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the contrary part, or to give ourselves to a detestable indifference and neutrality, in this cause, which so much concerneth the glory of God, the good of the kingdom, and honor of the king; but shall, all the days of our lives, zealously and constantly continue therein against all opposition, and promote the same according to our power, against all acts and impediments whatsoever; and what we are not able ourselves to suppress or overcome, we shall reveal and make known, that it may be timely prevented or removed. All which we shall do as in the sight of God. And because these kingdoms are guilty of many sins and provocations against God, and his Son, Jesus Christ, as is too manifest by our present distresses and dangers, the fruits thereof; we profess and declare before God and the world, our unfeigned desire to be humbled for our own sins, and for the sins of these kingdoms: especially, that we have not, as we ought, valued the inestimable benefit of the Gospel; that we have not labored for the purity and power thereof; and that we have not endeavored to receive Christ in our hearts, nor to walk worthy of him in our lives, which are the causes of other sins and transgressions so much abounding amongst us and our true and unfeigned purpose, desire and endeavor, for ourselves and all others under our power and charge, both in public and in private, in all duties we owe to God and man, to amend our lives, and each one to go before another in the example of a real reformation, that the Lord may turn away his wrath and heavy indignation, and establish these churches and kingdoms in truth and peace. And this Covenant we make in the presence of ALMIGHTY GOD, the searcher of all hearts, with a true intention to perform the same, as we shall answer at that great day, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed; most humbly beseeching the Lord to strengthen us by his HoLY SPIRIT, for this end, and to bless our desires and proceedings with such success as may be deliverance and safety to his people, and encouragement to other Christian churches groaning under, or in danger of, the yoke of anti-christian tyranny, to join in the same or like associa tion and covenant, to the glory of GOD,

the enlargement of the kingdom of JESUS CHRIST, and the peace and tranquillity of Christian kingdoms and commonwealths. A third distinctive feature of Covenantters, is that every member is required to attend a social fellowship meeting, for prayer and christian conference. Many Christians of other denominations consider this both a duty and a privilege, yet but few attend to it. Covenanters view it in the light of a divine ordinance not to be neglected for which they have a warrant in the following scriptures: Mal. iii. 16; Matt. xviii. 20; John xx. 19; Col. iii. 16; Heb. x. 25, and Song viii. 13.

A fourth distinctive feature of Covenanters is, that while they recognize the validity of ordinances administered by other denominations of Christians, and acknowledge those denoninations as brethren, yet they cannot join, either statedly or occasionally, in the communion of any other Church, by waiting on its ministry, either in word or sacraments, while they continue opposed to their declared sentiments.

The strictness of their discipline is considered by some as amounting to a distinctive feature: and they are most strenuous advocates of the Book of Psalms of divine inspiration, to the exclusion of all other compositions, in the worship of God.

In the cause of foreign missions, little has been done till now, that a mission is preparing to set out for Hayti. This island was explored last winter by Rev. J. B. Johnston, of Logan County, Ohio; and Port au Prince has been selected as the point on which to establish a mission. In home missions much has been done and is doing.

They have a Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, under the care of Dr. J. R. Wilson. Thirteen.students were in attendance last session.

Two Periodicals are engaged in advocating and disseminating the principles of the Church. One in Newburgh, established in 1837, Rev. M. Roney editor, is entitled "THE REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN." The other in Philadelphia, commenced in 1845, Rev. J. M. Wilson editor, is entitled "THE COVENANTER."

Although the number of ministers and congregations is increasing every year, all

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be the word of God, and the only rule of faith and manners.

2. An acknowledgment that the whole doctrine of the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Catechisms, larger and shorter, are agreeable to, and founded on the Scriptures.

3. An acknowledgment of the divine right of one unalterable form of Church government and manner of worship-and that these are for substance justly exhi bited in that form of Church government and the Directory for worship, agreed on by the assembly of Divines at Westminster, as they were received by the Church of Scotland.

4. An acknowledgment that public Covenanting is an ordinance of God, to be observed by churches and nations, under the New Testament dispensation;-and that those vows, namely, that which was entered into by the church and kingdom of Scotland, called the NATIONAL COVENANT, and that which was afterwards entered into by the three kingdoms of Scotland, England and Ireland, and by the Reformed Churches in those kingdoms,, usually called the SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT, were entered into in the true spirit of that institution—and that the obligation of these covenants extends to those who were represented in the taking of them, although removed to this or any other part of the world, in so far as they bind to duties not peculiar to the British isles, but applicable in all lands.

