every one of them forever free of any oath, test, or subscription within this kingdom, contrary to or inconsistent with the foresaid true Protestant religion," &c. (Then follows the provision for the Coronation oath.)

"And it is hereby statuted and ordained, that this act of Parliament, with the establishment therein contained, shall 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, forever. As also, that this act of Parliament and settlement therein contained shall be insert and repeated in any act of Parliament that shall pass for agreeing and concluding the foresaid treaty of union betwixt the two kingdoms; and that the samin shall be therein expressly declared to be a fundamental and essential condition of the said treaty of union in all time coming. Which Articles of Union and act immediately above written, her Majesty, with advice and consent foresaid, statutes, enacts, and ordains to be and continue in all time coming, the sure and perpetuai foundation of an complete and entire union of the two kingdoms of Scotland and England; under this express provision and condition, that the approbation and ratification of the foresaid articles and act shall be no ways binding on this kingdom, until the said articles and act be ratified, approven, and confirmed by her Majesty, with and by the authority of the Parliament of England."

By an act of the English Parliament ratifying the Union, these acts of the Scottish Parliament are forever ratified, approved, and confirmed and all, and every the matters and things therein contained, and the act for securing the church of Scotland, shall "forever be held and adjudged to be and observed as fundamental and essential conditions of the said Union, and shall in all times coming be taken to be, and are hereby declared to be essential and fundamental parts of the said Articles of Union," &c.

THE

FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE,

OR THE

POLICIE AND DISCIPLINE OF THE CHURCH;

DRAWN UP BY

MR. JOHN WINRAM, MR. JOHN SPOTTISWOOD,
JOHN WILLOCK, MR. JOHN Douglasse,

MR. JOHN ROW, AND JOHN KNOX,

AND

Presented to the Nobilitie anno 1560, and afterwards
Subscribed by the Kirk and Lords.

EXOD. XXV. 9.

"According to all that I shew thee, both after the fashion of the tabernacle, and after the fashion of all the ornaments thereof, even so shall ye make it."

BOOKS OF DISCIPLINE.

Previously to the legal establishment of the Protestant religion in 1560, the Book of Common Order used by the English Church at Geneva was generally followed as the rule of worship and discipline by the Scots Reformers; but that being found inadequate to the regulation of a church consisting of numerous congregations, a Book of Discipline, adapted to the state of the Church, was soon after that event urged upon the Parliament as a necessary accompaniment to the legal institution of the National Church. Parliament, however, was dissolved without any thing being done on this subject. But the reformed clergy persevered, and the Privy Council were induced to grant a commission to five ministers to frame such a standard of ecclesiastical government. When they had completed their task on 29th May 1560, the “ Book of Policy," or "First Book of Discipline," was submitted to the General Assembly, by whom it was approved; and though not formally ratified by the Council, it was subscribed by a great portion of the members. Many of them, however, were opposed to it; and by some it was stigmatized as a "devout imagination." The First Book of Discipline, therefore, though thus sanctioned by the church, was never formally and fully approved by the civil authorities.

After many commissions and conferences, with a view to the settlement of the discipline of the church, it was finally agreed on by the General Assembly in 1581, and registered in the Acts of the Kirk. The Confession of Faith, which had received the sanction of the civil government, was also declared to be the Confession of the Professors of the Reformed Doctrines of the Church of Scotland.

THE

FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE.*

To the great Councell of Scotland now admitted to the Regiment, by the providence of God, and by the common consent of the Estates thereof, your honours humble Servitors and Ministers of Christ Jesus within the same, wish grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, with the perpetual increase of the Holy Spirit.

FROM your honours we received a charge dated at Edinburgh the 29th of April, in the yeare of our Lord 1560, requiring and commanding us, in the name of the Eternall God, as we will answer in his presence, to commit to writing, and in a book deliver to your wisedoms our judgements touching the reformation of religion which heretofore in this realme (as in others) hath been utterly corrupted; upon the receipt whereof (so many of us as were in this towne) did convene, and in unitie of minde doe offer unto your wisedoms these subsequents for common order and uniformitie to be observed in this realme concerning doctrine, administration of sacraments, election of ministers, provision for their sustentation, ecclesiastical discipline, and policie of the church; most humbly requiring your honours, that as you look for participation with Christ Jesus, that neither ye admit any thing which God's plain word shall not approve, neither yet that ye

• This edition of the First Book of Discipline is conformable to the edi❤ tion printed anno 1621; the typographical errors are corrected; some words, which probably have been omitted by the printer, are supplied from other copies, but they are printed within brackets; and a few various readings are printed on the foot margin.

shall reject such ordinances as equitie, justice, and God's word do specifie: For as we will not bind your wisedomes to our judgements, further then we are able to prove by God's plain Scriptures; so must we most humbly crave of you, even as ye will answer in God's presence (before whom both ye and we must appeare to render accounts of all our facts) that ye repudiate nothing for pleasure and affection of men, which ye be not able to improve by God's written and revealed word.

CHAP. I.

The First Head of Doctrine.

Seeing that Christ Jesus is he whom God the Father hath commanded onely to be heard and followed of his sheepe, we judge it necessary, that his gospell be truely and openly preached in every church and assembly of this realme; and that all doctrine repugnant to the same be utterly repressed, as damnable to man's salvation.

The Explication of the First Head.

1. Lest that upon this generalitie ungodly men take occasion to cavill, this we add for explication. By preaching of the gospell, we understand not onely the Scriptures of the New Testament, but also of the Olde, to wit, the Law, Prophets, and Histories, in which Christ Jesus is no less contained in figure, then we have him now expressed in veritie: And therefore, with the Apostle we affirme, that all Scripture inspired of God is profitable to instruct, to reprove, and to exhort. In which books of Old and New Testaments we affirme, that all thing necessary for the instruction of the church and to make the man of God perfect, is contained and sufficiently expressed.

2. By the contrary doctrine we understand whatsoever men by lawes, councells, or constitutions, have imposed upon the consciences of men, without the express commandement of God's word, such as be the vows of chastitie, forswearing of marriage, binding of men and women to