The reply was--"This Synod never
understood any act of theirs, relative to their members sitting on
juries, or contravening the old common law of the church on that
subject;" a response obviously as equivocal as the preceding. As early
as 1823, a motion was made in the Synod to open a correspondence with
the judicatories of other denominations. This motion was resisted, and
for the time proved abortive. At next meeting of Synod, however, the
measure was brought before that body, by a proposal from the General
Assembly to correspond by delegation. This proposal found many, and some
of them able, advocates in the Reformed. P. Synod. The measure was,
however, again defeated; but immediately after the failure, a number of
ministers forsook the Reformation ranks and consorted with the General
Assembly. In the year 1828, the Synod gave its sanction and lent its
patronage to the Colonization Society, which was continued till the year
1836, when its patronage was transferred to the cause of Abolition. The
spirit of declension became manifest at the session of Synod in 1831,
when some of the most prominent and practical principles of the Reformed
Church were openly thrown into debate, in the pages of a monthly
periodical, under the head of "Free Discussion.
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