1789 PRESBYTERIAN CONSTITUTION. Americanized Masterpiece of Founding Father, John Witherspoon.

This 1789 first edition of The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, printed by Thomas Bradford in Philadelphia, details and theologizes the formal structural independence and unification of American Presbyterianism following the Revolutionary War, creating a national denomination whose governing structure explicitly mirrored and influenced the newly drafted United States Constitution.

This relationship is evident in its intentional, radical revisions to the 1646 Westminster Confession of Faith. Under the British crown and in original Scottish Presbyterian theology, the "civil magistrate" held significant divine authority to maintain religious purity, suppress heresy, and enforce orthodox Christian doctrine using state power. However, in the the 1788 ratification recorded in this first 1789 imprint, the American synods explicitly altered Chapter 23 of the Westminster Confession ("Of the Civil Magistrate") to strip the government of all power in ecclesiastical matters. The revised text declared that civil magistrates could no longer interfere in church affairs, punish heresy, or favor one religious denomination over another.

This and other deliberate changes directly reflected the post-revolutionary emerging ideals of American democracy, particularly the absolute separation of church and state, freedom of conscience, and voluntary religious association. By adopting these constitutional principles, American Presbyterians codified the belief that religious truth thrives best through voluntary persuasion rather than state coercion, asserting that "God alone is Lord of the conscience" and that liberty of conscience is a fundamental, inalienable right.

The structural organization contained within this volume also mirrored the political architecture of the new American republic. Just as the United States was establishing a federal system with representative delegates, state legislatures, and a national Congress, this 1788 constitution restructured American Presbyterianism from a regional synod into a representative federal church model made up of local sessions, presbyteries, regional synods, and a national General Assembly.

This idealogical linkage between an early American ecclesiastical constitution and the American political experiment owed much to John Witherspoon. Witherspoon was a significant voice of early American political and academic life: President of the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University), he was the only active minister to sign the Declaration of Independence, he served as a member of the Continental Congress, and was a significant influence to pivotal Founding Fathers, including James Madison, the chief architect of the U.S. Constitution.

Witherspoon chaired the committee that drafted this Presbyterian Constitution and wrote its influential preliminary principles. Working in Philadelphia alongside the federal Constitutional Convention of 1787, Witherspoon and his colleagues designed a religious constitution that breathed the exact same air of representative governance, checks and balances, and constitutional liberties. He convened the very first General Assembly of the newly constituted church in Philadelphia in May 1789, the exact same month and city where the new federal government under George Washington was taking shape.

Printed by Thomas Bradford, son of Revolutionary War printer William Bradford, this volume demonstrates how traditional European Reformed theology was transformed into an Americanized, democratic institution built on federalism, voluntary religion, and civil freedom.

Last at auction, 1989.

The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America Containing the Confession of Faith, the Catechisms, the Government and Discipline, and the Directory for the Worship of God, Ratified and adopted by the Synod of New-York and Philadelphia, held at Philadelphia May the 16th 1788, and continued by adjournments until the 28th of the same Month. Philadelphia. Printed by Thomas Bradford, in Front-street, fourth Door below Market-street. M DCC LXXXIX. First Edition. 215pp.

Good in original full calf, front hinge quite tender, rear breached, but solid. The text itself generally very crisp and clean.