There is a cause that produces every effect.  It is the Spirit of God in the soul that unifies, cements and makes all the children of God one body in Christ Jesus.  What is the cause of division?  The flesh.  There was a time when the Baptists were together.  Opposition to error was not the cause of division, but the error itself was the cause.

The Baptists stood together until Mr. Fuller introduced the Board System and other innovations, and a great division was the result.  The Old Church stood upon the apostolic principles, and the new party went off after fleshly methods as instituted by the Catholics.  "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us" (I John 2:19).

Of all the divisions in the church a carnal spirit has been the cause.  Look at our once happy people, all united in love and sweet fellowship, but now they are torn asunder.  What is the cause?  Is it because all are contending for the faith and practice once delivered to the saints?  No.  That will not cause division.  Is it because they non-fellowshipped departures?  No.  Non-fellowshipping a departure will never divide the church as long as all are contented with the goodness of God's house and all live at each other's feet.

The law against murder will never injure any only the guilty.  An honest man does not fear the law against theft.  A true Primitive Baptist will never oppose our Scriptural declarations against heresies.  It is the guilty that opposes non-fellowship bars against new measures.

Old Baptists at Black Rock, in 1832, non-fellowshipped a hireling ministry, protracted meetings, foreign missions, and theological schools, because they were all unscriptural practices.  All true Baptists have stood there ever since.  The one that rejects the Black Rock address puts himself in line with the modern Mission Baptists.  If Old Baptists use the Arminian machinery to augment their numbers, they will be no better than Arminians.

Some will say, "We do not have those departures in our church; but we cannot non-fellowship them in a sister church.  If it is wrong to fellowship gambling in my church, it is wrong to fellowship it in any church on earth.  If Old Baptists had not non-fellowshipped error in the mission movement there would have been no division, it is true, ----and there would be no church in existence today.  The whole thing would have been swallowed up in Babylon.

Israel was to dwell alone, and not be reckoned among the nations.  The opposition to error is not the cause.  Non-fellowshipping error is not the cause; but the error itself is the cause of division.