in Scotland, and was re- 
 garded as a Directory charged with authority, it seems 
 to have lost its hold on the churches when the stiffening 
 pressure of Brownism came to be felt, and the new 
 rigid party, which had sprung up in the West of Scot- 
 land, made their power felt. After the restoration of 
 Episcopacy in 1 661, the Scottish Parliament, by the 
 Act Recissory, declared that all that the General 
 Assembly had done and sanctioned from 1640 was 
 null and void. The Directory thus lost its civil sanc- 
 tion. The bishops, however, made no attempt to revive 
 the obnoxious and offending Laud's Liturgy, contenting 
 themselves with commendable shrewdness and discre- 
 tion with the Book of Common Order. So universal 
 had the dislike to read prayers become in Scotland at 
 this time that the bishops would not go the length of 
 introducing their use, but simply recommended the 
 reading of Holy Scripture at public worship, the use of 
 
134 1^^^ Directory of Public Worship. 
 
 the Lord's Prayer, the Doxology, and the Creed, accord- 
 ing to use and wont in the Church since the Reformation. 
 
 When Episcopacy was again abolished in 1690, the 
 Scottish Parliament framed an Act ratifying the West- 
 minster Confession of Faith, and restoring the Presby- 
 terian Government of the Church. The Act Recissory, 
 however, was not repealed, the ban was not removed 
 from the legislation of the Church, and no legal order 
 of worship was recognised. But what the State failed 
 to do, the General Assembly, in the exercise of its own 
 inherent rights and authority, did. It accordingly, in 
 1705, "seriously recommended to all ministers and 
 others within this National Church, the due observation 
 of the Directory for the Public Worship of God, ap- 
 proved by the General Assembly held in the year 
 1645." But a further step was taken in 1707 by the 
 Parliament. An act was passed with the object of 
 establishing and confirming not only the discipline and 
 government, but the worship of the Church, "to con- 
 tinue " as the act runs, " without any alteration to the 
 people of this land, in all succeeding generations." 
 
 The Westminster Directory, as enjoined by the 
 Assembly of 1705, may thus be looked upon as em- 
 bodying the law of the Church as to Public Worship. 
 But as we have already pointed out, and as the history 
 of the Church abundantly bears witness to, in spite of 
 Acts of Parliament and recommendations of the General 
 Assembly, the Directory has not been regarded or fol- 
 lowed in its entirety by the Presbyterian Ministers of 
 Scotland in the conduct of Public Worship. It failed 
 as a Liturgy, and as a mere Directory it was considered 
 by the extreme Independent party as a fetter on 
 Christian liberty. Those who presumed to follow it 
 did so, not from any love of it, but because it contained 
 many old things which had been approved of and used 
 
The Directory never very Popular. 135 
 
 by their fathers. Others modified it at pleasure, and 
 engrafted on it novelties acquired from Puritanism or 
 adopted after their own conceits. In short, it pleased 
 none of the Church parties overmuch, was generally- 
 suspected and even disliked, and never found its way to 
 the heart of the Scottish people as did the Confession 
 of Faith and Westminster Catechism. 
 
 Contents of tJie Directory. 
 
 In looking at the contents of the Directory, we pro- 
 pose doing so in briefest form, and simply in outline. 
 After the preface there are fourteen sections, dealing in 
 succession with the order of Public Worship, the ad- 
 ministration of the Sacraments, the performance of 
 marriage, the visitation of the sick, the burial of the 
 dead, and such like. The order of Divine Service 
 begins with prayer. According to the Directory, the 
 first duty of the minister when the congregation is con- 
 vened, is to be a " solemn calling on them to the 
 worshipping of the great name of God." The form so 
 generally used of beginning Public Worship with the 
 singing of a Psalm is therefore contrary to this injunc- 
 tion. Beginning worship with the singing of a psalm 
 is a relic of the times when the first part of the service, 
 consisting of the reading of Scripture of the belief, the 
 Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments, was conducted 
 by the Reader. The Reader having finished his ser- 
 vice, gave out a Psalm to be sung, while the minister 
 entered the pulpit. The Directory abolished the office 
 of Reader. The mutilated and excessively bad order 
 of service so long used in our churches, and from which 
 congregations are turning with a feeling of relief and 
 hopefulness for a " more excellent way," is the old 
 service of the past Reformation Church, with the 
 Reader's part of the service wrenched ofT. 
 
136 The Dh^ecto^y of Public Worship, 
 
 Private Prayer on Entering Church, 
 
 The Directory is silent on this subject, so far as the 
 minister is concerned. While condemning all adora- 
 tion or bowing towards the Communion Table on the 
 part of the congregation, it enjoins that, " if any through 
 necessity be hindered from being present at the begin- 
 ning, they ought not, when they come into the congre- 
 gation, to betake themselves to their private devotions, 
 but reverently to compose themselves to join with the 
 Assembly in that ordinance of God which is then in 
 hand." We learn from George Gillespie, one of the 
 Westminster Commissioners, that this order was made 
 at the request of certain of the English divines, who 
 said, *'This is very necessary for this Church, for 
 though the minister be praying, many ignorant people 
 will not join in it till they have said over the Lord's 
 Prayer." It has been the custom in Scotland for 
 the ministers on entering the pulpit to bow in silent 
 private prayer. But with the rise of the fanatical 
 party in the Church a strong feeling of opposition 
 was roused against it. This party pronounced in due 
 time with great vehemence against the " three nocent 
 ceremonies," as they were styled. The " nocent cere- 
 monies " were the bowing of the ministers for private 
 devotion on entering the pulpit, the singing of the 
 doxology at the end of the Psalms, and the use of 
 the Lord's Prayer. The Directory makes no refer- 
 ence to "bowing in the pulpit," but the clamour 
 against it went on and assumed such strength that, 
 yielding to the feeling of the times, the General 
 Assembly of 1645 recommended that, "though a 
 lawful custom in this Kirk," it " be hereafter laid aside 
 for satisfaction of the desire of the reverend divines in 
 
Service according to Di7'ectory, 1 3 7 
 
 the Synod of England, and for uniformity with that 
 Kirk so much endeared to us." What was laid aside 
 and yet regarded as a " lawful custom " has now been 
 revived, and is consonant with the reverential spirit 
 which should be apparent on such an occasion. The 
 Directory gives a large and important part to prayer 
 in the public service. In the opening prayer allusion 
 is made in outline to the " incomprehensible greatness 
 and majesty of the Lord," " the vileness and unworthi- 
 ness " of the worshippers, and the need for " pardon, 
 assistance, and acceptance," " and for a blessing on the 
 reading of the Word." 
 
 After reading of the Word, prayer again is enjoined. 
 This is styled the " Public Prayer before the Sermon." 
 In it confession of sin is more largely dwelt upon, and 
 the all-sufficiency of that one oblation, the satisfaction 
 and intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ as the ground 
 of pardon, extolled. In prayer God is invoked for the 
 outpouring of the Holy Ghost and his gracious solace 
 and consolations. Then the minister is directed to 
 pray for the spread of the kingdom of God in the 
 world, for kings and all in authority, and for the 
 general promotion of truth and godliness on the earth. 
 The outline concludes with a prayer for the officiating 
 minister, and that God would so bless the preaching of 
 the Word that Christ may be formed in the hearts of 
 the hearers, and that they should be established in 
 every good word and work for ever. 
 
 The third prayer enjoined by the Directory comes 
 directly after the sermon. It begins with thanks- 
 giving for "the great love of God in sending his 
 Son Jesus Christ unto us, for the communication of 
 His Holy spirit, for the light and liberty of the 
 glorious gospel, and the rich and heavenly blessings 
 revealed therein," and concludes with prayer for "pre- 
 
138 The Directory of Public Worship, 
 
 paration for death and judgment, and a watching for 
 the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." And this out- 
 line is followed up with these important words — " and 
 because the prayer which Christ taught his disciples is 
 not only a pattern of prayer, but itself a most compre- 
 hensive prayer, we recommend it also to be used in the 
 prayers of the Church." 
 
 The Reading of Scripture. 
 
 The reading of Scripture is regarded by the West- 
 minster Divines as an essential part of public worship. 
 The reading is to be from the canonical books of the 
 Old and New Testaments, but no lessons from the 
 books commonly called Apocrypha are to be read in 
 public. The amount to be read is left to the wisdom 
 of the minister, but the reading of a chapter of each 
 Testament is favoured at each diet of worship. The 
 books of Scripture ought to be read in order. Some 
 books of Scripture, which are best for the edification 
 of the hearers, such as the Psalms, are commended 
 to be more frequently read. As to the selection of 
 lessons, the Directory lays down this rule — " That all 
 the canonical books be read over, in order that the 
 people may be better acquainted with the whole body 
 of Scripture, and ordinarily, where the reading in either 
 Testament endeth on the Lord's Day, it is to begin the 
 next." And as a relief to the minister, and in considera- 
 tion of the fact that the Reader's ofiice had come to 
 an end, the Westminster Divines granted permission to 
 all such overtaxed ministers to call in the aid of " such 
 as intend the ministry " for the reading of Scripture. 
 
 Thus it is plain that the general custom of choosing 
 chapters to suit the sermon is contrary to the directions 
 of the Church. The injunctions given on this point in 
 the First Book of Discipline are to the same effect, and 
 
Reading of Scripture given up, 139 
 
 the authors of that book say that they think " it most 
 expedient that the Scriptures be read in order, for this 
 skipping and divagation from place to place of Scrip- 
 ture, be it in reading or in preaching, we judge not so 
 profitable to edify the Kirk as the continual following 
 of one text." The Directory, while permitting the 
 minister to expound any part of Scripture read, when 
 deemed necessary, clearly enjoins that such exposition 
 should not be made until the reading of the chapter 
 be finished. It seems almost beyond belief to be told 
 that so degraded had worship become in Scotland that 
 for a long period the simple reading of Scripture was 
 given up. In many parishes ministers never read any 
 part of the Word of God save the text on which the 
 sermon was based. Congregations would not tolerate 
 such reading, declaring, in a mood of " proud disdain," 
 that they had not come to church to hear chapters read, 
 but to listen to the sermon. As showing to what extent 
 this " foolish prejudice " was carried, we find Dr Alex. 
 Gerard, Professor of Divinity in King's College, Aber- 
 deen, in certain of his works, published by his son in 
 1799, writing, " Reading the Scriptures seems to be so 
 necessary and essential a part of Christian worship 
 that the omission of it is the most faulty defect in 
 the present practice of our Church. Yet so great 
 is the perverseness and weak bigotry of many, that 
 in some places it would almost create a schism to 
 introduce it, and even the authority of the Directory, 
 framed in the revered ages of the Church, would not 
 be sufficient to secure from blame the person who 
 introduced it. I know nothing, however, which better 
 deserves a man's running the risk of giving offence 
 than restoring the public reading of the Scriptures. 
 In some places it might perhaps be attempted with- 
 out offence, and there it should be attempted." 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE DIRECTORY OF PUBLIC ViORSniF—C07ltl7l2ied. 
 
 Praise. 
 
 This very important part of public worship was pro- 
 vided for by tlie Westminster Divines. For the Direc- 
 tory says : — " It is the duty of Christians to praise God 
 publicly, by singing of Psalms together in the congre- 
 gation, and also privately in the family." It is to this 
 Assembly at Westminster Scotland owes the Psalmody 
 which was sanctioned by the Church of Scotland, and 
 for the most part used by the other Presbyterian 
 Churches. In the old Reformation Church the service 
 of praise was looked upon as holding a very marked 
 place in the worship of the sanctuary, being regarded 
 as the responsive part of the Reformed ritual. It was 
 on this account engaged in with the utmost heartiness, 
 and great care was taken that congregations should 
 perform this part of the service with the greatest pro- 
 priety and proficiency. In the Genevan Psalter, used 
 by the Church for a considerable time, there was a 
 large variety of Psalms, taken principally from the 
 version of Sternhold and Hopkins. The Gloria formed 
 the conclusion of each psalm. Metrical versions of 
 the Magnificat and the Veni Creator were also sung. 
 Revision of the Psalm Book had repeatedly exercised 
 the attention of the General Assembly of the Church, 
 and proposals made to rearrange it. But it was left to 
 140 
 
Rotes' Version of the Psalter, 141 
 
 the Westminster Divines to carry out the revision. 
 Their desire naturally was to find out some version of 
 the Psalms which would prove acceptable to the 
 Churches of England, Scotland, and Ireland alike. 
 The version of Sternhold and Hopkins was to be set 
 aside, and after a long and heated discussion the 
 Assembly selected, as a fundamental draft of a Psalter, 
 a translation made by Francis Rous, a leading member 
 of the Long Parliament and a lay member of the 
 Assembly. It was sent up for approval of Parliament, 
 and finally it was ordained, '' That the Book of Psalms 
 set forward by Mr Rous, and perused by the Assembly 
 of Divines, be sung in all the churches and chapels in 
 the kingdom of England, dominion of Wales, and town 
 of Berwick-upon-Tweed." This Psalter was adopted 
 for Scotland by the General Assembly and the Com- 
 mission of Estates in the beginning of the year 1650. 
 This version of Rous' Psalter, issued in 1650, and 
 subjected to the revision of a committee of the General 
 Assembly, bears all throughout the deep impress of the 
 feeling of the Scottish Reformation. In many ways it 
 differs from the original draft of the Psalter made by 
 Rous, and laid before Parliament, both in words, and 
 in expression, and form. On this point, writes Dr 
 Bannerman of Perth, in his work entitled " The Worship 
 of the Presbyterian Church." "In many of its best 
 features the Scottish Psalter (of 1650) goes back to the 
 Reformation period. The Psalms which have the 
 strongest hold on the Scottish hearts, and which are 
 linked with the most stirring scenes in our history, 
 belong for the most part to the days of Knox. Thus, 
 for example, the looth Psalm, 'All people that on 
 earth do dwell,' was written by Keith, a Scottish exile, 
 in the reign of Queen Mary, and one of the translators 
 
142 The Directory of Public Worship. 
 
 of the Genevan Bible. The old 124th, 'Now Israel 
 may say and that truly,' was composed by Whitting- 
 ham, the brother-in-law of Calvin, who succeeded John 
 Knox in the English pulpit at Geneva, and was after- 
 wards Dean of Durham. The author of the ' Second 
 Version of Psalms 102, 136, 143, and 145,' was John 
 Craig, once a Dominican Monk at Bologna, afterwards 
 one of Knox's most trusted friends, who died minister 
 of Holyrood and the King's household." This book 
 has found its way deep and lovingly into the hearts of 
 the Scottish nation, and its version of the Psalms forms 
 a very essential part of the religious life of its people. 
 But it is quite true what Hill Burton says, that while 
 the work of Rous was familiar and beloved in every 
 Presbyterian Church and home, " among names of any 
 celebrity it would be difficult to find one less known 
 among the people of Scotland than Francis Rous." 
 Rous' Psalter, adopted by the Assembly, differed from 
 the old Psalter, in that it contained no hymns nor 
 spiritual songs. This want was felt and acknowledged 
 by the General Assembly of 1647, and Zachary Boyd 
 was appointed to revise those hymns formerly used in 
 Public Worship, but the circumstances of the times, and 
 the increasing strength of certain sectaries who strenu- 
 ously opposed prescribed praise, and in some extreme 
 cases, singing altogether as a part of worship, led the 
 Assembly in 1649 to abandon all attempts to re-intro- 
 duce hymns, and in deference to the Puritanic scruples 
 of the brethren, to adhere simply to the singing of the 
 Psalms. Indeed, it is very evident, from not only the 
 position in which the section "of singing of Psalms" 
 holds in the Directory, but also from certain expressions 
 used by the Westminster Divines, that they simply 
 regarded praise as a profitable, but not necessary act 
 
Use of the Doxology. 143 
 
 of worship. In this they differed entirely from the 
 great leaders of the Reformed Church on the Continent, 
 who gave a most prominent place to the Service of 
 Praise in Public Worship, and followed the Apostolic 
 practice in the use of psalms and hymns and spiritual 
 songs for promoting spiritual life in the soul. 
 
 An attempt was made at the same time to discontinue 
 the use of the Doxology, and it is related that Calder- 
 wood, a staunch and loyal Presbyterian, in opposing a 
 proposal made in the Assembly to set it aside, cried 
 out, " Let that alone, I hope to sing it in glory." 
 
 Reading the Line. 
 
 The Westminster Divines, in laying down directions 
 as to the " Singing of Psalms," and in consideration of 
 the fact that many in their day were unable to read, 
 ordained that it was " convenient that the minister or 
 some other fit person appointed by him and the other 
 ruling officers, do read the Psalm line by line before 
 the singing thereof." It seems very clear, however, that 
 the Scottish Commissioners looked upon the " reading 
 of the line " as an innovation which should be resisted, 
 and as one calculated to cast reproach upon the Scottish 
 nation with their superior education. In England, the 
 custom of " reading the line " had been quite a common 
 one in the different churches, and was used as a means 
 of educating congregations in rural districts. The back- 
 ward state of education in England called for such 
 an aid. In Scotland, the capital education imparted 
 among all classes made this help unnecessary. The 
 " reading of the line," however unpalatable at first, and 
 opposed to the tastes of Presbyterian worshippers, came 
 in time to be looked upon with favour, and eventually 
 
144 The Directory of Public Worship. 
 
 was regarded with such veneration — as bound up with 
 the very Hfe of Presbyterianism — that congregations 
 often split into fragments when the ''reading of the 
 line" was given up. This survival of an old English 
 practice is becoming increasingly rare throughout 
 Scotland, and is giving place to the mode of continuous 
 singing, as practised in the Church immediately after 
 the Reformation. The Assembly of 1746 went the 
 length of recommending to private families, "that in 
 their religious exercises, singing the praises of God, 
 they go on without the intermission of reading each 
 line." 
 
 Preaching of the Woi'd, 
 
 The compilers of the Directory were most careful in 
 laying down rules as to the preaching of the Word. 
 They placed preaching in the category of those things 
 which were absolutely necessary to the right conduct of 
 Public Worship. It entered, according to their under- 
 standing, into the very essence of divine service. Such 
 parts of the service as the singing of psalms, the amount 
 of scripture to be read, and the institution of week-day 
 services might be left to the discretion of the congrega- 
 tion to determine upon in detail, as being in themselves 
 both profitable and to edification, but not absolutely 
 necessary. But the preaching of the Word they deemed 
 " utterly necessary," and, like the administration of the 
 sacraments and prayer, constituting an essential element 
 of Public Worship. Directions are therefore very fully 
 given to the minister regarding what the subject of a 
 sermon should be, how a text of holy scripture should 
 be treated, in what form doctrine should be stated and 
 heresies refuted, the nature of exhortation and comfort, 
 
The Directory — Burial of the Dead. 1 4 5 
 
 " reprehension and public admonition," and the temper 
 and spirit in which the preacher is to discharge these 
 sacred duties. The Directory even goes the length of 
 warning the preacher, that he should wisely frame all 
 his doctrines, exhortations, and especially his reproofs, 
 with every possible avoidance of his own passion and 
 bitterness, and adds, " Gravely, as becometh the word of 
 God, shunning all such gesture, voice, and expressions, 
 as may occasion the corruption of men to despise him 
 this ministry." 
 
 Concerning Visitation of the Sick. 
 
 The visitation of the sick has a large place in the 
 Directory. The elaborate and exhaustive rules laid 
 down in this section show clearly that the Westminster 
 Divines regarded ministerial visitation of the sick as a 
 most important part of the duties of a minister. What 
 often he failed to do in his public ministration, a faithful 
 and sympathetic pastor might accomplish in private 
 visitation. Times of sickness and affliction afforded 
 special opportunities to minister a word in season to 
 weary souls, and " the minister being sent for and re- 
 pairing to the sick, is to apply himself with all tender- 
 ness and love to administer some spiritual good to the 
 soul of the sick one." 
 
 Concer7iing Burial of the Dead. 
 
 It is very clear, according to the instructions given in 
 the different service books, that the Reformers did not 
 greatly approve of burial services. They discounten- 
 anced them both in public and private. Such services 
 in their eyes savoured of idolatry and Popish super- 
 stition. The Book of Discipline forbade all such 
 
 K 
 
146 The Directory of Public Worship, 
 
 practices as singing of Mass, preaching, and even 
 reading of Scripture and prayer at funerals ; such 
 services might be regarded as intended to profit the 
 dead, and so ought not to be practised. The Book of 
 Common Order on the section "of Buryall," grants 
 liberty of exhortation at such times, with the utmost 
 restrictions. It says that when "the corpse is reverently 
 brought to the grave, accompanied with the congrega- 
 tion, without any further ceremonies, which being 
 buried, the minister, if he be present, and required, 
 goeth to the church, and maketh some comfortable 
 exhortation to the people, touching death and the 
 resurrection." The custom at funerals immediately 
 after the Reformation was to have singing and prayer, 
 and reading of Scripture, and preaching in the case of 
 men of position and eminence. We find that John 
 Knox himself preached a funeral sermon on the death 
 of the Regent Murray. But such services seem to have 
 very soon fallen into disuse, for in the Liturgy drawn 
 up about 1616, with the authority of King James, we 
 find the prevailing opinion of the day expressed in such 
 words, " We do not dislike " such services as are used 
 in some Reformed Churches at funeral, "but our Church 
 not being accustomed therewith, doth leave it to the 
 discretion of the minister, who, being present at the 
 burial and required, ought not to refuse some comfort- 
 able exhortation to the people touching death and 
 resurrection to life." Alexander Henderson, writing 
 in 1 64 1, tells us that there was no religious service of 
 any kind at funerals. The dead were borne to the 
 grave and buried without any form of prayer. But the 
 religious feelings of the people, in spite of the prohibi- 
 tions of the Church service books, expressed themselves 
 in a very pronounced form. Ministers were asked to 
 
The Directory — Burial of the Dead. 147 
 
 conduct a short religious service at the coffining of the 
 dead. In this way arose the custom of having a prayer 
 at what was known in Scotland as the " chesting," 
 which is almost unknown in our day. The Directory, 
 as indicating the feelings and custom of the time, forbids 
 any religious ceremony at burial. Everything such as 
 " praying, reading, and singing, both in going to and at 
 the grave," which have tended to superstition and abuse, 
 and are in no way helpful to the dead or even the living, 
 are " to be laid aside." Still liberty is given to the 
 minister to use his discretion on such occasions, and if 
 need be, to engage in pious meditations and conference 
 suitable in the circumstances, and even deliver an 
 address at the grave. The strict letter of the Directory 
 injunctions was commonly adhered to for fully one 
 hundred and fifty years, for it is only about seventy 
 years ago that prayers were said at funerals in Scotland, 
 and this innovation did not take place from any desire 
 for a more Christian form of service at burial, but arose 
 out of the practice of saying a grace and returning 
 thanks for refreshments partaken on such occasions. 
 Happily, with a larger sense of the fitness of things, and 
 appreciation of what is decorous and respectful in the 
 circumstances, the Presbyterian churches have returned 
 to the customs of the early reformed days, and instead 
 of the abominable and excessive dram-drinking and 
 revelling which for so many generations degraded the 
 burial of the dead, and converted funerals into drunken 
 orgies, we have now, not only private prayer at the 
 house of the friends of the deceased, but prayer and 
 reading of Holy Scripture at the grave, accompanied 
 often with appropriate hymns, speaking of a glad and 
 joyous hope beyond death, and a better resurrection. 
 In " The Statistical Account of Campsie," written by 
 
148 The Directory of Public Worship. 
 
 the parish minister, we have a gloomy, yet faithful, 
 picture of what took place for nearly two centuries in 
 most of the parishes in Scotland at burials. " It was 
 customary," he says, ** till within these few years, when 
 any head of a family died, to invite the whole parish. 
 They were served on boards in the barn, where a prayer 
 was pronounced before and after the service, which duty 
 was most religiously observed. The entertainment con- 
 sisted of the following parts : — First there was a drink 
 of ale, then a dram, then a piece of shortcake, then 
 another dram of some species of liquor, then a piece of 
 currant bread, and a third dram either of spirits or wine, 
 which was followed by loaves and cheese, pipes and 
 tobacco. This was the old funeral entertainment in the 
 parish of Campsie, and was styled their service. No 
 person was invited by letter, and though invited against 
 ten of the clock, the corpse was never interred till the 
 evening." The Rev. Rowland Hill, who first visited 
 Scotland in 1798, seems to have been greatly struck by 
 the absence of any religious service at funerals. Re- 
 garding this his biographer says, " At Hawick he saw 
 for the first time a Scotch funeral conducted without a 
 prayer or the presence of a minister, and observed to a 
 bystander, ' Your funerals are soon over.' A loquacious 
 old woman told him prayers were of no use to the dead. 
 This he admitted, but suggested that the people of Scot- 
 land lost an excellent opportunity of doing good to the 
 living, if they could do nothing for the dead. * I was 
 surprised,' he adds, ' at this omission in Scotland ; but 
 considering that a Scotsman always stands as an anti- 
 pode to the Pope, it appeared probable that papal 
 prayers for the dead determined John Knox, their 
 valuable but uncouth Reformer, against all prayers 
 at a funeral whatever.' " 
 
Sanctification of the Lord's Day, 149 
 
 Sanctification of the Lord's Day. 
 
 The Directory is very explicit in its instructions re- 
 garding how the Lord's Day should be kept. All 
 ordinary callings are to be laid aside, and the whole 
 day is to be celebrated as holy to the Lord. Men are 
 to abstain not only from " all sports and pastimes, but 
 also from all worldly words and thoughts." All people 
 are to join in public worship, and with one heart 
 "solemnly join together in all parts of the public 
 worship, and not depart till after the blessing." A 
 certain part of the day is to be given over to " visit- 
 ing the sick, relieving the poor, and such-like duties 
 of piety, charity, and mercy, accounting the Sabbath 
 a delight." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE DIRECTORY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP — continued. 
 
 Ptiblic Fasting. 
 
 The Assembly Divines, following in the footsteps of 
 the Scottish Reformers, did not fix stated fasts and 
 festivals as parts of the service of the Church. They 
 found, as they believed, no scriptural evidence for such 
 appointments. Such days as Lent, Good Friday, Ash 
 Wednesday, and such-like they held as being of Popish 
 origin, and their keeping tending to superstition. On 
 this account, the Directory refers only to National 
 solemn fasting, leaving it to individual churches to 
 call for and appoint other Fast Days as occasion 
 demanded. The Assembly Divines approved of hav- 
 ing such public solemn Fast Days in extraordinary 
 circumstances, and subjoined that on such days there 
 should be abstinence not only from all food, but also 
 " from all worldly labour, discourses and thoughts, and 
 from all bodily delights and such-like." They also ap- 
 proved of congregations fixing special days of fasting, 
 and also that families might do the same for private 
 purposes. 
 
 Days of Public Thanksgiving. 
 
 The Directory gives in outline what should be the 
 order of worship on days of public thanksgiving. Such 
 days should be set apart by the Church to thank God 
 
 150 
 
The Directory and MarjHage Service. 1 5 1 
 
 for National mercies. The congregation being called 
 together, the minister is " to begin with a word of ex- 
 hortation to stir up the people to the duty for which 
 they are met ; " that prayer being offered, he should 
 " make some pithy narrative of the deliverance ob- 
 tained or mercy received ; " that " some pertinent 
 Psalm be sung for that purpose ; " and that the 
 minister " preach upon some text of Scripture per- 
 tinent to the occasion," and " enlarge himself in due 
 and solemn thanksgiving for former mercies and 
 deliverances, and present benefits." On the day of 
 Public Thanksgiving, a collection is to be made for 
 the poor, and the people, at the close of the service, 
 are exhorted " to spend the residue of that day in 
 holy duties and testifications of Christian love and 
 charity one towards another, and of rejoicing in the 
 Lord, as becometh those who make the joy of the 
 Lord their strength." To both these directions en- 
 joining public solemn fasting and days of thanksgiving 
 the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland have notably of 
 late turned a deaf ear, and although steadfastly holding 
 to the belief that the Lord's Day is the only day com- 
 manded in Scripture to be kept holy, and that all 
 " Festival days, vulgarly called ' Holy days,' have no 
 warrant in the Word of God," they seem disposed to 
 disregard the instructions of the Directory, which says 
 " that it is lawful and necessary upon special emergent 
 occasions to separate a day for public fasting and 
 thanksgiving, as God's Providence shall determine or 
 call for in the circumstances." 
 
 Marriage. 
 
 The first mention of the Church sanctioning the 
 nuptial bond and bestowing its blessing is in the 
 
152 The Directory of Public Worship. 
 
 eighth century. It seems that, before the Reforma- 
 tion, an acknowledgment by parties of being husband 
 and wife, made either by word or by writing, and fol- 
 lowed by living together, was held as a valid marriage. 
 But the General Assembly ruled, in 1563, *' that no 
 contract of marriage made secretly should be recog- 
 nised till the offenders submitted to discipline, and the 
 contract be verified." 
 
