ADDRESS
To the readers of the Christian Baptist.
Part IV.

We have, in the two preceding numbers, presented our views on two charges that have been very generally rumored against us. There yet remains another which we have promised to notice. On these points we wish to be clearly understood. The charge now before us, is, that we deny "experimental religion." Before we plead guilty, or not guilty, of this impeachment, we should endeavour to understand the subject matter of it. Not having been in the use of the phrase "experimental religion," I could neither affirm nor deny any thing about it. The question, then, is, what is the thing? The name we have not in our vocabulary; and, therefore, could only deny the thing constructively. We will first ask, what does the Bible say about it? Upon examination I found it says not one word about "experimental religion." The Bible is as silent upon this topic as upon the "Romish mass." I then appealed to the Encyclopedia. The only thing like it, which I could find, was "experimental philosophy," which is a philosophy that can be proved by experiment. I then looked into the theological dictionaries, and soon found different kinds of religion, such as "Natural," "Revealed," &c., but not a word about experimental. I then applied to a friend who had once been deeply initiated into the modern sublimities of the refined popular doctrine. I was then informed that there were two kinds of religion much talked of in the pulpit and amongst the people.

[p. 182 - orig. ed.]

The one called "heart religion," and the other "head religion." The latter dwelling exclusively in the head, and the former in the heart. I also learned that the former was sometimes called "Christian experience," and this was presumed to be the thing intended by the words "experimental religion." As the New Testament is my religious creed, I appealed to it again. But it was as silent as the grave on all these distinctions. I then began to philosophize, in the popular way, upon the head and the heart, with a design of deciding which of these two religions was the better one. I had heard that "head religion" consisted in notions, and "heart religion" in feelings. Finding that all the learned agreed, that the Spirit of a man dwells in his head, and not in his heart, I had well nigh concluded that "head religion" must be the better of the two, as the human spirit is concerned more immediately with what takes place, in its habitation than elsewhere. I reasoned in this way, that if the spirit of a man dwells in his head, then head religion must be better than heart religion, and heart religion better than hand religion, &c. * Being unwilling to conclude too hastily on this subject, I thought of examining the phrase "Christian experience." On reflection I found that this phrase represented a very comprehensive idea. Every Christian has considerable experience, and some have experienced a thousand times more than others. Paul experienced many perils by land and by sea, by his own countrymen, by the heathen, in the city, in the wilderness, among false brethren. He experienced weariness, painfulness, watchings often, hunger, thirst, fastings,

__________
* To prevent mistakes, let it be understood, that in speaking of the head and heart in the above connexion, we speak after the manner of vain philosophy. The term heart is often met with in the Scriptures, and it has acribed to it every exercise of the understanding, will, and affections. The moderns suppose it to have respect to the affections and dispositions only. But in Scripture it is said "to know, to understand, to study, to discern, to devise, to metitate, to reason, to endite, to ponder, to consider, to believe, to doubt, to be wise," ^c. See Deut. iv. 39. Ps. xlv. 1, xlix. 3. Prov. x. 8, xv. 28, xvi. 9, xix. 21. Ecc. viii. 5. Jer. xxiv. 7. Matt. xiii. 15. Mark ii. 6-8, xl. 23. Luke ii. 19, 35.

[p. 183 - orig. ed.]

cold, and nakedness, stripes and imprisonments. From the Jews he experienced five whippings, each of forty stripes, save one. He was thrice beaten with rods; once stoned; thrice shipwrecked; a day and a night in the deep. Besides this he experienced all the anxieties and griefs, all the sorrows and joys that arose from the care of the churches. This was, indeed, the experience of a Christian, and this I never denied. Many Christians can tell of similar experiences, but none can give a narrative so long, so varied, and entertaining, as that of Paul. Even Peter the apostle, was not able to detail such an experience.

But on reading this to a friend, I am told that I have not yet hit upon the point in question; that the Christian experience of which the populars speak, is, "the inward experience of grace upon the heart." What is the meaning of this grace upon the heart, said I? I know that the glad tidings is sometimes called the grace of God. Thus saith Paul, "the grace of God that bringeth salvation has appeared unto all men teaching us" &c. -- Here the Gospel is called "the grace of God appearing to all men." Again, saith Paul, whoso seeks to be justified by the Law, is fallen from grace; or has renounced the Gospel. Indeed, nothing is so worthy of the name "grace of God" as the Gospel. Now if this Gospel which is sometimes called "the word of God," "the spirit," "the grace," and "the truth" dwell in a man, that is, be believed sincerely, like a fruitful vine it yields in his heart, and in his life, the heavenly cluster of love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, temperance. These are the fruits of the spirit. Like precious ointment it diffuses in his heart heavenly odours, and the sweetness of its [perfume] exhales in his life, in the work of faith, the labor of love, and the patience of hope. This, said I, is just what I contend for. If you call this "Christian experience," I never denied it; yea, I have always taught it. But, I cannot approve of the name, since it is altogether an ambiguous name.

My friend replied, "This is not precisely the popular use of the phrase. It denotes, amongst most of

[p. 184 - orig. ed.]

the populars, a certain mental experience to becoming a Christian, an exercise of mind, a process through which a person must pass, before he can esteem himself a true Christian, and until we know from his recital of it. that he has been the subject of it, we cannot esteem him a Christian."

Then it is some invisible, indescribable energy exerted upon the minds of men, in order to make them Christians; and that too, independent of, or prior to, the word believed. I read in the New Testament of many who were the subjects of energies and diverse gifts of the Holy Spirit, but it was "after they had believed." The gifts of the Holy Spirit by which the gospel was confirmed, by which it was demonstrated to be of God, were conferred on the Jews and Samaritans after they had believed. Even the Apostles themselves, did not receive those powers and gifts of the Holy Spirit until they became disciples of Christ. On the Gentiles was poured out the Holy Ghost, or his gifts, while they heard Peter preaching the glad tidings, which they believed; for they came to hear Peter in such circumstances, as disposed them to believe every word he said. The age of those gifts has passed away, and now the influence of the Holy Spirit is only felt in and by the word believed. Hence, saoth Peter, "ye are born again, not of corruptible, but of incorruptible seed, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever" -- and ["]this is the word which by the Gospel is preached to you."

This descriptive preaching, of which we hear so much, is the most insipid and useless thing in the world. An orthodox divine of my acquaintance spends about one fourth of every year in preaching up the necessity, nature, and importance of regeneration. He usually tells the people his own story; that is, the history of his own regeneration. He sometimes "comes to visions and revelations." He tells the people they are ["]as spiritually dead as a stone;" "there is not one spark of life in unregenerate sinners." Nor can they, "in the state of nature," do any thing that can contribute to their regeneration. ["]It depends entirely upon the Spirit of God, which, as the wind bloweth

[p. 185 - orig. ed.]

where it listeth, worketh when, and upon whom it pleaseth." If there were not a thousand preachers like him, I would not disturb his mind by thus noticing the burden of his message. The spirit by which he speaks, is doubtless not that Spirit which was promised the Apostles; for that Spirit, Messiah said, would not speak of himself, but of Him. But this preacher's spirit speaks of himself, and not of Christ. It is worthy of notice, that the twelve Apostles, in all their public addresses, on record, which they delivered, there is not one sentence of this kind of preaching. -- And suppose it were as true as the Gospel, that such is the state of mankind, we can conceive of no possible good which could result from such descriptive harangues. They resemble a physician, who, instead of administering a remedy to his patient, delivers him a lecture on the nature of his disease. Miserable comforters are such preachers. They have no glad tidings of great joy to all people. Methinks I see a poor unfortunate sinner, lying in a slough, up to the neck in the mire, perishing with cold and hunger; and one of the orthodox divines riding along observes him. Methinks I hear him tell him -- fellow sinner, you are in a miserable condition, mired from head to foot. Believe me you are both cold and hungry, and I can assure you, that you are unable to help yourself out of this calamity. You could as easily carry one of these hills upon your shoulders, as extricate yourself from your present circumstances. Perish with cold and hunger you must; it is in vain for you to attempt an escape. Every effort you make to get, out only sinks you deeper in distress. Your Creator could, if he pleased, bring you out; but whether he listeth or not is uncertain. Fare ye well: -- The unfortunate sinner exclaims, "what good is in your address?" He is assured that it is an article of precious truth, worthy to be believed. But when believed, what good is in the faith of it!! The gospel is glad tidings of great joy to all people, and whatever is called Gospel, that is not good news, and worthy of all acceptation, is not Gospel.

-- But I have wandered from my subject. The popular

[p. 186 - orig. ed.]

belief of a regeneration previous to faith, or a knowledge of the Gospel, is replete with mischief. Similar to this is a notion that obtains among many of a "law work," or some terrible process of terror and despair through which a person must pass, as through the pious Bunyan's slough of despond, before he can believe the Gospel. It is all equivalent to this, that a man must become a desponding, trembling infidel, before he can become a believer. Now the Gospel makes no provision for despondency, inasmuch, as it assures all who believe it, upon the veracity of God, that they are forgiven and accepted in the Beloved.

A devout preacher told me, not long since, that he was regenerated about three years before he believed in Christ. -- He considered himself "as born again by a physical energy of the Holy Spirit, as a dead man would be raised to life by the mighty power of the Eternal Spirit.["] Upon his own hypothesis, (metaphysical, it is true,) he was three years a "godly unbeliever;" he was pleasing and acceptable to God "without faith," and if he had died during the three years, he would have been saved, though he believed not the Gospel. * Such is the effect of Metaphysical Theology.


I read, some time since, of a revival in the State of New-York in which the Spirit of God was represented as being abundantly poured out, on Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists. I think the converts in the order of the names were about three hundred

__________
* We would observe, that we conceive the great error of the modern philosophers concerning the operations of the Holy Spirit to be, that they are the same physical operations now, which were exhibited in those days, which were emphatically called, "the days of my spirit, saith God." When men spake with tongues, healed diseases, and wrought every species of miracles, by the immediate agency of the Holy Spirit, for the confirmation of their testimony. When they spake, prophesied, discerned spirits, and interpreted oracles, by the immediate impulse of the spirit. We do not suppose that they contend for an agency to the same degree, but only of the same species. But we are taught that since those gifts have ceased, the Holy Spirit now operates upon the minds of sinners only by the word. With respect to pagans and all those incapable of hearing the word; the Scriptures do not teach us what Plato has taught thousands of modern divines. The regeneration of pagans without the word is a dogma not quite so rational, as the dogmas of a regeneration after death in purgatory. In spite of all our efforts,

[p. 187 - orig. ed.]

