|
3
3. Appointed brother John Patton, Moderator, and brother William French, Clerk.
4. Appointed brethren W. Brownfield, Jesse [Mellet] and William French, a committee to arange the business for to-morrow.
Adjourned, to meet to-morrow at 9 o'clock.
SATURDAY, September 2.
Met, pursuant to adjournment, and after singing and prayer by the Moderator, succeeded to business.
5. Attended to reading the Letters that were not read yesterday, vis: -- Maple Creek, Ten Mile Creek, and Ruff's Creek.
6. On motion, Resolved, That the following ministering brethren be invited to a seat with us, viz: Joshua Hickman,
from the Union Association, Lawrence Greatrake and John Thomas.
7. A Letter from a church at Troolick, in Indiana County, Pa. was presented and read, requesting union with this Association,
which was unanimously granted; and accordingly received into fellowship.
8. A Letter of correspondence from the Mahonianing [sic] Association, was presented to be read, by ALEXANDER
CAMPBELL; who stated, that there had been a correspondence for several years. On account of an objection being
made to the statement as incorrect, the reading of the Letter was indefinitely postponed for further inquiry. *
9. Resumed the inquiry of last year, concerning the doctrine held by the Washington Church, and their Minister; and after a
full investigation thereof, they were found to be heterodox; therefore, Resolved, That they be, and are hereby,
excluded from our fellowship.
10. A motion was made and seconded, That the brethren from Maple Creek be invited to a seat with us, though they did not give a
satisfactory explanation of their faith in their letter, as required by the Constitution. After some miscellaneous observations,
their Minister was required to state the cause of the want of explanation. His statement not being satisfactory, the motion was
decided in the negative.
11. Resumed the consideration of the memorial presented last year by [five] persons at Brush Run. After mature deliberation
Resolved that the memorial be returned to them. +
12. The church at Pigeon Creek, on account of their refusal to give a satisfactory explanation of their faith, were excluded
from our fellowship.
Adjourned for twenty minutes.
Met, pursuant to adjournment, and after singing proceeded to business.
13. Instituted an inquiry concerning the doctrine held by the Somerset Church; and after a full investigation thereof, being found
heterodox, Resolved, That they be, and are hereby, excluded from our fellowship.
__________
* According to the Records, Files, and Minutes of this Association, no such correspondence ever existed!!
+ This memorial demanded (in brief) a restoration to the fellowship of this Association; or, as an alternative, that their
original letter (i.e. the letter that they were received into the Association upon) be returned to them: the former request
was little short of insult to the Association. The latter request was superseded in the known fact, that the said Brush
Run people had, and have a copy of that letter! Their motive for demanding the original, was of course highly
suspicious and the letter could not be granted them.
4
14. Request from the church at Little Redstone for ministerial supplies. Whereupon, the following brethren agree to visit them,
viz. James Seympur, on the 1st Lord's day in March; James Frey, on the 2nd Lord's day in April; Lawrence Greatrake, on the 5th
Lord's day in October; W. Brownfield on the 5th Lord's day in December; William French on the 1st Lord's day in April.
Appointed brother Greatrake to write the Circular Letter for the present year; and the following brethren, John Patton, James Frey,
James Seymour, and W. Brownfield, a committee to inspect it.
16. Appointed the next meeting of the Association to be held at Uniontown, Fayette Co. Pa. to commence on Friday preceding the 1st
Lord's day in September, 1827, precisely at 11 o'clock A. M.
17. Appointed brother James Seymour to preach the introductory sermon next year, and in case of failure, William French.
18. Appointed brother W. Brownfield to write the Circular Letter for next year.
19. Appointed brother L. Greatrake to superintend the printing and distribution of the Minutes.
==>20. A request was made by the church at Pittsburgh for a letter of dismission, to join the Beaver Association,
which the Association declined granting, [DUE TO] THE CIRCUMSTANCE of brother L. Greatrake charging the Minister of
said church, (J. Bradley,) with BEING EXTREMELY UNSOUND in the faith. Therefore, the five following brethren,
James Estep, James Frey, James Seymour, W. Brownfield, and William French, were appointed a committee to investigate the merits of
the case and make report at our next Session. *
While the business of the Association was transacting by the Session, Jesse Mellet preached at the stage from Matt. i. 21, "And she
shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS, for he shall save his people from their sins." John
Smith preached from John iii. 14, 15, "And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel
of God."
LORD'S DAY, September 3.
