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Lawrence Greatrake (1793-c.1840) “Circular Letter,” in: Minutes of the Redstone Bap. Assoc. (Pittsburgh, 1826) |
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Redstone Minutes Index: 1804-14 | Redstone Minutes Index: 1815-30 | 1826 Redstone Minutes
"Rigdon Revealed, 1821-23" | Campbell's recollections of 1823 | Greatrake's 1824 pamphlets
1824 Walter Scott pamphlet | 1824 Alex. Campbell reply | 1825 Alex. Campbell pamphlet
1826 Letters On Religious Notions | 1827 Harp of Zion | 1827-28 Dialogue First
1830 Parallel & Pioneer | 1831 A Miniature Portrait | 1836 Lights & Shades
1838 Anti-Missionary Dissertation | Greatrake hist. sources 1 | Greatrake hist. sources 2
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Lawrence Greatrake (1793-c.1840) Letters on A. Campbell in: W. L. M'Calla's The Unitarian Baptist... (Philadelphia, 1826) |
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THE UNITARIAN BAPTIST OF THE ROBINSON SCHOOL EXPOSED. In papers collateral to a Discussion of Christian Baptism, and its effects upon civil and religious society as shewn in the Scriptures, and in the history of the Church, in opposition to the views of MR. ALEXANDER CAMPBELL, As expressed in a seven days' debate with the Author, at Washington, Kentucky, October 1824, and in his spurious publication of that debate, and of a previous one of two days with the Rev. John Walker of Ohio, and in opposition to the views of the celebrated Mr. Robinson, and other Baptist Authors. _______ BY W. L. M'CALLA, Pastor of the Eighth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, and Author of a "Discussion of Universalism." _______ PHILADELPHIA: PRINTED BY JOHN YOUNG. ------ 1826. |
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73
No. 16.
As given by Mr. Greatrake, a highly esteemed, regular Baptist Minister, in Mr. Campbell's neighbourhood. Out of several pamphlets, we can only copy his 4th, 5th and 6th Letters with a part of his 3d to Mr. Campbell, his circular to the Western Baptists, and a few extracts from his "Miniature Portrait of Alexander Campbell." Mr. Greatrake to Mr. Campbell. * * * * the character of individuals, in your sphere particularly, is fairly ascertainable in all its essential features, by coming to a knowledge of its effect upon those With whom it has estimation. That you have many admirers and adherents there is no doubt; that they have been sitting at your feet learning of you, and holding up to their view your character, as model for their imitation, is equally certain. Now, if the many of these individuals with whom I have been more or less acquainted, have not been most bungling scholars, they have been taught by you, and others more immediately your subordinates, a variety of sentiments, which, if not altogether new, is at least so in relation to their influence among the Baptist churches in America. And though it is in the chapter of probabilities that your sentiments may have been misunderstood, yet what is found as the views of your professed disciples, will necessarily be considered as the production of your labours, and correlative with your opinions. In the first place then, we notice, that among your adherents, pupils, or disciples, there are those who believe, and have publicly declared, that a man by being baptized was made as holy as an angel! or which is the same thing, and to use the words literatim, that "he came out of the water as holy as an angel." -- Again, it has been said by some of them, that "the Almighty had been tired of his own moral law for 1500 years, when he abrogated it by the New Testament dispensation, and that it is no longer a rule of conduct for the believer in our Lord Jesus Christ." -- Again, many of your adherents profess to scout the doctrine of the Holy Spirit's immediate influence in regeneration, as well as in all subsequent stages of christian life, and to denominate the well known characteristic experience of spiritual Israel, a mere phantasy, or mass of mysticism. -- Again, they profess to believe that prayer is no duty, but rather an insult to the majesty of heaven. Such are some of the horrible brood of sentiments entertained and expressed by individuals who are recognized as under-teachers to you, as well as others who are your joint hearers. Now, I do not exactly say that these and other kindred doctrines are the offspring of your own teeming brain, but you are certainly and strongly suspected of having begotten them in their ductile pericraniums by certain secret intercourses; though under more public circumstances you have appeared rather to disown the progeny. If such sentiments, sir, are really the product of your system of theology, the results of your writings and your labours, you must have a mind circumstanced to enjoy them! and I can conceive your feelings of admiration and exultance, while you fondle with, and hang over them with a father's love and father's hopes, to be closely allied to the sensations of Milton's Satan, when for the first time he beheld his incestuous74 grand-children, the progeny of sin and death, y'clept hell hounds. Whether, sir, you be, or be not, the teacher of such doctrines, is of little consequence, as long as they have the authority of your name. Of such sentiments, at least some of them, I am free to say, that they exceed the whole sum of blasphemies that ever I met with in the character of men or devils, and the propagators thereof ought to be known and hung upon the gibbets of public infamy. But leaving every thing that cannot absolutely be identified as part of your opinions, speculations, and teachings, we will proceed to notice what is as tangible thereof as the leaves of your "Christian Baptist." You are then, in the first place, endeavouring to create universal distrust of the ministry, in all denominations, bating an occasional qualification in the admission of an individual now and then, as an exception to the degraded character you give of the rest. Those individuals that are your exceptions may be calculated upon as those of whom you expect to make partizans in your own scheme of operations; hence the occasional allusion to them in different and well-timed expressions of panegyrick, becomes a stroke of policy, and not a feeling of charity. But for what, sir, is this almost universal attack upon the character of ministers made? the end in view is obvious; and that end is, that you may dissolve, if possible, existing connexions between pastors and people, and thus effect the first step towards making the latter your followers, or the proselytes to your system of theology, under the direction of your agents! and in thus doing, consummate the measure of your fame by becoming the acknowledged head of some new, though yet nameless sect. That you really believe, sir, what you intimate and assert of the dishonesty and selfishness of ministers, I do not doubt: the reason is, that you never had the necessary mental