Every regulation of public worship, every act of discipline, and every ecclesiastical censure, is the joint work of a certain number of ministers and laymen acting together with equal authority, and deciding every question by majority. The laymen of these courts are called elders, and ruling elders; but they do not labour in the word and doctrine. These elders are chosen from among the heads of families, of known orthodoxy and steady adherence to the worship, discipline, and government of the Church. Being solemnly engaged to use their utmost endeavour 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 with exhorting both elders and people to their respective duties.
The lowest ecclesiastical court, called the Church Session, consists of the ministers and elders. The minister is moderator, but has no power to decide against the Session, nor any right to vote, except when the voices of the elders are equal and opposite. He may enter his protest against their sentence, and appeal to the judgment of the Presbytery; but this privilege belongs equally to every other member 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. The Presbytery treats of such matters as concern the particular churches within its bounds; as the examination, admission, ordination, and censuring of
