THE BLACK ROCK ADDRESS OF 1832...

Black Rock Address 1832

MINUTES OF THE PROCEEDINGS AND RESOLUTIONS, DRAFTED BY THE PARTICULAR BAPTISTS, CONVENED AT BLACK ROCK, MARYLAND SEPTEMBER 28, 1832 ALSO KNOWN AS


THE BLACK ROCK ADDRESS OF 1832

(Copied from the first number of the Signs of the Times.)

SOT: EXHORTATION...

“I Charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their oars from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” – 2 Tim. iv. 1-4.

RR: FAMINE...

Turn on your TV or radio, flip through the stations and you will invariably hear someone talking about a dreadful famine somewhere in the world. Famine is not a pretty sight, so those who would encourage you to send money to help the sufferers show you the most pitiful pictures of starving children.

SOT: THE ELECTION OF GRACE...

Beloved In Christ: – We are called upon to look to the Rock from whence we were hewn, as well as to the hole of the pit from whence we were digged, showing that we are from both earth and heaven. So the song of the redeemed is, “He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a Rock, and established my goings.”

SOT: FOREKNOWLEDGE = PERMISSION

Beloved Editors And Brethren: – A reverential and scriptural inquiry into the revealed attributes and purposes of the eternal God, who is at once infinitely holy and wise and almighty, is commendable, and should glorify him in our view.

SOT: MISSIONARIES THEN AND NOW...

Orwell, Bradford Co. Pa.
Feb. 5, 1835

BROTHER BEEBE: To me it appears curious to see how men love to imitate the Serpent, while they know that he is under the curse. But it is not much to be wondered at that many should follow their pernicious ways, since some kind of religion is esteemed necessary; and the religion of the present day is so much more agreeable to the depraved heart than the soul humbling religion of the Cross, and men love so well to follow the fashion.

SOT: A GREAT CALF...

“These be thy gods,” O New School Baptists!

SOT: SALARY PREACHING....

“THERE is one thing more I wish to tell you, as I was informed on my way. A certain pious young man, late from Orange County, who is now at Hamilton enjoying the blessings of that institution to qualify him for the work of the ministry, has reported that an Old School Baptist brother informed him that Elder Beebe had a contract with the people where he preached, for a specified sum to pay him for his preaching to them. If I recollect right the sum was $300 per year, and that Elder Beebe would not preach without such agreement. Also, that Elder Harding would not even preach a funeral sermon without having his pay for it. In reply to which, I stated that I did not believe any such thing. Now if I have done wrong in so doing, and am mistaken in relation to your sentiments and practice in the case, please be so kind as to correct me therein, for which you shall have my sincere thanks.

Yours as ever,
HEZEKIAH WEST.
Patchin’s Mills, Steuben Co., N. Y., July 26, 1843

SOT: RENOUNCING IDOLS...

“Predestinarian Baptist Convention, for the PURPOSE of a new association begun and held at Salem Meeting house, Boone County, Ky., on the 27th, 28th and 29th of November, 1840."
“A FRIEND has furnished us with a document with the above title; and we regret that we cannot say anything in commendation of the proceedings of this body, or of the Spirit by which it is actuated. It is composed of eight fractions of churches, which have rent themselves from the North Bend Association, on account of the missionary spirit prevailing in that Association. They claim to represent 295 members; but as the bible assures us that no man ever yet resisted God and prospered, we are sure that all who oppose the spread of the gospel will be defeated; and these with the rest. We cannot forbear an expression of our unfeigned sorrow, in view of the direful effects of that fell spirit of discord and anti-christianity, which is manifested on the part of those misguided brethren who set themselves in array against the spread of the word of life; and in all sincerity we say, ‘Lord forgive them, they know not what they.’” Banner & Pioneer.

SERMON: ELDER DIRKES ON II KINGS 8:4...

“And the King talked with Gehazi the servant of the man of God, saying, Tell me, I pray you, all the great things that Elisha has done” (II King 8:4).

SOT REPRINTS: REPLENISH THE TREASURY!...

“THIS is all important. The Lord’s treasury requires filling up. We pray the brethren in Pennsylvania not to forget when making up their contributions for missions, that the treasury of the Pennsylvania Baptist Convention is laboring under a consumption. That we have between thirty and forty missionaries dependent upon us for aid, and now looking anxiously for their quarter’s appropriations, without our having one dollar in the fluids!"

