membership of a congregation] is so great that they cannot conveniently meet in one place, it is expedient that they be divided according to the respective bounds of their dwellings into distinct and fixed congregations for the better administration of such ordinances as belong unto them, and the discharge of mutual duties; wherein all, according to their several places and callings, are to labour to promote whatever appertains to the power of godliness and credit of religion, that the whole land, in the full extent of it, may become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ." [Sidenote: Ideal Presbytery.] The sum of all this may be given in the words of Henderson, in the conclusion of his treatise on 'The Government and Order of the Church of Scotland,' the only other treatise which has any right to be set alongside of the Books of Discipline. "In the authoritie of these assemblies, parochial, presbyteriall, provinciall, and nationall, and in the subordination of the lesser unto the greater, or of more particular elderships to the larger and generall eldership, doth consist the externall order, strength, and steadfastnesse of the Church of Scotland.... Here there is a superiority without tyrannie, for no minister hath a papall or monarchicall jurisdiction over his own flock, far lesse over other pastors and over all the congregations of a large dioces. Here there is paritie without confusion and disorder, for the pastors are in order before the elders, and the elders before the deacons; the church [_i.e._, each congregation] is subordinate to the presbyterie, the presbyterie to the synod, and the synod to the nationall assembly. One pastor also hath priority [of esteem] before another, for age, for zeale, for gifts, for his good deservings of the church, each one honouring him whom God hath honoured, and as he beareth the image of God which was to bee seen among the apostles themselves. But none hath power or jurisdiction above others: even as in nature one eye hath not power over another, only the head hath power over all, even as Christ over His church.... And lastly, here there is a subjection without slaverie, for the people are subject to the pastors and assemblies, yet there is no assemblie wherein everie particular church hath not interest and power; nor is there anything done but they are, if not actually, yet virtually called to consent unto it."[282] This is presbytery in theory, and there is no reason why we should not approximate to the ideal in practice more closely than some recent representations imply, save that we come short of what we ought to be as men and as Christians, and that would suffice to mar any form of government that could be devised by the wit of men. FOOTNOTES: [257] Cunningham's Church History of Scotland, 1859, i. 444. [258] Ibid., i. 445. [259] Hill Burton's History of Scotland, 1876, v. 203.