Philip Schaff · 45 of 85

The Confession of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. A.D. 1829.

THE CONFESSION OF THE CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. A.D. 1829 (1813).

[The Confession of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in the United States (which was organized in 1810, and embraces a large and active membership in the Western and Southern States), is a semi-Arminian revision of the Westminster Confession of Faith. It was adopted in 1813, and finally revised in 1829. It retains the thirty-three chapters in the same order, with the American alterations of Chaps. XXIII. and XXXI., and a few immaterial omissions and additions. The only serious change is in the chapter on Predestination, while even the chapter on Perseverance is essentially retained. We present both texts in parallel columns.

See The Confession of Faith of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, revised and adopted by the General Assembly, at Princeton, Ky., May, 1829, published by its Board of Publication in Nashville, Tenn. Comp. Vol. I. pp. 813 sqq.]

Note.—The remaining six sections of the Westminster Confession, which contain the knotty points of Calvinism, are entirely omitted. Instead of them an official explanation is attached, as follows:

'We think it better, under the head of Decrees, to write what we know to be incontrovertible from the plain Word of God, than to darken counsel by words without knowledge. We have elsewhere acknowledged the doctrine of predestination to be a high mystery. We are free to acknowledge that in our judgment it is easier to fix the limits which man should not transcend, on either hand, than to give an intelligent elucidation of the subject. We believe that both Calvinists and Arminians have egregiously erred on this point: the former by driving rational, accountable man into the asylum of fate; the latter by putting too much stress on man's works, and leaving too much out of view the grace that bringeth salvation, and thereby cherish[ing] those legal principles that are in every human heart. We think the intermediate plan on this subject is nearest the whole truth; for surely, on the one hand, it must be acknowledged, the love of God, the merits of Christ, and the operation of the Holy Spirit are the moving, meritorious, and active causes of man's salvation; that God is a sovereign, having a right to work when, where, how, and on whom he pleases; that salvation, in its device, in its plan, and in its application, is of the Lord; and that without the unmerited agency and operation of the Spirit of God not one of Adam's race would or could ever come to the knowledge of the truth—for God is the author as well as the finisher of our faith. Therefore God, as a sovereign, may, if he pleases, elect a nation, as the Jews, to preserve his worship free from idolatry; many nations for a time, as Christendom, in which to spread his gospel; individuals, as Cyrus and others, to answer a particular purpose; Paul and others for apostles; Luther and Calvin to promote the Reformation. But as it respects the salvation of the soul, God as a sovereign can only elect or choose fallen man in Christ, who is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. But it appears to us incontestible, from God's Word, that God has reprobated none from eternity. That all mankind become legally reprobated by transgression is undeniable, and continue so until they embrace Christ. "Examine yourselves," etc. "Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (2 Cor. xiii. 5). Now this can not mean eternal reprobates, or all who have not Christ in them would be such, the absurdity of which will at once appear to every common capacity. Reprobation is not what some have supposed it to be, viz., a sovereign determination of God to create millions of rational beings, and for his own glory damn them eternally in hell, without regard to moral rectitude or sin in the creature. This would tarnish the divine glory, and render the greatest, best, and most lovely of all Beings most odious in the view of all intelligences. When man sinned he was legally reprobated, but not damned: God offered, and does offer, the law-condemned sinner mercy in the gospel, he having from the foundation of the world so far chosen mankind in Christ as to justify that saying in 1 Tim. iv. 10, "Who is the Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe." This is a gracious act of God's sovereign electing love, as extensive as the legal condemnation, or reprobation, in which all mankind are by nature. But, in a particular and saving sense, none can be properly called God's elect till they be justified and united to Christ, the end of the law for righteousness (none are justified from eternity), as appears evident from the following passages of God's Word: "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? Who is he that condemneth?" (Rom. viii. 33, 34). Now it is certain [that] the unbeliever is chargeable and condemned. Again, "If it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect" (Matt. xxiv. 24). It is evident that a man must be enlightened in the knowledge of God and his Son Jesus, which is eternal life, before he can have spiritual wisdom to discern and detect the deceiver. If, then, by perverting the gracious provision of the gospel in refusing to submit to the righteousness of God, the sinner finally grieves the Spirit of God, to depart from him, he becomes doubly and eternally reprobated; or like the chemist's mineral, which will not coin into pure metal, or the potter's clay, which marred upon the wheel. But if the creature fall into this deplorable situation, he was not bound by any revealed or secret decree of God to do so: it is his own fault. For God declares in his Word that Christ died for the whole world; that he offers pardon to all; that the Spirit operates on all; confirming by an oath that he has no pleasure in the death of sinners. Every invitation of the gospel either promises or implies aid by the Divine Spirit. The plan of the Bible is grace and duty. God calls (grace); sinners hearken diligently (duty); God reproves (grace); sinners turn (duty); God pours out his Spirit (grace); sinners resist not the light, but improve it (duty); God makes known his Word, or reveals the plan of salvation (grace); God invites (grace); wicked men, forsake your ways (duty), your thoughts (duty), and turn to the Lord (duty), and God will have mercy on you (grace), and God will abundantly pardon (grace).'

In Chap. IX., Of Free Will, the first three and the fifth sections are retained with an addition at the close of Sect. 3, 'without Divine aid.' In the fourth section the last words, 'but [the sinner] doth also will that which is evil,' are omitted.

In Chap. X., Of Effectual Calling, the fourth section is omitted, and the third section concerning infant salvation is liberalized and made to embrace all infants as follows:

In Chap. XI., Of Justification, Sect. 1, 'Those whom God effectually calleth,' is changed into 'Those whom God calleth (and who obey the call)' In Sect. 4, 'God did, from all eternity, decree to justify all the elect,' is changed into 'God, before the foundation of the world, determined to justify all true believers.'