At 10 o'clock, the services of the day were introduced by brother John [sic - Joshua?] Hickman, from Psal. lxv. 4, "Blessed is the man
whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts: we shall be satisfied with the goodness of
thy house, even of thy holy temple." Brother James Estep preached from Tit. ii 14, "Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us
from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." After a short intermission, brother Lawrence
Greatrake preached from John xvii. 17, "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." Prayer, by brother W. Brownfield, who
dismissed the numerous assembly.
JOHN PATTON, Moderator.
WILLIAM FRENCH, Clerk.
__________
* The publisher of the minutes, assumes the responsibility of making these minutes a [vehicle] of intimating to the
said committee of investigation, that justice to all concerned, but more especially to the cause of truth,
makes it their imperious duty to give the earliest possible attention to this case!
5
CIRCULAR LETTER.
The Ministers and Messengers of the Redstone Association to the Churches whom they represent, sendeth Christian
salutation: --
DEAR BRETHREN,
In presenting you our annual epistle, we find several reasons for observing [gravity]. Among the reasons is the
paucity of contribution made by the churches [for] the printing of their minutes. We shall endeavour to
say much in a small space. You know, that for years past, our association has been in a state of distressing
agitation. All connected with it have professed to deplore it; some with a sigh of sincerity, some with a
crocodile tear. All have felt, or seen the effects; but few, comparatively, have known the cause.
That cause, we for a moment advert to, and remark upon, as a beacon to you hereafter! It is greatly wise to
convert the errors of the past into lessons of profit for the future. Several years ago a couple
of THEOLOGICAL ADVENTURERS, "by good words and fair speeches, deceived the hearts of the simple," and unsuspicious
among you, and by a bare majority of your votes, they got ingress among you as Baptists. There were those,
however, in your association, whose experience, reflection and intelligence, led them to suspect, both the
theology and design of those two men; and who opposed their admission into your association, in the first instance,
as being of very equivocal character. In a short time after, these Adventurers became united to you, and
in a moment of rampant vanity, they insolently professed, in the hearing of several persons, that it was
their intention to revolutionize the Regular Baptist Church; and to that end they had joined themselves
to it: while in their writings and harangues, they were introducing among you, in artful disguise, the most pernicious
heresies. This necessarily called forth a stern and unyielding opposition on the part of those among you, who saw
through the gauze of sophistry in which all the former's theology was clothed. As faithful centinels on the walls of
Zion, they sounded the alarm, they endured the obloquy and persecution incident to their being
thought disturbers of the peace of Zion. "The warning song was for a length of time sung in vain; but few would hear
and fewer heed the strain." At length infantile credulity itself had to give way, and the
greater part of your association shook themselves from their lethargy, and rose in opposition to these
Adventurers. By this time, however, there were churches (so-called) introduced into connexion with
your, which were the product or creatures of the said two would-be Revolutionizers! While some of
your former churches, and of whom you had hoped better things, became, in the persons of their ministers and leading
members, the busy agents in the circulation of the writings, and blustering echoes of the harangues of these
revolutionary Elymasses. 1 Others of your churches were so far led astray by the dissimulation and
fancied liberty, of this revolutionary device, that they united with the former churches in an attempt to
destroy your constitution, and to suppress your good confession of that faith once delivered to the saints. To
accomplish this, the GENIUS OF RIBALDRY, in the person of the
JUNIOR of those two adventurers, went through the country, in written and oral philippick
against the association, as being clothed with superstitious reverence for the old fashioned theology:
filled with bigoted attachment to the confessions of faith: grossly ignorant of the Scriptures: swayed by
the spirit of popish tyranny; and acting out a part of more than inquisitorial barbarity
__________
1 Acts xiii, 8 to 10.
6
over the mental freedom and consciences of individuals, and the rights and independence of the churches! While
hundreds who had caught this more than PERSIAN FLAME 1 of INDEPENDENCE stunned
the ears of the community in vociferations of this declamation. 2 All this WINDY hubbub
availed nothing with the association: she now saw through this ill-disguised machination. She felt satisfied that
there had been no demur against her confession of faith, UNTIL that confession had condemned the
faith of its condemners! She saw that it was detecting heretics and heretical churches: -- that it
set in a blaze of rage and malignant opposition, the disguised errorists that had got into her churches. This
taught her to prize that good confession of faith the more highly, as being of profitable for
DEFENCE against heretics, as well as being explanatory of the doctrine of the Scriptures.