 The " booking " of parties was an early ceremonial, 
 and enjoined strictly by the Assembly. At first forty 
 days had to elapse between " booking " and the day of 
 marriage. A very old Church Act ordains, that "before 
 the solemnising of marriage between any persons, their 
 purpose of marriage shall be published by the minister 
 three several Sabbath days in the congregation, at the 
 place or places of their most usual and constant abode 
 respectively." This Act was endorsed by the General 
 Assembly of 1690, and remained in force as the law of 
 the Church till 1879. The law was often relaxed with 
 consent of Presbyteries; and parish ministers, in virtue, 
 as they maintained, of certain powers invested in them 
 by the General Assembly, on extraordinary occasions 
 or great emergencies, could either dispense with banns 
 altogether, or by the payment of a certain fee, arrange 
 that the three proclamations required be made on one 
 and the same Sabbath. The First Book of Discipline 
 moving in the direction of shortening the period of the 
 proclamation of banns, gave discretionary powers to 
 ministers to this effect, and thus far it anticipated the 
 action of the General Assembly of 1879, consequent 
 upon the passing of the Marriage Registration Act on 
 the part of the Government of the day ; in ordaining 
 that "Proclamation of banns shall be, in ordinary cases, 
 on two separate Sabbaths," and that it " shall be in the 
 
The Church and Marriage, 153 
 
 power of the minister to complete the proclamation on 
 a single Sabbath." 
 
 The Book of Common Order, issued in 1560, and the 
 First Book of Discipline, in 1561, both enjoined that 
 " all marriages be made solemnly in face of the con- 
 gregation " at the close of the morning service. But in 
 1579 the Assembly relaxed this law, and granted leave 
 to parties to marry on a week day, " but always in 
 Church," and that "preaching should be joined thereto." 
 The practice of marrying on Sabbaths in the Church, 
 however, prevailed for a very considerable time, but 
 ultimately was given up when the rigid views brought 
 by the Puritans across the Borders began to make their 
 influence felt all throughout Scotland. The result of 
 this growing antipathy to marriages on Sabbath was, 
 that in 1641 the kirk-session of Edinburgh passed a law 
 forbidding their performance on Sabbath, and in 1643 
 the kirk-session of Glasgow took the same step. 
 
 In the early history of the Reformed Church in Scot- 
 land we find that the Church Courts insisted that those 
 who intended entering into matrimony should at least 
 know something of that Christian faith which they pro- 
 fessed. They were obliged to repeat the Lord's Prayer, 
 the Creed, and the Ten Commandments, and some- 
 times the marriage ceremonies were postponed until 
 the parties had acquitted themselves in their task to 
 the satisfaction of the minister. Once and again we 
 find, in the history of the Church, the ecclesiastical 
 courts asserting their rights, and with considerable 
 success, of controlling the matrimonial concerns of 
 those entrusted to their care. Baillie, in his notes on 
 the Westminster Assembly, tells us that the Scottish 
 Commissioners had a pretty hard struggle with the 
 Independents on the question as to the nature of 
 
154 'I^h^ Directory of Public Wo7'ship. 
 
 marriage, and when and by whom it should be per- 
 formed. But he writes afterwards, with an air of 
 triumph : — " Thanks be to God, we have gotten the 
 Independents satisfied, and an unanimous consent of 
 all the Assembly that marriage shall be celebrated 
 only by the minister, and that in the church after 
 our fashion." The Divines, although very clear as 
 to the sacredness of marriage and its proper solemnisa- 
 tion in the church, discarded without hesitation the 
 Popish notion that it is a sacrament. This has always 
 been the belief of the Reformed Churches of Scotland, 
 and of England also. The custom of marrying in 
 churches prevailed in Scotland till at least the close 
 of the seventeenth century. Then innovation set in. 
 As usual, the higher classes would have a way for 
 themselves, and quite different from the common run 
 of people. Instead of abiding by the good old churchly 
 rule of having the ceremony performed '' publicly," as 
 the Directory lays down, " and solemnised in the place 
 appointed by authority for public worship," they set 
 up the unseemly innovation of marrying in private 
 houses. The old custom of having marriages cele- 
 brated in church lingered longest among the poorer 
 classes, and in rural districts. We are told by Dr 
 Sommerville, in his Autobiography, that as late as the 
 close of the first quarter of the present century, the 
 poor in his district were in the habit of coming to 
 church to be married. At first the Church Courts 
 resisted such an innovation, and attempted to put a 
 stop to the practice by imposing a fine on those who 
 were " being married out of church." But if people 
 are to be blamed for this stupid fashion. Church Courts 
 and the ministers of the times were surely very culp- 
 able in yielding so readily to a custom which went 
 
Moderatism and Marriage Ceremonies, 155 
 
 right against all the better and more religious feelings 
 of congregations, and the traditions and offices of the 
 Church. It shows us all too plainly that already, at the 
 beginning of the eighteenth century, the leaven among 
 the ministers of the Revolution Church establishment 
 was at work, which very soon afterwards showed itself 
 in the rise and sway of that moderate section in the 
 Church which has brought in time unbounded trouble 
 to Scotland. It is to the Moderatism of last century 
 that we owe so much that is bald and slovenly and 
 formal in the Church services. All Church forms and 
 ritual seemed in their hands to shrivel up into bare and 
 poor formalities. In many cases it was not merely lack 
 of zeal or earnestness in the discharge of sacred duties 
 entrusted to them that led the Moderate ministers to 
 give up this form of ritual, or that ceremonial function. 
 The cause of such neglect and slovenliness in the dis- 
 charge of their sacred duties must be traced back to 
 the growing feeling of spiritual indifference which was 
 beginning to influence all classes, which in time laid its 
 cold death-like hand on a considerable section of the 
 Church, and in many instances produced a moral 
 atrophy and blight of faith in the heart of the clergy, 
 regarding those great verities of the Christian religion 
 which they were bound to preach. In such circum- 
 stances, doubtless, a Liturgy or Book of Common Order 
 would have preserved the Church from the disasters 
 which in time came to it, just as it saved the Church of 
 England in similar surroundings. 
 
 If the Moderatism of last century was unquestionably 
 an innovation, it is equally true that it must bear the 
 blame for having introduced many strange and novel 
 changes, not only in doctrine and belief, but also in 
 Church administration and ritual, and that the Re- 
 
156 The Directory of Public Worship, 
 
 formed Kirk emerged from its influence shorn of much 
 of its stately beauty and attractiveness. 
 
 So perfunctory had many ministers allowed the mar- 
 riage ceremony to become, and so bereft of all decorum 
 and seemly reverence, that it became the usual custom 
 of parties accustomed in any way to the religious 
 solemnity which characterises the marriage service of 
 the Church of England, to pass by their own Presby- 
 terian ministers and secure the services of some Episco- 
 palian minister at the marriage ceremony. 
 
 The marriage service prescribed by the Directory 
 is short and very simple. It, however, if followed, 
 makes an exceedingly beautiful form of Church ritual. 
 The pity is that it is so seldom closely followed, and 
 undergoes at the hand of each celebrant so many 
 changes and modifications, to its utter disfigurement 
 and detriment. 
 
 Prayer. 
 
 The Directory in its marriage service begins with 
 prayer. It says that, " because all relations are 
 sanctified by the word and prayer, the minister is 
 to pray for a blessing " upon the parties about to be 
 married. An admirable outline of prayer to be used 
 is given. This is partly incorporated in the prayer 
 adopted by the " Euchologion " drawn up by the 
 " Church Service Society." 
 
 Exhortation. 
 
 There follows an exhortation as to the " institution, 
 use, and ends of marriage, with the conjugal duties, 
 which in all faithfulness they are to perform to each 
 other." The minister is then solemnly to charge "the 
 persons to be married before the great God, who 
 
Scottish Marriage Ceremonies. 157 
 
 searcheth all hearts, and to whom they must give 
 strict account at the last day, that if either of them 
 know any cause, by precontract or otherwise, why 
 they may not lawfully proceed to marriage, that they 
 now discover it." Then, if no hindrance be alleged, 
 the minister is to "cause first the man to take the 
 woman by the right hand," and repeat the vows after 
 him. 
 
 The Vows. 
 
 According to the Directory, the minister is to make 
 both the man and the woman to repeat the vows after 
 him. But for long, and in the large majority of cases, 
 this repetition of the vows has been given up, and it has 
 become almost the universal habit of the minister to 
 frame the vows in the form of questions, demanding 
 simply an answer by the parties, by bowing the head, 
 or with audible voice " I do," or such like. So much 
 is this the custom in Scotland nowadays, that even 
 English people coming to Scotland to be married often 
 ask, as a special favour, to be married according to the 
 Scotch way, not knowing that what they regard as 
 purely Scotch is only a poor imitation of the old 
 Church service of Scotland, at best a modern innova- 
 tion, and one which the Westminster Assembly Divines 
 would disown and utterly condemn. This innovation, 
 along with other modern disfigurements of the old 
 marriage service, has gone a long way to take from 
 the solemnity and dignity of the service, and to make 
 it look poor and commonplace in the estimation of 
 multitudes. 
 
 Use of the Ring. 
 
 There is no mention made of the use of the ring in 
 the Directory marriage service. In some way the use 
 
158 The Directoiy of Public Worship. 
 
 of the ring was regarded as savouring of Popish cere- 
 monies and superstitions, and never received any 
 countenance in any of the books of Common Order, 
 compiled by the Reformed Church, in our country or 
 on the Continent of Europe. The English Church 
 was the only Church of the Reformation which used 
 it in its marriage service. It is becoming the custom 
 nowadays to use the ring at marriage services, when, 
 the vows being made, the minister adds, " In token of 
 fidelity to these vows this ring is given and received." 
 " Then without any further ceremony," says the Direc- 
 tory, " the minister shall, in the face of the congrega- 
 tion, pronounce them to be husband and wife, according 
 to God's ordinance," and the service is to conclude with 
 prayer, beseeching the Lord " to enrich the persons now 
 married, as with other pledges of his love, so particularly 
 with the comforts and fruits of marriage, to the praise 
 of his abundant mercy in and through Christ Jesus." 
 The Directory contains no form or outline of blessing 
 to be given to the married parties, but as it takes for 
 granted that the service is conducted in the Church in 
 the face of the congregation, it possibly assumes that 
 the customary benediction will be pronounced. But 
 the blessing given in Knox's liturgy is this — " The 
 Lord sanctify and bless you, the Lord pour the riches 
 of his grace upon you, that ye may please him, and live 
 together in holy love to your lives' end." 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 THE DIRECTORY OF PUBLIC WORSHIP — continued. 
 
 Baptism. 
 
 The Directory gives a very complete outline of the 
 service to be used in the administration of the Sacra- 
 ment of Baptism. The form and substance of the 
 exhortation and prayers given by the Westminster 
 Divines are quite after the model of the service con- 
 tained in the Reformed Book of Common Order, and 
 serve as a great help to the Presbyterian minister. As 
 late as 1870, the General Assembly of the Church of 
 Scotland " earnestly recommended all ministers to 
 frame their baptismal address and exhortations ac- 
 cording to the method set forth therein." The 
 Directory, in the opening paragraph of the baptismal 
 order, says — " Baptism, as it is not necessarily to be 
 delayed, so it is not to be administered in any case 
 by any private person, but by a minister of Christ, 
 called to be the steward of the mysteries of God." It 
 is very clear from this statement that it was the wish 
 of the Divines that parents should not unnecessarily 
 protract the time of the administration of this rite, and 
 that, when administered, it should be celebrated by a 
 properly qualified person. The old custom was that 
 only one Sabbath at least should intervene between the 
 birth of the child and the baptism. On this point the 
 
 159 
 
1 60 The Directory of Public Worship, 
 
 Reformers were very decided, and boldly declared that 
 unnecessary delay was a " bringing contempt upon the 
 Church, and upon the whole redemption and communion 
 of Christ." The Church of Scotland has, in harmony 
 with all other churches, acknowledged the validity of 
 baptism administered by other communions, and never 
 in her history demanded the rebaptism of any of her 
 converts. In this particular matter she follows the 
 example of all the other churches of Christendom, not 
 even excepting the Church of Rome. If, as sad to say, 
 this rule and primitive custom have been violated, 
 and rebaptism demanded by the Scottish Episcopalian 
 Church, the extreme High Church party in England, 
 and here and there by the Church of Rome, then it 
 should be emphatically stated that such rebaptisms 
 were administered in the face of the universal protest 
 of Christendom, and as an infraction of the recognised 
 law and best traditions of the Church Catholic. The 
 second paragraph in the Directory is of supreme im- 
 portance. It is to this effect — " Nor is to be adminis- 
 tered in private places, or privately, but in the place 
 of public worship, and in the face of the congregation." 
 This injunction has for a long time in all the Presby- 
 terian Churches of Scotland been neglected. It is more 
 often violated than obeyed. Private baptisms are the 
 rule, public administration is the exception. At first 
 the Church was very strict on this point, and insisted 
 that all infants be carried to church and there baptised 
 in the face of the congregation. Parents were taught 
 to regard the administration of the sacraments in 
 " private corners " as Popish, and the Reformed Church, 
 as a body, would in no case accept of "private baptism" 
 as one of its articles of church form. 
 
 The practice of private baptism seems to have crept 
 
Private Baptis77i — Irregular, \ 6 1 
 
 into the Church very soon after the Revolution. At 
 least it appears to have become very common among 
 all classes by the beginning of the eighteenth century. 
 This irregularity doubtless arose as the result of the 
 prevalence of prelatical ministers who had taken office 
 in the Church of the Revolution, and who had no ob- 
 jections on principle to the administration of the Sacra- 
 ments in private. In 1703 we find Ramsay, minister of 
 Eyemouth, writing to this effect :—*' Baptism is not re- 
 fused to weak dying infants, that cannot be brought to 
 church. I very well remember the practice of prelatical 
 ministers in this matter, and I as well know that of 
 Presbyterians now. And I do assert that where there 
 was one child baptised out of the church there are six 
 baptised now." 
 
 The Assembly of 1690 aimed at doing something to 
 put a stop to this irregularity, but to no purpose. By 
 the close of the eighteenth century the ceremony of 
 public baptism was almost unknown. 
 
 Baillie tells us in one of his letters that the Scottish 
 Commissioners at Westminster fought strenuously for 
 the enforcement of public baptism, and that this clause 
 in the Directory insisting upon it was only inserted 
 after the bold stand they made for it. It is a strange 
 and suggestive fact that when Baillie and his fellow- 
 commissioners were pleading for public baptism, private 
 baptism was the universal rule in England. Now all 
 this is changed. The Church of England has improved 
 in this respect, and our Presbyterian Church has retro- 
 graded. The Directory enjoins that " the child is to be 
 presented by the father, or in case of his necessary ab- 
 sence, by some Christian friend in his place." There is 
 no mention of godfathers or godparents, the whole 
 responsibility of bringing up the child in the faith into 
 
1 62 The Directory of Public Wo7'ship, 
 
 which it is baptised being laid upon the father. No 
 doubt the custom of having godparents is very old, and 
 was quite a common one in the Reformed Churches, 
 both in Scotland and on the Continent, but in the 
 estimation of the Westminster Divines it was regarded 
 as without Scriptural warrant, and was abolished. 
 
 In the baptismal service proper, the Directory re- 
 quires that the minister is to use "some words of 
 instruction touching the institution, nature, use, and 
 ends of this sacrament." He is to point out that 
 baptism is a "seal of the covenant of grace of our 
 ingrafting into Christ, and of our union with Him, of 
 remission of sins, regeneration, adoption, and eternal 
 life." The view laid down in the Directory regarding 
 the sacraments is that held and taught by Calvin ; that 
 they are not simply " sensible signs," but effectual 
 means of salvation. But they are regarded as some- 
 thing more than mere signs, — they are seals, whereby 
 Christ and the benefits of the New Covenant are made 
 sure to believers. The Directory, however, in laying 
 down so clearly and fully the scriptural significance 
 and nature of baptism, and representing it as not only 
 a sign and seal, but also a means of grace, gives no 
 countenance to the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration. 
 It refrains from even hinting that any subjective change 
 takes place in the person of the baptised. It repudiates 
 the belief as laid down by the Church of Rome, and 
 stated at large in the Catechism of the Church of Eng- 
 land, that prior to baptism infants are in a state of sin 
 and the children of wrath, and that by baptism they are 
 made members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors 
 of the kingdom of Heaven. The Reformed Church of 
 Scotland has all along protested against the doctrine of 
 Baptismal Regeneration, as held by the Anglican and 
 
Baptismal Regeneration — Repudiated. 1 63 
 
 Popish Churches, as opposed to the teaching of Holy 
 Scripture and to the very nature of the religion of Jesus 
 Christ. In making mere external observances the con- 
 dition of Salvation, and teaching that outward rites are 
 exclusively the channels through which the benefits of 
 redemption are conveyed to the souls of men, such 
 churches exclude from the hope of heaven men who, 
 though they have not been baptised, have however 
 believed, repented, and lead a holy life, and assure 
 those of the title to eternal life who are unrenewed and 
 unsanctified, because they have been baptised. ^ The 
 Directory does not lay down any profession of faith to 
 parents. The Book of Common Order demanded that 
 sponsors should be able to repeat the Creed. It was 
 left to ministers, according to the Directory, to impose 
 what creed they pleased on parents, who were simply to 
 "profess their faith in Christ and obedience to Him," 
 and make promise that they would "bring up the child 
 in the knowledge and grounds of the Christian religion, 
 and in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." The 
 severe and burdensome tests and obligations laid on 
 parents by certain of the clergy, and the confessions 
 wrung out of them as to their religious beliefs, are in no 
 way countenanced in the Directory, and would have 
 been regarded by the Westminster Divines with the 
 greatest repugnance and disapprobation. It would 
 certainly be more seemly, and tend to the good order 
 of the Church, if some form drawn up by a joint-com- 
 mittee of the Presbyterian Churches, and approved of 
 by the Supreme Courts of these Churches, in which the 
 professions and engagements of parents be expressed, 
 were in common use in all congregations. 
 
 The Directory instructs the officiating minister^ to 
 join prayer with the word of institution " for sanctify- 
 
164 The Directory of Public Worship. 
 
 ing the water to this spiritual use," " that the Lord 
 would join the inward baptism of His Spirit with the 
 outward baptism of water," and bless the child with all 
 the gifts of redeeming grace. Then the minister is to 
 demand the name of the child, which being told him, he 
 is to say (calling the child by his name), "I baptise thee 
 in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost," and as he pronounceth these words " he is 
 to baptise the child with water" by " pouring or sprink- 
 ling of the water on the face of the child, and without 
 adding any other ceremony." This last clause, "without 
 any other ceremony," refers to the use of the sign of the 
 cross. " This done," says the Directory, " he is to give 
 thanks and pray." He is to thank God for His faithful- 
 ness and truth and covenant mercy, and for bestowing 
 on the child such a token of his love in Christ. He is 
 to entreat God " to receive the infant now baptised and 
 solemnly entered into the household of faith into His 
 fatherly tuition and defence," and so uphold Him by 
 His divine power and grace, that at the end he may 
 obtain full and final salvation through Jesus Christ. 
 
 The mode of celebrating the sacraments brought in 
 by the Protesters, and followed and so far consecrated 
 by the usage of the Covenanters, prevailed during the 
 eighteenth century, and continues to prevail with slight 
 changes in most of the Presbyterian congregations in 
 Scotland. It is very clear that, during the reign of 
 Moderatism, the Sacraments had lost much of their 
 doctrinal and vital significance, and had come to be 
 regarded simply as signs and not as seals of the believers 
 ingrafting into Christ. The scriptural teaching of 
 Calvin and of the Westminster Confession of Faith 
 and Shorter Catechism regarding Baptism and the 
 Lord's Supper was given up, and the views of Zwingli 
 
Modern Views of Baptism, 165 
 
 became the common belief of the Church. This so far 
 holds good even in our day that it is a matter of cor- 
 jecture how far ordinary congregations would acquiesce 
 in the statements of even our Shorter Catechism on the 
 questions : " What is Baptism ? " and " What is the 
 Lord's Supper ? " The mere recital of the answers to 
 such questions would, in many Presbyterian quarters, 
 seem to savour of high church prelacy, or even popery. 
 Slowly, however, the churches are approaching the 
 higher and more spiritual views on the Sacraments 
 held by the Reformers, and clearly taught in our 
 standards. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 celebration of the communion of the 
 lord's supper. 
 
 The Directory, in its opening paragraph on the cele- 
 bration of the Communion, says that " the Communion, 
 or Supper of the Lord, is frequently to be celebrated." 
 But it does not express any opinion how often it should 
 be administered, leaving this question to be determined 
 by the " ministers and other church-governors of each 
 congregation as they shall find most convenient for the 
 comfort and edification of the people committed to 
 their care." Frequent celebrations were much insisted 
 upon by all the Reformers, and Calvin went the length 
 of stating that " no meeting of the Church be held with- 
 out the dispensation of the Supper." The custom of 
 infrequent Communion which prevailed in so many of 
 the parishes last century, and perpetuated itself into the 
 present, would have been denounced by him as " an in- 
 vention of the devil." Immediately after the Reforma- 
 tion, it was the rule to have the Lord's Supper adminis- 
 tered once a month. Somewhat later, four times a year 
 in the towns, and twice in the country, seem to have 
 become the custom. But during the stormy and un- 
 settled times of the Commonwealth, its observance was 
 neglected in many parishes for years. Even after the 
 Restoration there seems to have been little improvement 
 in this respect. In the various diaries of that period we 
 
 i66 
 
Neglect of the Lord's Stipper. 167 
 
 find reference to this effect — " The Sacrament of the 
 Lord's Supper is now wholly out of use in the parish 
 churches." The churches are gradually coming to a 
 proper appreciation of the fact that the Sacrament of 
 the Lord's Supper is a means of grace appointed by 
 our Lord for the edification and spiritual upbuilding of 
 His people, and are giving it a more important place in 
 the religious service of the sanctuary, and in its more 
 frequent observances ministers and office-bearers are 
 most assuredly bringing the Church into greater 
 harmony with both the primitive custom and re- 
 formed practices in this respect. The Directory 
 enjoins that before the administration of the Supper, 
 due notice should be given beforehand by the minister 
 to the congregation, so that by diligent examination of 
 themselves they " may come better prepared to that 
 heavenly feast." 
 
 The day being come for the administration of the 
 Supper, the Directory instructs that the minister, hav- 
 ing ended his sermon and prayer, "shall make a short 
 exhortation." The benediction was not meanwhile to 
 be pronounced, as it is in Anglican churches, for the 
 reformed fathers, following the custom of the primitive 
 Church, aimed at showing that the communion formed 
 part of the full service of that day. The minister in his 
 exhortation is to set forth the " inestimable benefits we 
 have by this Sacrament," and " how necessary it is that 
 we come unto it with knowledge, faith, repentance, and 
 love," and "how great the danger to eat and drink 
 unworthily." The minister is also directed to warn 
 the ignorant, the scandalous and profane, lest they 
 presume to come to that Holy Table ; but he is also, 
 in an especial manner, to "invite and encourage all 
 that labour under the sense of the burden of their 
 
1 68 The Communion of the Lords Supper. 
 
 sins," assuring them that the Lord's Table is re- 
 freshing to wearied souls. This warning of the un- 
 worthy and profane came in process of time to be 
 known as " fencing of the Table," and was often carried 
 to excessive length in the form of debarring. But, as 
 a matter of fact, all the Reformed Churches laid great 
 stress upon this exhortation before the Supper, as giving 
 an opportunity to the minister both to encourage and 
 invite believers to the Table of the Lord, and to warn 
 the unruly. The exhortation being finished, and the 
 communicants having, in response to the invitation of 
 the minister, taken their places at the Communion Table, 
 the minister is to " begin the action with sanctifying 
 and blessing the elements of bread and wine set before 
 him." The minister then begins the Communion 
 service proper by reading the words of institution 
 either out of the Evangelists or out of the first 
 epistle to the Corinthians, chapter xi. 23, " which the 
 minister may, when he seeth requisite," as says the 
 Directory, " explain and apply." 
 
 At this stage the elements of bread and wine are 
 to be consecrated and blessed by prayer and thanks- 
 giving. It was long a custom in the Presbyterian 
 Churches in Scotland that in this prayer of consecra- 
 tion the minister either lifted the elements or touched 
 them with his hand. But this practice has now almost 
 disappeared. 
 
 What the small section of Presbyterians, who came 
 to be known as " Lifters," contended for was no inno- 
 vation, but a continuation of the old practice of the 
 Reformers at the celebration of the Lord's Supper. 
 The Reformers, desirous of following the example of 
 Christ at the institution of the Supper, made it a custom 
 to take or lift the bread before the thanksgiving or 
 
The'' Lifters!' 169 
 
 consecration of the elements. For at least two hundred 
 years after the Reformation it was the undeviating 
 practice of the officiating minister to lift both the 
 bread and the wine before giving thanks. By the 
 middle of the eighteenth century this observance was 
 falling into neglect, and by the Church as a body was 
 being abandoned. By some of the Secession bodies 
 the custom of "lifting" was keenly clung to, and in 
 some cases was made a term of communion, and 
 originated a new sect. The Lifters as a body are 
 now extinct, although a few ministers still follow 
 their example at the celebration of the Supper. The 
 carelessness and irreverence with which the Lord's 
 Supper was observed by the Presbyterian Church 
 towards the close of the last century are caricatured by 
 a writer of that period in bitter and somewhat offen- 
 sive terms. The author presumes to be a blacksmith, 
 and addresses a letter to the ministers and elders of 
 the Church of Scotland. The blacksmith turns out to 
 be a blackcoat and Episcopal parson, with all the 
 prejudices and narrowness of his party. His object 
 is to point out the defects of Presbyterian worship, and 
 to depreciate its offices. After sneering at the bare 
 and perfunctory way the public service is celebrated, 
 he attacks with considerable venom the mode in which 
 the Lord's Supper is administered, and speaks sneer- 
 ingly of this Sacrament as the "occasions." He 
 charges ministers with the offence of departing from 
 the rule of their Directory of Worship in its celebra- 
 tion, and the neglect of the use of the Lord's Prayer 
 on such an occasion. 
 
 This attack, coming from the pen of such a prejudiced 
 party and partisan, while doubtless exaggerated and 
 misleading, may yet be regarded as affording some 
 
170 The Communion of the Lord's Supper. 
 
 notion of the condition of church service in many- 
 parishes in Scotland during last century. 
 
 Although in many parts of Scotland, in the eighteenth 
 century, the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was only 
 celebrated once a year, and in some parishes only after 
 the lapse of several years, yet opportunities were given 
 to those who were so inclined to partake of the Com- 
 munion in the neighbouring parishes. In this way 
 the infrequency of sacramental occasions in one's own 
 parish was not felt in any serious way. Such gatherings 
 became a marked feature in the Church life of last 
 century, and continues to be so in many places in the 
 Highlands. Religious services were multiplied, and in 
 large congregations requiring twelve or fifteen table 
 services, public worship on Sabbath often lasted for 
 ten or twelve hours. In summer the services were 
 held in the open air, and the minister preached from 
 a tent erected for the purpose. The entire Sacramental 
 services were brought to a close on Monday by the 
 minister of the congregation " perlicuing," i.e., gather- 
 ing up as well as he could the substance of all the 
 discourses delivered during the communion season. 
 When this was ended the benediction was pronounced, 
 and the large gatherings separated. 
 
 The prayer of consecration necessarily forms a most 
 essential element in this Sacrament. Without it there 
 can be no true celebration. The Directory gives in 
 outline the form of prayer to be used on the occasion. 
 Confession of our sin and unworthiness before God, 
 thanksgiving for the blessings of redemption, for Jesus 
 Christ himself, and for all means of grace, the word, 
 and Sacraments, prayer for the effectual working of 
 the Holy Spirit in us, and the sanctifying of the 
 elements both of bread and wine, that by faith we 
 
The Prayer of Consecration, 1 7 1 
 
 may receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ, and 
 so to feed upon Him, that He may be one with us and 
 we one with Him. The elements being thus sanctified 
 by the word and prayer, the minister, being at the 
 table, is to "take the bread in his hand and say in 
 these expressions (or other the like used by Christ or 
 his apostle upon this occasion), * According to the holy 
 institution, command, and example of our blessed 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, I take this bread, and having 
 given thanks, break it and give it unto you.'" Then 
 the minister, who is also himself to communicate, is 
 to break the bread and give it to the communicants, 
 saying, "Take ye, eat ye, this is the body of Christ, 
 which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of 
 Him." " In like manner the minister is to take the 
 cup, and say according to the institution, command, 
 and example of our Lord Jesus Christ, ' I take this 
 cup and give it unto you. This cup is the New Testa- 
 ment in the blood of Christ, which is shed for the re- 
 mission of the sins of many, drink ye all of it' " It is 
 certainly most seemly and in keeping with the usages 
 of the Primitive and Reformed Churches that the 
 minister, in the act of distributing the elements to the 
 people, should adhere as closely as possible to the 
 words of Scripture, and avoid all superfluous and 
 meaningless expressions of his own. 
 
