sion of Faith shall be expunged, or explained so as to authorize the marriage of two sisters in succession? remained, in a great measure, sub silentio, among the Presbyterian ecclesiastical bodies. The closing paragraph of Dr. Hodge's History is so suitable as a peroration to the history of Presbyterianism, down to the dissolution of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, that it is extracted as Slavery. This topic also, like that of marriage, has been a prolific source of contention. The primary notice of it is found in the proceedings of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, in 1786, under the form of two questions the termination of that part of this narra. "Whether the children of slaves held by church members should be baptized?" and "Whether the children of Christian professors, enslaved by irreligious men, ought to be baptized?" The synod replied in the affirmative. In the year 1787, the matter was introduced before the synod in a more direct manner, and the result of their deliberation appeared in a testimony against it, and an urgent recommendation to "all their people, to procure the abolition of slavery in America." That" opinion" was reiterated in 1793; and in 1795, in reply to a petition, the same decision was confirmed, with a specific condemnation of all the traffic in slaves. At that period the Confession of Faith, Catechisms, &c., were published by order of the General Assembly. To the one hundred and forty-second question of the "Larger Catechism" was appended a note containing a definition of "man-stealing," with scriptural proofs. During the twenty years which followed, that note seems to have been overlooked; but in 1815, the subject of slavery was brought before the General Assembly, by a reference from the Synod of Ohio, and a petition from Virginia. The General Assembly then reiterated their declarations of 1787, 1793, and 1795. But in the following year, 1816, "the note connected with the scripture proofs in answer to the question in the Larger Catechism, What is forbidden in the eighth commandment? in which the crime of man-stealing and slavery is dilated upon," was ordered to be omitted in all “future editions of the Confession of this church." The subject occupied several sessions of the General Assembly, in 1816, 1817, and 1818, at which last meeting, that body issued a long declaration, entitled "A full Expression of the Assembly's views of Slavery." From that period, the disputatious theme has tive. "The effects of the Revolutionary war on the state of our church were extensively and variously disastrous. The young men were called from the seclusion of their homes to the demoralizing atmosphere of a camp. Congregations were broken up. Churches were burned, and pastors were murdered. The usual ministerial intercourse and efforts for the dissemination of the gospel were, in a great measure, suspended, and public morals in various respects deteriorated. From these effects it took the church a considerable time to recover; but she shared, through the blessing of God, in the returning prosperity of the country, and has since grown with the growth, and strengthened with the strength, of our highly favored nation." THE FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY met in 1789, and the subsequent history of American Presbyterianism is chiefly a memorial of the more efficient and extensive development of the evangelical features and the "ecclesiastical polity," which already have been delineated. However, there are four influential topics connected with the latter periods of the Presbyterian Churches which must be recorded. The plan of correspondence and union eventually included the General Association of Connecticut, the General Convention of Vermont, the General Association of New Hampshire, the General Association of Massachusetts, and the Consociation of Rhode Island, with the Reformed Dutch General Synod, and the Associate Reformed Synod. The great object of it was to combine these ecclesiastical bodies and the churches whom they represented in a closer fraternity, and to enlarge their Christian intercourse, both as ministers and for the entire denominations. From the period of the first agreement the system has been continued with little interruption. But a more distinct notice is requisite concerning the "Plan of Union between Presbyterians and Congregationalists in the New Settlements," which was adopted in 1801. This plan was designed to extinguish any difficulties arising from a disagreement among Congregationalists and Presbyterians, so that they might all unite in the support of the ministry and sacred institutions; as their faith, order of worship, and principles of church government substantially were one-there being only a "difference of administrations." By that compact, a Presbyterian church might call a Congregational minister, and vice If one body of Presbyterians and another of Congregationalists chose to unite as one church and settle a minister, each party was allowed to exercise discipline, and regulate its church affairs according to its own views, under the general management of a joint standing committee; and one of that committee, if chosen for that purpose, had the same right to sit and act in the presbytery, as a ruling elder of the Presbyterian Church." Under the operation of that "Plan of Union," hundreds of churches were