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James McKinney (16 November 1759 – 16 September 1802) was a Reformed Presbyterian or Covenanter minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America. He, along with William Gibson, re-constituted the Reformed Presbytery in America, in 1798. Dying long before the split, in 1833, into "Old Lights" and "New Lights," McKinney was held in high esteem by both parties. One of the former notes that, "For scholarship and eloquence combined he was not only the greatest man in the Covenanter Church in his day, but he was a great man among the men of that age." Amongst the latter, it was said in reference to him, he was "a man whose name ought not to be forgotten." In its earliest accounting, the Reformed Presbytery described McKinney as one who "possessed intrepidity of character, which could not be seduced by friendship, or overawed by opposition." These characteristics made him peculiarly suited to the situation faced by the Covenanters in the early days of the Republic. When he arrived on the shores of North America, he found scattered adherents still dispirited by the defection of the leaders of the Reformed Presbytery to the union of 1782 with the Associate Presbytery. McKinney sought to organize and instruct these disparate adherents into regular societies. In doing so, he restored to the American church both the vision and identity of the Covenanter Church. He came to America as a minister of the Irish Reformed Presbytery, helped to organize a distinct American presbytery and, because of his testimony, died a stranger in a strange land.

He was a preacher "whose grandeur of conception and impressiveness of delivery" were seldom encountered. His sermons were "a continued stream of thought" evidencing his acute power of reason. McKinney was known as an "eloquent advocate of those grand principles for which our forefathers took cheerfully the spoiling of their goods, he pleaded everywhere the rights of God, and the claim of the Lord Jesus Christ to rule His own house and among the nations." Such were his labors, on behalf of covenanting principles, that it has been said, "he was the real founder of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States, after the secession and backsliding of 1782."

An Irish Covenanter
With the accession of William and Mary to the throne, in 1688, the "Glorious Revolution" had toppled the tyrannous reign of the House of Stuart. This brought with it "Anglican hegemony" and "Irish Presbyterians were more compelled to address the issue of Church-State relations." As McKinney himself relates, "Early in life, I became enamoured with a love of Liberty, which has been a source of some external inconvenience to me, in my intercourse with mankind. No difficulties, however, which have attached themselves to the pursuits of rational civil liberty, have ever seemed to me sufficient to warrant a retreat from the glorious conflict, where victory has already given so many intimations to which side her affections incline.... Was it not for the persuasion I entertain, that christianity will purify and support the rights of man, fond as I am of Liberty, I do not believe I would give a shilling to bring about a revolution in any nation upon earth." As one modern writer correctly notes, "For Covenanters, civil society had been constituted not merely to preserve the property of the individual, but for divine ends." McKinney was a true Irish Covenanter in whom these concerns intersected with an ease that often eludes those born outside the fold.

Birth in the heart of Ulster
Mr. McKinney was born on November 16, 1759, in Cookstown, County Tyrone, Ireland, a city located in the heart of the Ulster plantation. He was the son of Robert and Elizabeth (née McIntyre) McKinney. Unlike other notable figures in the Covenanter Church (e.g., William Gibson; Alexander McLeod), McKinney appears to have been a son of the Church by birth. He was raised in the vicinity of Drimbolg, an area from which many are said to have subscribed the Solemn League and Covenant, in 1644. There are no records indicating that he acceded to the testimony of the Church, he was sprung from its loins. He might have paraphrased the Apostle Paul, "If any other man thinketh he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more" (cf. Phil. 3:4). He was a Presbyterian of Presbyterians, as touching the law, a Covenanter.

Formal education in Scotland
McKinney, like many Irish Presbyterians of his day, after completing "preparatory studies in the schools of his native County," entered the University of Glasgow, where he graduated, in 1778. While there, he decided to remain a few years longer to pursue full courses in both Theology (in the Scottish Divinity Hall) and Medicine. In Glasgow, he likely studied Theology, or Divinity, under William Wight, a Presbyterian who had ministered in Dublin prior to his appointment to the University, and Medicine under Alexander Stevenson. McKinney had left his home country unlettered but he returned having received a first rate education. He was now prepared to undertake the cure of souls as well as bodies.

McKinney's proficiency in the cure of souls was apparent to many contemporaries. "He seemed to catch inspiration from the working of his mind upon divine truth, and then his keen perception and vivid imagination produced in energetic language an effect that was inexpressibly powerful upon his audience." Samuel Wylie, who accompanied him over some 5000 miles of journeying throughout North America remembered, "Mr. McKinney possessed a strong and vigorous mind, and I should say his talents were of the highest order. He was naturally eloquent, but his eloquence was independent of technical rules or artificial erudition. It was the spontaneous flow of a cultivated intellect. It proceeded from a full knowledge of his subject, and his ardent desire to produce a beneficial effect on his hearers."

McKinney's proficiency in the cure of bodies is illustrated by a remarkable incident related from his time in South Carolina. Shortly after settling there, he had the opportunity to visit with one under his charge that was critically ill. Upon examination, he determined that the person was almost without remedy. When asked by the patient what he thought of his case, he replied, "Hopeless, except by the use of one medicine as likely to kill as to cure." When the patient further inquired if there was possible help apart from this medicine, McKinney said flatly, "None." Whereupon the prescription was made. The family physician hearing "of the prescription at the drug store," came upon Mr. McKinney and challenged him asking, "What did you made that prescription for?" To which McKinney replied, "Oh, just because I did." Nonetheless, we are told, "The man got well."

Embarking on a course of Reformed Presbyterian ministry
In 1779, the Reformed Presbytery, in Ireland, had "ceased to function" due to death of some, and removal to America of other, of the several constituent members. The Scottish Presbytery had stepped in "to assist in the settlement of some affairs in the Church of that Kingdom." Sometime around 1781, McKinney returned to Ireland and began re-assimilating into the life of the Irish Covenanting Church.

Licensure by the Reformed Presbytery and installation
On May 18, 1783, he was licensed by the Reformed Presbytery of Scotland to preach in order to make a trial of his gifts. It was customary, at that time, for licentiates to preach with older ministers in Scotland. Afterward, they would return to the church in Ireland to supply congregations which had no regular pastor.

One of the questions put to McKinney, at the time of licensure, was, "Do you acquiesce in the perpetual obligation of the Covenants, National and Solemn League, and do you engage to act in conformity thereunto?" Anything less than an affirmative answer would have resulted in his failure to obtain licensure. McKinney, not only as a member, but as a minister, now swore to "confirm" to these covenants in all his actions, personal and ministerial. His adherence to the covenanting cause as a minister of that very cause would direct his steps for the remainder of his life.

After several months, the Presbytery was satisfied. He "was ordained at Kirkhills to minister to the Societies in North Antrim." These Societies had been without a minister for decades. They had been "held together and ministered to by several itinerant preachers from Scotland, and Dervock" had been "without a stated minister" until now. During this time, McKinney was called to participate in the ordination and installation of Samuel Alexander, in the congregation at Bready, in County Tyrone. On August 19, 1783, with William Stavely presiding, he, Robert Young and John McMillan, sen., together with William Steven from Scotland, acting on behalf of the Reformed Presbytery, invested Mr. Alexander with a joint power of jurisdiction in the Irish Reformed Presbyterian church. Mr. James McGarragh, another licentiate, who would later emigrate to America, stood by.

Shortly thereafter, his installation at Dervock, County Antrim, took place on October 4, 1783. His field of labor embraced north west County Antrim, with large a part of Derry. This included the congregations of Dervock and Ballymoney, Kilraughts, Coleraine, Ringrash, Ballylaggan, Drimbolg, Newtownlimavady, and Londonderry. In this field, and amongst these people, McKinney spent approximately 10 years.

