Whether to regard you in the light of Proselytes of the Gate, who refused circumcision, but wished to live in the land of Israel, to be in the suburbs of the cities of Judah, and to keep some of the institutions of the ancient kingdom of God, without becoming fellow citizens of that kingdom; or whether to regard you as the Samaritans of old, who built for themselves a temple of God upon Mount Gerizim, held fast a part of the ancient revelation of God, and rejected only such parts of it as did not suit their prejudices--worshipped the God of Israel in common with the idols of the nations from which they sprang--I say, whether to regard you in the light of the one or the other of those ancient professors of religion, might require more skill in casuistry than we possess--more leisure than we have at our disposal--and more labor than either of us have patience to endure. One thing, however, is obvious, that if under the Reign of Heaven it behooved so good a man as Cornelius ("a man of piety, and one that feared God with all his house, giving also much alms to the people, and praying to [272] God continually,") to "hear words by which he might be saved," and to put on Christ by immersion into his death, that he might enter the kingdom of heaven, and enjoy the remission of sins and the hope of an inheritance among all the sanctified--certainly it is both expedient and necessary that you also go and do likewise.

      Every sectarian in the land, how honest and pious soever, ought to bury his sectarianism and all his other sins of omission and commission in "the bath of regeneration." It is a high crime and misdemeanor in any man, professing to have received the Messiah in his proper person, character, and office, to refuse allegiance to him in anything; and to substitute human inventions and traditions in lieu of the ordinances and statutes of Prince Immanuel. Indeed, the keeping up of any dogma, practice, or custom, which directly or indirectly supplants the constitution, laws, and usages of the kingdom over which Jesus presides, is directly opposed to his government, and would ultimate in dethroning him in favor of a rival, and in placing upon his throne the author of that dogma, practice, or usage which supplants the institution of the Saviour of the world.

      It is to you, then, who, in the name of the King, are changing his ordinances and substituting your own expedients for the wisdom and authority of the Judge of all, we now propose the following considerations:

      Every kingdom has one uniform law or institution for naturalizing aliens; and that institution, of whatever sort it be, is obligatory by the authority of the government upon every one who would become a citizen. We say it is obligatory upon him who desires to be a citizen to submit himself to that institution. But does not your practice and your dogma positively say, that it is not the duty of an alien to be born again, but that it is the duty of his father or guardian to have him naturalized? Now, although many things are in common the duty of brother, father, and child, yet those duties which belong specifically to a father can not belong to his child, either in religion, morality, or society. If it be the father's duty to "offer his child to the Lord," to speak in your own style, it is not the duty of the child to offer himself. It was not Isaac's duty to be circumcised, but, Abraham's duty to circumcise him. If, then, it was your father's duty to have made you citizens of the kingdom of heaven, it is not your duty to become citizens, unless you can produce a law, saying, that in all cases where the father fails to do his duty, then it shall be the duty of the child to do that which his father neglected.

      Again--if all fathers, like yours, had upon their own responsibility, without any command from the Lord, baptized their children, there would not be one in a nation to whom it could be said, "Repent and be baptized"--much less could it be said to every penitent, "Be [273] baptized, every one of you, by the authority of the Lord, for the remission of sins." These remarks are only intended to show that your institutions do, in truth, go to the subversion of the government of Christ, and to the entire abolition of the institutions of his kingdom. On this account alone, if for no other reason, you ought to be constitutionally naturalized, and be legally and honorably inducted into the kingdom of heaven. It is a solemn duty you owe the King and his government and if you have a conscience formed by the Oracles of God, you can have no confidence in God, nor real peace of mind, so long as you give your support--your countenance, example, and entire influence to break down the institutions of Jesus Christ, to open his kingdom to all that is born of the flesh, and to prevent as far as you can every man from the pleasure of choosing whom he shall obey--of confessing him before men--of taking on his yoke--of dying, being buried, and raised with Christ in his gracious institution. If Jesus himself, for the sake of fulfilling all righteousness, or of honoring every divine institution, though he needed not the reformation nor the remission which John preached, was immersed by John--what have you to say for yourselves--you who would claim the honors and privileges of the kingdom of heaven, refusing to follow the example of Jesus, and who virtually subvert his authority by supporting a system which would, if carried out, not allow a voluntary agent in all the race of Adam to do that which all the first converts to Christ did by authority of the commission which Jesus gave to all his Apostles?

      Again--whatever confidence you may now possess that you are good citizens of the kingdom of the Messiah, that confidence is not founded upon a "THUS SAITH THE LORD," but upon your own reasonings, which all men must acknowledge may be in this, as in many other things, fallacious. Jesus has said, "He that believes and is immersed shall be saved;" and Peter commanded every penitent to be immersed for the remission of his sins. Now he who hears the word, believes it, and is on his own confession immersed, has an assurance, a confidence, which it is impossible for you to have.

      Let me add only another consideration, for we are not now arguing the merits of your theory, or that of any party: it is your duty, as you desire the union of (what you call) the church, and the conversion of the world, forthwith to be immersed and be born constitutionally into the kingdom; because all Protestants, of every name, if sincere believers in Jesus as the Christ, irrespective of every opinion found in any human creed, could, if they would, honor and obey his institutions, come into one fold, and sit down together under the reign of the Messiah. If all would follow your example, this would necessarily follow; if they do not, you have done your duty. In being thus immersed, all the world, Catholic and Protestant, admit that you are [274] truly and Scripturally baptized; for all admit that an immersed penitent is constitutionally baptized into Christ: but only a part of the professing world can admit that rite of infant affusion on which you rely, as introducing you, without previous knowledge, faith, or repentance, into the family of God. Acquit, then, your conscience; follow the example of Jesus; honor and support his authority; promote the union and peace of the family of God; do what in you lies for the conversion of the world; enter into the full enjoyment of the blessings of the kingdom of heaven by confessing the ancient faith, and by being immersed in the name of Jesus, into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, for the remission of sins. Then you may say as Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, Although the Samaritans have a temple on Mount Gerizim, a priesthood, and the five books of Moses, "salvation is of the Jews." Although the sects have the Oracles of God, human creeds, many altars, priests, and religious usages, the enjoyment of salvation is among them who simply believe what the Apostles wrote concerning Jesus, and who, from the heart; obey that mould of doctrine which the Apostles delivered to us.

      In so doing you will, moreover, most wisely consult your own safety and security from the signal calamities that are every day accumulating, and soon to fall with overwhelming violence on a distracted, divided, alienated, and adulterous generation. If you are "the people of God," as you profess, and as we would fain imagine, then you are commanded by a voice from heaven, "Come out of her, my people, that you partake not of the sins of mystic Babylon, and that you receive not a portion of her plagues."¹ If affliction, and shame, and poverty, and reproach were to be the inalienable lot of the most approved servants of God, it is better, infinitely better for you to suffer with them, than to enjoy for a season all that a corrupted and apostate society can bestow on you. Remember who it is that has said, "Happy are they who keep his commandments, for they shall have a right to the tree of life, and they shall enter in through the gates into the city!"

[A. C.]      

Source:

Alexander Campbell. "A Word to Friendly Aliens." The Millennial Harbinger Extra 5 (August 1834): 433-436.

[MHA1 272-275]