their rage, power, and presumption, are of late, and at this time increased and exercised, whereof the deplorable state of the church and kingdom of Ireland, the distressed state of the church and kingdom of England, and the dangerous state of the church and kingdom of Scotland, are present and public testimonies, we have now at last, (after other means of supplication and remonstrance, protestation, and sufferings,) for the preservation of ourselves and our religion from utter ruin and destruction, according to the commendable practice of these kingdoms in former times, and the example of God's people in other nations, after mature deliberation, resolved and determined, to enter into a mutual and Solemn League and Covenant, wherein we all subscribe, and each one of us for himself, with our hands lifted up to the Most High God, do swear, I. That we shall sincerely, really and constantly, through the grace of God, endeavor, in our several places and callings, the preservation of the Reformed Religion in the Church of Scotland, in doctrine, worship, discipline, and government, against our common enemies: the reformation of religion in the kingdoms of England and Ireland, in doctrine, worship, discipline, and government, according to the word of God, and the example of the best reformed churches, and shall endeavor to bring the churches of God in the three kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in religion, confession of faith, form of church government, directory for worship, and catechising, that we and our posterity after us, may, as brethren, live in faith and love, and the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us. II. That we shall, in like manner, without respect of persons, endeavor the extirpations of popery, prelacy, (that is, church government, archbishops, bishops, their chancellors and commissaries, deans, deans and chapters, archdeacons, and all other ecclesiastical officers depending on that hierarchy,) superstition, heresy, schism, profaneness, and whatsoever shall be found contrary to sound doctrine and the power of godliness, lest we partake in other men's sins, and thereby be in danger to receive of their plagues; and that the Lord may be one, and his name one, in the three kingdoms. III. We shall with the same sincerity, reality, and constancy, in our several vocations, endeavor, with our estates and lives, mutually to preserve the rights and privileges of the parliaments, and the liberties of the kingdoms; and to preserve and defend the king's majestic person and authority, in the preservation and defence of the true religion, and liberties of the kingdoms; that the world may bear witness with our consciences of our loyalty, and that we have no thoughts or intentions to diminish his majesty's just power and greatness. IV. We shall, also, with all faithfulness, endeavor the discovery of all such as have been, or shall be, incendiaries, malignants or evil instruments, by hindering the reformation of religion, dividing the king from his people, or one of the kingdoms, from another, or making any faction or parties amongst the people, contrary to this League and Covenant; that they may be brought to public trial and receive condign punishment, as the degree of their offences shall require or deserve, or the supreme judicatories of both kingdoms respectively, or others having power from them for that effect, shall judge convenient. V. And whereas the happiness of a blessed peace between these kingdoms, denied in former times to our progenitors, is, by the good providence of God, granted to us, and hath been lately concluded and settled by both parliaments; we shall, cach one of us, according to our place and interest, endeavor that they may remain conjoined in a firm peace and union to all posterity; and that justice may be done upon the wilful opposers thereof, in manner expressed in the preceding article. VI. We shall, also, according to our places and callings, in this common cause of religion, liberty, and peace of the kingdoms, assist and defend all those that en ter into this League and Covenant, in the maintaining and pursuing thereof; and shall not suffer ourselves, directly or indirectly, by whatsoever combination, per suasion, or terror, to be divided and with drawn from this blessed union and conjunction, whether to make defection to 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 association and covenant, to the glory of GOD, the enlargement of the kingdom of JESUS CHRIST, and the peace and tranquility of Christian kingdoms and commonwealths. A third distinctive feature of Covenanters, 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 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. meet in one Synod; the subordinate be the word of God, and the only rule of synods were abolished in 1840. There faith and manners. are five Presbyteries, designated as follows, New York presbytery, Rochester, presbytery, Pittsburg presbytery, Lakes presbytery and Illinois presbytery. In 1845, the Synod consisted of 58 members -ministers and elders. Had all the ministers been present and a full delegation of elders, the number would have been 74. The following is the statistical table of three Presbyteries in 1845. The largest Presbytery and the smallest having made 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 perse cutions which flow therefrom; as containing a noble example for us and our posterity to follow, in contending for all di vine truth, and in testifying against all 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 be presbyterial, was adopted; and all ranks of men in the nation bound themselves to each other and to God, in a solemn covenant engagement, to maintain and perpetuate the Reformation which had been 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 Rome. Until the beginning of the eleventh century, she possessed a Christian church which maintained her spiritual independ. ence, and refused to bow to the Papal supremacy. But Antichrist at length pre-established. vailed, and substituted his ruinous formalism 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 This is what is usually denominated in Scottish history the "first 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 attempted to coerce her by the sword. During the greater part of the reigns of James | was, as usual, to make the church a tool VI., and his son and grandson, the first and second Charles, the Reformed Presbyterian 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 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. 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. They 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 |