1 Narrative of early action. A new collection to be prepared and a committee appointed. The book approved.-2. Movement, for a new Book of Psalmody. Referred to the committee ad interim.-3. The "Church Psalmist" recom- mended.-4. Purchased for the Assembly.-5. An appendix added.-6. SECTION 6.-AMENDMENTS TO THE FORM OF GOVERNMENT, 1. Amended in 1821, and adopted substantially as at present.-2. Proposal to amend Form of Government, chap. x, refused.-3. Amendment of chap. xiii, sec. 2, Form of Government refused.-4. Proposal to amend Form of Government, chap. xii, sec. 4. Book of Discipline, chap. vii, sec. 1, art. iv. Chap. vii, secs. 2, 3, 4, on appeals, complaints, and references. Form of Government, chap. xii, sec. 7, and chap. xiv, sec. 6.-5. Answer of the Presbyteries. Form of Government, chap. xii, sec. 7, altered. Five of the six proposed amendments agreed to, but the sixth being rejected the As- sembly refuse to make the alterations.-6. Proposal to alter the ratio of re- presentation in the Assembly; also to make it Synodical and not Presbyte- rial. 7. Proposal of an overture in reference to calling special meetings of Synod not adopted.—8. The ratio of representation altered. Form of Go- vernment, chap. xii, sec. 2.-9. Proposal to limit the appellate jurisdiction of the Assembly to charges against a minister, and to processes originating in Synod.-10. Proposal to make the Synods in all cases the courts of final jurisdiction, to hold the Assembly triennially, and to authorize the calling of the Assembly, pro re nata.-11. The proposed amendments affirmed. Alterations of the Constitution made accordingly. Form of Government, chap. xii, secs. 2, 7, and 8.-12. Proposal to return to annual Assemblies, Form of Government, chap. xii, sec. 7, and to restore appellate jurisdiction to the Assembly.-13. The proposal more clearly stated. Revision of the standards referred to a committee.-14. The overtures, 1 and 2, respecting annual assemblies, chap. xi, sec. 7, and chap. xii, sec. 7, Form of Govern- ment, adopted. Overtures 3, 4, and 5, pertaining to appeals in the case of ministers, Book of Discipline, chap. vii, paragraph 2, sec. 3, paragraph 2, and sec. 4, paragraph 4, not adopted.-15. Report on the changes of the Constitution. Proposal to restore it as in 1840 or before the division. Over- tures sent down on Book of Discipline, chap. xii, sec. 4, chap. vii, sec. 2, chap. vii, sec. 3, sub sec. 2, chap. vii, sec. 4, sub sec. 1. Form of Government, chap. xii, a new section after 7, and chap. xii, sec. 2.-16. These overtures DIGEST. CHAPTER I. OF THE CHURCH. SECTION 1.-STANDARDS OF THE CHURCH. 1. Overture in reference to subscribing the Confession of Faith.-2. Confession of Faith. Larger and Shorter Catechisms of the Westminster Assembly adopted.— 3. The "Directory" recommended.-4. Intrants or Candidates must adopt the standards.-5. The "Adopting Act" to be copied in the Presbytery books.— 6. An act explanatory of the Adopting Act.-7. Plan of Union of 1758.-8. The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, amended and adopted.-9. Proof texts added by order of the Assembly.— 10. The marginal notes have no constitutional authority.-11. Use and obligation of the standards.-12. Subscription to them in every case required.13. The Catechisms are an integral part of the Constitution.-14. The term "Standing Rule" in the Constitution defined. The Assembly may enact standing rules. ADOPTION OF THE WESTMINSTER STANDARDS. 1.—Overture laid over a year. “There being an overture presented to the Synod in writing having reference to the subscribing of the Confession of Faith, &c., the Synod, judging this to be a very important affair, unanimously concluded to defer the consideration of it till the next Synod, withal recommending it to the members of each Presbytery present to give timeous notice thereof to the absent members."-Minutes, 1728, p. 91. 