binding the bishops to the consent of the chapters.- -
Wetzer u.Welte, Kirchen-Lex. >. v. v<
des National a. TerrUorialrKirchenthums in der Katho-
lischen Kirch (Schaffh. 1851 I.
Presbytery is (1) the space in the choir of a church in which the high-altar is placid; the name is soim times extended to the w hole choir. See Cu \s< I I .
It i- 1 2 I, iu Scotch law, an ecclesiastical division of the
country, as well a- a court. |i In the Continent this is known as the classis.) In it- local sense it includes a combination of parishes, varying from four to thirty, and tie General Assembly of tin- church of Scotland has power to vary the size.- Chambers, s. v. Set Scot- land, • Ihurch or. The presbytery is composed of the teaching elders of the churches of a given geographical
PRESBYTIS
555
PRESCIENCE
district, together with one of the ruling elders elected for that purpose by the Session from each church. Besides being a court of appeal from the inferior judicatory, it is bound to inspect carefully the personal conduct and pastoral labors of every minister within its bounds, and, when necessary, to admonish, suspend, or even depose. It belongs to presbyteries to grant licenses to preach the Gospel, to take cognizance of all preachers within its borders, to give certificates of character, etc., to those removing, and to furnish supplies where needed for the pulpit. Any Church member who feels himself aggrieved by the act of the Session may appeal from its decisions to the Presbytery. Superior in authority to the Pres- bytery is the Synod, which is composed of the teaching elders and one ruling elder from each church of a larger district than that represented by the Presbytery. Still above the Synod is the General Assembly. This em- braces representatives, both lay and clerical, from every Presbytery, and is the supreme authority in all ecclesi- astical matters. To it an appeal lies from the Presby- tery in all ecclesiastical proceedings of a disciplinary character, and its decision is final. Its authority, how- ever, though supreme, is not unlimited. In legislating for the churches it is required to refer the laws which it passes to the presbyteries for their approval; and the law does not become of binding force upon the churches until it receives the sanction of at least a majority; in certain cases two thirds are required. The Presbytery holds frequent and stated meetings, according as cir- cumstances may require. In any emergency it is in the power of the moderator (q. v.), on his own respon- sibility, or on receiving a written requisition from sev- eral members, to call a pro re nata meeting of the Pres- bytery. In Presbyterian churches, where the supreme court consists of delegates, it belongs to each Presby- tery to elect ministers and elders to represent them in that court. All the proceedings of the Presbytery must be duly minuted by the clerk, and are subject to the review of the Provincial Synod. — Gardner, Faiths of the World, s. v. See Presbyterianisji.
PresbJ'tis (presbytress). This word, in the various forms Trpsu,3uTepa, presbytera, presbyteiissa, is of fre- quent occurrence in ancient writers, and denotes either the wife of a presbyter or a deaconess in the Church. Sometimes it denotes the matron of a cloister, and an abbess. See Deaconess.
Prescience (Lat. prmscio, to know before it hap- pens) is an attribute of God popularly known under the term Foreknowledge, and ascribed to him in different de- grees and extent by Arminians and Calvinists. The doctrine is deduced from the perfection of God's nature. But as man has no analogous faculty, it is difficult, if not impossible, for us to conceive of God's prescience. Man's knowledge of what is future is so obscure and inferential that it is in vain to fathom God's beholding of all things. Yet in the attempt made there arises the great question, how to reconcile the prescience of God with the liberty of man ; and hence the doctrine becomes of vast impor- tance to theologians of both the Arminian and the Cal- vinian schools.
I. False Theories. — Three leading theories have been resorted to in order to evade the difficulties which are supposed to be involved in the opinion commonly re- ceived.
1. Chevalier Ramsay (Philosophical Principles of Nat- ural and Revealed Religion [Glasgow, 1748, 2 vols. 4to]). among his other speculations, holds it a matter of choice in God to think of finite ideas; and similar opinions, though variously worded, have been occasionally adopt- ed. In substance these opinions are. that though the knowledge of God be infinite as his power is infinite, there is no more reason to conclude that his knowledge should be always exerted to the full extent of its capac- ity than that his power should be employed to the ex- tent of his omnipotence; and that if we suppose him to choose not to know some contingencies, the intiniteness
of his knowledge is not thereby impugned. To this it may be answered (1) that the infinite power of God is in Scripture represented, as in the nature of things it must be, as an infinite capacity, and not as infinite in act; but that the knowledge of God is, on the contrary, never represented there to us as a capacity to acquire knowledge, but as actually comprehending all things that are and all things that can be. (2) That the no- tion of God's choosing to know some things and not to know others supposes a reason why he refuses to know any class of things or events, which reason, it would seem, can only arise out of their nature and circum- stances, and therefore supposes at least a partial knowl- edge of them, from which the reason for his not choos- ing to know them arises. The doctrine is therefore somewhat contradictory. But (3) it is fatal to this opinion that it does not at all meet the difficulty arising out of the question of the consistency of divine pre- science and the free actions of men, since some contin- gent actions — for which men have been made account- able, we are sure — have been foreknown by God, be- cause by his Spirit in the prophets they were foretold; and if the freedom of man can in these cases be recon- ciled with the prescience of God, there is no greater dif- ficulty in any other case which can possibly occur.