NATURE, AND FUNCTIONS,

OF

RULING ELDERS;

WHEREIN IT IS SHOWN

FROM THE TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE, THE FATHERS, AND
THE REFORMERS,

THAT

RULING ELDERS ARE NOT PRESBYTERS OR BISHOPS;

AND THAT,

AS REPRESENTATIVES OF THE PEOPLE, THEIR OFFICE OUGHT TO BE
TEMPORARY.

AUTHOR OF

WITH

AN APPENDIX,

ON THE USE OF THE TITLE BISHOP.

BY

THOMAS SMYTH, D. D.,

"

LECTURES ON THE APOSTOLICAL SUCCESSION," PRESBYTERY AND NOT
PRELACY THE SCRIPTURAL AND PRIMITIVE POLITY, ETC.

PUBLISHED:

NEW-YORK, MARK H. NEWMAN, ROBERT CARTER, LEAVITT, TROW AND CO., AND
WILEY AND PUTNAM; PHILADELPHIA, PERKINS AND PURVES, AND WILLIAM

S. MARTIEN; CINCINNATI, WEED AND WILSON; PITTSBURGH, THOMAS

CARTER ; BOSTON, CROCKER AND BREWSTER; LONDON,

WILEY AND PUTNAM; EDINBURGH, W. P. KENNEDY;

BELFAST, WILLIAM M'COMB.

1845.

ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845,

BY LEAVITT, TROW & COMPANY,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New-York.

J. F. TROW & CO., PRINTERS,

33 Ann-Street, N. Y.

4-5-322WB

Jiht
Tappan Presb. Ass,

3-14-1932

WITH PECULIAR EMOTIONS OF HOPE AND JOY,

THE AUTHOR

ASSOCIATES WITH THIS VOLUME THE NAMES

OF

WILLIAM DEARING, HUGH WILSON, WILLIAM YEADON,
WILLIAM C. DUKES, D. W. HARRISON, WILLIAM
ADGER, AND WILLIAM HARRALL.{

THE CHURCH OVER WHICH THEY PRESIDE,
MAY THEIR NAMES, THROUGHOUT ETERNITY,

Be Associated with its Spiritual Advancement,

AND BEING NOW

FOUND WISE TO WIN SOULS TO CHRIST,

MAY THEY THEN

SHINE AS STARS IN THE FIRMAMENT

OF

HEAVEN.