The Scottish Reformation Part 7

The nature of the church, and the notes by which the true church is to be discerned, are explained in chapters xvi. and xviii. As in most of the other Reformed or Calvinistic Confessions, greater prominence is a.s.signed to the Invisible Church, consisting of the elect of all times and nations, than to the general visible church subsisting at any particular time in the world and embracing all who profess faith in Christ and submit to the G.o.dly discipline He has prescribed. The notes by which it may be discerned whether any branch of the professing church is indeed part of the true Kirk of Christ are stated _negatively_--not to be "antiquitie, t.i.tle usurpit, lineal descente, place appointed, nor mult.i.tude of men approving," as Roman Catholics were wont to allege; and _positively_ to be "the trew preaching of the Worde of G.o.d," "the right administration of the Sacraments," and "ecclesiastical discipline uprightlie ministred as G.o.ddis Worde prescribes."[130] "These articles,"

as Princ.i.p.al Lee has so pithily expressed it, "have been almost as disagreeable to some Episcopalian writers as they were to the most servile adherents of the pope. It is thought a most dangerous omission to make no mention of uninterrupted succession and conveyance of authority from the apostles. This omission has been somewhat incorrectly charged against the reformers of our church. They do certainly mention _lineal succession_, but they mention it only to disown it. They say that though the Jewish priests in our Saviour's time 'lineally descended from Aaron,' yet no 'man of sound judgment will grant that they were the Church of G.o.d.'"[131] They further a.s.sert that wherever the three notes given above are found and continue for any time (be the number never so few above two or three), there without all doubt is the true Kirk of Christ, who according to His promise is in the midst of them; and in this they are borne out not only by Calvin but by Luther, who boldly affirmed: "Were I the only man on earth that held by the Word, _I alone would be the church_, and I would be justified in p.r.o.nouncing of all the rest of the world that it was not the church."

[Sidenote: Two Sacraments only.]

The only other parts of the Confession I deem it necessary to refer to in this review of it are the chapters relating to the sacraments and the right use of them. It was a.s.serted some years ago by a leader of modern thought in Scotland that Knox did not go beyond the Zwinglian doctrine regarding the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper; and that his Order for the administration of it was a bold protest against the "mystical jargon"

which Luther employed, and from which Calvin was not free. When he made this a.s.sertion he seems to have forgot that the address in Knox's Order for the administration of the Lord's Supper was little else than a translation of that in Calvin's Liturgy, and teaches exactly the same mystical doctrine. This doctrine is no less explicitly taught in the Confession; and Stahelin, whose competence to judge in the matter cannot be questioned, maintains that the Zwinglian doctrine is as explicitly rejected as the Romano-Lutheran; and that the language as well as the doctrine closely resembles Calvin's. The text of the common editions of the Confession speaks of two _chief_ sacraments only as being appointed under the New Testament as well as under the Old. From this expression, some, who are more familiar with Anglican than with Calvinistic formularies, have concluded that Knox, like several of the earlier English reformers, attributed a _quasi_-sacramental character to some of the other rites regarded as sacraments by the Romanists. But in the copy of the Confession reprinted in Dr Laing's edition of Knox's History the word _chief_ is omitted in the second instance, and the clause runs _two sacraments only_.[132] Perhaps it will be accepted as some confirmation of the correctness of this reading that it is identical with that found in Alasco's 'Epitome Doctrinae Ecclesiarum Frisiae Orientalis,' from which treatise the opening sentence of chapter xxi. of the Scottish Confession may possibly have been taken,[133] though the verbal coincidence with the early edition of Calvin's Inst.i.tutes is in some respects more marked.

[Sidenote: Type of Scottish Theology.]

