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jury, adultery, incest, fornication, slaughter, theft, common oppression, common drunkenness, usury against the laws of the realm, non-residence, absence from his kirk, and neglect of his office for forty days together in a year, without a lawful impediment allowed by the next General Assembly; plurality of benefices, (but the act of Parliament says, plurality of benefices having cure,) dilapidation thereof, and simony. Which crimes are likewise declared causes of deprivation, by cap. 132. of Parl. 1584. It is to be observed, that the church doth not, except in some most horrid crimes, depose and excommunicate both at once. By the 25th of the canons, callApostolical," Episcopus, aut presbyter aut diaconus in scortatione, vel perjurio, vel furto deprehensus, ordine suo summoveatur; ab ecclesia tamen non excludatur," ministers are not to employ deposed ministers in any exercise of the pastoral calling, or entertain ministerial communion with them, under pain of deposition. By the 11th of these forecited canons, "Si quis clericus cum deposito, ut cum clerico, simul oraverit deponatur et ipse," if any deposed minister shall apply to the civil magistrate for redress against that sentence, in so doing he acknowledgeth in the civil magistrate a privative power, to hinder the church from exercising that jurisdiction she hath received from Christ, and therefore he puts himself out of all hopes of almost ever being restored. By the 12th canon Concil. Antiocheni, "Si quis a proprio epis copo depositus, presbyter vel diaconus, vel episcopus a synodo, ausus fuit, imperatoris auribus molestiam exhiberi, cum oporteat ad majorem synodum converti, et jus quod se habere putat ad plures episcopos referre, eorumque examinationem et judicium suscipere: qui itaque his contemptis imperatori molestus fuerit is nulla venia dignus, neque sui defendendi locum habeat, nec restitutionis futuræ spem expectet."

18. By deprivation a minister is removed only from his particular charge, and loseth the benefice, as was done against the ministers of Linlithgow and Bathgate, by the synod of Lothian, in May 1660; but instances of this kind are rare. By deposition a minister is deposed sim.

pliciter from both office and benefice. This church doth not make that distinction, which the canonists do, betwixt deposition and degradation: for they say, that deposition is pronounced verbally, by his superiors removing him from his office, but in degradation, the ensigns and vestments of the several degrees of orders he had been invested with, are pulled off him, and thereafter his person is delivered to the civil magistrate, to be punished for his crimes.

19. The custom of this church is, that when they enter upon a process of deposition, the name of God is solemnly called upon, for light and direction. Solemn prayer is likewise made before they enter upon the grounds for reponing of deposed ministers. The act of deposition runs in this or the like form: At the which day

anent the summons and complaint pursued before the presbytery of at the instance of against minister at mentioning, &c. And anent the citation, &c. to have compeared, &c. to have answered to the said complaint given in against him, and the samen being proven, to have heard a sentence of deposition, or such other censure given and pronounced against him, by authority of the said presbytery, as he should be found to deserve, conform to the acts and practice of this church, observed in the like cases, or else to have alleged a reasonable cause in the contrary; with certification, if he failed, the said presbytery would proceed, and do therein as they should find just. Which summons being oft and divers times called, &c. pursuers present and compearing, the said defender absent; the said presbytery having considered the articles of the said summons and complaint; and being well and ripely advised therewith, they found the same relevant by the acts and practice of this church to infer deposition; as also, they found the articles of the said complaint sufficiently proven, by the depositions of several famous witnesses, lawfully summoned, solemnly sworn, purged and interrogate thereupon. That, &c. (here narrate the particular things found proven) as the depositions of the said witnesses extant in process bear; and therefore the said presbytery

the said

did by their vote depose the said likeas they hereby do, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the alone King and Head of his church, and by virtue of the power and authority committed by him to them, actually depose from the office of the holy ministry, prohibiting and discharging him to exercise the same, or any part thereof, in all time coming, under the pain of the highest censures of the church. Extracted, &c. The sentence of suspension runs in this form: They do suspend the said from the exercise of his ministry till a definite time, prohibiting him to exercise the same during the said space, till he be orderly reponed thereto, under the pain of deposition. The Assembly, August 5th, 1648, considering, that according to the ancient order and practice of this kirk, the censures of suspension and deposition are both ab officio et beneficio, therefore they discharge deposed or suspended ministers to exercise any part of the ministerial calling, or intromit with the stipend, under pain of excommunication to the deposed minister, and of deposition to the suspended. See also act of Assembly, Dec. 18. 1638, sess. 14.

