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 “Honored
Brethren:
Before
you come to a final issue in the present business, let me
entreat you to pause a moment, and seriously to consider the
following things: to refuse any one his just privilege, is it
not to oppress and injure? In proportion to the magnitude and
importance of the privilege withheld, is not the injustice done
in withholding it to be estimated? If so, how great the
injustice, how highly aggravated the injury will appear, to
thrust out from communion a Christian brother, a
fellow-minister, for saying and doing none other things than
those which our Divine Lord and his holy apostles have taught
and enjoined to be spoken and done by his ministering servants,
and to be received and observed by all his people. Or have I, in
any instance, proposed to say or to do otherwise? If I have, I
shall be heartily thankful to any brother that shall point it
out, and upon his so doing, shall as heartily and thankfully
relinquish it.
Let
none think that, by so saying, I entertain the vain presumption
of being infallible. So far am I from this, that I dare not
venture to trust my own understanding so far as to take upon me
to teach anything as a matter of faith or duty but what is
already expressly taught and enjoined by Divine authority; and I
hope it is no presumption to believe that in saying and doing
the very same things that are said and done before our eyes on
the sacred page, is infallibly right, as well as all-sufficient
for the edification of the Church, whose duty and perfection it
is to be in all things conformed to the original standard. It
is, therefore, because I have no confidence, either in my
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own infallibility or in that of others, that
I absolutely refuse, as inadmissible and schismatic, the
introduction of human opinions and human inventions into the
faith and worship of the Church.
Is
it, therefore, because I plead the cause of the Scriptural and
apostolic worship of the Church, in opposition to the various
errors and schisms which have so awfully corrupted and divided
it, that the brethren of the Union should feel it difficult to
admit me as their fellow-laborer in the blessed work? I
sincerely rejoice with them in what they have done in that way;
but still, all is not yet done; and surely they can have no just
objection to go farther.”
“Translated” into Plain Talk:
“Wait,
brethren! Do not “beat” me for following the Lord. Let us
help one-another to be faithful to him. Let us accept as the
standard of the faith, not human opinions and inventions, but
the expressly revealed Word of God. This alone is infallibly
right, and all-sufficient.”
As
explained on page 2, this is the first installment of our
reprint of Thomas Campbell’s “appeal” to a board of his
fellow-presbyters, who would censure him for teaching and
practice contrary to the “usages” of the Presbyterian church
of his day. We urge you to read the whole reprint carefully. The
fight between honest convictions and the sectarian spirit
continues today, as in 1808.
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