Presbyterians, three hundred Methodists, and two hundred and eighty Baptists. On the principles of Bellamy, Hopkins, and Fuller, these being all regenerated without any knowledge of the Gospel, there is no difficulty in accounting for their joining different sects. The spirit did not teach the Presbyterians to believe that "God had foreordained whatsoever comes to pass;" nor the Methodists to deny it. He did not teach the Presbyterians and the Methodists, that infants were members of the Church and to be baptized, nor the Baptists to deny it. But on the hypothesis of the Apostle James, viz. "Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth." I think it would be difficult to prove that the spirit of God had any thing to do with the aforesaid revival.

Enthusiasm flourishes, blooms under the popular systems. This man was regenerated when asleep, by a vision of the night. That man heard a voice in the woods, saying, "thy sins be forgiven thee." A third saw his Saviour descending to the tops of the trees, at noon day. A thousand form a band, and sit up all night, to take heaven by surprise. Ten thousand are waiting in anxiety for a power from on high to descend upon their souls; they frequent meetings for the purpose of obtaining this power. Another class, removed so far south, by special illumination, have discovered that there is no hell, that the Devil and his angels will ultimately ascend to the skies, and that Judas himself, Herod and Pontius Pilate, will shine like stars forever and ever. And, to encourage the infatuation, the preacher mounts the rostrum, and with his sermon, either in notes or committed to memory, he prays to God for his spirit to guide his tongue, and to send a message that he will bless to the salvation of "that dear congregation." Thus the people lay themselves out

__________
the vortex of metaphysical jargon will draw us in. I wrote this to prevent mistakes, perhaps it may create some. But, "to the testimony," believe us not if we speak not its dogmas. We doubt not, but in the above, we speak a mixed dialect; perhaps, half the language of Ashdod, and half the language of Canaan. -- We are positive on one point, that the Scriptures teach us not the modern doctrine, or the ancient philosophical doctrine, of "physical operations of the Divine Spirit," in order to faith.

[p. 188 - orig. ed.]

for operations and new revelations. Like the Phoenix in the fable, they and the preacher have gathered a bundle of dry sticks, and they set about clapping their wings with one accord, that they may fan them into a flame -- which sometimes actually happens, if our faith could be so strong as to believe it.

From all this scene of raging enthusiasm, be admonished, my friends, to open your Bibles and to hearken to the voice of God, which is the voice of reason. God now speaks to us only by his word. By his Son, in the New Testament, he has fully revealed himself and his will. This is the only revelation of his Spirit which we are to regard. The popular preachers, and the popular systems, alike render the word of God of none effect. Some of them are so awfully bold as to represent it as "a dead letter." According to them it ought never to have been translated, for the reading of it in an unknown tongue, if accompanied with some supernatural power, with some new revelation of the spirit, would have been as suitable to the salvation of men as though read in our own tongue. The jarring elements of which their systems are composed do, however, by the necessary laws of discordant principles, in the act of combustion reflect so much light as to convince us that the written word is the last appeal. Let us make it the first and the last. It comes to us in the demonstration of the Holy Spirit, and with the power of miraculous evidence. The word of Jesus Christ is, "spirit and life." "The word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword,["] -- yea, it is the sword of the Spirit, it is the spirit of his mouth. "The entrance of thy word, O Lord, giveth light, and makes the simple wise."   EDITOR.

---

In a work so small as the present, we should aim at brevity and variety, in the articles inserted. This has always been our intention, though we have not been able to conform to it. The following article requires an apology on account of its length, but this we have, in its importance. The argument may be called a new one, as far as any thing that is now discovered in the Scriptures can be called new. We know that Mr. Wardlaw in his reply to Mr. Yates, and other writers, have urged the same passages in support of their views; but not in the same manner, nor with half the effect. We think it is unanswerable. Small as our work is, we

[p. 189 - orig. ed.]

would not hesitate to allow half a dozen of pages to any writer that will attempt to answer it, provided that the reply be exclusively confined to this one argument. On this condition alone could we admit it. We publish it on two accounts: the one, its own intrinsic merit; the other, as proof positive of our innocence of a recent charge brought against us, as favoring the Socinian hypothesis. -- While we renounce the metaphysical jargon, found in creeds, on what is called the doctrine of the "trinity," such as "eternal generation, filiation," &. we regard both Arianism, semi-Arianism, and Socinianism, as poor, miserable, blind, and naked nonsense and absurdity.   ED.

The presumptuous Socinians call themselves Christians. Alas! poor men! they are drivelling philosophers. The polite and the stupid may indeed suppose that, on their heretical paradox, these doctors reason divinely. -- Well, be it so. "Jesus," say they, "is the son of Joseph." Excellent Christians! If ye, gentlemen, interpret nature as you do religion; if ye unlock the mysteries of the material world with the same adroitness and perspicacity, with which ye usher into the open day the spiritual abortions of your own disordered brains, indeed ye are divine philosophers! I have always thought the paradox of the Socinians a little too bare faced even for the vulgar. The devotees of the popular religion are very stupid, because their teachers generally leave them, in point of information, just where they find them, prodigiously ignorant of the holy Scriptures; nevertheless, if they should at all look into the sacred volume, they will not be apt, I should think, to gather up Socinianism.

(under construction)

Notes: (forthcoming)

[60-61]

The foundation of Hope and of Christian Union.

Messiah is born in the city of David, in the awful crisis alluded to in the first essay in this number. Science had proved itself systematic folly; philosophy, falsely called moral, had exhibited its utter incompetency to illuminate the understanding, to purify the heart, to control the passions, to curb the appetites, or to restrain the vices of the world. A scepticism that left nothing certain, a voluptuousness that knew no restraint, a lasciviousness that recognized no law, a selfishness that proscribed every relation, an idolatry that deified every reptile, and a barbarity that brutalized every feeling, had very generally overwhelmed the world, and had grouped those assimilated in vice, under every particular name, characteristic of every species of crime. Amidst the uncertainty, darkness, and vice that overspread the earth, the Messiah appears, and lays a foundation of hope, of true religion, and of religious union, unknown, unheard of, unexpected among men. The Jews were united by consanguinity, and by an agreement in a ponderous ritual. The Gentiles rallied under every opinion, and were grouped, like filings of steel around a magnet, under every possible shade of difference of thought, concerning their mythology. So long as unity of opinion was regarded as a proper basis of religious union, so long have mankind been distracted by the multiplicity and variety of opinions. To establish what is called a system of orthodox opinions as the bond of union, was, in fact, offering a premium for new diversities in opinion, and for increasing, ad infinitum, opinions, sects, and divisions. And what is worse than all, it was establishing self-love and pride as religious principles, as fundamental to salvation; for a love regulated by similarity of opinion, is only a love of one's own opinion; and all the zeal exhibited in the defence of it, is but the pride of opinion.

When the Messiah appeared as the founder of a new religion, systems of religion consisting of opinions and speculations upon matter and mind, upon God and nature, upon virtue and vice, had been adopted, improved, reformed, and exploded time after time. That there was always something superfluous, something defective, something wrong, something that could be improved, in every system of religion and morality, was generally felt, and at last universally acknowledged. But the grandeur, sublimity, and beauty of the foundation of hope, and of ecclesiastical or social union, established by the author and founder of christianity, consisted in this, that the belief of one fact, and that upon the best evidence in the world, is all that is requisite, as far as faith goes, to salvation. The belief of this one fact, and submission to one institution expressive of it, is all that is required by Heaven to admission into the church. A christian, as defined, not by Doctor Johnson, nor any creed-maker, but by one taught by Heaven, and in Heaven, is one that believes this one fact, and has submitted to one institution, and whose deportment accords with the morality and virtue taught by the great Prophet. The one fact is, that Jesus the Nazarene is the Messiah. The evidence upon which it is to be believed is the testimony of twelve men, confirmed by prophecy, miracles, and spiritual gifts. The one institution is baptism into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Every such person is a christian in the fullest sense of the word, the moment he has believed this one fact, upon the above evidence, and has submitted to the above mentioned institution; and whether he believes the five points condemned or the five points approved by the synod of Dort, is not so much as to be asked of him; whether he holds any of the views of the Calvinists or Arminians, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Methodists, Baptists, or Quakers, is never once to be asked of such a person, in order to admission into the christian community, called the church. The only doubt that can reasonably arise upon these points, is, whether this one fact, in its nature and necessary results, can suffice to the salvation of the soul, and whether the open avowal of it, in the overt act of baptism, can be a sufficient recommendation of the person, so professing, to the confidence and love of the brotherhood. As to the first of these, it is again and again asserted, in the clearest language, by the Lord himself, the apostles Peter, Paul, and John, that he that believes the fact that Jesus is the Christ, is begotten by God, overcomes the world, has eternal life, and shall, on the veracity of God, be saved. This should settle the first point; and as to the second, it is disposed of in a similar manner; for the witnesses agree that whosoever confesses that Jesus is the Christ, and is baptized, should be received into the church, and not an instance can be produced of any person being asked for any other faith, in order to admission, in the whole New Testament. The Saviour expressly declared to Peter, that upon this fact that he was the Messiah, the Son of God, he would build his church; and Paul has expressly declared, that "other foundation can no man lay (for ecclesiastical union) than that Jesus is the Christ." The point is proved that we have assumed, and this proved, every thing is established requisite to the union of all christians upon a proper basis. Every sectarian scheme falls before it, and on this principle alone can the whole church of Christ be built. We are aware of many objections to this grand scheme, revealed by God, to establish righteousness, peace, and harmony among men; but we know of none that weighs a grain of sand against it. We shall meet them all (Deo volente) in due time and place. Some of them have been anticipated in one or two articles preceding. But of these more fully hereafter. It must strike every man of reflection, that a religion requiring much mental abstraction or exquisite refinement of thought, or that calls for the comprehension or even apprehension of refined distinctions and of nice subtleties, is a religion not suited to mankind in their present circumstances. To present such a creed as the Westminster, as adopted either by Baptists or Paido-Baptists; such a creed as the Episcopalian, or, in fact, any sectarian creed, composed, as they all are, of propositions deduced by logical inferences, and couched in philosophical language, to all those who are fit subjects of the salvation of Heaven -- I say, to present such a creed to such for their examination or adoption,

[p. 61]
shocks all common sense. This pernicious course is what has paganized christianity. Our sects and parties, our disputes and speculations, our orders and casts, so much resemble any thing but christianity, that when we enter a modern synagogue, or an ecclesiastical council, we rather seem to have entered a Jewish sanhedrim, a Mahometan mosque, a Pagan temple, or an Egyptian cloister, than a Christian congregation. Sometimes, indeed, our religious meetings so resemble the Areopagus, the Forum, or the Senate, that we almost suppose ourselves to have been translated to Athens or Rome. Even christian orators emulate Demosthenes and Cicero; christian doctrines are made to assume the garb of Egyptian mysteries, and christian observances put on the pomp and pageantry of pagan ceremonies. Unity of opinion, expressed in subscription to voluminous dogmas imported from Geneva, Westminster, Edinburgh, or Rome, is made the bond of union, and a difference in the tenth, or ten thousandth shade of opinion, frequently becomes the actual cause of dismemberment or expulsion. The New Testament was not designed to occupy the same place in theological seminaries that the caresses of malefactors are condemned to occupy in medical halls -- first doomed to the gibbet, and then to the dissecting knife of the spiritual anatomist. Christianity consists infinitely more in good works than in sound opinions; and while it is a joyful truth that he that believes and is baptized shall be saved, it is equally true that he that says, "I know him, and keeps not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him."

