Hymns, has been introduced into this Church of late years, by permission of the General Assembly.

DISCIPLINE, AND CHURCH GOVERNMENT.The discipliue of the Church of Scotland, though now somewhat relaxed, was never so rigorous as that of Geneva, the Church on whose model it was formed." In that temperate exercise of discipline which the general practice of the Church of Scotland recognises as congenial to her constitution, care is taken," says Dr. Hill," to avoid every appearance of intermeddling officiously with those matters that fall under the cognisance of the civil magistrate; no solicitude is ever discovered to engage in the investigation of secret wickedness; counsel, private admonition, and reproof, are employed in their proper season; and the public censures of the church are reserved for those scandalous sins which bring reproach upon religion, which give offence to the Christian Society, and which cannot be overlooked without the danger of hardening the sinner, of emboldening others to follow his example, and of disturbing and grieving the minds of many worthy Christians."*

It was formerly the practice to oblige fornicators to present themselves in the Kirk, for three different Sundays, on a bench, known by the name of the Stool of Repentance, when they were publicly rebuked by their minister, in the face of the congregation; but this punishment is now frequently changed into a pecuniary fine, though seldom, I am told, by conscientious clergymen. For this

* Theological Institutes, p. 254, 5.

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change, however, there seems to be no law; and the old practice of publicly rebuking fornicators and adulterers, though very much disliked and cried down by the gentry, &c. is still continued, I believe, in a great majority of the parishes of Scotland. In Edinburgh it is entirely discontinued, because believed to be impracticable; but in Glasgow, Paisley, Stirling, and other towns, the old discipline is still maintained, and those who do not choose to submit to it are excommunicated, or are deprived of what are called Christian privileges.By the discipline of the church, a parent who is under public scandal is disqualified from presenting his child for baptism, till such time as his character is cleared up, or he has satisfied the Kirk; but as it sometimes happens that this does not soon take place, and in the mean time the child is refused the benefit of baptism, this practice is disapproved of by many, as having the appearance of punishing the children for the iniquity of the parents.

With regard to Church Government-of the societies at present formed upon the Presbyterian model, it may safely be affirmed, that the Church of Scotland is by much the most respectable; a short view of her constitution may not therefore be unacceptable to the reader, and hers may be considered as the fairest specimen, now existing, of Presbyterian church government in general.*

* Mr. Whitfield is said to have considered the national Church of Scotland to be "the best constituted church upon earth;" an expression certainly not the most complimentary to the Church from which he himself received his orders.

In this Church, every regulation of public worship, every act of discipline, and every ecclesiastical censure, which in Episcopal Churches flows from the authority of a diocesan bishop, or from a convocation of the clergy, is the joint work of a certain number of ministers and laymen acting together with equal authority, and deciding every question by a plurality of voices.

The laymen, who thus form an essential part of the ecclesiastical courts of Scotland, are called Elders, and Ruling Elders; but, though they have the same name, it does not appear that they hold the same office with the elders mentioned by St. Paul in 1 Tim. v. &c.; for these last "laboured in the word and doctrine."

The number of elders is proportioned to the extent and population of the parish; and few parishes, except where the unpopularity of the minister has induced most of the people to secede, have fewer than two or three.

In Edinburgh, every parish has 12 elders. The Canongate parish has betwixt 20 and 30, and the West Kirk, or St. Cuthbert's, which is the most populous parish in Scotland, (containing within its bounds from 30 to 35,000 souls) has above 50.

These elders are grave and sober persons, chosen from among the heads of families, of known orthodoxy and steady adherence to the worship, discipline, and government of the Kirk. Being so

lemnly engaged to use their utmost endeavours for the suppression of vice, and the cherishing of piety and virtue, and to exercise discipline faithfully and diligently, the minister, in the presence of the congregation, sets them apart to their office by solemn prayer, and concludes the ceremony, which is called ordination, with exhorting both elders and people to their respective duties.

This office, in many respects, resembles that of the Church-wardens in the Church of England, but the lay elders seem to possess more spiritual jurisdiction than the Church-wardens in their respective parishes.*

The Kirk Session, which is the lowest ecclesiastical judicatory, or court, consists of the minister and those elders of the congregation. The minister is, ex officio, moderator, but has no negative voice over the decision of the session; nor indeed has he a right to vote at all, unless when the voices of the elders are equal and opposite. He may, indeed, enter his protest against their sentence, if he think it improper, and appeal to the judgment of the presbytery; but this privilege belongs equally to every elder, as well as to every person who may believe himself aggrieved by the proceedings of the session.

The next judicatory is the Presbytery, which consists of all the pastors, within a certain district, and one ruling elder from each parish, commissioned by his brethren to represent, in con

See the Article Presbyterianism, above, Vol. II,

junction with the minister, the session of that parish. The Presbytery treats of such matters as concern the particular churches within its bounds, as the examination, admission, ordination, and censuring of ministers; the licensing of probationers, rebuking of gross or contumacious sinners, the directing the sentence of excommunication, the deciding upon references and appeals from kirk sessions, resolving cases of conscience, explaining difficulties in doctrine or discipline, and censuring, according to the word of God, any heresy or erroneous doctrine, which hath either been publicly or privately maintained within the bounds of its jurisdiction. But that part of the constitution of this church which gives an equal vote, in questions of heresy, to an illiterate mechanic and his learned pastor, has not been universally approved, but has been considered by some as having been the source of much trouble to many a pious clergyman, who, from the laudable desire of explaining the scriptures, and declaring to his flock all the counsel of God, has employed a variety of expressions, of the same import, to illustrate those articles of faith, which may be obscurely expressed in the established standards. The fact however is, that, in Presbyteries, the only prerogatives which the pas

* In this Church no one is ordained by imposition of hands, till he has a presentation to a parish, or cure of souls, so that probationers are those who have merely a license to preach; and it is remarkable that such young men (unless appointed helpers and successors to any minister) are allowed no pecuniary acknowledgment for their occasional trouble in that way.

They have not the same authority with deacons in the Church of England, for they can neither baptise nor marry,