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monies to be transplanted from England, were BOOK announced by James, who proposed: I. That the eucharist should be received in a kneeling posture: II. That it should be administered in private, in extreme sickness: III. That baptism should be administered in private, if necessary: IV. That episcopal confirmation should be bestowed on youth: V. That the descent of the spirit, the birth, passion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, should be commemorated by annual festivals in the church. It was the prerogative, as he declared, of a Christian king, to regulate the external polity of the church, nor would he regard their disapprobation of those articles unless their arguments should prove unanswerable. Instead of accepting a dangerous challenge to dispute with their sovereign, they implored a general assembly on their knees, that the ceremonies which he enjoined might be sanctioned by the approbation of the whole church. Their request was granted with difficulty, and only on the assurance of an assembly altogether submissive to his will $4.

James, in his expectations of an easy, unresisting conformity, was deceived by the submissive deportment of the clergy, and the flattering representations of the prelates and their friends. The appearance of opposition, instead of inspiring his councils with moderation, or his mind with a presage of the spirit that afterwards per

34 Calderw. vi. 399. Spottisw. 534.

BOOK vaded the nation, roused his exalted ideas of the. I. innate prerogative inherent in kings. At present, 1617. indeed, the five articles, into which the ceremonies proposed for the church were digested, may appear too insignificant to require or to justify, either the resistance of the clergy or the interposition of the king. But the slightest innovations are important in religion, and in some of those articles the most recondite, in others the most controverted doctrines of Christianity were involved. As the consequences were memorable, an explanation of each article is necessary in a history frequently occupied with ecclesiastical transactions.

Kneeling at the communion.

I. The real presence of Christ in the eucharist, is a doctrine which, however loudly disputed, is maintained under slight or nominal shades of distinction, by almost every denomination of Christians. According to the papists, the elements are transubstantiated in a manner imperceptible to sense; the bread into the body, the wine into the blood of the Son of God. According to the Lutherans, the bread and wine are consubstantial with the body and blood of Christ, whose person is mystically incorporated with the substance of the eucharist. The Calvinists again are persuaded that the corporeal parts of the nature of Christ are spiritually conjoined with their sacramental symbols, received by the faithful and swallowed spiritually through the intervention of faith. The

85 Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. iv. 79. Thirty-nine Articles, 27. Confession of Faith, ch. xxix.

I.

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adoration offered by papists to the corporeal, is BOOK withheld by reformers from the spiritual presence of Christ in the eucharist. In the English church, however, where the doctrines of Calvin are blended and decorated with the ceremonies of Rome, the gesture of kneeling is retained in the administration of the sacrament, as a mark of veneration rather than of worship, directed neither to the consecrated elements, nor to the spiritual combination of material substances. But the Scottish reformers were apprehensive, that the adoration, addressed at first to an invisible being, would soon be transferred to the intermediate object presented to the votary, and again degenerate into an idolatrous worship. Every genuflexion was therefore prohibited, and their communion was regulated by a scrupulous imitation of the paschal supper, The apostles reclined or sat with their master at table. The presbyterians, instead of kneeling like penitents to adore the elements, seated themselves as guests, to enjoy the hospitality of the genial board 6. The altars which they had demolished, were replaced by tables, on which the consecrated viands were broken and distributed by the com municants themselves, according to the primitive institution of their divine repast. Such minute observance of the apostolical supper was dictated by their antipathy to the Romish worship, and their desire to recede from whatever was supersti

86 Christ, says Knox; sat at supper with his disciples, there fore sit we. First Book of Discipline,

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BOOK tious; nor was the posture recommended by James at the administration of the sacrament, less obnoxious as a departure from established forms, than as an approach to the idolatrous sacrifice and adoration of the host.

Private administra

sacraments.

II. III. As Christ is received in the eucharist, tion of the the Holy Ghost is imparted in baptism, but the manner of his incorporation with the baptismal water has excited no schism, and scarcely a specu lation in the Christian church. The importance of these sacraments is more controverted. In the Romish communion, baptism is conferred in any place on weak children, and the eucharist is administered in private to the sick; both as sacraments essential to salvation, the former to cleanse from the original corruption of the human race, the latter to efface every subsequent stain contracted by the flesh. They were received in a different acceptation by the reformers. The waters of regeneration were considered as an adoption by Christ into the bosom of his church; the carnal repast of the papists as a covenant and spiritual communion with his person; each efficacious in the remission of sins, and important, though not essential to salvation. The celebration of these rites was accordingly confined to the church, when the congregation was assembled. The requisition made by James for their administration in private, was meant, perhaps, as a solace to the afflicted parent, or the expiring christian, but to the orthodox it seemed to be a renewal of those

I.

popish doctrines, against which their humanity or BOOK their reason revolted, that unbaptized infants are excluded from bliss, and that the host on the bed of death is essential to salvation 87.

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tion.

IV. In the primitive ages, baptism seems to Confirmahave been accompanied with imposition of hands. This early form of benediction was afterwards detached, and appropriated to bishops as a confirmation of the baptism which the inferior clergy administered, under their auspices, and with a delegated power. Its importance was magnified till it was placed in the rank of sacraments, and retained by the English reformers as a renewal of their baptismal engagement; a source of strength, and of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. Confirmation, however, was inconsistent with the spirit of the church of Scotland. It argued, in the administration of baptism, a subordinate and imperfect power, derived by presbyters from the episcopal order. Its introduction was disguised by James as a benediction of youth, to be pronounced on an examination of their religious pro gress but the clergy easily perceived that the benediction would be bestowed by an imposition of the prelate's hands, and converted into a solemn confirmation of baptism 88.

festivals.

V. The festivals and fasts of the Romish ritual, Fasts and had been altogether abrogated at the reformation in Scotland. In England the most superstitious only were retrenched; and of the holidays dedi

87 Examination ofthe Articles of Perth.

38 Ibid.