either come not up, or are absent from any of the diets of Assembly, are appointed to be censured, unless relevant excuses from them be laid before, and admitted by the Assembly. And it is resolved and peremptorily enacted, That, in all time thereafter, no commission whatsoever for any ruling elder or elders, to sit as members of the Assemblies of this church, be sustained, but such as shall bear particularly that they have signed the formula prescribed by Act 11, Ass. 1694, unless the said elders do instantly subscribe it in presence of the Assembly, or a committee appointed by them, or do instruct that they have already subscribed the same; and all commissions, after they are written out and extracted, and before they be put into the hands of the commissioners, are appointed to be first read in presence of the presbytery, and to be revised by them, and that it be attested by the moderator or clerk of the presbytery upon the said commissions, that this was so done. And it is resolved and appointed, (until the matter concerning commissions from burghs be farther thought upon,) That, in the meantime, no commissions from royal burghs to their representatives in Assembly shall be sustained, but such as shall be consented to and approven of, not only by the ministry and kirksessions of the burgh, as is resolved by Act July 15, Ass. 1648, but also by the presbytery of the bounds within which the burgh lies; and upon which, it shall be attested both by the kirk-session and the presbytery aforesaid, that the person or persons therein named are elders lawfully ordained, and have signed the formula above mentioned; and likewise, that they are either residenters in the burgh, or heritors in the burgh, or in the bounds of the presbytery where the burgh lies, or that they have formerly resided and officiated as elders in the said burgh or presbytery: And the General Assembly extended the time by Act 6, Ass. 1698, for choosing commissioners from presbyteries, to those that should be thereafter sent from royal burghs.-Act 9.

1723. Enacted and declared, That the right of election of a representative to the General Assembly from the university of Edinburgh is only in the professors, princi

cipal, regents, masters, and others bearing office in that university; that is to say, the chancellor, rector, and dean of faculty, if any such there be, exclusive of all others; and the clerk of the Assembly is discharged, in all time coming, to receive any commission to any person, or to insert any person's name in the rolls of Assembly, as a representative from said university, in succeeding Assemblies, whose commission is given in otherwise than is appointed by this enactment.-Act 6.

1738. Enacted, That thereafter each presbytery of this church (excepting those in the Northern or Western Isles) shall make their elections yearly, within a month preceding the first of the forty days mentioned in Act 6, Ass. 1698; and that every presbytery, at an ordinary meeting, to be entered in their minutes, at least ten free days before such election; and that, on the day of election, the presbytery shall make their election between one and eight in the afternoon; and that burghs and universities, who send members to the Assembly, shall in like manner appoint the days of their elections, at their ordinary meeting of their council or university respectively, at least ten days before the day of such elections.-Act 9. 1751. Enacted and declared, That in time coming, none who are constituent members of the court shall act as counsel or procurators in any causes which come before the Assembly or commissions thereof.—Act 4.

Presbyteries are discharged from electing missionary ministers employed by the managers of the royal bounty for reformation in the Highlands and Islands, to be their commissioners to the General Assembly in all time coming. -Act 4.

1783. Act 4, Ass. 1751, anent counsel or procurators, extended to solicitors and agents by Act 8.

1788. Appointed and declared, That in attesting commissions from royal burghs to their representatives in the General Assembly, the attestation of any one kirk-session within the electing burgh shall be held as competent and sufficient to all the purposes for which sessional attestations are required.-Act 9.

Vide COMMISSIONS.

RUNNING OF GOODS.

1719. All men are warned of the sin, evil, and danger of running uncustomed goods: And all ministers, especially in sea-trading towns and places, are strictly enjoined to represent to their people and hearers the great impiety and monstrous wickedness of such methods, to gain this world to the endangering of their souls; and earnestly to obtest them to abstain from such crying sins and deadly courses. And this act is ordained to be read once in all churches, and as often in particular parishes as the prudence of ministers shall direct.-Act 9.

1736. The above act is renewed; and the judicatories of the church are enjoined to use their best endeavours, as there shall be occasion, to put a stop to perjuries in custom-houses, especially in the French wine trade, by the conscientious and impartial use of all the means appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ against scandals of such an heinous nature.-Act 15.

