SEEMINGLY EXPERIMENTAL RELIGION, INSTRUCTORS UNEXPERIENCED-- CONVERTERS UNCONVERTED-- REVIVALS KILLING RELIGION-- MISSIONARIES IN NEED OF TEACHING-- OR, WAR AGAINST THE GOSPEL BY ITS FRIENDS. BEING THE EXAMINATION AND REJECTION OF THOMAS LEDLIE BIRCH, A FOREIGN ORDAINED MINISTER, BY THE REV. PRESBYTERY OF OHIO, UNDER THE VERY REV. GENERAL ASSEMBLY'S ALIEN ACT; THE TRIAL OF THE REV. JOHN M'MILLAN, BEFORE THE REV. PRESBYTERY OF OHIO, FOR DEFAMING BIRCH; THE TRIAL AND ACQUITTAL OF THE REV. PRESBYTERY OF OHIO, BEFORE THE VERY REV. GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF AMERICA, FOR THE REJECTION OF BIRCH; AND INJUSTICE IN PERMITTING THE REV. JOHN M'MILLAN TO ESCAPE CHURCH CENSURE. WITH REMARKS THEREON, ADDRESSED TO THE FRIENDS OF GOSPEL PROGRESS. MARE PARTICULARLY, THOSE OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF AMERICA. BY THE REV. THOMAS LEDLIE BIRCH, A.M.
Washington [PA]: Printed for the Author, 1806. 144pp. Disbound with scattered foxing. Dedication [page 3] trimmed closely in the right margin, costing several letters. Good+.
Birch writes from "Point-Pleasant, near Washington, Pennsylvania, 3d October, 1805." He bitterly resents the "Inquisition" and "persecution" inflicted upon him by the Presbytery of Ohio, which refused to license him. He accuses the Presbytery of "falsehood, injustice, and the breach of those sacred ties of public faith." Courts and church officials, "from the lowest to the highest," have "shut the door against all legal redress," and left Birch alone to expose the injustice in this public appeal.
An Irish immigrant ordained at Belfast, Birch is the more deeply distressed, because America is "destined by Providence to reform the world." He presents numerous biblical and mystical prophecies to that effect. Addressing the Jews, not as "incorrigible infidels" but as still "covenanted people," he urges their conversion to the Christian Church. Beginning at page 31, Birch writes his autobiography and his collision with the Ohio Presbytery in numbing detail.
"Presbyterianism in Washington County, Pennsylvania at the beginning of the nineteenth century comprehended revivalists and critics of revivalism... The most acidic criticism flowed from the pen of an exiled Irish minister, Thomas Ledlie Birch, who seemingly could not adapt his particular brand of old-country Presbyterianism to American evangelicalism." Birch "repeatedly sought admission to the Ohio Presbytery; clergy and elders as repeatedly rejected Birch as 'unconverted'," The Birch case was a pivotal event in the "revival and schism in American Presbyterianism" [Gilmore, "A Rebel Amidst Revival: Thomas Ledlie Birch and Western Pennsylvania Presbyterianism." Accessed at Academia website.].
AI 10000 [6]. Sabin 5529. Item #36987
Price: $850.00