2-13-50F# Dir INTRODUCTION ΤΟ ABRIDGMENT OF THE ACTS OF THE IN the year 1706 an Abridgment of the Acts of the General Assemblies of the Church of Scotland was compiled by the Reverend Mr. Bell; and about the same time Mr. John Dundas, principal clerk of the Assembly, and agent for the Church, undertook a similar work, which was brought down to the year 1720. In 1801, the Reverend Robert Gillan republished this latter work, as if compiled by himself; and in 1821, he published a new edition of it, with a continuation up to that date. Mr. Dundas's Abridgment, of which indeed, so far as it goes, Mr. Gillan's is a servile transcript, both in the matter and arrangement, was in its original plan and structure objectionable; for, besides the legislative acts of the supreme authority of the Church, strictly considered, it was encumbered with a mass of addresses, exhortations, and other papers, which were of a temporary nature, and which never were clothed with the character of statutory enactments-with overtures, which never became laws, and with a sort of running index materiarum interspersed, as well as with large and endless quotations, under different heads. from the form of process, which formed in itself only one act of the General Assembly, and which, by this awkward arrangement, was merely split down, and often repeated very unnecessarily. This original defect was also most religiously preserved by Mr. Gillan, who, after filling a great portion of his abridgment with the several parts of the form of process, annexed the whole of it to his continuation of Dundas. Mr. Dundas's Abridgment embraced only the acts of the Assemblies from the restoration of Presbytery in 1638 to 1720. But one of the first acts of the celebrated Assembly of Glasgow (28th November 1638) was to ascertain and declare the authenticity of the registers of the Church from the year 1560 to 1590; and of the various acts of the Church during that early period of its history, no trace is to be found in the abridgments now referred to, although these embrace the first of our ecclesiastical statutes. Soon after the abolition of Episcopacy in 1638, the fathers of the Church saw the necessity of guarding against innovations on the laws of the Church; and in 1639 and 1641, acts were passed which required the consultation of synods and presbyteries in the framing of new laws. Notwithstanding these impediments, however, a further check became necessary on rash legislation; and on the 25th December 1695, an overture was brought in on the subject, for the consideration of the Church in its subordinate judicatories. On the 8th January 1697, in consequence of that overture, an act was passed, which is termed the Barrier Act, and which fixed permanently the mode of legislating in the General Assemblies of the Church. By that statute it is fixed that no act of the General Assembly shall have the force of a law, except such overtures as are previously transmitted to presbyteries, and are approved of by a majority, whose concurrence shall be reported to some subsequent Assembly. Since the passing of the Barrier Act, therefore, no interim acts or overtures are to be regarded as standing laws of the Church; and in compiling an abridgment of these, it is proper to exclude entirely all such temporary and now inoperative arrangements; while, with respect to the earlier resolutions and acts of the Church prior to that time, it is equally proper to preserve a summary and practical record of those proceedings, which indicate the early practices and the genius of our branch of the reformed church. Upon these principles, therefore, the following Abridgment is digested; and so far as the materials are accessible, it is hoped that it will be found more luminous and useful than any of the abridgments which have heretofore been given to the public. In attempting a work of this kind there are many difficulties to be encountered. The original records of the Church, from its first establishment in 1560, which were declared authentic by the Assembly 1638, have been purloined from the repositories of the Church, and are now kept as a sealed book in Sion College, from that church whose undoubted property they are; and the only traces of their substance are to be gathered from certain MS. abstracts made of them, and from the Histories of Calderwood, Keith, and Spot tiswood And although there are various printed editions of selected acts from 1638 to 1649, there are many unprinted acts, some of them evidently important to our ecclesiastical history and institutions, of which only an index has been published. And finally, the existing original records of the Church, in the custody of the clerks of Assembly, are substantially shut up from useful consultation by the total want of any suitable accommodation for their deposit and inspection by the members of the Church who may wish to examine these Registers. Under such disadvantages a perfect abridgment is at present quite unattainable. The Editor of the present Abridgment, in the course of his researches, naturally applied to the Reverend Dr. Lee, the principal clerk of the General Assembly, for information touching some of these matters. No one is so well qualified as Dr. Lee to furnish the very best information on the subject; and he takes the liberty of subjoining an extract from Dr. Lee's polite answer to his inquiries. That gentleman has devoted much time and labour and expense in his endeavours to recover and arrange the records of the Church; and his exertions have been alike distinguished by zeal, perseverance, and intelligence, in the pursuit of his object. That his exertions have not yet been crowned with that degree of success which they merited is to be regretted; but it is to be hoped that ere long his praiseworthy endeavours to restore to the Church the interesting monuments of her early history, will result in the full accomplishment of his laborious and honourable undertaking. |