RESCINDED ACTS OF ASSEMBLY. (continued 2)

We have now accomplished the main part of the task in which for some months past we have been engaged, namely, to print for the first time, in a complete and connected state, all that now remains of the earliest record of the Reformed Church of Scotland. That record extends from 1560 to 1616 inclusive. And as stated in previous notes, the proceedings in the Assemblies, during the period now referred to, constitute what has been long denominated “The Booke of the Universall Kirk of Scotland.” The concluding part of our undertaking still remains to be performed in such illustrative notes and documents as are requisite for giving coherence and full effect to these important fragments of our ecclesiastical records; and this portion of our labours shall hereafter be prosecuted as speedily and comprehensively as the nature of the case admits of, with a due regard to fidelity in its accomplishment. In the meanwhile, “The Booke,” forming of itself a volume of sufficient size, it is now given in that shape to the public.

The reader of the preceding pages is already aware, that all the proceedings of the Episcopal Assemblies (subsequently to that of 1602) were rescinded by the Presbyterian Conventions which took place during the reign of Charles I. in 1638 and 1639. Even in the proceedings of the Assemblies soon after 1592, when Presbyterianism was established, there are various indications of the intentions of King James VI. to insinuate Episcopacy into the constitution of the Church; and after his accession to the throne of England, in March 1603, his policy in this respect became more manifest. Indeed, by an act of Parliament in 1597, (19th December,) the insidious propositions which had been made in the Assemblies, for the introduction of clergymen into Parliament, were given effect to, and formed the first step in the series of encroachments on the Presbyterian polity. Without at present going minutely into the detail of events which followed, it may be noticed, with reference to the rescinded acts of Assembly, that even before the Assembly of 1602, Prelacy was virtually introduced into the Church, and after that date it was openly established by a series of acts of Parliament. The Assemblies of 1606, 1608, 1610, and 1616, were all Episcopalian, as is evinced by the whole course of procedure in those Conventions, which were one and all convoked and packed by the King, and were held merely for the purpose of registering his edicts, and giving a colourable aspect to these as clothed with ecclesiastical sanction. There were two other Assemblies of like character held in the years 1617 and 1618—in the latter of which the celebrated Articles of Perth were adopted by the Bishops and subservient Clergy; but of the proceedings in these two Assemblies, there is no fragment in the MS. copies of “The Booke” to which we have had access; nor, although the nature of these proceedings is described by Calderwood and other historians, have we been able to discover any detailed record similar to that which has been preserved of the preceding Assemblies of the Church. After 1618, General Assemblies were entirely discontinued for the space of twenty years, until, in 1638, in consequence of the great revulsion which then took place in Scotland under the guidance of the Covenanters, another General Assembly was convoked by authority of King Charles the First.

In conformity with the course which we have already adopted with reference to particular epochs of our Church history, and in order to illustrate the relation which subsisted betwixt the Church and the State, we shall now, at the close of “The Booke,” subjoin in an Appendix the principal Acts of Parliament which were passed in regard to the Church, betwixt 1592 and 1638, when Presbyterianism was re-established—thus presenting, in connexion with the Acts of the Church, all the leading statutory enactments of the State by which the Church polity was established, modified, and subverted, during a period of seventy-eight years. And with these few explanatory remarks, we commit “The Booke of the Kirk” into the hands of our countrymen, being well assured that its pages contain much important matter, which merits careful examination and study at the present day.

July 1839.

And now the most grateful part of our task (for the present) only remains—to record our thanks for the friendly assistance we have received while engaged in the present undertaking. We owe our acknowledgments especially to Thomas Thomson, Esq. Deputy Clerk-Register; to the Rev. Dr Lee; and to Messrs A. M‘Donald of the Register House, D. Laing and Ferguson, Librarians for the Writers to the Signet; Mr Haig of the Advocates’ Library; Mr Rowan of the Theological Library in the University of Edinburgh; to the Rev. W. B. Smith, Chaplain of Edinburgh Castle; and to the Rev. Thomas M‘Crie, for many facilities and much useful information, without which the present publication would have been altogether impracticable at present.

It was our purpose to have included in the present Volume, a Copious Index and Glossary of obsolete words, and also to give a list of errata which we have discovered, arising unavoidably from the frequent obscurity of the MSS. and discrepancies in orthography, besides slips of the pen and the press; but on further reflexion, it appears expedient to combine these useful addenda with the Notes, which will be found the more satisfactory corrective of any imperfections in the text of the Booke itself.