Part I
PART I
PRELIMINARY PRINCIPLES
INTRODUCTORY NOTES
TO THE
ANNUAL ARTICLES ON "THE GENERAL
ASSEMBLY;"
IN THE "PRINCETON REVIEW," 1835
AND 1837
DURING the sessions of the late General Assembly of our Church, so many subjects of interest were brought under discussion, that a brief review of the more important of these topics may perhaps be both acceptable and useful. The principles involved in the settlement of these questions are likely to be called up in subsequent Assemblies, and must influence, to a greater or less degree, the action of all inferior judicatories. It is, therefore, a matter of importance to have the grounds on which certain measures were advocated and opposed spread before the ministers and elders of the Church. We propose, therefore, to notice the most important questions debated and determined by the last Assembly, and to present a general view of the
arguments on both sides. We are well aware that this is a difficult and delicate task. Our dependence for information must be almost exclusively on the reports of the debates published in the religious journals, which are confessedly very imperfect.
Were these papers in the hands of all our readers, and did they present the information which we wish to communicate in a form as convenient for preservation and reference as the pages of a Quarterly Review, we might well spare ourselves the labour of this digest. But this not being the case, we feel we shall be rendering an acceptable service in reducing within as small a compass as possible a view of the more important discussions of the supreme judicatory of our Church. There is one other preliminary remark that we wish to make. While we shall aim at perfect impartiality we do not expect fully to attain it. It is next to impossible, in presenting the arguments for and against any particular measure, not to exhibit those which strike the writer's own mind with the greatest force, with more clearness and effect than those of an opposite character. Our readers therefore must make due allowance on this score, and remember, as an apology for occasional inaccuracy, the comparative scantiness of the sources of information at our command. [Princeton Review, 1835, p. 440.]
It may be proper to repeat what we have said on former occasions, that it is not the object of these accounts of the proceedings of the Assembly, to give the minutes of that body, or to record all the motions and debates, but simply to select the topics of most importance, and to give the best view we can of the arguments on either side. We make no pretensions to indifference or neutrality. The arguments of those from whom we differ we try to give with perfect fairness, as far as possible, in the language of the reports given by their friends. But we do not undertake to argue the case for
them. This we could not do honestly or satisfactorily. On the other hand, we endeavour to make the best argument we can in favour of the measures we approve, using all the speeches of the supporters of those measures, and putting down any thing which may happen to occur to ourselves. Our object is to let our readers know what questions were debated, and to give them the best means in our power to form an opinion of the correctness of the conclusions arrived at. [Princeton Review, 1837, note p. 407.]