FOR BIBLE CLASSES. EDITED BY REV. MARCUS DODS, D.D., AND REV. ALEXANDER WHYTE, D.D. PRESBYTERIANISM.——REV. JOHN MACPHERSON, M.A. EDINBURGH: T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET. 141-8.577 PRESBYTERIANISM. BY REV. JOHN MACPHERSON, M.A., FINDHORN. EDINBURGH: T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET. INTRODUCTION. 1. The Various Forms of Church Polity.-All who agree in defining the Church as a gathering, more or less organized, of professed believers in Christ, for the purposes of worship and edification, must find their church position under one or other of the three great divisions-Prelatical, Congregational, Presbyterian-under which all possible diversities of church polity must be comprehended. Under the division Prelatical we include such churches as the Romish and Anglican, which in their church constitution recognize the principle of a gradation of rank and office in the ministerial order, maintain a diocesan episcopate, and emphasize strongly the distinction between the clergy and the laity. Under the division Congregational we include all churches which refuse to admit any gradation in the ministerial office, and at the same time oppose the idea of gradation in church courts, insisting on the independency of each congregation, giving to church members the decision in all church matters without subjecting the congregational judgment to the review of any higher judicature. Under the division Presbyterian we include all churches which, in opposition to the Prelatical churches, insist upon the parity of ministerial rank, and maintain in consequence a parochial and not a diocesan episcopate, and in opposition to the Congregational churches recognize a gradation in church courts through Session, Presbytery, and Synod. The church polity of Presbyterianism thus seeks consciously to avoid, on the one hand, the error of Congregationalism, which fails in its constitution to express the unity of |