“Brethren, remember the missionaries in your own state of Pennsylvania.” – Baptist Record.

SOT: REGENERATION NOT THE NEW BIRTH....

Since the publication of brother J. F. Johnson's communication on the subject of regeneration, we have received several letters from brethren, some approving and others querying as to the correctness of his position.

SOT: FALLING AWAY OF BAPTISTS...

DEAR BROTHER; I have just finished reading the 3d number of the Signs, and have been much pleased with its contents. I should suppose your definition of Old School, sufficient to satisfy any honest enquirer, that it is not to create an order of Baptist, distinct from the old particulars; but merely an expletive rendered necessary by the present state of things among the Baptists;

SOT: AN EDUCATED MINISTRY...

This question, whether a classical education is necessary to be a gospel minister, has elicited much disputation in what is called the christian world.

SOT: CALL TO THE MINISTRY...

MR. SANDS, through his Herald, has attempted a description of a call to the ministry; the concluding part only, we have read; and from the specimen which we will give, we conclude it may pass as a call to the New School ministry; but the ministers of Christ are very differently taught of the Lord.

SOT: THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH 3...

The words of the text at the head of our remarks, are peculiarly applicable to the case of a soul delivered from a state of trials, temptations and bondage. Although in our foregoing remarks we have alluded to the first entrance of quickened souls into gospel rest, the idea of returning to one’s rest certainly implies that he has been there before.

SOT: THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH 2...

In the preceding number, we offered some remarks upon the preceding verses of the Psalm from which the above text is taken, in which we not only regarded the theme as predictive of the sufferings and triumphs of our Lord Jesus Christ, but also expressive of the experience of all the children of God, who have been delivered from the power of darkness, the bondage and works of the law, and finally brought experimentally into the enjoyment of the christian Sabbath, where they are enabled to rest from their own works, and rely alone upon the finished salvation of our God.

SOT: THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH 1...

“Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.” – Psalm cxvi. 7.

SOT: WILSON THOMPSON ON TREACHERY...

CORRESPONDENCE.

Harrisburg, Ia., March 22, 1840.

Dear Brother Beebe: – I yet live as a pilgrim in the West. The lives of those who seek a better country must of course be exposed to many storms and privations. These we often measured out in proportion to the character of the inhabitants of the region through which he travels: he may be annoyed by one common foe, or he may be exposed to a variety of interests, hailing under various colors, all combined for his annoyance. I live under this last mentioned circumstance.

SOT: WILSON THOMPSON ON MEANS...

Harrisburg, Fayette Co., Ia., Jan. 17, 1847.

Brother Beebe: – My communications to you have been few and poor, which I suppose may account for their not appearing in the SIGNS. I had concluded to leave that valuable periodical to more able and learned pens; to such as could write more acceptable and more to edification. I should not have written those communications which were rejected, but for the urgent request of the afflicted and misrepresented brethren who were at that time barred out of the meeting houses by locks, bolts, rails, law trials, and mobs, by the Means party or faction.

SOT REPRINT: ON SABBATICAL LAWS...

The Mosaic institution, which formed the tribes into a theocracy, was very different from the government of any other nation, and from the government of Gospel churches.

SOT: MISSIONARY SOCIETIES...

A CORRESPONDENT in Palestine, in a late letter to his friend in this country, dated at Nazareth, in Galilee, writes thus:

SOT: CONFLICTS WHICH BESET ZION'S PILGRIMS...

Home, April 28, 1847.

DEAR BROTHER BEEBE: – The conflicts which beset Zion’s pilgrims in the deserts of this world are often heavy; and when the clouds of adversity are gathering around us we are apt to say as old Jacob did, All these things are against us; but, like him, we often see in the end that all things work together for good, as they always do, to them that love the Lord, &c. I am more and more confirmed in the belief any of God’s children but when there is a real needs-be for it, and that these are as necessary in the great family of God, as those bright days and golden moments in which we so greatly rejoice.

SOT: "BENEVOLENT" & MISSIONARY SOCIETIES...

Lebanon, Ohio, Nov. 17, 1834

DEAR BROTHER BEEBE: – I have been a reader of your periodical for the last two years; I have found many things in it which I approved, nay admired, and some things which I thought unworthy of your columns. I have never troubled you with any of my scribbling, and in sending this sheet for inspection, I shall leave you the judge of its claims to patronage; and if you shall see proper to send it out to run the gauntlet in your periodical, I am content to see the weapons which may be raised against it.

