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effectual preventing simony (re-transmitted), it is enacted, That upon a presentation being lodged with any presbytery of this church, before the presbytery shall take any steps towards the settlement of the presentee the moderator shall read to him Act 5, Assembly 1753, and Act 8, Assembly 1759, and thereafter the presentee shall subscribe, coram, the following solemn declaration, which declaration, as engrossed in the presbytery record, shall be authenticated by the signature of the moderator, in name and by appointment of the presbytery: "I, A. B., presentee to the vacant parish and church of D., or appointed to be assistant and successor to E. F., minister of the parish of H., hereby solemnly declare, as I shall answer to God at the great day of judgment, that I have come under no engagement, expressed or understood, with the patron or heritors of the parish of D., nor with any person or persons in their name, or on their account, that neither by myself, nor by any person with my knowledge, has any thing been given or promised to procure me a presentation to the vacant parish of D., and, if at any time hereafter it shall come to my knowledge, that any thing has been given, or has been promised to be given to the patron, or to any other person, for procuring the presentation now laid on the presbytery's table, to the vacant parish and church of D., I will immediately reveal it to the presbytery. (Signed) A. B., presentee to the parish of D."" I. H. moderator, in name and by appointment of the presbytery;" and that till such declaration is subscribed as above, the presbyteries of this church be prohibited from proceeding to the settlement of presentees, and that a copy of this act be given to each candidate for the ministry at the time he is licensed: All which procedure shall be without prejudice to the presbytery's right of putting such questions to the presentee as they shall deem necessary on the circumstances of the case: And that in the mean time this overture be converted into an interim act.-Act 9, 27th May. 1821. Retransmitted.

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STIPENDS.

1647. Recommended, to the parliament, or commission for planting kirks, to provide ministers in manses and glebes, and remead the prejudice sustained by ministers in having their glebes divided into parcels, and by lying far from their charges.-Sess. ult. Sept. 1.

1702. Recommended to the commission of plantation of kirks, to give due dispatch and encouragement to all processes for modification and locality of stipends, that so ministers may have a suitable maintenance, and a competency for communion elements, and ready access thereto. And it is recommended to the several presbyteries, to send in an account to the clerk of the General Assembly, or agent for the kirk, of such parishes in their bounds as either want legal stipends, or want decreets for their stipends and communion elements; and to send there with an account of the state of such parishes, and of the church, manse, and glebe thereof: And that in all transportations in time coming, previous inquiry be made, if there be a legal stipend, and a decreet therefore, in the parish craving the transportation.-Act 5.

1706. Recommended to presbyteries, to give information to the commission anent mortifications and stipends that have been dilapidated or suppressed; and the commission is appointed to be assistant to ministers in recovering thereof.-Act 12.

1750. Resolved, That an humble application be made to the king and parliament for the following purposes, viz. That in raising a summons for modification, locality, and augmentation of stipend, it shall be sufficient that a general citation be made by every clerk from his desk, and letters written to absent heritors by the moderator of the presbytery; that the moderator of the presbytery pursue for an augmentation whether a parish be vacant or not; that ministers' stipends, if not paid within the year, shall bear interest from the first half-year after they become due; that the commission of teinds shall have power to suppress, to annex, and to alter the divisions of parishes:

And the Assembly's commissioners are instructed to pray for relief in the premises, and for such further relief as to his majesty and parliament shall seem meet.-Act 4.

Note. This application was put off by the then session of parliament, and seems never after to have been resumed. 1759. Enacted, That in all time coming no minister shall make any composition with his heritors, with respect to obtaining a decreet of modification and locality for his stipend, but at the sight of the presbytery of the bounds. -Act 6.