2. The Confession of Faith, Larger and Shorter Catechisms of the Westminster Assembly adopted. "The committee brought in an overture upon the affair of the Confession, which, after long debating upon it, was agreed upon, in hæc verba: "Although the Synod do not claim or pretend to any authority of imposing our faith upon other men's consciences, but do profess our just dissatisfaction with, and abhorrence of such impositions, and do utterly disclaim all legislative power and authority in the Church, being willing to receive one another as Christ has received us to the glory of God, and admit to fellowship in sacred ordinances, all such as we have grounds to believe Christ will at last admit to the kingdom of heaven, yet we are undoubtedly obliged to take care that the faith once delivered to the saints be kept pure and uncorrupt among us, and so handed down to our posterity. And do therefore agree that all the ministers of this Synod, or that shall hereafter be admitted into this Synod, shall declare their agreement in, and approbation of, the Confession of Faith, with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, as being in all the essential and necessary articles, good forms of sound words and systems of Christian doctrine, and do also adopt the said Confession and Catechisms as the confession of our faith. And we do also agree, that all the Presbyteries within our bounds shall always take care not to admit any candidate of the ministry into the exercise of the sacred function, but what declares his agreement in opinion with all the essential and necessary articles of said Confession, either by subscribing the said Confession of Faith and Catechisms, or by a verbal declaration of their assent thereto, as such minister or candidate shall think best. And in case any minister of this Synod, or any candidate for the ministry, shall have any scruple with respect to any article or articles of said Confession or Catechisms, he shall at the time of his making said declaration declare his sentiments to the Presbytery or Synod, who shall, notwithstanding, admit him to the exercise of the ministry within our bounds, and to ministerial communion, if the Synod or Presbytery shall judge his scruple or mistake to be only about articles not essential and necessary in doctrine, worship, or government. But if the Synod or Presbytery shall judge such ministers or candidates erroneous in essential and necessary articles of faith, the Synod or Presbytery shall declare them uncapable of communion with them. And the Synod do solemnly agree, that none of us will traduce or use any opprobrious terms of those that differ from us in these extra-essential and not necessary points of doctrine, but treat them with the same friendship, kindness, and brotherly love, as if they had not differed from us in such sentiments." [In the afternoon.] All the ministers of this Synod now present, except one, that declared himself not prepared, viz.: Masters Jedediah Andrews, Thomas Craighead, John Thomson, James Anderson, John Pierson, Samuel Gelston, Joseph Houston, Gilbert Tennent, Adam Boyd, Jonathan Dickinson, John Bradner, Alexander Hutchinson, Thomas Evans, Hugh Stevenson, William Tennent, Hugh Conn, George Gillespie, and John Willson, after proposing all the scruples that any of them had to make against any articles and expressions in the Confession of Faith and Larger and Shorter Catechisms of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, have unanimously agreed in the solution of those scruples, and in declaring the said Confession and Catechisms to be the confession of their faith, excepting only some clauses in the twentieth and twenty-third chapters, concerning which clauses the Synod do unanimously declare, that they do not receive those articles in any such sense as to suppose the civil magistrate hath a controlling power over Synods with respect to the exercise of their ministerial authority; or power to persecute any for their religion, or in any sense contrary to the Protestant succession to the throne of Great Britain. The Synod observing that unanimity, peace, and unity, which appeared in all their consultations and determinations relating to the affair of the Confession, did unanimously agree in giving thanks to God in solemn prayer and praises.-Minutes, 1729, p. 94. 3. The "Directory" recommended. "A motion being made to know the Synod's judgment about the Directory, they gave their sense of that matter in the following words, viz. The Synod do unanimously acknowledge and declare, that they judge the Directory for worship, discipline, and government of the Church, commonly annexed to the Westminster Confession, to be agreeable in substance to the word of God, and founded thereupon; and therefore do earnestly recommend the same to all their members, to be by them observed as near as circumstances will allow, and Christian prudence direct."-Minutes, 1729, p. 95. |