Under the circumstances noticed, the association has been, for years past, not only struggling for the preservation
of her faith and order, but also putting forth her best efforts to restore to their proper mind, and to bring
back to the "good old way," those churches of her body whom she conceived had been made victims of a VARIED
IMPOSTURE! Nor have her efforts been unattended with a pleasing degree of success. Where she has failed
in her affectionate attempt to RECOVER, it has not been for the want of as much gentleness and
effort as respect to her own existence would possibly admit of. She has borne with the
INFIRMITIES of the weak, and the insolence and guile of the ANARCHICAL;
until forbearance ceased to be a virtue, and further attempt to continue them in our fellowship would assume
the character of a design to put a negative upon the word of God itself, which declares, that "two
cannot walk together unless they are agreed." Hence at our last session, we felt it our duty to bring the case
to an issue, and to that end avowed non-fellowship with those churches that continued hostile and refractory
to our faith and order. For the particulars of which we refer you to our minutes. The churches that we have put
away from us, we esteem as so much excrescence of which we are happily disburthened! Of those churches
whose letters were not received, (at least most of them,) we hope better things, and things that accompany
salvation. These churches we esteem as still worthy of our ministerial attentions and christian sympathies. To
God we commend, (with hearts warmed by his grace) in the exercise of every friendly and prayerful solicitude on
their behalf: and beseech the great Shepherd of Israel to save them, if vines, from the old fox
and the young one too; who have already robbed them of many a cluster of their grapes. Perhaps they have departed
from us for a season, that we may receive them again hereafter, to be more than ever profitable unto us, and we
to them. Amen.
Having, brethren, briefly noticed the cause, progress, and termination of that contention which so long prevailed
in our association; we shall now affectionately invite your attention while we make a few remarks on the subject of
SANCTIFICATION: "Vast as Eternity our theme" -- A point our space to portray it in!
How imperfect then must be our representation.
There are two general ideas arising out of our subject, namely, the import [of] sanctification; and the
agent and instrument thereof. We shall be compelled to limit ourselves to a mere glance of the first idea,
to the end that we may have space to enlarge in our remarks of the last.
FIRST GENERAL IDEA.
The Import of Sanctification.
Sanctification, in its gospel import, means the setting apart to an holy life, and
persevering to an holy, and consequently happy end, all of the human family [thus]
__________
1 See James iii. 6, for its name and character!
2 And yet not one church was necessitated to stay in the association one hour longer than it was pleased
to continue!!!
7
ordained unto eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord!! 1 This sanctifying, or setting apart,
begins, and is virtually made in God the Father's giving the Elect to his Son, to be the subjects of that
Son's Mediatorial government! 2 [And] the Son sanctifies or sets them apart from the condemnation of the law
and the pains of hell by his own blood and righteousness, in the man Christ Jesus! 3 The Holy Ghost
sanctifies, or sets them apart from the love and reigning power [of sin] by "creating in them a new man which
after God," (i. e. after God's purpose!) "is created in righteousness and true holiness." 4
It is to this latter [--ach] of sanctification that we design to direct our subsequent remarks, and which we
shall denominate vital or manifestive sanctification. In view of this sanctification an apostle
has said, "now, if any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature:" 5 that is, if any man be
vitally, or manifestatively, in Christ by the sanctification of the Spirit, he is a new creature. This passage
of Scripture, with the ones previously referred to, will furnish us with this general idea, to wit: that
sanctification does not consist in repairing or reforming the old nature, or in making that new;
but is a NEW MAN! THE WORKMANSHIP of God! created [in] righteousness and true holiness and
ORDAINED unto GOOD WORKS! 6 This, in [fact] and effect, is the "secret
of the Lord abiding in the tabernacle of the righteous:" 7 This in fact is, Jesus formed in the
heart, the hope of glory: this [is] the wrought needle-work that constitutes the believer ALL GLORIOUS
WITHIN. This is the inner and hidden man of the heart! This new creature -- this heaven-born spiritual
man, cannot sin -- cannot have any fellowship with the [unfruitful] works of darkness, but will for ever
abhor and reprove them as they move [and] prevail in the "old man." The abode of this new man,
in this life, is a "body [of] sin and death!" -- a living spark in an ocean of corruption! An infant of a
day [in] a den of serpents, welted with their loathsome forms; transfixed with their poisonous fangs, yet
remaining alive and unhurt! The two natures, this new man and the old, are ever at variance -- ever contrary
the one to the other: The one all reverence, gratitude and passion toward God; the other all ingratitude to
God and idolatrous passion for the world! So that the believer is truly and pre-eminently a phenomenon -- "a man to
be wondered at" -- a devil and a saint! As the new man rules, the christian shines: As the old man rules, the glories
of the new man are obscured. The new man "waxing stronger and stronger," the old man with his deeds and lusts, is the
more easily kept under; though the old man is just as strong in the hour of a believer's death as ever he was; and the
greatest saint when he comes to die, has as much corruption about him as ever he had: The difference is, that there is
a new man, and the old man is in subjection thereto! Hence the only appropriate
language that a believer may use, after the most extended life, of the most exemplary piety, is, "God be merciful
to me a sinner." On death, the corruptible -- the old man -- the body of sin and death, shall be put off.
