The deepest cleft which separates men calling themselves Christians in their conceptions of the plan of salvation, is that which divides what we may call the Naturalistic and the Supernaturalistic views. The line of division here is whether, in the matter of the salvation of man, God has planned simply to leave men, with more or less completeness, to save themselves, or whether he has planned himself to intervene to save them. The issue between the naturalist and supernaturalist is thus the eminently simple but quite absolute one: Does man save himself or does God save him?

Benjamin B. Warfield, The Plan of Salvation, 16.

The age of the Patriarchs, before the Flood, being generally nine centuries, rendered them living libraries of sacred knowledge. Two eminent prophets, Noah and Enoch, were also inspired to make further revelations.

Reformation Principles Exhibited, by the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (New York: Hopkins and Seymour, 1807), 8.

The Church is the centre, around which the Creator causes all terrestrial things to revolve. Our views, therefore, of the present world, must be indistinct, unless we perceive its relation to the kingdom of Christ. The history of nations must be imperfect and erroneous, unless they refer to the secret spring by which every motion is directed — the purpose of God to glorify himself in the salvation of his Church. This is the meridian line which the former of all things strikes out through the vast and crowded map of time, and to which every figure, however apparently indistinct and unconnected, is directed by an unerring hand.

Reformation Principles Exhibited, by the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (New York: Hopkins and Seymour, 1807), 2.

It can be said that the entire Reformation developed within the Augustinian framework of the relation of human nature and divine grace. Luther emerged from the Augustinian tradition, but Calvin was Augustine’s most ardent, though not uncritical, follower.

Andrew A. Woolsey, Unity and Continuity in Covenantal Thought: A Study in the Reformed Tradition to the Westminster Assembly, 234.

A vast amount of literature is available on the Scottish Covenanters, including many original papers and sermons. A lot of hagiographical material, based mainly on anecdotal evidence for popular consumption, was produced by later generations, but from the more serious writings the following is offered as a guide: J. Beveridge, The Covenanters (London, n.d.); P. Walker, Biographia Presbyteriana (Edinburgh, 1827); Six Saints of the Covenant, 2 vols. (London, 1901); J. Aikman, Annals of the Persecution in Scotland, from the Restoration to the Revolution (Edinburgh, 1842); The Presbyterian’s Armoury (Edinburgh, 1846); J. Dodds, The Scottish Covenanters (Edinburgh, 1860); J. C. Johnston, A Treasury of the Scottish Covenant (Edinburgh, 1887); The Covenants and the Covenanters, ed. J. Kerr (Edinburgh, 1895); J. K. Hewison, The Covenanters, 2 vols. (Glasgow, 1908); A. Smellie, Men of the Covenant (London, 1908); J. Lumsden, The Covenants of Scotland (Paisley, 1914); A. S. Morton, Galloway and the Covenanters (Paisley, 1914); H. MacPherson, The Covenanters Under Persecution (Edinburgh, 1923); W. Syme, The Covenanters, 2 vols. (Philadelphia, n.d.); J. G. Vos, The Scottish Covenanters: Their Origins, History, and Distinctive Doctrines (Pittsburgh, 1940); H. Watt, Recalling the Scottish Covenants (Edinburgh, 1946); J. Barr, The Scottish Covenanters (Glasgow, 1947); J. D. Douglas, “The Scottish Covenanters 1638-1683: A Study in the Political Implications of their Theological Literature” (PhD diss., Hartford Seminary Foundation, 1955); I. B. Cowan, The Scottish Covenanters 1660–88(London, 1976).

Andrew A. Woolsey, Unity and Continuity in Covenantal Thought: A Study in the Reformed Tradition to the Westminster Assembly, 139.

In its disregard of the Christian church and silence concerning Jesus Christ, the 1787 American Constitution was new in Christendom. Covenanters called the doctrine underlying political dissent the “mediatorial dominion of Christ” over the nations, meaning that the risen Christ–God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever–has full authority in heaven and on earth, including over nations and their governments. They should therefore recognize and submit to his rule. The lordship, or kingship, of Christ over all things is common to all Christians. Eighteenth-century Reformed Presbyterians added “mediatorial” to exclude the Scottish Associate Presbyterians (Seceders) teaching that Christ ruled over all things only as he was already God. In a long pamphlet war with the Seceders (nickname of the Associate Presbyterians), RPs argued that Seceder teaching amounted to a heretical denial of the hypostatic union of Christ’s divine and human nature. Associate Presbyterians followed some seventeenth-century Covenanters who, for polemical reasons of that era, applied the term “mediatorial” to Christ’s saving work in the church, not to his person.

William J. Edgar, History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America 1920-1980, 388-389.

Every preacher of the gospel today speaks in Christ’s name; rather, Christ preaches through him as his ambassador. All evangelists can say with Paul: “We pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God” (II Cor. 5:20).”

R. B. Kuiper, God-Centered Evangelism, 17.

The kingdom of God, therefore, as consisting of those who acknowledge, worship, love, and obey Jehovah as the only living and true God, has existed in our world ever since the fall of Adam. It has ever been the light and life of the world. It is the salt by which it is preserved. It is the leaven by which it is ultimately to be pervaded. To gather his people into this kingdom, and to carry it on to its consummation, is the end of all God’s dispensations, and the purpose for which his eternal Son assumed our nature. He was born to be a king. To this end He lived and died and rose again, that He might be Lord of all those given to Him by the Father.

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, 597.

By a consent almost universal the word regeneration is now used to designate, not the whole work of sanctification, nor the first stages of that work comprehended in conversion, much less justification or any mere external change of state, but the instantaneous change from spiritual death to spiritual life. Regeneration, therefore, is a spiritual resurrection; the beginning of a new life. Sometimes the word expresses the act of God. God regenerates. Sometimes it designates the subjective effect of his act. The sinner is regenerated. He becomes a new creature. He is born again. And this is his regeneration. These two applications of the word are so allied as not to produce confusion. The nature of regeneration is not explained in the Bible further than the account therein given of its author, God, in the exercise of the exceeding greatness of his power; its subject, the whole soul; and its effects, spiritual life, and all consequent holy acts and states. Its metaphysical nature is left a mystery. It is not the province of either philosophy or theology to solve that mystery. It is, however, the duty of the theologian to examine the various theories concerning the nature of this saving change, and to reject all such as are inconsistent with the Word of God.

Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, 6.

The help of the Spirit in prayer. While we are in this world, hoping and waiting for what we see not, we must be praying. Hope supposes desire, and that desire offered up to God is prayer; we groan.

Matthew Henry, Commentary on Romans 8:26-27