Brother Campbell,

For the Millennial Harbinger.

ESSEX, Va. February 25, 1832.

DEAR SIR-BEFORE this arrives at Bethany you will have evidence to demonstration of Mr. Broaddus' "love of peace," and fears of "riding in the whirlwind to direct the storm." He well knew if he could ship the remarks I made on the death of brother Semple in the. Herald of fame, and raise the "tempestuous wind called the Euroclydon," the Captain would listen to no man until he wrecked the ship upon some unknown island. I appeal to every honest good man to say, if Mr. Broaddus' only object was to correct an error or mistake published in the Harbinger, if the Harbinger was not the only place to recommend Mr. Semple to publish the evidence of this error or mistake? Can any man believe that Mr. Broaddus had no other object in view than to rescue the consistent character of Bishop Semple? No, it is impossible. He well knew the Religious Herald delighted in proscription and inconsistency, and never would suffer us to correct the errors they have fallen into. Will Mr. Broaddus say he has neither directly nor indirectly brought about this state of things? Can any man that has any feeling for the happiness of christians, read those documents and not feel ashamed for the bigoted and intolerant state of religious society? This state of things Mr. Broaddus has contributed as much as any man in Virginia to bring about. He now appears to be alarmed at Nat Turner's views of special influences without the word. I repeat it, no man has labored more to bring about these defusions than Mr. Broaddus in this section of country. I am pleased to see that his eyes are open, and that now he is trying to atone for the injury done to truth. My earnest prayer is that he may succeed.

What was there in my communication to you calculated to injure any man? Who that had suffered as much as I had from his prejudices, could have spoken with more respect and regard for the dead than I have done? Yet Mr. Broaddus seizes this circumstance to rouse all the angry passions of his family and friends against me. A noble work for a man that professes to "follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord!" 1 had, in the simplicity and sincerity of my heart, a desire to let all know Bishop Semple had died in peace with all men, without à reproach upon a long, laborious, and useful life.

Bishop Semple and myself had been at issue. Mr. Broaddus himself had decided Bishop Semple was bound in justice to atone for his conduct towards me. This Semple refused to do publicly according to Broaddus' award. Ile, with Broaddus and others, in their decrees, kad recommended the dividing of the body of Christ in his members, to disgrace me if I would not disgrace myself by telling a wilful lie, by saying their opinions or sentiments of revealed truth were the gospel of Jesus Christ. They failed in this. Bishop Semple had reported their success in excluding me. When I heard of it I wrote to him to force him to prove what he had said. He answered, July 14th, 1831,

in a respectful and affectionate manner, concluding his letter by saying, "Pray spare me, your old and aggrieved friend and brother." He gave up his author. When we met I produced to him the evidence of this falsehood, He then said he did not believe it. I have been credibly informed that he said to some brethren that he was pleased that the Bruington church did reject his decrees. It is well known at the last Association that he said my course towards the Association was magnanimous, and exhorted the brethren to forbearance and long suffering; reminded them of the rise and progress of the second church in Richmond as the fruit of such a spirit. In our frequent conversations he removed all unpleasantness on my part towards him, › I therefore felt myself perfectly free to say what I have said.*

But Mr. Broaddus tries to rouse the passion of a bereaved son of a beloved father, by calling his attention to the remarks I made in my extracts upon his and the Messrs. Montagues reporting I was excluded, which I wrote last June or early in July, before I heard from him; forwarded them all to you nearly by the same mail for your inspection before you attempted the publication of the first number. Mr. Broaddus certainly is as great a man and as great a child as the Baptists in Old Virginia ever had to boast of, except Jacob Gregg-of course can do childish things. Many that are personally acquainted with him will give him credit for the above in full.

It is evident to every discerning man that he is trying to entrench himself behind the ignorance and prejudices of the Baptists, while his "wood, hay, and stubble" are now on fire. These are his bulwarks. The horrors of having his sun to set behind such a cloud of smoke arising from the combustible matter he has been gathering together for forty years, must be truly appalling to him. No wonder he should be trying to make horns to gore or enclose those who have set his works on fire!