EDITOR.    

Notes: (forthcoming)

[14-19]

A FAMILIAR DIALOGUE
Between the Editor and a Clergyman.
Part II.

Clergyman. I told you of our last interview that I wished to resume the passage in the Romans which says, "how shall they preach except they be sent?" This I suppose to be applicable to all preachers authorized according to the law of God.

Editor. I presume it is. But I think it is by no means applicable to those licensed by a presbytery, except you can prove that a presbytery is authorized by God to send, in his name, whom it pleases.... Six men may meet in an inn and form a constitution for themselves, and call themselves a presbytery, but you would dispute their right to the name. Now every argument you would bring against their assumptions I would turn against your canonized presbytery...

C. ... And do tell me what ideas you attach to the word presbytery? You admit it is a bible term. Now it must have a bible signification.

E. This I have no objections to do, provided you first give me a definition of what you call a presbytery.

C. I will. "A presbytery consists of the ministers and representative lay elders of the congregations of a certain district."

E. Now let me ask, Did you ever read in the scriptures of "representative lay elders" or ministers of a certain district meeting for any purpose? or rather, Was there ever such a being as a lay elder in the primitive church? ...

C. But what was this eldership?

E. I will let Macknight explain it.... "That you may understand the scriptures, neglect not to exercise the spiritual gift which is in you, which was given you by the imposition of my hands, according to a prophetic impulse, together with the imposition of the hands of the eldership, at Lystra, who thereby testified their approbation of your ordination as an evangelist." It seems, then, that the Greek word presbytery, according to the most learned of your own fraternity, implied no more than the eldership of one congregation... Paul, in the next epistle to Timothy, declares that this gift was given by the imposition of his own hands; and in no instance on record, does it appear that spiritual gifts of any kind were bestowed by the imposition of any hands save those of the apostles...

C. And was not the apostle speaking of the ordinary preachers of the gospel -- of those we now call ministers of the gospel?

E. Those you call the ordinary ministers of the gospel, are very ill defined in the popular creeds, and not at all defined in the New Testament... the prophetic allusion in the prophecy of Isaiah... is wholly applicable to the apostles and their associates and to none else....

C. And have the apostles no successors in this commission; or are there none now divinely commissioned to do the things enjoined in that commission?

E. I know of none... Mark gives the promise "I am with you," in the following words. See his statement of the commission, xvi. 15-17. Campbell's translation. It reads thus: "And these miraculous powers shall attend the believers--(I am with you.) In my name they shall expel demons -- they shall speak languages unknown to them before -- they shall handle serpents with safety, and if they drink poison it shall not hurt them. They shall cure the sick by laying hands upon them." Thus the Lord was with them. Hear John Mark once more, and more explicit still, 20th verse: "They went out and proclaimed the tidings every where, the Lord co-operating WITH THEM, and confirming their doctrine by the miracles wherewith it was accompanied"... the commission is not to be extended to any in our time, nor is it given to any in our time....

---

[19]

LAY  PREACHING.

MR. CHURCH, of the city of Pittsburgh, at his baptism on the 11th ult. delivered a discourse of three hours and one quarter in length, in the presence of a very numerous congregation, assembled on the banks of the Allegany. Having myself been

[20]

one of his hearers, I can give my readers a brief outline of his object and method. Mr. Church had been a member of different religious communities, and once a ruling elder of a congregation of Covenanters. He is well versed in all the systems of presbyterianism, and has, for a number of years, been a diligent searcher after truth. He brought with him to the water the creeds, testimonies, and formulas of those churches, as well as the holy scriptures. After having vindicated himself from the foul aspersions of some of his quondam brethren and friends, which are the usual lot of those who presume to judge and act for themselves in religious matters, he informed his audience that he would,

1st. Prove from the holy scriptures and the standards of the different churches his right to search, judge, and act for himself, and especially that he had an inalienable right, as well as the most justifiable reasons, to separate from every branch of the presbyterian church --

2d. Demonstrate from the scriptures the true nature and character of the church of Jesus Christ, her members, ministers, modes of worship, discipline; and contrast these with the genius of those societies that had assumed the title of christian churches, their members, ministers, modes of worship, and government --

3d. Exhibit the sacred import of christian baptism; its various corruptions and abuses in the Presbyterian churches, and others, as well as the character of those who were admitted to this ordinance in primitive times.

It would be altogether out of our power, in the size of this number, even to give any thing like a fair miniature of this discourse. Suffice it to say, that Mr. Church redeemed the pledge he had given in his method; and did, at least to my satisfaction, as well as, no doubt, to that of many of his auditors, fully prove his right of search from all the documents mentioned, and exhibit the corruptions of the systems proposed. He stripped the clergy of all their exorbitant claims and pretensions, and fully expatiated on the vices and deformities of the clerical system. He read many extracts from the popular creeds and testimonies, the national covenant and solemn league, on which he presented many appropriate remarks. And such was the efficacy of his remarks, that they produced, in some instances, the same effect on some of the sons of the national convention and solemn league which the discourse of Stephen produced on the Jews, such as a literal gnashing of the teeth, and an equivalent to stopping of the ears. He was, however, patiently heard by a respectable congregation to the close, although it rained for more than an hour of the time, and the people were by no means comfortably circumstanced. The discourse has, we have since understood, caused a great "shaking among the dry bones." Indeed, he sometimes appeared to me like Sampson amongst the Philistines, at least likely to kill more by his emblematical death, and in his emblematical burial, than during his former life. Very few of the

[21]

regular clergy could have made so lengthy and so appropriate a discourse, and have assembled such a congregation, as this erudite layman.     EDITOR.

---

[23]

THE following QUERIES came from the pen of a diligent student of the Bible. We have no room to attend to them in the present number. We wish our readers to attempt, each, to answer them for himself. We shall attend to them hereafter

1st. The order of the first churches when supernatural gifts were abundant, being discovered; what, if any example, will it form to us who live in these last days when supernatural gifts have ceased?

2d. What duty or duties are peculiar to the Bishop and not common to the brethren?

3d. Was it the Bishops who chiefly spoke in the first churches where they presided, or did they commonly sit as judges (1 Cor. xiv. 29.) to correct, &c. while the brethren edified the body in love? Eph. iv. 16.

4th. What are the peculiar duties of a Deacon!

5th. Was it to the deaconship that those seven mentioned in Acts, 6th chap. were appointed, or what were they?


Note 1: The entire issue for this date is available on-line (in edited, 1848 reprint format) at the "Restoration Movement Pages" web-site.

Note 2: See the Rev. Dr. William H. Whitsitt's "Sidney Rigdon, the Real Founder of Mormonism," pp. 165-70 and pp. 219-20 for Whitsitt's hopeful identification of the above "diligent student of the Bible" questioner as the Rev. Sidney Rigdon. In 1834, Eber D. Howe, on page 289 of his Mormonism Unvailed, gave this undocumented summary of Rigdon's early career as a Campbellite: "Now, as [Solomon] Spalding's book can no where be found, or any thing heard of it after being carried to this establishment [in Pittsburgh], there is the strongest presumption that it remained there in seclusion, till about the year 1823 or '24, at which time Sidney Rigdon located himself in that city. We have been credibly informed that he was on terms of intimacy with Lambdin, being seen frequently in his shop. Rigdon resided in Pittsburgh about three years, and during the whole of that time, as he has since frequently asserted, abandoned preaching and all other employment, for the purpose of studying the bible. He left there and came into the county where he now resides, about the time Lambdin died, and commenced preaching some new points of doctrine, which were afterwards found to be inculcated in the Mormon Bible."

Note 3: Based upon the scanty reference given by Mr. Howe, some subsequent writers have speculated that Rev. Rigdon occupied his free time, during the latter part of 1823 and all of 1824, in researching quasi-biblical prophecies and exhortations suitable for insertion into the historical romance of Solomon Spalding. Rigdon himself provides something less than firm agreement with Howe's allegation of what he "frequently asserted" in Ohio, however: "Having now retired from the ministry, and having no way by which to sustain his family, besides his own industry, he [Rigdon] was necessitated to find other employment... in the humble capacity of a journeyman tanner... After laboring for two years as a tanner, he removed to Bainbridge, Geauga, county, Ohio... From this time forward, he devoted himself to the work of the ministry, confining himself to no creed, but held up the Bible as the rule of faith, and advocating those doctrines which had been the subject of his, and Mr. Campbell's investigations, viz: Repentance and baptism, for the remission of sins."

Note 4: Rev. Whitsitt speculates that Alexander Campbell gave no immediate answer to the questioner's words concerning "supernatural gifts," etc., so as not to open the subject up to argument in his newspaper. All sources agree that Rigdon looked forward to a speedy restoration of these "supernatural gifts," with the imminent approach of the Christian Millennium. Rev. Campbell had no use for this popular conceit and tried to caution his readers against expecting a resumption of the ancient ministering of angels, prophecies, healings, etc. Whitsitt remarks: "In another part of the same issue, however, he [Campbell] lays his own hand to the task in such a way as to avoid the appearance of antagonism against the more stringent advocates of the "ancient order of things." The occasion which he embraced was found in the second part of "A Familiar Dialogue between the Editor and a Clergyman." There in setting forth the singular grounds upon which he denied the possibility of any special call to the ministry, he takes an opportunity to deal with the commission, and positively affirms that the command of the Savior In this instance applied to no other people than those who were numbered in the circle of the disciples who then heard his voice. As a natural consequence the promise of his presence and support even to the end of the world had no wider application, and it was fully performed when the last of these was carried to his grave, that event marked the end of the age to which the departing Lord had reference. Especially does he insist that the passage from the gospel of Mark cited above, which was perhaps always on the tongue of Rigdon, was subject to the same limitation as the commission, and that none of Christ's people could have the gift of working miracles after the apostolic times."

Note 5: Dr. William Church, Sr.'s granddaughter, Mary Church, became the wife of Walter Scott's son John in 1848. Both William Church, Sr. and Mary Church Scott died in Pittsburgh, in May of 1850 -- see Millennial Harbinger for July, 1850. See also Rev. Lawrence Greatrake's publication of his disgust over William Church, Sr.'s 1824 Campbellite baptism, in Rev. Greatrake's 1824 pamphlet, Letters To Alexander Campbell, by A Regular Baptist and in Walter Scott's 1824 Reply.

