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given them. He then presented the declinature of the bishops, which he desired to be read, but the assembly, in a tumultuous manner, and after a stormy discussion, refused to hear it, till they were constituted, when they would be ready to receive and answer any paper it might please his grace to present. A protest was taken against this refusal, as unjust, which was followed by a counter one, and the day was wasted by a multiplicity of protestations, "with which," "with which," says Baillie, all were wearied, except the clerk pro tempore, who, with every one received a piece of gold." In the end, Henderson was chosen moderator, and Johnston of Warriston, appointed the clerk. During the rest of the week, they proceeded to examine the commission of the members, and their decisions in any disputed cases, evinced clearly the temper and construction of the assembly. The covenanters' were uniformly sustained. But it deserves to be remarked, that no objections were ever started against their moral characters; they chiefly rested upon points of form, which, when parties run high, are in common, pretty easily got over to attain an end.

At length the declinature of the bishops was read; they refused to acknowledge the assembly as a competent tribunal;from the choice of the commissioners having been chiefly directed by a majority of laics; from the presence of lay elders at their meeting; and from the absurdity of requiring archbishops and bishops, who are superior to other pastors, contrary to all reason and practice of the Christian church, to submit to be judged by a mixed meeting of presbyters and laics, convening without lawful authority of the church, and of which the primate was not allowed to be moderator. In a Jong but conclusive reply, the practice of admitting lay elders to vote in the choice of commissioners, and to have a voice in the decisions of the assembly, was shown to have existed from the time of the reformation; to have been exercised and ap

* The early original registers of the church had been long a missing. It was known they had been mutilated, and it was suspected they had been de stroyed. At the meeting of this assembly, to the great joy of the whole, these important documents, which formed useful and authoritative guides in their future proceedings, were discovered to be safe, and not materially deteriorated. Mr. Archibald Johnston, their new clerk, produced, at their

proved, even in those very meetings by which Episcopacy was introduced, and under Episcopacy itself. But the assembly founded their proceedings not on the acts of councils; they rested on the example of the apostles, in whose times there were meetings of churchmen and laymen, and on the established order of their own reformed church, where no superior lords, archbishops, or bishops were known; and in which, by the second book of discipline it is ordained, that in all assem blies a moderator shall be chosen by common consent of the whole brethren convened, nor was any constant moderator ever mentioned before the usurpations of the prelates. Much prolix reasoning upon both sides ensued, till, worn out with the disputations, the moderator interposed, by stating the question: Whether or not this assembly, found themselves competent judges of the bishops, notwithstanding their declinature?

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When he was about to put the vote, the commissioner arose, and addressed them to the following effect:-" I should have perhaps continued a little longer with you, if you had

third sederunt, five books, which, with the two he had received from Mr. Sandilands, their former clerk, were, he said, sufficient to make up a perfect register of the church from the reformation. He informed the assembly, that the first two contained the acts of the assembly from the reformation to the year 1572, and were signed by Mr. John Gray, their clerk; the third contained the acts of assembly from that to the year 1579, except that a few leaves, from the 22d to the 27th, which contained archbishop Adamson's process, were torn out; the fourth contained the acts of assembly from the year 1586, to the year 1589, and were written and signed on the margin by Mr. James Ritchie, and Mr. Thomas Nicolson, clerks successive; and the fifth and greatest vol. contained the acts of assembly from the year 1560, to the year 1590, and was margined by the hand writ of the assembly clerks; and farther he informed the assembly, that he received the first from Alexander Blair, writer, who was first servant [secretary or clerk] to Mr. Robert Winram, depute clerk to the modification of stipends, and succeeded him in that office, under Mr. Thomas Nicolson, clerk to the assembly; the fifth he had only a loan of from a minister. When the moderator proposed to authenticate these registers, Mr. John Row told them be had in his hand a copy of the book of polity, subscribed by Mr. James Ritchie, which would prove his hand writing; and Mr. Johnston added, he had the original book of polity written on Lombard paper, which would confirm it.—Journal of the Assemb. MSS. Stevenson, vol. ii. p. 494.

not fallen upon a point which doth enforce my deserting you. You are now about to settle the lawfulness of this judicatory and the competency of it against the bishops whom you have cited thither, neither of which I can allow, if I shall discharge either my duty toward God, or loyalty toward my gracious master. This is a day to me both of gladness and grief; gladness in having fulfilled his majesty's promise, in calling together this assembly, and in having seen it meet, and that I shall now, in his majesty's name, make good to you all his most gracious offers in his royal proclamation;-of grief, in that you, who have called so much for a free assembly, and having one, most free in his majesty's intentions, granted you, have so mangled and marred the matter, that there is not the least shadow of freedom to be discerned in this your meeting; but his majesty's sincere intentions being to perform, in a lawful assembly, all he hath promised in his gracious proclamation, if you find out a way how these things may pass, and be performed even in this assembly, such as it is, and yet his majesty not made to approve any way the illegalities and nullities of it, I am, by his majesty's command, ready to do it, and content to advise with you how it may be done."

