The Declaratory Act

Sent down to the presbyteries

Donald Beaton writes that “In 1891 the Declaratory Act was brought before the General Assembly of the Free Church and sent down as an overture under the Barrier Act to the Presbyteries of the Church.” MacPherson explains the Barrier Act of 1697: “It enacts that before any law is passed that will affect the whole church, it must be sent down by the Assembly to presbyteries in the form of an overture [a proposed law].”¹

The pleadings for the United Free Church in the case of 1904 state that the Act “received the approval of a large majority of presbyteries, and the General Assembly of 1892 passed it into a law of the Church.” Beaton, writing for the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, likewise says that “It was seen in the spring of 1892 that the vast majority of the Presbyteries approved of the Act”.²

Beaton records that in April 1892 the Rev. Donald Macfarlane, minister of Kilmallie since 1889, “called a meeting of elders, etc., of the districts from Oban to Kilmallie to consider what should be done in the event of the General Assembly passing the Act.” According to Beaton, “The unanimous decision come to by the meeting was that they could not remain in a Church which would tolerate the doctrines taught in the Declaratory Act.”³

The Act of 26 May 1892

The Act stands in the Assembly’s Acts for 1892 as “XII. Act anent Confession of Faith (No. 8 of Class II.)”, dated “Edinburgh, 26th May 1892. Sess. [session] 13.” The margin calls it the “Declaratory Act anent Confession of Faith”. It opens: “WHEREAS it is expedient to remove difficulties and scruples which have been felt by some in reference to the declaration of belief required from persons who receive licence or are admitted to office in this Church, the General Assembly, with consent of Presbyteries, declare as follows:—” Its six sections follow in full:⁴

• “That, in holding and teaching, according to the Confession, the Divine purpose of grace towards those who are saved, and the execution of that purpose in time, this Church most earnestly proclaims, as standing in the forefront of the revelation of Grace, the love of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—to sinners of mankind, manifested especially in the Father’s gift of the Son to be the Saviour of the world, in the coming of the Son to offer Himself a Propitiation for sin, and in the striving of the Holy Spirit with men to bring them to repentance.”
• “That this Church also holds that all who hear the Gospel are warranted and required to believe to the saving of their souls; and that in the case of such as do not believe, but perish in their sins, the issue is due to their own rejection of the Gospel call. That this Church does not teach, and does not regard the Confession as teaching, the fore-ordination of men to death irrespective of their own sin.”
• “That it is the duty of those who believe, and one end of their calling by God, to make known the Gospel to all men everywhere for the obedience of faith. And that while the Gospel is the ordinary means of salvation for those to whom it is made known, yet it does not follow, nor is the Confession to be held as teaching, that any who die in infancy are lost, or that God may not extend His mercy, for Christ’s sake, and by His Holy Spirit, to those who are beyond the reach of these means, as it may seem good to Him, according to the riches of His grace.”
• “That, in holding and teaching, according to the Confession of Faith, the corruption of man’s whole nature as fallen, this Church also maintains that there remain tokens of his greatness as created in the image of God; that he possesses a knowledge of God and of duty; that he is responsible for compliance with the moral law and with the Gospel; and that, although unable without the aid of the Holy Spirit to return to God, he is yet capable of affections and actions which in themselves are virtuous and praiseworthy.”
• “That this Church disclaims intolerant or persecuting principles, and does not consider her office-bearers, in subscribing the Confession, committed to any principles inconsistent with liberty of conscience and the right of private judgment.”
• “That while diversity of opinion is recognised in this Church on such points in the Confession as do not enter into the substance of the Reformed Faith therein set forth, the Church retains full authority to determine, in any case which may arise, what points fall within this description, and thus to guard against any abuse of this liberty to the detriment of sound doctrine, or to the injury of her unity and peace.”

