ing warrant of the Word of God."

Third. It having been enacted, on the establishment of prelacy in 1612, that every minister, at his admission, should swear obedience to the Sovereign, as "the only lawful supreme governor of this realm, as well in matters spiritual and ecclesiastical as in things temporal," the enactment to this effect was repealed on the restoration of Church government.

Fourth. A like acknowledgment, that the Sovereign was "the only supreme governor of this kingdom over all persons and in all causes," having been, on the second establishment of prelacy consequent on the restoration of King Charles II., required as part of the ordinary oath of allegiance, and having been also inserted into the "Test Oath," so tyrannically attempted to be forced on the subjects of this realm during the reigns of Charles II. and James II., and the same doctrine of the King's supremacy in all causes, spiritual and ecclesiastical as well as temporal and civil, having farther been separately and specially declared by the first Act of the second Parliament of the said King Charles II. (1669), en. tituled, Act asserting His Majesty's supremacy over all persons and in all causes ecclesiastical," whereby it was "enacted, asserted, and declared, that His Majesty hath the supreme authority and supremacy over all persons, and in all causes ecclesiastical, within this kingdom,"-the estates of this kingdom, at the era of the Revolution, did set forth, as the second article of the "Grievances of which they demanded redress under their "Claim of Right," "that the first Act of

Parliament (1669) is inconsistent with the establishment of Church government now desired, and ought to be abrogated."

Fifth. In compliance with this claim, an Act was immediately thereafter passed, of which the tenor follows: "Our sovereign lord and lady, the King and Queen's Majesties, taking into their consideration, that by the second article of the grievances presented to their Majesties by the estates of this kingdom, it is declared, that the first Act of the second Parliament of King Charles the Second, entituled Act asserting His Majesty's supremacy over all persons and in all causes ecclesiastical,' is inconsistent with the establishment of the Church government now desired, and ought to be abrogated: Therefore their Majesties, with advice and consent of the estates of Parliament, do hereby abrogate, rescind, and annul the foresaid Act, and declares the same in the whole heads, articles, and clauses thereof, to be of no force or effect in all time coming." In accordance also therewith, the oath of allegiance above mentioned, requiring an acknowledgment of the King's sovereignty "in all causes," was done away, and that substituted which is now in use, simply requiring a promise to be "faithful and bear true allegiance" to the sovereign; and all preceding laws and Acts of Parliament were rescinded, "in so far as they impose any other oaths of allegiance and supremacy, declarations and tests, excepting the oath de fideli." By the which enactments, any claim on the part of the sovereigns of Scotland to be supreme rulers in spiritual and ecclesiastical as well as in temporal and civil causes, or to possess

any power, by themselves or their judges holding commission from them, to exercise jurisdiction in matters or causes spiritual and ecclesiastical, was repudiated and excluded from the constitution, as inconsistent with the Presbyterian Church government then established, and secured under the statutes then and subsequently passed," to continue without any alteration, to the people of this land, in all succeeding generations."

And whereas diverse civil rights and privileges were, by various statutes of the Parliament of Scotland, prior to the Union with England, secured to this Church, and certain civil consequences attached to the sentences of the Courts thereof, which were farther directed to be aided and made effectual by all magistrates, judges, and officers of the law and in particular.

It was, by an Act of the twelfth Parliament of King James VI., enacted, "that all and whatsoever sentences of deprivation, either pronounced already, or that happens to be pronounced hereafter by any Presbytery, Synodal or General Assemblies, against any parson or vicar within their jurisdiction, provided since his Highness's coronation, is and shall be repute in all judgments, a just cause to seclude the person before provided, and then deprived, from all profits, commodities, rents, and duties of the said parsonage and vicarage, or benefice of cure; and that, either by way of action, exception, or reply; and that the said sentence of deprivation shall be a sufficient cause to make the said benefice to vaike thereby:"

As also, by the fifth Act of the first Parliament of King William

"that whatsoever minister, being convened before the said general meeting, and representatives of the Presbyterian ministers or elders, or the visitors to be appointed by them, shall either prove contumacious for not appearing, or be found guilty, and shall be therefore censured, whether by suspension or deposition, they shall, ipso facto, be suspended from or deprived of their stipends and benefices:"

