IN view of the prospective union of the Established Church with the United Free Church in the near future it may be interesting to trace the changes that have taken place in the former Church in relation to the Confession of Faith. In 1690 the Scottish Parliament passed the famous Act ratifying the Confession of Faith and settling Presbyterian Church Government. The Parliament, in passing the Act, also appointed the first meeting of the General Assembly to take place in October of that year (1690). The Assembly, on meeting, passed an Act “for retaining soundness and unity of doctrine,” in which it is ordained that “all probationers licensed to preach, all intrants into the ministry, and all other ministers and elders received into communion with us in Church government, be obliged to subscribe their approbation of the Confession of Faith, approved by former General Assemblies of this Church.” In 1692 one hundred and eighty-two Episcopalian clergymen approached the Assembly for admission to the Church of Scotland, offering to sign a formula which in the words of King William—”We have delivered to our Commissioner . . . that it may be an act of your own to receive and assume into Church government and communion such as shall address [themselves] to you in these terms, and subscribe the Confession of Faith.” The Assembly resented his letter and refused his Formula. In 1693 the Scottish Parliament passed another Act entitled “Act for settling the Quiet and Peace of the Church.” Among other things, it enjoins “that no person be admitted, or continued for hereafter, to be a minister or preacher within this Church, unless that he having first taken and subscribed the Oath of Allegiance . . . do also subscribe the Confession of Faith, ratified in the foresaid 5th Act of the second session of Parliament [1690], declaring the same to be the confession of his faith, and that he owns the doctrine therein contained to be the true doctrine which he will constantly adhere to: as likewise, that he owns and acknowledges Presbyterian Church government, as settled by the foresaid fifth Act of the second Session of this Parliament, to be the only government of this Church, and that he will submit thereto, and concur therewith, and never endeavour, directly or indirectly, the prejudice or subversion thereof.” The Church, however, was careful to maintain her rights, so the General Assembly of 1694, in its instructions to the Commission appointed by it to receive into ministerial communion “such of the late conform ministers, as having qualified themselves according to law,” passed an Act prescribing a Formula framed on the law enacted by Parliament the previous year, which the foregoing on their reception were to subscribe. The Formula is as follows:—”I . . . do sincerely own and declare the above Confession of Faith, approved by former General Assemblies of this Church, and ratified by law in the year 1690, to be the Confession of my faith; and that I own the doctrine therein contained to be the true doctrine which I will constantly adhere to; as likewise [likewise] that I own and acknowledge Presbyterian Church government of this Church, now settled by law, by Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries, Provincial Synods, and General Assemblies, to be the only Government of this Church, and that I will submit thereto, concur therewith, and never endeavour directly nor indirectly, the prejudice or subversion thereof; and that I shall observe uniformity of worship and the administration of all public ordinances within this Church, as the same are at present performed and allowed.”
In 1700 the Scottish Parliament passed another Act for securing the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Government which was characterised by that vagueness so dear to the heart of the King especially where the Presbyterian Church was concerned. This Act was followed by an enactment of the General Assembly of the same year which ordains that “The General Assembly appoints, that all ministers and ruling elders, belonging to this national Church, subscribe the Confession of Faith, as the confession of their faith, according to the Act of Assembly, 1690, and the Formula agreed upon in the Assembly, held in the year 1694, Act II, Sess. 16, and that this be done, betwixt this and the next General Assembly.”
King William died in 1702 and was succeeded by Queen Anne whose sympathies were with the High Church party in the Church of England. Her accession to the throne raised the hopes of the Scottish Episcopalians, and in her letter to the first General Assembly on her coming to the throne she “renews the assurance given by her [at her Accession] for the protection of the Presbyterian Government, as that which she finds acceptable to the inclinations of her people, and established by the laws of the Kingdom.” To this she adds: “We are confident that you will carry so with others of the Reformed Protestant Religion, albeit differing from you in forms of Church Policy, that by your meekness and charity they may be the more inclined to live peaceably and dutifully under us, and in brotherly love and respect towards you and the Established Church.” The Assembly in their reply in referring to this, say: “We wish that all differences were merely about Church Policy (though even for this we should be sorry), and that there were no difference about our Confession of Faith towards God and our duty towards your Majesty.” The Formula of 1694 barred Episcopalians as such—ministers and elders—from entering the Church of Scotland, and to make assurance doubly sure the General Assembly of 1704 passed an Act requiring “that all commissions to ministers and ruling elders, from Presbyteries, Universities, and Royal Burghs, to subsequent Assemblies, bear, that they have subscribed the Confession of Faith of this Church, according to the 11th Act of the General Assembly, anno 1700: and sick-like, that no minister or elder be nominate and commissionate to be a member of the General Assembly of this Church, by any Presbytery, Burgh or University; but such as usually reside in, or have a relation to the Presbytery, Burgh, or University, they are commissionate from.” In order that licentiates or probationers should come under the same test the Assembly of 1705 extended this provision in the following terms: “The Assembly did by an unanimous vote, and hereby do, seriously recommend it to the several Presbyteries of this Church to keep a watchful eye upon all students of Theology and to be careful that none be licensed to preach or admitted to Churches but such as shall give evidence of their orthodoxy by signing the Confession of Faith approved by former General Assemblies of this Church and ratified by law in the year 1690 as the confession of their faith, of their good affection to the government of Church and State, of their peaceable principles and disposition, by engaging to observe good order in conjunction with and due subjection to the judicatores of this Church, and of their literature by abiding a strict Trial, and shall own the Presbyterian Government of this Church to be agreeable to and founded on the Word of God, and promise never to endeavour directly or indirectly the prejudice or subversion thereof, according to former Acts of Assembly thereanent.”