Mr. Broaddus thinks I could not have spoken of brother Semple as I have done without "relenting." If so, why does he try to turn it to my injury? Did ever Jesus Christ or his Apostles upbraid any man that had relented for the worst of sins? This proves the true state of his heart towards me. Mr. Broaddus' doctrine, as here exhibited, is, if a man errs he is not a good man. What follows? Mr. Broaddus himself is not a good man, unless he proves himself infallible.

What is all this hard feeling, contention, and discord, so disgraceful to the christian religion, about? Mr. Broaddus may disguise it as he pleases, it comes to this at last-we prefer the sayings of Jesus Christ and his Apostles to the sayings of Messrs. Broaddus and Ball. This is the head and front of our offence. Your opinions of faith, of regeneration, &c. &c. have nothing to do in the faith and worship of the disciples, as a bond of union. They are left at liberty to reject or embrace them according to their views of the New Testament, and remain in peace and fellowship so long as they maintain the charac

*It appears Mr. Broaddus would have been better pleased if I had flattered Bishop Semple during his life, and reproached him after his death. If not, why does he call his son's attention to this part of my communication?

ter of disciples of Jesus Christ. We do not make their opinions a breach of our fellowship, nor wish to prohibit an expression of their opinions. I am fully persuaded if I were to go to Mr. Broaddus to-morrow morning, and inform him I believed his opinions of the previous special influence of the Holy Spirit in order to faith and immersion, and that he was right and I wrong in opposing such a sentiment -he would call me brother Henley, though there is not a syllable in the New Testament to produce such a conviction upon any man's mind. This proves that he and Mr. Ball (though they say the twelve propositions your father has presented to our brethren and the public are such as the Baptists in Virginia generally have adopted) are determined to lord it over our consciences. These propositions do in the most explicit manner prohibit any man from "attempting to inculcate any thing of human authority, of private opinions, or inventions of men, as having any place in the constitution, faith, or worship of the christian church; or any thing as matter of christian faith or duty, for which there cannot be expressly produced a thus saith the Lord, or by approved precedent;" and yet they are trying to keep the brethren from having any kind of intercourse or communion with us, If this is not reviving the anti-christian spirit I have never seen any thing like it.

and manacle me,

Mr. Broaddus has tried for the last four years to gag but having failed on account of the intelligence and independence of society, he is no doubt much grieved that the pages of the Harbinger are open to me. The same cause will produce the same effect under the same circumstances. Every intelligent man can see why I am not now groaning with chains upon me in the jail of Essex county. It is not the goodness of the cause why it is not so, but the circumstances that surround me. His saying I am "too apt to mistake my suspicions to levy a charge," is, I suppose, an offset against his "persua sion that the Essex church intended to exclude me," when Dr. Somervail says they decided they intended no such thing.

But now let me ask, what have these witnesses, with all their wishes, proved? Every thing I said, except bidding your father God speed. Could not this be done without these witnesses hearing it, and Bishop Semple's embracing "Campbellism?"

These men are telling the people they wish well to a real reformation, and will not reform themselves, but cast out those who attempt to reform. Is not this the spirit of Diotrephes, that forbids them that would receive the brethen, and cast them out of the church?

I am willing to do any thing consistent with my duty to Jesus Christ to reconcile Mr. Broaddus to me; but nothing short of my becoming his servant will do it.

1 do exceedingly regret that Mr. Broaddus has laid me under the imperious necessity of again addressing you and the public through the pages of the Harbinger. Mr. Broaddus can, if he will, put an end to this controversy, and bring about what he professes he sincerely desires. We ask no apology, no explanation, no sacrifice of principle or practice. We only ask for a free exercise of our rights among the

children of God while we maintain a christian character. This he

refuses.

Your affectionate brother in the Lord,

THOS. M. HENLEY.

Mr. Alexander Campbell,

RICHMOND, Tuesday, February 27, 1832.

MY DEAR SON-BEFORE this comes to hand you will have received my last of the 18th instant, and will also have received the Religious Herald of this place up to the date hereof, by which, from the 3d to the 24th inclusive, you will have seen the combined result of attack upon you and me by the anti-reforming interest of this part of the state. Upon you, for your obituary notice of the death of brother Semple: upon me, for my friendly visit, and exhibition of documents, of which, I suppose, you will have received the numbers I ordered to· be forwarded to you. You will also perceive upon the whole of the premises, that after all their clamor, they might as well have held their peace; for their pompous declamation has amounted to just nothing. Nay, they have evidently confirmed what they meant to invalidate.

