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INTRODUCTION.

In the following work, the Rev. Mr. CHEESEMAN has designed to give a brief account of those doctrinal differences which separate Presbyterians of the Old and New School. Not that these differences are peculiar to Presbyterians, for the same contest between truth and error, is developed in some form in all those protestant denominations in which vitality enough remains, to resist the progress of error and spiritual decay; not that the questions between the adherents of the old and new divinity, are of modern origin; novelties now for the first time considered and debated, but because the ancient heresies which have been privily brought in and which have corrupted so large a portion of the Presbyterian communion, are still artfully concealed under various disguises from the eyes of multitudes of pious persons who could they be made to see them in their true deformity, would not tarry a night under their shadow. The adherents of the new Theology, sometimes represent, that there is really no substantial difference between their system and old divinity; that it is a meres logomachy, a difference in mode of expression and in philosophical explanations; again, with a strange yet characteristic inconsistency, they caricature the doctrines of grace and of the confession of faith as though they embodied all that was inconsistent, perverse and monstrous. Could it be made to appear to that large and respectable body of members of the Presbyterian Church, who though sound in the faith, yet remain in the New School connexion, that the principles for which the General Assembly contend and in

the defence of which, they intended to bear their testimony in the excision act of 1837, are the same maintained by Paul the Apostle against the gainsayers of his day, the same afterward defended in the fifth century by Augustine, against Pelagius, and the same which were revived by Luther, and with which, as with a battle axe, he smote the gates of the great apostacy, they would not and could not give support and countenance, aid and comfort to the enemies of the truth by remaining an hour within the ecclesiastical walls of the the New School General Assembly. Yet if there be any thing clear which may be determined beyond all doubt, it is that the theological contest between the Reformers and the Romanists in the sixteenth century, is the same now waged between Old and New School Presbyterians. No intelligent reader can peruse the controversy between Luther and Dr. Eck, the champion of the Papists, without perceiving this. No degree of prejudice or blindness can conceal the fact, it is written as with a sunbeam, it is graven as with the point of a diamond in the face of a rock.

The ability for which Eck and the Romanists contended against the Reformers is precisely both in form and substance the same as that insisted upon by the new school divines.— The doctrines maintained by all the reformed churches have been rejected by them for the theological tenets of the Papacy. Nothing can be demonstrated by history if D'Aubigne's account of the Reformation does not establish this. Here was the cause of thè division in the Presbyterian church.

The act of the General Assembly, whatever may be said of its regularity or expediency, as to form, time and place was prompted by a love of the truth, and was believed to be necessary to a suitable defence of the faith once delivered to the saints. The Presbyterian Church has ever manifested a Catholic Spirit, she claims no divine right to leave other churches to the uncovenanted mercies of God, which are no mercies at all. She admits the validity of the ordinations

and ordinances of all evangelical churches who defend the doctrines of grace, even when that defence is confined to a remnant after the election of grace. She stands and has ever stood, both in Scotland and in the United States, for the truth, and wherever she finds it she loves and fellowships all who receive and maintain it. She acknowledges that the church Catholic and Universal is composed of all true believers by whatever name called or in whatever ecclesiastical connexion found. It was upon doctrinal questions deemed fundamental, that the Presbyterian Church consented to the dismemberment of nearly one half her entire connexion.On the one hand were numbers, wealth and power, on the other the truth. For Christ's cross and crown she hesitated not to make the sacrifice. The Presbyterian Church might have struggled along, as have other denominations, holding together by her government, without any real agreement in doctrine and order, and it is sufficiently evident that the division m this great communion, was the result of the maintainance on the one hand and the rejection on the other, of the doctrines of the Reformers and of the Reformed churches. It would be easy to show how the same defence of the faith is perpetuating in other churches a conflict, the bitterness of which has been greatly mitigated among Presbyterians by their division into two bodies. Those who differ on radical points, can love each other better across a denominational division than when bound in the same yoke; for the "contentions of brethren are like the bars of a castle," and "how can two walk together except they be agreed." The great questions at the Reformation were human depravity and ability. Says, the eloquent Historian, of the Reformation, "The inability of man and the Almighty power of God were the two truths Luther sought to reestablish."

"A man," says Luther in one of his first propositions against the Romish Theology, "who is a stranger to the grace of God, cannot keep the commandments of God. The will of

man without divine grace is not free but enslaved and willing to be so."

"The Papists with Pelagius," says D'Aubigne, "asserting man's freedom would keep him in slavery, the Reformers showing him his fetters and how they may be struck off, were the true advocates of liberty, the questions were BETWEEN A LIBERTY PROCEEDING FROM MAN'S NATURE and a liberty that cometh from God." Such was the contest says this historian, in St. Paul's time, in the days of Augustine, and again in those of Luther; and such we may add is the controversy now between the old and new theology. Denying the representative character of Adam and the condemnation of mankind in him; rejecting the doctrine of the innate universal moral alienation of our race from God; giving to fallen man the power of obedience to the broken law, of self recovery, and of self regeneration; the adherants of the new divinity are upon the ground of the Romanists, of Eck their champion, and of Pelagius. The foundation of the atonement is subverted, the work of the Holy Spirit is despised, and man is brought to himself and to his own efforts and works for salvation rather than to God and to Christ.

The doctrines received by the reformers and contained in sacred Scriptures may be resolved into five points.

1. Apostacy, original sin, and human ability.

2. Grace in conversion or regeneration the sole work of God.

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3. Justification by faith through Jesus Christ, who was made sin for us whose righteousness is imputed to the believer and received by faith alone.

4. The eternal election, and,

5 Perseverance of the saints.

All these truths stand related to and are dependant upon the first proposition; hence the controversy between the Reformers and the Papists, was first upon this point, “Whether man possessed in his own nature the power of loving God and

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