1744. It is recommended to all ministers to discourage, as far as in them lies, by their discourses and example, the sinful and pernicious practice of smuggling; and appointed, That Act 9, Ass. 1719, and Act 15, Ass. 1736, be reprinted, and forthwith transmitted to presbyteries; and ordained, That the same be read from the pulpits of all the parish churches in Scotland.—Act 7.

SCANDALS AND SCANDALOUS PERSONS.

1638. All presbyteries and provincial assemblies are ordained to convene before them such as are scandalous and malicious, and would not acknowledge that Assembly, nor acquiesce in the acts thereof; and to censure them, according to their malice and contempt, and acts of the kirk; and where presbyteries are refractory, power is granted to the several commissions to summon them to compear before the next Assembly, to abide their trial and censure.-Act 26, Dec.

1642. That all presbyteries give up to the justices the

ames of the adulterers, incestuous persons, witches, and orcerers, and others guilty of such gross and fearful sins within their bounds, that they may be processed and punished according to the laws of the kingdom, and that the presbyteries and synods be careful herein, as they will answer to the General Assembly; and because witchcraft, charming, and such like, proceed many times from ignorance, and therefore all ministers, especially in those parts where these sins are frequent, be diligent in preaching, catechising, and conference, to inform their people therein.-Overt. and Act Sess. 11, Aug. 5.

1642. Synods and presbyteries are ordained to proceed diligently in process with the censures of the kirk, even to the highest, against all persons who shall reproach or scandalize ministers, according as they shall find the degree and quality of the scandal deserves.-Act Sess. 13, Aug. 6.

1646. That all married persons under public scandal for fornication committed before marriage (although the scandal thereof has not appeared before marriage) do satisfy publicly for the sin committed before their marriage, their being in the state of marriage notwithstanding; and that in the same manner as if they were not married.Act Sess. 7, June 11.

1700. Presbyteries are allowed, if they find cause, to send in to the General Assembly, or commission thereof, the names of scandalous persons of whatsoever quality, guilty of gross immoralities and contumacious to church discipline; with a full extract of the process, that they may proceed against them as they see cause.-Act 15.

1704. That the church proceed to the censures of excommunication against persons, who, being challenged for scandal, do turn papists, or pretend to do so, to evite censure, after all the due pains taken to reclaim them prove ineffectual.Act 8.

1705. Ordained, That after persons, the grossness of whose scandals makes it necessary to bring them oftener than once before the congregation, are convicted before the session, that it be judicially declared to them that they have rendered themselves incapable of communion with the people of God in sealing ordinances; and that they

be appointed to appear in public to be rebuked for their sin, conform to the institution, 1 Tim. v. 20. And it is referred to the respective judicatories of the church concerned to determine how oft such delinquents shall appear in public, as they shall find it tend most for edification : And it is ordained, That after a public rebuke the minister and elders be at farther pains in instructing the minds of the scandalous persons, if ignorant, in endeavouring to convince their consciences, and to bring them to a due sense of their sin, and to an engagement and serious resolution against all known sin, and to the performance of all known duty; and that the session, upon satisfaction with their knowledge and sense of their sin, admit them to the public profession of their repentance, in order to absolution: But if, after taking pains on them for some competent time, for their instruction and conviction, they still remain grossly ignorant, insensible, and unreformed, that the minister and elders advise with the presbytery of the bounds; and if the presbytery shall see cause, that then the sentence of lesser excommunication be publicly pronounced against them in the face of the congregation; from which they are not to be relaxed nor admitted to make public profession of their repentance in order thereto till the session be satisfied with their knowledge, seriousness, and reformation. And, lastly, the names of such as are under the censure of the less excommunication are ordained to be publicly read out the Lord's day immediately preceding that upon which the sacrament of the Lord's supper is to be administered.-Act 4.

Vide Form of Process, cap. 1, § 4, and caps. 2 and 3. Vide Form of Process, cap. 6, p. 155, Vol. I. of Compend.

SCHISM.

1696. Mr John Hepburn is suspended from the exercise of the ministry, and the sentence appointed to be intimated, as in Act 27.

1704. All presbyteries and synods are enjoined to cen