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 LIBRARY 
 
 Theological Seminary, 
 
 PRINCETON, N.J. 
 
 case, P»v«on.... ^ ^ 
 
 Section /• 
 
 SUelf. 
 Book, 
 
 N«, 
 
 BX 9195 .L6^18A2 
 
 Lorimer, John Gordon, 18ua- 
 
 1868. 
 
 The eldership of the Church 
 
 of Scotland 
 
•imu 
 
THE 
 
 ELDERSHIP 
 
 CHURCH OF SCOTLAND, 
 
 DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE OFFICE — 
 DUTIES, RIGHTS, AND QUALIFICATIONS— POPULAR MODE 
 OF APPOINTMENT— HISTORICAL AND PRACTICALVIEWS— 
 RARE TRACT BY GUTHRIE THE MARTYR, ETC. 
 
 HY TUE • 
 
 REV. JOHN G.LO RIMER, 
 
 MINISTER OF ST. DAVID'S PARISH, GLASGOW, 
 AUTHOR OF 'MANUAL OF PRESBYTERY,' 'THE DEACONSHflV' ETC. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, ENLARGED. 
 
 GLASGOW : 
 WILLIAM COLLINS, S. FREDERICK STREET. 
 
 edinbubgh: olivek and boyd, william whyte and CO. 
 
 WILLIAM OLIPHANT AND SON, AND JOHN JOHNSTONE. 
 
 BELFAST: WM. MACOMB. DUBLIN: WM. CUKKY, JUMOK, AND CO. 
 
 LONDON: WHITTAKER AND CO., HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO., 
 
 AND SIMrKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO. 
 
 1842. 
 
(;L ASGOAV: 
 
 riiiNTTD HT William Colmns &, Co. 
 
 Ill North Montrose Stn.-el. 
 
TO THE 
 
 KIRK-SESSION AND CONGREGATION 
 OF ST. DAVID S, 
 
 THE FOLLOWING LITTLE WORK, 
 
 DESIGNED TO ILLl'STKATE AND VINDICATE IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES 
 
 IN COXNEXIOX WITH 
 
 THE OFFICE OF RULING ELDER, 
 
 IS INSCRIBED, 
 WITH WARMEST WISHES FOR THEIR WELFARE, 
 
 AND 
 
 FERVENT PRAYERS FOR THE PROSPERITY OF THE CHURCH 
 OF CHRIST GENERALLY, 
 
 BY THEIR ATTACHED PASTOR, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 
 N 
 
 
 »;#^'S< 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 rEincBTcn 
 
 
 Preface to the Si^dnd Edition, 
 Preface to the First Edition, 
 Notice of the Rev. James Guthrie, 
 
 xni 
 
 (Note) xiv 
 
 GUTHllTE'S TREATISE OF RULING ELDERS AND DEACONS. 
 
 The Preface 
 
 Address to the Christian Reader, .... 
 
 Of Ruling Elders Chapter I. Their Names, 
 
 Chapter II. Of the Institution of RuUng Elders, 
 
 Chapter III. Of the Vocation or CaUing of Ruling Elders, 
 
 Chapter IV. Of the Duties of Ruling Elders, 
 
 Chapter V. More private Duties, .... 
 
 Chapter VI. More public Duties, . 
 
 Chapter VII. Duties in connexion with Discipline, 
 
 Of Deacons Chapter I. Of their Name, . 
 
 Chapter II. Of the Institution of Deacons, 
 Chapter in. Of the Calling of Deacons, . 
 Chapter IV. Of their Duty, Conversation, 
 Chapter V. Of the Duties of their Calling, 
 
 XXI 
 XXV 
 
 'J7 
 29 
 .32 
 34 
 .38 
 40 
 4S 
 
 49 
 49 
 52 
 52 
 
 SCRIPTURAL AUTHORITY FOR THE OFFICE OF RULING ELDER. 
 
 CHAPTER I Page 57 
 
 Introductory remarks on Church Government in Genei'aL Presumptions 
 in behalf of the office of Ruhng Elders. Argument from the nature of Church 
 Government in the Jewish Church. Testimony of George Gillespie on this 
 point, (note). Argument from the number of Elders spoken of in the New 
 Testament. Scripture passages establishing the office : (Rom. xii, 4) — iCalvin 
 on the passage ; (I Cor. xii, 28 ; 1 Tim. v, 17)— Eminent writers on the pas- 
 sage. Dr. Owen's testimony. Other texts. 
 
 CUAPTEE II PafitTS 
 
 ARGUMENT IN BEHALF OF THE RULING ELDER DRAWN FROM THE HISTORY OF 
 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Testimony of the Fathers. Cause of the disappeai'ance of the office from a 
 large part of the professedly Christian Church in the Middle Ages. The office 
 of Ruhng Elder in operation in early Scottish Church—Syrian— Waldensian— 
 Bohemian— Swi.ss. Views of the Church of England shortly after the Refor- 
 mation favourable to the office. Testimony of celebrated Reformers and 
 Divines in behalf of its divine authority. In operation in some churches not 
 usually called Presbyterian. Nearly unanimous testimony of the Churches 
 of the Reformation in its favour. 
 
Vlll CONSENTS. 
 
 CilAI'TER XIII. . . ,- . Pa«e 178 
 
 TESTIMONIES FROM EXPEEIENCE TO THE SUCCESSFUL OPEBATION OF THE POPU- 
 LAU ELECTION OF KULINO ELDEUS. 
 
 Country PariiAes.—f Jarnock ; Letter of Rev. Mr. Gilston West Kilbride ; 
 Letter of Rev. Mr. Findlay. 
 
 Town Pari?Ae«r— North Parish, Kelso; Letter of Rev. Mr. Bonar. St. John's, 
 Leith; Letter of Rev. Mr. Lewis. Anderston, Glasgow, Letter of Rev. Mr. 
 Homerville. Mariners' Church, Aberdeen ; Letter of Rev. Mr. Longmuir. 
 Parish of Dunblane ; Letter of Rev. Mr. Maclcenzie. 
 
 Presbyterian Church of Ireland — Londonderrjr ; Rev. Mr. Denham. 
 
 APPENDIX Page'18;» 
 
 SUCCESSFUL MOIIAL 0PEBA.TI05 OF PnESBYTEttlAN CHUBCII OOVEUNMENT O.N 
 SOCIETY. 
 
 Comparative state of crime in Glasgow, Liverpool, Dublin, and London. 
 Small amount of crime in the Highlands and Islands. Misapprehension as 
 to crime in Scotland (note). Superior morality of Presbyterians in Ireland. 
 In England during the days of Presbytery. In America under the same 
 ecclesiastical government. 
 
 CONVERSIONS PROM INDEPENDENCY TO PRESBYTERY— DR. OWEN, AND PRESI- 
 DENT EDWARDS. 
 
 Dr. Owen became an Independent. Proof of this. Change to Presby- 
 terianism. Testimony to Presbyterian Church Government on his deathbed, 
 attested by the Wodrow MSS. Testimony of Jonathan Edwards to Presby- 
 terian Church Government. 
 
 SENTIMENTS OF CALVIN ON THE SUBJECT OF THE RULING ELDER. 
 
 High powers and noble character of Calvin. Lofty estimation in which he 
 was held by eminent men, particularly the early Fathers and Founders of the 
 Church of England. Calvin a decided and enlightened Presbyterian. Cir- 
 cumstances which led to the peculiar consideration of the office of Ruling 
 Elder by him. Driven from Geneva by popular tumult. Alleged cruelty and 
 intolerance of the Geneva Reformer. His conduct against the blasphemies of 
 Servetus vindicated. Statements of Calvin on the subject. 
 
 [•RESENT STATE OF ELDERS IN THE REFORMED CHURCHES ON THE CONTINENT, 
 AND TUE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
 In Switzerland, France, Holland, and America. 
 
 TRACKH OF TUE EUUNG ELDER IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 Claims of the office upon their favourable regards. An equivalent to it 
 prior to the Reformation, of which traces still exist in the south. 
 
 NOTES ON WITCHCRAFT AS A MATTER OF ECCLESIASTICAL DISCIPLINE. 
 
 Fearful executions for Witchcraft on the Contuient before and after the 
 Reformation— In Rritain— In Scotland. The Presbyterian Church not to 
 be held responsible for them. 
 
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 
 
 I AVAIL myself of the opportunity which the call 
 for a Second Edition of this little work supplies, to 
 congratulate the friends of the Church of Scotland and 
 of Christianity generally, on the important step which 
 has been taken by the late General Assembly in adopt- 
 ing a popular system of election to the Eldership. 
 The work was written and brought out at the time it 
 appeared, with a humble eye to the recommendation 
 of this great object, and I have reason to believe it 
 has not been without its use. After full discussion in 
 the General Assembly of 1841, an overture embracing 
 the principles and much of the plan recommended in 
 this treatise was carried by 160 to 71 — in other words, 
 by a majority of 89. The overture sent down to 
 Presbyteries with a view, if approved, of passing the 
 Barrier act, and thereby becoming a permanent law 
 of the church, was maturely considered in these courts 
 during the past year. It was matter of great joy to 
 find tiiat by the time of the recurrence of the General 
 Assembly, (1842,) not less than 45 Presbyteries of 
 the Church — embracing the largest and most influ- 
 ential — had approved of the proposed law, that only 
 15 had disapproved, and in various cases, not on the 
 principle, but merely on the details. Thus supported 
 by a majority of Presbyteries, and that in the course 
 of a single year — a rare occurrence — the overture was 
 passed into a law, and now governs every parish and 
 congregation of the Church. The result shows the 
 importance of contending for great principles, and 
 that discussion in connexion with them is never thrown 
 away. It may be disappointing, in cases where Scrip- 
 ture and the constitution of the Church and Christian 
 expediency all concur in recommending the same 
 course, and where the opposition can plainly be re- 
 solved into nothing but prejudice, to be thwarted and 
 postponed. But there is this compensation, that the 
 principle is weU worthy of contending for — that when 
 
X IMIEFAOE TO SECOND EDITION. 
 
 carried, it will bo most extensive in its operation, 
 touching not a few, but 1200 to 1300 congregations 
 at once — that the discussion, though unsuccessful for 
 a time, advances the cause by an unseen progress, 
 and always renders the result, when it comes, the more 
 signal, and tho prospect of overturning the ultimate 
 judgment tho more hopeless. It now appears that 
 the discussion of 1837, though unsuccessful, was not 
 useless- It really (contributed to the success of 1842. 
 It is pleasing to learn that not a few parishes which 
 were just waiting for the judgment of the Church on 
 tlie overture, are now providing themselves with Ses- 
 sions according to tho now system in the most suc- 
 cessful manner ; and it may bo added, are by every 
 election rendering a repeal of the law, and return to 
 the former plan of ai)pointment, more impracticable. 
 For the sake of those who may not have ready ac- 
 cess to tho law of tho Church, I subjoin that which 
 has just received her sanction — the more so as it is 
 one wliich deeply concerns evorymomborof the Church 
 of Scotland. With Cod's blessing in its administra- 
 tion it is, moreover, fitted to secure the highest moral 
 and religious objects. Judging that though the prin- 
 ciple of Scriptural election lias been carried, there is 
 not less need for a popular treatise on the Eldership ; 
 but the greater, when both those who elect and those 
 wlio are elected are enlarged in number and called to 
 the exercise of new duties. I have cheerfully entered 
 upon the republication of the i)resent work, and in order 
 to render it more worthy of the kind acceptance which 
 it has met with at the hands of the press and the pub- 
 lic, I have, besides various minor enlargements and 
 improvements, added two entirely now chapters, the 
 one on tho advantages which may be exi)octed from 
 a revival of the office of Ruling Elder, and the other 
 on the causes of its decline, and the subordinate means 
 of its improvement. Feeling tho deepest interest in 
 tho continued success of tho plan which has been 
 adopted, and satisfied at the same time that no mea- 
 sures, however wisely framed, will permanently prosper 
 
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. XI 
 
 without continued recourse to the word of God for 
 information and the throne of God for a blessing, I 
 venture again, humbly but earnestly, to recommend 
 to ray fathers and brethren in the ministry, that they 
 do not enter on an enlargement of their kirk- sessions 
 without specially instructing their people in the Scrip- 
 tural nature, authority, qualification, and duties of 
 the Eldership, and with encouraging among them 
 special meetings for conference and prayer, seeking 
 God's guidance and blessing on their choice. The 
 Lord saith, " Them that honour me I will honour, and 
 they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." 
 
 June, 1842. 
 
 "ACT ANENT THE ELDERSIIIP. 
 
 " Edinburgh, 23rcl May, 184'i. 
 " The General Assembly, on the Report of the Committee for 
 classing Returns to Overtures, having found that the Overture 
 anent the Eldership has received the approbation of a majority 
 of the Presbyteries of the Church, did and hereby do enact the 
 said Overture into a standing law of the Church, as follows: 
 
 " 1. That v?hen a Kirk-Session shall have resolved upon an addi- 
 tion to the number of Elders in the same, the minister shall publicly 
 intimate from the pulpit, after divine sci'vice on the Lord's day, 
 that an appointment of additional Elders has been resolved upon, 
 and shall also intimate the number whicli is to be added ; and he 
 shall certify the whole male Communicants of the congregation 
 that, on the third Lord's day thereafter, they shall give in lists of such 
 members of the congregation, being Communicants and of full age, 
 as they would choose for the office of the Eldership, the number of 
 names in each list being required to be as near as may be one-half 
 more than the number of IClders proposed, as for instance six when 
 four Elders are to be appointed ; the Session being at liberty, if they 
 see fit, to suggest the names of such persons as they may deem 
 meet for the office, for the consideration of the Communicants ; 
 and the Minister shall repeat the intimation on the two following 
 Lord's days, giving such exhortation as he shall deem necessary. 
 
 " 2. That on the Lord's day fixed of giving in the lists aforesaid, 
 the said male Communicants shall respectively give to the Elder or 
 Elders of the congregation appointed to receive them, their said 
 lists, which shall be signed by the parties lodging them, and shall 
 have been sealed up by them before being given in. 
 
 " 3. That if the number of Elders proposed to be appointed be not 
 an even number, that to be contained in the lists shall be equal to 
 it and one-half of the next inunediato larger number, as for instance, 
 if the Elders proposed to be appointed shall bo five, the names to 
 be given in shall be eight in each list. 
 
Xll rREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 
 
 " 4. That on the following Monday, the Session shall meet in the 
 Church with open doors, so that all members of the congregation 
 who choose to attend may bo present, and shall then and there open 
 the sealed lists, and the names in each list shall be read aloud and 
 recorded with the number of votes given for each, and those having 
 most votes, to the number required to be contained in the lists, 
 shall be taken as the parties chosen, from among whom the Elders 
 are to be appointed. 
 
 *' 5. That the Session shall thereupon select, from among the par- 
 ties chosen as aforesaid,. the number resolved to be added to the 
 Session, being, however, always entitled, according to the laws of 
 the Church, to judge of the qualifications and fitness for the office, 
 of the parties so chosen, and to reject such as they shall judge to be 
 imqualified, and being also entitled, if they shall see cause, in the 
 particular circumstances of any special case, to appoint to be 
 Elders the whole of the parties so chosen. 
 
 " 6. That when the parties so chosen and appointed shall have de- 
 clared their willingness to accept the office of Elder, their edict 
 shall be served, and the other steps followed out towards their or- 
 dination, agreeably to the forms now in use, and according to the 
 laws of the Church. 
 
 " 7. That in Parishes which, by the intervention of lochs, ridges of 
 hills, or the like, are separated into totally distinct districts ; or 
 when, from other circumstances, a division is considered necessary 
 and proper, the Session may, with consent and authority of the 
 Presbytery, divide the Parish into districts, and require a certain 
 number of Elders to be appointed for each district ; and the choos- 
 ing of the Elders of each district shall bo by the male Communicants 
 residing in each district respectively, in the same manner as is 
 herein before provided as to parishes. 
 
 "The General Assembly appoint a copy of this Act to be 
 transmitted to every Kirk-Session within the bounds of the 
 Church, and direct the Kirk-Sessions to insert the same in 
 their respective records ; enjoin Presbyteries at their visitation 
 of the Session Books, to see that this direction has been com- 
 plied with, and further, to take order, either at their parochial 
 visitations, or on application of members of congregations, that, 
 so far as the means exist for it, an adequate number of Elders 
 be established in every congregation ; and further appoint all 
 Ministers and Session-Clerks to make a return of the names of 
 the Elders in their several Sessions, with the dates of their 
 ordination, or of their admission (if previously ordained), and 
 their usual places of residence ; and for facilitating the making 
 of these returns, appoint a Committee to prepare and transmit 
 Schedules, to be filled up and retransmitted to the Committee 
 before the first day of April next to come, and to report to the 
 next General Assembly the results, pointing out also the al- 
 teration in regard to the number of EldeFs in the respective 
 Sessions, as compared with the corresponding returns obtained 
 in 1828." 
 
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. 
 
 HAVIXG recently had mj attention called more 
 particularly tlian usual to the Eldership in the 
 Presbyterian Church, I found in common with friends 
 in different quarters a great want of works on the 
 subject, embracing in a short compass such knowledge 
 regarding the oifice as seemed most desirable to diffuse 
 at the present day. The Rev. Dr. Burns of Paisley, 
 in his important work on Pauperism, has a chapter 
 on the Eldership ; but the book is now almost inac- 
 cessible, and the chapter is written chiefly with an 
 eye to the Eldership, in connexion with the manage- 
 ment of the poor. The Rev. Mr. Lewis of Dundee 
 published a valuable pamphlet on the subject a few 
 years ago ; but it is chiefly designed to stir up to the 
 faithful discharge of the duties of the oflice, by con- 
 trasting the present with the past state of the Elder- 
 ship in Scotland, and showing, from a particular 
 example, what still may be done even in a large town. 
 This is a very important view, but does not exhaust 
 the points as to which many wish for information, 
 especially at the present day. The Presbyterian Re- 
 view, of Xov. 1834 and Jan. 1835, contains two ad- 
 mirable articles on the Eldership, understood to be 
 written by Alexander Dunlop, Esq., advocate — him- 
 self a noble specimen of an able and devoted Elder of 
 the Church of Scotland. But the work is not gene- 
 rally accessible, and the views discussed chiefly regard 
 the office as it appears in the standards of the Church, 
 its present state, the causes of its decline, and tlie 
 means of its renovation — the last consisting mainly 
 of a recommendation of the popular election of the 
 B 
 
XIV I'lltlFAOn TO FIKST KDITION. 
 
 (ildcrs by tlio comininiicants of tlio churcli. Tho most 
 ccjiuplt'to troatiso wh'icAi I have soeii on the subject, 
 and to which I gladly acknowlcdgo my obligations in 
 the following pages, is a work 'On the Oftice of the 
 Ruling Ehler, by Dr. Samuel Miller, Professor of 
 Eccle6iasti(;al History in tlie Presbyterian College of 
 Princeton, New Jersey.' But the work is large for 
 the gon(!r;il reader: tiiough re])ul)lished in this coun- 
 try it is little known: and though as a whole most 
 excellent, it contains sentiments on various important 
 points wliicli no consistent member of the Church of 
 Scotland (;an aj)])rove or recommend. In these cir- 
 cumstances 1 have felt tliat there was not only room 
 but a call for a sliort treatise wliicli should be univer- 
 sally accesj-ible, comprising a vindication of the Scrip- 
 ture authority of tlu5 offtce of Ivuling Klder, full views 
 of its duties and qualifications, a representation of the 
 scMitiments of the sUmdards and laws of the Cluirch 
 of Scotland on the subject, a«ldresses to elders and 
 peoph; where an appointment is made to the office, 
 and various testimonies from experience to the safety 
 and desirableness of tlie popular election of Elders at 
 the ])resent day. 1 have thouglit, moreover, that to 
 preface tliese witli the republication of an unknown 
 but valuable tract on tlie Eldershij), ascribed to the 
 Kev. .lames (Juthrie of Stirling, one of the celebrated 
 martyrs of the Scottish ('hurcli, would materially add 
 to the interest and usefulness of the little work.' 
 
 I I have been iiuli-btod for a sifjlit of tlu« Trat-t to tin- kindness of the Ue\ 
 Mr. Oniond of MoMzie. The cop^ hears to have been the jfift »if tlie eminent 
 lionl (iran(;e to the Kirk session oi' Salt I'reston. or l'resion|)ans, May, 172(i. 
 U is iisnally, and I believe withont any <|uestion, attiihiited 4o ,the pen ol 
 .(anies (intlirie of SlirlinK. the brother of William Outhrie of Fenwiek, author 
 of the 'Trial of a Saving Interest in Oiu-ist.' The writer is well known aa a 
 <iiHtint(nihhe<i minister and martyr of the Church of Seotland. He was hon- 
 om'ed to live at a pirioii— from' I(;;tH to IfiCJl— when the KldorNhii) of the 
 Church was most elliricnt ami jiowerfiil. and bore a disiin^Miislud jiart in the 
 deliverance of ihi' iMumtry from eivil and spiritnal thraldnm. and in raisinff 
 the mass of tlu' pcopli- (after maUin)j every allowance for serious tlefeets and 
 ifross erlmos. not nmisual in the land,) to a decree of reli(;ious knowledge, 
 moral elevation, and patriotic (U'votedness. and that in a very short space of 
 time, altogether unknown in (he history of the- worhl. It was a proud day 
 for Seotland wlu-n si.vtei n Christian peers eould be seen sittinjf as elders in 
 her<;i'neral Assenibly at the same tin)e. lUit iiuthrie lived to see an unfa- 
 , vonrable ehant{e. From JtWil to ItUiO, through the a^je of (.;romwell. tliere was 
 ;i jmrtial decline owinj; to dissension amon^ the ministers of the Chureli, an 
 
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. XV 
 
 While anxious to avoid unnecessary controversy 
 about church government and order at a period when 
 the friends of evangelical religion of all churches 
 sliould be united against many and formidable com- 
 mon foes, it is impossible to sliut one's eyes to the fact 
 that in various quarters there is a growing disposition 
 to assail the peculiarities of the Presbyterian church ; 
 nay, to call in question and deny the validity of lior 
 administration of ordinances. Hence it is well that 
 her members should be alive to her claims, and should 
 be armed with weapons for defending tliem, and re- 
 pelling the assaults of opponents. Not a few, espe- 
 cially of late, have allowed themselves to think and to 
 speak very disparagingly of the Presbyterian church 
 as a whole ; but it should be borne in mind, that she 
 claims a high, even an apostolic origin — that prior to 
 the rise of Popery the Church of Scotland was I'res- 
 byterian — that during the reign of the " Man of sin," 
 the faithful witnessing Waldenses were Presbyterian 
 — that at the Reformation Presbyterianism was recov- 
 ered, and, with the exception of England, spread al- 
 most throughout the wdiole of Protestant Christendom 
 — Switzerland, Germany, France, Hungary, Holland, 
 Scotland, &c. — that almost one half of the Protestants 
 
 the presence of sectaries in the English army stationed in Scotland. It seems 
 to have been fi-oni a wish to counteract this downward tendency that the 
 following short treatise was written, and admirably is it fitted with the Di- 
 vine blessing to stir up office-bearers in the church to the faithful discharge 
 of their duty. 
 
 It is not necessary to say any thing of the character of the author. His 
 violent death, Uke that of his di>'ine Master, under the forms of law, was as 
 cold-blooded a mui-der as was ever perpetrated, (^harles II, with his proMi- 
 gate advisers, Avished to strike a blow wliich should sjiread terror over Scut- 
 land. Hence, scarcely a vear after the Restoration, first the noble nianpiis 
 of Argyle. and then the not less morally noble James Guthrie, were basely 
 butchered, by men whose character was so low and abandoned as justly to 
 expose themselves to the severest punishment. The case of Guthrie is too 
 well known to need any sjiecial notice. I may merely mention, that it is re- 
 lated in tlie unpublished Wodrow MSS. that he declared he never had sweeter 
 communion with God than when, mixed up with cursing soldiers, he over- 
 heard his judges determining on the mode of carrying his sentence into effect 
 —where his head and the dittorent parts of his body were to be stuck up. 
 Conversing with clerical friends some time before of besetting sins, it is re- 
 lated that Guthrie reckoned among his besetting sins "too eager a desire to 
 die a riolent death for Christ." It is certain that his composure in the pros- 
 pect of death was imperturbable, such as to surprise beholders accustomed 
 to resolution, and to equal if not suipass the attainments of the bravest mar- 
 tial warriors. 
 
XVI PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. 
 
 of England — when evangelical religion was most pre- 
 valent throughout her borders, were also Presbyterian 
 — that the founders of the Christian church in the 
 new world were Presbyterian — and that at the present 
 day the most extensive and powerful of the Christian 
 denominations of America is the Presbyterian church 
 in its different branches. It is to be remembered that 
 the members of the Presbyterian church have not only 
 been all along very numerous, and continue to be so 
 throughout Protestant Christendom, and are rapidly 
 encreasing in their numbers both at home and abroad; 
 but that the ministers of the Presbyterian church have 
 been as well educated and learned, yea as a whole 
 more so perhaps than those of any other Christian 
 church — that they have been as sound in the evangelic 
 faith, and where there has been decline have been as 
 early and extensively revived as any others ; and that 
 social advantages, to say the least, have been as mark- 
 ed in the train of Presbyterianism as in the train of 
 any of its rivals : Witness the intellectual, moral, and 
 religious character, and through it the social condition 
 of Scotland, Switzerland, Holland, the north of Ire- 
 land, the Presbyterian parts of the United States, as 
 compared with the character and condition of the 
 country where Presbyterianism is unknown ^ — witness 
 also the services of Presbyterianism in behalf of civil 
 and religious freedom. It may be added that in those 
 cases where there has been a decline in the religion 
 and morality of any part of the Presbyterian church, 
 this very frequently may be traced to the previous 
 degeneracy or abandonment of her peculiar principles 
 of government ; and whether this admit of proof or 
 not, it is certain that her people in point of knowledge 
 and character, even where fallen, will be found fully 
 equal to Episcopalians or Congregationalists in the 
 same circumstances. Such being leading and well 
 known facts in connexion with the Presbyterian 
 church, it must be very unreasonable for any party to 
 
 1 For some practical proois of the beneficial operation of Presbyterian 
 church government, see Appendix. 
 
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITIOX. XVll 
 
 speak lightly of a body so large in numbers and high 
 in character and powerful in influence. Most of all 
 is it preposterous for a party, probably not constitu- 
 ting the tenth part of Protestant cliristendom, and 
 not more eminent for talent, learning, education, 
 piety, and moral worth than their neighbours, if in- 
 deed they are as eminent, to unchurch the Presby- 
 terian and all other Christian churches, and declare 
 their ordinances null and void while unable themselyes 
 to produce one testimony from the word of God in be- 
 half of their own extravagant pretensions — pretensions 
 not only disowned by Scripture, and the earliest re- 
 cords o*f the primitive church, and of the Church of 
 England herself in her purest days, but in themselves 
 presumptuous, uncharitable, generally allied to serious 
 error, and always unfriendly to Christian liberty and 
 union of sympathy and effort for the conversion of 
 the world by the universal propagation of the gospel 
 of Christ. 
 
 Since unhappily the semi-popish pretensions to 
 which I refer are understood to be on the encrease 
 in Great Britain, it is the more necessary to spread 
 information on the Scripture authority of the office 
 of the Ruling Elder. This office is at utter war with 
 such unscriptural claims, and would, had it been adopt- 
 ed in the Church of England, have prevented their 
 rise. The general understanding now of its true na- 
 ture is well fitted to check and counteract their pro- 
 gress. There is nothing more likely to expose proud 
 pretension to exclusive Christianity, because flowing- 
 through a particular organisation, than to show that 
 the organisation is itself essentially defective — leaving 
 out what both the word of God and apostolic and 
 primitive antiquity demand shall be present. I com- 
 mend the work to the care and blessing of the great 
 Head of the church, whose honour in the vindication 
 of the office, and thereby the growing efficiency of the 
 Christian church, it is designed to promote. 
 
 John G. Lorimer. 
 
 May, 1841. 
 
 B2 
 
TREATISE 
 
 RULING ELDERS AND DEACONS 
 
 IN WHICn THESE THINGS WHICH BELONG TO THE 
 
 UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR OFFICE AND DUTY 
 
 ARE CLEARLY AND SHORTLY SET DOWN, 
 
 BY A 
 
 MINISTER OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 REVISED AND PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE GENERAL 
 MEETING OF MINISTERS AND ELDERS OF THIS CHURCH. 
 
 "Let the elders that rule well be counted woi'thy of double honour." — 
 1 Tim. V, 17. 
 
 " They that have used the ofiice of a deacon well purchase to themselves 
 a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.'" — 
 1 Tim. iii, 13. 
 
THE PREFACE, 
 
 THE Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and whose fur- 
 nace is in Jerusalem,^ hath, in depths of his 
 wisdom, spoken bv terrible things in righteousness ^ 
 against this nation, he hath brought us down won- 
 derfully, ^ and hath made our breach wide as the sea ; 
 who can heal us?"^ Our bruise is incurable, and our 
 wound is grievous, for the Lord hath wounded us with 
 the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a 
 cruel one, because our sins were encreased : ^ he hath 
 mingled a perverse spirit in the midst of us which 
 causeth us to err in every work as a drunken man 
 staggereth in his vomit, ^ and we eat every man the 
 flesh of his own arm ; '^ for all this his anger is not 
 turned away, but his hand is stretched out still ; the 
 yoke of our transgressions is bound by his hand, they 
 are wreathed and come up upon our neck;^ and in 
 the day of our calamity He hath covered us with a 
 cloud in his anger, ^ that, like blind men in the dark, 
 we grope for the wall,^° and cannot find either our sin 
 or our duty. Some cry that there be many of our 
 prophets who have not discovered our iniquity to turn 
 away our captivity ; others complain that not a few of 
 them have seen for us false burdens and causes of 
 banishment : what shall we do whilst it is thus with us ? 
 Surely it is meet to be said unto God, Show me why 
 thou contendestwith me.^^ I have borne chastisement, 
 I will not offend any more. That which I see not, teach 
 thou me; if I have done iniquity, I' will do no more,^^ 
 
 1 I?aiah, xsxi, 9. 5 Jq^., xxx, 12, 14. ^ Lameu., ii. 1. 
 
 ~ Psalm Ixv. 5. « Isaiah, xix, 14. i" Isaiah, lix, 10. 
 
 3 Laraen., i. 9. " Isaiah, Lx, 20. ^i Job, x, 2. 
 
 * Lamen., ii, 13. * Lamen., i, 14. i- Job, xxxiv, 31, 32. 
 
XXll THE PREFACE. 
 
 until the Lord shall reveal it unto us, and make us 
 wise in heart to understand this, ' and speak to us that 
 we may declare it, for what the land mourns. It is fit 
 that, in the things of the Lord's controversy, and of our 
 duty whereto we have already attained., we walk by the 
 same rule and mind the same things. I do suppose that 
 all of us are of one mind in this, that our corrupt 
 mixture in church members and church officers is one 
 main cause why so much wrath is gone forth from the 
 Lord against us and doth abide upon us. The Lord's 
 design upon Scotland for a long time past seems to 
 have been to purge his house, and as to have his ordi- 
 nances pure so to have his people and his officers also 
 pure.^ I mean not of a higher pitch than the doctrine 
 and policy of our church doth reach, because (I fear 
 not to say it) the measuring line of the sanctuary hath 
 been stretched over these to give unto them due Scrip- 
 ture dimensions concerning the qualifications of church 
 members and church officers. If in these things our 
 practice were agreeable to our rule we need not be 
 ashamed, but might speak with our enemies in the 
 gate, and answer him that reproacheth us. Our sin is, 
 that being weighed in our own balance, we are found 
 too light. How many church members are there in 
 Scotland whom our church (if conscientiously wielded) 
 would cut off as rotten: how many church officers 
 whom that discipline would cast out as unsavoury salt. 
 Such have rejoiced in our pride and been haughty be- 
 cause of the Lord's holy mountain,^ but have not so 
 zealously cared that Holiness to the Lord might be 
 engraven on all the pots of his house. * We have boast- 
 ed of a reformation of the ordinances, without seeking 
 as really to reform church members according to the 
 pattern thereof. Pure ordinances are indeed things 
 precious and excellent, (and what soul among us 
 that hath an}^ measure of the true zeal of the Lord's 
 house can behold the defacing of these, and not make 
 it the matter of his lamentation ?) yet these are but 
 
 J Jerem., ix, 12. . -' Ezek.. r.xiv, 13 . Tea., i. 25 : Ezek.. ix, 3=1 : Ze ib.. Hi, U. 
 » Zeph., iii, 11 '■ Zecb-, xiv, M ?1. 
 
THE PREFACE. XXlll 
 
 means subordinate to a more high and super-excellent 
 end, to wit, that we may thereby be brought with open 
 face to behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord, and 
 be changed into the same image from glory to glory 
 even as by the Spirit of the Lord, ^ that wo may all 
 come unto the unity of the faith unto the knowledge of 
 the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure 
 of the stature of the fulness of Christ.^ It is true that 
 all the members of the church visible will not bo liv- 
 ing and lively stones in the Lord's temple, neither dotli 
 the rule of church constitution hold out or cast out all 
 who are really not such ; but this is the great scope that 
 all of us ought to level at, that all the Lord's people 
 may bo holy — that all who profess faith in Jesus Christ 
 may walk as becomes the gospel of Jesus Christ;^ and 
 how shall this be attained unless those who bear the 
 vessels of the Lord, and to whom the charge of holy 
 things be committed, bo holy? The sons of Levi must 
 bo purified and purged as gold and silver before they 
 otter unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. When 
 that is done, then are the offerings of Judah and Jeru- 
 salem pleasant unto the Lord.'^ I acknowledge that we 
 were once upon a fair way for purging the house of God 
 in this land. They who interrupted us shall bear their 
 burden ; but what was done in this thing was not more 
 refreshing to gracious liearts than it was sorely repined 
 at, and opposed by others, (a sin that provoked the 
 Lord to stop the current of so rich a mercy ;) therefore 
 do many make haste again to intrude themselves upon 
 the congregations whence they were justly cast out ; 
 and not a few amongst tlie people love to have it so, as 
 though there were a conspiracy to return to Egypt and 
 to build again the walls of Jericho and repair the ruins 
 of Edom. I do also acknowledge it with thankfulness 
 unto the great Shepherd of souls that there is a great 
 company of gracious men amongst the officers of his 
 church who walk in the ways of the Lord and keep his 
 charge ; but there be also many that neither do so nor 
 
 1 2 Cor., iii, 18. - Ephes., iv, 13. ' Psalm .xoiii, 5; Phil., xii, 27. 
 
 ■* Malachi, iii, 2, 4. 
 
XXIV THE PREFACE. 
 
 know how to do it — to saj nothing of ministers. It is 
 more than manifest that there is a generation of igno- 
 rant, slothful, earthly-minded men who boar the name 
 of elders and deacons in many congregations ; and where 
 such bear rule, what can bo expected but that the 
 people should perish for want of knowledge, and holi- 
 ness be despised and lye in the dust, and congrega- 
 tions still abid(! in too swarthy a temper? If we might 
 find grace in the Lord's siglit, to be thoroughly con- 
 vinced of tliis great church evil, wlienco many clmrcli 
 evils flow, and be brought with some measure of sin- 
 cerity to endeavour the remedy thereof, what a branch 
 of hope might it be, tliat our reproach should be taken 
 away, and wo bcome a people instructed in the way of 
 the Lord, and walking to tlie praise and commendation 
 of the Gospel, whi(3h is now evil spoken of, because of 
 the ignorance and loose conversation of many among 
 us. Therefore am I bold as pressed in spirit (albeit 
 one of the weakest and most unworthy,) to offer this 
 little treatise, with an eye upon this end. And let me, 
 without offence, beseech all the ministers, elders, dea- 
 cons, congregations, presbyteries, and assemblies of this 
 church, in tlie bowels of the Lord Jesus Clirist, yea, let 
 me obtest them by the blood of the everlasting cove- 
 nant, by their zeal for the Lord's honour, by tlie credit 
 of the Gosj)el, by tlieir love to souls, and by the fury of 
 the Lord wliicli he hath caused to rest on us,' because 
 he purged us and we would not be purged — and as they 
 desire the Lord should bring us again, and cause us to 
 stand before him, and leave us a remnant and give us 
 a nail in his holy place ;'^ that they would each of them 
 in their stations, endeavour to take forth the precious 
 from the vile, ^ and purge the Lord's house in this 
 land from corrupt officers and corru])t members ; oh, 
 will we not be made clean ; when will it once be ! * 
 
 » IC/.i'k., xxiv, l;s. 2 Ezra, ix, 8. » Jer., xv, 19. * Jer., xiii, 27. 
 
TO THE CHRISTIAN EEADEll. 
 
 THE inducements that persuaded me first to write 
 tliis little treatise of Ruling Elders and Deacons 
 were chiefly these: 1st. The sensible impression that 
 the Lord hath made upon my spirit, as also, I know, 
 upon the spirits of the godly of the land, of the great 
 prejudice that comes to this poor church by a multi- 
 tude of men in these offices, who neither know their 
 duty nor make conscience to perform it. 2nd. The 
 vindicating the doctrine of our church concerning 
 these church ofiicers, that tlie mouths of such who 
 speak evil may be stopped, and others who stumble 
 may be satisfied. 3rd. The pressing desire of brethren, 
 ministers and elders, in the Presbytery and congrega- 
 tion where the Lord hath set me, all which did receive 
 some spirit and life when I found my name among 
 those to whom the General Assembly of this churcli 
 did commit and recommend this work long ago. 
 
 1 have endeavoured to handle it with as much 
 plainness and evidence of truth and as shortly without 
 wronging of the matter as I could. It is not unlikely 
 but some may think I have done no great business, be- 
 cause I have brought no new thiqg. I acknowledge 
 that it is so ; what I have said is for the matter, 1 trust, 
 and in many things for the words too, tlie doctrine of 
 the Scriptures, and of Protestant divines, and of our 
 church in the acts and policy thereof. I have ])ut 
 together in one, and digested into some method, wliat 
 was lying scattered before, that these who either could 
 not or would not bo at the pains to search for sucli 
 things may now have them at their hand. Others 
 may look upon this treatise as not plain enough, or as 
 not so exact, full, and perfect as it ought to be ; with 
 these I shall not contend ; I have done what I could, 
 at least wliat I conceived best in order to the ends I 
 propounded to myself. If others shall find favour of 
 the Lord to do better, I shall bless his name on their 
 behalf, and receive and make use of their pains with 
 thankfulness. And some may haply think that there 
 C 
 
XXVI TO THE CHRISTIAN READER. 
 
 .is here too much laid upon Ruling Elders, more than 
 they shall be able or willing to undertake ; yea, more 
 than the Lord dotli require of them, most of the things 
 that are mentioned by us being incumbent to Minis- 
 ters rather than to Elders. It is true what is said of 
 the Elder's duty is also the duty of Ministers, for 
 whatsoever tlie Elder ought to do by virtue of his call- 
 ing, that also ought the Minister to do and somewhat 
 more; but so far as we know, nothing is spoken here 
 of the Elder that doth not belong to him. If through 
 ignorance or want of ability or neglect or custom El- 
 ders have not done these things, it is that which ought 
 to be helped — it is now high time for them to awake 
 and to know and own and follow their duty, and for 
 the church of God in Scotland to know how much she 
 hath smarted under the hands of ignorant and sloth- 
 ful, yea, and scandalous men; we would not always 
 satisfy ourselves with disguise<l and histrionical men 
 puffed up with titles ' or with idols, dead in sins, to be 
 Elders ; but would seek after holy men, who being en- 
 dued with faith in God, and walking in his obedience, 
 God authorising them, and the Church his spouse 
 choosing tliem and calling them, undertake the govern- 
 ment thereof, that they may labour to the conversion 
 and edification of tlie same in Christ — neither needs 
 the qualification or multitude or difficulties of the 
 particulars here spoken of to discourage or scare any. 
 It is not so much the measure as the truth of the thing 
 that is to be looked at. We have set down what a 
 Ruling Elder ought to be in regard of the whole extent 
 of his charge, sundry particulars whereof the most part 
 of Ruling Elders are seldom called to exercise, and if 
 they be in some measure fitted for these parts of the 
 charge which God calls them to exercise, and follow 
 the same with singleness of heart, that they may be- 
 lieve that they shall be assisted and accepted of God 
 in Christ Jesus. The employment is not theirs, but 
 the Lord's, from whom they may expect both their 
 furniture and also their reward. Let them arise and 
 be doing and the Lord shall be with them, 
 
 J Juuius, Eccles., 1. 2, c. 3. 
 
A SHORT TREATISE 
 
 RULING ELDERS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OF THEIR NAMES. 
 
 WHAT is necessary to be understood concerning 
 Ruling Elders may be taken up in the explana- 
 tion of these four: 1st. Their name; 2nd. Their in- 
 stitution ; 3rd. Their calling ; 4th. Their qualification 
 and duty. 
 
 The word elder in the Scripture doth signify divers 
 things.^ 1st. It signifies old men or men come to age." 
 Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father, 
 and the younger men as brethren. 2nd. It signifies 
 those who have lived in the times of old.^ Why do 
 thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders. 
 3rd. It is taken for honourable and worthy men. The 
 Lord of hosts doth take away from Jerusalem and Ju- 
 dah the prudent and the ancient."^ It is the name of 
 a spiritual officer in the house of God. And when 
 they had ordained them Elders in every city.^ In 
 this last signification it is taken in this place, for these 
 who bear rule in the house of God, who are called El- 
 ders because of the knowledge, gifts, experience, pru- 
 dence, and gravity wherewith they ought to be endued. 
 The officers in the house of God, who in the Scrip- 
 tures are called by the name of Elders,^ are of several 
 sorts, preaching Elders or Ministers, teaching Elders 
 
 ^ The Second Book of Discipline, sect. vi. Assertion of tlie Government of 
 the Church of Scotland, part i. ciiap. 1. [This able work proceeded from 
 the pen of the celebrated Kev, George Gillespie of Edinburgh. 1C41.— Editor.] 
 2 1 Tim., V, 1. 3 Mat., xv. 2. * Isaiah, iii, 2. « Acts, xiv, 23. 
 
 ■ « The Second Book of Discipline, chap, vi, sect. 1. 
 
28 NAMES OF IIL'LINC KLDEllS. 
 
 or Doctors, and ruling and governing Eldors — all these 
 three are oftentimes in tlio New Testament comprised 
 under the general name of Elders.* It is the Ruling 
 Elder '-^ whom we have now to do witli ; who is so called 
 not because the power of ruling and governing tlio 
 church belongs to him alone, for it also belongs to the 
 preaching and teaching Elders, or to the Ministers and 
 Doctors. Dut because to rule and govern is the princi- 
 pal and cliief part of his cliarge and employment, it is 
 the- highest act of his oifice. It is not competent for 
 him to preacli — that belongs to the Pastor or Minister; 
 nor to teach — that belongs to the Doctor: but his of- 
 fice is (;oml>ined witliin the compass of ruling and 
 governing the church ; and tlierefore he is called the 
 governing or ruling Elder. The apostle, in the Epis- 
 tle to the Romans,^ calletli him, liiin tliat ruleth ; and 
 he calls tljcm governments,'* putting the abstract for 
 the (concrete, governments for governors. Thus then 
 wo have tlie proper or riglit names of these church of- 
 ficers, whicli seem to correct a twofold mistake. The 
 first, of these who eitlicr out of ignorance or disdain 
 do call them lay /'Jlders, as if tliey w(;re a part of the 
 people only, and not to bo reckoned amongst the offi- 
 cers of the Lord's liouse, whom tlie Popish church, in 
 their pride, and others f()lh)wing tliem, calls " the 
 clergy," that is, the Lord's inheritance, in opposition 
 to "the laity" or people, whom they look upon as 
 base and much inferior to the other in worth and ex- 
 r.ellency, whereas all tlie Lord's people are his portion 
 and the lot of his inheritance.^ The second mistake 
 is of these who do call these only ruling Elders who 
 sit in Presbyteries, Synods, and General Assemblies, 
 allowing to others the name of Eldors, but not of rul- 
 ing Eldors. ]3ut every Elder in the Lord's house is 
 a ruling Elder,'' because the power and exercise of 
 rule and government belongs to every Elder, though 
 some of tiiem upon especial occasions bo called to a 
 more eminent exercise of it than others. 
 
 ' Acts, XV, «, 22 ; xx, 17 : 1 Tet., v. 
 
 '■i The Hi-corid Hook of Disci]. line, cliap. vi. sect. .». 
 
 • U(im., xii, 8. * 1 (;<.r.. xii, 28. ■■ Di'ut, xxxii, d. '• 1- I'et., v, 3. 
 
INSTITUTION OF RULING ELDERS. 29 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 OF THE INSTITUTION OF RULING ELDERS. 
 
 The institution of the office of Ruling Elders is di- 
 vine,^ it is not an ordinance of man but of God. The 
 Lord Jesus, upon whose shoulder the government is, 
 and who is faitliful in all his house, hath in his eternal 
 wisdom thought fit to appoint such an officer in his 
 house for the right and orderly governing thereof. It 
 is true that by the sloth, or rather bj the pride of 
 teachers, whilst they alone would seem to be some- 
 what, and by the policy of Satan and inadvertence of 
 the church, these officers were for many ages together 
 out of use in the Christian church. But certain it is, 
 that both the Jewish synagogue and afterwards the 
 Christian church had seniores or elders, without whose 
 counsel nothing was done in the church. That the 
 Jewish church had such, appears from 2 Chron., xix, 
 8;Jer., xxix, 1; Mat., xvi, 21-23, 26, 57, 59; Acts, 
 iv, 5 f and that the Christian church also had them 
 in the primitive and purest times thereof, appears from 
 the testimony of ancient writers, as may be found by 
 those who will take pains to search into these things. 
 But we have a more sure word for the divine institu- 
 tion of Elders in the Christian church than any testi- 
 mony of man, to wit the testimony of God in the 
 Scriptures of the New Testament. 
 
 The first place of Scripture is, " Having then gifts 
 differing according to the grace which is given us, 
 whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the 
 proportion of faith ; or ministry, let us wait on our 
 ministering ; or he that teacheth, on teaching ; or he 
 that exhorteth, on exhortation ; he that giveth, let him 
 do it with simplicity ; he that ruleth, with diligence ; 
 he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness."^ In 
 
 1 TJie Second Book of Discipline, chap, vi, sect. 2. 
 2 Ambrose Com. on 1 Tim., v, 1 ; Tert in his 34th ch. of Apol. Basil Map. 
 Com. on Isa.. iii, 2. Hier. on that same place, Aug. Ep. 137, Greg. con. Cels. 
 lib. 3,' Aug. Ub. 3, contra Crescan, ch. 56. 8 Rom., xii, 6-8. 
 
 C2 
 
.^0 INSTITUTION OF RULING ELDERS. 
 
 whicli text the apostlo dotli at first comproliond all the 
 several kinds of ordinary standing officers in the church 
 of God under two gcnioral heads; to wit, Prophecy, 
 whcn.'by is meant tlie ordinary faculty of right under- 
 standing and expoundiufr the Scriptures, and Ministry, 
 under which is com])rehended all otlier church officers 
 and employments. To eacli of these the apostle addetli 
 tlieir general duties, namely; that he who prophesieth 
 should do it according to the proportion of faith, that 
 is, according to tlie measure of knowledge of tlie word of 
 faith tliat he hath received of (lod; and he that min- 
 istcrcth, let liim wait on his ministering, tliat is, let him 
 not do it negligently or slotliiully, hut faithfully and 
 diligently. Then he subdivides tliose two generals into 
 the special offices contained und(!r tliem. lie divides 
 him that pro])liesieth into liim that teacheth, and liim 
 that exliortetli, or into tlie Doctor, to wliom the work of 
 teaching or instructing belongs, and the I'astor, towliom 
 the word of exiiortation is competent. UiuUu- him that 
 ininisteretli, he (comprehends iirst him that givetli, by 
 whom is meant the Deacon, who is appointed for tlie 
 supply of the poor; secondly, him that ruhith, by whom 
 can be meant no other than the liuling Elder — seeing 
 an ordinary ruling officer in the church, who is differ- 
 ent from the Pastor and Teacher, is here spoken of by 
 the apostle. 
 
 The second place of Scripture that proves the office 
 of Ruling Elders is; " And (lod hath set some in the 
 church; iirst, apostles; secondarily, pro])hets; thirdly, 
 teachers ; afterwards miracles ; then gifts of healing, 
 helps, governments, div(M-sities of tongues."' Some of 
 the bibles of the late Jiinglish translation read "helps in 
 governments," but cross to the text in the original lan- 
 guage that boars " helps, governments,'' as two distinct 
 things, and therefore in other editions of that trans- 
 lation this is helped. h\ this text the apostle rec^kons 
 several officers of the cliundi: some extraordinary, 
 which were to continue but for a season, such «as apos- 
 tles, ])rophets, powers, or miracles, gifts of healing, 
 
 1 I Cor., xii, 2S. 
 
INSTITUTION OF RULING ELDERS. 31 
 
 kinds of tongues; some ordinary; which were to con- 
 tinue in the church to the end of the world, and these 
 are teachers or the ordinary church officers who are 
 exercised in the word : helps, that is, the Deacons who are 
 appointed for the help and relief of the poor ; and gov- 
 ernments, that is, the governing and Ruling Elders ; 
 for it is clear from the words, that the apostle, by gov- 
 ernments, doth mean, a church officer whom God hath 
 set in his church for ruling and governing thereof. Now 
 this cannot be any other of the church officers, for 
 these he hath named besides, and therefore it remains 
 that it is the Ruling Elder. 
 
 The third place of Scripture is ; "Let the elders that 
 rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especial- 
 ly they who labour in the word and doctrine. " ^ — Which 
 text doth hold forth and distinguish two sort of Elders 
 in the church to whom the Lord Jesus hath committed 
 the power of ruling : One sort who do also labour in 
 the word and doctrine, namely, Pastors and Teachers; 
 another sort who do only rule, and doing it well are 
 accounted worthy of double honour ; and these are the 
 Ruling Elders of whom we speak. 
 
 From this, that the office of the Ruling Elder is of 
 divine institution,* we gather these conclusions; first, 
 that it is not a thing arbitrary and indifferent for such 
 to wait upon their charge ; yea or nay as they please, 
 or as their attendance may contribute for their own or 
 their friends' particular [advantage] , which is the cus- 
 tom of too many Elders ; but that they are bound in 
 conscience diligently to attend and follow the duties 
 thereof, whether they be such as they owe to the sev- 
 eral members of the congregation, or the keeping of 
 Session, or Presbytery, and other assemblies of the 
 church, when they are called and desired thereto. 
 
 Secondly, that Elders ought to do tlieir office not for- 
 mally and hypocritically for the fashion only, but sin- 
 cerely and honestly as in the sight of God, by whom 
 they are called unto this holy calling, and to whom they 
 
 1 1 Tim., V, 17. 2 Second Eook of Discipline, chap, iii, seer. 
 
 13—16. Assertion of the government of tlie Chm*ch of Scotland, part i, chai'. 
 ?.. pp. 11-17. 
 
32 CALLING OF RULING ELDERS. 
 
 must render an account for their discharge of this great 
 trust. 
 
 Thirdly, they ought not to domineer over their fellow- 
 brethren and Elders, but to carry themselves humbly 
 and serviceably, as those who are appointed of the Lord 
 Jesus for ministering unto, and edifying of his body, 
 the church. 
 
 Fourthly, that they ought to carry themselves with 
 that authority, holiness, gravity, and prudence, that 
 become those who are called of God to bear rule in 
 his house. 
 
 Fifthly, that Elders, once lawfully called to the 
 office, and having gifts from God meet to exercise the 
 same, unless they be removed therefrom, because of 
 miscarriages, are still Elders, though haply in congre- 
 gations where many qualified men may be found, some 
 may be permitted for a time to cease from the exercise 
 of the charge, ^ and others be put in their room, as was 
 among the Levites under the Law in serving in the 
 temple by courses. 
 
 Sixthly, that people ought to obey such as those who 
 liave the rule over them, and to submit themselves, be- 
 cause they wait for tlieir souls as they that must give 
 an account, that they may do it with joy and not with 
 grief:* Yea, they should know them as these who are 
 over them in the Lord, and do admonish them, and es- 
 teem them very highly in love for their work's sake,^ 
 
 CHAPTER IlL 
 
 OF THE VOCATION OK CALLING OF RULING ELDERS.* 
 
 As no man is to intrude into any employment without 
 a lawful calling, so much less ought any man to intrude 
 himself without a calling into any sacred function in 
 the house of God.^ Therefore before any take upon 
 him to exercise the office of Ruling Elder, he ought to 
 
 1 Second Book of Discipline, chap. iiL * Heb., xiii, 17. 
 
 » Thea, v, 12, 13. * Second Houk of Discipline, chap. iiL » Heb., t, 4. 
 