perception to see the real and spiritual pastors and servants of the church of Christ, and having met with many that were the reverse, and the constituents of whose character you could by natural affinity analyze, you have suspected the whole to be of the same base material. -- The subject we shall notice more fully hereafter. This spirit of distrust we know you are labouring to diffuse in every direction, and while it is evidently to the end, and for the object we have suggested; you have the effrontery to pass it off as a labour of love, an expression of disinterested zeal for the church of Christ. -- 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 endeavour 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. * * * * 75 SIR, In my last I noticed some of the moral impressions made upon the minds of that part of the community which are to be considered, more immediately, your disciples. Having adverted to certain doctrines held by them, as well as to their general sentiments respecting church order and government, and in recognition thereof seen, what may be fairly considered as additional features of your own character; I shall proceed to raise some other characteristics of the same fraternity. For brevity and distinctness sake, I will fix your attention upon a solitary church, as a specimen of the whole, and as sufficient to afford you, a tolerably correct estimate of the general results of your labours. In this church there are two Pastors, or Elders, or Teachers, as you please: one of them occupies an entire sabbath, in expounding a certain part of the scripture to his flock, who are immensely delighted and edified, by the luminous, as they think, discourse; and run to and fro through their respective neighbourhoods to proclaim the erudition and the knowledge of their semi-pastor who last addressed them -- while he hies away to his worthy associate and fellow-labourer, to tell him how his audience had been astonished at his learning, delighted with his commentaries, ravished with his eloquence, and established in their faith. He then proceeds to give his coadjutor a summary of all he had said in the course of the lecture, which is no sooner communicated to the former, then he very gravely tells him, that the whole of his views upon the subject are entirely different from his; and proceeds to give an exhibit of what he conceives to be the legitimate, and true meaning of the subject. Our lecturer no sooner hears the sentiments of his dear help-mate, than in true philosophical mood of indifference, he observes, well, brother A. if what you say be true, I must have instructed the people erroneously, but never mind, the people are pleased with what I said and I am pleased too; and as we, only, are interested in the case, I do not see that there is any occasion to take further notice of it. Besides, brother A. your charity ought to cover all such infirmities: add to which, you know not how soon you may stand in need of equal forbearance. And sure enough, sir, this intimation of brother A. turned out in the end to be a literal prediction; for it was not long before Elder A. had occasion to acknowledge, that he had found himself to have been in something of an error for a long time; having disbelieved in the influences of the Holy Ghost upon the human mind, subsequent to the apostle's days; but that now he thought it was a New Testament doctrine -- the word said so. And though he might not teach it, for fear of collision with his amiable brother, and out of reciprocal charity; yet he would believe in the doctrine, to the end I suppose, that his faith might be verbatim et literatem, as was that of the Jews of old, who considered themselves orthodox believers if they knew the number of words in the Pentateuch, and kept them stored up in their head; no matter who was occupant of the heart, one, or one legion of devils. But to proceed with our sketch of the character we have noticed -- leaving their personal difference in sentiment, let us follow them to the field of their public, social, and private ministerial exercises. Behold one of them going forth to the margin of the river, where a number of raftmen and others are engaged in their avocations: these are unregenerate, impenitent, perishing sinners, as you and I, sir, are by nature. To a posse of these characters, your Elder 76 directs his way, and commences an harangue, by telling them, "that they are not under the law; that the ten commandments are abrogated, as well as the ceremonies of the Old Testament dispensation; that the world is full of priestcraft; that preachers of the gospel, as they call themselves, are only preaching for money; that himself, and the system with which he revolves round his splendid centre, is the true light." With a hundred other things of the same sort, and a thousand other, and different sayings, quite as irrelevant to the gospel. After having finished his address, his auditors separate from him, some saying, that he is a noble fellow, that he has extracted from their conscience, something like fragments of the law, that had been there all their lives, like thorns, when they devised, or perpetrated, what they had been taught were crimes. Others declare him to be truly an antinomian -- others understand him to denounce the doctrine of the spirit's influence, and to treat it as an idle notion -- others understand him as absolutely calling in question the divinity of Jesus Christ -- and a socinian present cries out, my brother -- while others believe, that in this single address, he has advocated, and rebutted all, and every one of these sentiments; together with many more. Are you not delighted, sir, with the clearness of this man's perceptions -- the intelligence of his mind -- the piety of his doctrines -- the solidity of his system altogether; when the exhibition thereof, produces no more opposition of views among his hearers, than just -- antipodes. Paul could rejoice that he was a father to Timothy -- But O! how superlative must be your joy to be the father of so many children as you are, of whom the above character is a specimen; how enviable must be the lot of your disciples to have provision made for their guidance, of such able leaders, and intelligent instructors. "Treading the crude consistence, half on foot, half flying -- o'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense or rare; they swim, or sink, or wade, or creep, or fly." While, indeed, the hubbub of their jaring notions and sentiments, carries forward the resemblance between their situation and that of the celebrated personage, to whom the above extract is originally applied, when he was groping his way through the chaos and old night. We will follow the same Elder of yours to the exercises of social worship. See him recumbent upon some three or four chairs, with his segar in his mouth; disposing of its smoke with one respiration, and going on by breaks, with a lecture, on some part of divine truth, with