hath been of an honest conversation, and passed his trials conform to the order here prescribed; which being done in the meeting of the province or presbytery where he desires to be heard, he is to be allowed by them to preach within the bounds of the province or presbytery, without any further trial to be taken of him. 2. Expectants being educated in a college that was corrupt, or under a corrupt ministry, if they themselves have been known to have been tainted with error, or opposite to the covenant and the blessed work of reformation within this kirk, the same order is to be kept in admitting them to the holy ministry, or to any place in the colleges or schools of this kingdom, that was ordained to be kept in the admission of those ministers who fled out of the country, and showed themselves opposite to the covenant and reformation.-Act Sess. 15, Aug. 7, Art. 2, 3.

1642. The meaning of Act Sess. 22, Aug. 29, Ass. 1639, is declared not to be, that an actual minister to be transported shall be tried again by the trials appointed for the trial of expectants, at the entry to the ministry, according to the Acts of Assembly; but only that he, bringing a testimonial of his former trials, and of his abilities and conversation, from the presbytery from whence he comes, and giving such satisfaction to the parishioners and presbytery whereto he comes, in preaching, as the presbytery finds his gifts fit and answerable for the condition and disposition of the congregation where he is presented Because, according to Act of Assembly 1596, renewed by Act 1638, Art. 9, some that are meet for the ministry in some places are not meet for all alike; and universities, towns, and burghs, and places of noblemen's residence, or frequency of papists, and other great and eminent congregations, and sundry other cases, require men of greater abilities than will be required necessarily in the planting of a private small parish: the leaving of the consideration of these places to the judgment of the presbytery was the only intention of the act: And the said act, according to the foresaid meaning, is ratified and approven.-Act Sess. 6, Aug. 2.

1642. Ordained, That every presbytery give up yearly

to their synods, a roll or list of the ablest of their expectants, who have undergone due trials, and after trials have been upon public exercise at least for the space of half a year, or longer, as the presbytery shall find necessary, or even of actual ministers; and that the synods elect out of these rolls such persons whom they, in certain knowledge, judge most fit for the ministry, and worthiest of the first place; and synods are empowered to add to or alter these rolls given by the presbyteries, as they shall think reasonable; and that synods send the rolls made by them in this manner to the next Assembly, who shall also examine the rolls of the synods, and add to or alter the same, as shall be thought expedient; which roll made by the Assembly shall be sent to every presbytery; and that the presbytery, with consent of the most or best part of the congregation, make a list of six persons willing to accept of the presentation out of that roll of the Assembly, upon every occasion of vacation of any kirk within their bounds, and shall send the same, together with a blank presentation (if his majesty be patron of the parish) by the procurator or agent of the kirk, to such as the commissioners of the General Assembly, or, in their absence, the presbytery of Edinburgh, shall direct, and think at that time most able and willing to obtain the presentation to be signed and filled up by his majesty's choice of one of the list; and if the vacant kirk be of a patronage disponed by his majesty since the 3d of January, in that case, that either the presbyteries themselves send a list of six persons in manner foresaid, with a blank presentation to the patron, to be filled up by his choice, or send the same to the said officers of the kirk, to be conveyed by them to the patron of the vacant kirk, as the presbytery shall think most expedient; and that expectants thus presented be again duly tried before their admission: And for the better discovering of the right and interest of the kirk, and presbyteries in kirks, whereof gifts of patronage may be presented to the exchequer, every presbytery is ordained, with all diligence, to use all means of exact trial of the nature and quality of all kirks within their bounds; as, what kirks belong to the king's patronage, and what

to other laick patronages, what kirks of old were planted by presbyteries, and what by prelates and bishops before the Assembly at Glasgow in 1638; what hath been the way and time of the change of the planting and providing of kirks, if any have been changed, or any other thing concerning the nature and quality of every kirk within their bounds, and to send the same to the procurator of the kirk with all diligence.-Act Sess. 7, Aug.

1643. In respect of the difficulty of obtaining six able and well qualified persons to be put into the list to his majesty, for every vaiking kirk, in his majesty's presentation, recommended to his majesty's commissioner, and undertaken by him, to represent to his majesty, that it is the Assembly's humble desire that he would be pleased to accept of three, for kirks in the Lowlands, and of any one qualified man, having the Irish language, for kirks vaiking in the Highlands; and recommended to every presbytery to advise upon the best ways and means for providing and planting vacant kirks, that all occasions of contests and differences among patrons, presbyteries, and parishes, might be removed, and report to the next Assembly.-Sess. ult. Aug. 19.