CALLING OF RULING ELDERS. 33 
 
 be lawfully called thereunto.^ This calling is inward 
 or outward: the inward calling is the testimony of a 
 good conscience concerning some measure of ability 
 and gifts for the charge, and a sincere and honest in- 
 clination and purpose to employ these gifts for the hon- 
 our of God, the advancement of the kingdom of Jesus 
 Christ, and the good of souls. The outward (-ail- 
 ing is to be after the same manner with that of other 
 church oflScers ; and it stands in their clecti'on and in 
 the trial of their carriage, gifts, and admission to the 
 charge. The Election is to be made by the congrega- 
 tion wherein they are to bear charge. ^ That it may be 
 gone about in the more orderly way, it is fit that a nomi- 
 nation be made, by the minister and eldership of the 
 congregation, of the persons fittest and best qualified 
 for the employment, and that the names of tlie persons 
 nominated by them be publicly intimated to the con- 
 gregation ; and they desired, in case of their not being 
 satisfied, as having exception, or knowing others better 
 qualified, to represent the same to the minister and 
 eldership. If there be no eldership in the congregation, 
 a nomination may be made either by the Presbytery or 
 by the most judicious and godly members of the con- 
 gregation, particularly masters of families, togetlier 
 with the minister, or one or more ministers of the 
 Presbytery in case the congregation are in want of a 
 minister. The trial ^ is to be by the minister and (dder- 
 ship of the congregation, or in case of the want of tliese, 
 by the Presbytery. And they are to be tried both in 
 regard of their conversation — that it be blameless and 
 holy — and also in regard of their knowledge and exper- 
 ience in the things of God and of the affairs of his house, 
 and of their ability and prudence for government. It 
 is true that the trial of Elders, in their knowledge and 
 gifts required for their charge, hath not been much in 
 use in this church, it being taken for granted that con- 
 science would be made in making choice of such as had 
 knowledge, and were able and fit, or that if any ignorant, 
 
 I Second Book of Discipline, cliap. iii. 
 2 Acts, vi, 3, 5 ; xiv, 23 ; Second Book of Discipline, viii, touching the elec- 
 tion of Elders and Deacons. ^ First Book of Discipline, 8th head. 
 
34 DUTIES OF RULING ELDER8. 
 
 or not able and fitted, were nominated, that some of 
 tlie congregation, upon the intimation of their names, 
 would except against them ; but by thi.s means it hath 
 come to pass that many ignorant and unqualified men 
 have been admitted Elders in many congregations to 
 the great detriment of religion and no small reproach 
 to our church. The Apostle, speaking of Dea<;on8, 
 which is the lowest rank of the officers of the church, 
 requires that these also first be proved : tlien let them 
 use the office of a Deacon, being found blameless.^ And 
 the same reasons and grounds that plead for the trial 
 of a minister plead also the trial of Elders, in a way 
 suitable to the qualifications required in them/^ 
 
 Their admission is to be by the minist^^r of the con- 
 gregation, or one appointed by the Presbytfiry, in the 
 presence of the whole congregation, witli the preaching 
 of the word concerning their duty, and with prayer and 
 liumiliation concerning the spirit of their calling to 
 be poured out upon them, and that the pleasure of the 
 Lord may prosper in their hands. At wliich time they 
 are solemnly to engage themselves before the Lord, to 
 be faithful and diligent and watchful over the flock 
 <;ommitted to tlieir charge, and in all the duties of that 
 holy and honourable employment; and the people are 
 also to engage themselves to obey them and U> submit 
 themselves to them in the Lord, and to honour them 
 and highly esteem tJiem in love for their work's sake. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OP THE DUTIEH OF RULING ELDERS. 
 
 'J'liE duties of a Ruling Elder are of two sorts, some that 
 are personal, and relate to his conversation as a Chris- 
 tian, others that are official, and relate to his naling as 
 an office-bearer in the house of God.^ His personal 
 
 ' 1 Timothy, iii, 10. 2 gge the rnarinfcr of electinff and admitting 
 
 liiahterii anrl Elders prefixed to the old Vnix\m hook, 
 a Firht li'Mjk of Diucipline, 8th head ; Second iJook of Discipline, chap. vi. 
 
DUTIES OF RULING ELDERS. 35 
 
 qualitications, or the duties of his conversation, are the 
 same with those which the apostle requires in the con- 
 versation of a minister.^ In which scriptures, under 
 the name of irt^xoTo;, or an overseer, he comprehends all 
 these officers who have the oversight and cliarge of 
 souls,* and sets down what manner of persons he would 
 have them to be in regard of their conversation and 
 carriage. I shall speak of these things with applica- 
 tion to the Ruling Elder. That the Ruling Elder ought 
 to be of a blameless and Christian conversation is above 
 question, but that it may be more distinctly known what 
 the Holy Ghost requires of such in regard of their con- 
 versation, I shall from these scriptures show, 1st, What 
 the apostle would have them not to be — 2nd, What ho 
 would have them to be. The things of the first sort 
 are these : — 1st. A Ruling Elder must not be given to 
 wine, they must not be lovers or followers of strong 
 drink, nor debased in riot and excess, nor tipple away 
 time in alehouses and taverns. 2nd. He must not be a 
 striker nor a brawler, nor given to quarrelling and 
 contentions. 3rd. He must not be covetous nor greedy 
 of filthy lucre ; for the love of money is the root of all 
 evil, which while some covet after, they err from the 
 faith and pierce themselves through with many sorrows. 
 4th. He must not be a novice, or one newly come to 
 the faith, lest he be puffed up with pride, and fall into 
 the condemnation of the devil. The spirits of novices 
 are not yet well ballasted, nor brought low enough by 
 the frequent exercises of the cross, and so come to be 
 more easily puffed up ; therefore there is need that he 
 be an exercised soldier of Jesus Christ, and one who 
 by experience is taught to know the wiles of the devil, 
 and is able to endure hardness, oth. He must not be 
 self-willed, adhering pertinaciously and without reason 
 to his own judgment, and refusing to hearken to the 
 judgment of his brethren though sound and whole- 
 some. 6th. He must not be soon angry, whether upon 
 poal or conceived causes of provocation. 
 The things of the second sort be these : — 1st. He must 
 
 ' 1 Timothy, iii, 2-7: vi. U ; Titu-;. i. 6- S. 
 - The manner of electing of Ministers and EUlers, Jim. Ecclos. lib. ii, chap. iii. 
 
36 DUTIES OF RULIKG ELDERS- 
 
 be blameless, that is, one who walks without offence 
 towards God and men. 2nd. If married, he must be the 
 husband of one wife ; such a one who shuns all unlaw- 
 ful lusts, satisfying himself with and keeping himself 
 within the bounds of the remedy provided of God. 
 .3rd. He must be vigilant, watchful over his own soul, 
 that no temptation prevail upon him, watchful unto 
 every good duty, and to take hold of every opportu- 
 nity of well-doing. 4th. He must be sober and tem- 
 perate and of a sound and humble mind, moderating 
 his own appetite and affections, and satisfying himself 
 with a moderate use of the creatures and of the things 
 of this world. 5th. He must be of a good behaviour or 
 modest, of a grave and staid, yet of an affable and 
 courteous carriage, neither light and vain to the losing 
 of his authority and rendering himself contemptible, 
 nor sullen and self-pleasing to the discouraging and 
 scaring away of the flock by his needless distance and 
 austerity. 6th. Given to hospitality, ready to receive 
 strangers to his house, especially the poor and those 
 ■who are of the houshold of faith. 7th. Apt to teach, 
 that is, a man of knowledge, and able to instruct 
 others, one who hath a ready and willing mind to teach 
 others, which is not so meant as if it were requisite 
 for the Ruling Elder to be endued with the gifts of ex- 
 hortation and instruction competent to the Pastor and 
 Teacher, or that he may and ought to employ himself 
 therein, but of that fitness and ability to teach that is 
 competent to his calling, which he must be ready and 
 willing to exercise so far as belongs thereto. 8th. Mode- 
 rate in the original language, E--/£<;j^r, rendered patient.* 
 Not rigorous, nor exacting the height of the law in his 
 dealing, but in his own particular of a condescending 
 nature, and remitting something of strict justice. 9th. 
 Patient, one who without wearying waits on his duty, 
 notwithstanding difficulties, and doth bear the delays, 
 untractableness. and injuries of others. 10th. Chie 
 who rules well his own house, liaving his children in 
 subjection with all gravity; to which the apostle adds 
 this reason, "if a man kno^v not how to rule his own 
 
 ^ 1 TimoUjv, ill 
 
DUTIES OF RULING ELDERS. 37 
 
 house how shall he take care of the church of God ? " ^ 
 The church of God is of a larger extent than one fam- 
 ily, and the duties to be performed in it be of greater 
 eminency and difficulty, and require more skill, wisdom, 
 and courage than these that are to be performed in a 
 family. The ruling well of his own house doth import 
 not only ability for doing of it, but also that he make 
 conscience of and actually perform these duties that are 
 required for the right and well ordering of a Christian 
 family, to teach and instruct his children and servants 
 in the knowledge of God, to take care of their sanctify- 
 ing the Lord's day, of their profiting in godliness, of 
 their seeking of God, and of their ordering their conver- 
 sation aright, to read the Scriptures, sing psalms, pray 
 in the family, and to exhort, admonish, rebuke, and 
 comfort all that are of his household, as their condition 
 doth require ; for if these duties lye upon all masters 
 of families who profess the Gospel, then in a special 
 way upon Elders, who are appointed to stir up and go 
 before others in the performance thereof. 11th. A 
 lover of good men, one whose soul cleaves to those who 
 fear God, having such in estimation above all others, 
 cherishing them and conversing ordinarily and fa- 
 miliarly with them. 12th. He must be just, one who 
 is straight and upright in all his dealings among men, 
 deceiving no man, defrauding no man, withholding 
 nothing from any man that is due to him, but giving 
 to every man his own. 13th. Holy ; careful to express 
 the life of religion and power of godliness in all his 
 conversation. 14th. He must be one who holds fast 
 the faithful word that he hath been taught, one who is 
 stable in the faith, holding fast the truth of God, with- 
 out wavering or turning aside to error. Lastly. He 
 must bo one who hath a good report of those who are 
 without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the 
 devil, that is, he must be such a one whose blameless 
 conversation and sober and Christian walking doth ex- 
 tort a testimony even from those who know not God, 
 and who doth by well-doing put to silence the igno- 
 
 1 1 Tiinothy, iii, 5. 
 
 D 
 
38 I'lUVATE DUTIES OF RULING ELDERS. 
 
 raii(;o of foolish moii, that if any speak evil of him, as 
 of an ovil-door, thoy may bo asliamod wlio spoak false- 
 ly against his good oonvorsation in Christ. Tlie apos- 
 tle compreluinds all these summarily in two sentences. 
 " Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in 
 conversation, in(;liarity, inspirit, in faitli, in purity."' 
 " But thou, O man of (Jod, flee tliese things; and fol- 
 low after righteousness, godliness, faith, h)VO, patience, 
 meekness."'' 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 1)i;tii;h or thimii (ixlianh vviricir are more i'rivate. 
 
 The duties of their calling are those tliat belong to 
 their watching over and ruling of the tlock,^ and they 
 be of two sorts; some that they are to perform by 
 themselves alone, and so may be called more private 
 duties ; others that they are to f)erform jointly "* with 
 the rest of the overseers of the house of God, and may 
 be called more public. The duties of their calling 
 that be monj private ^ are all these tliat private Chris- 
 tians are bound to perform vnch of tliem unto another, 
 by the law of charity and love, and these are, 1st, To 
 instruct one another ;^ 2ndly, To exhort and stir up 
 one another to j)rovoke unto love and good works ;'' 
 .'irdly. To admonisli and rebuke one another," first, 
 privately, and if they will not liearken, then before 
 witnesses, and if yet tliey will not hearken, then to 
 tell the chundi, and if they will not liear the church 
 then let them be unto us as heathens and publicans;^ 
 4thly, To comfort tlie afHict(;d, and su])port tlie weak;*" 
 .5thly, To restore those that are falhsn ; *' Gtlily, To re- 
 concile thos(5 who are at variance ;'''' 7thly, To pray 
 one for another ; *^ 8thly, To visit tlie si(;k and those 
 
 ' 1 Till... iv, 12. ^ 1 Tim., vi, H. 
 
 •■' Fimt Hook of Diftcipiiiu', Htli licad ; Hccoiul Hook of Di«t!iplirHM-h«p. vi. 
 ' AHHiTtion of the (lOvt-nmitTit of tlio (y'liurch of Bcotlund, I'urt I; fli.ij.. 
 ii. I'jirt I, p. Ifi. " -lun. EcHcs, lil». ii, cap. 8, p. 107. 
 
 " .Ir.l), ir. 29 : Act«, xviii. 2fi. ^ i|,.b. x, 24, '2r,. » Lev., xix. 17. 
 
 '■> .M;itth., xviii, 1.0-17. ,m 1 TliesH., v, 11. " (;!il.. vi, 1. 
 
 12 Mattli., V. a '•■' .liuk-, 10. 
 
PRIVATE DUTIES OF RULING ELDERS. 39 
 
 w]io are in bonds and distress.^ All these duties El- 
 ders are to perform to the several members of the con- 
 gregation by virtue of their calling. The Scriptures 
 do expressly mention some of them as incumbent unto 
 them, to wit, admonishing those over whom C4od hath 
 set them ; ^ visiting and praying over the sick f feed- 
 ing the flock by instruction, exhortation, rebuke, and 
 comfort, in such a way as is competent to their station.* 
 The rest we may warrantably gather by analogy and 
 proportion from these. If private Christians be obliged 
 thereto, much more are Christian Elders, who have the 
 charge of souls in a special way, obliged thereto. 
 These things are well expressed in the sixth chapter 
 of the Second Book of Discipline. As the Pastors and 
 Doctors, say they, should be diligent in teaching and 
 sowing the seed of the word,'^ so the Elders should be 
 careful in seeking of the fruit of the same of the people. 
 It appertains to them to assist the Pastor in examina- 
 tion of them that come to the Lord's table. In visit- 
 ing the sick they should cause the Acts of the As- 
 semblies, as well particular as general, to be put in 
 execution carefully ; they should be diligent to ad- 
 monish all men of their duty according to the rule of 
 the evangelist ; things that they cannot correct by pri- 
 vate admonition they should bring to the eldership. 
 
 From what hath been said concerning these duties 
 of Ruling Elders these three things follow : 1st, That 
 they ought to be men of such ability as are in some 
 measure able to instruct, exhort, admonish, rebuke, 
 comfort, pray, and do these duties now mentioned. 
 2ndly, That is needful for them not only to have 
 some measure of ability for these things, but also to 
 have some measure of dexterity, wisdom, experience, 
 tenderness, in following the same, ordly. That they 
 be well ac^quainted with the condition of the congre- 
 gation and the members thereof, and therefore be 
 careful to observe their carriage, and frequently to 
 visit and take inspection of families, that they may 
 
 ' Math.. XXV. 36. 2 1 Thess.. v, !•.>. s James, v, 14. 
 
 «.Acts, XX, 28. 5 Second Book of Discipline, chap. vi. 
 
40 rUBLIC DUTIES OF RULING ELDERS. 
 
 instruct the ignorant, exhort the negligent, admonish 
 the slothful, and rebuke those who walk disorderly ; 
 comfort the afflicted, establish those who waver; visit 
 the pick, encourage those who do well, and see piety 
 and godliness promoted in families, and every one 
 edifying anotlier in love, walking in the fear of the 
 J^ord and comfort of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 CilAPTEll VI. 
 
 OF THOSE DUTIES WiriCIl ARE MORE I'URLIC, AND WHICH 
 TlfFY ARE TO FERFORM JOINTLY WITH OTHERS. 
 
 'J'he duties of Elders which are more public, and 
 which they are to perform jointly with others,' are 
 tliose wliicli lie upon tliem in the assemblies or courts 
 of the church, wliicli are made up of preaching Elders, 
 teaching Elders, and Ruling Elders. These assem- 
 blies are in our church of four sorts : either they are 
 of the Elders of particular congregations, which is the 
 Cliurch-session, or of the Elders of more congregations 
 than one lying near togetlicr, which is the Presbytery, 
 or of the l^^ldcrs of more presbyteries than one, which 
 is the Provincial Hynod, or of the Elders' Commis- 
 sioiHjrs from all the presbyteries in the land, whicli is 
 tlie General or National Assembly. To these we may 
 add a fifth sort, to wit, that whi(;h is made up of El- 
 ders from all or divers nations professing the faith of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 Whilst we speak of Elders, of which the assemblies 
 of the church are made up, wo mean all sorts of Elders 
 — Ministers, Doctors, and lluling J^Uders. It is true 
 tliat in the congregations of our (diurch, because of the 
 want of maintenance, there l)e few or no Doctors or 
 teaching Elders, distinct from Pastors or Ministers, 
 who perform the duties both of the preaching Elder 
 
 ' FirHf Hook of DiHcijtliiie, 8th hesid ; Sccoiul Iiuul<^ cliup. vi. The ufiice 
 iiinl (luiios of Eld'Ts i)n'iixi'<i Vi the Fsahii i^uok. 
 
PUBLIC DUTIES OF RULING ELDERS. 41 
 
 and of the teaching Elder — only in the schools of di- 
 vinity are such. In all assemblies of the church,' 
 Ruling Elders, being thereto rightly called, have power 
 to sit, write, debate, vote, and conclude in all matters 
 thatare handled therein. ° Thethings which arc liandled 
 in the assemblies of the church be either matters of 
 faith, matters of order, matters of discipline, or that 
 which concerneththe sending of church officers, accord- 
 ing to which they have a fourfold power.^ 1st, That 
 which is called Dogmatic, whereby they judge of truth 
 and error in points of doctrine, according to the word 
 of God only. 2nd, That which is called Diatactic, by 
 which they discern and judge of the circumstances of 
 those things that belong to the worship of God, as times, 
 places, persons, and all such particulars in ecclesiastic 
 affairs as are not determined in the word, according to 
 the general rules thereof, concerning order and decency, 
 avoiding of scandal, doing all to the glory of God, and 
 to the edifying of the church. 3rd, That which is 
 Critic or Corrective, by which censures arc exercised 
 upon the scandalous and obstinate, and such as are 
 penitent again admitted to the ordinances, fellowship, 
 and society of the church. 4th, That which is called 
 Exusiastic, by virtue of whicli they send, authorise, 
 and give power to church officers to serve in the house 
 of God. All these assemblies are not to exercise all 
 these powers, but to keep themselves within due bounds, 
 the inferior leaving these things that are of more com- 
 mon concernment to the superior ; but in all those 
 powers Ruling Elders have a share, and do put forth 
 the same in exercise according to the measure that 
 belongs to the assembly whereof tliey are members,* 
 Howbeit the execution of some decrees of the church 
 Assemblies — such as the imposition of hands, the pro- 
 nouncing the sentence of excommunication, the re- 
 ceiving of penitents, the intimation of the deposition 
 of ministers, and such like, do belong to ministers alone . 
 
 1 Second Book of Discipline, chaps, vi and vii. 
 
 - Acts, XV, 2, and vi, 22, 23. 
 
 3 First Book of Discipline, cliap. vii. * Acts, .\v, 0, 2:', 23. 
 
 D2 
 
42 ' PUBLIC DUTIES OF RULING ELDERS. 
 
 These being the duties and powers of Ruling Elders 
 ill the Assemblies of the church, it is requisite that 
 they be indued with such abilities and qualifications 
 ;is are needful for the exercising thereof. But because 
 .'ill Ruling Elders are not always called to sit in all 
 these Assemblies, but one from every Session sufficeth 
 to the Presbytery and provincial Synods, and a few 
 from every Presbytery and from greater congregations 
 or Burghs therein, to the General Assembly, as also a 
 few from the whole church throughout the land to a 
 more universal assembly, therefore, though it is to be 
 wished and endeavoured that all Elders may have due 
 qualifications for all these things, and though special 
 care is to be taken everywhere to choose the most 
 qualified, yet, in particular congregations, men may 
 1)0 chosen Elders who have not such a measure of all 
 these qualifications, they being otherwise men of a 
 blameless and Christian conversation, and having such 
 a measure of knowledge and prudence as is fit for 
 governing that congregation and judging of the things 
 tliat are handled in the Session thereof, which for the 
 most part are matters of scandal, and trying and ad- 
 mitting of penitents : but if there be any who are not 
 of a blameless and Christian conversation, and have 
 not some measure of those qualifications required by 
 the word of God in a Ruling Elder, no congregation 
 ought to choose any such, nor any Session or Presby- 
 tery to admit them to the cliarge, for it is not seemly 
 that the servants of corruption should have authority 
 to judge in the kirk of God, and if any such have 
 been admitted, they are to endeavour the removal of 
 them, as they would not partake of their sin, and be 
 found guilty before the Lord of the blood of souls, 
 which cannot but sufl:er prejudice through negligence 
 or ill guiding of such men. 
 
DUTY OF RULING ELDERS. 43 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OF THE DUTY OF ELDERS IN CENSURING SCANDALS AND 
 SCANDALOUS PERSONS, AND RECEIVING OF PENITENTS. 
 
 Because the government and duty of Elders in con- 
 gregations lies for most part in censuring scandals 
 and scandalous persons, and trying and admitting of 
 penitents, therefore it is fit to speak somewhat of their 
 right way of following their duty in these things, — 
 1st. For the persons about whom their censures are to 
 be exercised, it is all the members of the congregation 
 indifferently and impartially, without respect of per- 
 sons, the rich as well as the poor, the high as well as 
 the low, their friends, kinsmen, alliance, neighbours, 
 and acquaintance, as well as others.^ 2nd. The word 
 sharply reproves those who have the faith of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ the Lord of glory with respect of persons, 
 by preferring the rich to the poor, and Solomon says 
 that diverse weights and measures are an abomination 
 to the Lord ; must it not then be worthy of rebuke to 
 have the censures of our Lord Jesus with respect of 
 persons, and to weigh the rich and the poor, the high 
 and the low, in diverse balances, by taking notice of 
 the one and passing by the other. 3rd. It is incum- 
 bent on them to exercise their power not only over the 
 people of the congregation, but also over those of their 
 own number. As all Christians, so they in a special 
 way who are to be followers in the work of the Lord, 
 ought to consider and admonish one another, and if 
 any of them be found negligent or insufficient, or do 
 in any thing miscarry to the offence of the Gospel and 
 blaming of the eldership, he is to be censured by the 
 minister or ministers and the rest of the elders as the 
 degree of his offence doth require.'^ The Apostle PauP 
 
 1 First Jiook of Discipline, concerning persons subject to Discijtline; Secoiui 
 Book of Discipline, cliaps. i and vii. 
 
 ' First Dook of Discipline, and head, Tlie weekly assembling of Ministers, 
 Elders, and Deacons, prefixed to the old I'sahns. ^ Acts, xx, L'8. 
 
44 DUTY OF RULING ELDERS. 
 
 gives charge to all Elders to take heed to themselFes, 
 as well as to the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath 
 made them overseers. 4th. As all sorts of scandalous 
 persons, whether in the congregation or amongst them- 
 selves, so all sorts of scandals and offences are to be 
 taken notice of bj them. The apostle, in 2 Thes., iii, 6, 
 commands that we withdraw from every brother that 
 walketh disorderly, and amongst disorderly walkers he 
 doth, in verse 11, reckon idle persons who do no work 
 at all but are busybodies ; intimating to us that even 
 these scandals and disorders which are by many little 
 taken notice of and looked upon as no faults, ought to 
 be taken notice of by the church, that all lier members 
 may walk honestly and as it becomes the gospel of 
 Jesus Christ. The acts of our church do appoint 
 that whatsoever it be that might spot the Christian 
 congregation ought not to escape either admonitions 
 or censures ; so in the order of ecclesiastic disciplme, 
 1567. Two great neglects there be that by ignorance 
 or custom have crept in among Elders in many con- 
 gregations. 1st, That they do not take notice of the 
 omission of duties as the commission of faults : as, for 
 instance, — If there be any member of the congrega- 
 tion who lives idly and waits not upon his calling, who 
 is not given to prayer, who is not charitable to the 
 poor, who waits not upon the public ordinances, if 
 there be any master of a family who prays not in his 
 family, who does not bring up his children in the nur- 
 ture and admonition of the Lord ; or, 2nd, That they 
 do not take notice of the commission of faults, and 
 scandals of all sorts, but of some few only, such as 
 fornication, adultery, and profaning of the Lord's day, 
 and suffering many others, such as tippling, drunken- 
 ness, filthy communication, lying, cursing, swearing, 
 oppression, reproaching of piety, and godliness, <fcc., 
 to pass without observation. .3rd. Elders are to take 
 heed that they bring in no civil questions and debates 
 before the Assemblies of the church, and that they do 
 not use nor inflict any civil mulct or punishment upon 
 persons convicted of scandal, these being proper to the 
 
DUTY OF RULING ELDERS. 45 
 
 civil magistrate,^ — the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and 
 the censures thereof, being spiritual and not of this 
 world.^ 4th. In the taking notice of offenders they 
 are to observe this order : If the otfence be private 
 and known to but a few, then thej are, in tlie first 
 place, to admonish the offender privately ; and if he 
 hearken to the admonition and amend, it needs go no 
 farther, nor be delated to the church ; if he does not 
 hearken nor amend, then is the elder to take with him 
 some of his brethren and to admonisli the offender 
 before witnesses, and if he hearken, tlie church needs 
 not be acquainted therewith ; but if he despise this 
 second admonition, then is he to be delated by the 
 Elder to the church, that he may be called before the 
 Session and convicted and censured by them.^ This 
 is the order commanded and prescribed by Jesus 
 Christ.* If the offence be public and open, then is 
 the offender, without such previous admonition, to be 
 delated to the Session, that, according to the Apostle's 
 rule,^ ** They that sin (meaning openly) may be rebuked 
 before all, that others may fear."^ 5th. In these de- 
 lations they are to take heed that they do not upon 
 every rumour and jealousy or suspicion bring men to 
 be questioned publicly as scandalous walkers, but first 
 to be careful to make diligent and prudent enquiry 
 about the truth of the matter, and to see if it can be 
 proven by witnesses, or that the scandal thereof be 
 (jommon and flagrant, or attended with frequent like- 
 lihoods and presumptions of truth, before they bring 
 it in public, that so it may appear to the congrega,tion 
 an"d to the party themselves that they are not ques- 
 tioned and cliallenged without cause. In the matter 
 of delation and censure they are in the fear of God 
 and in the simplicity and sincerity of their hearts to 
 take heed that fear or favour or solicitations or threat- 
 enings or gifts or bribes do not make them pass by or 
 
 1 Fiist Book of Discipline, chap, vii, sect. 6. 2 John, xviii, 36. 
 
 3 The order of Ecclesiastic Discipline appointed by the Assembly 1567, and 
 in the Order of Excommunication commanded to be printed by the Assembly 
 157L * Matthew, xviii, 15-17. » 1 Timothy, v, -0. 
 
 6 Second Book of Discipline, chap, vi, sect. 1'-'. 
 
46 DUTY OF RULING ELDERS. 
 
 wink at the fault of any, and that passion or malice 
 or private quarrels and particulars make them not to 
 delate or rip up or censure the miscarriage of any ; 
 and that they carry with all tenderness and compas- 
 sion and moderation towards the offender, that they 
 may approve themselves to his conscience ; that no- 
 tliing puts them on to delate him and proceed against 
 him but the conscience of duty and a desire to gain 
 %is soul, and to purge the church of scandals.^ It is 
 a high provocation before the Lord for a church officer 
 to abuse the power given him of God, for edifying his 
 body the church unto the satisfying of his own pas- 
 sions and corrupt affections. 6th. They are to take 
 heed that they do not use the censures of the church 
 as a bodily punishment or penance to satisfy for sin, 
 but a spiritual medicine for humbling and gaining of 
 the soul ; all church censures, even excommunication 
 itself, which is the most terrible and destroying-like 
 censure, being ordained of God for this end.^ The 
 apostle commands to deliver the incestuous person to 
 .Satan, not that he may satisfy for liis sin, but that 
 the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. The word satisfaction may admit of a toler- 
 able construction in church censures, in order to the 
 removing of the scandal before men ; but tliis being 
 so much abused in the Popish church, and the liearts 
 of men being so prone to turn true gospel repentance 
 to a mere legal penance, and to conceive tliat by mere 
 outward submission and obedience to the censures of 
 the church, the guilt of their sin is done away before 
 God, therefore Elders should carefully shun eve'ry 
 thing that may give occasion to the fostering this per- 
 nicious opinion, and take pains to instruct offenders in 
 the true nature and ends of the censures of the kirk. 
 7th. A great part of the Elder's work is to travail and 
 take pains with scandalous persons, who are now con- 
 victed^ — to bring them to repentance by seasonable 
 and frequent conference — instructing, exhorting, and 
 
 1 Galatians, vi, 1 ; 2 Corinthians, iv, 2. 2 1 CorintliianR, x, 5. 
 
 2 The form and order of public repentance prefixed to the old I'sahn Book. 
 
DUTY OF RULING ELDERS. 47 
 
 admouishing them, until thej perceive some measure 
 of true and earnest humiliation wrought in them for 
 their sin, and thej fitted to evidence and declare the 
 same in public before the congregation, that so the 
 scandal may be removed. 8th. Thej are not to desire 
 or appoint any to profess repentance before the con- 
 gregation, until the signs of repentance appear in 
 them. The incestuous Corinthian sorrowed exceed- 
 ingly before the apostle did any thing concerning the 
 receiving of him. And the discipline of our church 
 appoints Ministers and Elders sharply to examine 
 those who offer tliemselves to repentance what fear 
 and terror they have of God's judgments, what hatred 
 of sin and sorrow for the same, and what sense and 
 feeling they have of God's mercies — the which, if they 
 be ignorant, they ought diligently to be instructed ; 
 for it is, say they, but a mocking to put such to public 
 repentance who neither understand " what sin is, what 
 repentance is, what grace is, nor by whom God's mer- 
 cies and favours are purchased." And that after he is 
 instructed in these things, and brought to have some 
 taste of God's judgments, especially of his mercies in 
 Jesus Christ, he may be presented before the public 
 church. These things are set down in the form and 
 order of public repentance, appointed by the Assem- 
 bly 1567. 
 
 Lastly, When the signs and evidences of true and 
 unfeigned repentance do appear in those who have 
 offended. Elders should show themselves ready and 
 willing to receive them with all tenderness and com- 
 passion, and to forgive and comfort them, and confirm 
 their love towards them.^ The number of Elders in 
 every congregation cannot be well limited or deter- 
 mined ; but it is to be more or less according to the 
 quantity of the congregation, and necessities and con- 
 dition of the people, and as men qualified and fit for 
 the charge can be found. It hath been an evil custom 
 in some congregations, that rather than they would 
 want any of their wonted number they would choose 
 
 1 Fii-st Book of Discipline, chap, vi, sect. 4 ; 2 Cor., ii, 7, s. 
 
48 DUTY OF RULING ELDERS. 
 
 imqualitied men ; and that in several congregations 
 the office of Elder hath been given to those of the 
 richer and higher sort, as due to such (though un- 
 happily of no experience in the tilings of Jesus Christ, 
 and in many things of an untender and blameworthy 
 conversation,) because of their condition in the world, 
 or conceiving that their secular power and credit was 
 the best means to promote the kingdom of Jesus Christ; 
 and men qualified with knowledge and experience in 
 the things pertaining to souls, and of a Christian and 
 godly carriage, have been passed by because of a mean 
 condition in the world. Better it is that the number 
 be few, before we choose the ignorant and scandalous, 
 and that they be of a low degree if godly, than of a 
 high degree if otherwise. That Elders may the more 
 <"onveniently discharge their duty,^ it is convenient 
 that the congregation be divided into so many parts, 
 and that some competent part be assigned to the more 
 peculiar care and inspection of every Elder, yet so as 
 he neglect not to take heed to all the flock of God, 
 over which the Holy Ghost hath made him an overseer. 
 
 1 Acts of the Assembly 164C. ,* 
 
OF DEACONS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 OF THEIR NAME. 
 
 THAT we may also understand what doth belong 
 unto Deacons, we shall speak of them shortly after 
 die same order: — 1st, Of their name; 2nd, Of their in- 
 stitution ; 3rd, Of their calling ; 4th, Of their duty and 
 qualification. The word Deacon, largely taken, sig- 
 nifies any servant or minister.^ Therefore in the New 
 Testament it doth sometimes compreliend all church 
 officers, even the apostles themselves. ^ Because every 
 church officer is appointed of God for perfecting of the 
 saints, for the work of the ministry, £<? s^yv S/««;ov/«j, 
 and edifying the body of Christ.^ When we speak of 
 Deacons in the kirk, it is not taken in this large sense 
 for any church officer of whatsoever sort, but for a 
 certain kind of church officers,'^ distinct from pastors, 
 teachers, and elders, to whom the collection and dis- 
 tribution of the goods of the church doth belong, for 
 the supply of the necessities of the poor. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 OF THE INSTITUTION OF DEACONS. 
 
 The institution of the office of Deacon in the church 
 of Christ is divine — it is a special ordinance and ap- 
 
 1 First Book of Discipline, chap, viii : Matth.. xxiii, 11. - 1 Cur., iii, « 
 
 3 Eph., iv, 12. i First Book of Discipline, chap. viii. 
 
 E 
 
:j--j I^;«TimiOX OF DEACOSi-;. 
 
 pointment of Jesus Christ, that there should be Dea- 
 cons in his hous€.^ * The apostle gives command to the 
 disciples to choose out among themselves men of ho- 
 nest report, full of the Holj Ghost and of wisdom, 
 whom thev might appoint over the business of the 
 poor, which was accordingly done, as may be seen in 
 the 5th and 6th verses of that chapter. Neither was 
 this a temporary institntion upon this particular occa- 
 sion for the church of J«usalem only, but for all the 
 churches of Christ to the end of the world.^ Therefore 
 the apostle Paul, in several of his epistles to the 
 churches, doth mention them.* He eihorteth him that 
 gives or imparts (i.e. the Deacon, to whom the care of 
 giving and distributing is committed,) to do it with 
 simplicity.^ lie reckons helps Ci.e. Deacons, who arc 
 appointed for helping the po^>r,) among those officers 
 whom God hath set in his church ; and writing to the 
 Philippians, he directs his epistle to all the saints in 
 Christ, with the Bishops, (or overseers, under whom he 
 comprehends ministers, teachers, and elders,) and to the 
 Deacons,® wherein he gives rules concerning the qualifi- 
 
 
 
 •c onlaini: 
 >cia«ti»il , 
 
 'yjDce «nJch tiie a; 
 , or bafitizinif. Pbi 
 
 ■sj..-: a t' 
 
 any 
 
 foTitsr- 
 
 
 '■•'■■ 
 
 wtrr ■• 
 
 
 
 ottr 
 
 late 
 
 for- 
 
 
 i 'r<; - 
 
 .'m«. 
 
 an/i- 
 
 ■', ab- 
 
 .'.'.ake 
 
 tinij. 
 
 solve the faithful fr'»m • 
 Hier. Savanarola. Tnt. 
 Tip the pT'/per (ASisx of iwc ; ^ —". > 
 - As touthinp Deacons, ther w« 
 receiring. and dirtribatiBf of eceU 
 T<;r». «cbo4*. c-har-^' ' "• ■' ' 
 lattcal Deacons h 
 
 appointed to then 
 
 »J,^ ... 
 iic 
 
 1^> ■ 
 
 -hi, 
 
 
 ofhisfai- 
 
 'i-tlrr.'o:.; 
 
 .iae, chap. ^iii. > - 1 Cor., xiL 
 
 * I Timothr. 
 
INSTITUTION OF DEACON^. 51 
 
 cation and carriage of all church officers, lie treats of 
 the Deacons at large, ch. iii, 8-13. 
 
 From the divine institution of Deacons we gather 
 — 1st, That the Deacon is a distinct officer from 
 the Elder.^ It is a defect and fault in some cou-^ 
 gregations that thej put no difference betwixt these 
 two, but so confound and mingle them together, 
 as if they were both one, either appointing none for 
 the office of Deacon, but leaving that charge also upon 
 the elders, or else giving the Deacons the same power 
 and employment with the elders. It is true whatsoever 
 the Deacon may do by virtue of his office, that same 
 may be done by an elder, as whatsoever is done by an 
 elder may be done by a minister ; because the higher 
 and more eminent officers in the church include the 
 powers of the lower. It is also true that the Dea- 
 cons may assist in judgment with the ministers and 
 elders, 2 and be helping to them in those things that 
 concern the oversight of the congregations by infor- 
 mation and advice ; yet it is necessary that congrega- 
 tions should so far regard the ordinances and reverence 
 the wisdom of God in appointing these officers, as to 
 have both Elders and Deacons, and to preserve them 
 distinct in their actings and operations, not giving to 
 the Deacons or suffering them to assume the Elder's 
 office. 2nd, That Deacons are not to count light of 
 this employment, or any others to esteem lighdy of 
 them, because they are called thereunto and do exercise 
 the same ; but that they themselves and all others ought 
 to look upon it as one of these holy and honourable 
 employments which the wisdom of God hath thought 
 fit to appoint in his house for supplying the necessities 
 of the saints. The Lord Jesus himself did not disdain 
 to wash his disciples' feet; angels are all of them mi- 
 nistering spirits, sent forth to minister for their sakes 
 who are appointed to be heirs of salvation. Why then 
 should any think it below them to serve the church of 
 Christ, and to minister to the saints in this employ- 
 ment?^ 
 
 1 First Book of Discipline, chap, ii, p. 74. - Ibiil., p. 57. ^ 1 Tim., iii, IS- 
 
52 CALLING AND DUTY OF DEAC058, 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OF THE CALLDfG OF DEACONS. 
 
 None is to step into this office but he that is lawfollj 
 called thereto.^ Unto their calling it is needful — 1st, 
 That the J have abilities and gifts fit for the charge, to- 
 gether with an honest purpose of heart to serre the 
 'Lord faithfully in the discharge of the same, by seek- 
 ing his honour and the good of the church. 2nd, 
 That they be chosen by the congregation in which 
 they are to serve, which choice is to be made after the 
 same manner as that of a Ruling Elder. 3rd, That trial 
 be taken by the minister and elders concerning their 
 conversation, that it be blameless and holy; and conem- 
 ing their gifts, that they have that tenderness, discre- 
 tion, dexterity, and prudence that is fit for that em- 
 ployment, andthattheybe admitted to their charge with 
 prayer and- supplication and opening of the word, con- 
 cerning their duty, publicly in the congregation, where 
 they are solenmly to engage themselves to be faithful in 
 the trust committed to them of God.^ 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 or THEIR DUTY — FIRST, OF THEIR COXVEBSATIOK. 
 
 Their duty is either that which concerns their conver- 
 sation or their office and calling. For their conver- 
 sation the apostle shows what it must be." 1. They must 
 not be double-tongued nor liers nor dissemblers nor de- 
 ceivers. 2. They must not be given to much wine, nor 
 tipplers nor drunkards, nor lovers nor followers of strong 
 drink. 3. They must not be greedy of filthy lucre, nor 
 such as are covetous, and whose hearts run after the 
 
 ' Second Book of Discipline, chap, vfii 
 2 Acts, vi 3, 5, 6 : 1 Timothy, iii, 10. « 1 TimotbT. iii, fe-12. 
 
DUTY OF DEACONS. 53 
 
 things of tlio world. 4. They must be grave men, of a 
 posed and staid carriage, and not of a light and vain be- 
 haviour. 5. They must be such as hold fast the mystery 
 of faith in a pure conscience, that is, who do not only 
 know the doctrine of the Gospel, but do hold fast tlie 
 faith thereof without wavering, andstudy to have a good 
 conscience in walking answerably thereto. G. They must 
 be the husband of one wife, such as abstain from all 
 unlawful lusts, satisfying themselves with the remedy 
 allowed of God. 7. They must be such as rule their own 
 houses and their children well ; such as command and 
 instruct their children and household to keep the way 
 of the Lord, going before them in the practice of piety 
 and godliness, and all holy and religious duties. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 OF THE DUTIES OF THEIR CALLING. 
 
 The duties that Deacons are bound to perform in their 
 calling may be reduced to these heads :^ 1st, That they 
 be careful to take exact notice of such as are poor in 
 the congregation, and have not wherewith to maintain 
 themselves. 2nd, That they be careful from time to 
 time to collect and receive from the several members 
 of the congregation and strangers that come among 
 them what the Lord shall incline their hearts to give 
 for a supply of the necessities of the poor ; and in a 
 seasonable and Christian way to stir up and exhort to 
 charity and liberality that the more may be given. 3rd, 
 That what is received and collected by them be faithful- 
 ly delivered that it may be put into the treasury of the 
 congregation. 4th, That they do timcously make known 
 the several conditions and necessities of the several 
 poor within the congregation to the Church Session, 
 that provision may be appointed accordingly for each 
 of them, that so the poor may not be put to begging, to 
 
 1 Second Book of I'liscipline, chap. viii. 
 E2 
 
54 . DUTY OF DEACONS. 
 
 the grief of their spirits and the reproach of tlie GospeL 
 5th, That they be careful, honestly and in simplicity, 
 without respect of persons, to distrihutfi and deliver to 
 the poor what is appointed for supply of their necessi- 
 ties ; and if they ha orphans and young ones, or such 
 who have no knowledge nor understanding, nor ability 
 to dispose and order the things that concern their food 
 and raiment, that the Deacons honestly employ and be- 
 stow what is given for their use that they may be sup- 
 plied in these things. 6th, That they be careful that 
 what belongs to the poor be not dilapidated nor ap- 
 plied to any other use; and if there be any stock in 
 the church treasure it be improved to the >>est advan- 
 tage for the benefit and use of the poor. Yet so that 
 the poor be rather always supplied than money trea- 
 sured up for a vain show. 7th, That they be careful 
 to take notice of those that are sick that they may ac- 
 quaint the ministers and elders therewith for visiting 
 them, and if they be poor, that their necessiticH may 
 be supplied. 
 
 That Deacons may the more conveniently discharge 
 their duty, it is fit that some part of the congregation 
 be assigned to every one of them for the better inspec- 
 tion of the poor thereof, and that the diets of collecting 
 for the poor be divided amongst them. 
 
 The number of Dearjons in every congregation is 
 to be according to the proportion of the congregation 
 and of the poor therein ; and though there be no ne- 
 cessity of an eoual number of Polders and Deacons, 
 yet it is fit tFiat eaf:h Elder have some Deacon to be 
 assisting to him in the bounds of which he hath more 
 peculiar inspection, that so both the one and the other 
 may discharge their duty with tlic greater facility to 
 themselves, and with the greater benefit and advan - 
 tage to the congregation. 
 
SCEIPTUBAL AUTHORITY 
 
 OFFICE OF RULING ELDER. 
 
SCRIPTURAL AUTHORITY 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 OFFICE OF RULING ELDER. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 THOUGH the foregoing admirable Tract summarily 
 embraces most of the leading points connected with 
 the eldership in the Presbyterian church, and is com- 
 posed in a style far ahead of the age in which it was 
 written — a plain proof that it is the production of a 
 superior mind — and though the views of the office 
 which it unfolds be most exact and enlightened, still 
 there is room for additional observations. The Scrip- 
 ture argument, as well as that which is drawn from 
 church history, admits of a much more ample illus- 
 tration, and such statements are peculiarly called for 
 in the present day. I have only to regret the neces- 
 sary repetition of sentiments which may already have 
 been expressed in the Tract of Guthrie, but this the 
 intelligent reader will readily bear with. There is 
 not a little in what follows which, it is believed, will 
 be new and interesting to many readers. 
 
 In treating of the office of Elder, it is impossible 
 to avoid alluding to the question of the Scriptural 
 form of church government — a question as to which 
 Presbyterians seriously diff'er from many with whom 
 they are happily at one in the higher question of doc- 
 trine; but I shall not enter more into these points 
 than is absolutely necessary to vindicate the procedure 
 of the Presbyterian church. I shall not unnecessarily 
 assail the principles and practice of other Protestant 
 and evangelical churches. In treating of church 
 
58 CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 
 
 government at all, or of a leading part of it, of course 
 it is impossible to avoid altogether referring to oppo- 
 site and rival systems of rule. I trust, however, that 
 where this is done, it will be done without bitterness 
 or prejudice, in a firm and decided, but withal gentle 
 and Christian spirit. 
 
 I am not called upon to enter on the general ques- 
 tion of churcli government — to advocate Presbytery 
 as opposed to Prelacy and Independency or Congre- 
 gationalism — to maintain the equality of ministers 
 against the one, or a gradation of Courts, embracing 
 Kirk Sessions, Presbyteries, Synods, and General 
 Assemblies, against the exclusive rule of each indi- 
 vidual congregation in the other. It is one part, and 
 only one, but now a distinctive part of Presbyterian 
 church government which I am called on to consider, 
 and that is the office of the Ruling Elder. The time 
 was when this office was substantially recognised by 
 Episcopalians. Eminent Prelatic writers could be 
 referred to in proof of this point. And the time was 
 when the most distinguished Independent writers, and 
 even official documents of Independent churches could 
 be appealed to, vindicating its scriptural authority:^ 
 but in more modern times these views have disappear- 
 ed, and now the Ruling Elder is one of tlie distin- 
 guishing characteristics of Presbyterian church go- 
 vernment. It is essential to its existence: and to few 
 parts of the Presbyterian system are Episcopalians 
 and Independents more keenly opposed. Indeed they 
 have made it a matter of no small reproach. The 
 term " lay elder" is itself a term of disparagement ; 
 but the reproach is unfounded. There is no such of- 
 fice. The office of Elder is an ecclesiastical one. He 
 
 1 One of the most masterly vindications of the office of the Ruling Elder 
 on Scrii)tural grouilds is to be found in Dr. Owen's ' True Nature of a (iospel 
 Church and its Government,' pp. 2-.'4-30:i, written at a time when he was an 
 Independent. Indeed all the distinguished British Independents of the seven- 
 teenth century held the same views. And from Mather's ' Magnalia,' (Plat- 
 form of Church niscipUiie, 1C49,) it is manifest that the (Jon;j;regational 
 Churches of New England, which were generally looked up to by rchijinus 
 parties in this country as the very representatives of pure Congregational 
 principles, recognised the same office as of divine authority, ami embodied it 
 in their standards. 
 
CnURCII GOVERNMENT. 50 
 
 who holds it ceases to be a layman. The proper term 
 is Ruling Elder, to distinguish it from the Minister, 
 who is a Teaching Elder, or Bishop.^ 
 
 All agree tliat there must be government of some 
 kind in the Christian church. Without this it is not 
 an organised body: it is a miscellaneous mob — open 
 to universal anarchy and confusion. All, too, agree 
 in holding that Christ has appointed a particular go- 
 vernment in his church. Men have differed as to 
 the place where, or persons in whom the right of go- 
 vernment is placed by Scripture. Some have reposed 
 it in one or a few individuals, overseeing the whole 
 flock — this is Prelacy or Episcopacy, which corres- 
 ponds to what in civil government would be called an 
 absolute monarchy. Others have vested it in the 
 whole body of Christian members male and female, in 
 a particular congregation, and without any appeal to 
 others — this is Congregationalism or Indopendency, 
 and corresponds in civil government to democracy. 
 And others again have placed it in Church courts 
 composed of ministers and elders elected by the church 
 members, with the liberty of appeal from one court of 
 review to another, in order to secure the highest wis- 
 dom and judgments unbiassed by local prejudice — 
 this last is Presbytery, the form of government under 
 which the members of the Church of Scotland have 
 the happiness to live. It is essentially representative, 
 and corresponds to the popular branch of a limited 
 monarchy or republic. 
 
 These three forms of government exhaust the great 
 leading divisions of ecclesiastical rule. Power must 
 
 ' Perhaps it would tend to correct false impressions as to officers in the 
 (Miristian church, were the Presbyterians of this country to adopt tlie prac- 
 tice, which is tV^llowed by their brethren in the United States of America, of 
 using only Scriptural names when speakinji^ of their ecclesiastical officers. 
 Tlius, in reportinf; members to the (Jenoral Assembly of the Presbyterian 
 Clnirch of America, ministers are styled bishops, and "elders are denominat- 
 ed ruling elilers. This restores the word bishop to its primitive Scripture 
 ineaninH', and deprives our Episcopalian friends of an undue advantage 
 which they possess, from the popular impression that there can be no 
 bishops but dioiesan bishops, such as govern the Church of England, cuing 
 to the word in connnon speech being appropriated to them. In the same 
 way, the term elder would be speedily set free from absurd and unmerited 
 reproach. More error is conveyed and perpetuated by incorrect names 
 tJfian many imagine. They evert an injurious influence even over miud» 
 which know better. 
 
60 RULING ELDERS DESIRABLE. 
 
 be reposed somewhere, either in the hands of a few, or 
 in the hands of a multitude, or in representatives elect- 
 ed from the many. Now, as I have said, all Christian 
 churches are agreed that Christ has appointed a par- 
 ticular government in His house. The question is, 
 which is the government; and though far inferior in 
 importance to the question of what is saving truth, 
 still it is not to be despised. It is of high importance, 
 and is daily rising in magnitude. Not long ago good 
 men were disposed to give up all points of mere gov- 
 ernment, form, discipline, and worship, as matters of 
 no moment. But this latitudinarianism is not coun- 
 tenanced by Scripture, and the course of events is 
 rapidly bringing them round to sounder views. 
 
 The point which I am called upon to establish is 
 that the office of the Ruling Elder, as distinct from 
 the Minister on the one hand and the Deacon on the 
 other, is an ecclesiastical office, founded on express 
 scriptural authority, and that no Christian church is 
 entitled to dispense with it. However important maj 
 be the considerations of expediency in behalf of this 
 office — if we could only plead expediency — if we could 
 not point to the authority of the word of God, our 
 ground, comparatively speaking, would be weak and 
 insecure. The great thing, in whatever is connected 
 with the Christian church, is to be able to point to the 
 mind and will of God. This solves all difficulties — 
 settles all disputes. Men may devise what is mis- 
 chievous, thinking it a good ; but God is infallible, and 
 all His arrangements, whether we comprehend them 
 or not, must tend to the well being of his people. 
 
 Looking at the matter abstractly and without refer- 
 ence to the Scripture, one would naturally expect that 
 there should be some such office as that of the Ruling 
 Elder in the Christian church, — that some men should 
 be associated with the minister to aid him in taking 
 charge of and governing the church. The duties of 
 superintending even a moderately-sized congregation 
 in the most favourable circumstances, of attending to 
 the young and the sick, candidates for admission, and 
 
ARGUMENT IN FAVOR OF RULING ELDERS. 01 
 
 subjects of discipline, are evidently far too numerous 
 and weighty to bo adequately discharged by a single 
 individual, however active and able, amid all the dis- 
 traction and anxiety connected with other and strictly 
 professional duties. Besides, ministers, from their 
 studies and habits and unacquaintance with the world, 
 are often imperfectly fitted for the business and man- 
 agement of a congregation, in which much knowledge 
 of cliaracter and prudence and tact are necessary. 
 These things render the aid of Ruling Elders peculiar- 
 ly requisite. Even those who are on Scripture principle 
 opposed to the office, confess the propriety and im- 
 portance of such assistance as it supplies ; and not a 
 few ministers who are not Presbyterian are glad to 
 ask and receive the aid of laymen in carrying forward 
 the great religious objects which the charge of a con- 
 gregation involves. Knowing, as we do, the condescen- 
 sion and considerate kindness of the Great Head of tlie 
 church to his ministering servants when engaged in 
 his work, wo would naturally expect Him to make some 
 provision for their assistance and encouragement, and 
 that in a direct, regular, and authorised form. We 
 can scarcely imagine that He would leave them to 
 bear the burden undivided and alone. . 
 
 These expectations are supported by Scripture fact. 
 It is well known that the New Testament church rose 
 out of the Old, and that in all which is not ceremo- 
 nial but moral, the Jewish is, in point of great prin- 
 ciples and institutions, a guide and example to the 
 Christian church. We can see a reason for this. Such 
 were the strong prejudices of the Jews that the Saviour 
 and his apostles were most averse to innovate, unless 
 the innovation were expressly required. They were 
 anxious to win to the faith of the Gospel, and this 
 could only be done by coming as near to the Jews as 
 possible. We know that in the matter of circumcision 
 and other practices the primitive teachers conformed 
 to tlie views and wishes of the Jews — a pretty plain 
 indication that they would yield to them in church 
 G^overnment, and in what was less important. Tht; 
 F 
 
62 ARGUMENT FOR RULING ELDER? 
 
 want, too, of very full and exact descriptions of church 
 2:overnment and order for the Christian church con- 
 firms the same idea. It intimates that in those points 
 the early believers were left to follow the practice of 
 the Jewish church, with which they were intimately 
 acquainted. This, of course, would render specific 
 directions less necessary. 
 
 And wliat, then, was the order of the Jewish 
 church ? It embraced, we may safely say, through the 
 whole period of its history, elders of the people as dis- 
 tinct ecclesiastical officers. We have the testimony 
 of Scripture to this efi'ect, and also of the most learned 
 enquirers into Jewish antiquities. We read^ of the 
 elders of the priests and the elders of the people, and 
 the elders of the people forming constituent members 
 of the great Sanhedrim — of the chief of the fathers 
 being joined with the priests and judging in the mat- 
 ters of the Lord. We read* of the same parties in the 
 days of Clyist and his apostles holding meetings as 
 a court and judging in ecclesiastical causes, as in the 
 alleged blasphemy of our blessed Saviour,^ and in 
 that of Stephen the first martyr. We read, too, of 
 the "rulers of the Synagogue," who were obviously 
 
 1 Jeremiah, xix, 1. - 2 Chronicles, xii, 8. 
 
 * A.S fJeoi-ge Gillespie >vas one of the most eminent ministers of the Churf h 
 of Scotlana, a commissioner from Scotland, and leading member of the 
 Westminster Assembly of Divines, and as his work on the ' Government of 
 the Church <>f .Scotland with the point<i of Ruling Elders,' «tc., is compara- 
 tively little known. I shall subjoin a few sentences upun the matter in hand. 
 Alluding to the time of Christ he says. (pp. 85. B6 — 'Notwithstanding that in 
 these later limes all good order had inuchdezenerated and p^o^v^l to con- 
 fusion, yet it seems to me, that even in the days of our Sa^•iour Christ, the 
 civil and ecclesiastical courts remained distinct Let me say my <^>pinion. 
 with all men's leave, and under correction of the more learned, that night 
 that our Lord was betrayed, he was led to the hall of Caiaphas. where an 
 ecclesiastical sanhedrim was held, who aj^ked Jesus of his disciples • nd his 
 doctrine, received witness against him, and pronoijnce<l him guilty of blas- 
 phemy. (Matt., xx^ii. 57 ; Mark. xiv. 53—55 : John. x\-iii, 19.) I find nothing in 
 this council why we should think it ci^"il : for as touching: the smiting and 
 buffeting of Christ, some think it was by the senants of the hiffli priests and 
 elders, after tliey themselves had gone and left the council. H<iwever, it was 
 •lone tumultuously. not judicially; and tumults may fjill f.>rth in any judii-a- 
 tory. whether civil or ecclesuistical. As for the sentence which they gave, 
 (lie is guilty of death.) it proves not that this was a civil court : for just s... if 
 an incestuous person should be convicted bc-fore an assembly of our church, 
 the moderator might ask the assembly — 'AThat think ye?" an'' ->"^'' t, -■ - 
 well answer he is guilty of death — away with him to the magistr 
 then, the matter debated in this nocturnal council was merely 
 
 and the accusation of sedition and making himself a kinL' "ere 
 
 till he was brought before Pilate." 
 