formed in the States of New York and Ohio, during the period from 1801 to 1837. versa. About the commencement of the nineteenth century, a remarkable religious awakening was manifest through a wide extent of the then "Far West." New congregations were formed with exhilarating rapidity. To supply the ministerial destitution, it was resolved to secure the aid of men of piety and talents, although without a classical education, and to ordain them as missionary evangelists and pastors. Among the members of the Presbytery of Transylvania some opposed the measure; but as that body soon afterwards was divided, that portion of the body denominated the "Cumberland Presbytery" proceeded to license and ordain preachers who had not acquired a knowledge of the ancient languages, and of the other subjects of a collegiate course of study. The synod finally took cognizance of their proceedings, and appointed a "commission" to visit them, who summoned the presbytery, with their licentiates, candidates, and exhorters, to appear before them. When the commission that they licensed "men to preach who had not been examined on the languages,' and that their licentiates had been required to adopt the Presbyterian Confession of Faith partially, or "as far as they believed it to agree with God's word." The presbytery justified themselves upon the ground of the "extraordinary emergency," the example of other presbyteries, and of the New Testament, which neither by example nor precept condemns the calling into the Christian ministry those whom the synod's commission denominated "unlearned and ignorant men.' They also maintained that their candidates did not deviate in doctrine from any essential or important doctrine taught in the Confession of Faith. The synodical "commission" demanded, that the whole of the licentiates and candidates, under the care of the Cumberland Presbytery, should be transferred to them for re-examination. The presbytery spurned at the exaction, as destructive of their privileges and independence; and the young preachers and exhorters also denied the jurisdiction of the "commission," when summoned before them. Thus the controversy remained during four years; until, in February, 1810, three of the ministers, as they said, "protesting against the unconstitutional and unprecedented acts of the synod, and of the General Assembly who justified them," constituted a separate presbytery, "known by the name of the Cumberland Presbytery." They required of all candidates and licentiates, that they "receive and adopt the Confession and Discipline of the Presbyterian Church," except any "fatality taught under predestination ;" and the requisition of an academical education. The "Cumberland Presbyterians" have prodigiously multiplied. They now form a very influential religious community in the western districts of Kentucky and Tennessee. In the year 1810 there was an increasing disposition for a closer union displayed by some of the most influential ministers and elders, and other members among the Associate Reformed body to combine with members; and the usual formalities with the Presbytery of Elizabethtown having been fulfilled, Mr. Barnes became the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. the Presbyterians. Eventually the mea- | companied by a protest signed by twelve sure was proposed with ecclesiastical formality; and after considerable negotiation, a large portion of the Associate Reformed Synod resolved upon that measure. That course produced a collision among them. The party who wished to unite with the other Presbyterians embodied themselves with the larger community in 1822; but their proceeding was attended by subsequent embarrassment. It involved the two denominations in litigation, which was not compromised, until after a vexatious dispute that continued during several years, and which terminated their ecclesiastical "correspondence and union." In many aspects the disruption of the American Presbyterians which occurred in 1838, is one of the most interesting occurrences in the religious annals of the western continent. The narrative of the successive events which finally produced the separation of the conflicting parties, with their organization into two distinct communities, both bearing but one name, and both claiming to be the genuine integral body which had been subdivided, would combine a very instructive chapter of ecclesiastical history. The collision ostensibly included two principal topics of controversy-didactic theology, and church government and discipline. Prior to the year 1830 some laxity respecting the admission of ministers had been displayed by some of the presbyteries, thereby opening a wide gate for polemical disputation. But at that period the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia called Mr. Barnes, then minister of the church at Morristown, to be their pastor. The case was submitted to the Presbytery of Philadelphia, at their meeting in April, 1830. A long discussion ensued, which involved both theological doctrines and also points of discipline in reference to the correlate rights and duties of the presbyteries. The origin of the debate was a sermon previously published by Mr. Barnes, entitled "The Way of Salvation," to which objections were made, that it promulged opinions adverse to the Presbyterian "Confession of Faith and Catechisms." The call, however, finally