“That church government is in the hands of assemblies, congregational, classical, and synodical, and not of church officers individually considered (Form of Gov. ch. viii. sec. 1); that the church is governed by judicatories, not by officers acting personally, (idem ch. xiii. sec. 1), is the explicit doctrine of our constitution. This principle is fundamental and vital to our entire system, and constitutes one of the most striking characteristics by which Presbyterianism is separated from Prelacy on one hand, and Independency on the other.

For our government is not in the hands of individual officers, and therefore is not Prelacy; neither is it in the hands of the whole brotherhood of each separate congregation as an independent body, and therefore it is not Independency: but it is in the hands of assemblies, of assemblies, too, which are classical and synodical as well as as congregational, and which even when congregational, are delegated and not popular.

It is a Christian commonwealth; it is not a hierarchy; it is not an aggregation of many petty democracies. And such is the constant doctrine of the soundest Presbyterian Churches in every age, and of the greatest expounders of our system everywhere.” — R.J. Breckinridge, Presbyterian Government, Not a Hierarchy, But a Commonwealth (1843)