1655-Samuel Rutherfurd.-This chapter discusses the difference between external, visible and conditional covenanting and internal, invisible and absolute covenanting. Rutherfurd explains how infants are within the covenant and are to be baptized and invested with covenant privileges. He shows that it is false to assert that none but converts are in covenant under the New Testament and that the covenant made with Abraham is the same with us. Moreover, this covenant is not a civil covenant (as some suppose), the NT kingdom is spiritual though it has seals and external worship. Then, he speaks of federal holiness and defends the idea that external church privileges are given to nations and societies. He also discusses the moral root that is the subject of the external and conditional covenant. Finally, he moves to address the formal ground of infant baptism and destroys the arguments of the Anabaptists rooted in misinterpretation of texts of Scripture; he shows that infants are proper subjects for baptism and demonstrates that a conditional covenant is a covenant. Those who oppose infant baptism have no means by which infants can be saved. Lastly, he speaks of the two diverse considerations of the covenant, regarding the visible church and regarding the election of grace; to some a new heart is commanded, to others a new heart is commanded and promised.
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1655-Samuel Rutherfurd.-This chapter covers the self searching by which we may discover which covenant we are under (Works or Grace). Rutherfurd points out that New Testament threatenings are more spiritual. He then discusses what it is to be under the Law and the combat between the flesh and the Spirit. He explains why it is easier to be sound in the faith than to be godly. This leads to describing the differences between legal convictions and those of the Gospel. He notes marks that a person remains under the Law and speaks of the sweetness of the Law commands to those who are possessed of a new nature.
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1655-Samuel Rutherfurd.-This chapter raises the question of whether there is a threefold covenant, as some suppose. Here, Rutherfurd considers the Arminians conjecture that the covenant made on Sinai with Israel was some kind of republication of the Covenant of Works for Israel. He rejects this and shows that the dispensation of the Law, as propounded to Israel, was no other than the Covenant of Grace and that it differed with the New Testament covenant only in some accidentals.
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1655-Samuel Rutherfurd.-This chapter discusses the Arminian notion that God was compelled to appoint a New Covenant and shows that their idea of a natural antecedent love in God is a dream.
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1655-Samuel Rutherfurd.-This chapter explains what life is promised in the Covenant of Works. Rutherfurd then discusses whether or not Adam and the reprobates lost all right to the creatures by the fall. Afterward, he sets forth a threefold right: 1.) natural; 2.) providential; and 3.) spiritual; in which he finds the rights of reprobates to live and eat. Finally, he speaks of the manner in which God is ours and the worthlessness of grace without Christ.
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1655-Samuel Rutherfurd.-In this chapter, Rutherfurd discusses the place of death in the Covenant of Works and what the reprobate are to do. There is thought given to the interesting question of how long Adam remained in his unfallen state before he fell into sin. Rutherfurd then sets forth how the LORD is Adam’s God and what life is promised in the Covenant of Works and he explains that no promise of influences was made to Adam in his primitive estate.
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1655-Samuel Rutherfurd.-This chapter explains that it is not written on man’s heart by nature that God should promise eternal life nor does God punish by any necessity of nature or defend His declarative glory by any such necessity of nature. Rutherfurd asserts that God would not fall from His dominion had He not imposed penal laws upon the reasonable creatures. While God loves His essential glory by a necessity of nature, He stands under no like necessity respecting His declarative glory. Moreover, Rutherfurd admits there are some outgoings of grace in every covenant. He finishes this chapter discussing the vanity of personal pronouns and proud boasting.
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1655-Samuel Rutherfurd.-This chapter discusses the great condescension of the LORD to enter into covenant with man. Rutherfurd speaks to the fear of not being elect. He notes that both beings and non-beings are debtors to God. Then, he takes up the question of how faith lays hold of conditional promises. Finally, he discusses the Covenant of Nature, or Covenant of Works.
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1655-Samuel Rutherfurd.-This chapter discusses that God did not intend the aw dispensation forever and how Adam was not created for Law life. It also speaks to how and how not Adam was predestinated to life. Lastly, Rutherfurd asserts that the heathen have no more grace than devils and that there is no ground for proposing such.
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1655-Samuel Rutherfurd.-In this chapter Rutherfurd asserts that the elect are never under the Law curse. He also takes up the question of why faith cannot be made the cause of satisfaction for sin and why they are in error who would assert that it is any part of faith to believe that Christ died for the reprobate. Finally, he speaks of why God may accept of the satisfaction of Christ without reference to faith on the part of the elect.
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1655-Samuel Rutherfurd.-This chapter discusses the intent and sense of the threatening to Adam in the Covenant of Works as well as the intention of the Lawgiver in making this threat. He also raises the question of what Adam was to believe in that threat together with an explanation of how Law threatenings are Evangelic to the elect.
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1655-Samuel Rutherfurd.-The first chapter are brief, outlining the plan for the work, its scope and method. Then, the second chapter sets forth the original state of Adam and discusses how, though he fell into a state of sin, he was nonetheless numbered amongst the election of grace.
