OSBOURNE CHARGES (1840)

For the Signs of the Times.

Trenton, Butler Co., O., July 7, 1840.

ELDER BEEBE:—In consequence of the various charges and reproaches thrown out in the public prints by Elder Osbourn against the western Baptists in general, and the Miami Association in particular, the churches belonging to that Association took up the matter, and after deliberate investigation, agreed to draw up a remonstrance containing their positive denial of Elder O’s charges, and their grievance with him for the same, and to send it to the church to which he belonged. This they did in February last, requesting that church to deal with him according to the discipline of the Gospel; also requesting information of the proceedings of that church as soon as practicable: but they as yet have received no answer, and believing that they have waited a reasonable length of time, they now wish to have their remonstrance and prompt denial of those slanderous charges spread before the public as far as the charges have been spread. Accordingly they have sent the same to the editor of the Doctrinal Advocate and Spiritual Monitor, for publication; and the charges have been copied into the Signs of the Times, (and ably replied to,) our much esteemed Brother I. T. Saunders, you are requested to publish also the following remonstrance and subjoined resolutions of the church, that the public generally may know that Brother Saunders does not stand alone in exposing the foul slander and falsehoods cast upon the western Baptists.

Yours in the afflictions of the gospel,
JOSEPH H. FLINT.

Calumny Refuted.

Or a gross denial of the charge of heresy, as preferred against Western Baptists by Elder James Osbourn of Baltimore.

The following named Regular Old School Baptist Churches, belonging to the Miami Baptist Association, in Ohio,—To their brethren in the East, and to all whom it may concern, as christians in the common faith, we send Christian salutation:

DEAR BRETHREN:—In the course of providence and of human events, it hath so fallen to our lot, painful as the task is, and unpleasant as the tears may appear to you, that we feel ourselves called upon at this time to expose to the general view among Baptist brethren, by circumstances unavoidable, in making our defence against heinous charges as very reproachful to the church and cause of the dear Redeemer. And this defence we have long delayed, even until now; not knowing what course to pursue to remove the foul stain cast upon us, and not knowing but that Elder O. might, upon serious reflection, recall, or recall his accusations; also hoping that in the providence the Lord would grant him light to see the magnitude of his offensive insinuations, with sorrow and repentance for the sin he produced himself into before the people of Jesus. It has now become painfully notorious that the Baptists in the Great West are ADVERTISED in the public prints as HERETICS; and in the “Doctrinal Advocate and Spiritual Monitor,” published by D. E. Jewett, in the state of New York, those charges stand conspicuous, where they are brought to bear directly upon the churches composing the Miami Association, or the singular fame Osbourn which charged in all their bearings and feelings, we may exceed any thing of reproachful and slanderous character that we have ever heard against the Baptists. Yes, brethren, we are free to confess, to the honor and credit of the New School Baptists, that during all the contention and struggle between them and ourselves, with all the objections they could raise against us and our proceedings, they never once challenged our faith in the doctrine of the Trinity, nor slandered, nor accused us of so abominable sins and gross heretics and graceless professors. And not only so, but with respect to the origin or author of those accusations, we here take occasion to adopt the sentiments of Brother Trott on this subject: “If those charges had been set up against us by our avowed enemies, they might well have been passed unnoticed; but coming from the quarter they do, they palpably deserve attention.” The Miami Association, of which we are members, at her last session took up the subject of said charges and referred the matter to the churches, as more properly belonging to them; and we now, in strict accordance with the spirit and meaning of that reference, we here ourselves distinctly implicated in and accused of those heresies, and as churches, have taken up the subject and heard on it;—we now, therefore, proceed to make our defence and positive denial of those disgraceful charges, together with a brief history of Eld. O’s visit among us.

