Creeds and Churches in Scotland (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. EXISTING LEGAL EELATIONS OF THE ESTABLISHED CHUECH OF SCOTLAND TO HEE CEEED. If we turn from the historical portions of the work to which I specially refer, and look at its main subject, we find that correct views of the relation of the Established Church to the State, as that relation was conclusively fixed in 1843, are an essential preliminary to a correct estimate of the question which concerns the relation of that Church to its creed. On the other hand, a clear understanding of the ground assumed by different unestablished Churches previously to 1843, and of the special contest carried on within the Establishment by those who, at that era, combined to form the Free Church of Scotland, may be of much service in judging of the legal relations of those several Churches to their respective creeds. Accordingly, Mr Innes, while in his historical survey he associates a series of incidental remarks and notices regarding the more general questions that arose with his special account of what occurred on the subject of Confessions and the sanctions given to them, presents, in the other parts of his book, with great perspicuity, force, and interest, the results of the survey, along with all the remaining materials through which the present aspect of that subject may be set forth and estimated. The investigation about which his book is thus chiefly concerned naturally divides itself into the legal relation and prospects of the Established Church of Scotland with reference to her creed, and the legal relation and prospects of the several Churches not established with reference to their respective creeds. Several questions occur regarding the legal relations and prospects of the existing Established Church of Scotland with reference to her creed. We may ask (1), Is the C...