Chapter 13

[103]Ibid., ii. 183, 257.[104][For this band, see Laing's Knox, ii. 61-64.][105]["Quhilk thay willinglie acceptit and within foure dayis presentit this Confessioun as it followis, without alteratioun of any ane sentence." (Laing's Knox, ii. 92).][106][These statements are based on the information which Randolph sent to Cecil on 7th September 1560 (Laing's Knox, vi. 120, 121).][107]"At vero in praefectorum obedientia unum semper excipiendum ne ab ejus obedientia nos deducat, cujus decretis regum omnium jussa cedere par est.... Adversus ipsum si quid imperent nullo sit nec loco nec numero, sed illa potius sententia locum habeat, obediendum Deo magis quam hominibus."[108]This seems to be the opinion of Dr Laing (Knox's Works, vi. 121, n.) Indeed one can hardly read chapter xviii. without having a suspicion induced that Knox may have proved too strong for them in regard to some of what they termed the more harsh expressions in the treatise, as well as in regard to the particular chapter in question.[109][The Scotch and Latin versions are printed in parallel columns in Dunlop's 'Collection of Confessions' ii. 13-98.][110]"Libros, qui ab infantia usque ecclesiae semper habiti sunt canonici" (Latin version, Dunlop, ii. 70).[111]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 17, 18; Laing's Knox, ii. 96. A similar protestation is made in the Preface to the First Book of Discipline (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 518; Laing's Knox, ii. 184).[112]The sources from which this chapter was taken can still be pretty clearly traced. I place in parallel columns its statements and those of the two Confessions from which it was probably taken:—"We confesse and acknawledge ane only God, to whom only we must cleave, whom onelie we must serve, whom onelie we must worship, and in whom onelie we must put our trust."Je confesse qu'il y a un seul Dieu auquel il nous faut tenir, pour le servir, adorer, et y avoir notre fiance et refuge."—Confession subscribed by students in Academy in Geneva."Who is eternall, infinit, unmeasurable, incomprehensible, omnipotent, invisible: ane in substance, and zit distinct in thre personnis, the Father, the Sone, and the Holie Gost."—Old Scottish Confession, in Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 21, 22."I beleve and confesse my Lorde God eternal, infinite, unmeasurable, incomprehensible, and invisible, one in substance, and three in persone, Father, Sonne, and Holy Ghoste."—Confession of English Congregation at Geneva, in Laing's Knox, iv. 169; Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 3.[113]This also comes from a Genevan source:—"We condemne the damnable and pestilent heresies of Arius, Marcion, Eutyches, Nestorius, and sik uthers."—Old Scottish Confession, as above, ii. 31."Ideirco detestor omnes haereses huic principio contrarias puta Marcionis, Manetis, Nestorii, Eutychetis, et similium."—Genevan Confession.[114]Extraneum ab omni benedictione Dei, Satanae mancipium, sub peccati jugo captivum, horribili denique exitio destinatum et jam implicitum.—Calvin.[115]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 24, 25; Laing's Knox, ii. 98. It has been questioned if this description of faith is one which Calvin and his stricter followers would have used. But nothing is more common, even in the earliest edition of his Institutes, than to find him describing faith as the apprehension of Christ with His gifts, or graces, as well as with His righteousness: "Apprehendimus ac obtinemus et ... Christidonaamplectimur, quod ipsum est habere veram, ut decet fidem." "Haec omnia nobis a Deo offeruntur ac dantur in Christo Domino nostro nempe remissio peccatorum gratuita, ...dona et gratiaeSpiritus Sancti si certâ fide ea amplectimur." In one of these chapters [of the Scottish Confession] relating to the incarnation of Christ Jesus, He is spoken of not only, as in most of the Protestant Confessions, as the promised Messiah, the just seed of David, the Immanuel, or God in our nature—God and man in one person—but also as theAngel of the great counsel of God[Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 31; Laing's Knox, ii. 99]. This expression is no doubt a translation of theμεγαλης βουλης αγγελοςof the Septuagint, and is the more remarkable, not only as showing familiarity on the part of some of the framers of the Confession with a somewhat unusual rendering of one of the most explicit Messianic prophecies of Isaiah, but also as showing that they had perceived the true significance of an expression which last century gave rise to no little discussion and misconception. So far as I can remember, this remarkable expression does not appear in any other of the Protestant Confessions of that age.[116]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 32; Laing's Knox, ii. 100.[117]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 60, 61; Laing's Knox, ii. 108.[118]The following are a few specimens of close verbal coincidence between the Scottish Confession and the first edition of Calvin's Institutes:—1. "It behooved that the Sonne of God suld descend unto us, and tak himself a bodie of our bodie, flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bones, and so become the Mediator betwixt God and man, giving power to so many as beleeve in Him to be the sonnes of God."—Dunlop, ii. 33, 34.Filii Dei sumus quod naturalis Dei Filius sibi corpus ex corpore nostro, carnem ex carne nostra ossa ex ossibus nostris composuit ut idem nobiscum esset.2. "Quhatsaever wee have tynt in Adam is restored unto us agayne."—Dunlop, ii. 34.Ut quod in Adamo perdidimus Christus restitueret.3. "It behooved farther the Messias and Redemer to be very God and very man, because He was to underlie the punischment due for our transgressiouns, and to present himselfe in the presence of His Father's judgment as in our persone to suffer for our transgression and inobedience, be death to overcome him that was author of death. Bot because the onely Godhead culd not suffer death, neither zit culd the onlie manhead overcome the samin, He joyned both togither in one persone that the imbecillitie of the ane suld suffer and be subject to death quhilk we had deserved: and the infinit and invincible power of the uther, to wit, of the God-head, suld triumph and purchesse to us life, libertie, and perpetuall victory."—Dunlop, ii. 35, 36.Praeterea sic nostra referebat, verum esse Deum et hominem qui Redemptor noster futurus esset.... Prodiit ergo verus homo, Dominus noster, Adae personam induit ... ut Patri se obedientem pro eo exhiberet ut carnem nostram in satisfactionem justo Dei judicio statueret ac sisteret, ut in eâdem carne peccati poenam persolveret. Quum denique mortem nec solus Deus sentire, nec solus homo superare posset, humanitatem cum divinitate sociavit ut alterius imbecillitatem morti in poenam persolveret, alterius virtute adversus mortem in victoriam luctaretur.4. "That Hee being the cleane, innocent Lambe of God, was damned in the presence of an earthlie judge, that we suld be absolved befoir thetribunalseat of our God."—Dunlop, ii. 37, 38.Judicis scilicet sententia damnatus pro nocente et malefico ut apud summi judicistribunalejus damnatione absolveremur.5. "Suffered ... the cruell death of the Crosse, quhilk was accursed be the sentence of God."—Dunlop, ii. 38.Crucifixus in cruce quae Dei lege maledicta fuerat.6. "Suffered for a season the wrath of His Father quhilk sinners had deserved. Bot zit we avow that He remained the only wel-beloved and blessed Sonne of His Father, even in the middest of His anguish and torment."—Dunlop, ii. 38.Divini judicii horrorem et severitatem sensisse ... luens poenas non suae ... sed nostrae iniquitati. Neque tamen intelligendum est patrem illi unquam iratum fuisse. Quomodo enim dilecto filio, in quo illi complacitum est, irasceretur.[119]Alasco's Works, ii. 296, 298.[120]Chapters xii.-xv.[121]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 46. "Sunt autem dona Spiritus Sancti, per quem regeneramur, e diaboli potestate et vinculis explicamur, in filios Dei gratuito adoptamur, ad omne opus bonum sanctificamur."—Calvin.[122]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 47.[123]Westminster Confession, chap. x.[124]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 58. There is hardly one of these expressions that may not be found in Calvin's Institutes:—It behoves us to apprehend Christ Jesus with His justice and satisfaction.Confiteor nos justificari per fidem quâtenus per eam apprehendimus Jesum Christum.We are set at this liberty that the curse and malediction of the law fall not upon us.Omni execratione quae nobis incumbebat eximeremur dum in eum traduceret. Fides, in Christi damnatione absolutionem, benedictionem in maledictione, apprehendit.God the Father, beholding us in the body of His Son Christ Jesus, accepts our imperfect obedience as it were perfect.Ubi nos in filii sui communionem semel recepit, opera nostra grata acceptaque habet, non quod ita promereantur sed quia condonatâ eorum imperfectione, nil in illis intuetur, nisi quod a Spiritu suo profectum, purum ac sanctum est.Coversour works, which are defiled with many spots, with the justice of His Son.Nullae nostrae sordes aut immunditiae imperfectionis imputantur, sed illa puritate Christi ac perfectione velut sepultaeconteguntur. Cujus perfectione tegatur nostra imperfectio. See also Calvin's Catechism in Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 175.