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.