was admitted, ac A "complaint" was made to the Synod of Philadelphia by the minority of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, based on their protest of the preceding April; and after the consideration of the whole subject, the synod, by a decisive majority, referred the examination of the sermon by Mr. Barnes, entitled "The Way of Salvation," with the cognate topics, to the presbytery. That body, in November, 1830, complied with the synodical direction: announced their disapprobation of the doctrines promulged in the sermon, and appointed a committee to visit and confer with Mr. Barnes, thereby to remove the difficulties which existed among them. Moreover, another subject of contention had arisen, respecting the admission of persons into the Presbytery of Philadelphia. A "complaint" against the rule of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, enforcing an examination of all persons who desired admission into that body was presented to the synod, who referred that subject to the General Assembly of 1832, with a protest by twenty-two ministers. To accommodate Mr. Barnes and those who sustained him, the Assembly constituted the Second Presbytery of Philadel phia; which act the synod resisted as unconstitutional, and refused to enrol the members as part of the synod at their next meeting; which produced new "complaints, protests, and remonstrances," for review by the General Assembly of 1833. The General Assembly of the year 1833 reversed the proceedings of the Synod of Philadelphia, by confirming the acts of the previous year; which brought up the whole controversy before the synod at their annual meeting. In the interim, a new principle of presbyterial consociation had been enounced and acted on, by a departure from the usual geographical limits for presbyteries. It was denominated, in polemic technology, "elective affinity." The synod annulled the proceeding of the Assembly, and having dissolved the then Second Presbytery of Philadelphia, and combined the members with their old associates, proceeded to sever the whole original presbytery by a geographical line, drawn from east to west through Market Street, in the city of Philadelphia. At the same meeting of the synod a "Protest and Complaint" against the rule respecting the examination of ministers or licentiates desiring admission into the Presbytery of Philadelphia, and the synodical virtual approbation of that rule, were recorded for transmission to the General Assembly of 1834. The synod, however, had introduced another subject of conflict, by the formation of their new presbytery: so that there existed the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia, organized by the General Assembly, and the Second Presbytery constituted by the synod. About the same time the Synods of Cincinnati and Pittsburg formally interfered in the collision by impugning the proceedings of the General Assembly in reference to the Presbytery of Philadelphia. They refused to submit the original copy of the proceedings to the synod. The synod, however, proceeded with the investigation upon the proofs that the detail of the charges, evidence, and proceedings laid before them, was an authentic copy of the presbyterial record. Mr. Barnes| refused to appear in his own defence, upon the plea that as the presbytery to which he belonged, and who had acquitted him, would not produce their" attested record" of the proceedings in his case, the trial, "whatever might be the issue," must be unconstitutional. After nearly three days' discussion, the synod reversed the decision of the Second Presbytery in the case of Mr. Barnes, "as contrary to truth and righteousness," and declared, that the errors alleged were contrary to the doctrines of the Presbyterian Church, and that they contravened the system of truth set forth in the word of God; and they suspended Mr. Barnes from the functions of the gospel ministry. Against which decision, Mr. Barnes entered his complaint and appeal to the General Assembly of 1836. The synod then dissolved the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia, which had been organized by the General Assembly, and also the Presbytery of Wilmington. The General Assembly met in 1936, and those various "appeals," "complaints," and "protests," were discussed. That body rescinded all the acts of the Synod of Philadelphia-they absolved Mr. Barnes from the censure and suspension pronounced by the Synod of Philadelphia. They erected their former Second Presbytery anew, as the Third Presbytery of Philadelphia-they restored the Presbytery of Wilmington-and they virtually proclaimed, that the positions avowed by Mr. Barnes are evangelical, and consistent with the Presbyterian Confession of Faith and Catechisms. The vacillating course of the General Assembly during some years, with the various attempts to compromise, as either of the parties seemed to acquire the preponderance, for the actual division among the ministers and churches was avowed-constantly augmented the strife in pungency and amplitude. To place the matter in a form which could not be evaded, Dr. Junkin, of the Presbytery of Newton, directly charged Mr. Barnes with holding erroneous opinions, as declared especially in his "Notes on the Romans." The case occupied the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia for some days, when that ecclesiastical body auitted Mr. Barnes