1760. This, by an overture, extended to manses.

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1762. Enjoined, that presbyteries take an exact account on the place, of the extent of the stipend, glebe, grass, and other emoluments, belonging to every minister within their bounds, and record the same with accuracy in their presbytery-books. And it is appointed, That in case any person liable refuse or withhold any part of stipend, incumbents shall report the same to the presbytery, who are to give such directions for its recovery as the nature of the case may require; and that where a minister possesses more glebes than one, and has been in the use of setting such as are most remote, they shall, in time coming, after the boundaries are accurately ascertained, only be let by a tack, in which the extent and marches shall be particularly set forth, and the same lodged with the presbytery-clerk.-Act 8.

1802. Enjoined, that all the synods take care the presbyteries strictly obey the above Act 8, Ass. 1762, particularly respecting the extent and marches of glebes, and other emoluments as expressed in that act.—Act 8.

STUDENTS OF DIVINITY.

1826. It is enacted, That, in future, all students of divinity shall give at least one year of regular attendance at the divinity hall; and that such year of regular attendance shall be the first, the second, or the third year of the course; the present law regulating the attendance remaining in other respects without alteration.-Act 8, 27th May.

1827. The General Assembly enact and ordain, That in all time coming, it shall be held and acted upon as a standing law of the church by all the presbyteries of this church, with respect to all students of divinity entering upon the said study, from and after this date, that, previously to the enrolment of any student as a student of divinity, he shall be examined by the presbytery within the bounds of which he resides, upon literature, science, and philosophy, particularly upon Greek and Latin; that when students shall not give regular attendance at the divinity hall, excepting for one year of their course, they shall, during the currency of the fourth year of that course, be examined by their respective presbyteries, upon their attainments in divinity, church history, Greek and Hebrew; and that, in both cases, they shall present to the professors of divinity under whom their studies are conducted, the certificates of examination granted by presbyteries. Act 7, 26th May.

SUPERSTITIOUS OBSERVANCES.

1638. Funeral sermons are discharged, as savouring of superstition.-Sess. 23, 24, Dec. 17, 18, Art. 22.

1640. That idolatrous monuments be taken down, demolished, and destroyed, with all convenient diligence ; and the care of that work is committed to presbyteries and provincial assemblies within the kingdom; and that their commissioners report their diligence therein to the Assembly.-Act Sess. 2, July 29.

1645. That whatsoever person or persons, after the date of this act, should be found guilty of keeping of Yule day, and other superstitious days, be proceeded against by kirk censures, and shall make repentance therefore, in the face of the congregation where the offence is committed; and that presbyteries and provincial synods take particular notice how ministers try and censure delinquents of this kind within the several parishes; and scholars or students, being found guilty, be severely disciplined and chastised therefore by their master; and in case the mas

ters of schools or colleges be accessary to the said superstitious profanity, by their connivance, granting of liberty of vacancy to their scholars, at that time, or any time thereafter in compensation thereof, that the masters be summoned by the minister of the place, to compear before the next ensuing General Assembly, there to be censured according to their trespass; and if scholars, being guilty, refuse to subject themselves to correction, or be fugitives from discipline, that they be not received into any other schools or colleges within Scotland.-Act Sess. ult. Feb. 13.

SUPPLICATION.

1638. Resolved, That an humble supplication be directed to his majesty, testifying the Assembly's most hearty thankfulness for his royal favour, manifested in his public indiction of their solemn meeting, for purging and preserving religion, and informing him, from themselves, of their most religious and loyal designs in their proceedings, and entreating his majesty's approbation and ratification in the then ensuing parliament to their constitutions. This supplication is subjoined to Act Sess. 26, Dec. 20.

1639. The king is supplicated for his civil sanction and ratification of the constitutions in parliament.-Act Aug. 30.

1642. Supplication by the Assembly 1642, to King Charles I. craving that his majesty would advance the uniformity of church government betwixt the two kingdoms.-Sess. 8, Aug. 3.

1644. A petition or supplication from the distressed christians in Ireland to the General Assembly, shewing their having joined in the solemn league, and that the churches in Holland have supplied them with provisions in their straits; and begging that the Assembly would join with them in returning thanks to these churches; and would pass the bill, already advised by the committee of bills, for empowering the commission to grant them a

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