After this, he ordered the king's concessions, as they had been formerly proclaimed, to be read, and having taken instruments, that by producing and signing them, he had made his majesty's intentions known, but that in so delivering and acknowledging them, the lawfulness of the assembly was not acknowledged.

When the clerk had done reading, the commissioner resumed :-He regretted that he could not go on with them, while ruling elders were permitted to sit, and ministers chosen by laymen were commissioners;-uttered a sharp invective against the manner in which the bishops had been cited, and proposed in conclusion:-" If you will dissolve yourselves, and amend all your errors in a new election, I will, with all convenient speed, address myself to his majesty, and use the utmost of my intercession with his sacred majesty, for the indiction of a new assembly, before the meeting whereof, all these things now challenged may be amended. If you shall refuse this offer, his majesty will then declare to

the whole world that you are disturbers of the peace of this church and state, both by introducing of lay elders against the laws and practices of this church and kingdom, and by going about to abolish Episcopal government, which, at this present, stands established by both these said laws."

The moderator professed, on the part of the assembly, the sincerest loyalty to the king. It was the way in which they had walked in time past, had been the glory of the reformed churches, and they accounted it their glory, in a special manner, to give unto kings and magistrates what belongs to their places. The assembly having been indicted by his majesty, and consisting of such members regularly authorized, as by the acts and practices in former times, had a right to represent the church, they considered themselves a free assembly; and he trusted that whatsoever business might be brought before it, would be so managed as to evince that all things were conducted according to the law of God and reason, and they hoped that when his majesty had the truth told him, he would rather approve than be displeased with their proceedings. He then asked if he should again put the question:Whether they were competent to judge the bishops? But the commissioner urged that this might be deferred. "Nay, with your grace's permission, that cannot be," said the moderator; "for it is requisite that it be put immediately after the declinature." Then, said the commissioner, it is requisite I should be gone. The moderator, lord Loudon, and the earl of Rothes, entreated him to stay, and, acknowledging that he had done them a great favour in procuring the assembly, begged that he would not desert it now that it was constituted, or by protestation attempt to fetter their deliberations. Hamilton, affected to tears, appealed to God that he had laboured as a good Christian, a loyal subject, and kind countryman, for the good of the Scottish church, and that there was nothing within the bounds of his commission that he would not do, but lamented his inability to bring matters to such an agreeable conclusion as he wished. Some further reasoning ensued, which he stopped, by requesting the moderator to close the meeting by prayer; but this being refused, he renewed his protestations, in the name of his majesty, of himself, and

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of the lords of the clergy, that no act there should imply the royal consent, be binding upon any of the subjects, or prejudicial to any of their interests. He dissolved the assembly in the king's name, and forbade their further proceedings.

Rothes, who had come prepared, presented a protest, which was read while the commissioner and council were in the act of withdrawing; Arygle only remained behind to hear the reasonings. From the assembly the marquis proceeded to hold a council, in which he expressed his vexation at the uneasiness and sorrow which this breach would occasion to the king, and how anxious he was to have prevented it; but their rebellious conduct had extorted what was done. He therefore exhorted them to remain steadfast, and discharge their duty to their king, assuring them they should eventually be no losers; yet, notwithstanding, he durst not produce the proclamation for dissolving the assembly, so little could he depend upon those from whom he naturally ought to have looked for support. In the evening, however, he ascertained their in- | clinations, and next morning obtained several of their signatures; after which, he ordered it to be published with the accustomed formalities, discharging all pretended commissioners, and other members of the said assembly, from all farther meeting and convening, treating and concluding any thing belonging to the said assembly, under the pain of treason. This also was met by a protest, declaring that: —If the commissioner's grace should depart, and leave the church and kingdom in its present disorder, notwithstanding his dissolution, it was both lawful and necessary for the assembly, indicted by his majesty, to sit still and continue their meeting till they had tried, judged, and censured all the bygone evils and their authors, and provided a solid course for continuing | God's truth in the land with purity and liberty, according to his word, their oath, the confession of faith, and lawful constitutions of the church; and farther, that they, by the grace

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* The earl of Rothes, in the assembly, had made use of the term, “ pretended" bishops. In the proclamation, the commissioner applies the same epithet to the commissioners of the assembly. The spirit of irritation, which subsisted on both sides, is perhaps marked, in these little apparently trifl ing matters, more distinctly than in greater occasions.

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