BOOK: HYPER-CALVINISM: IT IS TRUE?

via GIPHY
We post this free ebook by Stanley Philipps written in 2000 on the subject of the trends that were changing Baptists in the late 17th and early 19th century, such as Mission Societies, and other "benevolent societies".

SOT: ASSOCIATIONS 2...

Among the various religious denominations where churches are formed into what are called associations, there is much difference in regard to the subject of ecclesiastical power vested in them. But as the enquiries of our correspondent relate exclusively to those of the Old School Baptists, we will confine our remarks to them. But as we are not authorized to define the views of all Old School Baptists on the subject, we will not hold any of them responsible for such views as we may give; but we will only say that the following views are substantially what we understand to be the views of the Old School Baptists generally.

SOT REPRINTS: ASSOCIATIONS...

It is to us, at all times, a matter of no small joy, to witness a disposition on the part of our brethren, to examine the divine rule, and to inquire at the sacred oracle for the validity of every institution of our religious practice. The attention of several of our dear brethren, in these parts and elsewhere, has lately led to the subject of Associations, and it will be seen that the result of their investigation, thus far, has not produced a unanimity of sentiment on the subject.

SERMON ELDER DIRKES: ELIJAH PART 3...

“But he went a day’s journey into the wilderness and coming and sitting down under a juniper tree, requesting that he might die, saying, It is enough now Yahveh take my life; for I am no better than my father”
(I Kings 19:4)

SOT: ADONIRAM JUDSON'S LETTER 2...

(From the Baptist Register.)

“BROTHER JUDSON notices in the following note to brother Allen the sentence in his letter on retrenchment, which gave rise to many injudicious strictures, and in a manner that we hope will put to silence those who have too readily impugned him:

SOT: ADONIRAM JUDSON'S LETTER....

While with this Burman Missionary, we disapprove of and protest against the wicked extravagance and waste committed by a portion of the professed followers of the meek and lowly Lamb of God, we cannot with propriety withhold our hearty protest against his proposed plan of reform.

SOT: ANTIQUITY OF NEW SCHOOLISM...

This is truly a singular head for an article, but the subject to which we have to adver is perhaps no less singular.

WHAT ADAM WAS, AND WHAT HE LOST BY THE FALL...

We feel a pleasure when we are enabled to help the mind of any brother or sister, on any subject of divine revelation on which they may be laboring in searching after the truth as it is in Jesus, but we have not the vanity to believe that we are able to meet and put to silence all the cavils and vain speculations which may be presented against what we honestly understand to be the plain and obvious testimony of the Scriptures of truth.

SOT: ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY & CHURCH CREEDS...

Since the Apostles of the Lamb have finished their course with us in the flesh, no history of the church of God should be allowed to lure us from the doctrine which they taught, the judgments they have recorded, the ordinances they have enjoined; nothing is to be added nor aught diminished from the perfect standard of faith and order they established, which is confirmed by all the valid authority of earth and heaven.

REFLECTION ON BAPTIST HISTORY IN AMERICA...

From the earliest settlement of our country by the Puritans in New England, and the Church of England in the Southern colonies, whose religious supremacy was established by law in their several localities, the Baptists, and indeed all other dissenting orders, suffered great oppositions by proscription and oppression from the dominant parties.

SOT: ANTI-CHRISTIAN INSTITUTIONS...

Our brethren in Georgia are right in asking of us scriptural authority for the position we have taken in regard to the religious inventions of the day.

SOT: ANCIENT & MODERN METHODS OF BUILDING...

In offering few remarks on this subject, we will confine ourself to the idea of building what are denominated christian churches. Although the Dove, the undefiled of our Lord is but one, and is identified with Christ her head, yet the queens and concubines being many, and all passing among men for christian churches, the plural number must be employed in order to include the variety.

SOT: CONCERNING ELECTION & CALLING...

BROTHER JEWETT: - The third subject which I proposed examining is that of Election & Calling. I connect these together in my examination, not because there is not a distinction between them; but because that though election is the going forth of God in his eternal purpose, and calling is a time act, yet the latter is but a making manifest the individuals embraced in the purpose of election, and is that alone by which the objects of God’s electing love, can be known by us in time.

SOT REPRINT: CONCERNING HOLINESS...

