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APPENDIX 2

 

"The Auburn Declaration" Adopted by a Representative Body of New School Presbyterians in AD 1837, and "The Declaratory Act," Adopted by the United Presbyterian Synod of Scotland, AD 1879.

 

The abovementioned declaratory acts are the only two historical papers authoritatively interpreting the sense in which the Westminster Confession of Faith is accepted by large branches of the Presbyterian Church. Their historical and interpretative value is obvious, but they are especially valuable as demonstrating the fidelity with which the Presbyterian churches on both sides of the ocean adhere to the original type of Reformed theology, and hence their essential unity in spite of their organic differences.

 

I. The Auburn Declaration

 

"The Auburn Declaration," drawn up by the Rev. Baxter Dickinson, D.D., was issued by an important representative convention of Presbyterian ministers adhering to the New School branch, at Auburn, New York, Aug, 1837. It is, therefore, an authoritative explanation of the interpretation given to the Westminster Confession by the leading minds of the New School at the era of its organization as a distinct denomination. The Old School General Assembly in Albany, AD 1868, in resolutions looking to reunion, endorsed the "Auburn Declaration" as containing "all the fundamentals of the Calvinistic Creed."

 

Remission of Sin

 

1. God permitted the introduction of sin, not because he was unable to prevent it consistently with the moral freedom of his creatures, but for wise and benevolent reasons he has not revealed.

 

Election

 

2. Election to eternal life is not founded on a foresight of faith and obedience, but is a sovereign act of God's mercy, whereby, according to the counsel of his own will, he has chosen some to salvation: "Yet so as thereby neither is violence offered to the will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken

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away, but rather established;" nor does this gracious purpose ever take effect independently of faith and a holy life.

 

Fall of Adam

 

3. By a divine constitution Adam was so the head and representative of the race that, as a consequence of his transgression, all mankind became morally corrupt and liable to death, temporal and eternal.

 

Hereditary Sin

 

4. Adam was created in the image of God, "endued with knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness." Infants come into the world not only destitute of these, but with a nature inclined to evil, and only evil.

 

Infants Involved in the Moral Ruin

 

5. Brute animals sustain no such relation to the moral government of God as does the human family. Infants are a part of the human family, and their suffering and death are to be accounted for on the ground of their being involved in the general moral ruin of the race induced by the apostasy.

 

Universal Need of Redemption

 

6. Original sin is a natural bias to evil, resulting from the first apostasy, leading invariably and certainly to actual transgression. And all infants, as well as adults, in order to be saved, need redemption by the blood of Christ and regeneration by the Holy Ghost.

 

Imputation of Sin and Righteousness

 

7. The sin of Adam is not imputed to his posterity in the sense of a literal transfer of personal qualities, acts and demerit, but by reason of the sin of Adam, in his peculiar relation, the race are treated as if they had sinned. Nor is the righteousness of Christ imputed to his people in the sense of a literal transfer of personal qualities, acts and merit; but by reason of his righteousness in his peculiar relation, they are treated as if they were righteous.

 

Atonement of Christ

 

8. The sufferings of Christ are not symbolical, governmental and instructive only, but were truly vicarious—i.e. a substitute for the punishment due transgressors. And while Christ did not suffer the literal penalty of the law, involving remorse of conscience and the pains of hell, he did offer a sacrifice which infinite wisdom saw to be a full equivalent. And by virtue of this atonement overtures of mercy are sincerely made to the race, and salvation secured to all who believe.

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Moral Ability

 

9. While sinners have all the faculties necessary to a perfect moral agency and a just accountability, such is their love of sin and opposition to God and his law that, independently of the renewing influence or almighty energy of the Holy Spirit, they never will comply with the commands of God.

 

Intercession of Christ

 

10. The intercession of Christ for the elect is previous as well as subsequent to their regeneration, as appears from the following Scripture—viz.: "I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word" (John 17:9,20).

 

Saving Faith

 

11. Saving faith is an intelligent and cordial assent to the testimony of God concerning his Son, implying reliance on Christ alone for pardon and eternal life; and in all cases it is an effect of the special operations of the Holy Spirit.