[p. 37 - orig. ed.]

ADDRESS  TO  THE  PUBLIC.

It is no doubt known to some of you that a pamphlet, titled, "Letters to Alexander Campbell, by a Regular Baptist," has been
[p. 38 - orig. ed.]
published at Pittsburgh a few days ago. It will, doubtless, be expected that I would pay some attention to this work. The spirit and style of this "Regular Baptist" forbids my addressing one word to him. I will, therefore, without prepossessing my readers by expressing any opinion of the motives and object of this letter-writer, proceed to review his performance.

This "Regular Baptist" informs me that my character is of two kinds -- extrinsic and intrinsic. My "intrinsic character" is that which he investigates and on which he pronounces judgment. In coming at my intrinsic character, or the character of my heart, he has, he says, adopted as "a standard of judgment," principles admitted by "the Christian and the philosopher." These principles, he adds, "direct to a general investigation of life, the whole area of action." But he regrets that the whole area of my action is unknown to him, every thing previous to my arrival in these United States being with him "something of conjecture." But although my "intrinsic character" is the subject of investigation, and the principles of the Christian and the philosopher require that the "whole area of action" should be examined, yet the ingenious author views "the area of my action" only since I joined the Baptists -- and, in fact, while he professes to do this much, he only fixes his eyes upon me since the year 1820. And of all the area of my action from which my intrinsic character is to be ascertained, only four years come in review; -- and of these four years but my "two debates and the Christian Baptist" are particularly noticed. To what a span is the whole area of my action reduced! And from how few documents does he undertake to prove that I am unregenerated. Let not the reader be startled at the word unregenerated; for this is the point of investigation, and the whole area of this Regular Baptist's letters is filled with mighty and convincing proofs, as he alleges, that I am an unregenerated man. But the strangest point of all remains to be noticed, and that is, that of all the actions of my life, and of all the words I have spoken or written, not one is adduced as proof of his favorite position, but only his conjectures, with a reference to the Debates on Baptism and the Christian Baptist. Of all that I have written not one word is cited. These letters then are, if any thing can be so named, 'a new thing under the sun.' For I am tried and condemned upon mere conjecture, and worse than all, these conjectures are predicated either upon the most evident falsehoods, or upon a false view of facts. So much by way of introduction to my review.

A few remarks upon the writer of these letters are also necessary to their easy comprehension. They are anonymous, and necessarily to be ranked under the very common and general head of anonymous abuse. As such I was not bound to notice them; for who knows not that the ebullitions of anonymous foes carry their own condemnation in their preface? But, believing that medicine may be deduced even from the carcase of a serpent that has poisoned itself, I am induced to notice them under the conviction that good may result therefrom. The writer of these letters is the Reverend Mr. GREATRAKE, from the city of Baltimore or somewhere thereabouts. He is now located in the city of Pittsburgh,
[p. 39 - orig. ed.]
and calls himself a "Regular Baptist." It is true that he either promised or prophesied in the conclusion of his address to the Baptist churches in the west, that while on earth he would "be known to them only by the name of a regular Baptist." In his last letter to me he was kind enough to appear willing to give me his real name, on presenting to the publisher a "fair reason" for demanding it. But when I called on the publisher he presented me with written conditions which the "Regular Baptist" had given him, which precluded him from giving up his name except upon such conditions as the civil law would oblige him to give it up or suffer prosecution. This gentleman is at present hired by a party, who were excluded from a regular Baptist church, at least by a church which at the time of their exclusion, was recognized as such. He seems to glory in the name of "a Regular Baptist," yet with what propriety I cannot see, as he is ordained over a party that cannot be called regular Baptists. It is a truth that the last Redstone Association recommended the calling of a committee to endeavor to promote a reunion of those excommunicated ones; or, as they express it, "to compromise the difficulties" -- and that a committee was called by the excluded party, which leaving undone what was the only thing recommended by the Association to be done; they proceeded to do that which they were not commanded to do, and did, without any authority from the association, call or denominate the excommunicated ones a church; and thus, as far as in them lay, prevented their re-union on such grounds as could, on regular Baptist principles, constitute them a regular Baptist church. Although, then, Mr. Greatrake glories in the name of a Regular Baptist, as though the very name should "cover a multitude of sins," he is not at present acting as such, in the instances specified. This with me is, however, a very small matter, as I lay no stress on such names, whether assumed or bestowed. There is a church in Pittsburgh that would rejoice much more in being a regular church of Christ, than a regular Baptist church; which church has two bishops, who, while they watch over and labour among the saints, labour working with their own hands according to the apostolic command; and not only minister to their own wants, but are ensamples to the flock in beneficence and hospitality. This church, by walking in the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, is edified and enlarged by regular accessions -- and their example in that city is a dangerous one to those who would maintain themselves by maintaining such opinions as will maintain them. The object of the letter-writer evidently being to defame this church as well as myself, it was necessary to present the reader with this brief notice of things in relation to the Rev. Mr. Greatrake. Now to the letters.

There are four conjectures, in some respects different, and in some respects not very distinct, by which Mr. Greatrake demonstrates that I am unregenerated. The first is, that I "must have received some personal pique or experienced some severe disappointment, if not both, from the denomination or church to which I formerly belonged." The second is that I must be stimulated by an "insatiate vanity." The third, that I am actuated by avarice,
[p. 40 - orig. ed.]
or, as he expresses it, by my "pecuniary interest." The fourth is, that I am aiming at being the head of a party. Into one or more or all of these evil motives, he resolves my two Debates on Baptism, and the "Christian Baptist," and thence concludes that I am a very bad man -- although my extrinsic character he acknowledges is good.

I could have wished that my biographer had taken a little more time, and a little more of the advice of his friends, in waiting to get acquainted with my history and myself -- and have left it to some more skilful, though less benevolent hand, to write memoirs of my life. I have only to make a statement of a few facts and occurrences of general notoriety, and I think his efforts will require no comment, nor praise.

I sailed from the city of London Derry on the 3d day of October, 1808, destined for the city of Philadelphia; but being shipwrecked on the coast of the island of Ila on the night of the 9th of the same month, I was detained until the 3d day of August, 1809, on which day I sailed from the city of Greenock for New York. On the 27th of which month I and the whole ship's company had almost perished in the Atlantic; but through the watchful care and tender mercy of our Heavenly Father, we were brought to the harbor which we desired to see, and safely landed in New York on the 29th of September, 1809. On the 28th of the next month I arrived in Washington, Pennsylvania, to which place I have been known ever since. I arrived in this country with credentials in my pocket from that sect of Presbyterians known by the name of Seceders. These credentials certified that I had been both in Ireland in the presbytery of Markethill, and in Scotland in the presbytery of Glasgow a member of the Secession church, in good standing. My faith in creeds and confessions of human device was considerably shaken while in Scotland, and I commenced my career in this country under the conviction that nothing that was not as old as the New Testament should be made an article of faith, a rule of practice, or a term of communion amongst Christians. In a word, that the whole of the Christian religion exhibited in prophecy and type in the Old Testament, was presented in the fullest, clearest, and most perfect manner in the New Testament, by the Spirit of wisdom and Revelation.

This has been the pole-star of my course ever since, and I thank God that he has enabled me so far to prosecute it, and to make all my prejudices and ambition bow to this emancipating principle. I continued in the examination of the Scriptures, ecclesiastical history, and systems of Divinity, ancient and modern, until July 15th, 1810, on which day I publicly avowed my convictions of the independency of the church of Christ and the excellency and authority of the Scriptures, in a discourse from the last section of what is commonly called 'Christ's Sermon on the Mount.' During this year I pronounced 106 orations on 61 primary topics of the Christian religion in the western part of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the neighboring part of Ohio. On the 12th day of March, 1811, I took to myself a wife of the Presbyterian connexion, and on the 25th of the same month became a resident in Virginia. I became
[p. 41 - orig. ed.]
a citizen of Virginia as soon as the laws of the state permitted, and have continued such until this day. In conformity to the grand principle which I have called the pole-star of my course of religious enquiry, I was led to question the claims of infant sprinkling to Divine authority, and was, after a long, serious, and prayerful examination of all means of information, led to solicit immersion on a profession of my faith, when as yet I scarce knew a Baptist from Washington to the Ohio, in the immediate region of my labours, and when I did not know that any friend or relation on earth would concur with me. I was accordingly baptized by Elder Matthias Luse, who was accompanied by Elder Henry Spears, on the 12th day of June, 1812. In the mean time I pursued the avocations of a husbandman as the means of my subsistence, and while I discharged, as far as in me lay, the duties of a Bishop (having been regularly ordained one of the Elders of the Church of Christ at Brush Run) and itinerated frequently through the circumjacent country, I did it without any earthly remuneration. I did not at first contemplate forming any connexion with the Regular Baptist Association called the Redstone, as the perfect independency of the church and the pernicious tendency of human creeds and terms of communion were subjects to me of great concern. As a mere spectator, I did, however, visit the Redstone Association in the fall of 1812. After a more particular acquaintance with some of the members and ministers of that connexion, the church of Brush Run did finally agree to unite with that Association on the ground that no terms of union or communion other than the Holy Scriptures should be required. On this ground, after presenting a written declaration of our belief (always distinguishing betwixt making a declaration of our faith for the satisfaction of others, and binding that declaration on others as a term of communion) we united with the Redstone Association in the fall of 1813. In which connexion the church of Brush Run yet continues. In the close of 1814 and beginning of 1815 I made an extensive tour through a part of the eastern region, visiting the cities of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, and did, to my present shame, by milking both the sheep and the goats, obtain about 1000 dollars for the building of a meeting-house in Wellsburgh, a place then destitute of any house for religious meetings. In 1816 I delivered a discourse on the law before the Redstone Association, which being published by request, gave rise to some discussion, which resulted, we believe, in some benefit to the searchers after truth. January, 1818, I undertook the care of a classical and mercantile academy, known by the name of the Buffaloe Seminary. I continued the principal of this seminary for five and a half years. In 1820, after being thrice solicited by the Baptists, I did consent to debate with Mr. Walker on the subject of Baptism. Of this debate two editions have been published; one by myself, of 1000 copies, and one by Messrs. Eichbaum & Johnson, of 3000. In 1823 I commenced editing the Christian Baptist, and in the fall of 1823 held a public debate with Mr. Mac Calla, which grew out of the former with Mr. Walker. These outlines bring me up till the present year, and render a further detail unnecessary.
[p. 42 - orig. ed.]
I should have observed that a church was organized in the town of Wellsburgh in 1823, which was composed for the most part of members dismissed from the church at Brush Run, of which church I was appointed a Bishop.

