Christ hes declarit the trew use of the Sacramentis, willing the same to be usit according to his will and word; be the quhilk it is notoure and perfitlie knawin that the sacramentis of baptisme and of the body and blude of Jesus Chryst hes bene in all tymes bipast corruptit be the papistical kirk and be thair usurpit ministeris: And presentlie notwithstanding the reformatioune already maid according to Goddis worde, zit nottheless thair is sum of the same papis kirk that stubburnlie perseveris in thair wickit Idolatrie, sayand Messe, and baptizand conforme to the papis kirk, prophanand thairthrow the sacramentis foirsaidis in quiet and secreit places, regardand thairthrow nather God nor his holie Word: Thairfoir it is statute and ordanit in this present Parliament that na maner of persone or personis in ony tymes cuming adininistrat ony of the sacramentis foirsaidis secreitlie or in ony uther maner of way bot thai that ar admittit and havand power to that effecte and that na maner of person nor personis say Messe, nor zit heir Messe, nor be present thairat under the pane of confiscatioune of all thair gudis movable and unmovable and puneissing of thair bodeis at the discretioun of the magistrat, within quhais Jurisdictioune sik personis happynnis to be apprehendit, for the first falt; banissing of the Realme for the secund falt, and justifying to the deid, for the thrid falt. And ordanis all Schireffis, stewartis, baillies, and thair deputis, provestis and baillies of burrowis and utheris jugeis quhatsumever within this realme to tak diligent sute and Inquisitioun within thair boundis quhair ony sik usurpit ministerie is usit Messe saying or thai that beis present at the doing thairof, ratifyand and apprevand the samyn, and tak and apprehend thame to the effect that the panis abovewrittin may be execute upoun

thame.

XXIII

THE NEW FAITH, DISCIPLINE, AND WORSHIP,

1560-4

These are contained in three documents, the first of which was, 1560 [No. 349] the Confession of Faith (W. Dunlop, Collection of Confessions of Faith, ii. 13 sqq.; Knox, Works, ii. 93 sqq.; Schaff, Creeds of Evang. Prot. Churches, 437 sqq. Cf. Mitchell, The Scottish Reformation, c. vi). It was presented to Parliament, and sanctioned 17 Aug. ; and Knox had the chief hand in its composition, as may be gathered both from its vigour and from the unmeasured language of vituperation '(Mitchell, 120) with which it assails that

'filthie synagogue' and 'horrible harlot, the Kirk malignant [Art. 18]. But much of its language can be traced to Calvin's Institutes, the Genevan Confessions, and the Summa Doctrinae of John Laski (Opera, ii. 294 sqq. ed. Kuyper). Orthodox enough on the Trinity and the Incarnation, the Old Scots Confession betrays its origin in asserting that 'the image of God wes utterlie defaced in man' [Art. 3]; that the true Kirk is invisible, consisting only of the elect [Art. 16], and has for its notes not antiquitie, title usurpit, lineal descence', but 'the trew preaching of the Worde of God... the right administration of the Sacraments' and 'ecclesiastical discipline uprightlie ministred' [Art. 18]. The Confession remained the standard of doctrine in the Kirk under both the Presbyterian and the Episcopal régime to 1647, when it was superseded by the Westminster Confession (Dunlop, i. 1 sqq.; Schaff, Creeds, &c. 600 sqq.).

Next followed, from the same hands, 1560 [No. 350] the First Book of Discipline (Dunlop, ii. 515 sqq.; Knox, Works, ii. 183 sqq. ; cf. Mitchell, c. viii) under nine heads. In sketching the only Scriptural polity, it starts from the position, already adopted by the Book of Common Order, 1556, from Calvin's Ordonnances ecclésiastiques (supra, No. 302) of 1541, to the effect that the permanent office-bearers are four-Pastors, Doctors, Elders, and Deacons (B. C. O. 13 sqq., ed. G. W. Sprott, 1901). It is necessary, however, to make difference betwixt preachers at this time' (Fifth Head; Dunlop, ii. 539) and provision is accordingly made for Superintendents; the shadows, but only the shadows, of the Catholic episcopate. As to the admission of ministers', it is laid down that 'it is neither the clipping of their crownes, the greasing of their fingers, nor the blowing of the dumb dogges called the Bishops, neither the laying on of their hands, that maketh true ministers of Christ Jesus. But... the nomination of the people, the examination of the learned, and publick admission . . . make men lawfull ministers' (Ninth Head, ii. 603); nor is any a lawful minister but a preacher, for the Sacraments cannot be 'rightlie ministred by him, in whose mouth God hath put no sermon of exhortation' (Fourth Head, ii. 530). The book, in short, rejects the traditional, revives the Ephesian, and leaves a loophole for the charismatic ministry. It displays as great a zeal for education (Fifth Head, ii. 547 sqq.) as for Discipline (Seventh Head, ii. 568 sqq.): and the latter was regulated by an Order of Excommunication and of Public Repentance (Knox, Works, vi. 447 sqq.; Sprott, B. C. O. 35 sqq.), sanctioned in 1569 and abridged by Knox from similar formularies of John Laski (Forma ac Ratio tota Ecclesiastici Ministerii in Opera, ii. 184 sqq., 194 sqq.). [No. 351] The Book of Common