As also, by an Act passed in the fourth session of the first Par liament of King William and Queen Mary, entituled an "Act for settling the peace and quiet of the Church," it was provided that no minister should be admitted unless he owned the Presbyterian Church government, as settled by the last recited Act, "to be the only government of this Church;"" and that he will submit thereto, and concur therewith, and never endeavour, directly or indirectly, the prejudice or subversion thereof;" and it was statute or ordained, "that the Lords of their Majesties' Privy Council, and all other magistrates, judges, and officers of justice, give all due assistance for making the sentences and censures of the Church, and judicatories thereof, to be obeyed, or otherwise effectual, as accords:"

As also, by an Act passed in the fifth session of the foresaid Parliament, entituled an "Act against intruding into churches without a legal call and admission thereto," on the narrative, "that ministers and preachers, their intruding themselves into vacant churches, possessing of manses and benefices, and exercising any part of the ministerial

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legal call and admission to the said churches, is an high contempt of the law, and of a dangerous consequence, tending to perpetual schism;" such intrusion, without an orderly call from the heritors and elders-the right of presentation by patrons being at this time abolished,-and legal admission from the Presbytery," was prohibited under certain penalties; and the Lords of the Privy Council were recommended to remove all who had so intruded, and "to take some effectual course for stopping and hindering those ministers who are, or shall be hereafter deposed by the judicatories of the present Established Church, from preaching or exercising any act of their ministerial function, which (the said statute declares), they cannot do after they are deposed, without a high contempt of the authority of the Church, and of the laws of the kingdom establishing the same."

And whereas, at the Union between the two kingdoms, the Parliament of Scotland, being determined that the "true Protestant religion," as then professed, "with the worship, discipline, and government of this Church, should be effectually and unalterably secured," did, in their Act appointing commissioners to treat with commissioners from the Parliament of England, as to an Union of the kingdoms, provide "that the said commissioners shall not treat of or concerning any alteration of the worship, discipline, and government of the Church of this kingdom, as now by law established;" and did, by another Act, commonly called the Act of Security, and entituled, "Act for securing the Protestant religion

ment," " establish and confirm the said true Protestant religion, and the worship, discipline, and go. vernment of this Church, to coutinue without any alteration to the people of this land in all succeed. ing generations ;" and did "for

ever confirm the fifth Act of the first Parliament of King William and Queen Mary," entituled, "Act ratifying the Confession of Faith, and settling Presbyterian Church government, and the whole other Acts of Parliament relating thereto;" and did "expressly provide and declare, that the foresaid true Protestant religion, contained in the above-mentioned Confession of Faith, with the form and purity of worship presently in use within this Church, and its Presbyterian Church government and discipline

that is to say, the government of the Church by Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries, Provincial Synods, and General Assemblies, all established by the foresaid Acts of Parliament, pursuant to the claim of right, shall remain and continue unalterable; and that the said Presbyterian government shall be the only government of the church within the kingdom of Scotland :" And farther,

for the greater se

curity of the same," did, inter alia, enact, "That, after the decease of her present Majesty, the sovereign succeeding to her in the royal government of the kingdom of Great Britain shall, in all time coming, at his or her accession to the crown, swear and subscribe, That they shall inviolably maiutain and preserve the foresaid settlement of the true Protestant religion, with the government, worship, discipline, right, and privileges of this Church, as above established by the laws of this

Claim of Right;" which said Act of Security, "with the establishment therein contained," it was specially thereby enacted, "should be held and observed in all time coming, as a fundamental and essential condition of any treaty or union to be concluded betwixt the two kingdoms, without any alteration thereof, or derogation thereto, in any sort, for ever:" It being farther thereby provided, that "the said Act and settlement therein contained shall be insert and repeated in any Act of Parliament that shall pass, for agreeing and concluding the foresaid Treaty or Union betwixt the two kingdoms; and that the same shall be therein expressly declared to be a fundamental and essential condition of the said Treaty or Union in all tine coming." In terms of which enactment, this Act of Security was inserted in the Treaty of Union between the two kingdoms as a fundamental condition thereof, and was also inserted in the Act of the Parliament of Scotland ratifying and approving of the said treaty, and likewise in the corresponding Act of the Parliament of England, entituled "An Act for a Union of the two kingdoms of England and Scotland:"