The reader will agree with me in the result that it was expedient for me to give the above abstract with circumstantial accuracy, and we can, not only solemnly testify the above statement to be correct and strictly true, but we are able to prove every item of it of any importance before any tribunal, civil or ecclesiastical. With this document before us, let us now attend to the first conjecture. It is founded on a falsehood. I never received any personal pique or experienced any disappointment from any Presbyterian sect, Seceder or other. I never asked one favour from any Paido-Baptist sect, and therefore never received any disappointment. Nay, so far from this, favours were offered and not accepted. Immediately after my arrival in this country the Academy at Pittsburgh was offered me, and invitations to union with the Paido-Baptist sects presented to me. Every thing is just the reverse of Mr. Greatrake's conjecture. Time after time favors, ecclesiastical favors, were offered me, and no consideration under heaven, but conscience forbade their acceptance. Indeed I am bound, gratefully to remember the kind offers and offices of many Paido-Baptists; and a better return I cannot (as I think) make, than to admonish them of their errors. * But this gentleman, to destroy my influence and my power to do them good, would persuade them that I am an enemy because I tell them the truth, and would conjecture that I was avenging an affront or an injury which I never received. Insults and injuries I have received from some Baptists; but until my appearance on the stage in defence of the truths I had espoused in common with them, no insults or injuries are recollected ever to have been received from any body of Paido-Baptists.

But there is another falsehood in Mr. Greatrake’s fist conjecture. He represents me as peculiarly bitter against the Seceders. Now it is a fact which he cannot disprove, that in all my remarks, both oral and written, there is less said about them than other Presbyterian Paido-Baptists.

His second conjecture, that I am actuated by an "insatiate vanity," is capable of being proved to be a falsehood. By vanity he seems to mean, in his subsequent remarks, a love of fame. How a person, whose ruling passion is love of fame, should, in that period of life when this passion is supposed to be strongest, retire from every theatre on which he might exhibit to advantage, is a point which deserves some consideration, and which my biographer should have explained. A person that refused, as I have done, offers of connexion with popular sects, and of places of public and conspicuous eminence in the cities of Philadelphia and New York, wbo could take his Bible and the plough and sit down among the hills of Western Virginia, and from the age of 21 to 31, move in the quiet vale of retirement, without seeking in one instance to

_________
* The first night that I spent in Washington county, Pa. I enjoyed the hospitalities of Doctor Samuel Ralston.
[p. 43 - orig. ed.]

make himself more conspicuous than his immediate duties and business required, affords, we conceive, but few evidences that his ruling passion is the love of fame. But that I would not desire the fame of doing good and of being useful to my fellow-men, is what I do not affirm. From a boy I have admired the sentiment of the following lines: --

  "All fame is foreign, but of true desert;
  "Plays round the head, but comes not to the heart
  "One self-approving hour, whole years outweighs
  "Of stupid starers, and of loud huzzas;
  "And more true joy Marcellus exil’d feels
  "Than Caesar with a senate at his heels!"

But this third conjecture will throw some light upon the former two. And behold he says, "Your vanity is gratified and your pecuniary interest advanced by the whole circle of your doings; and these combined are the grand controling principles from which you act." And so this reverend gentleman begins by conjecture, and ends by asserting that avarice and ambition are the two "grand controling principles" from which I act. Yes, “Caesar aut nihil is my motto" -- and, adds he, "While men of sense will readily discern the ambition of your projects, those of the most common-placed ability in business calculation will be enabled to furnish themselves with conclusive testimony, that by the publication of your debates on Baptism, and your mere sounding "Christian Baptist," you wheedle the Baptists and others of the community out of as much money as would cover the salary of nine out of ten at least of the Baptist ministers.” Then to prove the point, he gives the following exhibit: --

"PUBLICATION  OF  DEBATE  ON  BAPTISM.

"Dr.                                                                                                       Cr.

“To 2000 copies of Debate with Mr. Walker, at 37 1/2 cents per copy, 750  00
“To 6500 copies of Debate with Mr. M'Calla, at 50 cents per copy,     3250  00
To incidental expences of distributing said Debate, including contingent losses,
say 12 1/2 cents per volume,                                   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 1062  50
“To balance, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  4862  50
                                                                                                          $9925  00
"By 2000 copies of Debate with Mr. Walker, at 75 cents per copy,      1500  00
“By sales of 6500 copies of Debate with M’Calla, at $1.25 per copy,   8125  00
“By sale of copy right of Debate with Mr. Walker,   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 300 00
                                                                                                          $9925  00
“By balance, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . $4862  50”

By giving a little more latitude to the powerful results of figures, he might, by the same spirit of falsehood, have made me a quite handsome speculator, and have given me 20,000 dollars instead of almost 5000. Now let us coolly examine this forgery. In the first place, it is a positive falsehood that I published 2000 copies of the Debate with Walker. I published but one thousand. In the next place, I paid more for the binding and printing, independent of
[p. 44 - orig. ed.]
paper and all other expences, than 37 1/2 cents per volume. In the third place, it is I positive falsehood that I published six thousand five hundred copies of the Debate with Mac Calla. But six thousand copies were published in all, and of these I published but fifteen hundred. The truth is as follows: Mr. Sala and I, in joint partnership, published three thousand copies, of which fifteen hundred copies were his and fifteen hundred mine. I also agreed to print, bind, and deliver two thousand copies for Mr. Joseph Freeman, and one thousand copies for Mr. Jacob Osbourne, as any person having a printing establisbment would do. These three thousand copies were their property and not mine. But the greatness of my speculation will appear when it is understood that I am legally bound, and my property alone responsible for all the expences incurred in printing and binding six thousand copies, and that I am legally entitled to the profits resulting from the sale of fifteen hundred copies for the whole risk; having no security but the integrity of the young men for whom I finished three thousand copies, and all the materials for the fifteen hundreds copies of Mr. Sala were obtained also on my responsibility. Besides all this, Mr. Sala and myself, out of our joint three thousand copies, have instead of 12 1/2 per volume, given 40 cents per volume to Mr. Heyworth for the sale of five hundred copies that were not subscribd for. These are all facts, in proof of which written contracts and arrangements can he produced. We shall leave this exhibit before the reader without further comment, knowing that friend or foe will be able to appreciate the moral character of the mind of the letter-writer, who, either intentionally or Unintentionally, could descend to such a statement. But what means all this false representation? It is intended to prove a conjecture -- that is, Mr. Greatrake conjectures that avarice is one of my two controling principles of action, and to prove his conjecture, he deliberately writes down falsehoods. But Mr. Greatrake is a regenerated man, and says he was converted in a special manner; and if the righteous sin their iniquities shall be pardoned, and especially when they sin in defence of the orthodox faith. But again I ask, What means all this falsehood and calumny? Why, courteous reader, I will conjecture too: I have, You know, declaimed, and reasoned, and argued too, against the hireling clergy, and if one of them could make it appear that while I have laboured more abundantly than any of the hirelings and taken nothing for it, yet I too was actuated by avarice and ambition; then I must fall into the same ranks and my influence be destroyed. And although but few of my brethren, the Baptists, are in danger of getting rich by the office of an Elder, yet there is now and then such a “Regular Baptist" as Mr. Greatrake, who looks, or seems to look a little too much to his office for something that comes from the mines of Potosi. But conjectures avaunt! --

I am only yet nibbling at a few of the falsehoods in this reverend gentleman's letters. Concerning the baptism of Mr. Church, in one half page Mr. Church himself did, in my presence and in the presence of Mr Walter Scott, convict him of no less than the round number of one dozen. On which I observed to Mr. Greatrake --
[p. 45 - orig. ed.]
"Sir, if, in describing an incident which occurred a few weeks since, in your own city, at your own door, you could, from any cause, make so many false statements, how could you, a perfect stranger in this western country, be supposed or suppose yourself able to give any thing like a fair statement of my history for almost 15 years in this country?" Nay, this is the least outrage committed against Mr. Church; for although Mr. Church had been a citizen of Pittsburgh for 17 years, and has supported an unblemished character, and had been an Elder in a congregation of Covenanters, because (as conjecture would say) Mr. Greatrake was not called to baptize him, he deliberately tells this aged and respectable professor that he holds or is "confirmed in a delusion perhaps that shall only be dissipated in hell -- I mean by delusion, that baptism is salvation." Mr. Church declared that he never held such a sentiment; but the word “perhaps” Mr. G. made emphatic. But, indeed, Mr. Greatrake has gone beyond all bounds in the assertion of falsehoods. He has, too, in things of the greatest notoriety, been quite as unguarded as in things of a more private nature. For instance, he says that I debated a week with Mr. Walker. His words are, “Having for the space of a week, on two different occasions, contended earnestly, viva voce, for baptism bv immersion." Now, did this man ever read this debate!! Instead of a week, it was only a part of two days. Again, he represents me, as with a design of taking vengeance on the Seceders for some conjectured injury, or from ambition or avarice, got up this debate with Mr. Walker, whereas it has been already proved to the public, and to the silencing of the Paido-Baptists, and can be proved again and again, that I was written to three times before I accepted of Mr. Walker's challenge. To Mr. Walker I am, then, indebted for so much fame and money -- for every one knows that the second debate grew out of the former.

But this "Regular Baptist" tells us a part of his object very plainly. He says -- "Confident that you have an undue and deleterious influence in the Baptist church, I would wish to see it destroyed." And yet he acknowledges that a part of that influence is good. He says, "Now it is not my wish to be understood as disapproving of all possible devotedness to the perusal of the Scriptures; on the contrary, I think your fraternity worthy of imitation in this particular." Let this "Regular Baptist" destroy my influence by truth and righteousness, and not by iniquity and falsehood, and then I will rejoice with him. But I have transgressed too far on the patience of my readers. I will only notice his fourth conjecture at present -- "that I wish to place myself at the head of a new party." He appealed to the history of the world if such would not be the result, and I, in an interview with him, appealed to the history of the world that such could not be the result -- that the very motto of the Christian Baptist forbade the idea, and that the world did not afford an instance of any individual advocating such principles placing himself at the head of a party. My grand object being to destroy all sectarianism, and to see all christians united on the one approved and tried foundation.
[p. 46 - orig. ed.]
A more edifying use of this pamphlet will, we hope, be made in the next number. We have been obliged from our regard to the truths we advocate, to make this defence of our character from the attacks of an imprudent, and, to say the best, prejudiced foe. I asked him to make a recantation of the whole pamphlet, and I should publish his recantation. He agreed to make a partial one, and, as respected Mr. Church, a full one; but I told him, in the presence of Messrs. Scott and Church, that no other than a full and unequivocal one would, on my part, be accepted. There is no course, as we once hinted, which we can take, against which carping envy and prating maliciousness will not object. John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, He hath a Devil; † and the Son of Man came, eating and drinking, and they said, Behold a lover of banquets and wine. But "wisdom is justified of her children." -- Ed.
....
__________
† Mr. Greatrake has positively said that the Devil is my master.

