rejoicing with a people, wrenching their civil and national rights from the grasp of usurpation, and daring to make themselves free. But while we enter freely into these feelings, and look back through a vista of five hundred years, at the battle of Bannockburn, and see in it the grave of despotism and the cradle of liberty; yet we contemplate it with deeper interest, when we connect with it the religious effects which it produced among the Scots. The subsequent history of the Scottish church shows what great things the Mediator designed in reference to this part of his visible society; and it is the object of the present illustration, to connect these with the battle which has been related. Had the battle of Bannockburn ended otherwise than in the discomfiture of England, the moral condition of Scotland would have been much different from what it now is. A state of dependence on England would certainly have interfered with the improvement of her population in civilization and religion. It is an indisputable fact, in the history of nations, that a people who have lost the power of government, and are dependent on another nation, lose, at the same time, much of their moral energies, and susceptibility of advancement in know. ledge. In this view, the battle of Bannockburn was a preparatory step to the introduction of the reformation. If the Scottish people had been brought under the tyranny of the English monarchs, they would not have been at liberty to prosecute the refor. mation from popery, and establish evangelical religion so successfully as they did. The moral tendency of subjection to a foreign power, would not only have operated against them, by enfeebling their energies of thinking and acting, but they would have been also restrained from the thorough reformation which they attained, by the restrictive influence of the English monarchy. The Scots met with much opposition from their own, but they would have encountered more from a foreign government. The friends of evangelical truth, and Presbyterian simplicity, will be prepared to admit the superiority of the reformation in Scotland, to that of England; a superiority, however, that never could have been obtained, had she not been in the capacity of independent rule, and free from the dominion of foreign influence. In England, the reformation from popery was connected with state policy. The disowning of the pope's authority had its origin in the political management of Henry the Eighth, who transferred from the pope, to himself, the supremacy of the Church of England. Previous, indeed, to the rupture of Henry with the court of St. Peter, refor. mation principles were taught in England; and many of the friends of truth suffered for the testimony of Jesus; but, whether the government would have consented to a separation from the church of Rome, had it not answered the intrigues of Henry himself, is exceedingly doubtful. The separation from the church of Rome, by the Scottish reformation, was the spontaneous ex• pression of the people in despite of the civil power. Let the supposition be made, that at the time Knox, and the other reformers, preached the truths of the Bible free from the admixture of human devices, and called the people to a general reformation of religion, that the country had been under the control of England, it requires not the gift of prophecy to be able to say what would have been the consequence. The Romish influence, supported by a foreign tyrant, would have kept down the rising spirit of reformation and crushed the inclination to change by the overwhelming power of physical force. The reformers in Scotland supported truth against all the schemes and opposition of their own rulers; but they would have found themselves too weak to have resisted the power of England combined against them. But, as it was, the reformers were able to follow their own views, and seconded by a great number of the people, in a few years they accomplished a reformation, more complete and scriptural than was attained in any other nation. This reformation was built on a basis which was fitted to support and preserve the superstructure-the general diffusion of knowledge among the people. In Germany, France, and Eng. land, this was overlooked, and although by the zeal and labor of the great reformers in these different countries, considerable progress was made in reforma. tion; yet, as knowledge was not generally diffused by any permanent plan of education, the cause of reformation soon began to 415 dwindle, and fall off. And the present state of religious knowledge, among the mass of the population in these countries, is a melancholy monument of their imperfect reformation. cerns of the Scottish reformers; This was one of the first conthey made provision for the education of the people by establishing an admirable system of parochial instruction. In the schools, children were not only taught to read, but the Bible and catechisms were read, and committed to memory; and as a part chial teacher, and professor in of the same system, every parothe universities, before they could enter upon their respective offifaith.* Thus, two objects were ces, subscribed the confession of gained. First, the invaluable blessing of education was spread among the poorer, as well as among the more wealthy classes of the population. Second, it be of a moral and religious kind; secured that this education should so far as such an object could be secured by human wisdom and laws. A permanent foundation ledge is to civilize and improve *This law is still in force. tual being. And when the education, as in the present instance, is of a religious kind, the tendency to humanize and improve is still more powerful. Christianity sets new motives before the mind for the determination of action. And when religion takes proper hold on the mind, these principles are active and influential on the life and conduct. Thus, in the diffusion of education throughout society, and the moral effects which were inseparably connected with it, we have presented to us a happy result of the independence of Scotland as secured by the victory obtained at Bannockburn. But when we come directly to the subject of religion itself, the advantage will be seen in a stronger point of view. It was the practice of those days for civil rulers to interfere with the religion of the people, and try to mold it into such a form as would most serve their own political purposes. The Scottish reformers, supported by the aristocracy, altho' able to resist the encroachments of their own government, could not have struggled with the mo. narchy of England, supported as it would have been by the worthless of both nations. But circumstanced as they were, they were