They passed a number of resolutions, of
which the fourth reads thus: "That as it is the _right_, so it will be
the _duty_ of the Episcopal Church, when duly organized, constituted,
and represented in a Synod or Convention of the different orders of her
ministers and people, to revise her liturgy, forms of prayer and of
public worship, in order to adapt the same _to the late Revolution_,
and OTHER LOCAL CIRCUMSTANCES OF AMERICA," [Note 1] &c.
Our _Presbyterian_ brethren also changed their Confession of Faith, and
adapted it to their belief. Hear the testimony of _Dr. Hodge_, in his
Constitutional History of the Presbyterian Church in the United
States: [Note 2] the Synod then "took into consideration the twentieth
chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith, the third paragraph of
the twenty-third chapter, and the first paragraph of the thirty-first
chapter; and having made some alterations, agreed that the said
paragraphs, as now altered, be printed for consideration, together with
a draught of a plan of government and discipline." They were
subsequently adopted.
In like manner did our _Methodist Episcopal_ brethren deal with the
Thirty-nine Articles of the Episcopal Church, which they had avowed
from the days of Wesley. They not only rejected the recognition of the
king as the head of the church, but also entirely omitted Article
XVII.
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