1 = ecclesia malignantium, Ps. xxv. [xxvi,] 5-a designation which Knox had adopted in his dispute with Friar Arbuckill, 1547 (Works, i. 200).

2 In some editions of the Genevan Version the word "eldership" is thus explained in the margin: "Under this name he containeth the whole ministerie of the Church which was at Ephesus (Mitchell, 232, n. 1).

Order (G. W. Sprott, Book of Common Order; Dunlop, ii. 383 sqq.; Knox, Works, vi. 275 sqq.; cf. Mitchell, c. vii) was authorized by the General Assembly, 1564, and completed the ecclesiastical reconstruction. In the First Book of Discipline, it is cited as 'the Order of Geneva' (Dunlop, ii. 520), and was used, 1556, by Knox's congregation there (Knox, Works, iv. 141 sqq.), though the first draft of it was made for the English congregation at Frankfort, on the basis of Farel's and Calvin's services as modified by the Liturgia Sacra [23 Feb. 1551] of Pollanus, the successor of Calvin at Strassburg. Commonly known as Knox's Liturgy, it is in part a guide or model like its originals, and the minister was free at points to substitute for its ipsissima verba others like in effect' (Dunlop, ii. 417). It embodied the rule of the Kirk as to worship from 1564 to 1645, when it was superseded by The Westminster Directory (ed. Leishman: cf. Sprott, B. C. O., p. xx), as Calvin's Catechism (Dunlop, ii. 139 sqq.) and the Heidelberg Catechism hitherto in use in Scotland (ibid. 273) by the Westminster Catechisms, Larger (ibid. i. 161 sqq.) and Shorter (ibid. 395 sqq.).

Thus the new system was alike continental in origin and revolutionary in design. Its authors were men who regarded themselves as committed to that same warre' against the ancient church 'which God commanded Israel to execute against the Canaanites'. After the death of Knox, 24 Nov. 1572 (Mitchell, c. ix), a Second Book of Discipline (Dunlop, ii. 757 sqq.), 1578, and a Second Confes sion of Faith (ibid. ii. 103 sqq., and, in Latin, 811 sqq.; Schaff, Creeds, &c. 480 sqq.), 1581, were put forth (cf. Mitchell, c. x). The one, drawn up by Andrew Melville, 1545-†1622, riveted a stricter Presbyterianism on the Scottish people; the other was a fresh declaration against 'that Romane Antichrist... his divilish Messe, his blasphemous Priesthead... his erroneous and bloodie Decreets made at Trente... Excepting for the readmission of 'imposition of hands of the Elderschip (Dunlop, ii. 769) at Ordination, the First Book of Discipline, so far from being improved by the Second, was narrowed, and the whole system stiffened' (Mitchell, 216). In 1592 Parliament gave its sanction to the Calvinistic Presbyterianism thus finally set up (Act. Parl. Scot. iii. 541 sq.).

No. 349. The First Confession of Faith, 1560. Art. 3: Of original sinne.—Be quhilk transgressioun, commonlie called Original sinne, wes the Image of God utterlie defaced in man, and he and his posteritie of nature become enimies to God, slaves to Sathan, and servandis unto sin. In samekle that deith everlasting hes had, and sall have power and dominioun over all that have not been, ar not, or sal not be regenerate from above: quhilk regeneratioun is wrocht be the power of the holie Gost, working in the hartes of the elect of God, ane assured faith in the promise of God, reveiled to us

in his Word, be quhilk faith we apprehend Christ Jesus, with the graces and benefites promised in him.