Whether those of our brethren, who in supporting their different systems, speak so much of the holiness of heaven, as though it afforded an unanswerable argument against the possibility of angels having sinned, do actually believe that there is a certain region, a mere locality, within the bounds of God’s Creation, which is so essentially holy that sin cannot enter its bounds;

SOT: DUTY FAITH & REPENTANCE...

An enquiry concerning the duty of the unregenerate to believe, repent or pray.

SOT: CONCERNING SIN...

BROTHER JEWETT: - In reading certain communications on subjects which have been, for some time past, agitated in Old School periodicals, I have been struck with the diversity of opinion there appears to be on several general, leading principles. Hence the difference about sin, Satan &c. The principles to which I refer, and which it is my design to examine, may be embraced in the following heads: 1st Sin, 2nd Holiness, 3rd Election and Calling, 4th The ground of Christ’s glory as a Savior. These subjects would require, fully to illustrate them, the ample pages of a volume, instead of a few columns in a periodical; I shall of course but glance at them in these communications; though I may give a sketch of what I understand the Scriptures to reveal concerning them.

ANTINOMIANISM EXAMINED & ITS RELATION TO ARMINIANISM...

BROTHER BEEBE: – I received a letter a short time since, from Bro. P. Meredith, in which he requests me also to give my views of the text, Job 28:7,8, in reference to the enquiry whether there is not a path which passes between the sand bars of Arminianism and the granite rocks of Antinomianism.

SOT: PUBLIC ADDRESS TO THE BAPTIST SOCIETY...

Circumstances have occurred in the course of a year or two past, which have caused some letters to pass between myself and some of my brethren, on the mission system, which letters have created an anxiety in the minds of some of my acquaintances, and they have requested me to bring my views on that subject before the public. And as I feel my mind seriously impressed to detect error and defend the cause of Truth, I feel willing to answer my part, and shew my opinion.

SERMON ELDER CHET DIRKES ON ELIJAH & AHAB...

“And after many days it came to pass that the Word of Yahveh came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew yourself unto Ahab and I will send rain upon the earth” (I Kings 18:1)

SOT: BORN OF THE SPIRIT...

Lexington, Ky., March, 1880.

ELDER G. BEEBE & SON – DEAR BRETHREN: - For more than sixty years I have esteemed the Bible as among the unappreciable blessings that our God has bestowed upon his church, containing everything needful for us to know, believe and do in his service; but what solid comfort or instruction could it afford us in the absence of that other inestimable blessing, the holy interpreter, of whom it is said, “He shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you?” Especially shall we remember, “The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”

SOT: BORN OF GOD...

Near Lexington, Ky., April 20, 1868.

MY DEAR BROTHER BEEBE: - I have read with deep and abiding interest, and decided approval, your very kind and brotherly reply to both Elder Vanmeter of Illinois, and Elder Wright of Indiana, and feel disposed, with your permission to subjoin some thoughts on the interesting topics you have discussed in those replies.

SOT: THREE-ONENESS OF GOD...

The Scriptural doctrine of God's existing as One and Three, presented for the consideration of brethren:

SOT: I'D RATHER BE A HARDSHELL...

THE COMFORT OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THE TRIAL OF FAITH...

Dear Children Of God: – The holy Scriptures are a divine store-house of heavenly treasures and a pure fountain of spiritual health and peace, but the Prince of the house of David has the keys, and he must set before us an open door.

SOT: FATALISM...

From my earliest acquaintance with the Old School Baptists I have heard all the Arminian tribes calling them Fatalists, and the doctrine preached by them Fatalism. When an enemy of the truth desires to bring odium upon the doctrine of Predestination, and to calumniate maliciously those who believe in salvation by grace, the choicest word that his vocabulary can afford him is Fatalism.

SOT: A DREAM-TOUR THROUGH THE ARMINIAN HEAVEN...

After several hours conversation with an Arminian upon the subject of salvation and heaven, I fell into a deep musing, my fancy took possession of me and flew away, and ere I was aware I was set down within the golden gates of the “Land of the Blessed.” No sooner did my imagination realize my whereabouts, than I set about to explore the long sought country.

THE KING JAMES VERSION INSPIRED?

I was recently taken to task on a forum claiming to be for free and sovereign grace for stating my views on translations of the Bible as set forth in my Brief Comments on the King James Version.