Pastoring in County Antrim
Part of pastoral duty involves discipline of those found guilty of doctrinal or moral infractions. On May 11, 1789, McKinney was present at the Antrim session, in Laymore, where he was requested by moderator, Rev. William Gibson, and the session to be seated. The case under review was one in which a young unmarried woman had given birth to a child. The session desired the name of the father and McKinney was asked to examine her, and other persons, to determine paternity. After a stern warning by Rev. McKinney, who was now moderator pro tempore, he tendered a solemn oath in which she named the father and declared that Rev. William Gibson had no knowledge of her pregnancy until the time of the birth.

On July 10, 1789, McKinney was again present with the Antrim session. This time, he took part in the sessional rebuking of a man for his "disorderly & (un)brotherly Conduct" toward the brethren of his own communion and seeking communion elsewhere being unreconciled. Clearly, McKinney was involved with the daily discipline of erstwhile brethren. But ministering amongst a people perpetually lacking enough pastors meant itinerating.

During the decade that McKinney journeyed amongst the congregations and societies in North Antrim, he gained a reputation "as a bold and fearless advocate of the rights of God and men." Although he was regarded as somewhat "stern in his manner, and uncompromising in his sectarian principles," yet he found great acceptance and favor amongst his scattered adherents. It was a time of international political tumult which developed in the wake of the American Revolution. The French Revolution had begun in 1789, and its influences were being felt throughout Western Europe, including Ireland. Along with this revolution appeared "the infidel writings of Thomas Paine and men of his school." By the end of the 1780s, "the extensive circulation of Paine's 'Rights of Man,' led to the formation of societies looking to change England, Scotland and Ireland. These opinions were gaining ground in the fertile soil of Ireland and feeding into the rising currents of civil unrest. As McKinney himself noted, "Much industry has been used to persuade men, that there is something in revealed religion contrary to, and inconsistent with, the just rights of man."  The need to counter the growing association in the popular mind that Deism was a proper support for civil liberty moved McKinney to lay before the people of his charge the divine claim over all.  It was during this time that he would begin delivering a series of sermons that would bring him notoriety, especially before the eyes of the British government.

Marriage and children
In 1784, shortly after his settlement in Dervock, McKinney was married to Miss Mary Mitchell, daughter of John and Jenny (née Trowbridge), of County Londonderry, Ireland. She is described as a "lady of fine talents and accomplishments, and of excellent character." With her, he had eight children, three sons, James (1792-?), who was educated for the ministry but never ordained, and two unidentified in the record; and five daughters, Eliza (?-1831), wife of John Beattie; Sally (ca. 1802-1870)  and three unidentified in the record (though one was known to have been alive at the time of Sally's death, in 1870). Five were born in Ireland prior to 1795; three, after 1797, allowing time after his happy reunion with his wife, in America. His wife and family lived in the vicinity of Albany, New York for many years after his death. In January 1833, Mrs. McKinney entered the fray in the contest that would lead to the division of the Reformed Presbyterian Church into Old Lights and New Lights. At that meeting of the Southern Presbytery, she presented a libel against Dr. Alexander McLeod. McLeod, who died shortly after this, protested what he believed was the illegality of the pro re nata action taken by those involved who would later be denominated Old Lights. On their shoulders, he laid the blame for the coming "separation." Ironically, he did not live to see this split, but Mrs. McKinney did, and she remained with the Old Lights. She died on April 30, 1847.

Re-establishing a separate Reformed Presbytery in Ireland, 1792
In December, 1792, after a number of years under the management of the Scottish Reformed Presbytery, McKinney, along with William Staveley, William Gamble, William Gibson (who was married to Rebecca Mitchell, his wife's sister,  who would follow him fleeing to America, in 1797), Samuel Aiken and Samuel Alexander, asserted their ministerial authority by constituting the Reformed Presbytery in Ireland. The Irish Presbytery now existed as its own independent jurisdiction. It was separate from the Scottish Presbytery, exercising a direct and immediate ecclesiastical authority over the Irish congregations.

The rise of the "United Irishmen"
As the eighteenth century moved into its final decade, a society know as the "United Irishmen" gathered seeking to gain political independence from England for Ireland. It was "composed not of Roman Catholics alone, but of Protestants as well, having its strongest ramifications and main supporters in Ulster." This movement spread quickly "in the counties of Down and Antrim," as men united in setting aside "sectarial abhorrence" to oppose the governance of Ireland by the British.

McKinney's activities on the fringe of the movement
By this time, the Covenanters, in some cases "deeply infected with Paineite ideas," saw a disproportionate number of adherents fall in with the United Irishmen. Though two or three of their eight or nine ministers were compromised by this association, "as a body, even they did not approve of the proceedings of the United Irishmen." Thus, although it has been "stated that McKinney's departure from his native land was on account of membership in that society," the fact is, "it was "a misapprehension." It is true, McKinney had, during the French Revolution, helped establish a "volunteer corps, a little patriotic band," in Dervock.  "[I]n common with the friends of rational freedom every where, he looked with favour on the early movements of the French in 1789."  However, though sympathetic with those oppressed, "he did not identify himself with them."  "His views were more extensive than theirs, and his principles of higher bearing."  The Covenanter Church bore testimony "against the supremacy of the British crown over the Church,"  by rejecting and condemning "that gross erastian principle, That the civil magistrate is supreme head over all persons, and in all causes ecclesiastical, as well as civil." But, she also "prohibited her members from uniting with Catholics and infidels in secret oath-bound societies." McKinney, though republican in principle, found his identity in the bosom of the Covenanter Church, not in societies embracing loose principles modeled after Paine's Deism. For McKinney, "the Rights of God" were paramount to "the Rights of Man." Accordingly, the Reformed Presbytery of Ireland issued Causes of Fasting and Thanksgiving, said to be written by McKinney, wherein it decried, that those working to end the "tyranny and oppression" especially from "the lands of our nativity" failed to appreciate "that God's covenant interest in his Son and in his Church is the surest pledge the world has for overturning oppression and introduction of universal liberty." McKinney perceived himself as a man caught "between two fires," tyranny and infidelity. The first moved from extinguishing the rights of man to trampling the rights of God; the second abandoned the rights of God and left the rights of man without sound foundation. He could "hardly say which of the two" gave him "the greatest disgust."

A View of the Rights of God
McKinney's sermons, (there were two published with four more pledged), were delivered with the intent that men ought not to abandon revealed religion in the realm of politics. He chose for the sermon text Matthew 22:21, Render—unto God, the things that are God's. The sermons begin with some contextual notes that show that Jesus' position (i.e., the Christian position) placed him squarely between two contending factions.

Many of the Jews "submitted to the yoke of their conquerors with great reluctance;" as such, this question posed by Christ would likely have been discussed amongst them. This party much resembled many of his Irish countrymen amongst whom he then ministered, as well as the recently emancipated Americans amongst whom he would soon minister. If Jesus answered "in the affirmative, that it as lawful to pay tribute to Cæsar, he met indignation from an incensed people, who could hardly fail to execrate a teacher who would attempt to aid an arm which they heartily wished to be quickly broken." However, McKinney notes these lovers of freedom were not simultaneously lovers of Christ. The other party, if he answered in the negative, was poised "to drag him to Cæsar's judgment seat," and see him accused and convicted. These men resembled the loyalists and proponents of unlimited monarchical political power of his day. Whilst the latter party upheld "the rights of Cæsar;" the former upheld "the rights of man," but Christ reveals that when the "the rights of God" are properly considered it places boundaries upon Cæsar and man.

