700 



PKESBYTERIANS. 



2. That the doctrine of the Divine decrees, includ- 

 ing the doctrine of election to eternal life, is held 

 in connection and harmony with the truth that " God 

 will have all men to be saved," and has provided a 

 salvation sufficient for all, adapted to all, and offered 

 to all with the grace of his Spirit in the gospel ; and 

 also with the responsibility of every man for his 

 dealing with the free and unrestricted offer of eternal 

 life. 



3. That the doctrine of man's total depravity, and 

 of his loss of " all ability of will to any spiritual good 

 accompanying salvation," is not held as implying 

 such a condition of man's nature as would affect his 

 responsibility under the law of God and the gospel 

 of Christ, or that he may not experience the strivings 

 and restraining influences of the Spirit of God, or 

 that he can not perform actions in any sense good, 

 though such actions, as not springing from a renewed 

 heart, are not spiritually good or holy, and conse- 

 quently not such as accompany salvation. 



4. That, while all who are saved are saved by the 

 mediation of Christ and by the grace of his Holy 

 Spirit, who worketh when and where and how he 

 pleaseth ; and while the duty of sending the gospel 

 the ordinary means of salvation to the heathen, who 

 are sunk in a state of sin and misery and perishing 

 for lack of knowledge, is clear and imperative, the 

 Church does not require the acceptance of her Stand- 

 ards in a sense which might imply that any who die 

 in infancy are lost, nor does she bind those who 

 accept these Standards to hold that God never in 

 any case saves without the use of the ordinary 

 means. 



5. That this Church holds that the Lord Jesus 

 Christ is the only King and Head of the Church, and 

 41 Head over all things to the Church, which is his 

 body," and firmly renews her protest against all 

 compulsory or persecuting and intolerant principles 

 in religion, and declares, as hitherto, that she does 

 not require approval of anything in her Standards 

 that teaches or may be supposed to teach such prin- 

 ciples. 



6. That Christ has laid it as a permanent and uni- 

 versal obligation upon his Church at once to main- 

 tain her own ordinances and to " preach the gos- 

 pel to every creature" ; and has ordained that the 

 means of fulfilling this obligation are to be provided 

 by the freewill offerings of his people. 



7. That, in accordance with the practice hitherto 

 observed in this Church, liberty of opinion is al- 

 lowed on such points in the Standards not entering 

 into the substance of the faith as the interpretation 

 of the " six days" in the Mosaic account of the crea- 

 tion, the Church guarding against the abuse of this 

 "berty to the injury of its unity and peace. 



The Committee suggest that the following rubric 

 be inserted in the Rules and Form of Procedure, 

 for the guidance of the presiding minister on every 

 occasion on which the questions of the formula are 

 to be put : 



44 The Moderator shall then say : I have now to 

 put to you the questions of the formula and to re- 

 quire your assent to them, in view of the explana- 

 tions contained in the Declaratory Statement, anent 

 the bubordinate Standards passed in the year - ." 



The Committee further recommend to the Synod 

 that the second question of the formula shall hence- 

 forth be read as follows : " Do you acknowledge the 

 ninater Confession of Faith and the Larger 

 Shorter Catechisms as an exhibition of the 

 ' y U understand the Hol 7 Scrip- 



The statement was ordered sent down to 

 the Presbyteries for their action upon it, with 

 instructions to them to send any suggestions 

 which they might have to make upon it to the 

 Committee by the 1 st of October. 



A case involving important questions of doc- 



trine and discipline came up on the appeal of 

 the Rev. Fergus Ferguson from the action of 

 the Presbytery of Glasgow against him. Mr. 

 Ferguson had been tried by the Presbytery 

 and found guilty of teaching doctrines contrary 

 to the Standards of the Church : 1 . On the 

 doctrine of the atonement ; 2. In holding that 

 men are justified not by an imputation of 

 righteousness, but by occupying a just position 

 in regard to God ; 3. In denying the distinc- 

 tion between the covenant of works and the 

 covenant of grace, and in teaching that the 

 only covenant of God with man is that they 

 that love God and do his will shall be blessed ; 

 4. In denying that man by his fall " has lost 

 all ability of will to any spiritual good accom- 

 panying salvation"; 5. In holding that the 

 only ground of condemnation is unbelief in 

 Christ, and that, therefore, those who in this 

 world have had no opportunity to believe in 

 Christ will. have it in the world to come; 6. 

 In holding that hell is not a place of eternal 

 punishment, but a loss of son ship to God and 

 banishment from the presence of Christ, and 

 that the penalty of sin as active suffering can 

 not be eternal. In his defense, the appellant, 

 while not denying that the words of his teach- 

 ing had been correctly quoted, disputed the rel- 

 evancy of the libel against him, claimed that 

 many of the expressions which formed the 

 basis of the charges against him had been 

 made hypothetically and not positively, with 

 the object of calling attention to supposed dis- 

 crepancies between the Standards and the 

 Word of God, and in aid of a movement for 

 the rectification of the creed, and demanded to 

 be tried by a comparison of his doctrines with 

 the text of the Scriptures rather than with 

 that of the Standards. During the hearing of 

 the appeal Mr. Ferguson was questioned re- 

 specting his belief, and made a more satisfac- 

 tory statement than that which he had made 

 before the Presbytery. The Synod decided 

 that it sustained the Presbytery on the evi- 

 dence, but, in view of the explanations it 

 had received, reserved its judgment on other 

 points. A committee was appointed to confer 

 with Mr. Ferguson with a view of ascertaining 

 what was most advisable to be done in bring- 

 ing the case to an issue. This Committee ob- 

 tained further explanations from him in refer- 

 ence to the several points in the charges, 

 which were of a satisfactory character, and the 

 general explanation that while in some things 

 he might go beyond the positions formulated 

 in the Confession he was in fundamental har- 

 mony with its essential doctrines; and that, 

 while he claimed no liberty to contravene the 

 Confession, he claimed the liberty of holding 

 on the basis of the Scriptures views of truth 

 that might go beyond it. The Synod received 

 the report of the Committee, and agreed to re- 

 store Mr. Ferguson to the exercise of his min- 

 isterial functions. 



XI. PRESBYTEKIAN CHUECH OF ENGLAND. 



The following is a summary of the statistics of 



