2. So far as judicial proceedings are concerned, the Church is divided into four classes: private members, local preachers, traveling preachers, and Bishops; and distinct tribunals and different degrees of responsibility are established for each.

3. The prosecutor is always the Church whose laws have been violated, whose purity is to be maintained, and whose duty toward delinquents is to be discharged. The person conducting the prosecution represents the Church, and in that capacity has all its rights in the case. He, as the Church Advocate, is to be considered the party on one side, and the accused the party on the other.

"No person," says Bishop McKendree, "ought to be permitted to come forward in the character of a prosecutor. Such a character is not known of in all our economy. The accuser is to be brought face to face with the accused. If this cannot be done, 'let the next best evidence be procured;' consequently, the accuser is the very best evidence in the case. An aggrieved person may be a complainant, but our Discipline does not recognize any one as an accuser unless he be a witness in the case against the accused."

4. It is a constitutional principle that no member can be deprived of membership without a trial before the Church or by a committee, with privilege of appeal. It is not in the

power of the Quarterly, or Annual, or General Conference to do away with these privileges.*

Mr. Wesley, and the preachers of his day, believing that the New Testament makes the pastors responsible to Christ for the purity of the flock, judged accordingly that it was their right and duty to decide on the guilt or innocence of an accused member; and that the act of retaining or rejecting such members being one for which the minister must answer to the Head of the Church, the decision of that question ought not to be left to laymen, as they are not held amenable to the Judge of all for it. And they acted on that principle. So does the Wesleyan Connection to this day. Our fathers coming from England to this country, brought with them the same opinion, and administered accordingly; hence, up to the commencement of the present century, the preacher in charge was the sole judge of the guilt or innocence of all the members. And if the opinion can be maintained by the Scriptures, beyond a doubt, the practice should consequently follow. But if that be considered one of the questions in Churchgovernment not clearly settled by the word of God, but left as a question of expediency, to be decided by the Church, then different religious Communities may decide differently, and may act on either principle and be harmless. Our Church seems to have embraced the last-named opinion, when she adopted the present rule. (Hedding on Discipline, pp. 59, 60.)

5. The power of excommunication, as inhering in the ministry by the original charter, has *Fifth Restrictive Rule of Discipline.

been contended for on the ground that the power to do implies the power to undo; the right to admit into the Church implies the right to expel. But the two powers are not coincident, and do not rest on the same ground. The reception of members has often to be performed where there is no membership which can be called into coöperation; but excommunication can take place only where there is a Church and membership already existing, who may cooperate with the minister in the delicate work of depriving one of privileges with which he had been invested. Paul moved the Corinthian Church to put away an infamous offender. And in the case of a personal offense, Christ commanded, in the last resort, "Tell it unto the Church."

The practice of the Primitive Church for the first three centuries, as set forth in the researches of Lord Chancellor King, was according to this rule: "As for the judges that composed the ecclesiastical court, before whom offending criminals were convened, and by whom censured, they will appear to have been the whole Church, both clergy and laity." (Primitive Church, p. 109.)

6. No minister or private member against whom charges of crime or gross immorality are pending, or who has confessed them, can claim the right to evade trial or quash an indictment

by withdrawing from the Church. The unsound member that cannot be cured, must be cut off, and not allowed to rot off. The expulsive power is one proof of the vitality of the ecclesiastical body. As in the preaching of the word the wicked are doctrinally separated from the good, so by discipline the Church authoritatively separates between the holy and the profane. Having endured the scandal of their lives, the only vindication of the Church that is sometimes left, is this last and strongest testimony against evil-doers, by a judicial sentence of excommunication.*

7. The constitution of a Church-court, to determine the guilt or innocence of accused members, does not divest the pastor of great and peculiar responsibilities. With him remain those preliminary measures so effective in checking evil and in guiding the course of Discipline. He is charged with the duty of universal oversight of taking heed to all the flock. Process begins and issues under his authority. He constitutes committees, issues citations, presides in trials, determines questions of law arising therein, and pronounces censure upon those whom the court has pronounced guilty.

Ref. Journal Gen. Conf., 1866, p. 95.

The obligation of pastors to institute a course of investigation and trial when necessary, without waiting to be urged by a complainant, is thus set forth by Bishop McKendree:

"The preacher who has the oversight of a District, circuit, or station, is equally bound, as a Christian with other Christians, to deal with erring members of his acquaintance; and as an officer whose duty it is to see that the Discipline is enforced, he is under much stronger obligations to do so. Therefore, to wait for an accuser to present a formal charge, before he will act on a case of which he has knowledge, or is sufficiently informed, is of ruinous tendency. Surely, other Christians have as much right to connive at the conduct of disorderly members as the spiritual overseer has! So far, therefore, as such conduct is followed, disorderly members lose the benefit of Christian counsel, correction, and reproof, and discipline will soon become a useless thing."

8. The privileges of trial and appeal are guaranteed to our ministers and preachers. When it is enumerated among the duties of a Bishop "to suspend preachers in the intervals of the Conferences as necessity may require;" and when, in his absence, the same is made the duty of the Presiding Elder, it is added-"as the Discipline directs." This censure must be dealt, if at all, according to process made and provided.

9. No professional counsel, as such, should be