As McKinney develops his subject, he first turns to answer those who say that "Christianity has nothing to do with the policy of this world." But, McKinney notes, had this been the case, Christ could very easily have dismissed the question as one that did not pertain to revealed religion. Indeed, then, it might be "expected that Christ would have ordered his apostles, in completing the canon of divine revelation, not to drop a syllable on the subject." This false notion casts a greater "affront upon heaven" than Deism. Furthermore, even unregenerate men have the common sense to reject this opinion and when professing Christians makes such unwarranted claims it brings the church into disrepute in the eyes of the world. True Christians, he says, must utterly disclaim this idea.

Next, McKinney turns the discussion to the fact that God "has rights." These rights consist in "peculiar claims" over the entirety of mankind. As the whole "human family" "is linked together internally" conscientiously "by the immediate impression of God," so it is also linked together intermediately by the "agency of parents, masters, husbands, ministers of religion, or administrators of civil authority." Because all of these societal connections emanate from God and are dependent upon him, they must return to him "as the rivers to the ocean." Furthermore, it must be recognized that these connections find their true and natural limits in those imposed by the divine will. Those connections become improper when formed in this lower world contrary to the divine will. To form connections without reference to those limits imposed by God is "a forsaking God" and a "hewing out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." All of the abuse of delegated power and the misery that flows from it "are a just effect of the misplaced affection" of the creature rather than God. Therefore, men will continue to suffer under the exercise of abusive power as long as they refuse to be reconciled to God.

He proceeds to point out that Christ has charged his hearers with forgetting their God. This forgetfulness of God, says McKinney, has led to a state of estrangement between God and man. The result of this is the growing moral disorder of mankind. Man, by his fall into sin, has lost spiritual discernment and the taste for spiritual things and intellectual pleasures. "God and his rights must either rise or fall together in human estimation." The result of forgetting God is that the rights of God are despised along with "his nature, perfections and providence."

McKinney as an enemy of the state
McKinney's involvement with the Covenanting Church placed him in the nexus of revolutionary activities permeating Irish society. His real "crime" was delivering, at this time, that series of sermons covering "the Rights of God" previously noted. His effort to pull back his erstwhile brethren from the fringes of "Paineite" thinking caught the attention of the governing authorities. "His ministry terminated abruptly in 1793, for, preaching to a large open-air meeting at Ballinaloub [Ballynaloob], he took as his text, Ezek. XXI., 27 : 'I will overturn, overturn, overturn it,' and delivered 'an inflammatory discourse,' implying the threat of the overturning of the British Government." He was "charged with influencing and encouraging" rebellion against the British crown. The sermons were "denounced by spies of the crown as treasonable." This led to the issuing of an indictment against him. McKinney's safety in his native land was now compromised. He had become an object of fear by the government and "they determined to seize and imprison him."

An unintentional missionary to America
In the spring of 1793, he was forced to flee to America. Providentially, he had been away from his home when the British soldiers attempted to arrest him. He knew that "bail in a charge of treason, would not be accepted, and that if he were taken he might be consigned to prison without trial." No quarter was given to those deemed enemies in the eyes of the establishment. McKinney, like many others, at the close of the eighteenth century, "had to exile himself from the land of his nativity." He was forced to leave behind his family until he obtained "a settlement" in America and was prepared "to receive them." First, however, he would have to re-gather and reorganize that church upon which is settlement would depend, because it had been dispersed in the wake of the union of 1782.

Organizing in a waste howling wilderness
Upon arriving in America, Mr. McKinney found himself on the edge of a vast missionary field. He "preached throughout the Northeastern States and cities with great power and success." In time, his labors took him from the Carolinas to Canada and from the Atlantic "to the Western extremity of the church." He was singular in his commitment to the cause and with great perseverance "he sought out" the "members of the church that were scattered through the wilderness, forming them into societies." Although not an easy task, given the geography and the dispiritedness of the people, McKinney was singularly fitted for the task.

A word about societies
Society, or fellowship, meetings were once a common practice amongst dissenting Presbyterians. They had been used by adherents to the covenanting cause during the late persecution (1660-1680), in Scotland, known as the "Killing Times." The purpose of the societies was "to prevent a gradual process of decay and absorption" when the dissenters were without formal organization. Society meetings were conservators of the covenanting cause.

Once violent persecutions ceased, and they could be held openly, these society meetings helped to create relations conducive to organizing congregations. "When two or more Covenanters found themselves in the same area they organized a society. After the society reached a membership of twenty, it normally was divided and a new society formed....After the society had developed into a congregation, societies continued within it, usually on a geographical basis, with a stated membership." Society meetings not only formed a nexus for existing Covenanters but they allowed for a grassroots growth amongst adherents by introducing Covenanter principles to an ever widening audience of potential members.

The societies concerned themselves with the outward testimony of the church as well as the "interests of spiritual religion. Regular attendance on the private fellowship-meetings was urgently insisted on, and anxiety was shown to have these conducted in the most profitable manner." Through society meetings the interests of true religion were to be kept up and the participants brought to a closer unity. In describing the duties required of Christians, Covenanter theologian John Brown, of Wamphray, among the several reason for these fellowship meetings, pointed at the requirement to be of one mind and one mouth. Of this he noted, "how is this possible, unless they meet together, to communicate their Minds unto [each] other, and to pray to God for Light in any Point of Difference?" Societies allowed for an informal resolving of questions and encouraged a greater unity amongst those professing to be Covenanters.

The city of New York
McKinney's arrival, in 1793, was tremendously effective in lifting the hopes of those Covenanters in the area of the city of New York. The society that met regularly, in the house of one Scottish immigrant, was "greatly strengthened and comforted by the able and eloquent ministrations of Rev. James M'Kinney." Amongst this downcast group of the Covenanters, McKinney exercised "a truly apostolic course of ministerial labour, in gathering up and organizing the faithful here, into worshipping societies, and in reviving and encouraging the enfeebled and desponding." McKinney's efforts in New York set in motion things necessary for the later organizing of these societies into a congregation. "One of the immediate fruit's of Mr. M[cKinney]'s labours in New York, was the restoration of Mr. Andrew Gifford," who would become an influential ruling elder in the congregation, "to the fellowship of the Reformed Presbyterian Church."

While in New York, in 1793, McKinney met up with the Rev. William King, an Irish minister licensed and ordained sine titulo by the Reformed Presbytery of Scotland, in 1792, to be sent as a missionary to America. "Rev. Wm. King was commissioned with instructions to join [Rev. James] McGarragh, and as a committee of the Reformed Presbytery of Scotland, these gentlemen were empowered judicially to manage the concerns of the Reformed Presbyterian church in America." This meeting would lead to a committee of presbytery being set up and presbyterial action being taken when McKinney visited Mr. King in South Carolina, in 1795.

Through the Mohawk Valley
Beginning in 1793, Mr. McKinney first travelled north into the Mohawk Valley, running north through Albany, New York. Here he encountered numerous Covenanters and organized several societies, if they were not so constituted. This circuit took him to "the towns of Schenectady, Duanesburg and Princetown," where he regularly preached. In the last mentioned place, he preached in an old stone church that was under the control of the Presbyterian Church. He also ministered amongst those Covenanters who had settled in Galway, Milton, Ballston and Broadalbin. In this vicinity, McKinney would spend much of the next five years. In the Curriesbush and Princetown (later Duanesburg) congregation, together with the Galway and Ballston Spa congregation, McKinney functioned as the "Stated Supply," having specific charge over their ministerial needs. In this capacity, not yet having a specific pastoral charge, Mr. McKinney continued from October 18, 1793 until October 26, 1797. In 1794, Schenectady, Princetown, Galway were all organized together as part of the Duanesburg congregation by Mr. McKinney, under the auspices of the Reformed Presbytery of Ireland.

