This article was taken from Chapter one of "The Primitive Preacher" written by Elder Gregg M. Thompson. It will be presented in three parts. Elder Thompson's address to Primitive Baptists is an historical review of the battles he and others had to fight in the early 1800's because of the blind zeal of many Baptist in that time. Many of the things Elder Thompson writes are just as timely in this day and time because a new set of reformers (wolves) are attempting to repeat what took place in the Modern Missionary movement of the 1800's. It serves as a good address to the present day Primitive Baptists as well. (Editor Elder Claude McKee)

Address to Primitive Baptists- Part 2
By Elder Gregg M. Thompson from his book "The Primitive Preacher"

|Part 1| Part 3|

There is one thing more that I must speak of in this, my last address to you all, and I believe it is prompted by love and an ardent desire for you peace and prosperity. In some of our churches the baptism of those we have excluded from our communion and fellowship is received as valid. This is an inconsistency that has already caused great trouble in some parts of the country, and must and will, sooner or later, make trouble wherever it is practiced. It is palpably inconsistent for us to receive part of their works, and reject the other parts. You will not sit down to the communion-table with them, and take the emblems form the hands of their minister, because you do not believe he has a gospel right to administer that ordinance, and his church is not the church of Christ. If you are correct in that view, how can you, in any consistency, or good conscience, receive baptism administered by him, and in the fellowship of a false church, this, to me, is an inconsistency that, if persisted in, must make trouble, and cause distress in your own body, sooner or later.

There is a difficulty connected with this subject that should cause us to act cautiously, and in the spirit of Christian love. I have known several able and beloved preachers among us who were received on their alien baptism; and they have baptized numbers among us. These things are past and cannot now be remedied. The only thing that can be done now, so far as I can see, is for our churches to resolve that they will not be guilty of the inconsistency any more, and upon that let peace and Christian fellowship abound among us. To attempt to dissolve these churches, and reconstitute them, would, it seems to me, cause great confusion without affecting any good. I hope the dear brethren will think upon this subject, and act with an eye single to the glory of God and the peace of Zion. A church, like an individual, may commit an error which she cannot remedy and in that case all she can do is to turn from the error and do so no more. In that case we should all forgive, and let brotherly love continue. Zion's peace and happiness demand of us a great deal of Christian love and forbearance. There are vital points that do and should effect fellowship, and if we disagree upon them we can not walk together, but in mere matters of opinion we may differ, and should be very tender and forbearing with each other, for in such matters we may both be wrong. But where a truth is positively taught in the Bible, it must be subscribed to by all, or we can not walk together. To illustrate: The Savior says, "Except a man be born again he can not see the Kingdom of God." Here is a truth affirmed that must be subscribed to by all if we walk together in Christian union. I can not believe that we have a church that would receive a person into its fellowship who would deny the new birth, or [deny] that the sinner has to experience such a change of affections, that he is made to hate things he once loved, and love things he once hated. I might go on to name a number of things of equal importance, but this is sufficient to bring before your minds the point I wish to enforce. Paul tells us that we are not to make a brother an offender for a word. But a brother that loves his brethren, and respects their feelings, and desires the peace and happiness of Zion; if he uses a word that is offensive to any of his brethren, if it is not a Scripture word; or if it is, and he uses it in a sense in which the Holy Spirit has never used it, will quit the use of it if he has a proper regard for the feelings of his brethren. We may use the words of the Holy Spirit to prove false doctrine, but to do so we have to pervert them, so as to make them give a different idea from what was intended, for if used in the same way and for the same purpose as by the Holy Spirit they will always teach the truth. For instance, the word means is a Scripture word, and when used as the Scriptures use it, should give no offense to any one, but as the Scriptures have never used it in reference to the giving of eternal, or spiritual life to the sinner dead in sins, if we have the love of our brethren and the peace of Zion in our hearts, we will quit using it in that sense, and use such words as the Bible uses to convey our ideas.

I have witnessed the wars through which our church has passed in the last sixty years. I have seen the dark clouds gather over us, that filled our hearts with sorrow, and our eyes with tears. I have head the boasting of our enemies when they thought our little army was defeated and scattered, and could never make battle any more. I have heard their shouts of victory suddenly stop, followed by an inglorious retreat, when they would hear the voice of a Lawrence, Gard, Thompson, Carpenter, Thomas, or Clark, who never surrendered, or were driven from their post. These were dark and sorrowful days for the children of Zion. They were passing through the fires. Their harps were on the willows, and they could not realize that it was God's work to cleanse them, and to separate them from the dross, that the pure gold might shine. We can now look back and see the hand of the Lord in the matter, and how his almighty power was with and sustained the little band who stood firm and unmoved at their post, and boldly kept the banner of truth displayed in the thickest and darkest hours of the battle. I shall never forget the words of that faithful man of God, Stephen Gard, made one evening at my father's house, where they were talking about the trials through which they had passed, when he remarked, "Brother Thompson, I never doubted for one moment the final victory of truth, but for years we had been accumulating dross, until we had vastly more dross among us than gold, and it had to be separated, and we had to pass through a heated furnace to effect it. Our God is a consuming fire. He is as the refiner's fire, and the fuller's soap, and when his church has to be cleansed we must bear the consuming flames. They are for our good, and will only consume the dross."