The law in the members warring against the law of the mind -- the company and conflicting of the two armies --
the wrestling with flesh and blood -- the agonizings against the heart of unbelief shall then, (and not
till then!) all terminate. Then the new man shall inhale an atmosphere of holiness congenial with his nature.
Then shall it worship its CREATORS 8 in the all-devouring great emotion and perfection
that it has here desired, longed, panted and roared for! (Who knows not these things knows nothing as he
ought to know of sanctification!) Meanwhile the body of sin and death, that leprous house, shall go down to the
dust, and be, like ashes, blown to and fro around the earth, until the voice of the archangel and the trump of
God shall summon every flying and every recumbent particle thereof to reunite, and the Holy Ghost shall
fashion the body, as he has previously garnished the soul, in the "beauties of holiness, and like unto Christ's
most glorious body;" then the sanctification will be complete -- the IMPORT will then be fully
made out in the sight of an astonished universe.
__________
1 Ephes. i. 4.
2 Jude i. 1.
3 Heb. xiii. 12, x. 14.
4 2 Thess. ii. 3. 1 Pet. i. 2.
5 2 Cor. v. 17.
6 Ephes. ii. 10
7 Job xxix. 4.
8 Eccl. xii. 1, Zeber ath Buraik, i. e. remember thy Creators.
8
SECOND GENERAL IDEA.
The Agent and Instrument of Sanctification.
OF THE AGENT.
That agent is the Holy Ghost! hence, says Jehovah by the pen of the prophet, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my
Spirit saith the Lord;" and, says Jesus, -- "It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh," (i. e. the
wisdom, volition [and] power of the natural man,) "profiteth nothing:" This sanctification is denominated in the
Scriptures, [as] being born again -- born of the Spirit -- having the Spirit in the soul, "as a well of living water
springing up unto eternal life" -- having [a] heart opened by God the Spirit, and an incorruptible seed,
(i. e. the truth of the word of God,) planted there, which liveth and abideth (there! in the
heart) forever! The operations of that Spirit, in his work of sanctifying the soul, are [represented] as being
irresistible as the winds of the heavens, or the lightening of the clouds. All and every of the constituents that
make up the new man, [are] throughout the Scriptures, represented, severally, as the product of the Holy Ghost.
Is it, for instance, Repentance: the Spirit convinces of sin and gives Godly sorrow. 2 Is it
Faith: no man calleth Jesus Christ Lord, save by the Holy Ghost; and faith is the gift of God by
the Spirit. 3 Is it freedom or liberty from the bondage of the law and influence of a corrupt world;
the Spirit gives the liberty. 4 Is it direction to Christ as the Mediator: -- the Spirit only can
lead [the] soul to him. 5 Is it the enjoyment of the adoption as sons of God: that the Spirit
communicates. 6 Is it the mystical and essential union of saints: by one Spirit we are baptized into one
body. 7 Is it daily and hourly strength to overcome the world, endure afflictions, and keep under the body:
by the Spirit we are strengthened in the inner man. 8 Is it the exercise of effectual fervent prayer: the
Spirit makes intercession for us with groanings that are unutterable. 9 Is it the essential knowledge of
Christ, or an understanding of the truth of what the Scriptures testify of him: that the Spirit only can reveal
to the understanding? 10 Is it love to God, or the manifestations of the love of God to the soul: that is
shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost. 11 Is it the gradual advancement of the
believer in the divine life unto entire meetness, for the inheritance in glory: the Spirit rests upon him to that
very end. 12 And so in reference to the other gifts and graces -- as hope, fear,
meekness, humility, patience, peace, joy and [courage] all, all are the product of the Spirit of Jehovah: and thus
declared to be in [full] DETAIL, as the whole is represented in the Scriptures in general
terms, to be "THE WORKMANSHIP OF GOD ACCORDING TO HIS ELECTION, AND THROUGH SANCTIFICATION OF
THE SPIRIT["]!! 13 Wherefore any and every system of theology [that]
excludes the doctrine of the Spirit's direct, special, and unintermitting influence upon the soul, that system we
say, is not only a "damnable heresy," but the use of the Bible, and the profession of faith in that
system is as gross a blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, as that of the Jewish Rabbies is against Jehovah
when they say that he takes great delight in reading their Talmud: there is just as much essential religion
in that system, as there is grace and truth in this saying. From the throne of the universe Jehovah
has declared, in a voice more terrible than the groan of expiring nature, "that if any man have not the Spirit of
Christ, he is none of his." 14
__________
1 Zech. iv. 6.
2 Ezek. xxxvi. 26 to 31.
3 2 Cor. iv. 13. Ephes. ii. 8.
