Excerpt from The Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, Vol. 1

Dr. Hill, after quoting the adopting act of 1729, in which the language quoted in the text occurs, exclaims, Noble, generous-hearted Presbyterian fathers! And in commenting upon Dr. Green's strictures upon that act, he asks, Does my venerable friend admit of no distinction between essential and non-essential doctrines of the Gospel? And does he believe that every word and every sentence in our Confession of Faith contains essential doc trine? This is not the old divinity we were taught in olden times. If I mistake not, our present Confession of Faith does the same in amount. (see Book of Discipline, ch. V. Sec. 13, 14, 'heresy and schism may be of such a nature as to infer deposition; but errors ought to be carefully censi dered, whether they strike at the vitals of religion, and are industriously spread; or whether they arise from the weakness of the human understanding, and are not likely to do much injury.' From this it appears that Dr. Hill considers the adopting act, and our present constitution as requiring nothing more than agreement in the essential doctrines of the Gospel.

The cincinnati journal contains a series of articles on the early history of our Church, the ninth number of which embraces a long extract from a letter by Dr. Halsey, published in 1836. In that letter Dr. Halsey endeavours to show that the conditional adeption of the Confession of Faith is the dis tinctive peculiarity of our Church - an avowed standard principle. What degree of latitude of construction, ought, in his judgment, to be allowed, may be learned from the following passage. They (i. E. Our fathers) believed that visible union and communion among Christians was a divinely-appointed duty, and they laboured to fulfil it on such terms as did not merge Christian character. What was essential to this they maintained, what was not essen tial they treated accordingly; leaving us an example that we should follow their steps. That this relates to ministerial communion is evident from the whole drift of the letter, and from what immediately follows the passage just cited. It may be asked how this distinctive peculiarity of our Church should ever be lost to the sight of her members? The history of our Church supplies the answer. In the hostilities of 1741, the old-side' in Philadelphia became possessed of the original records, which became sequestered. The original adopting act' lived but in tradition, and the reproaches of adversaries. Meanwhile, those who questioned its propriety, taught their own views of 'the adopting act, ' representing it absolute not conditional.

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