FROM JEWISH CHURCH GOVERNMENT. bo 
 
 neither priests nor Levites, and much less civil magis- 
 trates. Indeed the distinction between the elders of 
 the people and the civil magistrate is apparent from 
 many passages of Scripture, and has been demonstrated 
 by Samuel Rutherford of the CJmrch of Scotland and 
 by bishop Stillingfleet of the Church of England,' be- 
 yond the possibility of cavil. The most learned writers 
 on Jewish antiquities, following Jewish authorities, 
 too, however much they may differ on other points, 
 whether Prelatists or Presbyterians, have established 
 that under the Jewish church there was a court of 
 tlireo elders in every synagogue, which took charge 
 of the whole of its ecclesiastical inspection, govern- 
 ment, and discipline, receiving and rejecting members, 
 &c. No fact is more certain or universally acknow- 
 ledged in Jewish history. It is of no consequence to 
 the argument whether all these elders did, or did not 
 teach — they all ruled. They formed a court for this 
 purpose ; and hence it is evident tliat the government 
 of the Jewish church was neither in the hands of one 
 individual, as it is among the Episcopalians, nor in 
 the hands of the whole members of the Synagogue, 
 as it is among the Independents of tlie present day; 
 but that so far as the office of the Ruling Elder is 
 concerned it was strictly Presbyterian. 
 
 Spencer, a learned Episcopalian divine of the 17tli 
 century, in perfect harmony with the views which 
 have been stated, says, "The apostles, that this refor- 
 mation of the change from the Old to the New Testa- 
 ment dispensation might proceed gently and witliout 
 noise, received into the Christian church many of those 
 institutions which had long been in use among the 
 Jews. Among the number of these may be reckoned 
 the imposition of hands, bishops, elders, and deacons, 
 excommunication and ordination, and other things fa- 
 miliar to learned men."" The celebrated Neander of 
 Berlin, himself a converted Jew, and perhaps the most 
 profoundly learned church historian in Europe at tlie 
 present day, bears a similar testimony, particularly 
 
 1 Miller, p. 20. - Miller, p. ;il. 
 
04 ARGUMENT FOR RULING ELDERS 
 
 as to the Jewish Fcclesiaslical Courts of Elders — the 
 point more iinmodiatoly in hand. 
 
 Wo now pass from tlio Ohl to the New Testament, 
 and in doing so, what do we find? Do we meet with 
 yny repeal of tin? synagogue form of government ? Of 
 <'ourse tlie tcmj)Ie passed away as atypical institution, 
 when Christ the substitute liad come ; but the divine 
 worship of the synngogue being moral, was perma,nent 
 in its nature. Arc tliere, then, any cautions addressed 
 to the primitive Christians, who were Jews, against 
 adopting tlio synagogue form of government, in which 
 there were Ministers and Kuling Elders ? There was 
 no small danger of men modelling the Christian church 
 after the synagogue ; l)ut there is not one word of 
 repeal or caution. Nothing is said of a new form of 
 government, the J^]piscopal, or Prclatical, or Indepen- 
 <lent, being introduced with the new dispensation. The 
 l)riniitive Cliristians uncliallenged are allowed to act 
 upon the forms of government to which they liad been 
 accustomed. Tliere is force in sucli considerations. 
 (Christian churches, both establislied and non-esta- 
 blished, are in the habit of reasoning upon them as 
 valid. We argue for tlie civil establishment of true 
 religion — for the obsiirvance of infant baptism, and the 
 moral obligation of the Sabbath, from tlie fact, that in 
 the New Testament there is not only no repeal but no 
 caution against principles involving these — recognised 
 and acted upon in tlie Old ; and why should cliurch 
 government be an exception to the rule ? If we count 
 it a good argument for infant baptism and Sabbath 
 ohservan^'e and church establishments that they are 
 found in the Old Testament, and that they are not re- 
 pealed in the New, is it not equally a good argument 
 for the offi<;o of Ruling Elder that we find it in the 
 Jewish churcli, and tliat we meet with no abrogation 
 of, or even caution against it in the New Testament? 
 In such circumstances the burden of proof lies with 
 opponents. So far from meeting with anything which 
 savours of a diflerent system, when we begin to read 
 tlie New Testament we immediately meet with Ian- 
 
FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT. (?5 
 
 guage which reminds us of the church government of 
 the Old. 
 
 The lirst thing which strikes one in the pages of the 
 Xew Testament, as affording a strong presumption of 
 the identity of the church governments of the Old and 
 New, is the number of the Elders who are spoken of 
 as attached to each church. So far as I remember, we 
 never read of one Elder being ordained to a clmrch. 
 It might have been so, and still the government have 
 been Presbyterian — (there might have been only one 
 to be had) — but we always read of more than one — 
 we read of Elders. And when thej had ordained them 
 Elders in every church, they commended them to the 
 Lord.^ Paul called for the Elders of the church of 
 Ephesus.^ Is any sick among you, let him send for 
 the Elders of the church.^ Titus was left in Crete 
 that he might ordain Elders in every city."^ Obey 
 them that have the rule over you — not him.^ Let the 
 Elders who rule well be counted worthy of double 
 honour. It is plain that the elders spoken of were 
 not all teaching Elders or Ministers. It would be 
 absurd to imagine that, in primitive times, when many 
 churches were very small, and when all were most anx- 
 ious to propagate the Gospel, there was a plurality 
 of three or four ministers in every church. The El- 
 ders then must have been persons who did not teach 
 — except occasionally upon an emergency — persons 
 whose office it was to rule. It is worthy of notice, 
 that the apostles are not said to ordain Elders — only 
 in large congregations, but in every church, however 
 small. Being ruling Elders, they were essential to its 
 complete organisation. As teaching Elders or Minis- 
 ters they would have been needed only in the large 
 towns ; and not always in them ; for in not a few, such 
 as Antioch and Carthage, we know that there was but 
 a single place of worship centuries after the death 
 of our blessed Lord. From the very number of Elders 
 then spoken of in the New Testament, and which for- 
 cibly reminds us of the Elders so often spoken of in 
 
 1 Acts, xiv, 'Jo. -' Acts, XX, 20. s James, v, 14. ^ Titus, i, 5. '•> Hob. xiii. 17. 
 
 F2 
 
66 SCRIPTDEE RECOGSITIOS OF 
 
 the Old Testameut, we draw not a proof, but a strong 
 presumption, that the great lx)dy of them were Ruling 
 Elders. At leasttiiefact seems inexplicableontbesup- 
 position of the opposite systems of church government. 
 But, turaiug from presumptions to proofe, we find 
 three passages of Scripture which distinctly recognise 
 the office of the Ruling Elder, and which no efforts of 
 ingenuity, (and these have not been small,) can force 
 to bear a different interpretation. The apostle Paul, 
 after expounding the great leading doctrines of the 
 Gospel, in bis Epistle to the Romans, concludes with 
 practical counsels ; among the parties whom he ad- 
 dresses are the office-bearers and members of the 
 church at Rome. Comparing the church and its 
 office-bearers, ordinary and extraordinary, to the 
 human body and its different members, he says, in 
 chapter xii, at the fourth verse : — " For as we have 
 many members in one body, and all members have 
 not the same office ; so we being many are one body 
 in Christ, and every one members one of another. 
 Having then gifts, (or offices,) differing according to 
 the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let 
 us prophesy, according to tlie proportion of faith ; or 
 ministry, let us wait on our ministering ; or he that 
 teacheth, on teaching ; or he that exhorteth, on ex- 
 liortation : he that giveth, let him do it with sim- 
 plicity ; he that ruktli, with diligence ; he that show- 
 eth mercy, with cheerfiilness." Here distinct offices 
 and office-bearers are pointed out. Some extraor- 
 dinary, such as prophesying ; others ordinary, such 
 as teaching, and among the latter are numbered the 
 Ruling Elder and the Deacon. " He that ruleth " is 
 to do so with diligence — marking the Elder: " he that 
 giveth," with simplicity — marking the Deacon, The 
 office of ruling is distinct from that of teaching — as 
 distinct as the different parts of the human body, the 
 hands and the feet, are from each other. The ruler is 
 as distinct from the teacher as he is distinct from the 
 deacon. It is expressly said that ** aU members have 
 not the same office." It is vain then to say that the 
 
THE OFFICE OF RULING ELDER. 07 
 
 ripostle speaks not of different persons ; but different 
 gifts belonging to one and the same person. Tho 
 language and imagery distinctly exclude sucli an idea, 
 and prove, whatever may be the nature of the duties, 
 that there is in the Christian church an office of ruler 
 distintjt from that of teacher or pastor. For tliis 
 office and office-bearer, however, we look in vain in 
 Prelatic or Congregational churches, and thus far 
 they depart from Scripture rule and authority. Some 
 old Presbyterian ministers of the city of London, after 
 remarking, in an able work on Church Government, 
 that he that ruleth is distinguished from all the other 
 ordinary officers in the church of Christ by a distinct 
 name, a distinct work, and a distinct direction as to 
 the right discharge of his duties, pertinently add— 
 *' Now, what other solid reason can be imagined why 
 he that ruleth should liere liave a distinct name, a 
 distinct employment, and distinct direction how to 
 manage his work, save this, that the Holy Ghost might 
 set him out to us as an ordinary officer in the church, 
 distinct from all the other standing officers here 
 enumerated?"^ 
 
 Supposing that there were such an officer as the 
 Ruling Elder in the early church, how could he, accord- 
 ing to the general counsels in which the apostle was 
 dealing, have been more appropriately referred to ? 
 Supposing there were no such officer, what could be 
 more fitted to mislead than the allusion made ? Let 
 none object to the interpretation which has been given 
 from the impression that it makes the Ruling Elder 
 the only Elder. No. To adopt the language of the 
 same old writers — *' Though the Ruling Elder be here 
 called * he that ruleth ;' yet this doth not exclude the 
 pastor from ruling no more than, when the ordinary 
 ministers are called pastors and teachers, the apostles 
 and evangelists arc excluded from feeding and teach- 
 ing the flock. Tlie Elder is called ' he that ruleth ' 
 — not because there is no other ruler tlian he, but be- 
 cause he only rules — he does not teach. '^^ 
 
 i ' Piviue Rij^ht of Church Governnient.' ti;c. Luiidrii, IWC. p. 121. 
 2 Ibid., p. r.'4. 
 
68 CALVIN ON THE 
 
 Calvin in his ' Institutions,' • referring to the pas- 
 sage which has been quoted, makes these among other 
 remarks : — " There are two othces that are permanent, 
 (government and the care of the poor. Those who 
 governed were, in my opinibn, Elders chosen out of 
 the laymen of each congregation, who, together witli 
 the bishops (or ministers), bore rule in the correction 
 of morals and in the exercise of discipline. For no 
 one can otlierwise expound that which the apostle 
 saith, Kom., xii, 8, * lie that rulcth Jet him do it with 
 diligence.' Every church, therefore, from the begin- 
 ning had its own senate, collected from among the 
 godly, grave, and holy, who had jurisdiction over the 
 correction of vices. Moreover, that this was the order 
 of more tlian one age, experience itself teaches. This 
 office of government, therefore, is necessary for all 
 ages." 
 
 A passage, similar to that wo have been considering, 
 and warranting the same conclusion, is to be found 
 in 1 Cor., xii, 28. It proceeds upon the same com- 
 parison of the church of Christ to the human body, 
 and runs in these terms : — " And whether one mem- 
 ber suffer, all the members suffer with it ; or one 
 member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. 
 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in par- 
 ticular. And God hath set some in the church, first, 
 apostles ; secondarily, prophets ; thirdly, teachers ; 
 after that miracles ; then gifts of healings, helps, 
 {foveniments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles ? 
 are all prophets ? " «fcc. 
 
 All admit, even the warmest opponents, that by 
 "governments" hero are meant governors or rulers, 
 and tliat tliese governors are not in tlie state, but in 
 the church. It is expressly said, " God hath set 
 some in the church ; " and what sort of governors 
 then are they? They are expressly distinguished 
 from the pastors or teachers, and also from the helps 
 or deacons. And what then can they describe but 
 officers substantially the same in character with the 
 
 1 JK.ok iv, cliap. 3. 
 
OFFICE OF RULING ELDER. 69 
 
 Ruling Elder in Presbyterian churches ? They are 
 rulers, not teachers. Extraordinary olilcers are re- 
 ferred to, as well as ordinary ones, such as " miracles" 
 and '* diversities of tongues;" but that docs not affect 
 the argument. Ordinary officers are also obviously 
 described. The apostle was writing for the guidance 
 of the church in all ages. His argument is general. 
 It is plain, too, that he speaks — not of different offices 
 inhering in one person — but of different offices be- 
 longing to different persons. He expressly says — 
 " Arc all prophets? are all apostles?" The obvious 
 answer to which is — * No. ^\11 are not prophets or 
 apostles. The offices arc diverse, held by different 
 individuals ; but as they conduce to a common good, 
 the parties should be united in sentiment and heart.' 
 if all the offices whicli are spoken of by the apostle 
 were held by one individual — say the pastor alone, 
 then, contrary to Paul's argument, the pastor might 
 truly say to the ruler and the deacon, " I liave no 
 need of thee." But now Christ hath so set the mem- 
 bers in his body, the church, that every member 
 stands in need of the sympathy and support of the 
 other. It may be also added, that the interpretation 
 which has been given of Paul's words is not a party 
 interpretation, got up to serve a purpose ; but is the 
 interpretation assigned to the passage by eminent 
 ive formed divines — Lutherans and Calvinists — by di- 
 vines of the Prelatic Church of England — by ancient 
 fathers of the church, and even by writers of the 
 Church of Kome.^ 
 
 The last scriptural authority on behalf of the office 
 of Ruling Elder to which I sliall refer is that contained 
 ill I Tim., v, 17 — *' l^et the elders that rule well be 
 counted worthy of double honour, especially they who 
 labour in the word and doctrine." Nothing can be 
 plainer, than that this verse speaks of two classes of 
 Elders — those who rule, and those who labour in tie 
 word and doctrine — the one corresponding to the Rul- 
 
 1 Vindication ot the rie?bjt(ii;il Government and Ministry, IG.'iO. London, 
 ;57. Miller, •10, 1. 
 
70 SClUPTUltE AUTHORITY FOU 
 
 iiig Elder, tho other to the Teaclier or Pastor. As it 
 is fatal to tlie claiins of the opposite forms of cliurch 
 goveriimont, (iieitlicr Episeopaey nor modern Congre- 
 gationalism recognising the Ruling Elder,) so, as 
 might have been ex})ected, there has been a vast ex- 
 penditure of ingenuity to make the verso harmonise 
 with tlieir theories ; but tlie labour is vain ; there is 
 no doubt about tho translation; the passage is too 
 clear to admit of perversion. We may safely say, 
 with the great Dr. Owen, himself an Independent at 
 tJie time he wrote, though there is good reason to 
 believe he died a Presbyterian ' — that had men not 
 liad a ])articular scJieme to support, they never would 
 have doubted that the verse speaks of different classes 
 of Elders — ruling and teacliing. The word especialli/ 
 almost invarial)ly, in the New Testament, distin- 
 guishes different objects or persons ; and in the pre- 
 sent case tliat signilication cannot be departed from. 
 " Let us do good unto all men," says the apostle Paul, 
 "but especially unto tlieni who are of the household of 
 faith." These two different classes are plainly distin- 
 guislied — "all men," and "the household of faith." 
 80 "all tho saints salute you,*' says the same apostle, 
 "chiefly, or especiallif they of Ciesar's household." 
 Here Cajsar's household are distinguislied from other 
 Christians. "Christ is the Saviour or Preserver of 
 all men, especially of those wlio believe." Two diffe- 
 rent classesare spoken of — "all men," and "believers." 
 A multitude of similar })assages could be quoted, all 
 showing that two classes of persons or things are to 
 be distinguished. So it is of the words — "Let the 
 elders who rule well be counted wortliy of double hon- 
 our, especially they who labour in the word and doc- 
 trine." It is obvious that there are two classes of 
 elders — ruling Elders, and teaching Elders or Minis- 
 ters. The great effort of writers on the otiier side, of 
 course, is to show that there is but one (dass of per- 
 sons spoken of, and that they are ministers ; but, apart 
 from tlie interpretation which the words demand, the 
 
 1 ScL' A|)i)eiulix. 
 
THE OFFICE OF RULING ELDER. 71 
 
 scope and meaning of the apostle disprove the idea. 
 If by "those who rule well," we are to understand 
 ministers who do not labour in the word and doctrine, 
 we are reduced to the absurdity of supposing that the 
 apostle commends such idle, non-preaching ministers 
 as worthy of double honour! The notion cannot be 
 entertained for a moment. Nor will it mend the mat- 
 ter much to suppose, with some, that by the good ru- 
 lers here spoken of we are to understand, not eccles- 
 iastical officers, but civil magistrates; for to this there 
 is the conclusive reply, that there was no Christian 
 magistrate for centuries after the counsel was given to 
 Timothy, and no one can suppose that the apostle re- 
 commended an appeal to Heathen magistrates to set- 
 tle Christian differences. 
 
 It has been alleged that the apostle did not mean to 
 mark a diversity among the Elders — some teaching, 
 others ruling — but a diversity in the diligent discharge 
 of duty by persons holding the same office. This 
 makes the force of the sentence turn on the word 
 "labour. " According to this interpretation, the apos- 
 tle exhorts Christians to hold those Elders in double 
 honour who labour in the word and doctrine, wlio are 
 more eminently laborious than their brethren. But 
 this proceeds upon the idea that the original word 
 Toviccoj describes only such labour as few can attain to ; 
 whereas both in the Old and New Testaments, it is 
 the'general word which is used to denote any labour in 
 the service of God. It is applied to the services of 
 the faithful women spoken of in Romans, xvi — Mary, 
 Tryphena, and Tryphosa. It is every minister's duty 
 to labour with all diligence, and even to fatigue, in 
 the service of his Master. Without this, so far from 
 deserving double honour, he is negligent, and exposes 
 himself to just censure. Gillespie's remark* on the 
 interpretation suggested is — " This is manifestly 
 against the text, which speaketh of officers, not of 
 offices — of persons, not of duties ; for it is not said espe- 
 cially for labouring, but "especially they that labour." 
 
 1 Page 62. 
 
72 TESTIMONY OF DR. OWEX 
 
 To give the greater weight to the inierpretatioii 
 which has been assigned, (though it be so strong in 
 itself as not to need any,) it may be mentioned that 
 distinguished writers of different nations, ages, and 
 churches, many of tliera opposed to Presbyterian 
 Church Government, liave felt themselves constrained 
 to adopt the same view. Dr. Owen has been already 
 referred to ; and to his name may be added those of 
 Dr. Whittaker, Lightfoot, Whitby, bishops Fell and 
 Burnet — all eminent Episcopalians ; and, among In- 
 dependents may be mentioned Doddridge and Dwight. 
 Were it necessary to appeal to the divines of foreign 
 churches, we might quote the names of such eminent 
 Presbyterians as Calvin, Beza, Bullenger, Peter Mar- 
 tyr, Turretine, Piscator, Parens, kc, the divines of 
 the Synod of Dort, and many others, also in support 
 of the interpretation which has been given, 
 
 Owen, in his able critical discussion on this passage, 
 makes the following remarks: — "The most learned of 
 our Protestant adversaries in this case are Erastus, 
 Bilson, Sarravia, Downham, Scultetus, Mead, Grotius, 
 Hammond, who agree not at all among themselves 
 about the sense of the words ; for their whole design 
 and endeavour is, to put in exceptions against the ob- 
 vious sense and interpretation of the words, not fixing 
 on any determinate exposition of it themselves — such 
 as they will abide by in opposition to any other sense 
 of the place. Now this is a most sophistical way of 
 arguing upon testimonies, and suited only to make 
 controversies endless : whose art is so barren as not to 
 be able to raise one exception or other against the 
 plainest and most evident testimony? So the Socinian- 
 deal with us in all the testimonies we produce to prove 
 the Deity or Satisfaction of Christ. They suppose it 
 enough to evade their force, if they can but pretend 
 that the words are capahJe of another sense, although 
 they will not abide by it that this or that is their real 
 sense." Again — " They do not in the least agree 
 among themselves, scare any two of them, on what is 
 the most probable sense of the word ; nor are any of 
 
TESTIMONY OF THE FATHERS. 73 
 
 them singly well-resolved what application to make of 
 them, nor unto what persons, but only propose things 
 as their conjecture. But of very many opinions or 
 conjectures that are advanced in this case, all of them 
 but of one are accompanied with the modesty of grant- 
 ing that divers sorts of Elders are here intended, which 
 without more than ordinary confidence cannot be de- 
 nied."^ 
 
 Additional Scripture passages, too, might be quoted, 
 such as lleb., xiii, 17, and Mat., xviii, 15, &c., which 
 cannot be consistently or satisfactorily explained with- 
 out recognising the Ruling Elder of Presbyterian 
 church government. But wo pass from tliese to the 
 testimony of the early church, as it appears in the 
 writings of the Fathers. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ARGUMENT IN BEHALF OF THE RULING ELDER DRAWN 
 FROM THE HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 
 
 Here it is necessary to mark an important distinc- 
 tion between the ground on which we have been 
 standing — the ivord of God — and the ground on which 
 we are about to stand — the word of fallible men ; 
 still, the testimony is worthy of no small consideration. 
 We are in the habit of appealing to it on other matters 
 — in behalf of the observance of infant baptism, and 
 the rest of the first day of the week — not that it could 
 establish these, or any thing else, if opposed to the 
 Scriptures ; but the authority of the Fathers is impor- 
 tant where it harmonises with the Word of God and 
 bears upon facts ; and it may even throw light upon 
 what is doubtful in Scripture, by showing how it was 
 understood by the Primitive church. At the same 
 time we must never forget that the Word of God is the 
 only infallible standard, and that corruption in doc- 
 
 1 Gospel Ghiu-ch, Ac, pp. 248, 249. 
 
 G 
 
/4 TE8TIM05r OF THE FATHERS 
 
 trine and practice was so very earlj introduced into 
 the Chriijtian church that her teHtimony either for or 
 against any form of church government i» to \)f; re- 
 f;eived with extreme caution. We mnat ever draw a 
 broad and clear line >>etween the Word of God and 
 the writings of man, especially writings so old, and in 
 many cases so loose, general, and eontradictory afl 
 those of the Fathers. 
 
 After making all these abatement*, however, we 
 have no hesitation in saying, that in all ages of the 
 Christian church we can mark distinct traces of the 
 Ruling Elder ; and that the purer the times, these 
 traces are always the more clear and b<F;ttf;r define^]. 
 In the Epistles of Clem^na J{omo.nv.j(, who liv'ed at the 
 end of the 1st century, and so contemporaneously with 
 the latter years of John, we meet with language which 
 plainly indicates tliat there was a plurality of Elders 
 m every church, and that these Elders were rulers, 
 which is at war with the clainrLs of Prelacy and Con- 
 gregationalism. Of hjnatxua, who lived a little later, 
 at the Ijeginning of the 2nd century, an able writer' 
 says, '* The whole language of Ignatias, in reference 
 to the officers of whom he speaks, is strictly Presby- 
 terian, and cannot be considered as affording counte- 
 nance to any other system without doing violence to 
 its natural im|>ort/' The writings of Polyfjirp the 
 martyr could be appealed to to the same purpose. 
 Cyprian, in the 3rd century, by the acknr/wledgment 
 of distinguished Episco[>al writers themselves, dis- 
 tinctly intimates that there were folders in the Christian 
 church who did not preach — a chL^-s of men who have 
 no pla^;e under Prelatic or Congregational nile. From 
 the writings of Hippohjtug, who lived at the same pe- 
 riod, it api>ears that there were Elders, whose office it 
 was to (ix&m'ma — try — and excommunicate unworthy 
 members from the Christian church. ^Mf/en, a cele- 
 brated Father, who lived 200 years after Christ, in the 
 3rd century, expressly says, ** there are some rulers 
 appointed, whose duty it is to enquire concerning the 
 manners and conversation of those who are admitted, 
 
 ; Milk-r p. CI. 
 
FOR THE OFFICE OF RULING ELDER, 75 
 
 tliat thej may debar from the congregation such as 
 commit filthiness." From this it is obvious, that in 
 the days of Origen the government of tlie church was 
 administered not by the individual minister alone, nor 
 by all communicants indiscriminately, but by a class 
 of Ruling Elders. In the beginning of the 4th cen- 
 tury we have the following enumeration of the office- 
 bearers in the church, in the writings of Optatus : — 
 " The Presbyters, the Deacons, and the Elders." Let- 
 ters, too, are addressed "to the Clergy and the Elders " 
 — elders being carefully distinguished from clergy. In 
 short, the divisions are distinctly Presbyterian. Am- 
 brose, in the 4th century, expressly says, "that the 
 synagogue, and afterwards the church, had Elders, 
 without whose counsel nothing was done in the church;" 
 and he explains how it was that their office fell into 
 disuse. Almost all commentators, however divided 
 in sentiment on other matters, allow that the Elders of 
 whom this Father writes had inspection and rule over 
 the flock of Christ. Augustine, in the end of the 4th 
 century, distinctly recognises a class of men bearing 
 office in the church who were not public preachers, and 
 points to their administration of discpline. Though, 
 with the progress of superstition and corruption, the 
 traces of the Ruling Elder become more rare as we 
 descend the stream of church history — and this is no 
 more than might have been expected — yet even in the 
 6th century, in an epistle of Gregory the Great, we 
 meet with this sentence : "If any thing should come 
 to your ears concerning any clergyman, which may be 
 justly considered matter of oftence, do not easily be- 
 lieve it, but let truth be diligently investigated by the 
 elders of the church who may be at hand ; and then, 
 if the character of the act demand it, let the proper 
 punishment fall on the offender." Here, the clergy- 
 man or minister and the Elders are distinguished, and 
 the peculiarity of the Elder's office is marked as a ru- 
 ler or administrator of discipline.^ 
 
 1 For these and many other quotations in full, see Miller on the Ruling El- 
 der, pp. 52-72 ; and Vindiction of Presbyterial Governuient, by Ministers o; 
 London, 1C50. 
 
it) CAUSE OF ITS DISAPPEABAKCE 
 
 Various other testimonies from early times all point- 
 ing in the same direction might be quoted, but let 
 these suffice. It is possible that a ([uchUon may be 
 rising in some minds, If the office of the ituling Elder 
 be so decidedly Scriptural as is represented, and evi- 
 dently held a place in the Primitive church — how came 
 it to drop out from the church generally for so pro- 
 tracted a period, and not to exist at all in some churches? 
 In answer to this I sliall presently show that it is not 
 correct, in point of fact, to say that the office ever 
 f>erished from the true churcli of Christ, I believe it 
 can be proved, that however it may have disappeared 
 from the Church of l{ome, it has existed all along in 
 the purest churches of the East, the Syrian, and the 
 purest church of the West, the Waldensian. It certain- 
 ly became extinct in the Romish church, but, is this 
 any dishonour or ground of suspicion ? The Church 
 of Rome has corrupted the doctrines, the duties, the 
 ordinances of Christianity; it would be strange if she 
 had not corrupted the government and discipline of 
 the church also; but the truth is, that from the very 
 nature of the office of the Ruling Elder — it is the office 
 which, above all others, in a declining and corrupt 
 period of the church is sure to be extinguished. It is 
 an office which regarfls discipline — which is intended 
 to repress and punish corruption. Hence, faithfully 
 administered, it is not an office which is pleasant or 
 popular in a degenerating church. 
 
 I need not say how wide-spread was the corruption 
 of the Christian church, even from the days of the 
 apostles. It has always been known that that cor- 
 ruption was serious ; but the investigations of modem 
 times in regard to it are bringing out such views of 
 degeneracy as scarcely any were prepared for.* It is 
 plain that from the days of the death of the apostles, 
 though Christianity was wide-spread, it grievously 
 declined in charaeti:;r — that the clergy became most 
 ambitious, and glaflly embraced every opportunity of 
 
 ' Hf: the admirable but appalling wr.ting* of Mr. Tajflor, entitled, ' Ancient 
 Cfirietianity.' 
 
IN THE MIDDLE AGES. // 
 
 raising themselves at the expence of their other office- 
 bearers in the church. A faithful Eldership is a serious 
 check upon a proud and indolent ministry. Hence the 
 clergy were happy to get rid of the control of Elders, 
 while a people daily growing in corruption were eager 
 to escape from the same restraint. It is easy then to 
 see how the Eldership disappeared amid the clerical 
 ambition, superstition, worldliness, and idolatry of the 
 Church of Rome. This was just what was to have 
 been anticipated. But the existence of such an office 
 in early times, and the traces of it which we have seen 
 to remain for 600 years, are inexplicable on any other 
 supposition than that of a divine origin. Even in the 
 history of the Church of Scotland and other Presby- 
 terian churches, we see the tendency of a general de- 
 generacy of Christianity to destroy the Eldership: how 
 much stronger would the tendency be in early times, 
 when the declination was so much more serious and 
 appalling ? Ambrose, a Father of the 4th century, to 
 whom I have already referred, has the remarkable 
 words explanatory of the disappearance of the Elder- 
 ship from a great part of Christendom in the dark or 
 middle ages. "By what negligence," says he, "it 
 (that is, the Eldership) grew into disuse I know not, 
 unless perhaps by the sloth, or rather by the pride of 
 the teachers, while they alone wished to appear some- 
 thing. "^ 
 
 Leaving the early church, let us now briefly pursue 
 the history downwards. Our Lord promised to his 
 people that there should be a true church in every age 
 — a church against which the gates of hell should not 
 prevail. Whether, besides true believers, this pro- 
 mise was meant to include a church correct in all its 
 external forms of government, we know not. Pro- 
 bably a company of faithful followers, scattered in dif- 
 ferent outward communions, was all that was promised. 
 But it would not be difficult to trace a Presbyterian 
 church from primitive down to the present times. We 
 have seen the signs and proofs of the Ruling Elder, 
 
 1 ililler, p. 71. 
 
 G2 
 
78 ITS OPERATIOSIN THE EARLY SCOTTISH, SYBIAy, 
 
 in other words, of Pre=bjteriani-?m, in the 4th and 
 even the 6th centuries. Now, upon the authority of 
 Roman Catholic historians, we can trace the Walden- 
 sian church, which was Presbvterian, up to the 3l2th 
 year of the Christian era. There can be no doubt, 
 too, that the early Scottish church, prior to the reign 
 of Popery, was a Presbyterian church. There can be 
 as little question that the early Irish church — a church 
 which existed for eight centuries prior to the invasion 
 of Rome — was Presbyterian. Each Minister had 8 
 Elders. Archbishop Ussher states that there were 
 not only 365 Bishops or Ministers, but 3000 Elders.* 
 And we have not only these Presbyterian lines in the 
 Western parts of the world, we can trace the same in 
 the East. The Syrian churches in India, which were 
 visited by Dr. Claudius Buchanan in 1807, can trace 
 their history up to between the 3rd and 4:th centuries. 
 They lived in such seclusion as not to be aware of the 
 pretensions of the Pope of Rome — and what was their 
 form of church government ? It was, and is essentially 
 Presbyterian. In the church which Dr. Buchanan 
 visited, he did not find Episcopacy or Independency. 
 There may have been admixture; but, to use his own 
 language, he "found three principal Christians or lay 
 Elders belonging to the church, whose names were 
 Abraham, Thomas, and ^\iexandros. " ^ 
 
 With regard again to the Waldenses, those faithfal 
 witnesses in the darkest days, of whom it is estimated 
 that, from first to last, not less than one million have 
 fallen a sacrifice to Rome, for their attachment to 
 Protestant and evangelical religion — I say that with 
 regard to them their Presbyterian ism is well known. 
 In their Confession of Faith, which comprehend* the 
 ancient as well as the modern church, they say, "it 
 is necessary for the church to have pastors to preach 
 God's word, to administer the sacraments, and to 
 
 I See an admirable sjjeech of the Rev. Mr. De:iljaa3 of Loadonderrjr, at the 
 recent Bicentenary Celebration. With great cJf^mes- and reteaircb b«; 
 proves that the original toriu of church Ko'ernnient in Ireiand was Fresbf- 
 ttriau, and remained 60 for many centuries. 
 
 ^ Bee Christian ReeeareheS; p. 75. 
 
WALDENSIAN, AND BOHEMIAN CHURCHES. 79 
 
 watch over the sheep of Christ, and also Elders and 
 Deacons, according to the rules of good and holy 
 church discipline, and the practice of the Primitive 
 church." Hero the three orders of the Presbyterian 
 church are distinctly recognised, the Pastor, tlie Elder, 
 the Deacon. Their Confession of Faith was drawn 
 up hundreds of years before the birth cither of Luther 
 or of Calvin. It cannot then be said with truth, that 
 Presbyterianism originated with the Reformation 
 from Popery. 
 
 A similar statement might be made with regard to 
 the Bohemian church. It was a branch of the Wal- 
 densian, and was planted two hundred years before 
 the days of Jerome and of Huss. They, again, it 
 will be remembered, were harbingers of the Reforma- 
 tion, and lived a century earlier than Luther or Cal- 
 vin ; and yet, from their Confession of Faith, it is 
 plain that they held by the essential principles of 
 Presbyterianism. Luther, after mature information, 
 had the highest opinion of them, eulogised their Con- 
 fession of Faith, and declared, to use his own words, 
 "there hath not arisen any people, from the times of 
 the apostles, whose church hath come nearer to the 
 apostolic doctrine and order than the brethren of 
 Bohemia." What their order was, besides the testi- 
 mony of their Confession of Faith, may be gathered 
 from the testimony of Martin Bucer, a celebrated 
 Lutheran reformer. " The rule which they observe, " 
 says he, was this — ** besides ministers of the word and 
 sacraments, they had in each church a bench or col- 
 lege of men excelling in gravity and prudence, who 
 performed the duties of admonisliiug and correcting 
 offenders, composing differences, and judicially decid- 
 ing in cases ot dispute." Whatever other offices the 
 ]3ohemian church may have recognised, it is plain 
 that she held by the Ruling Elder, and that is a lead- 
 ing and essential feature in Presbyterianism. So far 
 from this office having been first invented, as has 
 been ignorantly alleged, by Calvin the great reformer 
 of Geneva, it was in full operation in the Christian 
 
80 CHURCH OP ENGLAND IN SIXTEENTH CENTUUY 
 
 church ag^es before he was born ; and there is reason 
 to think tliat, in addition to the light of the Word of 
 God, one of the considerations which strongly weighed 
 with Calvin to advocate the office so ably was the felt 
 necessity of maintaining the discijdinc of the church 
 — a discipline wliich cannot well be upheld without 
 an Eldorshi]). Some may remember that Calvin and 
 other faithful ministers were, by popular tumult, ex- 
 pelled for a season from Geneva, because they would 
 not administer the Lord's Supper to unworthy appli- 
 cants. This seems to have impressed his mind more 
 strongly than before with the importance of being sur- 
 rounded with such guardians of discipline as adorned 
 the ancient Bohemian church.* 
 
 I am afraid that the line of observation which I am 
 pursuing may seem to some as if I were resting an 
 important church office upon human authority — the 
 testimony of great names ; but it is not so. I have 
 already and fully appealed to the Word of God as the 
 only standard, and believe its authority to be conclu- 
 sive on the matter. But the case is one where it is 
 of consequence to be able to refer to the constitution 
 and practice of the Cliristian church, and to the senti- 
 ments of illustrious men, the more especially, as it 
 has been so often and so industriously, but, withal, so 
 ignorantly asserted, that the Presbyterian Ruling 
 Elder has no footing in Ecclesiastical history. The 
 very reverse is the truth. 
 
 Pursuing the history, then, from the Waldensian 
 and Bohemian churches, we pass on to the Church of 
 Switzerland. The great Reformers, Zuingle and 
 (Ecolampadius, speak clearly and decidedly on the 
 office of the Ruling Elder as a Scriptural office, and 
 as holding a place in the early Christian church. 
 Peter Martyr, a native of Italy, who settled in Eng- 
 land, and greatly aided the Reformation there, and 
 Jolin Alasco, a Pole, who settled in London as super- 
 intciudent of the many foreigners who resided there 
 in the reign of Edward VI, amounting, it is said, to 
 
 » Sue Appundix for a notice of Calvin in this connexion. 
 
FAVOURABLE. TO THE OFFICE. 81 
 
 3000 persons, both express themselves strongly in be- 
 half of the Ruling Elder. From the statement of the 
 latter it appears that it was upon Presbyterian prin- 
 ciples that the congregations of the French, Italian, 
 and German Christians in London were conducted ; 
 and yet Alasco was highly patronised by King Ed- 
 ward and Archbishop Cranmer. Perhaps this will 
 not seem so wonderful when it is remembered, (and 
 the circumstance itself is a strong testimony in behalf 
 of the Scriptural authority of the office of the Ruling 
 Elder,) that in the reign of this pious monarch, Cran- 
 mer, and leading men of the Church of England, ac- 
 tually recommended the adoption of Ruling Elders to 
 that church, a proposal which, humanly speaking, 
 only the short life of the king and the opposition of 
 certain parties prevented from being carried into ef- 
 fect. A few years afterwards, in the reign of Elisabeth, 
 the Rev. Dean Xowell of the Church of England 
 published a weU-known catechism, unanimously ap- 
 proved by the same Lower House of Convocation 
 which passed the 39 Articles, in which, treating of the 
 administration of discipline, there is the most distinct 
 recognition of the Ruling Elder as essential. A Pres- 
 byterian could scarcely have described the practice of 
 the Presbyterian church more accurately than the 
 catechism describes the appropriate office-bearers for 
 the exercise of discipline. Nay, more. Bishop Burnet 
 of the Church of England states a reason why Ruling 
 Elders were not adopted. It was not because they 
 were without Scripture authority, nor because they 
 were without the sanction of the early church, nor 
 because they were unneeded, (for they were loudly 
 caUed for ;) but because certain political parties de- 
 monstrated to the queen, "that these new models 
 would certainly bring with them a great abatement of 
 her prerogative, since, if the concerns of religion 
 came into popular hands, there would be a power set 
 up distinct from hers, over which she could have no 
 authority. This she perceived well, and therefore 
 resolved to maintain the ancient government of the 
 
82 TESTIMONY OF CELEBRATED REFORMERS, ETC., 
 
 church, which is Prelatical and Popish."^ The 
 bishop might have added that Presbyterianism was 
 still more ancient. In subsequent reigns the same 
 false views as to the place of the sovereign, in 
 connexion with the church of God, prevented the 
 adoption and spread of Presbyterianism in the South, 
 and occasioned no small share of the suflferings of 
 Presbyterians in the North. Of course the early 
 Nonconformists of England as Presbyterians held the 
 office of Ruling Elder. In the Directory of Church 
 Government drawn up by Cartwright and used by 
 them in the time of Elisabeth, it is ordered, " Let the 
 Elders know every particular house and person of the 
 church, that they may inform the Minister of the 
 condition of every one." ^ 
 
 I might refer to many other Christian churches and 
 high authorities in confirmation of the views which 
 have been presented ; such as the Protestant churches 
 of France, Holland, Geneva, Poland, Germany, Hun- 
 gary, Transylvania, Scotland, the Presbyterian church- 
 es of England, of Ireland, and the United States of 
 America. I might refer also to high names in these 
 churches, and also in the Church of England, in be- 
 half of the Scriptural office of the Ruling Elder ; but 
 this is unnecessary. In addition to the names which 
 have been quoted, let me only mention a few others. 
 Of great writers in different churches and countries, 
 who have had occasion to touch on the subject of 
 church government, may be enumerated, in Germany, 
 Luther, Melancthon, Piscator, Parens, Chemnitius, 
 and the Magdeburg divines ; in Holland, Junius, and 
 Salmatius ; in Italy, Zanchius ; in France, Marlora- 
 tus, and Danoeus ; in Geneva, Calvin and his breth- 
 ren ; in England, in the Establishment, Cartwright ; 
 among the Nonconformists, Ames, Goodwin, and 
 Owen, the last has been already named ; and among 
 the Independents of America, Cotton, and Mather — 
 the latter of whom explains how the office dropt out 
 
 I For these and similar testimonius at length, see the admirable 'Plea of 
 Presbytery, by Ministers of the General Synod of Ulster,' pp. :30'"i— 3t>5. 
 2 Neal's Piu-itans, voL v, App. 'JO. 
 
IN BEHALF OF ITS DIVINE AUTHORITY. 83 
 
 of the Congregational churches of the New World. 
 The duties of Ruling Elder were devolved, not upon 
 several, but on one person ; and in days of declining 
 Christianity, the Elder felt the duty so painful and 
 unpopular, on his own responsibility, to exclude from 
 ordinances and administer discipline, that he aban- 
 doned the office, and it went into desuetude. This, 
 however, was a gross misapplication and mismanage- 
 ment of the office, and contains no just reflection upon 
 the office itself. Men put it on an unscriptural footing. 
 Nor has the office perished in more modern times. 
 Besides being recognised in the standards of all Pres- 
 byterian churches even where imperfectly carried into 
 practical effect, there are churches which do not 
 usually pass under the name of Presbyterian which 
 really hold and exercise the office, such as the modern 
 Lutheran Church of America, which constitutes a 
 large and respectable body^ — and the Calvinistic Me- 
 thodist church in England, which has above 600 places 
 of worship in Wales alone, 420 ministers, and 1207 
 Ruling Elders. It is gratifying to learn that the last 
 mentioned church has recently opened up a corres- 
 pondence with the Evangelical Presbyterians proper 
 of England with a view to union into one church. The 
 Calvinistic Methodists are understood to comprehend 
 one half the population of Wales, besides 100 congre- 
 gations in neighbouring counties. 
 
 To use the language of one who has written ably 
 and well on the subject of the Ruling Elder i^ — "The 
 great body of the Protestant churches, when they came 
 to organise their several systems, in a state of separa- 
 tion from the Papacy and from each other, differing 
 as they did in many other respects, were almost 
 unanimous in adopting and maintaining the office of 
 the Ruling Elder. Instead of this office being con- 
 tined, as many appear to suppose, to the Ecclesiastical 
 Establishments of Geneva and Scotland, it was gene- 
 rally introduced with the Reformation by Lutherans 
 as weU as Calvinists, and is generally retained to the 
 
 1 Schraucker's Theology, 374. 2 MiUer, UG, 117. 
 
84 OFFICE OF RULING ELDER 
 
 present day in almost all the Protestant churches ex- 
 cept that of England.' Those of Franco, Germany, 
 Holland, Switzerland, etc., received this class of elders 
 early, and expressly refer to them in their public Con- 
 fessions as founded on the Word of God. It is proba- 
 bly safe to affirm, that at the period of the Reforma- 
 tion more than tlirce-fourths of the whole Protestant 
 world declared in favour of this office, not merely as 
 expedient, but as warranted by Scripture, and as ne- 
 cessary to the order and edification of the church. 
 Truly, it is difficult to conceive how any one who se- 
 riously and impartially weighs these facts can resist 
 the impression, that an institution, in behalf of which 
 so many eminently learned and pious men, of different 
 and distant countries, without concert with each other, 
 and without any common interest to serve in reference 
 to the matter, have so remarkably concurred in opinion, 
 must have some solid foundation both in the inspired 
 volume and in the nature and necessities of the church. " 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON THE NATURE AND NECESSITY OF THE OFFICE OF 
 RULING ELDER. 
 
 Having established the authority of the office of 
 Ruling Elder alike from the testimony of the Word 
 of God, and the practice of the Christian church in 
 primitive and subsequent times, we now naturally 
 (^ome to enquire into the nature of the office. Wo 
 have found that there is an office of rule distinct from 
 that of the minister in the church of Christ. What 
 is its nature? 
 
 First of all, then, it is not a civil office. It has no- 
 tliing to do with the possession or administration of 
 civil power — that is the province of the civil magis- 
 
 1 See Appendix, on Elders in the Continental Churches, a similar office in 
 the Church of England prior to tlie Kcforniution. 
 
NOT CIVIL BUT SriRITUAL. 85 
 
 trate. The office, strictly and exclusively, belongs 
 to the church. It regards the inspection, discipline, 
 and government of the members of the church, and 
 that by moral, not civil means. The Elder does not 
 discharge his duty by punishing church offenders, 
 where necessary, with civil pains and penalties. No. 
 All that he has to do is, in conjunction with the min- 
 ister and other members of session, to admonish, warn, 
 reprove, suspend, and, last of all, cut off from the com- 
 munion of the church. His power extends no farther. 
 In the history of the Christian church, church officers 
 have sometimes, yea often, gone beyond this. In the 
 Church of Rome, which is Prelatical, and does not 
 recognise the office of the Ruling Elder at all, it has 
 been common to deliver over church offenders from 
 the ecclesiastical to the civil arm — to the punishments 
 of the Inquisition. And even in our own church, par- 
 ticularly in early times, when the civil power was very 
 weak, and the country was in a rough and lawless con- 
 dition, church offenders were visited with civil pains 
 and penalties by the session ; such as fines and corpo- 
 ral inflictions. But however natural the procedure 
 may have been in the peculiar circumstances in which 
 the church was placed for a season, the principle is 
 indefensible. The weapons of the church are not car- 
 nal — they are spiritual ; they consist of moral disci- 
 pline, and this is the universal practice of the Church 
 of Scotland at the present day. By a recent Act of 
 the General Assembly, no money is received, even for 
 the poor, from those who have been the subjects of 
 church censure, lest it should seem as if she were 
 dealing in civil penalties, and also lest any should im- 
 agine that, like the Church of Rome, she compounded 
 with men for their sins in consideration of pecuniary 
 acknowledgments. 
 
 As to the civil magistrate punishing men for breaches 
 of the law of God — such as offences against the first 
 table, blasphemy, sabbath breaking — that is another 
 matter, and proceeds upon other grounds. It is the 
 doing of the state, not of the church, and because 
 H 
 
80 OFFICE OF RULING ELDER 
 
 such offences are breaches of the law of the state, and 
 most injurious to its interests; while, at the same 
 time, they happen also to be breaches of the law of 
 the church, which is founded on the Word of God: 
 thus a man might bo punished both by the church and 
 the state for the same crime. The one might excom- 
 municate liim from her pale — the otlier visit him 
 with a lieavj fine. But the two authorities are dis- 
 tinct. This is manifest from the fact, that the church 
 might, and often does, inflict censure where the civil 
 or criminal law sees nothing to blame. The office of 
 the Ruling Elder, then, is not civil. It is strictly ec- 
 clesiastical. It deals with ecclesiastical offences, and 
 restrains and punishes thorn in an ecclesiastical way ; 
 and it rewards and encourages the faithful members 
 of the church also by spiritual, not temporal means — 
 by tlie diligent discharge of duty, and the prayers and 
 approbation of the good. 
 
 But, further, the office of the Ruling Elder is not 
 only ecclesiastical — it is spiritual in its nature. Though 
 an office within tlie church, it might have been occu- 
 pied with temporal matters belonging to the churcli ; 
 such as its finance, and the maintenance of the poor. 
 But, No. It is not identical witli the office of the 
 deacon. In practice they may have been conjoined in 
 Scotland and some other Presbyterian countries, but 
 in Scripture the offices are distinct ; and it is desira- 
 ble, as much as possible, to keep them distinct in 
 practice. The union is attended with various evils, 
 fitted to defeat tlie ends of the Eldership as a spiritual 
 office. At tlie same time, from the paucity of persons 
 able and willing to discharge the duties of both offices 
 separately, they are frequently united. 
 
 And since, tlion, the office of Elder is neither civil, 
 nor affects temporal matters, what is its nature ? It is, 
 as I have said, strictly and exclusively spiritual. It is 
 designed to aid the pastor in the inspection, guidance, 
 and government of the flock, and to promote the edifi- 
 cation of all classes connected with tlie congregation — 
 the young, by seeing that they are religiously educated 
 
ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. 8/ 
 
 — the careless, by seeing that they are warned — can- 
 didates for admission, by seeing that they are well 
 qualified — offenders against the rules of the churcli, 
 by seeing that they are dealt with by admonition, sus- 
 pension, or exclusion — the infirm and the sick, by 
 seeing that they are visited — mourners, by seeing that 
 they are encouraged. Where (as in an Established 
 church,) in addition to the congregation, there is a 
 territorial division, comprehending many individuals, 
 who are estranged from all Christian churclies and 
 communions, growing up in ungodliness, it is the duty 
 of Elders, as of ministers, to use all the means in their 
 power to reach and reclaim them, as by schools — 
 week-day and sabbath — and also district visitations. 
 While the Elder, as his name intimates, has his ap- 
 propriate place in the rule or government of the church 
 — as a member of its Sessions, Synods, and, it may be, 
 General Assemblies — these may be regarded as his 
 more public duties, but he has, like the minister, va- 
 rious private duties, all bearing on the same end — the 
 furtherance of the moral and religious good ; in other 
 words, the instruction and edification of the diff"erent 
 classes and characters composing the Christian con- 
 gregation with which he is connected. 
 
 And now, having explained the nature of the office 
 of the Ruling Elder, let me briefly advert to the abso- 
 lute NECESSITY of such an office in the Christian 
 church. All who have just views of Christianity and 
 of the Christian church will allow that discipline is 
 indispensable — that religious ordinances, such as Bap- 
 tism and the Lord's Supper, cannot, witliout mockery 
 and profanation, be granted to all indiscriminately, 
 whatever their character. All will allow that none 
 should be recognised as members of the Christian 
 church save those who make a creditable profession ; 
 and that to attain this knowledge of men demands 
 some time and care. Hence it is obvious that the 
 whole management of the discipline of the church can- 
 not be committed to the hands of one individual, and 
 he the minister. His own peculiar duties, public and 
 private, even in a small congregation, are far too many 
 
88 INABILITY OF THE PASTOR OR WHOLE 
 
 and onerous to admit of his suitably attending to then* 
 all, and the whole discipline of the congregation be- 
 sides. If the eminent and eloquent Father Chrysostom 
 declared that in his time the care of 150 souls was 
 deemed as much as one pastor, and more than he 
 without great labour, could overtake, what would he 
 have thought of our modern churches and congrega- 
 tions ? Hence it is that, where left to the minister 
 alone, as in the Church of England, there is really no 
 discipline. It is not a very pleasant, though a very 
 important employment, to inspect morals, and, where 
 necessary, reprove. Accordingly the duty is neglect- 
 ed, and the very office ultimately disappears. 
 
 Independently of the want of time and ability to 
 rule a whole church or parish alone, it is not desirable 
 that so much power should be entrusted to a single 
 individual. Even good men are liable to many mis- 
 takes and prejudices, and to be misled by a few in- 
 judicious friends. How serious a thing to commit the 
 examination, trial, and acquittal or condemnation of 
 character, in ecclesiastical affairs, to a single indi- 
 vidual, without any appeal from his judgment! The 
 very possession of such despotic power would be most 
 injurious to the character of the minister himself, and 
 also of his flock. It would nourish pride and ambi- 
 tion on the one hand, and slavish submission on the 
 other. This has been remarkably verified in the his- 
 tory of the Christian church. As soon as men departed 
 from the Scriptural and apostolic order of Ruling El- 
 ders in each congregation, the pride and ambition of 
 the clergy, as a distinct order, obtained free scope, and 
 favoured by other adverse influences, at length became 
 the mightiest engine of tyranny which the world ever 
 saw, while the so-called Christian people crouched 
 under the Priest as the most abject slaves. In short, 
 the real character and ends of the Christian church 
 were destroyed. Had it not been for the abandonment 
 of the Primitive and Presbyterian order of the church, 
 the world might — we may safely say would — have been 
 spared much of the usurpation and corruption of the 
 Church of Rome. 
 
COMMUNICANTS TO EXERCISE DISCIPLINE. 
 
 89 
 
 It is plain, then, that a single individual, however 
 iible or excellent, cannot administer aright the govern- 
 ment of the church. All history has proved this ; and 
 then it is to he remembered that all ministers are not 
 able and excellent. We see, then, the necessity of the 
 pastor being at once assisted and checked by others — 
 and these responsible persons — associated with him. 
 Now the question arises, Who shall these others be? 
 The Congregationalists or Independents say that the 
 whole members of the church, young and old, male 
 and female, should bear a part in the government ; 
 and, moreover, that there should be no appeal from 
 their judgment, each congregation being independent 
 in itself ; but this plan is exposed to insuperable ob- 
 jections. Many persons, though possessed of sufficient 
 knowledge and character to be admissible, with pro- 
 priety, to church privileges, are totally unfit, from 
 their education, and temper, and habits of thinking, 
 and situation in life, for administering so delicate 
 a matter as the government and discipline of the 
 church of Christ. Think ot new converts, in some 
 cases, as in the South Seas, constituting the great ma- 
 jority of the congregation, with their imperfect views 
 and newly acquired ideas, becoming at once rulers in 
 the church, to inspect, admonish, reprove, excommu- 
 nicate others, and receiving as much power as the 
 gravest, most aged, and experienced members! What 
 can be expected to arise out of such a state of things 
 but confusion in the first instance, and then endless 
 divisions and parties? Accordingly this, in a great de- 
 gree, is the history of such congregations. Humanly 
 speaking, it is only a remarkable outpouring of the 
 Spirit which could prevent such a result. 
 