4 2 Cor. iii. 17.
5 John vi. 65.
6 Gal. iv. 6.
7 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13.
8 Ephes. iii. 16.
9 Rom. viii. 26, 27.
10 Matt. xvi. 17.
11 Rom. v. 5.
12 1 Pet. iv. 14.
13 Ephes. ii. 10. 1 Pet. 1. 2.
14 Rom. viii. 9.
9
OF THE INSTRUMENT OF SANCTIFICATION.
In general terms, we observe, that the instrument is the word of God, [contained] in the Old and New Testaments.
"My doctrine," says Jehovah, "shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew; as the small rain upon
the tender herb, and as showers upon the grass. 1 And, again, as the rain and the snow cometh down from
heaven and accomplishes the will of God in nature, so shall his word be in grace, it shall prosper
in the thing whereunto he sends it. 2 And, says the Psalmist, "The entrance of thy word giveth light."
3 Now, the manner in which the word findeth entrance into the heart is explained in the case of Lydia,
whose heart the Lord opened by his Spirit. 4 By the Spirit, the word is made "swift and powerful,
sharper than any two edged sword." And here we may ask -- what is a sword [less the] scabbard? or what is a sword without
a hand strong and skilled to use it? Under such circumstances its properties as an instrument of offence or defence,
[can] neither be seen or felt. Apply this to the case before us: -- The Bible is the scabbard: the truth of that
Bible is the sword of the Spirit. That Spirit has ever [provided] a ministry competent to discriminate between
the scabbard and the sword! [What] officers and soldiers, in the army of faith, they must be, who do not
know whether there be such a thing as a sword! or who confound the sword with the scabbard! or who fling away the
sword (i. e. a confession of the essential truth [of] the Bible,) as a matter of uselessness or incumbrance! And,
what hopeful aspects there must be of the conversion of the world, from the doings of those [various] individuals and
societies who are declaring the sword supererogatory, and [--ting] it placed somewhere, like Mahomet's
coffin, between heaven and earth, where no one will be troubled, or offended with the unseemly object! and
where, [they] might add, it will not be found present to judge them! What hopeful prospects, we say, again, there
must be of converting the world, or subduing the nations of the earth to Immanuel, by the use of the scabbard!
What marvellous evidence there is of the adorable Spirit's redeeming influences, when the sword [of] the
Spirit is trampled under foot! And, O, what a faith, as to quality and [magnitude], to believe, that the
Lord is there! But, to return. By the preaching of the word sinners are pricked in their
hearts; they are convinced of all, they are judged of all, and the secrets of their hearts are made manifest to them
(that [of] their heart's innate depravity, which is a thing hidden to a man in a state of nature, is made
manifest,) under a view of which they become humble in the dust [in] self abasement, and from bold blasphemers of God,
or contemners of his word, they are made worshippers of Jehovah, in spirit and in truth; and confess that God,
the person of the Holy Ghost, is in all his saints, of a truth. 5 Upon this [ground] an apostle
declared, he was not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, because it was the power of God to salvation, to every one that
believeth, even as many as are ordained unto eternal life, and that Jehovah, our God, shall call. But,
this [word] is not only an instrument of sanctification -- setting apart, or effectual [calling] of the sinner
from the world and his sins: it is also the instrument of the believer's growth in grace and in the knowledge of
the Lord Jesus Christ: "All scripture," says an apostle, "is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction in righteousness, that the man of God, i. e. the man whom God hath by his Spirit
sanctified or set apart unto himself, -- see Psalms iv. 3,) may be perfect; thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
6 The same apostle declares, that believers are begotten, or spiritually born, from [above], by
the Gospel: 7 and, says the same apostle, "We all with open face beholding, as in a glass, the glory of
the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory as by the Spirit of God." 8 This
unquestionably refers unto
__________
1 Deut. xxxii. 2.
2 Isaiah lv. [11].
3 Psal. cxix. 130.
4 Acts xvi. 14.
5 1 Cor. xiv. 24, 25.
6 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17.
7 1 Cor. iv. 15.
8 2 Cor. iii. 18.
