mittee is appointed for receiving ex officio moderator and clerk of such overtures as it is proposed to submit to the consideration of the synod, and for judging, whether or not they should be transmitted. Another committee is appointed for like purposes in regard to bills, references, and appeals. The chief business of the synod is thus prepared by these committees, and can come to it only through them. Committees are also appointed to revise such presbytery books as are laid on the table, it being the law of the church that every presbytery within the bounds shall produce its registers to the provincial sy nod to have them examined and attested.* Other committees are appointed as the synod sees cause, in order to simplify or expedite its business. The clerk gives notice of the reports received from presbyteries respecting students to be taken on probationary trials, and these are ordered to be considered at the next sederunt. If presbytery clerks fail to forward the extract of a student's certificates, it is competent for the student himself, or any mem. ber of synod, to lay the extract before the synod. The extract may be presented at any diet of the synod which is not the last.† Intimation is publicly made of the time at which the next diet is to commence, before the adjourn. ment takes place. Committees. The committees meet in the interval between the diets. The moderator and clerk are * Act 9, Assembly 1700. the committee for overtures. The other committees choose their own moderators and clerks. Petitions are presented to the committees for overtures and bills, along with any papers which it is desired to bring under the notice of the synod, praying that the same may be transmitted. It is competent for these committees to refuse to transmit any papers, the contents of which they do not approve of, or with which they deem it unnecessary to occupy the time of the synod; and when there is any informality in the mode of presenting or drawing up the papers, it is their duty to refuse to transmit them. But the parties who lodge the papers have the right of appeal, and so may bring the conduct of the committees, and ultimately the subject matter of the papers, before the synod. The committees draw up regular minutes, in which they state particularly the whole of their transactions, and these mi. nutes constitute their report to the synod. The committees for revising pres. bytery registers commence their revision from the last attestation of the synod, and name in their report the page or date from which they begin, and the page or date to which they bring down that revision. They have to observe not only that the registers are exact and well kept, but also whether there is any thing truly censurable in them, and in itself material with respect to discipline, and if there appears to the synod to be such censurable matter, it is re. corded as censured both in the synod book and in the attestation.* A form of attestation, where there is nothing censurable, is given in act 9, assembly 1700. The report of the committees for re. vising registers is presented in writing, and signed by the members. Second diet of synod. - At the next diet of the synod, after the minutes of the former meeting have been read, the extracts of the certificate or certificates laid before presbyteries in favor of students proposed for probationary trials are read, and the synod judges of the expediency of allowing the several presbyteries to admit the different students to trials. The report of the committee for overtures is then called for, and whatever it contains for the discussion of the synod is first taken up. When overtures are transmitted by a synod or a presbytery to the general assembly, it is usual to appoint the members of the synod or the presbytery who may be members of assembly, to support the overtures in that venerable court. But these members of synod or of presbytery are not thereby placed at the bar of the assembly. In the discussion of overtures there are no parties. All the members of assembly have the same right to speak and to vote upon the subject of any overtures that are introduced, only through courtesy: those members who are connected with the quarters from which overtures have originated, are generally allowed to speak first, and to ex * Act 9, Assembly 1700. Act 9, Assembly 1706. See Section 1. Minutes plain the grounds upon which the overtures have been transmitted. The report of the committee for bills is next called for, and the references, complaints, or appeals from presbyteries, or private par. ties, are severally heard and de. termined. Then, in succession, the reports of the committees for revising presbytery registers, and of the other committees that may have been appointed, are taken under consideration. In Privy censures. Privy cen. sures are enjoined in all the infe. rior church courts, and in former times were duly attended to. synods each presbytery was re. moved in succession; the remaining members conferred about the conduct of the absent presbytery, in so far as it was known to them; and admonition, if it appeared necessary, was given in the spirit of brotherly love to the presbyte. ry when it was again called in. The practice of privy censures has now gone into disuse, although notice is taken of them, it is be. lieved, at every meeting of synod. It would be more becoming to omit the notice of them altogether, than to profess to delay them from one meeting of synod to another, without any intention of ever resuming them. When the business of the synod is finished, a committee is ap. pointed to revise the minutes be. fore they are written out in mundo. Intimation is publicly made of the time when the next meet. ing of synod is to be held, and of the place of its meeting; and the moderator closes the synod with prayer.* The proceedings or minutes of * Pardovan's Collections, Book i. Title 14. every synod must be signed by both the moderator and the clerk thereof. And synod books, completely filled up, are required to be produced yearly to the general assembly in order to their being revised.* The clerk and the officers of the synod are of its own appoint ment. Pro re natâ meeting.