 And it would be still more the history, were the 
 professed principles of the Independent body carried 
 out ; but this is not the case — they cannot, in fact, be 
 acted on to any great extent. From the unpleasant- 
 ness of the employment, or other causes, a large body 
 of the members do not regularly or steadily bear a 
 part in the administration of the government of the 
 H2 
 
90 THIS INABILITY PROVED BY EXPERIENCE. 
 
 church, and the exercise of discipline. Consequently 
 these fall into the hands of a few, who may be said 
 really to become the Ruling Elders — but, with this 
 disadvantage, that they are not a recognised or re- 
 sponsible party more than others. Their judgments 
 may be upset without appeal as often as a sufficient 
 number of the members remain to outvote them. 
 Moreover, the persons who in this way fall into tlie 
 possession of ecclesiastical power are not composed, as 
 in Presbyterian churches, of the men most noted for 
 character and prudence and liabits of business, but 
 very often of the self-confident, the ambitious, the 
 rash, in short, tlie very persons whose temperament 
 specially unfits them for church rule. These are the 
 persons who are most fond of government, and who are 
 most regular and persevering in their attendance, and 
 so become the rulers. 
 
 In remarkable harmony with what might have been 
 expected, I believe it is no secret that, in many Inde- 
 pendent congregations, both in this and other coun- 
 tries, there is a private committee of the most prudent 
 and able men, who prepare business for the larger 
 body — the church; in otlier words — real congregational 
 principles are found to be impracticable. The com- 
 mittee substantially become the Eldership, and Inde- 
 pendent churches are ruled only by having recourse 
 to the principles of Presbyterian ones. It would not 
 avail to repose the whole power in the pastor, and al- 
 low liim to consult with friends in cases of discipline. 
 Not only would this not meet all the duties of the 
 Ruling Elder, but, being optional, some pastors would 
 consult, others would not. Those with whom they 
 consulted would feel no official responsibility, and very 
 frequently and naturally they would consist of one or 
 two attached friends, who would not run counter to 
 the pastor's known views and likings, and hence the 
 footing on whicli the government and discipline of the 
 church would rest would be as unsatisfactory as ever. 
 
 There is no real remedy for these various and op- 
 posite evils but the Eldership of the Presbyterian 
 
DR. OWr.x's TESTIMONY TO THIS PURPOSE. 9!. 
 
 church — a body of men of approved qualification, in- 
 vested with a distinct office in the government of the 
 church. And is the appointment of such a body of 
 men more than might have been expected ? Surely the 
 Redeemer, who showed such condescension and love to 
 his people, would never in so important a matter as 
 the relationship of church members leave them a prey 
 to clerical despotism on the one hand, or of confusion, 
 leading to tyranny, on the other. Surely he would 
 make some provision for their being ruled in a com- 
 fortable, affectionate, and edifying manner. To adopt 
 the strong language of Dr. Owen, when speaking of 
 Ruling Elders : — '* It is evident that neither the 
 purity, nor the order, nor the beauty or glory of the 
 church of Christ, nor the reputation of His own 
 majesty and authority in the government of them, 
 can long be preserved without a multiplicity of Elders 
 in them according to the proportion of the respectable 
 members, for their rule and guidance ; and for want 
 hereof have the churches of old and of late either 
 degenerated into anarchy and confusion — (their self- 
 rule being managed with vain disputes and j anglings 
 unto their division and ruin) — or else giving up them- 
 selves to the dominance of some Prelatical teachers 
 to rule them at their pleasure, which proved the bane 
 and poison of all primitive churches, and they will, 
 and must do so, in the neglect of this order (namely, 
 of Ruling Elder) for the future."^ 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON THE DUTIES AND QUALIFICATIONS OF THE RULING 
 ELDER. 
 
 Having established the Scripture authority of the 
 office of the Ruling Elder, and shown the sanction 
 which can be pleaded in its behalf, from the senti- 
 ments and practice of the Christian church in primi- 
 
 1 Owen's Gospel Church, p. 178. 
 
02 PUBLIC AXD PRIVATE DrTIES 
 
 tive and suhfsequent times ; having also shown the 
 nature and absolute necessitj for such an office from 
 the constitution of the church of Christ, and the proved 
 inability of men to govern it in a satisfactory manner 
 in any other way, I now come shortly to explain the 
 duties and qualifications of the Eldership. 
 
 I have already noticed the duties incidentally. Aj* 
 the very name of the office of Ruliwf Elder intimates, 
 its chief and distinguishing peculiarity is tliat of ruling 
 or governing the church of Christ. The leading jmh- 
 ?tc duties of the Elder are included under this denomi- 
 nation ; — of course, in order to rule a Christian church 
 or congregation satisfactorily and aright, there must 
 be knowledge of the members, inspection of their cha- 
 raf:ter and conduct, admonition, advice, reproof, where 
 needed ; there must be a care to compose differences 
 where they exist among the members, the visitation 
 of the sick and infirm, attention to the religious edu- 
 cation of the young, assisting the minister in the 
 administration of the sacraments, and the exercise of 
 church discipline on offenders, and a general desire 
 and effort to make oneself serviceable in every pos- 
 sible way to the congregation, especially in the fur- 
 therance of their spiritual comfort and edification. In 
 addition to these there are the duties of judging in 
 church courts, and conducting the business of the 
 church. Such are the leading public duties of the 
 Elder ; and then he has various pricoM duties common 
 to him with all Christians, and some peculiar ones 
 rising out of the ecclesiastical office which he holds. 
 Among these may be reckoned, the duties under which 
 Christians lye to instruct one another — to exhort and 
 stir up one another to love and good works — to ad- 
 monish one another — to comfort the afflicted and sup- 
 port the weak — to restore the fallen, and visit those 
 who are in distress — and pray one for another. It 
 may be remembered that among the private duties of 
 the Elder, Scripture expressly singles out admonition 
 to the careless believer, and prayer for the afflicted. 
 '* We beseech you, brethren, to know them which 
 
OF THE RULING ELDER. 93 
 
 labour among you and are over jou in the Lord, and 
 admonish you." *' Is any sick among you, let him 
 call for the Elders of the churcli, and let them pray 
 over him anointing him with oil, in the name of the 
 Lord " — that is, using all appropriate means for his 
 recovery, while combined with these there is a holy 
 dependence upon God in the exercise of prayer. But 
 the duties are so well stated in Guthrie's tract, and so 
 fully, that I need not enlarge. 
 
 I may merely specify one or two points. Elders 
 then should if possible hold a regular meeting in their 
 district, for prayer and reading of the Scriptures. 
 This they will find an interesting exercise for them.- 
 selves — well fitted to prepare them for more public 
 duties, to which they may be occasionally called in 
 the absence of a minister, and highly useful to many 
 at least of the families among whom they have been 
 appointed to labour. It will warmly attach the people 
 to them — enable them in an easy way to keep up the 
 knowledge of their charge, and help them to be more 
 effectually useful to them in sickness or where kind 
 offices are required. — To a minister, especially in a 
 large parish, nothing can be more pleasing or encourag- 
 ing than to know, when necessarily from home or over- 
 burdened with work, that his parish is not neglected 
 — that a large number of faithful Elders have their 
 regular, it may be, weekly meetings — and that many, 
 young and old, are praying for a blessing on his 
 ministry. It is highly desirable where circumstances 
 admit of it, that the Elder be also the Sabbath 
 School Teacher of his district, the distributor of tracts 
 and missionary intelligence. In addition to these a 
 regular visitation from time to time of the families 
 placed under him, whether as parishioners or members 
 of the congregation, would complete the sphere of his 
 usefulness. If the Elders are sufficiently numerous 
 and the number of families to each sufficiently limited 
 there would be nothing formidable in such duties, and 
 rare indeed would be tlie cases where a conscientious 
 elder would not be cordially welcomed and entreated to 
 
04 DUTIES OF RCLISG ELDERS. 
 
 return. The Rev. Mr. Smith of Charleston puts the 
 following case : Suppose a congregation to consist of 
 100 families — ^let there be ten Elders and ten districts, 
 and let each Elder visit his district once a month. 
 This would require each man to pay no more than 
 five regular visits in two weeks ; and who is there, he 
 adds, with any love to Christ and the souls of men, who 
 could not find time to pay two visits a week and dis- 
 charge the other duties arising from his office ? Sup- 
 pose the congregation consisted of 200 families with 
 the same number of Elders as in the previous case, 
 the visits a week would only be raised to five. Surely 
 much more time is lost even by the faithful and the 
 good than would suffice to overtake such important 
 duties. Far more has actually been accomplished by 
 many Elders, and that witliout any felt inconvenience 
 — nay largely to their happiness and profit. 
 
 To give greater weight to these statements of the 
 duties of the Eldership I gladly avail myself of the 
 words of the Rev. Iklr. Morgan of Belfast, who stands 
 deservedly high in the esteem of all Presbyterian 
 churches and of the Christian world. After mention- 
 ing various duties he says, " It is the duty of Elders 
 to visit the sick. This indeed is the duty of every 
 member of the church so far as there is opportu- 
 nity. But particularly it is enjoined on the Elder.* 
 It is their special duty to approach the sick with 
 the tenderness of Christian sympathy — ^to enquire 
 into their temporal wants, and supply them from the 
 funds of the church should it be necessary — to embrace 
 the opportunity of impressing the truths of religion 
 on their minds, and to commend them by prayer to 
 God that he may be pleased to heal their sorrows and 
 to sanctify them. Surely to a devout mind such ex- 
 ercises would furnish a most congenial employment. 
 And we could not but expect that Christ would require 
 such duties from the members of the church to one 
 another as weU for the benefit of the visitors, as of 
 them that are visited. " Again, 
 
 '* Nor let the Elders forget that to them is speciaDj 
 
 1 James, v, U. 
 
FREQUENT FAILURE NO OBJECTION. 05 
 
 entrusted the originating and directing and fostering 
 of all plans for the spread of religion in the church 
 and in the world. Thej are the appointed guardians 
 and patrons of the Sabbath School, Bible, Missionary, 
 and Tract Societies, the Scripture reader, and the 
 lending Library. It is when the Elders of the church 
 undertake these duties, and not till then, that they will 
 be effectively discharged: and oh! did Elders thus 
 discharge their duties, what a transformation would 
 speedily pass on the church and on the world ! We would 
 soon have reason to say " All things have become new." 
 The duties of the Eldership in all Presbyterian 
 churches may often have been very partially and im- 
 perfectly discharged, and sometimes they may have 
 fallen into such desuetude as almost to become un- 
 known, so that congregations have ceased to expect 
 them ; but in this respect the duties of the Elder have 
 not been more neglected than oftentimes have been 
 those of the pastor and of the private Christian. In 
 general, religious decline affects all offices and all 
 duties. But, however far Presbyterian churches may 
 have frequently come short of their duty, the office of 
 the Ruling Elder is a permanent one in the church of 
 Christ, and its duties are permanent. It is no more 
 than just to make allowance, and large allowance for 
 many men who entered on the office long ago when 
 the same views in regard to its duties were not enter- 
 tained — men who entered upon it when little was ask- 
 ed or expected by the church, and who probably would 
 not have become Elders had more been demanded. 
 It would be unreasonable to imagine that in advancing 
 years they are to engage in all the real spiritual duties 
 of Elders like younger men who are called to them 
 under very different circumstances; still so far as 
 possible it is their duty to join with their brethren 
 — the very study of the office of Ruling Elder in the 
 light of Scripture and of the ancient constitution of 
 the church is fitted to do them good. At least they 
 should take care to throw no barrier of discourage- 
 ment in the way of those Elders who have deeper and 
 
1)0 IMrORTANT SERVICE OF RULING ELDERS. 
 
 more comprehensive impressions of their obligations. 
 It is matter of gratitude to the Great Head of the 
 I'hurch that there is a growing disposition to revive 
 the duties of the office. These, from the altered cir- 
 cumstances of society, especially in our large towns, 
 may often be of very difficult application — much more 
 difficult than in retired rural parishes, where every 
 man is known to his neighbour, and attends the same 
 parish church. Still, whatever may be the difficulties 
 of the exercise of the office of Elder in our towns and 
 cities, both as regards the congregation and the parish, 
 there can bo little question that, to a Christian who 
 has the time and qualification, there is still excellent 
 scope for the exercise of various most useful duties, 
 and these pleasant as well as profitable, and that no 
 one bearing the name of an Elder should lightly re- 
 gard them. 
 
 Whatever may have been the neglect and desuetude 
 into which the duties of the Elder have often fallen, 
 both in town and country, let us never forget that, as 
 a whole, the most important services have been render- 
 ed by the p]ldership of Scotland to the church of their 
 fathers — that many have discharged the highest duties 
 of the office with fidelity and perseverance, even in 
 difficult circumstances; and that many more have dis- 
 charged the duties to which they more peculiarly de- 
 voted themselves in connexion with the indigent — to 
 the good of the poor and the advantage of their coun- 
 try — while of almost all it may be said that they have 
 stood by the church when assailed by enemies from 
 without, and have proved such a defence as churches 
 not Presbyterian have envied, and wished were enjoy- 
 ed by themselves. 
 
 Passing from the duties of the Ruling Elder, we 
 now come to consider the leading qcalificatioxs for 
 the office, and the knowledge of the duties will enable 
 us better to judge of the men whom the church should 
 ever call to the Eldership, 
 
 To prevent misapprehensions, I may begin with the 
 negative, by stating that it is not indispensably neces' 
 
QUALIFICATIONS OF RULING ELDERS. 97 
 
 sarj that an Elder be an aged or middle-aged man. 
 The word Elder naturally suggests the idea of age, 
 and certainly where all other qualifications can be 
 had, the maturity and Christian wisdom which age 
 generally carries along with it are most desirable. 
 Such age naturally and properly exerts a considerable 
 influence on the session and congregation and society 
 at large — and the influence is a favourable one ; but 
 it is not indispensably necessary. Very frequently, 
 especially in large towns, advancing years are asso- 
 ciated with extensive business — such business that, 
 however well disposed and well qualified, the indivi- 
 dual cannot with any satisfaction to himself overtake 
 the duties of the Eldership in addition ; and this dis- 
 advantage is peculiarly felt in the day in which we 
 live, when more is expected of Elders than formerly 
 — when the oflice is in the course of growing revival 
 — and when the circumstances of the churcli and 
 country demand peculiar activity and zeal and some 
 self-sacrifice on the part of its officers. An indispen- 
 sable requisite to the discharge of all duty is time, 
 and, we may add, residence. At the same time, let 
 not any entertain exaggerated ideas on the point. 
 Let it not be imagined that the duties of the Elder 
 are such as seriously to encroach on one's leisure. 
 Where the districts or proportions are small, and this 
 can be secured only by the multiplication of Elders, 
 a few hours steadily devoted every week to the paro- 
 chial duty of the Elder, it stands on the testimony of 
 those who have made successful trial, are sufficient in 
 ordinary circumstances to meet the leading moral and 
 religious wants of the district. 
 
 While I thus would guard against the idea that 
 years are indispensably iiecessarj to the Elder, I would 
 not, on the other hand, have the reader to forget, 
 that where other circumstances concur, some standing 
 in point of years has various advantages. Young men, 
 though with less business than older ones, are often 
 and naturally anxious to further their prospects in the 
 world, and may thus be as much absorbed with a 
 I 
 
08 PIETY ESSENTIAL TO THE RULING ELDER. 
 
 smaller as others are with a larger business. And 
 then they are untried. However fair and excellent 
 may be their character, it is not known how they will 
 stand the temptations of the world till they have ex- 
 perienced them. From their comparative unacquain- 
 tance too with family distresses, they can imperfectly 
 sympathise with those who are bereaved ; while yet an 
 important part of their duty as Elders lyes among such 
 persons and families. Perhaps it is in some measure 
 to meet the two last, that the word of God recom- 
 mends that the Elder should be married. 
 
 1st. Having stated what is not essential to the quali- 
 fications of the Elder, I shall now state what qualifi- 
 cations are indispensable. And, 1st, there is piety. 
 All must at once see not only the importance but the 
 necessity of this. Were the office of Elder a mere 
 secular profession, a matter of business connected with 
 the world, piety might be dispensed with ; but it is an 
 ecclesiastical office, and concerned about spiritual 
 duties — and how then can it be exercised with intelli- 
 gence or profit, or indeed at all, without that piety 
 which springs from the faith of the Gospel, and which 
 consists of love to God and love to man ? Piety is as 
 necessary for the Elder as for the minister: without 
 it there may be some of the external forms; but there 
 can be no life or power or pleasure in the office. The 
 Elder cannot be truly respected by the congregation, 
 and he must soon weary of the office itself. It is only 
 the principles and motives of piety which can sustain 
 him amid the difficulties and misapprehensions and 
 misrepresentations to which the discharge of the office 
 frequently exposes. Not only is piety requisite, but, 
 if possible, superior piety. The higher the attain- 
 ment, the greater the success with which the duties, 
 it may be expected, will be observed. This may not 
 always be attainable, but at least there should be sin- 
 cere and solid principle manifested in an orthodox 
 creed — irreproachable conduct and a consistent pro- 
 fession of religion. Apart from these a congregation 
 had better want Elders for a time altogether. A man 
 
ALSO r«UDENCE AND GOOD JUDGMENT. 09 
 
 unsound in the faith, without love to God, and con- 
 sequently really opposed to Christ and his kingdom, 
 is not only quite unfit for the duties of the Eldership 
 whether public or private, but he must be a drag and 
 restraint upon the faithful members of session. He 
 must hinder their welfare in a variety of ways, such 
 as their fellowship in prayer, and their different 
 schemes for doing good. 1 cannot better describe this 
 part of the qualification of Elders than in the words 
 of inspiration. They are equally applicable to the 
 ruling as to the teaching Elder, and were, doubtless, 
 designed to mark what should be the character of both. 
 " An Elder must be blameless, the husband of one wife, 
 liaving faithful children ; one that ruleth well his own 
 house, having his children in subjection with all gra- 
 vity, not accused of riot or unruly, not self-willed, not 
 soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given 
 to filthy lucre, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of 
 good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, and sound in 
 the faith, in charity, in patience." Of course, these 
 requirements include the personal virtues, and such 
 duties as family worship, and a regular attendance 
 upon divine ordinances. Without these piety would 
 lose both the proofs of its existence, and the means of 
 it increase. 
 
 2nd. The next qualification for the Eldership is pru- 
 dence and good judgment. Essential as piety is, it is 
 not enough. All pious men are not wise men. Many 
 are rash and hasty and opiuionative, and do much to 
 neutralise the effects of their piety, and perhaps to 
 discredit it. Some, too, are weak in point of mental 
 character. Such persons, however sincere and well 
 intentioned, are not fit for the Eldership. Good sense 
 and prudence are almost as essential as piety. The 
 duties of Elders, as ]ias been shown, are many and 
 various, some of them delicate and difiicult ; they con- 
 cern all classes of character and society, and the ma- 
 nagement of the house of God besides. Hence they 
 peculiarly call for tlie exercise of a sound judgment, 
 free from vanity or conceit, or zeal without knowledge. 
 
100 ELDEllS SHOULD BE WELL REPORTED OF, 
 
 TIow strong is the Scripture commendation of pru- 
 dence ! Private Christians, and much more office- 
 bearers in the church, are required to be wise as 
 seq)ents, harmless as doves. Moses, when directing 
 the children of Israel as to the choice of rulers, ex- 
 horted them in these words: — ''Take ye wise men and 
 understanding, and known among your tribes, and I 
 will make them rulers over you.'* Suppose church 
 members had the election of civil judges in their hands, 
 would they choose weak or rash or forward men, how- 
 ever sincere and well intentioned in heart? No. And 
 are such persons more fit for acting the part of ec- 
 clesiastical judges ? It is to be feared that the rashness 
 and imprudence of good men in the church have often 
 marred their success, and given an occasion to the 
 enemy to find fault, if not to triumph. They have 
 weakened, too, the moral influence of the church of 
 Christ as a whole. Why are Christians endowed with 
 reason, if that reason is not to be exercised ? There 
 are gifts as well as graces ; but this point is, on all 
 liands, acknowledged to be so clear and important 
 that I need not enlarge. I shall only add that pru- 
 dence is peculiarly called for in the day in which we 
 live : when the Church of Scotland has many ene- 
 mies, and not a few eyes are upon her, watching for 
 her halting and wearying for her fall. Such a quali- 
 fication, too, is especially necessary, in an institution 
 like the humble church of our fathers, which has not, 
 like some churches, immense worldly interests on which 
 to lean, which may be said to live purely by character 
 and public usefulness. 
 
 3rd. In the third place, an Elder should not only be 
 a pious and prudent man, but also one well reported 
 of; he should be free from every stain and ground of 
 reproach, and also stand well in public estimation. It 
 is possible for one to be a man of piety and good sense, 
 and yet, from particular circumstances, not to be well 
 reported of. His early life may have been marked 
 with great thoughtlessness and levity, which are not 
 forgotten, or he may conduct his business in such a 
 
AND PUBLIC SriIlITED. iOl 
 
 "way as to seem to forget the exhortation to shun "the 
 appearance of evil.*' The effect of this is to weaken 
 his influence in the Christian congregation and in so- 
 ciety, and so to unfit him for the Eldership. We do 
 not say that there is any thing realhj disqualifying, 
 that either in character or conduct he is blame-worthy; 
 but the result is the same as if he were. An Elder 
 needs not only to be good, but to be known, and re- 
 ported to be good. Without this he will be an object 
 of suspicion, at least there will be a want of general 
 confidence in him ; he will not be respected or esteem- 
 ed, and in the same proportion the ecclesiastical court 
 of which he forms a member will suffer in its reputa- 
 tion. It will be exposed to unfounded taunts, and the 
 weight of its deliberations and judgments will be weak- 
 ened. In the discharge of the duties of his office 
 the Elder is frequently called upon to hold converse 
 with those who are without, who do not belong to the 
 pale of the Christian church. In these circumstances 
 his character will be made a subject of rigid scrutiny. 
 It is most desirable that in all the relations of life, 
 and in public estimation, it be such that he can easily 
 and thoroughly stand the trial, and come forth un- 
 harmed, yea, unsuspected. It is well when it can be 
 said, that a church suffers no injury from the Minis- 
 ters or Elders who administer its affairs. But, after 
 all, this is saying little. The happy state of things is, 
 where it can be said that the church decidedly gains 
 by an Elder, and that, by his good character, he re- 
 commends its interests and claims even to the profane 
 and ungodly. 
 
 4th. The next qualification for the Eldership is that 
 state of mind, temper, and conduct, comprehended un- 
 der the name of puhlic spirit. The men of the world 
 are eminently selfish in their views, and even good men 
 are often feeble and narrow, contenting themselves with 
 humble attainments and efforts — afraid to do, or to risk 
 much, keeping by a little formal circle of duty, wliile 
 the great public interests of society — of the church and 
 of the world — are for the most part neglected. This is 
 12 
 
102 ELDEKS SHOULD BE PUBLIC-SPIRITED, AND 
 
 not tho spirit of Christ. He was eminently public-spi- 
 rited. Ho obeyed — ho laboured — he suffered for the 
 good of others. The state of the church and of the 
 world was much upon his' heart ; so should it be with 
 the rulers in His house. They should seek the things 
 of Christ before, and more highly, than their own. 
 They should mourn for the sins and miseries of the 
 church more than their own. They should rejoice in 
 the prosperity of Zion more than their own. Like old 
 Eli, they should be more troubled for the loss of the 
 ark than for the death of two sons. Like David, they 
 should bewail the conflagration of God's house more 
 than their own — the desolation of the church more 
 than that of a kingdom.^ It is highly desirable that 
 the Ruling Elder, whose very office is designed to 
 promote Christ's kingdom upon earth, should be 
 eminent for his love to all true Christians, to what 
 ever orthodox communion they belong — should take 
 a deep interest in all schemes of Christian usefulness, 
 particularly those of the church with which he is asso- 
 ciated — should not be narrow in his views, or scanty 
 in his contributions, but should cherish a spirit of 
 enlarged benevolence, and be an example to others of 
 generous effort and donation, so far as his circumstan- 
 ces will allow ; and of anxious desire and prayer for 
 the universal extension of the kingdom of Christ ; and, 
 generally for the furtherance of every good object — 
 human«5 and religious. This is peculiarly called for 
 in the present day, which teems with enterprisings of 
 Christian benevolence. How sad, where the office- 
 bearers of the church are afraid to move for Christ — 
 cold, timid, half -asleep — correct and excellent men, it 
 may be, in their families and little circles, but without 
 interest, sympathy, or prayer, for the great objects of 
 Christianity on a large and public scale ! If the rulers 
 of the church be wanting in public spirit, what can be 
 expected of the private members ? Truly they will be 
 cold and indifferent too, and miss the blessing which 
 is promised to those who mind not only their own 
 things, but also the things of Christ. 
 
 i yt-e Vindication of rresbyteriul Church O'overnment, p. 80. London, ICDO. 
 
ATTACHED TO THE PllINCIPLES OF THE CHURCH. 10''5 
 
 5th. Another qualification for the Eldership is an 
 enlightened attachment to the principles and consti- 
 tution of tho Church of Scotland, as a Presbyterian 
 evangelical church in union with the state. The very 
 names — Evangelical Presbyterian JEstahlishment — re- 
 call various important questions. Thej remind us 
 that the church to which we belong is an Evangelical 
 church as opposed to various errors — defective views 
 and false doctrines entertained in other churches, and 
 once, too, current in our own. They remind us that 
 it is a Presbyterian church, as opposed to forms of 
 government which, however venerated, are unsup- 
 ported by Scripture and the history of the church, 
 and are inexpedient in themselves ; and they remind 
 us that it is an Established church, as opposed to those 
 who deny the claims of Christ as King of nations as 
 well as of individuals and churches ; maintaining, on 
 the other hand, that it is the duty of men, in all re- 
 lations of life, the civil as well as others, to recognise 
 and promote the truth and church of the living God, 
 In any circumstances, it is most important that all 
 elders should have some measure of intelligent ac- 
 quaintance with these great characteristics of the 
 Church of Scotland ; but in the days in which our lot 
 is cast, this is eminently called for. It is well known 
 that ecclesiastical questions, long asleep, are, from 
 various causes — the progress of evangelical religion, 
 and the political state of society — coming up again 
 for discussion, and that Christians of all denominations 
 are called upon anew to examine their principles, and 
 hold fast by that which is Scriptural and good. At 
 such a season, it is peculiarly necessary that office- 
 bearers in the church, who are expected to defend her 
 when assailed, should have a tolerable acquaintance 
 with, and be animated with warm attachment to, her 
 principles and institutions. To whom are men to 
 look in the varied walks of society, in private life as 
 well as social intercourse, for able supporters, if not 
 to the Elders ? And blessed be God, in the church's 
 various struggles in every age, down to the present 
 
104 ELDERS SHOULD BE OF A DEVOTIONAL SPIRIT. 
 
 (Jay, she has been noblj sustained bj many of her 
 Elders : they have been among her foremost defenders. 
 I do not say that Elders should be mere partisans, and 
 in all questions follow the majority of the church, who- 
 ever these may happen to be. That were unreason- 
 able in itself, and injurious to their own influence ; 
 but, as compared with other churches, I humbly think, 
 those who are called to the Eldership in the Church 
 of Scotland should be men of warm and enlightened 
 attachment to her great distinguishing peculiarities ; 
 and that in a contest which divides her own members, 
 the evidence should be very clear — the result of pray- 
 erful investigation, and not mere haste and prejudice, 
 which decides them to pursue a course entirely oppo- 
 site to that of the great majority of their brethren. 
 
 In connexion with this point, and flowing out of 
 it, I may add, that the Elder, while tolerant and liberal 
 to all good men, should make it his care specially to 
 countenance the church to which he belongs, and by 
 the regularity of his attendance in the congregation of 
 which he is an Elder — by the interest which he takes 
 in its schools, its prayer meetings, and its different 
 religious objects ; so far as circumstances will allow, 
 he should encourage the minister and the other office- 
 bearers, in the great work for which they are associated 
 together as a church of Christ. 
 
 I need not say how unhappy it is, in every light, 
 when Elders, of whom other things might have been 
 expected, are ignorant or indifferent about the princi- 
 ples of the church, allow her to be attacked without 
 challenge, and take little or no interest in her ge- 
 neral proceedings, or in the religious concerns of the 
 particular congregation to whicli they belong. 
 
 6th. The last grand qualification for the Eldership 
 is a devotional spirit — the spirit of prayer. The 
 duties of Elder, when faithfully and unweariedly dis- 
 <;harged, are so many, and some of them so difficult 
 — the office is exposed to such varied opposition from 
 the wicked and ungodly, and the discliarge of its duties 
 is attended with such opposite temptations to neglect, 
 
THE OFFICE NOT TO BE LIGHTLY DECLINED. 105 
 
 or impatience, or severity — that the elder needs to be 
 upheld by better wisdom than his own, or that of his 
 brethren. He needs the counsel, strength, and bless- 
 ing of the Great Head of the church, and these are 
 to be had only in answer to prayer. Moreover, it is 
 only those of a devotional spirit who can be expected, 
 when necessary, to pray with the sick, and to form a 
 part of any association for prayer in the session or in 
 the congregation, for a blessing on the labours of the 
 office-bearers of the church. Hence the importance 
 of a prayerful spirit. Besides, it will sweeten all the 
 duties of the Eldership, whether more or less public, 
 and make them pleasant. It will prevent the elder 
 also from wearying in his labours, or being discouraged 
 by, it may be, seeing little visible fruit from them all. 
 I have now noticed the leading qualifications for the 
 successful discharge of the duties of the Ruling Elder 
 — personal piety — good sense and prudence — being 
 well-reported of — public spirit — intelligent attachment 
 to the constitution and principles of the church — and 
 a devotional temper ; combined together, they form a 
 most useful and excellent character, which will com- 
 mand the respect and esteem of all Christian men. In 
 describing the character of the Elder — a scriptural ofr 
 fice concerned about spiritual things — I have endea- 
 voured to be faithful; but let none, who may be called 
 by Christian congregations to undertake the duties, 
 lightly decline them on the sorce of inability, or un- 
 worthiness. Not a few may have held the office in 
 the Presbyterian church who were quite unsuitable ; 
 that, however, is no reason for men who possess the 
 substantial qualifications for it refusing its duties. It 
 is desirable to see and cherish a deep sense of one*s own 
 weakness and insufficiency. This is a good prepara- 
 tion for the discharge of duty — a far better preparation 
 than self-confidence. It indicates some just apprecia- 
 tion of the true nature of the office, and it will lead to 
 prayer and dependence on God. The unsolicited call, 
 too, of a Christian congregation, coming as the voice 
 of Providence, is not to be hastily or easily set aside* 
 
lOG DR. COOKE ON THE 
 
 Men, especially at first, may not be very well fitted 
 for all the duties of the Eldership. If, however, they at 
 all approach to the character I have described, they 
 will be equal to many; and, it may be hoped that, seek- 
 ing God's guidance and blessing, they will gradually 
 become better fitted for others, yea, for all. The days 
 in which we live are days in which every man of 
 principle, who has an obvious call to public duty, should 
 embrace it. They are not days in which duty may be 
 put away from him, and devolved upon others. If he 
 acts upon this feeling, without good reason, others may 
 do, and will do, the same, and the consequence will be 
 that the office, with its important duties, will fall into 
 less qualified hands, and the influence of the Church up- 
 on society proportionally be deteriorated. Even those 
 who have a large share of secular business to manage 
 should not lightly refuse such an office with the oppor- 
 tunities for Christian usefulness which it brings along 
 with it. If a good man is necessarily much occupied 
 with worldly business, he should be glad of something 
 which will ensure that all his time and talent shall not 
 be devoted to business — which shall provide that God 
 shall be directly glorified, and his fellow- Christians di- 
 rectly benefited, by some portion of his time and labour. 
 Such a reflection as this will be pleasant both now 
 and in the prospect of death. Many duties seem for- 
 midable at a distance, which prove manageable when 
 the trial is made ; and I have little doubt that when 
 they actually make trial of its duties such will be the 
 experience of all faithful, well qualified men, who are at 
 present disposed to shrink from the Eldership. 
 
 I cannot better conclude these observations on the 
 duties and qualifications of Elders than in the weighty 
 words of Dr. Cooke of Belfast, whose authority is de- 
 servedly high in all Christian churches. *' If the of- 
 fice," says he of an Elder," were merely to collect the 
 charitable contributions of the congregation, to assist 
 in distributing the elements at a communion, or to 
 attend and vote at Presbytery and Synod, a very few 
 qualifications would recommend to the office — the 
 
DUTIES OF THE RULING ELDEE. 107 
 
 duty were trifling and easily discharged ; but in truth 
 though these duties are sometimes viewed as the most 
 important, sometimes as the entire business of an El- 
 der, yet they constitute by far the least important 
 part of his avocations. In the choice of an Elder, 
 though rank is not to be overlooked, yet without all 
 question the chief qualification should be knowledge 
 of the Gospel joined with piety. An Elder in whose 
 family there arises no prayer to God, an Elder un- 
 qualified to address and exhort a dying sinner, an El- 
 der incapable of praying by the sick bed, is a melan- 
 choly example of an ofi&cer in the Church without one 
 solitary qualification for the duties of his office, on the 
 other hand a spiritual Eldership — ruling their own 
 families in the fear of God, attending to the situation 
 and wants of the poor, ready to exhort the young to 
 their duty or to rebuke the wanderer for the error of 
 his ways, often by the bed of sickness with the voice 
 of exhortation or prayer, attending upon church courts 
 to watch over the interests of the Redeemer's king- 
 dom, — such anEldership forms the ornament — strength 
 of the Presbyterian church — infuses a life through all 
 her members, and sheds the light of godliness over 
 all her operations."^ 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 OF THE ADVANTAGES WHICH THE OFFICE IS FITTED TO 
 SECURE. 
 
 I HAVE, in referring to the necessity of the office of El- 
 der to the purposes of discipline, necessarily alluded to 
 the advantages which it is calculated and intended to 
 secure. The maintenance of church discipline, with all 
 the instruction and care which it implies, is an un- 
 speakable advantage to the individual, to the church, 
 and to society. Few things are more interesting than 
 to think that under the revived system under which 
 
 1 Sermon before the general Synod, pp. 33, 34. 1825. 
 
108 ADVAKTAGE OF BULIK6 ELDEB8 
 
 the Church of Scotland is now placed. Supposing thai 
 there were but 100 parishes in a jear which added 
 three new members to their Kirk Sessions, there 
 would thus be an addition of 300 deroted labourers in 
 the course of every year to the vineyard of the Lord. 
 The good which might, and in all probability would be 
 wrought out by their instrumentality, it would not l>e 
 easy to calculate. Of this we mav be assured that it 
 would be varied and large. But it is not to these direct 
 advantages that I wish to turn the attention of the 
 reader, but rather to the incidental and indirect. 
 
 1st. Then, a numerous and efficient Eldership would 
 relieve the minister from many duties which at present 
 distract his time, and leave him free for important 
 pursuits which are comparatively neglected. It is 
 well known that there is a strong disposition even on 
 the part of intelligent private members of the church 
 to think that they have no special obligation to labour 
 for the spiritual good of others, and hence to devolve 
 all upon the minister. They seem to imagine that it 
 is enough for them to secure the services of an accep- 
 table pastor — to sustain him in his work and then 
 leave the whole to his undivided care. They expect 
 that he is to maintain the public exercises of religion 
 — to feed the flock of God according to the respective 
 wants of the members of the fold — to administer the 
 sacraments of the church — to plan it= movements — 
 to conduct all its operations — to attend all its judica- 
 tories, and there defend its interests; and besides 
 watch over the congregation in private, in its varied 
 circumstances. This is expecting an amoimt of work, 
 and that of different kinds, which, even in a limited 
 sphere of usefulness, were unreasonable, how much 
 more extravagant to look for it in large towns and 
 populous rural parishes. Surely there is nothing un- 
 der the government of God, whether in nature or in 
 providence, which coimtenances such a disproportion 
 between the end and the means. Were there nothing 
 else this of itself would show that there was something 
 defective in the arrangement which left the whole 
 
IN ASSISTING THE PASTOR. 109 
 
 burden of a congregation to the solitary pastor, and 
 such random assistance as private individuals might 
 supply. It would be a presumption in behalf of tlie 
 Divine authority of such an office as that of the Uuling 
 Elder. Certainly there is no countenance to sucli 
 disproportionate labour to be found in Scripture. 
 
 Many are the advantages which Ministers would 
 derive from the labours of an extensive and zealous 
 Eldership. They would have more time to devote to 
 the cultivation of professional literature and learning, 
 to preparation for the pulpit, and by the press and 
 other means, to meet and counteract incipient heresies 
 and false principles current in society — they would 
 also be in better circumstances to carry forward mis- 
 sionary undertakings both at home and abroad at an 
 important crisis, and to encourage the growth as 
 well as to reap the fruits of a revival of religion 
 where it appeared. The Rev. Mr. Morgan of Belfast, 
 strongly recommending a revival of the Eldership 
 a number of years ago, justly remarks in regard to 
 congregational duties, which may be discharged by 
 others as well as by tlie Minister — " The Pastor in 
 his vain attempt to overtake them is led to neglect 
 the laborious study of the Scriptures and careful 
 preparation for preaching the word. We do not wisli 
 to relieve him of these duties, but we do wish to see 
 them more effectively discharged than he is able to 
 discharge them, and we do protest against every thing 
 whereby his attention may be diverted from the higlier 
 duties of his office. A cry has been got up in our 
 times that pastoral visiting is a more important exer- 
 cise of ministerial duty than teaching the word, but 
 it is either a miserable pretext for the neglect of a 
 most arduous and laborious duty, or it is a melancholy 
 delusion. Visiting wo hold to be a most important 
 part of the Minister's duty. But let him never for- 
 got that liis/rs^ great and absorbing duty is the public 
 preaching of the word. To that every thing else is 
 subordinate. Arrangements may be made whereby 
 he sliall have aid in the otlier duties of his office, but, 
 K 
 
J 10 A i'OPULARLY ELECTED ELDERSHIP A CHECK 
 
 this 1j(3 must discliar^o himself. Let his Elders bo 
 such men as the New Testament requires for the offioe, 
 and tlie more private duties of tlie ministry will not 
 be neglected ; and let preaching be raised to a proper 
 standard, and tliore will soon be a change in tlie tone 
 of public sentiment and feeling."' 
 
 The truth is, tliat were matters rightly and Scriptur- 
 ally constituted, almost tho sole business of the Minis- 
 ter would be the preaching of the gospel and the gene- 
 ral superintendenee of the scdiemes of usefulness which 
 the other olU(;e-bearers, such as the Elder and Dea- 
 con, respectively wrought — the exercise of discipline 
 and the giving advice in delieate or difficult cases. 
 
 I am happy to be able to refer in sup])ort of the 
 views which have been stated to the sentiments of a 
 zjialous Pres])yterian minister of America, the Rev. 
 Mr. Smyth of Charleston : '* Whatever," lie sajs, 
 " may be the best mode of remedying existing evils, 
 it is evident that something must be done and that 
 speedily ; for otherwise the most disastrous results 
 must follow. Ministers now are overburdened and 
 broken down, the cause of Clirist languishes, — not 
 ]>ecause the field is not white unto the harvest, but be- 
 cause the labourers are few. Errors of the most perni- 
 (!i()us character are spreading their baneful influence 
 through the church, because ministers have not time 
 to study and to indoctrinate their people in the truth 
 of God; the springs of benevolent operation are dried 
 up because there are none to keep them in order and 
 in motion ; and when a revival does take place in any 
 church, there are none to unite in gathering in the 
 harvest, which is thus suffered to perish or to be great- 
 ly injured. " ^ Matters may lie still worse in the Unit- 
 ed States than in this country, but even here the evil 
 must appear sufficiently formidable to all who have 
 iiad their attention directed to it. Mr. Smyth's re- 
 medy is like our own, an (extensive revival of the El- 
 dership of the J*i('sbyterian church. 
 
 "2. Besides contributing to the improvement of the 
 Christian ministry by giving them more time, the 
 
 > Orthodox PrcKbyUi'.-m Ih:',.' -' Trails on rresbyteriuiiism. p. 2.'. 
 
ON AN EXCLUSIVE CORPORATE SPIRIT. Ill 
 
 office of Ruling Elder tends to keep in check an ex- 
 clusive corporate spirit on the part of Pastors. It is 
 well known that there is a tendency in all separate 
 bodies limited in number, especially if invested with 
 high and sacred functions, to a proud, exclusive spirit, 
 which is not favourable to civil or religious freedom, 
 and which is also unfriendly to the growth and pub- 
 lic commendation of true religion. All ecclesiastical 
 history has shown that where religion declines, the 
 Christian minister is very apt to become the Priest 
 of superstition. Power naturally tends to centre in 
 the hands of the few to the disparagement of the rights 
 of the many. In the progress of corrupted Christi- 
 anity, the Christian people and the officers who repre- 
 sented them gradually disappeared, till nothing was 
 to be seen but the exclusive pretensions of the priest- 
 hood. Traces of the same tendency are visible in 
 Protestant churches, especially where religion has 
 begun seriously to degenerate. Now the office of 
 Ruling Elder in the Presbyterian church admirably 
 meets and counteracts this unhappy tendency. While 
 the office is from the Great Head of the church, and 
 not from the people, men are called to the discharge 
 of its functions by the Christian congregation. In this 
 sense they are the representatives of the people, and 
 naturally sympathise with them — and their spirit of 
 course is adverse to what is exclusively clerical. Thus 
 the Ruling Elder may be said to keep the exclusive 
 corporate spirit in check, and to give confidence to the 
 Christian people, and through them to society at large. 
 This is of more moment than may at first sight appear. 
 Those who have mingled much in different classes 
 of society must be aware that there is a strong jealousy 
 of the priesthood as a body, whether Established or 
 Dissenting. However it may have originated, whether 
 it be the reaction from the tyranny of Popery, or infidel 
 hatred of religion through its public officers, or dislike to 
 the supposed and sometimes real esprit de corps of the 
 ministry, the fact is undeniable. Hence by various class- 
 es the proceedings of Ecclesiastical courts are watched 
 
112 IMPORTANT SPHERE OF USEFULNESS OPENED 
 
 with a jealousy which is not extended to other courts. 
 The most absurd clamours and slanders are easily 
 raised to their disadvantage, particularly if they point 
 ill the direction of what can be called an assumption 
 of clerical power, yea, even tliough the proceedings 
 warrant the very opposite inference. All this is 
 very injurious to tlie progress of true Christianity. 
 It prejudices multitudes of minds against the truth. 
 Ifow important therefore is it that the constitution and 
 spirit of the Christian churcli be conspicuously such 
 as to prevent the mere Ecclesiastical spirit from rising 
 where there isdanger of its manifestation, and of doing 
 away even with the suspicion of it where the charge 
 is unfounded ! Ruling Elders, if numerous and popu- 
 larly elected, prevent botli the evil and the imputation 
 of it, and so conduce to the character and usefulness 
 of the church. 1 say if popularly elected, for it is plain 
 that if their appointment partakes of the character of 
 self- election, it will necessarily partake of the exclu- 
 sive and corporate spirit which is inseparable from 
 that mode of appointment, wiiether the office be civil 
 or ecclesiastical. It is possible that, even under the 
 new system of election to the Eldersliip which the 
 Church of Scotland has adopted, men will still be found 
 so unreasonable as to charge her with a limited and 
 corporation spirit, but henceforward the charge must 
 be utterly baseless — as baseless as the imputations of 
 clerical power which are usually founded upon it. 
 
 3. Another important subordinate advantage con- 
 nected with the Eldership is the opening which it 
 affords for usefulness to those ardent minds which 
 may have been recently awoke to the reality of divine 
 tilings, and which may not liave the ability or oppor- 
 tunity or time for devoting themselves to the minis- 
 try. The churches of the Reformation have some- 
 times been accused of being too inflexible. They 
 liave usually a precise and protracted curriculum of 
 study, which excludes all from ministering directly or 
 officially at the altar who have not passed through it 
 The Church of Rome, again, is often sometimes com- 
 
UP TO LAYMEN BY THE ELDERSHIP. 113 
 
 mended for her worldlj wisdom iii finding employ- 
 ment for all minds within her pale, even the most 
 enthusiastic, and so turning to aclvantage what other- 
 wise might prove a source of injury ; and it is known 
 that the Church of England, apparently from the value 
 which she attaches to her alleged '* uninterrupted suc- 
 cession," as making up for all defects, introduces men 
 to the ministry on a very short and imperfect prepara- 
 tion. On the other hand it has frequently been said 
 of the Church of Scotland and the other Presbyterian 
 churches of the Reformation, that by rigidity they 
 lose advantages which it were well to gain. The al- 
 legation however proceeds upon an entire misapprehen- 
 sion. So far from excluding the services of lately 
 awakened and zealous minds, the Presbyterian church, 
 from its very constitution, expressly provides for their 
 employment, and tliat without breaking down the 
 standard of ministerial qualification. When a man 
 who perhaps has been engaged in mercantile or other 
 pursuits for years becomes *' a new creature in Christ 
 Jesus," and longs to do good to liis fellow-men, what 
 more easy and appropriate, if his other qualifications 
 accord, than to appoint him to the Eldership and 
 give him the spiritual oversight of thirty or forty 
 families ? What a fine field for the exercise of his 
 renovated powers and sympathies ! It is far superior 
 to what any other church can consistently confer. 
 The want of previous education, or too advanced a 
 period of life, may unfit for the ministry, or render his 
 success in it more than doubtful, vrhile the adoption 
 by him of a spiritual field as a mere private and un- 
 autliorised individual, (supposing that there were no 
 objections to such a course on the score of church 
 order,) would naturally deprive his exertions of much 
 of their power and so eflicacy with the people. It is 
 not desirable that the door of entrance to the ministry 
 should be of too easy and rapid access, nor is it more 
 desirable that private persons should at their own 
 will and pleasure assume a spiritual oversight of 
 parties who do not invite them. But how happily arc 
 K2 
 
]14 USEFULNESS OF THE ELDER's SrilEKE. 
 
 m11 tlioso difficulties overcome by the constitution of 
 Mie Pieshyteriaii cliurch in the office of Ruling Elder. 
 It secures the immediate application of the gifts and 
 ;rracos of all its members, and fhat in the way most 
 Htted to be useful. Nor does it forbid even a transi- 
 tion to the ministry where the qualifications prove 
 conspicuous. What more natural than that, after a 
 man awakened in middle life has devoted a few years ta 
 the duties of Ruling Elder, and still finds the spliere 
 too narrow for his zeal for the salvation of souls, he 
 should advance to the ministry, and that tlio church 
 courts in such proved cases should relax the curriculum 
 of study and early welcome him to the field of minis- 
 terial labour ? His experience and success as an Elder 
 would be at once a preparation and a pledge for his 
 success as a preacher of the gospel. In this way the 
 claims of a well educated ministry, and so of theologi- 
 cal accomplishment, would bo made to harmonise with 
 the employment of all tlie zeal and devot^dness which 
 Irom time to time might appear among the members 
 of the church. A happy illustration of this has re- 
 cently occurred : — A gentleman who had been well 
 oducatcnl, after being a nund)er of years in mercantile 
 business, was through sanctified affliction brought to 
 the knowledge of the truth. Almost immediately he 
 was called to the Eldership — the duties of which he 
 performed with uncommon zeal — the sj)here proving 
 too narrow for his holy ardour lie wholly abandoned 
 his business and prepared to study for the ministry. 
 After a brief period of application, the church, satisfied 
 of his qualifications, literary as well as theological, re- 
 solved in liis case to depart from the usual term of 
 study, and to ordain him forthwitli to the ministry. 
 He who tlie other year was a merchant is about to be 
 ( lothed with tlio ministerial functions, and yet the 
 whole steps have been taken so naturally and wisely 
 that were the churcli filled with such ministers there 
 would bo a sufficient guarantee at once for her lite- 
 rature and devotedness. See then the advantage of 
 the office of Ruling Elder. Had it not been for this 
 
OBJECTION ANSWERED. 115 
 
 intermediate preparation probably the higher office 
 would never have been sought. Is it unreasonable to 
 imagine that when Elders become more numerous, 
 and are elected more frequently for their spiritual 
 qualifications, there will be a far larger application 
 of religious zeal through their instrumentality, and 
 that a portion of it will not stop short of the highest 
 duties of the ministry ? 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OBJECTION ANSWERED SCRIPTURE AUTHORITY FOR 
 
 COURTS OF REVIEW, AND THE RULING ELDER HAVING 
 A SEAT IN THEM. 
 
 I HUMBLY apprehend, from what has been stated, that 
 it is pretty plain the office of Ruling Elder, as a per- 
 manent office in the Christian church, is supported by 
 the voice of Scripture and of the Primitive church. 
 But here an objection is started — " If Ruling Elders 
 thus formed a component part of the government of the 
 early church, why do we not find their names in Ge 
 neral and Provincial councils?" This may be a diffi- 
 culty supposing th fact to be as stated ; but a mere 
 negation cannot set easide the positive proof which has 
 been adduced. It is to be rememljered that the Primitive 
 church was early and most extensively corrupted, and 
 that the first general council was not held till^.D. 325, 
 — that little is known of many of the earlier provincial 
 councils save that they were held, and gave judgment 
 on certain points — that nearly a century and a half 
 elapsed from the death of Christ before any council was 
 held at all. It is to be considered, too, that an encroach- 
 ing prelatic spirit — the root of much of the subsequent 
 evil — early manifested itself, and that the natural oper- 
 ation of this spirit is to exclude the Ruling Elder from 
 deliberation in church courts, or at least render his 
 presence uncomfortable to himself, and so to lead to his 
 
IIG SCRIPTURE AUTHORITY FOR RULING ELDERS 
 
 withdrawing. Besides, if the existence of Ruling El- 
 dors in the Primitive church is to be denied on tho 
 ground which is stated, it will be necessary also to 
 deny the existence of Presbyters — church officers 
 whom the Churcli of England recognises: the great 
 Popish champion Bellarmino has shown in a way that 
 will bo satisfactory to many Episcopalians, that pre- 
 lates alone have power to sit and vote in councils.' 
 The only satisfaction which can be found amid such 
 uncertainties and conjectures is in the infallible Word 
 of God. On turning to its pages, we meet with ample 
 evidence that Ruling Elders had a seat and vote in tho 
 earliest, and noblest, and most authoritative Ecclesi- 
 astical council which was ever held — I allude to tho 
 General Assembly or Synod at Jerusalem, whoso pro- 
 ceedings are recorded in chapter xv of the Acts of the 
 Apostles. 
 
 As Elders are not merely members of the kirk-ses- 
 sion of the congregation with wliich they arc connected, 
 but are eligible to, and always constitute an important 
 part of, superior church courts — such as IVesbyteries, 
 Synods, and General Assemblies — in the IVesbyterian 
 cliurch; and as courts of appeal and review now sub- 
 stantially constitute as real a peculiarity of Presbyter- 
 ian church government as the office of the Ruling El- 
 der itself, neither Episcopalians nor Independents in 
 this country, as they once did, recognising their autho- 
 rity, at least professedly; so, in meeting the objection 
 which I am at present considering, it may not be out 
 of place shortly to refer to the Scripture autliority for 
 cliurch courts or councils. This will be a complete 
 answer to the objection, that tho names of Ruling 
 Elders do not appear on the records of the councils of 
 the Primitive church. I do not here refer to the prin- 
 ciples of appeal and representation as found in all en- 
 lightened civil govornuMmts; nor to the example of the 
 Jewish church, where there was a gradation of eccles- 
 iastical courts. I refer to the New Testament. Turn- 
 
 ' See Aiidc rsoii's Defeiice of I'resbyterjan Churcli Cmerninent, p. 'JOS. 
 
SITTING AND VOTING IN CHURCH COURTS. 117 
 
 ing to chapter xv of the Acts of the Apostles, what do 
 we find ? 
 
 It appears that, from early times, there was a Chris- 
 tian church at Antioch ; that Paul and Barnabas visit- 
 ed it in the course of their missionary labours, and 
 remained there for a considerable season, informing 
 the members with gratitude and joy of the success of 
 their preaching among the Gentiles. While the apos- 
 tles were at Antioch, certain men, apparently office- 
 bearers, teachers in the Christian church, came down 
 from Judea, and, with the imperfect views then ex- 
 isting, taught the people that they could not be 
 saved unless they were circumcised after the manner 
 of Moses; in short, that Judaism must be conjoined 
 with Christianity. This, as might have been expect- 
 ed, created a great stir and much disputation at An- 
 tioch, where the cluirch, probably, was composed both 
 of Jews and Gentiles. Paul and Barnabas laboured 
 to the uttermost to put an end to this question, by 
 stating that it was not necessary to salvation that men 
 should be circumcised ; but when the controversy still 
 continued, instead, as we might have imagined, of 
 terminating the dispute by the exercise of their in- 
 spired and apostolic authority (wliich would have been 
 quite satisfactory), they judged it better that it should 
 be made a matter of appeal, and sentence by the 
 church courts. This put honour upon the govern- 
 ment of the church by courts of appeal and review. 
 Besides, it was not indispensably necessary to have 
 recourse to inspiration or supernatural wisdom. The 
 case could be determined otherwise, and hence ordin- 
 ary means were applied. 
 