[125]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 95; Laing's Knox, ii. 119.[126][Of the six, all save Willock sign the letter to Beza on 4th September 1566 (Laing's Knox, vi. 548-550).][127]Laing's Knox, vi. 546-548.[128]Considerable ingenuity has been expended in the attempt to show that the words "who is the end and accomplishment of the law" are to be understood in some other than their most obvious and commonly received meaning. Without questioning the competency of such ingenious rather than ingenuous exposition, were a case raised before the judicial committee of a modern privy council to have the expounder tried and condemned as a heretic, I venture to think that when the matter to be determined is rather what, in point of fact, did Knox and his associates hold and teach, the following brief quotation from the "godly and perfect" treatise of Balnaves on Justification must go pretty near to settle it: "Christ is the end of the law (unto righteousnes) to all that beleeve—that is, Christ is the consummation and fulfilling of the lawe, and that justice whiche the lawe requireth; and all they which beleeve in Him are just by imputation through faith, and for His sake are repute and accepted as just" (Laing's Knox, iii. 492). If more than this has been taught in recent times, I should be greatly inclined with Principal Lee to trace it to Jonathan Edwards, or perhaps even to the great Independent, Dr Owen, rather than to the Westminster divines, or the earlier Scottish.[129]Stähelin's Johannes Calvin, ii. 88.[130]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 66-68; Laing's Knox, ii. 110.[131]Lee's Lectures on the History of the Church of Scotland, i. 124, 125.[132]Laing's Knox, ii. 113. [In the Confession, as printed in the Acts of the Parliaments of 1560 and 1567 ratifying it, the wordchiefis retained (Acts of Parliament, ii. 532; iii. 20). The Confession of 1616 bears that: "We believe that there be only two sacraments appointed by Christ under the New Testament, Baptisme and the Lord's Supper" ('Booke of the Universall Kirk,' iii. 1137). Concerning the sacraments the First Book of Discipline says: "They be two, to wit, Baptism and the Holy Supper of the Lord Jesus" (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 520; Laing's Knox, ii. 186).][133]Hujus generisduo praecipuain vetere ecclesiâ fuerunt circumcisio et agnus paschalis. Nos illorum locoduoetiam habemus baptismum et caenam domini.[134]"The Confession of Faith made by Mr Knox, and ratified in Parliament by King James VI., together with the Westminster Confession (both agreed on by the General Assembly of Presbyters), are owned next to the Word of God, by both parties, as the Standard of the doctrine of our Church" (Case of Suffering Church of Scotland).[135]It is printed at length in Calderwood's History, vii. 233-242; and also in the 'Booke of the Universall Kirk,' iii. 1132-1139; and is supposed to have been mainly the work of Howie, Melville's successor at St Andrews.[136][In speaking of this Confession of 1616, Dr Grub says that it "agrees with the old one in all important points, the chief difference being in its more marked enunciation of the doctrine of Calvin in regard to election and predestination" (Grub's History, ii. 306).][137]Printed in Peterkin's Records of the Kirk, pp. 155-160.[138]Generally so designated, but really as old as the days of Paul and Augustine.[139][After 1564-65, the Book of Common Order was usually printed with a complete metrical version of the Psalms (Laing's Knox, vi. 279, 280, 284); and was comprehended under the name 'Psalm Book' (infra, p.128). Mr Cowan, of 47 Braid Avenue, Edinburgh, informs me that the Confession, drawn up for the English congregation at Geneva, appears in every edition of the Book of Common Order which he has examined, from the Geneva edition of 1556 down to the edition printed by Evan Tyler in 1644.][140]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 8; Laing's Knox, iv. 171, 172.[141][These forms of recantation may be seen in the Maitland Miscellany, iii. 215-221; and in the Register of St Andrews Kirk-session, Scot. Hist. Soc., i. 11-18.][142]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 65, 66; Laing's Knox, ii. 109, 110.[143]The designation is undoubtedly Knoxian, as it occurs in his dispute with Friar Arbuckill in 1547. To the reformer's assertion "that the spous of Christ had nether power nor authoritie against the Word of God," the Friar replied, "Yf so be, ye will leave us na kirk;" and to that the reformer rejoined, "In David I read that thare is a church of the malignantis, for he sayis,Odi ecclesiam malignantium. That church ye may have without the Word, ... of that church yf ye wilbe, I can not impead yow" (Laing's Knox, i. 200).[144]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 80; Laing's Knox, ii. 114.[145]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 96, 97.[146]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 520, 583; Laing's Knox, ii. 186, 239. [In another passage it is spoken of as "the Booke of the Common Order, called the Order of Geneva" (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 548; Laing's Knox, ii. 210).] The Book of Common Order, which has been frequently reprinted, is included in vols. iv. and vi. of Dr Laing's edition of Knox's Works.[147]The extract from the minutes of the city council embodying these conditions, which I found in Withof's 'Vertheidigung' and communicated to Dr Hume Brown, was printed by him in the Appendix to his 'John Knox,' and is also reprinted here in AppendixD.[148]"At lenght it was agreed that the Order of Geneua (whiche then was alreadie printed in Englishe and some copies there amonge them) shulde take place as an Order moste godly and fardeste off from superstition. But Maister Knox beinge spoken unto, aswell to put that Order in practise, as to minister the communion, refused to do ether the one or the other, affirminge, that for manie considerations he coulde not consente that the same Order shulde be practised, till the lerned men off Strausbrough, Zurik, Emden, &c., were made privy" (Brief Discourse of the Troubles begun at Frankfort in the year 1554, Petheram's reprint, p. xxvii). We have the following additional entry: "After longe debatinge to and fro, it was concluded that Maister Knox, Maister Whittingham, Maister Gilby, Maister Fox and Maister T. Cole shulde drawe forthe some Order meete for their state and time: whiche thinge was by them accomplished and offred to the congregation (beinge the same Order off Geneua whiche is nowe in print). This Order was verie well liked off many, but suche as were bent to the Booke of Englande coulde not abide it" (Ibid., pp. xxxvi, xxxvii).[149][It is greatly to be regretted that Dr Mitchell does not seem to have been able to prepare the Appendix to which he here refers; but after this lecture had left his hands he expressed his "strong conviction that the words and matter of Knox's Latin Prayer Book of 1556 were derived directly from the Liturgia Sacra of Pollanus." On this point he entertained "no doubt whatever."][150]Laing's Knox, vi. 162.[151]Booke of the Universall Kirk, i. 30.[152]Ibid., i. 54.[153][The grounds on which this opinion is usually based are given in Laing's Knox, vi. 277, 278. To these may be added the terms of the summons raised by Sir James Archebald, Vicar of Lintrathin, against his parishioners, on the 27th of May 1560, for payment of his teinds, &c., on the plea that he "is lauchfullie providit be the lawis and practik of oure realme, observit in tymes past, of the said vicarage, and hes bene in possessioun of the samyn thir divers yeris bigane, and hes causitthe commone prayeris and homiliesbe red owlklie to the parrochinaris of the said parrochin, and uther wyiss is content to abyde sik reformatioun as the Lordis of our Secreit Counsale plesis mak thairintill, and als is adjonit to Goddis congregatioun, and takis part with the saidis Lordis in setting fordwart the commone caus, to the gloir of God and commone weill of our realme" (Spalding Miscellany, iv. 120).][154]Laing's Knox, iv. 137-139. [Laing gives the 7th of July 1556 as the correct date of this letter, and says that it is by some oversight that M'Crie in the later editions of his 'Life of Knox' has dated it 7th July 1557 (Ibid., iv. 140).][155]Lesley's History, p. 292.[156]Laing's Knox, vi. 119.