Whereas Elder Osbourn, when on a visit to the western country, attended the session of the Miami Association in the year of our Lord 1837, where he was treated with marked attention and brotherly respect, and was placed upon the stand to preach from time to time,—the general drift of his doctrine was esteemed sound with some important exceptions. He was also placed upon the stand to preach on Lord’s Day of that session, when he handed out to the people the most inconsistent mixture of truth and error that we ever heard in any one sermon; and, among other things, he then publicly declared to the assembly that “God the Father CANNOT regenerate a sinner, because it is NOT HIS PREROGATIVE!!! that God the Son, the second person in the Trinity, CANNOT regenerate a sinner, because it is NOT HIS PROVINCE so to do!!! but it is the province of the Holy Ghost, the third person in the trinity, to regenerate sinners!!!” There and thereby presumptuously limiting the power of Almighty God, and denying both the Father and the Son, as well as personifying the Trinity so very distinctly and pointedly as to represent three distinct gods in the Godhead; one of whom can regenerate a sinner, and the other two CANNOT! Such sentiments we disapproved of, and some of our brethren, being wounded and knowing the intimacy and correspondence that had existed between Elder O. and the Clerk of the Association, requested the latter [Br. Saunders] to write to Elder O. and acquaint him with our hurt and disapprobation of such sentiments, which thing appeared to have so light an effect on the mind of Elder O. as to set him to writing and making publications against us as Sabellians. Now, brethren, our feelings and judgment on that subject remained the same; that is, we still viewed that doctrine to have at least a squinting to Tritheism, and perhaps gave some further explanation on the subject; and in compliance with that request, Brother Saunders did so; and he received an answer from Elder Osbourn after containing a manifestation of the spirit of retaliation, reviling abuse and personal reproaches against some of our ministers in particular whom he highly revered, and also against the whole Association of elders and brethren in general. However, all these things we felt disposed to bear so far as was consistent with the cause of God and the good of Zion. Knowing that Eld. O. was only a mortal like passions with us and subject to err, we hoped the error was only in words, and not in faith—and even now we should not have published these things, were we not thus called upon and compelled to come out and appear in self defence against his after charges now to be seen in the prints of the east, wherein he has to our prejudice, advertised us as Sabellians, Arians, Socinians, Unitarians, Infidels, &c.; all of which charges and implications we deny and repel in the most positive form, and pronounce them SLANDER AND FALSEHOODS. And we feel ourselves grieved and wounded that Elder Osbourn should so far depart from the spirit and principles of the gospel of Christ to publish to the world such groundless charges against us, without even laboring with us to know whether we were guilty of such heresies or not. We therefore feel bound by the injunctions of scripture to withdraw all fellowship from Elder Osbourn until he publicly recants or recalls those offensive charges. And we also hereby call upon and earnestly request the church to which he belongs to deal with him for the offensive suggestions above recited and found published in the Advocate and Monitor.

The signatures of the churches:

The Regular Baptist Church of Christ, called Indian Creek, having taken up the charges and allegations of Elder Osbourn against the western Baptists, Resolved, That we coincide with the facts stated in the foregoing, and do hereby subscribe to the same.

Signed by order and on behalf of the church,
ABRAHAM LEE, Church Clerk.
Butler Co., Ohio, Dec. 26, 1839.

Mount Zion, Ohio, Dec. 27, 1839.

The Regular Baptist Church of Christ, called Mount Zion, having taken up the charges and allegations of Elder Osbourn against the western Baptists, Resolved, That we coincide with the facts stated in the foregoing, and do hereby subscribe to the same.

Signed by order and in behalf of the church.
THOMAS SMITH, Church Clerk.
Hamilton Co., Ohio, Dec. 28, 1839.

The Regular Baptist Church of Christ called Dry Fork of Whitewater, having taken up the charges and allegations of Elder Osbourn against the western Baptists, Resolved, That we coincide with the facts stated in the foregoing, and do hereby subscribe to the same.

Signed by order and in behalf of the church.
SAMUEL GIVENS, Ch. Clk.
Hamilton Co., Ohio, Dec. 30, 1839.

The Regular Baptist Church of Christ called Westfork Mill Creek, having taken up the charges and allegations of Elder Osbourn against the western Baptists, resolved that we concur with the facts stated in the foregoing, and do hereby subscribe to the same.

Signed by order and on behalf of the church.
JORDAN HILL, Ch. Clerk.
Hamilton Co., Ohio, Dec. 31, 1839.

The Regular Baptist Church of Christ, called Springfield, having taken up the charges and allegations of Elder Osbourn against the western Baptists, Resolved, That we coincide with the facts stated in the foregoing, and do hereby subscribe to the same.

Signed by order and in behalf of the church.
ABRAHAM SHELMAN, Ch. Clk.
Butler Co., Ohio, Jan. 2, 1840.