another -- or, standing up at the fire, mingling the fumes of his tobacco pipe, with a breath of prayer and praise issuing from the mouth of his professed brethren, while engaged in their devotions! but we will stop; nor wound any more the religious sensibilities of the children of God, by a further exhibit of the flagrant abominations, and blasphemous irreverence towards "him whom their soul loveth." Leaving your Elders, sir, we come to notice, briefly, some of the features of the character belonging to those we may call your lay-men; and well do we find established, in referring to this part of the subject, the prophet's adage, "like priest, like people;" the most of whom, connected with you, shew, conspicuously, that vanity rules in and over them. They are not so politic as you, sir; they cannot, indeed, put any restraint upon their ruling passion; but, under its influence, many of them, "play such fantastic tricks before high heaven," as, if not to make angels weep, at least to make devils laugh, and fill with sorrow the breast of every real christian; particularly those of the Baptist denomination, upon whom, their character and conduct brings the 77 reproach of the wicked, the contempt of the wise, and pity of the good. As two or three specimens of the whole fraternity, we remark -- here is a man who has borne the name, and made the profession of almost every sect in Christendom -- say, Catholic, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Methodist, Universalist, Socinian: at last he comes to your society, professing to be a convert to your theology, (though that's all a gratuitous assertion, for mortal ken never yet discerned what it is) he says that he will join your fraternity, and at his induction deliver an address upon baptism. All this being acceded to, the time arrives when he is to be baptized: and at the water he delivers an harangue of five hours in length, or in other words, gives a recitation of what you have compiled and published upon that ordinance, from the writings of other men. And to crown the inconsistency of the whole, you, sir, the would be star of the west; you, become his amanuensis, and the pitiful caterer to this vain man's vanity, by virtually professing, to be taking down notes of something new upon the subject, from what this speckled disciple of yours is saying: whereas, in fact, he is advancing nothing but what is as old as his great-grandfather. Now, sir, think you, that if this man had been a poor, humble, broken-hearted sinner, as he ought to have been before he was baptised, that he would have had any disposition to obtrude himself upon the notice of men at such a time? particularly, after having exhibited such an unsettled mind through a period of many years, as he did, and such a fitful scene of profession and reprofession. Or sir, if you had been a regenerated man yourself, and a fit person to be a minister of the gospel, do you think that your thoughts, and your gratification, would have been in, or your time and labour devoted to, making a record of what this poor deluded man said about the mode of baptism? no, sir, you would not; but instead of this, your soul would have burned within you to make, if possible, the conversion of this man, had he been converted, the means, under the Holy Ghost, of making your auditors, or the spectators, humble penitents towards God, and spiritual believers in Christ Jesus -- and not merely proselytes to baptism. Instead of this, what has been done? the disciple has had his vanity gratified, by being the orator of the day; and rising (like an ignis fatuus from the bog) for a few moments, a little above the level to which nature designed him in the community, to sink again to the same place, confirmed in a delusion, perhaps, that shall only be dissipated in hell: (I mean by delusion, that baptism is salvation.) The vanity of the society to which he has connected himself, is gratified in being numerically enlarged; and your vanity, sir, was gratified, in being recognized, as the mighty agent by which this Jack-o'-the-lantern professor was caught, and safely secured within the pale of your society. Here then, is an expression of the vanity of your society; and the same is visible in nearly all your followers. If they read the Scriptures, it is only to get some additional notions about them, to the end, that they may gratify their pride and their vanity in the exhibition of these speculations. Their tongues are ever going like the pendulum of a clock, and with as much noise, almost, as the machinery of a steam engine; indeed, it is the fullest trial of the saint's patience to listen to them: and that is the best thing that results from their acquirements. Some of them say, they have been regenerated -- some of them say, there is no regeneration -- some of them admit, that part of their brethren deny the spirit's influence in any stage of the christian's life, but that they believe it, though they consider disbelief 78 as nothing essentially defective in faith -- some of them say, that they would never have fellowship with teacher or laymen in their body, who denied the spirit's influence, and that none of their brethren do it; while others maintain, that the word is the spirit, and the spirit is the word, and that it is no matter whether there is any spirit or no: meditation, social, family and closet prayer, are, for the most part, esteemed a matter of foolishness with them. I have, sir, you will perceive, made some exceptions among those who are your followers from the character I have been briefly exhibiting of them. Deeply do I regret that I have to make such exceptions; I would that all who follow you were what I most solemnly believe, and feel well assured the greater part are, unregenerate persons: but I feel afraid, that there are gracious souls who have been led away after you, as Barnabas was by the dissemulation of false teachers in former times; they are given up, perhaps, to be buffeted by you, as Peter was by satan, to the end, that they may learn similar lessons to what he did. For them I feel, sir; and had it not been for them I should have never addressed a line to you, or thought more about you than any other unregenerated man; you are filling their eyes with chaff, feeding them with husks, and quenching their thirst with waters fouled to the most abominable stench. But I shall curb the feelings of my soul, until I come to address them in connexion with these letters to you; to spread out my feelings for them to you, would only be unintelligible jargon in your estimation. Having now given as much of an exhibit of the moral impressions, which your writings and your teachings, make upon the community that give heed thereto, as I deem necessary at present, I shall recapitulate that, together with the previous investigation of your character, in my next and concluding letter, in which you will have brought to a point the estimation in which you are held by
A REGULAR BAPTIST.