....

[p. 47 - orig. ed.]

Remarks  on  Confessions  of  Faith.

MR. GREATRAKE in his letters, says --

"Again, we know that you propagate the doctrine of the church's independency, so far as to exclude all reference to articles of faith, and principles of order upon which they have been founded, (I am now speaking of the Baptist church) this your writings are uniformly understood to aim at. And really, sir, your attempt to disseminate this sort of sentiment, in the Baptist church in particular, demonstrates your very great attainment in impudence, or that you are extremely ignorant of the constituents of social unity and order, as I shall hereafter endeavor to exhibit. Can you suppose that any reflecting, intelligent member of the Baptist church, will ever conceive favourably of that man, or have confidence in the purity of his motives, who attempts to destroy the very foundation upon which the denomination has risen to such imposing magnitude, in such fair proportions, and with such solidity? Indeed, sir, the attempt on your part, or that of any other person, bears testimony of a radical defect in understanding, and can only leave you, in the exercise of all possible charity, the character of the Knight of La Mancha, or the phrenzied Swede." ^*

I had thought that the Baptist denomination gloried not in the Westminster creed, but in the New Testament. I think Mr. Benedict in his history of the Baptists, more than once represents this as a fact, that the Bible without comment, is the creed and confession of the Baptists. I know that he declares of the first Baptists in the Unites States, (vol. 1. p. 487,) in giving the history of the oldest church in the union, that, "from first to last, the Bible without comment has been their confession of faith." And I am very sure that it is only in so far as they have adopted and acted on this principle that their progress is estimated in heaven. If they should, on any other principle, proselyte the whole world, they might become famous and respectable on earth, but all in heaven would frown upon them. And there is one fact which all my Baptist friends in this country know, that when the church to which I belonged associated with them, we protested against all creeds of human composition as terms of communion; at the same time declaring what we believed to be Christian truth, in opposition to reigning errors. And although some seem to think there is no

__________
* We never descend to reply to such composition. We think the mere citation of it a sufficient act of humiliation, and a sufficient refutation of it in the estimation of all sober christians.
[p. 48 - orig. ed.]

difference between a verbal or written declaration of faith and recognizing a human creed as a term of communion, we see a very great difference, so much at least as to forbid an effort on our part to make our own declaration of faith a term of communion to others. The New Testament, as respects Christian faith and practice, is our only creed, form of discipline, and the avowal of the One Foundation, our only bond of union. I object to all human creeds as terms of communion from the following consideration: --

1. They are predicated upon a gross insult to the wisdom and benevolence of the Founder of christianity. They, in effect, say, that "the form of sound words" which he has communicated in writing, is not so well adapted to the exigencies of Christians as some other form into which human wisdom and benevolence can place them. For if the New Testament is not so sufficient and suitable as a creed of human contrivance or arrangement, this creed exhibits greater wisdom and benevolence than the New Testament.

2. All creeds as terms of communion, being designed to exclude the evil and receive the good, are the most foolish of all expedients which human folly has adopted. For who that will see, does not see, that good men, that is men of Christian integrity, will never subscribe or swear to believe that which they do not believe, for the sake of a name, a place, or an office in any church; whereas evil men who want a name, or a place, or an office in any church, will subscribe whether they believe or not.

3. They are the sources of division. They make an assent to philosophical views of Revelation a bond of union, and consequently every new discovery, or dissent from an ancient one, occasions a new heresy and a new sect. Exclude him; for "how can two walk together unless they are agreed," says the orthodox.

4. They are, in one word, every way wicked. Inasmuch as they have always led to persecution, and have produced enmity, variance, and strife as their legitimate results. For these and a hundred other reasons, which time may specify and illustrate, I will never subscribe, nor swear to any other confession of my Christian faith, than the New Testament.

Notes: (forthcoming)

ADDRESS  TO  THE  PUBLIC.
_____

"There is one spirit in all the clergy, whether they be Romanist or Protestant, Baptist or Paido Baptist, learned or unlearned, their own workmanship, or the workmanship of others."

SENTIMENTAL JOURNAL.   

Amongst the Baptists it is to be hoped there are but few clergy; and would to God there were none! The grand and distinguishing views of the Baptists must be grossly perverted before they could tolerate one such creature. The Baptist views of a congregation of saints, if we understand them correctly, are such as the following: --

1. A congregation or church of Jesus Christ is an assembly of intelligent individuals, who, "by the washing of regeneration, and renewal of the Holy Spirit," voluntarily associate to walk in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord Jesus Christ, declaring allegiance to the King Eternal, Immortal, and Invisible; and renouncing every other authority in heaven, on the earth, or under the earth.

2. Such a society having pledged themselves to one another, by the profession of the faith, and by the baptism ordained by Jesus Christ, have all power, liberty, and right to administer all the ordinances of Christ; and to do every act and thing that appertains to the order, discipline, and worship of the christian church; to choose out from among themselves bishops and deacons, that is, overseers and servants, to ordain or appoint such; and then to submit themselves to such, as to them that watch for their souls, and must give account, and all this without the interference of any ecclesiastical authority on earth.

A pretty good illustration of this principle, we find in the first Baptist church in the United States, A. D. 1636, a little over a hundred years after the reformation. Twelve persons, among whom was the famous Roger Williams, the first settler and founder of Rhode Island, desirous of forming a church, and first of being immersed in the primitive style -- did meet together to deliberate on these topics. How to obtain a suitable administrator, was a
[p. 50 - orig. ed.]
point of some difficulty. "At length," as Benedict says, when they understood the scriptures, the "candidates for communion nominated and appointed Mr. Ezekiel Holliman, a man of gifts and piety, to baptize Mr. Williams; and who, in return, baptized Mr. Holliman and the other ten." Although the circumstances of the case compelled this measure, yet if it were not essentially right, that is, scriptural, it never could be justified; and I think that man is very inadequate to teach the christian religion, who is not able to justify this procedure upon the grand principles of revelation and of reason. This first church in the union also appointed its own Bishops and Deacons according to the primitive style. *

Every person possessed in a good degree of the qualifications laid down by the apostle Paul as essential to the Christian Bishop, and who, after having been first well proved by a congregation of disciples, is ordained or appointed by the congregation to the overseer's office, in which he is to exercise the functions of a bishop, every such person, I say, is to be esteemed and valued as a bishop, and by no means to be ranked among the clergy. But some few Baptists, tickled by the love of novelty, and lured by the false majesty of Presbyterianism, exhibited in a classical priesthood, of ordinaries, co-ordinates, subordinates, priests and Levites; ruling elders, licentiates, reverends and Doctors of Divinity, have compromised the distinguishing features of their own grand peculiarities, and palmed upon themselves a species of demagogues, who, while they have all the airs, hauteur, and arrogance of some Paido-Baptist priests, have neither their erudition, nor their talents, nor their policy. They can neither wear the gown decently, nor conceal the cloven foot.

To do this in such a way as not to give umbrage to the pious members of this community it is necessary to mock the ancient principles of this once humble and unassuming people. And so it comes to pass that a number of pious young men, of poor circumstances, but of virtuous habits, are taken out of the churches, to be made Bishops of other churches, and after taught to conjugate amo and tupto, school of the prophets, and being drilled in the art and mystery of making a sermon, set out to find a church which wants a young foppish gentleman, who says to the old Bishops, "Stand by -- I have seen, and sure I ought to know." But how will he get into the church so as to be chosen from among the brethren is the point! The teachers of the schools of the prophets have settled this point. He gives in his letter, becomes a member a week or two, and is then chosen from among themselves; and so the Baptist principles are compromised. Thus a young gentleman filled with vast ideas of his own little though noble self, mounts the rostrum, and is called ELDER, though the word is a lie when applied to him, and obliges all the old and experienced saints to be silent, who are a thousand times better qualified than he to be overseers. Thus I have known a young Baptist priest made and finished in Philadelphia, go to the state of New York, preach a few times to a rich congregation, give

__________
* See Benedict's History, vol. 1, p. 475.
[p. 51 - orig. ed.]

in his letter, and in two or three weeks be called out from among the brethren to become their Bishop; and that too, before he has got a wife, or a house, or a family to rule well. † Such teachers I must rank among the clergy, and, indeed, they soon prove themselves to have a full portion, and sometimes a double portion, of the spirit of the priesthood. I hope, however, the number of such amongst the Baptists is small. Perhaps the whole aggregate number is not greater than the aggregate of good well meaning men among the Paido-Baptist clergy. They are not all Israel, which are of Israel, is proverbially true, of Baptists, and Paido-Baptists; though in different acceptations of the word Israel.

There is one vast difference, one essential and all-important difference betwixt the Baptists and Paido-Baptist views and societies. The Baptist views of the church of Jesus Christ are constitutionally correct; the Paido-Baptist views are unconstitutional. To make myself more intelligible -- there are to be found in the Baptist system such views of the Christian church, as, if carried out to their legitimate issue, will place them on Apostolic grounds; but the Paido-Baptists would, if carried out, place them to the bosom of the Roman Pontiff. Yes, the one system would place the church upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself the chief corner-stone. The other system would place it upon St. Peter as the rock. The Baptist system is capable of being reformed or brought back again to the constitution of the kingdom of Heaven; the Paido-Baptist cannot. It must be destroyed. The one system carries in its bosom the means of its purification, the other, the fire that must consume it. The foundation of the former needs but to have the rubbish cleared away; the foundation of the latter must be totally razed. The constitution of the one is essentially of Divine construction; the constitution of the other is altogether human. The good confession of the King of Martyrs before Pontius Pilate, is received by the Baptist and rejected by the Paido-Baptist system.

Mr. Greatrake speaks in a very flattering style to the Paido-Baptists --

__________
† Let not the reader suppose when I speak of young priests made such by grammar, English, Greek, or Latin, I have in my view the Rev. Mr. GREATRAKE. For although he tells the citizens of the West that they are in a deplorable state of ignorance, as devoid of all the means of intelligence he had in the East. and although he quotes two or three scripts of Latin in his pamphlet, yet he affords infallible evidence that he never learned a grammar in his life, English, Greek, or Latin. And, indeed, although we are very ignorant in the West, and have much to learn, I must say that the priests coming over the mountains generally are little better. I suppose, however, the learned ones all abide there; for, of those I have been acquainted with, in the character of emigrants, they are mostly inferior to the western clergy in general information, and always inferior in biblical knowledge. And if Mr. Greatrake is one of their regenerated ones, I sincerely say "from all such may we be delivered."
[p. 52 - orig. ed.]

