So in the case before us, the application of the principle already stated trimmed us so naked, that we strongly inclined to suspect its fallacy, and had well nigh abandoned it as a deceitful speculation. Time, however, that great teacher, and Experience, that great critic, have fully assured us that the principle is a salutary one, and that although we seemingly lose much by its application, our loss consists only of barren opinions, fruitless speculations, and useless traditions, that only cumber the ground and check the word, so that it is in a good measure unfruitful.

We flatter ourselves that the principles are now clearly and fully developed by the united efforts of a few devoted and ardent minds, who set out determined to sacrifice every thing to truth, and follow her wherever she might lead the way I say the principles on which the church of Jesus Christ-all the believers in Jesus as the Messiah-can be united with honour to themselves, and with blessings to the world; on which the gospel and its ordinances can be restored in all their primitive simplicity, excellency, and power, and the church shine as a lamp that burneth to the conviction and salvation of the world:-I say the principles by which these things can be done are now developed, as well as the principles themselves, which together constitute the original gospel and order of things established by the apostles.

The object of this volume is to place before the community in a plain, definite, and perspicuous style, the capital principles which have been elicited, argued out, developed, and sustained in a controversy of twenty-five years, by the tongues and pens of those who rallied under the Bible alone. The principle which was inscribed upon our banners when we withdrew from the ranks of the sects, was "Faith in Jesus as the true Messiah, and obedience to him as our Lawgiver and King, the ONLY TEST of christian character, and the ONLY BOND of christian union, communion, and co-operation, irrespective of all creeds, opinions, commandments, and traditions of men."

This cause, like every other, was first plead by the tongue; afterwards, by the pen and by the press. The history of its progress corresponds with the history of every other religious revolution, in this respect-that different points, at different times, almost exclusively engrossed the attention of its pleaders. We began with the outposts and vanguard of the opposition. Soon as we found ourselves in possession of one

post, our artillery was turned against another; and as fast as the smoke of the enemy receded, we advanced upon his lines. The first piece that was written on the subject of the great position, appeared from the pen of THOMAS CAMPBELL, senior, in the year 1809. An association was formed that year for the dissemination of the principles of reformation; and the piece alluded to was styled "The Declaration and Address of the Christian Association of Washington, Pennsylvania."

The constitutional principle of this" Christian Association" and its object are clearly expressed in the following resolution :-"That this society, formed for the sole purpose of promoting simple evangelical Christianity, shall, to the utmost of its power, countenance and support such ministers, and such only, as exhibit a manifest conformity to the original standard, in conversation and doctrine, in zeal and diligence; only such as reduce to practice the simple original form of Christianity, expressly exhibited upon the sacred page, without attempting to inculcate any thing of human authority, of private opinion, 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 produced a "thus saith the Lord," either in express terms, or by approved precedent."

The ground occupied in this resolution afforded ample documents of debate, Every inch of it was debated, argued, canvassed for several years, in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ohio. On this bottom we put to sea, with scarcely hands enough to man the ship. We had head winds and rough seas for the first seven years. A history of which would be both curious and interesting.

But to contradistinguish this plea and effort from some others almost contemporaneous with it, we would emphatically remark, that, while the remonstrants warred against human creeds, evidently because those creeds warred against their own private opinions and favourite dogmas, which they wished to substitute for those creeds, this enterprize, so far as it was hostile to those creeds, warred against them, not because of their hostility to any private or favourite opinions which were desired to be substituted for them; but because those human institutions supplanted the Bible, made the word of God of non-effect, were fatal to the intelligence,

union, purity, holiness, and happiness of the disciples of Christ, and hostile to the salvation of the world.

Unitarians, for example, have warred against human creeds, because those creeds taught Trinitarianism. Arminians, too, have been hostile to creeds, because those creeds supported Calvinism. It has, indeed, been alleged that all schismatics, good and bad, since the days of John Wickliffe, and long before, have opposed creeds of human invention, because those creeds opposed them. But so far as this controversy resembles them in its opposition to creeds, it is to be distinguished from them in this all-essential attribute, viz:-that our opposition to creeds arose from a conviction that whether the opinion in them were true or false, they were hostile to the union, peace, harmony, purity, and joy of christians; and adverse to the conversion of the world to Jesus Christ.