SIR, In recurrence to what I have written, you will perceive, I mean to be understood, as saying, that you never gave the Baptist denomination any evidence whatever, that your becoming professedly a Baptist yourself was the "answer of a good conscience;" on the contrary, there is much reason to believe, that you left the Pedobaptist ranks, and joined our denomination, from sinister and selfish motives. The whole series of your disposition and conduct toward that body, since you left them, must forcibly impress the mind of every close observer of human character, with the conviction, that mingled vanity and rage drive you on in your assault thereof. This conviction is deepened, when we take into notice, (and what is solemnly true) that no Pedobaptist church, possessing any thing of the power of Godliness, could ever derive any edification, or satisfaction under your ministry, though you were to be as laborious as Luther. This is a sentiment, in which every regenerated, spiritual man under the heavens, I know, will unite with me. Whatever ability they may concede to you, as a teacher of ecclesiastical history, or Biblical critic, they will all unite in saying, that however much you may amuse and instruct the head, you have no access to the believers' heart. You know not any thing of the history of that, from the dawn of regeneration, to the completion of its salvation in the beatific vision. Think, sir, on that! ten thousand thousand persons of different denominations of christians, and many of them in 79 every respect your superiors in natural gifts, would, if they knew you, declare simultaneously, that you know nothing about the "Heavenly Gift." Yes, the best spirits in even the denomination to which you now belong, consider you still dead in trespasses and sins, yea, they know it. As a man of some sense, such a circumstance, if true, must have a solemn impression upon your mind, however much you may appear to hector above all human opinions. The second particular to which we recur is, the subject of your public disputations and writings: in all of which, every intelligent man, and humble disciple of the meek and lowly Jesus, will perceive that you sacrifice to the idol self; and all the character that we challenged, as witness to your unregeneracy, will unite in declaring, that your professed zeal for one denomination is without knowledge, and your hostility to the other but beating the air; that both combined, demonstrate that you are radically ignorant of what are the essential constituents of every christian church. Were you not ignorant of these things, sir, you would never dare to level such unqualified anathema[s] against the Pedobaptist churches, particularly against that denomination from which you seceded. The most common placed mental integrity, would constrain you to neutralise the obloquy that you have poured upon it. Yea, policy would have prompted you to have done it -- for we Baptists, generally, are not so bigoted and ignorant, as not to know, and acknowledge to the praise of sovereign grace, that there are, among the Pedobaptist churches, tens of thousands of blood-bought, heaven-born, heaven-bound souls: with them, in all the essential relationship of the gospel, we have refreshing fellowship; with them, grow up in essential faith; with them, twin in love, until we shall be forever one, visibly and invisibly, on the glorious head. Yes, and from the ministry of many of them, we Baptists receive the word of divine truth in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, again and again. We know, and feel assured that they are pastors after God's own heart, and made overseers of the flock of Christ by the Holy Ghost. I say, we Baptists, in general, know and feel assured, that there are many, even of the Pedobaptist ministers, that bear this interesting relationship to us: and you may rest assured, that you might as well attempt to shake the foundations of the earth, as our confidence in them. We dare not call that common or unclean, which the living God has made clean, "by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;" such character, let me tell you, sir, will always be transcendently higher in our estimation, as regenerated spiritual Baptists, though they should not observe one ordinance of the New Testament, than that like yours, though you had a "throat of brass, and adamantine lungs," worn out in contending for our ordinances, which we know to be truly gospel ones. I have mentioned sober facts sober facts, sir -- you may dispose of them as you please. The third particular to which we refer, of what has been addressed to you, is the effect that your controversies have upon the Baptist denomination generally; and that is, they draw off their attention from fundamental principles of Godliness, to that which, abstractly considered, can never give them estimation in the sight of God, or man. And little do you know of human nature, in its unregenerate or regenerate state, or you would never dare to engross the attention of mankind so much upon the subject of an ordinance: indeed, were you truly an evangelical minister of the gospel, you could not do it. But as we have said, your evident ignorance of every spiritual feature of the church of Christ, must in 80 a measure, plead your apology for spending all your time in making the door of the house creak. Nevertheless, you must admit, that it is possible the noise may be productive of disturbance, to even your own family at times; and that they must, one and all, feel mortified to perceive it is publicly noticed, that one of their household can do nothing else. If you, sir, should succeed in proselyting four-fifths of the Pedobaptist denomination to the Baptist order, what would be the consequence? why, that our denomination would become incrusted with that much more wood, hay and stubble! for I take upon myself to say, that until God and the Holy Ghost makes you a different, and a new creature, that no truly spiritual Pedobaptist would ever cast in his lot among a people, of whose character he was to judge by that of yours: no, not if he was never to have connexion to the church