| 释义 |
Presbyterian, a. and n.|prɛs-, prɛzbɪˈtɪərɪən|
Also 7 -bit-; occas. with lower-case initial.
[f. L. presbyteri-um presbytery + -an; cf. F. presbytérien (in 15th c. an almoner, Froissart). For form cf. episcopalian.]
A. adj.
1. Pertaining to, or characterized by, government by presbyters or presbyteries; applied to a form or system of church polity (see below); belonging to or maintaining this system.
In Presbyterian Churches no higher order than that of presbyter or elder is recognized, the ‘bishop’ and ‘elder’ of the N.T. being held to be identical. All elders are ecclesiastically of equal rank; but, in their function in the church, while some are ‘ruling and teaching elders’ or ‘ministers’, others are only ‘ruling elders’ (popularly called ‘lay elders’, but erroneously, since all elders are ordained or ‘in orders’). Each congregation is governed by its session, consisting of the minister and the other elders (see kirk-session, also consistory 9); the sessions are subordinate to the presbytery (see also classis), the presbyteries to the synod, and (in most Presbyterian Churches) the synods to the General Assembly of the Church (see assembly 5 b).
1641Sir T. Aston Remonstr. Presbitery Title-p., A Short Survey of the Presbyterian Discipline. 1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. §172 In Scotland..though there were Bishops in name,..they themselves were..subject to an Assembly, which was purely Presbyterian. 1651Baxter Inf. Bapt. 228, I am confidently perswaded, That the true way of Christ's Discipline, is parcelled out between the Episcopal, Erastian, Presbyterian, and Independents; and that every party hath a piece of the Truth in peculiar. 1663Butler Hud. i. i. 191 For his Religion it was fit To match his Learning and his Wit: 'Twas Presbyterian true Blew. a1715Burnet Own Time (1823) V. vii. 281 After the general vote was carried for the union [of England and Scotland], before they entered on the consideration of the particular articles, an act was prepared for securing the presbyterian government. 1750J. Edwards Wks. (1834) I. xvii. p. clxiii/1 The presbyterian way has ever appeared to me most agreeable to the word of God and the reason and nature of things. 1817J. Evans Excurs. Windsor, etc. 10 For this purpose they erected a Presbytery at Wandsworth [1572]... This was the first Presbyterian church in England. 1820Southey Wesley II. 365 He died at Newbury-Port, in New-England, and..was buried before the pulpit, in the Presbyterian church of that town. 1853Killen Hist. Presbyt. Ch. Irel. iii. xxxi. 585 On Friday, the 10th of July 1840,..the court was regularly constituted under the title of ‘The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland’. 1876Proc. Union Synod in Drysdale Hist. Presbyt. Eng. iii. (1889) 626 note, That the name of the Church shall be ‘The Presbyterian Church of England’. 1901McCrie Church of Scot. Divisions & Reunions ii. 33 The polity of the Societies was presbyterian.
b. Reformed Presbyterian, of or pertaining to those Presbyterians who protested against the constitution of Church and State in Scotland at the Revolution Settlement in 1689, and claimed to be the true representatives of the Covenanters of the seventeenth century; also popularly called Cameronian, q.v.
They consisted of members of the ‘United Societies’ formed in 1681, and in 1743 organized themselves under the name of The Reformed Presbytery, known at a later date as the ‘Reformed Presbyterian Church’. In 1876 the greater part of this body in Scotland united with the Free Church; but some held out, and still constitute a separate denomination.
