ECCLESIASTICAL TYRANNY.

I have had the pleasure and the pain of visiting three

associations since writing our last number. To the first,
viz. the Stillwater, Ohio, I went as a spectator. To the
second, viz. the Mahoning, Ohio, I went as a messenger;
and to the Redstone, Pennsylvania, I went as a
corresponding messenger from the Mahoning. My visit
to the Stillwater and Mahoning associations was
altogether agreeable. There was no vain jangling about
creeds and forms; no controversy about who should be
pope and cardinals. There was no interference with the
inalienable rights, nor encroachment

[p. 56 - orig. ed.]

upon the liberties of the brethren, considered as
individuals or as congregations. -- All was harmony and
peace. I never witnessed greater harmony or more
brotherly love at any public meeting than at these two
meetings, especially the latter. I returned home edified
and refreshed. After the respite of a day, I set out for the
Redstone. As I approached its horizon, the sky began to
gather blackness, the reverberation of distant thunders
and the reflected glare of forked lightnings from the
regions of the Laurel Hill portended a tremendous war of
elements, if not a crash of worlds. Three clouds of
ominous aspect surcharged with wind, one from the
east, one from the north and one from the south,
seemed to concentrate not far from the Old Fortification.
As they approximated towards each other, they rolled
out great volumes of hydrogen gas, which ignited by
some electric sparks, exhibited a frightful aspect, and
seemed to threaten a fiery desolation, and to hurl ruin
far and wide. But to our great and agreeable
disappointment it eventuated in a mere explosion of
wind, which injured no green nor living thing. It purified
the air, and was succeeded by a grateful and cheering
calm. After having stated these meteorological
observations, I proceed to give a faithful description of
the meeting itself. And that our readers may have the
premises before them, I will state a few historic facts.

One man whom I will not name, in the true spirit of

Diotrephes, has for at least fifteen years past, lorded
over the faith of the whole association, or sought to do
it. He was converted under the ministry of a Methodist,
and became all at once a Methodistic preacher; and
having burned out somewhere near the tropic of
capricorn, the cinder was carried to the arctic circle, and
became a Calvinistic Baptist, of the supralapsarian order.
As is usually the case with men of little information and
strong passions, when converted from one extreme they
run into the opposite; so with this zealous Divine. And as
he was extremely lax in his faith in former times, he has
bound himself with a seven fold cord never to have any
communion with those who will not say they believe in
the whole "Philadelphia Confession of Faith." He forms
a league with two others,

[p. 57 - orig. ed.]

offensive and defensive. One of them of no standing in
church or state, and the other I know nothing about, save
that he has a remarkable red face, and cannot speak only
at times. I mean no insinuation against his moral
character; for of this I know nothing. I choose to
represent each of the triumvirate by their most
remarkable traits; for I do not know that I shall ever write
their names in this work. These three brothers combined
their efforts for the last two years to carry one point: in
plain English, that one of them should be Pope, and the
other two his Cardinals, the one Cardinal of the Right,
and the other Cardinal of the Left. The reason of this
combination was, that for a few years past the two first
had fallen into their proper ranks, and could not rise to
any notice but in the cause of orthodoxy. Who that has
his eyes open has not seen that men of the lowest
intellect and of the lowest moral endowments are the
most zealous in the cause of orthodoxy? and that the
reason is, they are conscious that unless they can raise a
clamor about orthodoxy they are likely to pass off the
stage as they ought? I have always found those of the
most orthodox scent the slowest in the race, and the
loudest in the sound. The foremost hound makes the
least noise about the course, but those hindmost are
always sounding lo here! or lo there! Having given this
faithful and honest introduction to these triumvirate
which is as much too circumstantial, as it is too long, I
proceed to the history of the manoeuvre and intrigue by
which they made themselves Pope and Cardinals.
The physical forces which they could bring into the
"advisory council" they knew were inadequate to their
object. For of 23 or 24 churches composing the
association they were conscious that a majority would be
against them. According to the constitution of the
association each church could legally send three
messengers which could have a seat and a vote in their
resolves. After exploring the ground, and doing every
thing which could be done to increase their physical
forces, it was found to amount to 10 congregations; that
is, they could not find ten whole congregations in the
association to come into their views, but they could find
a majority in their favor in the whole fractional parts of

[p. 58 - orig. ed.]

