Anent the supplicatione given in be Mr John Nicolsone of Lesswade, beirand, that qwher he was kindlie tacksman of the teinds of his awne lands of Leswade, in respect qwherof he had agreit with Mr George Ramsay, Deane of Restalrig, for renewing of his said tacks for payment of ane greater dewtie then they payit of before, so that the Kirk was sufficiently plantit, to the qwhilks the said Mr George condescendit, desyrand, therefore, the Assemblie to ratifie and approve the saids tacks, and declare the same alse sufficient as if ane speciall licence had been obtained thereto: The Assemblie ratifies and approves the same taks of the teinds of his awn lands of Lesswaid, and declares the samen als sufficient, as if a speciall licence had been obtenit therto.
Item, At the earnest sute of the Presbytrie of Clyddisdaill, Walter, Prior of Blantyre, tacksman of the personage of Glasgow, had condescendit to give the number of 15 chalder victuall, by and attour the dewtie of his tacks, for the better provisione of the ministrie at the said kirk of Glasgow, upon conditione that the present persone sould ratifie and approve his present tack that he hes to runne of the said teinds: The Assemblie thinks the conditione reasonable, and therefore ordaynes the persone to ratifie the same, and declares that the said Commendator shall not be farther troublit for any great provisione to the said kirk during his saids tacks, be nane of the ministry serving that cure.
Anent the propositione made in the Assemblie upon the priuat motiones of sundry particular brethren, from diverse parts to the Moderator, desyrand that a certaine number of the brethren of best judgement and experience should be put apart to consider of the chiefest dangers appeirand to the estate of religion and quyetness of the countrie, and of the principall causes thereof, and how the samen micht be most effectuallie preventit, with power to them to conclude and to communicat their best advyces to his Majestie thereanent, and to the Presbytries so far as shall be found expedient: The Assemblie finds the samen most requisite, and for the effect above-written, nominats, &c. with power, as said is.
The qwhilk brethren having at lenth communicat their informatione, together with their awne knawledge anent the premisses, Finds that ane of the chiefest causes of danger proceeds from the miscontentment of some malicious and wicked Papists, that rages and leaves nothing unessayit to trouble; for being out of all esperance to have his Majestie’s indifferent affection or oversight toward them and their religion during his reigne, and of others that be the executione of justice finds themselves or their friends and their houses to have sustainit any losse, and to be impairit of their grytest dependance, and redacted to live under the obedience of the lawes utherwayes nor they were wont, and from the malicious business of certaine craftie and seditious persones, that either for the present necessitie of their awne estate, or for the hope of advancement of gaine to be had in the change of the present goverment, ceases not be all meanes to inflame the hearts of such as they perceive to be miscontentit in any estate, and making every man to see his own desyre in the trouble of the countrey, dealing in the meantyme likewayes with such as are of the most sincere affectione to Religion and Justice; That things is not done of that integrity that is profest, pressing to make the godly and good subjects the more cold, and adversaries to such as would intend a trouble: ffor remead qwhereof it is thocht good and concludit, That his Majestie shall be informit hereanent, that be his awne care and foresight such ungodly plots and counsells may be frustrate, and suchlyke that every minister within this realme shall deall generally with their congregationes and auditors at all occasiones in their publick doctrine in pulpit, and with all noblemen, barrones, gentlemen, and uthers that are of any speciall credite or power, particularlie in their private conferrences, persuading them of the King’s honest mynd toward the establisching of the trew religione presently profest within this countrie, and the executione of justice, and of his stedfast resolutione to hazard his estate, lyfe, and crowne, in the cause of the gospell, with the standing and falling qwhereof he acknowledges his standing and falling to be inseparably conjoynit, and that they mark carefully the actiones of all men, especially of such as either for religione or executione of justice, or for the necessitie of their awne estate, mislykes the present government, and are inclynit unto novations, and qwhom they see in any extraordinar kinde of bussiness by their custome, and that they make his Majestie’s Ministers acquaintit therwith, not ceasing in the meantyme to bring them to ane quiet minde; and for this effect that in all their ordinary meetings in Sessions, Presbytries, and provinciall Assemblies, there be a particular and private inquisition in thir poynts as need beis, that his Majestie’s Ministers may be advertised with all expeditione: And lykewayes it is thought expedient and concludit that his Majestie’s Ministers, and such uthers of the ministrie as shall have occasione to be in any charge about his Majestie, informe the Presbytries of the estate of things as they proceed, so far as it is needfull for the weill of the cause, and that this advyce be extractit and sent with diligence to every Presbytrie in authentick forme.
The nixt Assemblie is appoyntit to be halden at Aberdeene, the last Twesday of July in the year of God 1604 years.
Thanks beand given to God be the Moderator for the comfortable successe of this present Assemblie, the brethrene were dismissed.
We have now completed the record of all the General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland, held in and betwixt the years 1560 and 1602 inclusive. The Acts of these Assemblies constitute all that are regarded as authoritative by the Presbyterian Church. There were Assemblies, indeed, in the years 1606, 1608, 1610, 1616, 1617, and 1618; but the General Assembly of Glasgow, held in the year 1638, decreed “every ane of them to have been, from the beginning, unfree, unlawfull, and null Assemblies, and never to have had, nor hereafter to have, any Ecclesiasticall authoritie, and their conclusions to have been and to bee of no force, vigor, nor efficacie; prohibited all defence and observance of them, and ordained the reasons of their nullitie to be insert in the Books of Assembly.”[47] And in the Assembly of 1639 it was also declared, that the proceedings of these Assemblies “be hereafter accompted as null and of none effect.”[48] The Acts of those Assemblies thus repudiated, have ever since been regarded by the Church as of no authority. As, however, the proceedings in five of those Assemblies are contained in the MS. copies of the “Booke of the Kirk” to which we have had access, and as, although apocryphal, the Acts which are recorded tend to illustrate the history of the Church during the period to which we refer, we intend to include them in this print of the whole Book as we find it, but separately, and completely apart from the Acts of the legitimate Assemblies.
Before, however, proceeding to do so, it is considered expedient to include, as part of the genuine record, an authenticated Copy of the Book of Policie. When the transcript of the record for the year 1581 was put to press, and when the “Heads of Policie,” (or Second Book of Discipline,) should have been inserted as engrossed in the register, and as part of the proceedings of the Assembly held that year, the Editor did not consider it necessary to do so; inasmuch as many printed editions of that document were to be found in various publications. Since that portion of the work, however, was printed off, he has been led, by his inquiries, to the conclusion, that none of those editions which he has yet seen are perfectly accurate. He has arrived at this conviction by the discovery of an authenticated copy of it, attested in the year 1591, under the hand of Jas. Richie, the clerk of Assembly, and by the signatures of the Presbytery of Haddington, in terms of an Act of the General Assembly. He has collated that copy with others, and now deems it his duty to incorporate in this work an exact transcript of it, the authenticity being thus satisfactorily established. The importance of doing so, and the addition of some collateral circumstances connected with the Book of Policie, have been suggested to him by the fact, that the chief basis of the celebrated ACT ANENT CALLS is alleged to be found in that document, and much argument has been founded, both in the Ecclesiastical and Civil Courts, on the interpretation of various passages in it, and the authority that is due to it as an assumed record of the “fundamental” principles of our Establishment. It is therefore desirable that the Church and the Country should be put in possession of a genuine copy of a production, from which practical inferences of so much moment have been deduced.