 The Directory makes no reference to table addresses, 
 but simply instructs the minister " that after all have 
 communicated, he may in a few words put them in 
 mind of the grace of God in Jesus Christ held forth in 
 the Sacrament, and exhort them to walk worthy of it." 
 Nor does the Directory make mention of the universal 
 custom in Presbyterian Churches of singing some por- 
 tion of a psalm or hymn while the tables are dissolving 
 
1/2 The Communion of I he Lord's Sitpper. 
 
 and filling. The 103rd Psalm is mentioned in the 
 Form for the Administration of the Lord's Supper in 
 the Book of Common Order, and it has always been 
 sung at Scottish Communions since the Reformation. 
 The minister is then directed to give solemn thanks to 
 God for " His rich mercy vouchsafed in that Sacra- 
 ment," with entreaty for pardon for the defects of the 
 whole service, and grace to walk in the strength of the 
 grace received. 
 
 The closing injunction of the Directory is that "the 
 collection for the poor is so to be ordered that no part 
 of the public worship be thereby hindered." A special 
 communion offering was to be made. This offering 
 was to be devoted to the poorer brethren of the con- 
 gregation. This practice has been common to all 
 the churches in every age, and has been followed by 
 the Scottish Churches with unfailing diligence and 
 regularity. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE ORDINATION OF MINISTERS. 
 
 Bound up with the Confession of Faith and the Direc- 
 tory of Public Worship are two documents, entitled 
 respectively, "The Form of Presbyterial Church Govern- 
 ment," and "Of Ordination of Ministers." These two 
 forms were drawn up by the Westminster Assembly, 
 and approved of by the General Assembly of the 
 Church of Scotland in 1645. 
 
 The Westminster Divines, in treating on the subject 
 of ordination, consider, first, the doctrine of ordination, 
 and, second, the power of ordination. 
 
 As touching the doctrine of ordination, they set out 
 by affirming (i) that "no man ought to take upon him 
 the office of a minister of the word without a lawful 
 calling, and (2) every minister of the word is to be 
 ordained by imposition of hands and prayer with 
 fasting, by those preaching Presbyters to whom it 
 doth belong." 
 
 " Ordination is," according to our Presbyterian stan- 
 dards, " the solemn setting apart of a person to some 
 public church office," and this " solemn setting apart " 
 of such a person is to be done with the " laying on of 
 the hands of the Presbytery." It is a question beyond 
 doubt that the Reformed Church of Scotland, founded 
 on a Presbyterian basis, gave to the rite of ordination 
 a very high and sacred place, and regarded it according 
 
 173 
 
174 ^^^ Ordination of Ministers. 
 
 to the teaching of the apostles as an essential element 
 in the organisation of the Church of Christ, and in the 
 efficiency and perpetuation of her ministry. In the 
 " Second Book of Discipline," drawn up by Andrew 
 Melville and other ministers in 1578, and which has 
 always been recognised by Presbyterians as the great 
 standard of the Church in all matters pertaining to her 
 government and discipline, we have this very clear 
 deliverance — " Ordination is the separation and sanctify- 
 ing of the person appointed by God and His Kirk after 
 he be weel tryit and fund qualifiet. The ceremonies of 
 ordination are fasting, earnest prayer, and imposition of 
 hands of the eldership." This continues to be the view 
 held by all the Presbyterian Churches of the present 
 day. In the solemn rite of the " laying on of hands " 
 in ordination, the Church of Scotland has all along 
 strenuously set herself against the notion of any 
 magical or mechanical transmission of grace from 
 the person or persons ordaining to the person ordained. 
 There is nothing, according to Holy Scriptures, to 
 sanction the belief that in such an act there is an 
 "actual and efficient conferring of grace." This idea 
 of an " actual conferring of grace " in ordination has 
 always been associated with the notion that ordination 
 as a religious rite could be performed only by a 
 Bishop. To Bishops, as the direct successors of the 
 Apostles, so the theory shaped itself into words, was 
 entrusted the special prerogative of ordaining, and 
 through them a certain magical transmission of grace 
 was conferred on the person ordained. By-and-bye, 
 with the spread of corruption in the Church, and a 
 growing departure from Apostolic teaching and primi- 
 tive usages, ordination was regarded as analogous to 
 the " chrisma " of baptism, and hence as a sacrament. 
 
Bishop mid Presbyter — the Same Office. 175 
 
 If baptism admitted into the general priesthood, or- 
 dination made a person a priest in a special sense. 
 Both, however, it was alleged, imparted a "character 
 indelebilis." 
 
 It is conceded on all hands, and recognised by 
 theologians of all shades of opinion, that in the 
 language of the New Testament the same officer in 
 the Church is called indifferently " bishop " and 
 "elder" or "presbyter." This the late Bishop Light- 
 foot has frankly and in his masterly way stated in 
 his paper on the "Christian Ministry," and from his 
 decision on this point there can hardly be an appeal. 
 The Apostolic writings make no distinction between 
 the office of bishop and presbyter. The functions 
 discharged by the one can be discharged by the other. 
 To them both are committed the right to preach and 
 to rule in the church, and to ordain officers for service in 
 the church "with the laying on of hands." The "elders" 
 or " presbyters " were ordained in every church, and 
 at the same time exercised their gift of ministering to 
 believers to their comfort and edification. So long as 
 the apostles lived there is visible no distinction among 
 the presbyters as regards teaching and ruling power. 
 But so soon as the apostles and apostolic men had 
 passed away we can trace the rise among the presbyters 
 of a distinction of offices, and a growing tendency to 
 exalt the gift and function possessed by the "ruling 
 presbyter" into a permanent presidency, which in 
 process of time developed into the episcopate. But 
 apostolic modes of thought still lingered in the Church. 
 Clement of Rome, writing before the death of St John, 
 knows no other ministers of the Church than presbyter- 
 bishops, and Irenaeus, in the second half of the second 
 century, makes mention of presbyters as being in the 
 
176 The Ordination of Ministers. 
 
 line of apostolic succession, and especially as having 
 received the same grace of truth, the distinction 
 between bishop and presbyter as yet being one of 
 degree rather than of kind, the qualifications of each 
 being substantially the same. When we come to the 
 time of Cyprian, in the third century, we find that 
 ideas regarding the episcopate have developed rapidly, 
 and have taken a very pronounced form. The bishop 
 is not simply regarded as the centre of Christian unity, 
 or the depositary of the apostolic tradition ; he is, 
 according to Cyprian, the *' absolute vicegerent of 
 Christ " in things spiritual. What higher claim could 
 be made for any mortal ? And just as Cyprian put 
 the crown on the edifice of episcopal power in this 
 daring and presumptuous way, so, according to Bishop 
 Lightfoot, "was he the first to put forward without 
 relief or disguise sacerdotal assumptions " in such an 
 uncompromising tone " that nothing was left to his 
 successors but to enforce his principles and reiterate 
 his language." 
 
 When the extravagant exaltation of the episcopate, 
 advocated by such fathers as Ignatius and Irenaeus 
 and Cyprian had become part of the faith and un- 
 questioned belief of the Church, and the sacerdotal 
 nature of the Christian ministry for which Cyprian 
 had striven had been acquiesced in and accepted, it 
 became comparatively easy to advance the view which 
 had been slowly gaining strength in the minds of not a 
 few of the early fathers, that to the bishop alone per- 
 tained the right of ordination. As Christ's '' absolute 
 vicegerent " on earth he was believed to be a depositary 
 of grace, which he was capable of imparting to others, 
 with the laying on of hands. The exclusive right to 
 ordain claimed by episcopalians, for the bishop falls to 
 the ground when it is shown that as a matter of fact 
 
Sacerdotal Claims Unscriptural. 177 
 
 the bishop is not the " absolute vicegerent of Christ," 
 nor is he the successor of the apostles, and did not 
 inherit the peculiar endowments and prerogatives of 
 the apostolic order. The immediate followers of the 
 apostles never for a moment claimed to be their 
 successors. The claims for them were made by 
 others to serve their own purpose, and to give an 
 appearance of credence to the sacerdotal assump- 
 tions entertained by such hierophants as Ignatius 
 and Cyprian. 
 
 If the New Testament asserts beyond dispute that the 
 power of ordaining belongs to presbyters, it can be shown 
 from the history of the early churches that this same 
 power was held and exercised by certain presbyters 
 long after the apostles had fallen on sleep. " During 
 the early years of the second century," says Bishop 
 Lightfoot (page 215, '' The Christian Ministry "), " when 
 Episcopacy was firmly established in the principal 
 churches of Asia Minor, Polycarp sends a letter to the 
 Philippians. He writes in the name of himself and his 
 presbyters ; he gives advice to the Philippians respect- 
 ing the obligations and the authority of presbyters and 
 deacons ; he is minute in his instructions respecting one 
 individual presbyter, Valens by name. . . . But through- 
 out the letter he never once refers to their bishop ; and, 
 indeed, its whole tone is hardly consistent with the sup- 
 position that they had any chief officer holding the 
 same prominent position at Philippi which he himself 
 held at Smyrna." In Rome, if anywhere, one would 
 have naturally expected to have beheld a very early 
 development of the episcopate, if such had been deemed 
 by the infant churches as an essential element of the 
 very being of the Church, and as a condition of a pure 
 perpetuation of Apostolic succession. But this is by 
 
 M 
 
178 The Ordination of Ministers. 
 
 no means the case. The early history of the Church of 
 Rome bears no distinct traces of a monarchial form of 
 government. The earliest authentic document bearing 
 on this subject is a letter written by Clement of Rome 
 to the Corinthians in the closing years of the first 
 century. In this letter, Clement speaks of the Christian 
 Ministry as an institution of the Apostles, and while 
 mentioning only two orders, he says nothing whatever 
 regarding bishops as constituting the third order. 
 '' Again," writes Bishop Lightfoot, " not many years 
 after the date of Clement's letter, St Ignatius, on his 
 way to martyrdom, writes to the Romans. Though 
 this saint is the champion of Episcopacy, though the 
 remaining six of the Ignatian letters all contain direct 
 injunctions of obedience to bishops, in this epistle alone 
 there is no allusion to the episcopal office as existing 
 among his correspondents." Such incontestible facts as 
 those stated, certainly go far to overthrow the assertion 
 made with so much assurance, and yet with so little 
 knowledge of the real history of the early Church by 
 Episcopalians, that no church can be regarded as 
 Apostolic or Catholic unless it possess the three 
 orders, and that no ordination can be considered 
 valid except that performed by a bishop. 
 
 The Church of Alexandria affords some light on the 
 subject. It was probably founded in Apostolic times, 
 and in all likelihood by Mark. At least, for the first 
 four hundred years of the existence of the church there, 
 it would seem that the terms bishop and presbyter are 
 simply convertible, and that the officer who figures as 
 bishop is only the chief member of the presbytery. 
 " St Jerome," writes Bishop Lightfoot, "after denounc- 
 ing the audacity of certain persons who 'would give to 
 deacons the precedence over presbyters that is over 
 bishops,' and alleging scriptural proofs of the identity 
 
Apostolic Succession, Schismatic. 179 
 
 of the two, gives the following fact in illustration — ' At 
 Alexandria, from Mark the Evangelist down to the 
 times of the Bishops Heraclas (A.D. 233-249) and 
 Dionysius (249-265) the presbyters always nominated 
 as bishop one chosen out of their own body and placed 
 in a high grade,' just as if an army were to appoint a 
 general, or deacons were to choose from their own body 
 ' one whom they knew to be diligent, and call him arch- 
 deacon.' Though the direct statement of this father 
 refers only to the ' appointment ' of the bishop, still it 
 may be inferred that the function of the presbyters 
 extended also to the * consecration.' " Further, it is a 
 fact clearly attested by history, that simple presbyters 
 connected with the Culdee Church ordained, during 
 several hundred years, the Scottish clergy and the 
 bishops of the northern and midland counties of Eng- 
 land. If this be so, it follows that the clergy, who in 
 turn were ordained by such bishops, owe their ordina- 
 tion to men who were not and never did claim to be 
 bishop in the prelatical sense. It is well authenticated 
 that certain bishops never received ordination at the 
 hands of other bishops. One Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury was simply instituted to office in virtue of the 
 king's authority, without even the rite of consecration. 
 If there is any truth in or scripture warrant for this 
 hard and fast theory of apostolic succession as held 
 by the Roman Church and by the advanced section 
 of the Anglican faith, the ordinations made by such 
 men were either absolutely invalid or produced in- 
 extricable confusion and irregularity. 
 
 This theory of apostolic succession has created schism 
 in the Church of Christ, and destroyed the unity of the 
 kingdom of God upon earth. The patristic literature of 
 the first two centuries shows that it is destitute of apostolic 
 sanction. It is opposed to the teaching of Holy Scrip- 
 
i8o The Ordination of Ministers. 
 
 ture, inasmuch as it demands for bishops the exclusive 
 trust of the grace of God, thus placing a barrier on the 
 infinite mercy of God, and ends in limiting God's be- 
 stowal of grace on a very small fraction of His Church 
 upon earth. The Westminster Divines were most care- 
 ful in defining the doctrine of ordination, and very 
 guarded in their statements "touching the power ot 
 ordination." " Ordination," they say, " is the act of a 
 Presbytery," " and the power of ordering the whole 
 work of ordination is in the whole Presbytery." The 
 preaching presbyters orderly associated are those to 
 whom the imposition of hands doth appertain, for those 
 congregations within their bounds respectively. The 
 Church of Scotland has always attached great import- 
 ance to a valid ordination, and to the continuity of the 
 visible church through a properly ordained ministry ; 
 and believing, as she firmly does, that the New Testa- 
 ment affords examples of the ordination of church 
 officers by presbyters, and that the early history of the 
 Church presents incontestible evidence that Presbyters 
 not only ordained their co-presbyters, but even elected 
 and consecrated bishops, she continues "with the laying 
 on of hands of the presbytery," to follow the Scriptural 
 and apostolic mode of ordaining her officers, fully per- 
 suaded and assured that Christ, who is the supreme 
 head of His Church upon earth, continues to fulfil His 
 gracious promise given to His disciples — *' Lo, I am 
 with you alway, even unto the end of the world." 
 However much the Episcopalian Church presumes to 
 take exception to the validity of the orders of Presby- 
 terian ministers, it is a matter beyond doubt that in the 
 best and most evangelical period of her history, when 
 she stood before the world as the Reformed Church of 
 England and the champion of Protestantism, she re- 
 cognised as valid not only the orders of the clergy of 
 
Presbyterian Orders, Valid and Regular. 1 8 1 
 
 the Church of Scotland, but also the clergy of the 
 Reformed Churches of the Continent. But these days 
 of healthy promise and robust evangelicalism are surely 
 things of the past, when one of the leading bishops of 
 the Church of England, Bishop King of Lincoln, is per- 
 mitted to say — "The struggle is not so much for the 
 need of the help of external ritual in worship, but for 
 the sacerdotal character of the Christian ministry." 
 Thus, according to this High Church teaching, the 
 Christian ministry is a ministry of human mediators, 
 and spiritual life bestowed is a life received only 
 through the priest who claims to affect sacramental 
 propitiation. Nothing more Romish and subversive of 
 apostolic teaching could be uttered or claimed by the 
 Pope himself. No wonder, harbouring such views of 
 the Christian ministry, the Episcopal Church of the day 
 maintains that Presbyterian orders if valid are never- 
 theless irregular. 
 
 Here is an historical fact. In the year 1610, Arch- 
 bishop Spottiswoode and two other Scottish ministers 
 were consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 Bishop Andrews, and others without having received 
 any but Presbyterian ordination. This is all the more 
 noteworthy because Andrews himself, a high church- 
 man, at first objected to any such acknowledgment of 
 non-episcopal orders, but yielded to the Archbishop 
 when he pointed out that if he persisted in his refusal 
 he would throw doubt on the validity of the orders of 
 all the foreign churches who could not have episcopal 
 ordination. Divines such as Hooker, Jewel, Whitgift, 
 Bramhall, Wake, and Sancroft, all admitted the validity 
 of non-episcopal orders. The form of ordination given 
 in the Westminster Directory has been followed since 
 1690. It is at best very brief and incomplete, and 
 lacks both richness and order as a service to be fol- 
 
1 82 The Ordination of Ministers, 
 
 lowed. The Directory enjoined that on the "day- 
 appointed for ordination ... a solemn fast shall be 
 kept by the congregation that they may the more 
 earnestly join in prayer for a blessing upon the 
 ordinances of Christ and the labours of His servant 
 for their good." On the day appointed for the 
 ordination, when the presbyters have assembled, the 
 presiding minister is to conduct worship. " The ser- 
 mon," the Directory says, "should be concerning the 
 office and duty of ministers of Christ, and how the 
 people ought to receive them for their work's sake." 
 In the solemn act of ordination the Directory instructs 
 that " the Presbytery or the ministers sent from them 
 for ordination shall solemnly set him apart to the office 
 and work of the ministry, by laying their hands on 
 him, which is to be accompanied with a short prayer or 
 blessing." The prayer begins with thanksgiving to God 
 for sending Jesus Christ for man's redemption, and 
 especially for the grace of the Holy Spirit as the gift 
 of the ascended Saviour, and for having given gifts to 
 men, apostles, and prophets, evangelists, pastors, and 
 teachers, for the gathering and building up of His 
 Church, and for fitting and inclining " this man " to 
 this great work. It is when reference is made to the 
 candidate and special prayer is offered on his behalf, 
 and just before the solemn moment of ordination and 
 setting apart to this holy service, that the presiding 
 minister, along with the other presbyters, lay hands on 
 him. This form of prayer or blessing being ended, a 
 suitable exhortation is given to the newly-ordained 
 pastor, and also to the people, " and so by prayer 
 commending both the pastor and his flock to the 
 grace of God, after singing of a psalm, let the as- 
 sembly," says the Directory, " be dismissed with a 
 blessing." 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE CHURCH, RULING ELDERS, AND DEACONS. 
 
 Idea of the Church. 
 
 The Reformed Church of Scotland, true to its Pro- 
 testant principles, asserts that the Church of Christ 
 consists of the fellowship of all those who are united 
 by the bond of true faith, which ideal union is repre- 
 sented by the visible Church on earth, in which the 
 gospel is fully taught and the sacraments rightly 
 administered. The Church is essentially spiritual, 
 permeated with the grace of the Holy Spirit, and 
 the Church is not there where this grace does not 
 exist. Individual believers constitute the Church, and 
 in each Christ, as head of His Church, dwells by His 
 Spirit, and over each He rules as Shepherd and King. 
 It is through Christ and in living union with Him 
 individuals come to the Church, and not, as Romanists 
 aver, through the Church people come to Christ. The 
 exact difference between the idea of the Church as held 
 by Romanists and Protestants, is succinctly gathered up 
 by Schenkel when he says, in speaking of the Church 
 as not being a Church of priests — '' Protestantism de- 
 mands obedience under Christ, and connects therewith 
 the participation of the individual in the Church. Roman 
 Catholicism, on the other hand, demands obedience 
 under the hierarchy, and makes dependent thereon the 
 
 183 
 
1 84 The Churchy Ruling Elders, and Deacons. 
 
 participation of the individual in the blessings received 
 from Christ." The essentials of the Church are ex- 
 pressly given to us by Christ Himself in the Apostolic 
 Commission (Matt, xxviii. 19-20), and consist of teach- 
 ing and preaching the Word and the administration of 
 the sacraments. With this scriptural view of what con- 
 stitutes the Church of Christ, the Westminster Confes- 
 sion, chap. XXV., substantially agrees. " The Catholic 
 or Universal Church, which is invisible, consists of the 
 whole number of the elect that have been, are, or shall 
 be, gathered into one, under Christ the head thereof, 
 and is the spouse, the body, the fulness of Him that 
 fiUeth all in all. Unto this Catholic visible church 
 Christ hath given the ministry, oracles, and ordinances 
 of God for the gathering and perfecting of the saints in 
 this life to the end of the world, and doth, by his own 
 presence and spirit according to His promise, make 
 them effectual thereunto." 
 
 The Church of Scotland, since the Reformation, has 
 continued to hold these two New Testament truths, the 
 preaching of the Evangel of Jesus Christ, and the right 
 dispensation of the sacrament, as the absolute essentials 
 of the existence of the Church. Possessing these, she 
 feels that the promise of Christ, the living head of His 
 Church, " Lo, I am with you alvvay, even unto the end 
 of the world," will be fulfilled, and the ministry blessed. 
 The practice of certain rites and religious ceremonies 
 may be regarded as aids or accessories in the perform- 
 ance of her public services, but they form no part of 
 what really constitutes the essence of her existence. 
 Not only does she reject the Popish views of the Church 
 in its gradation of ecclesiastical dignities, she sets her- 
 self in opposition to the Prelatic notion in regarding 
 the clergy as an order of men specially distinct from 
 
Office and Ministry of the Church. 1 85 
 
 the laity, and in whom the prerogatives and rights of 
 church power are vested. This she does in accordance 
 with the teaching of Scripture as to the spiritual priest- 
 hood of all Christians, believing with Luther that "every 
 Christian man is a priest, and every Christian woman a 
 priestess, whether they be young or old, master or ser- 
 vant, mistress or maid, scholar or illiterate. In process 
 of time this apostolic Christian doctrine of a universal 
 priesthood became more and more superseded by the 
 hierarchical assumptions of the bishops, and the internal 
 was converted into the external, and the proposition 
 was laid down hard and fast and carried out in all its 
 consequences, that "there is no salvation out of the 
 church." 
 
 Concerning Office and the Ministry of the Church. 
 
 In the Church of Christ from its foundation there 
 have been recognised diversities of gifts and different 
 offices. By Christ Himself the Apostolate was con- 
 stituted, endowed with special powers and gifts — such 
 as the power of the keys and the exercise of discipline 
 in the form of " binding " and " loosing." The Apostles 
 were the delegates of Christ Himself, and left no suc- 
 cessors. But what they did do was this, — they from 
 time to time appointed certain men of marked integrity, 
 and conspicuous for their Christian faith and peculiar 
 gifts, who should devote themselves to the task of 
 preaching the gospel or ruling and ministering to the 
 needs of the church. Such men as Barnabas, who was 
 chosen because of his gifts of consolation, and Timothy, 
 for his knowledge of Holy Scripture, were set apart and 
 ordained for the work of the ministry, while the " seven 
 men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and 
 
i86 The Chtirch, Ruling Elders, and Deacons. 
 
 wisdom," were ordained by the Apostles to " serve 
 tables." In each case it is very clear that the men 
 chosen were elected in virtue of possessing certain 
 special gifts for the work to which they were called, and 
 that the subsequent act of ordaining merely confirmed 
 and gave the apostolic ratification to that effect. In 
 such an act there is not the faintest trace of the 
 Romish notion that in ordination the person 
 ordained acquires a "character indelebilis," and that 
 from that moment he is marked for ever, and takes 
 rank among a clerical order and becomes a special 
 depository of divine grace for distribution among the 
 people. The Assembly of 1580 unanimously ordained 
 that diocesan Episcopacy " had no warrant in Scrip- 
 ture, but had been introduced into the Church by the 
 folly and corruption of man's invention." Episcopacy 
 was therefore discarded, and Presbyterian parity was 
 declared to be of divine right. No one was to be a 
 bishop of bishops, but every bishop was to be pastor of 
 his own flock. The Second Book of Discipline adopted 
 by the General Assembly of 1578 defines the govern- 
 ment of the church and the nature of the offices thereof. 
 It admits of no superiority of office in the church above 
 a teaching presbyter or minister of the gospel. The 
 framers of this pronounced standard of Presbyterianism, 
 though claiming no inspired prescription for every part 
 of its details, assuredly considered its leading and 
 characteristic principles to be of divine origin, or, to use 
 the language of Calderwood, " to be taken not out of 
 the cistern of men's intention, but from the pure foun- 
 tains of God's holy word." This is still substantially 
 the belief of all true Presbyterians. The ordinary and 
 permanent church offices recognised by the Reformed 
 Church as being sanctioned by the New Testament are 
 
Twofold Distribution of Office. 1 87 
 
 three in number. The first and most important is the 
 ministry of the word, consisting of three functions — 
 preaching, teaching, and exhorting. The second office 
 is that of ruling or exercising discipline. The third 
 pertains to the work of ministering to the poor and 
 needy. The Second Book of Discipline gives full and 
 ample expression to this threefold distribution of office. 
 It says, "the whole policy of the kirk consisteth in three 
 things — in doctrine, discipline, and distribution. With 
 doctrine is annexed the administration of sacraments, 
 and according to the parts of this division, ariseth a 
 sort of threefold officers in the kirk, to wit, of ministers 
 or preachers, elders or governors, and deacons or dis- 
 tributors, and all these may be called, by a general 
 word, ministers of the kirk." 
 
 Concerning Presbyterian Office. 
 
 Presbyterians, following the teaching of the Holy 
 Scripture, recognise a twofold distribution of office — 
 viz., bishops or presbyters and deacons. In the 
 First Epistle to Timothy there is reference made to 
 the qualifications and duties of the various officers of 
 the church, and in this reference the Apostle simply 
 mentions bishops or presbyters and deacons. For now 
 it is admitted by all students of Scripture that in the 
 New Testament bishop and presbyter are one. The 
 evidence of the existence of a twofold distribution of 
 church offices, in apostolic times at least, is beyond 
 cavil. In support of this statement Bishop Lightfoot 
 adds his strong testimony, and says — " It is clear that 
 at the close of the apostolic age the two lower orders 
 of the threefold ministry were firmly and widely estab- 
 lished, but traces of the third and highest order, the 
 
1 88 The Church, Ruling Elders, and Deacons. 
 
 episcopate properly so-called, are few and indistinct." 
 Thus it is acknowledged, by even the stoutest ad- 
 vocates of Episcopacy, that in the New Testament 
 we have authority for presbyters and deacons, and 
 this is surely abundantly sufficient for Presbyterians. 
 
 The duties of presbyters in the Apostles' days were, 
 however, twofold. They acted as rulers and as teachers 
 of the Church. Viewed in this twofold capacity, they 
 are termed "pastors and teachers." As the Church 
 increased and congregations multiplied, the function 
 of the teaching presbyter or elder grew in importance. 
 We hear St Paul exhorting, in one of his epistles, a 
 certain church to accord double honour to such pres- 
 byters who have ruled well, but especially to such as 
 "labour in word and doctrine " (i Tim. v, 17). 
 
 Presbyters as Ruling Elders. 
 
 The office of the elder was an old one in the Jewish 
 synagogue. The writers of the epistles to the several 
 churches, in their reference to the office of the elder, 
 take it for granted that its existence is well known. 
 In the Jewish synagogue, the elders took a supervision 
 of the general affairs of the congregation, while a 
 special officer was appointed to conduct worship — viz., 
 the chief of the synagogue or the archi-synagogus. 
 This twofold distribution of synagogal offices became 
 the pattern for the organisation of the Christian Church. 
 The ruling elder and the elder or presbyter for the con- 
 ducting of public worship became permanent functions 
 in the New Testament Church as well as in the Jewish 
 synagogue. 
 
 It would appear from the reference to that effect in 
 the Apostolic writings, that what constituted the only 
 
Presbyters as Riding Elders. 1 89 
 
 difference existing in the early history of the Christian 
 Church between a teaching elder or presbyter and a 
 ruling elder, was the possession of the gift of teaching 
 more eminently than others. Qualification for teaching, 
 not official appointment, carried with it the right to 
 teach and preach, and to "labour in word and doctrine." 
 But with the increasing needs of the Church and ever- 
 growing demands of congregations for a distinctly 
 qualified and recognised order of teachers, the dis- 
 tinction between the two functions became more and 
 more one of office and rank than of gift. The body of 
 elders or overseers, chosen by Christian congregations 
 for the general oversight of the flock, naturally formed 
 themselves into a session or council for the more efficient 
 discharge of their duties and the exercise of discipline. 
 This body appointed one of their number, in course of 
 time, to be president. Such a head would be chosen 
 by the eldership on account of some distinguishing 
 grace or pre-eminent qualifications, but chiefly on 
 account of his capacity to "take care of the Church 
 of God," and his "aptness to teach." In process of 
 time a special name was given to such a president. 
 This name was bishop or overseer, and the arrange- 
 ment corresponds in every way with the position 
 occupied by the Presbyterian presbyter or minister 
 as moderator of the kirk-session. 
 
 Duties of the Riding Elder. 
 