20. By the 3d article of the 10th act of Assembly 1694, if probationers malverse in doctrine or conversation, they shall be accountable to and censurable by presbyteries; and if they refuse subjection, or prove contumacious to such censures, whether of suspending or recalling their licence, intimation thereof shall be made to the church judicatures where they reside or haunt, that so none may employ them to preach.

21. By the act of Assembly 2d August 1641, ministers deposed for the public cause of reformation, and transgressing the order of this kirk, shall not be suddenly received again to the ministry, till they first evidence their repentance both before their presbytery and synod, and thereafter the same be reported to the General Assembly. The Assembly, 12th August 1643, considering that sentences of superior judicatures should stand effectual, till they be taken away by themselves, therefore synods are discharged to repone ministers deposed by Assemblies, and presbyteries from reponing any minister

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deposed by either. By act of Assembly 13th February 1645, it is ordained, that no minister deposed shall be restored again unto that place where formerly he served, as being a thing prejudicial to the congregation, and derogatory to the weight of that sentence of deposition, and it being almost impossible that ever he can prove useful in that parish again. See the Form of Process on this head. By act of Assembly August 12. 1648, it is enacted, that no minister deposed for being an enemy to the government of this church, when it shall fall out, that he be put in a capacity of readmission to the ministry, shall enter into the congregation of any other minister, who also hath been deposed for that same fault. By the 53d article of the French Church Discipline, ministers who have been deposed for crimes which deserve signal punishment, or that bear marks of infamy, cannot be restored to their office, what acknowledgment soever they make. And as for other less faults, after due ac knowledgment made, they may be restored by the national synod, to serve in another church, and not otherwise, which agrees with these acts of our Assemblies just now cited.

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22. By the 13th act of Assembly 1690, all sentences past against any minister, hinc inde, by any church judi cature, upon the account of the late differences among Presbyterians from the year 1650, till the reintroduction of Prelacy, are declared to be of themselves void and null, to all effects and intents.

TITLE V. ·

Of Sentences, and their Reviews, of Declinatures, References, and Appeals.

1. Judicial sentences are either interlocutors, that is, a sentence intermediate between the dependence and termination of processes; or they are definitive, that is, they terminate processes. And these are either absolvitures, whereby the defender is freed and assoilzied from the conclusion of the libel or process, or they are con

demnatory, whereby the conclusion of the process is found just and true against the defender; or they are mixed, whereby the defender is absolved from some part of the conclusion of the process, and is condemned in other parts thereof.

2. The moderator of no judicature ought to give forth their sentence, till the same be first put in writing, and then he is to order the clerk to read it in presence of all parties. Thus no judicature can be in the least wronged by any clerk's unfaithfulness or omission.

3. When it is doubtful what sentence should be past, it is the safest side, and the least error, either to drop the process for the time, or else to absolve the defender, conform to that maxim in law, "Satius est impunitum relinqui facinus nocentis, quam innocentem damnare, 1. 5. d. de pæn." for in absolving the guilty there is but an omis sion, whereas in condemning the innocent there is committing of iniquity and injustice.

4. Before a judicature can think to pass a sentence, parties being first fully heard, must close what they have to say, and after they have concluded their defences and answers, then the judicature begins to advise what sentence to pronounce; and seeing the pursuer speaks first by his libel, the defender is allowed to be the last speaker.

5. When faults are singular and monstrous, it is the laudable practice of judges, to order the punishment and trial of such crimes in private; I am sure, to acquaint the people of some unnatural sins, whereof they had never heard, were but a scandalous and pernicious instruction. See the 51st art. 1. cap. and 10th and 11th art. of the 5th cap. of the French Church Discipline.

6. Sentences are in themselves null, when pronounced against the general acts of the church, or by an incompetent judge, such as the sentences of kirk sessions against ministers, or even by presbyteries and synods, when the process is carried and admitted before their superior judi

catures.

7. When the party neglects to use the ordinary remedy of appeal, he is allowed (where the sentence is palpably gravaminous) to pursue a review thereof before a

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