enanted Reformation and Reformed principles of the Church of Scotland. In seceding from the established jurisdictions, onr fathers, as we have seen, espoused that cause ; declared their adherence to the VVestmiuster standards as parts of the unifcu'mity in religion for the three nations ; declared the obligatiou which the ranks in them were under to adhere to lliese by the oath of God; testitied against several important defects in the Revolu- tion settluineut of religion ; and traced the recent corrup- tions of wliich they complain to a progressive departure from the i)urity obtained iu the second period of Refor- mation. The United Synod, on the contrary, proceeds iu the Basis on the supposition that the Revolution settle- ment was faultless ; agreeably to it they receive the Westminster Conference and Catechisms, not as subor- dinate standards of uniformity for the three nations, but merely (to use their own words) 'as the confession of our faith, expressive of the sense iu which we understand the Holy Scriptures ;' they exclude entirely from their Basis the propositions concerning the Church government and the Directory for public worship drawn up by the West- minster Assembly ; and they merely recognise presbytery as the only form of government which they acknowledge as founded ui)on the Word of God, although the lirst Se- ceders, in their Testimony, condemned the Church at the Revolution for not asserting expressly the divine right of the Presbyterian government. Besides, the exception which they made to the confessions and catechisms is expressed in such a mauner as to give countenance to an unwarranted stigma on these standards as teaching persecuting [jrinciples: and as it was well known that this was offensive to not a few, by agreeing to it they on that matter perpetrated two divisions in attempting to heal one. 2. The testimony to the contiuned obligaitiou of the National Covenant and the Solemn League is dropped. These deeds are not so much as named iu the Basis. When the United Synod approved of the ' method adopted by our reforming ancestors for mutual excite- ment and encouragement, by solemn confederation and vows to God,' this can never be considered as a recogni- tion of the present and continued obligatiou of onr na- tional covenants ; and still less can we regard in this light the following declaration, including all they say on the subject: 'We acknowledge that we are under high obli- gations to maintain and promote the work of reformation begun and to a great extent canied on by them.' 3. Ttiough the morality of public religious covenanting is admifted by the Basis, yet the present seasonableuess of it is not asserted ; any provision made for the practice of it is totally irreconcilable with the Presbyterian princi- ples, being adapted only to covenanting on the plan of the Cougregatioualists or Independents, and not for con- firming "the~ common profession of the united body; and in the hcnid transmitted by the general synod, and reg- istered by the general synod, and to be taken by those who choose, all idea of the renovation of the covenants of onr ancestors is set aside, and the recognition of their obligations, formally made, is expounded. 4. By adopt- ing the Basis, any testimony which had been formerly borne against sinful oaths, and other practical evils in- consistent with pure religion and a scriptural and con- sistent profession of it, was dropped; and all barriers against the practice of what is called free communion, wliich has become so general and fashionable, are re- moved. 5. With respect to the burMsg-oath, we have already expressed our views, and candidly stated what we judge the best way of accommodating the diflerence which is occasioned in the Associate Body. Of the method adopted for this purpose in the Basis, we shall only say that, while on the one hand, by making no pro- visi(m for preventing the swearing of an oath, which all along has been viewed as sinfnl by one half of the seces- sion, it tends to bring all contending against public evils, and for purity of communion, into discredit with the gen- eration; so, on the other hand, by providing that all in the united body 'shall carefully abstain from agitating the questions which occasioned' the breach, it retains ministerial and Christian libertj' in testifying against sin ; and on that matter absolves the ministers and elders of one of the synods from an express article iu their ordina- tion vows."
At the meeting of the synod in 1828, the Original Seceders enacted that all the ministers of their body, together with tlie preachers and students of divinity under their inspection, should enter into the bond for renewing the covenants at Edinburgh on the 18tli of the following September. Two j-ears thereafter the synod authorized a committee of their number to pre- pare and publish an address to their people on the duty of public covenanting and on practical religion. In 1832 a controversy arose in Scotland, which is usually known by tlie name of Voluntary Controversy (>{. v.), involving important principles touching the duty of nations and their rulers to recognise, countenance, and support the true religion. Iu the heat of the
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controversy the Synod of Original Seceders deemed it right to issue an address on the subject. This pro- duction, entitled " Vindication of the Principles of the Church of Scotland, in Relation to the Questions pres- ently agitated," was published in 1834. It condemned the voluntary system on various grounds: 1, On ac- count of its atheistical character and tendency; 2, as at variance with sound policy; 3, as unscriptural; 4, as directlv opposed to one important design of supernatu- ral relations — the improvement of human society ; 5, as striking at the foundation of God's moral government, so far as regards nations or bodies politic. While thus maintaining in the strongest and most decided manner the principles of establishments in opposition to the voluntary principle, the Original Seceders took occa- sion, in the course of the same pamphlet, to lay down with equal distinctness the ground on which they felt themselves excluded from all prospect of an inmicdiate return to the communion of the Established Church.