(Continued from p. 185.)
THE new Formula, the final form of which was passed by Acts XIII. and VIII. of the General Assemblies of 1910 and 1912 respectively, and which was the outcome of the Act of 1905, to which reference has been made in the preceding article on this subject, may now be given at length: “I hereby subscribe the Confession of Faith declaring that I accept it as the Confession of this Church, and that I believe the fundamental doctrines of the Christian Faith contained therein. As likewise I own and acknowledge Presbyterian Church government, as now and for long time settled by law, to be the only government of this Church, and I will submit thereto and concur therewith, and never endeavour, directly or indirectly, the prejudice or subversion thereof. As also I will observe that uniformity of worship and of the administration of all public ordinances in this Church as the same are at present performed and allowed, or shall hereafter be declared by authority of the same.” If the 1889 Formula showed a great change from its predecessor, this showed a very much greater. The Subscriber no longer acknowledges the Confession in any way as the Confession of his faith, and as for its doctrines he gives no pledge, except so far as he pledges himself “to believe the fundamental doctrines of the Christian Faith contained therein.” This raises the whole question: What are the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith contained in the Confession? and the moment the question is put it will be seen how easy it will be for dishonest men to play fast and loose with their solemn ordination engagements. By Act VII. (1912), Question 2 put to ministers before their ordination was changed from “Do you declare the Confession of Faith of this Church to be the confession of your faith?” to “Do you believe the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith contained in the Confession of Faith of this Church?”
The next step taken by the Church of Scotland that seriously affected her relation to the Confession was the drawing up of the “Articles Declaratory of the Constitution of the Church of Scotland in Matters Spiritual” which were embodied in an Act of Parliament in 1921 and which have now come into operation through the recent declaration of the King by an Order in Council. As considerable importance is attached to the first article, we quote it here at length: “The Church of Scotland is part of the Holy Catholic or Universal Church; worshipping one God, Almighty, all-wise, and all-loving, in the Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the same in substance equal in power and glory; adoring the Father, infinite in Majesty, of whom are all things; confessing our Lord Jesus Christ, the Eternal Son, made very man for our salvation; glorying in His Cross and Resurrection, and owning obedience to Him as the Head over all things to His Church; trusting in the promised renewal and guidance of the Holy Spirit; proclaiming the forgiveness of sins and acceptance with God through faith in Christ, and the gift of Eternal Life; and labouring for the advancement of the Kingdom of God throughout the world. The Church of Scotland adheres to the Scottish Reformation; receives the Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as its supreme rule of faith and life; and avows the fundamental doctrines of the Catholic faith founded thereupon.” In the majestic diction and stately periods of this Article one may recognise something of the work of the Anglicizing party in the Church of Scotland who were more concerned to have any new creedal statement in keeping with the Catholic Church as they love to call it rather than with the distinctive doctrines of the Reformed Church. But the majestic setting of some of the great fundamental truths of the faith is not to blind us to some very serious defects in the Article. Notably, the statement in relation to Scripture is open to suspicion when it is asserted the Word of God “is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.” If “contained in” is used in its modern connotation, as we believe it is, the first Article is a stately building with a very defective foundation. The Word of God is acknowledged as the Church’s “supreme rule of faith and life” instead of as it used to be “the only rule of faith and manners.” But it is when we come to Article viii. that one begins to realise what a fluctuating creed the Church of Scotland is destined soon to have. “The Church has the right,” says the Article, “to interpret these Articles, and, subject to the safeguards for deliberate action and legislation provided by the Church itself, to modify or add to them but always consistently with the provisions of the first Article, hereof, adherence to which, as interpreted by the Church, is essential to its continuity and corporate life.” There is sufficient warrant here to set the amateur makers of creeds in the Church of Scotland to set to work at once and to keep them busy all their days as long as they have a mind for such work and get a good following in the Assembly. The second Article, while asserting that the Westminster Confession of Faith is the principal subordinate standard of the Church of Scotland, and that the government of this Church is Presbyterian—”its system and principles of worship, orders, and discipline are in accordance with ‘The Directory for the Public Worship of God,’ ‘The Form of Presbyterian Church Government,’ and ‘The Form of Process'”—qualifies it all by adding, “As these have been or may hereafter be interpreted or modified by Acts of the General Assembly or by consuetude.” In the same category is the statement in Article V., where it is asserted that “this Church has the inherent right, free from interference by civil authority, but under the safeguards for deliberate action and legislation provided by the Church itself, to frame or adopt its subordinate standards, to declare the sense, in which it understands its Confession of Faith, to modify the forms of expression therein, or to formulate other doctrinal statements, and to define the relation thereto of its office-bearers and members, but always in agreement with the Word of God and the fundamental doctrines of the Christian Faith contained in the said Confession, of which agreement the Church shall be sole judge, and with due regard to liberty of opinion in points which do not enter into the substance of the Faith.” This is a serious statement, and if we read it aright, the Church of Scotland can make the most vital changes in the Confession and yet be free from any fear of her property being lost to her. With all the hue and cry made by the United Free Church to be at liberty to do what she pleased with her creed without being penalised by the civil law for breach of contract, she never managed to get into any article framed by her, recognition by Act of Parliament such immunity. But, if we understand the Act of 1921, that is what the Church of Scotland has been granted.