5. An approbation of the faithful contendings of the martyrs of Jesus, and of the present Reformed Covenanted churches in Britain and Ireland, against Paganism, Popery and Prelacy, and against immoral constitutions of civil government, together with all Erastian* tolerations and persecutions which flow therefrom; as containing a noble example for us and our posterity to follow, in contending for all divine truth, and in testifying against all

• Erastian: from Thomas Erastus, a German divine, born 1523, died professor at Basil, 1583, who denied the authority of the church to absolve and discipline its members. The pastoral office, according to him, was only perstudents, without any power of the keys ansuasion, like a professor of science over his nexed. I. D. R. Editor.

contrary evils which may exist in the corrupt constitutions of either church or state. 6. An approbation of the doctrines contained in the Testimony of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, in defence of truth and opposition to error.

These together with due subordination in the Lord, to the authority of the Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, and a regular life and conversation form the bonds of our ecclesiastical union.

HISTORY

OF

THE REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH,

BY THE REV. JOHN N. M‘LEOD, D. D., NEW YORK.

it through his native land, and her nobles, her people, and many even of the priests of Rome, were enlightened in the truths of the gospel. In the year 1560 Popery was abolished; the Bible was declared free to all; a Confession of Faith, containing an admirable summary of divine truth, was prepared; a book of discipline, de

THE Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States of America derives her origin from the old Reformation Church of Scotland. Her history, therefore, down to the period of her organization in this country, is necessarily involved in that of the parent church herself. It deserves remembrance to her honor, that Scotland was among the last of the nations to sub-claring the government of the church to mit to the usurpation of the Church of be presbyterial, was adopted; and all ranks Rome. Until the beginning of the eleventh of men in the nation bound themselves century, she possessed a Christian church to each other and to God, in a solemn cowhich maintained her spiritual independ. venant engagement, to maintain and perence, and refused to bow to the Papal su- petuate the Reformation which had been premacy. But Antichrist at length pre-established. This is what is usually devailed, and substituted his ruinous formal- nominated in Scottish history the "first ism for the ancient Christianity. From the beginning of the eleventh to that of the sixteenth century, "darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people" of insular as well as continental Europe. With the sixteenth century, however, commenced that glorious revival of evangelical religion, the Protestant Reformation. Scotland felt its influence, and awoke from her slumber. John Knox of famous memory, had lighted his torch at the candle of God's word, which had just been rescued from under the bushel where Antichrist had hidden it for ages. He carried

reformation," or reformation from Popery. And thus arose the Reformed Presbyterian Church. For more than thirty years after this period, the church enjoyed great temporal and spiritual prosperity. But from the year 1592 to 1688, her history, with the exception of a twelve years' interval of rest and triumph, is one of warfare and suffering. Her most powerful enemies were unprincipled civilians. They sought to make her a mere engine of state policy, an instrument of their own despotism; and when she would not submit, they attempt. ed to coerce her by the sword. During

the greater part of the reigns of James VI., and his son and grandson, the first and second Charles, the Reformed Presby terian Church was struggling for existence against the power of the state, which assumed an antichristian supremacy over her, and proceeded to dictate to her the doctrine, worship, and order she should receive and observe under pain of imprisonment, banishment, and death.

Adversity tests the character of systems as well as of men; and never was the worth of the Reformed Presbyterian system more signally manifested, than during the period the church was in the furnace of affliction. Thousands maintained her principles in the face of the persecutor. The life and power of godliness was most remarkably displayed, and multitudes of holy martyrs sealed with their blood the testimony which they held.

Of the interval of relief to which reference has already been had, it is sufficient to say, that it was the period between 1638 and 1650: the era of the Solemn League and Covenant; of the Westminster Assembly of divines; of the revolution which dethroned the first Charles, and asserted those principles of civil and religious liberty which all enlightened Christians and statesmen now regard as axiomatic and undeniable. This is the period of what is usually styled the "second reformation," and it was for a strict adherence to its principles that Cameron and Renwick, and their valiant coadjutors, were called to pour out their blood on the high places of the field. To these principles, as of universal importance and applicability, Reformed Presbyterians still avow their attachment.

