From this time forward the church, while jealously asserting her spiritual independence, was on the side of the crown against the Jacobites, and became more and more an orderly and useful ally of the state. The difficulties which threatened to arise about the union were skilfully avoided ; the Act of Security provided that the Confession of Faith and the Presbyterian government should "continue without any alteration to the people of this land in all succeeding ages," and the first oath taken by Queen Anne at her accession was to preserve it. The Act of Toleration of 1712 allowed Episcopalian dissenters to use the English liturgy. This had not hitherto been done, and the claim of the Episcopalians for this liberty had been the occasion of a bitter controversy. The same parliament restored lay patronage in Scotland, an act against which the church always protested and which was the origin of great troubles.
Difficulties.—Presbytery, being loyal to the house of Hanover, while Episcopacy was Jacobite, was now in enjoyment of the royal favour and was treated as a firm ally of the govern ment. But while the church as a whole was more peaceful, more courtly, more inclined to the friendship of the world than at any former time, it contained two well-marked parties. The Moder ate party, which maintained its ascendancy till the beginning of the 19th century, sought to make the working of the church in its different parts as orderly and regular as possible, to make the assembly supreme and to enforce on presbyteries respect for its decisions. The Popular party, regarding the church less from the side of the government, had less sympathy with the progressive movements of the age, and desired greater strictness in discipline. The main subject of dispute arose at first from the exercise of patronage. Presbyteries in various parts of the country were still disposed to disregard the presentations of lay patrons, and to settle the men desired by the people; but legal decisions had shown that if they acted in this way their nominee, while legally min ister of the parish, could not claim the stipend. To the risk of such sacrifices the church, led by the Moderate party, refused to expose herself. By the new policy inaugurated by Dr. William Robertson (1721-1793), the assembly compelled presbyteries to give effect to presentations, and in a long series of disputed settle ments the "call," though still held essential to a settlement, was less and less regarded, until it was declared that it was not neces sary, and that the church courts were bound to induct any quali fied presentee. The substitution of the word "concurrence" for
"call" about 1764 indicates the subsidiary and ornamental light in which the assent of the parishioners was now to be regarded. It was in the power of the church to give more weight than she did to the feelings of the people; but her working of the patron age system drove large numbers from the Establishment. A melancholy catalogue of forced settlements marks the annals of the church from 1749 to 178o, and wherever an unpopular presen tee was settled the people quietly left the Establishment and erected a meeting-house.
In 1763 there was a great debate in the Assembly on the progress of schism, in which the Popular party laid the whole blame at the door of the Moderates, while the Moderates rejoined that patronage and Moderatism had made the church the dignified and powerful institution she had come to be. Nor was a conciliatory attitude taken up towards the seceders. The ministers of the Relief (see UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH) desired to remain connected with the Establishment, but were not suffered to do so. Those ministers who resigned their parishes to accept calls to Relief congregations, in places where forced set tlements had taken place, and who might have been and claimed to be recognized as still ministers of the church, were deposed and forbidden to look for any ministerial communion with the clergy of the Establishment. The growth of dissent steadily continued and excited alarm from time to time; and it may be questioned whether the peace of the church was not purchased at too high a price. The Moderate period is justly regarded as in some respects the most brilliant in the history of the church. Her clergy included many distinguished Scotsmen, among them Thomas Reid, George Campbell, Adam Ferguson, John Home, Hugh Blair, William Robertson and John Erskine. The labours of these men were not mainly in theology; in religion the age was one not of advance but of rest ; they gained for the church a great and widespread respect and influence.
With the close of the 18th century a great change passed over the spirit of the church. The new activity which sprang up everywhere after the French Revolution produced in Scotland a revival of Evangelicalism. Moderatism had cultivated the ministers too fast for the people, and the church had become to a large extent more of a dignified ruler than a spiritual mother.