[157]Laing's Knox, vi. 118. This evidently shows that they used not theipsissima verbaof the prayer for all estates, but variant words, "like in effect." [Randolph's letter is dated 25th August 1560. Alexander Gordon, Bishop of Galloway, was titular Archbishop of Athens.][158]Laing's Knox, vi. 13. [This letter is dated 6th April 1559.][159]Liturgies of Edward VI., Parker Society, pp. 157, 158. [The "certain notes" thus referred to pertain to Edward's First Liturgy.][160]Lorimer's Knox and the Church of England, 1875, pp. 29-32.[161][On the 29th of July 1637—six days after the riot in St Giles—it was reported to the Privy Council by Archbishop Spottiswoode, for himself and in name of the remanent bishops, that it seemed expedient to them "that there should be a surcease of the service-booke" till the king signified his pleasure as to the punishment of "that disorderlie tumult"; and "that a course be sett down for the peaceable exercise thereof." He also reported that "the saids bishops had appointed and given order that, in the whole churches of this citie [i.e., Edinburgh], sermon sall be made at the accustomed times, by regular and obedient ministers, and that a prayer sall be made before and after sermon, and that neither the old service nor the new established service be used in this interim." The Council remitted to the bishops "to doe therein according to the power incumbent unto thame in the dewtie of thair office" (Peterkin's Records of the Kirk, p. 52).[162][In Knox's version—"the crossing of thair fingaris" (Laing's Knox, ii. 255).][163]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 603.[164]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 526, 530, 532, 536, 603; Laing's Knox, ii. 191, 194, 196, 199, 255.[165]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 417; Laing's Knox, iv. 179; vi. 294.[166]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 421; Laing's Knox, iv. 182; vi. 297.[167]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 425; Laing's Knox, iv. 185; vi. 298.[168]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 426. There is a similar rubric in the Liturgy of Pollanus: "Minister, nomine Domini invocato, ut Spiritu Sancto adjutus, possit digna Deo atque salutaria ecclesiae eloqui recitat textum."[169]The Liturgy of Pollanus appoints sermons to be preached on the mornings of Tuesday and Thursday. The service is to begin with a psalm, which being sung, the minister having invoked the Holy Spirit recites his text and proceeds with his sermon. He concludes with some shorter prayer "prout animus tulerit."[170]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 583; Laing's Knox, ii. 238.[171]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 450; Laing's Knox, iv. 194.[172]In the Order of the General Fast it is stated: "The exhortation and prayers of everie several exercise we have remitted to be gathered by the discrete ministers, for time preased us so that we culd not frame them in such order as wes convenient, nether yit thought we it so expedient to pen prayers unto men, as to teach them with what hart and affection and for what causes we shuld pray, in this great calamitie" (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 695; Laing's Knox, vi. 421). See also Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 698; Laing's Knox, vi. 470. Even the Order of Excommunication might be "enlarged or contracted as the wisedome of the discreit minister shall thinke expedient" (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 746; Laing's Knox, vi. 470).[173]Calderwood's Altare Damascenum, 1623, p. 613. In this and the preceding pages I have made use of materials contributed by me to a Report anent Innovations in Public Worship, presented to the General Assembly in 1864. [Elsewhere, Calderwood says: "None are tyed to the prayers of that book; but the prayers are set down as samplers" (Calderwood's History, 1678 ed., p. 25). Principal Baillie's evidence is to the same effect: "The Warner is here also mistaken in his beliefe that ever the Church of Scotland had any liturgy; they had and have still some formes for helpe and direction but no tie ever in any of them by law or practise" (Review of Bramhall's Faire Warning against the Scots Discipline, 1649, p. 57).][174]Row's History, Wodrow Society, pp. 403, 404.[175]Order and Government of the Church of Scotland, 1641: Address to the reader.[176]Certainly not more consistently than Pollanus in the following rubric: "Hae sunt precationum in liturgiis certae formulae,quae tamen sequitur ministerSUO ARBITRIOut tempus fert et res postulat. Neque enim ullâ praescriptione formularum alligandus est Spiritus Dei ad eum verborum numerum, cui non liceat subjicere vel supponere si meliora suggerat.... Hae formulaeserviunt tantum rudioribus. Nullius libertati praescribitur, tantum ne ab eâ ratione discedatur quam nobis Jesus Christus praescripsit.... Cumque is (scilicetSpiritus Sanctus) apud tribunalia subministret quae dicenda sint, non deerit nobis [si] cum vera fide coram Deo nos sistemus sensu orationis excitati."[177]"Von vorgeschriebenen Kirchengebeten vor und nach der Predigt finden wir keine Spur, vielmehr das sichere Gegentheil.... Ums Jahr 1589 finden wir zuerst das sogenannte Lob und Dankopfer und die daran gehängten Fürbitten für die Obrigkeit, und die übrigen christlichen Stände.... Erst nach der Mitte des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts ... suchte man auch im Liturgischen die Willkür der einzelnen in engere Schränken zuruckzuführen" (Geschichte der ersten Basler-konfession, S. 249-251).[178][The charges are in the alleged causes which led James VI., immediately after his accession to the English throne, to endeavour to bring about uniformity in the services of the church throughout the whole kingdom, and run thus: "That diversitie, nay deformitie, which was used in Scotland, where no set or publike forme of prayer was used, but preachers or leaders and ignorant schoolmasters prayed in the church, sometimes so ignorantly as it was a shame to all religion to have the Majestie of God so barbarously spoken unto, sometimes so seditiously that their prayers were plaine libels, girding at soveraigntie and authoritie; or lyes, being stuffed with all the false reports in the kingdome" (Large Declaration, 1639, p. 16).][179][The committee appointed by the General Assembly to examine the Large Declaration describe it as dishonourable to God, to the king, and to the kirk; and as "stuffed full of lies and calumnies." Concerning this part in particular they say: "To the great dishonour of this kirk [it] is affirmed in this Declaration that there is a great deformitie in our service—no forme of publict prayer, but preachers, readers, and ignorant schoollemasters, praying in the church, sometymes so ignorantlie," &c. (Peterkin's Records of the Kirk, pp. 265, 266).[180][The six were John Wynram, John Spottiswoode, John Willock, John Douglas, John Row, and John Knox (supra, p.99).][181]Spottiswoode's History, Spot. Soc. ed., i. 371, 372.[182]Supra, pp.112,113.[183]The appointment of such an official as chief minister of the English congregation of Frankfort had, however, been urged by Knox's opponents there, but was refused by his party (Discourse of Troubles at Frankfort, pp. xiv, xlvii, cxvii, cxxxv-cxxxviii, cxlvi, cxlvii).[184]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 409, 410; Laing's Knox, iv. 177.[185]The great services Coverdale had rendered to the cause of Protestantism by his translation of the Scriptures did not suffice to blot out from the minds of Elizabeth and her ministers the remembrance of his connection with Knox and Goodman. He was welcomed at the consecration of Archbishop Parker, though he came in his black gown, for they could not well do that without him; but all Grindal's efforts failed to secure for him a Welsh bishopric, or even to get him left unmolested in the parochial benefice he conferred on him.[186]Even in St Andrews, with all its equipment of schools and colleges, the common people are represented in 1547 as welcoming Knox's offer of a public disputation, because though they could not all read his papers they could understand what he addressed to themvivâ voce(Laing's Knox, i. 189).[187]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 518; Laing's Knox, ii. 185.[188]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 526; Laing's Knox, ii. 191.[189]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 530; Laing's Knox, ii. 194.[190]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 530; Laing's Knox, ii. 194.[191]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 577; Laing's Knox, ii. 233.[192]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 578; Laing's Knox, ii. 234, 235.[193]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 581; Laing's Knox, ii. 236, 237.[194]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 532; Laing's Knox, ii. 195, 196. [Readers who were able toexhortand explain the Scriptures were to have their stipends augmented until they attained the honour of a minister (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 536, 537; Laing's Knox, ii. 199, 200).]

