CHAP. IV.

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.-THE DARK AGE OF THE SCOTTISH

CHURCH.

CHAP. IV. THE period which the present chapter is designed to 1688 embrace, extends from the revolution settlement to the year 1833

tics of the

braced in

1833; and will, therefore, conduct us to the threshold of the great conflict which terminated in the disruption. Though longer somewhat than the period already traced, it will not require so minute an examination. It has, in so far as ecclesiastical history is concerned, fewer epochs and fewer Characteris organic changes. In studying those aspects and bearings period em of it which have to do with the subject of this work, it this chapter. is not so much with the legislation of the state as with the administration of the church itself we shall have to deal. From the reformation to the revolution the conflicts of the church were, for the most part, external. Assailed from without, her struggles were then chiefly directed to the maintenance of her own constitution and liberties against the usurpations of the civil power. Subsequently to the revolution, it was, to a large extent, an internal warfare that occupied her courts. The foes of her principles were those of her own household. This latter period, however, is one, the study of which, at least in its more prominent outlines, is essential to anything like an intelligent apprehension of the real merits of the disruption controversy. If the many arduous contests with the state, during the century and a half which preceded the accession of King William, reflect a light so clear and strong on the characteristic principles of that constitution of the church, which again and again the state was brought to acknowledge and ratify,

Conflicts of

the Church

during this

period chiefly in

ternal.

to

1833.

of the 18th

century light on the

throw much

1688 and which it finally established at the revolution; so, on CHAP. IV. to the other hand, the contests within the church, which were The contests so keenly prosecuted throughout the greater part of the century and a half that elapsed between 1688 and 1833, are not less instructive in deciding the question-Which of the two parties engaged in those internal contests was standing in the old paths, and vindicating the constitutional principles of the church of Scotland?

It has been already noticed, that the period now to be reviewed has little, comparatively, to do with state legislation. The only proceedings, indeed, in which the state intromitted with the revolution settlement at all, were the treaty of union between the two kingdoms, effected in 1707; and the restoration of patronage by the statute of Queen Anne in 1712. Both of these measures have an obvious and important bearing on the recent conflict, and will now, accordingly, require to be briefly considered.

From the period of the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1602, and the consequent accession of James VI. of Scotland to the English crown, that monarch and his successors had governed both kingdoms. But though ruled by the same sovereign, they were still in other respects independenteach having a distinct legislature, and a distinct executive government of its own. The change which the revolution had effected in the settlement of the crown was not long in bringing these independent powers into play. At the time that the royal succession beyond William and Mary had been fixed in the line of Anne, that princess had a family. Her children, however, having died before she came to the throne, and there being now no prospect of issue in this branch of the royal house, it became necessary to provide for the contingency which had thus arisen. An act was passed, accordingly, in 1700, by the English parliament, settling the crown, on the failure of Queen Anne, upon the

character of

the parties the ten

engaged in

years' con

Hict.

The Union, causes which

and the

led to it.

CHAP. IV. Princess Sophia, Electress Dowager of Hanover, and her 1688 descendants, being protestants. In these circumstances,

Danger of division

between the it was evidently a matter of vital moment to the peace of

two king

succession

doms on the the two countries, and to the integrity of the crown, that the
vital ques-
tion of the Scottish legislature should adopt a similar course. If,
to the crown. instead of doing so, they should think fit, upon the death
of Anne, to recall the exiled head of the Stewart family, or
to make any settlement whatever different from that which
the English parliament had adopted, great confusion, if not
a violent collision between the two kingdoms, could hardly
fail to ensue. The Scottish parliament and people, however,
were in no mood to go at once into the proposals of England.
Jealous of their national rights and institutions, they viewed,
on the contrary, with the utmost suspicion, any arrangement
that seemed likely to augment the power of their southern
neighbour. Instead of passing at once the English act of
settlement, they passed an act of security, vesting the powers
of the crown, in the event of its becoming vacant, in their
own parliament; and directing them to choose a successor
of the royal line, and of the protestant faith. And further,
by this act of security, they decided that the person so chosen
should not be capable of holding both crowns, save on the
express condition of maintaining the complete independence
of the Scottish nation, and the integrity of its institutions.

