The Most Advanced of All the Covenanting Manifestos
by Rev. David T. Myers

It was known simply as the Queensferry Paper, primarily because it was found on the body of a Covenanter in South Queensferry, Scotland on June 4, 1680.  Henry Hall was his name. He had been traveling with another Covenanter by name of Donald Cargill. Government officials had attempted to arrest both of them, but Cargill had been able to escape. Hall was wounded and later died from his wounds. Searching him, they found the six thousand word document known ever afterwards as the Queensferry Declaration. It, as Alexander Smellie stated in his book Men of the Covenant, was “the most advanced of all the covenanting manifestos.”

Summing it up by eight principles, the first principle covenanted with, and acknowledgement was made, of the Trinity and for the Bible as the rule of faith.  Consider the words! “We acknowledge and vouch the only true and living God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost to be our God and that we close with his way of redemption by his Son Jesus Christ, and rely upon his righteousness, as that righteousness only  whereby a man can be justified before God.” Any of our readers would easily say “Amen,” to these words. It went on to speak of their conviction that the Bible was by divine revelation and the only object of our faith and the rule of our life in all things.

The second section spoke of advancing God’s kingdom and freeing the church from both prelacy and Erastianism. The latter was removing the belief that the state was the ruler of the church in ecclesiastical matters. They desired that the members of the church would be able to serve God in holy ways without fear and that they might possess their civil rights peaceably without disturbance.

Principle number three covenanted to uphold the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, with her standards, government, worship — all independent of the state. They boldly confessed with their mouths and believed with their hearts the teaching of the reformed churches, contained in Scripture and summed up in the confession of faith.  They pledged to persevere in them to the end.

The kingdom of darkness was to be overthrown, by their fourth declaration. The aforementioned kingdom was Romanism, the Anglican church, and that system of Erastianism.   They spoke of being bound by the Solemn League and Covenant.

Next, and this was the primary part of the Queensferry document, they indicated their desire to discard the royal family and set up a republic in their stead. Of the 6000 words in the paper, this point occupied about 2100 words.  This was revolutionary in the British Isles. And it was sadly used to paint all Covenanters as being disloyal to the throne of England. The writers of this covenant wrote that in the light of Exodus 18:21, they could rule themselves.

Sixth, the paper spoke to those who, in their minds, had compromised the Scottish covenant by receiving the various deals of the government of England. They pledged not to listen to such any more in the pulpits of the kingdom.

Seventh, the covenant promised to refuse the ministerial function unless they were duly called and ordained. Thus, there were not promises of a new church, but rather a return to the true church of the past.

And the last resolution was that its adherents will defend their God-given worship and liberty. They who would assault them could be assaulted in return.  In short, this was the basis for the battles some of the Covenanters fought in Scotland.

This declaration was never published by the Covenanters themselves. It was stolen off Henry Hall’s body and passed off as the real purpose of all Presbyterians in the kingdom, those who in fact had never signed it, as they had signed previous Covenants.

Words to Live By:
There is certainly nothing wrong with advocating positions for prayer and action. But we must be careful to do so in the light of God’s Word always. From Ephesians chapter 6, our weapons are to be spiritual, never carnal. We will never know how many of Scottish Presbyterians would have signed this covenant, as in God’s permissive will, it was hindered from being presented to them nation wide. But it is still part of the overall testimony of Scotland’s spiritual history, and so we include it in Today in Presbyterian History.

It is Simply Known as Old Tennent
by Rev. David T. Myers

Would you join a church congregation if the original members of the church were branded on their faces with a “T” for traitor?  Or had their ears “cropped” and disfigured as a permanent sign of their rebellion? I dare say most modern Christians might hesitate for a moment, wondering about the background of these members. But what if you discovered through investigation that these members had resisted the government’s attempting to overturn their Presbyterian convictions with those of the official state church?  I dare say that we who are true and faithful to the Word of God—the Bible—would quickly stand by their side and declare ourselves to be faithful adherents in such a church.

Such were the original members of what is simply known as Old Tennent Church, a  hardy group of Covenanters who came to these American shores in the late seventeenth century. More specifically, they came to Monmouth County, New Jersey, in 1685, where they had been sent by the Crown as indentured servants.  As they worked off their “punishment,” they established in 1692 on a small acre of ground, a tiny log church, about the size of a cabin, as their worship center.  They called it “Free Hill.”