[103]Ibid., ii. 183, 257.

[104][For this band, see Laing's Knox, ii. 61-64.]

[105]["Quhilk thay willinglie acceptit and within foure dayis presentit this Confessioun as it followis, without alteratioun of any ane sentence." (Laing's Knox, ii. 92).]

[106][These statements are based on the information which Randolph sent to Cecil on 7th September 1560 (Laing's Knox, vi. 120, 121).]

[107]"At vero in praefectorum obedientia unum semper excipiendum ne ab ejus obedientia nos deducat, cujus decretis regum omnium jussa cedere par est.... Adversus ipsum si quid imperent nullo sit nec loco nec numero, sed illa potius sententia locum habeat, obediendum Deo magis quam hominibus."

[108]This seems to be the opinion of Dr Laing (Knox's Works, vi. 121, n.) Indeed one can hardly read chapter xviii. without having a suspicion induced that Knox may have proved too strong for them in regard to some of what they termed the more harsh expressions in the treatise, as well as in regard to the particular chapter in question.

[109][The Scotch and Latin versions are printed in parallel columns in Dunlop's 'Collection of Confessions' ii. 13-98.]

[110]"Libros, qui ab infantia usque ecclesiae semper habiti sunt canonici" (Latin version, Dunlop, ii. 70).

[111]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 17, 18; Laing's Knox, ii. 96. A similar protestation is made in the Preface to the First Book of Discipline (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 518; Laing's Knox, ii. 184).

[112]The sources from which this chapter was taken can still be pretty clearly traced. I place in parallel columns its statements and those of the two Confessions from which it was probably taken:—"We confesse and acknawledge ane only God, to whom only we must cleave, whom onelie we must serve, whom onelie we must worship, and in whom onelie we must put our trust."Je confesse qu'il y a un seul Dieu auquel il nous faut tenir, pour le servir, adorer, et y avoir notre fiance et refuge."—Confession subscribed by students in Academy in Geneva."Who is eternall, infinit, unmeasurable, incomprehensible, omnipotent, invisible: ane in substance, and zit distinct in thre personnis, the Father, the Sone, and the Holie Gost."—Old Scottish Confession, in Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 21, 22."I beleve and confesse my Lorde God eternal, infinite, unmeasurable, incomprehensible, and invisible, one in substance, and three in persone, Father, Sonne, and Holy Ghoste."—Confession of English Congregation at Geneva, in Laing's Knox, iv. 169; Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 3.