Next to our personal salvation, two objects constituted the summum bonum, the supreme good, worthy of the sacrifice of all temporalities. The first was the union, peace, purity, and harmonious co-operation of christians-guided by an understanding enlightened by the Holy Scriptures; the other, the conversion of sinners to God. Our predilections and antipathies on all religious questions arose from, and were controlled by, those all-absorbing interests. From these commenced our campaign against creeds. We had not at first, and we have not now, a favourite opinion or speculation, which we would offer as a substitute for any human creed or constitution in christendom.

We were not, indeed, at first apprised of the havoc which our principles would make upon our opinions. We soon, however, found our principles and opinions at war on some points; and the question immediately arose, Whether shall we sacrifice our principles to our opinions, or our opinions to our principles? We need not say that we were compelled to the latter; judging that our principles were better than our opinions. Hence, since we put to sea on board this bottom, we have been compelled to throw overboard some opinions once as dear to us as they now are to those who never thought of the difference between principle and opinion.

Some of those opinions-(as the most delicate and tender buds are soonest blighted by the frost)-immediately withered, and died under the first application of our principles. Infant baptism and infant sprinkling, with all infantile imbecility, immediately expired in our minds, as soon as the Bible

alone was made the only measure and standard of faith and duty. This foundation of the Pedobaptist temple being instantly destroyed, the whole edifice leaning upon it became a heap of ruins. We explored the ruins with great assiduity, and collected from them all the materials that could be worked into the Christian temple; but the piles of rubbish that remained were immense.

Other topics became the theme of discussion; and as the public mind became more intelligent and candid, the great principles of the law and the gospel, the patriarchal, the Jewish, and Christian institutions were gradually unfolded. To the development of these, other publications in 1816 and 1820, greatly contributed; and so fully explored were ancient and modern christianity, that, in 1823, the design was formed of commencing a periodical, and establishing a press to contend for the original faith and order, in opposition to all the corruptions of fifteen centuries.

Having paid a very candid and considerate regard to all that has been offered against these principles, as well as having been admonished from the extremes into which some of our friends and brethren have carried some points, I undertake this work with a deep sense of its necessity, and with much anticipation of its utility, in exhibiting a concentrated view of the whole ground we occupy-of rectifying some extremes of furnishing new means of defence to those engaged in contending with this generation for primitive Christianity.

As we are not writing a history of this struggle from its commencement till the present time, but simply informing the reader that the principles stated in the following pages have been maturely considered, and have passed through a long, complicated, and vigorous opposition,-we shall hasten to the object of this book, which is to lay before the reader a miniature view of the principles already noticed.

To say nothing of the periodicals which have been commenced, and which have been for some time our fellowlabourers in this all-important work, besides our debates in 1820, 1823, and 1829, four editions of the new version of the New Testament, with prefaces, various tables, notes, criticisms, &c., there have issued from our press twelve volumes in illustration and defence of these principles; in hearing and answering objections from all sects, and from many of the most learned and talented of our country.

The CHRISTIAN BAPTIST, in seven annual volumes, being

the first of these publications, and affording such a gradual development of all these principles as the state of the public mind and the opposition would permit, is, in the judgment of many of our brethren who have expressed themselves on the subject, better adapted to the whole community as it now exists, than our other writings. In this judgment I must concur; and to it especially, as well as to all other publications since commenced, I would refer the reader who may be solicitous to examine these principles more fully, and to consider the ordeal through which they have passed.

Having also attentively considered the most vulnerable side of every great question, and re-examined the terms and phrases which have occasioned most opposition and controversy, whether from our own pen or that of any of our brethren, our aim is now to offer to the public a more matured view of such cardinal principles as are necessary to the right interpretation of the Holy Scriptures-both in acquiring and communicating a correct knowledge of the Christian institution, of such principles as are requisite to the discovery of truth and the exposure of error; as well as in a revised and corrected republication of the principal essays of the Millennial Harbinger, to lay before the reader the elements of the gospel itself, and of the worship most acceptable to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The work, then, naturally divides itself into three parts: The first, THE PRINCIPLES BY WHICH THE CHRISTIAN INSTITUTION MAY BE CERTAINLY AND SATISFACTORILY ASCERTAINED: the second, THE PRINCIPLES ON WHICH ALL CHRISTIANS MAY FORM ONE COMMUNION: and the third, THE ELEMENTS OR PRINCIPLES WHICH CONSTITUTE ORIGINAL CHRISTIANITY. Whether this arrangement be most in order of nature, or of importance, is not the question; it is the order in which we have from necessity been compelled to consider the subjects.

A. CAMPBELL.