out any authority from the association, call or denominate the excommunicated ones a Church; and thus, as far as in them lay, prevented their re-union on such grounds as could, on regular Baptist principles, constitute them a regular Baptist Church. Although, then, Mr. Greatrake glories in the name of a Regular Baptist, as though the very name should “cover a multitude of sins" he is not at present acting as such in the instances specified. This, with me, is, however, a very small matter, as I lay no stress on such names, whether assumed or bestowed. There is a Church in Pittsburg that would rejoice much more in being a regular Church of Christ than a regular Baptist Church; which Church has two Bishops, who, while they watch over and labour among the Saints, labour, working with their own hands according to the apostolic command; and not only minister to their wants, but are ensamples to the flock in beneficence and hospitality. This Church, by walking in the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, is edified and enlarged by regular accessions, and their example in that city is a dangerous one to those who would maintain themselves by maintaining such opinions as will maintain them!! The object of the letterwriter evidently being to defame this Church as well as myself, it was necessary to present the reader with this brief notice of things in relation to the Rev. Mr. Greatrake. Now to the letters.

There are four conjectures, in some respects different, and in some respects not very distinct, by which Mr. Greatrake de monstrates that I am unregenerated. The first is, that I “must have received some personal pique or experienced some severe disappointment, if not both, from the denomination or Church to which I formerly belonged." The second is that I must be stimulated by an "insatiate vanity." The third, that I am actuated by avarice, or, as he expresses it, by my " pecuniary interest." The fourth is, that I am aiming at being the head of a party. Into one, or more, or all of these evil motives, he resolves my two debates on Baptism and the Christian Baptist, and thence concludes that I am a very bad man-although my extrinsic character he acknowledges is good.

I could have wished that my biographer had taken a little more time, and a little more of the advice of his friends, in waiting to get acquainted with my history and myself, and have left it to some more skilful, though less benevolent hand, to write memoirs of my life. I have only to make a statement of a few facts and occurrences of general notoriety, and I think his efforts will require no comment nor praise.

I sailed from the city of Londonderry on the 3d day of October, 1808, destined for the city of Philadelphia; but being ship

wrecked on the coast of Ila on the night of the 9th of the same month, I was detained until the 3d day of August, 1809, on which day I sailed from the city of Greenock for New York. On the 27th of which month I and the whole ship's company had almost perished in the Atlantic; but through the watchful care and tender mercy of our Heavenly Father, we were brought to the harbour which we desired to see, and safely landed in New York on the 29th of September, 1809. On the 28th of the next month I arrived in Washington, Pennsylvania, to which place I have been known ever since. I arrived in this country with credentials in my pocket from that sect of Presbyterians known by the name of Seceders. These credentials certified that I had been both in Ireland, in the presbytery of Market Hill, and in Scotland, in the presbytery of Glasgow, a member of the Secession Church, in good standing. My faith in creeds and confessions of human device was considerably shaken while in Scotland, and I commenced my career in this country under the conviction that nothing that was not as old as the New Testament should be made an article of faith, a rule of practice, or a term of communion amongst Christians. In a word, that the whole of the Christian religion exhibited in prophecy and type in the Old Testament, was presented in the fullest, clearest, and most perfect manner in the New Testament by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation.

This has been the pole-star of my course ever since, and I thank God that he has enabled me so far to prosecute it, and to make all my prejudices and ambition bow to this emancipating principle. I continued in the examination of the Scriptures, ecclesiastical history, and systems of divinity, ancient and modern, until July 15, 1810, on which I publicly avowed my convictions of the independency of the Church of Christ and the excellency and authority of the Scriptures, in a discourse from the last section of what is commonly called "Christ's Sermon on the Mount," During this year I pronounced one hundred and six orations on sixty-one primary topics of the Christian religion in the western part of Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the neighbouring part of Ohio. On the 12th of March, 1811, I took unto myself a wife of the Presbyterian connexion, and on the 25th of the same month became a resident in Virginia. I became a citizen of Virginia as soon as the laws of the state permitted, and have continued such until this day. In conformity to the grand principle which I have called the pole-star of my course of religious inquiry, I was led to question the claims of infant sprinkling to divine authority, and was, after a long, serious, and prayerful examination of all means of information, led to solicit immersion on a profession of my faith, when as yet I scarce

