46 BIOGRAPHY OF
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ects drawing away disciples after them, they raised thetocsin of alarm—the confession is in danger!—thechurch is in danger! O Israel to your tents! _ These sticklers began to preach boldly the doctrines ‘their confession, and used their most potent argu-ments in their defence. The gauntlet was now thrown,and a fire was now kindled that threatened ruin to thegreat excitement; it revived the dying spirit of party-ism, and gave life and strength to trembling infidels andhfeless professors.. The sects were roused. ‘The Meth-odists and Baptists, who had so long lived in peace andharmony with the Presbyterians, and with one another,now girded on their armor, and marched into the deathlyfield of controversy and war. ‘These were times of distress.The spirit of partyism soon expelled the spirit of loveand union—peace fled before discord and strife, and re-ligion was stifled and banished in the unhallowed strug-gle for pre-eminence. Who shall be the greatest,seemed to be the spirit of the contest—the salvation ofa ruined world was no longer the burden, and the spiritof prayer in mourning took its flight from the breastsof many preachers and people. Yet there were someof all the sects who deplored this unhappy state ofthings; but their entreating voice for peace was drown-ed by the din of war. Though the revival was checked, it was not destroy-ed; still the spirit of truth lingered in our assemblies,and evidenced his presence with us. One thing is cer-tain, that from that revival a fountain of light hassprung, by which the eyes of thousands are opened tojust and proper views of the gospel, and it promisesfair to enlighten the world, and bring them back to Godand his institutions. In this state of pe EN friends a the Confes-sion were indignant at us for preaching doctrines socontradictory to it. They determined to arrest ourprogress and put us down. ‘The Presbytery of Spring-field, in Ohio, first took McNemar through their fieryordeal, for preaching these anti-calvinistic doctrines. - 4> F AS* we 7 te BARTON W. STONE. 47 From that Presbytery his case came before the Synodat Lexington, Kentucky. That body appeared gener-ally very hostile to our doctrine, and there was muchspirited altercation among them. ‘The other four of »well knew what would be our fate, by the decisioxt tdMcNemar’s case; for it was plamly hinted to us, thatwe would not be forgotten by the Synod. We waitedanxiously for the issue, till we plainly saw it would beadverse to him, and consequently to us all. In a short recess of Synod, we five withdrew to a‘private garden, where, after prayer for direction, and afree conversation, with a perfect unanimity we drew upa protest against the proceeding of Synod in McNemar’scase, and a declaration of our independence, and of our- withdrawal from their jurisdiction, but not from their —communion. This protest we immediately presentedto the Synod, through their Moderator—it was altogetherunexpected by them, and produced very unpleasantfeelings; and a profound silence for a few minutes en-sued. We retired to a friend’s house in town, whither wewere quickly followed by a committee of Synod, sent toreclaim us to their standards. We had with them avery friendly conversation, the result of which was,that one of the committee, Matthew Houston, becameconvinced that the doctrine we preached was true, andsoon after united with us. Another of the committee,old father David Rice, of precious memory, on whoseinfluence the Synod chiefly depended to reclaim us,urged one argument worthy of record, it was this—that every departure from Calvinism was an advance toatheism. The grades named by him were, from Calvin-ism to Arminianism—from Arminianism to Pelagianism—irom Pelagianism to deism—from deism to atheism.This was his principal argument, which could have noeffect on minds ardent in the search of truth. The committee reported to Synod their failure in re-claiming us; — a few more vain attempts, theyproceeded to solemn work of suspending us, be- » -
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