'The Reformed Presbyterian Church has also retained the Westminster Confession unaltered. Adhering to its teaching on the Civil Magistrate, as this was received by the Church of Scotland in the Adopting Act of 1647, it issued in 1806 a Testimony, in which it declared that civil government is a natural institution, but that, to be a lawful one, so that a Christian man may take part in it, God must be acknowledged in its constitution as the fountain of all power and authority, and that Christian rulers, appointed to office according to a righteous civil constitution, have authority from God to rule, in subserviency to the kingdom of Christ. The absence from the American national constitution of any such acknowledgment renders that covenant unscriptural and immoral, and so precludes Christian men from becoming identified with its administration. Another reason for this political dissent is the doctrine of the binding obligation of the Scottish Covenants.
'A difference of opinion that had gradually risen within this Church as to the extent of this precluding led to the formation, in 1833, of the Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church holding the extremest view of political dissent, and of the General Synod of the same Church, permitting its members to exercise the political franchise.
'As regards the doctrinal articles of the Confession, all these Churches are Calvino Calviniores.'
[1552] See next section.
[1553] Minutes of the Synod of Philadelphia, as published in the Records of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (embracing the Minutes of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, and of the Synods of New York and Philadelphia, from 1706 to 1788). Philad. Presbyt. Board of Public. 1841, p. 92. See also W. E. Moore's Presbyterian Digest: a Compend of the Acts and Deliverances of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (Philad. Presbyt. Board), second ed. 1873, pp.45 sq.
[1554] See Minutes of the Synod of 1758 as published in the Records of the Presbyterian Church, p. 286. Also Moore's Digest, p. 48; and Gillett, Hist. of the Presbyt. Ch. in the U. S. of America, Vol. I. p. 138.
[1555] See Records of the Presbyterian Church, p. 539, where we find the following minute, dated May 28, 1787: 'The Synod took into consideration the last paragraph of the twentieth chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith, the third paragraph of the twenty-third chapter, and the first paragraph of the thirty-first chapter; and having made some alterations, agreed that the said paragraphs, as now altered, be printed for consideration, together with the draught of a plan of government and discipline. The Synod also appointed the above-named committee to revise the Westminster Directory for public worship, and to have it, when thus revised, printed, together with the draught, for consideration. And the Synod agreed that when the above proposed alterations in the Confession of Faith shall have been finally determined on by the body, and the Directory shall have been revised as above directed, and adopted by the Synod, the said Confession thus altered, and Directory thus revised and adopted, shall be styled, "The Confession of Faith and Directory for Public Worship of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America."'
[1556] Records of the Presbyterian Church, p. 546; Moore's Digest, p. 51.
[1557] Records, p. 547; Moore's Digest, p. 52. The first edition of the new book appeared Philad. 1789, under the title: 'The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, containing the Confession of Faith, the Catechisms, the Government and Discipline, and the Directory of the Worship of God, ratified and adopted by the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, May 28, 1788. The Assembly of 1792 ordered a new edition with the Scripture texts annexed, and appointed a committee for the purpose. This edition was adopted by the Assembly in 1794 (Moore's Digest, p. 52).
[1558] 2 Chron. xxvi. 18; Matt. xviii. 17; Matt. xvi. 19; 1 Cor. xii. 28, 29; Eph. iv. 7, 12; 1 Cor. iv. 1, 2; Rom. x. 15; Heb. v. 4.
[1559] 2 Chron. xxvi. 18
[1560] Matt. xvi. 19; 2 Cor. iv. 1, 2
[1561] John xviii. 36; Mal. ii. 7; Acts v. 29.
[1562] Isa. xlix. 23; Psa. cxxii. 9; Ezra vii. 23-28; Lev. xxiv. 16; Deut. xiii. 5, 6, 12; 1 Kings xviii. 4; 1 Chron. xiii. 1-9; 2 Kings xxiii. 1-26; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 33; xv. 12, 13.
[1563] 2 Chron. xv. 8-17; xxix. 30; Matt. ii. 4, 5.
[1564] Isa. xlix. 23.
[1565] Psa. cv. 15; Acts xviii. 14, 15, 16.
[1566] 2 Sam. xxiii. 13; 1 Tim. ii. 1; Rom. xiii. 4.
[1567] Acts xv. 2, 4, 6.
[1568] Acts xv. 2, 4, 6.
[1569] Acts xv. 22, 23, 25.
[1570] Isa. xlix. 23; 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2; 2 Chron. xix. 8-12; xxix. and xxx.; Matt. ii. 4, 5; Prov. xi. 14.
[1571] Acts xv. 2, 4, 22, 23, 25.
[1572] For the documentary history of this remarkable movement, see the Minutes of the two General Assemblies for 1867-69, and of the reunited Assembly from 1870 to 1872; also the new edition of Moore's Presbyterian Digest (1873), pp. 57-106; and the Memorial Volume on Presbyterian Reunion, New York, 1870.
[1573] For the documentary history of the separation of the Presbyterian Church and the 'Exscinding Acts' of the Old-School Assembly, see Baird's Collection (O. S.), pp. 710 sqq., and the first edition of Moore's New Digest (N. S.), pp. 456 sqq. In the new edition of Moore's Digest (1873), the chapter on the division is omitted, and the documents on the reunion inserted instead.
[1574] The sixteen errors charged are found in Baird's Collection, pp. 711 and 745 sqq., together with the reply of the New School, which was afterwards, in Aug. of the same year, adopted by a convention of 98 commissioned ministers and 58 laymen (besides 24 corresponding members) at Auburn, N. Y., and is hence called the 'Auburn Declaration.' The latter is also embodied in the third volume of this work, p. 771. On its history, comp. Dr. Morris, in the Amer. Presbyt. Review, for January, 1876.
[1575] The 'Smith amendment' was in these words: 'It being understood that this Confession is received in its proper historical, that is, the Calvinistic or Reformed, sense.' This would exclude, of course, Antinomianism and Fatalism on the one hand, and Arminianism and Pelagianism on the other.
[1576] The 'Gurley amendment' was in these words: 'It is also understood that various methods of viewing, stating, explaining, and illustrating the doctrines of the Confession, which do not impair the integrity of the Reformed or Calvinistic system, are to be freely allowed in the United Church, as they have hitherto been allowed in the separate Churches.'
[1577] See the address of Dr. Masgrave at the meeting in Pittsburgh, Memorial Volume, p. 388.