 Unquestionably the principal and official duty of the 
 elder is to " take care of the Church of God." He is 
 elected to rule, and in discharging this peculiar function 
 he is fulfilling his office. But in the exercise of this 
 rule in the Church we do not mean to say that it should 
 
1 90 The Church, Ruling Elders, and Deacons, 
 
 only concern itself with the oversight, discipline, and 
 government of the Church in its respective courts. Our 
 Presbyterian standards all take a very much more ex- 
 tended view of the duties of the elder than this. They 
 conceive of his duties as being spiritual, and as forming 
 a very essential part in the direct work of the ministry. 
 For example, in the Second Book of Discipline, in the 
 chapter on elders, the office of elder is affirmed to be 
 apostolic in its origin, and as spiritual in its functions 
 as is the ministry. Elders, being once called to office, 
 are ordained for life ; that though those who are able 
 to teach, may teach, yet all are not required to teach, 
 but that the duty of elders is individually and col- 
 lectively to watch over the flock committed to their 
 care, and to assist the minister in all matters which 
 concern the spiritual well-being and edification of the 
 congregation. 
 
 The Deacon. 
 
 Reserving what we have to say on the presbyter as a 
 teacher or minister of God's Word to a separate chapter, 
 we shall now consider the question of the deaconship or 
 diaconate. As has been already stated, the entire polity 
 of the Scottish Presbyterian Church consists in three 
 things — viz., in doctrine, discipline, and distribution. 
 The deacons are the distributors. Although the Greek 
 word equivalent to deacon is not found in the Acts of 
 the Apostles, yet there are clear and repeated refer- 
 ences to the office not only of a diaconate or ministry 
 of tables, but also of a diaconate or ministry of the 
 word. It is in Paul's letter to the Philippians that 
 we find the first mention of the term deacon as an 
 office of the church. There deacons are coupled with 
 bishops as comprising the full staff of office-bearers in 
 
The Diaconate : Its histihttion. 1 9 1 
 
 the church. Then in his first letter to Timothy, the 
 same apostle gives us in detail the several qualifica- 
 tions necessary for the right discharge of such an office. 
 The institution of the diaconate is narrated in the Acts 
 of the Apostles. Complaints had been made to the 
 Apostles by certain Hellenist widows who had been 
 overlooked in the daily distribution of food and charity. 
 To remedy such a state of matters seven men were 
 elected by the Church, whose special duties were to 
 look after the distribution of alms to the widowed poor. 
 By the appointment of such a body of men the Apostles 
 were relieved from the arduous duties of "serving tables," 
 and were able more fully to devote themselves " to 
 prayer and to the ministry of the word." 
 
 The office seems to be an absolutely new creation. 
 It does not appear to have had any precedent either in 
 the temple service or synagogal round of offices. The 
 exigencies and peculiar needs of the infant Christian 
 Church called the office into existence for the first 
 time. It is very clear that the work assigned to the 
 deacon in the early days of the Church was the relief 
 of the poor, or, as St Luke says, a " serving of tables." 
 To him was not entrusted the higher work of preaching 
 and teaching. But very soon, owing doubtless to the 
 growing needs of the church and the rapid increase of 
 Christian converts, the seven men who had been chosen 
 to the diaconate on the ground of being "men of honest 
 report," and also " full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom," 
 found abundant opportunities of exercising their spiritual 
 gifts as ministers of the word and evangelists, as well as 
 in the distribution of alms. But the work of preaching 
 and exhortation in which certain of the deacons en- 
 gaged in so successfully and with such rich rewards, 
 was performed by them not as deacons entrusted with 
 
192 The Church, Ruling Elders, and Deacons, 
 
 such labours, but as Christian men "full of the Holy 
 Ghost and wisdom." On this point Bishop Lightfoot, 
 in his usual clear and cogent way, says in speaking of 
 the duties of the seven chosen to the work of the deacon 
 — " But still the work of teaching must be traced rather 
 to the capacity of the individual officer than to the 
 direct functions of the office. St Paul, writing thirty 
 years later, and stating the requirements of the diacon- 
 ate, lays the stress mainly on those qualifications which 
 would be most important in persons moving about from 
 house to house and entrusted with the distribution of 
 alms, while he requires that they shall hold the mystery 
 of the faith in a pure conscience. In other words, that 
 they shall be sincere believers. He is not anxious, as 
 in the case of the presbyters, to secure " aptness to 
 teach," but demands especially that they shall be free 
 from certain vicious habits, such as love of gossiping, 
 and a greed of paltry gain, into which they might easily 
 fall from the nature of their duties." The deacons in 
 the Presbyterian Church have substantially the same 
 duties to discharge as those who were elected by the 
 members of the early Church. Roman Catholics and 
 Anglicans cannot maintain this regarding their office 
 of deacon. He occupies the lowest place in the three- 
 fold order of ministry, and is permitted to preach and 
 engage in other purely ministerial functions. In this, 
 both Romans and Anglicans have departed from 
 Apostolic arrangements and sanctions. But such a 
 departure was forced upon the Church when swept 
 along by the highly-belauded hierarchical theory of 
 the Christian ministry, that in the old Testament 
 Church the three offices of High Priest, Priest, and 
 Levites constituted the model for the three offices in 
 the New Testament Church — bishop, priest or pros- 
 
The Beacon v. Care for the Poor, 193 
 
 byter, and deacon. Of course, the parallel is absolutely 
 absurd and untrue to facts, and though abandoned and 
 denounced by all students of the Word of God as 
 simply a caricature, it served its purpose in giving an 
 air of veracity to views as held by such hierophants as 
 Cyprian and others. The main reason for seeking to 
 establish a parallelism between the two Dispensations 
 was to %\YQ a sort of scriptural authority to the minis- 
 terial standing of the deacon. In this way, the three- 
 fold ministry of prelacy was made complete. If we can 
 read scripture aright, then we are driven to the conclu- 
 sion that the deacon's office in the Roman and Anglican 
 Churches is altogether a new creation, and possesses in 
 no way Apostolic sanction or authority. The deacon 
 of Apostolic times has been effaced by both these 
 Churches. 
 
 The duties of the deacon in the Presbyterian Church 
 pertains simply to distribution of alms and charity. 
 "Their office and power," says the Second Book of 
 Discipline, "is to receive and distribute the haill 
 ecclesiastical gudes unto them to whom they ar ap- 
 poyntit ; " and Andrew Melville speaks of deacons as 
 " church officers charged with the care of the outward 
 affairs of the congregations to which they belong." All 
 that the "Form of Church Government," bound up with 
 the Westminster Confession of Faith, has to say on the 
 matter is briefly summed up thus— "The Scripture 
 doth hold deacons as distinct officers in the Church 
 —whose office is perpetual,— to whose office it belongs 
 not to preach the word or administer the sacrament, but 
 to take special care in distributing to the necessities of 
 the poor." 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE PRESBYTER AS TEACHER OR MINISTER 
 OF THE WORD. 
 
 The Kingdom of Christ, or in other words, the Church 
 which Christ purchased with His own blood, and 
 founded upon earth, is a free, universal, and spiritual 
 kingdom. It is supernatural in its origin, and is 
 possessed of a ministry by Divine appointment and 
 with Divine authority. This authority is fully and 
 clearly expressed in the commission which Christ 
 gave to His disciples before He ascended and sat 
 down on the right hand of the Majesty on High, 
 " Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing 
 them in the name of the Father and of the Son and 
 of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe all 
 things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I 
 am with you alway, even unto the end of the world ! " 
 In this commission we have, as Dean Lefroy says, the 
 Divine origin of the Christian ministry, the Divine 
 declaration of its message, the Divinely appointed 
 sacrament of entrance into the Church, and the re- 
 assuring promise of the perpetuity of the Divine 
 presence. While admitting that in the upper room 
 in Jerusalem there were assembled the holy women, 
 the disciples, and the ten apostles, and that all were 
 greeted with the salutation of " Peace be unto you," 
 194 
 
The Apostolic Idea of the Church. 195 
 
 and that all heard the words which constitute the 
 charter of the Christian society to remit and retain 
 sins, and that the proclamation on the mount in 
 Galilee was heard by others than the apostles ; still, 
 in granting all this, it must not for a moment be 
 thought that such concessions in any way invalidate 
 the claims which arise out of the place which Christ's 
 training of the twelve and subsequent history assign to 
 the apostolic body. All throughout the history of the 
 Church, the position of the apostles is a prominent and 
 unique one. The distinction between them and the 
 other disciples is marked. Everything regarding the 
 doctrine, the life, and government of the Church is 
 referred to them. It is very clear from the indication 
 we have in the earliest epistles that the Christian 
 ministry was in existence as a recognised institution 
 of the Church, and that a sharp distinction between 
 apostles and believers existed. In his first epistle to 
 the Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul indicates the 
 existence of a body of men, labouring in the Church 
 and over the congregations in the Lord. The letters 
 to the Corinthians bear similar witness. The address 
 of Paul to the Church at Ephesus emphasises the dis- 
 tinction between the overseers or presbyters and the 
 flock. The Epistle to the Philippians opens with the 
 salutation, "to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are 
 in Philippi, with the bishops and deacons." The 
 Pastoral Epistles supply abundant proof of the peculiar 
 nature of the organisation of the early Church, the 
 existence of the Christian ministry, and the care taken 
 by the apostles to render certain the continuing of 
 Christian doctrine through the ordination of faithful 
 men. Such references clearly indicate the place which 
 the Christian ministry held in the Apostolic Church. 
 
196 The Presbyter as Teacher of the Word. 
 
 The Presbyter as Teacher or Preacher. 
 
 From the history of the Church as given us by the 
 sacred writers, we can readily see that in its earliest 
 periods there was no special and distinct office for the 
 function of preaching. The circumstances and the 
 times did not call for such an institution. The gift of 
 prophesying or teaching was shared in largely by the 
 Church for mutual " edification and exhortation and 
 comfort." Only when those extraordinary charisms of 
 the Spirit had been withdrawn, and the Church was 
 left dependent on the written Word, did there arise a 
 need for preaching, and a body of men whose gifts 
 quahfied them for such an office. The changed cir- 
 cumstances of the Church necessarily brought about 
 changes in the body of presbyters set apart for the rule 
 and discipline of the Church. Those who had the gift 
 of prophesying or teaching, naturally gave themselves 
 to such work. In this way, as time went on, there 
 grew up a distinction and separation of presbyters into 
 two classes, to wit, those who ruled and those who 
 taught. The teaching presbyter of the apostles' days 
 is represented by the Christian minister and pastor in 
 the Presbyterian Church of to-day. 
 
 The Nature of the Office of the Christian Minister. 
 
 The universal belief of the Presbyterian Church is 
 that the office of the teaching presbyter is ministerial, 
 not sacerdotal. Nowhere in the New Testament do 
 Christ or the apostles speak of the ministers of the 
 word as priests, except in so far as they constitute a 
 part of the great body of believers, and of that spiritual 
 priesthood which belongs to all those whom Christ has 
 
The Christian Ministry — Not Sacerdotal. 197 
 
 redeemed. The true ideal of the Christian Church, 
 according to the apostolic teaching, is clearly expressed 
 by the late Bishop Lightfoot in his able and elaborate 
 essay on " The Christian Ministry." " The Kingdom 
 of God," he says, " has no sacerdotal system. It inter- 
 fxjses no sacrificial tribe or class between God and 
 man, by whose intervention alone God is reconciled 
 and man forgiven. Each individual member holds 
 personal Communion with the Divine Head. To Him 
 immediately he is responsible, and from Him directly 
 he obtains pardon and draws strength." 
 
 The New Testament in no instance makes any re- 
 ference to the ministers of the Word as being priests 
 or discharging priestly functions. No such conception 
 of the Christian minister comes within the range of the 
 mind of any of the apostles. The very thought of such 
 is altogether foreign to their way of regarding the 
 message and commission Christ has entrusted them 
 with. The New Testament ministers are " stewards of 
 the mysteries of God," " messengers of the churches," 
 " servants of Christ," but in no solitary case are they 
 styled "Priests." In the Pastoral Epistles so largely 
 taken up with questions relating to the position, the 
 duties and qualifications of Christian ministers, we 
 search in vain for an allusion to the priestly functions 
 and equipment of those who occupy the ministerial 
 office. The bishop or presbyter and deacon are regarded 
 as teachers, as rulers, as stewards of God, as examples 
 " in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, 
 in purity," but in no instance is there any mention of 
 priestly privileges or functions which such ministers 
 enjoy or have to discharge. 
 
 So long as the Church of Christ preserved her apos- 
 tolic fervour and simplicity of belief, and held inviolate 
 
198 The Presbyter as Teacher of the Word. 
 
 the doctrines of grace, and that " faith which was once 
 delivered to the saints," ministers of the Word were 
 looked upon as servants of Jesus Christ the Lord and 
 of the Church for Jesus' sake. But as time went on 
 and the Church receded further and further from 
 apostolic teaching and drifted into sacramentarianism 
 and unscriptural notions concerning the magical and 
 mysterious power in the sacraments and the sacrificial 
 nature of the Eucharist, as an oblation to God for the 
 living and for the dead, the minister came to be regarded 
 as a priest, and a marked and growing distinction came 
 to be made between the priestly order as such and the 
 people or the laity. If the apostles are altogether 
 silent as to anything like priestly claims on the part 
 of bishops or presbyters, so are the early fathers. Even 
 Tertullian, who lived in the second century, and seems 
 to have held sacerdotal views of the miinistry, yet quali- 
 fies any assertion made to that effect by clear and 
 emphatic statements regarding the universal priesthood 
 of believers. It is when we come to the middle of the 
 third century that we have Cyprian, that corypheus of 
 hierarchy and of a Christian theocracy, boldly declar- 
 ing in all its nakedness the sacerdotal character of the 
 Christian ministry. The minister is a priest, as were 
 the successors of Aaron, and the sanction, responsi- 
 bilities, and duties pertaining to them, pertain to them 
 also. "The bishops are in the counsels of Jesus Christ," 
 and we ought, says Ignatius, " to regard the bishop as 
 the Lord himself." By Cyprian the bishop is exalted 
 to the position of a divine being, he is a mediator 
 between God and man, "the absolute vicegerent of 
 Christ in things spiritual." 
 
Origin of Sacerdotalism in the Church, 199 
 
 Origin of Sacerdotalism in the Church. 
 
 In putting the question, "Were such sacerdotal views 
 which prevailed in the Church due to Jewish or Gentile 
 influences ? " Bishop Lightfoot comes to the conclu- 
 sion, that in the early writings of Jewish Christian 
 converts there is an entire absence of sacerdotal views 
 of the ministry, and regards this entire absence of 
 distinct sacerdotalism as an overwhelming argument 
 against ascribing the prevalence of priestly notions to 
 Jewish influence. On the other hand, he affirms that 
 sacerdotalism is due rather to Gentile influences, and 
 as such traces its origin and growth back to pagan 
 antecedents. It is among purely pagan communities, 
 such as Carthage, Antioch, and Emesa, that the germs 
 of sacerdotalism first appear, and by-and-bye reach 
 their highest maturity. And Lightfoot points out that 
 it is a significant fact that the first trace we have of the 
 term "priest" applied to a Christian minister is in the 
 works of the heathen writer Lucan. 
 
 In our day it is beyond doubt that the very essence 
 of all the deplorable mischief which Anglican Ritualism 
 is doing may be traced to the use of the word " priest," 
 and regarding it as the equivalent of tepeu? and not of 
 irpea-^vrepo^. "Events," says Archdeacon Farrar, "have 
 proved the wisdom of Hooker's opinion that 'presbyter' 
 is a truer, more Christian, and more fitting name for 
 English ministers than the misinterpreted and much- 
 dishonoured name of 'priest.' The Magna Charta of 
 the Reformed Church of England is the Sixth Article 
 which points to Scripture as the sole, final, and supreme 
 authority on matters of doctrine. And the voice of 
 Scripture on this matter is absolutely decisive. It cuts 
 away the very tap-root of the whole sacerdotal system. 
 
200 The Presbyter as Teacher of the Word. 
 
 The apostles give to themselves and to Christian 
 ministers ten separate names ; but the one name 
 which they never give to themselves, and the one 
 name which they most absolutely withhold from pres- 
 byters, even when, as in the Pastoral Epistles, they 
 are specially writing to them and about them, is the 
 name of 'priest.' The name 'priest' does not so 
 much as once occur in all the thirteen Epistles of 
 St Paul, not once in the Epistles of St John, not once 
 in the Epistles of St Peter, not once in the Epistles of 
 St James and St Jude, nor once of Christian ministers in 
 the whole New Testament. Priesthood, indeed, occurs 
 once in St Peter, and once in a quotation by him, but 
 only (by analogy and from the offering of purely ' spiri- 
 tual ' sacrifices) of ' all Christians alike ' ; and thrice in 
 the Apocalypse, but each time of ' laity as well as pres- 
 byters.' " All Christians are, as Justin Martyr says, 
 (xpxiepaTLKov yeVo? tov Oeov. " Nonne et laici sacerdotes 
 sumus } " asks Tertullian. And Farrar concludes by 
 saying, " Nothing can disprove Bishop Lightfoot's re- 
 marks that ' The Kingdom of Christ has no sacerdotal 
 system, and interposes no sacrificial tribe between God 
 and Man.' . . . The author of sacerdotalism is not the 
 Divine Founder of Christianity, nor any of His apostles, 
 but that one of the Fathers (Cyprian) whose writings 
 are the most jejune and Judaic, and whose scriptural 
 exegesis is the most hopelessly without insight, con- 
 sistency, or value. The acceptance of the doctrine is 
 demanded neither by Scripture nor by reason, but only 
 by what Professor Lee called * Popish Esoterics.' " 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE PRESBYTER AS TEACHER OR MINISTER 
 OF THE WORD — continued. 
 
 Priest V. Presbyter. 
 
 It is well to bear in mind that so far as the etymology 
 of the two terms "priest" and "presbyter" are con- 
 cerned, they mean one and the same thing. Priest is 
 only a shorter form for presbyter. It is in this way the 
 word " priest," found in the " Book of Common Prayer," 
 should be understood. The associations, however, of 
 the word "priest" have been unfortunate. Then its 
 double meaning has brought it into disrepute. It 
 signifies in one of its renderings simply a presbyter or 
 elder, but in its other designation it means a priest or 
 offerer of sacrifices, one who mediates between God 
 and man. It is in this secondary designation that the 
 use of the word " priest " has proved so disastrous to 
 the Christian faith. For if there be a priest, there 
 must naturally be an altar, and some gift or sacrifice to 
 offer on that altar. So the Table of the Lord comes in 
 course of time to be regarded as an altar, and the 
 officiating minister as a priest, offering an oblation for 
 himself and those who worship with him. 
 
 " Of late years, the name Priest," says Archdeacon 
 Farrar, in his article " Sacerdotalism," "has been extra- 
 ordinarily popular." " You should never speak of your 
 
202 The Presbyter as Teacher of the Word, 
 
 priest as a minister or clergyman," is a reproof now com- 
 monly administered, and it appears to be sanctioned by 
 the language of most of the clergy. " For so much as 
 the common and normal speech of England," says 
 Travers, " is to note by the word ' priest ' not a minister 
 of the Gospel, but a sacrificer, which the minister of 
 the Gospel is not, therefore we ought not to call the 
 ministers of the Gospel * priests.' The ' priests ' of the 
 Church of England are undoubtedly and confessedly 
 the counterparts not of the Jewish and Pagan te/oer?, 
 but of the TT/oeo-ySure/oof, and no amount of casuistry or 
 conjecture can alter the significance of the plain fact, 
 that Christian ministers are never once called * priests ' 
 in the Bible. . . . All pretence, therefore, of using the 
 name 'priest' by ministers, except in the sense of 
 presbyter, seems to be distinctly cut away by the sole 
 authority which the Church of England recognises as 
 final." 
 
 It is a striking illustration of the development of 
 such ideas that the officiating minister in the Church 
 of England, who for generations after the Reformation 
 was simply looked upon as a presbyter, and magnified 
 that office, now uniformly arrogates to himself the 
 orders and functions of a priest, and that the word 
 " altar," which occurs only once in the Book of Common 
 Prayer, and which was cast aside by its framers as 
 savouring of Popery, and its place supplied by " Lord's 
 Table," is now the term in common use. It would be 
 of infinite advantage to the Evangelical faith through- 
 out England if there were a return to the primary 
 employment of certain forms of expression sanctioned 
 by the Reformers and found bound up in the formu- 
 laries of the Anglican Church, and that equivocations, 
 as Ruskin puts it in his " Sesame and Lilies," such as 
 
" LorcTs Table;' not '' Altarr 203 
 
 the vulgar English one of using the word " Priest " 
 as a contraction for " Presbyter," should be cleared 
 away, and also that the use of the scriptural term, 
 " Lord's Table," so much endeared to the Church of the 
 Reformation, and which is the one solely authorised in 
 the communion service of the Church of England, 
 should be insisted upon at all times and in all circum- 
 stances. 
 
 The word "altar " is found apparently by accident in 
 the Coronation Service. In the first Prayer Book of 
 Edward VI., " altar " and " God's board " were used, but 
 " Every expression implying a real and proper sacrifice 
 had been carefully weeded out," says Canon Estcourt, 
 and convocation at the last revision refused the rubric 
 of Bishop Cosin, " The Priest shall offer up . . . bread and 
 wine." In consequence of the use of such words, " The 
 Table," *' The Lord's Table," " The Holy Table," " The 
 Communion Table," the Ecclesiastical Courts have, as 
 a matter of fact, decided that the Church of England 
 has no altars, exactly as Origen declared that the 
 Church of Christ has none {vide " Sacerdotalism," p. 8, 
 by Archdeacon Farrar). " This indiscriminate use of 
 the word ' altar,' " Farrar further says, " has tended to 
 confuse in thousands of minds the sense in which the 
 Eucharist can be called * a sacrifice.' In the sense that 
 the priest ' offers Christ,' there is not one syllable in the 
 New Testament to sanction it and everything to 
 exclude it. Such a notion is studiously repudiated 
 alike by the silence and by the express terms of every 
 formulary of the Church of England." 
 
 The Communion Service insists on "the one oblation 
 of Christ once offered," it speaks of the Eucharist not as 
 in any sense a propitiatory renewal, but as " a perpetual 
 memory of His precious death until His coming again," 
 
204 The Presbyter as Teacher of the Word, 
 
 and of " these Thy creatures of bread and wine " 
 received "in remembrance" of Christ's death and 
 passion. . . . The Black Rubric declares that by kneel- 
 ing of the recipients " no adoration is intended or ought 
 to be done, either unto the sacramental bread and 
 wine, or unto any corporal presence of Christ's natural 
 flesh and blood," because " the sacramental bread and 
 wine remains still in their very natural substances, and 
 therefore may not be adored," for that were idolatry 
 to be abhorred by all faithful Christians. In rejecting 
 the notion that the priest " did offer for the quick and 
 dead," the thirty-first article is driven into such strong 
 terms as to call the sacrificers of the Masses " blas- 
 phemous fables and dangerous deceits." 
 
 The claim of sacerdotalism as a system, |and as 
 held by such men as Bishop King of Lincoln, Charles 
 Gore, Canon Carter, and others, is both utterly opposed 
 to the teaching of Scripture and to the Confession of 
 Faith of the Church of Scotland. According to the 
 teaching of such men, the Christian ministry is a mini- 
 stry of human mediators, spiritual life bestowed is a 
 life received through the intervention of a priest, who 
 claims to effect sacramental propitiation. " I assert," 
 said the late Bishop of Salisbury, "that the apostles, 
 and those who had received the commission from them, 
 have ministrations entrusted to them through which 
 the bread and wine become, at Holy Communion, the 
 body and blood of Christ, and the Church presents, 
 before the Throne of Grace, that which is present — 
 viz., Christ's body and blood in the sacrament, and by 
 such offering pleads with Christ, and through Christ 
 with the Father." The entire claim of this ultra High 
 and Romanizing party in the Church of England 
 amounts to this, "that the minister of the Christian 
 
Sacramentarianism — Unhistorical. 205 
 
 Church represents Jesus Christ, exercises His delegated 
 power, apph'es to them the merits of that sacrifice 
 which He offered on the Cross, mediates between God 
 and man, bestows judicial absolution whereby sin is 
 pardoned, and by 'off*ering' and consecrating the 
 elements in the Holy Communion, they became ' that ' 
 which our blessed Lord took from the Virgin, which 
 suffered on the Cross, which was glorified by the 
 Father, 'the inward part of the sacrament,' propitiation 
 for the living and the dead." Through this sacrament, 
 it is asserted, the Church approaches God, but approach 
 is only possible through the priest, upon whom the 
 efficacy of the sacrament depends. The priest, there- 
 fore, becomes the individual, official and sole mediator, 
 through whom man approaches to God. 
 
 Such views, we need hardly say, are as Romish as 
 the Church of Rome can make them. They are 
 utterly unscriptural and dishonouring to Jesus Christ, 
 and to that atonement of His which by all Evangelical 
 Churches in Christendom is regarded as the one full 
 and sufficient sacrifice and oblation for the sins of men 
 and for the redemption of the world. The earliest 
 Christian fathers and sub-apostolic writers held no such 
 heretical beliefs. The "Didache," in referring to the 
 Eucharist, bears no trace of a belief in the propitiatory 
 nature of that sacrament. The writings of Justin 
 Martyr, Ignatius, and Irenaeus will be searched in vain 
 to find such priestly notions regarding the Lord's 
 supper. Tertullian knows nothing of such a belief in 
 his copious writings, and even permits laymen to 
 administer baptism, and in cases of necessity, the 
 administration of the Eucharist is granted to them also. 
 And further, this may be asserted, without any show of 
 serious contradiction, that since the Reformation, the 
 
2o6 The Presbyter as Teacher of the Word, 
 
 principle of sacerdotalism has had no place in the 
 standards of the Church of England. It is neither 
 recognised nor implied in her official language. The 
 sacramentarianism of such men as Gore and others her 
 formularies know nothing of. In fact, by such men as 
 Hooker, Jewel, Whately, and Lightfoot it has been dis- 
 carded and utterly disowned. The omission of such a 
 claim in her authoritative standards as sacramentarians 
 of the type of the Bishop of Lincoln insist on surely is 
 a proof that the Church of England never did hold such 
 a Romish principle, "essential and permanent," and 
 this silence is all the more significant because of the 
 prominence which the Church has given to the three 
 orders of bishop, priest, and deacon. The tendency of 
 such a claim works, is not only in the direction of 
 deadly heresy, but towards schism. 
 
 We have only to compare the Communion Order of 
 1550 or 1552 with the Old Sarum Missal, and we shall 
 see what the views of the old English Reformers were, 
 and how they differed from the Romish Church which 
 they had abjured. In the Communion Service of 1552, 
 all idea of sacrificial expiation is excluded. Even the 
 word " altar," so associated with priestly functions, by 
 degrees disappeared in the Communion Service, and 
 by 1552 the word was expunged, the scriptural term 
 Lord's Table" taking its place, and remains to this 
 day. 
 
 Ministerial Parity. 
 
 The parity or equality of rank of the clergy is one of 
 the leading characteristics of Presbyterianism. The 
 pastor, as teacher or preacher of the gospel of Jesus 
 Christ, occupies the highest office and discharges the 
 most sacred functions in the Church. As a presbyter, 
 
Bishop a7id Presbyter — IdenticaL 207 
 
 he is subordinate to no single individual. To the 
 Presbytery alone in its corporate capacity does he 
 stand in the relation of subordination. Even the 
 Moderator of the Presbytery is simply primus inter 
 pares. The function of ruling or administration does 
 not carry with it any pre-eminence or superiority of 
 rank over the presbyter or minister of the Word. These 
 principles Presbyterianism upholds following the teach- 
 ing of Scripture. It finds reference in the sacred 
 writings to the function of overseers or bishops over 
 God's flock or single congregations, but none to the 
 office of diocesan bishop having an oversight of pres- 
 byters, and those engaged in the work of the ministry. 
 It refuses on this ground to acknowledge any difference 
 between those who teach and those who rule, and has 
 uniformly resisted any attempt to sanction the appoint- 
 ment of an order of men, as superintendents or parochial 
 bishops, who might come to be regarded as superior in 
 rank to the ordinary clergy, and a superior class alto- 
 gether. It is evident that in the apostolic age and in 
 the period immediately following, that the office of 
 teaching and that of ruling was discharged by the same 
 person. Of the identity of the " bishop and presbyter," 
 in the language of the apostolic age. Bishop Lightfoot 
 has no doubt. In Acts xx., presbyters are exhorted 
 to exercise the episcopal duty of overseeing as well as 
 feeding the flock, and presbyters are exhorted to take 
 heed unto themselves and to all the flock, "over the 
 which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers or 
 * bishops' to feed the Church of God." And after a 
 careful and unbiassed study of the injunctions laid 
 down by St Paul in his Epistles to Timothy and Titus, 
 we are bound to come to the conclusion that " we find 
 no indication of any higher office, whether for rule or 
 
2o8 The Presbytei' as Teacher of the Word, 
 
 for delivery of the truth, but every indication of parity 
 among ministers of the word in the discharge of their 
 twofold functions " {see " Handbook on Presbyterian- 
 ism," p. 80, Macpherson). But not only is the identity 
 of the office of presbyter and bishop asserted by 
 Scripture ; and their functions declared to be absolutely 
 similar; the exhortation of the Apostle Paul to the 
 Ephesian elders (Acts xx. 28) shows conclusively that 
 presbyters exercised oversight and supervision over 
 one another. And as clearly as can be stated, there 
 is repeated reference in the Acts of the Apostles and 
 Pastoral Epistles, to the effect that presbyters were 
 endowed with the power of ordination, and exercised 
 that right in conferring on others their own order and 
 rank. In the " First Book of Discipline," drawn up by 
 John Knox in 1561, the scriptural order of the Christ- 
 ian ministry was clearly laid down. In these views 
 the Presbyterian Churches of Scotland have fully con- 
 curred — " All spiritual rights, such as preaching of the 
 word, dispensing of sacraments, ordaining of preachers, 
 and the exercise of discipline, are received only from 
 Christ ; by Him they are conferred upon the office- 
 bearers of the Church, who, in the exercise of such 
 rights, are subject only to the Church judicatories." 
 Further, it is declared "that in the pastoral life there 
 is no gradation of rank, and that none of the clergy 
 exercised lordship over the people, but that they use 
 only the ministry of the word and of the Church 
 of God. 
 
