Scottish episcopacy past and present / by Alexander Thomson.

  • Alexander Thomson
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Scottish episcopacy past and present / by Alexander Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    It may be both interesting and nsefiil to pernse at the present moment a brief sketch of the history of this Scottish Episcopal Church, and notices of the doctrinal differences betwixt it and the. Protestant Episcopacy of England. Episcopacy, such as that established in England, cannot pro¬ perly be said ever to have existed in Scotland. From the first dawn of the Reformation in that country, the superior authority of one pastor over another, or the existence of three several orders of the clergy—bishops, priests, and deacons— was rejected as unscriptural, and opposed to the practice of the Apostolic and earliest ages of the Christian Church. This prin¬ ciple of Presbyterianism was wrought into the very heart of the people of Scotland ; and all the power and all the cruelty of the House of Stuart, or rather of its Popish counsellors, were insuffi¬ cient ever to establish a Reformed or Protestant E2nsco23al Church in the heart and affections of the Scotch. If the Scotch disliked the prelatical form of Church govern¬ ment, they still more disliked the use of a liturgy in conducting the public services of religion, so that, even during the period when Episcopacy was the State form of Church government, there luas no liturgy authoritatively employed. The services were gene¬ rally conducted much after the present Presbyterian form until the year 1637, when the celebrated attempt was made to introduce the '' Scottish Prayer P)Ook” into the High Church of the metro¬ polis, and on that memorable day a striking lesson was given to rulers of the folly of attempting to interfere with the conscientious convictions of a religious people. All the boasted king-craft of the Sovereign was employed by James, the Sixth of Scotland and First of England, to establish Episcopacy in Scotland, during almost the whole period from his accession to the throne of England to his death. With all his faults, James was too good-natured willingly to inflict distress and misery upon his people. Notwithstanding his anxiety to establish bishops in his native land for the avowed purpose of thereby strengthening the throne (the false proverb No bishop no king,” was perpetually in his mouth), and though a persecutor upon oc¬ casion, still he shrank from the violent measures which would have been required fully to effect his purpose. Timidity was a leading feature in his character ; and though Episcopacy was uiominally set up in Scotland during his reign, it was of a very peculiar de-
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