Page images
PDF
EPUB

ing Charge in civill Affairs, unleffe it be to affift the Parliament, if he be called.

11. The Office of Deacons, as before is fayd, is to receive the Rents, and gather the Almes of the Kirk, to keep and diftribute the fame, as by the Minifters and Kirk fhall be appointed, they may also affift in Judgement with the Minifter and Elders, and may be admitted to read in Affembly, if they be required, and be able thereto.

12, The Elders and Deacons with their Wives and Houfhold, fhould be under the fame Cenfure that is prescribed for the Minifters: For they must be carefull over their Office, and feeing they are Judges over others Manners, their own Converfation ought to be irreprehenfible; They must be sober, Lovers and Maintainers of Concord and Peace amongst Neighbours; and finally they ought to be Examples of Goalinefs to others. And if the contrary thereof appeare, they must be admonished thereof by the Minifters, or fome of their Brethren of the Miniftery, if the Fault be fecret: And if the Fault be open and known, they must be rebuked before the Miniftery; and the fame Order kept against the Senior and Deacon, that before is defcribed againft the Minister.

13. We think it not neceflary, that any publick Stipend fhall be appointed, either to the Elders, or yet to the Deacons, because their Travell continues but for a Yeare; and also because that they are not fo occupied with the Affairs of the Kirk, .but that reasonably they may attend upon their domefticall Bufineffe.

Chap

Chap. XI,

The Ninth Head, concerning the Policie of the Kirk,

I.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Olicie we call an Exercife of the Kirk in fuch Things as may bring the Rude and Ignorant to Knowledge, or else inflame the Learned to greater Fervencie, or to retain the Kirk in good Order; and thereof there be two Sorts, the One utterly neceffarie, as that the Word be truly preached, the Sacraments rightly miniftred, common Prayers publickly made, that the Children and rude Perfons be inftructed in the chiefe Points of Religion; and that Offences be corrected and punished; thefe Things be fo neceffarry, that without the fame there is no Face of a vifible Kirk. The other is profitable but not meerly neceffarie, as that Pfalms fhould be fung, that certain Places of the Scripture be read when there is no Sermon; that this Day or that, or how many Days in the Week the Kirk fhould affemble; of thefe and fuch others we cannot see how a certain Order can be eftablifhed 3 For in fome Kirks the Pfalmes may conveniently be fung, in others perchance they cannot; fome Kirkes may covene every Day, fome twice, fome thrice in the Week; and fome perchance but once In this and fuch like muft every particular Kirk by their Confent appoint their owne Policie,

[ocr errors]

2. Det in great Townes we thinke expedient, that every Day there be either Sermon or com

mon

mon Prayers, with fome Exercife of reading of Scriptures. What Day the publick Sermon is, we can neither require nor greatly approve that the common Prayers be publickly ufed: Left that we fhould either fofter the People in Superftition, who come to the Prayers as they come to the Maffe; or elfe give them Occafion, that they think them no Prayers, which be made before and after Sermons.

[ocr errors]

3. In every notable Town, we require that one Day befide the Sonday, be appointed to the Sermon, which during the Time of Sermon and Prayers must be kept free from all Exercise of Labour, as well of the Maifter as of the Servant; in fmaller Townes as we have faid, the common Consent of the Kirk must put Order: But the Sonday must straitly be kept both before and after Noone in all Townes. Before Noone muft the Word be preached, and Sacraments miniftred, as also Marriage folemnized if Occafion offer: After Noone muft the yong Children be publickly examined in their Catechism in the Audience of the People, in doing whereof the Minister muft take great Diligence, as well to caufe the People understand the Queftions proponed as the Answers, and the Doctrine that may be collected thereof; the Order to be kept in teaching the Catechism, and how much of it is appointed for every Sonday, is allready diftinguished in the Catechism painted with the Book of our commom Order, which Catechifm is the most perfect that ever yet was used in the Kirk. And after Noone may Baptifme be miniftred, when Occafion is offered of great Travell before Noone: It is alfo to be obferved

004

ferved, that Prayers be after Noone upon Sonday, where there is neither Preaching nor Catechisme,

4. It appertaines to the Policie of the Kirk to appoint the Times when the Sacraments fhall be miniftred. Baptifme may be miniftred whenfoever the Word is preached; but we think it more expedient, that it be miniftred upon Sonday, or upon the Day of Prayers onely after the Sermon: Partly to remove this groffe Errour by the which many are deceived, thinking that Children be damned if they die without Baptism; and partly to make the People have greater Reverence to the Administration of the Sacraments then they have, for we fee the People begin already to wax weary by reafon of the frequent Repetition of those Promises.

*

5. Foure times in the Yeare we thinke fufficient to the Adminiflration of the Lord's Table, which we defire to be diftin&ed, that the Superftitions of Times may be avoided fo farre as may be: For your Honours are not ignorant how superstitiously the People runne to that A&tion at Pasche, even as if the Time gave Vertue to the Sacrament; and how the reft of the whole Year they are careleffe and negligent, as if it appertained not unto them, but at that Time onely. We thinke therefore most expedient, that the first Sonday of March be appointed for one Time to that Service, the firft Sonday of June for another; the firft Sonday of September for the Third, the first Sonday of December for the Fourth: We doe not deny but any feveral Kirk for reasonable Caufes may change the Time, and may minifter oftner,

*Superftitious Obfervation of Times.

oftner, but we ftudie to repreffe Superftition. All Minifters must be admonifhed to be more carefull to inftruct the Ignorant then readie to serve their Appetite, and to use sharp Examination tather then Indulgence, in admitting to thir great Myfteries fuch as be ignorant of the Ufe and Vertue of the fame: And therefore we think that the Administration of the Table ought never to be without Examination paffing before, and fpecially of them whofe Knowledge is fufpe&t; we think that none are to be admitted to this Myfterie who can not formally fay the Lord's Prayer, the Ar ticles of the Beliefe, nor declare the Summe of the Law, and underftandeth not the Use and Wertue of this holy Sacrament.

6. Further we think it a Thing moft expedi ent and neceflary, that every Kirk have the Bible in English, and that the People be commanded to convene and heare the plaine Reading and Interpretation of the Scripture, as the Kirk fhall appoint; for by frequent Reading, this groffe Ignorance, which in this curfed Papistry hath overflowed all, may partly be removed, Wę thinke it most expedient that the Scripture be read in Order; that is, that fome one Book of the Old or New Teftament be begun and orderly read to the End; and the fame we judge of Preaching, where the Minifter for the moft Part remaines in one Place: For this skipping and Divagation from Place to Place of it in reading, or be it in preaching, fo profitable to edifie the Kirk, as all following of one Text,

Scripture, be we judge not the continu

7. Every

« PreviousContinue »