John Taylor Pressly was born in Abbeville District, South Carolina, March 28, 1795. He graduated from Transylvania University, Kentucky, in 1812 and then went on to study theology, in New York, under the highly esteemed John M. Mason. In 1815, he was licensed by the Second Presbytery of the Carolinas (Associate Reformed Presbyterian). In July, 1816, he was ordained as pastor of Cedar Springs, South Carolina A.R. Church. From 1825 to 1831, he was professor of theology in the Synod of the South.
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William White was born in Harthill, near Whitburn, Scotland, December 17, 1811. He entered the Seceder Divinity Hall, in 1831, where he studied under George Paxton. In 1834, the Seceder congregation, in Haddington, which adhered to the Constitutional Presbytery (formed in 1806), petitioned for an assistant and successor for their aging minister, Robert Chalmers. Mr. White was licensed by the Presbytery of Edinburgh, in 1834, and received two calls, one of which was to the congregation of Haddington. In 1835, Mr. White was ordained in a service presided over by Thomas McCrie. In 1836, Mr. White was appointed his assistant minister and, upon the death of Mr. Chalmers, in 1837, Mr. White became his successor as minister of that congregation....
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Stephen Marshall was born in Godmanchester, in Huntingdonshire, England, in 1594. He was educated in Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Afterward, he became minister at Wethersfield, in Essex, and, finally, minister at Finchingfield, also in Essex. During his ministry at Finchingfield, he was silenced for non-conformity, which placed him under a suspension form preaching for some time. Although he was greatly despised by the conforming party, he was a favorite of the Long Parliament. Upon approach of trouble, in 1640, Mr. Marshall was among those preachers, who, in their conventicles, did openly proclaim that “for the cause of religion it was lawful for the subjects to take up arms against their lawful sovereign.”...
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1649-George Gillespie.-An essay designed to explain both the necessity of enforcing the Solemn League and the duty of requiring all persons who are capable in the kingdom to take this as their own vow under threat of civil penalties.
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1783-John Howie (1735-1793).-In this volume, Mr. Howie has collected several notable works that pertain to the issue of toleration and pretended liberty of conscience. It is notable how he draws these issues together with entering into unlawful voluntary associations.
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1685-Francis Turretin (1623-1687).-In this section, there is a comprehensive overview of the issues, limits and duties of the civil magistrate in all matters circa sacra together with a defense of punishing obstinate heretics.
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1795-Reformed Presbytery, in America.-This act contains the lament of the scattered Covenanters in the wilderness of North America after many of their erstwhile brethren, together with their ministers, united with two bodies of Seceders to form the Associate Reformed Presbyterian church, in 1782. Mssrs. King and M’Kinney were sent to America to revive the cause of covenanted reformation as outlined in this act.
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1836-Reformed Presbyterian Church, in America.-This Overture, prepared by Rev. Moses Roney, a member of the Synod, presents an excellent overview of the Arminian controversy in its history and doctrine. It presents a vigorous defense of Calvinism following the order of the "five points" as discussed at Dort. His discussion on the Arminian assertion of "common grace" is particularly helpful.
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1834-Reformed Presbyterian Church, in America.-This Overture, written by Rev. William Sloane, who was a member of the Synod, defends the Reformed position the power of the magistrate circa sacra. It does so contrasting this view against that of Erastians and those who hold to religious toleration.
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1791-Thomas Henderson (1757-1823).-This volume consists of a number of valuable documents holding forth the doctrine and practice of testimony-bearing and its contrary practice of entering into unlawful voluntary associations.
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1703-The United Societies.-A testimony issued against the unlawfulness of the present magistrate, the fruit of covenanting breaking, and a plea for a return to covenanted reformation.
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1848-John T. Pressly.-This is Pressly’s spirited response to Ralston’s attack on those who only sing Psalms in the worship of God. Pressly examines his claims to a divine warrant for making and using hymns of human composure in worship.
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1653-James Guthrie.-This broadside is designed to call to the attention of those who would be faithful Covenanters the various provocations that brought division and persecution upon the once Reformed Church of Scotland. This is a necessary enumeration of heaven provoking sins in a nation, church and ministry.