Fast forward to when the small group of believers, under the spiritual oversight of Ruling Elder Walter Ker, aligned themselves with the newly begun Philadelphia Presbytery, of which we have written before in these posts. In fact, there is some discussion as to whether that Presbytery actually met at Old Tennent rather than in the Philadelphia area.  Elder Walter Ker, who was known as “the Father of Old Tennent”, believes it did meet at Old Tennent.

It was on this day, June 3, that the steadily growing church was organized as a particular church in the Philadelphia Presbytery. Its first pastor was the first Presbyterian pastor ordained in the colonies, namely, John Boyd. Later, two of the Tennent brothers, John and William Tennant filled the pulpit, with the latter occupying that pulpit for several decades.  Under the leadership of William Tennent the church was a central part of the Great Awakening, that wide-spread revival then filling the land. As a result, men like George Whitefield, Gilbert Tennent, and Jonathan Edwards were also there on occasion to fill the pulpit at Old Tennent. In one instance, the Presbyterian missionary David Brainerd administered the Sacrament to a number of Indian converts in its sanctuary.

The original structure has been restored at various times, but its sanctuary continues to be active with members, friends, and visitors, being a member congregation of the Presbyterian Church, USA.

Words to Live By:
Whether Old Tennent Church was the location where the Presbytery of Philadelphia began or not, we still can rejoice in this church’s founding and subsequent early history for the faith once delivered unto the saints. This author wishes he could state that this church is now part of the Presbyterian Church in America, but that is not the case. Let us however not simply rejoice in the early history of Presbyterian churches, but every day and with all our heart and mind, continue the Reformed faith—the clear proclamation of the Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord—in our families, to our fellow members in evangelical and Reformed churches with which we are affiliated, and in the communities in which we live. Point them to Christ as our only Hope and our sure Salvation.

THE SCHOOL & FAMILY CATECHIST
by Rev. William Smith (1834)

The Westminster Shorter Catechism, Question 25

Q. 25. How doth Christ execute the office of a priest?

A. Christ executeth the office of a priest, in his once offering up himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God, and in making continual intercession for us.

EXPLICATION

A priest. –A person appointed by the law of Moses, to offer sacrifices to God, and to pray to him in behalf of the people.

Offering up himself. –Giving up, or resigning, himself.

A sacrifice. –An offering for sin. In general, a sacrifice signifies some living creature slain, and offered up to God, to satisfy him for offences committed by those for whom it was offered.

To satisfy divine justice. –To make amends, or to answer to God, for the dishonor done to his infinite Majesty, by the sins of mankind.

To reconcile. –To join again in friendship those who have differed. To bring us back again to the favor of God.

Intercession. –One pleading, or praying for another.

ANALYSIS.

We are taught, first, that Christ, as a priest, offered himself in sacrifice. –Heb. ix. 26. He appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

1. That this sacrifice was only offered once. –Heb. ix. 28. Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.
2. That it was offered to divine justice. –Eph. v. 2. Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet smelling savor.
3. That the design of this sacrifice, was to reconcile us to God. –Heb. ii. 17. In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high-priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.
4. That Christ makes continual intercession for his people. –Heb. vii. 25. He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

The following is from a news clipping on file here in the PCA Historical Center, part of the Manuscript Collection of the Rev. Henry G. Welbon.

From The Syracuse Herald of June 1, 1936, dateline Sunday, May 31, 1936:—

J. Gresham Machen spoke at the First Ward Presbyterian Church in Syracuse, NY, criticizing what he termed “the church’s demand that we ministers submit our consciences to a living and shifting human authority.”

“Fundamentalists,” he said, “believe in the permanency and universality of truth, that they should obey God rather than man.”

“We believe that a thing true in one generation is true in all generations,” he said. “So we believe that the Bible is as true now as when it was written, and that the true interpretation of it is forever true. God has told us once and for all in His Holy Word.”

The lawlessness of the Judicial Commission’s decision [to defrock Dr. Machen and about a dozen others] is no isolated thing, Dr. Machen declared.

“On the contrary,” he said, “it is quite in accord with the world’s spirit of our times. All over the world today there is a tendency to run rough shod over guarantees of liberty and to regard solemn contracts public and private as mere scraps of paper.”

“That tendency has given us Mussolini; it has given us the Soviets; it has given us Hitler; it has given us in this country certain phenomena which I am not going to mention.”

“I think that tendency is going to bring about persecution of the Christian religion.”