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be given to the parties concerned, at leaft ten days, previously to the meeting of the judicatory.

5. The judicatory, in many cafes, may find it more for edification, to fend fome members to converse, in a private manner, with the accufed perfon; and, if he confefs guilt, to endeavour to bring him to repentance, than to proceed immediately to citation.

6. When an accufed perfon, or a witness, refufes to obey the citation, he fhall be cited a fecond, and third time; and if he ftill continue to refufe, he shall be excluded from the communion of the church, for his contumacy; until he repent.

7. No crime fhall be confidered as established by a fingle witness.

8. The oath or affirmation, to be taken by a witnefs, fhall be adminiftered by the moderator, and fhall be in the following, or like terms: "I folemnly promise, in the presence of the omnifcient and heart-fearching God, that I will declare the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; according to the beft of my knowledge, in the matter in which I am called to witnefs, as I fhall anfwer it to the great Judge of quick and dead."

9. The trial fhall be open, fair, and impartial. The witneffes fhall be examined in the prefence of the accufed; or at least after he fhall have received due citation to attend : and he shall be per

mitted to ask any queftions tending to his own exculpation.

10. No witnefs, afterwards to be examined, fhall be prefent during the examination of another witnefs, on the fame cafe.

11. The teftimony given by witnesses, must be faithfully recorded, and read to them, for their approbation or fubfcription.

12. The judgment fhall be regularly entered on the records of the judicatory: and the parties fhall be allowed copies of the whole proceedings, if they demand them. In cafe of references, or appeals, the judicatory appealed from shall fend authentic copies of the whole procefs to the higher judicatories: and it fhall be confidered as regular, for any member or members who may have diffented from the judgment of the inferior judicatory, to ftate and fupport their reasons, on the appeal.

13. The perfon found guilty fhall be admonifhed, or rebuked, or excluded from church privileges, as the case shall appear to deserve ; and this only till he gave fatisfactory evidence of repentance.

14. The fentence fhall be published, only in the church or churches which have been 'offended. Or, if it be a matter of small importance, and it shall appear most for edification not to publish it, it may pass only in the judicatory.

15. Such grofs offenders as will not be reclaimed by the private or public admonitions of the church, are to be cut off from its communion, agreeably to our Lord's direction, Mat.

xviii. 17. and the apoftolic injunction respecting the incestuous perfon, Cor. ver. 1-5. But as this is the highest censure of the church, and of the moft folemn nature, it is not to be inflicted without the advice and confent of, at leaft, the presbytery under whose care the particular church is, to which the offender belongs;' or the advice of a higher judicatory, as the cafe may appear to require.

16. All proceffes in cafes of fcandal fhall commence, within the fpace of one year after the crime shall have been committed; unless it fhall have become recently flagrant.

17. When any member fhall remove from one congregation to another, he fhall produce proper teftimonials of his church-membership, before he be admitted to church-privileges; unless the church, to which he removes, has other fatisfactory means of information.

CHA P. II.

Of Process against a Bishop or

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Minister.

S the fuccefs of the gofpel, in a great meafure, depends upon the credit and good report of its minifters, each presbytery ought,

with the greatest attention, to watch over all its members; and be careful to cenfure them, when neceffary, with impartiality; either for perfonal crimes, which they may commit in common with other men; or those that are vocational, arising from the manner in which they may discharge their important office..

1. Process, against a gospel minister, shall always be entered before the presbytery of which he is a member. And, in cafe it fhall be found that the facts with which he fhall be charged happened without the bounds of his own presbytery, they shall fend notice to the presbytery within whose bounds they did happen: and defire that presbytery, either (if within convenient distance) to cite the witnesses to appear at the place where the trial began, or, if otherwise, to take the examination themselves, and tranfmit an authentic record of their teftimony. Always giving due notice to the accused person of the time and place of fuch examination.

2. Nevertheless, in cafe of a minister being fuppofed to be guilty of any crime, or crimes, at fuch a distance from his ufual place of refidence, as that the offence is not likely to become otherwife known to the presbytery to which he belongs; it fhall, in such case, be the duty of the presbytery within whofe bounds the facts fhall have happened, after fatisfying themselves that there is probable ground of accufation, to fend

notice to the presbytery of which he is a member; who are to proceed against him, and to take the proof by commiffion, as above directed. 3. Procefs, against a gofpel minifter, fhall not be entered upon. unless fome perfon, or perfons, undertake to make out the charge; or when common fame fo loudly proclaims the fcandal, that the presbytery find it neceffary to profecute, and fearch into the matter, for the honour of religion.

4. As the fuccefs of the gofpel greatly depends on the unblemished character of its ministers; their foundness in the faith, and holy, and exemplary converfation; and as it is the duty of all Chriftians to be very cautious in taking up an ill report of any man; it is especially fo of a minister of the gofpel. If, therefore, any man know a minister guilty of a private cenfurable fault, he should warn him in private. But if he perfift in it, or it become public, he should apply to fome other bishop of the presbytery, for his advice in the matter.

5. When complaint is laid before the presbytery, it must be reduced to writing; and nothing farther is to be done at the first meeting, unless by consent of parties, then giving the minister a full copy of the charges, with the names of the witneffes annexed thereto; and citing all parties, and their witneffes, to appear and be heard

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