 

Regeneration

 

12. Regeneration is a radical change of heart, produced by the special operations of the Holy Spirit, "determining the sinner to that which is good," and is in all cases instantaneous.

 

Salvation by Grace

 

13. While repentance for sin and faith in Christ are indispensable to salvation, all who are saved are indebted from first to last to the grace and Spirit of God. And the reason that God does not save all is not that he wants the power to do it, but that in his wisdom he does not see fit to exert that power further than he actually does.

 

Liberty and Will

 

14. While the liberty of the will is not impaired, nor the established connection betwixt means and end broken, by any action of God on the mind, he can influence it according to his pleasure, and does effectually determine it to good in all cases of true conversion.

 

Justification

 

15. All believers are justified, not on the ground of personal merit, but solely on the ground of the obedience and death, or, in other words, the righteousness, of Christ. And while that righteousness does not become theirs, in the sense of a literal transfer of personal qualities and merit, yet from respect to it God can, and does, treat them as if they were righteous.

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Freedom in Faith and Unbelief.

 

16. While such as reject the gospel of Christ do it, not by coercion, but freely, and all who embrace it do it, not by coercion, but freely, the reason why some differ from others is that God has made them to differ.

 

II. The Declaratory Act.

 

The United Presbyterian Church of Scotland was formed in 1847 by a union of the United Associate Synod of the Secession Church with the Synod of the Relief Church. In the doctrinal basis of this union it was declared "that the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms are the Confession and Catechisms of this Church, and contain the authorized exhibition of the sense in which we understand the Holy Scriptures."

In order to explain the above basis the following Declaratory Act as to the sense in which the Confession is to be understood was passed by the Synod in May, 1879:

"Whereas, The formula in which the Subordinate[1] Standards of this Church are accepted requires assent to them as an exhibition of the sense in which the Scriptures are understood; Whereas, These Standards, being of human composition, are necessarily imperfect, and the Church has already allowed exception to be taken to their teaching or supposed teaching on one important subject;[2] And Whereas, There are other subjects in regard to which it has been found desirable to set forth more fully and clearly the view which the Synod takes of the Holy Scripture; Therefore, the Synod hereby declares as follows:

"1. That in regard to the doctrine of redemption as taught in the Standards, and in consistency therewith, the love of God to all mankind, his gift of his Son to be the propitiation for the sins of the whole world, and the free offer of salvation to men without distinction on the ground of Christ's perfect sacrifice, are matters which have been and continue to be regarded by this Church as vital to the system of gospel truth, and to which due prominence ought ever to be given.

"2. That the doctrine of divine decrees, including the doctrine of election to eternal life, is held in connection and harmony with the truth that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, that he has provided a salvation sufficient for all, adapted to all and offered to all 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 does not experience the striving and restraining

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influences of the Spirit of God, or that he cannot perform actions in any sense good; although actions which do not spring from a renewed heart are not spiritually good or holy—such as accompany salvation.

"4. That while none are saved except through the mediation of Christ, and by the grace of his Holy Spirit, who worketh when and where and how it pleaseth him; while the duty of sending the gospel to the heathen, who are sunk in ignorance, sin, and misery, is clear and imperative; and while the outward and ordinary means of salvation for those capable of being outwardly called by the word are the ordinances of the gospel, in accepting the Standards, it is not required to be held that any who die in infancy are lost, or that God may not extend his grace to any who are without the pale of the ordinary means, as it may seem good in his sight.

"5. That in regard to the doctrine of the civil magistrate, and his authority and duty in the sphere of religion, as taught in the Standards,[3] this Church holds that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only King and Head of the Church, and 'Head over all things to the Church, which is his body,' disapproves 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 principles.

"6. That Christ has laid it as a permanent and universal obligation upon his Church at once to maintain her own ordinances and to 'preach the gospel to every creature;' and has ordained that his people provide by their freewill offerings for the fulfillment of this obligation.

"7. That, in accordance with the practice hitherto observed in this Church, liberty of opinion is allowed 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 creation: the Church guarding against the abuse of this liberty to the injury of its unity and peace."