Basta un tuo sguardo placido, Non son miei prieghi inutili, I. Who will speak comfort to the soul II. O Thou alone amid the night III. Father! I lift my hands, and pray Iv. I only ask one look of thine My bitter tears to dry, But haste, and succour me, O Lord, V. I know my prayers are not in vain, Before the morn doth wake again, Thy Grace will come to me. I have only time to add two or three verses from the 50th psalm, which breathes a gentle quietness and grace well expressed in the phrase of the Italian writer-tenera venustà: Speak to me, Father, with that voice Unto thy weeping child! But ere my memory doth renew The hymns I sang of old, Unbind the chain of grief, for on my lips The breath of song hath long been cold. And then thy praise in gleeful measure HISTORY OF THE SCOTTISH EPISCOPAL CHURCH. No. II. PREVIOUS to the year 1792, when the penal laws which had so severely affected the Scottish Episcopal church were repealed by the legislature, there were many Episcopalians in Scotland, who were not non-jurors, but who professed to be members of the Church of England. Amongst this class may be enumerated those English families who resorted to Scotland, and finally fixed their residence in some of the great towns; English mechanics employed in the manufactories, potteries, &c.; and many of the indigenous Scottish Episcopalians of rank, who chose rather to resort to the qualified chapels, as they were termed, than forfeit the political privileges which the Act of 1748 denied them, if they persisted in their adherence to the ancient communion. In the cities, and many of the large towns, there were congregations of this description, who easily procured clergymen from England, or, as it sometimes happened, Scotchmen in English orders; and those clergymen, being thus ordained in England or Ireland, were duly qualified according to the Act of 1748, and, having taken the necessary oaths of allegiance and abjuration, received the sanction of government. It was evident that, previous to the year 1788, when Prince Charles Edward died, these clergymen could not, on account of their political situation, submit to the jurisdiction of the Scottish bishops, because the former, at their ordination in England, had taken those oaths which the Scottish Episcopal clergy had refused to take, so long as any member of the exiled family was in existence. But, on the other hand, they laboured under all the disadvantages resulting from the want of Episcopal authority. No English or Irish bishop can have jurisdiction in Scotland, and consequently these clergymen were amenable to no superior ecclesiastical cognizance, while their chapels were unconsecrated, and the young persons of their congregations unconfirmed. Although professing to be Episcopalians, they were, in reality, Independents, for every one who knows any thing of the constitution of the Christian Church, must perceive, at once, that to term churches or chapels Episcopal, which are not under the jurisdiction of any bishop, is a complete contradiction of terms. Many of the English ordained clergy, indeed, who well understood the constitution of the Church, were aware of their peculiar situation, and felt all the inconveniences resulting from it; but, until the penal laws were removed, it appeared to them that they could not consistently unite with the Scottish Church. As soon, however, as those laws were repealed, the Scottish bishops took steps to promote a union of all the clergy of English ordination with the indigenous clergy, beginning with those of Edinburgh, concluding that an example of sound principles might thus be given from the metropolis to the clergy in other towns and villages in Scotland. The late Bishop Skinner was at that time the head of the Scottish bishops, and it occurred to that prelate, that the most likely means to effect a speedy union, would be to invite a sound and orthodox clergyman from England into Scotland, to be there consecrated a Scottish bishop, with the jurisdiction of the diocese of Edinburgh. Dr. Abernethy Drummond was at that time bishop of the united diocese of Edinburgh, Fife, and Glasgow; but that venerable prelate expressed his willingness to disjoin Edinburgh from his jurisdiction, in order to promote a measure which would not only tend to strengthen the Church in Scotland, but also unite her more closely with the Church of England. The plan was wise, although in this instance it was not destined to be accomplished. The gentleman proposed to be advanced to the Scottish Episcopate was the late Rev. Jonathan Boucher, then Vicar of Epsom,-a man who had suffered much for his loyalty in America, and whose principles and conduct made him respected and revered by all who knew him. So highly was he esteemed, that he at one time was thought of for the bishopric of Nova Scotia, to which Dr. Inglis was appointed; and the Archbishop of Canterbury was even entreated to obtain him for Canada. There can be little doubt, that if Mr. Boucher had become a member of the Scottish Episcopate, a more humble, though not less apostolical elevation than that which his friends in England wished him to obtain, he would have accomplished that union between the English and Scottish clergy which was so ardently desired by the bishops. This, at least, was the opinion of Dr. Abernethy Drummond, who, in a letter to Bishop Skinner, dated 13th March, 1793, states," that he most cheerfully adopted the plan which he (Bishop Skinner) and Bishop Watson (of Dunkeld) proposed, and would immediately resign in favour of the worthy vicar of Epsom, if he should be so good as to accept the see of Edinburgh." After some correspondence, Mr. Boucher visited Edinburgh ; and his reception, to use his own words, was "highly flattering and favourable." "As for myself," says he to Bishop Skinner, "God is my