The Church that has adopted these Articles and of which they are now its Constitution, calmly and coolly claims to be “in historical continuity with the Church of Scotland which was reformed in 1560, whose liberties were ratified in 1592, and for whose security provision was made in the Treaty of Union in 1707.”
It would not be difficult to show from history that such a claim is without foundation unless the most attenuated meaning possible is given to continuity. The Act of Parliament (Church of Scotland Act, 1921) is now in operation and its first Clause sets forth that: “The Declaratory Articles are lawful articles, and the constitution of the Church of Scotland in matters spiritual is as therein set forth, and no limitation of the liberty, rights and powers in matters spiritual therein set forth shall be derived from any statute or law affecting the Church of Scotland in matters spiritual at present in force, it being hereby declared that in all questions of construction the Declaratory Articles shall prevail, and that all such statutes and laws shall be construed in conformity therewith and in subordination thereto, and all such statutes and laws in so far as they are inconsistent with the Declaratory Articles are hereby repealed and declared to be of no effect.”
The whole matter may be summed up as follows: Article VIII. says Article I. is essential to the Church’s continuity and identity, but adherence to it is to be “interpreted by the Church.” Article VIII. claims power to alter all the Articles or to add to them, and the IXth declares them to be “the Constitution of the Church of Scotland in matters spiritual,” “subject to the provisions of the foregoing Articles and the powers of amendment therein contained.” Article II., in mentioning the Confession, etc., as subordinate standards, adds—”As these have been or may hereafter be, interpreted or modified by Acts of Assembly or by consuetude.” Article V., quoted at length above, makes a sweeping claim to declare the sense in which the Church understands the Confession, subject, it is true, to certain limits as “in agreement with the Word of God,” but this is vitiated by the qualifying statement, “Of which agreement the Church shall be sole judge.” Article II., which asserts the government of the Church to be Presbyterian, comes under the statement in Article VIII., and, like the other Articles, is subject to change. This Article, read in the light of Article IV., is open to further objection. According to Article IV.—”This Church . . . receives . . . the right and power, subject to no civil authority, to legislate, and to adjudicate finally in all matters of doctrine, worship, government, and discipline in the Church, including the right to determine all questions concerning membership and office in the Church, the constitution and membership of its Courts and the mode of election of its office-bearers.” This gives the Church of Scotland power, if the Anglicising party within her borders became sufficiently strong, to move in the direction they are so zealously working for. The Articles Declaratory have provided the Church of Scotland by Act of Parliament with a creedal band whose chief characteristic is not rigidity but elasticity. The Articles Declaratory are too much like a rubber-band in its capacities of elongation and contraction to be satisfactory. They certainly have lengthened the cords, such as they are, but they have not strengthened the stakes. The power of the Church is too prominent in these Articles, and the lack of acknowledgment of the Scriptures as the final court of appeal in all matters pertaining to the Church is too glaring to be unnoticed by the most superficial observer, and is fitted to awaken feelings of grave concern in the hearts of all who wish well to our national Sion.
We have now traced the relation of the Church of Scotland to the Confession and we have seen since 1889 a gradual loosening of the cords that bound her to that noble document until at last by the 1921 Act she is now in a position to make any changes she pleases in the Confession within, it is true, certain limits—but very, very wide limits indeed. The door has been opened, and when the time is ready the work of creed revision will begin. The United Free Church with a theology fast approaching the point of nebulosity has made no hiding that its effort at creed revision is postponed in prospect of the Union. When that will take place, and the new creed makers begin their work, then those who know the noble history of the Reformed Church of Scotland may well say:—
But all at once with axes now
And hammers they go to,
And down the carved work thereof
They break and quite undo.
(Metrical Ps. lxxvi. 6).
That we have not been too sweeping in our criticism of the Declaratory Articles embodied in the 1921 Act may be gathered from the words of the late Dr Cooper, a friendly critic, on the second reading of the Bill in the House of Commons. “The Bill,” he says, “makes no immediate change, but has potentialities. We are bound to Trinitarian orthodoxy and to be Protestant, whatever that may mean: I suppose it allows everything short of papal supremacy (Wotherspoon’s Memoirs of Dr Cooper, p. 329).” We believe Dr Cooper’s criticism is that of a man who read the Declaratory Articles aright. There can be little doubt that the Anglicising party in the Church of Scotland and those who have modern theological tendencies had a good hand in shaping the Declaratory Articles.
Surely there are some yet within the Established Church who will refuse to go another step in this career of defection from the Reformed Church of Scotland. There are men within her ministry who once belonged to the Free Presbyterian Church, and it passes our reason to understand how they can sit still in the midst of the glaring defection and not publicly protest against what is taking place.