1850 PRESBYTERIAN. 325pp MSs on Church History by Harriet Tubman Friend & Auburn Historian S. M. Hopkins.

An excellent 325pp MSs on Church History by Harriet Tubman friend and supporter, Dr. Samuel Miles Hopkins (1813–1901). a prominent historian and abolitionist, he served as the Hyde Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Polity at Auburn Theological Seminary in upstate New York beginning in 1847. 

A pillar of New School Presbyterianism in general, and Auburn Theological Seminary particularly, he  authored multiple books on church doctrine, including his well-known Manual of Church Polity (1878) and Protestantism in the Middle of the Nineteenth Century.

Theologically and socially aligned with New School Presbyterians, his Christian conviction led to his becoming deeply involved in the anti-slavery movement. During the course of his work with the movement, he and his wife became close friends and major supporters of Harriet Tubman during her time in Auburn. When Tubman faced losing her home to a mortgage, Hopkins suggested his own sister, Sarah Hopkins Bradford, write a biography about Tubman. She did. The proceeds from the 1869 book, Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman, paid off the mortgage.

He was of the mind that support for slavery was an issue which necessitated a principled stand and ecclesiastical weight. Thus, in 1861, he helped form the Central Presbyterian Church specifically to support emancipation. This new work, and the New and Old School breach in general, he attributes in significant part to the issue of emancipation and abolition.

So in the present manuscript, he says the schism was brought on because a group of men, like himself were "imbued with a strong sentiment of hostility to slavery."

So here we have a great Presbyterian anti-slavery abolitionist's unpublished 325pp MSs notes, simply titled "Church History" with Hopkins tooled at the base of the spine and noted in pencil at the beginning of the manuscript.

It is unclear whether the notes were those taken by a student during the course of lectures or whether they are in the hand of Hopkins himself. If the former, the student was exceptionally thorough, with a single lecture yielding dozens of pages of detailed, highly organized content.  We suppose the latter to be the case since there long form answers to questions throughout, etc. Though Hopkins may have compiled his own notes in a sort of question / answer format. 

The notes themselves form something more more akin to a historical theology than a church history. He addresses:

Presbyterian Church Doctrine with Relation to the Sacraments; On Presbyterian Ordination to the Ministry; The Essential Principles of Presbyterianism; The Role of the Ruling Elder; Arguments in Favor of a Ruling Eldership; Presbyters or Elders are the Highest Permanent Offices Appointed for the Church; On the Relation between Church and State Existing in Other Countries; Dr. Robert Breckenridge and the Old School Schism; The Tennents and the Log College Revival; the Controversial Nature of Protracted Meetings; The Westminster Assembly of 1643; History of Presbyterianism in England; On the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church;The Principles of the Reformation; The Diet of Worms; The Reformation in Switzerland; The Peace of Westphalia; etc. with significant sections on the Early Church, Augustine, early Christology; The Medieval Church, etc., 

The lectures essentially tell the story of Presbyterian concerns from the age of the early church through the reformation with then-modern Presbyterian doctrine and polity, recent doctrinal disputes, etc., taking up nearly as much room as the entirety of the history that precedes it. 

Seemingly complete, and containing approximately 46,000 words.