witness, I have much at heart the furtherance of his glory, and the welfare of his church. If these are promoted, it is very immaterial whether it be by me or not. I can have no worldly interest in view; wherefore do I request and charge you to suffer no undue partiality for me, however flattering and grateful that partiality may in other respects be to me, to influence your judgment. The gratifying of such feelings neither is, nor ought to be, beneath our notice; but in the present instance, much higher interests demand our attention." Unfortunately, however, the purposes of the church were in this instance frustrated. A report was propagated, that "the scheme in agitation was to introduce bishops into Scotland, with the sanction of government, and on such a footing as to entitle them to some legal jurisdiction." Mr. Boucher at once declined proceeding farther in the matter; but continued, during his useful life, a warm supporter of that humble church which had thus, by the ignorant and fanatical rumour above alluded to, been deprived of his valuable services. This excellent man died suddenly, in 1804, regretted by all with whom he was connected. In the mean time, many of the clergy submitted to the jurisdiction and authority of the Scottish bishops. Among the first of these may be mentioned, the congregation at Banff, of which the Rev. Charles Cordiner was minister, a gentleman who greatly distinguished himself by his antiquarian researches. The clergy and congregations of Cruden, Peterhead, and Stonehaven (Aberdeenshire), Musselburgh and Leith (in Mid-Lothian), and various other congregations, all voluntarily united themselves to the Scottish Episcopal Church, as did also all the chapels in the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow. So convinced were the clergy of their duty in this respect, that, previous to the year 1805, all those of English ordination had acknowledged the Scottish Episcopal authority in the united diocese of Edinburgh, with the exception of two, viz., those of Kelso and Dumfries; both of whom, however, with their congregations, subsequently adhered. A few in the northern dioceses remained, nevertheless, in a state of separation; but they are now reduced to the number of three, and these we shall notice more particularly in the sequel. From the year 1793 to the year 1804, no event of particular interest occurred in the Scottish Episcopal Church, except the consecration of the present venerable Bishop of Moray, Dr. Alexander Jolly, as coadjutor to the late Bishop Macfarlane of Ross and Argyle. During that interval, we find the bishops and clergy occasionally approaching the throne with loyal addresses and congratulations, which were on every occasion most graciously received. The only circumstance of a local nature was the constitution of the Scottish Episcopal Friendly Society in 1793-4, which will be more particularly noticed afterwards. In 1803, Bishop Skinner, of Aberdeen, published his well-known work, entitled "Primitive Truth and Order vindicated from Modern Mis-representation, with a Defence of Episcopacy, particularly that of Scotland, against an attack made upon it by the late Dr. Campbell, of Aberdeen, in his Lectures on Ecclesiastical History, with a Concluding Address to the Episcopalians of Scotland." The work to which the Bishop wrote this admirable reply, was a posthumous performance of the celebrated Dr. George Campbell, Principal of Mareschal College, in the University of Aberdeen, and contained the substance of his prelections to the theological students of that College. The "Lectures on Ecclesiastical History" contained a violent tirade against Episcopacy in general, and that of Scotland in particular, asserting "that not only the polity of the Church of England seems to have been devised (!) for the express purpose of rendering the clerical character odious, and the discipline contemptible, but that, as no axiom in philosophy is more indisputable than that 'quod nullibi est, non est,' the ordination of our present Scottish Episcopal Clergy is solely from Presbyters, for it is allowed that those men who came under the hands of Bishop Rose, of Edinburgh, had been regularly admitted ministers or presbyters in particular congregations before the Revolution; and to that first ordination," adds the Principal, "I maintain that their farcical consecration by Dr. Rose and others, when they were solemnly made the depositories of no deposits, commanded to be diligent in doing no work, vigilant in the oversight of no flock, assiduous in teaching and governing no people, and presiding in no church, added nothing at all."-(Vol. i. p. 74, 355, 356.) The orthodox reader will probably smile at Dr. Campbell's opinion of the polity of the Church of England—an opinion so strange as to induce us to call in question the reputation of the writer. As to his assertions relative to Scottish Episcopacy, it is needless to observe, that no Presbyterian can understand the nature of the Episcopal succession, for ordination in the Presbyterian communion is held to be a mere form, the call of the people, being that, according to them, which constitutes a minister. No man but an Erastian will maintain that unless a church be established by the civil power, it is no church, but a mere schismatical association. An Act of Parliament may dissolve the church as the legal Establishment; but it can neither make nor unmake it it can only take away that which it gave, viz. certain rights and privileges; but it cannot affect the apostolical succession, which it never had in its power at any time to confer. The sneer at Dr. Rose's consecrations and ordinations, after he was ejected at the Revolution from the See of Edinburgh, is as ineffectual as it is ignorant and illiberal. The first Protestant VOL. III.-Jan. 1833. D |