militant. So then, all we can calculate upon of proselytism is, of those from whom we had far better be separated. On the other hand, many alas! very many of the Baptists, it is to be feared, are, under your auspices, only solicitous to be known by a name, not by a life. If the spirits of departed saints can take cognizance of what transpires here on earth, it appears almost impossible, that those devoted, holy, and laborious servants of the cross, who, in sweat, in tears, and groans, and even blood, laid the foundation, under God the Holy Ghost, of the Baptist church in this Hemisphere; I say, one would suppose it almost impossible for them to be calm spectators of such desolation, as you are bringing in upon that spiritual vineyard for which they were spent to the last pulsation of their lives. But an attempt to make application of sentiment to you, sir, I am afraid, would be as unavailing as to extract sunbeams from cucumbers. The fact I wish to fix upon your attention is, that you are destroying much of the power and life of religion, in the Baptist denomination, by fixing their attention upon and engrossing their minds with subordinate articles of their faith; and that is one of the results of all your debates, writings and orations. Literally, then, you may say, that your "zeal will eat them up." The next particular that we shall recapitulate of our previous remark is, that your vanity is gratified, and your pecuniary interest advanced by the whole circle of your doings, and that these combined, are the grand controling principles from which you act. You pass for a man of vast comprehension of mind, and great attainments of knowledge; upon the same ground that what we call a common stone, is considered a wonder in some of the southern sections of the country, and gains the appellation of a rock, or that Gulliver passed for a giant among the Lilliputians. But, sir, whatever may be the amount of your knowledge, which I venture to say is nothing extraordinary, your judgment is certainly miserably defective, or you would never have supposed, that your intrinsic character could remain hid from the eye of men of experience, under the flimsy veil of your sectarian zeal; and that they would not perceive the "Caesar aut Nihil" was your motto. 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. 81 I shall here enter into a brief calculation of the pecuniary advantages resulting to you from your publications. In the first place then, we have your first Debate upon Baptism, in a volume of about 200 pages. Of this book, I should say that its publication did not stand you more than 37˝ cents per volume. This I say with the fullest conviction that it is a fact, unless you choose to pay extra prices for the work, which is not likely to have been the case. As a particular evidence for the correctness of the foregoing assertion, I may observe, that about the same time you published your first Debate on Baptism, I was interested in the publication of a book, altogether superior in materials to yours, of 360 pages, and that did but cost 45 cents per volume; add to this, my book was published in a part of the country, where the price of labour and material for making up a book is 33 1/3 per cent. more than it is in Ohio, where you published your first Debate -- For the said first Debate you charged 75 cents. In the publication of your second Debate, I take it upon me to say that you did, or that you could have published it at an expense not exceeding 50 cents per volume: and for that your price to your friends is #1.25 The number of copies that you had printed of the first was 2000, and you sold the copy-right for 300 dollars. I will suppose that the whole of both debates will be sold by the middle of the year eighteen hundred and twenty-five. From this data we shall have the following exhibit to give of the case -- “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” Now, sir, it appears that you have made the sum of 5000 dollars, within a fraction, clear profit, when your books are disposed of; this we suppose will be done by the middle of the ensuing year, at which time there will have been five years elapsed since the debate with Mr. Walker. This will show, that you have been writing and preaching and debating upon the ordinance of Baptism, (a scrap of our faith,) without any inducement whatever, but your zeal for the Baptists and regard for the truth, excepting, the mere sum of 1000 dollars per annum; which in the western country, where you live, is equal to 2000 dollars in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore! Where did this money come from? did it not come principally from the Baptists? it did, nor have they had any better value for it than you suppose them to receive by sending their dollars to convert the Laplander or the Hindoos. So much, sir, by way of redeeming our pledge, to prove that you are not the disinterested champion for the truth that you profess to be -- that your eye sometimes is directed to the glittering clifts of Potosi. It is perfectly natural, sir, that you should attempt to persuade every body, that you are governed by no sordid motives in any thing that you do: but really, sir, it is "passing strange" that 82 men should be so credulous as to believe you, with such facts staring them in the face; it shows that they are prone to "swallow without pause or choice, the total grist unsifted, husks and all," so that it is sweetened with a little adulation, of their civic, their moral, their intellectual worth. We shall say nothing at present about your "Christian Baptist," as being a source of revenue to you; if you have, however, even a thousand subscribers, for that, I will undertake to prove, that you clear 300 dollars by it per annum; and even that sum is more than nine out of ten of the Baptist ministers of these western states get per annum; perhaps I might be safe in saying, that it is twice as much as they receive. What! envy them a paltry $150, when you get 100 to 1300 dollars -- what, deem them overpaid by 150 dollars, who preach all the glorious truths of the gospel, and who labour incessantly to inspire spiritual