Another 19th century Presbyterian Biblical Theology - this one specifically on the OT

We highlighted Stuart Robinson's book Discourses on Redemption recently, but that is not the only work of Biblical theology to come from the 19th century. Charles Colcock Jones, the subject of a chapter in Iain Murray's book Heroes, wrote The History of the Church of God in the Period of Revelation. Published posthumously, it was intended to be the Old Testament volume in a two volume set, but poor health and then death prevented Jones from writing/publishing his work on the New Testament. Jones walks through the Old Testament story of grace, showing in detail the unfolding plan of God's covenant with His people. As the title indicates, he believes that the people of God before Jesus' coming were, in fact, the church of God. Would that Christians today held such a view of the unity of God's people!

As with other books on this site, you will find that Jones argues that the institution of slavery as practiced in the American South was sanctioned by the Bible. Log College Press does not advocate this view, but includes these writings in an attempt to collect on our site all the 18th-19th century American Presbyterian writings that are available digitally, for historical reference, and to remember that even heroes have feet of clay. In this particular case, there is a large baby in the bathwater, and from our chronological distance we declaim the latter while proclaiming the former. 

There was a book on Biblical Theology in the 19th c. Presbyterian Church before Vos!

If you have never heard of or read Stuart Robinson's Discourses of Redemption, you are in for a treat. Traversing the story of God's covenants with His people, Robinson opens up redemption in Jesus Christ from the beginning of God's dealings with men in the Garden of Eden, through Abraham, Moses, David, the Prophets, and culminating in Christ Jesus and His apostles. In addition to opening up the theology of the gospel and its sacramental signs/seals in historical and theological fashion, along the way he sets forth his views on the abiding principle of Sabbath observance, the place of the church in the plan of redemption, the relationship between church and state, and the non-secular character of the church. Like most of the Southern Presbyterian clergy, Robinson was an advocate of slavery, and that position comes through at times in his writings. But this book deserves a wider audience nonetheless. It has been reprinted by Tentmaker Publishers.