Free Church Constitutionalists and the Establishment Principle

Abstract

asserting the right and duty of the civil magistrate to maintain and support the establishment of religion in accordance with God's Word and reserving to ourselves and our successors to strive, by all lawful means, as opportunity shall in God's providence be offered, to secure the performance of this duty agreeably to the Scriptures, and in implement of the statutes of the Kingdom of Scotland, and the Treaty of Union as understood by ourselves and our ancestors, but acknowledging that we do not hold ourselves at liberty to retain the benefits of the Establishment.3 In 1863, negotiations were begun with a view to union between the Free Church and the United Presbyterian Church, a predominantly lowland denomination which had always been a 'voluntary' church, that is, it opposed the idea of the national establishment of religion. The Free Church's union committee, set up to negotiate with the United Presbyterians at first included men who were opposed to altering the church's constitution to accommodate voluntary views. It was soon obvious to these men that the United Presbyterians would insist that ministers and office bearers be allowed to oppose establishment, within a future united church. Moreover by 1865, the more conservative Free Church ministers had concluded that many United Presbyterian ministers held views on other doctrines, in particular the Atonement, 4 which were not in accordance with the Confession of Faith. With the passing of the first generation of Free Church ministers, the outlook of the Free Church began to change, making sympathy for the more theologically liberal United Presbyterians widespread among the Free Church ministry. The Free Church's insistence on strict adherence to the Westminster Confession of Faith as a statement of faith began to slip. Nowhere was this more obvious than among the theological professors. Whilst the first generation of professors, such as William