 "The Christian minister," writes Bishop Lightfoot, 
 " is God's ambassador to men ; he is charged with the 
 ministry of reconciliation, he unfolds the will of heaven, 
 he declares in God's name the terms on which pardon 
 is offered, and he pronounces in God's name the absolu- 
 
Bishop Lightfoot on the Christian Ministry, 209 
 
 tion of the penitent." "But throughout his office is 
 representative and not vicarial." " He is a priest, as 
 the mouthpiece, the delegate of a priestly race. His 
 acts are not his own, but the acts of the congregation." 
 In a word, the Christian ministry and the characteristic 
 offices and functions of the Christian minister find their 
 completest and permanent realisation in the recog- 
 nition of that New Testament truth so dear and 
 precious to every Christian heart — the universal priest- 
 hood of believers. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 PUBLIC WORSHIP UNDER THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 Tlie Restoration v. Times of Persecution. 
 
 The worship of the Church of Scotland underwent a 
 considerable change, in outward form at least, during 
 the Commonwealth. The iron hand of Cromwell fell 
 heavily on the Church, and left its mark on its ritual. 
 The lapse of two hundred years has failed to rid it of 
 certain rites and ceremonials imposed upon it by the 
 strong predominating Puritanism of the times. The 
 old, free, more elastic spirit of the Reformation period 
 yielded to the narrow and stiffening influences which 
 the Independents had carried with them from Puritan 
 England. Public worship, though not interfered with 
 by the authorities, changed to a certain extent its com- 
 plexion, becoming more sombre and grave, and devel- 
 oped in many instances into a joyless and dismal 
 service, prolonged often to a point beyond endurance. 
 
 One thing which greatly tended to increase and 
 spread this puritanic influence in the worship of the 
 Church was the dissensions within the Church between 
 the Resolutioners and the Protesters. The Resolu- 
 tioners represented the Broad School party of to-day, 
 the Protesters the section that was more rigid. Crom- 
 well lent his favour to the Protesters, and by his help 
 and powerful influence they proved the stronger for a 
 time. In this way, the Protesters were brought into a 
 
Rare Celebration of the Coinmunion. 2 1 t 
 
 somewhat close relation to the Independents, bent 
 under their influence, imbibed many of their views, and 
 gradually yielded to the hardening spirit which charac- 
 terised their forms of worship. The slow, but drastic, 
 changes which were affecting the life of the Church at 
 this period may be specially marked in connection with 
 the celebration of the Communion. Owing to a com- 
 bination of circumstances, it had become the custom in 
 Scotland to have the Communion celebrated in the 
 various churches very rarely. This remark is equally 
 true as regards both the Presbyterian and Episcopal 
 Churches. During the twenty-eight years of prelatical 
 rule under the Stuarts, there were in Glasgow, under 
 six successive archbishops, with capitular and parochial 
 clergy, only two Communions, and these were ad- 
 ministered in the Presbyterian form, the Communicants 
 seated at the long table. Since the breach in the Pres- 
 byterian Church between Resolutioners and Protesters, 
 these celebrations had become rarer still. Between 
 1645 and 1688, Glasgow had only six celebrations, 
 while during the same period of Presbyterianism, six 
 years in succession lapsed without a single celebration 
 in Edinburgh and St Andrews. From year to year 
 ministers delayed dispensing the sacrament owing to 
 the complicated political situation and the grievous 
 schism in the Church. But when the Protesters cele- 
 brated the Communion, it was not simply for their own 
 parishes, but for as many as had a wish to take part in 
 the service. Large crowds from neighbouring parishes 
 were gathered together. Services were multiplied, and 
 so a new state of things was inaugurated in Scotland, 
 and which may be still seen in its maturity in the 
 Highlands of Scotland. What was begun by the 
 Protesters in due time was carried out by the Church 
 
212 Public Worship under the Commonwealth. 
 
 of the Revolution, and became an essential part of the 
 ordinary services of the Church. But such changes or 
 innovations never received the sanction of any General 
 Assembly, or even the consideration of any properly 
 constituted Presbytery of the Church. 
 
 Another change was introduced into the Church 
 about this time. It pertained to the formation of the 
 sermon. The old style of sermon was according to a 
 uniform mould. Burnet speaks of it in this wise — 
 " The preachers went all in one track, of raising obser- 
 vations on points of doctrine out of their text, and 
 proving these by reasons, and then of applying those 
 and showing the use that was to be made of such a 
 point of doctrine, both for instruction and terror, for 
 exhortation and comfort, for trial of themselves upon 
 it, and for furnishing them with proper directions and 
 help, and this was so methodical that the people grew 
 to follow a sermon quite through every branch of it." 
 
 The new style of sermon which was growing into use 
 is described by Bailie, in his allusion to Andrew Gray, 
 as follows : — " He has the new guise of preaching which 
 Mr Hew Binning and Mr Robert Leighton began, con- 
 temning the ordinary way of exponing and dividing a 
 text, of raising doctrines and uses ; but runs into a 
 discourse on some common head, in a high, romancing, 
 unspiritual style, tickling the ear for the present, and 
 moving the affections in some, but leaving, as he con- 
 fesses, little or nought to the memory or understanding. 
 This we must misken (ignore), for we cannot help it." 
 With our knowledge of the eminent qualifications and 
 piety which marked the three men mentioned by Bailie 
 in this passage, we can see that the fears entertained by 
 him regarding this new style of sermon were unnecessary, 
 and his criticism wide of the mark. 
 
Brownism : Its Effects on Public Woi^ship. 2 1 3 
 
 As a sign both of the liberty enjoyed by ministers 
 during the Commonwealth, and their spiritual care and 
 oversight of the people, the Edinburgh clergy began in 
 1650 a course of daily lectures. Each officiated in 
 turn, and being convinced in their own minds that the 
 discontinuance of the office of reader entailed a serious 
 loss on congregations, and prevented many from know- 
 ing the Scriptures aright, they took such steps as seemed 
 good to them for the better instruction and teaching of 
 the youth of the Church in the Bible and Catechism. 
 The result of such movements led in many churches to 
 the restoration of the common reader and the singing 
 of Psalms on the Lord's Day. While it may be ad- 
 mitted that the Congregationalism imported to Scot- 
 land by Cromwell's troops produced some marked 
 changes in the Presbyterian worship, yet it is clear 
 that certain influences had been at work many years 
 prior to his coming, which were all setting in the direc- 
 tion of making vast inroads on the old ritual of the 
 Church in use since the Reformation. As far back as 
 the first quarter of the seventeenth century a party had 
 sprung up in England opposed to all fixed forms of 
 worship, and they had sympathisers in Scotland. They 
 were made up of the mixed body that went under the 
 name of Sectaries, Puritans, Brownists. The Brownists 
 were the extreme and fanatical party of the movement. 
 Brown, their founder, had come to Scotland w^ith the 
 object of gaining converts to his extreme views. But 
 the Presbyterians as a body received him coldly, de- 
 nounced him as a heretic, and would, if they had had 
 the power, have crushed him and his " accomplices," as 
 his followers w^ere called. He, however, made a numer- 
 ous body of disciples, and fifty years later the Brownist 
 faction or separatists had grow^n up to be a numerous 
 
2 1 4 Public Worship under the Commonwealth. 
 
 section. They united their forces with those of the 
 incoming Independents under Cromwell, and became a 
 power of considerable importance in bringing about 
 those changes in the worship of the Scottish Church 
 which we have already indicated. They had been a 
 source of considerable dispeace to the Covenanting 
 party in the day of their triumph, and now, when the 
 strong hand of Cromwell was laid on the Church, they 
 attempted to bend Presbyterianism to their peculiar 
 way of thinking. Their principle was that they should 
 have no combined system of Church government, 
 whether Prelatic or Presbyterian, but that each 
 Christian congregation should be a church in itself. 
 They set themselves to abolish all outward church 
 forms of worship and religious ceremonies as far as 
 possible. They condemned the solemn observance of 
 marriage in the church, alleging that marriage was 
 simply a civil contract, and should be confirmed in the 
 presence of a magistrate. They rejected all forms of 
 prayer, and held that the Lord's Prayer was not to be 
 recited as a prayer, as it only was intended to serve as 
 a model or rule on which all our prayers are to be 
 formed. Their church officers were chosen from among 
 themselves, and separated to their several functions by 
 fasting, prayer, and the laying on of hands. But they 
 did not admit that the office of the priesthood or 
 ministry was a distinct order. As the vote of the 
 brethren made a man a minister, so the same power 
 could discharge him from his office and reduce him to 
 a layman again. Any member of the congregation 
 was allowed the liberty of giving a word of exhortation 
 to the people, and it was usual for some of them, after 
 sermon, to ask questions and reason upon the doctrines 
 that had been preached. In spite, however, of all such 
 
Ptcritafi Effects on Public Worship. 2 1 5 
 
 influences of a strongly puritanic and one-sided nature, 
 Scottish worship, although it passed through certain 
 shades of change, remained essentially unaltered, and 
 continued to bear its own peculiar type of nationality. 
 The strongest Anglican influences, whether of a purely 
 prelatic colour or puritanical cast, have alike failed to 
 transform the ritual of the Presbyterian Church of 
 Scotland in its vital and material being, or tear it 
 away and dislodge it from the position it took up at 
 the Reformation in 1560. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 PUBLIC WORSHIP UNDER THE COMMONWEALTH — 
 co7itimied. 
 
 The Restoration of Episcopacy. 
 
 In May 1660, Charles II. made his triumphal entry 
 into London. The Commonwealth was over, the resto- 
 ration of Monarchy had come. With it came a time 
 of licence and change, which augured no good for 
 Scotland and her Covenanted Church. Very soon 
 troubles fell thick and heavily on the land, and for 
 twenty-eight years sufferings, persecutions, and merci- 
 less slaughtering were meted out to those who remained 
 faithful to the Reformed faith of Scotland. Charles 
 II., who had avowed himself a Presbyterian, and had 
 sworn the Solemn League and Covenant, at once 
 declared his intentions regarding the Church in Scot- 
 land. An Act rescinding the legalisation of the last 
 twenty years was passed, and Episcopacy virtually re- 
 established. Certain ministers went up to Westminster 
 Abbey to be consecrated bishops, and were assigned 
 dioceses on their return. The vested rights of all 
 ministers who had been ordained for twelve years were 
 left undisturbed, but those of lesser standing were 
 obliged to have their ordination ratified by receiving 
 collation from the bishop. By altering in this way the 
 government of the church it was thought that in time 
 its ritual would necessarily conform itself to that of 
 216 
 
Episcopacy Re-established. 217 
 
 Episcopacy. No attempt was therefore made to im- 
 pose by royal authority prelatical forms of worship on 
 the church. Imitation and time were looked upon as 
 the two potent factors at work which would bring 
 Presbyterian Scotland into conformity with Episcopal 
 England. 
 
 Meanwhile the only difference between Episcopalian 
 and Presbyterian worship was that Episcopalian minis- 
 ters used the Lord's Prayer and the Doxology, and had 
 given up lecturing, which Presbyterians refrained from 
 doing. Occasionally the Creed, the Decalogue, and the 
 prose Psalter were recited in Episcopal churches. But 
 worshippers were under no restraint, and so far as out- 
 ward forms of service went, it would be difficult indeed 
 to mark any striking difference between the two parties- 
 Strange as it may seem, up to the year 1712, when an 
 Act of Toleration was passed, no prayer book was in 
 general use in the services of the Scottish Episcopal 
 Church. And, stranger still, the rite of confirmation 
 had been scarcely in use since the Reformation. One 
 difference, however, seems to have existed, and it was 
 this — Episcopalians stood and Presbyterians sat at 
 prayer : but both churches administered the Com- 
 munion to their members sitting. Thus there was no 
 liturgy or appointed form of prayer in the public wor- 
 ship of the Church of the Restoration, and even the old 
 machinery of kirk-sessions and presbyteries continued 
 to move and act as heretofore. So immature was the 
 nation for any change that Laud's unfortunate liturgy 
 of 1637 was never attempted to be thrust upon the 
 church. 
 
 We learn something regarding the forms of worship 
 generally in use at this period from the ministers of the 
 Synod of Dunblane during the Episcopate of Leighton. 
 
2 1 8 Public Worship tinder the Commonwealth, 
 
 From the exhortations addressed year after year to the 
 clergy of his diocese, we can see that the new order of 
 things proceeded very slowly. He complained of the 
 neglect of the Lord's Prayer, the Doxology, the Deca- 
 logue, and the Creed. He insists that portions from 
 both the Old and New Testaments be read at all diets 
 of worship. He makes sad complaint regarding the 
 infrequency of the celebration of the communion, and 
 says, " it is one of the great defects and reproaches 
 of our church that that great ordinance, being so use- 
 ful for the increase of holiness, should be so seldom 
 administered as with us it is, even where it is 
 oftenest." Despairing of making the rite of confirma- 
 tion a rule in his church, he simply pleads for the 
 reception of the young to their first communion by 
 their own minister, "with solemn acknowledgment of 
 their baptismal vow." Protesting against the irreverent 
 posture of sitting at prayer, he counsels his clergy to 
 " endeavour to reduce the people from the irreverent 
 deportment they have generally contracted in public 
 worship, particularly from their most indecent sitting at 
 prayer." Showing, however, the prelatic tendencies of 
 the period and the desire to alter the public worship of 
 the church and mould it increasingly after an Episcopal 
 pattern, we find certain efforts put forth by a section of 
 the church to give a liturgical form to the ritual of the 
 Westminster Directory. And as early as 1661 the 
 Synod of Lothian was instructed by the Scottish Par- 
 liament to pass an ordinance to the effect that at 
 baptism it should be necessary that parents should 
 repeat the Creed, and that the Doxology be sung by 
 the congregation at the close of each service. This, 
 however, the Synod refused to do. Other Synods, 
 however, took up the matter, and passed certain enact- 
 
Public Worship according to an Eye- Witness. 219 
 
 ments, enjoining on congregations to carry out the 
 orders of the Lords of Council in respect to the altera- 
 tions in public worship. But all these orders, appeals, 
 instructions, and exhortations of the Lords of Council, 
 synods, and bishops were of no avail, and bore com- 
 paratively little fruit. The essential life of Presbyterian 
 worship underwent little or no change. It in no way 
 lost its nationality. The few ritual modifications im- 
 posed upon it did not touch its inner being. They 
 simply brought the Reformed Church back to the posi- 
 tion it occupied in its form of ritual and service in its 
 best days when it came from the plastic influences of 
 John Knox and Andrew Melville, and had not taken 
 upon it the hardening and narrowing impress of Eng- 
 lish Independency or Irish Ultra-Presbyterianism. 
 
 From a most impartial statement made by Morer, 
 an English chaplain, who visited Scotland in the early 
 days of the Revolution, we can gather that the worship 
 of the nation was essentially Presbyterian. " The Epis- 
 copal Church," he says, " have hitherto used no liturgy 
 at all, no more than the Presbyterians who now govern, 
 and their whole service on the Lord's Day depend on 
 these particulars— First the precentor, about half an 
 hour before the preacher comes, reads two or three 
 chapters to the congregation of what part of Scripture 
 he pleases, or as the minister gives him directions. As 
 soon as the preacher gets into the pulpit, the precentor 
 leaves reading, and sets a psalm, singing with the people 
 till the minister, by some sign, orders him to give over. 
 The psalm over, the preacher begins, confessing sins 
 and begging pardon, exalting the holiness and majesty 
 of God, and setting before Him our vileness and pro- 
 pensity to transgress His commandments. Then he 
 goes to sermon, delivered always by heart, and, there- 
 
2 20 Public Worship tmder the Commonwealth. 
 
 fore, sometimes spoiled by battologies, little impertin- 
 ences, and incoherence in their discourses. The sermon 
 finished, he returns to prayer, thanks God for that 
 opportunity to deliver His word, prays for all mankind, 
 for all Christians, for that particular nation, for the 
 sovereign and royal family, without naming any, for 
 subordinate magistrates, for sick people, especially such 
 whose names the precentor hands up to him, then con- 
 cludes with the Lord's Prayer, to sanctify what was 
 said before. After this, another psalm is sung, named 
 by the minister, and frequently suited to the subject of 
 his sermon, which done, he gives the benediction and 
 dismisses the congregation for that time. This is the 
 morning service, which being repeated pretty early in 
 the afternoon, because in the interim they eat nothing, 
 makes up the Lord's Day duty as to public worship. 
 . . . This is the Church's way in Scotland, and seems 
 to us Presbyterian. They both do it after the same 
 manner, saving that after the psalm, the Episcopal 
 minister uses the Doxology, which the other omits, and 
 concludes his own prayer with that of the Lord's Prayer, 
 which the Presbyterian refuses to do." Alluding to 
 baptism, he describes its administration as resembling 
 in almost every particular our traditional form with the 
 one exception that certain questions from the Apostles* 
 creed were put to the father. The Lord's Supper, he 
 says, was seldom celebrated, and when it was adminis- 
 tered it was " dispensed to the people while they are 
 sitting, after the example of the Apostles eating the 
 old Passover." '* Marriages," he tells us, " were openly 
 solemnised in the church, and indifferently on any day 
 of the week." " Burials," he notes, " are made without 
 a minister, whom they will have so far from Popery 
 concerning the dead, that he must not be concerned in 
 
Services of the Covenanters. 2 2 1 
 
 interring tlie corpse, and is seldom seen at their most 
 solemn funerals." 
 
 At the services conducted by the Covenanters in the 
 open air, the ritual was naturally of the simplest and 
 plainest order. The circumstances of the times neces- 
 sarily gave the prominent place to lecturing and preach- 
 ing. Still, there was a strict regard to the more purely 
 devotional exercises of prayer and singing as formerly 
 adhered to in the old parish churches, though the 
 function of praise had often to be dispensed with owing 
 to the fear of congregations being harassed by per- 
 secutors. The sacraments were orderly and systema- 
 tically celebrated at the conventicles and open-air 
 services, and many a staunch and resolute Cameronian 
 held his first-born over the running stream, amid the 
 fastnesses of Galloway and Ayr, to receive from the 
 hands of his saintly minister the sacramental water 
 which was to " signify and seal " the ingrafting into 
 Christ of his infant, and his engagement to be the 
 Lord's. And no picture of old Covenanting times and 
 days of hot persecutions is more touching and beautiful 
 than that which brings before us the huge gatherings 
 of the faithful, met under the great dome of Heaven, 
 and the sacred Communion tables spread on the green, 
 served by elders of grave and reverend deportment, 
 handing to the devout and eager congregation the 
 elements of bread and wine, symbols of the death of 
 that great High Priest and King for whom they were 
 content to suffer the loss of all things. And as the 
 table service closed and solemn thanksgiving rose from 
 every heart to the Rock of their salvation, it must have 
 been right pleasant as the night fell "to hear this 
 melody swelling in full unison along the hills, the 
 whole congregation joining with one accord and praising 
 God with the voice of a psalm." 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 WORSHIP IN THE CHURCH OF THE REVOLUTION — 
 DECAY OF CHURCH RITUAL. 
 
 At the Revolution there was no direct legislation on 
 the worship of the Church of Scotland. The Church 
 was left very much to itself to follow out that form of 
 ritual which in course of time and by " use and wont " 
 had come to be recognised as an essential element of 
 Presbyterian worship. Indeed, there was no obvious 
 call on the part of the Revolution Government to legis- 
 late on the matter, for although there were the two 
 Churches, Presbyterian and Episcopal, each with its 
 well-defined differences in Government and polity, their 
 forms of worship were so much alike that, with one or 
 two exceptions, no worshipper would be able to say 
 which was Presbyterian and which Episcopalian. We 
 know on the best authority that as yet the Episcopal 
 Church used no liturgy. The use of the Lord's Prayer, 
 the Doxology, and the recital of the Decalogue and the 
 Creed seem to have been the only distinguishing marks 
 of the Episcopal service. It does seem, from Leighton's 
 exhortation to his clergy in the diocese of Dunblane, 
 that it was not customary even for the clergy to read 
 lessons at public service from both the Old and New 
 Testament. 
 
 An Episcopal minister, evidently one of the ejected, 
 writing in 1690, gives us an account of the ceremonial 
 
Episcopal Service of this Period. 223 
 
 of his Church. It certainly tells us very plainly what 
 we desire to know regarding the religious forms of the 
 Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches of the Revolution 
 period. " As to the worship," he says, " it is exactly 
 the same both in the church and conventicle. In the 
 church there are no ceremonies at all enjoined or prac- 
 tised, only some persons more reverent think fit to be 
 uncovered, which our Presbyterians do but by halves, 
 even in the time of prayer. We have no liturgy nor 
 form of prayer — no, not in the cathedrals. The only 
 difference on this point is our clergy are not so bold or 
 over fulsome in their extemporary expression as the 
 others are, nor use so many vain repetitions, and we 
 generally conclude one of our prayers with that which 
 our Saviour taught and commanded, which the other 
 party decry as superstitious and formal. * Amen,' too, 
 gives great offence, though neither the cleric nor people 
 use it, only the minister sometimes shuts up his prayer 
 with it. The sacraments are administered after the 
 same way and manner by both, neither so much as 
 kneeling at the prayers or when they receive the ele- 
 ments of the Lord's Supper, but all sitting together at 
 a long table in the body of the church or chancel. In 
 baptism neither party use the cross, nor are any god- 
 fathers or godmothers required, the father only promis- 
 ing for his child. The only difference in this sacrament 
 is, the Presbyterians make the father swear to breed up 
 his child in the faith or belief of the Covenant or Solemn 
 League, whereas the orthodox cause the father to repeat 
 the Apostles' Creed and promise to breed up the child 
 in that faith which himself then possesses." 
 
 In the altered circumstances of the Revolution Settle- 
 ment it was natural that there should be a demand 
 made by the Presbyterians for settling Presbytery on a 
 
2 24 Worship in the Church of the Revolution. 
 
 firm and solid basis. This demand was without much 
 delay acceded to. In the second session of the first 
 Parliament of William and Mary, in 1690, a decided 
 step was taken in the interests of the Church of Scot- 
 land. The Confession of Faith was ratified and estab- 
 lished " as the public and avowed confession of this 
 Church, containing the sum and substance of the doc- 
 trine of the reformed Churches." At the same time 
 there was confirmed and ratified the Presbyterian 
 Church Government by kirk-sessions, presbyteries, 
 synods, and general assemblies, as ratified and estab- 
 lished in 1592, and the first meeting of the General 
 Assembly of the Re-established Presbyterian Church 
 of Scotland was appointed " to be at Edinburgh, the 
 third Thursday of October next to come in this instant 
 year 1690." 
 
 It is noteworthy that the Directory of Public Wor- 
 ship was not ratified by the Parliament of 1690. By 
 an ordinance of the English Parliament in 1644-45 it 
 had been confirmed and ratified. By that same ordin- 
 ance the Book of Common Prayer was set aside, and the 
 Directory ordered to be observed throughout the three 
 kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. It does 
 appear that it was the wish of the ministers and pro- 
 fessors of the Church of Scotland to establish and ratify, 
 along with the Confession of Faith, the " Larger and 
 Shorter Catechism," and the " Directory of Worship and 
 Presbyterial Church Government and Discipline ; " but, 
 in some unaccountable way, although formally brought 
 under the notice of the Scottish Estates, they were not 
 adopted or any serious action taken to secure for them 
 the sanction and approbation of the House. Report 
 has it that, on the motion of the Duke of Hamilton, the 
 entire thirty-three chapters of the Confession were read 
 
Assembly of 1 6(^0 v. Directory of Worship, 225 
 
 over "with a distinct and audible voice," and then rati- 
 fied ; but that " after hearing the Confession of Faith 
 read over the House grew restive and impatient, could 
 stand out no longer, and too gladly listened to a pro- 
 posal to be content with what it had received, and 
 forbear the Catechism and Directory." Thus the 
 Directory, along with the National Covenant and the 
 Solemn League and Covenant, formed no place in 
 the Revolution Settlement of the Scottish Parliament. 
 Nor did the Directory fare any better in the Superior 
 Court of the Church. The first meeting of the General 
 Assembly was not held for fully eighteen months after 
 the Revolution Settlement. It met at Edinburgh on 
 the 1 6th of October 1690, and consisted of one hundred 
 and eighty ministers, and was the first to be convened 
 after a lapse of thirty-seven years. The Government, 
 through the Royal Commissioner, exercised its utmost 
 influence to impress upon the members of Assembly 
 the necessity of exercising the greatest moderation and 
 " a calm and peaceable procedure " ; and the Assembly, 
 deeply convinced that the peculiar temper of the times 
 called for moderation and the grace of temperateness 
 in dealing with all matters affecting religion and the 
 regulation of the Church, assured King William that 
 nothing would be awanting on their part in complying 
 with his wishes. " The God of Love, the Prince of 
 Peace," they replied, "with all the providences that 
 have gone over us, and circumstances that we are 
 under, as well as your Majesty's most obliging 
 pleasure, require of us a calm and peaceable pro- 
 cedure." Evidently with a sincere desire to carry out 
 this "calm and peaceable procedure," the Assembly of 
 1690 made no reference in any of its declarations 
 and acts to the Directory of Worship. To have con- 
 
 p 
 
2 26 Worship in the Church of the Revohition. 
 
 firmed and ratified it would naturally have given 
 occasion for strife and wrangling, constituted as that 
 first Revolution Assembly was, and composed of so 
 many different elements. All that the Assembly did 
 in connection with worship was the ratifying of earlier 
 acts against the private celebration of the Sacrament, 
 the object of which was to prohibit "the administration 
 of the Lord's Supper to sick persons in their houses 
 and all other use of the same, except in the public 
 assemblies of the church, and also the administration 
 of baptism in private, that is in any place or at any 
 time where the congregation is not orderly called 
 together to wait on the dispensing of the word." 
 
 Friction was caused here and there throughout the 
 country owing to the desire on the part of the advo- 
 cates of Presbyterianism and Episcopacy to push their 
 respective views in regard to the proper conduct of 
 public worship. It was a time of religious upheaval, 
 and parties in the excitement of the movement were 
 prone to show their want of discretion and judicious- 
 ness in forcing their opinions and modes of worship by 
 rough and severe measures. Both parties were equally 
 guilty in this respect, and it simply required a pre- 
 ponderance in numbers and influence of either party in 
 certain districts to initiate and carry out a system of 
 noisy and determined opposition and disturbance 
 against the other religious sections in the country. 
 In such counties as Ayr and Dumfries, and generally 
 in the West of Scotland, the stricter forms of Presby- 
 terian worship were advocated and followed ; while in 
 Aberdeen and many of the northern counties, and in 
 large districts in the Highlands, there was a decided 
 and clear majority for Episcopacy, and a clinging to 
 its ritual and forms of service. But gradually, without 
 
Influejtce of Episcopacy on Worship. 227 
 
 any interference on the part of the Government or any 
 explicit action of the General Assembly, the worship 
 of the future Presbyterian Church of Scotland was 
 settling itself The general drift of the bulk of the 
 nation was in the direction of the usages of the old 
 Reformed Church, and the simpler but severer and 
 bolder forms imposed upon it by the strong hand of 
 the Independents, and the powerful influence of the 
 Protesters. And only here and there this drift was 
 perceptibly held in check by the force which in certain 
 localities Episcopacy was able to exercise and divert 
 into other channels. But apart from this natural action 
 and reaction which were taking place among the varied 
 Churches, it can be asserted without controversy that, 
 with a few feeble and desultory attempts here and 
 there to make the use of the Lord's Prayer or Doxology 
 Church offences, the different sections of the religious 
 community were allowed to worship as it seemed good 
 to them. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 WORSHIP IN THE CHURCH OF THE REVOLUTION — 
 DECAY OF CHURCH RITUAL — continued. 
 