In the years 1710 and 1711 Parliament (England and Scotland were now united) passed three Acts which caused considerable alarm to the leaders of the Church of Scotland. These were: (1) Act for preserving the Protestant Religion by better securing the Church of England as by law established and for confirming the Toleration granted to Protestant Dissenters; (2) The Act to prevent the Disturbing those of the Episcopal Communion in that Part of Great Britain called Scotland 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 Act against irregular Baptisms and Marriages; (3) Act to restore the Patrons to their ancient Right of presenting Ministers to the Churches vacant in that Part of Great Britain called Scotland. This last Act which was to bring so much grief to the Church in Scotland empowered Episcopalian patrons, among others, to present ministers to charges if they were qualified. Naturally they presented men who were sympathetic towards Episcopacy or at any rate lukewarm Presbyterians and so the leaven would be introduced which the Presbyterian leaders dreaded. The General Assembly anticipating what was coming passed an Act in 1710 “for preserving the Purity of Doctrine.” In it the General Assembly discharges “all persons to vent any opinions contrary to any head or article of the said Confession and Catechism, or use any expressions in relation to the Articles of Faith, not agreeable to the form of sound words, expressed in the Word of God and the Confession of Faith and Catechisms of this Church, which are most valuable pieces of her Reformation.” The Assembly further sent down under the Barrier Act a series of Overtures for “Regulating the Calling of Ministers.” and “Anent Trying and Licensing Probationers for the Holy Ministry.” This was the genesis of the well-known Act of 1711.
This Act is entitled “Act concerning Probationers and settling Ministers, with Questions to be proposed to and Engagements to be taken of them.” It requires of all probationers on being licensed and of ministers on being settled that they answer the Questions put to them and sign the Formula.
The main difference between the Formula of 1711 and that of 1694 was that the former is stricter. It is here given at length so that it may be compared with that of 1694 already quoted: “I . . . do hereby declare, that I do sincerely own and believe the whole doctrine contained in the Confession of Faith approved by the General Assemblies of the National Church, and ratified by law in the year 1690, and frequently confirmed by divers Acts of Parliament since that time, to be the truths of God; and I do own the same as the confession of my faith: as likewise, I do own the purity of worship presently authorised and practised in this Church, and also the Presbyterian Government and discipline now so happily Established therein; which doctrine, worship and Church Government, I am persuaded, are founded upon the word of God, and agreeable thereto: and I promise, that, through the grace of God, I shall firmly and constantly adhere to the same, and to the utmost of my power, shall in my station assert maintain and defend the said doctrine, worship, discipline and government of this Church by kirk-sessions, presbyteries, provincial Synods and General Assemblies; and that I shall in my practice conform myself to the said worship, and submit to the said discipline and government, and never endeavour, directly or indirectly, the prejudice or subversion of the same: and I promise, that I shall follow no divisive course from the present Establishment in this Church: renouncing all doctrines, tenets, and opinions whatsoever, contrary to or inconsistent with the said doctrine, worship, discipline, or government of this Church.”
This Formula and the Questions to Ministers and Licentiates remained in force in the Church of Scotland until 1889 when certain important changes were made to which attention will be directed in a later article. From the foregoing it will be seen that the Presbyterian leaders were constantly in dread that the hard won victory for Presbyterianism was in danger of being wrested from them by the entrance into the Church of Scotland of men sympathetic to the former church polity (Episcopacy) which had been replaced by Presbyterianism in 1688. They had good reason to be alarmed for the Royal policy as revealed alike by King William and Queen Anne was heavily weighted towards Episcopacy.
It may be here said that the Formula of 1711 was taken over by the Free Church in the Act passed by the General Assembly of 1846 with such changes as were “necessary, in consequence of the late change in the outward condition of the Church.” The same is also true of the Questions. Both the Questions and Formula of the Act 1846 were adopted by the Free Presbyterian Church with the additional Question—”Do you approve of the Deed of Separation of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland adopted by its first Presbytery at Portree on 14th day of August, 1893?”
Limits of space will not allow us to enter more fully into the subject of the Questions, but it may be pointed out that in the Question: “Do you disown all Popish, Arian, Socinian, Arminian, Bourignian, and other doctrines, etc.,” the Free Church Act of 1846 substituted “Erastian” for “Bourignian.” In the Church of Scotland Act of 1889 the whole Question was omitted.