The Old School Regular Predestinarian Baptist Church called Hamilton & Rossville, having taken up the charges and allegations of Elder Osbourn against the western Baptists, Resolved, That we coincide with the facts stated in the foregoing, and do hereby subscribe to the same.

Signed by order and on behalf of the church.
AMOS HICKA, Mod.
GEORGE LOUTHAN, Ch. Clerk.
Butler Co., Ohio, Jan. 4, 1840.

The Old School Regular Baptist Church of Christ, called First Middletown Church, having taken up the charges and allegations of Elder Osbourn against the western Baptists, Resolved, That we coincide with the facts contained in the foregoing, and do hereby subscribe to the same.

Signed by order and in behalf of the church.
DAVID TAYLOR, Ch. Clk.
Preble Co., Ohio, Jan. 6, 1840.

The Old School Regular Baptist Church of Christ, called Winchester, having taken up the charges and allegations of Elder Osbourn against the western Baptists, Resolved, That we coincide with the facts stated in the foregoing, and do hereby subscribe to the same.

JOSEPH TAYLOR, Ch. Clk. pro tem.
Warren Co., Ohio, Jan. 11, 1840.

The Regular Baptist Church at Tapscott’s Meeting-house, Ohio, on behalf of the ancient and apostolic order of Baptists, known in these days by the name of Old School, by way of distinction from the New School, Missionary, Arminian, Fullerite, Anti-christian, New Lights, with the stolen name of Baptists, to take away their reproach, unto whom this may come, Do hereby certify to you, brethren, that this church having taken up the charges and allegations of Elder Osbourn against the western Baptists, and published by Elder Jewett of New York.

Therefore, Resolved, That we heartily coincide with the facts stated in the foregoing address and unanimously assert that Osbourn has slanderously reported us, and that we consider him unworthy of the confidence of the Old School Baptists, and think he might find company better to comport with his lordship elsewhere, perhaps with his confidential Dutch Reformed, if they would have him. But we would not meddle with other men’s matters. As to the precise words of Osbourn on the doctrine of the Trinity, we cannot as a body state, some of our brethren not having a clear recollection of the same.

Done at our church meeting.

JOSEPH TAPSCOTT, Ch. Cl’k.
JOHN B. MOSES, Dea.

Warren Co., Ohio, Jan 11, 1840.

The Old School Regular Baptist Church of Christ called Clear Creek, having taken up the charges and allegations of Elder Osbourn against the western Baptists, Resolved, That we coincide with the facts stated in the foregoing, and do hereby subscribe to the same.

Signed by order and in behalf of the church.
DAVID WILLIAMS, Ch. Cl’k.

Warren Co., Ohio.

The Regular Baptist Church of Sugar Creek at Centreville, at their meeting on Saturday, Jan. 11, 1840, took up the slanderous reports circulated by Elder Osbourn at the east. Therefore Resolved, that the church concur with our sister churches in refuting and denying said charges and slanderous reports.

Signed by order of the church,
JESSE KELSEY, Ch. Cl’k.

Butler Co., Ohio, Jan. 17, 1840.

We, the Regular Baptist Church called Fairfield, having taken into consideration the charges preferred against the western Baptists, and particularly the Miami Association, by Elder Osbourn of Baltimore, believe that the foregoing expresses our views of the matter; and that we can heartily co-operate with our sister churches of the Miami Association in denying the aforesaid charges.

Signed by order and in behalf of the church,
I. PARKHURST, Ch. Cl’k.

Butler Co., O., Jan. 18, 1840.

The Old School Regular Baptist Church of Christ called Mount Pleasant, having taken up the charges and allegations of Eld. Osbourn against the western Baptists,—Resolved, That we coincide with the facts stated in the foregoing, and do hereby subscribe to the same.

Signed by order and in behalf of the church.
DANIEL BARCALOW, Ch. Cl’k. pro tem.

Butler Co., O., Jan. 25, 1840.

The Old School Predestinarian Regular Baptist Church of Christ, called Elk-Creek, having taken up the charges and allegations of Eld. Osbourn against the western Baptists, Resolved, That we coincide with the facts stated in the foregoing; and do hereby subscribe to the same.

Signed by order and in behalf of the church.
JOSEPH H. FLINT, Mod.