at liberty to carry their religious reformation to any point they chose. Here the great object of the Scottish reformers was to form a system from the word of God, without reference to the inclinations and authority of men. The truths which they found in the Bible they boldly and fear lessly taught to the people, and embodied them into a system, or confession of faith. And these doctrines are found, notwithstanding the severest scrutiny, to be purely scriptural. The way of salvation is taught in them with a simplicity and plainness that is surpassed only by the word of God. The form of church government which the reformers adopted, is marked by the same scriptural simplicity with their doctrines. While they demolished with an unsparing hand the lordly system of episcopal domination, they avoided the opposite extreme of licentiousness. They adopted the Presbyterian form of government, which is alike re. moved from the usurpation of episcopacy on the one hand, and from the anarchy of congrega. tionalism on the other. They chose a middle path, by which the rights of the people of God were preserved from the grasp. ing influence of a secularized clergy, and from the lawless as. sumption of government, by the community at large. And this mode of government they established, not only on the principles of prudence and reason, but also because they found it in the divine oracles. In no part of the visible church of God, was the reformation from popery so completely perfected as in that part, of which we are now speaking. In no other section of the church, notwithstanding the greatness of the instruments employed, was there so near an approach to the purity of divine truth. In all of them, there were a greater or lesser failure in point of purity; and a still greater failure in the stability of their reformation. Where is now the glory of the German and Switzerland reformations? Alas! The principles taught by Luther, Melanchton, and Zuinglius, lie buried under a mass of infidel impiety and superstition. Where are the labors of the great reformer of Geneva? A man, who far surpassed all his cotemporaries. His reformation is to be found now only in his institutes. Geneva is now the den of heresy and irreligion. "The gold has become dim." 1712, presbyteries, even when they did not find any defect in the personal qualifications of the presentee, have often, from a supposed deficiency in his call, from regard to the wishes of the people, or from some local circumstances, delayed, or even refused to settle him. When the matter is brought before the general assembly, that supreme court, if satisfied that the conduct of the presbytery was not warranted by the laws of the church, interposes its authority, and enjoins them to proceed with all convenient speed, according to the rules of the church, to receive and admit the presentee minister of the vacant parish. If the reluctance discovered by the members of the presbytery appears to be such, that they cannot safely be trusted with any discretionary powers, the general assembly appoints the particular days of their meeting, in order to take the steps previous to the settlement, prescribes the whole course of their procedure, and constitutes them, in that particular case, the ministerial officers of the general assembly, who are not allowed to exercise their own judgment, but are required implicitly to obey the instructions given by their superiors. As the existence of the society depends upon the maintenance of this paramount authority, ministers have often been censured, and sometimes deposed, when, setting their own judgment in opposition to that subordination which the constitution implies, and which their solemn promise at the time of their admission bound upon their conscience, they have finally refused to comply with the orders of the supreme executive power."* The business which the assembly is unable to overtake, it refers to the commission. The minutes of the last sederunt are read before its close, that they may receive the sanction of the assembly, in the same way as the minutes of former sederunts, which are always read at the opening of the meetings subsequent thereto. A committee is appointed to revise the minutes of assembly, and to select from its acts such as are of general concern, that they may be printed. A great improvement has been recently made by this committee, acting under the orders of the assembly, in giving, in the printed abridg. ment of the assembly's proceedings, a fuller detail of the cases which come before it, so as to convey a distinct idea of the grounds upon which the decisions of the supreme ecclesiastical judicatory were pronounced. When the business is concluded, the moderator addresses first the assembly, and then his grace the commissioner, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the King and Head of his church, appoints another assembly to be held on a certain day in the month of May in the following year. The lord high commissioner then addresses the assembly, and in the name of the sovereign, ap *Hill'sView of the Constitution, pp. 84-95, 109-113. 117. 119-121. Act 5, Assembly 1733, et sequentia. Assembly 1750, Session 9.Presbytery of Linlithgow. Act 4, Assembly 1752. Assembly 1774, Session 7, and Assembly 1775, Session 5.-St Ninians. Assembly 1790, Session 4.-Presbytery of Paisley. As sembly 1803, Session 5.-Presbytery of Tain. points another assembly to be held upon the day mentioned by the moderator. Intimation of this appointment is publicly given, and the assem. bly is concluded with prayer, singing of psalms, and pronouncing the blessing. SECTION VI. THE COMMISSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. The commission of the general assembly is somewhat similar to a committee of the whole house. It is composed of all the members of assembly, with the addition of one minister, who is named by the moderator. Those also, whose commissions to the general assembly were rejected for some informality, are usually appointed to be members of the commission. The commission cannot proceed to business unless thirty-one of the commissioners are present, of whom twenty-one must be mi. nisters. They meet within the assem, bly-house, the first day after the dissolution of the assembly; and thereafter, the second Wednesday of August, the third Wednes. day of November, and the first Wednesday of March; and of. tener, when and where they shall think fit and convenient. But no private processes can be determined except at the four stated diets; and what is determined at one diet of the commission, with relation to private causes, cannot be altered at any other diet thereof but stands and continues in force till disapproved of by the general assembly. |