When the Clerk called on Doctor Robert Hamilton, Procurator for the Bishops, to answer to any thing he can say to the Summonds and Complaints given in against them, he compeired not.
The Moderatour said—Ye know I was saying that the first occasion of our Complaints and Supplications were the Service Booke, and these Cannons that were urged upon us. Ye know how miserable the face of this Church and State had bein before this tyme, if we had not supplicated against these evills, and what great mercie the Lord our God wham we sarve hes shawen in delyvering ws so farr from them; yet that it may be knawen to the world that our supplications wer just, and that there may be some monument of the wickednes of that Booke left to the generation following, it is very expedient that it be examined heir, that your judgments may be knawen and the reason of your judgements; and that we may goe on the more compendiouslie, it will be good that there be a Committee chosen also for this. Then the advyce of some of the Members of Assembly wer taken, who all gave consent to this.
| The names of the Committie— | |
|---|---|
| Mr Androw Ramsay, | Mr John Adamsone, |
| Mr Robert Baillie, | Mr Edward Wright, |
| Mr Alexʳ Petrie, | Mr John Menzies, |
| Mr John Oswell, | Mr Samˡ Rutherfuird, |
| Mr Alexʳ Kerss, | Mr John Hay. |
The Moderatour said—The Booke of Cannons, Service Booke of Ordination, and High Commission, all of them are to be sighted by yow.
Sess. 9.—Novʳ 30, 1638.
After prayer to God by the Moderatour,
The Moderatour uttered these words—We trust in God, that the more our good cause hath bein defending, and for which we are now conveened, is agitat, it shall be the more clearlie seen, and the more to be seen the more it shall be affected, and these that shall see the excellent lusture that shall be on it, shall, no doubt, be enamoured with it.
Argyle said—I have gotten a paper which I never saw before. It is from the Earle of Kinghorne, and, becaus it is a missive direct to me, I shall read it, and desyres it may be keeped by the Clerk.
Rothes said—Heir is ane uther of that same nature from my Lord Galloway. Lowdoun, Yester, Home, went to him, and he spack something before, and we caused put it in writt and sent to him, and he renewed it; quherein his Lordship declaired that he had subscrived the Confession of Faith, as it was professed in the year 1581, and wishes all the Assembly to make it the rule of all their proceedings; and he shawes that they were all wyld in, secreatlie, to the Commissioners Chamber, and, being debardit, they subscryvit the proclamation, not knawing what was in it; but, when Galloway heard it, he would have had his hand from it, and, when he saw that he could not get it back, he was so excessively greeved that he professed he got no sleepe all that night.
Then the Earle of Montrois said—That the Earle of Mar had given him Commission to declair to the Assembly, that he had the same meaning in the subscryving of the Confession of Faith; and, quhen tyme was fitt, he would declair it before all the world. Lykewise said the Earle of Mar, he being hardlie pressed to subscryve the proclamation, he refused, and said, he would not declair his Sone a Traitour, who yester night had subscryved the Covenant, and professed to the Marqueis and these who pressed him, that, as long as his blood was hote, he would think Covenanters als honest Men as themselves. Likewise,