[112]The sources from which this chapter was taken can still be pretty clearly traced. I place in parallel columns its statements and those of the two Confessions from which it was probably taken:—

"We confesse and acknawledge ane only God, to whom only we must cleave, whom onelie we must serve, whom onelie we must worship, and in whom onelie we must put our trust."Je confesse qu'il y a un seul Dieu auquel il nous faut tenir, pour le servir, adorer, et y avoir notre fiance et refuge."—Confession subscribed by students in Academy in Geneva."Who is eternall, infinit, unmeasurable, incomprehensible, omnipotent, invisible: ane in substance, and zit distinct in thre personnis, the Father, the Sone, and the Holie Gost."—Old Scottish Confession, in Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 21, 22."I beleve and confesse my Lorde God eternal, infinite, unmeasurable, incomprehensible, and invisible, one in substance, and three in persone, Father, Sonne, and Holy Ghoste."—Confession of English Congregation at Geneva, in Laing's Knox, iv. 169; Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 3.

[113]This also comes from a Genevan source:—"We condemne the damnable and pestilent heresies of Arius, Marcion, Eutyches, Nestorius, and sik uthers."—Old Scottish Confession, as above, ii. 31."Ideirco detestor omnes haereses huic principio contrarias puta Marcionis, Manetis, Nestorii, Eutychetis, et similium."—Genevan Confession.

[113]This also comes from a Genevan source:—

"We condemne the damnable and pestilent heresies of Arius, Marcion, Eutyches, Nestorius, and sik uthers."—Old Scottish Confession, as above, ii. 31."Ideirco detestor omnes haereses huic principio contrarias puta Marcionis, Manetis, Nestorii, Eutychetis, et similium."—Genevan Confession.

[114]Extraneum ab omni benedictione Dei, Satanae mancipium, sub peccati jugo captivum, horribili denique exitio destinatum et jam implicitum.—Calvin.

[115]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 24, 25; Laing's Knox, ii. 98. It has been questioned if this description of faith is one which Calvin and his stricter followers would have used. But nothing is more common, even in the earliest edition of his Institutes, than to find him describing faith as the apprehension of Christ with His gifts, or graces, as well as with His righteousness: "Apprehendimus ac obtinemus et ... Christidonaamplectimur, quod ipsum est habere veram, ut decet fidem." "Haec omnia nobis a Deo offeruntur ac dantur in Christo Domino nostro nempe remissio peccatorum gratuita, ...dona et gratiaeSpiritus Sancti si certâ fide ea amplectimur." In one of these chapters [of the Scottish Confession] relating to the incarnation of Christ Jesus, He is spoken of not only, as in most of the Protestant Confessions, as the promised Messiah, the just seed of David, the Immanuel, or God in our nature—God and man in one person—but also as theAngel of the great counsel of God[Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 31; Laing's Knox, ii. 99]. This expression is no doubt a translation of theμεγαλης βουλης αγγελοςof the Septuagint, and is the more remarkable, not only as showing familiarity on the part of some of the framers of the Confession with a somewhat unusual rendering of one of the most explicit Messianic prophecies of Isaiah, but also as showing that they had perceived the true significance of an expression which last century gave rise to no little discussion and misconception. So far as I can remember, this remarkable expression does not appear in any other of the Protestant Confessions of that age.

[116]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 32; Laing's Knox, ii. 100.

[117]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 60, 61; Laing's Knox, ii. 108.

[118]The following are a few specimens of close verbal coincidence between the Scottish Confession and the first edition of Calvin's Institutes:—1. "It behooved that the Sonne of God suld descend unto us, and tak himself a bodie of our bodie, flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bones, and so become the Mediator betwixt God and man, giving power to so many as beleeve in Him to be the sonnes of God."—Dunlop, ii. 33, 34.Filii Dei sumus quod naturalis Dei Filius sibi corpus ex corpore nostro, carnem ex carne nostra ossa ex ossibus nostris composuit ut idem nobiscum esset.2. "Quhatsaever wee have tynt in Adam is restored unto us agayne."—Dunlop, ii. 34.Ut quod in Adamo perdidimus Christus restitueret.3. "It behooved farther the Messias and Redemer to be very God and very man, because He was to underlie the punischment due for our transgressiouns, and to present himselfe in the presence of His Father's judgment as in our persone to suffer for our transgression and inobedience, be death to overcome him that was author of death. Bot because the onely Godhead culd not suffer death, neither zit culd the onlie manhead overcome the samin, He joyned both togither in one persone that the imbecillitie of the ane suld suffer and be subject to death quhilk we had deserved: and the infinit and invincible power of the uther, to wit, of the God-head, suld triumph and purchesse to us life, libertie, and perpetuall victory."—Dunlop, ii. 35, 36.Praeterea sic nostra referebat, verum esse Deum et hominem qui Redemptor noster futurus esset.... Prodiit ergo verus homo, Dominus noster, Adae personam induit ... ut Patri se obedientem pro eo exhiberet ut carnem nostram in satisfactionem justo Dei judicio statueret ac sisteret, ut in eâdem carne peccati poenam persolveret. Quum denique mortem nec solus Deus sentire, nec solus homo superare posset, humanitatem cum divinitate sociavit ut alterius imbecillitatem morti in poenam persolveret, alterius virtute adversus mortem in victoriam luctaretur.4. "That Hee being the cleane, innocent Lambe of God, was damned in the presence of an earthlie judge, that we suld be absolved befoir thetribunalseat of our God."—Dunlop, ii. 37, 38.Judicis scilicet sententia damnatus pro nocente et malefico ut apud summi judicistribunalejus damnatione absolveremur.5. "Suffered ... the cruell death of the Crosse, quhilk was accursed be the sentence of God."—Dunlop, ii. 38.Crucifixus in cruce quae Dei lege maledicta fuerat.6. "Suffered for a season the wrath of His Father quhilk sinners had deserved. Bot zit we avow that He remained the only wel-beloved and blessed Sonne of His Father, even in the middest of His anguish and torment."—Dunlop, ii. 38.Divini judicii horrorem et severitatem sensisse ... luens poenas non suae ... sed nostrae iniquitati. Neque tamen intelligendum est patrem illi unquam iratum fuisse. Quomodo enim dilecto filio, in quo illi complacitum est, irasceretur.