Protests and dissents

The index to the Assembly’s Proceedings of 1892 lists, under “Confession of Faith”, the “Returns to Overture anent Declaratory Act” (p. 530) and “Declaratory Act passed into Law” (p. 531); and under “Dissents and Protests”, those “Anent Declaratory Act” (pp. 530, 532–534, 537–538), with the “Answers thereto” (p. 537).⁵

Later Acts of the Free Church describe these dissents. In 1901 the Assembly “recalls that Act XII., 1892, anent the Confession of Faith, was passed by a former Assembly against certain distinct protests and dissents, the protection afforded by which protests and dissents is available to all who concur therein.” An overture of 1902 says that the Act “(the promotion and adoption of which caused serious dispeace throughout the Church) was passed, not by the voice of the whole Assembly, but by a majority thereof, and contrary to dissents and protests by members of the Assembly, directed against the competency of the Assembly to pass the Act, and against the manner in which the Act dealt with divine truth as set forth in the Confession”.⁶

Beaton records that “The kirk-session [the minister and elders of the congregation] of Kilmallie were unanimous in protesting against the Act”. He prints the session’s minute of 25 January 1893, with the Rev. D. Macfarlane as moderator and the elders D. Macmaster, Alexander Stewart, Duncan McDougald, Ewen MacMillan, Angus MacMillan and Edward Wilson. The session declared that the Assembly of 1892 “has, in our opinion, taken a decided step in the direction of imperilling the interests of divine truth, and of innovation upon the doctrinal and ecclesiastical constitution of the Free Church”.⁷

The minute gives four reasons. The fourth reads: “instead of the Westminster Confession of Faith, as the recognised standard of orthodoxy, in the Church, in all its heads and articles, has been substituted what is called the substance of the Reformed Faith as therein set forth—the Church being the sole judge of the particular points that are to be included under this category of doctrine, a provision which overthrows the fixed doctrinal constitution of the Church, and lays its creed at the feet of an irresponsible majority to determine the same at will.” The session protested “that the said Act shall not be binding on us or on those who may now or hereafter adhere to us”.⁸

In a letter that Beaton prints, Macfarlane writes that in 1894 “an order came from headquarters to remove the protest from the session book”; the Rev. John McAskill of Onich “refused to do so, and appealed to the Synod”, and when the case came to the Assembly, “Sheriff Jamieson, who was a member of Assembly, said that he had to say that ‘on legal grounds’ they could not compel the congregation to remove the protest from the session record.”⁹

The Act of 1894

Two years later, on 29 May 1894, the Assembly passed a further Act: “The General Assembly enact and declare as follows:— Whereas the Declaratory Act 1892 was passed to remove difficulties and scruples which had been felt by some in reference to the declaration of belief required from persons who receive licence, or are admitted to office in this Church, the Assembly hereby declare that the statements of doctrine contained in the said Act are not thereby imposed upon any of the Church’s office-bearers as part of the Standards of the Church; but that those who are licensed or ordained to office in this Church, in answering the Questions and subscribing the Formula, are entitled to do so in view of the said Declaratory Act.”¹⁰

The overture of 1902 says that this Act “was passed notwithstanding protest and dissent on the part of members of Assembly and without the consent of Presbyteries being obtained”. The minority’s pleadings in the case of 1904 add that “The Act of 1894 had not been transmitted under the Barrier Act, presumably because of its declaratory character.”¹¹

How it was read

John MacPherson, who wrote in the Preface to his history (1901) that it had been “an unfeigned pleasure to be able to close his history with a record of a great Church union”, writes that the Act stated “under several heads how it seemed that difficulties which had been felt in regard to some of the sections of the Confession might be explained without affecting the integrity of the authorised standards of the church”, and that “the relief afforded by the Declaratory Act has proved acceptable to many, and has secured the services of some who, apart from this, would have felt obliged to stand aside.”¹²

The minority who refused that union pleaded in the case that by this Act the Assembly, “claiming for the first time the authority to determine what points in the Confession of Faith entered and what points did not enter into the substance of the Reformed Faith, proceeded to qualify the Confession of Faith as therein set forth, and reserved to itself authority to make such further qualifications as should be deemed proper.”¹³

The historian Kenneth Ross writes that “The principal significance of the Free Church Declaratory Act lay not in its explanatory statements about certain Confessional doctrines but in the assertion” of its sixth section, that the Church “retains full authority to determine, in any case which may arise, what points fall within this description.”¹⁴

MacPherson adds that “Considerable objection was taken to the passing of the Declaratory Act of the Free Church, especially in the North, where a secession took place of a large number of members and adherents, including two ordained ministers and several students.” The Free Church repealed the Act in 1906.¹⁵