In the American colonies, the Synod of Philadelphia originally did not have a confession of faith: while the Scots-Irish stressed precise theological formulation, professional ministry, and the orderly and authoritarian nature of church government, the New Englanders emphasized "spontaneity, vital impulse, adaptability.
"[1] The Scots-Irish believed that confessional subscription would preserve Reformed orthodoxy from the threat of rationalistic ideas, while the New England party preferred declaring the Bible to be the common standard for faith and practice.
[3] In 1711 this was changed to requiring that ministers believe "the whole doctrine of the Confession... to be the truths of God, contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments".
Other expressions of the Confessions and Catechisms are not judged to be essential to the system of doctrine as a matter of indifference, whether the ordinand adopts them or not.
Of the first, Hodge argued that "Such a rule of interpretation can never be practically carried out, without dividing the Church into innumerable fragments.
It is impossible that a body of several thousand ministers and elders should think alike on all the topics embraced in such an extended and minute formula of belief.
[13] Some Presbyterian denominations have added a declaratory statement to the Westminster Confession of Faith in order to clarify, modify, or soften its teaching, and thus make it easier for office-bearers to subscribe without scruples.