 It was resolved that " Paul and Barnabas, and cer- 
 tain others of them, should go up to Jerusalem unto 
 the apostles and Elders about this question." — The 
 whole church at Antioch, man and woman, did not go. 
 There were only representatives or commissioners 
 appointed on the errand, and among these were Paul 
 and Barnabas. This is quite in accordance with the 
 principles of Presbyterian government. In all proba- 
 
118 EXrOSITION OF ACTS, CHAPTER XV, 
 
 bility the church court at Antioch was equivalent to 
 a Presbytery, composed of the Elders, teaching and 
 ruling, in the different congregations in it and its vici- 
 nity. As might be imagined, from the nature of the 
 question under discussion, there was general and deep 
 interest on the subject. It was not concealed from 
 })rivate Christians. Though the settlement was com- 
 mitted to office-bearers, yet it was universally made 
 known to the members of the church and spoken of. 
 Hence the interest which the church as a whole is 
 represented as feeling and manifesting in the case. 
 It is said, that the representatives or commissioners 
 from Antioch *' being brought on their way by the 
 church," — having received all countenance and assis- 
 tance, "they passed through Phenice and Samaria, 
 declaring the conversion of the Gentiles, and caused 
 great joy to all the brethren ; and when they were 
 come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church 
 and of the apostles and Elders there, (after what has 
 been proved, we hold that the word Elder denotes 
 both the Pastor and the Ruling Elder,) and they de- 
 clared all things that God had done with them.'' This 
 is all very natural and pleasing ; but as yet there is no 
 act of the church court at Jerusalem ; this, however, 
 is soon called for. Some of the believing Pharisees 
 holding the same sentiments with the brethren who 
 liad gone down to Antioch — at a meeting, which was 
 convened at Jerusalem, on the arrival of the commis- 
 sioners, rose up and said, that, in their opinion, it was 
 essential to salvation that men should be circumcised, 
 and keep the law of Moses. Here a question in which 
 the whole church of Christ is deeply concerned was 
 started at Jerusalem, the very head quarters of Chris- 
 tianity ; and what in these circumstances is done ? 
 Was there an immediate appeal to the inspired wisdom 
 of the apostles, or of any one of them? This would 
 at once have been decisive of the controversy — but 
 No. Was there, then, an appeal to the whole body of 
 the church members, man and woman, young and old ? 
 On the principles of the Congregationalists, this should 
 
REGARDING THE RULING ELDER. 119 
 
 have been the course which ought to have been pursued, 
 but there is nothing of the kind. It is expressly said, 
 *' and the apostles and elders came together to consider 
 of this matter." The apostles, not in the character of 
 apostles, but as Christian ministers, and the Elders, 
 composed of Teaching and Ruling Elders, were the 
 only persons who were competent to decide the ques- 
 tion ; and hence they and no others came together to 
 deliberate. 
 
 After a good deal of discussion, Peter, probably as 
 the oldest apostle, rose up and delivered his judgment, 
 founded on what he had met with in the course of his 
 experience, against laying any Jewish burden on the 
 Gentiles. Paul and Barnabas next related their expe- 
 rience, declaring what miracles and wonders God had 
 wrought among the Gentiles by them, and pointing to 
 the same conclusion. It is said, that when they spake, 
 " all the multitude kept silence," which shows that the 
 discussion, in which the church generally was deeply 
 interested, was conducted not in the absence, but in 
 the presence of a large body of church members. This 
 was quite natural and proper ; hut it by no means fol- 
 lows that the midtitude had any voice in the matter. We 
 have seen that the consideration was limited to the 
 apostles and Elders, and it is common still for questions 
 of great public interest to be discussed by Presbyteries, 
 Synods, and General Assemblies, in the presence of 
 large bodies of the Christian people. James next 
 gave forth his judgment, and appealed to Scripture 
 prophecy in behalf of his views, just as any faithful 
 and intelligent office-bearer of the church might do at 
 the present day. There is no appeal to inspiration or 
 apostleship on the part of any of those who were in- 
 vested with both — they speak and judge simply as 
 ministers of the church. James's opinion agreeing 
 with that of the other apostles and Elders, the judg- 
 ment seems to be unanimous ; and it is to this effect, 
 that "no burden be laid upon the Gentiles, and that 
 they be simply but authoritatively written to to abstain 
 from pollutions of idols, and from things strangled, 
 
120 EXPOSITION OF ACTS, CIIAPTEIl XV, 
 
 and from fornication ;" snares to which thoy wore 
 peculiarly exposed, and wliich were peculiarly fitted 
 to offend tlioir Christian Jewish brethren. The sen- 
 tence then is passed, the deed of cliurcli deliberation 
 and autliority is complete ; and it is begun and carried 
 forward and ended by apostles and Elders alone. 
 
 Now we come to (;onsider tlio steps which were ta- 
 ken to make it known for the guidance of the church- 
 es — an entirely (liferent matter from the authoritative 
 forming of the judgment itself. It is described in these 
 words : " Tlien pleased it tlie apostles and Elders, with 
 the whole church, to send cliosen men of their com- 
 pany to Antioch, with Barnabas and Paul," to pro- 
 claim tlie result. Here tlie wliole churcli members 
 were included witli the apostles and Elders. They 
 had manifested a deep interest in the case ; many of 
 them probably had come up from Antioch to witness 
 the proceedings: they liad been present also at the 
 discussion. In these (;ircunistances, it was not un- 
 natural that they sliould bo taken along with the of- 
 fice-bearers, when thoy proceeded to consider in what 
 way to make known the decision, and that their ap- 
 l)roval should bo signified as well as tliat of the apos- 
 tles and Elders. There would be notliing inconsistent 
 with the principles of the Presbyterian clnirch were 
 the General Assembly in a similar case to act in a 
 similar manner — to come to a decision in the presence 
 of the Christian pooph;, and knowing their approbation 
 of the decision, to notice this in any written statement 
 to others. Instead of saying '* the apostles, ]^]lders, 
 and brethren, send greeting to the brethren wliich are 
 of the Gentiles in Antiocli and Syria and Cilicia," 
 they might say " Tlie General Assembly of the min- 
 isters and Elders of tlie Church of Scotland, with the 
 Christian people assembled, send their Christian re- 
 gards to their bretliren.'' Tlie two great ])oints to bo 
 kept in view are — 1st, That the deliberate and authori- 
 tative sentence was the deed, not of the multitude or 
 of the apostles as apostles, but of the office-bearers of 
 the church, Ministers and Ruling Elders. At best 
 
REGARDING THE RULING ELDER. 121 
 
 the multitude only consented, thej did not judge. 
 And, secondly, That there was an appeal from an in- 
 ferior to a superior court — a court guided not by in- 
 spiration, and which did not give forth mere advice, 
 but of review and authority — an appeal from the Pres- 
 bytery of Antioch to the Synod or General Assembly 
 of Jerusalem. These two points are plain, and they 
 contain all that is necessary for the vindication of 
 Presbyterian church government in the matter of 
 church courts, and of Ruling Elders sitting in them. 
 The proceedings which we have been surveying are 
 inexplicable upon any other theory of church rule, 
 save the Presbyterian. They are inconsistent alike 
 with Prelacy and Congregationalism. It is of no con- 
 sequence to the argument, whether the court at Jeru- 
 salem was a Presbytery, or a Synod, or a General 
 Assembly. The grand point is, that it had authority 
 over particular churches or congregations, and that 
 the determination of the question of Jewish ceremon- 
 ies — a great and most important question — was refer- 
 red to it by an inferior court at Aiitioch. 
 
 Reviewing the whole proceedings as related in the 
 chapter, we may notice the leading points, following in 
 tliis the order of the admirable statement by the Rev. 
 Mr. Muir of Paisley, in his * Synod of Jerusalem, or 
 Courts of Review,' published in 1767. 
 
 1st. There was a Christian church at Antioch — in all 
 probability a number of churches. There is no doubt 
 of the fact of one church ; and when we remember that 
 Antioch was a large town, that the apostles were fre- 
 quently there and the Gospel successful, there seems 
 every reason to believe that there must have been 
 several. There may have been but one place of as- 
 sembling. This was frequently the case even in large 
 towns, as Carthage ; but there must have been several, 
 if not many congregations, meeting in the same place 
 at different hours. Here, then, is the foundation for 
 a Presbytery. There are several congregations, and 
 yet they are styled but one church. 
 
 2nd. The next point is, that the office-bearers in 
 
122 EXI'OSITIOS OP ACTS, CUAPTEB XV, 
 
 the church at Antioch, as distinct from the church 
 members, had a right to give judgment in an impor- 
 tant question whicli had arisen, and as to which pro- 
 phets and teachers could not agree. Thej are recog- 
 nised as equal to pronounce a judgment. There i» no 
 calling in question of tlieir power or authority. In- 
 deed the same parties are shortly Vx^fore required by 
 the Holy Spirit to separate the apostles liamabas and 
 Paul to the work to which they liad been called; and 
 after fasting and prayer, they put their liands on them 
 and sent them away. Here was as solemn an act of 
 judgment as any to which they could as a church court 
 be called. If they were equal to this, they could not 
 be unequal to the other. The very design of a church 
 court was to take up and determine such cases. 
 
 .3rd. But, again, it appears that, though well war- 
 ranted to pronounce a judgment themselves, they were 
 aware that in cases of disagreement, their decisions 
 were liable to be reviewed by a superior court ; and 
 hence they unanimously referred the cause now before 
 them to the Synod of Jerusalem or Judea. From 
 what is related, it is obvious that there was, through 
 commissioners, a reference — a reference by an inferior 
 to a superior court — and a reference in order to ob- 
 tain such a decision as would effectually bind all con- 
 cerned, not only the church of Antifx:h, but all other 
 churches where, as in Syria and Cilicia, the same 
 question was agitated. If the court of Jerusalem were 
 not superior in authority to that at Antioch, there was 
 no need for appealing the case. It is plain the refe- 
 rence was not ma^le merely for the sake of advice. 
 The judgment which was given forth is not called a 
 counsel, or exhortation, or recommendation, but **a 
 decree " — in other words, an authoritative sentence. 
 
 4th. The point which next presents itself is, that 
 after the commissioners had reached the metropolis 
 and opened up the question, the court at Jerusalem 
 pnt reasoned upon it, and then came to a unanimous 
 judgment. This indicates the proceeding of a court; 
 and who composed that court ? Not the multitude of 
 
RECARDINQ THE RULING KLDER. \'2'^ 
 
 private brethren. They were, as I liave said, deeply 
 interested in the discussion, and full information was 
 afforded them on tlie subject. But it is the apostles 
 and Elders only who came together to consider 
 it. The multitude had no place as judges in the 
 case. Besides the evidence of this furnished in 
 the chapter before us, we have similar testimony in 
 chapters xvi and xxi of the same book. Speaking of 
 Paul's future proceedings, the historian says, that 
 "he went through the cities delivering to them the 
 decrees to keep, which were ordained " — by whom? 
 by the multitude of the brethren ? private Christians ? 
 No; but by "the apostles and Elders who were at 
 Jerusalem;" and seven years later, a similar testimony 
 was borne by the apostle Paul, who, referring to this 
 case, says, in the presence of the assembled Elders — 
 " We have written and concluded," i. e. we apostles 
 and Elders, that in tlie matter of the Jewish ceremo- 
 nies, ye do nothing more than abstain from the things 
 forbidden. 
 
 5th. The next and last step to be marked in the his- 
 tory is, tliat two of the commissioners from Antioch, 
 joined by two from Judea, were immediately despatch- 
 ed with letters to the Gentile converts, containing an 
 account of the Synodical judgment, and that the Gen- 
 tile converts, on receiving and reading the letter, were 
 filled with joy — to use the language of inspiration, 
 "rejoiced for the consolation." All this is natural 
 and proper in itself, and most orderly in its proceeding, 
 and blessed in its result. It was for the peace and 
 welfare of the church that the question was discussed 
 and decided upon at all. Not merely the church at 
 Antioch, but the whole cliurclies of that district of 
 country, including Syria and Cilicia, were equally in- 
 terested in the question, and were warmly alive to it. 
 Hence the importance of sending a regular and ac- 
 credited account of the judgment of the apostles and 
 elders, and not leaving the matter to random and in- 
 accurate informants. Besides, there had been an 
 appeal, and the proper answer to an appeal is a judg- 
 
]'J4: ADVANTAGE OF COURTS OP REVIEW 
 
 merit regularly executed and sent to the parties. We 
 may notice the advanta;:e of Huch courts of ay>peal and 
 review — "The churchen rejoiced for the consolation," 
 Had the question not been settled, or settled by mere 
 advice, without authority, there might have been — in 
 all probability there woiild have been — protracted dis- 
 cussion; but the judgment coming forth as the judg- 
 ment of lawful superiors in the Lord, no sooner did 
 the decision rea^;h the cliurches than — denied to all 
 preconceived opinion — tliey unanimously considered 
 themselves as present before God, solemnly and reve- 
 rently read the epistle, and heartily subscribed t<j the 
 judgment which it conveyed. The language is strong 
 — "rejoiced for the consolation.*' It implies that there 
 had Ijeen anxiety, agitation, discord before, and it ex- 
 presses acceptance, approbation, gratitude, humility, 
 delight, and resolution now. To use the language of 
 Mr. Muir's excellent pamphlet — " of acceptance as 
 faithful and true — of approbation as suitable and ex- 
 cellent — of gratitude for the preciousness — humility 
 for the freeness — delight for the sweetness, of the bless- 
 ing — and of resolution, through grace, to reduce the 
 will of the decree instantly, uniformly, and perpetu- 
 ally topra/;tice." ^ 
 
 We have plainly seen, then, the Scripture warrant 
 for church courts — courts of appeal and review, and 
 final decision, in which Kuling Elders have a seat. 
 The number of these courts, and exU^nt of jurisdiction 
 — the time and place of meeting — may all, like many 
 other things in the administration of the church, under 
 all fonns of government, be left to tfie wisdom and 
 discretion of the church herself, in diffoient ages and 
 countries ; but the principle is Scriptural, indestruct- 
 able, ever-living ; and where do we find it in any suit- 
 able strength or expression save in the Presbyterian 
 church ? 
 
 We have seen tlie advantage of courts of review, as 
 illustrated in tlje case of Antioch. In every age of 
 the Christian cliurch there have been Councils and 
 
 1 F. o'J. 
 
IN CHECKING FALSE DOCTRINE. 1.'25 
 
 Assemblies, whose decisions have been attended with 
 good results ; but in the vast majority of cases, par- 
 ticularly in the middle and latter ages, these have not 
 been regular courts — always sitting — preventing in- 
 cipient error and evil, and promoting the interests of 
 divine truth and Christian institutions — but mere 
 Assemblies hastily called together to meet rising 
 emergencies. Hence they achieved little good ; nay, 
 when the church became corrupt, they often proved 
 eminently the patrons of heresy and superstition. But 
 church courts, properly so called — a regular part of 
 the government — vested in superior and inferior bo- 
 dies — have been most beneficial in their operation in 
 maintaining the truth and purity of the church. They 
 may not have succeeded always in keeping heresy and 
 schism out, or in always sustaining alive the life and 
 power of true religion within the church ; — error and 
 declenison have broken through, and will break througli 
 all kinds of form and government and discipline ; — but 
 they have done much towards the accomplishment of 
 these great and blessed ends. Very frequently, where 
 false doctrine and decay have appeared in the Chris- 
 tian church, they can be traced to a previous depar- 
 ture from the principles of Presbyterian government, 
 or to the decline of its spirit, even while its forms are 
 retained. This was remarkably the case both in Eng- 
 land and America. The Protestant Dissenters of 
 England did not become Arian and Socinian in doc- 
 trine till they had ceased to be Presbyterian, and had 
 become Independent in church government ; and so of 
 the Socinians of Xew England in America. There is 
 scarcely one Socinian church in the State of Connec- 
 ticut, where Presbyterian church government and dis- 
 cipline have been kept healthy and strong. There 
 are a hundred, in the adjoining State of Massachu- 
 setts, where Presbyterianism has been allowed to decay 
 in the church, and to be supplanted by Independency.^ 
 The history of false doctrine in Ireland is similar — the 
 
 ' This important fact rest« on the testimony of Mr. Edwards, the grandson 
 of the celebrated Jonatliau Edwards, 
 
 L2 
 
12G TESTIMONY OF GILLESIME ON THIS POINT 
 
 spirit of Presbytery was destroyed, though the forms 
 remcained, ere Arianism lifted its head and prevailed. 
 It was when Presbytery revived, and its discipline 
 was put in force, that false doctrine was purged out. 
 The Presbyterian church of tliat land has ever since 
 been rising in its power and usefulness. Similar re- 
 marks might be applied to the once Presbyterian 
 church of Geneva. 
 
 Nor, after all, is this connexion between Presbyte- 
 rian church government and sound doctrine and unity 
 a matter of wonder or surprise. It is quite natural, 
 and rises out of the very constitution of things. To 
 use the language of an old but able writer, frequently 
 quoted — Gillespie : — *' Without asubordinationamong 
 ecclesiastical courts, and the autliority of the higher 
 above the inferior, it were utterly impossible to pre- 
 serve unity, or to make an end of controversy in a na- 
 tion. A particular congregation raiglit happily end 
 questions and controversies betwixt the members there- 
 of, and so keep unity within itself, (and not so either, 
 if the one half of the congregation be againstthe other;) 
 but how sliall controversies betwixt several congrega- 
 tions be determined, if both of them be independent ? 
 how shall plurality of religions bo avoided ? how shall 
 anapostatisingcongregation be amended?" Andagain: 
 — " What I have said of congregations, I say also of 
 classes or Pres])yteries. How shall sentence be given 
 between two Presbyteries at variance? how sliall a 
 divided Presbytery be reunited in itself? how shall an 
 heretical Presbytery be reclaimed? how shall a negli- 
 gent Presbytery be made to do their duty? how shall 
 a despised Presbytery have their wounded authority 
 healed again ? In these, and such like cases, what 
 remedy can be liad but the authority of Synods"^ — 
 or, we might add. General Assemblies ? 
 
 Thus do we see not only the great importance and 
 advantage of a gradation of clmrcli courts, but the 
 necessity of them to the maintenance of the two great 
 onds for which church government lias been instituted 
 
 » Assertion of the Govornment of the Clmrch, «fec., p. 180. 
 
PRESUMPTUOUS CLAIMS OF FUSFA'ISTS. 127 
 
 — sound doctrine, and unity of faith and worship. 
 Where men do not care for these — where they are in- 
 different about orthodoxy and unity — they may do 
 without Presbyterianism ; but where they are truly 
 anxious for their preservation, and use means for their 
 defence, they will find, perhaps without being aware of 
 it, that they are driven substantially to Presbyterian 
 principles and government. 
 
 In concluding these arguments, drawn from Scrip- 
 ture and Church history, in behalf of the divine 
 authority of the office of the Ruling Elder, is it pos- 
 sible to forget the presumption — to use no stronger 
 term — of the new semi-popish school in the Church 
 of England, who unchurch all Presbyterian churches, 
 committing the salvation of their members to the 
 " uncovenanted mercies of God " — mercies which are 
 unscriptural, and have no existence ? These parties 
 disown an office clearly revealed in the Word of God, 
 and recognised in that primitive antiquity in which 
 they so greatly delight ; and yet, because the Church 
 of Scotland, and other Presbyterian churches, cannot 
 boast of, yea, deny, and do not believe in the Scriptural 
 authority of ordination exclusively by diocesan bishops;^ 
 and still less, that these ordinations have descended, 
 without a break or a flaw, for eighteen hundred years, 
 through ages of confusion and corruption — because 
 Presbyterian churches do not credit such absurd and 
 monstrous pretensions, they are forthwith unchristian- 
 ised, and all their ordinances pronounced invalid and 
 blasphemous ! All the while, these " accusers of the 
 brethren," who ** call themselves apostles, and are not, 
 but are liars," are administering a church without, 
 yea, in open disregard of, a church officer who was 
 set there by the Lord of the church, and whose place 
 has been recognised and honoured by the most dis- 
 tinguished Reformers of the Church of England, as 
 well as by the Fathers of the Primitive church of Christ. 
 
 1 They have a Presbjterinl ordination as unbroken, or more so than the 
 ministers of the Church of England liave a Pi-elatic one. 
 
128 rURSUMPTUOUS claims op rUSEYISTS. 
 
 The same ]>ai*tic's boloiiijf to a church which has not 
 only blotted out the Kulinii; Elder, but which has per- 
 verted the Scriptural oilice of Deacon, raising it from 
 the simple and Scriptural charge of the financial affairs 
 of tlie church and of tlie i)Oor to the high office of 
 j)reaching the (jlospcl, and baptizing in the name of 
 the Ifoly and lihissed Trinity ! Far bo it from me to 
 deny tliat the Churcli of England is a church of Christ. 
 With all her dcdects she is an important branch of the 
 Protestant Reformation. She has rendered many 
 services to Christianity, against Popery, Socinianism, 
 a!id Infidelity, and her doctrinal articles are unexcep- 
 tionable. In all piu-iods — even those most strictly and 
 sternly l^-esbyterian — her claims to the character of 
 a church of Christ have been recognised by the Church 
 of S('otland ; but surely her professed friends have 
 enough to do to supply luir acknowledged defects, and 
 work out her further reformation, and maintain their 
 own consistency, without unchurching their neighbours, 
 and creating alienation where there should be conc^ord? 
 I rcjoic(^ it is only a party — I liope not a predominant 
 j)arty — in her communion, who feel and speak in so 
 obnoxious a manner. It will be time enough to yield 
 to their claims of " uninterrupted episcopal succession" 
 when the Church of J'^nglaud has returned to primitive 
 order, by restoring the Ruling Elder and Presbyter to 
 their proper place in the church, and by reducing the 
 l)ea(M)n from his usurped powers. Instead of calling 
 in (piestion the validity of IVesbyterian ordinances, it 
 would be a more natural and profitable enquiry for the 
 new Oxford school and their associates to enquire, 
 whether Episcopal ordinances are what they ought to 
 be, wliile the office of the Ruling Elder is not recog- 
 nised — that of the Presbyter is shorn of its power — 
 and that of the Deacon perverted ? The tree must 
 surely bo sound and good before its " unbroken 
 succession " can be of much worth. At least such 
 en(piiries would tend to create a little toleration for 
 others, who, on many accounts, have a title to for- 
 bearance, if not respect and gratitude. 
 
ELDERSHIP IN THE EARLY REFORMED CHURCH. 129 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE ELDERSHIP IN THE CHURCH 
 OF SCOTLAND, EMBRACING A BRIEF VIEW OF THE LAW 
 OF THE CHURCH REGARDING ELECTION. 
 
 There was a Presbyterian church in Scotland prior 
 to the days of Popery. The Culdees were its minis- 
 ters — faithful and devoted men — who had only Pres- 
 byterian ordination, and who, sad to tell for " the un- 
 broken succession," actually ordained English bishops ! 
 Doubtless, the Ruling Elder held an appropriate place 
 in the government of this early Scottish church. At 
 the Reformation, in the sixteenth century, the same 
 government was revived — not as an invention of man's, 
 but as the dictate of Scripture authority.^ Accordnigly 
 the First Book of Discipline recognises the office of 
 Ruling Elder as an important part of the government 
 of the Christian church ; and the church acted upon 
 her own convictions in clothing suitable men with the 
 
 1 No mistake can be greater than that the Church of Scotland, in drawing 
 up her platform of government and oruer, was guided by human policy, the 
 circumstances of the times, and the opinioris of great men. It is plain to all 
 who carefully study her history, that never was a church which more directly 
 drew from the Word of God. This is well stated in a rare Tract, published 
 in 164-4, by the Commissioners of the General Assembly to the Assembly of 
 Divines in England, intended ti> clear the reformation of church governnient 
 in Scotland ••from some mistakes and prejudices." The Tract was pi-obably 
 wi-itten by Alexander Henderison. I subjoin a few sentences. Speaking of 
 the Scottish Refoi-mers, the Commissioners say: — "They did honour Luther 
 and Calvin, and many otliers, whether tlieir predecessors or C(mtempoiaries, 
 who had heart or hand, especially in an eminent degree, in the blessed work 
 of refonnation. For their direciion they made use of the hght which such 
 notable servants of Jesus Christ did hold forth in doctrine and discipline ; 
 and, in all thankfidness, they did desire and wish that their naines might be 
 had in everlasting remembrance. N«.)r was it possible that so great an alter- 
 ation as the coiTupt state of the church required could be ett'ected and not 
 carry some remembrance of the iuslrumeiits ; but for this, to call us Calvin- 
 ians, and the Reformed churches Calvinian Reformed churches, is to disgrace 
 the true churches of Christ, and to symbolise with the Papists, who call them- 
 selves the Catholic church." Again — "Nothing Mas farther from their 
 thoughts and intentions than to frame in their owii forge a Lesbian rule an- 
 swerable to any particular form of civil polity, or compilable with State ends. 
 That they looked with singleness of muid to the rule of Scripture, we give 
 tliese evidences: — 1. The great pains they took in searching the will of 
 God ; and after they had found it. their grievous sufferings from the civil 
 authority in defence thereof" The otlier proofs are the restless opposition of 
 worldly men to Presbyterian church government, alleging it to be incompati- 
 ble with monarchy, and the assertion of the true poUty of the churcli by her 
 ministers, " demonsU^ating that it was in itself unalterable— iecattae dicine." 
 
130 ELECTION OF ELDERS BY CHURCH MEMBERS 
 
 ftflice. The first General Assembly consisted of twelve 
 ministers, and thirty Ruling Elders. The first church 
 of Edinburgh had twelve Elders, and sixteen Deacons. 
 A striking feature in the early eldership of the Church 
 of Scotland was its numbers. Often it seems to have 
 embraced all the leading men of the district — persons 
 of rank as well as of character. In Glasgow, a few 
 years efter the Reformation, when there was only one 
 church, there were not less than forty-two Elders, and 
 twenty-four Deacons — the former comprehending the 
 magistrates and council of the town, and the Principal 
 and Regents of the University.^ This must have af- 
 forded great encouragement to a faithful minister in 
 labouring to promote the moral and religious welfare 
 of his people. The office was originally annual — the 
 same persons, however, were eligible by re-election. 
 So important was it regarded, and so thoroughly spiri- 
 tual its duties, that it was contemplated to make pro- 
 vision for the maintenance of the Elder from the funds 
 of the parish — at least, while he sacrificed his business 
 to his office. This part of the original plan the church 
 was never in circumstances to carry into full or per- 
 manent efi'ect. 
 
 The election to the office was vested in the congre- 
 gation. The Xew Testament supplies us with exam- 
 ples of the popular appointment of the highest and the 
 lowest offices in the church — those of the Apostle and 
 the Deacon. It is in accordance with the ways of 
 God to teach us from such cases how to appoint to 
 other offices — those of the Pastor and Ruling Elder. 
 The Scriptures treat men as rational and intelligent 
 creatures; and hence deal rather in general principles 
 than in formal and specific directions. In the faith of 
 these things, the Reformers gave the election of the 
 Ruling Elder to the members of the congregation in 
 which he was to be called to labour. Though the Church 
 of Scotland by the deed of the late General Assembly 
 has conclusively settled that no one shall be an Elder 
 within her pale, unless he be eU<:ted by the Christian 
 
 1 See Supplement to articl«>. Gla«^vr, in Xew Statistical Account. 
 
AGREEABLE TO SCRirXURE. 131 
 
 people, yet both for the vindication of the church, and 
 as a matter important in itself, it may not be out of 
 place still to make one or tvro remarks on the mode of 
 appointment to church offices. It is a subject which 
 has been much discussed of late years, and which is 
 not likely soon to be settled. 
 
 We may safely say that it was to be expected 
 that in a matter so important, affecting the cha- 
 racter and usefulness of the church from genera- 
 tion to generation, the Word of God would not be 
 altogether silent. Accordingly, as has been stated, 
 it furnishes us with examples of election by tlie mem- 
 bers of the church, and with no other mode of ap- 
 pointment. We find the Christian people in the pre- 
 sence even of inspired apostles called upon to judge 
 of spiritual qualifications, and to elect men to the 
 offices of Apostle and Deacon — the latter a permanent 
 office in the Christian church, and the former perma- 
 nent in some of its most important duties. What 
 is the meaning of recording such cases, if not for 
 the instruction of the churcli in after ages, and to the 
 end of the world ? For the same reason that the Apos- 
 tle and Deacon are elected, we may believe that a si- 
 milar course was follow^ed in the appointnient of the 
 Elder. We have no express example in Scripture of 
 his appointment ; but the nature of his duties, at once 
 delicate and difficult, directly concerning character, 
 renders it peculiarly appropriate that he should be 
 called to their exercise by those whom he is to super- 
 intend. Any reference, too, to the appointment of 
 Elders points in the same direction. The expression 
 xuoarov?<(rctyTic, iuActs, xiv,23, is interpreted by Erasmus, 
 Calvin, Beza, Knatchbull, Raphelius, Doddridge, and 
 almost all the Presbyterian commentators, as signify- 
 ing "ordained Elders by the votes of the people."^ 
 Though many otlier learned men have contended that 
 the word does not necessarily convey this meaning, yet 
 it cannot be questioned that the interpretation is enti- 
 tled to great weight, and all the more that it is in har- 
 
 1 Bloonitieid, vol. i, p. 524. 
 
132 KLECTION OF ELDERS BY CHURCH MEMBERS 
 
 mony witli the other examples of Scriptural Election. 
 It is well known that many able men have lield that 
 Scripture conveys no liglit fortheguiflanceofthe church 
 in the mode of appointmentto her offices, and that they 
 try to explain away the cases recorded in tiie Acts of the 
 Apostles, on the ground of peculiarities, and on the 
 principle that they do not necessarily imply the election 
 of the congregation. But after all that can be alleged, 
 when the question is put to a plain and honest student 
 of the word, what is the obvious lesson which we and 
 the church should draw from the Scripture cases ? The 
 answer must be, that the voice of the Christian con- 
 gregation should be heard in a positive form. To at- 
 tempt to get rid of this on the score that it is possible 
 to put otlier inteqjretations on the cases, is to forsake 
 the obvious, and to adopt the dangerous exegesis of the 
 Socinian. Nor is it wiser to call for express examples 
 of the election of the Ruling Elder — Scripture leaves 
 much to general principles fairly followed out. There 
 is no example of female admission to the Lord's Ta- 
 ble, nor of the ordination of Elders; and yet none 
 who urge the objection have any doubt about the 
 Scriptural authority of both ; and why tlien should 
 they hesitate about the Elders' election by the congre- 
 gation? To adopt the language of the Rev. Mr. Cun- 
 ningham of Edinburgh, who has so ably expounded 
 tliis and kindred questions — *' We are much confirmed 
 in tlie opinions which we have formed, by the fact, 
 that they were the opinions of the great body of the 
 Reformers who emancipated the church from the cor- 
 ruptions and errors of the Papacy — the Reformers 
 ]>oth on the continent and in our own land. Our views 
 were held with scarcely a single exception by all the 
 men of learning and ability and usefulness in the 
 church of Christ, and especially in the Church of Scot- 
 land, up to the restoration of the Patronage Act, 1712." 
 And now let us refer more particularly to the stand- 
 ards and history of the Church of Scotland as proving 
 the popular election of Elders. The First Book of Dis- 
 cipline, while it bears testimony to the high Christian 
 
ORDER OF CHURCH OF EDINBURGH, 1560. 133 
 
 character required of Elders, testifies also to their 
 free election : — ** Men of best knowledge in God's 
 word, and cleanest life, and faithful, and of most honest 
 conversation, that can be found in the kirk, must be 
 nominate to be in election.; and their names must be 
 publicly read to the whole kirk by the minister giving 
 them advertisement that from amongst them must be 
 chosen Elders and Deacons. If any of those nomina- 
 ted be noted with public infamy, he ought to be repell- 
 ed, for it is not seemly that the servant of corruption 
 should have authority in the kirk of God. If any man 
 know others of better qualities within the kirk than those 
 that be nominate, let them be put in election with them 
 that the kirk may have the choice.'' We know from 
 an interesting document in Dunlop's Confessions of 
 Faith, " On the Election of Elders and Deacons in the 
 Church of Edinburgh, 1500," that the plan sketched 
 in the First Book of Discipline was no mere specula- 
 tion or good intention, but was actually observed in 
 the church of Edinburgh — the leading church of the 
 country, whose minister was John Knox, the great 
 Reformer. The plan of Knox is thus described : — 
 "The old Session, before their departing, nominates 
 24 in election for Elders, of whom 12 are to be chosen, 
 and 32 for Deacons, and of them 16 to be elected : 
 which persons are publicly proclaimed in the audience 
 of the whole church, upon a Sunday before noon after 
 sermon, with admonition to the church that if any 
 man know any notorious crime or cause that might 
 unable any of those persons to enter on such a voca- 
 tion, that they should notify the same the next Thurs- 
 day to the Session, or if any know any persons more 
 able for that charge they should notify the same to 
 the said Session, to the end that no man without the 
 church should complain that he was spoiled of his li- 
 berty in election. 
 
 "The Sunday following, in the end of the sermon 
 
 before noon, the whole communicants are commanded 
 
 to be present at afternoon to give their votes, as they 
 
 will answer before God, to such as they think most 
 
 M 
 
134 SECOND BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. 
 
 able to bear the charge of the church with the minis- 
 ters. The votes of all being received, the scrolls are 
 delivered to any of the ministers, who keepeth the 
 same secret from the sight of all men till the next 
 Thursday ; then in the Session he produces them, that 
 the votes may bo counted, where the manifest votes,, 
 without respect of person, hath the first place in the 
 Eldership, and so proceeding till the number 12 be 
 completed ; so that if a poor man exceed the rich man 
 in votes, he precedeth him in place, and is called the 
 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Elder, even as the vote answereth." ^ 
 Nor is this the only evidence we possess. The prac- 
 tice was not confined to the church of the metropolis. 
 Twenty years later,*^ when some question had arisen 
 as to the election of Elders, and congregations were 
 anxious for guidance, the General Assembly expressly 
 and authoritatively approved and recommended the 
 lOdinburgh practice, in tliese words: — "Concerning 
 a general order of admission to the office of Elder, re- 
 fers to the order used at Edinburgh, n-hich we approve*" 
 This was subsequently to the adoption of the Second 
 Book of Discipline — indeed, shortly after. Hence, its 
 ])rovisions must be understood in harmony with the 
 above " order." As that order is the last act of the 
 church regarding the election of Elders, we are enti- 
 tled to say, that the present written law distinctly re- 
 <!Ognises popular election to the office. And there is 
 nothing in after times at variance with this law. 
 
 The language of the Second Book of Discipline may 
 appear somewhat dubious, but besides this fixing of its 
 meaning in an authoritative manner, it will not bear 
 an opposite interpretation. The words are — " Elec- 
 tion is the chusing out of a person or persons most 
 able to the office that is vacant, by the judgment of the 
 I^]ldership and the consent of the congregation, to whom 
 tlie person or persons is appointed." It is worthy 
 of remark tliat the appointment is not said to bo by 
 the election of the Eldership, which is what the oppo- 
 Jients of popular rights contend for, but by the judg- 
 
 ' S.-e Knox's Hist .ry, Ulackie's I'.dit., p. 230. ' 1682. 
 
EXPLANATION OF ACT 1642. 135 
 
 ment of the Eldership. The Election continued in the 
 Christian people, and only iho judging and admission 
 in the hands of the Session, which is no more than 
 what all parties in the church contend for. 
 
 The only act of Assembly which at first sight seems to 
 sanction the hitherto common practice of the existing 
 Session electing the new Elders is an act comprehended 
 in a single sentence, in 1642. But Mr. Dunlop^ has 
 satisfactorily shown that the "old Session electing the 
 new, in burgh and land, '* and supplying vacancies in 
 the Session, does not refer to the primary election of 
 Elders from out of the congregation, but to the calling 
 of men who had been previously elected, according to 
 the First Book of Discipline, into the actual service of 
 the church. In short, the existing Session are required 
 to supply vacancies in their number, and to choose 
 their successors from the larger list of Elders whom 
 the congregation had previously chosen. Hence it is 
 plain, that the popular election of Elders was left entire. 
 Indeed, no one who is acquainted with the spirit of 
 the church or country in 1642 will readily believe that 
 that was a period when just popular privileges were 
 curtailed. Whatever then may have been the prac- 
 tice of the church in after times, and particularly in 
 later days, there is not only nothing against the popu- 
 lar appointment of Elders ; but, so far as the consti- 
 tution and law of the church are concerned, both ex- 
 pressly provide for it. 
 
 Since the above was written, a singular and beauti- 
 ful confirmation of Mr. Dunlop's argument has, in 
 the providence of God, come to light". That distin- 
 guished friend of the church, with the rare sagacity 
 which characterises him, suggested, as extremely 
 probable, that if the history of the Act 1642 were 
 ever known it would be found that his interpretation 
 was correct, and that the act was intended not to 
 limit the rights of the Christian people in originally 
 electing, but of some other party interfering with 
 Sessions. Accordingly, from a letter of Principal 
 Baillie, published for the first time during the last 
 
 1- Presbyterian Revieu-, Xnv. 18)4, jij). o3, 4',). 
 
136 I'OPLLAK ELECTIOX OF ELDEB8 AT DUKFEBMLISE. 
 
 year, it appears that the act was designed to prevent 
 the magistrates of Gk-^gow from usurping the powers 
 of the Session in selecting from among the chofsen 
 Elders certain persons to fulfil the yearlj duties.* 
 
 Were it necessary to appeal to any further evidence 
 in behalf of the jx»pular character of the election to 
 the Eldership in the seventeenth century. I might 
 quou; from George Gillespie's ' Dissertation of the 
 government of the Church of Scotland' 1641 — from 
 Guthrie's Tract which is prefixed to the present work 
 — written between 1049-1000 — and which states that 
 "the outward calling of the Ruling Elder stands in 
 his election,** and that if the people know others better 
 qualified than those nominated by the minister and 
 Elders they are to name them, — 1 might quote also 
 from Fergusson of Kilwinning's ' Refutation of Inde- 
 pendency in 1052/ which takes for grants the fKjpu- 
 lar election of Elders, p. 127. I might appeal also to 
 the Act 1042 itself as indicating, in the very terms in 
 which it is expressed, that it describes not the election 
 of Elders, but the constituting of ** Kirk Sessions," 
 which is an entirely different matter, but it is un- 
 necessary to enlarge. 
 
 The following may be given as cases of popular 
 election at a late period: — 
 
 ''2nd April, 1733 The Seseion of Dunfermline having met 
 
 for prayer, as ig usual, on the first Monday of the month ; and 
 after some time spent in prayer, they haWng entered on the c/jn- 
 t^ideration of an addition to the number of the Elders, and hav- 
 ing read the list of persons [formerly prepared by theroselveti], 
 they agreed on the following leet, viz, [18 names], whereupon 
 the Elders were appointed, to make enquiry in the several 
 quarters of the parish, if the foresaid persons be the people's 
 choice, and can be constituted Elders by their consent, and to 
 report their diligence tbereanent," 
 
 " \ 2th April, 1733 — The Session resuming the consideration 
 of the foresaid leet of persons for Elders, the several members 
 present gave account to the Session that they had mostly gone 
 through their several quarters, and found that the foresaid leet 
 nominated for being Elders were the choice of the generalityjof 
 all heads of families io the quarters to which they severally belong; 
 1 Letten, vol. ii, p, 4. 
 
AND AT KINGLASSIE, IN 1733. 137 
 
 and that, besides the foresaid leet, some others were nominate 
 to them by the people, of whom the Session were well pleased 
 to add to the former leet these following, viz. [four names]. 
 These being more generally recommended — them the Session 
 recommended, the ministers and Elders present, that they take 
 occasion to speak and commune with the persons nominate, and 
 advertise them of this design." 
 
 " 26^^ April, 1733. — Two more names added to the leet of 
 persons to be Elders." 
 
 ''29th April, 1733. — The Session again considering the leet 
 of persons nominate for Elders, thought fit to add James Or- 
 chitt, and appoint the members to speak with the said persons 
 betwixt and Wednesday next ; and also appoints their officer to 
 acquaint them to wait on their ministers, and such of the El- 
 ders as can conveniently attend, on Wednesday the 2nd ^lay, 
 at two of the clock afternoon, in the Session-house, and that 
 they may be conversed with anent their willingness to accept, 
 and qualifications for the said office." 
 
 "2nd May, 1733. — These formerly nominate to be Elders 
 being advertised by the Kirk-officer to attend this day accord- 
 ingly_compeared [names], and being judicially examined as to 
 their qualifications and abilities for that office, they were ap- 
 proved ; and appointed intimation to be made from the pulpit, 
 Sabbath next, that if any person have any thing to object against 
 them why they may not be ordained Elders of this congrega- 
 tion, they may appear before the Session on Thursday, 17th 
 May instant, with certification, if no relevant objection be made 
 they will go on in their ordination. Absentees appointed to 
 speak with the minister and Elders on Saturday. 
 
 " \lth May, 1733 The edict ofthese formerly nominate to 
 
 he Elders having been intimate according to appointment, was 
 this day three several times called at the most patent door of 
 the kirk, and none appearing to object against their being El- 
 ders, the Session appoints their ordination by Master Ralph 
 Erskine, Sabbath come eight days." — Sess. Rec. of Dunferm- 
 line, 1733." 
 
 Other cases could be quoted, showing that in very 
 many instances, at least, the election of Elders con- 
 tinued to be popular. The Rev. John Currie ';of 
 Kinglassie, the able defender of the church, against 
 the early Seceders, in the first part of the last cen- 
 tury, speaking of himself, in 1740, in his 'Vindication 
 oi the Real Principles of the Reformation,' p. 293, 
 M2 
 
138 VETO OF SESSION PROPER IN 
 
 States, that it was his principle that the congregation 
 liad the right of electing Elders as well as Pastors. 
 At the same time, he thought that the existing Elders 
 should turn their attention to such in the congregation 
 as they judged most meet for the office, that they 
 miglit be proposed to the congregation, who might add 
 or alter, as they saw proper. He then describes his 
 practice shortly before, in connexion with the ap- 
 pointment of Elders in his parish. It appears that, 
 after mature deliberation, when the Session had given 
 in their verdict, "and some private persons in the 
 congregation had also been consulted, the Kirk Session 
 judged it proper, that such of them as they thought 
 meet and would be willing to accept of the office, might 
 be proposed to the congregation, that they might add 
 or alter as they thought meet, which was accordingly 
 done. At which time he told the congregation that 
 they had this liberty, desiring them to come to the 
 Session on such a day, or, if any of them had any 
 thing to except against the persons proposed, or any 
 thing to propose anent others whom they preferred, if 
 they were not inclined to come to the Session, they 
 might tell tlieir mind to him or any of the Elders pri- 
 vately, and what they liad to except against any of 
 those named by the Session, or to propose anent any 
 others, it should be considered." 
 
 While Scripture, and the constitution and history 
 of the church, all so decidedly countenance the popu- 
 lar appointment of Elders, enlightened Christian ex- 
 pediency concurs in the same judgment. Apart from 
 other considerations, a Christian congregation is less 
 under temptation than a minister or Kirk Session to 
 choose from party motives — they are not so likely to 
 appoint on grounds which should not be allowed to 
 determine so solemn a question. — The grand motive 
 with them, especially in the absence of pecuniary in- 
 terests, must almost always be, who is best qualified 
 for the duties ? Even though they were, under the 
 temptation of electing from inferior views, to meet 
 some party purpose, they have seldom the power; at 
 
THE POPULAR ELECTION OF ELDERS. 139 
 
 least a large body, like a Christian congregation, has 
 less ability to act in this way than a small body like 
 a Kirk-session. To give congregations merely the 
 power of objecting to Elders otherwise named, is to 
 lower a large Christian body to the same position 
 with a single individual — it may be a stranger or an 
 enemy. If sucli a person were to state objections, a 
 Session would feel themselves bound to consider and 
 determine them. — And is it right to give a congrega- 
 tion no power or privileges as a congregation ? Is it 
 right or Scriptural to reduce the Christian people to 
 the same footing with an individual who may not bo 
 a member of a Christian church at all ? 
 
 But while the popular election of Elders is agreeable 
 to the constitution of the Church of Scotland, it is be- 
 lieved that it never was — as indeed it never should be 
 so absolute as to exclude the concurrence of the exist- 
 ing Session. No: It is plainly reasonable and right, 
 that in the event of an ignorant and manifestly impro- 
 per election by the communicants, the existing Session 
 should have a veto. Of course, this is a power which, 
 in the great maj ority of cases, would not be unnecessarily 
 exercised. Sessions would naturally, in spiritual things 
 of this nature, be sparing in their interference with the 
 choice of the people over whom they presided. But it 
 is proper that there should be a power in such matters. 
 It seems agreeable to analogy that Sessions should 
 stand in the same relation to Elders that Presbyteries 
 do to candidates for the ministry ; and, as Presbyteries 
 pronounce judgment on the character and qualifica- 
 tions of a probationer who has been elected by the 
 people — so that Kirk- sessions should pronounce upon 
 the same qualities in those elected Elders by the 
 people. Besides, this power seems peculiarly requi- 
 site, until the members of congregations in towns 
 become more generally and intimately acquainted 
 with each other. 
 
 Ere long the brevity of an annual appointment was 
 found inconvenient; but it was in use down to 1G42, 
 if not later. The election to the office was permanent^ 
 
14() ELDERSUIP UNDER EPIfeCOrACY. 
 
 only there were intermissions to the service. In these 
 daj.s the duties were so onerous — occupied so much 
 time, and demanded such serious sacrifices, that it 
 could not be expected that men, in the absence of a 
 temporal provision, could continue in the active dis- 
 charge of them for a lifetime. Hence, to use the 
 language of Gillespie, " that ease of intermission and 
 serving bj courses which was allowed to the Levites 
 of old in the temple." 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CHARACTER AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE ELDERSHIP IN 
 FORMER TIMES. 
 
 During the whole history of the Church of Scotland 
 she has enjoyed the services of Ruling Elders. Even 
 in the periods of violent Episcopal usurpation the 
 office was maintained. Shorn of its power, and much 
 impaired in the numbers who held it and also in its 
 usefulness, it still existed. Previously to 1638, at 
 least in some cases, Elders appear to have been de- 
 prived of the power of sitting and voting in superior 
 church courts. Currie of Kinglassie, in his ' Vindi- 
 cation,' states, that for eight years previous to 1638, 
 no Ituling Elder sat in the Presbytery of Kirkcaldy. 
 And it is certain that both the Commissioner and 
 Moderator, in the celebrated General Assembly of 
 that year, speak of the office of Ruling Elder as one 
 which had been intermitted, and was only then reviv- 
 ing. But these were the days when, by royal autho- 
 rity and intrigue, moderators in Presbyteries were 
 made perpetual — when bishops sat in Parliament, and 
 they and archbishops were ever intermeddling in the 
 most arbitrary manner with the settlement of ministers. 
 In the dark persecuting days of Charles II, there were 
 Kirk-sessions, or the shadow and skeleton of them. So 
 essential a part was the Eldership of the Presbyterian 
 church accounted, and so deeply was it engrained in 
 
ELDERSHIP OF GLASGOW, ETC., IN 1657. 141 
 
 the aflfections of the Scottish people, that though in- 
 consistent with the genius of Episcopacy, persecuting 
 prelates were not able utterly to destroy it. The mo- 
 ment that the pressure of persecution was removed, 
 and any tolerable measure of freedom restored and 
 religion revived, that moment did the Eldership regain 
 its character, numbers, and strength. 
 
 It appears, from an interesting session record, that 
 in 1657, even after decline had begun to infect the 
 Presbyterian church, the city of Glasgow was divided 
 into five districts, to each of which 18 Elders and 18 
 Deacons were attached — making in all 90 Elders and 
 as many Deacons in a town, according to modern esti- 
 mate, by no means considerable. The proportion seems 
 to have been 18 Elders to about 2000 persons, or one 
 Elder to little more than 100 persons. How different 
 is this state of things from the most favourable provi- 
 sion in the same city at the present day — a city where 
 few Elders probaly have a smaller number than 500 
 souls under their care ! 
 
 Through the intelligence and kindness of William 
 Peebles, Esq. of Dunfermline, an enlightened and de- 
 voted friend of th« Church of Scotland, I have been 
 favoured with a number of extracts on the subject 
 of the Eldership from the Session Records of that 
 important parish — a parish which relatively was more 
 important in the seventeenth century than at present. 
 Perhaps as fuU extracts on the same subject have not 
 been collected before. I content myself with a few 
 references. In 1640, the records show a division of 
 the town into six districts, with the names of twenty- 
 two Elders, who were apportioned among families, 
 and the country part of the parish divided into ten 
 districts among thirty-two Elders, besides two for the 
 Abbey, making in ail fifty-six Elders in a parish, 
 where the population was so moderate that there was 
 but one church. There seems to have been an Elder 
 for every hundred persons or twenty-five families. 
 And, as usual, the Elders were the leading men of the 
 district. Among the names we find those of Lord 
 
142 KECOBDS OF KKK.SIONS iO-i^j-47. 
 
 Dunfermline, Sir Henry Wardlaw of Pitreavie, Wil- 
 liam Monteith of Randifurd, Sir James Ilalket of 
 Pitfirrane, Robert Ged of Baldrig, William AVardlaw 
 of Balmull, Henry Stewart of Death, the laird of Pit- 
 t«ncrief, all landed proprietors — the natural aristo- 
 cracy of the parish. It is remarkable that in the 
 Episcopal times of Cliarles II, though there are re- 
 peated elections of Elders, there are no " gentlemen" 
 among them, a plain proof that the Presbyterians 
 were not low fanatics, but had the real gentry on their 
 side. Two years later (l('A2) we find the parish 
 mapped out among forty-seven Elders, and in 1055 
 the distinction between the offices of Elder and 
 Deacon having, according to the appointment of Ses- 
 sion, been hetUiT defined, we read of twenty-three 
 Elders and sixteen Deacons. 
 
 The Session constituting a court where character 
 was necessarily a subject of discussion, its proceedings 
 with all propriety were considered confidential. In 
 October, 1648, " It is ordained that if any of the El- 
 ders or Deacons shall hereafter divulge or reveal any 
 thing spoken or done in Session, that they shall be 
 deposed from their places." Regular atten^iance at 
 meetings of Session was strictly required. " April, 
 1647. — It is thought fit that the Elders who shall 
 hereafter absent themselves from the Session twice, 
 not having a lawful excuse, shall be censured, and the 
 third time to pay as the Session shall modify." 
 
 Both Elders and Deacons were ex[>ected to visit 
 their ^ proportions monthly; and when these were so 
 small and the parties so well known to each other — 
 all meml>ers of the same church — this, comparatively 
 speaking, was of easy attainment. In 1646, it Is or- 
 dJained, that all the Elders of the parish sliall visit the 
 sick — each of them in their own quartr:;rs, and give 
 up the names to the minister — that monthly they 
 shall give in to the Session a roll of persons under 
 church censure — and of strangers "and incomers." 
 It is likewise ordained that the Deacons shall try and 
 Tisit the poor within their quarters, and give a monthly 
 
EARLY PROPOSAL TO IMPROVE THE ELDERSHIP. 143 
 
 roll of them, and it is also resolved to revive the old 
 practice of visiting the public houses during the time 
 of divine service on the Lord's day, to ascertain that 
 none are profaning the day by intemperance, when 
 they ought to be engaged in religious worship. Va- 
 gabond entrants, and servants without testimonials of 
 character, were not to be allowed to remain within the 
 parish. Church discipline was strict and comprehen- 
 sive. Not only were breaches of the Seventh Com- 
 mandment taken up, but offences against the Fourth 
 and the other Commandments. Grinding corn on the 
 Sabbath day was for the lirst transgression a fine of 
 forty shillings, and for the second four pounds Scots : 
 and quarrelling and scolding were severely punished. 
 In some cases imprisonment was not considered too 
 heavy a punishment for such sins.^ 
 
 The Kirk-session of Dunfermline in February 1649 
 received the following overtures from the Presbytery. 
 
 OVERTURES FOR ORDERING OF KIRK-SESSIONS. 
 
 " The Presbytery learning frequently from the brethren of 
 every parish, that still profaneness abounded, and that they find 
 very small progress of the power of godliness in the places of 
 their charge, they conceive this to flow much from the neglect 
 and slackness of Elders — not seeing to the manners of people, 
 nor delating scandalous livers according to their place ; there- 
 fore do appoint that there be a new election of Elders and Dea- 
 cons in every congregation of their bounds, whose proper and 
 
 1 The reader may wish to see the views of the Eldership entertained by the 
 Sreat Alexander Henderson in his little Treatise on the ' (xovernment' and 
 Order of the Church of Scotland, 1641.' He is describing the office as under- 
 stood and observed at the period in whiuh he lived and wrote. '■ The numlier 
 of Elders," says he, "in every parish is not definite, but doth vary according 
 to the number and necessity of the people— in some parishes 6 — in some lb 
 or 12," &c. It is worthy of notice that Henderson does not contemplate such 
 a state of things as any parish being altogether destitute of Elders. Referring 
 to qualifications and duties, he says, " Such are chosen to be Elders as come 
 nearest to the gifts and qualities required by the Apostles, and after they are 
 chosen are at all occasions exhorted by the Pastor to be ensamples to the flock, 
 and to watch over them faithfully against all corruptions in religion and life! 
 And as the Pastor should be diligent in teaching and sowing the seed, so are 
 the Elders desired to be careful iia seeing and seeking the fruits in the peojile." 
 Again, "the Elders do attend with the Pastor in catechising the people and 
 assist him in visiting the sick, in admonishing all men of their duty, and if 
 any will not hear them, they bring the di'Jobedent before the Eldership. In 
 causing the Acts of the Assemblies, as well particular as general, to Ibe put iti 
 execution ; but a principal part of their duty is to join always with the Pas- 
 tor in the particular Eldership, (Kirk- Session,) and in the other assemblies of 
 the church, as they shall be called for the exercising of discipline and govern- 
 ing the whole congregation." — Page 2G. 
 