Art. 16: Of the Kirk.-As we beleve in ane God, Father, Sonne, and halie Ghaist; sa do we maist constantly beleeve, that from the beginning there hes bene and now is, and to the end of the warld sall be, ane kirk, that is to say, ane company and multitude of men chosen of God, who richtly worship and imbrace him be trew faith in Christ Jesus, quha is the only head of the same kirk, quhilk alswa is the bodie and spouse of Christ Jesus, quhilk kirk is catholike, that is, universal, because it conteinis the elect of all ages, of all realmes, nations, and tongues, be they of the Jewes, or be they of the Gentiles, quha have communion and societie with God the Father, and with his Son Christ Jesus, throw the sanctificatioun of his haly Spirit and therefore it is called the communioun, not of prophane persounes, bot of saincts, quha as citizenis of the heavenly Jerusalem, have the fruitioun of the maist inestimable benefites, to wit, of ane God, ane Lord Jesus, ane faith, and ane baptisme out of the quhilk kirk, there is nouther lyfe, nor eternall felicitie. And therefore we utterly abhorre the blasphemie of them that affirme, that men quhilk live according to equitie and justice, sal be saved, quhat Religioun that ever they have professed. For as without Christ Jesus there is nouther life nor salvation; so sal there nane be participant therof, bot sik as the Father hes given unto his Sonne Christ Jesus, and they that in time cum unto him, avowe his doctrine, and beleeve into him; we comprehend the children with the faithfull parentes. This Kirk is invisible, knawen onelie to God, quha alane knawis whome he hes chosen, and comprehends as weill (as said is) the elect that be departed, commonlie called the Kirk Triumphant, and they that it live and fecht against sinne and Sathan, as sall live hereafter.

Art. 18: Of the notis, be the quhilk the trewe Kirk is decernit fra the false, and quha sall be judge of the doctrine.-Because that Sathan from the beginning, hes laboured to deck his pestilent Synagoge with the title of the Kirk of God, and hes inflamed the hertes of cruell murtherers, to persecute, trouble and molest the trewe Kirk and members thereof, as Cain did Abell, Ismael Isaac, Esau Jacob, and the haill Priesthead of the Jewes Christ Jesus himselfe, and his Apostles after him. It is ane thing maist requisite, that the true Kirk be decerned fra the filthie Synagogues, be cleare and perfite notes, least we, being deceived, receive and imbrace, to our awin condemnatioun, the ane for the uther. The

notes, signes, and assured takens whereby the immaculate Spouse of Christ Jesus is knawen fra the horrible harlot, the Kirk malignant, we affirme, are nouther antiquitie, title usurpit, lineal descence, place appointed, nor multitude of men approving ane error; for Cain, in age and title, was preferred to Abel and Seth: Jerusalem had prerogative above all places of the eird, where alswa were the Priests lineally descended fra Aaron; and greater number followed the Scribes, Pharisies, and Priestes, then unfainedly beleeved and approved Christ Jesus and his doctrine : and zit, as we suppose, no man of sound judgment will grant, that ony of the forenamed were the Kirk of God. The notes therefore of the trew Kirk of God we beleeve, confesse, and avow to be, first, the trew preaching of the worde of God, into the quhilk God hes revealed himselfe unto us, as the writings of the Prophets and Apostles dois declair. Secundly, the right administration of the Sacraments of Christ Jesus, quhilk man be annexed unto the word and promise of God, to seale and confirme the same in our hearts. Last, ecclesiastical discipline uprightlie ministred, as Goddis worde prescribes, whereby vice is repressed, and vertew nurished. Wheresoever then thir former notes are seene, and of ony time continue (be the number never so fewe, about two or three) there, without all doubt, is the trew Kirk of Christ, who, according unto his promise, is in the middis of them. Not that universall, of quhilk we have before spoken, bot particular, sik as wes in Corinthus, Galatia, Ephesus, and uther places, in quhilk the ministrie wes planted be Paull, and were of himself named the kirks of God: and sik kirks, we the inhabitantis of the Realme of Scotland, professoris of Christ Jesus, professis ourselfis to have in our cities, townes, and places, reformed, for the doctrine taucht in our Kirkis, conteined in the writen worde of God, to wit in the buiks of the auld and new Testamentis, in those buikis we meane, quhilk of the ancient have been reputed canonicall. In the quhilk we affirme, that all thingis necessary to be beleeved for the salvation of mankinde, is sufficiently expressed. The interpretation quhairof, we confesse, neither appertaines to private nor publick persone, nether it to ony Kirk, for ony preheminence or prerogative, personallie or locallie, quhilk ane hes above ane uther, bot apperteines to the Spirite of God, be he quhilk also the Scripture was written. When controversie then happines, for the right understanding of ony place or sentence of Scripture, or for the reformation of ony abuse within the Kirk of God, we ought not sa meikle to luke what