[118]The following are a few specimens of close verbal coincidence between the Scottish Confession and the first edition of Calvin's Institutes:—

1. "It behooved that the Sonne of God suld descend unto us, and tak himself a bodie of our bodie, flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bones, and so become the Mediator betwixt God and man, giving power to so many as beleeve in Him to be the sonnes of God."—Dunlop, ii. 33, 34.Filii Dei sumus quod naturalis Dei Filius sibi corpus ex corpore nostro, carnem ex carne nostra ossa ex ossibus nostris composuit ut idem nobiscum esset.2. "Quhatsaever wee have tynt in Adam is restored unto us agayne."—Dunlop, ii. 34.Ut quod in Adamo perdidimus Christus restitueret.3. "It behooved farther the Messias and Redemer to be very God and very man, because He was to underlie the punischment due for our transgressiouns, and to present himselfe in the presence of His Father's judgment as in our persone to suffer for our transgression and inobedience, be death to overcome him that was author of death. Bot because the onely Godhead culd not suffer death, neither zit culd the onlie manhead overcome the samin, He joyned both togither in one persone that the imbecillitie of the ane suld suffer and be subject to death quhilk we had deserved: and the infinit and invincible power of the uther, to wit, of the God-head, suld triumph and purchesse to us life, libertie, and perpetuall victory."—Dunlop, ii. 35, 36.Praeterea sic nostra referebat, verum esse Deum et hominem qui Redemptor noster futurus esset.... Prodiit ergo verus homo, Dominus noster, Adae personam induit ... ut Patri se obedientem pro eo exhiberet ut carnem nostram in satisfactionem justo Dei judicio statueret ac sisteret, ut in eâdem carne peccati poenam persolveret. Quum denique mortem nec solus Deus sentire, nec solus homo superare posset, humanitatem cum divinitate sociavit ut alterius imbecillitatem morti in poenam persolveret, alterius virtute adversus mortem in victoriam luctaretur.4. "That Hee being the cleane, innocent Lambe of God, was damned in the presence of an earthlie judge, that we suld be absolved befoir thetribunalseat of our God."—Dunlop, ii. 37, 38.Judicis scilicet sententia damnatus pro nocente et malefico ut apud summi judicistribunalejus damnatione absolveremur.5. "Suffered ... the cruell death of the Crosse, quhilk was accursed be the sentence of God."—Dunlop, ii. 38.Crucifixus in cruce quae Dei lege maledicta fuerat.6. "Suffered for a season the wrath of His Father quhilk sinners had deserved. Bot zit we avow that He remained the only wel-beloved and blessed Sonne of His Father, even in the middest of His anguish and torment."—Dunlop, ii. 38.Divini judicii horrorem et severitatem sensisse ... luens poenas non suae ... sed nostrae iniquitati. Neque tamen intelligendum est patrem illi unquam iratum fuisse. Quomodo enim dilecto filio, in quo illi complacitum est, irasceretur.

[119]Alasco's Works, ii. 296, 298.

[120]Chapters xii.-xv.

[121]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 46. "Sunt autem dona Spiritus Sancti, per quem regeneramur, e diaboli potestate et vinculis explicamur, in filios Dei gratuito adoptamur, ad omne opus bonum sanctificamur."—Calvin.

[122]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 47.

[123]Westminster Confession, chap. x.

[124]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 58. There is hardly one of these expressions that may not be found in Calvin's Institutes:—It behoves us to apprehend Christ Jesus with His justice and satisfaction.Confiteor nos justificari per fidem quâtenus per eam apprehendimus Jesum Christum.We are set at this liberty that the curse and malediction of the law fall not upon us.Omni execratione quae nobis incumbebat eximeremur dum in eum traduceret. Fides, in Christi damnatione absolutionem, benedictionem in maledictione, apprehendit.God the Father, beholding us in the body of His Son Christ Jesus, accepts our imperfect obedience as it were perfect.Ubi nos in filii sui communionem semel recepit, opera nostra grata acceptaque habet, non quod ita promereantur sed quia condonatâ eorum imperfectione, nil in illis intuetur, nisi quod a Spiritu suo profectum, purum ac sanctum est.Coversour works, which are defiled with many spots, with the justice of His Son.Nullae nostrae sordes aut immunditiae imperfectionis imputantur, sed illa puritate Christi ac perfectione velut sepultaeconteguntur. Cujus perfectione tegatur nostra imperfectio. See also Calvin's Catechism in Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 175.

[124]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 58. There is hardly one of these expressions that may not be found in Calvin's Institutes:—

It behoves us to apprehend Christ Jesus with His justice and satisfaction.Confiteor nos justificari per fidem quâtenus per eam apprehendimus Jesum Christum.We are set at this liberty that the curse and malediction of the law fall not upon us.Omni execratione quae nobis incumbebat eximeremur dum in eum traduceret. Fides, in Christi damnatione absolutionem, benedictionem in maledictione, apprehendit.God the Father, beholding us in the body of His Son Christ Jesus, accepts our imperfect obedience as it were perfect.Ubi nos in filii sui communionem semel recepit, opera nostra grata acceptaque habet, non quod ita promereantur sed quia condonatâ eorum imperfectione, nil in illis intuetur, nisi quod a Spiritu suo profectum, purum ac sanctum est.Coversour works, which are defiled with many spots, with the justice of His Son.Nullae nostrae sordes aut immunditiae imperfectionis imputantur, sed illa puritate Christi ac perfectione velut sepultaeconteguntur. Cujus perfectione tegatur nostra imperfectio. See also Calvin's Catechism in Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 175.

[125]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 95; Laing's Knox, ii. 119.

[126][Of the six, all save Willock sign the letter to Beza on 4th September 1566 (Laing's Knox, vi. 548-550).]

[127]Laing's Knox, vi. 546-548.

[128]Considerable ingenuity has been expended in the attempt to show that the words "who is the end and accomplishment of the law" are to be understood in some other than their most obvious and commonly received meaning. Without questioning the competency of such ingenious rather than ingenuous exposition, were a case raised before the judicial committee of a modern privy council to have the expounder tried and condemned as a heretic, I venture to think that when the matter to be determined is rather what, in point of fact, did Knox and his associates hold and teach, the following brief quotation from the "godly and perfect" treatise of Balnaves on Justification must go pretty near to settle it: "Christ is the end of the law (unto righteousnes) to all that beleeve—that is, Christ is the consummation and fulfilling of the lawe, and that justice whiche the lawe requireth; and all they which beleeve in Him are just by imputation through faith, and for His sake are repute and accepted as just" (Laing's Knox, iii. 492). If more than this has been taught in recent times, I should be greatly inclined with Principal Lee to trace it to Jonathan Edwards, or perhaps even to the great Independent, Dr Owen, rather than to the Westminster divines, or the earlier Scottish.

[129]Stähelin's Johannes Calvin, ii. 88.

[130]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 66-68; Laing's Knox, ii. 110.

[131]Lee's Lectures on the History of the Church of Scotland, i. 124, 125.

[132]Laing's Knox, ii. 113. [In the Confession, as printed in the Acts of the Parliaments of 1560 and 1567 ratifying it, the wordchiefis retained (Acts of Parliament, ii. 532; iii. 20). The Confession of 1616 bears that: "We believe that there be only two sacraments appointed by Christ under the New Testament, Baptisme and the Lord's Supper" ('Booke of the Universall Kirk,' iii. 1137). Concerning the sacraments the First Book of Discipline says: "They be two, to wit, Baptism and the Holy Supper of the Lord Jesus" (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 520; Laing's Knox, ii. 186).]

[133]Hujus generisduo praecipuain vetere ecclesiâ fuerunt circumcisio et agnus paschalis. Nos illorum locoduoetiam habemus baptismum et caenam domini.