knew a Baptist from Washington to the Ohio, in the immediate region of my labours, and when I did not know that any friend or relation on earth would concur with me. I was accordingly baptised by Elder Matthias Luse, who was accompanied by Elder Henry Spears, on the 12th day of June, 1812. In the meantime I pursued the avocations of a husbandman as the means of my subsistence; and while I discharged, as far as in me lay, the duties of a Bishop (having been regularly ordained one of the Elders of the Church of Christ at Brush Run), and itinerated frequently through the circumjacent country, I did it without any earthly remuneration. I did not at first contemplate forming any connexion with the Regular Baptist Association called "the Redstone," as the perfect independency of the Church, and the pernicious tendency of human creeds and terms of communion were subjects to me of great concern. As a mere spectator, I did, however, visit the Redstone Association in the fall of 1812. After a more particular acquaintance with some of the members and ministers of that connexion, the Church of Brush Run did finally agree to unite with that Association on the ground that no terms of union or communion other than the Holy Scriptures should be required. On this ground, after presenting a written declaration of our belief (always distinguishing betwixt making a declaration of our faith for the satisfaction of others, and binding that declaration on others as a term of communion), we united with the Redstone Association in the fall of 1813; in which connexion the Church of Brush Run yet continues. In the close of 1814 and beginning of 1815 I made an extensive tour through a part of the eastern region, visiting the cities of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, and did, to my present shame, by milking both the sheep and the goats, obtain about 1,000 dollars for the building of a meeting-house in Wellsburgh, a place then destitute of any house for religious meetings. In 1816 I delivered a discourse on the law before the Redstone Association, which being published by request, gave rise to some discussion, which resulted, we believe, in some benefit to the searchers after truth. January, 1818, I undertook the care of a classical and mercantile academy, known by the name of the " Buffaloe Seminary." I continued the principal of this seminary for five and a half years. In 1820, after being thrice solicited by the Baptists, I did consent to debate with Mr. Walker on the subject of baptism. Of this debate two editions have been published-one by myself, of 1,000 copies, and one by Messrs. Eichbaum and Johnson, of 3,000. In 1823 I commenced editing the Christian Baptist, and in the fall of 1823 held a public debate with Mr. MacCalla, which grew out of the former with Mr. Walker. These out

lines bring me up till the present year, and render a further detail unnecessary. I should have observed that a Church was organised in the town of Wellsburgh in 1823, which was composed for the most part of members dismissed from the Church at Brush Run, of which Church I was appointed a bishop.

The reader will agree with me in the result that it was expedient for me to give this abstract with circumstantial accuracy, and we can not only solemnly testify the above statement to be correct and strictly true, but we are able to prove every item of it of any importance before any tribunal, civil or ecclesiastical. With this document before us, let us now attend to the first conjecture. It is founded on a falsehood. I never received any personal pique, or experienced any disappointment, from any Presbyterian sect, Seceder or other. I never asked one favour from any Paido-Baptist sect, and therefore never received any disappointment. Nay, so far from this, favours were offered and not accepted. Immediately after my arrival in this country the academy at Pittsburgh was offered me, and invitations to union with the Paido-Baptist sects presented to me. Everything is just the reverse of Mr. Greatrake's conjecture. Time after time favours, ecclesiastical favours, were offered me, and no considertion under Heaven but conscience forbade their acceptance. Indeed I am bound gratefully to remember the kind offers and offices of many Paido-Baptists, and a better return I cannot, as I think, make, than to admonish them of their errors. The first night that I spent in Washington county, Pa., I enjoyed the hospitalities of Doctor Samuel Ralston.

P.S. As a supplement to this short piece of Mr. Campbell's biography, I may add the following obituary notice from the Christian Baptist, vol. 5., p. 96.

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On Monday, the 22d November, 1827, after a tedious and painful illness, of a consumptive character, which she bore with the utmost fortitude, patience, and resignation, departed this life, Mrs. Margaret Campbell, consort of the editor of this paper, aged 36 years. The deceased was a Christian in profession and practice, and did in her life and deportment for many years recommend the excellency of the Christian profession to all her acquaintance; and during her long illness, and in her death, she did exhibit to her numerous connexions and friends how tranquilly and cheerfully a Christian can meet death and resign the spirit into the hands of a gracious and Divine Redeemer. die," she said, "without an anxiety about anything upon the earth, having committed all that interests me into the hands of my faithful and gracious Heavenly Father, and in the confident expectation of a glorious resurrection when the Lord Jesus

"I

appears unto salvation of all who trust in him." Without an effort towards a eulogy or an encomium-without a single bias from the most endearing relation-we simply announce the above event for the information of a numerous acquaintance, widely extended, and as an apology for the delay of the present number beyond the usual time. Her dying address to her five surviving little daughters we may, for their benefit and that of others, lay before our readers in a subsequent number. "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."

A. C.

ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE SALVATION OF MEN.

[ ESSAY, NO. I. From the Christian Baptist, Vol. V. ] "Correct views of the office of the Holy Spirit in the salvation of men, are essential to the knowledge of the Christian religion, as also to our enjoyment of it."-MR. A. CAMPBELL'S ESSAYS, Christian Baptist, Vol. II.

It

Whoever reads the sacred pages with an enlightened and attentive mind, will discover that the operations of the Spirit of God are various and manifold. To this wonder-working agent are ascribed creative energy,-miraculous events,--extraordinary qualifications, and sanctifying influences on the souls of men. is only "parts of his ways" that we can undertake to speak of; or, indeed, of which we have a conception. Those classes of divine operations which appear more immediately to concern the salvation of men, are, the miraculous and the sanctifying. Of the first class of these operations, it is not my intention now to treat; and, indeed, any attempt of this sort, on my part, is amply and ably forestalled by a series of Essays in the Christian Baptist, vol. 2, to which I would refer the reader for a luminous view of this part of the subject. The other class of divine operations, namely, those of a sanctifying nature, will furnish the subject for this undertaking, in the execution of which it will be my aim to be short and plain.

The view which I wish to exhibit contains three points First, the reality of a divine influence on the souls of men in effecting the work of salvation. Secondly, some of the principal effects produced by this operation. And, thirdly, the high practical import of this truth. To the first only I can attend in the present number. And here I desire it may be observed, that I do not assume either Calvinian or Arminian ground, as being either of them exclusively necessary to this view. It is on scrip