THE UNION WITH ENGLAND AND WORSHIP.
James Dodson
It is necessary here carefully to consider the manner in which the matters of Church government and worship were dealt with at the Union with England. By an Act of the Scottish Parliament, the first of Queen Anne, Chap. 4, entitled “An Act for a Treaty with England,” it is enacted “that such persons as should be nominated by Her Majesty under the great seal shall have power and commission to treat and consult with such commissioners as should be authorised by authority of the Parliament of England concerning a Union of the two kingdoms of such matters as they shall think necessary and convenient for the honour of Her Majesty, the common good and welfare of both the said realms for ever.” But it was provided that their resolutions must be confirmed by an Act of the Scottish Parliament before they should be held as binding, and it was also provided “That the said Commissioners shall not treat of or concerning any alteration of the worship, discipline, or government of the Church of this kingdom as
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now by law established.” In the same Parliament was passed the well-known Act of Security, chap. 6, 16th January 1707, entitled, “An Act for Securing the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Government,” wherein the appointment of the Commissioners is fully narrated, and “It is provided that the Commissioners for that treaty should not treat of or concerning any alteration of the worship, discipline, and government of the Church of this kingdom, as now by law established; which treaty being now reported to the Parliament, and it being reasonable and necessary that the true Protestant religion, as presently professed within this kingdom, with the worship, discipline, and government of the Church, should be effectually and unalterably secured: Therefore Her Majesty, with advice and consent of the estates of Parliament, doth hereby establish and confirm the said true Protestant religion, and the worship, discipline, and government of this Church to continue, without any alteration, to the people of this land in all succeeding generations.”
And after embodying the existing Acts establishing the Church, ratifying the Confession of Faith, and providing for its government by sessions, presbyteries, and synods, and the General Assembly, it is enacted, “That this Act of Parliament, with the establishment therein contained, shall be held and observed in all time coming, as a fundamental and essential condition of any treaty or union to be concluded betwixt the two kingdoms, without any alteration thereof, or derogation
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thereto, in any sort for ever. As also, That this Act of Parliament and Settlement therein contained, shall be insert and repeated in any Act of Parliament that shall pass, for agreeing and concluding the foresaid Treaty or Union betwixt the two kingdoms; and that the same shall be therein expressly declared to be a fundamental and essential condition of the said Treaty or Union, in all time coming.” The immediately following Act, cap. 7, entitled an “Act ratifying and approving the Treaty of Union of the two Kingdoms of Scotland and England,” incorporates the Act of Security before referred to. And in the Act of the English Parliament approving of the Union, the Act of Security is again incorporated. The treaty was transmitted to the Parliament of Scotland, and by them ordered to be recorded under the Great Seal for the union of the two kingdoms. The Confession of Faith, therefore, and the worship of the Established Church of Scotland, as then authorised and practised, form an essential article of the union with England, and are as well secured as any laws, ecclesiastical or civil, can possibly secure them.
Daniel De Foe, author of “History of the Union” (Edinburgh, 1709), in his “Tour in Great Britain,” vol. iii. p. 37, 1722, in mentioning St Giles’s Church, says, “But since the abolishing Episcopacy, and that the Presbyterian Church is now established by the Union, so as never legally to suffer another change; I say never legally, be-
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cause it cannot be done without dissolving the Union, which I take to be indissolvable.”
It will scarcely be argued that it was contemplated that the Church was to have unlimited power of altering what was made so stringently and unalterably binding on the State. On the contrary, as the Church had thus made sure by civil legislation that her doctrine, government, and worship should not be altered from without, a variety of Acts of Assembly were passed in addition to the “Act against innovations,” and both before and after the union with England, to secure the same object on the part of her own office-bearers.
In 1697, Act 9, an Act commonly called “The Barrier Act,” was passed, as its preamble bears, “for preventing any sudden alteration or innovation, or other prejudice of the Church in either doctrine, or worship, or discipline, or government thereof,” by which it is provided that all standing laws must be first considered by the Assembly upon overture to them, and thereafter remitted to Presbyteries for their consideration; and thereafter, before becoming standing enactments, such overtures must have the consent of a majority of Presbyteries. No standing law has ever been passed altering in the slightest degree the worship of the Church as practised for centuries, and formally sanctioned at the Revolution, but careful security taken that they should remain unchanged and be strictly observed.