KING AND QUEEN, VA., May 10, 1829.      

      MR. EDITOR:--IN your remarks on the 16th Query, in the Christian Baptist, of March last, you say, "Millions have been tantalized by a mock-gospel, which places them as the fable placed Tantalus, standing in a stream, parched with thirst, and the water running to his chin, and so circumstanced that he could not taste it." There is a sleight of hand, or a religious legerdemain, in getting round this matter. In your answer to the 19th Query, in, the Christian, Baptist of April last, you have, I think, though I dare say without intention on your part, (as I believe the remarks on the 16th Query, were especially intended for the populars,) given us a key to unlock the mystery contained in the sleight of hand business quoted above. The query reads thus: "What does the Saviour mean in these words: 'He said to them, It is your privilege to know the secrets of the reign of God, but to those without, every thing is veiled in parables, that they may not perceive what they look at, or understand what they hear.'" Now you say "he means just what he says. The language is exceedingly plain," &c. And I think so too; and now for the key to unlock the sleight of hand, &c. You say, and I suppose you mean what you say, &c. You say then, "Some persons in a future state will be beyond the reach of mercy; some are in the present; they have shut their eyes, alienated their hearts, seared their consciences, and most stubbornly resisted the Spirit of God. There is a certain crisis beyond which the moral disease becomes incurable, as well as the physical. Some men have survived this crisis for a period. In the physical disease they live hours and days when all physicians know they are incurable. It is not true in physics, that "while there is life there is hope;" for there is life when there is no hope. Neither is it true as the hymn sings:

      Now many of the Jews, in the days of Joshua, of the Lord Jesus, and of the apostle Paul, had survived this crisis. The Saviour treated them accordingly; and will he not be as merciful when he sits upon the throne of final judgment, as when he stood on earth, saying, "Come to me, all you weary and heavy burthened?" &c.--Most assuredly he will, yet he will condemn the wicked. Those persons then, from whom he studiously veiled the gospel, were those characters he knew to be such as to exclude them from forgiveness and repentance. This is a fact, and an awful fact, that under the Reign of Favor, it is possible for men to become so depraved, so wicked, so hardened, as to be beyond the reach of cure. Unless this fact be apprehended and regarded, there will occur many passages in both Testaments inexplicable;" and I think so too, Mr. Editor, and thought so too, before I saw your remarks on the 16th Query, and I think the remarks on the 19th Query afford a key, as I said before, to unlock this mysterious sleight of hand! Now the scriptures tell us that man is born into the world as a wild ass's colt; yet vain man would be wise! But the apostle tells us, "For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe." Now from your remarks, it appears that there were at different periods of the world, men living, from whose hearts the gospel or grace of God, was studiously veiled, while you admit it may be so, at the present time. Now as none of our popular preachers do certainly know, whether there may not be some of this class of persons among the congregations to whom they preach, from whose hearts the Lord studiously veils the gospel, how would you have them to preach? Would you have them to tell a lie? and say, that each and every one of you can, by reading the sacred scriptures, become partakers of the divine nature? When the Lord may have seen fit to suffer a part of them to fulfil that promise, which says, "Behold, you despisers, and wonder and perish, for I work a work in your day, which you shall not believe, though a man declare it to you!" Now if it ever pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save those that believe, I have no doubt but it pleases him yet. For the gospel is preached by living witnesses, having the Spirit of Christ, who stand as in Christ's stead, for the purpose of turning the minds of men, towards these things which are able, through divine grace, to make them (from whom the gospel is not veiled) wise to salvation; namely, the word of God and prayer. One thing I do know, that the populars about here, (unless they be hypocrites,) think so, for they labor night and day; and they preach the ancient gospel too, which I heard before I heard of you, Mr. Editor! They preach as they always have done, saying, "The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent you, and believe the gospel." They say too, "Ho! every one that thirsts, come you to the waters." And they say, too, "Come to me all you weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." That "The Spirit and the bride say come, and let him that hears say come, and let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him come, and take the water of life freely." They warn people, too, saying, "Take heed lest this come upon you." [596] "Behold, you despisers! and wonder and perish! for I work a work in your day, which you shall not believe, though a man declare it to you!" Now, this is the way the populars preach about here. I do not know how they preach in your part of the world. Now the Lord Jesus veils the ancient gospel which they preach now, just as he used to do, from whom he pleased. According to the command, it is the duty of all men to seek the Lord, for all have sinned. But God has mercy on whom he^{1} will have mercy, (as you have shown in your remarks in your answer to the 19th Query, quoted above.) A man, therefore, cannot believe^{2} to the saving of his soul, unless God give him the power; for they that thus believe are blessed.^{3}