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James Guthrie, the son of the Laird of Guthrie, Forfarshire, was born 1612. He was educated in St. Andrews at St. Leonard’s College. Although he began his ministerial career as a friend of prelatic episcopacy, by the time of the signing of the National Covenant, in 1638, he was already numbered amongst those of the anti-prelatic party. In 1642, he was settled as the pastor of the church in Lauder, Berwickshire, where he showed himself to be a warm adherent to the cause of the National Covenant and the covenanting party. He was present at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland from 1644 through 1651, the year in which the Protester/Resolutioner controversy reached its pitch and brought a breach in the church. In this controversy, Mr. Guthrie was an adherent to the stricter Protester minority and, when there was a separation, he remained with them. In November of 1649, Mr. Guthrie was transferred to be the minister of Stirling, where he would remain for a decade. In 1650, Mr. Guthrie was one of those who, with Patrick Gillespie, withdrew from the royalist cause (seeking the restoration of Charles II.) through the Western Remonstrance. Additionally, he denounced General John Middleton as an enemy of the Covenant and advocated his excommunication from the church. Middleton, who sided with Charles at the Restoration, in 1660, never forgave him. When Charles II. ascended the throne, in 1660, Guthrie and several others petitioned the king to remember his status as a Covenanter. In 1661, with Middleton presiding, Guthrie was arraigned for high treason. The six counts included his signing of the Western Remonstrance. He was ordered to be hanged on June 1, 1661, at the cross of Edinburgh. There he died the first minister to be martyred for Christ’s Crown and Covenant.
1651-James Guthrie.-An important sermon which discusses the fruit of the Engagement in anticipation of the Protestor/Resolutioner split. The subject matter concerns that of voluntary associations and unlawful alliances with the ungodly together with numerous observations on the wickedness of toleration.
1653-James Guthrie.-This broadside is designed to call to the attention of those who would be faithful Covenanters the various provocations that brought division and persecution upon the once Reformed Church of Scotland. This is a necessary enumeration of heaven provoking sins in a nation, church and ministry.
1660-James Guthrie.-This is a plea which raises concern over ten dangers that threaten the cause of covenanted reformation in Scotland, including ignorance, toleration and division.
1661-James Guthrie.-A sermon warning of the stormy trials that come upon the people of God and the reasons the Lord brings them together with instructions to avoid stumbling in them.
1661-James Guthrie.-Two speeches given prior to his sentencing and execution for his faithfulness to the cause of the Covenanted Reformation. The first contains a reasoned and impassioned plea for his release. The second gives a short account of the principles upon which he suffered.
1690-James Guthrie.-Published posthumously, this gives an outline and exposition of the offices of ruling elder and deacon in accordance with Scripture and the usage of the Scottish church.
1660-James Guthrie.-This is a plea which raises concern over ten dangers that threaten the cause of covenanted reformation in Scotland, including ignorance, toleration and division.
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Born in Errol, Perthshire, in 1680. He graduated from St. Andrews with an M.A., in 1702. He was licensed by the Presbytery of Cupar, in 1708. Nairn was ordained by the Church of Scotland, in 1710, at Abbotshall, Fifeshire but he was restless in the Revolution church. In 1737, he joined the Associate Presbytery, or Seceders, a connection that would be temporary and preparative to his later alignment with the Old Dissenters. As a result of this connection, he was deposed by the Church of Scotland, in 1740. In 1742, and into 1743, he became involved in controversy with the Associate Presbytery over their proposal to renew the National Covenant and Solemn League. In their act for renewing the Covenants, the Seceders condemned the views of the Old Dissenters over their views regarding the use of arms in resisting uncovenanted governments....
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1757-John Witherspoon (1723-1794).-In this essay, the character of the theater is subjected to close scrutiny and its nature and tendencies are shown to be contrary to the piety and spirituality of the Christian profession. To this is appended a Letter Respecting Play Actors highly critical of their general moral and spiritual character.
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1743-Thomas Nairn.-This contains Mr. Nairn’s account of his troubles in the Associate Presbytery relative to the scope and power of the civil magistrate and the relation of this doctrine to the renewal of the Covenants. This disagreement with the Seceders led to his accession to the Societies to constitute the Reformed Presbytery, in 1743.
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1755-Samuel Hayward (1718-1757).-An casuistical exercise on the matter of Christians and theatre attendance wherein Mr. Hayward affirms the unlawfulness of such displays together with the detriment they pose to maintinag a Christian demeanor.
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1755-Samuel Pike (1717?-1773).-A useful discussion concerning whether or not playing cards is ever an innocent pastime and the propriety of Christians engaging in card playing.
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