crown in Scotland were prisoners of the same merciless faction 1." The treaty of London having been terminated, the Scottish commissioners were daily expected to return. They obtained all their desires, and not only that the arrears of £850 per diem should be paid to the Scots army at Newcastle, but the long parliament made them a present of £300,000, under the name of "brotherly assistance." This was joyful news to the chief Covenanters, each of whom calculated on his own share of the spoil; but the royalists were dismayed at it, as they judged, and not without reason, that the Long Parliament would not have been so prodigal of their money unless there had been some secret understanding of assistance betwixt them and the Covenanters, when they themselves were ready for action. According to the ordinance of the Assembly which met at Aberdeen, the Assembly of this year met at St. Andrews on the 20th of July, when Andrew Ramsay, the former moderator, took the chair; and John earl of Weymss, the royal commissioner, presented his majesty's letter, as follows: "Trusty and well-beloved, we greet you well. It is no small part of our royal desires that the true reformed religion, wherein, by the grace of God, we resolve to live and die, be settled peaceably in that our ancient and native kingdom of Scotland, and that the same be truly taught and universally received and professed by our subjects there of all degrees. For preventing of all division and trouble hereafter, we did intend in our own royal person to have been present at this Assembly; but conceiving it to be unfitting to detain the ministers from their particular charges till the time of our coming to the parliament: We have resolved to make known unto you by these presents, and by our commissioner, that in the approaching parliament, it is our intention by our authority to ratify and confirm the constitutions of the late Assembly at Edinburgh, that they may be obeyed by all our subjects living in that our kingdom. And that we will take into our royal consideration by what means the churches belonging to our presentation, when any of them shall happen to vaik, may be best provided with well-qualified preachers. Likeas we are not unwilling to grant presentations unto such as in these times of trouble have entered into the ministry, providing they have been examined by the presbyteries, and approved by them; because we want not our own fears of the decay of learning in that church and kingdom. We intend also to consider the best means for 1 Napier's Montrose and Covenanters, ii. 432.-Guthry's Memoirs, 79-81. VOL. II. K helping the schools and colleges of learning, especially of divinity, that there may be such a number of preachers there, as that each parish having a minister, and the gospel being preached in the most remote parts of the kingdom, all our subjects may taste of our care in that kind; and have more and more cause to bless God that we are set over them. And finally, so tender is our care, that it shall not be our fault it the churches and colleges there flourish not in learning and religion. For which royal testimony of our goodness, we require nothing on your part, but that which God hath bound you unto, even that you be faithful in the charge committed unto you, and care for the souls of the people. That you study peace and unity amongst yourselves and amongst the people against all schism and faction; and that you not only pray for us, but that you teach the people, which we trust are not unwilling to pay that honour and obedience which they owe unto us, as His vicegerent set over them, for their good; wherein we expect you will, by your good example, go before them. Which hoping you will do, we bid you farewell. From our court at Whitehall, the 10th day of July, 1641 1.” Many of the lay elders of this Assembly were likewise members of the parliament which was then sitting at Edinburgh; and it is curious to observe how much greater deference this Assembly exhibited to the ruling committee of estates, than they had ever shewn to their sovereign. They broke through a standing order, and sat under the old moderator, without electing a new one, contrary to all precedent, till they adjourned to Edinburgh for the convenience of parliament, and that they might have the advantage of Henderson's experience as their moderator, but who had not yet returned from his diplomatic attendance on the army, as one of the commissioners in the treaty at London. Their translation, too, was at the desire of the committee, to which there was no demur made; but we are informed that "one clause in the (king's) commission, importing the Assembly's translation by the commissioner's advice, was demurred on by the clerk as encroaching on the Assembly's liberty 2." The Assembly met after their adjournment at Edinburgh on the 27th of July; and, after some opposition from Calderwood the historian, Henderson was chosen moderator. The transactions in this Assembly were neither numerous nor of great importance; but heavy complaints were made of the back 1 Johnston's Acts, &c. pp. 95, 96. 2 Stevenson's Church and State, 468. slidings of the brethren during this their "second reformation from popery and prelacy." Acts were passed for relieving some of the late professors of universities who had been driven out of their chairs; and for continuing such of the clergy in their benefices as had submitted to the presbyterian system which was now established1. An act was passed for filling the chairs in colleges and universities with known and zealous presbyterians, and those who were "best affected to the reformation and order of this kirk 2." Notwithstanding the reformation from all the sins which prelacy is "heir to," the Assembly found it necessary to pass an act "against impiety and schism," which it seems abounded in the kingdom with "backsliding and desertion, especially since the renewing of the covenant;" and the ministers are charged "to suppress all impiety and mocking of religious exercises, especially of such as put foul aspersions, and factious and odious names, upon the godly. and to eschew all meetings which are apt to breed error, scandal, schism, &c. 3" An act was passed against novations-" that no novation in doctrine, worship, or government, be brought in or practised in this kirk, unless it be first propounded, examined, and allowed in the General Assembly, and that transgressions in this kind be censured by presbyteries and synods 4." On the 6th of August the parliament