life and universal holiness into the church, when you receive 10 to $1300 for mere disquisition upon an outward ordinance! or things allied to it! Nor does it escape observation, that you are giving evidence, that you consider the present stage of your operations but the mere seed time in pecuniary results, that you calculate, e'er long, on throwing a considerable part of the religious community around you into such a state of anarchy, as to make any kind of order that you may dictate desirable. In such an event you would know, no doubt, how to fix your price for your interference. You have, no doubt, a full account of all costs. Here let me say, sir, that while from my soul I abhor all extravagance, luxury, and covetousness in the ministers of the gospel as much as you, or any other man can, on the other hand I must say, that the manner in which you declaim against all pecuniary compensation to the ministers of the gospel, proves, in itself, without referring to many other evidences that exist, that you are absolutely ignorant of the essential relationship subsisting between the pastor after God's own heart, and the flock of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as a man, destitute of the spirit of the living God, who alone can give adaptation to the office of the ministry; or indeed, make one jot or tittle of efficient application of the salvation of Christ to the human soul; as such a man it would be a futile attempt on my part, to furnish your mind with any just perceptions on that subject. Till God the Holy Ghost does it, the subject in any and every form of language, would appear but foolishness in your eyes. All this remark, a spiritual people and a spiritual minister, know to be true, to whatever denomination they may belong; and you may as soon expect to allure the living to the embrace of a putrescent carcass, as to draw the "Israelite indeed," the truly lively and devotional believer, from the pastor of his choice, to such a character as you are among ministers. The next thing we shall refer to of our remarks, is, the effort you are making to render obsolete all forms of faith and church order. In this attempt of yours we must positively consider you a fool, or designing to disorganize, and overthrow all social compact in the religious community. We have already expressed our conviction, that it results from your design to produce anarchy; that in the end you may dictate what shall be faith and order, and your own terms for which that shall be done. We may pause, to decide whether there should be pity or indignation felt toward you. Certainly you ought not to calculate upon offering such an insult to the understanding of sensible men in the Baptist denomination, as is found in your proposition to lay aside their 83 faith and order, without expecting their contempt of their frowns; this circumstance itself demonstrates to every reflecting mind, that you are no Baptist; only after the will of the flesh! no, nor ever have been. The next feature of the subject that we have brought to your view, which we shall retouch is, the general character of your adherents, or disciples, (teachers and pupils;) in view of which, are you not rather abashed at the motley group! teachers advancing sentiments and doctrines one day, that they gainsay another -- acknowledging that they had been for years instructing others in the gospel of Christ, while disbelieving the very fundamentals of it themselves; and even in the concession of their ignorance themselves in the past, giving no jot or tittle of evidence, that they even now believe in, or feel the truths they have been ignorant of. Teachers, of whose views no definite opinion can be formed, by learned or unlearned; whose hearers say, alternately, that they are Antinomians, Sandeminians, or Socinians, and in the aggregate, that they cannot tell what they say, or know whereof they affirm: while their immediate adherents say, away with all forms of faith and order; we will be freemen; we will read and think, and judge for ourselves -- our Elder thinks one thing, we another -- we had such and such views yesterday -- to-day we have different ones -- and to-morrow we calculate upon having opinions at variance with all we have heretofore entertained: this they call the liberty of the gospel -- a mark of mental independence -- the evidence of their growing in the knowledge of the Scriptures. They profess to feel great satisfaction in reading the Bible, to have much peace and joy in their attainments of knowledge. Now, the truth is, that in every stage of their experience, the pride of their minds, the vanity of their hearts, being gratified, is the sole cause of their satisfaction. Indeed, the whole of your fraternity, from the first to last, including yourself, sir, are flatterers of each other -- they say, that there is no teacher like you -- you respond, there is no people so well instructed and intelligent as them. You recollect, I suppose, who "obtained a kingdom by flatteries." Bear in mind also, that it is written upon good authority, "he who speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail" -- and that the characteristic of an evangelical minister is, "not to use flattering words;" for, that is to be considered, and set down, as "a cloak of covetousness" after fame or emolument, or both. 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; but I wish to be understood, as saying, that, generally, they read for no other object, and no other end, than to grow wise in their own conceit: and you know it is written, "that there is more hope of fools," than such characters. You will, I persuade myself, look over the address of the Baptist churches appended to these letters; in that you will see some of the contrast which I conceive the real and the spiritual believer bears to the characters of your adherents. For the present I relieve your attention, with simply observing, that it was not for your sake that I have made a recapitulation of my former remarks in this last letter, but for the sake of those whose minds may not be so well disciplined in recollection, as yours.
A REGULAR BAPTIST.
