On Thursday, July the 6th, the Divines and lay assessors assembled again, when they received further directions from Parliament of a very precise description. The directions were, that two assessors or vice-chairmen should be associated with the Prolocutor to supply his place in case of absence; that scribes or secretaries should keep a record of the proceedings; and that these officers should be Henry Roborough and Adoniram Byfield, Divines not members of the Assembly; that every member, on his entrance, should make a solemn protestation not to maintain any thing but what he believed to be truth; that no question should be resolved on the day it was propounded; that whatever any one undertook to prove to be necessary, he should make good from Scripture; that no one should continue to speak after the Prolocutor had silenced him, unless the Assembly desired him to proceed; that the members should have liberty to record their dissent from the conclusions adopted by the majority; and that all things agreed upon and prepared for the Parliament should be openly read and allowed.[348] The bye-laws which were to regulate their proceedings were thus so minutely prescribed, that very little indeed was left for the Divines to perform in the way of preliminary arrangement. All which they actually did in this respect was to nominate Mr. White[349] and Dr. Burgess as assessors, and to resolve that the sittings should be opened with prayer; that afterwards the names of members should be called over; that the hour of meeting in the morning should be ten o'clock, the afternoon being reserved for committees; and that three of the Divines should officiate weekly as chaplains--one to the House of Lords, another to the House of Commons, and a third to the Committee of both kingdoms. Still further, to illustrate how, with this modicum of liberty in relation to the management of its own business, the Westminster Assembly found itself under the authority of its neighbouring masters, especially those in St. Stephen's Chapel--we may observe that on the 27th of July an order from both Houses was read, requiring a letter to be written to the United Provinces in behalf of Ireland. On the 28th of July an ordinance from the Commons followed, for appointing a committee to examine plundered ministers, with a view to their admission into sequestrated livings; and on the 14th of August there came a command to send divers metropolitan divines up and down the country, to stir up the zeal of the people in the cause of patriotism, and to vindicate the justice of Parliament in taking up arms for the defence of its liberties.[350] [Sidenote: 1643, October.]