Coldenham, New York
The congregation in and around Coldenham, New York, had flourished for a number of years prior to the union of 1782. The result of the defection of the ministers into that union effort greatly diminished the prospects of the covenanting cause in Orange County, New York. Only a handful of adherents remained by 1793. However, "soon after his arrival," to America, Mr. McKinney heard of a couple of Covenanters in that area. "He visited them, preached to them, and formed them into a society." After the union of 1782, this community had all but disappeared. In fact, this small community "was unknown to the church until visited by Mr. McKinney." Yet, through his labors, "it increased so rapidly that at the time of its organization there were about twenty-five communicants, two of whom were elders." Soon after, in 1795, McKinney organized the Reformed Presbyterian Congregation of Coldenham.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Though there were few Reformed Presbyterians in the area of Philadelphia, at the time of McKinney's arrival, in 1793, yet there was a small and vigorous society present there. However, the Yellow fever epidemic of 1793, which lasted from August through November left thousands dead in that city made it an uncongenial place to stay. These folks, no doubt encouraged by McKinney's presence in America, "began to take measures, notwithstanding the fewness of their numbers, for procuring a lot and erecting an edifice for public worship." This activity was almost certainly with the hope of retaining McKinney as a regular, or full-time, minister. In fact, so serious was the tender that, in 1797, they had raised sufficient funding and "Mr. McKinney had obtained a lot in St. Mary Street above Sixth, on which to erect a Church but the yellow fever breaking out [again] in the city, the work was suspended, and he left for Galway, New York." The time was not a complete waste, for it was during this later stay that McKinney had the first portion of his famous sermons on "The Rights of God and Man" published, at Franklin's Head, on Chestnut Street, by the successor to Benjamin Franklin.

Conococheague, Pennsylvania
The Conococheague congregation of Reformed Presbyterians, near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, was one of the oldest gatherings in the United States. This congregation had been greatly dispersed by the defect of the ministers in the union of 1782. On the heels of his arrival in America, in 1793, McKinney managed the covenanting cause among them with unrivaled vigor. "His labours," we are told, "were highly acceptable, and appear to have been remarkably successful, especially in rallying and re-organizing the scattered fragments of the congregations of the three backslidden ministers." Indeed, so well were the ministrations of Mr. McKinney received, that they resolved to retain him as their ordinary pastor. "In 1794, they transmitted a petition to the Presbytery in Ireland," wherein McKinney held his ministerial standing and under which he was pledged to be subject to his ministerial brethren, "asking to have Mr. McKinney settled among them." In it, they state that they "having had the opportunity of having heard a member of your court, viz: the Rev. James McKinney, for some time past; and we hope his labors have not been entirely without their use among us, and that if he was to be settled in these parts, he might still be farther useful in calling the attention of this sleepy generation to their duty. We do, therefore, through your medium, invite him to remain and abide with us as our pastor, if you shall see meet to lose him from his pastoral relation in Ireland; and hope in such love that you will instruct the Committee here what measures they are to adopt in order to bring said settlement to a regular Presbyterial issue." The attempt failed, but they continued to press for his ordinary service until he was settled in Galway, New York, several years later.

Monongahela, Pennsylvania
Sometime in 1794, McKinney visited scattered Covenanters around the Forks of Yough, near Pittsburgh. During the course of the itinerating, McKinney preached in barns and tents. Like many adherents to the Reformed Presbyterian Church, many of the people in this area were dispirited by the defection of the ministers in the union of 1782. Nonetheless, McKinney's ministry was quite successful drawing multitudes "to hear this eminently able and eloquent advocate of a covenanted testimony." It is said that he was able, in that place, to address as many as two or three thousand in open air meetings. Most importantly, "His labours were blessed here, as they were in Conococheague and elsewhere, in bringing to their right mind many who had made partial defection." As a result, these societies, though weak or non-existent before his advent, now began to grow becoming large and spiritually stable.

Miller's Run, Pennsylvania
During his western tour of 1794, James McKinney visited Miller's Run, a small locality southwest of Pittsburgh. In this region, he found several Covenanter families recently moved there which he managed to organize into a society. This society would later become known as the Canonsburgh congregation.

Preaching the church to life
At home, in Ireland, he might have been an enemy of the state; but, in America, he was to prove himself a friend of religious society. "Through his instrumentality congregations were organized in Vermont, in West Galway, Duanesburgh, Kortright, and Coldenham, New York, in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Canonsburgh, and elsewhere. The first four years of his ministry [in America] were spent in travelling as a missionary through the church, visiting the members, and preaching as opportunity served."

First fruits of his ministry
During his first year, in America, Mr. McKinney had travelled extensively and preached to ever increasing crowds of people. Although the response had been great, the most notable figure to emerge from the labors of this circuit riding preacher was yet little known. McKinney's circuit passed through a small New York town called Princeton. McKinney "had preached in Princetown [New York], a few miles from the city of Schnectady, for several Sabbaths, with much acceptance and success." It has been noted that prior to Mr. McKinney preaching in Princeton, New York, there had only been two men who were Covenanters in that vicinity, but "the number soon increased to a congregation."

In the course of this diet of preaching, in 1793, his second sermon, upon the fourth verse of Psalm 27, had such an effect on the young Alexander McLeod that his "mind immediately determined him to embrace the principles, and qualify him for the ministry in the Reformed Presbyterian Church." With this in mind, McLeod pursued a course of studies and graduated with distinguished honors from Union College, in Schenectady, in 1798; Afterward, Mr. McLeod "betook himself formally to the study of Theology, under the direction of his friend and pastor, the Rev. Mr. McKinney."

Home of the "Committee"
In 1795, Mr. McKinney began his trek south where the senior minister, William Martin, who had been ministering in South Carolina since 1772, was now flanked by the two recent émigrés, Mr. McGarragh and Mr. King. Together the three of them formed a "Committee of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland." Under these three ministers "the affairs of the church began to wear a regular appearance." "The relation of this court to the Scottish Presbytery seems to have been that of a presbytery to a synod. The Scottish Presbytery assumed a temporary arrangement of synodic authority over the court that it created" in South Carolina. It may have been a plan of oversight to avoid another failure of an American presbytery as occurred in 1782.

Having already made the acquaintance of Mr. King in New York, in 1793, McKinney, who by several accounts found the provisional governing of the church by committee distasteful, sought to lay groundwork for an indigenous presbytery. It would be a presbytery on equal footing with that of sister presbyteries in Scotland and Ireland.

Sacramental season
The day of McKinney's arrival in South Carolina, "Mr. King was holding a sacrament and expecting Mr. McKinney." As a sacramental season, leading up to the celebration of the Lord's supper, this was to be a time of earnestness and religious devotion amongst those preparing to celebrate. Saturday, which was the day McKinney arrived, would have been a preparation day prior to the sacramental Sabbath. McKinney appeared in the "morning at the camp where the communion was to be held. The session was constituted. Mr. King seeing Mr. McKinney at the outskirts of the camp, left the chair and met him where he was. They embraced and greeted each other with a holy kiss." It was an expression of brotherly love and communion which, for both men, was part of the desired preparation appropriate to the occasion.

Acting for the Reformed Presbytery in America
During the last full week of June, 1795, the committee met and was augmented by the presence of James McKinney. On Wednesday, June 24, 1795, Rev. James McGarragh was, by this committee, acting on behalf of the Reformed Presbytery of Scotland, "suspended from the exercise of the ministry in all its parts," for the three months, due to some irregularities; "and at the end of that time, from various new occurrences, his suspension was continued by the court." This was to spell the end of the committee in South Carolina. Soon after, before the removal of the suspension from McGarragh, Mr. Martin "had recurred to his former habits of intemperance. In consequence of such conduct, Mr. King and the elders could no longer recognize him" as a minister in good standing. For the time, however, it seems Mr. Martin took part with the other two ministers, Mr. King and Mr. McKinney, and the ruling elders in transacting additional business.

