THE

CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY

OF THE

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ·

IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

BY

CHARLES HODGE,

PROFESSOR IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARÝ, PŘÍNCETON, NEW JERSEY.

Entered according to the act of Congress, in the year 1840, by WILLIAM S. MARTIEN, in the clerk's office of the district court for the eastern district of Pennsylvania.

PREFACE.

THE design of this history is to exhibit the character and constitution of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. To accomplish this object, it was necessary to bring to view, not only the declarations, but the acts of its highest judicatory. The work has thus become rather a history of the synod, than of the whole church, and does not pretend to enter into those details, which would be necessary in a more comprehensive work. Those controversies, however, which affected the action of the synod, come legitimately within the scope of this history. Hence an account of the great revival which occurred towards the middle of the last century, was necessary, in order to render intelligible the history of the dissentions which agitated and ultimately divided the synod. To that revival therefore, the introductory chapter of the present volume is devoted. The principal sources of information on this subject, to which the writer has had access, are the following: Prince's Christian History, in two volumes, a contempora