 During the reign of William and Mary there occurred 
 no change of any note in the ritual of the Churches in 
 Scotland. But the succession of Queen Anne to the 
 throne caused a flutter of hope in the breasts of the 
 Episcopalians. The prospect looked brighter for them. 
 Queen Anne was an ardent Episcopalian, and would 
 naturally befriend them in their strivings after a closer 
 approach to the service of the Church of England. 
 They had, as a body, to submit to not a few disabilities 
 and inconveniences, and these in all likelihood would 
 be swept away for ever. An Act of Toleration would 
 at once be passed in their favour ; what the Revolution 
 Settlement had done against them would be undone by 
 suchan Act. Great activity was shown bytheEpiscopalians 
 to lay their grievances before the world, and pamphlets 
 innumerable were circulated, emphasising the difference, 
 both doctrinal and ceremonial, which existed between 
 them and the Presbyterians. Their ultimate object 
 was to obtain the sanction of the Government to use a 
 liturgy in their worship, and in pleading for this right 
 they pointed to the Directory of Worship as part of the 
 ritual of the Presbyterian Church, and argued that they 
 had as much right to use a Book of Prayer in their 
 service as the Church of Scotland had. 
 
 Following up this suggestion, a " Humble address 
 and supplication of the suffering Episcopal clergy " was 
 
Episcopalians desiring Book of Prayer, 229 
 
 published in 1703, representing to Her Majesty the 
 " deplorable condition of the National Church since the 
 suppression of the truly ancient and apostolic govern- 
 ment of the Church by bishops." The address referred 
 to the " disgrace brought on a Christian land, wherein 
 those consecrated at the altar to the service of Christ 
 lacked bread, and were dispersed as wanderers." As a 
 result of such an address an Act was brought in by 
 Lord Strathnaore on the ist June "for a toleration to 
 all Protestants in the exercise of religious worship." 
 Two days afterwards, we are told, Parliament called for 
 and read the Queen's letter to the Council, but the 
 matter soon subsided, and gave place to questions of 
 seeming greater interest to the nation. The feeling of 
 the statesmen was tersely put by Stair in his letter to 
 Godolphin — " Many who were for the toleration do not 
 think it of that consequence as to lose the Presbyterians 
 for it, who are the most numerous and the most eager 
 party in the Parliament." What really took place as 
 the outcome of this movement was the ratification and 
 confirming of '* all laws, statutes, and Acts of Parlia- 
 ment made against Popery and Prelacy, for establish- 
 ing, maintaining, and preserving the true Reformed 
 Protestant Religion and the true Church of Christ as 
 at present owned and settled within this kingdom ; " 
 " and for establishing, ratifying, and confirming Presby- 
 terian Church Government and Discipline, as agreeable 
 to the Word of God, and the only government of 
 Christ's Church within this kingdom." The Episco- 
 palians had, therefore, made no way in the furtherance 
 of their object and the granting of their petition ad- 
 dressed to the Queen. The only result of their humble 
 supplication was the confirming of the Presbyterian 
 Church in Scotland as the Church most agreeable to 
 the Word of God in government and discipline. It 
 
230 Worship ill the Chtcrch of the RevohUion. 
 
 was very disappointing and heartless at best, and pro- 
 mised little for the realisation and fulfilment of their 
 hopes in the future. If a Tory Sovereign and a Tory 
 Parliament, with all their natural leanings towards 
 Episcopacy, were either unwilling or afraid as a matter 
 of policy to grant to its adherents such a reasonable 
 measure of toleration, then the prospects of ever having 
 their prayer answered seemed very far off indeed. 
 
 Looking closely into the history and inner life of the 
 Church of Scotland at this period, it strikes one that 
 the Revolution Church, with its increase of years and 
 steady accession of a new generation of ministers 
 serving her pulpits, showed a marked and growing 
 tendency to let slip many of the forms and usages of 
 the old Reformed Church, and to adopt a barer and 
 more severe ritual. Though the days of the Common- 
 wealth and the Presbyters were over, and such 
 names as Brownists and Revolutionists had all been 
 swallowed up in the Revolution of 1688, yet the sterner 
 spirit of the Protester still lived and exercised its 
 sway and influence in an increasingly rigid and 
 meagre service of public worship. In many parishes 
 throughout the land whatever seemed to savour of a 
 ceremonial nature was sternly opposed and put down 
 as popish or prelatical, and the forms and modes of 
 worship either of the Protesters or the Cameronians 
 at their conventicle services were adopted in preference 
 to the order and ritual laid down either by the West- 
 minster Divines in the Directory or in the form of 
 public worship sanctioned and used by such Reformers 
 as Knox and Melville. 
 
 Here and there throughout Scotland there were signs, 
 however, of a better state of things, and a desire to 
 retain some of the old ritual of the Church in her 
 happier and more prosperous days. Earnest and 
 
opposition to use of Lo7'ds Prayer. 23 1 
 
 orthodox men — men imbued with the very spirit of 
 Presbyterianism and loyal to its principles, and who 
 had contended with an invincible courage and deter- 
 mination against popery and prelacy in all their 
 different forms, raised their voices against the whole- 
 sale abandonment of the traditions and ceremonials of 
 the Reformed Church of 1560. At all costs it was 
 thought by some that at least the Lord's Prayer must 
 be retained and form a part of public worship. The 
 man that gave expression to this feeling, which pre- 
 vailed in the breasts of a large section in the Church, 
 was Sir Hugh Campbell. With enthusiasm and tena- 
 city of purpose he set himself to bring the Church to 
 a right and serious consideration of the propriety of 
 using such a prayer in the service of God's house. He 
 appealed to Scripture, to the traditions of the Church 
 Catholic, to the usage of the Reformed Church, and to 
 the Directory, and invoked the spiritual courts to have 
 it ordained that this universal prayer of Christendom 
 should continue to form a part of the ritual of the 
 Church of Scotland. But he pleaded in vain. All 
 that the Assembly could or would do, was to pass 
 an act drawing attention to what the Directory admon- 
 ished regarding its use. But there was not only seem- 
 ing indifference and apathy on the point, there was 
 bitter and narrow opposition to Sir Hugh's proposal. 
 Some of the most pronounced of the Evangelical 
 party attacked the project with the greatest fierceness. 
 Mr Hog, minister of Carnock, and afterwards well- 
 known as a keen supporter of the " Marrow Divinity," 
 was the chief opponent. In 1705 he published a 
 " Casuistical Essay on the Lord's Prayer," in which he 
 maintains that it was never intended by our Lord that 
 the Church should use it as a form of public devotion, 
 but only as a basis of instruction and model. As 
 
232 Worship in the Church of the Revolution. 
 
 showing the feelings of the age, and the horror with 
 which the majority of the Church regarded all tenden- 
 cies towards ritualism, it will suffice to quote a few 
 sentences from his book. While admitting that the 
 Lord's Prayer was in use in the Scottish Church 
 down to 1649 3,nd was still used in all Reformed 
 Churches, he asks the question — " Must we always 
 repeat these words ? Were not this a manifest pro- 
 stitution of them, and a downright turning all into 
 a lifeless, sapless, and loathsome form ? " And further 
 on he says, what certainly does sound harshly on our 
 ears, and must be repudiated as false and pernicious — 
 " Seeing our antagonists make use of this as the special 
 reason for concluding public prayer with these words, 
 rather than mentioning them at any other time, or in 
 any other manner, I must say it, and doubt not of the 
 concurrence of those who are exercised to godliness, 
 that it is (in this sense) an engine of hell not only far 
 contrary to the divine prescript, but likewise perversive 
 to the Gospel of Christ." The feeling thus expressed 
 by Hog, though not general, became in time pre- 
 dominating, and by the close of the eighteenth century, 
 the Lord's Prayer was never heard in the churches. 
 
 The postures during prayer at this period were 
 varied. There was no prescribed rule. Some knelt, 
 others sat, while a third party stood ; but sitting pre- 
 vailed. The Episcopalians generally stood at prayer, 
 but with the inrush of the English into Scotland, and 
 the gradual adoption of English ways and forms of 
 worship, there grew up a desire in favour of kneeling. 
 By-and-bye standing at prayer came to be the charac- 
 teristic mark of Presbyterian devotion — the old and 
 reverent form of kneeling adopted by the Reformed 
 Church of Knox being abandoned and thrust out as an 
 associate of popery. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 TREATY OF UNION — EPISCOPALIANS AND THE 
 ENGLISH LITURGY — ACT OF TOLERATION. 
 
 Although the Episcopalians in Scotland had been 
 disappointed in not obtaining from Queen Anne an 
 Act of Toleration and liberty to introduce the English 
 Liturgy into their services, there were attempts being 
 set on foot in different parts of the country to claim 
 the right and to exercise it openly. The result of such 
 movements was to create disturbance, and bring the 
 offending parties into collision with the State authorities. 
 And so alarmed was the General Assembly regarding 
 the advance of Prelacy, and the spread of Anglican 
 Ritual, that in 1707, it passed another act against 
 " Innovations in the Worship of God." The ritual 
 value of such an act directed against the introduction 
 of innovations in the worship of God by " Persons of 
 known disaffection to the present establishment, both 
 of Church and State," as said the Act of 1707, lies, as 
 it has been ably pointed out by Dr M'Crie, in his 
 " Public Worship of Presbyterian Scotland," in its 
 explicit, though parenthetical, reassertion of that prin- 
 ciple which gives distinctive character and form to 
 Presbyterian worship, the principle so strongly affirmed, 
 as has already been pointed out, in the utterances and 
 writings of the Scottish Reformers and Westminster 
 Divines — " Nothing is to be admitted in the worship 
 of God, but what is prescribed in the Holy Scriptures." 
 
 233 
 
2 34 Treaty of Union. 
 
 Great precaution and care was taken by the Presby- 
 terians in Scotland, that the Church of Scotland should 
 in no way suffer by the Union of England and Scotland 
 in 1707. Through the Commission and Assembly 
 they presented a " humble address and petition " to 
 the Estates of Parliament, supplicating that there be a 
 confirmation and ratifying of previous Acts of Parlia- 
 ment bearing upon the Confession of Faith, with an 
 express declaration " that the true Protestant Religion 
 contained therein, with the purity of worship presently 
 in use in this Church . . . shall remain and continue 
 unalterably." To this address, so urgently pleaded 
 and so forcibly worded, the Scottish Parliament gave 
 the most unqualified heed and satisfaction. Before the 
 Treaty of Union was produced for confirmation there 
 was passed a separate enactment, declaring as explicitly 
 and clearly as words can possibly do, that the United 
 Parliament would uphold in Scotland the Protestant 
 religion and the Presbyterian form of Church govern- 
 ment, and the worship presently in use in the Church, 
 and that every successor to the Throne, at his or her 
 accession, shall "swear and subscribe that they shall 
 visibly maintain and preserve the foresaid settlement 
 of the Protestant religion with the government, religion, 
 discipline, rights, and privileges of the Church as above 
 established by the laws of the kingdom in prosecution 
 of the claim of right." 
 
 The bill was ordered to be brought into the Com- 
 mons on the 8th of February, and was sent up to the 
 Lords on the ist of March. The one sentence in the 
 twenty-five articles of the Treaty of Union on the 
 adoption or rejection of which the measure now de- 
 pended was that entitled, " Act for securing the Pro 
 testant religion and Presbyterian Church Government." 
 A rider in the House of Lords was proposed to the 
 
Act seacring Presbyterian Worship. 235 
 
 Act in these terms—" Provided always that nothing in 
 the ratification contained shall be construed to extend 
 to an approbation or acknowledgment of the truth of 
 the Presbyterian way of worship, or allowing the 
 religion of the Church of Scotland to be what is styled 
 the true Protestant religion." On a second reading, 
 however, the rider was thrown out by a considerable 
 majority, and on the 6th March the Queen came to the 
 House of Lords and solemnly gave her royal assent to 
 the Act of Union. All that was necessary to be done 
 to secure the rights and liberties of the Church of 
 Scotland seemed to have been done in the passing of 
 the Act of Security. By this Act the Confession of 
 Faith and the Presbyterian form of Church government 
 were ratified and established " to continue without any 
 alteration to the people of the land in all succeeding 
 generations." So far as foresight and sagacity were 
 concerned it might appear that everything that was 
 possible was effected to make the Scottish Church safe 
 from any encroachment on the part of England. Yet 
 in spite of all such securities in the formal Acts of 
 Parliament and statute law there was a secret dread 
 and apprehension that not only the Jacobite Epis- 
 copalians in Scotland, but the extreme High Church 
 party in England, were bent upon breaking down the 
 power and impairing the rights and privileges of the 
 Church of Scotland. Opposed by such powerful ene- 
 mies the Presbyterian Church had a difficult part to 
 play. She required to act with extreme prudence and 
 wisdom, allied with the highest religious principle and 
 integrity. Then she had a disaffected nation to deal 
 with, for the Union was disliked as a whole by the 
 different religious sections, who had their own individual 
 objections to it, and were not backward in giving ex- 
 pression to them. But in so mixed a body as the Pres- 
 
236 Treaty of Union, 
 
 byterian ministry had in course of time become by the 
 drafting of so many of the prelatic curates into the 
 communion of the Church and her pulpits, it could be 
 foreseen, however prudently she might act and faithfully 
 and loyally adhere to her principles, that the dangers 
 and temptations which inevitably lay across the path 
 of her future career, would not only tax all her strength 
 and resources, but rob her of much of that which really 
 constituted her crown and glory. However, as time 
 went on, and as it became more and more apparent 
 that the government were honest in their endeavours to 
 put on a stable and secure and lasting foundation the 
 constitution of the Presbyterian Church, the bulk of her 
 ministers became reconciled to the outlook, and in 
 course of time threw in their support to the movement 
 in favour of an incorporating union. 
 
 But a new element of dissatisfaction with the Union 
 in course of time began to show itself The official 
 changes following the Union naturally brought about 
 a considerable influx of English families into Scotland. 
 These, as might be expected, were desirous of attending 
 services such as they enjoyed in their own churches in 
 England. It occurred to such parties that as the king- 
 doms were one that a clergyman in either part might 
 exercise the church rights and ministerial privileges he 
 did in the other. Of course he could not be appointed 
 to any of the benefices connected with the Presbyterian 
 Church as a State Church, but he might exercise his 
 clerical functions and duties for such as desired them. 
 Then, by degrees, English Episcopal ministers found 
 their way into Scotland, maintaining an independent 
 position, holding themselves aloof from the Scotch 
 Episcopal clergy, and using the Book of Common 
 Prayer and such liturgical services as were to be found 
 in the Church of England. 
 
Revival of Lmid' s Liturgy. 
 
 -0/ 
 
 Here there was an offence of a deep and aggravated 
 nature. Such clergymen haihng from England were 
 too suggestive of English supremacy and Episcopal 
 superiority. Then the use of the English Liturgy ran 
 directly counter to the principles of Presbyterians and 
 all that that Church had contended for during its long 
 and fierce struggle with Prelacy ; and to make matters 
 worse and more complicated, and add to the alarm and 
 apprehensions of the nation, a new edition of the hated 
 and fiercely-condemned book styled Laud's Liturgy 
 was issued, and became the Service Book of those 
 Episcopalians who refused to follow the English 
 Prayer Book. A purely English community thus 
 came to form itself in Scotland, cleaving to its peculiar 
 national tastes, and adhering in its religious services to 
 the Anglican forms in preference to anything in use 
 either in the Scottish Episcopal or Presbyterian 
 Churches, and as a result of this growth of the Eng- 
 lish party the Scottish Episcopal Church became more 
 and more allied to Jacobitism, assumed a ritualistic 
 air, and adopted either Laud's Liturgy or some other 
 service book to contra - distinguish itself from the 
 English section. 
 
 According to Hill Burton there seems to have been 
 at this period considerable confusion as to any standard 
 of liturgy among the Scots non-juring Episcopalians. 
 There was a general preference for Laud's Communion 
 Service and its repudiation of the commemorative 
 quality of the elements. Otherwise, while some in the 
 spirit of loyalty took Laud's Service Book because it 
 was ordered for use by King Charles, others, more 
 zealous for ecclesiastical rule in things sacred, varied 
 it somewhat. The variations seem generally to have 
 been made in manuscript for pulpit use. 
 
 Although matters glided on smoothly for some time, 
 
238 Treaty of Union. 
 
 it was apparent that very soon trouble would arise out 
 of the liberties taken by the EngHsh community in the 
 use of the Liturgy. What was feared soon came about. 
 It was thus. Among the ministers who had introduced 
 the Book of Common Prayers was one called Green- 
 shields, who officiated to a small congregation in Edin- 
 burgh. Greenshields was a Scotsman, and had received 
 his orders after the Revolution from Bishop Ramsay of 
 Ross, an " exauctorate bishop," or one who has no civil 
 or ecclesiastical status. After receiving orders he had 
 gone to Ireland, where he had held a curacy, and re- 
 turned to Scotland with letters of credentials from the 
 Archbishop of Dublin. He qualified by taking the 
 oath, and thus did not come within the penal laws. He 
 began service first in a room in the Canongate, and 
 then removed to a less public part of the town. The 
 congregation increasing in numbers soon came under 
 the notice of the Presbytery. By this court it was 
 found that Greenshields had invaded the privilege of 
 Presbytery, and " discharged him " from the perform- 
 ance of the ministerial office. Refusing to acknowledge 
 the sentence of the Presbytery, an appeal was made to 
 the Magistrates to render it effective, and after some 
 fruitless dealing with him, they committed him to prison 
 for obduracy. Twice an appeal was made by Green- 
 shields to the Court of Session, and twice it confirmed 
 the sentence. It seemed as if both the spiritual and 
 civil courts in the land were simply carrying out powers 
 granted to them in the Act of Security, and that no 
 purely English service could be performed in Scotland. 
 But the matter was not allowed to rest. The times 
 seemed favourable to the Episcopal party, and an 
 appeal was carried to the House of Lords. The case 
 was delayed for some considerable time, but in March, 
 171 1, a judgment was pronounced in favour of Green- 
 
Act of Tolei^ation of i^j 12. 239 
 
 shields. The decision came with all the greater surprise 
 to the people of Scotland owing to the fact that this 
 was the first appeal which had been made to the House 
 of Lords since the Union, and it lent a feeling of ex- 
 asperation and bitterness to many that the battle 
 between Presbyterianism and Episcopacy — for this 
 shape had the Greenshields controversy assumed — was 
 to be decided by the House in which the English 
 bishops sat. This struggle and decision assumed quite 
 an important shape, and acquired an influential setting 
 in history, inasmuch as the result of the appeal led up 
 to the passing of the Act of Toleration in the following 
 year — 17 12. 
 
 Toleration Act. 
 
 The success which the Episcopalian Jacobites had 
 secured in the Greenshields' case was followed up by 
 them in obtaining the passing of the Act of Toleration. 
 Although ostensibly a bill aiming at granting legal 
 toleration to Episcopalians in Scotland who desired to 
 use the Liturgy of the Church of England, it, however, 
 was designed by its promoters according to their own 
 confession to overturn the establishment of the Presby- 
 terian Church, and thereby show " that the security 
 thereof was not so thoroughly established by the Union 
 as they imagined." This Act purported to be " an Act 
 to prevent the disturbing of those of the Episcopal 
 communion in that part of Great Britain called Scot- 
 land in the exercise of their religious worship, and in 
 the use of the Liturgy of the Church of England, and 
 for repealing the Act passed in the Parliament of 
 Scotland, entitled * An Act against irregular Baptisms 
 and Marriages.' " 
 
 This Act further ordained it to be " free and lawful 
 for all those of the Episcopal communion in that part 
 
240 Treaty of Union, 
 
 of Great Britain called Scotland to meet and assemble 
 for the exercise of divine worship to be performed after 
 their own manner by pastors ordained by a Protestant 
 bishop, and who are not established ministers of any 
 church or parish, and to use in their congregations the 
 Liturgy of the Church of England if they think fit, 
 without any let, hindrance, or disturbance from any 
 person whatsoever." As a proof that this Act of 
 Toleration was not the large and generous measure 
 it presumed to be, it is worth noting that while it gave 
 a large toleration to the deposed Episcopal Establish- 
 ment and the Church of England in Scotland, it con- 
 tained intentionally a deep and grave offence to the 
 ministers of the Presbyterian Church. It embodied a 
 proviso that every Established Church minister as well 
 as every Episcopal curate protected by the Act, " should 
 be obliged to take and subscribe the oaths of allegiance 
 and abjuration, and that during divine service they 
 should pray for the Queen's Majesty, Princess Sophia 
 of Hanover, and all the Royal Family." In its applica- 
 tion to the Episcopal clergy this oath might be 
 regarded as a test of loyalty to the House of Hanover, 
 but to the Presbyterians, as Hill Burton points out, " it 
 was a gratuitous wound in one of the most sensitive 
 parts of their system." The clause as it stands is the 
 result, doubtless, of the jealousy and hatred existing 
 between the two factions, Whig and Tory, in the State, 
 and designed in the long run by those who openly con- 
 fessed their hostility to the Church of Scotland to create 
 schism and division in her communion, and " the mortifi- 
 cation of the Scots Presbyterians and Whig party." The 
 Assembly took all available and lawful steps to prevent 
 this Act becoming law, but all to no purpose. It was 
 ordered by the Commons to be brought in on the 2 1st 
 January 17 12. On the 7th February it was carried by 
 
Reading of Sermons introduced. 2 4 1 
 
 a large majority, passed on to the House of Lords, and 
 there carried with some amendments, and received the 
 Royal assent forthwith. It would have been well if the 
 Jacobite prelatists and English High Church party, with 
 their determined antipathy to the Presbyterian Church, 
 and their refusal to acknowledge it as a properly consti- 
 tuted part of the Apostolic Church, had borne in mind 
 the wholesome words with which the Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, Tennison, quelled the opposition of those who 
 complained that Presbytery should be established in 
 Scotland, while Episcopacy was established in England. 
 " The narrow notions," he remarked, " of all Churches 
 have been their ruin. I believe the Church of Scotland 
 to be as true a Protestant Church as the Church of 
 England, though it may not be so perfect." 
 
 In the Revolution Church the only day set apart for 
 worship or religious service was the Sabbath. All the 
 old festivals and holy days had disappeared. Daily 
 prayers had been given up. The churches remained 
 closed during week days, and in many parishes all that 
 was observed as worship was compressed within the 
 space of two hours during the Sabbath forenoon. The 
 worship of the nation had gradually hardened into that 
 bare and stereotyped shape which underwent little or 
 no change for the space of fully a hundred years. One 
 change which was made in the worship of the Church of 
 Scotland about this period was that of reading of sermons. 
 It was quite a novelty in Scotland, and was greatly dis- 
 liked by all classes. The reading of sermons was pecu- 
 liarly an English custom, and was unknown in any of the 
 churches of the Continent. It is still a comparatively 
 rare practice both among Roman Catholic and Protestant 
 Churches there. Its first appearance and attempted 
 introduction gave deep offence to Presbyterian con- 
 
 Q 
 
242 Treaty of Union. 
 
 gregations. When Nye, the well-known Independent 
 minister, visited Edinburgh in 1643, it was reported he 
 " did not please, because he read much out of his paper 
 book." And when, in 173 1, a Mr Armstrong read his 
 sermon before the Commissioner of Assembly, he was 
 called to account by the Assembly and his action dis- 
 approved of. But in spite of the strong dislike of the 
 people in general the custom increased, and by-and-bye 
 settled down as the recognised style of preaching in 
 certain districts and among certain sections. But the 
 feelings of the majority of worshippers resisted its pre- 
 valence in so many churches, believing that by such a 
 habit much of the evangelical force and fire and pointed 
 directness and power of appeal which characterised the 
 sermons of the old Reformed divines were being com- 
 pletely lost. Another custom which may be referred 
 to here in connection with preaching is one which long 
 prevailed in Scotland — that of being covered during 
 sermon, taking the hat off only at prayer. It appears 
 to have been common also in England, both among 
 churchmen and dissenters, and it would seem that such 
 an irreverent practice was one of the unwholesome and 
 unseemly inheritances left to the Church of Scotland 
 by that strange upheaval and medley of religious ex- 
 citement during the days of the Commonwealth. But 
 towards the close of the first decade of the eighteenth 
 century the custom was giving way, and a return was 
 being made to the more respectful manner of remaining 
 uncovered during the whole time of public worship. No 
 change has been more marked in Scotland during the 
 last twenty-five years than the increase of the feeling of 
 reverence shown by people on entering the house of 
 God. The most uncouth and boorish seem instinctively 
 to uncover their heads, as if conscious of being in the 
 presence of the Invisible. 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 PSALMODY IMPROVEMENTS— INTRODUCTION OF 
 PARAPHRASES AND HYMNS. 
 
 The Church of the Revolution seems to have been in- 
 spired with a sincere desire to improve the psalmody of 
 the Church. At a very early period of its history it 
 took up the work of the improvement of sacred song, 
 which had been interrupted when Cromwell put a stop 
 to the meetings of the General Assembly. In 1705 the 
 General Assembly, with the object of impressing on 
 ministers and congregations the propriety of having the 
 worship of God's House conducted in an orderly and 
 reverent manner, " seriously recommends to all ministers 
 and others within this National Church the true observa- 
 tion of the Directory for the Public Worship of God, 
 approved by the General Assembly held in the year 
 1645." And as showing in what light the Assembly 
 regarded psalmody and praise as forming essential 
 parts of public worship, it took steps at its meeting in 
 171 3 to impress on congregations the need of a more 
 decent performance of the public praise of God, and 
 issued this recommendation to presbyteries, " to use 
 endeavours to have such schoolmasters chosen as are 
 capable to teach the common tunes ; and that presby- 
 teries take care that children be taught to sing the said 
 common tunes ; and that the said schoolmasters not 
 only pray with their scholars, but also sing a part of a 
 
 243 
 
244 Psalmody Improvemejits. 
 
 psalm with them at least once every day." But the 
 Assembly took a step further. Not only did it pass an 
 Act anent the improvement of the psalmody of the 
 Church, it set itself to the task of determining in what 
 way the range of sacred songs suited for public worship 
 could be enlarged. Since the best days of Presby- 
 terianism men of standing and eminent poetical gifts 
 had endeavoured to paraphrase certain passages of 
 Scripture and render them suitable for public praise. 
 These passages came to be known as " Scriptural 
 Songs." Taking its stand on the liberty which the 
 Act of 1693 gave to the Church in all matters purely 
 spiritual, and believing that the Treaty of Union in 
 1707 in no way affected that liberty or curtailed the 
 Church in the exercise of its spiritual independence, the 
 Assembly of 1707 appointed a committee to revise the 
 "spiritual songs," with the object of having them sung 
 in the churches. This "Act and Recommendation con- 
 cerning the Scripture Songs " was transmitted to the 
 several Presbyteries " to endeavour to promote the use 
 of these songs in private families within their bounds 
 . . . and for facilitating the Assembly's work in pre- 
 paring the said songs for public use, the Assembly 
 hereby do recommend it to Presbyteries to buy up 
 copies of the said songs, and ordain the report of the 
 committees of the late Assembly to revise the songs 
 ... to be printed and transmitted to the several Pres- 
 byteries, that they may consider the same and compare 
 them with the book itself" 
 
 The Commission of Assembly of 1708 was further 
 empowered to " conclude, establish, publish, and emit it 
 for public use of the Church, as was formerly done on 
 the like occasion, and when our version of the Psalms 
 was published in the year 1649." But, owing to some 
 
" Scriptural Songs " and Paraphrases, 245 
 
 cause not very discernible, this book of Scriptural songs 
 was allowed to drop, and nothing definite was done until 
 the year 1745, when there appeared the first edition of 
 the Scottish Paraphrases, professing to be " Translations 
 and Paraphrases of several passages of sacred Scripture 
 collected and prepared by a committee appointed by 
 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and 
 by the Act of the last General Assembly, transmitted 
 to Presbyteries for their consideration." 
 