[1701: see B. 1744 A. Marshall in Hutchinson Ref. Presb. Ch. 187 The Rev. Mr. John M'Millan and I,..with certain elders, upon the 1st August 1743, did erect ourselves into a Presbytery under the name of ‘The Reformed Presbytery’.] 1806(title) Reformation Principles exhibited by the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. 1860J. Gardner Faiths of World II. 745/2 A fully organized and independent section of the Reformed Presbyterian Church was formed in the sister isle. 1893Hutchinson Ref. Presbyt. Ch. ii. 25 The persecuted Presbyterians, of which the Reformed Presbyterian Church has always claimed to be the legitimate ecclesiastical successor.
c. United Presbyterian, of or pertaining to the united church or denomination formed in Scotland in 1847 by the union of the United Secession and Relief churches. (Abbreviated U.P.) In 1900 this body united with the (main body of the) Free Church of Scotland, to form the denomination then named the United Free Church of Scotland.
1847Proc. United Presbyt. Synod 14 May 13 That the Name of the Church under the authority and inspection of this Synod be The United Presbyterian Church; and that the Name of this Synod be The Synod of the United Presbyterian Church, composed of the United Associate Synod of the Secession Church and of the Synod of the Relief Church. 1900Ross Taylor in Proc. Assembly United Free Ch. Sc. 64, I declare the Act of Union finally adopted, and that the Free Church of Scotland and the United Presbyterian Church are now one Church in Christ Jesus, under the designation of the United Free Church of Scotland.
2. Characteristic of a Presbyterian. nonce-use.
1699–1700Earl of Bellomont Let. to Sir. J. Stanley 5 Mar. (Welbeck MSS.), He gave me a terrible hard presbyterian gripe in the articles between him and me. ― Let. to Vernon 7 Mar. (Ibid.), When he had made me depend on him for advancing the money..he then gave me a Presbyterian gripe and fettered me in the writeings between us.
3. Of or pertaining to presbyters or priests, or the priestly order. rare.
1881Stanley Chr. Inst. vii. (ed. 2) 147 The texts on which the theory of Episcopal or Presbyterian absolution rests.
B. n. One who maintains the Presbyterian system of church government; a member or adherent of a Presbyterian church.
Reformed Presbyterian, United Presbyterian, a member or adherent of the religious denominations so called: see A. 1 b, c.
1641Sir T. Aston Remonstr. Presbit., Survey Presbyt. Discipl. Table, Sectio 7. The Presbyterians must not be prescribed in doctrine. Ibid. xiii. I iij, The inordinate violence of the Presbyterians. c1645Howell Lett. (1753) 478 Those unhappy separatists, the Puritans,..who since are called ‘Presbyterians’, or ‘Jews of the New Testament’. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. ix. vii. §21 A Synod of the Presbyterians, of the Warwickshire Classis, was call'd at Coventry. 1673Essex Papers (Camden) I. 77 The Pow'r and Interest of y⊇ Non-Conformists here [Ireland], and their greatest strength, is certainly that of y⊇ Presbiterians, who are of y⊇ Scotch nation. 1701Sir R. Hamilton in Hutchinson Ref. Presbyt. Ch. v. (1893) 138, I die a true Protestant, and to my Knowledge a Reformed Presbyterian. 1732E. Erskine Synod Sermon Wks. 1871 I. 504 All sound Presbyterians, who read the history of our forefathers, generally approve of the practice of Mr. Samuel Rutherford..and other ministers of this church. 1824Byron Juan xv. xci, For I was bred a moderate Presbyterian. 1867T. S. James Hist. Litigation resp. Presbyt. Chapels 191 Milton, whatever he was, was no Presbyterian. 1874J. H. Blunt Dict. Sects (1886) 98/2 Under the name of Reformed Presbyterians the society still exists, claiming to be the representative of the old Covenanters in maintaining the Solemn League and Covenant as one of the standards, and still deploring the constitution of Church and State..as established at the Revolution of 1688 and at the Union. Ibid. 609/2 The United Presbyterians carry on missions..in the East and West Indies, and in Africa, together with medical missions to China. 1885W. D. Jeremy Presbyt. Fund & Dr. Williams's Trust Introd. 8 note, In the eighteenth century, wind-guards fixed on chimney-pots were called Presbyterians, in derisive allusion to the want of fixedness in the theological opinions of the Denomination of that name. |