presbyterIan

& s. [Eng. presbyter; -ian; Fr. presbytérien ; Sp. & Ital. presbiteriano .] A. As adjective : 1. Pertaining or relating to a presbyter. 2. Pertaining to presbyters as governors in a church; pertaining to church government or discipline by presbyteries. "An act was prepared for securing the presbyterian government."-Burnet: Own Times (1706). 3. Pertaining to presbyterianism or its supporters; belonging to the Presbyterian church. B. As substantive: Church Hist. & Ecclesiol . ( pl .): Those who believe that the government of the church by means of presbyters is founded on and agreeable to the word of God. They hold that presbyter (elder) and bishop are different names for the same ecclesiastical "This contagion might have been presaged upon consideration of its precursors." Harvey: On Consumption, 3. To have a presentiment of; to foresee prophetically. 4. To point out beforehand; to indicate, as a road functionary (cf. Acts xx. 17, 28, R. V., Phil. i. 1. .); or path. "Then seek this path that I to thee presage." Spenser. F. Q., 1. x. 61. *B. Intransitive: 1. To form or utter a prediction; to prophesy. "The art of presaging is, in some sort, the reading of natural letters denoting order."-Stewart: Human Mind , vol. ii., § 1. 2. To feel or have a foreboding or presentiment of ill. "He said, and pa 'd, with sad presaging heart, To seek his spouse, his soul's far dearer part." Pope : Homer's Iliad , vi. 462. prě-sāģe'-fül, a. [Eng. presage : -ful ( l ).] Full of presages or forebodings; ominous. Savage: Wanderer, v. "No sad presageful thought preluded fate." †prě-sāģe-ment, s . [Eng. presage; -ment.] 1. The act or power of presaging; a foretelling, a prediction. "Not beyond his presagement." -Browne: Vulgar Errors, bk. i., ch. x. 2. That which is presaged; a presage, an omen. "I have spent some enquiry whether he had any ominous presagement before his end." -Reliquiæ Wottonianæ, p. 234. that, consequently, every presbyter is a bishop, and on a footing of equality with his other brethren in the eldership. Presbyters are divided into two cla es-teaching and ruling elders (1 Tim. v. 17). The former are popularly called "ministers," the latter "elders," or "lay-elders;" but, theoretically, both hold spiritual office. The government is by means of four courts of judicature, rising consecutively in dignity and authority. The lowest, called the "Se ion" [KIRK SESSION], rules over the congregation in all spiritual matters; while finance, being deemed more secular, is relegated to deacons or managers. Above the Se ion is the Presbytery (q. v.). Above this again is a Synod for a certain district. Highest of all is the General A embly. The minister of a congregation presides ex officio in the Se ion, and non-ministerial elders are ineligible for the Moderatorship of the Presbytery, Synod, and A embly. A Presbyterian denomination stands to an Episcopal one nearly in the same relation as a republic to a monarchy. The Waldensian church was constituted on an e entially presbyterian model. The system was partially introduced into Switzerland in 1541, and its discipline was subsequently carried out by Calvin with iron firmne at Geneva. The first French Synod met in Paris in 1559, the first Dutch Synod at Dort in 1574. The Hungarian and various other continental Protestant churches are also Presbyterian. The system thoroughly rooted itself in Scotland, the first General A embly being held there in 1560. [CHURCH OF SCOTLAND.] The same year a presbytery was formed in Ireland, at Carrick fer gus [SYNOD OF ULSTER], sin, aş; expect, Xenophon, exist. ph = f. Presbyterian-baptists and in 1572 one in England, at Wands worth. In 1646-7 the Church of England was reconstituted on a presbyterian basis, but in 1660 was again made episcopal. [CHURCH OF ENGLAND.] The clergymen who had to leave the English Church, in 1662, owing to the Act of Uniformity, were mainly Presbyterians. A number of the congregations which they founded ultimately lapsed first into Arianism, and then into Soc in i an ism, retaining the name Presbyterian after they had abandoned the form of government. But the great ma of the American and British Presby terians are strongly Trinitarian. They hold the Bible to be the sole rule of belief, and the Confes sion of Faith their chief, or their only, human standard. The first presbytery in the United States met at Philadelphia in 1705. There are now powerful Presbyterian churches in various parts of the world, the number of communicants in this country reaching to nearly a million and a half. Presbyterian-baptists, s . pl. Eccles.: A small Baptist denomination under presbyterian government. prěş-by-tër-i-an-Ism, subst. [English presby terian; -ism.] The doctrines, tenets, or discipline of the Presbyterians. "The Whig scheme would end in Presbyterianism ."Add is on: Freeholder , No. 54. *prěş-by-tër-i-an-ly, adv . [Eng. presbyterian ; -ly.] Toward, or in favor of, presbyterianism; with the principles of presbyterianism. "This person, tho' presbyterianly affected, yet he had the king's ear."- Wood : An then a Oxon., vol. ii. *prěş-by-těr-Işm, s . [English presbyter ; -ism .] Presbyterianism. "Presbyterianism was disdained by the king."- Hacket : Life of Williams , ii. 197. *prěş-být-er-ite, s . [Eng. presbyter; -ite.] A presbytery; a body of elders, whether priests or laymen. "The distinct order of presbyte rite ." -Jeremy Taylor: Episcopacy A erted , ix. 1.