1818 KENTUCKY PRESBYTERIAN. Radical Presbyterian on Covenant of Grace. Calvinism and Federal Theology

James M'Chord [1785 –1820] was an important and rather controversial Kentucky Presbyterian divine.

After graduating Transylvania University and the Associate Reformed Theological Seminary M’Chord he was ordained [1809] and after local ministry founded Second Presbyterian Church in Lexington [1813]. He served as its pastor until 1819. During his pastorate, he also taught and was a member of the Board of Trustees at Transylvania through 1819, when he was elected to serve as the first president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. He died unexpectedly before formally taking the position.

He was always controversial. He was deeply Evangelical in a time when Federal theology and a very sturdy emphasis on election and reprobation was standard among Kentucky Presbyterians. We might think of him as being in the vein of Nathanael Taylor of the New Haven School of Theology. His ordination was revoked by the West Lexington Presbytery accepted him. 

The present work engages on the controversy surrounding God's covenant and elect community in a series of sermons to his church. It was the last volume of sermons he would publish. 

[Kentucky Imprint; Presbyterian]. M'Chord, James. A Last Appeal to the Market Street Presbyterian Church and Congregation: In a Series of Seven Sermons, Predicated on Sketches of the Dispensations of God Toward His People. To which are Added (In an Appendix to Sermon V.) Strictures on "The Fiend of the Reformation Detected:" by James Gray D.D. Lexington, KY. Printed and Published by T. T. Skillman. 1818. 327pp [Plus Subscribers' List].

A good copy only, inscribed from original subscriber, Judge James Armstrong of Ross County, Ohio to Maxwell Murray of Chillicothe, Ohio [Ross County]. Leather heavily rubbed, partially split at hinges, though solid. Handled and worn, a few corners torn, text complete and generally clean and crisp. Some foxing and toning.