Lord, and admonish you; and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake."

If an aggrieved brother should tell the story of his wrongs to each individual communicant, he would not thereby tell it to the church judicially, so that cognizance could be taken of the affair. It is to the church, acting by her proper or-, gans, and to her overseers, met as a judicatory, that he must bring his charge, if he would have discipline exercised in such a way as God empowered his church to exercise it.

The general assembly is the highest judicatory in the Presbyterian church, and is constituted by an equal number of teaching and ruling elders, elected by each presbytery annually, and specially commissioned to deliberate, vote, and determine, in all matters which may come before that body. Each presbytery may send one bishop and one ruling elder to the assembly: each presbytery, having more than twelve ministers, may send two ministers and two ruling elders, and so, in the same proportion, for every twelve ministerial

members.

Every Presbyterian church elects its own pastor; but, to secure the whole church against insufficient, erroneous, or immoral men, it is provided that no church shall prosecute any call, without first obtaining leave from the presbytery under whose care that church may be; and that no licentiate, or bishop, shall receive any call, but through the hands of his own presbytery.

Any member of the Presbyterian church may be the subject of its discipline; and every member, if he judges himself injured by any portion of the church, may, by appeal, or complaint, carry his cause up from the church session to the presbytery, from the presbytery to the synod, and from the synod to the general assembly, so as to obtain the decision of the whole church, met by representation in this high judicatory.

Evangelical ministers of the gospel, of all denominations, are permitted, on the invitation of a pastor, or of the session of a vacant church, to preach in their pulpits; and any per

son, known properly, or made known to a pastor or session, as a communicant in good, regular standing, in any truly Christian denomination of people, is, in most of their churches, affectionately invited to occasional communion. They wish to have Christian fellowship with all the redeemed of the Lord, who have been renewed by his Spirit; but, in ecclesiastical government and discipline, they ask and expect the coöperation of none but Presbyterians. See Statistics.

CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS.

In the year 1800, a very great revival of religion took place within the bounds of the synod of Kentucky, in consequence of which, a greater number of new congregations were formed than it was possible to supply with regularlyeducated ministers. To remedy this evil, it was resolved to license men to preach who were apt to teach, and sound in the faith, though they had not gone through any course of classical study. This took place at the Transylvania presbytery; but, as many of its members were dissatisfied with the proposed innovation, an appeal was made to the synod, which appointed a commission to examine into the circumstances of the case, the result of whose report was, a prohibition of the labors of uneducated ministers, which led the opposite party to form themselves into an independent presbytery, which took its name from the district of Cumberland, in which it was constituted.

As to the doctrinal views, they occupy a kind of middle ground between Calvinists and Arminians. They reject the doctrine of eternal reprobation, and hold the universality of redemption, and that the Spirit of God operates on the world, or as coëxtensively as Christ has made the atonement, in such a manner as to leave all men inexcusable.

The Cumberland Presbyterians have about 550 churches and ministers, and about 70,000 members. They have a college at Cumberland, Ky.

EPISCOPALIANS.

THAT form of Church polity, in which the ministry is divided into the three orders of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, each having powers and duties, distinct from the others, the Bishops being superior to the Priests and Deacons, and the immediate source of all their authority, is called EPISCOPACY, and those who adhere to this polity, are called EPISCOPALIANS. It is believed, by Episcopalians, that the Savior, when upon earth, established a Church, or Society, of which He was the Ruler and Head, and with which He promised to be, till the end of the world. They believe, that, during the forty days in which He remained upon earth, after His resurrection, "speaking" to His disciples "of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God," He gave them such directions for the government and management of this Society, or Church, as were necessary; which directions, they implicitly followed and that, from their subsequent practice, these directions of the Savior, whatever they may have been, are to be ascertained.

"That it was the design of our blessed Redeemer to continue a ministry in the Church, after His ascension, is a truth, for which we ask no better proof, than that furnished by the narratives of the Evangelists, and the practice of the Apostles. If, then, a ministry, divinely authorized, was to exist, it is equally evident, that it would assume some definite form. It would consist, either of a single grade of office, in which every person ordained would have an equal share in its functions and prerogatives; or, of two, three, or more grades, distinguished from each other by degrees of authority and peculiarities of duty." There must, also, exist, somewhere, the power of transmitting the ministry, by ordination. Among those, who suppose there is but one grade of office, this power is lodged in every minister. By Episcopalians, the power is confined to the highest order of the

ministry, the Bishops.

It is evident, that the Savior

could not have established both these different modes; and therefore both cannot possibly be correct. To sup

pose, that He, who is the Fountain of all wisdom, could have been the Author of such inevitable disorder, a kind of disorder which must ever keep the axe at the root of that unity for which He prayed, is not only an absurdity, but an opinion equally repudiated by all parties." "It is manifest," therefore, "that whatever may prove itself to be THE form of ministry, established and authorized by Jesus Christ, every other must be altogether void of such authority, and based simply on human appointment."

That this Church, or Society, might endure, it must be provided with a well-arranged organization, or form of gov ernment, and consist of officers and members. No society can exist, without this; and the powers and duties of the officers should be well defined, and so adjusted, as to promote, in the best manner, the permanent good of the society. That this Society might endure forever, some provision must be made for the renewal of its officers, so that, when any were taken away, by death, their places might be supplied with suitable successors. That the Savior made all necessary provision for these purposes, there can be no doubt; and that the organization which He directed His Apostles to establish, was Episcopal, is easily susceptible of proof.

Throughout the Bible, different orders in the ministry are recognized or referred to. Under the Jewish dispensation, (which, be it remembered, was established by God Himself,) there were the three orders of High Priest, Priests, and Levites. When the Savior was upon earth, He was the visible Head of the Church, the "Bishop and Shepherd of our souls," — and the Apostles and seventy Disciples were the other two orders. After his ascension, the Apostles became the visible heads of the Church, the lower orders being Bishops, (called also Priests or Presbyters, and Elders,) and Deacons. When the Apostles were called hence, their successors did not assume the name or title of Apostle, but took that of

Bishop, which thenceforth was applied exclusively to the highest order of the ministry, the other two orders being the Presbyters (Priests or Elders) and Deacons. Thus it has continued to the present day.

It is worthy of remark, that "early writers have been careful to record the ecclesiastical genealogy or succession of the Bishops, in several of the principal Churches. Thus, we have catalogues of the Bishops of Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome, &c.; though it does not appear that the Presbyters and Deacons of those Churches were honored with any similar notice." In like manner, catalogues of temporal Rulers are preserved, when the names of officers subordinate to them are suffered to pass into oblivion. It is easy to trace back the line of Bishops, by name, from our own day, up to the Apostles themselves.

There is no ancient writer on ecclesiastical matters, who does not speak of the division of the ministry into different and distinct Orders, and of certain individuals as Bishops of particular Churches; or who mentions, as existing at the same time, and in the same Churches, any other persons by the same name of Bishops.

But, it is to be observed, that it is not only necessary that a Church should preserve the true Order in the Ministry, but also that it retain the true faith. For a true faith and true

Order are both necessary to constitute a Church. All the heretical sects of the ancient Church had the Apostolic Ministry; but, when they departed from the true faith, they were excluded from the communion of the Church. "The Arians, the Donatists, the Novatians, &c. &c., were all Episcopal in their Ministry, and in this respect differed in nothing from the Orthodox Catholic Church. Their grand error lay in the want of that union of Order and Faith, which are essential to the being of a Church."

An external commission, conveyed by Episcopal consecration or ordination, is considered necessary to constitute a lawful ministry; and it is therefore declared, by the Church, that "no man shall be accounted or taken to be a lawful