Tue Union oF 1707 In DUMFRIESSHIRE. 101 
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supplications before the Throne of Grace,’’ and they appointed 
“the several Presbyteries of this Synod to meet upon Wednesday 
next in order to the foresaid ends, and to spend the day together 
in the above exprest dutys, and each minister apart .with his 
Session and such other serious Christians within his paroch, as he 
and they think fit, to keep another day for the foresaid ends with 
their first conveniency; and that they stir up the Godly within 
their bounds to a just concern in their prayers to God for the 
interest of the Church and nation in this present juncture.’’ The 
Presbytery of Dumfries had this Act under their consideration at 
their meeting on the same day (10th October), and on 16th 
October it is minuted that they carried out the instructions therein 
contained. On 22nd October the Commission of the General 
Assembly passed an Act in somewhat similar terms, in which they 
recommended to all Presbyteries to set apart “a day for solemn 
public prayer, fasting, and humiliation.’’ This was done by the 
Dumfries Presbytery on 29th October, when they appointed the 
following Tuesday as a solemn Fast in all the parishes within 
their bounds ; and they also, in obedience to a further letter re- 
ceived at the same time from the Commission, engaged “in 
prayer among themselves for the Lord’s directing of the Parlia- 
ment at this time.’’ When there was much business the Presby- 
tery adjourned for an interval in the middle of the day, and on 
their resuming business on that afternoon the minute opens with 
the quaint phrase, “The brethren who had not prayed in the 
forenoon went about it now.’’ William Vetch, minister of Dum- 
fries; Alexander Robison, minister of Tinwald; and Andrew 
Reid, minister of Kirkbean and clerk of the Presbytery, had 
been chosen to attend the Commission in succession, and before 
the mid-day adjournal on 29th October certain brethren were 
appointed to draw up instructions to these representatives. In 
the afternoon, these instructions being produced and read, were 
approven and appointed to be insert in the Presbytery book; 
the tenor whereof follows :—‘“ The Presbytery of Dumfries having 
seen by the Articles of Union that the Scots Parliament is for 
ever to be dissolved, whereby the whole covenanted work of 
Reformation as well as all our privileges, will be in imminent 
danger ; therefore we thought it our duty to give the following 
instructions to you who represent this Presbytery in the Commis- 
sion of the Kirk. 1°. That in a calm and regular way ye move 