10
the Scriptures, which only testify of Christ. Here, as in a mirror burnished [by] the hand of heaven, Immanuel's
transcendant glories, enchanting loveliness, ineffable preciousess, and unsearchable fulness and riches of
grace, is seen, more and more, by every soul enlightened by the Holy Ghost, until that Immanuel becomes a
NAMELESS object to the MUSING soul!!
Again -- we remark, that it is THE TRUTH of the Scriptures that is SPECIFICALLY
the INSTRUMENT of vital sanctification: Hence, says Jesus is intercessor with the Father for his
people, "sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth:" here the great God is referred to by Jesus as the
sanctifier, and the truth of the word as being specifically the instrument of sanctification: elsewhere Jesus
says, "no man can come unto me except the Father draw him:" and, again, he declares, that his people "shall know the
truth and the truth shall make them free:" and, says an apostle, "we are chosen to salvation through the
sanctification of the Spirit and the belief of the truth:" and, says another, "we are begotten by the truth;" and,
"no lie" says he, "is of the truth." From these passages, and many others of a similar import, we learn, that the
truth of the word is specifically the instrument of sanctification. Now, the truth must,
unquestionably be the ESSENTIAL MEANING of the of the Bible! The understanding of this truth is discriminated by such
phraseology as the following, to wit: "The faith of God's elect: a form of sound words: a good confession: rightly
dividing the word of truth." On the other hand a misconception of that truth [is] represented to be, "changing the
truth of God, (or God's word,) into a wresting the Scriptures to their own destruction: ever learning, (that
is, of the word,) and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth: holding the truth [in] unrighteousness."
Upon this ground, Jesus thanked his Father, that his disciples were led into the truth; and, that all his people
should know the truth; that the truth should make them free, as the Spirit itself would lead them
[thereafter]. Upon the same ground, an apostle declared that he would not give place [even] for an hour, to false
representations of the word, that the truth of the Gospel might continue among his brethren: 1 and
upon this ground he rejoiced, that his brethren knew the grace, (or Gospel) of God in truth. 2 Upon
the same ground, another apostle declared, that he had no greater joy, than to witness his children in the gospel,
walking in the truth thereof. 3 On the other hand, we hear Jesus rebuking with indignation those who
made void the law, or falsely interpreted the Scriptures, by their traditions: and against false teachers of
the word, he warned [his] disciples. Against false gospels the apostles warned the church; and, against those
who should rise up, from among themselves, as professors, speaking [perverse] things, (to draw away disciples
after them!) in the name of Christ and [the] word: 4 -- men who were reprobate concerning
the truth of the Scriptures, [though] they were, professedly, teachers thereof. Upon this ground were the apostles
so earnest in exhorting their brethren to "hold fast the form of sound words" -- their good confession -- "the faith
once delivered to the saints." Upon [this] ground they gave commandment to the churches, to examine and try the spirits
(i. e. preachers,) whether they were of God: 5 and, upon this ground, the church at Ephesus is
commended; "because she had tried them that said they were apostles, and had found them liars." 6 All
the foregoing references to Christ and his apostles, is made to furnish out a full and conclusive testimony that [is]
the ESSENTIAL MEANING, or, in our former language, the truth of the word of God that is
specifically the instrument of sanctification; and that in contradistinction to all and every of the
false interpretations, and contradictory meanings that ever has been, or ever shall be given of that word!! Here
arises one of the most interesting inquiries that ever pressed itself upon the mind of man: namely -- [where] or who
is a guarantee to be found, that any of the human family shall know [what] os the essential truth of the Bible?
With JEHOVAH is that guarantee, and [that]
__________
1 Gal. ii. 5.
2 Col. i. 6.
3 2 John i. 4.
4 Acts xxviii. 30.
5 1 John iv. 1.