these ten churches. So that they were entitled to a
representation of 30 voters. These 30 voters out of 72
which would have been a full representation of the
whole association, have now to constitute themselves
into the whole association. Orthodoxy must now lend its
aid, and the good old constitution must be revived,
though it has always been a dead letter; for not one
association that ever met was regulated by it for two
hours at a time. But in the constitution it is written that
the churches in writing their letters shall refer to the
Philadelphia Confession of Faith. They must make a bow
to it in limine. This matter has been for years discussed in
this association; and the more it has been examined the
less it has been relished. The children in many places
now see the absurdity of their fathers and mothers
declaring their faith to be expressed in the Philadelphia
Confession of Faith, which not one in ten of them ever
saw; and not one in a hundred of them could understand
if they did see it; and which not one church in America
believes to be the system of truth taught in the Holy
Scriptures; for some one chapter in it is rejected by every
church in America. However, it will answer a good
purpose to carry this point. So it was resolved by the
triumvirate to cut off from 36 to 42 voters, that the 30
above referred to might be the association. And so it
came to pass; for soon as the letters were read, every
one that did not mention the Philadelphia Confession of
Faith was handed back to the messenger, and all the
voters included in the letter were rejected from the list.
So that thus, in direct violation of this dead-and-alive
constitution, which saith, "the letters when read shall be
delivered to the moderator or clerk," the representatives
of thirteen or fourteen churches were denied a seat and
a vote in the association; and thus the friends of the
would be Pope and Cardinals have the association to
themselves. Then the thirty voters appoint their own
officers. One becomes a Captain of twenty-nine
individuals, and there is room for two under officers to
preside over 13 each. After having elected their own
officers and invited only such of the strangers to a seat as
would answer their views, they proceed to the greater
excommunication,

[p. 59 - orig. ed.]

having by the lesser excommunication already
despatched about the three-fifths of the whole body.
And here I am constrained to say, that in all my own
experience and reading I have found no parallel to the
procedure of these thirty voters. No inquisitorial process
was ever so informal, and none more shameless and
remorseless. The only thing to which I could compare it
was the tyranny of Robespierre during the reign of terror
in the French Revolution.

An instance or two must suffice: -- The first church on the

list to be given over to Satan was that in Washington. The
guillotine was now erected and the instruments were all
prepared for execution. The Pope and his two Cardinals
in succession belabored this church for about one hour,
calling them Arian, Socinian, Arminian, Antinomian, and
every thing that is bad, because they had in their letter
refused to call W. B. any man Pope or Master on earth.
Not one word were they allowed to say for themselves.
They did not even ask the messengers of this church if
they had any thing to say why the sentence of the law
should not be executed upon them. By a species of what
is sometimes called legerdemain, or, in the Welsh dialect,
hocus pocus, one messenger, or perhaps two, had been
introduced to a seat out of the 42 excluded voters,
before this case of the Washington church came to
judgment. One of these messengers attempted to call a
halt to their procedure, but it was all in vain. The church
was doomed to destruction, and a majority of thirty
hands lifted up to heaven gave their head to the
guillotine and their mortal remains to Satan. Next was
brought up to trial Maple Creek Church, with its good old
Bishop, Henry Spears. The good old man mounts the
scaffold with a serene countenance, and after the
triumvirate had shed a few crocodile tears over the old
man and his church, whom they said they loved as their
own souls, and against whose faith they had not one
objection, save they had omitted to mention these
words, "Philadelphia Confession of Faith," I say, out of a
flow of unusual clemency they asked the good old than if
he had any thing to say why he should not be beheaded
and his carcase given over to Satan. He mildly having
answered

[p. 60 - orig. ed.]

in the negative, the signal was given and he was
despatched without a groan. Next came the venerable
old Matthias Luse and his church on Pigeon Creek. In
addition to the crime of not having mentioned the
"Philadelphia Confession of Faith," it was alleged by the
Cardinal of the Left Wing that they had been guilty of
contumacy and unofficer-like conduct. This gave rise to a
long debate whether they should be executed for a sin of
omission or commission, which was finally decided in
favor of the former. Old Matthias made no confession at
the stake, but died like a sheep. At this time I stood in
need of some fresh air and made my way out of the
crowd. I next attended the funeral of the martyrs, and
appeared no more in the presence of the sanhedrim.
While I was engaged in carrying off the slain, having
occasion to come nigh the guillotine, I heard the last
groans of the Somerset church.

An Elder Bradley from New England had come as a

messenger from Plttsburgh. He, good man, said all that a
stranger could say, to shame the triumvirate and to lead
them to repentance; but he might as well have spit in the
face of a strong north-west wind. He was officially told
that he "occupied too much ground," and must hold his
tongue. His zeal in behalf of moderation so far provoked
the reigning dynasty, that his faith and that of his church
became towards evening heterodox. The Cardinal of the
Left observed, as I am informed, that he had left the
church sound in the faith a few months ago, over which
Mr. Bradley now presided, but that he verily believed
that he (Bradley) had become Arminian or Antinomian,
or some other anti, and had corrupted them. Whereupon
it was moved and seconded, that Mr. Bradley should be
indicted for heterodoxy, and a committee was
appointed, with his accuser as chairman to take him out
to a stump not far from the meeting-house, and try him
forthwith. The good little Yankee had so much presence
of mind and fortitude as to refuse to be tried by his
accuser, and appealed from their jurisdiction to a higher
court. He was then committed to prison, or embargoed,
and a committee was appointed to pursue him to
Pittsburgh in due time, to try him upon the indictment. --

[p. 61 - orig. ed.]