-Meetings of synod pro re natâ are occasion. ally, but very rarely held. The act of assembly 1647, asserts the right of assembling synodically as well pro re natâ as at ordinary times. There are instances in which such meetings have been held by appointment of the gene ral assembly. In one case a party was empowered by it for a pro re natâ meeting of synod, if he saw meet. In another case the meeting was to be called on the application of any three minis. ters. It appears from the records of the synod of Glasgow and Ayr that in very few instan. ces was a pro re nata meeting held, in which power had not been previously given by the sy. nod to call such a meeting. And it appears farther from these records, that, in every instance, except one, the pro re natâ meeting was held with the same forms, and in the same manner, as an ordinary meeting of synod. The members of every presby. tery within the bounds being supposed to be present at the synod, it is competent for any of the presbyteries to hold a special meeting, under the authority of Act 11, 1698. † Assembly 1724, Sess. 6, M'Cormick, Synod of Fifc. Assembly 1730, Sess. 13, Chalmers, Synod of Aberdeen. the synod, intimation being publicly given of the meeting at some one of the diets of synod. (To be continued.) THE DISCIPLINE OF THE REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. [An overture recommended by synod.] INTRODUCTION. Discipline is the exercise of the power, with which the constituted authorities of the church are in-. vested, for the direction of the principles and behavior of church members. It is by the divine in stitution intimately connected with the doctrine, the worship, and the government of the church. The holy Jerusalem lieth four-square. All these parts of a well organized church meet, and confer, like the four sides of a square, order and beauty on the space which they inclose. Not one of them can be complete without the others. The doctrine of the church embraces, as articles of faith, the constitu. tion of government, ordinances of worship, and the principles of dis. cipline. Government is the power which the Head of the church has appointed, in order to preserve the doctrine pure, to maintain the ordinances entire, and to exercise faithfully the discipline. The worship also must be conducted in agrecableness with the other three great parts of the ecclesiastical system; and the discipline of the church promotes and preserves the edification of its members, according to the established government, worship, and doctrine. This is the law of the house, and no society has a right to expect the divine blessing in the ne. glect or violation of it. Experi. ence shows, in too many instances, that discipline is never neglected by a church without being speedi. ly followed with corruption of worship, of power, and of doc. trine. We are urged by the most forcible considerations to the vigi. lant, prompt, and impartial exercise of the discipline of the church. The present state of the church in America, requires the greatest delicacy and discernment in the rulers, who would so exercise the authority with which they are invested. Much must be left to the discretion of these rulers in applying general rules to particular cases, But the general rules must be provided. THE BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. Embraces rules for the reception of church members for the direction of their conduct; for the correction of scandals for the exclusion of the unworthy and for the readmission of excluded penitents. CHAPTER 1.-ADMISSION OF MEM- those persons, nevertheless, who have received power from the Head of the church as rulers in Zion, alone belongs the exercise of ecclesiastical authority in the organization of churches. 2. Two or more persons or families meeting, any where in this world, and agreeing in the profession and practice of the true religion, may associate for its maintenance, and in the use of whatever means of acquiring and communicating information they regularly possess, admit others who shall agree with them into their fellowship. saints is a private church, and are to be recognised by ministers as a part of the visible church of God. Such a society of : SECTION Π.-THE MANNER OF RE- 1. Although in every organized congregation, the church session alone has the power of admitting members; yet, those persons intending to apply for communion, or who are desirous to make inquiry into the order of our church, The formation of a church the manner of may previously be admitted to receiving members into an organized church SECTION I.-OF THE FORMATION 1. The visible church, being a people called of God by the revelation of his grace to a cove. nant relation with himself in Jesus Christ, is the body to which the promises are made, and teach. ers are given; and accordingly exists previously to a regular organization under officers. To worship in some one of the private societies of the congregation. 2. The children of a parent or parents in the communion of the church, are by birthright mem. bers, and are to be publicly admitted by baptism; and the infant children of those parents who join the church, are admitted along with their parents. All who are unbaptized, whether adults or infants, are to be publicly recog. which has been administered by nised by baptism, and that baptism a minister of Christ is valid, and in the presence and with the help not to be repeated. SECTION III.---THE QUALIFICATIONS NECESSARY FOR ADMIS SION. 1. All those who are born of Christian parents, and have enjoyed the means of Christian knowledge, are to be considered as within the pale of the visible catholic church: But such are the divisions among professed Christians, and the diversities in doctrine and practice of different denominations, and even in the different congregations of the same denomination, that no line can be drawn by which it can be ascertained that some should be admitted into this church without personal examination, and others excluded. 2. Every thing commendable in the doctrine and order of other churches shall be encouraged and supported; but no testimonial, except what is given by some part of this church, shall be consider ed as sufficient ground for the ad. mission of a church member, with out personal examination: nor shall any censure except that of this church be sustained as suffi. cient ground of exclusion, without an examination of its merits. Censures, which are found, on ex. amination, to have been justly inflicted shall be recognized, and no fugitive from regular discipline shall be encouraged: but those censures, which are inflicted through partiality or caprice, or are any way tyrannical or unfaithful, shall not be respected in the decisions of this church. 3. The minister shall examine, of the elders of the church, all applicants for admission into the church, upon their knowledge. piety and morality, and no one shall be admitted unless such examination proves satisfactory to a majority of the session. 4. The measure of knowledge necessary for admission, depends in some degree, on the capacity and opportunities of improvement which the applicant may possess: but no one shall be admitted who is ignorant of the first principles of the system of grace, or holds any sentiments contrary to the declaration and testimony of this church. Every one who is able to read and understand the terms of communion, and the documents to which they refer, must give evidence that he has diligently read, and that he doth approve of them. 5. Great prudence and delicacy are necessary in examination of an applicant's piety, as no man can ascertain whether another is really a believer; but the church is a holy generation, and cannot consistently admit any one evidently destitute of piety, or who professes to be unregenerate. Every member must give satisfactory evidence of his living in the practice of secret prayer and family religion; and must intelligently profess both, respect for experimental godliness, and acquiescence in the plan of salva. tion revealed in the holy scrip. tures. 6. Church members are sinners who have been called to be saints, and must therefore give evidence of their morality. The testimony of respectable neigh |