"For with all their spots and imperfections, they approach the nearest to what is your glory -- I mean experimental religion and solid piety." To say nothing of the near, I do not know who are the nearer, if the Padio-Baptists are the nearest. And as the Paido-Baptists are Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Catholics, I think Mr. Greatrake was, surely sufficiently latitudinarian to avoid the imputation of being uncharitable. But this will be well received by the Herodians, and king Herod and the procurator Pontius Pilate, will feast together. §

This gentleman is very much concerned for the peace of his Paido-Baptist brethren, and is very much displeased with me for having disturbed their tranquility. He says, the sum of your debates -- give just as much infirmation as two Apostles ‡ give us in less than so many verses, when they say (Paul one of them) "We are buried with Christ by baptism," and (the other Apostle Philip!) "If thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest be baptized." But reader, mark well the conclusion: "Hence, had your object been simply to establish the mind of the Baptists in the validity of baptism by immersion, or to make proselytes to that mode, nothing more was necessary than reference to the passages of Scripture we have quoted, or some other similar ones; for, if men will not hear

__________
§ I think it unnecessary to notice the calumnies and slanders of the author of the letters bestowed on the Church of Christ in Pittsburgh. I have said bewstowed, and, indeed, they are perfectly gratuitous, inasmuch as they are notoriously unmerited on the part of the slandered. But to vindicate this church, with its bishops, from aspersions so evidently false and malicious, would be an insult to the good sense of the citizens of that city who are acquainted with them either as citizens or Christians. I have only to say that this pamphleteer has honored me too much in representing them as my disciples. In this acceptation of the term disciple, I am as much their disciple as any of them is mine. I hope we are both disciples of a more exalted teacher and of a more infallible guide. If it were consistent with my views of the Christian religion to have disciples, I would ardently pray to God that I might have myriads of such disciples. But our motto is, Call no man Master or Teacher on earth; and the fact is, that I have been profited as much from my acquaintance with some of the members of that church, as I believe any of them has been profited by me.

‡ This reverend teacher exhibits all through the grossest ignorance of the Scriptures. Here he calls Philip, the Deacon, an Apostle. Who does not know that Philip said to the eunuch, "if thou believest?" &c. Again, he calls Peter, the Apostle, a false teacher; and speaks of Barnabas being led away by "false teachers," whereas it was by the dissimulation of the Apostle Peter, that the Jewish brethren (not teachers) were led away, and by them jointly, Barnabas. At another time he represents baptism and the washing of regeneration as if contradistinguished by the Apostle; whereas every intelligent Christian knows that baptism is called by the Apostle the washing of regeneration. These are but a few of the glaring proofs of his Biblical knowledge!!
[p. 53 - orig. ed.]

Christ and his apostles respecting the truth, neither will they hear you." Let us now turn this powerful argument to the interest of Mr. Greatrake (for every one sees that, in it, I am not only condemned, but every living soul that has either spoken or written one word of this subject) -- "Hence, if Mr. Greatrake's object was simply to edify a church or convert sinners, he would just read a few verses to each, and not receive a salary for preaching, when he declares that he knows that if they hear not Christ and his Apostles, neither will they hear him." Where, then, is the value received?

But to resume the letters of the Rev. Mr. Greatrake once more, and to make some improvement thereof, I will, in the first place, pay myself a compliment, or rather I will let Mr. Greatrake do it. There is no one, I presume, who reads these letters, will hesitate in saying, that Mr. Greatrake has exhibited the greatest good will to blast my character (for his letters are solely an attack on my character.) If then, a Rev. "Regular Baptist," with this manifest intention, was not able to produce one word I had said or written, or one action of my life, for 15 years, the period he embraces in his area of defamation, I conjecture that I must have been peculiarly fortunate in having given no occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. While I feel, and now acknowledge this handsome compliment, I have only to add my regret that the gentleman has not left it in my power to thank him for it. We shall now let him exhibit his plan of attack. In his address to the unconverted whom he wishes to rouse with indignation against me, he says -- "If [remember if] you have ever understood him to say, [whether he said so or not] either in his preachings or writings, that the ordinance of baptism has any tendency to wash away sins, or to infuse holiness into the soul of man, he has said that which is at direct variance with the Baptist faith; and if he has said it as a Baptist, it is a foul slander upon them; -- or if he has said, under the name of a Baptist, that there is no Holy Ghost to operate especially and essentially upon the souls of sinners in conversion, he has denied the faith of the Baptist church -- of if you have understood him [whether he has or has not said so] as saying that the moral law of God is not a rule of conduct for the believer in Christ; that also is contrary to the Baptist faith. If he has said that prayer, after a man has believed, or professed to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, is not a duty and a mark of saving faith, that also is in opposition to the sentiments of the Baptists. If he has said, that the preaching of the gospel since the Apostolic days is gratuitous, and unauthorized by the Lord Jesus Christ, that is likewise foreign to the faith of the Baptist church. And if he has advanced such doctrines as the foregoing, while professedly a Baptist, what confidence can be placed in his honesty or veracity?" The reader will recollect that he arraigned my motives before the awful tribunal of conjecture, relative to what he calls the prominent incidents of my life; and also, he will remember, that, in my former notice of this work, I afforded evidence that his conjectures were every one false, and that he appeared to have deliberately fabricated falsehoods to help out with his conjectures. The reader will now see that my sentiments are attacked in the same manner as my motives, and although
[p. 54 - orig. ed.]
they are before the public in a tangible and precise form, yet Mr. Greatrake would rather conjecture that they are what they are not, than quote my words and shew what they are. This is quite consistent, however, with the spirit of Mr. Greatrake. In the above extract there are seven IFS, from which positive conclusions are drawn, for although he begins with ifs, he ends by assertions. It is true these seven ifs are to be found in the 28th page, near the close of his pamphlet, but I cited them from this page because of their being recapitulated and placed together in one view, They are his only premises. Now take one assertion, amongst many, for a specimen of his conclusions: "Saul was quite as great, scholastic, and intellectual a man as you, and yet he was subject to this awful delusion, that is, he denied Jesus Christ of Nazareth! You, the Holy Ghost from Heaven!" Par nobile fratum! The celebrated Horne Tooke represents himself as having suffered much from the improper application of two prepositions; but had he been tortured by four conjectures and seven ifs, he would not have complained of the potency of two particles. We despatched the four conjectures of the Reverend Mr. Great-Rake in our last. I would not even have demurred so much at the introduction of seven ifs, if he had not deduced from such premises positive and bold assertions. What logical or rational connexion is there between saying if a man denies the Holy Spirit, and in the next breath affirming from his if that he does. His doing so must either be owing to the weakness of his intellect or the perversity of his heart. One of the two must be assigned; if the former, it calls for pity -- if the latter, for contempt. But in either case I am slandered. It was just every way as true that Paul said "let us do evil that good may come," as that I have denied the Holy Spirit. It was just as true that the Messiah cast out demons by Beelzebub, as that I have said, or thought, or taught, that believers ought not to pray. It is just as true that the Saviour of the world was a Samaritan and had a demon, as that I have said, or thought, or taught that the gospel ought not now to be preached. It was just as true that Paul was beside himself and mad, as that I have said or taught any one of the seven ifs in the sense which he insinuates. What I have said on the law, on baptism, and on preaching, is already before the public, in what I conceive definite and intelligible language; as also on all topics embraced in his seven ifs. To these I refer the inquisitive. I would also add, that I am prepared to defend every position advanced on these topics, against intellects, and pens, and tongues, guided by truth and virtue, more puissant than a council of three-score-and-six Mr. Greatrakes.

But, indeed, I have good reason to fear the talents of this "RegUlaI Baptist," for when I asked him, in the presence of the two gentlemen mentioned in my last, on what grounds, and from which of my publications he affirmed that I denied the operations of the Holy Spirit, he referred to my Essay on the Work of the Holy Spirit, in the 1st No. of 2d, vol. of the Christian Baptist, saying, "that I there taught that all its operations were confined to the Apostolic age." I answered, that no such an idea was either expressed or implied. He then excused himself by saying “he had not the number by him, but had so understood it.”
[p. 55 - orig. ed.]
But why should I deign to disprove conjectures and suppositions by argument, and especially when there cannot be found an individual in the whole community to which I am known, that can, and I think I may add, that would concur with Mr. Greatrake in making such statements. I fearlessly assert that he cannot find a second, friend or foe of mine, of any standing in society that will affix his name in full to such accusations; and we have already seen that the gentleman himself feared to put his own name to it.

I will not condescend to present four conjectures and seven ifs respecting this anonymous scribe, though I know that by the cogency of four conjectures and seven ifs I could present him in awful caricature. I will leave him to the reflections of his own mind and to the suggestions of his own conscience, well knowing that if he is one "born from above," he will come forward, and as openly and unequivocally confess his faults as he has calumniated me; and until then, though he would tell the people that he was caught up unto the third heaven, and "heard things unutterable,” I will consider him, and for my life I could not consider him otherwise, than as "a heathen man and a publican.”

Before dismissing this subject, may we not deduce some instructions of importance. The Saviour of the world and his holy Aposties, as well as the ancient Prophets, often inveighed against the doctors and false teachers of their times, but never did they support their reproofs or predicate their remonstrances upon any other grounds than evident and irrefragable argument and fact. The consequence was, their benevolent efforts were ascribed to evil motives, and the most foul and base slanders were the returns they received from such as were not benefited by their kind and suitable endeavors. How excellent their example in those instances, as well as in all others! When the Jews took up stones to kill the Saviour, how admirable his conduct! He said, "Many good works have I shewn you from my father; for which of those works do ye stone me?" When they cavilled at his language as too vague and ambigious, he asked. "Why do ye not understand my speech? -- even because ye cannot hear my word." And when they yet believed not, he asked, "Which of you convicteth meof a crime? Now if I say the truth, why do you not believe me?" -- When they told him he had a devil, he replied, "I have not a devil; but I honor my Father, and ye dishonor me." And when they treated him with every contumely as an impostor, even to suspension on the accursed tree, he said, "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do!" His martyr Stephen, while he faithfully called his countrymen "stiffnecked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears, a race of persecutors, exclaimed, amidst the bruises they inflicted on him, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." While the history of their lives affords us a thousand lessons on a thousand topics, their example in these instances should be ever present in the remembrance of those who may be honored with suffering shame for his name. Christians, however, should take heed that they suffer not as evil doers, or busy-bodies in other men's matters; but if they suffer as Christians, let them not be ashamed, but let them glorify God on this account.
[p. 56 - orig. ed.]
There is one thought, and O! how grand and solemn a thought! which, methinks, should annihilate every envious, malicious, and revengeful feeing -- we must all stand together before the judgment seat of Christ!! -- Yes, the accuser and the accused, the slanderer and the slandered must meet there. To be then saluted with "Well done, good and faithful servant!" will be more desirable than all the honors, and wealth, and fame, that all the sons of Adam could bestow.