With respect to the envied documents, which I submitted for the avowed purpose of correcting mistakes, &c. brother Broaddus, after all his admonitions to the churches, acknowledges and inculcates them. See the close of his admonition to the Baptist churches in the Religious Herald of the 3d instant. "We have long avowed these principles," (says he,) and adds, "Let us press these principles on that part of the christian community which may not have adopted them, (and many there be that have not.") in so far, then, he kindly takes the work off our hands. As for his allegation against me, for "proposing these documents to the acceptance of the churches," it is perfectly gratuitous, as the publication itself evidently demonstrates: besides, there is not a person or church in existence that can say that I ever presented these documents for any purpose but that avowed in the publication itself. But supposing I had presented these documents for the reception of all the Baptist churches in Virginia, what need for this lengthy admonition, seeing the Baptist churches have long avowed them. Here it is, lest "some individual or individuals may be decked with the honor of having effected an extensive reformation among the Baptists." "I therefore, for one, (says he,) must enter my protest against the measure." Hence we see it was the jealousy of honor that impelled our friend first to surmise, and then to caution.

But this is not all that brother Broaddus has conceded in favor of the reformation: in his admonition for ministers, in the Religious Herald of the 17th inst. he says, "We are annoyed with the conceit that God is teaching all necessary truth by visions, voices, and im pulses, styling the Holy Spirit the vehicle of divine knowledge; consequently, excluding every other." But still farther, brother Ball, the Baptist oracle of this state, carries the alone sufficiency of the Holy Scripture to its ne plus ultra; see his plea for the superior utility of 15

VOL, III.

camp meetings in his paper of the 10th instant; wherein he ascribes the superior success of protracted meetings in making converts, to the "mind's being kept fixed upon the truth till it is constrained to yield to its all-subduing influence." Thus the sheer moral influence of the word, unaccompanied with any spirit but the breath of the speaker, is supposed competent to constrain the mind to yield to its all-subduing influence. Indeed it is the only tolerable answer he could have given to the supposed case; for it would have shocked credulity itself to have preferred protracted meetings in behalf of the Spirit, as affording him a more favorable opportunity to perform the converting operation. There remained, therefore, no other divine cause to impute it to, but the word. Sic stat sententia. What a pity, by the bye, that brother Ball had not lived in the apostolic age, when the means of converting the world were a settling! How easy would it have been to have recorded brother Ball's preferential reasons for protracted meetings; in consequence of which how many more millions of souls might have been saved. By what spirit has brother Ball made the discovery? for it was unknown to, or neglected by the Spirit that guided the Apestles?

But to come nearer home, you will perceive by the documents before me, that every nerve has been strained to invalidate my relation of the friendly interview that took place between myself and brother Semple. And that, upon the whole, they might as well have let it alone. Brother George F. Adams' letter goes to substantiate my report in every thing material, but what took place at our parting, and that was in a few words, inter nos, to the amount of what brother Henley stated in his letter to you. I had scarce reached Richmond on my arrival from Essex, with R. Y. Henley, when it was in circulation that my report of the friendly reception I met with from brother Semple was not true, but the reverse. Upon hearing this brother Bootwright wrote to brother R. B. Fife and brother Leitch of Freder icksburg to know the truth of the matter, upon which be received the following letter, viz.

"Fredericksburg, January, 1832. "Brother Bootwright-Your favor of the 16th instant has just been handed me by brother Leitch, in which you request us to state whether in the interviews between brother Semple and brother Campbell any thing like hostility existed. Far from it: every thing that passed in my presence was of the most friendly nature. Brother Campbeli stayed at my house whilst he remained in this place, except when invited out to dine, or spend the evening, and had but two interviews with brother Semple, one of which took place at my house on the Sabbath morning on which brother Campbell preached. I was present and heard every thing that passed. On this occasion little passed between them, it being within a few minutes of the time at which preaching commenced when brother Semple called. They both went to the meeting house. Brother Semple took a seat by the stove, and remained there till he thought brother Campbell had nearly got through with his discourse; he then went into the pulpit, and after brother