6 Rev. ii. 2.
11
[--nd] in the gift of the Holy Ghost as an Enlightener and Teacher of the Israel of God. Hence, it is
declared of spiritual Jerusalem, that "all her people shall be taught of God 1 -- that they shall
know the truth." 2 Upon this ground, the [----] or essential church of Christ is called "the ground
and pillar of the truth:" 3 The pillar! that is, it is she that supports the truth of the
word! The Holy Ghost overshadows her, and the power of God rests upon her to that very end. 4 She
[looks] down with contempt upon the Daemoniac -- the TITLE GIVING -- Commercial -- self-applauding
and sinecure uses of the Bible! She it is, and she only, [that] can encounter brave the ten thousand, and
perpetual assaults that Satan and the world make upon the truth of the Bible! She smiles in the tear of pity,
[at] the gross inconsistency, or hypocrisy, (or self delusion) of the multitude of professors, who can, and who
do, in the exercise of some fleshy affections, or under [the] influence of ten thousand emotions of vanity,
profess themselves to be full of [zeal] for the Lord, benevolence to man, and devotion to the work of evangelizing
the world by the Bible; who, at the same time manifest, in the aggregate, the [revolt?] of a Julian, and the
guile of a Jesuit against the truth of that Bible!! [And as far as] heaven is wide, so are such doings from
TRUE CHARITY! Charity [------- --] charity, (i. e. love to God and man,) rejoiceth in
THE TRUTH: 5 [------] the truth of the Bible! Consequently, true charity must mourn,
[whe-- ----] abandoned, rejected, and despised. True charity can hope nothing [----- -----le] when its truth is
suppressed, unknown, or scorned; unless it [---- ---- ----sed], that that charity may be associated with infantile
credulity, [or ----- ----- ---e] imbecility of an idiot! Hence, then, we may ask, what is the [essence of]
the Bible? It is, in brief -- a Revelation of the DESIGN and DOING of Jehovah
(Father! Son! and Holy Ghost!) through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, by the agency of the Eternal Spirit,
and the truth of the word of God as an instrument: In which design and doing is,
ultimately, to be manifested [to] an assembled universe, the declarative glory of JEHOVAH, in the
highest possible degree, by the positive, full, and everlasting salvation of the ELECT!! To this doctrine, as
to a common centre, all the prophecy and promise, types and shadows, history, examples and precepts of the Old and
New Testaments tend, as well as the most familiar events of divine providence. Any and every interpretation of
the Bible contrary to this doctrine, must be false: no matter whether that interpretation embraces the Socinian blasphemy,
or be confined to that most [-----ful] of Satan's dogmas, which says, "that the exercise of the repentance and [faith]
of God's elect,
(the sovereign gifts of God's grace in the new and everlasting covenant!) is the sinner's duty:" In this instance
the one sentiment denies the God-head of the Son, the other expresses entire ignorance of the repentance and
[faith] of God's elect: which of the two is the worst sentiment, we leave eternity [to] develope.
Brethren -- Our limits admonish us to come to a conclusion. We feel that we have arrested your attention, for a moment,
to a subject as important as any [one] that can engross your reflections on this side eternity. We live in a day [----g]
with portentious signs against the truth, however auspicious it may appear to [---] to the Bible! The time
is not far distant, we conceive, when that state of things will be realised in the world which the apostle describes in
the third chapter of [his] second Epistle to Timothy: when "a form of Godliness will prevail, and [the] power thereof be,
to appearance, extinct; and to which time the Lord Jesus himself refers, where he asks, "When the Son of man cometh"
(doubtless, his second appearance,) "shall he find faith" (i. e. the faith of God's elect) "on the earth."
6 We conceive it amply in our power, did space permit, to give conclusive evidence that the present time is the
"young dawn" of that fearful epoch among the variety of evidence existing, the abandonment of the truth
of the bible by multitudes in the Baptist and Presbyterian churches, is not the least. These
__________
1 Isai. liv. 13. John vi. 45.
2 John viii. 32.
3 1 Tim. iii. 15.
4 1 Pet. iv. 14.
5 1 Cor. xiii. 6.
6 Luke xviii. 7, 8.
12
denominations may be considered the two last witnesses on earth for the [essential] truth! Already they
are infested with shoals of Arminians and semi-arminians, and the generation, most likely, has commenced, in which the
MOTHER OF HARLOTS, 1 and the MONSTER ARMINIANISM will, like Pilate and Herod,
unite 2 to hunt, persecute, and exterminate, if possible, the faith of God's Elect from the earth: and
to deride and reject the truth of the bible, at the same time that they professedly adore the bible! We
believe it will devolve [on the] Regular Baptist Church to bring up the rear of the last generation of martyrs [for]
the truth! Let us leave them an example of unyielding devotion to, and [struggle] for, the truth, to
which they may recur in the hour of their "fiery trial," [and] in view thereof "thank God and take courage." It
devolves upon us brethren, to judge righteous judgment! To this end we must believe THE
LORD to be [------] the bible where its truth is known, revered and supported; and that
[there ---ists] the essential church of Christ! On the other hand, we must believe the [Lord not] to
be with the bible where the truth is not known, respected, or proclaimed [with] interpretations,
or bald, disjointed, and contradictory representations [of the] Scriptures, can no more be an instrument of
sanctification, (or of the real [----- ----] of the sinner and of blessing to the church of Christ!) than the
preaching of the Zandevaster of the Persians -- the Koran of Mahomet -- the Talmud [of the Jews, or] the
Sybelline Fables, or any other tale produced from the lawless [--- ---- ----] of men, can be an instrument! You will
then, brethren, it is [true --- ----] continue to judge of professed churches, ministers, and disciples of
Christ, [by their] intelligence in, and fidelity to the truth! Were all the world a BIBLE SOCIETY, and
every habitable spot of earth a Missionary post, and every family a professed household of faith, and every
individual a translator of his [own] bible; still the whole case might be destitute of a particle of living
faith, or knowledge of the essential truth! 3 If in connexion with all this, the
truth of the [word] be despised, i. e. the doctrine of Jehovah's sovereignty -- the Election of grace [and]
particular redemption by the blood, and free and full justification by the righteousness of Christ
imputed -- effectual calling -- final perseverance -- and eternal glorification of the heirs of the kingdom;
if this doctrine, which constitutes, essentially, the truth of the bible, be despised and rejected, then the
whole scene of design and doing in the name of Christ, may, and must be considered nothing better than
"a form of Godliness," and mere THEOLOGICAL JUGGLARY!!