Such are the main contents and general bearing of this ancient Scottish Confession. Notwithstanding the confident a.s.sertions to the contrary made of late both within and without the Presbyterian churches, I venture to think that no one who, with a good conscience and honest intent, could sign that Confession, and answer in the affirmative the questions regarding election put to candidates for the ministry at their ordination, need hesitate to put his name to that which in 1647 was received as "in nothing contrary" to the former, and held its place alongside of it even after the restoration of Charles II., and under the episcopal _regime_.[134] Most a.s.suredly at least no one need hesitate to do so who would have put his name to that Confession which was drawn up in the time of the first episcopacy,[135] and which is quite as distinctively Calvinistic as the Westminster Confession, while it ventures incidentally to determine some points the Westminster divines have wisely left undetermined.[136] The old Confession can advance no claim to the terse English style, the logical accuracy, the judicial calmness, and intimate acquaintance with early patristic theology which characterise that mature product of the faith and thought of the more learned Puritans of the south. I am not ashamed to avow that it has long appeared to me that there is somewhat to be said in favour of the opinion that Scottish presbyterianism gained quite as much as, nay, more than, it lost, by being brought into contact with the broader, richer, and decidedly more catholic spirit of the south, and adding to its earlier symbolical books those which it still holds in common with almost all the orthodox presbyterians of the Anglo-Saxon race. No one who will take the trouble to read the report of the discussion on Arminianism in the Scottish General a.s.sembly of 1638[137] will, I am sure, be so bold as to affirm that the type of theology then prevalent among Scottish ministers was in any material respect different from that which was set forth in the Confession of 1647, and which has never since, either under episcopal or presbyterian _regime_, been set aside in the National Church. The teaching of the latest of our symbolical books imposes nothing in regard to the doctrines known as Calvinistic[138] but what is explicitly contained in or fairly deducible from the earliest Confession drawn up for the English church at Geneva, of which Knox was pastor, and adopted (along with the larger one on which I have been commenting) at the beginning of the Reformation in Scotland, and printed in Scotch psalm-books[139] as late as 1638, in which it is a.s.serted "which church is not seene to man's eye but only knowne to G.o.d, who of the lost sonnes of Adam hath ordained some as vessels of wrath to d.a.m.nation, and hath chosen others as vessels of His mercy to bee saved, the which also in due time He calleth to integritie of life and G.o.dly conversation to make them a glorious church to Himselfe."[140]

[Sidenote: Unmeasured Language.]

Probably, however, the main argument against recurring to the old Scottish Confession of 1560 is that derived from the unmeasured language of vituperation in which it, as well as the contemporary forms of recantation[141] required of priests at that date, indulges when referring to the teaching of the members of the pre-Reformation church.

No doubt it might be deemed sufficient proof of this to subjoin the examples furnished in chapter xviii. on the "Notis" or marks by which "the trewe Kirk is decernit fra the false," where the old church is designated the "pestilent synagoge," "the filthie synagogue," and "the horrible harlot, the kirk malignant"[142]--the last words no doubt meant as a translation of the Vulgate rendering of Psalm xxvi. 5, _ecclesiam malignantium_,[143] translated "the congregation of evil doers" in our authorised English version. But I may add, in corroboration, that in chapter xxi. on the true uses of the sacraments, the papists are charged with having "perniciouslie taucht and d.a.m.nablie beleeved" the transubstantiation of the bread into Christ's natural body and of wine into his natural blood,[144] and that in the last chapter the language of Rev. xiv. 11 ("the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who wors.h.i.+p the beast and his image") is adduced in proof of the ultimate fate of those who delight in superst.i.tion or idolatry.[145]

The same unrestrained spirit is shown in some contemporary Confessions, notably in the earliest Danish one, the framers of which seem to have kept closer to Luther than to the more gentle Melanchthon: but however excusable it may have been in the fierce battle then forced on them, there can be no doubt that the calmer and more measured language of the later Confession is a decided improvement on the statements of the earlier one; and I do not hesitate to say that, with the simpler formula of 1693-94 recently restored, and the explanatory act which accompanies it--emphasising the distinction between matters of minor importance and the great doctrines of the faith--the position of the ministers of our church in these respects is as nearly what it should be as is that of the ministers in any of the allied Presbyterian churches.

FOOTNOTES:

[102] Laing's Knox, ii. 128.

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

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

[105] ["Quhilk thay willinglie accept.i.t and within foure dayis present.i.t 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 loc.u.m 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 "Je confesse qu'il y a un seul ane only G.o.d, to whom only we Dieu auquel il nous faut tenir, must cleave, whom onelie we must pour le servir, adorer, et y avoir serve, whom onelie we must wors.h.i.+p, notre fiance et refuge."--Confession and in whom onelie we must subscribed by students put our trust. in Academy in Geneva.

"Who is eternall, infinit, "I beleve and confesse my unmeasurable, incomprehensible, Lorde G.o.d eternal, infinite, omnipotent, invisible: ane in unmeasurable, incomprehensible, substance, and zit distinct in and invisible, one in substance, thre personnis, the Father, the and three in persone, Father, Sone, and the Holie Gost."--Old Sonne, and Holy Ghoste."--Confession Scottish Confession, in Dunlop's of English Congregation Confessions, ii. 21, 22. at Geneva, in Laing's Knox, iv.

169; Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 3.