N. B. I shall trouble you with a few lines more, rather than swell the last letter to greater dimensions.
84 SIR, In view of what I have exhibited of your character, from the fairest ground of conjecture, and from the face of your doings, since you have been a professed Baptist, together, with the notification, that the same estimate is formed of you by far the greatest, if not all the really spiritual and intelligent part of the Baptists that have knowledge of you; from these circumstances combined, I say, one might hope, that you will fall a little from the loftiness of your self-complacency. Perhaps, in the reminiscences which the consideration of the subject will produce, the language of the prophet may come up to your mind, where he says, "Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thy heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill; though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord." Confident that you have an undue and deleterious influence upon the Baptist church, I would wish to see it destroyed. To this end I am now writing to you; believing that nothing is necessary to the accomplishment of the object, but to rouse the minds of the Baptists around you to an investigation of your character, similar to that which I have given an outline of -- "the death of reflection, is the birth of all wo;" and when churches sleep, the enemy will sow tares. Hence, good will to the Baptist cause, and not ill will to you, sir, moves me to address these remarks to you for the public eye. I am fully persuaded, that you are every day sinking the character of the Baptist church in these western states, both in the estimation of the truly religious and irreligious. All you do, all you say, together with your satellites, is fathered upon the regular Baptist church -- doctrines however horrible -- practices however corrupt -- observances however foolish -- inconsistencies however numerous -- and speculation however absurd, incongruous and versatile, that prevail in your fraternity, are all set down to the account of the Baptist denomination. Does not the blush crimson and burn your cheek, sir, when you see the mental dishonesty, the moral turpitude that is implied in the fact of your having threw around you the habiliments of a Baptist profession, to the end, that you might, unsuspectedly, propagate sentiments and doctrines directly at variance with, and disgraceful to the Baptist church! but "vengeance belongs to God." The Lord rebuke thee in the chambers of your own conscience; then you will be the first to acknowledge, that of such character, and such conduct it may be truly said, "O full of all subtlety, thou child of the devil, will thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord." I assure you, that I entertain no idea of moral superiority over and above you by nature; that in an unregenerated state, I know myself capable of practising all the trick and manoeuvre that you have been practising, to get a name in the world; that the pride of the human heart in its native language, is in accordance with Satan's, when he says, "better to reign in hell than serve in heaven." The principle that appears chiefly to govern you, is, what the world in its severest judgment, calls "the infirmity of a noble spirit;" but then, you must not be surprised if others should feel somewhat indignant while suffering under the devastating freaks of that "noble spirit;" or, if they raise a warning voice to their neighbours of its presence, particularly when it comes dressed in long and flowing Phylacteries, with disinterested zeal -- universal reformation -- absolute equality -- and consummate perfection written thereon. 85 You are, sir, a citizen of America; and as such, free to worship God after the dictates of your own conscience, to profess to believe, or not to believe, in any, or every part of the Bible -- to advance whatever doctrines you please in the community, unless in hostility to the known laws of the land. But you are not at liberty, sir, to profess a connexion with any religious denomination when you are advancing doctrines diametrically opposite to theirs. What head of a religious family is there in the community, but would feel indignant, were you to enter his house, and having gained some general ideas of his family affairs, go forth into the world, and make use of that information as an evidence, that you were his son, or otherwise nearly related to him! and how would his indignation be increased if he found, that you were passing yourself off as his son, while living in the practice of theatrical buffooneries, or any other kind of habits at variance with that respectability of himself and family, which you were referring to, and making use of, to command attention from, and influence with others! certainly, every man would conceive you deserving of rebuke for taking such unjustifiable liberties with his good name: indeed, it would be fairly considered as the worst species of robbery -- and can similar conduct be more authorised because it is practised on a large body? certainly not -- and here is the particular point on which I found all my reason for considering you deserving of public exposure. Come forth, sir, to our view, what you really are! but not as a genuine Baptist -- for you now are, and have been, trying to overthrow the faith, the order and the ministry of that for years past. Come out then, sir, in your real character, and with your real sentiments -- tell us candidly, that you do not believe in what we emphatically denominate regeneration, or in the Spirit's special influences at all -- tell us, that you consider a man eligible to baptism without one word of inquiry as to what God has done for his soul, and upon his bare declaration that he believes -- tell us, that you do not believe the moral law of God to be a rule of life for the believer! -- tell us, that you do not believe that preaching the gospel since the completion of New Testament revelation has the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ -- tell us, that you have no fellowship with any forms of faith or church discipline -- tell us, that you have no confidence in the exercise of prayer, as a means of grace, or estimation of it, as a believer's privilege: and that in proof thereof, you have been entirely neglectful of it even in your own family for years past -- tell us these things openly, declare them explicitly, and merit the name of a candid man. You are at full liberty, and under positive obligation to do so. You will then give the public a reasonable pledge, that you are governed by no sinister, no improper motives. The Baptist denomination will then be answerable for the palpable inconsistency of holding connexion with a man whose sentiments are in direct opposition to that faith and order which they hold up to public view, as the foundation of their spiritual hope, and bond of their visible existence. Had you done this, sir, at a proper time, no one would have had any cause to reproach you; and multitudes who now shun you