144 EARLY PEOPOBAL TO IMPROVE THE ELDEKSHIP. 
 
 distinct charge may be learned out of the Books of Discipline, 
 and that they be, 1st, Men of good report both for knowledge 
 and conversation, free of scandalous walking, such as are known 
 to govern their families well and to have all religioub exercisep 
 in their families, as Iike\vise attenders upon the public worsbif' 
 at all occasions. 
 
 2nd. It is thought expedient that in the most numerous cor 
 gregations there be about eighteen Elders and twelve Deacoi. 
 In the less numerous there be about ten Elders and eigL 
 Deacons, and in the least there be about six Elders and four 
 Deacons. 
 
 3rd. That magistrates in parishes, having the foresaid quali- 
 fications, be chosen Elders. 
 
 4th. The said Elders and Deacons to meet together in session 
 ^vith the minister once every week, absentees to be marked 
 and censured, and who shall be found absent, without a suJn- 
 cient reason approved of by the kirk, to be admonished — if 
 continue to be absent, to be called before the Session to be cen- 
 sured, and if he refuse to submit, then to be cited before the 
 public to be censured there. 
 
 5th. That they have their several wards and bounds, over 
 which in a special manner they watch, and that every first 
 Session-day in the month the minister enquire concerning the 
 behaviour of those under their charge, which is not to exempt 
 them from duty towards the rest of the people as they shall 
 have occasion. 
 
 6th. That when it is found any connive at faults, neglect to 
 delate them, or speak in Sessions for offenders, that they be 
 censured for the first fault with rebuke; if fail again in any of 
 those, then to be put a while from the exercise of their office, 
 and if continue to be deposed. 
 
 7th. That the Elders visit the families of their bounds fou 
 times a year, to know of their Christian teaching, and wha- 
 obedience they give to the acts of the kirk, and to report ac- 
 cordingly ; and the Session call for an account of their diligenc': 
 herein on the first Session day of the month of February, of the 
 month of May, of August, and of November, and that they be 
 reminded of this duty every quarter of the year timeously. 
 
 8th. That when there is any sick persons within their charge 
 they visit them and give also advertisement to the minister ot 
 any sick persons. 
 
 9th. That no sooner any stranger, that is, any from another 
 parish, shall come into their bounds to reside but that they give 
 notice thereof to the Session at their first meeeting, that they 
 
HISTORICAL VIEWS OF THE ELDERSHIP. 145 
 
 may have his testimonials or else that he be removed out of 
 their bounds. 
 
 10th. That Elders join with the minister in the visitation of 
 their several quarters, and that they come with the people of 
 their division to catechising and examination. 
 
 11th. That Elders and deacons failing in the foresaid duties 
 be censured by the Session, and if they continue in their faults, 
 to be cited before the Presbytery to be censured there. 
 
 Which orders, being read in Session, were received and ap- 
 proved, and appointed to be read publicly out of the pulpit." 
 
 The preceding ** overtures for ordering of Kirk- 
 sessions," show the spirit of the Elders of the middle 
 of the 17th century. Surely neither these, nor any 
 thing which has yet been related, indicate that the of- 
 fice-bearers of the church in that day were those ignor- 
 ant, foolish, weak-minded, preposterous fanatics that 
 so many in our day delight to represent them to have 
 been. 
 
 With regard to examination previous to admission 
 to the Lord's table, the following rules were adopted in 
 March, 1656. 
 
 'Hth March, 1656. — The minister and Elders going about 
 the examination of the people for the communion — 1st. Resolv- 
 ed, that those persons who neglect the keeping of the diets of 
 examination, whether masters or others, if twice absent, to be 
 admonished by the minister and Elders, and if the third time, to 
 be cited to the Session, or suspended from the communion, 
 without respect of persons, and these to be marked by the 
 ministers and Elders. 
 
 2nd. That the ministers, with the Elders, shall try the know- 
 ledge of every one that comes, according to the act of Assem- 
 bly 1648, August 10, Sess. 38. 
 
 3rd. After persons are observed to be ignorant, or absentees 
 from catechising by the ministers and Elders, the Elders in 
 their several quarters may deal with these by visiting their fa- 
 milies, and exhorting their masters and themselves yet to learn. 
 
 4th. For their measure of knowledge, that the ministers 
 shall agree upon some common questions, to be proposed to 
 every one whose knowledge they doubt of, and that they insist 
 most upon those questions which are preparations for the sacra- 
 ment. 
 
 N 
 
146 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE ELDERSHIP 
 
 5th. Concerning scandalous persons, such as ordinary tiplers 
 and swearers, scolders, and who live at variance with their 
 neighbours, ordinary absenters from catechising, ordinary neg- 
 lectors of the worship of God in their fannilies, &c,, that some 
 way be taken for trying them, and keeping them back from the 
 communion, if they continue in it — conform to the directions of 
 the General Assembly. 
 
 6th. That at least there be two Elders with the minister at 
 examination. 
 
 7th. That if any Elder or deacon appointed to wait on be 
 absent, and do not wait on either himself, or some other with 
 whom he may agree, he shall be suspended from his place for a 
 time, except he have a very reasonable excuse. 
 
 8th. That with the Elders of the quarter, the Session ap- 
 point any other Elder or deacon to wait on at examination." 
 
 I might appeal to the records of the Kirk-session 
 of Perth, extracted by the late Rev. Mr.'Scott, one of 
 the ministers, and deposited in the Advocates' Lib- 
 rary, Edinburgh, for similar information regarding 
 the Eldership in that important parish, throughout a 
 considerable period of history. The following are the 
 numbers of Elders and Deacons at the dates specified ; 
 and the maintaining the offices in a distinct form 
 through so many years, and in such strength, is a 
 high testimony to the value which the church attach- 
 ed to this part of her constitution in former times. — 
 
 In 1577 th<n'e were 12 Elders, 
 
 12 Deacons. 
 „ 1594 „ „ 15 Elders, 
 
 12 Deacons. 
 „ 1616 „ „ 14 Elders, 
 
 12 Deacons. 
 „ 1636 „ „ 17 Elders, 
 
 12 Deacons. 
 „ 1666 „ „ 25 Elders, 
 
 22 Deacons. 
 
 In 1670 there were 18 Eld. old, 
 3 „ new, 
 ]8De. old, 
 3 „ new. 
 „ 1685 „ „ 28 Elders, 
 
 21 Deacons. 
 „ 1690 „ „ 18 Elders, 
 
 14 Deacons. 
 „ 1711 „ „ 23 Elders, 
 27 Deacon?. 
 
 It may not be possible to ascertain the general popu- 
 lation accurately at periods when a public census was 
 unknown, but it may help the reader to judge of this 
 when it is mentioned that in 1616 there were 2200 
 tokens used within two successive sabbaths of com- 
 
FROM RECORDS OF PERTH KIRK-SESSION. 147 
 
 munion, and £74 : 10 : 8 Scots at the same time col- 
 lected in the parish. 
 
 One or two interesting and curious notices may be 
 added. 
 
 " In March, 1576, The Session ordains the Reader," [a per- 
 son who morning and evening of every day read a chapter of the 
 word of God, and public prayers within the church, from the 
 book of common order, for the use of those who were unable to 
 read,] " with the Elders of every quarter as falls to them to 
 write the names of the people for the communion." [In other 
 words, to make up a communion roll.] 
 
 "December, 1591 The visitation of the sick to be on 
 
 every Tuesday after the [public] prayers, and the Elders of 
 each quarter in their turn to be present at the same time with 
 the minister at the visitation." 
 
 " 1591 Elders to be present with the minister to give con- 
 solation to those condemned to death." 
 
 "January, 1592, — The minister and Elders understanding 
 that there is a great number of poor and indigent persons in the 
 burgh and congregation — understanding likewise that the visit- 
 ation of the sick is requisite and necessary, ordains visitation 
 of the poor and sick to be weekly — every Tuesday — and two 
 Elders to concur with the minister for this effect." 
 
 " \9th June, 1592. — Forasmuch as this day certain brethren 
 of the Flesher's Croft were called and desired to give obedience 
 to God in keeping the Sabbath and denied the same plainly, 
 and promised not, to give obedience, therefore ordains the Town 
 Council to be convened next Tuesday after prayers in the morn- 
 ing, and with them the Elders, for undertaking with the whole 
 fleshers that the Sabbath may be kept and God glorified as be- 
 comes." 
 
 26M June, 1592. — Ordains hereafter that in case any Elder 
 depart and go off Session, at the day of convention without 
 leave asked or given, he shall pay to the poor six pennies."' 
 
 It may render the picture more complete and satis- 
 factory, if, in addition to the information supplied by 
 the Sessional records of a large parish, embracing a 
 considerable town, we appeal to that furnished by the 
 records of a country parish. Through the kindness 
 of the same friend who assisted me in regard to Dun- 
 
148 ELDERSHIP IX TORRYBURN IN 1630-37. 
 
 fermline, aided by the parochial schoolmaster, I am 
 able to refer to the sessional records of the parish of 
 Torrjbum — a parish with which I am well acquainted, 
 from having had the happiness of being its minister 
 for several years. 
 
 The parish seems to have been more populous at 
 the period of which I write than at the present day. 
 There were two parishes joined in one (Torrie and 
 Crombie,) and a considerable manufacture of salt. 
 Probably the population might be estimated at from 
 1700 to 1800 ; the records stretch as far back as 1629. 
 Even at this period, when the church was suffering 
 under semi- Episcopacy, there were fourteen Elders in 
 the parish, and a strict discipline exercised. Sabbath 
 profanation by brewers, salt-makers, and others, was 
 carefully prohibited ; penny bridals, or weddings, 
 which were connected with great abuses, restrained ; 
 testimonials of character were required from every 
 entrant into the parish, and absentees from the usual 
 catechetical examinations were subjected to admoni- 
 tion and fine ; Elders were expected, as in Dunferm- 
 line, once a month to visit the families under their 
 care. As an indication of the importance of the 
 duties which were discharged by Kirk-sessions, even 
 in days when Episcopacy had made in many quarters 
 a serious invasion on the constitution of the Presby- 
 terian church, it may be mentioned that it appears 
 from the record there were nineteen sessional meetings 
 in 1630— 
 
 19 in 1631, 
 
 The next two years are not marked 
 in the return received. 
 
 20 in 1634, 
 
 19 in 1635, 
 
 6 in 1636, 
 
 7 in 1637. 
 
 In the two latter years, with the growing distaste for 
 Episcopacy, there was a considerable diminution of 
 sessional meetings, but with the rise of Presbytery 
 there is an increase : 
 
1648 
 
 j> 
 
 « 31 
 
 1649 
 
 » 
 
 „ 48 
 
 1650 
 
 f) 
 
 „ 46 
 
 1651 
 
 » 
 
 » 36 
 
 1652 
 
 )i 
 
 » 40 
 
 1653 
 
 »» 
 
 „ 47 
 
 DUTIES AS EXERCISED IN 1640, ETC. 149 
 
 In 1638 there were 12meeting.s In 1647there were 23 meetings. 
 ,,1639 „ „ 12 „ 
 ,,1640 „ „ 36 
 ,,1641 „ „ 40 „ 
 „ 1642 „ „ 38 „ 
 Three years are not given. 
 ,,1646 „ „ 18 „ 
 
 In the Presbyterian period, from being held once a 
 month, Ksessions came to bo held almost once a week. 
 This shows that they were in most active operation, 
 and that a very important part of tho business of 
 parishes was conducted by them. The precise num- 
 ber of Elders is not given ; but in 1647 twelve are 
 appointed to see that the Sabbath be properly observed 
 in three parts of the parish, and two years after there 
 is an election held of Elders and Deacons for eleven 
 districts. There seems to have been nineteen Elders, 
 or more than one for every 100 persons. 
 
 I shaU not attempt to enumerate all the duties of 
 
 THE ELDERSHIP AS THEN EXERCISED. In addition tO 
 
 those already stated, there was an earnest care to pro- 
 mote family worship among the people. In July, 
 1640, the Session "ordains that Elders do see that all 
 persons in their several districts keep up family wor- 
 ship, read the word, and catechise." Two years later, 
 "it is agreed that the minister and Elder of the dis- 
 trict shall go through each district, try every family 
 what care they have of family worship, and press it 
 with all earnestness." In February, 1648, it is stated 
 that "the Elders of the quarters received 100 books, 
 intended to supply directions in family worship ; they 
 were to be distributed among the families within their 
 respective quarters, the Elders being ordained to bring 
 in two shillings for each book." The money, amount- 
 ing to £10, was afterwards paid. 
 
 While duties more peculiarly belonging to the family 
 were attended to, those of education at school were not 
 neglected. In May, 1642, it is agreed that the minis- 
 ter and Elder shall go through the different districts 
 of the parish, "and bring in the account of the names 
 ^nd number of children, both male and female, between 
 N2 
 
150 EDUCATION, CHURCH EXTEF6I0K, ETC., 
 
 seven and ten years, that thev may be put to school" 
 Next month the Session ordains " Elders to deal with 
 parents having children in their districts, that they 
 put them to school ; and in case they do it not, to pay 
 twenty shillings to the box, and make public repen- 
 tance for their perjury in breaking the oath made at 
 the baptism of their children, and if any are poor, and 
 unable to pay, the Session agree t^j pay the fees." 
 These earnest desires in behalf of education were most 
 honourable, and were carried into practical effect In 
 March, 1649, "the schoolmasters being enquired at, 
 if the 'bairns' did attend the school, they declared that 
 many parents did withdraw their children ; and the 
 names of those parents were given in to the Session : 
 they were ordered to be summoned against next day 
 of meeting. Compeared the said parents, and pro- 
 mised to send their children back to school without 
 fail next week/' 
 
 The religious instruction of the grown-up and the 
 aged, through the medium of the church, was provided 
 for as well as the education of youth, through the me- 
 dium of the school. The Kirk-sessions of the middle 
 of the 17th century were zealous Church Extensionists. 
 In June, 1647, "the Elders made heavy regret that the 
 kirk was too little to contain the people of the parish — 
 that hundreds were constrained to sit in the kirk-yard 
 in time of sermon, about the doors and windows, and 
 that many staid at home ; therefore they unanimously 
 resolved to deal with the heritors to build an aisle on 
 the north side of the kirk to contain two hundred peo- 
 ple, and agreed to be stented [assessed] to that effect, 
 conform to their means and substance." 
 
 The exertions employed by the Kirk-session to bring 
 up the people by suitable teaching for partaking aright 
 of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper were most la- 
 borious and praiseworthy. If communicants were not 
 well qualified, it was no fault of their recogni-sed in- 
 structors. In January, 1641, "the Session ordains 
 the communion to be held conformably to the acts of 
 Assembly, at two several seasons of the year; viz., in 
 
AIDED BY THE RULING ELDER. 151 
 
 the months of July and October. Ordains examina- 
 tions for the first diet [ Julj] to begin on every Tues- 
 day and Thursday of the month of January ; and the 
 Session to convene every evening thereafter,- and exa- 
 mine on the Sabbath afternoons in the months of March 
 and April and May, so that there be nothing but to 
 celebrate the communion" — [that is, that all be in such 
 a state of preparation that when the time comes round 
 there be no hesitation or delay.] "Likewise for the 
 diet of October, ordains examination in the months of 
 June and July, and in the Sabbath after sermon in the 
 months of August and September, so that there be 
 nothing but to celebrate the communion in October." 
 Elders are to attend the diet of examination of their 
 quarters, and absentees from two examinations are to 
 be fined six shillings Scots. Seventeen pounds are 
 raised by the people to defray the expences of the se- 
 cond communion. 
 
 While Kirk-sessions were thus so zealous in instruct- 
 ing the people, and raising their religious character to 
 a high pitch in point of knowledge, they did not fail — 
 and that successfully — to exercise their beneficent af- 
 fections. One may fear that so severe a discipline 
 would render men unfeeling and unamiable. But it is 
 not so. The records are marked with many pleasing 
 traces of kindness to the poor, particularly the suf- 
 fering saints of God. So early as Nov. 1631, we read 
 of thirty pounds Scots being collected under the care 
 of the Session for "distressed Germans." Next year 
 they collect for "the poor captives of Dysart and 
 Kircaldy*' detained in Turkish slavery. In 1642, 
 not less than ninety pounds Scots are contributed in 
 behalf of the poor Irish Protestants. The succeeding 
 year other tliirty pounds are added to the sum ; and, 
 at the same time, forty merks are set apart for the 
 "captives of Invcrkeitliing, and other parishes." In 
 July, 1647, two hundred merks are sent to "the dis- 
 tressed people of Argyle ; " and, three years after, 
 forty pounds are sent for the relief of Scottish soldiers 
 detained as prisoners. The Kirk- sessions then, with 
 
152 EXPLANATION OF THE SEVERITY OF 
 
 all their stem discipline, were not insensible to the 
 claims of Christian philanthropy. 
 
 Like good men, however, living in trying times, they 
 were occasionally depressed in the discharge of their 
 arduous duties. The following extract — the last which 
 we shall give — will show how they and their people 
 were sustained in such circumstances. Under date July, 
 1650, it is recorded — "The Elders reported that the 
 schools were all getting loose — that many strangers 
 had come into the parish — and that people were much 
 disheartened from doing their duty either to God or 
 themselves, by reason of the sad state of affairs, &c., 
 and of soldiers disturbing the country. The minister 
 recommends to the Elders to enjoin upon the people 
 a patient waiting for better times, and in the mean- 
 time to endeavour the doing of all duty to God, and 
 themselves, and their neighbours." 
 
 Similar quotations might be made from the records 
 of other Kirk-sessions, both of town and rural parishes. 
 Indeed, what has been adduced may be considered as 
 descriptive of the spirit and discipline of the Kirk-ses- 
 sions of Scotland generally, if not universally; and 
 surely they are most creditable to the intellectual, moral, 
 and religious character of the Eldership — yea, of the 
 people as a whole, and yet the election was popular ! 
 
 I am aware that it is common with many, in in- 
 discriminate terms, to condemn the strictly Presby- 
 terian periods of Scottish history for the severity of 
 discipline which was exercised, especially in connexion 
 with witchcraft ; and I am far from approving or vindi- 
 cating that discipline as a whole It was unduly stern ; 
 and, in reference to witchcraft, it was altogether 
 indefensible — founded probably on popular delusion ; 
 but in judging of the discipline of these days, it is no 
 more than candid to bear in mind, that the state of 
 society was very rough, and men felt public exposure 
 less — that the civil and criminal laws were weak, and 
 that the ecclesiastical was frequently the only one 
 which could be enforced — that public opinion, in the 
 sense in which we understand the term, was then 
 
THE EARLY CHURCH DISCIPLINE. 153 
 
 almost unknown, and hence the actual inflictions of 
 church courts needed to be the more severe. It is 
 also to be remembered that the harshest discipline of 
 the Presbyterian Church of Scotland was far surpass- 
 ed by that of the Primitive church, which could not 
 plead the same apologies.^ 
 
 With regard to the particular office of witchcraft, 
 which appears so frequently in the church records, it 
 is to be considered that this was the delusion, not of 
 a few years, but of the age — not of Scotland, but of 
 Europe ; that there was as much witchcraft, as well 
 as other unnatural crimes, in the Episcopalian as in 
 the Presbyterian periods, and that in both it was treat- 
 ed much alike ; that in those cases where there was 
 any difference, this was not owing to milder or more 
 enlightened general views of the subject, but to the 
 circumstance that there was not the same faithful dis- 
 charge of duty in detecting and exposing crimes un- 
 der Episcopal as under Presbyterian rule,^ and that 
 the delusion generally was breaking up when the for- 
 mer rule was restored under Charles II. 
 
 After the Revolution of 1688, there was, as might 
 have been expected, a great revival in the Eldership. 
 The persecution of 30 years was closed, and though it 
 left the church weak, she was zealously alive to her 
 duties. Accordingly most of the acts of Assembly 
 bearing on the qualifications of Elders, and warmly 
 
 1 In the London Missionary Register for iiaxch, 1841, page 155, I have 
 recently met with a curious illusti-ation of the discipline of the Scottish 
 Church of the seventeenth centiu-y, in a quarter where one would not na- 
 turally have looked for it. A missiouai"y of the Church of England at 
 Tallygunge — a missionary station, I beUeve. not many miles fi-om Calcutta, 
 with about a hundred communicants, thus writes : — ■■ It is om- custom, (as 
 was that uf the Primitive chm-eh.) in ca:-e of notorious aud flagrant crimes, 
 to suspend from communion, and to make the delinquents stand in a con- 
 spicuous place during the whole of the service, partly to put them to open 
 stiame and partly to deter others "from the contagion." Our Episcopalian 
 friends are generally most severe in their censure of the old public discipline 
 of the Chureh of Scotland. Here is a congregation of their own, under the 
 immediate eye of the devoted bishop .of Calcutta, belonging not to the evan- 
 gelical, and therefore alleged enthusiastic • Church Missionai*y Society,' but 
 to the old high church ' Gospel Propagation Society,' acting upon the same 
 principles, pleading the authority of the Primitive church in their behalf, and 
 so far as appears unchallenged by their superiors for the practice. Such a 
 case as this should teach a little toleration for the Scottish Presbyterians of 
 the I7th century. 
 
 2 See Lamont's Diary, 1649, 1671, — also Appendix, for some important facts. 
 
154 ACTS OF ASSEMIILY ON THE ELDERSlIir. 
 
 calling them to the discharge of duty, are to be found 
 in this period: such as tlio Acts 1694, 1697, 1699, 
 1704, 1706, 1722. We may extract two of them. 
 
 The Assembly, 1697, "considering how necessary a duty it 
 is that the worship of God, and calling upon his name, be daily 
 performed in all families, do recommend it to ministers and El- 
 ders in each congregation to take care thereof; and it being the 
 duty of all Ruling Elders and Deacons to be exemplary herein, 
 the Assembly renews and confirms the Act of Assembly 1694, 
 recommending that none be Ruling Elders who make not con- 
 science of this unquestionable duty ; and do likewise appoint, 
 that in case any Elders or Deacons shall neglect to worship 
 God in their families, by themselves or others appointed for 
 that effect, that they be seriously admonished to amend, and if 
 need be, rebuked for the same ; and if, notwithstanding, they 
 shall continue obstinate in their neglect, that such Elder or 
 Deacon shall be removed from his olP.ce by the Presbytery." 
 
 The Assembly, 1722, — "being deeply affected witu the 
 great decay of Christian piety amongst all ranks, and the 
 abounding of vice and immorality ; and considering that slack- 
 ness and partiality in the exercise of discipline, and untender- 
 neas in the walk and conversation of the office-bearers in the 
 Church, cannot but greatly contribute to the increase of these 
 evils ; therefore, the General Assembly do earnestly beseech, 
 exhort, and require, all Ministers to take heed to themselves 
 and to their doctrine, and to be exemplary to their people. 
 And, in like manner, the Assembly do earnestly beseech, ex- 
 hort, and require. Elders and Deacons to be faithful in the dis- 
 charge of their respective offices, tender and circumspei^t in 
 their walk, and punctual in their attendance upon ordinances, 
 strict in the observance of the Lord's day, and in regularly 
 keeping up the worship of God in their families. And the 
 General Assembly appoints tue judicatories of the Church to 
 take good heed that none be admitted to, or continued in, these 
 offices but such as are found qualified, and do behave themselves 
 as above required. And appoints Kirk-Sessions, Presbyteries, 
 and Synods, strictly and impartially, without respect of persons, 
 to observe this and former Acts of Assembly, relative to office- 
 bearers in the Church." — Act 9th. 
 
 The Elders at this and even a still later day were 
 very numerous. The Rev. Mr. Lewis, in his excellent 
 pamphlet, mentions a small parish in Fifeshire — pro- 
 
GREAT MORAL AND RELIGIOUS RESULTS. 155 
 
 bably of not more than nine hundred souls, which in 
 1704 had not less than twenty-four Elders. This was an 
 Elder for every forty persons — indicating a complete 
 and easy spiritual oversight of families. A similar 
 smaU rural parish — now without an Elder, had then 
 not less than thirty of these most useful ecclesiastical 
 office-bearers. 
 
 It is not needful to say anything of the great moral 
 AND religious RESULTS wrought out for the country by 
 the church, of which Elders formed so important a part 
 I have already adverted to some of them, and they 
 are well known. It may be safely said that there is no 
 parallel to these results in the history of the world. The 
 sacrifices which were made by the church, when 
 struggling for her very existence — fettered and oppres- 
 sed in a thousand ways — were most generous and un- 
 A^earied. In promoting the cause of education — in la- 
 bouring for the poor — in overcoming Popery, and then 
 sweeping away its last remains — in maintaining the sa- 
 cred observance of the Sabbath — contributing for dis- 
 tressed Christians both at home and abroad — cultiva- 
 ting among ministers literature and learning — in short 
 in civilising and christianising Scotland, she stands al- 
 most alone among Christian churches. Her patriotic, 
 self-denied, and successful struggles for civil and reli- 
 gious freedom — struggles in the benefits of which Eng- 
 land and even Europe shared, will never be forgotten, 
 and we trust will be more and more appreciated. But 
 it is plain, that had it not been for her Eldership, she 
 could not have rendered the services to patriotism, 
 learning, morality, and religion, which she was hon- 
 oured to yield. Deprived of so large a body of the 
 most pious and influential of the land, she would have 
 been comparatively helpless — as helpless as other 
 churches which do not enjoy the same advantages. In- 
 dependently of the high testimony which was borne to 
 the character, worth, and influence of the Ruling El- 
 ders in the memorable Assembly of 1638 — an As- 
 sembly which may be said to have revolutionised Scot- 
 land — when a leading clerical member attributed the 
 
150 DECLINE IN THE ELEEIISIIII', 
 
 harmony and success of the proceedings in a great 
 measure to the presence of her Elders — in addition 
 to this, we have tlie remarkable fact, that two several 
 times in the liistory of Scotland, parliament, when 
 legislating regarding the settlement of ministers, 
 vested a largo share of the power in the Eldership. 
 This is a plain proof of the importance of that body 
 of men in the country at these periods. No legislator 
 at the present day would think of vesting equal power 
 in the Eldership as recently constituted. Indeed there 
 seems little doubt that the defective state of Kirk- 
 sessions generally, (though happily and rapidly im- 
 proving,) is one of the serious bars to the satisfactory 
 settlement of the churcli's present difficulties. Many 
 who would be glad to see an abrogation of the law of 
 lay patronage, are at a loss where to vest the right of 
 nomination, so as to be at once popular and safe. 
 This indirectly testifies to the preeminence and general 
 weight of the Eldership at an earlier day. 
 
 CHAPTER LX. 
 
 ON THE CAUSES OF DECLINE IN THE ELDERSHIP, AND 
 THE BEST MEANS OF REVIVING IT. 
 
 This little Treatise, which I am anxious should be, at 
 least in outline, as comprehensive as possible, would 
 be incomplete did I not refer to the decline which has 
 overtaken the Eldership in the Presbyterian Church, 
 and the most probable means of reviving it. The 
 office of Ruling Elder seems to have suffered an 
 unfavourable change, not in one or two but in all 
 the Presbyterian churches of Christendom. — In some 
 on the (M)ntinent it has almost disappeared, existing 
 only in the pages of the standards — in others it has 
 sadly degenerated into a civil or semi-secular office — 
 Even ill Presbyterian churches where there is a con- 
 siderable measure of life and practical exemplification 
 of tlie speculative constitution of the church, the office 
 
AND ITS CAUSES. 157 
 
 is far from being in a satisfactory condition. The 
 Presbyterians of the United States of America, as 
 well as of Europe, complain of the imperfection in 
 this respect of their present attainments. The utmost 
 that can be alleged, even of the purest and most 
 vigorous churches, is that they are in the course of a 
 blessed and rapid revival as regards their Eldership. 
 How then do we account for this extensive decline ? 
 It is not owing to any thing unwarrantable or unscrip- 
 tural or impracticable in the nature of the office itself. 
 We have seen how strong is the foundation on which 
 it rests, also its success ; and most Christian churches, 
 though not Presbyterian, have as serious degeneracy 
 of which to complain, in offices which they deem not 
 less essential. The truth seems to be that from the 
 nature of the office of Ruling Elder — from the strictly 
 spiritual character of its duties, and some of these 
 painful and unpopular, it requires a strong measure 
 of religion in a congregation to keep it alive in purity 
 and force. It presupposes a considerable choice of 
 superior religious men ; and this, where religion is not 
 flourishing, is not always to be had. It is, however, a 
 good sign of the Eldership, as it is of Presbyterian 
 church government generally, that it implies and re- 
 quires a large share of true religion for its efficient ex- 
 ercise : this shows its association with aliigli standard. 
 I have already quoted authority from ecclesiastical 
 history to prove that the decline and disappearance of 
 the office of Ruling Elder from the church in a few 
 centuries after the first, was owing to the extensive 
 degeneracy of true religion into the superstition and 
 corruption of the antichristian apostacy. — Doubtless 
 the same cause supplies the grand explanation of the 
 decline in more modern times, since the Reformation. 
 In addition to the Presbyterian churches which ex- 
 isted before, those which then started into existence 
 extensively adopted the office and put it into vigor- 
 ous operation. For not a few generations this state 
 of things continued with happiest effect. At length 
 wide-spread and protracted degeneracy invaded Pro- 
 O 
 
158 CAU8ES OF DKCLINE IN THE ELDEUSIIII'. 
 
 tostant Christendom. There was a reaction in fa- 
 vour of the Church of Rome, and of a new competitor 
 — latitudinarian Infidelity. The office of Ruling- 
 Elder with that of Pastor immediately suffered, and in 
 many quarters sunk. This was a general, and is and 
 must ever prove by far the most serious source of 
 deterioration. I^ike other causes, however, it gave 
 rise to others more or less remote, which in their turn, 
 wrought adversely. Among these may be mentioned 
 the carelessness and indifference of congregations to 
 their own spiritual good, and the good of others ; an 
 unhappy state of things, which leads them to seek, it 
 may be, for an acceptable minister, but only do so to 
 devolve upon him the whole undivided burden of the 
 church and its affairs — they sitting still and enjoying 
 his services in the mean time. Another cause of de- 
 clension is the ignorance which comes to prevail in 
 congregations regarding the nature, divine authority, 
 qualifications, and duties of the Eldership ; when 
 this once becomes extensive, the decline is perpetu- 
 ated. The low estimate which the church members 
 entertain of the office and cliaracter • of the Ruling 
 Elder is an additional source of injury. When — in- 
 stead of being regarded as a high spiritual office, allied 
 to the pastor, involving great duties — it is looked upon 
 as a mere honour or sinecure, at best occupied with 
 vtry humble and common-place duties, what can 
 be expected but that it should be lightly thought of? 
 When this unhappy stage is arrived at, the best quali- 
 fied men — of piety, character, standing, and respecta- 
 bility — are unwilling to join the Eldership. The con- 
 sequence of this again is that the office is devolved 
 upon the humbler, and in some cases, less estimable 
 members of the congregation; which tends to depress it 
 still more. The last deteriorating circumstance which 
 we shall mention, is that wlien once a Session is con- 
 structed of unfavourable materials the members are 
 averse to receive younger and more devoted men into 
 their number, lest their activity should reproach and 
 disturb their indolence. The fruit of all this is to 
 
DECLINE IN THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. 150 
 
 deepen and protract the decline. Such are general 
 causes. 
 
 To refer to the case of the Church of Scotland 
 more specifically. With the decline of religion 
 throughout Protestant Christendom, from the middle 
 of the last century downwards, there was a very un- 
 favourable change in the numbers and character of 
 the Eldership of the church. In many cases true re- 
 ligion sunk to so low a condition, that men of suitable 
 station as well as piety, to be called to the Eldership, 
 could not be found. Hence in such parishes there 
 were, and in some cases still are, no Elders, or merely 
 nominal Elders. The working of the law of lay pa- 
 tronage also proved most disastrous to Kirk-sessions 
 — breaking them up — driving faithful Elders into 
 dissent — and preventing good men from joining a 
 Session, even where elected, in the dread of an un- 
 acceptable appointment to the pulpit, by the death or 
 removal of the present pastor putting them under an 
 obnoxious minister. The change in the mode of ap- 
 pointment to the office was also doubtless most injuri- 
 ous. In the great majority of cases a small shrivelled 
 Session, under the influence of one or two individuals 
 — generally the minister — named the new Elders, 
 who, unless decidedly objected to by the congregation, 
 (an unpleasant and rarely exercised right,) were forth- 
 with ordained — sometimes not even in public. In not 
 a few instances men were nominated to the office, 
 not to discharge its ordinary duties, but to be eligible 
 to a seat in the General Assembly. These causes 
 tended to lower the office in public estimation, and to 
 prevent many men of the best qualifications from be- 
 coming Elders. Though willing to join a Session 
 when called by the congregation, and satisfied that 
 the people wished their services, they could not be 
 prevailed upon to accept the office upon any other 
 and inferior terms. The result of the whole was that, 
 though tiiere has been a great and happy change of 
 late years — a change which continues in rapid pro- 
 gress — still a large number of parishes at the present 
 
160 MEANS OF REVIVING THE ELDERSHIP. 
 
 moment have no Elders, and have had none for years, 
 and many more are most imperfectly provided^ — ■ 
 while not a few, where the complement is not deficient 
 in point of mere numbers, lag far behind the spirit of 
 the Elders of the olden time. It is estimated that 
 upon an average there are not more than three or four 
 Elders to every parish in Scotland — a serious change 
 from the day when there were from twenty to thirty 
 Elders in the smallest rural parishes. One proof of 
 the decay in the Eldership is to bo found in the fact 
 that scarcely any thing has been written upon the 
 office ; but, as we have already said, there is a great 
 and growing change for the better. Kirk-sessions are 
 encreasing in numbers, and improving in religious 
 spirit. 
 
 The nature of the causes of decline will suggest 
 the appropriate remedy, in other words, the best 
 means of revival. Of these of course by far the most 
 comprehensive and powerful is a revival of true reli- 
 gion, at once general and deep. While this would 
 not fail to bring many blessings of inconceivable 
 value to the church and the world, it would at once 
 and most effectually revive the Eldership in numbers, 
 and spirit, and success. For this, among other 
 reasons, a great awakening of the life and power 
 of religion should be sought for, by preaching and 
 prayer, and all other suitable means. It will improve 
 all the office-bearers of the church, and they will 
 react upon the people, and so perpetuate the blessing. 
 Without a revival of religion it may be feared that in 
 many cases the good which has actually appeared will 
 not be secured. Subservient to a general revival of 
 religion, though not to be suspended till it appears, 
 
 1 In one Presbytery in the South, consisting of 12 members, there were lately 
 no less than three parishes whieh had no Elders. What imperfect and nonde- 
 script church government must obtain in tliese cases! How inconvenient tu 
 ttie adjoining ministers, who constitute the Session! It is to be hoped that 
 the answers which have been called for by the late General Assembly to cer- 
 tain queries, regarding the encrease of Kirk-sessions of late years, will soon 
 lead to the adoption of steps for providing that every parish in the now 
 nearly 1300 of which the Church of Scotland consists, shall have its coniple- 
 ment of Elders. In some cases there may be an absence of the most suitable 
 men— but these instances are doubtless rare : and the evil will never be re- 
 dressed by doing nothing. 
 
MEANS OF REVIVING THE ELDERSHir. IGl 
 
 an important step towards revival would be the diffu- 
 sion of information on the nature, divine authority, 
 qualifications, duties, &c., of the Eldership — bv 
 preaching, the circulation of books on the subject, 
 through congregational libraries, and occasional at- 
 tendance on church courts. Another mean would bo 
 the giving additional respectability to the ofiice, not 
 only by bringing out and proclaiming Scriptural views 
 of it on all fitting occasions, but by obtaining for its 
 duties the services of the most respectable men in point 
 of character and station. The next suggestion in 
 the way of revival would be the training of young men 
 as Deacons and Sabbath School Teachers, with an 
 express eye to the spiritual claims of the church on 
 their sympathy, prayers, and labours. This would 
 rear a nursery for the Eldership ; especially if young 
 men were fitted by early practice for taking part in 
 public prayer. The want of this, it is believed, dis- 
 courages men otherwise admirably qualified from 
 venturing on the ofiice of Elder, even when called to 
 it by a Christian congregation. Encreasing the in- 
 terest of church courts, by giving them more of a 
 missionary and devotional character, would, there is 
 little doubt, attract to the office of the Eldership many 
 men of intelHgent piety, who have little taste for busi- 
 ness of a merely routine description or business which 
 is fitted to provoke discussion. The visitation of con- 
 gregations and parishes by Presbyteries, and taking 
 a regular account of their outward and religious con- 
 dition, seem well calculated to revive the Eldership, 
 both creating it where it does not exist, and enhancing 
 its eflSciency where Kirk-sessions have been already 
 formed. Few ministers, it is believed, would like to 
 confess to their brethren that they had no Elders, 
 and that there were no men in the congregation after 
 the ministry of years who were fit for the ofiice, espe- 
 cially if they were constrained at the same time to 
 acknowledge that they had taken no positive steps to 
 supply the deficiency. 
 
 With reference more particularly to the Church of 
 02 
 
162 MEAK8 OP RE^IVIITG THE ELDEB8HIP. 
 
 Scotland, the measure most likely immediately to 
 revive the Eldership is a more popular mode of ap- 
 poiutmeut to the office. It is matter of joy that 
 this measure has been carried by the late General 
 Assembly after having obtained the sanction of the 
 church as a whole, by passing through a majority of 
 the Presbyteries. 
 
 The advantages of such a course are ably expounded 
 by Mr. Dunlop, in the Presbyterian Review for Jan- 
 uary, 1835, on the ground that this is a matter where 
 there can be no question as to the power of the church 
 to follow what she judges best ; that there is no temp- 
 tation to a keen canvass, there being no worldly in- 
 terest at stake, as in the case of the minister ; and 
 that congregations can, for the most part, thoroughly 
 ascertain the character and qualifications of those 
 whom they elect ; l^esides, the many evik of a more 
 close system too are thus avoided. 
 
 There can be little question that had the Eldership 
 of the Church of Scotland been always numerous, 
 faithful, and good, this part of the Presbyterian con- 
 stitution would have gone far to prevent or correct 
 the decline of the ministry, and other comf>onent parts 
 of the National church. A good Eldership in a con- 
 gregation is not only a check upon indolence and false 
 doctrine in the minister, but where heresy appears in 
 the pulpit, they form a large and influential body 
 to which the church may look with confidence for 
 support in the exercise of discipline on the pastor, — 
 a body in the absence of which there is no small 
 danger of the congregation being deceived by sophis- 
 try, or misled by sympathy for the erroneous teacher. 
 The revival then of the Eldership must be contem- 
 plated by every friend of true religion with the live- 
 liest interest, not only for its own sake, but for its 
 bearing upon other parts of the Presbyterian church.^ 
 
 ' The efficltncy of a faithful FMnnhip wa* lonij ago eloquentlj deccriberj 
 by J>r, Chalniens in hut ' Chmtiari and Ciw Economy of Large Town*.' 
 " The C!;mtiarj El<l<;r shoul'l not think that the ha« little in hi* power— bw 
 }ireeenc<: has a jK>wer — li* advic'« ha» a fK^trtr— hi* friendship ha» a power— 
 the MKyral cnerjfv of hi* kind attentionx and Chri*tian aiigiainentK has a power 
 ■—his pra.vtrs at'the bed of sickness and at tlie funeral of a d<f>arted par- 
 
RECENT CASE OF POPULAR ELECTION. IG' 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PROCEEDINGS IN ST. DAVID's CONGREGATION IN THE 
 POPULAR APPOINTMENT OF ELDERS. 
 
 It mcaj now be proper to give some account of a recent 
 popular election of Elders in the congregation of whicli 
 I have the honour to be minister. The Rev. G. Lewis 
 records one or two interesting cases in his pamphlet ; 
 and the multiplication of such instances, it is believed, 
 is more fitted than any thing else to disarm prejudices 
 and fears, and to recommend the practice to universal 
 adoption. The earnest struggle, too, in which the 
 Church is at present engaged to secure for her people 
 a legitimate influence in the appointment of ministers 
 will naturally and in consistency lead ministers and 
 Kirk-sessions to grant to the members of the congrega- 
 tion a more decided influence than hitherto in the ap- 
 pointment of Elders. Besides, the law of the church 
 is now imperative. 
 
 The existing Session of St. David's having agreed 
 that it was desirable to add to their numbers, reduced 
 by death and growing infirmities, and having also re- 
 solved that the most consistent and best plan to follow 
 was to call upon the male communicants to elect — sub- 
 ject, of course, in the event of any decidedly ignorant 
 or improper choice, to the veto of the Session — autho- 
 rised the minister to inform the congregation of this 
 resolution. In pursuance of it the following circular 
 was placed in aU the pews of the church, 
 
 ishioner have a power — the book that he recommends to his people and the 
 niinisterwhomhe prevails on them to hear andthehabit of regular attendance 
 upon the ordinances to which he introduces them have a power — liis suppli- 
 cations to God for them in secret have a power — dependence upon Him and 
 upon His blessing for the success of his own feeble endeavours has a power. 
 
 And when all these are brought to bear upon tlie rising generation when 
 
 the children have learned both to know and to love him— when they come to 
 feel the force of his approbation, and on every recurring visit receive a fresh 
 impulse from him to diligence at school and dutiful behaviour out of it, 
 when the capabilities of his simple I hristian relationship with the people thus 
 come to be estimated, it is not saying too much to say that with such as him 
 there lies the precious interest of the growth and transmission of Christianity 
 in the age that is now passing over us, and that in respect of his own selected 
 neighbourhood he is the depositary of the moriil and spiritual destinies of the 
 future age." 
 
164 CASE OF POrULAIl ELECTION OF EUDERS, 
 
 " Intimation to St. David's Congregation. 
 
 " The Kirk Session of St. David's parish, having resolved 
 that it is proper to add to their present number, have unani- 
 mously agreed to request, and hereby do request the male com- 
 municants of the congregation to nominate eight persons to the 
 oflice of the Eldership. The Kirk Session are persuaded that 
 in 80 important a step the electors will feel their responsibility 
 — will exercise all due caution — will cofifer among themselves, 
 and ask guidance of God in prayer, that they may be directed 
 to such men as may have time to devote, and qualifications to 
 fit them for promoting the moral and religious good of the par- 
 ish and congregation — such as aiding the minister in visiting 
 the sick, and superintending the education of the young, &c. 
 
 " It is proposed that the electors put down the names of the 
 whole number desired, or of as many as they judge best quali- 
 fied for the office, agreeably to the annexed form, and having 
 done 80, they are requested to sign their own name at the bot- 
 tom, and fold, seal, and return the note to ISIr. Lorimer, or any 
 of the elders, on or before Monday the 11th January, 1841, 
 that the Session may scrutinise the lists, and take steps for the 
 ordination of those who are elected by the congregation." 
 
 (Horo follow the names of those who are judged suit- 
 able persons to be added to the Eldership, to which is 
 appended tlie name of the communicant nominating 
 them to the office.) 
 
 Contemporaneously with this notice, which gave the 
 congregation a month for deliberation and conference 
 and prayer, I preached several successive discourses on 
 the divine authority, qualifications, &c., of the office of 
 Ruling Elder, the substance of which is published in 
 this little work. Several meetings of the male commu- 
 nicants were held for prayer and conference. At these 
 meetings there was first an easy conversation on the 
 qualifications and duties of the Eldership, and then 
 the suggestion of a number of names by communicants 
 present, of persons whom they deemed suitable for the 
 office. There was no discussion on character — not a 
 few indeed who were named being actually present. 
 One chief design of these week-day meetings was to 
 give an opportunity to communicants to meet with and 
 become acquainted with each other; and names hav- 
 
AND ITS FAVOURABLE RESULTS. 165 
 
 iug been suggested, those who from their own personal 
 knowledge were unable to make up their list had an 
 opportunity of ascertaining the qualification of those 
 whe were named hj others, from private enquiry and 
 conference, and so of completing their lists. The 
 meetings were pretty well attended, and the spirit was 
 excellent. The great object of all was evidently to get 
 the best qualified men. There was an anxiety also to 
 meet the wishes of the (Session, and that the result of 
 the election should be so satisfactory as to encourage 
 other congregations to adopt a popular mode of ap- 
 pointment. The grand difficulty which those present 
 and the congregation generally felt, was the want of 
 acquaintance with each other. Indeed this is the only 
 practical difficulty. It is a serious one, however, in 
 large towns, and I believe restrained the Session from 
 earlier making trial of the same mode of election. The 
 means resorted to had the effect in some measure of 
 overcoming it ; and at all events it was seen that if ever 
 a more constitutional mode of election was to be intro- 
 duced, the difficulty would have to be encountered 
 sometime, and that it would never lessen by letting 
 it alone. 
 
 The election took place at the appointed time, the 
 lists were given in, and though, from the cause above 
 described, many communicants gave in no list, afraid 
 to do harm in so solemn a trust, yet there was a res- 
 pectable number of lists, sufficient plainly to intimate 
 the wishes of the congregation. Eight gentlemen were 
 named it appeared on scrutinising the lists ; and the far 
 larger part of them almost unanimously. Two declined 
 to accept, for satisfactory reasons. The others were 
 shortly after ordained in the face of the congregation, 
 and received the right hand of fellowship from their 
 brother Elders. I am sure that I express the general 
 feeling of the previous Session and of the congregation 
 when I state that the result has been most satisfactory 
 — that those appointed are excellent men. Several of 
 them have been actively engaged in Sabbath school 
 teaching, and the regular visitation of the sick, long 
 
lO'o QUESTIONS PUT 10 ELDEKS AT OEDIKATIOK. 
 
 previously to their election as Elders. Various excel- 
 lent names were also suggested, though not hy a suffi- 
 cient number of votes to carry their election. Indeed, 
 I may say that not a person was nominated in the lists, 
 who would not have been a credit to any Session. The 
 small number of declinatures was also an interesting 
 circumstance, contrasting as it did with the number 
 which were received, when on a former occasion asked 
 in the old way by the minist^.T and Session to become 
 Elders. It may be added, that had it not been for the 
 call of the congregation, several, it is believed, of those 
 now elected would have declined. The voice of Pro- 
 vidence given forth after conference and united prayer 
 was one of the circumstances which weighed powerfully 
 with them in determining their acceptance. In short, 
 with all their diffidence they did not feel themselves 
 warranted to refuse what the Great Head of the church 
 by his providence had so plainly imposed upon them. 
 For the sake of communicants in general, and those 
 brethren who may not have a copy of the questions 
 appointed to be put to Elders at their ordination, I 
 subjoin them: — 
 
 " Do you believe the Scriptureg of the Old and New Testa- 
 ment to V>e the word of God, and the only rule of faith and 
 manners ? Do you sincerely own and believe the whole doctrine 
 of the Confession of Faith, approven by the General Assembly 
 of this Natiorjal Church, and ratified by law in the year 1690, 
 to be the truth? of God ; and do you own the whole doctrine 
 therein contained as the confesfeion of your faith ? Do you sin- 
 cerely own the purity of worship authorised and practised in 
 this Church, and are you persuaded that the Presbyterian gov- 
 ernment and discipline now so happily established therein, are 
 founded upon the word of God and agreeable thereto ? Do you 
 promise that, in your practice, you will conform youraelvea to 
 the said worship — that you will submit yourselves to the said 
 discipline and government — that you will never endeavour, di- 
 rectly or indirectly, the prejudice or subversion of the same — 
 and that you will follow no divisive courses from the present 
 establishment in the church? Do you accept of the office of an 
 Elder of this parish, and promise, throujrh grace, faithfully, 
 diligently, and cheerfully to discharge the duties thereof?" 
 
GENERAL DUTIES OF RULING ELDERS. 167 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 CHARGE TO NEWLY ORDAINED ELDERS. 
 
 Christian Friends, — You have been honourablj 
 called to the office of Ruling Elders in the church of 
 Christ, bj the electing voice of the congregation, and 
 with the full concurrence of the Kirk-session. Your 
 appointment has not been made without deliberation 
 and prayer; and now what shall I say? The office is 
 unconnected with any worldly gain, but it is most hon- 
 ourable and responsible — inferior in these respects 
 only to the office of the Holy Ministry. Your eccles- 
 iastical station is truly important, your sphere of use- 
 fulness greatly enlarged, and your means and oppor- 
 tunities of doing good vastly multiplied. 
 
 A particular district of the parish will be assigned 
 to each, and I trust you will make it your care, so far 
 as lies in your power, to know the state of morality 
 and religion within its bounds, and to use all Scriptu- 
 ral means tO promote the best interests of the people. 
 A part of the congregation will also be allotted to each, 
 and it will be expected. that you take notice of the at- 
 tendance of the different families on divine worship, 
 and of the manner in which they support their religious 
 profession in common life; that you will prudently 
 warn, admonish, and reprove, counsel, encourage, and 
 strengthen as you see needful; that you will attend to 
 the situation of the poor, — though the employment be 
 often a thankless one, and exposed to many disap- 
 pointments ;— rthat you will call upon the sick and be- 
 reaved in their afflictions, commending them by prayer 
 to the sympathy and care of the Shepherd of Israel ; 
 that you will take an interest in Sabbath schools, and 
 the cause of week-day education generally, and also in 
 prayer and missionary meetings ; that you will like- 
 wise anxiously guard the sanctity of the Lord's day 
 from profanation, whether public or private, and, in 
 short, encourage all means fitted to further the moral 
 
168 PARTICULAR DUTIES OF RULING ELDERS. 
 
 and religious welfare of the congregation and parish 
 with which you are connected. It is expected, too, 
 that you will follow the things which make for peace, 
 endeavour to compose differences, and to provoke to 
 love and to good works. Attention to these duties is 
 necessary, not only for the sake of the pastor, that he 
 may know the state of the people, and so be better able 
 to accommodate his ministrations, public and private, 
 to their particular circumstances, but also that the 
 Elders may act with judgment, caution, and tender- 
 ness, in those cases where they are called to grant or 
 to withhold church privileges. 
 
 While I remind you in a general way of these various 
 and comprehensive duties, I desire specially to press 
 upon you the remembrance that your office directly 
 concerns the souLs of men, and that the eternal bliss or 
 woe of many may depend upon its faithful or unfaithful 
 exercise. The true nature of the office may often have 
 been lostsight of amid mere secularities, but it involves 
 the oversight of immortal souls. Keep this ever in 
 view — watch and labour and pray for the conversion 
 of the unconverted in all their aspects and relations. 
 It is they who have the strongest claims upon your 
 sympathy and compassion ; it is when thus employed 
 that you most resemble Christ, and best fulfil one of 
 the great ends of the Eldership. Rememl>er the 
 young; remind them of their baptismal dedication, 
 and avail yourselves of all means and opportunities, 
 direct and indirect, of bringing them to the Saviour, 
 of interesting them in the great salvation, and guard- 
 ing them against the temptations and snares of the 
 world. With this view, encourage to the uttermost 
 Scriptural schools, and admonish parents of their duties 
 to their children, of the obligations of family worship, 
 and a consistent example. Have a tender regard for 
 the sick and dying, and those who are bereaved of 
 such as are near and dear to them. Pray not only 
 with them when called for, but remember them in your 
 private devotions, especially when they ask for your 
 intercessions. Embrace the opportunities which af- 
 
ELDERS EXPOSED TO MISREPRESENTATION. 169 
 
 flictive providences supply for teaching spiritual les- 
 sons, and let it be practically known, that in you all 
 the poor and distressed of the district have ever a 
 ready, sympathising, and Christian friend. 
 
 It is not to be disguised that, as public men, you 
 may expect occasionally to share in misrepresentation 
 and reproach — perhaps abuse. Detraction is a cow- 
 ardly sin, but a common one, and is always directed 
 most against those who are in any way prominent in 
 station or influence, or who are more active in doing 
 good than their neighbours. It is easily practised, 
 and such is the corruption of human nature that the 
 unfavourable views which it presents are too generally 
 acceptable, and hence are often encouraged. But so 
 far from being disheartened by this, it is no small evi- 
 dence of our Christian faithfulness, that we do not 
 please men of irreligious principles and irreligious 
 practices — the worldly and profane. Let us be com- 
 forted in remembering that it is an honour to be re- 
 proached for righteousness' sake — that in this respect 
 the servant is but as his Master, and that it is a small 
 matter to be condemned by man's judgment, while we 
 stand approved to that of conscience and of God. 
 
 Let me now shortly address a few exhortations to 
 you as to the manner in which your duties as Elders 
 should be discharged ; but first of all, let me counsel 
 you often to think of the honour and responsibility 
 which belong to the office. Many may and do think 
 lightly of these, but they are most important ; the of- 
 fice is not a device of man's; it is spiritual, founded 
 on divine authority, directly concerned about the wel- 
 fare of the Redeemer's church. To be a ruler in 
 God's house is a situation at once of great honour and 
 high trust, which will try the character of those who 
 hold it. Sacramentally to be the custodiers of the 
 body and the blood of Christ, to be keepers of the vine- 
 yard, to hold by discipline the keys of the kingdom of 
 heaven, these are no light matters ; they are honoura- 
 ble and onerous, demanding thought and care, and an 
 anxious desire so to conduct ourselves that we may be 
 P 
 
170 ELDERS EXHORTED AS TO THE 
 
 able to give in our account with joj. Magnify your 
 office ; be well persuaded of its divine authority and 
 standing, and act in a corresponding spirit. This is 
 the true way to raise it and make it honoured. So 
 long as men have poor views of the office, they will 
 content themselves with humble and inadequate la- 
 bours ; and this will keep it low in public estimation. 
 Entertaining just and Scriptural views of the Elder- 
 ship, let me exhort you — 
 
 1st. To discharge the duties of your office with 
 diligence. The exhortation of the apostle is, "Let him 
 that ruleth rule with diligence," implying that church 
 rulers would be tempted to be indolent, careless, and 
 negligent. We must remember that much of the life 
 of an office depends upon its execution, and that the 
 unprofitable servant was severely punished, not for 
 abusing, but for not suitably improving his talent. 
 