After the judicial proceedings had ended, Mr. King acting as moderator and Mr. McKinney acting as clerk, the committee of the Reformed Presbytery of Scotland, in America, published an Act proclaiming a day of public fasting together with the reasons thereof. Of this production, Thomas Sproull, who oversaw its republication in 1864, noted, "We have no doubt that Rev. James M'Kinney wrote the paper."

Welcoming William Gibson and the McKinney family to America
In 1797, James McKinney welcomed the arrival to America of fellow minister, and his brother-in-law, Rev. William Gibson. Like McKinney earlier, Gibson had invited the unwelcome scrutiny of the government through his uncompromising preaching." Subsequent to his arrival, Mr. King travelled north to meet Mr. McKinney and the newly arrived Mr. Gibson. "At a conference held by appointment in Alexandria, probably in 1797, the three ministers, Messrs. McKinney, King and Gibson, agreed to meet in 1798 in Philadelphia, to constitute the Reformed Presbytery of North America."  It was a meeting that would occur, but one of the three would be absent by reason of providential indisposition.

Also, in 1797, Mrs. McKinney finally followed her husband across the Atlantic with their five children in tow. During his five year absence from Dervock, his salary had been paid for the upkeep of his family. The joyful reunion was signaled, a short time thereafter, by McKinney's acceptance of a settlement. Though McKinney and his family stayed in Philadelphia after their arrival to America, in 1797, and he "expected to remain there" as pastor, Philadelphia suffered a new outbreak of yellow fever. "[B]eing obliged to leave temporarily on account of the Yellow Fever, he concluded to come North, and shortly after, became the Pastor" to a congregation there. He accepted a call to West Galway, New York, and became the first settled minister in the Northeast. It was a decision most likely driven by several considerations. First, it allowed McKinney a stable income for the support of his family. For, although there had only been two male members when he had begun to work in that field of ministerial endeavor, in 1793, the congregation had now increased "into a large and flourishing church, furnishing him a salary of $500 annually." Second, it would facilitate the process of the theological mentoring of Alexander McLeod for ministry in the fledgling Reformed Presbyterian movement in America.

The years in Galway and Duanesburgh
The Reformed Presbyterians in the Galway, Duanesburg area, "worshipped mostly in a stone church in Princetown." "The nucleus of the Duanesburgh congregation was formed in 1793," by McKinney shortly after he came from Ireland. However, its formal organization did not take "place for two or three years afterward." From at least 1795, the congregation in and around Galway and Duanesburgh had been assembling subscriptions to guarantee the support of James McKinney as their minister. Preaching often throughout the region, McKinney had an ever growing constituency. Finally, "Mr. McKinney accepted the call to Duanesburgh, Galway, and vicinity, arriving with his family at Galway, October 26, 1797, and on Sabbath, the 29th, preached his first sermon there as pastor."

Besides providing an income for his family and allowing him to tutor the prospective minister Alexander McLeod, taking charge of the Galway and Duanesburgh congregation, McKinney was positioned to minister regionally. Not only was he centrally located to the numerous societies he had visited throughout the Northeast, he was very close to several rising congregations. For example, he preached several sermons in Kortright, in 1798, and the Reformed Presbyterian congregation saw its rise therefrom.

Re-erecting the Reformed Presbytery, 1798
In the Spring, 1798, James McKinney, now pastor of the Galway congregation, met William Gibson in Philadelphia. Mr. King, who was now alone in South Carolina, had been invited to join with them. By this time, however, he was already taken ill with the sickness that would end with his death. McKinney had only taken charge of the united Galway and Duanesburg congregations, in New York, the preceding Fall. However, he had been "sensible that a mere committee of the Irish Presbytery was utterly inadequate to the existing exigencies of the church, in her present circumstances." Since his arrival in the States, "he favored the formation of a Presbytery, but acted with the Scotch commission." Furthermore, his extensive interactions with the scattered Covenanters brought him to consider "it more advantageous to the interest of the reformation in the United States, that its affairs be conducted by a presbyterial judicatory, subsisting in connexion with its sister presbyteries in Scotland and Ireland," than functioning by a subordinate committee. Thus, "after much deliberation and due consultation with the elders in Philadelphia, it was finally resolved to organize themselves into a Presbyterial capacity." This they did, on May 18, 1798, calling themselves the REFORMED PRESBYTERY IN AMERICA,  they met in the same school house where the Philadelphia congregation had been constituted several months earlier. The Reformed Presbytery, which had been dissolved since 1782, when all its ministers had acceded to the merger that formed the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, was now re-erected, in America. The brothers-in-law, as brothers in faith, had joined as ministerial brothers in presbyterial capacity to father an indigenous church, and James McKinney became its first moderator. At that meeting of Presbytery, Alexander McLeod, Thomas Donnelly, John Black and Samuel B. Wylie "were formally recognized as students of theology, under the care of the court, and pieces of trial were assigned them," to be delivered at the next meeting, August, 1798, in New York City. The nascent Presbytery was already studying the interests of the American situation and making provision for an increase of ministers for the rapidly emerging and needy congregations. Mr. McKinney and Mr. Gibson were to take the lead. They were directed by that first presbyterial meeting to visit the Covenanting people in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, to preach.

Sacrament and Sustaining in New York
On the Sabbath, in August, 1798, prior to the meeting of Presbytery, Mr. McKinney and William Gibson administered the sacrament of the Lord's supper in the New York congregation. The number of communicants was eighteen, six of whom had travelled some distance to participate. Upon this occasion, Mr. McKinney, reflecting upon the fewness of those present, "said the number was greater than that present in the upper room when the Supper was first administered by our Lord."

The following Tuesday, August 10, the "Presbytery met and was constituted with prayer" at "The Orchard," the country residence of John Agnew, a New York merchant and staunch Covenanter. They proceeded to the business proposed in the first meeting of the Presbytery. The theological students that were present, Messrs. McLeod, Black and Wylie, "were called upon by Presbytery; vivâ voce, the pieces of trial which had been formerly prescribed to them." These pieces, delivered orally, were sustained, and the Presbytery assigned others for an upcoming meeting. Attention then turned to the dismal state of the Covenanting cause throughout different parts of the country. The Reformed Presbyterian church was, at this time, dispersed quite thinly over the vast American landscape. They concluded their business by making provision for pulpit supply amongst these scattered people.

A Sermon for Four Living Creatures
Both McKinney and Gibson would spend their time preaching amongst different societies of Covenanters as they with travelled, throughout 1799, to attend four meetings of Presbytery, each held in a different city. The first meeting was held February 20, with Mr. McKinney presiding as moderator, in New York. McKinney delivered an opening sermon on Revelation 5:14, the first clause, "And the four beasts said Amen." Mr. McLeod was deeply impressed by the subject matter of McKinney's sermon. As he later recalled the occasion he said, "When expatiating on the severely agitated state of the world, he [Mr. McKinney] showed how the church was necessarily involved in civil commotions; and the duty of her children. The concise mode of his expression, the energetic solemnity of his thoughts, and the feeling but dignified appearance of his countenance, commanded the attention, and arrested the passions of every auditor." These four "beasts" were "living creatures," who, as Mr. McLeod would later note in his exposition of the Book of Revelation, were "The faithful ministers of the gospel of Christ are symbolized by the four living creatures." Furthermore, he continued, "By 'the four living creatures,' I therefore, throughout understand, the collective body of faithful ministers, in every given period of the christian church." The implications of Mr. McKinney connecting these "four living creatures" to the occasion could not escape the attention of young McLeod, it shook him to the core. Called upon to deliver his lecture, he became confused and it was given in "its mangled form." As one of the four ministerial students, this soon to be ordained "living creature" had been humbled by the prospect of the high responsibility of being a Gospel minister. He retired from the room for a short space, prayed and regained his composure and, then, delivered his trial sermon. This time, he wrote, "I now could look my audience in the face. I understood my subject. I felt its importance, and communicated it to my auditors with ardor and energy." In the end, his assigned pieces being delivered, he was sustained.