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      UPON reviewing the sixteenth and nineteenth queries referred to, it appears that the writer of the foregoing animadversions must have read these queries with a captious intention,--with a jaundiced eye. The sixteenth query explicitly states the exception which is amplified and illustrated in the nineteenth. Under the sixteenth query, p. 530, it, is affirmed, "that all men, to whom the gospel is proclaimed, can believe it, if they choose; except such as have sinned so long against the light, as to have fallen into the slumber and blindness denounced against those who wilfully reject the counsel of heaven." Now, the above quotations from the answer to the nineteenth query, page 538, are expressly confined to such characters. "Those persons, then, from whom he studiously veiled the gospel, were those, whose characters he knew to be such, as to exclude them from repentance and forgiveness." But how, in the name of common sense, does the exclusion of such characters, by the righteous judgment of God, from a participation of the blessings of the gospel, furnish a key for the relief of the popular preachers from the religious legerdemain, or sleight of hand business, alleged against them? Does it necessarily follow as a universal truth, that, because some men have so sinned as to render themselves incapable of reformation by the belief and obedience of the gospel, that all, to whom it comes, labor under the same incapacity? Or, does it necessarily follow, that because some have so abused the divine goodness as to render it inconsistent with the immaculate dignity of the divine character to admit them to a participation of the blessings of salvation; that all to whom the gospel comes must be considered precisely in the same condition? Surely no. And if not, how does it go to relieve the populars from the impeachment of tantalizing mankind with a mock gospel, while they indiscriminately assert the entire incapacity of all, to whom the word of salvation is sent, to believe and obey it? While they assert, that without something more than either the preacher or hearer can go, the gospel can neither be believed nor obeyed; consequently, that it can only minister condemnation, for "he that believes not shall be damned." Did Peter or Paul so preach the gospel either to Jews or Gentiles? Let the populars produce the specimen, and they will stand exonerated. But our correspondent seems mightily concerned for the character of the popular preachers. He alleges their ignorance of the characters of their hearers; and gravely asks, "How would you have them to preach? Would you have them to tell lies? and say, that each and every one of you can," &c. Surely no. We would not have them tell lies; nay, we would not have them even to hazard such a thing; and, therefore, would have them to preach just as did the apostles. When Paul preached to the Antiochians, Acts xiii. we may justly consider him as ignorant of the personal characters of his hearers, as any of our modern populars can be; and yet he did not tell them that they were incapable of believing; nor yet, "that every one of them could, by reading the sacred scriptures, become partakers of the divine nature." Instead of this, he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection, and through faith in him the remission of sins, with certification, "that whosoever believes in him, is justified from all things." And concludes by warning them to beware, lest that which was spoken by the prophets should come upon them; saying, "Behold, you despisers, and wonder, and perish," &c. Let our modern preachers go and do likewise; and they will neither risk preaching lies; nor yet expose themselves to the just censure of tantalizing their hearers with a mock gospel, as they are in the habit of doing; when, after laboring with apparent fervor to convince and persuade their hearers, as Paul did in the passage above cited, they gravely conclude, by assuring them, that after all that can be said or done on both sides, it will be all lost labor without the intervention of a supernatural influence, over which neither preacher nor hearer has any control; so did not Paul nor any of the apostles. Nor have we a single petition for such an influence on record in the apostolic writings; neither as offered up by the apostles, nor by the churches at their request, in behalf of the success of the gospel in the conversion of sinners.

      It seems to have been the happiness of our correspondent to have heard the ancient gospel before he ever heard of the editor of the Christian Baptist. This will not be thought strange, since the said gospel was in the world seventeen hundred years before said editor was born. But the query is, Did he hear it from the populars? If we believe his own account of their character and preaching, we should think not. He styles them "living witnesses, who stand as in Christ's stead." Who preach, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand; repent you, and believe the gospel." According to these characteristics, we should first conclude that they are false witnesses, because they never witnessed one single item of what they preach, if so be it is contained in the bible; for this plain reason, they were born too late. We should next conclude them shameless pretenders, if they assume to be in Christ's stead, either to the church, or to the world; for none ever occupied this place but the apostles, who had power on earth to forgive sins, and to settle for ever all the affairs of his kingdom in this world. And lastly, as to the subject of their preaching, (if our informant be correct,) that "the kingdom of heaven is at hand," they belong not to the gospel dispensation at all, but to the preparatory dispensation of John the Baptist; for this was his text,--the subject of his introductory ministration. That the Baptist's gospel was really gospel; that is, good news, in its day, no one will question; also, that it is more ancient, than what we, at this day, call the ancient gospel, will be readily granted; but what [597] is this to the purpose? The ancient gospel, of which we speak, began to be preached on the day of Pentecost, Acts, chap. ii. It announced the coronation of the King and the commencement of his kingdom by the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven; with the remission of sins, through baptism, to every believing penitent sinner, thenceforth to the end of time, that should take the benefit of the institution, divinely appointed for that purpose. The successive publication of this pure apostolic gospel is what we plead for, without any additions, or intermixture of human opinions. If our correspondent and his populars be in the full possession of this blissful, ancient, apostolic gospel, we should rejoice to know it: but from the spirit and tenor of the above communication, we have our doubts that it is far otherwise. For as already stated in the close of the reply to the sixteenth query, "that only is gospel, which all can believe who wish to believe." Or, in other words, that only is good news to all, which presents a good, adapted to the capacity, the condition, and reception of all that choose to receive it. And such most evidently, is the apostolic gospel.

T. W. alias THOS. CAMPBELL.^{4}      

      ^{1} If God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.
      ^{2} It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe.
      ^{3} So, then, they that are of faith, are blessed, with faithful Abraham.
      ^{4} A Correspondent now at Bethany, to whom was referred the above letter in the absence of the Editor.

[The Christian Baptist, November 2, 1829, pp. 596-598.]

      Thomas Campbell's "Reply to the Above" was first published in The Christian Baptist, Vol. VII, No. 4, November 2, 1829. The electronic version of the reply has been produced from the College Press (1983) reprint of The Christian Baptist, ed. Alexander Campbell (Cincinnati: D. S. Burnet, 1835), pp. 597-598.

      Pagination in the electronic version has been represented by placing the page number in brackets following the last complete word on the printed page. In the printed text, footnotes are indicated by printer's devices; in the electronic text, footnotes have been treated as sequentially numbered endnotes. I have let stand variations and inconsistencies in the author's (or editor's) use of italics, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling in the letter and reply.

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 11 January 1998.
Updated 7 July 2003.