Act, Declaration, & Testimony for the Whole of our

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ACT, DECLARATION,

AND

TESTIMONY,

FOR THE

WHOLE OF OUR COVENANTED REFORMATION, AS ATTAINED TO, AND ESTABLISHED IN BRITAIN AND IRELAND; PARTICULARLY BETWIXT THE YEARS 1638 AND 1649, INCLUSIVE.

AS, ALSO,

AGAINST ALL THE STEPS OF DEFECTION FROM SAID REFORMATION, WHETHER IN FORMER OR LATER TIMES, SINCE THE OVERTHROW OF THAT GLORIOUS WORK, DOWN TO THIS PRESENT DAY:

BY THE REFORMED PRESBYTERY.

* * * * *

PSALM IX, 4.--Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee: that it may be displayed because of the truth.

ISAIAH VIII, 16.--Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.

JUDE, verse 3.--That ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints.

REVELATION III, 11.--Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.

* * * * *

TO WHICH IS NOW ADDED,

A HISTORICAL AND DECLARATORY SUPPLEMENT.

1850.

INTRODUCTION.

The Presbytery, soon after their erection, being convinced of the expediency and necessity of emitting a judicial testimony, to discover to the world the principles upon which, as a judicatory of the Lord Jesus Christ, they stood, in opposition to the different, so called, judicatories in the land; together with the agreeableness of these principles to the Word of God, the only rule of faith and practice, and to the covenanted constitution of the church of Scotland in her purest periods; did therefore, after a proposal for said effect, agree in appointing one of their number to prepare a draft of this kind to be laid before them, who, after sundry delays, to their grief of mind, at once cut off their hopes of all assistance from him, in that or any other particular, by laying himself obnoxious to the censures of the church; which the presbytery, in duty both to him, to God, and to his people, were obliged to put in execution against him, while he, in contempt of that ordinance, and other means used for his conviction and recovery, obstinately persists in his impenitency and defection. And although the presbytery, few in number, were thus diminished, yet, being still resolved to prosecute their former design, they renewed their appointment upon another brother, who, in consequence of his undertaking, was allowed a cessation from his other public work, in order to expedite the proposed draft: and now, when nothing was expected that should retard the finishing of such a necessary work, the lamentable fire of division, that had long been smothered, unhappily broke forth into a violent flame, whereby the presbytery was rent asunder, and that brother, on whom the appointment was formerly laid, happening to be of the separating party, a second stop was not only put to the publication of this testimony, but the presbytery, from the absence of a brother removed to a distant part of the world, together with the paucity of their number, were almost wholly discouraged from attempting again what they had been oftener than once disappointed in.

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