Sustaining and Licensing "Living Creatures"
A few days after, the newly sustained Mr. McLeod accompanied Mr. McKinney on his journey south through icy waterways. On Tuesday, March 26, they met again, in Philadelphia. Now, it was the turn of Black and Wylie to deliver their assigned pieces. They did and were also sustained.

Sabbath Keeping Amongst Covenanters
In May, McKinney headed once more to Broadalbin, northwest of Albany, New York. Here, he ministered to those people belonging to the congregation he had earlier organized. McLeod, who had accompanied him, wrote on Saturday, May 25, that on the previous Sabbath, May 19, McKinney had preached "a discourse peculiarly adapted to make a favorable impression on the minds of the people." He also noted that McKinney had made an "exercise" on one of the Psalms that was sung. This explanation of the Psalm, or portion of Psalm, to be sung could amount to its own equivalent of a sermon. To this were added a lecture upon a portion of Scripture and an afternoon sermon. All delivered, according to Mr. McLeod in a manner "plain, argumentative, and pathetic." This was a typical Sabbath service amongst the oldest of the Scottish Presbyterian dissenting groups.

Four Licentiates Enter the Vineyard
Once more, on June 21, the Presbytery met again and Mr. McKinney was chosen moderator. This time, their meeting was in Wallkill, New York. It was called at Gibsons's request. Here, all four students who had been taken under care were present and delivered additional assigned trial pieces. Again, they were all sustained. Finally, on June 24, they met one last time, for the year, in a barn on the property of ruling elder Robert Beattie, in Coldenham, New York. The four students delivered the remaining pieces required for their licensure. They were then asked to remove themselves while the Presbytery discussed their several performances. When they returned, "Mr. McKinney, as appointed by the Court, addressed" them "in a warm, animated, and solemn manner. He opened the nature, and important designs of the ministry." Following this, on motion, Rev. McKinney, who continued as moderator, "proceeded to license the candidates in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to preach the everlasting gospel." With four licentiates, Mr. McKinney and Mr. Gibson could begin to consider further pastoral movements and settlements amongst the scattered congregations in need of supply.

The Reformed Presbytery Takes A Position
Though a young jurisdictional body, the Reformed Presbytery in America now had to face the cold realities of the post-colonial early American republic. Independence from the Irish Presbytery meant that they were no longer operating as members of the Irish commission in the United States. Now, they would have to take and enforce positions as the governors of the American Covenanters, not as delegates carrying out rules from afar. This meant addressing and applying the principles of the Covenanted Reformation to the peculiar situation in the United States and bearing testimony against all corruptions in the constitutions of both church and state. Two issues suggested themselves to the Presbytery as they examined the U.S. Constitution.

The Dilemma of Deism in America
Remembering that Mr. McKinney had been chased out of Ireland for his sermons on the "Rights of God and Man," it was found that the U.S. Constitution had neglected the rights of God by failing to acknowledge God or His Christ in the document. This great omission was tantamount to a declaration of national atheism and could not bode well for the spiritual development of the nation.

The Dilemma of Slavery in America
One of the earliest and most notable deliberations in the Reformed Presbytery took up the matter of slavery. Since its inception, the United States had tolerated the slave trade. In the U.S. Constitution, drafted in 1789, there were several provisions for the maintenance and regulation of slavery with only feeble words favoring its total abolition. Thus, the reality of American slavery was one that required the attention of the Presbytery quite early. As early as November 1800, Alexander McLeod, upon being called to the pastoral charge of a congregation in Orange County, New York, perceiving there to be slave holders amongst them, entered into investigation of the matter which occasioned his preaching of a discourse entitled, Negro Slavery Unjustifiable (1802). This matter was brought before the Reformed Presbytery, at their meeting, at Coldenham, New York, June 3, 1801. At this meeting, ruling elder Robert Beattie promised to register the emancipation of several slaves he owned. Upon this promise, McLeod accepted the call, which was then moderated by the Presbytery.

Commission, Controversy and Correspondence
"In Ryegate, Vermont, a society of Reformed Presbyterians had been in existence for some years." The area was "originally settled by emigrants from Scotland," who, prior to the American Revolution, had purchased "a large district in Ryegate," from New Hampshire Governor Benning Wentworth, through the agency of Dr. John Witherspoon. Many of the families who settled had never joined the existing church. Instead, they "kept society according to the old plan of reformation times." They "associated themselves in supplying the lack of gospel ordinances by mutual conversation and devotional meetings." They, like many of the scattered groups of Covenanters, maintained a correspondence. Thus, upon hearing of the organizing of congregations and the erecting of the Presbytery, they "embraced the first opportunity of applying to the Reformed Presbytery; and in the fall of 1798, received in answer to their petition, the Rev. Mr. Gibson as a supply." This began Gibson's long relationship with that community of Covenanters.

Gibson as supply and the first impressions of his auditors
His first appearance in Vermont was attended with some controversy. It seems he first preached there sometime in the fall of 1798. It was "warm political times, and the majority of his congregation were Federalists. Being a cordial hater of the British Government, he pleaded the cause of Democracy with so much fervour that the people said he was no minister, but an emissary of France." Once again, Gibson's zeal in political matters had raised more than a few eyebrows. Though Gibson would certainly have disavowed the infidelity rampant in France, British cruelity was branded upon his very migration to America. However, though "some of Britain's steady friends," were "soured," especially as tensions were escalating in America because continual war between Britain and France was provoking many to take sides. Nonetheless, many of the "people were pleased, charmed and electrified, with his promptness, fidelity and zeal." These appreciated his observations, based upon his experience, of "the tyranny and iniquity of the British government." For these, Gibson's words fell upon fertile ground

The call and settlement
He returned to the area, later in that winter [1798-1799], and ministered amongst those people. That same winter, Mr. McKinney "also visited them, and encouraged them to call Mr. Gibson to be their pastor." "His cogent argument, masculine eloquence and bold address, commanded universal respect and deep attention to the concerns of salvation and the glory of the Redeemer." It was effectual, "a call, signed by eight communicants, and moderated probably by Mr. McKinney, was extended to Mr. Gibson." He accepted, and on July 10, 1799, Gibson was installed as their pastor. His first year, he and his family lived with the family of James Whitehill, a man remembered as the father of the Covenanting church in that area. Afterward, Gibson bought a farm, which he, being a very muscular man, worked during the week. On the farm, he built a "heavy wall," while he "studied his sermons as he worked."

Becoming minister to a town
Royal Governor Benning Wentworth, of New Hampshire, had made a small fortune selling the land that would constitute Vermont to its early developers. Each township which Wentworth chartered from the King, included a "minister's lot," consisting of both tillable acreage and a wood lot, "usually at the exact geographical center of the town," and of substantial size. This was set aside for the "first settled Minister of the Gospel in said Town." It was a provision of the state charter that made allowance for establishments of religion, subject to the vote of the local citizenry. Should the majority choose a minister, the "minister's lot" would be assigned to provide a certain level of sustenance for the pastor and his family.

