by the first Reformers, and many learned and eminent divines since, of the Church of England; and because it is more agreeable to the sentiments which they have been taught to entertain, respecting the nature and design of that Divine institution, and which are well known to have prevailed in the first and best ages of the Christian church.

This office is not only agreeable to that authorized by King Charles the First, which made part of the only reformed liturgy that ever had the sanction of a legal establishment in Scotland, but is likewise formed on the model of the office in the first Liturgy of Edward the Sixth, which was composed by the learned and venerable fathers of the English Reformation, who, instead of being Papists, were confessors and martyrs for Protestantism; and was approved by Parliament as a godly order, even in the Act that, with a prudent view to unity, authorized the second. As it now stands, with some variations from both these, with respect to arrangement and order, it retains the Invocation of the Holy Spirit, and the Oblation of the sacramental elements; parts of this solemn service formerly considered of such importance, that they are to be found in every orthodox church from the days of our Saviour till the Reformation *.

This office is indeed considered, in the opinion of many deeply versed in liturgical subjects, as in perfect harmony with primitive usage, and as complete as any composition not divinely inspired +. And it is probable, that this consideration, combined with a knowledge of some other circumstances peculiar to the condition of Episcopacy in Scotland, produced that honourable testimony which was borne to it by the late learned and pious Bishop Horne, as recorded by his biographer, the Rev. W. Jones; and that zealous attachment to its interests that was ever shewn by one of the most learned and distinguished prelates of the United Church, the late Bishop Horsley, who took the trouble of collating and comparing the Scottish and the English Communion Öffices.

* See the first edition of this work, vol. ii. p. 429.

+ By a Concordate in 1731, it was left to the discretion of any pastor to use either this office or that of the Church of England; and the same liberty is still granted to the clergymen of Scottish, as well as of English ordination, in Scotland.

"If the great Apostle of the Gentiles were upon earth, and it were put to his choice with what denomination of Christians he would communicate, the preference would probably be given to the Episcopalians of Scotland."-Life of Bishop Horne, p. 151. Archdeacon Daubeny, also, speaking of this church, says she is "the purest church perhaps this day in Christendom."-Guide to the Church, vol. ii, p. 336, edit. 1804.

I shall only observé further, under this head, that the pious and commendable practice of having public prayers on Saints' days, and on Wednesdays and Fridays, throughout the year, long prevailed in this church, at least in large towns. It is devoutly to be wished that this practice may become more general; and that, where it is still continued, those members of the church, whose circumstances and situations in life are such as to allow them to avail themselves of it, would shew their grateful sense of the advantages to be derived from it, by a regular attendance at the public service on those occasions, and particularly during the season of Lent. Nor have they only more frequent opportunities of public worship than most of their neighbours, but they are also almost the only society of Christians in Scotland who may enjoy all the privileges of their religion at home, when sick and dying. And surely, were they to shew that they duly value domestic religion when they are well, by introducing into their houses more generally the important but much-neglected duty of family worship, they would no doubt thence derive much additional comfort and consolation when they come to require and to enjoy, on a sick bed, those sacred rites which are denied to others around them.

No longer exposed to the scorching rays of persecution, they are now reposing in the shade of royal protection, and enjoying all the benefits and blessings of religious freedom. Inestimable, doubtless, are the blessings of public tranquillity; but a conscientious attention to religion and religious duties is not always among the number. Be it their care, then, to avail themselves of the blessings which they now enjoy; to exhibit in their lives such love to God and man, together with such zeal and earnestness in the cause of true religion, as would lead St. Paul, were he actually to revisit Britain, to acknowledge them for fellow-Christians, and to join their communion; and, in a word, to exemplify the purity of their church by the holiness of their lives, by their "denying all ungodliness," &c. &c.

CHURCH GOVERNMENT AND DISCIPLINE.

The members of this church are Episcopalians, in the strictest sense of the word; and the government of their church is a Diocesan Episcopacy. Their distinguishing tenet under this head may be said to be, the Apostolical institution and Divine right of Episcopacy; and the necessity of Epi

* See above, p. 393.

scopal ordination, or of a Divine commission, conveyed from the Apostles, to preach the Gospel, and to the valid administration of the sacraments.

Having met with so much opposition from cavillers, we need not be surprised that they lay great stress on church government; and much debate has arisen in regard to the church, not only as a sect, but as a society. This subject seems to have furnished the chief ground of contention for upwards of a century after the Reformation in Scotland* during which time, there was no external badge of distinction between the two parties, in faith, in worship, or in discipline; nor did they break off communion with each other till about the year 1666 ‡.

;

The Scottish Episcopalians now retain all the essence of Episcopacy, without its modern appendages; and, while they maintain the independency of the church upon the state, in the exercise of those powers which are purely spiritual, they do by no means deny the propriety or the utility of a national establishment of religion.

Contrary to the opinion of the Presbyterians, that all ministers are co-ordinal and equal, they believe that, ever since the days of the Apostles, there has existed another and bigher class, to which the Presbyters have always been indebted for their authority, and responsible for their conduct: and, that the priesthood of the New Testament, as well as of the Old, is by succession.

