September 18th, 1849
My Dear Brother,
I have a desire to write to you remembering some happy communion with you and having, to some extent before now, conversed with you on the present question of Bethesda, and my present subject makes it right for me to communicate with one who is still in communion with her. I shall, however, use this as the occasion of considering certain principles of truth. For it is expected of us that we be nourished up in the words of faith and good doctrine, and that we grow to the knowledge of our Lord. Jesus Christ In the times of the apostles occasions arose which were used of the Spirit to unfold new portions of the divine and will to the saints. A large quantity of the instructions we get in the epistles, comes to us through the ignorance and error of the Churches, and all this happened for our learning. And so it is still. Occasions arise to call our thoughts to new and important principles of conduct; indifference to which then becomes guilt: such I believe to be the present moment with us ... May we have grace from God: use it wisely, graciously, patiently, and yet obediently. It was a thought with the brethren from the beginning that we received one another as believers or saints just because God had already received us in Christ Jesus. This thought remains unquestioned, only we must be careful lest the generality of this principle mislead us. We do, it is true, receive one another because we have been received already of God, and do this not to doubtful disputations, in other words, that we receive one another in the Lord, though, in many things, we be differently minded; not, however; agreeing to differ as though any part of God's truth were indifferent, but purposing to love one another, and to walk together in spite of differences. Hoping to attain more, we come together on that simple ground, but we walk together afterward for ends and purposes divinely appointed us. So we are not gathered as a congregation who find their pleasure or even their edification in certain ways or doings agreed upon; but we are gathered as part and parcel of the Church, to be, and to act according to the mind of God. Among its services it has to teach angels (Eph. 3.10.) to edify itself through joints and bands in the Holy Ghost, and to lead those outside to own God, in the midst of His saints (1 Cor. 14:23-25), to exercise discipline, to worship as a holy priesthood, to show forth the Lord's death. It is, moreover, the pillar of the truth, and as such it must keep itself erect and firm; the writing on it is to be large and legible. Nothing is to be allowed to shake or blot it; some may claim a right to try their hand with it, and plead many pretenses; they may talk of brotherly forbearance, the gentleness of Christ, the duty of not judging another man's servant, but the pillar must hold itself firm and inviolate; still, no such pretensions or pretenses, nor any other can be listened to; and occasions will arise when the integrity of the pillar is to be guarded with increased vigilance because of the enemy. It was, dear brother, another early thought among us; that we had to distinguish between communions and individuals; that is, that we could receive individuals on the ground of their own faith, when we could not do so on the credit of the communion to which they belonged, or as though we sanctioned the communion while we received them, but this was understood to refer only to a certain character of communion it had respect to, such as the Establishment, the Independents, the Baptists, the Methodists, among whom the truth was maintained; it did not contemplate such communions as the Universalists and Unitarians. For according to my knowledge of brethren from the beginning, an individual who desired fellowship with us, if there was no other objection than that he went to such places, that alone would have been enough for us to keep him outside. The smallest measure of affection to Christ would dictate this. I may say that I would instinctively shudder at any other thought, for we have a duty to Christ, a service to the truth lying upon us, and our receiving others must be after such a method as will leave us free to perform such duties and services, and not put us under such terms and compliances as compel us, in simple consistency to abandon them. We must accordingly distinguish between communions and individuals, and it is here our present sorrow and difficulty touching Bethesda arises.