We may also see that the spirit of the world and of the clergy of this world is always one and the same. The history of the world does not afford one instance where the popular clergy, those of influence and popularity amongst the people, ever espoused the cause of reformation. All the famed refomations that ever have been canonized, were effected, to speak in common style, in spite of the reigning clergy. Many of the temporizers, it iS true, came up in the rear, when they saw it to be their interest. Even in the history of the progress of Christianity in Jerusalem, given us by Luke, to the eternal honor of the priesthood, we are informed, that after immense multitudes were converted, and "the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly -- great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.”

There is one thing to me most obvious, that in proportion as the scriptures are understood and the genius of Christianity apprehended, there will appear less necessity for priests; and some of the clergy seem to know it so well, that they fear the experiment of putting their admirers upon the search after the character of primitive Christianity. They would rather extol their present creed, and flatter their people with the idea that every thing is about what it ought to be amongst them, than to hazard a doubt that they have departed from the faith and order of the primitive church.

Let then all those who are looking for a place in the new heavens and in the new earth, be diligent in exhibiting the excellency of Christianity in them own lIves; and while they meet with opposition, let them be encouraged, that this has been the peculiar honor of the virtuous in every age -- "for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you."   -- Ed.

---

ESSAYS
ON  THE  WORK  OF  THE  HOLY  SPIRIT  IN  THE  SALVATION   OF  MEN.

NO. III.
SPIRITUAL  GIFTS.

David the king and prophet foretold that when Messiah the Lord would ascend to his throne, he would bestow gifts upon men. This passage of Psalm lviii. 18. Paul (Eph. iv. 8.) applies to our Lord. When he ascended he saith, "he gave," and by spiritual gifts qualified "some apostles, and some prophets, and some
[p. 57 - orig. ed.]
evangelists, and some pastors and teachers." Peter also, on the day of Pentecost, ascribed all the stupendous gifts vouchsafed on that day to the Lord Jesus. "Therefore," says he, (Acts ii. 33) "being exalted by the right hand of God, and having received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father, He hath poured out that which you now see and hear." These "distributions of the Holy Spirit," as Macknight renders Heb. ii. 4. issued in the perfect qualification of Apostles with "the word of wisdom;" Prophets with the "word of knowledge;" Evangelists with "tongues and miracles;" Pastors with an immediate possession of all the requisites to feeding the flock, and Teachers with the means necessary to instructing the novitiates in all the Christian doctrine. It may be necessary to remark, that the pastors and teachers mentioned in this passage are to be distinguished from the ordinary bishops or elders of a Christian church, inasmuch as the elders or bishops are to be qualified by ordinary means and to be selected by their brethren for the possession of those ordinary attainments mentioned by Paul in his epistles; whereas those pastors and teachers given on the ascension of the Lord, were as instantaneously prepared for their offices as Paul was made an Apostle; they were not only converted to the Christian faith, but, in an instant, by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, qualified to teach the whole religion. That this is no conjecture, but matter of fact, will appear from Eph. iv. 8-13. Three things are distinctly stated in this context to which we refer the reader, and these three must be distinctly noticed to understand the passage. The first is, that these apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, were gifts bestowed by Jesus the Lord on his receiving the throne of the universe. The second is, that they were given for an immediate exigency, or for a purpose which the infant state of the church required, that is, sath the apostle Paul, (v. 12.) "for the sake of fitting the saints for the work of the ministry, in order to the building of the body of Christ" -- (Macknight) -- for fitting the converted Jews and Gentiles for the ordinary work of the ministry or service requisite to the building of the church. The third is, that these supernaturally endowed apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors
[p. 58 - orig. ed.]
and teachers, were to continue only for a limited time, marked by an adverb in Greek and English, which always denotes the time how long -- mechri, "until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, even to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, that we, the church, be not always composed of nepioi, babes." -- Dr. Macknight in the following words: "These supernaturally endowed teachers are to continue in the church until, being fully instructed by their discourses and writings, we all who compose the church, come through one faith and knowledge of the son of God, to perfect manhood as a church, even to the measure of the stature which when full grown it ought to have: so that the church thus instructed and enlarged, is able to direct and defend itself without supernatural aid."

These three things being noticed, it is evident that these apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, were all supernatural characters, for a precise object, and for a limited time; that this object was answered by their discourses and writings, and, that this limited time has expired. For the benefit of those of weak understanding it may be observed, that although apostles were appointed before Pentecost, even from the commencement of the Lord's ministry, yet they were not qualified fully for this peculiar work, until endowed with those supernatural gifts bestowed on Messiah's sitting down on the throne of his Father, after his ascension into heaven; and consequently, it might be said, most justly, that on his ascension, "he gave apostles," as well as "prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers." It may also be noticed for the benefit of the same class of readers, that while the word of wisdom was given to one -- the word of knowledge to another -- faith to work miracles to a third; to another the gifts of healing; to another the inworkings of powers, that is ability to produce or work in others the ability of working miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another diverse kinds of foreign tongues; [added in reprints: "to another the interpretation of foreign tongues"] by one and the same Spirit; yet some individuals possessed more than one of those gifts, and the apostles many, if not all of them; and one in particular, which distinguished them from, and elevated them above all others, viz. the ability of conferring some particular gift by the imposition of their hands.

These gifts differed both in their nature and dignity, and some envied those possessed of the more splendid gifts, which gave rise to the apostle Paul's illustration of these gifts, in the 12th, 13th, and 14th chapters of his first epistle to the Corinthians, where he shows that although there was a great diversity of gifts, yet the matter of those gifts, if I may so speak, was the same; for they were all distributions of the same Spirit; their object was the same, for they were ministries of the same Lord; and their origin or authority was the same, for the same God inworked them in all the spiritual men. And while some were eminent for the word of wisdom, which appears to have been the doctrine of the gospel communicated by inspiration; others for the word of knowledge, or an inspired knowledge of the types and prophecies in the ancient revelations; others for faith which, as a spiritual gift, "led the spiritual men, without hesitation, to attempt the working of miracles;" * others for the gifts
_________
* This faith, which the apostle calls a spiritual gift, be contradistinguishes from the common faith of christian in this discourse. "A faith that removes mountains" he shows to be different from the faith of christians, in this grand respect, that the spiritual gift called faith was to pass away -- was but for a time; but the faith that saves the soul was to abide always. The scope and spirit of his argument in the 13th chapter of this epistle, taken into view with the context, is, "You Corinthians are coveting the best gifts, but come, now, and I will show you a better way;" for, says be, all these gifts shall cease, tongues, &c. shall vanish away. And when all these gifts shall have ceased, faith, hope, and love, these three abide co-existent
[p. 59 - orig. ed.]

of healing, &c. &c. it was to be remembered that these distributions or these manifestations of the Spirit were given to every member of the church of Corinth; or a manifestation of the Spirit was given to every spiritual man to profit withal, not for his own honor or benefit, but for the good of the brotherhood; which the apostle in the subsequent context compares to a human body composed of many members -- no member created for itself, or for its own benefit, but for the service of the whole.

To shew more fully the nature and use of those gifts, it may be necessary to take a view of the church of Corinth, of which church the apostle says, "It came behind in no gift." "You," says he, speaking to the Corinthians, "are enriched with every gift by him, even with all speech and knowledge." "When the testimony of Christ was confirmed among you by the miracles which I wrought and the spiritual gifts I conferred on you, so that you come behind in no gift." In the history of this church, then, we may expect to learn the nature and use of those gifts, to as much advantage as from the history of any other.

Corinth at this time was the metropolis of the province of Achaia, and was as famous as Athens itself for the Grecian arts and sciences. Cicero calls it "totius Graeciae lumen," the light of all Greece; and Florus calls it "Graeciae decus," the ornament of Greece. Refined and intelligent as Corinth was by Grecian sciences and arts, it was, through its luxuries and wealth, the most dissolute, lascivious, and debauched city in its day. Here Paul preached and taught for 18 months the doctrine of Christ, and converted a very numerous church, composed of some distinguished Jews, but chiefly of the idolatrous and profligate Pagans. Luke tells us, "Many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed
_________
with the present world; but the greatest of these three graces is love,
[p. 60 - orig. ed.]

which will continue forever, not only co-existent with the present state, but when this state shall be consummated. Now the better way is to cultivate love, than to he coveting spiritual gifts, though of the most splendid rank. To see that this faith, hope, and love, and even love which is the greatest and best of all, is emphatically contradistinguished from spiritual gifts, we have only to read the close of the 13th and the commencement of the 14th chapter. It reads thus: And now abides faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. Follow after love, therefore, and desire spiritual gifts, but of these the chief is prophecy. The faith that was always to abide is not once classed amongst spiritual gifts. The only passage in our translation that might, by common readers, be so understood, is Eph. ii. 8. "For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." Leaving system out of view and following the scriptures, we find the sentiment to be as Macknight has rendered it. "For by grace you are saved through faith, and this affair is not of yourselves; it is the gift of God" -- not charisma, a spiritual gift, but doron, a favor or common bounty. Indeed, the antecedent to that, every linguist knows is not faith; for pistis, faith, is feminine, and touto, that, is neuter. Let not, however, any systematic conscience be alarmed at this translation of the celebrated Calvinist. It is unanswerably correct. Nor does it at all interfere with the idea of salvation being of grace, of free grace; for if salvation, as a whole, is through the grace of God, faith, a part of that salvation, is of grace also; but here we are speaking of spiritual gifts, amongst which this faith is not one.
[p. 61 - orig. ed.]

and were baptized." From the history of this church, gathered from the Acts of the Apostles and these epistles, it appears that there was a schism in it, envying, strife, and many irregularities; so that the presence of those gifts did not place the church out of the reach of those human corruptions, but were necessary to the illumination and confirmation of the disciples in the faith which purified the heart by its intrinsic influences. Indeed, we find that even the spiritual men themselves needed the word of exhortation and admonition for their imprudence in the management of those gifts; which at once teaches us that those gifts had no general influence, and were not necessarily productive of the appropriate effects of the saving and sanctifying truth in the minds of the subjects of them. No wonder, then, that the Apostle Paul commended the cultivation of brotherly love as a "more excellent way" than the coveting of the most splendid gifts. It is evident from the face of the first epistle, that even among the spiritual men there were blemishes and imprudences that required the castigation of the apostle. The apostle, indeed, settles the contest about the precedency of those gifts, and places them in due subordination to one another. A free and full translation of the 28th verse represents the matter thus: "The chief members of the church are thus to be ranked as God has distinguished them by gifts. First, apostles, who being endowed with the word of wisdom, from them all must receive the knowledge of the gospel. Secondly, the superior prophets, who, possessing the word of knowledge, are qualified to interpret the ancient revelations. Thirdly, teachers, embracing all who boldly declare the doctrine of Christ, illustrate it, and confirm it by miracles. Next, those who communicate to others t