[134]"The Confession of Faith made by Mr Knox, and ratified in Parliament by King James VI., together with the Westminster Confession (both agreed on by the General Assembly of Presbyters), are owned next to the Word of God, by both parties, as the Standard of the doctrine of our Church" (Case of Suffering Church of Scotland).

[135]It is printed at length in Calderwood's History, vii. 233-242; and also in the 'Booke of the Universall Kirk,' iii. 1132-1139; and is supposed to have been mainly the work of Howie, Melville's successor at St Andrews.

[136][In speaking of this Confession of 1616, Dr Grub says that it "agrees with the old one in all important points, the chief difference being in its more marked enunciation of the doctrine of Calvin in regard to election and predestination" (Grub's History, ii. 306).]

[137]Printed in Peterkin's Records of the Kirk, pp. 155-160.

[138]Generally so designated, but really as old as the days of Paul and Augustine.

[139][After 1564-65, the Book of Common Order was usually printed with a complete metrical version of the Psalms (Laing's Knox, vi. 279, 280, 284); and was comprehended under the name 'Psalm Book' (infra, p.128). Mr Cowan, of 47 Braid Avenue, Edinburgh, informs me that the Confession, drawn up for the English congregation at Geneva, appears in every edition of the Book of Common Order which he has examined, from the Geneva edition of 1556 down to the edition printed by Evan Tyler in 1644.]

[140]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 8; Laing's Knox, iv. 171, 172.

[141][These forms of recantation may be seen in the Maitland Miscellany, iii. 215-221; and in the Register of St Andrews Kirk-session, Scot. Hist. Soc., i. 11-18.]

[142]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 65, 66; Laing's Knox, ii. 109, 110.

[143]The designation is undoubtedly Knoxian, as it occurs in his dispute with Friar Arbuckill in 1547. To the reformer's assertion "that the spous of Christ had nether power nor authoritie against the Word of God," the Friar replied, "Yf so be, ye will leave us na kirk;" and to that the reformer rejoined, "In David I read that thare is a church of the malignantis, for he sayis,Odi ecclesiam malignantium. That church ye may have without the Word, ... of that church yf ye wilbe, I can not impead yow" (Laing's Knox, i. 200).

[144]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 80; Laing's Knox, ii. 114.

[145]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 96, 97.

[146]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 520, 583; Laing's Knox, ii. 186, 239. [In another passage it is spoken of as "the Booke of the Common Order, called the Order of Geneva" (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 548; Laing's Knox, ii. 210).] The Book of Common Order, which has been frequently reprinted, is included in vols. iv. and vi. of Dr Laing's edition of Knox's Works.

[147]The extract from the minutes of the city council embodying these conditions, which I found in Withof's 'Vertheidigung' and communicated to Dr Hume Brown, was printed by him in the Appendix to his 'John Knox,' and is also reprinted here in AppendixD.

[148]"At lenght it was agreed that the Order of Geneua (whiche then was alreadie printed in Englishe and some copies there amonge them) shulde take place as an Order moste godly and fardeste off from superstition. But Maister Knox beinge spoken unto, aswell to put that Order in practise, as to minister the communion, refused to do ether the one or the other, affirminge, that for manie considerations he coulde not consente that the same Order shulde be practised, till the lerned men off Strausbrough, Zurik, Emden, &c., were made privy" (Brief Discourse of the Troubles begun at Frankfort in the year 1554, Petheram's reprint, p. xxvii). We have the following additional entry: "After longe debatinge to and fro, it was concluded that Maister Knox, Maister Whittingham, Maister Gilby, Maister Fox and Maister T. Cole shulde drawe forthe some Order meete for their state and time: whiche thinge was by them accomplished and offred to the congregation (beinge the same Order off Geneua whiche is nowe in print). This Order was verie well liked off many, but suche as were bent to the Booke of Englande coulde not abide it" (Ibid., pp. xxxvi, xxxvii).

[149][It is greatly to be regretted that Dr Mitchell does not seem to have been able to prepare the Appendix to which he here refers; but after this lecture had left his hands he expressed his "strong conviction that the words and matter of Knox's Latin Prayer Book of 1556 were derived directly from the Liturgia Sacra of Pollanus." On this point he entertained "no doubt whatever."]

[150]Laing's Knox, vi. 162.

[151]Booke of the Universall Kirk, i. 30.

[152]Ibid., i. 54.

[153][The grounds on which this opinion is usually based are given in Laing's Knox, vi. 277, 278. To these may be added the terms of the summons raised by Sir James Archebald, Vicar of Lintrathin, against his parishioners, on the 27th of May 1560, for payment of his teinds, &c., on the plea that he "is lauchfullie providit be the lawis and practik of oure realme, observit in tymes past, of the said vicarage, and hes bene in possessioun of the samyn thir divers yeris bigane, and hes causitthe commone prayeris and homiliesbe red owlklie to the parrochinaris of the said parrochin, and uther wyiss is content to abyde sik reformatioun as the Lordis of our Secreit Counsale plesis mak thairintill, and als is adjonit to Goddis congregatioun, and takis part with the saidis Lordis in setting fordwart the commone caus, to the gloir of God and commone weill of our realme" (Spalding Miscellany, iv. 120).]

[154]Laing's Knox, iv. 137-139. [Laing gives the 7th of July 1556 as the correct date of this letter, and says that it is by some oversight that M'Crie in the later editions of his 'Life of Knox' has dated it 7th July 1557 (Ibid., iv. 140).]

[155]Lesley's History, p. 292.

[156]Laing's Knox, vi. 119.

[157]Laing's Knox, vi. 118. This evidently shows that they used not theipsissima verbaof the prayer for all estates, but variant words, "like in effect." [Randolph's letter is dated 25th August 1560. Alexander Gordon, Bishop of Galloway, was titular Archbishop of Athens.]

[158]Laing's Knox, vi. 13. [This letter is dated 6th April 1559.]

[159]Liturgies of Edward VI., Parker Society, pp. 157, 158. [The "certain notes" thus referred to pertain to Edward's First Liturgy.]

[160]Lorimer's Knox and the Church of England, 1875, pp. 29-32.

[161][On the 29th of July 1637—six days after the riot in St Giles—it was reported to the Privy Council by Archbishop Spottiswoode, for himself and in name of the remanent bishops, that it seemed expedient to them "that there should be a surcease of the service-booke" till the king signified his pleasure as to the punishment of "that disorderlie tumult"; and "that a course be sett down for the peaceable exercise thereof." He also reported that "the saids bishops had appointed and given order that, in the whole churches of this citie [i.e., Edinburgh], sermon sall be made at the accustomed times, by regular and obedient ministers, and that a prayer sall be made before and after sermon, and that neither the old service nor the new established service be used in this interim." The Council remitted to the bishops "to doe therein according to the power incumbent unto thame in the dewtie of thair office" (Peterkin's Records of the Kirk, p. 52).