"Charity rejoiceth in the truth," saith the Spirit "and not in iniquity." But the use of the bible out of the
truth thereof, must be iniquity! therefore [---] charity cannot rejoice therein, though the acclamations
thereof may exceed [the] sound (SENSE is out of the question) of the prophets of Balak, or the worshippers
of Diana and Juggernaut! But true love to God cleaves to that truth which [gives] glory to God in the highest! and that
is true love to saint and sinner, [who] cleaves to, supports and publishes that truth which Jehovah has ordained
to [be] the instrument of sanctification: That is insult to God -- infidelity to Christ -- [injustice] and fraud to
the church, and cruelty to man, that abandons the truth.
In conclusion, Brethren, suffer the word of exhortation, as well as of admonition. You profess to be sanctified by the
truth -- set apart unto God as vessels of mercy and honour -- that you are not your own but bought with a price, that
you may be heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. Examine yourselves therefore, brethren, as individuals and
churches, and ascertain what you do for the support, promulgation, and defence of the truth. Do
you openly and [sternly] confess the truth, though the multitude cry out against you as Bigots! Do you
withdraw yourselves from the societies who have not the truth with their bible, or who hold it in unrighteousness,
though you be hailed as illiberal! Do you discriminate
__________
1 The Roman Catholic Hierarchy.
2 Rather, the elementary principles being the same, they will become merged into [every] society!
3 The revolution of a few more years will give this a horrible exemplification!
13
between those who, as ministers, rightly divide the word of truth, and [those] who make it a tissue of contradiction;
and thus discriminating, give a "God speed" to the former, and a "get thee behind me SATAN," to the
latter, [though] you are proclaimed rude and insolent fellows, and disturbers of the peace [----]. In a
word, while the world and carnal professors are making furious [and] subtle assaults upon, and
EVANGELISING the world to get the truth annihilated, are you proportionably energetic in your defence
thereof! Is there, brethren, [yet] a character still on earth as a Minister or Pastor of the church of Christ after God's
own heart! have you any among you of that character! men who unblushingly proclaim what the Holy Ghost has
revealed of truth -- even the "whole counsel of God;" and that in the spirit of majestic confidence
in, and reference to the SOVEREIGN WORKING of the Holy Ghost through that instrumentality,
and the bowels of untold solicitude for the welfare of Zion. If, brethren, you have [such] men among you, they are
no common character; they are engaged in no common ministerial labour; they have no common trials,
temptations, discipline and sufferings; and they toil and suffer to no common end.
For the glory of God, the praise of Immanuel, the honour of the Gospel, the welfare of Zion, [and the] salvation
of the Elect are their spirits clothed with intrepidity [t----- ----- ----] and their hands skilled and nerved
to defend, that truth of the God [--- --- ---] Saviour, which all hell trembles at, which the world esteems
[for ------ ---ors], and which the multitude of professors abandon and betray [--- ---- ---] a carnal peace,
or a claim to that delusive charity which is [tr------ ---- ----] heaven and earth; or, for the sake of enjoying
an unsanctified [fellowship with an] adulterous generation. If you have such men among you, brethren, [remember],
[that] as you treat them, you would treat the Lord Jesus Christ: just as you nourish and support them, do you foster and
defend that truth which is, instrumentally, to clothe your precious souls in the beauties of holiness,
and to prepare you for that glory in the vision of which the eye of our faith shall be lost, and at the throne of
which the wing of our faith shall be folded in everlasting rest -- AMEN AND AMEN!
JOHN PATTON. MODERATOR.
WILLIAM FRENCH, clerk.
|