And whereas, at the date of the said Treaty of Union, the right of patrons to present to churches stood abolished by statute, after the following manner, viz.: By the Act of King William and Queen Mary, hereinbefore mentioned, the Act of James VI., also hereinbefore mentioned, then standing totally repealed, was only revived, subject to the express exception of" that part of it relating to Patronages," which consequently remained repealed and

1690, c. 5, farther bore, "is hereafter to be taken into consideration." The part of the said Act thus left repealed and unrevived, was the provision, that Presbyteries "be bound and astricted to receive whatsoever qualified minister presented by His Majesty or laic patrons," a provision which, while it subsisted, was held to leave the Church free to proceed in the collation of ministers "according to the discipline of the Kirk ;" and non-compliance with which implied only a forfeiture of the fruits of the particular benefice, which it did by virtue of the immediately succeeding statute 1592, c. 117, whereby it was enacted, that "in case the Presbytery refuses to admit any qualified minister presented to them by the patron, it shall be lawful to the patron to retain the whole fruits of the benefice in his own hands." This subject having accordingly been thereafter taken into consideration in the same Session of Parliament, was definitively settled by an Act, entituled "Act concerning Patronages," whereby the right of Presentation by patrons was "annulled and made void," and a right was vested in the heritors and elders of the respective parishes" to name and propose the person to "the whole congregation, to be approven or disapproven by them," the disapprovers giving in their reasons to the effect the affair may be cognosced upon by "the Presbytery of the bounds, at whose judgment, and by whose determination (as is declared by the said Act,) the calling and entry of a particular minister is "to be ordered and concluded:"

mentioned, formed part of the settlement of the Presbyterian Church government effected at the Revolution, and was one of the "Acts relating thereto," and to the statute 1690, c. 5, specially confirmed and secured by the Act of Security and Treaty of Union; yet, notwithstanding thereof, and of the said Treaty, the Parliament of Great Britain, by an Act passed in the 10th of Queen Anne, repealed the said Act, "in so far as relates to the presentation of ministers by heritors and others therein mentioned," and restored to patrons the right of presentation, and enacted that Presbyteries should be " obliged to receive and admit in the same manner, such qualified person or persons, minister or ministers, as shall be presented by the respective patrons, as the persons or ministers presented, before the making of this Act ought to have been admitted:"

And whereas, while this Church protested against the passing of the above-mentioned Act of Queen Anne, as" contrary to the constitution of the Church, so well secured by the late treaty of Union, and solemnly ratified by Acts of Parliament in both kingdoms," and for more than seventy years thereafter, uninterruptedly sought for its repeal, she at the same time maintained, and practically exercised, without question or challenge from any quarter, the jurisdiction of her courts to determine ultimately and exclusively, under what circumstances they would admit candidates into the office of the holy ministry, or constitute the pastoral relationship between minister and people, and, generally, "to order and conclude

And whereas, in particular, this Church required, as necessary to the admission of a minister to the charge of souls, that he should have received a call from the people over whom he was to be appointed, and did not authorize or permit any one so to be admitted, till such call had been sustained by the Church Courts, and did, before and subsequent to the passing of the said Act of Queen Anne, declare it to be a fundamental principle of the Church, as set forth in her authorized standards, and particularly in the Second Book of Discipline, repeated by Act of Assembly in 1638, that no pastor be intruded upon any congregation contrary to the will of the people:

And whereas, in especial, this fundamental principle was, by the 14th Act of the General Assembly, 1736, re-declared, and directed to be attended to in the settlement of vacant parishes, but having been, after some time, disregarded in the administration of the Church, it was once more redeclared by the General Assembly, 1834, who established certain specific provisions and regulations for carrying into effect in time to come:

And whereas, by a judgment pronounced by the House of Lords iu 1839, it was, for the first time, declared to be illegal to refuse to take on trial, and to reject the presentee of a patron (although a layman, and merely a candidate for admission to the office of the ministry,) in consideration of this fundamental principle of the Church, and in respect of the dissent of the congregation; to the authority of which judgment, so far as disposing of civil interests, this Church