1604. BOOK motive, that his crude and imperfect conceptions of an union were improved and accelerated by his English ministers. His offspring was neither numerous nor healthy; and as the crown of Scotland devolved, on the failure of his children, to the marquis of Hamilton, the eventual separation and loss of that kingdom were to be prevented by an immediate incorporation with England. That his motive was the increase and stability of the regal power, is attested by his avowed hostility to the Scottish church. A religious was superadded tò a civil union, and under the pretext of a laudable conformity, episcopal government was again introduced. The consequences were so memorable in the succeeding reigns, that it is neceffary to explain, and to deduce from their origin, the form and the spirit of presbyterian discipline, long regarded as obnoxious to monarchy, hateful and ultimately disastrous to the Stuarts. but to lay Scotland subject to the same laws:-he did desire that they should be subjected both to one rule and to one law." Journals of the Commons, vol. i. 314. "I mean of such a general union of laws as may reduce the whole island, that as they live already under one monarch, so they may be governed by one law." James' Works, 512. His intention evidently was to introduce the English law into Scotland; and although suggested by Bacon, I doubt if his ideas extended beyond that object, to an union of legislatures, of which no trace is contained in his works. Craig, who wrote under his directions, considered it as essential to an equal union, that each nation should retain its own parliament. De Unione, p. 257, MS. 1. 1604. tive view The forms of ecclesiastical government have BOOK been modelled, in general, after the civil establishments on which they were constructed. Thus, the gradations of episcopal jurisdiction and dignity Retrospeccoincided originally with the provincial magistra of Presbycies of the Roman Empire. After the reformation, tery.. they were retained in Germany and in the kingdoms of the North, as congenial to monarchy, but rejected in Switzerland and Holland, as a domination neither consonant to the humble and frater nal parity of the primitive christians, nor compatible with the spirit of a republican government 18. Pre-eminence of sacerdotal rank was abolished; the church was established on the equality, not on the regular subordination of its pastors; and when transplanted from Geneva to Scotland, the institution was productive of a singular alliance be- An. 1360. tween a republican church and a monarchical state. But the equality in the Scottish church was at first imperfect. On the death of the queen regent, when the reformation had acquired a permanent and legal establishment, ten or twelve superintendents were proposed by Knox, to inspect the deserted sees of the bishops, to repeople the churches with suitable pastors, or by their own labours to propagate the gospel in every corner of the vine. yard of Christ. This institution, so fruitful afterwards as a polemical topic, has been assumed as a proof that the Scottish church was founded at first on a moderate imparity, and regulated by 12 See Robertson's Hist. of Scotland, p. 148. VOL. III. C I. 1604. BOOK the authority of an infant hierarchy 19. But the superintendents, whose jurisdiction was limited to spiritual admonition, were themselves amenable to their provincial clergy; and their office was expressly a temporary expedient, created to remedy or supply the scarcity of established clergy 20. They were selected from the clergy by a popular election, and were rewarded with a small additional stipend; but half their number, from the difficulty of procuring that small addition, remained incomplete". Such was the situation of the church above twenty years; superintended by responsible over seers, and regulated by synodical and general assemblies. The popish bishops were permitted to retain their temporal dignities, and a proportion of their revenues; and a few converts might aspire to the superintendence of their former dio 19 Guthrie's Mem. p. 1. 20 Because we have appointed a larger stipend to them that shall be superintendents, we have thought good to signify such reasons as moved us to make a difference at this time. We have thought it most expedient at this time, that from the godly and learned men now in the land, ten or twelve be selected." First book of Discipline, wherein the mode of election, and the office and powers of superintendents are prescribed and explained. 2r Their numbers never exceeded five; namely, Spottiswood the archbishop's father, Winram, Willock, Erskine of Dun, and Creswell, superintendents of Lothian, Fife, Glasgow, Angus, Argyle and the Isles. Their districts corre sponded nearly, but not exactly, with the former bishopricks. -Calderwood's Hist. p. 27. I. 1604. ceses. Their spoils, however, were engrosse by BOOK the nobles. Morton, the regent, on obtaining a grant of the revenues of St. Andrews, bestowed the see on a needy dependent, to whom he afforded a slender stipend; and the same expedient was adopted whenever an episcopal benefice became vacant. An assembly of the church, intimidated An. 1572. or dependent on the regent's protection, was satisfied with protesting that the measure should subsist only during the king's minority, till a purer constitution might be expected from parliaWithout revenues and without authority, those titular bishops could neither escape contempt, nor resist the jurisdiction of the national church. Their visatorial powers were circumscribed or suspended; their office was declared inconsistent with the gospel, and their name an ap pellation equivalent to pastor, and applicable to every presbyterian minister 22. ment. The hostilities waged against prelacy, subsisted Form with little interruption, till the murder of the bonny earl of Murray; which, as it was perpetrated by Huntley, and ascribed to the king's jealousy, or to Maitland the chancellor's instigation, rendered the court unpopular, and the church triumphant. Its discipline and its liberties were then recognized, and confirmed by parliament 23. Its An. 1598. radical jurisdiction was lodged in the sessions, or 22 Spottisw. 260. Calderwood, 55, 8. 64. 81. Second Book of Discipline. 23 Parl. 12 James VI. chap. i. BOOK parochial assemblies, in which the minister presided over lay-elders, selected to consult the spiri1694. tual interests of the congregation, and to inspect the religious deportment of its members. From the influence of this censorian institution, in each parish, a strict and general conformity was estab lished in Scotland; the zeal for presbytery was preserved alive; and the most important revolu. tions were effected among the people. Churches, united from their vicinity into the same classis, furnished a presbytery of ministers and lay-elders, who possessed a superior though derivative jurisdiction, and in the superintendence of the district, in the determination of censures and appeals, in the admission, the suspension, and the deprivation of pastors, exercised every episcopal function. The presbyteries were subordinate to provincial sy nods, similarly constituted; but the supreme jurisdiction resided in the general assembly of the church; a national convocation of the clergy and the laity, deputed from presbyteries, universities, and towns. A right to annual, and, on important emergencies, to occasional assemblies was confirmed to the church; and the presbyterian frame of government exhibited, in a connected gradation of elective judicatures, the ideal model of a perfect republic. The professional spirit which the frequent intercourse of the clergy generates, that spirit which prosecutes the exclusive aggrandizement of a peculiar order, was tempered by a ju 24 Baxter's Life, Part iii. p. 67. |