[162][In Knox's version—"the crossing of thair fingaris" (Laing's Knox, ii. 255).]

[163]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 603.

[164]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 526, 530, 532, 536, 603; Laing's Knox, ii. 191, 194, 196, 199, 255.

[165]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 417; Laing's Knox, iv. 179; vi. 294.

[166]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 421; Laing's Knox, iv. 182; vi. 297.

[167]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 425; Laing's Knox, iv. 185; vi. 298.

[168]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 426. There is a similar rubric in the Liturgy of Pollanus: "Minister, nomine Domini invocato, ut Spiritu Sancto adjutus, possit digna Deo atque salutaria ecclesiae eloqui recitat textum."

[169]The Liturgy of Pollanus appoints sermons to be preached on the mornings of Tuesday and Thursday. The service is to begin with a psalm, which being sung, the minister having invoked the Holy Spirit recites his text and proceeds with his sermon. He concludes with some shorter prayer "prout animus tulerit."

[170]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 583; Laing's Knox, ii. 238.

[171]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 450; Laing's Knox, iv. 194.

[172]In the Order of the General Fast it is stated: "The exhortation and prayers of everie several exercise we have remitted to be gathered by the discrete ministers, for time preased us so that we culd not frame them in such order as wes convenient, nether yit thought we it so expedient to pen prayers unto men, as to teach them with what hart and affection and for what causes we shuld pray, in this great calamitie" (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 695; Laing's Knox, vi. 421). See also Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 698; Laing's Knox, vi. 470. Even the Order of Excommunication might be "enlarged or contracted as the wisedome of the discreit minister shall thinke expedient" (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 746; Laing's Knox, vi. 470).

[173]Calderwood's Altare Damascenum, 1623, p. 613. In this and the preceding pages I have made use of materials contributed by me to a Report anent Innovations in Public Worship, presented to the General Assembly in 1864. [Elsewhere, Calderwood says: "None are tyed to the prayers of that book; but the prayers are set down as samplers" (Calderwood's History, 1678 ed., p. 25). Principal Baillie's evidence is to the same effect: "The Warner is here also mistaken in his beliefe that ever the Church of Scotland had any liturgy; they had and have still some formes for helpe and direction but no tie ever in any of them by law or practise" (Review of Bramhall's Faire Warning against the Scots Discipline, 1649, p. 57).]

[174]Row's History, Wodrow Society, pp. 403, 404.

[175]Order and Government of the Church of Scotland, 1641: Address to the reader.

[176]Certainly not more consistently than Pollanus in the following rubric: "Hae sunt precationum in liturgiis certae formulae,quae tamen sequitur ministerSUO ARBITRIOut tempus fert et res postulat. Neque enim ullâ praescriptione formularum alligandus est Spiritus Dei ad eum verborum numerum, cui non liceat subjicere vel supponere si meliora suggerat.... Hae formulaeserviunt tantum rudioribus. Nullius libertati praescribitur, tantum ne ab eâ ratione discedatur quam nobis Jesus Christus praescripsit.... Cumque is (scilicetSpiritus Sanctus) apud tribunalia subministret quae dicenda sint, non deerit nobis [si] cum vera fide coram Deo nos sistemus sensu orationis excitati."

[177]"Von vorgeschriebenen Kirchengebeten vor und nach der Predigt finden wir keine Spur, vielmehr das sichere Gegentheil.... Ums Jahr 1589 finden wir zuerst das sogenannte Lob und Dankopfer und die daran gehängten Fürbitten für die Obrigkeit, und die übrigen christlichen Stände.... Erst nach der Mitte des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts ... suchte man auch im Liturgischen die Willkür der einzelnen in engere Schränken zuruckzuführen" (Geschichte der ersten Basler-konfession, S. 249-251).

[178][The charges are in the alleged causes which led James VI., immediately after his accession to the English throne, to endeavour to bring about uniformity in the services of the church throughout the whole kingdom, and run thus: "That diversitie, nay deformitie, which was used in Scotland, where no set or publike forme of prayer was used, but preachers or leaders and ignorant schoolmasters prayed in the church, sometimes so ignorantly as it was a shame to all religion to have the Majestie of God so barbarously spoken unto, sometimes so seditiously that their prayers were plaine libels, girding at soveraigntie and authoritie; or lyes, being stuffed with all the false reports in the kingdome" (Large Declaration, 1639, p. 16).]

[179][The committee appointed by the General Assembly to examine the Large Declaration describe it as dishonourable to God, to the king, and to the kirk; and as "stuffed full of lies and calumnies." Concerning this part in particular they say: "To the great dishonour of this kirk [it] is affirmed in this Declaration that there is a great deformitie in our service—no forme of publict prayer, but preachers, readers, and ignorant schoollemasters, praying in the church, sometymes so ignorantlie," &c. (Peterkin's Records of the Kirk, pp. 265, 266).

[180][The six were John Wynram, John Spottiswoode, John Willock, John Douglas, John Row, and John Knox (supra, p.99).]

[181]Spottiswoode's History, Spot. Soc. ed., i. 371, 372.

[182]Supra, pp.112,113.

[183]The appointment of such an official as chief minister of the English congregation of Frankfort had, however, been urged by Knox's opponents there, but was refused by his party (Discourse of Troubles at Frankfort, pp. xiv, xlvii, cxvii, cxxxv-cxxxviii, cxlvi, cxlvii).

[184]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 409, 410; Laing's Knox, iv. 177.

[185]The great services Coverdale had rendered to the cause of Protestantism by his translation of the Scriptures did not suffice to blot out from the minds of Elizabeth and her ministers the remembrance of his connection with Knox and Goodman. He was welcomed at the consecration of Archbishop Parker, though he came in his black gown, for they could not well do that without him; but all Grindal's efforts failed to secure for him a Welsh bishopric, or even to get him left unmolested in the parochial benefice he conferred on him.

[186]Even in St Andrews, with all its equipment of schools and colleges, the common people are represented in 1547 as welcoming Knox's offer of a public disputation, because though they could not all read his papers they could understand what he addressed to themvivâ voce(Laing's Knox, i. 189).

[187]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 518; Laing's Knox, ii. 185.

[188]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 526; Laing's Knox, ii. 191.

[189]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 530; Laing's Knox, ii. 194.

[190]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 530; Laing's Knox, ii. 194.

[191]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 577; Laing's Knox, ii. 233.

[192]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 578; Laing's Knox, ii. 234, 235.

[193]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 581; Laing's Knox, ii. 236, 237.

[194]Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 532; Laing's Knox, ii. 195, 196. [Readers who were able toexhortand explain the Scriptures were to have their stipends augmented until they attained the honour of a minister (Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 536, 537; Laing's Knox, ii. 199, 200).]

Back to Index Next