"At a special town meeting held Sept. 4, 1799, it was voted to give Rev. William Gibson, who had been preaching here for a few weeks [i.e., since July 10], a call to settle." The town of Ryegate was now considering the advisability of selecting Gibson as the minister of the town. By a vote of 33 to 13, Gibson was chosen to be the "town minister." The affirmative votes were Covenanters; the negatives, Seceders. A committee was formed to tender the offer and "wait on Mr. Gibson and receive his answer." When the next town meeting convened, on December 10, it was reported that Mr. Gibson had accepted. This allowed Gibson to obtain the "minister's lot," a plot consisting of 110 acres, "indicated in the charter of the town by Governor Wentworth." At the March meeting, 1800, it was agreed to support the minister "by voluntary subscription." This religious establishment would allow its objectors to opt out of supporting a minister with which they did not agree. The following year, they agreed to give Gibson a raise in salary. "Possessed of ready gift, versatile talent, extensive erudition and indefatigable industry, he laboured upon an extensive field, and, by the blessing of God, his labours were successful." "His discourses were carefully prepared, he excelled in logic, and as a public speaker was thought to have no superior" in that vicinity. From there, also, he "often visited, preached and dispensed the Lord's supper in remote vacancies." Gibson, though settled into a pastorate, did not forget the the needs of the church at large. His able defense of "Calvinistic and Presbyterian principles, from pulpit and press," would see the "small society" of Ryegate "increased to a large congregation."

Employments, ordinations and presbyteries
From the employments of his farm, Gibson, being a classical scholar, like so many ministers of his day, took on students from surrounding communities. This allowed for supplemental income and increased his influence outside of the town.

As news spread of Gibson's settlement, the clamoring increased for "pastoral settlements and congregational organizations." When Presbytery met, in the Spring of 1800, "it was decreed that a commission should be appointed to meet these exigencies." On June 25, 1800, in the meeting house in Ryegate, "where Mr. Gibson officiated as the pastor," Samuel B. Wylie was ordained to preach the everlasting Gospel. "This was the first ordination of a Reformed Presbyterian minister which ever occurred in the United States of America." Wylie was ordained sine titulo, that is, without installation to a particular pastorate. The church was, as yet, still mostly unorganized and unsettled. Gibson's labors had brought forth congregations, presbyteries and, now, a growing ministerial brotherhood to address that very issue.

In the Fall of 1800, Gibson traveled west to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to participate in the Presbytery's ordination and installation of John Black over the congregation and "other adherent societies" of Pittsburgh. It was conducted in the court house, and attended with a great crowd of people.  There were now four members of presbytery; three were settled. To this number, was added Thomas Donnelly, whose ordination was by commission of the Presbytery [composed of Mr. McKinney and Mr. Wylie ],  on March 3, 1801, over Rocky Creek congregation, South Carolina.   Now, three congregations were regularly supplied.

On July 3, 1801, Gibson, with Wylie and Black, were the ministers constituting the Presbytery, with ruling elders. The teacher and his theological students were now ministerial peers. On July 6, they proceeded to ordain Alexander McLeod.  His charge was to be split between Wallkill, New York and New York City.

When Presbytery met, in New York, on June 16, 1802, five of the ministers were in attendance, only Donnelly was missing. Gibson was appointed, along with Wylie, to a committee for foreign affairs, which would take Wylie to Europe, in the fall of 1802. The trip was to apprise the Reformed Presbyterian Presbyteries in Scotland and Ireland of what had been done in North America; erecting Presbytery, organizing congregations, etc.

At this meeting, Gibson assumed the position of moderator and Presbytery had to take up the matter of Mr. McKinney's relationship to his charge. Difficulties between the minister and his charge, combined with a call from South Carolina, had led to a desire of change. McKinney accepted the call from South Carolina. Gibson, together with Wylie and Black, were appointed to write a letter, to South Carolina, containing "such things as they may judge necessary to be enjoined upon them in point of duty on the present occasion." Regarding the situation of the people of McKinney's New York charge, Presbytery drafted a letter, and instructed Gibson to deliver it in person on his way home. A petition from Topsham, Vermont, for supply was also assigned to Gibson.

It was also at this meeting that a decision was made to facilitate administration of church affairs. Presbytery divided itself into three "committees" that would oversee juridictions between presbyterial meetings. Gibson and McLeod were appointed the "Northern Committee;" Wylie and Black, were appointed the "Middle Committee;" and, McKinney and Donnelly were to form the "Southern Committee." The Presbytery had a vision for growth into all the settled parts of the continent.

Controversy over Hopkinsianism
The early settlers in New England had been Congregationalists. As to the doctrine of salvation they were in the main Calvinistic. But, as the 19th century was beginning, an error, known as the "Hopkinsian heresy," was gaining amongst many of the ministers of New England. In 1802, Gibson's first recorded clash occurred with Rev. Leonard Worcester, minister of the Congregational church, in Peacham, Vermont. Gibson published a pamphlet, on Isaiah 59:19, When the enemy comes in like a flood, attacking the errors he perceived in Mr. Worcester's doctrine. This was countered by Worcester, and, then, countered again, by Gibson, in the form of a dialogue over the doctrine of the atonement. Gibson was struggling to defend Calvinism against the early onslaught of Hopkinsianism. This would remain a concern throughout the remainder of his ministry in Ryegate, Vermont.

A churchman in the ecclesiastical courts
Though the senior minister (and after McKinney's death, in 1803, much the senior of his peers), Gibson participated in the Presbytery as an equal. However, this did not mean that his ministerial peers forgot to honor their elder churchman as occasions arose.

Presbyterial assignments
On October 4, 1803, Presbytery met in Green Township, Conococheague, Pennsylvania, Gibson was present. Evidently, he participated in the examination of the theological student, Matthew Williams. When the matter of the fund (which they had earlier appointed to be established to help defray publications of the ministers) arose, Gibson, like most of the others reported that nothing had been done to promote the fund in his congregation. Nonetheless, they unanimously elected Mr. McLeod to hold the purse. Additionally, Gibson was appointed a committee, with Donnelly, to draw up causes of fasting. Two days later, these causes were "presented, read and approved with some verbal alterations," and a day of fasting was appointed by Presbytery.

When the Presbytery next met, September 18, 1804, Gibson was again present. Again, they met in Green Township, Conococheague, Pennsylvania. At this Presbytery, a letter was presented from Rev. Alexander McCoy, on behalf of a body styling itself "The Reformed Dissenting Presbytery." A committee, composed of Gibson, McLeod and Black, was assigned to consider and report on the letter. It proposed a "coalescence" between the Presbytery and "The Reformed Dissenting Presbytery" upon "certain proposed conditions." Gibson would have to consider merger with another body upon "proposed conditions" not necessarily conducive to the testimony of the Church. Merging had, in 1782, led to the near extinction of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. After a few days deliberation, this was dismissed as a possibility under the "certain proposed conditions."

Two days later, he, along with Wylie and McLeod, were appointed a committee to answer letters received from the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland. The letters had been delivered to Presbytery by the respective bodies in response to the visit of Samuel B. Wylie, which transpired October 1802 to October 1803. The Scottish letter was received with approval; however, the Irish letter seemed to be deficient, in the judgment of Presbytery. There was a particular concern about the way the letter was addressed and its account of how the Irish Presbytery viewed Wylie's "commission" to visit them. It was left to the committee, on which Gibson sat, to write the Irish Presbytery and try to clarify the precise nature of their presbyterial relationship. It seems to have been a matter of clarifying that the American Presbytery was not merely a separate presbytery, but also an independent body not somehow subordinate to the Irish Presbytery.

Next, Presbytery addressed the matter of Matthew Williams, their theological student. He was put to several trials which involved the scrutiny of each minister in the Presbytery. Gibson was called upon to examine him on theological subjects, both doctrinal and practical. The result was the student was licensed to preach. As Presbytery considered the scattered estate of the church, each of the preachers was assigned additional pulpit supply, if possible. Gibson was asked to supply Curries-bush (now Princetown), Galway and Wallkill, New York, as well as moderate a call.