of "having taught any dangerous errors or heresies contrary to the Word of God," and the Confession of Faith and Catechisms. From that decision Dr. Junkin appealed to the Synod of Philadelphia who met in 1835. Prior to that period, the Synod of Delaware, which had been erected by the Assembly to include the Second Presbytery of Philadelphia, was dissolved, and that presbytery was re-in-phia in 1835, and the measures of the corporated with the Synod of Philadelphia. When Dr. Junkin's appeal came before the synod, according to the constitutional rule, the record of the case made by the presbytery appealed from, was required. The alienation between the two parties had constantly been increasing; but after the proceedings of the Synod of Philadel General Assembly of 1836, it was manifest, that a decisive struggle would be made at the meeting of the General Assembly in 1837. The strict interpreters of the Confession of Faith had been in a minority of the Assembly in the years 1831, 2, 3, 4, and 1836. They therefore invited a convention to meet in Philadelphia, a week anterior to the opening of the General Assembly of 1837. The convention included one hundred and twenty-four members, most of whom also were delegates to the Assembly, and they continued in session until the General Assembly was organized. To that body the convention transmitted the result of their deliberations in a document entitled their "Testimony and Memorial." They bear testimonyI. Against sixteen doctrinal errors. II. Against ten departures from Presbyterian order. III. Against five declensions in Christian discipline. They emphatically declared, in reference to the distracted church, among ministers and people, that mutual confidence is gone, and is not to be restored by temporizing measures. IV. They then propose the "Method of Reform." 1. The immediate abrogation of the "Plan of Union" with Congregationalists, adopted in 1801. 2. The discontinuance of the American Home Missionary, and American Education Societies. are not 3. The severance of all churches, presbyteries, and synods, which strictly organized on Presbyterian principles. 4. The examination of all licentiates and ministers on theology and church government; and the requirement of an "explicit adoption of the Confession of Faith and form of Government." The General Assembly of 1837 met, and, the adherents of the Convention having a decisive majority in that body, promptly acceded to the requests of the Memorial. They abrogated the "Plan of Union" between Presbyterians and bly of that year; and also because the catathe protest offered to the Presbytery of Philalogue comprises the objections included in delphia, in April, 1830; the "errors" enumerated in the western memorial of 1834; and the charges of Dr. Junkin, in 1835. The Convention of 1837 thus announce We hereby set forth in order some of the doctrinal errors, against which we bear testimony. I. God would have been glad to prevent the existence of sin in our world, but was not able, without destroying the moral agency of Bible to the contrary, sin is incidental to any man; or, that for aught which appears in the wise moral system. II. Election to eternal life is founded on a foresight of faith and obedience. III. We have no more to do with the first sin of Adam, than with the sins of any other parent. IV. Infants come into the world as free from moral defilement, as was Adam, when he was created. V. Infants sustain the same relation to the brute animals, and their sufferings and death moral government of God in this world as are to be accounted for, on the same principles as those of brutes, and not by any means to be considered as penal. VI. There is no other original sin than the fact that all the posterity of Adam, though by nature innocent, or possessed of no moral character, will always begin to sin when they begin to exercise moral agency. Original sin does not include a sinful bias of the hufering. There is no evidence in scripture, man mind, and a just exposure to penal sufthat infants, in order to salvation, do need redemption by the ble of Christ, and regene5. The separation from the Presbyteration by the Holy Ghost. rian Church of all presbyteries and synods, which are known to consist chiefly of unsound or disorderly members. 6. A caveat to be sent to all the national societies respecting their agents, that they should not interfere with the order and principles of the Presbyterian churches.* Doctrinal Errors.-The minute specification of the disputed themes of theology was reserved for this point. because the "Testimony and Memorial" of 1837, constituted the formal basis of the proceedings in the Assem 4 VII. The doctrine of imputation, whether of the guilt of Adam's sin, or of the righteousness of Christ, has no foundation in the word of God, and is both unjust and absurd. VIII. The sufferings and death of Christ were not truly vicarious and penal, but symbolical, governmental, and instructive only. IX. The impenitent sinner by nature, and independently of the renewing influence or almighty energy of the Holy Spirit, is in full possession of all the ability necessary to a full compliance with all the commands of God. X. Christ never intercedes for any but those who are actually united to him by faith; or Christ does not intercede for the elect until after their regeneration. XI. Saving faith is the mere belief of the |