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Born in Newtonlimavady, Ireland, ca. 1808, and migrated to Scotland early in life. He received his M.A. from Glasgow University, in 1836. He took divinity classes in Paisley, from 1834-37, and was licensed by the R.P. Presbytery of Edinburgh, on June 13, 1838. In 1839, he declined a unanimous call to the Kelso congregation, and spend 6 years as a probationer. In 1846, he was called to be a missionary to the Jews in London. There he labored for many years. As the Rev. James Reid was obliged to separate from the body of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, when it changed its terms of communion, in 1822, and afterwards changed its Testimony; so in 1859, when the practical consequences of those organic defections had become partially developed, Dr. Cunningham was constrained to leave the declining fellowship. Thus, in 1859, he demitted office and membership because of the Church’s defection regarding teaching respecting the relation of the church with the state. He did so that he might “walk by the rule of former attainments.” Thereafter, he entered into ecclesiastical fellowship with the Reformed Presbytery, in the USA. Dr. Cunningham, although not a popular speaker, was a good preacher. In natural science, in classic and modern language, he had few equals. He was “faithful unto death,” &c. and this was his best characteristic. He died April 24, 1872, aged 64, and was buried in the Necropolis, in Glasgow.
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1866-John Cunningham.-This is a series of articles on the Christian Sabbath. Written by Dr. Cunningham, these articles demonstrate his mastery of the Hebrew language and sources from which he vindicates and expounds the doctrine. This series contains some of the most original and interesting material on the origins and applications of the Christian doctrine.
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1873-Thomas Hobart (1829-1898).-The subject of this sermon, which it so succinctly and ably treats, is one of vast importance, though in these days little thought of or understood. Secession minister Thomas Hobart discusses the parties who engage in covenant, the warrant for covenanting, the nature of covenanting, and then makes some very helpful remarks on covenanting. The defects in his discussion are only with respect to those matters respecting the civil portion of the covenants as is to be expected from a Seceder. These points can be supplied by reading the works of Reformed Presbyterians, or Covenanters.
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1643-Robert Baillie.-Called to preach before the House of Commons, in 1643, Robert Baillie takes up the broad matter of the reform of church and state. He begins by asserting that the chief parties in the quarrel over whether or not to reform are Christ and the devil. He asserts that the first care of the state should be to see that the church is settled. Moreover, he asserts that the failure to settle the discipline of God in their society had led to a long train of sins: blasphemy, drunkenness sexual immorality, lack of sexual restraint, strife, envy ignorance and general impiety.
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Robert Baillie was born in Saltmarket, Glasgow, Scotland, April 30, 1602. He was the eldest son of a town merchant and burgess of Glasgow, James Baillie. He attended the University of Glasgow, graduating in 1620, with an M.A. After a stint as a tutor to the son of the Earl of Eglinton, he was ordained to the pastorate of Kilwinning, on May 25, 1631. In 1638, the year Presbyterianism was restored to Scotland, he represented the Presbytery of Irvine at the Glasgow Assembly. In 1639, he served as chaplain to the regiment of Lord Eglinton, during the Bishop’s Wars. During this period, he was involved in the controversy with the prelates, and wrote several condemning their prayer book, liturgies, and other rituals. In 1642, he was translated to the Tron Kirk in Glasgow. In Glasgow he was made professor of Divinity together with David Dickson. In 1643, he was selected to be one of the Scottish divines sent to the Westminster Assembly. He wrote “ the Canterburian's Self-Conviction,” (1640, 3rd ed. 1641); “A Parallel or Brief Comparison of the Liturgie with the Masse-Book,” (1641); “An Antidote against Arminianisme,” (1641); “ Dissuasive from the Errours of the Time,” (1645); and, what he considered his greatest work, “Operis Historei et Chronologei Libri Duo,” (1663). He also composed numerous lesser works, including several sermons. In 1661, he was made principal of the University of Glasgow and he died in August, 1662.
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1840-Anonymous.-This article from the May, 1840, issue of the Reformed Presbyterian magazine shows that the proclamation of marriage banns was a concern of the “Old Light” Reformed Presbyterian Church prior to the division of June, 1840. Not only is this a matter of our covenanted uniformity, it is shown, in this article, to be a matter of deep moral interest to both church and civil society that marriages be conducted publicly and with the approval of ecclesiastic or civil authority.
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1783-Thomas Clarke (1720-1792).-In this letter, Dr. Clarke, a Burgher Seceder minister, sets forth the case for the exclusive use of the Psalms of David in the worship of God. Clarke also discusses why Watts’ Imitations ought not to be used in the worship of God as well as why the 1650 Scottish metrical Psalter ought to be retained.
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1643-Anthony Burgess.-In this sermon, Burgess begins by asserting and defending the proposition that the Scriptures are the only rule in matters of religion and reformation. He then compares this Protestant principle to that of the Papists and clarifies what the call for sola scriptura really means. Afterward, Burgess gives a discussion of the breadth of its application to matters of faith and dismisses numerous substitutes for Scripture. He also encourages ministers to preach, catechize and gain a knowledge of the original tongues in which Scripture was written for more effective reformation. Then, after warning of the things which hinder Christ’s reign in His church, Burgess presses why the reformation must continue in the church with instructs for heart preparation.
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