 The collection of Scripture songs recommended by 
 the Assembly of 1707 for family and public use had an 
 interesting and chequered history. It was composed 
 by Mr Patrick Simson, minister of Renfrew. It was 
 published in 1685. It consists of songs and metrical 
 renderings of passages both from the Old and New 
 Testaments. The composer, in stating his reasons for 
 compiling such a collection, and vindicating his action, 
 says in his preface that he sees no good cause why we 
 should not be allowed to " take of the Lord's own stuff 
 as well for singing as for praying and other holy uses, 
 especially those evangelical purposes that are not so 
 fully or clearly expressed in psalms and other Scripture 
 songs." The first thing the Assembly did was to submit 
 Simson's collection to the revision of two separate com- 
 mittees. The result of this revision was that out of 
 the six books of song the committees chose twenty-six 
 pieces, at the same time recommending that such pieces 
 selected should be put into the hands of some one 
 having "skill of poesie, competent to correct faults 
 found in the metre." This report was forthwith sent 
 down to Presbyteries with the object of having the said 
 songs carefully revised and opinions regarding the songs 
 recorded and transmitted to the Assembly. But the 
 interest taken in the collection was of the most meagre 
 
246 Psalmody Improvements. 
 
 description, very few Presbyteries troubling themselves 
 even to give an opinion on the matter. In the circum- 
 stances in which the Assembly found itself, and judging 
 from the general indifference and apathy of the Church 
 as a whole on this question of Scripture songs, the 
 Church Courts made no further attempts to give the 
 songs any place in the worship of the Church. In this 
 condition matters remained for thirty-two years. But 
 in 1 741 the question was again raised, and at the close 
 of the Assembly of that year an overture was intro- 
 duced " about turning some passages of the Old and 
 New Testament into metre, in order to be used in 
 churches as well as in families." At the next meeting 
 of Assembly, however, a step was taken in the direction 
 indicated. A committee was appointed " to make a 
 collection of ' translations,' into English verse or metre, 
 of passages of the Holy Scripture ; or receive in per- 
 formances of that kind from any who shall transmit 
 them." But little or nothing definite was done till 1745, 
 when there was issued the first edition of the Scottish 
 Paraphrases, as the result of the work of the committee 
 appointed by the General Assembly, revised and 
 amended by the several Presbyteries of the Church. 
 
 This book contained forty-five spiritual pieces in all. 
 It purported to be metrical versions of Scripture pas- 
 sages, taken alike from both books of Holy Scripture, 
 such as the 53rd chapter of Isaiah and the Lord's 
 Prayer, and such spiritual songs as "■ The Song of 
 Simeon " and " The Song of Mary." But the interest 
 in this book was no greater than in that of Simson's 
 collection. Except among a very few, there was no 
 desire for an enlarged range of spiritual songs. Presby- 
 terians had become so accustomed to sing the Psalms 
 of David that they had grown into the belief that any 
 
Book of Pa raph rases of ly^^. 247 
 
 other form of praise could not be acceptable to God. 
 Indeed, worshippers had not heard anything else sung 
 during public service than those psalms, and had come 
 to look upon them as all that was sanctioned by the 
 Word of God and the Church. The memories of the 
 old Reformed Church of Knox and Melville had been 
 blurred and well-nigh effaced by the stirring history of 
 the Commonwealth and persecuting times, and the fact 
 that their forefathers had in the best days of Presby- 
 terianism sung not only psalms, but hymns and spiritual 
 songs, as the Creed and Veni Creator, the Magnificat 
 and Doxology, had been allowed to slip out of their 
 minds as a something not to their credit. To show 
 how little interest was taken in this Book of Para- 
 phrases of 1745, it has to be recorded that for thirty-six 
 years subsequent the question relating to its contents, 
 as often as it came before the Assembly, was remitted 
 to the committee, with instructions to bring up a report 
 next year. After repeated delays from year to year, 
 the Assembly, yielding to the increasingly urgent 
 demands of the committee that some practical steps 
 should be taken, passed, in 178 1, an " Interim Act anent 
 the Psalmody," in which the judgment of the Assembly 
 is given in the following words : — " Appoints these 
 translations and paraphrases to be transmitted to the 
 several Presbyteries of the Church in order that they 
 may report their opinion concerning them to the en- 
 suing General Assembly, and in the meantime allow 
 this collection of sacred poems to be used in public 
 w^orship in congregations where the minister finds it 
 for edification." This interim permission of the Assem- 
 bly is, it seems, the only authoritative sanction ever 
 given for the use of paraphrases in the w^orship of the 
 Presbyterian Church of Scotland. 
 
248 Psahnody Improvements. 
 
 This edition of 1781 has for title — "Translations 
 and Paraphrases in verse of several passages of sacred 
 Scripture, collected and prepared by a committee of 
 the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in 
 order to be sung in churches." 
 
 Compared with the edition of the Scottish Para- 
 phrases, issued in 1745, this book of "Translations and 
 Paraphrases," published in 178 1, possesses a few marked 
 and distinctive features. The original collection of 
 1745 contained forty-five scripture songs, that of 1781 
 sixty-seven, and five hymns that had been subjoined. 
 It is believed that of these, nineteen were by Dr Watt, 
 three by Blair, the author of the " Grave " ; three by 
 William Robertson, minister of Greyfriars, and father 
 of the historian, and two by Dr Doddridge. No very 
 clear or satisfactory statement is forthcoming concern- 
 ing the way the five "subjoined" hymns made their 
 appearance. The first three are from the pen of the 
 accomplished poet and essayist, Addison ; the fourth 
 is the production of Isaac Watt, and the last is generally 
 attributed to John Logan, parish minister of South 
 Leith, and who was a large contributor to the collection 
 of spiritual songs of 178 1. Among the other authors 
 of the Paraphrases might be mentioned Thomas Black- 
 lock, the blind poet and minister ; Hugh Blair, the 
 popular preacher and Professor of Belles Lettres ; and 
 perhaps John Home, author of " Douglas, a Tragedy." 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 WORSHIP AT THE END OF LAST CENTURY. 
 
 Speaking of the state of Psalmody in the churches 
 about this period, Dr Leishman, in his article on "The 
 Ritual of the Church of Scotland," says — "There is 
 little doubt that by this time the singing of the 
 Scottish people had greatly deteriorated, and though 
 often hearty and devout, did not do justice to their 
 fine old melodies. The Psalm-book, with words and 
 music printed together, and wedded to each other as in 
 every other kind of vocal music, was no longer in every 
 hand. Improvement was impossible when untrained 
 congregations were at the mercy of untrained teachers, 
 choosing tunes at random from a very small repertory, 
 and breaking off the music and often the sense at every 
 sixth or eighth syllable. Woodrow was told by an 
 ancient man who had been in the ministry since the 
 time of the Westminster Assembly, that 'he thought 
 the Church of Scotland was short of other churches for 
 the exercise of singing praises to God.' " 
 
 The deterioration in singing in public worship alluded 
 to in the above passage was possibly more marked and 
 decided in the Church of Scotland than in the con- 
 gregations in connection with the Secessions. The 
 quickened spiritual life which was naturally the dis- 
 tinguishing mark of such churches, and the very 
 condition of their existence, doubtless lent to this part 
 
 249 
 
250 Worship at the End of Last Century. 
 
 of public worship a fervour and interest which redeemed 
 it from utter debasement. As early as 1748, the 
 brethren of the Associate Presbytery of Seceders, being 
 much pleased with the attempt made by Ralph Erskine 
 to paraphrase the Song of Solomon, and having re- 
 solved to enlarge their Psalmody, "recommended it 
 to the Reverend Mr Ralph Erskine to have under his 
 consideration a translation of the songs in Scripture 
 into metre, except the Psalms of David which are 
 already translated, agreeable to the recommendation 
 of the General Assembly, met at Edinburgh, i\ugust 
 28th, 1647." Having undertaken the task committed 
 to him by the Synod, Mr Erskine two years later 
 issued, " A Short Paraphrase upon the Lamentations, 
 in five chapters," and in 1752, "A New Version of the 
 Song of Solomon, in eight chapters." These, along 
 with subsequent productions, came to be known as the 
 " Scripture Songs " of Ralph Erskine, and were for 
 many years so popular, that the book reached its 
 twenty-fifth edition. But the songs are little known 
 in our day, and with the exception of one or two of 
 the pieces, find no place in any modern Hymnal. The 
 recommendation of the Associate Presbytery as to an 
 enlarged Psalmody took no practical shape, for in 1752, 
 on the death of Ralph Erskine, the Synod discharged 
 the committee appointed for that special purpose. 
 This action on the part of the Associate Synod, while 
 suggesting by its silence regarding the use of hymns 
 that the Seceders were not prepared to take any step 
 for their introduction, shows clearly that they were 
 in no way averse to the use of Paraphrases or trans- 
 lations of Scripture passages in the service of praise in 
 the sanctuary. 
 
 The Anti-Burghers glorifying in the fact that they 
 
Hymn and Snnphire Doxologies. 2 5 1 
 
 stood more resolutely than all the other churches in 
 the old ways, and followed more faithfully the traditions 
 of the Reformed Church of Scotland, nevertheless are 
 found, in spite of their "solemn warning addressed to 
 persons of all ranks in Great Britain and Ireland," 
 slowly moving in the same direction as their old 
 ministerial brethren of the Burgher Synod. For al- 
 though they make it very clear that they are opposed 
 to all who consider that the "Psalms of David are 
 inconsistent with the Spirit of the Gospel, and have 
 laid them aside as unfit to be sung in Christian 
 assemblies," and pronounce their unabated opposition 
 to grant leave to use " human hymns " or " hymns of 
 human composition" in public worship; yet they con- 
 fess they see no reason why other Scripture songs and 
 paraphrases of passages from the Bible should not be 
 permitted in the public worship of God. 
 
 If we follow the history of the Secession Churches 
 we shall find repeated references to this subject of praise 
 in the repeated declarations issued from their highest 
 spiritual courts. In 1820 the Burgher and anti-Burgher 
 Synods united and formed one body, and adopted a 
 new name, that of the United Secession. As a united 
 body they published in 1827 a "Testimony." This 
 testimony dealt with many of the defections of the day, 
 and protested against errors in doctrine and innova- 
 tions in worship which had crept into some of the 
 churches. Dealing with the subject of prayer, the 
 " Testimony " gives us such an indication of enlighten- 
 ment on the part of these old stern Presbyterians, 
 which is quite refreshing as well as surprising. It 
 says — " As Scripture doxologies and the divinely 
 approved petitions of saints may be warrantly adopted 
 in our devotional exercises, both public and personal, 
 
252 Worship at the End of Last Ce^itmy. 
 
 so may the Lord's Prayer be used by itself, or in con- 
 nection with other supplications," and under the head 
 of praise it declares — "We admit that other parts of 
 Scripture may be used in praise, but we reject the 
 principle that the Book of Psalms is not suited to the 
 Christian dispensation." 
 
 The Secession which took place in 1761, and formed 
 itself into the Relief Church, gives a testimony very 
 similar to that of the United Secession in teaching 
 upon this subject of Praise. Indeed, all throughout 
 its short history of eighty-six years the Relief Church 
 showed an inclination towards advanced views and 
 improvements in the forms of public worship. While 
 holding rigidly to the traditions and principles of the 
 old Scottish Church, and maintaining its claim as part 
 of the historical Reformed Church of Scotland, it all 
 throughout showed it was less hampered and bound 
 by the usages and innovations which had grown up in 
 the Church during the Commonwealth, and more alive 
 to, and in sympathy with, the spirit which animated the 
 Church in the days of Knox, Melville, and Henderson. 
 No sooner had it consolidated its strength and become 
 aware of the stability of its constitution and influence 
 in the land, than we find its Church Courts and ministers 
 taking steps to have an enlarged psalmody and service 
 of praise. To the Relief Church is due both the re- 
 sponsibility and honour of advocating for leave to 
 introduce hymns into the service of the Church. In 
 1793, owing to action being taken on the part of three 
 ministers in that body, an overture praying for an 
 enlargement of the Psalter was brought before the 
 Synod. The Synod sent the proposal down to Pres- 
 byteries to be discussed and commented on, in order 
 that the subject should be fully gone into at the next 
 
First Hymn Book — Relief Church. 253 
 
 meeting of Synod. The result was favourable not only 
 to the introduction of an enlarged psalmody, but also 
 of hymns. By the Synod of 1794, the selection of 
 paraphrases of Scripture words and hymns was approved 
 of, and though looked upon at first by some with sus- 
 picion, it soon grew in popularity, and was universally 
 adopted in the churches, and was, according to Dr 
 Struthers, the author of the history of the Relief Church, 
 " followed by a corresponding improvement in church 
 music, and the worship of praise became more varied, 
 animating, and peculiarly adapted to the doctrines of 
 the gospel." As a preface to the Relief hymn-book of 
 1794, there are the following words, which read like 
 an anticipation of the many arguments and apologies 
 which have been used by the advocates of hymn-singing 
 in the various Presbyterian bodies in Scotland ever 
 since the agitation in favour of hymns was started. 
 The preface, after allusion to the esteem in which the 
 Book of Psalms is held by all Christians, and that it is 
 pre-eminently suited above all other parts of holy writ 
 for public praise, says — " Are not the Psalms or songs of 
 Moses, of Isaiah, of Paul, of Peter, of John, and of other 
 sacred writers, as sacred and important as those of 
 David, Asaph, Heman, &c. } In particular, can any 
 just reason be assigned, why Christians should not 
 sing the songs of their own dispensation, but still con- 
 fine themselves to those of the ancient tabernacle and 
 temple t They very properly use passages of the New 
 Testament in their prayers, and why not also in their 
 praise } Our Psalms were reduced to metre by un- 
 inspired men, and may not other passages of Scripture 
 be formed into metre by uninspired men likewise, 
 and be every way as beneficial for the edification of 
 Christians." 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 MODERN IMPROVEMENTS IN CHURCH SERVICE. 
 
 It is beyond doubt that the worship in Presbyterian 
 Churches in Scotland at the close of last century had 
 become most perfunctory and formal in the extreme. 
 Divine service had been shorn of every vestige of ritual 
 and beauty, and the devotional element had come to 
 be regarded as a mere accessory or " preliminary," the 
 sermon, in the eyes of congregations, being esteemed as 
 the one thing necessary in the worship of the sanctuary. 
 Changes in the form and round of Church service had 
 come which would have been resented by an older 
 generation, and which would have shocked such Re- 
 formers as Knox and Melville, and compelled them to 
 think that much of their work had been wholly undone. 
 The hard, stiffening hand of English Puritanism lay 
 heavily upon the Church, and the strange and most 
 regrettable thing in the course of such a change was 
 that the more bare and bald the service became, the 
 more truly was it supposed to be a transcript of re- 
 formed worship, and the more faithfully were ministers 
 and congregations upholding the principles and consti- 
 tution of Presbyterianism. The frequency of secession 
 and dissent, not only from the State Church, but from 
 the Nonconforming bodies, and the setting up of rival 
 churches throughout the land, tended to increase this 
 rigid spirit, and to curtail and set aside as much as 
 possible any remains of the ritual and ceremonial of 
 254 
 
Decay of Presbyterian Worship. 255 
 
 the old Reformed Church still left. The Directory of 
 Public Worship had become entirely neglected, its out- 
 line of worship was never followed, it was a dead letter, 
 and each minister followed a course of service which 
 seemed good and sufficient in his own eyes. Public 
 prayers had become few, but extravagantly long and 
 formal, singing fearfully degraded and of the basest 
 type, the public reading of the Holy Scriptures becom- 
 ing rare, and in some places gradually passing into 
 extinction, the Lord's Prayer unknown and never used, 
 and congregations had at least lost all outward signs of 
 reverence and pious decorum, and in many places men 
 sat in church with their heads covered listening to the 
 sermon. Daily service had long ago disappeared, and 
 meetings for prayer had become most infrequent on 
 week evenings. Afternoon service, which had been 
 quite common in old days, had been given up in most 
 rural places, and with its discontinuance much solid 
 religious instruction and wholesome catechising of 
 the youth had been neglected. The whole drift and 
 tendency of the eighteenth century were undoubtedly 
 towards a positive impoverishment of Presbyterian wor- 
 ship, and an abandonment of that simple yet stately 
 ritual left to the Church as a rich legacy by the Re- 
 formers. To have used any of Knox's prayers, repeated 
 the Creed, or sung the Doxology, would have been 
 regarded as aping Episcopacy, or copying Prelacy in its 
 worst and most hated forms. So much had the Church 
 set herself against certain Anglicanising influences 
 which had crept into Scotland about the year 1637, 
 that in her terror and abhorrence of such influences she 
 had passed the Acts of 1705 and 1707 in favour of the 
 Directory and against Innovations, and rather lent her- 
 self to the drift which had come in with the dominating 
 
256 Modern Improvements in Church Service, 
 
 protesting party, and gradually tended to make the 
 public services of the Presbyterian Churches as slovenly 
 and devoid of beauty and decorum as could possibly 
 be. "The Parish Kirks," says Dr Story in his pam- 
 phlet, " The Reformed Ritual of Scotland," " owing to 
 the niggardliness of the heritors were comfortless and 
 coarsely furnished. The music was rough and un- 
 trained ; only in a few of the town churches was it 
 rendered with any attempt at taste or skill. The Bible 
 was scarcely read. The prayers were reduced to two 
 at the most, and were drearily long and uninteresting. 
 The Lord's Prayer was never heard. The sermon was 
 the great feature of the service, and it was too often a 
 * screed ' of dull doctrine or cold morality." 
 
 Towards the beginning of the second half of the 
 eighteenth century attacks on the part of Episcopalians 
 became frequent, in which the carelessness and irrever- 
 ence of Presbyterian worship were ridiculed, neglect in 
 the administration of the Sacraments severely censured, 
 and the general defects of the church unsparingly con- 
 demned. What was insisted upon as a satisfactory 
 method for removing such "inconveniences and defects" 
 was " the composition and establishment of some devout 
 liturgy or form of prayer for public worship," arranged 
 in such a way that " the minister may have liberty to 
 pray for all extraordinary cases in what words he thinks 
 proper." 
 
 Use of Hymns and Organs. 
 
 Such attacks, however prejudiced and charged with 
 ecclesiastical bitterness, drew the attention of a con- 
 siderable section of the Presbyterian Church to the 
 defects as stated, and roused in the breasts of many a 
 desire to return to a closer conformity with the ritual 
 of the church in her better days. One of the first who 
 
Dr Beat tie advocates nse of Organ. 257 
 
 set himself to this task was Dr James Beattie, Professor 
 of Moral Philosophy and Logic in Aberdeen. He first 
 turned his attention to the praise part of public worship, 
 and set about compiling a new version of the Psalms, 
 and the enlargement of the metrical Psalter. He en- 
 forces the duty of congregational singing with consider- 
 able emphasis, and strongly condemns the practice of 
 sitting during the singing of the Psalms, as opposed to 
 the very possibility of good and hearty singing. The 
 use of instrumental music in the church service he 
 cordially approves of, and contends that the reason- 
 ableness of using an organ as an aid to worship might 
 be proved " from Scripture, from the general practice 
 of Christians, from the constitution of the human mind, 
 and from the very nature of the human voice and of 
 musical sound." With the expression of such opinions, 
 given so clearly and with such learning and authority, 
 there arose a desire in certain quarters to have the help 
 of instrumental music in church service. Such an 
 auxiliary, it was argued, would to a large extent give 
 variety to worship, and brighten the general tone of 
 the service. Since the Reformation the organ had 
 been under a sort of ban, and had no place in the 
 worship of Presbyterian Churches. It was regarded as 
 savouring of Popery, even to think of using it as an aid 
 in the public service of the church, and as placing her 
 again under the malign influence of Rome. In 1807 
 the first attempt was made in St Andrew's Church, 
 Glasgow, to introduce an organ. The mere mention 
 of such an innovation created a profound sensation and 
 roused such determined opposition that the attempt 
 was abandoned. This premature attempt, however, set 
 in motion the thoughts of others in the direction of 
 having such an aid. The agitation set on foot did not 
 
 R 
 
258 Modern Improvements in Church Service, 
 
 subside until, through long and weary years of strife 
 and wrangling, the right of Presbyterian congregations 
 to have instrumental music in their service was vindi- 
 cated, and the consent of the highest spiritual court of 
 the church pronounced in their favour. 
 
 Meanwhile men like Dr Andrew Thomson of St 
 George's, Edinburgh, and Robert Smith of Paisley, had 
 turned their attention to the raising of the standard 
 and the improving of the rendering of praise in public 
 worship. As early as 1820, Dr Andrew Thomson 
 published a collection of psalm and hymn tunes, under 
 the name of " Sacred Harmony." It was specially 
 designed for the use of St George's Church, and in 
 compiling it the author expressly anticipates the aid 
 of the organ for the better rendering of his harmonies. 
 The collection, in addition to 178 tunes, adapted to all 
 the psalms, paraphrases, and hymns in use then, con- 
 tained music for four doxologies, five sanctuses, one 
 dismission hymn, and two anthems. 
 
 Mr Smith also rendered valuable and most excellent 
 service to the Church, and contributed very largely to the 
 improvement of the Psalmody in all the churches. On 
 all hands it is acknowledged that these two men, acting 
 in concert and in an individual capacity, enriched the 
 musical part of the church service, and raised the tone 
 of worship throughout Scotland. That this general 
 improvement in the praise part of the service was a 
 marked feature in Presbyterian worship at this time is 
 borne witness to by Dr Arnold of Rugby, who visited 
 Scotland in 1831, and leaves this pleasing impression 
 of what he experienced in his Journal. " I was," he 
 says, " at church (at Greenock) twice on Sunday, once 
 at the Presbyterian Church and once at the Episcopal 
 Chapel. My impressions received five years ago were 
 
Dr Arnold of Rugby on Presbyterian Worship. 259 
 
 again renewed and strengthened as to the merits of the 
 Presbyterian Church and our own. The singing to ine 
 is delightful. I do not mean the music, but the hearti- 
 ness with which all the congregation join in it, and I 
 exceedingly like the local and particular prayers and 
 addresses which the freedom of their services allows 
 the minister to use. On the other hand, the people 
 should be protected from the tediousness or dulness of 
 their minister, and that is admirably effected by a 
 liturgy, and especially by such a liturgy as ours. Some 
 freedom in the service the minister certainly should 
 have, * some power of insertion to suit the particular 
 time and place,' some power of explaining on the spot 
 whatever is read from the Scriptures, which may require 
 explanation, or, at any rate, of stating the context." 
 
 In 1834 the Evangelical party in the Church for the 
 first time became dominant. It advocated reform of a 
 wholesome and safe nature in all departments of church 
 life. But first of all the strength and influence of the 
 Evangelical party were directed towards doctrine and 
 church government, and the putting down of those 
 abuses which had for so long done such mischief to the 
 religious life of the nation. This desire for reform in 
 process of time assumed the form of a struggle between 
 Moderatism and Evangelicalism, and ended in the 
 memorable Disruption of 1843. For many years after 
 that event the churches were engaged with other matters 
 than the forms of religious service and the details of 
 public worship. But here and there minds were busy 
 looking into the subject, and a feeling was arising in 
 the minds of both clergy and laity alike that in many 
 ways the Presbyterian Churches had severed themselves 
 from the past, and had, so far as forms of worship went, 
 drifted from the ritual and service prescribed by Knox 
 and the early reformers. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 MODERN IMPROVEMENTS IN CHURCH SERVICE — 
 continued. 
 
 "The first indication of reviving interest," says Dr 
 Leishman in his article, " The Ritual of the Church," 
 " in these matters, on the part of the Church, was her 
 appointment of a committee in 1849 to prepare forms 
 of service for her people, either at home or abroad, 
 when they were without a minister to lead their 
 devotions. When their work was completed, nine years 
 after, the Church, following her own precedents, recom- 
 mended rather than imposed the book. It kept in 
 view the neglected forms and usages of earlier days. 
 The Prayers of the Common Order and others of the 
 same age, as well as material from the Directory and 
 its age, were largely embodied in it. While the general 
 arrangements of our service was continued, the prose 
 Psalter, Scripture lessons, and the Lord's Prayer were 
 included. By another Act of 1856, the clergy them- 
 selves were enjoined to read Scripture lessons from 
 both Testaments, and generally to pay more attention 
 to the principles of the Directory." 
 
 One decided indication of a general movement of 
 the Church towards a richer service was given in a 
 desire for an enlarged psalmody and hymnody. This 
 desire had clearly expressed itself in many ways from 
 the beginning of this century. In 1821, a book styled 
 260 
 
'' Scottish Hymnar&'' Presbyterian Hymnair 261 
 
 " Additional Psalmody," was laid before the Assembly 
 and ordered to be printed for the use of presbyteries. 
 In 1854, a collection of 123 hymns, chosen from the 
 best hymnologies, was laid on the Table of the 
 Assembly, and a committee was appointed to select 
 from that number such hymns as were deemed to be 
 most suitable for public worship. Again in i860, a 
 new collection of hymns, numbering 85, was prepared 
 by order of the Assembly, which in the following year 
 gave place to a still more carefully selected collection, 
 comprising 97 hymns, 22 doxologies, 3 thanksgivings, 
 2 dismissions, i hosanna, and 4 sanctuses. Its use, 
 however, in churches was never sanctioned by the 
 General Assembly, but simply permitted. Even when 
 the Hymnal of 1861 was revised, and a new edition 
 issued in 1864, it seems all that the Assembly did was 
 simply to allow its publication and use by congrega- 
 tions, and in no instance granted its official "impri- 
 matur " and authority to any hymnal at present in use 
 among the churches. The " Scottish Hymnal" now in 
 use was first used in public worship on Sabbath, the 
 14th August 1870. At first it consisted of 200 hymns. 
 Less than twenty years after it had grown to a book 
 numbering 442 hymns. While the Established Church 
 was thus lending its choicest ability to the compilation 
 of a good hymnal, the other Presbyterian bodies were 
 turning their attention to the same task. In 1851, 
 after years of patient waiting and preparation, a hymn 
 book for the United Presbyterian Church was autho- 
 rised, and in 1876, what was virtually a new hymn book 
 was issued by the authority of the Synod, under the 
 title of " The Presbyterian Hymnal," and is now in use 
 throughout the Church. 
 
262 Modern Improvements in Church Service. 
 
 Dr Robert Lee and his Work. 
 
 The Free Church of Scotland, owing to a variety of 
 causes, was the last of the great Presbyterian bodies to 
 take any action in the introduction of a Hymnal into 
 public worship. It was not till 1866 that the question 
 of authorising the use of hymns was raised in her 
 Courts. In that year, in response to overtures from 
 certain Presbyteries, the Assembly appointed a com- 
 mittee to consider with care the whole matter, and to 
 report to the next General Assembly. The question in 
 subsequent Assemblies gave rise to considerable debate 
 and animated discussion. In 1869, the Assembly took 
 a step in advance, and remitted to a committee the 
 task of revising extant collections of paraphrases and 
 hymns, with the view of selecting such as were con- 
 sidered best suited for praise in the public sanctuary. 
 After six years of labour on the part of the committee, 
 the Assembly of 1872 approved generally of the collec- 
 tion of hymns compiled by them, and appended to their 
 approval the statement — " That being persuaded that 
 the Assembly cannot with advantage longer delay 
 coming to a decision in the matter, they hereby allow 
 the public use of said collection where that is judged to 
 be for edification." In 188 1, the Assembly sanctioned 
 the enlarged volume of hymns at present in use, known 
 by the name of "The Free Church Hymn Book." 
 The man who did most in pleading for an improve- 
 ment in the service of the churches of Scotland, was 
 Dr Robert Lee of Greyfriars, Edinburgh. What he 
 aimed at in all his contentions before the Church 
 Courts and appeals to the people, was to bring the 
 Presbyterian Churches more in line with the usages and 
 ritual of the Church of the Reformation. In all his 
 
Dr Lee pleads for use of Oi^gan. 263 
 
 advocacy for the use of a more beautiful ritual and a 
 richer ceremonial, Dr Lee maintained that he had a 
 precedent in the worship of the Church in her earlier 
 period. Not for a moment would he admit that any 
 of the changes he pled for were innovations, but only a 
 return to a primitive and better state of things. The 
 use of instrumental music was the exception. But in 
 pleading for its use, he felt deeply impressed that the 
 congregations in Scotland were ready for the most part 
 to adopt it, and only required that the subject should 
 be taken up by some competent party. Dr Lee's 
 anticipations have been fully realised, for although his 
 action at the time caused no little contention and 
 hostility, the help of an instrument in worship has 
 been generally welcomed throughout the greater part 
 of the country, and has added much to the brightening 
 of the entire service. 
 
 One change which he stoutly contended for was 
 standing at singing. That this was an innovation is 
 not very clear, for although it does not seem that con- 
 gregations were, in the early days of Presbyterianism, 
 accustomed to stand during the singing of psalms, they 
 certainly stood while they sang the Doxology, as it 
 was looked upon as a profession of faith in the Holy 
 Trinity. The change of kneeling at prayer introduced 
 by him was most assuredly no innovation. It was 
 neither more nor less than a return to the reverent 
 posture adopted by the early Reformers during public 
 devotions. It has precedent, traditions, and the usages 
 of the early Church in its favour, and it is surely the 
 most devout position for worshippers to assume in 
 prayer to God. 
 
