th August 1560, nothing is clearer than that the Parliament did
not adopt the doctrine in any way on the authority of the new-born
Church. All the forms of a free and deliberate voting of the doctrine
_as truth_--as the creed of the estates, not of the Church, were gone
through. Still less, on the other hand, did the Church really adopt it
on the authority of the Parliament; (though it must be confessed that
this expression of it--the written creed of 1560--had no formal sanction
other than that of the State). But it was the confession 'professed by
the Protestants,' and exhibited by them 'to the estates;' and it
contained in itself abundant and adequate foundation for that
independence of the Church which became so dear to Scotland in following
ages, and of which Knox himself has always been recognised as, more than
any other man, the historical embodiment.

The great confession in this creed that 'as we believe in one
God--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost--so do we most constantly believe that
from the beginning there has been, now is, and to the end of the world
shall be, one Kirk,' is there so deduced from the everlasting purpose
and revelations of God, and is so concentrated upon the duty and the
privilege of the individual man, that the church in Scotland, even had
it never become national, would have stood square and perhaps risen high
upon this one foundation. But it was by no means intended to stand on
that foundation alone, however adequate. And it was with a view to
further steps--not all of them taken at this time--that clauses as to
the civil magistrate were introduced in the penultimate chapter,
assigning to him 'principally' the conservation and purgation of the
religion--by which, it is carefully explained, is meant not only the
'maintenance' of the true religion, but the 'suppressing' of the false.
One more remark may be made. Theoretically, the Church could improve its
creed. In France it was read aloud on the first day of each yearly
Assembly, that amendments or alterations upon it might be proposed; and
in Scotland also the view was strongly held that the only standard
unchangeable by the Church was Scripture. This theoretical view,
however, was not to have much immediate practical result; especially as
the Confession was now ratified by the Parliament. And this was done
without change or qualification, though the preface prefixed to it by
the Churchmen admits its fallibility and invites amendment--a view