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

"We condemne the d.a.m.nable "Ideirco detestor omnes haereses and pestilent heresies of Arius, huic principio contrarias Marcion, Eutyches, Nestorius, puta Marcionis, Manetis, Nestorii, and sik uthers."--Old Scottish Eutychetis, et similium."--Genevan Confession, as above, ii. 31. 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 Inst.i.tutes, 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 ... Christi _dona_ amplectimur, quod ipsum est habere veram, ut decet fidem." "Haec omnia n.o.bis a Deo offeruntur ac dantur in Christo Domino nostro nempe remissio peccatorum gratuita, ... _dona et gratiae_ Spiritus Sancti si certa 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 G.o.d in our nature--G.o.d and man in one person--but also as the _Angel of the great counsel of G.o.d_ [Dunlop's Confessions, ii. 31; Laing's Knox, ii. 99]. This expression is no doubt a translation of the e?a??? ?????

a??e??? of 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 Inst.i.tutes:--

1. "It behooved that the Filii Dei sumus quod naturalis Sonne of G.o.d suld descend unto Dei Filius sibi corpus ex corpore us, and tak himself a bodie of nostro, carnem ex carne nostra our bodie, flesh of our flesh, and ossa ex ossibus nostris composuit bone of our bones, and so become ut idem n.o.bisc.u.m esset.

the Mediator betwixt G.o.d and man, giving power to so many as beleeve in Him to be the sonnes of G.o.d."--Dunlop, ii. 33, 34.

2. "Quhatsaever wee have Ut quod in Adamo perdidimus tynt in Adam is restored unto us Christus rest.i.tueret.

agayne."--Dunlop, ii. 34.

3. "It behooved farther the Praeterea sic nostra referebat, Messias and Redemer to be very verum esse Deum et hominem G.o.d and very man, because He qui Redemptor noster futurus was to underlie the punischment esset.... Prodiit ergo verus due for our transgressiouns, and h.o.m.o, Dominus noster, Adae to present himselfe in the presence personam induit ... ut Patri of His Father's judgment se obedientem pro eo exhiberet as in our persone to suffer for our ut carnem nostram in satisfactionem transgression and in.o.bedience, justo Dei judicio statueret be death to overcome him that ac sisteret, ut in eadem carne was author of death. Bot because peccati poenam persolveret.

the onely G.o.dhead culd Quum denique mortem nec solus not suffer death, neither zit culd Deus sentire, nec solus h.o.m.o the onlie manhead overcome the superare posset, humanitatem samin, He joyned both togither c.u.m divinitate sociavit ut alterius in one persone that the imbecillitie imbecillitatem morti in poenam of the ane suld suffer and persolveret, alterius virtute be subject to death quhilk we adversus mortem in victoriam had deserved: and the infinit luctaretur.

and invincible power of the uther, to wit, of the G.o.d-head, suld triumph and purchesse to us life, libertie, and perpetuall victory."--Dunlop, ii. 35, 36.

4. "That Hee being the Judicis scilicet sententia d.a.m.natus cleane, innocent Lambe of G.o.d, pro nocente et malefico ut was d.a.m.ned in the presence of apud summi judicis _tribunal_ ejus an earthlie judge, that we suld d.a.m.natione absolveremur.

be absolved befoir the _tribunal_ seat of our G.o.d."--Dunlop, ii.

37, 38.

5. "Suffered ... the cruell Crucifixus in cruce quae Dei death of the Crosse, quhilk was lege maledicta fuerat.

accursed be the sentence of G.o.d."--Dunlop, ii. 38.

6. "Suffered for a season the Divini judicii horrorem et wrath of His Father quhilk sinners severitatem sensisse ... luens had deserved. Bot zit we poenas non suae ... sed nostrae avow that He remained the only iniquitati. Neque tamen wel-beloved and blessed Sonne intelligendum est patrem illi of His Father, even in the middest unquam iratum fuisse. Quomodo of His anguish and enim dilecto filio, in quo illi torment."--Dunlop, ii. 38. 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 Inst.i.tutes:--

It behoves us to apprehend Confiteor nos justificari per Christ Jesus with His justice and fidem quatenus per eam apprehendimus satisfaction. Jesum Christum.

We are set at this liberty Omni execratione quae n.o.bis that the curse and malediction inc.u.mbebat eximeremur dum in of the law fall not upon us. eum traduceret. Fides, in Christi d.a.m.natione absolutionem, benedictionem in maledictione, apprehendit.

G.o.d the Father, beholding Ubi nos in filii sui communionem us in the body of His Son Christ semel recepit, opera Jesus, accepts our imperfect nostra grata acceptaque habet, obedience as it were perfect. non quod ita promereantur sed quia condonata eorum imperfectione, nil in illis intuetur, nisi quod a Spiritu suo profectum, purum ac sanctum est.