The Act of
Security.

Parliament

It was the critical position in which the relations of the two countries were thus placed, that mainly contributed to the bringing about of the incorporating union which soon The English after followed. Irritated as the English were at the attitude the Scottish parliament had assumed, they nevertheless, Act of Secu- under the guidance of Queen Anne and her able minister the footing Godolphin, recognized the wisdom of deferring to the claims the Union of a high-spirited and resolute people. They assented to

assents to the Scottish

rity, and on

of it urges on

the Scottish act of security, and, on the footing of it, urged
forward the scheme of a union. Nor was it after all without

to 1833.

1688 the utmost difficulty the consent of the Scottish parliament CHAP. IV. to to the union was obtained. Their fears as to the consequences 1833.

jealous of

the Union, commissionabout it only

allow their

ers to treat

on certain conditions.

of such a measure were not unnatural. If once their own
legislature were merged, not to say swamped and absorbed,
in the far more numerous parliament of England, what
security would remain for the integrity of their own national
institutions, especially of their presbyterian church? If
even a prelatic sovereign had often exerted so fatal an in- The Scotch,
fluence upon their religious liberties, how could they hope
to be safe under a prelatic parliament? Actuated by such
considerations as these, the Scottish commissioners, who
were at length empowered to treat about a union, had their
hands strictly tied up in regard to certain points, which,
unless they should be first consented to as fundamental
articles of the union, the commissioners were forbidden to
treat at all. And when their report upon the treaty was
laid before the Scottish parliament, the famous act was
passed by which the articles stipulated for were made an
essential condition of the union. The act so adopted runs
in the following singularly explicit terms:-"Our sovereign Act of the
lady and the estates of parliament considering that by the liament em-
late act of parliament for a treaty with England for an union conditions
of both kingdoms, it is provided that the commissioners for Union.
that treaty should not treat of or concerning any alteration
of the worship, discipline, and government of the church of
this kingdom as now by law established, which treaty being
reported to the parliament, and it being reasonable and
necessary that the true protestant religion, as presently
professed within this kingdom, with the worship, discipline,
and government of this church, should be effectually and
unalterably secured; therefore her majesty, with advice and
consent of the said estates of parliament, doth hereby
establish and confirm the said true protestant religion, and
the worship, discipline, and government of this church to

Scottish Par

bodying tho

of the

CHAP. IV. continue without any alteration to the people in this land 1688 Worship, dis- in all succeeding generations; and more especially, her cipline, and government majesty, with advice and consent foresaid, ratifies, approves,

of the Pres

Church de

unalterable.

byterian and for ever confirms the fifth act of the first parliament of clared to be King William and Queen Mary, entitled 'act ratifying the confession of faith, and settling the presbyterian church government,' with the whole other acts of parliament relating thereto, in prosecution of the declaration of the estates of this kingdom containing the claim of right bearing date 11th April, 1689; and her majesty, with advice and consent foresaid, expressly provides and declares, that the foresaid true protestant religion, &c., all established by the foresaid acts of parliament, pursuant to the claim of right, shall remain and continue unalterable. And farther, her majesty, with advice foresaid, expressly declares and statutes that none of the subjects of this kingdom shall be liable to, but all and every one of them shall be free of any oath, test, or subscription within this kingdom, contrary to or inconsistent The sovereign with the foresaid true protestant religion," &c. The act

bound by

hold the con

the Scottish

cath to up- also provides that every sovereign of the united kingdom
stitution of shall take an oath in harmony with this act, and thereby
Church. specially bind the crown to uphold in their integrity the
constitution and liberties of the Scottish presbyterian church.
It farther statutes and ordains "that this act of parliament,
with the establishment therein contained, shall be held and
observed in all time coming as a fundamental and essential
condition of any treaty or union to be concluded betwixt the
two kingdoms, without any alteration thereof or derogation
Conditions thereto, in any sort, for ever." And finally, to complete
accepted
and ratified this solemn transaction, in which the faith and honour of
by English
Parliament. the two kingdoms were so fully pledged, all these conditions
were, by an act of the English parliament, accepted and
ratified. All and every the matters and things therein con-
tained, and the act for securing the church of Scotland, it

1833.