being determined by the size of the bodj . and care being
taken to prevent its becoming unw ieidy. Each superior
OOlirt or judicatory has tie- constitutional right ol re- viewing and controlling, i firming or reversing, the
doings and decisions of the court below. A mooted
PRESBYTERIANS
551
PRESBYTERIANS
question or a judicial case may thus be removed suc- cessively from one court to another, till the collective wisdom' of the whole Church, represented in the court of final resort, free from local prejudices or partialities, has an opportunity of deciding upon it. The General Assembly enjoys also, through its trustees, directors, boards, or committees, a general jurisdiction over the common finances, theological seminaries, foreign and domestic missions, education for the ministry, publica- tion, church building, and correspondence with foreign churches.
It only remains to add that though Presbyterians maintain that truth is in order to goodness, and are tenacious of what they understand to be the teaching of Scripture, they are, at the same time, neither bigoted nor exclusive, and to represent them as such they con- sider unfair in the extreme. They do not unchurch other denominations, but are ready to extend the hand of fellowship wherever they discern substantial truth and the image of Christ. Their standards explicitly say, " We embrace in the spirit of charity those Chris- tians who differ from us, in opinion or practice, on these subjects. . . . There are truths and forms with respect to which men of good character and principles may differ; *id in all these they think it the duty, both of private Christians and societies, to exercise mutual forbearance towards each other" (Form of Gov. bk. i, ch. i, p. 8). See Hagenbach, Hist, of Doct. ii, 178; Schaff, Harm, of the Ref. Conf. (1877) ; Lewis, Presb. Manual, con- taining Forms for the Records of the Session Presbytery and Synod, and the Judicial and other Fcclesiastical Proceedinr/s required by the Polity of the Presb. Church ; Shedd, Hist, of Doctrines (see Index) ; Neander, Hist. of Dogmas (see Index); Hist. of the Westminster Assem- bly ; Hist, of Confessions ; Miller, on Presbyterianism; Smyth, Works and Tracts on Presbyterianism ; Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, vol. iii; and the Theol. Index by Malcom, p. 378-380. (E. H. G.)
Presbyterians, a name derived from the peculiar Church government which is advocated (see Presby- ter and"PRESBYTERiANisM), designates a large body of Protestant Christians, not bound together in one large denomination, but associated in independent churches. As, however, the term Congregationalist embraces not merely the denomination which assumes that title, but also those whose principles of government are the same though their doctrines may be diverse, as the Baptists, the Christians or Campbellites, the Unitarians, etc., so the term Presbyterian properly embraces all those that accept the Presbyterian principles of government, even though there be some ditferences in their theological be- liefs. All Protestant or Reformed churches may in gen- eral be said to be divided into three classes — those who hold to government by or through bishops, i. e. to an Episcopal government; those who hold to government directly by the members of the Church without the me- diation of any representatives, i. e. to a Congregational or Independent form of government ; and those who hold to government by a board of elders or presbyters, i. e. to a Presbyterian form of government. Presbyterianism, variously modified, is the form of Church government observed by many Protestant churches, but is most per- fectly developed in Britain and America. In Britain it prevails chiefly in Scotland, although during the Com- monwealth in the 17th century it was for a very short time in the ascendant in England also. In the "Gen- eral Presbyterian Council" held at Edinburgh in July. 1877, the German state establishments and the French and Dutch Reformed churches, as well as other bodies that admit of certain features of Presbyterianism in government, were represented; and Dr. Blaikie, in his Report on Presbyterian Churches, which was submitted and approved by the Pan-Presbyterian Council at Ed- inburgh, treats of all these churches as Presbyterian bodies. In most, if not all of those churches, while there is a consistorial system that connects them with the state, giving the latter considerable control, there is
also a true Presbyterian and synodal constitution. In virtue of the former, these churches have in some cases a general oversight of all matters affecting the moral and religious well-being of the community, and in the exercise of the latter they deal more especially with spiritual questions. This was substantially the system advocated by the Scottish Reformers, and still exhibited to some extent by the presence in the General Assem- bly of the Scottish Established Church of a represent- ative of the sovereign called the lord high commis- sioner, authorized to bring its sessions at any time to a close should the proceedings conflict with the royal pre- rogatives— by the presence as members of the Assem- bly not only of elders chosen by the churches, but of elders appointed to be there by the town councils of such places as are possessed of royal charters, and hence called royal burghs, and by the wide range of social as well as of religious questions that it considers. In Presbyterian churches not connected with the state, whether in Great Britain, on the continent of Europe, in this country or elsewhere, the jurisdiction being over only their own members and civil representatives un- known, the discussions are confined to matters directly affecting the interests of religion, and a more purely spiritual type of Presbyterianism in consequence pre- vails. See the articles Belgium ; Bohemia ; France ; Holland; Hungary; Italy; Prussia; Russia; Spain ; Switzerland. The French consistorial sys- tem is more nearly Presbyterian than the German, and is not perfectly so only from the pressure of the civil power. In other churches, also, as well as in the Prot- estant Church of France, Presbyterianism is more or less modified by the relations of the Church to the State. See Reformed Churches.