sent six of their members to the Assembly with a copy of Montrose's Band, which is called "a scurvy, infamous libel," to ask the Assembly's opinion "whether or not such a band may be subscribed in time coming, without the breach of the covenant and general union 5." The debate on this question lasted till the 9th, when an act of Assembly against unlawful bands was passed, by which it was "found and declared that bands of this and the like nature may not lawfully be made. By which declaration the Assembly doth not intend to bring any censure for what is past, and by the wisdom and care of the committee of the parliament is taken away, upon any person, who being required by the moderator and the clerk, shall under his hand declare before them, that as the Assembly doth find that the subscribers are not astricted by their oath to the tenor of the said band, so he findeth himself not to be astricted by his oath to the tenor thereof: but the intention of the Assembly is merely to prevent the like in time coming." This is a different measure from that which they had meted to the king, when they en 1 Session 5 and 8. 2 Session 9. Balfour's Annals, iii. 31. 3 Session 10. 4 Session 14. tered into most traitorous and unconstitutional bands against him and his government; and Charles was esteemed a tyrant for declaring their band unlawful and endeavouring to put it aside. A letter was read from some of the English puritan ministers to the Assembly, in which they express their exultation at the prospect which then opened "of removing the yoke of episcopacy," and their fears that independency will be the prevailing form in England. In their reply, the Assembly bewail" the danger and contagion in matters of kirk government, of divine worship, and of doctrine, that may come from the one kirk to the other," which made uniformity in these matters very desirable. And accordingly they proceed to desire that, with them, the puritans would "heartily endeavour that there might be in both kirks, one confession, one directory for public worship, one catechism, and one form of kirk government," which would prevent, they said, "the arising or spreading of heresy and schism amongst ourselves 1." "Concerning," they continue," the different forms of kirk government projected by sundry sorts of men, to be set up in place of the episcopal hierarchy, which we trust is brought near unto its period, we must confess that we are not a little grieved that any godly ministers and brethren should be found who do not agree with other reformed kirks, in the point of government as well as in the matter of doctrine and worship; and that we want not our own fears that where the hedge of discipline and government is different, the doctrine and worship shall not long continue the same without change: yet do not marvel much, that particular kirks and congregations, which live in such places as that they can conveniently have no dependence upon superior assemblies, should stand for a kind of independency and supremacy in themselves, they not considering that in a nation or kingdom professing the same religion, the government of the .kirk, by compound presbyteries and synods, is a help and strength, and not a hindrance or prejudice to particular congregations and elderships in all the parts of kirk government; and that presbyteries and synods are not an extrinsical power set over particular kirks, like unto episcopal dominion, they being no more to be reputed extrinsical unto the particular kirks, nor [than] the power of a parliament or convention of estates, where the shires and cities have their own delegates, is to be held extrinsical to any particular shire or city 2." The last act of this Assembly was an "act anent the kirk of Campvere," in which the omnipotence of a General Assembly Johnston's Acts, pp. 95-110. 2 Ibid. p. 107. was displayed, in ordaining that "the Scots kirk at Campvere should be joined to the kirk of Scotland, as a member thereof," and "willed them to send their minister and a ruling elder, instructed with a commission, to the next General Assembly." Before the breaking up of this Assembly they replied to the king's letter; and, while acting contrary to his majesty's known will, they used the most slavish expressions of loyalty and obedience, and expressed their confidence that the king would find, on his arrival, more satisfaction and content than his "majesty's most humble subjects and faithful servants, the ministers and elders met together in the venerable Assembly," could express1. Their last transaction was to appoint the meeting of the next Assembly to be held at St. Andrews, on the last Wednesday of July, in the year 1642. Lord Loudon opened the Scottish parliament on the 15th July by a speech, in which he delivered the substance of the king's instructions, and informed the house of his majesty's intention of being present about the middle of August; and it was carried by a majority, that only indispensable business should be transacted till his majesty's arrival. An attempt was made by Archibald Johnston to introduce some of the ministers, as commissioners from the General Assembly, to attend to the interests of the kirk2; but Argyle checked the motion, as only introductory to their claiming a voice in parliament. This attempt, however, shews that the clamour of the covenanters and presbyterians against the bishops, as one of the estates of parliament, had other and baser motives than the glory of God, which they claimed for all their actions. On the 16th July a long indictment was read against lord Traquair, who was called to the bar of the house; but, failing to appear, he was degraded from his office of treasurer. On the 11th of August, Sir Robert Spottiswood, president of the court of session, and Sir John Hay, clerk-register of parliament,-good men and true to the king,-were arrested and committed to the castle. The covenanter chiefs had now the whole of the king's friends and faithful servants in their power, and effectually prevented them from seeing or holding any communication with their betrayed and insulted sovereign. The chiefs of the covenant persecuted all the king's real friends to the death; and, what seems strange, they shewed the greatest bitterness against the earl of Traquair, who had formerly done them such good service. Of this nobleman Mr. Napier says, "Traquair had become unpopular with all parties, in consequence of a vain attempt to steer 1 Johnston's Acts, p. 109. 2 Stevenson's Church and State, 474. |