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But how shall we know when this time is come? When a sufficient testimony has been given for Christ, and against Antichrist, before the God of heaven; for he must be the judge. When the spirit of testimony-bearing is taken from the church; for that is not essential to Christianity, but is given and taken away as there is occasion. But some may say, This will be a SAD day.
It has been common in some quarters of late, to speak of Renwick and his associates in testimony-bearing and suffering, as only contending against the unconstitutional and persecuting measures of the government of the Royal brothers, and to declare that, had they lived to witness the change of government which took place at the Revolution, they would have joyfully hailed it as the realization of their eager aspirations, and would have incorporated readily with the national society.
I desire, then, to draw out the lessons which seem to me to lie under the surface of this great promise. I. To live ought to be, for a Christian, to witness. The promise in form is a promise of continued testimony-bearing; in its substance, one might say, it is a promise of continued life.
They will find on examination, that these are wholly irreconcilable in the very form of testimony-bearing. Particularly, let the reader notice that our fathers in 1761, considered history and argument as constituting their testimony: and did not look upon doctrinal declaration as formal testimony at all.
The presbytery testify against foresaid party, for their unfaithfulness and partiality in point of testimony-bearing to a covenanted, work of reformation; while yet they not only profess to be witnesses, but the only true and faithful contenders for the said work and cause.
Cat. quest. 100, 103; Sh. Cat. quest. 49, 50. XIV. OF TESTIMONY-BEARING. Again, they declare and assert, that all true believers, members of the church invisible, are by the indissoluble bond of the Spirit, and true faith in Christ, their Head, savingly united unto, and have communion with him in grace and in glory, in this life and the life to come.
The Associate Reformed Church, by judicial declaration and uniform practice, is opposed to this method of testimony-bearing. The Reformed Presbytery, which had been dissolved by the defection of the ministry, during the Revolutionary war, was reorganized toward the close of the eighteenth century.
The following among others may here be noticed, as constituting just grounds of opposition in a way of testimony-bearing, by all who would be found faithful to the Lord, and their covenant engagements. Their very origin was unwarranted by scripture.
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