1646. That for the better breeding of young men to the ministry who are not able to furnish themselves in charges to attend the universities, the presbyteries where they reside are to appoint some to direct their studies. Act Sess. ult. June 18, Art. 2.

Recommended to the commissioners for public affairs to seek redress from the parliament in relation to the great burdens intrants undergo when they enter the ministry, which hold many of them long at under, and that ministers' manses and stipends may be all made free to the intrant: And they are appointed to consider of some fitting overtures to be presented to the parliament for that effect. Sess. ult. June 18.

1647. All former acts for trial and admission of intrants to the ministry, especially Act 13 and 23 of Act Sess. 23, 24, Dec. 17, 18, Ass. 1638, and Act Sess. 7, Aug. 3, Ass. 1642, are revived; and presbyteries are ordained to observe the same in all time coming.—Act Sess. 27, Aug. ult.

1694. That no presbytery admit any person to trial, in ›rder to preaching, but such as are of sound principles, and of a sober, grave, prudent, and pious behaviour, and of whom they have ground to conceive good hopes that they shall be useful and edifying in the church: And for this end it is appointed, That such persons shall produce before the presbyteries who admit them to trial, sufficient testimonials from the ministers of the parishes where they lived, and from the presbyteries in whose bounds they reside, and also from the professors of divinity where they may have attended the profession for some time: And if the said persons come from a place where there is no presbytery yet constituted according to the legal establishment, they shall produce testificates from the next adjacent presbytery, who are to inform themselves concerning their principles and behaviour, and to testify of them accordingly. And appointed, That when such persons are first licensed to be probationers, they shall oblige themselves to preach only within the bounds, or by the direction, of that presbytery which licensed them; and they shall also, by promise and subscription, engage them selves to be subject to that presbytery which licensed them, or to any other church judicatory, wherein by Providence they shall have their abode, for shorter or longer time; and that they shall follow no divisive course: And this their engagement shall be inserted in the body of their licence. And further, it is appointed, That when they are removing from that presbytery which licensed them, they shall carry with them an extract of their licence, and a testimonial from the presbytery of their carriage; which they are to present to the presbytery to which they come, or at least to some minister therein, before they preach within that bounds; and which minister is not to employ them, except in his own pulpit, until he give notice thereof to the presbytery at their next meeting, and have their allowance. It is also appointed, That the presbytery to which the said probationers do so come shall require the same subjection and orderly carriage from the said probationers, during their abode in that bounds, to which they were engaged to the presbytery by which they were

licensed And if they go to any place where a presbytery is not yet constituted according to the legal establishment, they shall be obliged, before they preach in that bounds, to make their address to the next adjacent and legally established presbytery, to whom they shall be subject, and by whom they shall be directed as aforesaid: And in case the said probationers shall malverse in doctrine or conversation, they shall be accountable to, and censurable by, the said respective judicatories, as they shall see cause: And if the said probationers refuse subjection, or prove contumacious to such censure, whether of reproof, suspending from the exercise of their licence, or of recalling the said licence, intimation shall be made thereof by the said judicatories to the neighbouring judicatories, or where they shall understand the said probationers are; that so none may employ them to preach, nor their after irregularities be imputed to the presbyteries that licensed them, or where they afterwards had their abode. And it is provided and declared, That the foresaid probationers are not to be esteemed, by themselves or others, to preach by virtue of any pastoral office, but only to make way for their being called to a pastoral charge.—Act 10.

1694. Recommended seriously to all presbyteries, that they fix no preachers or intrants, having the Irish language, in any congregation within the Lowlands of Scotland, without the consent of, and a certificate from, the presbyteries in the Highlands where they formerly resided. Act 21.

Note. This act was to continue till the Highlands were completely provided with ministers.

1695. That all probationers who apply to presbyteries, bring not only sufficient testimonials, but also a letter from a known person to the presbytery, and that the presbytery write them from whom the testimonials come (if need be) to know the verity thereof.-Act 13.

1696. Appointed, That strict inquiry be made into the piety, gravity, prudence, sobriety, orthodoxy, and learning, of such as are offered to presbyteries, in order to passing their trials, and that such be rejected as have not sufficient testimonials from universities of their good be