In the meantime, I found it convenient to retire from the
premises, not knowing but by some arbitrary stretch of
power I might be put to death; and so I mounted my
horse, and escaped out of their hands. What was done
during the night I cannot tell; but so far as I have
narrated I pledge myself for the truth substantially of all
that I have stated upon the evidence of my own senses.

While I confess myself very doubtful of all those

meetings called associations, conventions, conferences,
&c. which view themselves either as a church
representative, or as representatives of churches, I
willingly own that the misdemeanors of these thirty
voters are not to be charged to the account of, or
preferred as objections against associations: for one
reason; viz. they possessed not one attribute, but
divested themselves of every feature, of a Baptist
association. For example; suppose thirty members of
congress should arrive at Washington city a few days
before the others, and after several night meetings
agree, that, as each newly elected member must
produce, from the proper authority in his district, a
letter, attesting him to be duly elected, they would
reject, from a seat in that body, every member whose
letter was not worded in the same set phrase, which they
themselves had fixed upon as constitutional: I say,
suppose that these thirty congress-men, after dismissing
all the others, should proceed to call themselves the
congress of the United States, and to claim the rights,
and profess to perform the duties, of that body; would
any man in his senses call them such, or would he object
to all or any meetings of congress, because thirty
individuals had taken it into their heads to tyrannize over
the nation? Not the system, but the men, in this case
would become the proper subjects of reprehension. It is
as nearly analogous to the case in hand, as any we can
well imagine. I would not, then, attack all general or
public meetings of messengers from christian
communities, through the medium of such monstrous
occurrences; nor lay to their charge the conduct of these
modern religious knight errants. But as there are the
leaders and the led in this, as in all similar occurrences;
and as the led are perhaps conscientious in their votes,

[p. 62 - orig. ed.]

while the leaders cannot reasonably be thought to have
any conscience about it, it may be necessary to ask a few
questions designed to awaken them to reflection. --
When your moderator prayed in the morning of this day
of slaughter that you might "act in all your proceedings
from unfeigned love to the Saviour, and the brethren,
and with a single eye to the glory of God," did you say,
Amen? If you did, were you in earnest? When he prayed
that you "might be directed in all the proceedings of the
day by the Holy Spirit," did you not remember that you
had, the night before, determined on the course you
would pursue? Did you ever think of the similarity of
your proceedings in council to those of that Sanhedrim
which condemned THE JUST ONE to the cursed tree? Did
you act as a church representative, or as representatives
of the consciences of your friends at home? By what law
or rule in the Testament, or in the Confession of Faith,
did you pretend to excommunicate churches? From what
did you excommunicate them? Do you think that their
not naming "the Philadelphia Confession" will preclude
their admission into heaven? And if your
excommunication cannot affect their standing in the
estimation of the Great King and the holy angels, how
much is your excommunication worth? Will it degrade
them in the estimation of men, or does it not degrade
you? Do you not rank a refusal to acknowledge the
Confession of Faith, with murder, adultery, and theft:
inasmuch, as you affix as grievous a censure, and as
heavy a punishment, to the one as the other? Do you not
make a denial of the Bible and of your human creed
equally criminal, and equally worthy of the greater
excommunication? What assurance does it give either of
the faith of a church, or of an individual to say: -- "We
believe in the scriptures of the Old and New Testament,
as they are explained and held forth in the Philadelphia
Confession of Faith?" Does this Redstone patented form
of a church letter, give any assurance at all, that the
church is a christian church? Would not their saying or
writing any thing else be just as good proof? What sort of
a foundation for christian love is this -- "We believe in the
Bible as explained in the Confession
[p. 63 - orig. ed.]
of Faith?" To love for this sake, is it to love for Christ's
sake? Do you think that the best way to save life is to cut
off the head, to quench a flame by throwing oil upon it;
or to reconcile the injured by adding to their grievances?
Do you think that the Lord will thank you now, or smile
upon you hereafter, for having declared that you will
have no christian fellowship with those who own the
same Lord, claim the same Spirit, worship the same God:
hold the same faith, hope, and baptism with you,
because they would neither bow the head, nor bend the
knee, to your little Philadelphia Confession of Opinions?
Do you think your consciences will approve it when you
come to die, and that you will glory in having done so in
the day of Judgment? Lastly, would you not, and ought
you not, was it in your power, according to your
proceedings, to bolt the gates of heaven against those
churches, and banish out of that kingdom all who will not
subscribe your book of dogmas?

I do not think you either will or can answer these queries;

but my desire is that you may from your inability to
answer them, be brought to repentance before it be
measured to you, as you have measured to others. Ed.