The last matter of business of this meeting concerned Gibson's settlement in Vermont. It appears troubles had arisen in Ryegate questioning the validity of Gibson's claim to the "minister's lot." Some questioned Gibson's standing as a minister duly ordained. At the time, knowledge that the Reformed Presbytery (i.e., Covenanters) had recently merged with the Associate Church (i.e., Seceders), in 1782, would have been well rehearsed in the community of Ryegate, consisting mainly of Covenanters and Seceders. What would be less known was genesis of the "re-erected" Reformed Presbytery. This left an opening for challenging whether or not Gibson met the requirement stipulated (i.e., regular entrance to ministry) for the use of the "minister's lot." Presbytery responded by pointing out that Gibson had been regularly ordained in Ireland, maintained regular standing within the Presbytery and was regularly installed as "stated pastor" in that town, by the Presbytery. Gibson was not an interloper.

Framing a testimony for America
When Presbytery met next, May 6, 1806, in New York, Gibson was chosen moderator. He, Donnelly and Black were queried as to why no ruling elders from their respective congregations accompanied them. The answers, being satisfactory, were sustained. Gibson and Black were appointed a committee to inquire into any causes of fasting for the Church. When the committee reported, May 13, they stated "there were causes not a few" to fast. When they submitted their "Causes of Fasting," the copy was read and approved, and 500 copies were ordered to be printed.

Causes of fasting
Among the causes Gibson and Black outline, lack of knowledge, both of principles and practice, stands near the head of the list. This has led to perversions of the Gospel, in the forms of Arminianism and various enthusiasms. It has filled the land with "heretics" and "[i]gnorance in principle is generally followed by wickedness in practice."  As a nation, America has discarded the "divine law" from her "national bond of union;" nor is it "the basis" of her "civil deeds and constitutions."  Furthermore, her "laws are frequnetly found opposite to the law of God." And, her people "view the magistratical office" not "as an ordinance of God," but simply "as a creature of human policy: thus despising the high authority of Heaven's Almighty King."  To this, Gibson and Black add a litany of sins of the people: contempt of worship, swearing, taking God's name in vain, the prostitution of the oath as "practised in courts," horse-racing, use of the lot in games of chance, drunkenness, duelling, whoredom, adultery, corrupting the morals of youth, theatre, etc. Additionally, they point out the degradation involved in "Negro Slavery." As if to prophesy, they say of God, "When thou inquirest after blood, thou wilt then remember them." After seeking to impress upon the reader the seriousness of these sins, they proclaim a day of fasting as something most fitting to do in such circumstances. A correct view of things and their relations, they believed, would be, with God's blessing, a means of turning around the debauchery of their day.

Historical Narrative and Testimony
On May 8, Mr. McLeod was called to read the Historical Narrative, "intended to be introductory to the Act and Testimony." Gibson, Wylie and Donnelly were appointed a committee to examine the work. On May 12, the committee reported and recommended several alterations. Gibson and McLeod were then appointed a committee to insert the alterations in their proper places and to "publish them to the world with all convenient speed."  Their restriction of the Historical Narrative to the status of an "help" to the Testimony,  rather than integral to the Testimony itself, would become a controverted point, causing contention until it became an issue in the Synod of 1838.

On May 9, Presbytery issued what would later be known as "the jury law." It prohibited members of the Church from sitting on juries in any of the several civil connections of the United States, as "inconsistent with the Testimony of the Reformed Presbyterian Church." They also deliberated upon the question of taking oaths in the presence of civil rulers in the United States. They resolved that while no communion "in his official character" was implied, yet where exclusive right was asserted or it was understood as a sign of allegiance, it was in that case "inconsistent with our Testimony." Both would prove to be divisive issues, and the lack of clarity recorded in the minutes allowed a contest that led directly to the rupture of the Church, in 1833, into "Old Lights" and "New Lights."

On May 15, they began to consider the matter of the Testimony. After some discussion, involving recommendations from the Scottish Reformed Presbytery, they decided on emendations, corrections and insertions to be made. With these alterations made, the task of publishing the Testimony devolved to Gibson and McLeod. It was an eventful and productive meeting, but its accomplishments would be tarnished; their work had sowed seeds of ecclesiastical disruption and, over time, these seeds would grow. However, at this meeting of Presbytery, the court unanimously agreed to adopt the Testimony they had set forth "as their act and deed."

McKinney Bibliography

 * 1797. M'Kinney, James. A View of the Rights of God and Man, in some Sermons. Philadelphia [Pa.]: Printed for the Author, at Franklin's Head, 1797. 64 pp.
 * 1810. McKinney, James. "The Rights of God. [part 1]" in The Christian Selector, for 1810. A Periodical Compilation, Designed to Subserve the Interests of Religion and Morality, Agreeably to the Word of God and the Subordinate Standards of the Church of Scotland. 1.2 (February 28 1810) ed. Stephen Young. Paisley [Ireland]: Stephen Young, 1810. pp. 67-74.
 * 1810. McKinney, James. "The Rights of God. [part 2]" in The Christian Selector, for 1810. A Periodical Compilation, Designed to Subserve the Interests of Religion and Morality, Agreeably to the Word of God and the Subordinate Standards of the Church of Scotland. 1.3 (March 28 1810) ed. Stephen Young. Paisley [Ireland]: Stephen Young, 1810. pp. 92-103.
 * 1810. McKinney, James. "The Rights of God. [part 3]" in The Christian Selector, for 1810. A Periodical Compilation, Designed to Subserve the Interests of Religion and Morality, Agreeably to the Word of God and the Subordinate Standards of the Church of Scotland. 1.4 (April 25 1810) ed. Stephen Young. Paisley [Ireland]: Stephen Young, 1810. pp. 131-146.
 * 1810. McKinney, James. "The Rights of God. [part 4]" in The Christian Selector, for 1810. A Periodical Compilation, Designed to Subserve the Interests of Religion and Morality, Agreeably to the Word of God and the Subordinate Standards of the Church of Scotland. 1.5 (May 30 1810) ed. Stephen Young. Paisley [Ireland]: Stephen Young, 1810. pp. 190-196.
 * 1810. McKinney, James. "The Rights of God. [part 5]" in The Christian Selector, for 1810. A Periodical Compilation, Designed to Subserve the Interests of Religion and Morality, Agreeably to the Word of God and the Subordinate Standards of the Church of Scotland. 1.6 (June 27 1810) ed. Stephen Young. Paisley [Ireland]: Stephen Young, 1810. pp. 211-219.
 * 1810. McKinney, James. "The Rights of God. [part 6]" in The Christian Selector, for 1810. A Periodical Compilation, Designed to Subserve the Interests of Religion and Morality, Agreeably to the Word of God and the Subordinate Standards of the Church of Scotland. 1.7 (July 25 1810) ed. Stephen Young. Paisley [Ireland]: Stephen Young, 1810. pp. 248-256.
 * 1810. McKinney, James. "The Rights of God. [part 7]" in The Christian Selector, for 1810. A Periodical Compilation, Designed to Subserve the Interests of Religion and Morality, Agreeably to the Word of God and the Subordinate Standards of the Church of Scotland. 1.8 (August 29 1810) ed. Stephen Young. Paisley [Ireland]: Stephen Young, 1810. pp. 288-297.
 * 1810. McKinney, James. "The Rights of God. [part 8]" in The Christian Selector, for 1810. A Periodical Compilation, Designed to Subserve the Interests of Religion and Morality, Agreeably to the Word of God and the Subordinate Standards of the Church of Scotland. 1.9 (September 26 1810) ed. Stephen Young. Paisley [Ireland]: Stephen Young, 1810. pp. 331-342.
 * 1833. M'Kinney, James. A View of the Rights of God: A Sermon. 2nd ed. New York: Robert Gibson, 1833. 65 pp.