as a deceiver, would have been pleased to have met with you upon principles of ordinary intercourse, and interchanged the feelings of social amity -- among whom, sir, I assure you with the utmost sincerity and truth, I may mention myself; believing as I do, that as a natural man, you have a good share of those attractions of mind and manners, which beguile the tedium of life, and smooth its rugged path. Before I close, indulge me with permission to repeat, that my 86 own judgment dictates solely and wholly, in this address to you: that if my wretched heart does not deceive me, I have had the best motives in endeavouring to pourtray your character, as being opposite to what you profess it to be, under the name of a Baptist! Upon a review of what I have written, I do not think any injustice is done to the subject. I am sensible, however, that infirmities will ever characterize me in all I attempt to do while in the flesh; and that iniquity belongs to my most holy things. I have endeavoured to write with death, eternity and judgment before my eyes; and to keep up an earnest desire and prayer in my soul, that I might not unnecessarily inflict any wound upon your feelings, or that of any other person. You are, sir, and all whom I have adverted to as like you, in these letters, my fellow man, fellow immortal, and fellow sinner. If you and they are under the fatal mistake, and in the awful darkness that I believe you to be, the foregoing address may be made use of, by that God who delights to make use of the weakest things to accomplish the greatest of purposes, to your essential benefit; as I hope he will to the benefit of his people in the Baptist church, where your influence is felt. At all events, I feel satisfied, that my soul is big with inexpressible desire, that you and all who drink into your particular views in religion, may realize the overshadowing and indwelling power of the Holy Ghost, who can only make an effectual and saving application of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to your precious souls. I now take my leave of you, sir, after informing you that my real name I wish to conceal in reference to this publication; not that I want to avoid any responsibility connected with what I have written. No; my name is at your service through the medium of the printer hereof, when you may think proper to demand it in proptia persona; provided, you gave a fair reason for having it communicated to you. I have not written to you without counting the costs. It has been severely painful to my feelings while speaking in any respect harshly to you -- but, sir, you have struck, and are striking at my faith. "'Tis my glory, the lifter up of my head" from every billow of affliction -- yea, more, 'tis the glory of the Baptist denomination. And well it may be; for without any qualification, it makes Jesus Christ all and in all of the sinner's hope; it gives to the adorable three in one, their respective, proper and full share in the salvation of the elect. Moreover, many of that denomination, together with myself, not only charge you with attacking our faith, (this had it been done openly we could, we must have borne) but it has been done insidiously by you. "There's the rub:" this consideration perhaps, has roused more resentment in writing to you than I ought to have felt. But in perfect coolness I now tell you in my concluding sentence, that my pen is but the echo of ten thousand voices when I say, that you ought to be divested of the name of "the Christian Baptist," and known by that of "the Theological adventurer."
A REGULAR BAPTIST.
87
To the Regular Baptist Churches, scattered throughout the As many of you as read the foregoing letters to Alexander Campbell, will, I hope, be disposed, in justice to him and to yourselves, to give every possible investigation to the subject of which it treats; and like the noble Baerians, "search if these things be so." Yes, brethren, search, search his whole life as far as possible; it is high time he should be fully known to you, for he is either your very zealous, though ignorant advocate, and therefore wants your Aquila's and Priscilla's to direct his zeal according to knowledge, or he is an enemy in disguise and ought to be exposed. You cannot, brethren, but perceive, upon a most common-place notice of this man's life, since he has been among you, that you, as a denomination, have been made the citadel of his safety, while throwing the shafts of his hostility at other denominations; particularly at that one with which you most assuredly stand in the greatest degree of fellowship. The question then is, whether Mr. C. represents your feelings towards the Presbyterian and other Paedo-baptist churches, against whom he "breathes out threatenings and slaughter?" if he does, let us know what cause they have given for this interminable rage. But I need not put this sort of question to you, being fully persuaded that your greatest partiality is towards that very church which Mr. C. appears to hate with the most deadly hatred. It is but reasonable that it should be so; for with all their spots and imperfections, they approach the nearest to what is your glory as a denomination, I mean experimental religion and solid piety. Perhaps, brethren, you are indulging yourselves in a little merriment, by allowing Mr. C. to go out in your name to challenge, and even attack, with his single arm, the formidable phalanx of the Paedo-baptist churches. Indeed, brethren, apart from other considerations, and it is really amusing. You have an exhibit of the freaks which human vanity can play, and how it can make a man fancy himself a Hercules, and push him forth in quest for adventures for his prowess, when indeed, he is but a pigmy; and that he can draw out from the deep leviathon, with a hook that his own fingers have fashioned. But, brethren, you will, I hope, seriously reflect, that the animosity which Mr. C. exhibits towards the Pedo-baptists, will be regarded, at least very generally, as your feelings towards them, so long as he shall have a name and place among you. Think, I say, seriously, of that brethren, and judge you, whether it is not taking away from you the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit! if it is not getting you the character of a tribe of Ishmaelites, whose hand is against every one, rather than the name of a church of the Lord Jesus Christ, walking in the fear of God, the comfort of the Holy Ghost, and living peaceably with all men. Then, the next question is, will you indulge your humour, or gratify the vanity of Mr. C. at the expense of that good name of yours, which has been like ointment poured forth? besides, brethren, you may rely upon it, that no man, much less any body of men, ever familiarized themselves even to the fighting of dung-hill cocks, or little surly curs, but what found themselves gradually warmed up to fighting temperament! 88 hence, saith the wise man, in the maturity of wisdom, "leave off contention before it be meddled with; cast out the scorner and contention wi |