his is not that heaven-born
principle 'that rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth.'
You break fellowship for what you esteem mere trifles--you propose to us
a new term of communion, with which it is morally impossible that we
should comply, without doing violence to our consciences. Is this
charity or tyranny?"

2. Although covenanting was declared by this body at their origin, to be
an "important duty," they never recognized the solemn deeds of their
fathers as binding on them; nor have they ever attempted the
acknowledged duty in a way supposed to be competent to themselves. Nay,
the obligation of the British covenants has been denied both openly and
frequently from the pulpit and the press; and even attempts have been
made, not seldom, by profane ridicule, to bring them into contempt. The
very duty of public, social covenanting, either in a National or
ecclesiastical capacity, has been often opposed in the polemic writings
of the ministers of this body, however often inculcated and exemplified
in the word of God. The moral nature of the duty taken in connection
with prophetic declarations, to be fulfilled only under the Christian
dispensation, demonstrates the permanency of this divine ordinance until
the end of the world.

3. This church set out with unsound views of church fellowship, as has
been already in part made appear. But when their position came to be
more pointedly defined, they made the novel distinction between _fixed_
and _occasional_ communion. The practical tendency of this unscriptural
experiment was necessarily to _catholic_ communion, which theory was
soon advocated by some of the most prominent of the ministry; and
accordingly eventuated in the merging of a large number of her ministry
and membership, in the communion of the General Assembly.

4. On the doctrine of the divine ordinance of civil government, this
church has all along been unsound; as is fully evidenced in the practice
of her members, which has been similar to that of Seceders. Our
testimony against the latter is, in this particular, equally directed
against the former.

5. This church has appeared as the advocate of a boundless toleration,
conforming her views and policy in a most servile manner to the infidel
model presented in the civil constitutions of republican America. It
would seem, indeed, that this body aimed at conforming their
ecclesiastical polity to that standard, from the fact that the very
symbol