In the year 1688, William of Nassau was called to the throne of the three kingdoms. He proceeded, among the first acts of his reign, to give a civil establishment to religion in his dominions. Episcopacy was established in England and Ireland, and Presbytery in Scotland, by the sole authority of the king and parliament, even before the assembly of the church was permitted to meet. And thus the old principle of the royal supremacy over the church was retained, and incorporated with the very vitals of the revolution settlement. The object of the civil rulers

was, as usual, to make the church a tool of the State. Into an establishment of this description the old consistent Covenanters could not go. They stood aloof and dissented from it as imperfect, Erastian, and immoral. The principal objections which they urged against incorporation with the revolution settlement, were: 1st. That the Solemn League and Covenant, which they considered the constitution of the empire, was entirely disregarded in its arrangements, and 2d. That the civil rulers usurped an authority over the church, which virtually destroyed her spiritual independence, and was at variance with the sole headship of the Redeemer himself, The world has just witnessed the spectacle of the large majority of the Scottish establishment becoming "dissenters" on this very ground: a testimony that the old Reformed Presbyterians were right. For more than sixteen years they remained without a ministry; but they were not discouraged. Though a small minority, they organized themselves into praying societies, in which they statedly met for religious worship. They exercised a watchful care over the moral and religious deportment of each other. They fostered the spirit of attachment to Reformation. principles, and waited until God would send them pastors. And at length they were gratified. In the year 1706, the Rev. John McMillan acceded to them from the established church. In 1743 he was joined by the Rev. Mr. Nairne, from the Secession Church, which had been recently organized, and they with ruling elders constituted the "Reformed Presbytery." Through this, as the line of their connection with the ancient church, the Reformed Presbyterians in this country received their present ministry. They had, however, a ministry as well as a people in the North American colonies, before the Reformed Presbytery in Scotland was organized by the Rev. Mr. McMillan and his coadjutors.

In the same series of persecutions which drove the Huguenots of France and the Puritans of England to these shores, many of the Scottish and Irish Reformed Presbyterians, were banished from their native lands, and scattered among the American colonies. In crossing the ocean and chang

ing their habitation, they had not changed their religious attachments. And when first visited by the ministers who came to their aid, they were found with their children collected into praying societies, and fostering with care the principles of civil and religious freedom, for which they and their ancestors had suffered. Though the name Covenanter, like that of Puritan, was given them by way of reproach, they did not refuse it. Esteeming it their honor to be in covenant with God and with one another, to do their whole duty, they accepted the designation, and even at tempted in a public manner, to practise the thing which it indicates. In the year 1743, aided by the Rev. Mr. Craighead, who had acceded to them from a synod of Presbyterians organized a few years before, the Covenanters in the colony of Pennsylvania, proceeded to enter into a solemn public engagement to abide by and maintain their principles. This transaction served to promote union among themselves, and to keep them distinct from the other religious societies which were forming around them.

they contributed largely to the success of the Revolution. They took an active part in the war. Some of them were members of the conventions which established the States' constitutions, and subsequently of their legislatures; and although they saw defects in the new government, they cordially recognised it as legitimate, and deserving of their conscientious support.

The visible unity of the Church of God is a fundamental principle of the Presby terian system. The revolutionary and transition state of society for some time before the establishment of American independence, occasioned a neglect of this principle, and kept the church in a divided and inefficient condition. But on the settlement of a stable civil government by the American people, the minds of many in the different churches were turned to the subject of union. A union of the whole Presbyterian family on a basis of truth and order adapted to the age, country, and circumstances of the church in the American republic, was very extensively desired, and various attempts were made to secure it. The time, however, for this did not seem to have arrived. The results of the overtures for union in some instances were plans of correspondence and co-operation more or less extensive, and the nearest approach to the great object sought, was that union of formerly distinct bodies which gave origin to the Associate Reformed Church. This took place in the year 1782, between the presbyteries of the Associate and Reformed Churches. The united body took the names of its two constituent parts, and hence arose the "Associate Reformed Church in the United States."

The Reformed Presbyterian has ever been a missionary church. The presbyteries of that name in Scotland and Ireland saw the promising field beyond the ocean, and hearkening to the Macedonian cry that came from their brethren there, they sent them the aid they desired. In 1752, the Rev. Mr. Cuthbertson arrived in America from the Reformed Presbytery of Scotland. He served the church alone for nearly twenty years, and was greatly instrumental both in promoting the piety of those among whom he labored, and fostering the spirit of opposition to British tyranny, which ultimately demanded and secured the independence of these United States. Being joined by Messrs. Linn and Dobbin, from the Reformed Presbytery of Ireland, in 1774, a presbytery was con-union, or enter into it when consummated. stituted, and the church took her stand as a distinct visible community in the North American colonies.

In the year 1776, the declaration of American independence took place, It was hailed with joy by Reformed Presbyterians. They were opponents of the British government from both principle and feeling, and in proportion to their numbers

A portion of the Associate Church, however, and one minister, with a large number of the people of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, did not approve of the

And thus both these bodies, though diminished in numbers, retained their distinctive standings.

Within ten years after this event, four ministers emigrated from Europe, to aid in maintaining the Reformed Presbyterian cause. They were the Rev. James Reid, from Scotland, who returned to his own country when his missionary tour was

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