 2ndly. Discharge the duties of your new calling with 
 humility. The possession of any power over others, 
 whether civil or ecclesiastical, is apt to nourish pride. 
 In the history of the Christian church there has been, 
 on the part of the office-bearers, much of what the 
 Scripture calls " lording over God's heritage." The 
 Redeemer expressly cautions against this temper of 
 mind, and exhorts office-bearers to be an example to 
 the flock in humility and self-denial. Nothing more 
 recommends their office to general acceptance. 
 
 3rdly. Seek to discharge your duties in a gentle and 
 peaceable spirit. Part of them consists in healing divi- 
 sions, and this never can be accomplished by aught 
 that savours of contention or impatience. Besides, 
 admonitions and censures, to be effective, need to be 
 conveyed with gentleness and long-suffering. There is 
 no incongruity between strict discipline and a peaceable 
 disposition, between truth and love. Men and church- 
 es may frequently have separated them, but they not 
 only admit of union where religion is enlightened and 
 true — they are always inseparably joined together. 
 Hence the exhortation of our Lord," Have salt in your- 
 selves;" that is, true doctrine," and peace one with 
 another." 
 
MANNER OF DISCHARGING DUTY. 171 
 
 4thly. Fulfil the duties of the of&ce in a cheerful, li- 
 beral spirit. Ministers are exhorted to take the over- 
 sight of the flock, not by constraint, but willingly, and 
 of a ready mind ; and the same exhortation applies to 
 Ruling Elders. Cheerfulness is pleasant to ourselves, 
 and to those with whom we are associated ; it makes 
 many duties light which would otherwise be burden- 
 some, and in various duties of the Eldership it is pecu- 
 liarly called for. 
 
 5thly. Let me exhort you to be firm and resolved, 
 valiant for the truth, and church, and cause of God. 
 There are few things which more generally tempt 
 office-bearers to decline from their principles, and the 
 character which becomes them, than the fear of man, 
 — it verily brings a snare. How did Abraham, under 
 its influence, repeatedly use dissimulation ; and David 
 flee to the Philistines for help ; and Peter basely deny 
 his Master. Be, then, firm and courageous in what 
 you believe to be the path of duty, and in maintaining 
 the principles of the church : make the Lord of Hosts 
 your Fear and your dread, and remember for your en- 
 couragement that Christ will be your shield. 
 
 6thly. Be jealous of the honour of God, and of 
 Christ, and of the Spirit, and of the church. Beware 
 . of the character of Gallic, and of the Laodiceans ; 
 rather remember and imitate the spirit of Josiah, 
 whose praise was that his heart was tender — of David, 
 whose eyes ran down with tears because men kept not 
 God's law — of Jeremiah, who wished that his head 
 were waters, and his eyes a fountain of tears, that he 
 might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter 
 of his people. 
 
 7thly. And lastly. Labour to fulfil the duties of your 
 office with constancy and perseverance. You may 
 meet with various difficulties and discouragements — 
 yea, if faithful, you shall meet with many. But do not 
 on this account intermit or desert the duty: you have, 
 after deliberation and prayer, put your hand to the 
 plough, do not look back regretting the step you have 
 taken, as anxious for a release. Recollect^that perse- 
 
172 ENCOURAGEMENT TO ELDERS. 
 
 verance has its reward both hero and hereafter, and 
 however insufficient you may feel yourselves for tho 
 work — however untractable the materials with which 
 you are occasionally called upon to deal — however 
 small the degree of reformation often attained — how- 
 ever inadequate the countenance which you receive 
 from those of whom better things might have been ex- 
 pected, still do not weary or faint. Persevere — and He 
 who has put it into your hearts to lay the foundation 
 stone will one day enable you to bring forth the corner 
 stone of completion with joy and shouting. 
 
 And in order to the successful discharge of your 
 duties, whether public or private ; in other words, to 
 enable you better to comply with the exhortations which 
 have been addressed to you, remember that the autho- 
 rity by which you act is divine, as really divine as that 
 of the pastor or apostle — that the kingdom on whose 
 government you have entered is the kingdom of Christ 
 — that the Lord Jesus is Sovereign and Head of this 
 kingdom — that he has promised to be with it and its 
 office-bearers to the end of the world — and that, ere 
 long, it shall destroy all opposing kingdoms, and, like 
 a great mountain, fill the earth. Remember that the 
 strength by which you are called to discharge the du- 
 ties of this office is not your own, but the strength of 
 Christ — that he has promised ability — and that he is 
 displeased with those who, like Moses, plead insuffi- 
 ciency for a work to which in his providence ho has 
 plainly called them. Kemembor what great things 
 God has brought to pass by humble instruments — how 
 Moses, the deliverer and lawgiver of the Jews, was a 
 shepherd for a large part of his life — how by a few 
 fishermen the world throughout immense regions was 
 converted to the faith of Christ — and how, by the bare 
 elements of water in Baptism, and bread and wine in 
 the Lord's Supper, the grandest truths of revelation 
 are set forth to view, and sealed to the everlasting good 
 of the church of God. Remember, moreover, that the 
 greatest undertakings have generally but small begin- 
 nings — that the reparation of the city and temple 
 
ENCOURAGEMENT TO ELDERS. 173 
 
 of Jerusalem seemed so contemptible as to provoke 
 the mockery of beholders — that the best undertak- 
 ings have always the greatest discouragements and 
 opposition : Witness the protracted hostility which our 
 blessed Lord encountered in his work. Remember 
 too that God has all hearts in his hand — can raise up 
 unexpected friends, and confound formidable enemies 
 — that those who oppose the office of the Elder, with 
 its sacred and useful duties, are generally in their own 
 character and conduct an evidence of its necessity and 
 excellence — that if those of whom better things might 
 have been looked for do not countenance it, there is the 
 greater reason why ice should maintain its honour. 
 And, moreover, let us remember that while it engages 
 the approbation of God, it is a smaU matter that it is 
 discountenanced by man. Remember, also, how much 
 good God has been pleased already to work out in dif- 
 ferent ages of our church, and of the Christian churcli 
 generally, through the instrumentality of the office of 
 the Ruling Elder ; and that the past is a pledge and 
 earnest of what He will do for the future. And, lastly, 
 remember the recompence of reward which awaits you 
 in the heavenly world. Here you are entitled to double 
 honour, and to be held in high esteem for your works' 
 sake ; but though men be so unjust as to withhold this, 
 you shall not miss your reward. A crown of glory is 
 promised to the faithful Ruling, as well as Teaching- 
 Elder — a crown of glory which sliall be given when 
 the Chief Shepherd shall appear, and which shall 
 never fade away. Indeed, there is no service render- 
 ed to Christ or to his church, however slender, but is 
 registered in heaven. It may be forgotten by men — 
 it is remembered by God. If so inconsiderable an act 
 of kindness as simply reaching a cup of cold water to 
 a thirsty disciple, out of regard to the will and grati- 
 tude for the love of the Saviour, shall not pass unre- 
 compensed, surely a diligent, humble, conscientious, 
 disinterested discharge of the duties of an Elder in 
 the Redeemer's church shall meet with no common- 
 acknowledgment in that great day when he who has 
 P2 
 
174 ZXCOURAGEMEyi TO ELDEBS. 
 
 turned a single soul from death shall shine as the 8tar» 
 of the firmament for ever and ever. 
 
 Seeing that the encouragements to the discharge of 
 the office with which jou are this daj invested are so 
 many and varied and strong, let me counsel jou to be 
 faithful ; and as an important step to the success of all 
 your undertakings and labours, let me exhort you to 
 the encreasing cultivation of personal religion — seek a 
 greater acquaintance with divine truth, and to be brought 
 more and more under its power in your life and con- 
 versation. Your office is especially intended to reprove 
 sin — be yourselves free from sin. He who censures 
 others needs himself to be clean. You are appointed 
 by Christ to be examples to the flock. What would be 
 little thought of in others will be considered a serious 
 offence in you. Your lives will be regarded as rules. 
 See then that you be exemplarily holy, particularly in 
 all the relations of life, whether as husbands, or parents, 
 or brothers, or masters, or neighbours. How shall he be 
 accounted a good Ruling Elder who does not rule well 
 his own family and dependants ? How shall he per- 
 suade others to the worship of God in their families 
 who is cold and irregular and negligent of that worship 
 in his own? Be consistent, then, in character, and for 
 this end be given to watchfulness and prayer. As the 
 great body of men, among contending opinions and 
 parties, will ever be guided in their judgment of the 
 church by the character of its office-bearers — by their 
 zeal and circumspection and fidelity and public spirit 
 — these being things of which all can judge, or at 
 least imagine so — so let me respectfully entreat you 
 to give all the weight of your Christian influence to 
 the cause of true religion ; and to show that, in sea- 
 sons of extraordinary trial, there is, on the part of the 
 faithful men of Scotland, a courage and a liberality 
 and devotedness, which can rise to their circumstances, 
 and overmaster the most serious evils.^ 
 
 1 I have been indebtwi for various pujrgf stions in this chapter to an excellent 
 Exhortation, in the 'Vindication of Fresbjterial Church GoTommeni, by 
 
HOW ELDERS SHOULD BE REGARDED. 175 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CHARGE TO THE CONGREGATION. 
 
 Christian Friends, — Having said thus much to the 
 Elders, I must close with a few words to the congre- 
 gation ; and though this sacred place be most unsuit- 
 able for any thing which even savours of human praise, 
 yet I cannot refrain from declaring, that in all the 
 steps which have been taken to enlarge the Eldership 
 on this occasion, I have met with the most pleasing 
 proofs of self-diffidence and self-distrust. This augurs 
 well, and I hope wiU be properly appreciated by the 
 congregation, and wiU deepen that esteem which in 
 Christian duty it becomes you to render to those whom 
 they have elected, and who are now clothed with a 
 spiritual office of the Saviour's express appointment. 
 I hope, too, that you wiU remember how disinterested 
 are the services which the Eldership render to the 
 church and to society — in how thankless a manner 
 their best exertions are sometimes received — how much 
 self-denial there is in men in business, frequently in 
 pressing business, surrendering time, and submitting 
 to trouble in investigating the cases of the poor and 
 the friendless — how important are the advantages (now 
 more important than ever,) of connecting the differ- 
 ent ranks of society together, and creating good will, 
 
 London itinisters,' in 1650, p. 73, &c. The enlightened and earnest addresses 
 of the ministers of these days show what just views they had of church go- 
 vernment and divine truth, and go to explain the remarkable courage and 
 self-denial they manifested at the Restoration, when Presbyterian ministers, 
 to the extent of tioo thousand two hundred and fifty-seven in number, were 
 ejected from their charges and homes on a single day, cheerfully suffering all 
 for Christ — an example of magnanimity unsurpassed in the history of the 
 Christian church, ancient or modern. There have been generous and he- 
 roic doings on the part of other churches. Sixty to eighty bishops were driven 
 by the Vandals to Sardinia, and two hundred Bohemian ministers wei-e exiled 
 by an intolerant monarch ; and in Germany serious sacrifices were made by 
 ministers after the Reformation. In the days of the Commonwealth too hard 
 measure was occasionally dealt out to the ministers of a Prelatic church, and 
 trouble was cheertuUy borne for principle. But these are all small and in- 
 significant cases cornpared with the sacrifices and sufferings of the Presby- 
 terian ministers, of whom even Locke, though no friend to evangelical refi- 
 gion, ould say: '-Bartholomew day wsl?, fatal to our clmrch in throwing out 
 a very great number of worthy, learned, pious, and orthodox divines." 
 
176 now ELDERS SUOULD BE REGARDED 
 
 where there might otherwise be separation. I liope 
 that, in addition to liigher considerations, such as your 
 spiritual oversight and the salvation of souls, jou will 
 not be insensible to these things, and that you will 
 feel grateful to those who have for the first time un- 
 dertaken the important and onerous duties of Elders, 
 and to others who have persevered in them for years. 
 One of the most frequent errors into which, as re- 
 gards the ofiicers of religion, church members are apt 
 to fall, is that of undervaluing and taking offence at 
 those judgments which they may feel constrained to 
 form and express on certain occasions as to conduct. 
 But, is not this spirit most unreasonable? It not only 
 injures them individually, but by depreciating the 
 esteem in which they are held, you do what you can 
 to frustrate the great objects of their ministry ; and 
 surely this must be displeasing in the sight of that 
 God and that Redeemer to whom the welfare of the 
 church is dear as the apple of their eye ? It should be 
 remembered that our spiritual functions, as ofiice- 
 bearers in the church, are all for your edification and 
 advantage. We have, and can have no object to serve 
 but your good. Errors we may commit, but they are 
 not wilful. Hence, instead of being ofl:ended at the 
 fidelity of our admonitions, you should receive them 
 with meekness, as the suggestions of friendship. Did 
 men only consider how grievous it must be to censure 
 those whose highest interests it is the earnest prayer 
 and unwearied study of one's life to promote, they 
 could not for a moment indulge one feeling of displea- 
 sure, much less exaggerate the errors and misrepre- 
 sent the motives of the very men whom they ought to 
 regard and to love. I know that some are so preju- 
 diced as to think, that the mere holding of office, 
 whether civil or ecclesiastical, must necessarily lead 
 to corruption and abuse. They are sensitively jealous 
 of all that wears the aspect of authority. It is vain 
 to reason with such persons. Their principles, or ra- 
 ther their prejudices, would subvert all government 
 whatever. 
 
BY THE CONGREGATION. 1 
 
 n 
 
 So far from weakening the hands of the Kirk- ses- 
 sion in the exercise of church discipline, whether it 
 affects yourselves or others, let me counsel you to ap- 
 hold that authority. There are not a few who are loud 
 in their complaints of the alleged relaxation of disci- 
 pline, who are among the first persons to cry out *' per- 
 secution" when that discipline is actually applied. 
 How few are there who follow the apostolic rule, of 
 not so much as eating with a man who is under the 
 serious discipline of the church. Alas! how many 
 treat such persons in much the same way as if there 
 were no ecclesiastical discipline at all. Some professed 
 members of the church actually, by their spirit and 
 speech and conduct, encourage others against its dis- 
 cipline. But, is not this daringly to sin against Christ ? 
 Does it not pour contempt upon his ordinances, pros- 
 trate the lawful power of his church officers, and har- 
 den offenders in their transgression ? ^ 
 
 Let me, then, exhort you to receive the Elders who 
 have been ordained, as those who have rule over you 
 in the Lord. Reverence their office, and submit to 
 their spiritual authority. Do not be so unreasonable 
 as to expect them to be perfect. Kindly interpret 
 what at any time may seem amiss in their conduct. 
 Cultivate acquaintance with them, and, instead of 
 throwing obstacles in the way, give them every facility 
 and encouragement in the performance of duty. Where 
 they are unjustly assailed, boldly vindicate their charac- 
 ter and reputation. Above all, strengthen and uphold 
 and help them by your prayers. They feel that they 
 need and they will be happy to receive such assistance. 
 Apostolic authority enjoins it, and your own good as 
 well as theirs demands the exercise. Be instant, im- 
 portunate, and persevering in prayer, in behalf of all 
 the members of Session ; and thus animated, we shall 
 better pray and labour and live for you in return. 
 
 1 In connexion with this important point, I beg to refer the reader to an 
 instructive and impressive discourse of President Edwards, " on the Nature 
 and End of Excommunication," Works, vol. ii, p. 117. 
 
7^ 1 l,.sTlMONY FROM CAUNOCK TO SUCCESS OF 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 TESTIMONIES, FROM EXPERIENCE, TO THE SUCCESSFUL 
 OPERATION OF THE POPULAR ELECTION OF RULING 
 ELDERS. 
 
 Knowing that friends in the ministry had made trial, 
 as well as myself, of a more popular mode of appoint- 
 ment to the Eldership than had prevailed for a long- 
 time, I asked a few of them to favour me with a 
 statement of their experience. Unwilling to swell this 
 little work, I select only a few ; but the testimony ofaU 
 is uniform and strong. If any thing be fitted to per- 
 suade others to make the trial in the same prayerful 
 spirit, it is just such cases as the following. The 
 reader will notice that the writers bring out diflferent 
 important views of the office, and incidentally answer 
 current objections founded upon misapprehension. 
 
 beginning with country parishes, and the case of 
 oldest date, I subjoin the reply of the minister of 
 Carnock, in Fifeshire, to my application. With the 
 exception of a village, in which there are a number of 
 weavers, the population is entirely agricultural. At 
 last rensus it amounted to 1202. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 " Cainock Manse, 16th Mardi, 1841. 
 
 " M\ dear Sir, — Experienoiiig the difficulty of getting 
 
 suitable persons to undertake the office of Elders in the con- 
 gregation, and feeling the propriety of puisuing a more popular 
 mode of appointment than generally obtains, 1 some years ago, 
 when an encrease in the number of i.lders was greatly required 
 for the congregation, proposed to the Session that the communi- 
 cants, male and female, should be asked to give in a list of the 
 names of such persons as they thought qualified for the office 
 of Elder. To this proposal tlie Session readily assented. And 
 it was ordered to be intimated * that the members of the cori- 
 jjregation who are communicants be each requested to name 
 four persons whom they consider proper for the office, in order 
 
POPULAU ELECTION OF ELDERS. 170 
 
 that the Session may deal with them with reference to this of- 
 fice ; and that a congregational meeting for prayer be held on 
 Wednesday evening next with reference to this particular ob- 
 ject.' The meeting for prayer was held, and lists of names 
 were given in to the Session, as resolved on. At another meet- 
 ing of Session these lists were opened, and six individuals, who 
 had the greater number of votes, selected ; and the minister 
 was requested to converse with them, and to ascertain whether 
 they would be willing to accept. The Session had every rea- 
 son to be satisfied with the choice made by the communicants ; 
 all the individuals being just those whom they would themselves 
 have selected. And our only regret was, that all could not be 
 prevailed on to accept of the office. The mode pursued, in- 
 deed, was so satisfactory, that we do not contemplate any de- 
 viation from it, so long as we are not bound to any other method 
 by some explicit enactment of the church. It tends greatly, I 
 think, to encourage and strengthen Elders in the discharge of 
 their official duty, inasmuch as they have thus an explicit call 
 from the people themselves to take the oversight of them ; and 
 it lays a strong obligation upon the people to yield subjection 
 to their spiritual office-bearers in the Lord, inasmuch" as they, 
 by their own act, have placed themselves under them, and pro- 
 fessed their willingness to give them all honour. And in this 
 way not only is the office of Eldership elevated to somewhat of 
 its proper status, but the bond which unites a Christian people 
 with those that bear rule among them is strengthened, and the 
 interests of the Reedemer's kingdom are greatly promoted. 
 
 " Wishing you all success in your laudable design to improve 
 the condition of the Eldership, and thus to extend the useful- 
 ness of the parochial arrangements of our church, I remain, 
 " My dear Sir, 
 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 " Wm. GlLSTON." 
 
 The next testimony is from the West of Scotland. 
 The experiment is more recent, but it is most satisfac- 
 tory. The population of the parish of West Kilbride, 
 Presbytery of Irvine, is 1685. 
 
 No. II. 
 
 " Manse, West Kilbride, 28th April. 1841. 
 " Reverend and dear Sir, — I do not know if I can furnish 
 you with a more simple and more distinct account of the cir- 
 cumstances which took place at the late election of Elders here 
 
180 TESTIMONY FROM WEST KILBRIDE TO 
 
 than the one which I wrote at the time this election was made, 
 and which was published in the * Scottish Guardian ;' it is as 
 follows : — ' At the close of the service on the Sabbath which 
 preceded our late thanksgiving day, I intimated to my people 
 before I dismissed them that I wished an addition of three or 
 four Elders to the Session, and that I would call upon all the 
 male communicants of the congregation to select them by a de- 
 liberate and public vote. The thanksgiving day I fixed for this 
 purpose ; and when the services, which were the same as those 
 of the Sabbath, were terminated, I requested all the male com- 
 municants — most of whom, I am happy to say, were present — 
 to arrange themselves in pews in the area of the church, and 
 the rest of the congregation to retire, or to occupy the galler- 
 ies, as they thought proper. When this was done, I pointed 
 out to those who were to vote the nature of the duty which 
 they were now to discharge, mentioned the districts in which I 
 wished the new Elders to be located, and prayed for Divine 
 direction and guidance. After this, the election proceeded, by 
 each communicant rising in his place, and in the order in which 
 he sat, and naming, in an audible voice, four individuals whom 
 he judged qualified to discharge the duties of the Eldership. 
 And seldom, perhaps never, I am prepared to say, have I pre- 
 sided at a meeting where there seemed to prevail so great a so- 
 lemnity of feeling, and so strong a desire to act conscientiously. 
 And the selection made was most judicious; in short, just 
 what I could have wished ; the very best men were fixed on 
 by the people ; and three of them, with their own consent, 
 and with the approval of the previous members of Session, who 
 did not vote, have been ordained by me, and are now, as spiri- 
 tual rulers, watching over those who have cordially invited them 
 to take the oversight of them and their families.' 
 
 *' Such is the mode in which I proceeded lately in adding to 
 the number of the members of my Session; and looking back at 
 the whole transaction, from this distance of time, I must here 
 say, that it has powerfully served to convince me, that the 
 iieart of our people is yet in its right place, and that, were they 
 properly treated by their spiritual rulers, and directed by them 
 in a kindly and Christian manner, they would act a most con- 
 scientious and praiseworthy part in the election both of their 
 Elders and of their Ministers. The Elders that have been 
 added to my Session through the suffrage of their fellow-com- 
 municants are proving themselves to be men of principle and 
 piety, and are actively and cheerfully devoting themselves to 
 the discharge of the duties of their office ; and I now feel that 
 
SUCCESS OF POPULAR ELECTION OF ELDERS. 181 
 
 I have no cause to regret, but every cause to rejoice at the step 
 I took in calling upon my people to aid me in selecting fit in- 
 dividuals for the office of the Eldership, 
 
 " 1 may mention here, that, for several years, prayer meetings 
 have been held in various parts of the parish throughout the 
 week : many of the more pious of the people have been in the 
 habit of officiating; and Sabbath evening classes have also been 
 regularly taught under my own eye by several of my people ; 
 and all of the individuals elected to the Eldership had been 
 engaged either in conducting some of the prayer meetings, or in 
 teaching in the Sabbath evening school; and this circumstance, 
 no doubt, in conjunction with others, served to point them out 
 to their fellow-communicants ; but this, so far fiom being an 
 argument against allowing the people to select their own El- 
 ders, is just a strong argument in favour of giving them this 
 privilege, for it shows that they are ready to mark that con- 
 duct which indicates the existence of zeal and piety. True, it 
 may be said, that in every instance, the people may not have 
 an opportunity to choose men who have been actively engaged 
 in holding fellowship meetings and in instructing the young ; 
 but vfhy should they not ? If active measures are taken to 
 call individuals forth to such Christian labours, in most instances 
 they will succeed to the extent of furnishing out a sufficient 
 number from which Elders may be selected ; and, in general, 
 it will be found, that those who have, previously to their be- 
 coming Elders, been engaged in benevolent Christian labours, 
 will prove the most active and efficient rulers ; at the same 
 time, I by no means say, that this should be regarded as a rule 
 from which no deviation should be made in choosing men for 
 the Eldership ; there are many other qualities besides that of 
 having publicly laboured in instructing in Sabbath schools, suf- 
 ficiently obvious to all, which may lead to the choice of indivi- 
 duals to hold the office of Elders. 
 
 " Let me notice further, that there is another objection to the 
 election of Elders by the people, met, I think, and refuted by 
 the late election in this parish. It is often said, that, if the 
 people have the choice they will select men of vulgar minds, in 
 short, men mean in birth and of no education. Now, the re- 
 sult of the election here was just this: the people selected an 
 heritor of the parish, a respectable farmer, and a weaver ; and 
 could any other result have been more calculated to show, that 
 they neither looked to the high, as if worshipping wealth ; nor 
 turned to the low, as if courting vulgarity, but turned their 
 attention to all classes, in order to select the best men from 
 each ? indeed, though they had been previously instructed iy 
 Q 
 
182 TESTIMONIES OF MR. BONAR AND MR. LEWIS TO 
 
 make a choice that would refute the objection alluded to, they 
 could not have acted in a way better fitted to do so than as I 
 find they have done. 
 
 " Upon the whole, I am satisfied, from what I have witnessed, 
 that the people — the communicants I mean — might be safely 
 entrusted with the privilege of selecting those whom they 
 would have set over them as Elders, and I should rejoice to 
 see them in the possession of this privilege : the Session always 
 having ti»e power to judge in regard to the selection they make, 
 and to reject improper persons should they be chosen. May 
 you prosper in your efforts to introduce among us some such 
 order a* thi?. 
 
 " Yours, with esteem, 
 
 " Thos. Findlay." 
 
 Passing from rural to town parishes, I subjoin the 
 testimonies of the Rev. Mr. Bonar of the North Par- 
 ish, Kelso — one of the Church Extension churches — 
 and that of the Rev. Mr. Lewis of St. John's, Leith. 
 The following is Mr. Bonar's statement of the mode 
 which was adopted. The result was all that could be 
 wished : — 
 
 No. III. 
 
 " The male communicants of the congregation were called 
 on beforehand to give in lists of persons considered by them 
 most suitable for the office of Eldership among them. Out c i 
 these lists the selection was made by the Kirk-session. Botli 
 before and after the choice was made, the congregation niet 
 together for special and solemn prayer in reference to the whole 
 matter. On the evening set apart for the ordination of tho^e 
 who had thus been chosen, by the united voice of the congre- 
 gation and Kirk-session, the congregation assembled for woi- 
 ship in the usual way. The sermon being finished, the minis- 
 ter, after reminding the jjeople of the purpose on which they 
 were come together, stated that all the steps had now been 
 taken in this matter which the church required. The edict 
 had been reK:ularly served and returned, and no objection hav- 
 ing been offered against any of the individuals named, it only 
 remained to put to them the questions appointed to be put to 
 Elders by Act of the Assembly 17U0. The questions having 
 beeji solemnly put to the individuals chosen, standing up before 
 the people, and satisfying answers having been obtained, they 
 were then ordained and set apart to the holy office of the El- 
 
SUCCESS OF rOPULAU ELECTION OF ELDERS. 183 
 
 <lership by prayer. Thereafter they received from the brethren 
 the right ha/id of fellowship as lirother. rulers in the church and 
 fellow labourers in the Lord." 
 
 Mr. J.ewis's excellent testimony is conveyed in the 
 following terms : — 
 
 No. IV. 
 
 "Lcith, 18th March, 1841. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — I am perfectly satisfied that the introduc- 
 tion of the popular element into the choice of Elders would in- 
 fuse new life into the body, not that 1 have unbounded confi- 
 dence in the wisdom or piety of the people ; but because 1 am 
 persuaded that, even under a dead ministry, the people have 
 fewer temptations to make a wrong choice, and are influenced 
 by a higher sense of the solemnities and duties of the office 
 than an indolent, careless, and worldly minister. Where a 
 minister is faithful, he will instruct his people in the nature of 
 the office, inform and guide their judgments, and qualify them 
 for electing rightly ; where he is unfaithful, he is certain to 
 make a wrong choice himself, and his people cannot do worse. 
 The probability is they will do better, and though under the 
 guidance of no higher principle than natural conscience, will 
 elect men more worthy of the sacred office. 
 
 "I have twice adopted the plan of consulting the congregation, 
 and of receiving their recommendation of qualified persons. On 
 both occasions I discoursed fully beforehand, on the nature and 
 duties of the office, as described in Scripture, and laid down in 
 the Acts of the Assembly ; and held special prayer meetings 
 for imploring Divine guidance to the congregation. In neither 
 instance was I disappointed in the issue — especially in the latter 
 case, in which the six individuals recommended by the congre- 
 gation were the very parties previously marked out by myself, 
 and by the judgment of the Session, as qualified for the office. 
 
 " The plan 1 adopted was, first of all, to inform the congre- 
 gation of the desire of the Kirk-session to add to their number, 
 and the necessity of this for the better oversight of the congre- 
 gation and parish. I then requested the male communicants to 
 give in, in writing, the names of six persons judged by them 
 qualified for the otfice, appointing, at the same time, a special 
 meeting of prayer for their direction, for reading tiie Acts of 
 the Assembly relating to the office, and, in general, for dis- 
 coursing on its functions and spiritual nature. Two Sabbaths 
 were allowed for the giving in of the lists, which were after- 
 
184 SUCCESS OF POPULAR ELECTION OF ELDERS 
 
 wardrt opened and read at a meeting of Session, and the name*} 
 of the parties nominated arninged, according to the number of 
 the votes. The result I liave already mentioned. 
 
 " It has usually been supposed, that so great is the eagerness 
 of the members of a church to exercise their privilege of elec- 
 tion, that rather than not use it, when in their power, they 
 will vote rashly, indiscriminately, and without sufficient know- 
 ledge or acquaintance with the persons whom they nominate. 
 My experience in my own congregation is the reverse of this. 
 I would say, there is a reluctance rather than an over-eagerness 
 to use the privilege ; proceeding not from indifference, but from 
 H conscientious fear of recommending beyond their knowledge, 
 and from the difficulty of finding persons in the circle of their 
 ('hristiari acquaintances reaching to their standard of qualifica- 
 tion. Many of our lists when opened, instead of six names, 
 which were desired, contained only four, or three, or two, and 
 >ome only one, with the statement annexed, that they could 
 conscientiously recommend the individual named, but had not 
 sufficient acquaintance with any other member of the church. 
 
 " Indeed, J am satisfied that where, previous to an election, 
 the office is made the subject of special discourse, and the con- 
 science of a congregation charged fis to the responsibility and 
 solemnity of appointing rulers over them in the Lord, and di- 
 vine direction sought by suf)p]ication and prayer, there will be 
 greater danger of the members of the church abstaining from 
 the use of their privilege, than of exercising it with inconsider- 
 ate eagerness and in ignorance of the parties to whom they give 
 their voice. Every thing, however, depends upon the spirit with 
 which an election is conducted. A greater curse cannot alight 
 upon a congregation than when the election either of its minis- 
 ters or Elders is conducted in a factious, caballing, prayerless, 
 and worldly spirit. 
 
 " With best wishes and prayers for the success of your present 
 laljours — Believe roe, 
 
 " Ever yours faithfully, 
 
 " James Lkwis." 
 
 Already several cases in Glasgow, whore ministers 
 acted on the same plan adopted in St. David's, and 
 with similar success, could be appealed to, as in Well- 
 park and St. Peter's ; but it is unnecessary. I may 
 merely transcribe a note from the Rev. Mr. Somer- 
 ville, of Anderston. 
 
TESTIFIED BY MR. SOMERVILLE. 18a 
 
 No. V. 
 
 " Glasgow, April 30th, 1841. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — In answer to your enquiry I may state, that 
 on a late occasion a body of 10 individuals was added to An- 
 derston Kirk-session — that these persons were nominated by 
 communicants, and not merely were such as the existing Kirk- 
 session unanimously approve of, but were just those whom they 
 would have desired to see clothed with the office of Ruling 
 Elder. 
 
 " I may mention also, that the congregation met, on two oc- 
 I'Hsions, previous to the nomination, for the purpose of seeking 
 guidance from the Great Head of the church, and that, more- 
 over, a season for special private fasting and prayer with refer- 
 ence to the object was appointed. The congregation gwere 
 called upon twice to elect, first 12 and then 6, to the office of 
 Elder. The second was necessary, owing to several in the 
 first list having declined to join the Session. In both cases the 
 result was most satisfactory. The communicants who voted 
 on both occasions were the very persons in whose judgment and 
 piety I would antecedently have had the greatest confidence. 
 
 " With the favour of the Glorious IMaster of our assemblies, 
 the additional superintendence under which the congregation is 
 now placed promises to be a great blessing to it. 
 " Believe me, my dear Sir, 
 
 " Most truly yours, 
 
 " Alex. N. Somerville." 
 
 Since the foregoing testimonies were published 
 many elections have taken place equally satisfactory. 
 I subjoin the account of one from Mariners' church, 
 Aberdeen. It is the more valuable, as the congrega- 
 tion was so very recent at the period when the ap- 
 pointment took place. The result speaks strongly for 
 the soundness of the general principle. 
 
 No. VI. 
 
 " Aberdeen, 27th June, 1842. 
 " Dear Sir, — In giving you an account of the election of 
 Elders in Mariners' church, permit me to premise, that, as the 
 congregation was entirely new, and the members consequently 
 strangers to one another, I did not deem it proper to proceed 
 to the appointment of Elders till upwards of a twelvemonth 
 after the church had been opened — the spiritual functions of 
 the E'dership I endeavoured to discharge myself, the judicial^ 
 Q2 
 
186 TESTIMONIES TO SUCCESS OF POPULAB ELECTION 
 
 devolved upon the Sessions of the parishes frona which our par- 
 ish had been disjoined. I had previously, however, stated the 
 reason, intinoated my intention of placing the election in the 
 hands of the communicants, and asked them to " look out 
 amonj them" such as they might consider qualified for the 
 office. Having afterwards chosen for text 1 Tim., v, 17, I en- 
 deavoured to point out the nature of the office, tracing it from 
 the Old Testament dispensation, through the synagogue, to 
 that of the New. A glance was taken at the practice of the 
 early churches, till the office began to disappear amidst the gloom 
 of Popish corruption. It was again seen, through the light 
 of the Reformation, occupying its proper place in the Church 
 of Scotland — withering under the blight of patronage, but 
 reviving wherever the church enjoyed a time of refreshing and 
 liberty to exercise her inalienable right of electing her own of- 
 fice-bearers. The discourse was concluded with an enumera- 
 tion of the qualities, both positive and negative, that ought to 
 characterise the elected, and an attempt to impress the minds 
 of the electors with the importance of the duty they were called 
 to discharge. 
 
 " Each male communicant was invited to present a signed list 
 of the names of six persons, being communicants, whom he 
 considered thus qualified. 
 
 " A committee of the Presbytery, asked and appointed for this 
 purpose, having met, examined these lists and unanimously 
 made choice of the six persons that had the greatest number of 
 votes. It was remitted to me to ascertain their willingness to 
 act — a day was fixed for the ordination, and an edict appointed 
 to be served to this effect. Having waited on the parties cho- 
 sen, I found all willing to accept the office, with the exception 
 of two, who for the present declined — one of them, because he 
 was an unmarried man. On the day appointed for the ordina- 
 tion, I preached from 1 Cor., v, 17; in which the duties of the. 
 Elder were more particularly pointed out. The questions ap- 
 pointed by the Assembly were then put, and the ordination 
 completed in the usual manner. Both Elders and people were 
 then respectively addressed. 
 
 " I shall now conclude with a few brief remarks : — 
 
 " \st. We had no special meeting for prayer, as we have an 
 ordinary one every Tuesday. 
 
 " 2nd. There was not, to the best of my knowledge, the sha- 
 dow of canvassing, either directly or indirectly. 
 
 " Srd. So far were the members of the congregation from in- 
 discriminately availing themselves of their right to its utmost 
 extent, that several gave in no list, from their want of sufficient 
 acquaintance with their fellow-communicants ; and others gave 
 
OF ELDERS IN ABERDEEN AND DUNBLANE. 187 
 
 in only one, two, or three names, instead of six, for a similar 
 reason. 
 
 "4th. The names were evidently selected, not from any re- 
 spect of person, but character. 
 
 " 5th. The names presented were just those 1 anticipated, 
 and I entirely concurred in the election. 
 
 " I am, dear Sir, Yours sincerely, 
 
 "J. LONGMUIR, 
 
 " Minister of Mariners' Parish, Aberdeen." 
 
 I add another, regarding the parish of Dunblane» 
 No one is better entitled to speak on plans of consti- 
 tutional procedure than its much respected pastor. 
 
 No. VII. 
 
 " Manse of Dunblane, 5th July, 1842. 
 
 " My dear Sir, — In reply to your enquiry, I may state that 
 since 1829 I have presided in Comrie and Dunblane at three 
 elections of Elders and one of Deacons. The first election was 
 exclusively by the Kirk-session ; all the others were by the 
 congregation after a recommendation by the communicants in 
 the respective districts. The first plan was not successful. 
 One-half of those elected by the Kirk-session refused to accept, 
 and one-half of those accepting disappointed my expectations. 
 All the popularly elected Elders have as yet proved themselves 
 sound-hearted men. In March last, within the first year of my 
 ministry in Dunblane six excellent Elders were added to the 
 Kirk-session — although on the plan of Sessional election my 
 predecessor found the utmost difficulty in obtaining any Elders. 
 
 " The nine members of Session have their own districts the 
 
 seven vacant districts are given in temporary charge to the 
 nearest Elder — local Sabbath schools are in consequence begun 
 — the Elders hold prayer meetings, strengthen my hands 
 greatly, and already I trust these effects are most beneficial. 
 
 " Before electing Elders by the congregation it has been my 
 practice to preach on the subject, and a special congregational 
 prayer meeting has preceded the election. I have every rea- 
 son to believe from the character of those chosen that prayer 
 has been answered, and humbly hope that their continued faith- 
 fulness and usefulness through grace will be a continued answer 
 to prayer. 
 
 " That your important labours may be greatly blessed to the 
 Eldership of the Presbyterian churches is the prayer of 
 " Yours faithfully, 
 
 " W. Mackenzie." 
 
188 SUCCESS OF POPULAR ELECTIO.V OF ELDERS. 
 
 In the Presbyterian Church of Ireland, the appoint- 
 ment is becoming more popular than it once was. The 
 Rev. Mr. Denham of Londonderrv, who has, in the 
 • Plea of Presbytery,' proved himself an able and en- 
 lightened Presbyterian writer, two years ago issued a 
 circular to his congregation, descriptive of the autho- 
 rity and qualification and duties of the Ruling Elder, 
 and accompanied it with the following note : — 
 
 No. VIII. 
 
 " My dear Friend, — I earnestly request you will dow make 
 the election of Elders amongst us the subject of your serious 
 consideration and earnest prayer, and without being guided by 
 the opinion of others, state to me, in a sealed letter, on or be- 
 fore the 6th of October, the names of those members of thc 
 church, not exceeding six in number, whom you esteem be;, 
 qualified for this important office. To those for whom there 
 shall be a majority of votes, I shall state their duties more 
 fully, and the names of such as shall consent to be ordained I 
 shall make publicly known to the congregation. Earnestly 
 praung the Head of the church to direct you in this solemn 
 work — I remain, 
 
 " Your affectionate Pastor, 
 
 " James Denham." 
 
 The plan wrought remarkably well. After being on 
 probation for some time the Elders will be ordained, 
 and as there is no notice of any ordination in the Xew 
 Testament except by imposition of hands, Mr. Denham 
 writes me that it is contemplated to set them apart to 
 the office in this way. The average number of Elders 
 in the Presbyterian Church of Ireland is between 
 eight and nine to a congregation. 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 SUCCESSFUL MORAL OPERATION OF PRESBYTERIAN 
 CHURCH GOVERNMENT ON SOCIETY. 
 
 (Referred to page xvi, in Preface to the fir at Edition.) 
 
 The presence or absence of crime is not an infallible test of the 
 efficiency or otherwise of the religious systenn under which a 
 country is placed. At least various circumstances have to be 
 taken into account in forming the estimate apart from the influ- 
 ence of religion. There may be great simplicity of manners, 
 and few temptations to crime, and considerable external cor- 
 rectness, in countries where Christianity is unknown, or where 
 false views of it prevail — at the same time the state of crime 
 furnishes an approximation to the truth of no small importance. 
 So tried, the result is highly honourable to Presbyterianism, as 
 compared with other forms of church government. Presbyte- 
 rianism is predominant in Scotland ; and what is the result ? 
 According to the new Anglican non-Protestant school, the moral 
 character of the people should be very low: their ministers 
 have no Prelatic ordination — religious ordinances are invalid — 
 they can only, like so many Pagans, be committed to the " un- 
 covenanted mercies of God." On the principle thiit a tree is 
 best known by its fruits, deplorable should be the moral condi- 
 tion of Scotland as compared with England where Prelacy is 
 predominant, and in the Popish countries where Prelacy is, if 
 possible, still more powerful, as in Ireland, Let the following 
 facts, drawn from a paper of Mr. Miller, Captain of Police in 
 Glasgow, and recently read before the ' British Association for 
 promoting science', testify: — Out of a population of 175,000 
 under his superintendence, 2952 were brought before the ma- 
 gistrates of Glasgow — in eleven months of last year — charged 
 with various offences ; of these, 711, or nearly one-third, belong 
 to Ireland, and 2154 to Scotland. The Irish proportion of va- 
 grants in Glasgow bears a still higher ratio ; ' but supposing 
 all her offenders to be Scots, how does the amount of crime 
 
 1 For a number of facts bearing on this point, see Appendix to ' The Dea. 
 conship/ <fec., which I published a few months ago,— pp. 126-7. 
 
190 COMPARATIVE STATE OF CRIME. 
 
 in Glasgow stand on a comparison with that of two larp^e 
 1owns similar to itself — Liverpool and Dublin? It appears 
 from the same document, that while there is in Glasgow I of- 
 fender to 22| of the population — (this was for the year 1839 ; 
 the number of offenders was much smaller in 1840) — there is 
 in Liverpool 1 in 16; and in Dublin 1 in 7 ; and the result is 
 the more striking, when it is remembered that, from the struc- 
 ture of the houses, &c., the facilities to depredation are far 
 greater in Glasgow than in the other towns ; and, moreover, 
 that there is a police force in Liverpool of 1 officer to every 442 
 persons; and in Dublin of 1 to every 256; while in Glasgow 
 there is only 1 to 784. In London the proportion of offenders 
 to the whole population is much the same as in Glasgow ; but 
 the two places do not admit well of comparison in crime, London 
 has proportionably double the number of the police-officers. 
 
 Turning from the great western metropolis of Scotland, — 
 where, from various causes, crime may be expected to be most 
 prevalent — to the rural districts where the influence of Chris- 
 tianity, flowing through Presbyterian channels, is less disturbed, 
 what is the moral condition of the people, tried by the same 
 standard ? It appears from an important document, by Messrs. 
 Fullarton and Baird,^ read before the Statistical Society of 
 Glasgow, that, in fifty-four parishes, to which their attention 
 was recently and carefully directed in connexion with destitu- 
 i\on of the means of life, and proposals for emigration — parish- 
 es embracing a population of nearly 155,000 souls — there were 
 in 1835 only 142 cases of offence, and these, for the most part, 
 very trifling. In many of the parishes there had not been a 
 single crime for years, and that though the people, from vari- 
 ous causes, are no strangers to indolence and the use of ardent 
 spirits — the usual inlets of much evil, and are besides, unhap- 
 pily, very defectively supplied with the means of education. 
 The result is the more remarkable when it is remembered, to 
 use the language of the writers, that in the whole of the Islands 
 and Mainland parishes to which they refer, "the face of a sol- 
 dier or policeman, as such, is not known ; and that in spite of 
 all the poverty and wretchedness to which, especially for the 
 last few years, the people have been exposed, there have not 
 been the slightest indications of riot or disturbance." The 
 i^tatement may be extended to the rural parts and many of the 
 towns of Scotland generally. The writers give 2838 persons 
 as the whole number committed for trial in Scotland during the 
 same year. How large a proportion of these were neither 
 
 1 ' Remarks nn the evils at present affecting the Ili^jhlands and Islands of 
 Bcotlaud, 18;]8.' 
 
MISAPPREHENSIO:? AS TO CllIME IN SCOTLAND. 191 
 
 Scotsmen nor Presbyterians we have no means of ascertaining ; 
 but there can be little doubt that it was very inconsiderable. 
 Are such facts discreditable to a Presbyterian country ? or can 
 the friends of the new Anglican school point to results equally 
 satisfactory under their system ?' 
 
 The practical efficiency of Presbyterianism in Ireland is 
 similar. " What we give," says the Rev. Mr. Denham of London- 
 derry, " to the State in return for our endowment is that sound 
 Christian education which secures the peace and the prosperity 
 of tlie country, and secures it, too, at an expence vastly less 
 than by any other means hitherto discovered. On examination, 
 
 1 It may be noticed in passing that Scotland gets credit, or rather reproach, 
 for a much larger share of crime than really belongs to her. The able Sherift' 
 of Glasgow, Mr. Alison, in his work on ' The Principles of Population,' states 
 that the progress of crime in Scotland during the last thirty years has been 
 almost unexampled : and no doubt there has been a very appalling encrease 
 though the greatly improved efficiency of the pohce in bringing up every case 
 makes what exists much more visible than it was before. But it is* over- 
 looked how large a proportion of crime, and that, too, of the worst character, 
 is not of Scottish origin, but springs fi-om the Irish population, who have 
 now the easiest communication, particularly with the west of Scotland. In 
 cases of capital crimes, the number of instances where the parties are Rn. 
 man Catholics may satisfy any one that they are seldom natives of Scotland. 
 A sad illustration of the truth of this occun-e'd not long ago. Three Irishmen — 
 Koman Catholics — were condemned at the Spring Assizes 1841 to be executed 
 tor the atrocious miu-der of an Englishman on the Edinburgh and Glasgo\\ 
 Railway, and yet, though no Scostmen had any hand in the deed, the case 
 ^vi]Igo to swell the returns of crime fi'om Scotland, and to leave those at a 
 distance, who are ignorant of the circumstances, under the impression that 
 horrible crimes are greatly on the encrease in this once religious, moral, and 
 liappy land. I rejoice that if Scotland receives criminals from popish Ireland, 
 she cherishes no revenge. An important report has just been published by 
 Captain Miller of the Glasgow Police, from which it appears that out of lOSk 
 destitute persons, supplied with extra food and |clothiiig during the winter 
 months, not less than 310 were natives of Ireland". The numbers are — 
 
 Persons belonging to England, ... 4 
 
 Do. do. to Ireland, . . .310 
 
 Do. do. to Scotland, . . .721 
 
 Unknown, ...... 3 
 
 "While this is honourable to the philanthropy of Scotland, it also shows, in 
 harmony witli other facts, that a large share'^of the population most exposed 
 tii the temptations of crime do not belong to this country. How unjust is it, 
 indiscriminately, to reckon all these to the account of Scottish crime! There 
 ought to be a deduction of at least a third or fourth from the crime in Scotland, 
 as not properly belonging to it. That there is nothing in the character of Irish- 
 men which of itself tends to the breach of the law is manifest from the inter- 
 esting results brought out in Presbyterian Ulster, It is the religious system, 
 though claiming a prelatic "unbroken succession," which is at the root of the 
 e^■il. What can be more monstrous than the idea that the Irish murderers, 
 having all been validly baptized by an ordained priest of the Church of Rome 
 accor ling to " apostolic succession," are regenerateil, and belong to the true 
 churcli. while the holiest men of Presbyterian Scotland or Ireland have only 
 an invalid baptism, and are beyond tlie ])ale of the visible church ; and if 
 saved at all, are saved only as tlie heathens are supposed to be saved — ^by 
 " the uncovenan'ed mercies of God !" For some facts and accompanying re- 
 marks i.n •• Exaggerated views of the crime of Glasgow and of Scotland," see 
 Appendix, to ' The Deaeonship,' pp. 127-132. 
 
192 SUPERIOR MORALITY OF PRESBYTERIANS 
 
 it will be found that the endowment given to the Presbyterian 
 church in this country has been, in place of an expenditure, a 
 direct and positive economy. If you take up the expence of 
 the constabulary for the past year, you will find it small in the 
 counties of Ulster in proportion to the number of Presbyterians 
 inhabiting those counties. Thus, for instance, in the county 
 of Cavan, where there are few Presbyterians, the cost of the 
 constabulary to each inhabitant is lO^d,, while in Down the 
 cost to each is only 5^d. In Fermanagh, where there are few 
 Presbyterians, the cost to each is 9Jd., while in Derry it is not 
 5^d. Again, comparing the cost on tlie whole province with thut 
 on the other provinces, it would be to each inhabitant of leis- 
 ter 7Jd., and to each in the rest of the kingdom Is. 5id., making 
 a saving in Ulster of a sum not less than £88,833 18s. lOd. 
 Again, the jail expence to each inhabitant in Ulster is Ifd. 
 The jail expence to each inhabitant of the rest of the kingdom 
 is 2.^d. Thus saving, on the whole inhabitants of Ulster, 
 £7138 16s. 8d., making a saving on those two items of consta- 
 bulary and jails of ^95,982 16s. 8d., being nearly three times 
 the amount i)aid to all the Presbyterian clergy in Ireland. 
 
 The unfortunate persons sentenced to transportation are 
 sent from all the northern counties to the hulk at Kingstown 
 previous to embarkation. Out of 3013 who werethere in the five 
 years from 1830, only 77 were Presbyterians, that is only I in 
 every 39. Now each costs the government about .£100, or on 
 the wiiole number .£301,300, so that here, by the peculiarly 
 virtuous, and industrious, and peaceful habits of our people, 
 there is another very large sum saved to the nation every year. 
 Allow me here to quote a sentence from a letter transmitted by 
 Lord Normanby, secretary to the colonies, to a commission of the 
 Church of Scotland, dated June, 1839 : — *' While it was recently 
 found necessary (in New South Wales) to appoint Episcopalian 
 and Roman Catholic chaplains fur the jails and penal settltMTients, 
 It was allowed on all hands that there was no necessity for the 
 appointment of Presbyterian chaplains for these establishments, 
 the number of criminals of this communion in the colony being 
 (juite insignificant." In the seven years from 1828, two hun- 
 (lre<l and fifty-six persons were hung in Ireland, while, by a 
 strict examination of all the jails in Ulster, I have discovered 
 that in the twelve years which have now nearly elapsed since 
 1828, only four Presbyterians were executed. It were evi- 
 dently impossible to make any calculation as to what each of 
 these unfortunate persons cost the kingdom not merely in the 
 retarding of improvement and preventing the flow of capital 
 into the country, but even in the mere expence of apprehension, 
 
MORAL ADVANTAGES OF PIIESBYTERIANISM. 1 9'> 
 
 imprisonment, judges, queen's council, attorneys, executioners, 
 &c. But the sum between the loss and the actual expence 
 must have been enormous. Yet in this item of expenditure 
 the Presbyterian proportion is so small as scarcely to be named. 
 
 Thus have I shown, by a reference to facts and figures, that 
 if the government give the Presbyterian church a small endow- 
 ment, it is not necessary for her, in order to make an honest 
 and adequate return, to barter away or part with one fraction of 
 the liberty wherewith Christ has made her free. Slie makes to 
 the state an ample return in the form of an immense saving of 
 the public funds secured, and of many and most valuable bene- 
 lits conferred." ' 
 
 In harmony with the above facts I add a few from a very 
 able letter of the Rev. Dr. Stewart of Broughshane, in Ireland 
 on •' The Presbyterian marriage question." They seem to try 
 the character of churches under another and very delicate anil 
 painful aspect. — " If, ' by their fruits ye shall know them,' be a 
 good rule of judging, Presbyterians have no cause to be ashamed 
 of their marriages. I stated in my review of Dr. Miller and 
 Mr. Whiteside, that all the bigamists were of the Established 
 church, and that all the second or criminal marriages had 
 been celebrated by Prelatic ministers ; and if we can believe 
 English statists, the fruits of marriage in England, though, un- 
 til very lately celebrated solely by men in what they call * holy 
 orders,' are any thing but holy. In Pilkington's Parliamentary 
 reports, quoted in the late controversial discussion betweeii 
 Father Maguire and the Rev. Mr. Gregg — among many similar 
 are the following statements : — ' Among the lower orders of 
 the people of England nineteen out of every twenty are mothers 
 before they are wives :' ' the poorer sort of people marry about 
 eighteen, but the girls are generally with child before they 
 marry — indeed it is quite a general thing.' In the parish of 
 Little Missingham, Norfolk, it is stated by the rector, the Rev. 
 T. D. Burton, that ' of seventy-five births in one hundred, 
 fifty-seven were bastards.' And the Rev. John Monkhouse, 
 rector of Bromhead, states that he had offered a premium to 
 every female who would come to be married without having 
 had a child previously, and that out of seventy-two ^vho came 
 to be married, only tivo got the premium. Is there any 
 mark of the ' holy orders' of the man celebrating the marriage 
 in the sons and daughters thus produced by it? If a return 
 were obtained from Parliament of all cases of husbands desert- 
 ing their wives, and contracting other marriages, throughout 
 the empire, together with the religious denomination to which 
 ' ' Plea of Presbytery,' first ed. pjx AQ'J, 41o. 
 
 R 
 
i(J4 MORAL ADVANTAGE.^ OF PRESBYTEKIANISM 
 
 the offender belonged, it would be found that the Presbyteria/J 
 offenders would be to those of the Prelatic communion in a 
 proportion of less than one to one hundred. Indeed, the Pre- 
 latic church has no discipline. Any man or woman, however 
 depraved, will obtain baptism in it for his or her child, 
 and admission to the holy communion. In this point of view 
 the Church is a sore evil to its Presbyterian neighbour. When- 
 ever a Presbyterian offender is refractory under discipline, he 
 has an open door in the Established Church, and can set Pres- 
 byterian authorities at defiance. In this way the Established 
 Church receives the offscourings of Presbyterianism — it literally 
 is Refugium Peccatorum. I assure you, it is very painful for 
 me to make these observations, but you have compelled me in 
 self-defence to do so. If you and your faction would let Pres- 
 byterians alone, they are asking nothing from the Prelatic Es- 
 tablishment, and are most anxious to cultivate peace and good- 
 will with the members of that Church, but they will not tamely 
 submit to be trampled on." 
 