No member of this church need have any doubt as to the regular ordination of her ministers; for those of them that are

"The first ecclesiastical government which our church ever allowed by act of general assembly, was Episcopal government. The last ecclesiastical government approved by act of our general assembly, is Episcopal government also: neither shall you find, in the mean time between these two, any act of assembly disallowing the office of bishops, but only the corruptions thereof: and being forced, for removing the corruptions, to suspend the office for a time, they never simply rejected it, but by plain act left a power of revocation thereof to their successors, to bring it in again when they should see the good of the church required it."-Bishop Cowper's Defence against the Paralogie of D. Hume, p. 90, where may be found much more to the same purpose. See also Archbishop Spotswood's "Refutatio Libelli de Regimine Ecclesiæ," 12mo. passim.

+ Mr. Skinner's "Eccles. History of Scotland," vol. ii. p. 467-8.

The first book, or treatise, that recommended the separation of Presbyterians from the public reformed worship under the Episcopal constitution in this church, seems to have been an anonymous work, entitled "An Apologetical Relation of the particular Sufferings of the faithful Ministers and Professors of the Church of Scotland since August 1660," which appeared in 1665, and was burnt by the hands of the hangman. The author's name was Brown, perhaps the same who wrote the "History of the Indulgence."

ordained in Scotland, have their orders in a lineal course of succession from those Scottish_bishops who were duly consecrated in England after the Restoration; and the Church of England had her orders by the same continued uninterrupted line through the primitive church, which led up at last to the Apostles, and so terminated in the commission which they received from Christ, just before his ascension into heaven.

They believe that the church of Christ is not a sect, but a society, and a society of Christ's forming-in other words, that it is made up of a set of men, not merely professing the same articles of Christian faith, or agreeing in the same acts of religious worship, but likewise united together by certain particular laws, and under a particular form of government; or, that it is a society holding one visible communion, under the same divinely instituted government. And they insist that their opinions respecting the nature and constitution of the church, and the consequent necessity of church communion, however unfashionable in the present day, are primitive, catholic, and apostolical.

In regard to discipline, Archbishop Spotswood speaks of a form that was used about the beginning of the Reformation, which he approved, and says it was prefixed, together with the Confession of Faith, to the Psalters *.

*

King James VI. proposed five articles, which were adopted in the General Assembly holden at Perth in 1618, and ratified by Parliament in 1621; hence called the Five Articles of Perth. They remained in force till 1638, when they were annulled by the General Assembly then held at Glasgow, but were restored with Episcopacy in 1662, and again finally abrogated, in 1690.

In 1743, a set of canons, sixteen in number ‡, was drawn up; and these continued in force till 1811, when a new code was adopted, and became the standard of the discipline of this

• Refutatio Libelli, &c. p. 6. It was prepared, I believe, by Knox, in 1560, along with the Confession of Faith: and the second Book of Discipline appeared in 1577. See Scots Reformers, p. 46.; and Dr. Cook's History, vol. ii. p. 375.

They referred to, and recommended, baptism in private houses; communion to the sick; kneeling at the communion-" which the Scots used before to receive," as all classes of Presbyterians still receive," sitting on their breeches ;"-Confirmation; and the observation of Christmas-day, Good Friday, Easter-day, Ascension-day, and Whitsunday. A Book of Canons was prepared, printed, approved, and confirmed by the King in 1635, but it does not appear that their authority was much more than ephemeral. They may be seen in the 2d vol. of Mr. Skinner's "Eccles. History," Letter 59.

church; for, though her governors and clergy have adopted the Articles of the United Church of England and Ireland, and may approve her Canons and system of discipline, it cannot be said that they have adopted them, or that their practice is the same with hers in regard to church discipline, the difference and peculiarity of their situation leaving, on this head, but little room for conformity and practical agreement.

Anciently, the title of Archbishop was unknown in Scotland, but one of the bishops had a precedency, under the title of Primus, or Maximus Scotia Episcopus, or simply, Bishop of the Scots, a title which the Bishop of St. Andrews generally enjoyed. The country was afterwards divided into two archbishoprics, viz. St. Andrews and Glasgow, and twelve bishoprics; and soon after the Revolution, the bishops, dropping the title of archbishop, re-assumed the old form; one of them being elected Primus, during pleasure, without respect either to seniority of consecration, or to precedency of district, with power of convocating and presiding, according to the above canons.

Agreeably to the same likewise, every bishop is usually elected by the whole body of the clergy within the diocese or district over which he is to preside; and they meet for such election in virtue of a mandate signed by at least a majority of the bishops. When the election is over, the issue of it is reported by the dean of the diocese to the Primus, who communicates it to his colleagues; and they, if a majority of them approve the election, jointly appoint a day and place for the consecration of the person elected, which is always performed by three bishops at least, in a public chapel, according to the ordinal of the Church of England +.

Though the districts, into which the bishops have now divided their church, are not exactly according to the limits of the dioceses under the legal establishment of Episcopacy,

* When King Kenneth (Macalpine) obtained his decisive victory over the Picts, he translated the episcopal see from Abernethy to Kilremont, which he ordered to be called St. Andrews, and the bishop of it to be styled Maximus Scotorum Episcopus. The first archbishop in Scotland was Patrick Graham, who was created Archbishop of St. Andrews in 1468, in the reign of James III,

AForm and Manner of ordaining Ministers, and consecrating of Archbishops and Bishops, used in the Church of Scotland," was published in Edinburgh, in 4to. A. D. 1620, and may be seen in the Advocate's Library there. See Bishop Guthrie's Memoirs, p. 48. A" Form of Ordination" was also prepared, with the liturgy, in 1637. But there are, no doubt, sufficient reasons for preferring the English ordinal to either of these.