 Though the use of instrumental music has never 
 been formally sanctioned by the Established Church 
 
264 Modern Improvements in Church Service. 
 
 Assembly, liberty has been granted to congregations to 
 avail themselves of such aid if desired. Since 1886 
 this liberty has been fully taken advantage of, and 
 now, in the majority of churches, an instrument is used 
 to help in the service. 
 
 The Free and United Presbyterian Churches have 
 also obtained leave from their Supreme Courts to have 
 organs at their services, and this liberty has been turned 
 to account by an increasing number of congregations. 
 
 One thing which Dr Lee set his heart upon securing 
 was the help of a liturgy in the devotional part of the 
 service, and its legitimate union with free or " conceived" 
 prayer. The history of the old Reformed Church of 
 Scotland at once vindicates the lawfulness of such a 
 change or adaptation, and emphatically protests against 
 the use of a liturgy as an innovation and departure 
 from old paths or primitive ways. Though no liturgy 
 has yet been sanctioned by the Assembly of the 
 Established Church, there is a growing feeling in that 
 church for one, and in many congregations prayers 
 are read by the officiating minister from Sabbath to 
 Sabbath, and free prayer almost abandoned. And in 
 several churches of a pronounced advanced type certain 
 festivals have been reintroduced, such as Christmas, 
 Good Friday, and Easter, and the choir, in Anglican 
 fashion, have become habited in surplices. Doubtless 
 the tendency in many congregations is towards a 
 highly advanced ritual, and the danger exists on the 
 part of certain ministers and others to rush to extremes, 
 and to leave behind much that is distinctly Presby- 
 terian in the fresh and unrestrained and somewhat 
 feverish rush to have a service which will commend 
 itself to the aesthetic tastes and culture of the advanced 
 wing of Presbyterianism. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 MODERN IMPROVEMENTS IN CHURCH SERVICE — 
 continued. 
 
 The work of the improvement of the service of the 
 Church, inaugurated and partially carried by Dr Lee, 
 was very soon taken up by a certain section in the 
 church after his death. The church had been gradually 
 preparing herself for many changes, and a deep and 
 earnest desire was manifesting itself for a return to the 
 ritual and forms of the old Reformed Church. Men 
 versed in the history of the Presbyterian Church, and 
 wishful to get back to the position she occupied when 
 she reformed herself, and cast out of her midst Popish 
 superstitions and Romish corruptions, began to feel 
 more and more acutely how great had been the de- 
 parture in worship of the Church of Scotland since the 
 days of Knox, and were beginning in all sincerity to 
 give expression to their thoughts in the words of the 
 prophet, " Ask for the old paths, . . . and walk therein." 
 This desire for an improved service in a very short time 
 assumed a much wider range, and from being for the 
 most part an occasional or purely congregational thing, 
 came to be general, and found expression in increas- 
 ingly larger and more influential sections of the whole 
 Church. 
 
 The Church Service Society. 
 
 So powerful and accentuated had this desire become, 
 and so forcibly had it taken possession of the minds of 
 many members of the church, that on the 31st January 
 
 265 
 
266 Modern Improvements in Church Service. 
 
 1865 a meeting was held at Glasgow, the result of which 
 was the formation of a private society called " The 
 Church Service Society." At first this society was strictly 
 confined to ordained ministers of the Church of Scot- 
 land, but two years later this restriction of membership 
 to ministers was removed, and laymen were asked to 
 co-operate in the movement. According to the state- 
 ment of the constitution of this association, the object 
 of the society is ** the study of the liturgies, ancient and 
 modern, of the Christian Church, with a view to the 
 preparation and ultimate publication of certain forms 
 of prayer for public worship, and services for the 
 administration of the Sacraments, the celebration of 
 marriage, the burial of the dead, etc." This statement 
 naturally occasioned alarm. Many read in it a settled 
 determination on the part of the members of the 
 society to introduce a liturgy into the service of the 
 church. To allay any such fears, the society at an 
 early meeting emphatically declared that it had no 
 such intentions, and appended this cautious and prudent 
 statement, " that the introduction of a liturgy into any 
 church whose worship has not been hitherto liturgical, 
 must be a measure long considered, slowly matured, 
 and ultimately carried, not by any private association 
 of clergymen, but by the public, official, and constitu- 
 tional action of the Church herself." " The Church 
 Service Society," while thus repudiating any wish to 
 introduce a liturgy into the Church, aims at securing 
 such " models or aids " to devotion as will prove helpful 
 to ministers in the discharge of their sacred duties, 
 " not so as to supersede what is called free prayer," but 
 simply to give a richness and fulness to the public 
 devotions. In securing such " models or aids " to 
 public worship, it is frankly acknowledged that there 
 
The Church Service Society. 267 
 
 is no wish on the part of any to take from or tamper 
 with the "simplicity" of the Presbyterian ritual, but 
 simply, if possible, to redeem it from the '' lifelessness 
 and lack of devotional spirit and expression " which it 
 is prone to fall into, and that by " preparing or collect- 
 ing examples of prayer as full and as suggestive of 
 solemn, earnest, fervent devotion as words can be, and 
 binding these into the simple order of one existing 
 worship," all chance of lifelessness will be avoided, and 
 a richness of language and additional solemnity will be 
 given to the worship of the sanctuary. 
 
 While contending that the Directory of Public 
 Worship affords " ample freedom " for such improve- 
 ments suggested in the service of the Church, it is 
 candidly admitted, and stated with considerable de- 
 cisiveness, that such improvements must not take the 
 form of any mere copying of Anglican ritual, for " our 
 truer model," says the statement, " is to be found in the 
 Reformed Churches of the Continent, with which, in all 
 matters of historical position, of creed, of worship, and 
 of government, we have, and ought to have, a much 
 closer affinity than with the Episcopal Communion, 
 established in the southern part of this island." 
 
 While it must be confessed that the leading spirits 
 of this Church service movement have, on the whole, 
 manifested a very conservative and wholesome frame 
 of mind, and have shown great care in making it clear 
 that the object of the Society was for " maintaining 
 purity of worship in Scotland," and "to restore, if 
 possible, the original character of the service of the 
 Scottish Church, to impart to it a truer character of 
 devotion, more simplicity, more directness, and, in a 
 word, more spiritualness," yet it can be seen from state- 
 ments now and then thrown out by advanced clergymen 
 
268 Modern hnprovements in Church SeTuice. 
 
 at the meetings of the society, that there is a great and 
 increasing desire to hurry on this Church movement in 
 certain quarters, and to imitate and approximate the 
 ritual of the Anglican Church, and so go right against 
 one of the articles of the constitution of the Society. 
 For example, we find the Rev. John Macleod of Duns 
 — now Dr John Macleod of Govan, who has always 
 manifested extreme ritualistic tendencies, sometimes 
 subversive of Presbyterianism in its best days and 
 best traditions — in 1871, at the annual meeting of the 
 society, stating that "they must contemplate the ela- 
 boration of a comprehensive ritual, with more frequent 
 church services. He believed that the Church of Scot- 
 land in her standards practically conveyed the idea that 
 there should be weekly communion. He did not see 
 why they should not revive the old Scotch custom of 
 daily services for the commemoration of our Lord's 
 Passion, and various other events in the life of our 
 Lord." Both Dr Dykes of Ayr and Dr Story took 
 exception to such a statement, the latter reminding Dr 
 Macleod that "the society must remember that the 
 point from which they started, and in fact to which 
 they were very much confined, was the improvement of 
 the general worship of the Church." As the result of 
 this reminder, Dr Macleod stated that he had no inten- 
 tion of committing the society to the introduction of 
 anything that was unconstitutional. In 1880 a motion 
 was submitted that the Society should appoint a com- 
 mittee to " consider and report as to the expediency of 
 drawing up and publishing a partial and permissive 
 liturgy," but by the advice of Dr Sprott the motion was 
 departed from, and finally withdrawn. 
 
 The most important of the labours of the Church 
 Service Society is the preparation of a Service Book, 
 
The ^' Euchologion,'' or Book of Common Order. 269 
 
 under the title of " Euchologion, a Book of Common 
 Order, being Forms of Worship and Administration of 
 the Sacraments and other Ordinances of the Church, 
 issued by the Church Service Society." This book, 
 though extensively followed in outline by many 
 ministers in the Established Church, is not regarded 
 as a liturgy, nor is it often taken to the pulpit and used 
 as a Book of Common Prayer. It has received in no 
 way the sanction or even the countenance of the As- 
 sembly, but the same thing may be said regarding 
 certain books of devotion and hymn books used in 
 several leading congregations in connection with the 
 State Church. By leaving individual congregations to 
 determine what changes in worship are required by 
 changing circumstances, and suffering private associa- 
 tions within the Church to suggest and specify what 
 form any improvement in the service of the Church 
 should take, the General Assembly is most assuredly 
 shrinking from the task and responsibility which it 
 ought, as the Supreme Court of the Church, to assume, 
 and making way for a general departure from uniformity 
 of worship on the part of congregations. The Church 
 Service Society, inaugurated in 1865, and beginning 
 life with few members, seems to be growing in popu- 
 larity, and extending its influence throughout the 
 Church. On the 24th May 1892 it was reported at 
 the annual meeting that the members consisted of 533 
 clergymen and 136 lay members, in all 669 persons. 
 This number has been considerably added to since. 
 
CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 MODERN IMPROVEMENTS IN CHURCH SERVICE— 
 continued. 
 
 " The Scottish Church Society " 
 
 Is of more recent date in its formation than that of the 
 Church Service Society. It sprang into existence and 
 constituted itself in 1893. It may be regarded as re- 
 presenting the views of the advanced High Church 
 party in the Church of Scotland. The aims of the 
 society have been set forth in a programme which has 
 been widely circulated. The late Dr Milligan, in a 
 pamphlet published with the sanction of the Council of 
 the society, gives in outline the three leading points of 
 the programme, and comments upon them. 
 
 The first purpose of the society, he says, is "to 
 defend and advance Catholic doctrine as set forth in 
 the ancient creed, and embodied in the standard of the 
 Church of Scotland." There is a considerable amount 
 of ambiguity in such a statement as this, and the word 
 "Catholic" as here used is both confusing and mis- 
 leading, more especially in its qualifying connection 
 with the word " doctrine." With its general tendency 
 towards sacramentarianism, the expression " Catholic," 
 though used by Dr Milligan in its broadest and most 
 comprehensive meaning, is unfortunate. It has always 
 been the aim of the Reformed Church in Scotland to 
 defend and advance those great fundamental truths 
 which Dr Milligan demonstrates "Catholic doctrine," 
 270 
 
Aims of the Scottish Church Society. 271 
 
 e.g., the divinity, the incarnation, the atoning death, 
 the resurrection, &c., of Christ, and certainly the 
 Churches in Scotland cannot for a moment admit that 
 it was necessary that such a society, however high and 
 lofty its pretensions might be, should put itself forth as 
 the champion of such precious doctrines of the Church 
 of Christ. 
 
 The second purpose of the society is " generally to 
 assert scriptural principles in all matters relating to 
 Church order and policy, Christian work and spiritual 
 life, throughout Scotland." Under this head such 
 questions as "the efficacy of the sacraments," ''the 
 deepening in the laity of a due sense of their priest- 
 hood," "the necessity of a valid ordination," and the 
 proper appreciation on the part of her members " of 
 the vocation of the Church of Scotland as a part of the 
 Catholic Church." The language used all throughout 
 this section reminds us strongly of what we have heard 
 over and over again from Anglican bishops, and seems 
 to make us feel we are moving in regions somewhat 
 foreign to what we have been accustomed in Presby- 
 terian Scotland. 
 
 The third purpose of the society is "the Church's 
 attitude towards many of those social questions which 
 are at present forcing themselves upon the minds of all 
 thoughtful men." 
 
 Among the list of special objects to be aimed at, as 
 given by the society, we meet with one or two state- 
 ments which give us a pretty correct idea of the real 
 aims of the members of this High Church movement. 
 The sacramentarian and the sacerdotal taint insinuates 
 itself in almost every line and sentence. Nearly every 
 word referring to "the historic continuity of the Church 
 from the first," "the necessity of a valid ordination," 
 
272 Modern Improvements in Church Service, 
 
 "the reference to holy baptism," "the restoration of 
 the holy communion to its right place in relation to 
 the worship of the Church," the startling and perplex- 
 ing allusion to " the deepening of a penitential sense of 
 the sin and peril of schism," all savour strongly and 
 overpoweringly of Anglo-Catholicism, and would be 
 regarded with favour by the most advanced wing of 
 the High Church clergy of England. 
 
 If any doubt might possibly exist as to the real aim 
 of the society, according to the programme, it is thrust 
 aside by the outspoken and candid statements of Dr 
 John Macleod, in a speech delivered by him as one of 
 the vice-presidents of the society in the course of a 
 debate in the Presbytery of Glasgow. The entire speech 
 moves on sacramentarian lines, and is sufifused with 
 such a high strain of sacerdotalism which exceeds any- 
 thing that has ever been said by any beneficed clergy- 
 man of the Church of Scotland since the Reformation. 
 The Church now must know from such an acknowledg- 
 ment what the society really aims at, and what the 
 intentions of its members are throughout Scotland. It 
 does not seem that the Scottish Church Society con- 
 tents itself with an attempt to improve the service of the 
 Church, and to be true to its motto — " Ask for the old 
 paths, . . . and walk therein " — and lead the Church in 
 its ritual closer to the practice of the Reformers, and a 
 more faithful walking in the old paths. 
 
 It is bent upon introducing into the Presbyterian 
 Church an element altogether alien to its very life 
 and genius, an element charged with all that made 
 Romanism and Episcopacy so repulsive to the mind 
 of Scotland in the past, and super-imposing upon the 
 Scottish Churches ideas and forms, ceremonials and 
 doctrines, rites and ordinances, disapproved and con- 
 
The '' Tablet'" and Scottish Church Society. 273 
 
 demned by the goodly band of Reformers as utterly 
 opposed to the Word of God, and to the traditions and 
 usages of the Church of Christ and of the Apostles in 
 its primitive and best days. It is sad and startling in 
 the extreme, when Ritualism in England is doing so 
 much to Romanise the Churches, to learn that leading 
 ministers of the Protestant State Church in Scotland 
 should be found, as members of the Scottish Church 
 Society, giving expression to such statements as send a 
 thrill of joy and hopefulness to such pronounced Romish 
 organs as The Tablet. In this journal, in its review of 
 the ominous position of this society and the foolish and 
 reckless allusion of some of its members to " Prayers for 
 the Dead," and such like, we find the question put — 
 " Will Scotland come ? " That is, will it come back to 
 the Romish Communion ? And after dwelling in a 
 tone of satisfaction regarding such a prospect, it con- 
 cludes — " If these ideals are at work and winding 
 their way even in the green wood of Calvinistic Scot- 
 land, what may we not expect in the dry wood south 
 of the Border? The defenders of the Reformation 
 have believed that they possessed an irresistible reserve 
 force in the non-Episcopal territories outside the estab- 
 lishment. With this Scottish Church Society preach- 
 ing Purgatory and Ritualism in the Kirk, the friends of 
 Puritan Protestantism must look to it, if they would 
 not be taken in the rear. And if Scotland should 
 weary in these latter days of the Reformation and its 
 work, and seek the peace and light which the pride and 
 anger of men never could have given her, she will find 
 her historical home— the Church of Columba and of 
 Margaret, of Wallace and of Bruce — still in the world 
 and ready to receive her. Will she come } " 
 
 But it is not only the Established Church which is 
 
2 74 Mode7^n Improvements in Church Service. 
 
 moving on the lines of an improved service. The other 
 two great Presbyterian denominations have taken steps 
 in this direction, and aim at cultivating a more devout j 
 
 and richer expression of worship in the sanctuary. In ^ 
 
 1882, certain ministers and elders in connection with 
 the United Presbyterian Church constituted for this 
 purpose the society called " The United Presbyterian 
 Devotional Association." The object of this associa- 
 tion, according to its constitution, is declared to be, 
 " To promote the edifying conduct of the devotional 
 services of the church. In pursuing this object, the 
 association shall endeavour to foster an interest in the 
 history and literature of public worship, consider the 
 practice of other denominations, indicate defects in 
 existing usages, discuss proposals in the direction of 
 improvements, and by such means to promote the 
 devout and orderly expression of the worship of the 
 church." 
 
CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 MODERN IMPROVEMENTS IN CHURCH SERVICE — 
 continued. 
 
 Owing to a variety of reasons the Free Church of 
 Scotland showed no indication of following the example 
 of the Established and United Presbyterian Churches in 
 this direction until quite recently. However, in 1891, 
 in response to a circular sent to several ministers and 
 elders, and signed by certain leading professors and 
 ministers of the church, a private conference was held 
 in Edinburgh, at which it was agreed to form a " Public 
 Worship Association," the object of which would be 
 " to promote the ends of edification, order, and rever- 
 ence in the public services of the church in accordance 
 with Scriptural principles, and in the light especially 
 of the experience and practice of the Reformed 
 Churches holding the Presbyterian system." At a 
 subsequent meeting of the association, held in Novem- 
 ber of the same year, after considerable discussion, 
 certain points were agreed upon and cordially approved 
 of by the association. The points were — (i) Need of 
 more attention by the church to the subject of worship ; 
 (2) Need of model services for special occasions ; (3) 
 Need of " Directory for the Public Worship of God," 
 revised and adapted to the times. 
 
 Other questions presented themselves for conference 
 and discussion regarding which there was considerable 
 
 275 
 
276 Modern Improvements in Church Service. 
 
 difference of opinion. These were — \st. Desirable- 
 ness of an " Optional Liturgy " or " Book of Common 
 Order " as distinguished from a " Directory " for the 
 ordinary services. 
 
 2nd. Desirableness of the people being brought to 
 take a more prominent part in devotional services, 
 " Lord's Prayer being repeated aloud by people along 
 with ministers," "Amen" said at all prayers, "Apostles' " 
 Creed (or perhaps the Nicene) on certain occasions, 
 Ten Commandments, Beatitudes, and two great com- 
 mandments of love, being read or repeated statedly 
 by ministers, with short responses by congregations. 
 
 '^rd. Desirableness of the "collect" form of prayer 
 and of " responses," generally beyond the " Amens." 
 
 \th. " The Christian year," to the extent at least of the 
 commemoration of our Lord's birth, death, resurrection, 
 ascension, and the coming of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 We have thus endeavoured to trace the history of 
 the offices and worship of the Church of Scotland 
 since she reformed herself in 1560, and cast out of her 
 midst the corruptions of Popery. We have seen what 
 were the ritual and forms of worship in the Reformed 
 Church in her primitive and best days, and how deteri- 
 orated that worship had become under the hardening 
 influences of English Puritanism. Bit by bit the 
 Church of Scotland lost all knowledge of the old paths, 
 and almost severed herself in her ritual from the 
 Church of Knox and Melville. What we have aimed 
 at pointing out is that there has been a very grave 
 departure from ancient usage and forms of service, and 
 that reform is not only absolutely necessary, but can be 
 achieved without any violation of the laws of the 
 Church, and in perfect harmony with her traditions. 
 
 We plead for nothing in the shape of an improved 
 
Union of Free and Liturgical Prayer. 277 
 
 service but what was sanctioned by the Scottish 
 Reformers and by ancient usage. With one solitary 
 exception — the use of instrumental music — all service 
 reforms advocated in these pages were enjoyed by our 
 forefathers in the early days of Presbyterianism, and 
 were regarded by the Church as inalienable rights, and 
 prized by all her members. To claim these rights 
 anew, to serve ourselves the lawful heirs to them, to 
 enter into possession of them, and to adopt them 
 rightly and with edification to the higher religious 
 aspirations and changing necessities of the age, ought 
 to be the endeavour of every intelligent and true- 
 hearted Presbyterian versed in the knowledge of the 
 history and traditions of the Church of Scotland. 
 
 We do not demand or even ask for the exclusive use 
 of any liturgy, but simply for the restoration of the 
 union of liturgical and free prayer. The two forms of 
 prayer should be strenuously contended for, and main- 
 tained at all costs in the Church. The privilege of free 
 prayer must never be given up in public worship. The 
 danger of binding the Church in her service hand and 
 foot, as in the Anglican Church, by a rigid and stereo- 
 typed form must be guarded against. And the service 
 of praise must not be allowed to degenerate into a 
 meaningless concert and round of song from which the 
 old psalms and melodies, which stirred so deeply the 
 hearts of our ancestors with devotion, have been ex- 
 cluded. Indeed, in all attempts to improve public 
 worship, great care and wisdom must be exercised, 
 so that each part may have its place and just pro- 
 portion, and all conduce in combination and appropriate 
 symmetry to a solemn and exalting worship of the 
 Lord in the beauty of holiness. 
 
 And while we believe that it would tend to impart to 
 
278 Modern Improvements in Church Se^uice. 
 
 the service of the sanctuary an additional beauty and 
 decorum, and bring the Presbyterian Churches more 
 in line with the Reformed Churches on the Continent, 
 if congregations at stated times publicly rehearsed 
 the common articles of Christian belief, such as the 
 Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed, and recited aloud 
 the Lord's Prayer, and gave the universal response of 
 "Amen" at all the prayers, and commemorated such 
 sacred events as our Lord's birth and death. His re- 
 surrection and ascension, we at the same time frankly 
 admit that great care would have to be taken in adopt- 
 ing such changes and improvements, to make it per- 
 fectly clear to the conscience of the Church and her 
 members that such Church usages and observances 
 have received the sanction of almost the whole Church 
 universal, and are not for a moment to be regarded 
 as a mere copying and feeble imxitation of Prelatic 
 customs. 
 
 And, above all, whatever may be done on the lines 
 thus indicated, extreme vigilance must be used to pro- 
 tect the Presbyterian Churches against every appear- 
 ance of the taint of sacramentarianism or sacerdotalism, 
 which has had in turn such baneful effects upon Episco- 
 pacy both in England and in Scotland. 
 
 To attempt to reform the worship of the Presbyterian 
 Churches on any Prelatic basis, and to declare, as Dr 
 John Macleod of Govan recently did, as the apparent 
 mouthpiece of the advanced High Church party in his 
 communion, in advocating an improved service, " that 
 the celebration of the Holy Communion is the distinc- 
 tive ordinance of Christian worship," and "that any 
 reform in the matter of worship must, after all, be more 
 or less superficial that does not touch that question," is 
 both startling and misleading, pernicious, and alien to 
 
" Ask for the old paths and walk therein^ 279 
 
 the best and purest intentions of those who, in loyalty to 
 the Church, are labouring to improve and beautify her 
 services, and is alike contradicted by the traditions and 
 history of the Church of the Reformation in Scotland. 
 
 The Scottish Church Society has adopted a happy 
 and suggestive motto — "Ask for the old paths and walk 
 therein." Let its members, while aiming "to defend 
 and advance Catholic doctrine as set forth in the ancient 
 creeds, and embodied in the standards of the Church of 
 Scotland, &c.," be true to the teaching of their motto, 
 and while asking for the old paths, trod by such men 
 as John Knox and Andrew Melville and Alexander 
 Henderson, let them be sure they really find them, and 
 having found them, let them faithfully walk therein, 
 and avoid all suspicious and divisive courses. We are 
 firmly of the opinion that the various Church Service 
 Societies, by the exercise of the utmost discretion and 
 judiciousness, will, in process of time, confer lasting 
 benefits on the Churches in Scotland. Under the 
 guidance of men thoroughly suffused with the spirit 
 of the ancient Reformed Church, and fully alive to the 
 religious feelings and devotional necessities of congrega- 
 tions, ruled alike by wisdom and moderation, and by a 
 sincere attachment to the usages, the ritual, the aspira- 
 tions and traditions of the Church of their forefathers, 
 the Presbyterian Churches, as one united National 
 Church of Scotland, would again, as in the Church's 
 best days, put on her strength and her beautiful gar- 
 ments, and evoke the loyal attachment and faithful 
 affections of her people. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Act, Assembly for Preparing Direc- 
 tory of Worship, 129. 
 
 British favouring toleration, 
 
 239. 
 
 Restoring Episcopacy, 216. 
 
 Securing Presbyterian Wor- 
 ship, 235. 
 
 Anthems, Prof. Beattie favours use 
 of in worship, 257. 
 
 Apostles' Creed, 25, 121, 223, 276. 
 
 Articles, the Five of Perth, 42, 47. 
 
 Assembly, General, 6, 224, 225. 
 
 Banns, Proclamation of, 34. 
 
 Baptism, 30, no, 159, 161, 165, 
 223. 
 
 Baptismal Regeneration Repudi- 
 ated, 163. 
 
 Bishop V. Presbyter, 175, 207. 
 
 Book of Common Order, 4, 6, 10, 
 12, 14, 20, 71, 224, 236. 
 
 Ordination, 62. 
 
 Burial Service, 35, 147, 220. 
 
 Canons Ecclesiastical and Constitu- 
 tions, 57. 
 Celtic Prayer Book, 13. 
 Ceremonies, "The Three Nocent," 
 
 23- 
 
 Church Service Society, 265. 
 Communion Service, 31, iii, 166, 
 
 203, 211, 221, 223. 
 Culdees and Presbyter-Bishops, 34. 
 
 Daily Service in Church, 17, 21. 
 Devotional Association, U.P. Ch., 
 
 274. 
 Diaconate, 190, 193. 
 Directory of Public Worship, 122, 
 
 125, 128, 133, 135,138, 146,225. 
 Doxology, 23, 25, 218, 251, 261. 
 
 Easter, 43, 264. 
 
 Edward VI. First Prayer Book, 4. 
 Elders, their Office, 188. 
 Episcopalian Scottish Communion 
 
 Office, 80. 
 Episcopalians desiring Book of 
 
 Prayer, 229. 
 Euchologion, 269. 
 
 Fasts, 150. 
 
 Feasts and Festivals, 36, 151, 264. 
 Fencing of the Table, 168. 
 Funeral Services, 35, 147. 
 
 Gloria Patri, 18, in. 
 Grace, ordination, 174. 
 
 Henderson, Alexander, 9, 20. 
 Holy Days condemned, y], 150. 
 Hymns, Use of, 12, 250, 251, 261, 
 
 Independents, English, 121, 154. 
 Innovations in Worship, 41. 
 
 Kneeling at Baptism, 19. 
 
 Communion, 18, 49. 
 
 Prayer, 19, 232, 263. 
 
 Knox, 2, 6, 55. 
 
 Laud, 51, 55, 60, 74, 85. 
 Laying on of Hands, t^i, 175. 
 Lee, Dr Robert, Book of Prayer, 
 
 262. 
 Lifters v. anti- Lifters, 168. 
 Line, Reading of, 27, 143. 
 Liturgies, 13, 64, 67, 73, 233, 237. 
 Lord's Prayer, 23, 121, 214, 217, 
 
 220, 231, 276. 
 Lord's Table, not Altar, 203. 
 
 Marriage, Order of, 21, 34, 151, 
 154, 220. 
 
 281 
 
282 
 
 Index, 
 
 Ministerial Office, 185, 197. 
 Moderatism, effect on Worship, 21, 
 
 155. 
 Order of Public Worship, 17, 21, 
 
 113- 
 
 Orders, Presbyterian and Episco- 
 palian, 173, 181. 
 Ordination, 32, 173, 180. 
 Organ, Use of, 256, 263. 
 
 Paraphrases and Scripture Songs, 
 
 245, 247, 248. 
 Praise, 25, 140, 246. 
 Prelatic Innovations, 38, 53, 59. 
 Protestation, The, 90. 
 Presbyter in Early Church, 196, 
 
 199, 201, 207. 
 Presbyter, not Priest, 77, 197, 201. 
 Psalm Book, The, 12, 141, 213. 
 Protesters, The, 210, 
 Public Worship Association, Free 
 
 Church, 275. 
 
 Readers, Old Office of, 8, 213. 
 Reading of Sermons introduced, 
 241. 
 
 Resolutioners, The, 210. 
 Rous' Psalter, 141. 
 
 Sacerdotalism, 177, 197, 199, 201. 
 Sacramentarianism, 205. 
 Scripture, Reading of, 22, 138. 
 Sick Visitation, 145. 
 Society, Scottish Church, 270, 273. 
 Supper, Lord's, The, 31, 49, 79, 
 
 III, 166, 203, 211, 223, 226. 
 Succession, Apostolical, 179. 
 
 Tables, The, 88. 
 Thanksgiving Days, 150. 
 "Thorough," Policy of, 56. 
 
 Uniformity of Worship, 243, 269. 
 Union, Treaty of, 233. 
 
 Version, Metrical, of Psalms, 141. 
 
 Worship, Episcopalian, 226, 229, 
 
 237, 240. 
 Worship, Presbyterian, 131, 226, 
 
 230, 235, 255, 259. 
 Westminster Assembly, 1 1 5. 
 
 TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH. 
 

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