 Nor do Scotlarid and Ireland, surveyed in the light of wit- 
 nesses to the moral operation of Presbyterianism upon society, 
 stand alone. Even England, during the short period that Pres- 
 bytery had the ascendency, in the 17th century, gave evidence 
 of the same moral tendencies. The circumstances were very 
 disadvantageous for trying any religious system. Civil wars, 
 followed by a flood of religious sectaries, (who, for the most 
 part, hated Presbyterianism as much as they hated Prelacy,) 
 must have operated most injuriously upon the peace and purity 
 of society ; and yet, even in these adverse circumstances, bishop 
 Burnet could say, "Then was good justice done, and vice was 
 suppressed and punished, so that we always reckon these eight 
 years of usurpation a time of great peace and prosperity ; " and 
 Neal, the Nonconformist historian, states of the same period 
 that one might walk even the streets of London on a Sabbath 
 evening without seeing an idle person, or hearing an oath, nay, 
 without hearing any sounds save those of prayer and praise. An 
 Episcopal writer, Jones, in his ' Life and times of Bishop Hall' 
 has a similar and more comprehensive testimony: "During," 
 says he, " the troubles of the times on account of the differences 
 between Charles I and the Parliament, Puritanism in one 
 sense was productive of much good. The Reformation of man- 
 ners was then very remarkable. The laws against vice and pro- 
 faneness were so strict and so vigorously put in execution that 
 vice was forced to hide itself in corners. The Magistrates did 
 their duty in suppressing all sorts of games — stage plays, and 
 abuses in public houses — there was not a play acted in any 
 
ASCERTAINED r.Y FACTS. 105 
 
 • 
 
 theatre in England for almost twenty years. Profane swearing-, 
 drunkenness, or any kind of debauchery, were not to be seen or 
 heard in the streets. The Lord's day was observed with un- 
 usual reverence; the churches were crowded with numerous and 
 attentive hearers, three or four times in the day. The peace- 
 officers patroled the streets of London, and all the public 
 houses were shut up — there was no travelling on the roads or 
 walking in the fields except in cases of absolute necessity. 
 Religious exercises were set up in private families, as reading 
 the Scriptures, family prayer, repeating sermons, and singing 
 psalms. This was so general a custom that we are told a per- 
 son might walk through the city of London on the evening of 
 the Lord's day without seeing an idle person or hearing any 
 thing but the voice of prayer or praise from churches and pri- 
 vate houses. It is also said that there was hardly a single 
 bankruptcy to be heard of in a year, and that even in such a 
 <:ase the bankrupt had a mark of infamy set upon him that he 
 could never wipe off.' 
 
 Similar fruit appeared wherever the same religious system 
 was introduced. The pilgrim fathers of New England, and 
 their immediate descendants, were substantially Presbyterian — 
 and what was the result? Disdaining Episcopal ordination, 
 and "uninterrupted succession," as unwarranted by any Scrip- 
 tural or apostolic authority, were the people left without the 
 grace of valid ordinances, and, by consequence, the prey of the 
 worst individual and social disorders? Far from it. Very 
 many of the first founders, who had resided at Leyden, on their 
 <ieparture from Holland for America, received from tlie magis- 
 trates of that town the attestation that, though they had lived 
 twelve years among them, no suit or accusation had ever been 
 preferred against any one of the English. And a modern his- 
 torian, ^ speaking of the character of New England, after its 
 religious system had been long in operation, expresses himself 
 in the following terms: — " Perhaps no country in the world 
 was ever more distinguished than New England at that time 
 for the general prevalence of those sentiments and habits that 
 render communities respectable and happy. Sobriety and in- 
 dustry pervaded all classes of the inhabitants. The laws 
 against immorality of every description were remarkably strict, 
 and not less strictly executed; and being cordially supported 
 by public opinion, they were able to render every vicious and 
 profligate excess equally dangerous and infamous to the perpe- 
 trator. There was not a single beggar in the whole province. 
 The general diffusion of education caused national advantages, 
 1 Pp. 404—150. - Graham. 
 
iOG CONVERSIONS TO PRESBYTEKIANISM. 
 
 which were thus vigorously improved, to be justly appreciated, 
 and an ardent and enlightened patriotism knit the hearts of the 
 people to each other and to the country." Where has, or when 
 will, Puseyism or Prelacy present such a picture? 
 
 CONVERSIONS FROM INDEPENDENCY TO PRESBYTERY^ 
 DR. OWEN AND PRESIDENT EDWARDS. 
 
 (Referred to p. li\) 
 
 The high character, talent, acquirements, and public useful- 
 ness of Dr. Owen are well known. His works have been es- 
 teemed and honoured wherever evangelical religion is appre- 
 ciated, and, probably, are destined to exert a salutary influence 
 on the Christian church in generations to come. His original 
 views and connexions seem to have been Presbyterian ; but 
 when about thirty years of age his mind underwent a change on 
 church government and order, and though never keen or violent 
 on such points, yet he became decidedly an Independent. It 
 is well to bear in mind that an Independent in those days was, 
 as the reader will see from what has been already said — in va- 
 rious and important respects a different person from an Inde- 
 pendent in more modern times. Congregational views were 
 quite consistent with the maintenance of the principles of 
 Church and State, and hence Owen both ably vindicated civil 
 establishments of the true religion, and himself derived part of 
 his support from national funds. The same views were con- 
 sistent with .the office of Ruling Elder, and Courts of appeal 
 and Review in the Christian church, which are now appropriated 
 to Presbyterianism ; and hence Owen advocated both — in the 
 last extending his advocacy to Provincial Synods, as well as 
 General Assemblies.^ With all this, he was decidedly ranked 
 with the Independents of the age in which he lived — a remarka- 
 ble proof of which is, that he was asked to preach to the re- 
 mains of the Parliament, which had taken off the head of Charles 
 I, a request which he fulfilled by preaching on the very day 
 after the execution of the unhappy monarch. No one who 
 knows any thing of the parties of that period can imagine that 
 had he belonged to the Presbyterians, who were universally the 
 strenuous and undaunted advocates of the king, he would have 
 been asked for such a service. The Independents evidently 
 wished to shelter themselves under the name of one of the most 
 respectable and esteemed men of their party ; but after the 
 study and experience of thirty years, and, above all, such years 
 
 i See Gospel Churcli, p. ■I'-'G. 
 
TESTIMONY OF O^YE^' A>'D EDWARDb 10 rKESBi'TEKY. iV t 
 
 as those in which it was his lot to live, his mind recurred to 
 its original principles. Two years before his death, towards 
 the close of the sad reign of Charles II, he expressed himself in 
 one of his latest works,^ with a maiiifest leaning towards Pres- 
 byterianism, substantially declaring, that had Presbytery been 
 established at the king's Restoration, twenty years before, he 
 would have been satisfied. His biographer,- after giving a long 
 extract from his views on church government, says, " I have 
 been longer in this extract of the Doctor's opinion about church 
 government because it shows, whatever might have been his 
 sentiments when younger, how much he agreed with all Pro- 
 testant churches (that of England excepted) on this point in 
 the latter part of his days — and that had others been ofliis 
 mind the ditference between those called Presbyterians and In- 
 dependents might have easily been reconciled. He was of so 
 healing a temper in this matter that I have heard him say be- 
 fore a person of quality and others — he could readily join with 
 Presbytery as it was exercised in Scotland." Nay there is still 
 more than this: It appears, from the MS. Analecta of the accurate 
 and indefatigable historian Wodrow, that Dr. Owen on his death- 
 bed gave forth a testimony in behalf of Presbytery. The state- 
 ment, which is under date 1716, runs to this effect if not in these 
 terms — " Mr George Redpath told me, two or three years ago, 
 when in Edinburgh, that he visited Dr. Owen on his deathbed, 
 and Presbytery and Episcopacy came to be discoursed of; and 
 the Doctor said how he had seen his mistake as to the Independ- 
 ent way, and declared to him a day or two before his death, 
 that after his utmost search into the Scriptures and antiquity, 
 he was now satisfied that Presbytery was the way Christ had 
 appointed in his New Testament church." Of course the question 
 cannot be settled by human authority; the word of God is the 
 only standard. But all parties, even those who are loudest 'in 
 their appeal to the Scriptures, are forward to plead the testimony 
 of distinguished writers, when it makes in favour of their views. 
 And in the present case, no testimony can be more unexcep- 
 tionable; it is the testimony of one of unimpeachable integrity, 
 profoundly learned in Scripture and ecclesiastical history, and 
 at the close of life, after full experience of an opposite system. 
 Nor does he stand alone : one not less distinguished in the 
 Christian church, a century after, passed through a similar 
 change. Jonathan Edwards, one of the first of divines, in a 
 letter to the Rev. Dr. Erskine of Edinburgh, under date July, 
 1750, after a great work of revival, in which he had been hon-^ 
 
 1 His * Enquiry into the original of Evangelical Churches,' &c. 
 - Life and Sermons, 1720. p. 34. 
 
 R2 
 
108 HIGH CHARACTER OF CALViy. 
 
 oured to bear a part, on being afeked whether he would accept 
 a charge in Scotland, which it was thought could be obtained, 
 as a way of extricating him from the difficultiee in which he be- 
 came involved with his Independent flock, writes, — "As to my 
 subscribing to the substance of the Westminster Confession, 
 there would be no difficulty, and as to the Presbyterian govern- 
 ment, I have loTuj been perfectly out of conceit of our unsettled 
 Independent confused way of church government, in this land, 
 and the Presbyterian way has ever appeared to roe as most 
 agreeable to the word of God, and tlie nature and reason of thing a 
 — though I cannot say that I think that the Presbyterian gov- 
 ernment of the Church of Scotland is so perfect that it can- 
 not, in some respects, be mended." ' He then refers to domestic 
 reasons for remaining in New England. 
 
 After such cases of conversion to Presbytery, it may be hoped 
 that party writers, whether Prelatic or Congregational, w\\\ allow 
 that the claims of Presbyterianism are not quite abburd, and 
 that its friends must have something to say for themselves. 
 
 THE SENTIMENTS OF CALVIN ON THE RULING ELDER. 
 
 (Referred to p. 80 j 
 
 The pre-eminent greatness of Calvin, the ignorant and em- 
 bittered virulence with which, in later times, his memory has 
 been assailed, and the peculiar circumstances in regard to the 
 Ruling Elder in which, in the providence of God, he was placed, 
 all render some notice of his sentiments on the subject more 
 than usually appropriate. To those who are acquainted with the 
 history of the Christian church since the period of the Reforma- 
 tion, and of Calvin's character and influence as connected with 
 it, it is not necessary to say any thing of the high talents, cla«». 
 jcal literature, profound professional learning, personal disinter- 
 estedness, and extensive public usefulneM of the great Genevan 
 Reformer, The man who at twenty-seven years of age could 
 publish such a work as the Christian Institutes, and who ha« 
 (-tamped his name and influence upon Europe, so that, after the 
 lapse of nearly 300 years, the impress is fresh and strong, 
 and is daily becoming more conspicuous; the man who withal 
 was so self-denied as to be contented with no higher provision 
 than a salary of a hundred crowns a-year, who, with all bis 
 works, (12 vols, folio,) left only 300 crowns behind him, such 
 a mind and heart must obviously have been one of God's rarest 
 gifts to the Church and the world.* 
 
 1 Dwight's JJiiTaoiri of Edwanls. Work*, to', i. p. 1*'> 
 - His salary a« proff-esor of diviijity wa* IW fra;.c : : ...... r ij 
 
 of corn, aud 2 tuns of wme," — Hugues, 
 
ESTIMATION IN WHICH HE WAS HELD. 199 
 
 It were easy to fill pages with the mere record of Calvin'* 
 praise, proclaimed by the most opposite, and, at the same time, 
 most competent judges. I might remind the reader how Infidels, 
 such as d'Alembert and Voltaire, have been constrained to speak 
 in the highest terms of his scholarship, and of his services to 
 Geneva as a republic; as also Montesquieu, who applauds him 
 as a civilian. I might refer to the testimony of De Thou, and of 
 Scaliger, and of more congenial minds, such as of good Bishop 
 Andrews, who thought his name should never be mentioned 
 without a preface of the highest honour — of Grindal, and 
 Whitgift, and Jewell, and Philpot, and Hall, and Hooker, and 
 Stillingfleet, and Horsley, and many of the most eminent names 
 in the Church of England: nor should the testimony of holy 
 Richard Baxter, whose praise is in all the churches, be forgot- 
 ten. "I know no man," says he, "since the Apostles' days, 
 whom I value and honour more than Calvin, and whose judgment 
 in all things, with another, I more esteem and come nearer to." ^ 
 
 But one of the highest proofs of his character and influence, 
 and what should weigh strongly with many of those who hate 
 his very name, is to be found in the fact, that though an en- 
 lightened and resolute Presbyterian, he was consulted by, and 
 largely aided the most eminent Reformers of the English church 
 in their reformation. It is not so generally known as it should 
 be, that Calvin corresponded with Cranmer, and the Protector 
 Somerset, and Edward VI, and various others. He revised 
 the English liturgy, and freed it from various popish tenets and 
 observances, and, by his works, co-operated in the construction 
 of the Thirty-nine Articles, part of the seventeenth being evi- 
 dently taken from his 'Institutes.' Nor is this all: his cele- 
 brated work was used as a text-book at the English universities 
 during the greater part of a century, when there were not more 
 than five Anti-Calvinistic professors, and they were censured. 
 Young divines made it the foundation of their discourses — a 
 convocation at Oxford recommended it to the universal atten- 
 tion of the nation — and if Stapleton, a British Roman Catholic, 
 maybe believed, it was in many cases even "fixed in the 
 parish churches for the people to read." In short, there is no 
 single individual, perhaps, who ever commanded such wide- 
 spread veneration and influence in the Church of England, in 
 her best times, and with her best men, as John Calvin of Geneva. 
 How strange, then, is it that his name and memory should now 
 be treated with so much enmity by many of the ministers and 
 vnembers of the same church, except when they meet with a 
 few detached words in his voluminous works which seem to 
 1 Saint's Everlasting R^st, cli. xiv, sec. 10.. 
 
200 CALVIN AN ENLIOnTENED PUESBYTERIAN. 
 
 admit of being twinted into a favouiahlc concefision in behalf of 
 Prelacy: then forthwith he becomes the object of respect and 
 praises. 
 
 It is difficult to know how to deal with some of the modern 
 opponents of Calvin. One moment we are taiir,'ht that Presby- 
 terianism and the Ruling Elder have no authority in Scripture 
 or church history, but originated with this Reformer at Geneva, 
 in the early part of the sixteenth century; next moment we 
 are informed that he is not a Presbyterian, and has a great fa- 
 vour for Prelacy. All this shows, however unwilling uien may 
 be to confess it, the felt importance and power of Calvin's tes- 
 timony to the government and order of the Christian church. 
 To say that Presbytery and its Ruling Elders originated with 
 him is preposterous : they are to be found in the word of God; 
 and the earliest ecclesiastical history. Nay, there was a Pres- 
 bytery at Geneva — (a Presbytery by which he was ordained, 
 according to Beza, in August, 153G) — long before he ever 
 visited that renowned city. On the other hand, he was not 
 latitudinarian, as has been alleg^cd at the outset, in his views of 
 church government and order. The strongest and clearest views 
 of Presbyterianism, including the Ruling Elder, are to be found 
 in bis * Institutes,' his first work, published before it was known 
 whether he was to he a minister of the Reformed church at all, 
 and at a time when all his early prejudices and prepossessions, 
 as a recent member of the church of Rome, must have been in 
 favour of Prelacy. His circumstances then were highly favour- 
 able to impartiality of judgment. He expressly founded, not 
 upon policy but upon Scripture, and, moreover, he consistently 
 adhered through life, and to the day of death, to the sentiments 
 which he had at an early period published to the world; he was 
 an ordained minister of the Presbyterian church of Geneva; 
 his advice was asked in reference to the churches of Scotland 
 and of France, and both are strictly Presbyterian ; also, his last 
 will and testament bear witness to his unshaken confidence in 
 the Scriptural principles of Presbytery. The two or three pas- 
 sages in his immense works which have been supposed to bear 
 a friendly eye to Epif^copacy, have been and can be easily and 
 satisfactorily explained. Anxiety to prevent the Presbyterian 
 party in the Church of England from separating from her com- 
 munion while there was the prospect of a more extensive re- 
 formation in her constitution seems to be the origin of the most 
 plausible of the number. And surely it is a different thing to 
 approve, of a constitution and to recommend men to hear with it 
 till tliey can get a better! 
 
 There is nothing then to invalidate the weight of Calvin's 
 
CALVIN AN ENLIGHTENED PRESBYTERIAN. 201 
 
 testimony to Presbyterian Church Government ; on the con- 
 trary, there is every thing to enforce it. It is of early date 
 — impartially formed — protracted — consistent — and when we 
 think how pre-eminent and distinguished and honoured of God 
 the witness is, the force of his testimony must be felt the more 
 powerful. 
 
 With respect particularly to the Ruling Elder, there is, as 
 already hinted, an historical circumstance, or circumstances, 
 which add to the weight of even so distinguished a testimony 
 as Calvin's. His mind was at an early period, and in a peculiar 
 degree, drawn to the subject of church discipline. Anxious to 
 quell unseemly feuds, which at the dawn of the Reformatiou 
 tore asunder the leading families of Geneva, and otherwise 
 maintain the honour of Christ's house, he, in common with his 
 colleagues, resolved, and publicly declared his resolution of 
 purging the roll of communicants. He solemnly proclaimed 
 from the pulpit, " I will die sooner than this hand shall reach 
 the symbols of the Lord's body to any one who has been found 
 a despiser of God." 
 
 Though a considerable time before this Presbyterian church 
 government had been established at Geneva, and Calvin in his 
 Institutes had published his views on the office of Ruling El- 
 der, yet this part of the organisation of the Christian church 
 does not seem to have been i)ut into actual, or, at least, vigor- 
 ous operation. Hence Calvin and his colleague, instead of 
 being officially supported by a large and influential body of Elders, 
 were left to endure alone the opposition which the strict ex- 
 ercise of discipline seldom fails to awaken. The hostility, both 
 from the magistrates and the populace, was so violent — probably 
 the one occasioning the other — that the faithful ministers were 
 driven from Geneva, Calvin took refuge in Strasburg, where 
 lie remained for four years, having been appointed professor of 
 theology in the university. It was when here that he was led 
 more fully to study the office of the Ruling Elder, especially in 
 connexion with the history of the Bohemian and Waldensian 
 churches, which could trace their origin to a very remote anti- 
 quity, and which had always enjoyed the advantage of a numer- 
 ous and powerful body of such officers. Calvin clearly saw that 
 it was only an ecclesiastical staff of this kind which could re- 
 medy such disorders as those which had prevailed at Geneva; 
 that, in short, had the ministers been supported by a suitable 
 body of representatives from the congregation, the tumult 
 would, in all probability, never have occurred. Hence, when 
 recalled to Geneva, which he speedily was, by all parties, in 
 the dread, in his absence, of a return of Popery, he took care 
 that the office of Ruling Elder should be immediately placed 
 
202 Calvin's attachment to the eldeiiship. 
 
 upon an adequate foundation. We do not read after this of any 
 serious difficulties in connexion with the exercise of church 
 discipline: so far from it there is one sentence of Bishop Jewell 
 which opens up a most pleasing view — " If you had ever 
 known," says he to his Popish antagonist,^ ** the order of the 
 church of Geneva, and had seen four thousand people or more 
 receiving the holy mysteries together at one communion, you 
 could not, without great shame and want of modesty, have un- 
 truly published to the world that by Mr. Calvin's doctrine the 
 sacraments of Christ are superfluous." 
 
 Considering the circumstances which have been detailed, we 
 need not wonder at Calvin's warm attachment to the office of 
 Ruling Elder. They ensured a more thorough study of the 
 whole subject by his powerful mind — interesting his feelings as 
 well as his judgment — and hence the result is the more satis- 
 factory. Let no one think the less highly of the great Re- 
 former because he was the victim for a season of popular hos- 
 tility in such a cause. The question which was really at stake 
 is the same which is at present agitating Scotland, namely — 
 Whether, when the church refuses privileges to those whom 
 she deems unworthy, her judgment is to be subject to the re- 
 view, and may be overthrown by the sentence of civil judges? 
 The principles involved in this question are worth suffering for. 
 In all probability were Christian churches now to act with the 
 same fidelity as Calvin and his colleagues, in the administration 
 of church discipline, they vvould awaken similar commotions in 
 society. Many who can hear sound doctrine, cannot endure 
 sound discipline: so to speak, they can be reconciled to the 
 prophetic and the priestly offices of Christ, but the kingly — 
 the royal office — is the last to which they are willing to sub- 
 mit. The Rev. M. Ungues, pastor of Grand Gallargues, in a 
 notice of Calvin, says, in reference to the passage in his history 
 which we have been considering : — " Calvin wished to reform 
 the dissolute manners of the inhabitants of Geneva. For this 
 end he published a Catechism and Confession of Faith, which 
 were accepted by the General Assembly of the people in 1537 ; 
 but when he wished to apply his principles, and pursue his re- 
 formation, he met with the most serious resistance. A party 
 of libertines, seeing themselves menaced in their corruptions, 
 accused Calvin of wishing to establish an authority as tyranni- 
 cal as that of the Pope: then commenced a violent commotion 
 between Calvin and the people, in which the libertines triumphed 
 and obtained in 1538 the banishment of Farel and of Calvin. 
 When the Reformer received the order to quit the town, he 
 exclaimed — "Si nous avions servi les hommes nous aurions ete 
 ' Deforce of liis Apology, p. 188. 
 
ALLEGED INTOLERANCE — SERVETUS. 203 
 
 bien raal recompenses, mais nous servons un Maitre qui loin de 
 ne pas recompenser ses serviteurs leur paie ce qu'il ne doit 
 pas." ' It may be added, that instead of being provoked — 
 when the Reformer was expelled, he wrote kind paternal letters 
 to the church which had used him ill: and that the Republic 
 confessed their sin and gladly recalled him. 
 
 As none, I trust, will think the less of the great Reformer, 
 because he was banished from Geneva for righteousness' 
 sake, so 1 trust that few will esteem him the less highly for 
 the part which ne is alleged to have had in the death of Serve- 
 tus. The pertinacious zeal with which men have endeavoured 
 to stain the memory and weaken the influence of Calvin for 
 deeds which would have been nothing thought of in others at 
 the same period, is a striking proof of the hatred of the natural 
 mind to the truths and institutions of the Gospel for which he so 
 nobly contended. Any one who will take the trouble to exam- 
 ine the cases of severity and cruelty Avhich are charged against 
 Calvin will find them, on investigation, comparatively to melt 
 away, if not to give evidence of a meekness and long-suffering 
 which it would be well for his accusers to copy. It appears 
 from his letters, that his general spirit was remarkably 
 kind and generous and mild (\\itness the way in which he 
 writes to Luther) : his patience and submission, too, under his 
 ovvn severe sufferings were conspicuous. "With regard to the 
 most serious case — that of Servetus — Sennebier, an able French 
 writer, who does not hold the religious sentiments of Calvin, 
 but who has carefully examined the proof, states that the accu- 
 sation that he was the persecutor of Servetus, and that but 
 for him there would have been no death or persecution, is a 
 cruel calumny — that none of his enemies in the day in which 
 he lived, though sufficiently numerous and bitter, ever dared to 
 whisper such an imputation against him — that, so far from wish- 
 ing the death of the arch-heretic, he warned him not to come 
 to Geneva, because, from the temper of the times, and the laws 
 of the state, there was great danger that he would fall a sa- 
 crifice to the intolerance of the age — and that, after the sen- 
 tence was passed, the Reformer used all his influence, unavail- 
 ingly, to obtain a mitigation of its severity, and sincerely de- 
 plored the result. All that can be truly said in the way of 
 censure of Calvin is, that when the Blasphemer, in spite of 
 warning, would come to Geneva, the Reformer felt himself 
 bound to make known the fact to the authorities, and unhap- 
 
 ' If we had served men vre would have been ill rewarded, but we serve a 
 ilaster who, far frum uoc recompensing his senants, pays them what he d'^es 
 not owe. 
 
204 ALLEGED CRUELTY AND INTOLEHANCE 
 
 pily a near relative was employed in the service : this gave the 
 impression of Calvin taking n more active part in the prosecu- 
 tion than the real facts oftlie case warrant. The truth is, that 
 the law against blasphemy existing in the form in which it stood 
 the Reformer would not have been entitled as a faithful citi- 
 zen, much less a Christian divine, of these days to allow its 
 gross transgression to pass without condemruition. It is to be 
 remembered that the law was clear, and the blasphemies of Ser- 
 vetus most protracted and horrible — in spite of all dissuasion 
 however kind. In more than 100 passages of his writings he 
 had styled the doctrine of the Trinity in unity '* a three-headed 
 Cerberus" — " a diabolic phantom" — " a delusion of Satan" — 
 blasphemies which even the law of Great IJritain, with all its 
 toleration in the nineteenth century, wonld lay hold of and 
 punish. 
 
 The reader may wish to see a few sentences fron) the writ- 
 ings of Calvin on the subject. The candour and uiatiliness of 
 his statements must commend them to every intelligent mind 
 which can appreciate the times and circumstances in which they 
 were written. The wonder is not that the proceedings of the 
 Early Reformers savoured of intolerance — but that men, who 
 had beeti educated in such a persecuting school as the Romish, 
 and who were irritated by former sufferings in their own per- 
 sons or in those who were dear to them, should have been so gen- 
 erous and so free from the taint of persecution. Certainly their 
 accusers in modern times indicate much less of the really toler- 
 ant spirit. 
 
 Calvin, in the preface to his Refutation of the Errors of Ser- 
 vetus, published immediately after the death, says, " Whatever 
 was doiu^ by our Senate they have attributed to nie, and I will 
 not indeed conceal the fact, that by my exertions aiul advice he 
 was in due course of law cast into prison, /or />// the established 
 law of the State it was proper that he should be charged as a 
 criminal. Thus far I confess that I prosecuted the cause — but 
 that from the time of his conviction J said not a word regarding 
 his punishment, — not only will all good men bear me witness, 
 but I challenge even the bad to produce proof to the contrary, 
 if they can.' Again in one of his letters, p. 71, Calvin says, 
 " When he (Servetus) was conveyed thither, by evil auspices, 
 one of the Syndics, at my suggestion, ordered him to be cast 
 into prison, for I will not dissemble the fact tint 1 thought it 
 my duty to restrain, so far as I could, a man so obstinate 
 and iiulomitable that the contagion might spread no farther." 
 What does all this show but merely that Ciilvin was an informer 
 
 ' Opcr.-i, torn. 8, p. 511, 
 
OF CALVIN. 205 
 
 of the presence of Servetus at Geneva, and that he thought 
 him deserving of punishment — a character in which had he not 
 in the circumstances appeared, he would have been unfaithful to 
 the laws of his country — the laws of Britain would require the 
 same of faithful citizens still. Though it may be matter of 
 regret that Calvin's name came to be connected with the trial 
 of Servetus at all, yet surely this is a very diflferent thing 
 from the Reformer's being personally chargeable, as he 
 often has been in popular apprehension and language, with 
 being the burner of Servetus to death. So far from this, 
 in another letter to Farel, he says, " We have attempted, but 
 in vain, to change the kind of death — I will tell you when we 
 meet what was the cause of our failure." The sentence was 
 not by the church, but by the civil court, and was unanimous. 
 It is to be remembered that all the Cantons of Switzerland also 
 unanimously approved the sentence — that the meek Melanc- 
 thou, most of the English, as well as the Foreign Reformers — 
 particularly Cranmerand Hall — all approved the putting Serve- 
 tus to death — that the merciful Bucer was so shocked with the 
 heresy that he thought his bov.'els should be torn out ; and let 
 it also be borne on mind, that if Calvin had been an instrument 
 . — which he really was not — of the death of a single heretic, 
 those are not his most appropriate accusers and condemners 
 who extol Cranmer and Whitgift, and above all. Archbishop 
 Laud — men who are justly chargeable with tenfold more severity 
 and bloodshed than Calvin or the entire Presbyterian church 
 ever perpetrated. See Melchior Adamus's Life of Calvin, and 
 Sennebier's Literary History of Geneva, and Toplady's Historic 
 Proof, &c. 
 
 PRESENT STATE OF THE ELDERSHIP IN THE REFORMED 
 
 CHURCHES OF THE CONTINENT AND OF THE 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
 (Referred to in page 83. j 
 
 With the decline of religion on the continent, the Eldership in 
 the Presbyterian churches declined, till, in some cases, it seems 
 to have been almost obliterated. With the revival of evange- 
 lical religion, the office is reviving. In the Canton of Vaud, in 
 Switzerland, where the progress of religion has of late years 
 been most marked, the faithful ministers are busily engaged in 
 reviving this part of the ancient government of the church. 
 It had disappeared under the reign of Socinianism. ' Along 
 
 1 An estimable Swiss Minister expressed his resolution some time ago of 
 translating: the substance of the present little work into German, for th<? 
 use of the Presbjterians of Switzerland and Germany. 
 
 s 
 
206 STATE OF ELDERSHIP IN REFORMED CHDRCIIES 
 
 ^vith this they are recalling the discipline of the church, and 
 guarding its ordinances against pronnisciious admission. 
 
 In the French Protestant church there are nine hundred 
 r.lders, but the footing on which they stand is now quite Eras- 
 tian. The appointment turns on the payment of a certain rate 
 of civil taxes, and is under the control of the government. The 
 oflfice is not a permanent one. A few years ago, Guizot, the 
 present prime minister of France, was a member of the consis- 
 tory, as Elder of the Protestant church of Paris. But even here 
 there is growing improvement. 
 
 In the Dutch church the Eldership appears still to survive in 
 considerable efficiency. The choice is made solely on moral 
 and religious grounds, and substantially the appointment to the 
 pulpitis vested in the (Kirkenraden,) or Kirk-session; but the 
 Session is not only very limited in number, but by law must be 
 so, and the members are changed every two years: at the same 
 time eligible to re-election. As the church revives in her evan- 
 gelical tone — (and it is possible that the Popish movements of 
 the new king, which are calling forth so intense a Protestant 
 feeling, may, in the Providence of God, hasten it) — it is proba- 
 ble that she will extend her Eldership, and add to the spiritual 
 efficiency of the office. 
 
 I rejoice to find that a general, and I trust a vigorous revival 
 is going forward in the Eldership at the Presbyterian church of 
 America. The various little works which have of late years 
 appeared in explanation and defence of the office is itself a good 
 sign and augurs well for the future. In addition to Dr. Mil- 
 ler's Treatise there is a Tract by Dr. Engles, and a discourse 
 by the Rev. Mr. Smyth of Charleston, fitted and intended for 
 extensive circulation. Besides publications on the Eldership, 
 Church courts have of late years taken steps to call the atten- 
 tion of the people under their charge to the importance of the 
 office, such as the Synod of South Carolina and Georgia in 1830, 
 and the Synod of Albany in the same year. As their sugges- 
 tions, at least some of them, may be useful to the Presbyterians 
 of Europe, I subjoin a few extracts. 
 
 The Synod of South Carolina and Georgia in 1837, Resolved, 
 
 " 1 St. That regarding family worship as the duty of all heads of 
 families, and a most delightful Christian privilege, in the dis- 
 charge and enjoyment of which the piety of the members is 
 greatly promoted, and the name of our Lord greatly honoured, 
 this Synod cannot but look upon the neglect or careless per- 
 formance of this duty as a great evil, and deeply affecting the 
 interests of our beloved Sion, they would therefore enjoin it 
 
OF THE CONTINENT AND AMERICA. 207 
 
 upon the ministry and Elders to use every scriptural exertion 
 to correct the evil in question by visiting all such families with- 
 in their respective charges, setting before them the sinfulness of 
 their neglect, and urging them to the faithful performance of duty. 
 
 '2nd. That this Synod, in conformity with the Directory for 
 public worship, regard it as the duty of the Elders of the va- 
 cant church to assemble their charges for public worship statedly 
 on the Lord's day, to lead the worship of the church by prayer, 
 singing, reading the word of God and approved sermons, and 
 that no Elder or church can neglect their duty in this respect 
 without a plain violation of Christian profession and a manifest 
 departure from the requisitions of the gospel. 
 
 3rd. That it be enjoined in all the Presbyteries within our 
 bounds to instruct the Elders of vacant churches to attend dili- 
 gently to the instructions of the children and youth in the know- 
 ledge of the Assembly's Shorter Catechism, as they value the 
 church of our fathers, and desire to perpetuate the pure and 
 unadulterated gospel to the remotest generations." 
 
 The Synod of Albany addressed a letter to all its churches 
 in 1836. They say " In relation to the Eldership the Committee 
 would submit the following plan of operation, which, with such 
 modification as every church may require, might be adopted 
 and recorded in every Session book. 
 
 \st. Let every church determine how many Elders are needed 
 to secure her highest interests. This we conceive will be de- 
 termined by the extent and condition of the church. But there 
 should be no more than as many as are properly qualified. Let 
 the church be sure to get men of deep piety, good common 
 sense, and prudence, with an amiable temper, and then the ob- 
 ject will be obtained. 
 
 2nd. Let each church be districted, and a district be com- 
 mitted to one Elder, and if necessary an assistant, whom he may 
 select. 
 
 Srd. Let each Elder keep a list of members, especially of 
 those belonging to his district, and hold meetings, and visit ac- 
 cording to some rule. System is every thing. We would sug- 
 gest that lie see each member within his district once in three 
 months at least, and enquire how their souls prosper, advise, re- 
 prove, comfort, or exhort, as occasion may require. 
 
 4th. Let a full report of each district be made to the Session 
 every three months without fail, that discipline may be kept 
 up, and order may be preserved. 
 
 oth. Let the pastor, in company with some of the Elders, 
 visit the church and congregation on specified days, in such pro- 
 portion as to go through the whole if possible twice each year. 
 
208 TRACES CF THE RULING ELDER 
 
 The Elders by themselves should visit together two and two, 
 in the intervals between the pii.storal visits. 
 ) Gth. Let the Session hold stated monthly meetings for prayer 
 A and for the arrangement of business. Of the practicability of a 
 4 plan like this, there can be no doubt ; the experiment has been 
 ^ made with perfect success." 
 
 The Synod of Albany rosolved to the following effect. 
 •* That it be specially enjoined on the Eldership of the Synod 
 to co-operate with their pastors in congregational visitation 
 and general supervision of the interests of religion within their 
 churches, such as the nature of their ollice as Ruling Elders of 
 the Presbyterian church was originally intended to secure, and 
 that in those churches which have no pastors the Elders take 
 this duty entirely on themselves." 
 
 TRACES OF THE RULING ELDER IN THE CHURCH OF 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 High church Episcopalians often entertain great contempt for 
 the ollice of Ruling Elder, and express it. The office is quite at 
 variance with their whole system. Its leaning to the popular, 
 and its im|)lication of the exercise of church discipline, have no 
 charms for them, but the reverse. As idolaters however of 
 mere human authority, the olTice has strong claims upon their 
 favourable regards. In the text I have referred to the testi- 
 mony of primitive times, and of the early Protestant church 
 of England. IJut it would seem from the following extracts 
 from Bnrns's Ecclesiastical Law, that something equivalent to 
 the ollice existed prior to the Reformation, and that traces of 
 it still exist in the South. No one who is aware of the total 
 want of discipline in the present Church of England can doubt 
 the importance of such an ollice, and surely if human authority 
 under the name of church authority is pleaded so earnestly and 
 successfully for the revival of trifles, the same authority should 
 not be despised when it suggests what would be a real and 
 important improvement. At least the following quotations 
 should shield Presbyterian churches from the taunts of their 
 Prelatic neighbours, in connexion with the Eldership. " The 
 ancient method, says Burns, was not only for the clergy, but 
 the body of the people within a district, to appear at Synods, 
 or as we now call them general visitations, (for what we now 
 call visitations were really the annual synods — the laws of the 
 church by visitations always meaning visitations parochial,) 
 and the way was to select a certain number at the discretion of 
 
IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 209 
 
 the Ordinary, to give information upon oath concerning the 
 manners of the people within the districts ; which persons the 
 rule of the Canon law upon this head supposes to have been 
 selected while the Synod were sitting. But afterwards, when 
 the body of the people began to be excused from attendance, it 
 was directed in the citation, that four, six, eight, according to 
 the proportion of the district, should appear together with the 
 clergy to represent the rest, and to be the Testes Synodales, as 
 the Canon law elsewhere styles them. But all this, while we 
 find nothing of church-wardens presenting, till a little before 
 the Reformation, when we find the church-wardens begin to be 
 present either by themselves, or with two or three more credi- 
 table parishioners joined with them : and this seems evidently 
 to be the original of that office which our Canons call the office 
 of sidesman or assistant." ' 
 
 This office were certainly but a sorry substitute for that of 
 the Ruling Elder with its various and important permanent 
 functions ; but it shows at least, that even before the Refor- 
 mation, as often as discipline was thought of in the English 
 church men felt that the mere minister alone could never over- 
 take the moral and religious oversight of his district in any thing 
 of a satisfactory manner ; and was obliged to take the aid of 
 parties not clerical. It also appears that the people were in the 
 habit of selecting and sending representatives to Synods, which 
 so far recognises the Presbyterian principle of representation. 
 In another passage the same author, referring to the same kind 
 of officers, has the following historical explanation : — 
 
 " In the ancient Episcopal Synod the bishops were wont to 
 summon divers creditable persons out of every parish, to give 
 information of and to attest the disorders of clergy and people. 
 These were called Testes Synodales, and were in after times a 
 kind of impanneled jury consisting of two, three, or more persons 
 in every parish, who were upon oath to present all heretics and 
 other irregular persons. And these in process of time became stand- 
 ing officers in several places, especially in great cities, and from 
 hence were called Synodsmen, and by corruption Sidesmen. They 
 are also sometimes called Guest-men, from the nature of their 
 office in making enquiry concerning offences." (Probably ghost- 
 men or spiritual-men.) '' But for the most part this whole office 
 is now devolved upon the church-wardens, together with that 
 other office, which their name more properly importeth, of tak- 
 ing care of the church and of the goods thereof, which they 
 had of very ancient time. Every church- warden is also an over- 
 seer of the poor, and as such is joined with the overseers ap- 
 1 Vol. i, p. 408. 
 
210 ON WITCIIGUAFT AH A MATTER OF 
 
 pointed by the Justices of tlu; Peace in ull matters relating 
 to the poor, and indeed tlie clunch wardens were tiie original 
 overseers long before there were any other specially appointed 
 by act of Parliament." 
 
 NOTEH ON WITCIICIIAFT, AS A MATTER OF EOOLESIASTI- 
 CAL DIHCIFLINE. 
 
 (Ilcferred to in jxu/e 152.) 
 
 It is not generally known to what an extent a belief in witch- 
 craft, and in the propriety of severe repressing punishments, 
 prevailed in the ('hristian church generally long before, as well 
 as after the lleformalion — in Popish as well as Protestant 
 countries. About 1515, Delrio, an historian, tells us that 500 
 persons were executed in Ceneva in three n)onths for witchcraft. 
 In the diocese of Como, in Italy, one thousand were executed 
 in a year, and for some time after about one hundred a year. 
 In Lorraine, in fifteen years, ilemigius boasts of nine hundred 
 having bee/i burnt; and in France, about 1520, the numbers 
 were incredible. In (Germany the state of things was fearful. 
 In Wurl/burg, in two years and two months, one hundred and 
 fifty-seven persons suffered — among them were many little chil- 
 dren, aiul not less than fourteen vicars of the cathedral. In a 
 small district (iicindheim) of six hundred persons, not less than 
 thirty, being a twentieth part of the population, were burnt in 
 the four years, IGlIO — 10(14. It is estimated that, putting the 
 Roman Catholic and Protestant provinces of Germany together, 
 there could not have been less, from beginning to end of the 
 delusion, than one hundred thousand sufferers I 
 
 Sad as matters were in IJritain, they were inconsiderable 
 compared with su(;h doings as these — but they were bad enough. 
 IJacon was Meml)er of Parliament, and Coke was Attorney- 
 General when one of the witchcraft statutes was enacted, and Sir 
 Matthew Hale, as judge, passed sentence of death in these cases 
 without a (listinbing scruple, and Sir Thomas Brown was an 
 approving witness ! When such men could not shake them- 
 selves free from the delusion, is it wonderful that Presbyterian 
 Kirk-sessions laboured under its iiilluence ? Grey, the editor 
 of Iludibras, states that he perused a list of 3000 who were 
 executed in England for witchcraft during the reign of the 
 Long Parliament alone. The entire number in that country 
 is estimated by Barrington at .'10,000. 
 
 The records in Scotland have, perhaps, been more thoroughly 
 scrutinised than in any other country, and they are sufliciently 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL DISCIPLINE. 211 
 
 appalling, but the executions do not seem to have exceeded, if 
 they proportionably equalled those of the sister land. From 
 1572, when the first trial for witchcraft appears on the record 
 of the Court of Justiciary, down to 1625, a period of 53 years, 
 there were 35 trials, which almost all terminated in a capital 
 sentence: this is not one in a year. From 1625 to 1640, a 
 period of fifteen years, there are only seven executions — no se- 
 rious number compared with similar proceedings in other coun- 
 tries. From 1640 down to 1649 — the strongest Presbyterian 
 period — though many steps were taken in» connexion with the 
 crime, there does not seem to have been any encrease of execu- 
 tions ; there appears rather to have been a decline — the precise 
 numbers are not given. From 1649 to the Restoration in 1660 
 there is a decided encrease — 29 executions in 12 years — 17 of 
 them at one circuit court; this is nearly 2^ a-year. The num- 
 bers which appear on the Justiciary Records do not in this or 
 in any period in Scotland, whether Episcopal or Presbyterian, 
 describe the whole number of sufferers. Committees of gentle- 
 men in the country were authorised to try and execute; hence 
 the whole number must have been much larger, — but the Jus- 
 ticiary Records may indicate the general encrease or decrease. 
 Though the Government of Charles II in Scotland had their 
 hands full with another and a more fearful persecution.^ — that of 
 the saints of God — yet witchcraft was not neglected by them. 
 The delusion may now in various lands have been giving way, 
 and there may have been intervals of several years in Scotland 
 when there was no execution for witchcraft, but Sir George 
 M'Kenzie, the Lord Advocate of the day, had no favour either 
 for witches or Presbyterians. The first year after the Restora- 
 tion, 1661, there were not less than twenty executions; fourteen 
 commissions for trials were issued by the Privy council in one 
 day ! Other more congenial employment in cruelty, and the 
 growing change of the public mind on the subject, may make 
 some of the twenty-eight years of persecution blank years in 
 the history of witchcraft-executions ; but in 1678 ten poor wo- 
 men were at once convicted on their own confession. All that 
 can be alleged to the discredit of the Kirk-sessions of the Pres- 
 byterian church, and which to some who have not considered 
 the power of prejudice — religious in its aspect — may even seem 
 marvellous, is that a body of men whom the records of the 
 church prove to have been such eminent promoters of popular 
 education, so humane to the poor and the sufiering, and so self- 
 denied and patriotic, did not break through so fearful a delusion, 
 and spare their country the dishonour of such unwarrantable 
 cruelty. In this respect the result only shows, that the same 
 
212 ON WITCHCRAFT, ETC. 
 
 spell which had Vjound the strongest minds of England bound 
 them. None but the most unreasonable will blame them for 
 not being before all the men of their age and of Christendom ; 
 no candid man will, on this account, think less highly of their 
 Christian character and attainments. I have been indebted for 
 the above facts to a long and able article in the Foreign Quar- 
 terly Review for June, 1830, on "Demonology and Witchcraft," 
 to which I refer the reader for further information. In some 
 of the remarks of the writer I cannot concur, but his digest of 
 facts is very important. 
 
 F.rratum. 
 r. xi, line H,for with, read without. 
 
 Piintcd by William Collins, &. Co., Olatigow. 
 
ADDITIONAL PRIZE ESSAY ON MISSIONS. 
 
 THE JUBILEE OF THE ¥OELD, 
 
 AN ESSAY OX CHRISTIAN MISSIONS TO THE HEATHEN. 
 BY THE REV. JOHN MACFARLANE, 
 
 MIMSTER Ot COLLESSIE, FIFESHIKE. 
 
 In a handsome volume royal 12mo, cloth lettered, Qs. 
 
 Published at the Recommendation of Four of the Adjudicators 
 
 of the Missionary Prize Essays, and under the 
 
 Sanction of the Committee. 
 
 Extract from the Recommendation of the Four Adjudicators. 
 
 " They unite in their general estimate of the Essay as one of 
 great worth, and possessing very strong claims on public at- 
 tention." 
 
 Extract from Adjudicators' Preface to Dr. Harris's Essay. 
 
 " By one of the adjudicators the first place was given to a 
 different Essay from either of these (Dr. Harris's and Mr. Ha- 
 milton's,) which also in the judgment of more than one of the 
 rest, competed strongly for the second as a treatise of great 
 excellence. In these circumstances the Committee, desirous 
 to give the cause every possible advantage, resolved on offer- 
 ing a distinct premium to its author, subsequently discovered 
 to be the Rev. John Macfarlane, Minister of the parish of Col- 
 lessie, Fife." 
 
 " Mr. Macfarlane's treatise, to which men of the highest 
 standing in Christian worth and theological literature have 
 borne an unequivocal testimony — adjudging a distinct premium 
 to the writer — consists of three parts. Of these, the first 
 comprehends the objects and the resources of the missionary 
 work. The second is occupied with the duty of Christians 
 towards the heathen, and the manner of its performance. The 
 last part embraces motives and encouragements to promote the 
 diffusion of the gospel. 
 
 " Under these several divisions many weighty topics are 
 presented to the reader, and all of them are discussed with the 
 utmost clearness, precision, and force of reasoning. We have 
 seldom read any work in which the lucidus ordo of thought 
 and feeling is more apparent. There are no impassable chasms 
 between the premises and the conclusions. There are none 
 of those involutions of style, which hang as a dead weight ofi 
 the progress of the reader. There is no ' darkness visible- ' 
 All is transparent as the azure vault of heaven. Many por- 
 tions of the Essay are distinguished by peculiar eloquence and 
 beauty — by 'thoughts that breathe, and words that burn.' " — 
 Scottish Guardian, March 29, 1842. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM COLLINS, GLASGOW. 
 
NEW WORK ON THE HOLY LAND. 
 THE MODERN JUDEA, 
 
 ^ AMMON, MOAB, AND EDOM, 
 COMPARED , WITH ANCIENT PROPHECY: 
 
 WITH NOTEC AXO EMWUriKCK ILLUbTeATlYe OF CIBU .AC SOBiCCTB, AMD 
 
 A MAP CONgTEUCTED EXPREfiSLY FOE THE WOEK. 
 EY THE REF. JAMf:S A, WTLIE, A.M., DOLLAR. 
 
 One thick Uroo Volume Clotli Lettered, Pric* 7t. 
 
 "This is the best' topographical account of Palestine and the 
 cognate countries that has yet appeared in any single volume. 
 It is, in fact, an epitome of all that has been written on the sub- 
 ject by modern travellers. The materials are so compactly put 
 together, so interi?perfeed with original inferences and obser- 
 vations, and so embellished by a vigorous and elegant style, that 
 the book has all the charm of originality." — Edin. Adverther. 
 
 " His painstaking investigations have enabled him not oidy 
 to improve in some respects upon the plan of Dr.'Keitb, but to 
 open new sources of information, to accumulate additional con- 
 firmations of the fulfilment of prophecy. The work is written 
 in a pleasing and attractive style, often rising to a strain of 
 glowing eloquence." — Scoitinh Guardian. 
 
 " A panorama of the Holy Land, with such an accuracy of out- 
 line and beauty of colouring, that we hesitate not to pronounce 
 it the best geography or band-book of that interesting country 
 that exists in our language." — Scotaman. 
 
 .**Mr. Wylie's volume, besides bringing together innumerable 
 proofs of the literal fulfilment of prophecy regarding theexistii.g 
 condition of Palestine, from its descriptions of localities, man- 
 ners, and ceremonies, contributes highly to the eluddation of 
 the sublime and beautiful imagery of the sacred volume." — 
 Kilmarnock Journal. 
 
 *' There are few pages of the volume which do not furnish us, 
 either by incidental allusions or by direct commentary, with 
 beautiful and sometimes very unexpected illustratiorts of Scrip- 
 ture metaphor, imagery, and oriental phraseology. This un- 
 speakably enhances the value of the work, and will render it 
 a most acceptable companion, especially to all our clerical 
 readers." — Dun/lee Warder. 
 
 " Mr. Wylie differs slightly from Dr. Keith as regards the 
 prophecy concerning Ammon, and with seeming justice. , In 
 other respects too his work has the advantage, — the illustrations 
 are fuller and more recent, and though treating on the same 
 subjects, and pointing out the exact fulfilment of the same 
 prophecies, his proofs are nevy^ and forcible," — Relief Jour md. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM COLLINS, GLASGOW. 
 
LECTURES TO YOUNG MEN. 
 
 DELIVERED IN GLASGOW. 
 
 BY MINISTERS OF VARIOUS EVANGELICAL DENOMINATIONS 
 
 Fourth Thousand. \2mo, cloth lettered, 2s. Qd. 
 
 Contents. — T. Importance of the period of Youth.— II. Formation of Cha- 
 racter III. Companions and Habits. — IV. Cultivation of tlie Mind. — V. 
 
 Amusements of Youth VI. The Ett'ects of a due observance of the Sabbath 
 
 on the Alinds and Morals of Youth. — VII. Tlie Reciprocal Duties of Em- 
 ployers and Employed. — VIII. The Claims of Science; its connection with 
 Religion: and the spirit in which it ought to be prosecuted — IX. Tempta- 
 tions of Young Men to Infidelity.— ^X. Claims of Religion on Young Men 
 
 XI. Influence of Young Men on the prospects of Society, and the prosperity 
 of the Chui'cb. 
 
 " We hail with great satisfaction the appearance of this vo- 
 lume. A better work, saving always the Bible, for putting 
 into the hands of young persons, does not exist." — Witness. 
 
 " It would be invidious to particularise where all are so ad- 
 mirable ; but we may be forgiven for mentioning those of Mr. 
 Lee of Campsie (on the cultivation of the mind), Dr. Syming- 
 ton (on the amusements of youth), and Dr. Wardlaw (on the 
 formation of character), as productions of the highest excel- 
 lence, and altogether worthy of the literary and theological at- 
 tainments of their authors." — Scottish Guardian. 
 
 " No young man, able to procure it, (the Lectures) ought to 
 be without a copy. The young man who has no desire to 
 know what is so suitable to his period of life, and comes so 
 fully and directly home to his business and his bosom, or no 
 heart to feel the powerful appeals here made to him, is truly 
 an obiect of pity." — Secession Magazine, JVov. 1841. 
 
 " These Lectures are admirably fitted to promote the best 
 interests of a most important class of the community, and thus 
 to confer a blessing on the Church and the nation. We re- 
 gard the design of the Lectures as highly valuable." Cove- 
 nanter." 
 
 Ill the Press, 
 
 LECTURES TO YOUNG MEN. 
 
 SECOND SERIES. 
 
 Contents.— I. On the importance of the season of youth in the formation of 
 character ; and the responsibiUty of man as capable of self-government and 
 called to the cultivation of active habits.— II. Religion the noblest object of 
 study to the intelligent and immortal mind. — III. Selt-education IV. Cha- 
 racter; its paramount influence on the hajipiness of individuals, aiid the 
 destinies of society.— V. and VI. Geology ; the accordance of its estabhshed 
 
 Srinciples with the Mosaic record. 1. The Creation. '2, The Deluge VII. 
 n the peculiar dangers to which young men are exposed VIII. linport- 
 
 ance of Knowledge wlien made subservient to man's highest interests.— IX. 
 Responsibility of the young men of the present age, arismg out of the facili- 
 ties attbrded them for mei\tal cultivation. — X. Aloral influence of Modern Li- 
 terature. (Prose.) — XI. iloral influence of Modern Literature, (Poetry.) 
 
 PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM COLLINS, GLASGOW. 
 
TWELVE LECTURES 
 
 ON THE PAST HISTORY, PRESENT CONDITION, 
 AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THE JEWS. 
 
 BT MIHlftTEBS OF THE CHURCH OF 8C0TLA9D. 
 
 Second Ttunuand. 12 mo Cloth Lettered, 4». 6 J. 
 
 CONI 
 
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 -T. In 
 
 tro'! 
 
 'ir;Y>rvlA^:*-:r'i. 
 
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 ;;f,f; iLdtt 
 
 <A the Cbrijstiaa Cbarcb io relatloa to Lsrael— Annwer to Objecti/^n*. 
 
 " Cbristiang need to be informed respecting the Jews, — and 
 they need to V>e stirred up to pray and exert themselves for 
 their conversion. A better bor>k for enlarging their under- 
 standing, and operating upon their hearts, they cannot procure 
 than the present." — Orthodox Preihyterian. 
 
 " An exhibition of the plans and purposes of God in reference 
 to that singular people, as employed in the Bible. This is the 
 great object of the volum? before us, and we are gratified to 
 be able to say that the authors have well acquitted themselves 
 of the labour they undert^>ok. Indeed, we are not sure if thnt 
 we could say anything more effective in praise of the volume, 
 than that it is the joint production of Ministers of the Estab- 
 lished Church, — men whose praise U in all the Churches." — 
 Scottish Guurdian." 
 
 LETTERS or TiiE REV. DR. LOVE, 
 
 OF AXDEBSTOX, GLASGOW. 
 TJiird Thjumnd. l2roo Cloth Lettered, on. 
 
 " Seldom have we peru^ted letters evincing such a degree 
 of spirituality, or breathing a holier tone. They refresh |tbc 
 soul with the fragrance of a piety which is but rarely represented 
 to the view in these times of turbulence and tumult." — Ortho- 
 dox Preahyte-rian. 
 
 " The^e Letters will be found to form a very valuable acces- 
 0ll»n indeed to an interesting part of the Christian treasury, 
 taking their place with the letters of Rutherford, Newton, Bo- 
 maine, and Hervey." — Christian Imiructor. 
 <*■ 
 
 PUBLISHED Bt WILLIAM COLLINS, GLASGOW.