Forasmuch as Field-Conven­ticles, which were in Our Laws, by the universal consent of all the Representatives of this Our Kingdom, declared to be the Rendezvouses of Rebellion; are now found, by the undeny­able experience of all sober men, to have bred up the unwarry Commons unto a most athe­istical giddiness, to the owning of those murdering principles, which are a reproach to the Protestant Religion, and inconsistent with the security of every private man, and to the con­temning of their own Master and Landlords; We therefore, with advice of Our Privy Council, Resolving to secure, not only Our Government, and such of Our Subjects, as live peaceably under it, but even to restore these very Masters and Landlords to their just Rights, over these their Tenants and Servants, which they so justly lost by suffering them to frequent Field-Conventicles, in which they were so debauched in their duty to them; Do hereby Command and Or­dain, that how soon soever any Field-Conventicle, or other Conventicles, understood to be Field-Conventicles by construction of Law, shall be kept, the Heretor in whose Lands or House the same is kept, whether the Lands belong to them in Propperty or Commonty, if they be present, or their Baliffs or Factors if they be absent, or their Tutors or Curators, and their Baliffs or Factors if they by Minors, shall immediately advertise the Sheriff of the Shire, Lords of Regality, Stewart of the Stewartry, Bailiff or Bailirie, and the Magistrates of the Burghs, within whose Jurisdiction the said Field-Conventicle was kept, within three dayes after the same is kept; certifying them, if they fall to give the said Advertisement, they shall be fined in the fourth part of their valued yearly Rent; Upon which Information, the said Sheriffs and other Magistrates foresaids, shall be oblieged, and are hereby commanded and required, to order the Heretors of the Paroch to meet, and to take trial who were at, or in accession to the said Conventicle. And to the end, they may be the better able to proceed in the said trial, the the saids Heretors are hereby Impowered to Examine upon Oath, such as they shall suspect, or who shall be best able to give Information therein, and to return to the Sheriff, or other Magistrates foresaids, the trial so taken by them, and that with all possible expedition; and which trial, the said Sheriffs and Magistrates, or ther Deputes, are here­by required immediately to cite before them, those contained in the said return, or any others whom they have rea­son to suspect to have been at the saids Conventicles, and to fine such of them as compear, and amerciat such as are ab­sent, as accords of the Law: upon which Sentences, Hornings and Captions being raised, under the Signer of Our Privy Council, by the saids Sheriffs, and the other Officers foresaid, (to whom the half of the s [...]ids fines and amerciam [...]s, are for their pains and expenses, hereby declared to belong) the Heretors and Masters of the saids Rebels, are hereby oblidged to concur with the Sheriff or other Officers, their Deputs or others whom they shall name, to the poinding the saids Rebels Goods, apprehending their Persons, and that under the pain of being lyable to the fine, and penal [...]i [...]s in­posed upon the Delinquents. Likeas, the saids Sheriffs and others foresaids, are hereby required to give an account of their diligence in the Premisses, to Our Privy Council, upon the first Council of July and December yearly, under the pains contained in the eighteenth Act of the third Session of Our second Parliament; all which shall be with or pre­judice to Us; and Our Officers of State in Our Name, to raise pursuits before the Lords of Our Privy Council against such who have been present at Field-Conventicles (though without Arms) for an Arbitrary punishment, or to insist before Our Criminal Court, against such who have been thereat in Arms, for underlying the Crime of Treason, con­form to the fifth Act of the first Session of Our first Parliament, and Our Proclamation, dated the thirdenth day of May, one thousand six hundred seventy and nine years. And to the effect, Our Pleasure in the Premisses may be made known; Our Will is, and We charge you strictly and Command, that incontinent, these Our Letters seen, ye pass to the Mercat Cross of Edinburgh, and Mercat Crosses of the Head Burghs of the several Shires within this Kingdom, and other places needful, and therein Our Name and Authority, by open Proclamation, make Publication of the Promisses, that none pretend ignorance, according to Justice, as ye will answer to Us thereupon; the which to do, We commit to you cojounctly and severally, Our full Power, by thir Our Letters, delivering them by you duly execute, and ind [...] again to she bearer. And ordains these Presents to be Printed.

GOD save the KING.