"The Primitive Baptist" Citations for 1845

In this post I will be citing from "The Primitive Baptist" for May 10, 1845 (Vol. 10; No. 9; See here). It is the same issue wherein Elder C. B. Hassell gave his concluding article in his series of posts wherein he answers the accusations made by the Chowan Association against him and the Kehukee Association, which we wrote about yesterday. In the issue we read where Rudolph Rorer wrote the following:

"...for we, the church or children of God, are saved by sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth." (pg. 137)

"Hence, it is not going in the straw-pens or to the mourner's bench that saves us. No, my friends, it is by sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth; yes, the apostle says by sanctification of the spirit not the flesh; no, but the spirit of the creature is to be sanctified, and how is this to be done for the creature? by the operation of God's spirit on our spirits, on our wicked spirits, and subdues them by the same spirit and causes them to repent for sins committed by them, and this is only done by the power and spirit of God; for you, brethren, know that it is the goodness of God that leads men to repentance for sin."

This shows that the first generation of "Primitive Baptists" who supported this periodical believed that repentance and belief of the truth are essentials for salvation.

Another article, by William W. Wildman, in The Primitive Baptist for May 21, 1845 (See here), writing on the doctrine of election, wrote the following:

"...and it is readily admitted, that he that repents and believes will be saved. And if men will not conform to these righteous requisitions of God's law, they count themselves unworthy of eternal life, and are justly excluded from it." (pg. 152)

Recall that we have recently cited from Elder Lemuel Potter, who in his 1887 debate with W.P. Throgmorton said that "Primitive Baptists" do not believe that repentance is a necessary condition for eternal salvation. But, the above shows that this was not the view of the "Primitive Baptists" who supported the above periodical.

Wildman also wrote:

"But there may be several serious objections urged to this view of the subject. First, in this opinion it is implied that repentance and faith are our works, that they are meritorious, and that God in consideration of them bestows salvation upon us. This view of the case would entitle the elect to eternal life, not as a precious boon provided for them in Christ, but as their own just due. But to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. Rom. 4 ch. It would also encourage boasting, for which there is no pretext afforded in the scheme of human redemption. It is excluded. By what law? Of works?"

Wildman rejects the objection because he shows that faith and repentance are the works of God in a person and so excludes boasting. Wildman also wrote:

"Brethren, our doctrine tends to the believers, we have been inspired with hope, praise of the grace of God, by presenting encouragement to Christians to labor for the salvation of sinners."

Today's Hardshells reject the idea that Christians are to labor for the salvation of sinners, or that Christians are means in saving sinners.

Another article in that same issue by a writer named Benjamin May writes:

"Now to my knowledge there are divers doctrines, and speculative ideas afloat among us; and I am truly sorry to have to say it, among those who call themselves Old School Baptist preachers. Not long since I heard one from the pulpit say, that Adam never died a spiritual death; for, says he, he never had a spiritual life, and therefore he could not die a spiritual death. Thinks I to myself, you have forgotten that God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul."

In my series on Two Seedism among the "Primitive" or "Old School" Baptists I have shown where the Two Seeders strongly rejected the idea that Adam died a "spiritual" death when he sinned. That is an error of course, for it would deny that a sinner is spiritually dead or is spiritually resurrected when God gives him spiritual life. The above writer rejects that error and so it is wrong for Hardshell Baptists to say that Primitive Baptists all believed as did the Two Seeders on that issue.

May wrote further:

"I heard a third say, he believed the devil was a self-existent and not a created being; for, says he, if he began in time he will also die in time, and when time ends the devil dies."

Of course, May is referring to what many of the Two Seed Primitive Baptists believed in his day. It is indeed a great heresy. May wrote further:

"Again, fourthly, I heard one from the pulpit, while touching on the creation, say that all that was created in time was mortal and would end in time. But, he said, the souls or spirits of men were created or made before time began, and as such they were immortal and would never die."

Again, he is referring to some of the Two Seeder nonsense that was prevalent in his day. May wrote further in replying against those who believed that the Devil was uncreated:

"Now Peter says: For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the 8th person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly, and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, &c. Now this is enough to tell us something about the origin of the devil, whether or not he was a self-existent or a created being. Again: Our Saviour tells his disciples when they returned from a preaching tour, not to rejoice because the devils were made subject to them through his name; but rather rejoice, that their names were written in heaven. For, says he, I saw satan as lightning fall from heaven. And John the Revelator tells us something about a war in heaven, Michael and his angels, and the dragon and his, &c. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth, and of the sea, for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath. Because he knoweth that he hath but a short time."

In my series on Two Seedism I have shown where it was the Two Seeders who vehemently denied that Satan fell from heaven, with a few exceptions however, as Elder Samuel Trott believed that Satan was a fallen angel. Since the days when May wrote the above, I showed in that series how even those "Primitive Baptists" who disavowed Two Seedism nevertheless have retained remnants of Two Seedism in their denial that Satan was a created and fallen angel and in their saying that Adam did not die a spiritual death.