In Compton Street, Plymouth, an energy of evil was exposed in the progress of its working. It was guilty of putting dishonor on the Son of God. It held, therefore, a peculiar place in the apprehension of the soul, let me say I know the service of those who keep watch in the camp; the trumpet is; among other purposes, for sounding an alarm on the approach of the enemy, all we can desire is that it may be used with priestly skill when it has called the camp into action, that the action itself be conducted according to the mind and word of God; for the battle is to be in His name, and for His kingdom. Now by all this which I am suggesting, dear brother, do not think we are building again the thing which we once destroyed. I hold, as at the beginning, the broken, ruined condition of the Church, I know and still would testify as ever that the "great house," with its different vessels, is around us., I will say, as before, that no gathering of saints can assume to be the Candlestick in the place, and treat as darkness all that is not of itself. Such order and such authority are gone-this we have ever said, and still say. But with all this, we avow it, that we are not together as a convention of believers, but as part and parcel of the Church of God, and we have to take care that the principles and the testimony of the house of God be portrayed among us according to our measure in the Spirit. I am glad thus to speak a hide on principles before I come to the more immediate object. But I will now proceed. What has induced me to write to you, dear brother, as one still in communion at Bethesda, is the refusal which has or been sent from the laboring brethren
there to a request signed by ten or twenty' brethren from London and its neighborhood, to have a meeting of all those whose consciences arc troubled about present matters, in the hope that grace and confidence may be restored, this request being accompanied by a desire that all evil in those who, in anywise have been withstanding Bethesda, may be exposed, and that the Lord's honor, and the unity and holiness of His house may alone be thought of. This refusal, on a little further consideration, has troubled me. It has been, in measure, the occasion of my looking again at the matter generally. I am, therefore, writing to you, and shall be the more glad if ALL Bethesda read what I write, and indeed the dear brethren everywhere, for though dislike printing such matters very much-and that, too, on several grounds-yet there is not a judgment or act, I think I can say, that I desire to withhold from any. This refusal takes its warrant from the injurious treatment which certain brethren of Bethesda have received. But this is all nothing-Bethesda may have been ill-treated; wronged and insulted, but this is no ground for refusing this request, the request itself may be made in a style and language somewhat faulty—I do not say it is so, but even were it, all that would be as nothing., The Jordan was crossed by messengers who appeared in a high tone of challenge to have prejudged their brethren-it may be said their demand-and delivered their charge in a bad and proud spirit—But that is nothing. The two tribes and a half are bound to account for their pillar notwithstanding all that, and if they deny the camp the satisfaction they claim, Can they calculate on the communion of Israel, see Josh. 22. This refusal undertakes, I know, to satisfy the conscience of godly individuals, the case I judge asks for more than this-it is the standing of Bethesda among the saints that is in question-the meaning of the pillar of Bristol. Uneasiness, arising from such a service, is not to be allayed by private explanation, on individual satisfaction. It is an open, public question, it is a common uneasiness. Let the pillar that has been raised be vindicated as of old, dear brother, and this cannot be done while the challenge of the camp in unanswered. Let it be vindicated, and we shall have again, as in Josh. 22, the joy of all the tribes. I would pause here for a moment and pray you to seek to have this accomplished. Seek it, as I believe you may, on very solemn and affecting considerations.
Urge it by arguments such as these-the settlements of the minds of hundreds who entertain very loving desires towards Bethesda, the restoration of general brotherly confidence, the staying of the rejoicing in evil of many who seek occasion, and the help that this will afford to lead all with softened hearts to consider and confess their measure of wrong in the course of this painful history. If this be persisted in by the laboring brethren, and adopted by Bethesda generally, I know not how anything like communion can be expected. It will amount to the denial of all the commonest rights'; nay, obligations of fellowship in Christ. It is not only that we have a right, that is not the thing; we are bound; if need be, to inquire' after the nature of every altar in the land, the standing of all the gatherings. Do, then, seek this, dear brother, as you hope to see the peace of brethren, as a brother lately lamented in a letter to me, "is the sword to devour forever." But I must. go on a little further, for I have found my mind lately going over this whole case, and now I have to confess that I have been guilty of haste and careless in a particular which deserves attention and seriousness,-I mean as to " the letter of the ten " with respect to the Church Principles contained in it. I felt indignant, I remember, at the integrity of such men as (4. Muller, H. Craik, Hall and Meredith being questioned (as I thought it was) because of that letter, and I was quick to dispose of such a question,' I was nations and happy to assert the good consciences of such, having been long dear to me in the Lord. But now I have read this letter, and see It in the light of avowing certain principles which I judge to be at variance with those which alone are worthy of the Church of God.
Take this passage from it, “supposing, the author of the tracts were fundamentally heretical, this would not warrant us in rejecting those who came from under his teaching, until we were satisfied that they understood and imbibed views, essentially subversive of foundation truth, especially as those meeting at Ebringten Street, Plymouth, last January, put forth a statement disclaiming the errors charged against the tracts." I need only refer you to previous parts of my letter, where I have spoken of different communions, and of our proper relation to such, in order to show you how entirely I judge this thought to be wrong. I could not refuse to say that such principles of Church action as this would make any place a defiled place, in Levitical language, leprosy would be detected by the priest to be in the house. I would ask you, also, how could any gathering of saints be consistently faithful to Christ. and still avow such principles? Fidelity to the Lord demands of us to reprove or make manifest the heretical teaching here intimated. But that cannot be done while we have fellowship with the place which countenances them.
The Apostle teaches me that I cannot reprove and have fellowship with the same unfruitful works of darkness (Eph. 5). This principle puts Bethesda on different grounds from any with whom we have hitherto had communication. For I am sure I could at any moment have said for myself, that if any congregation of Independents, Baptists, or Methodists avowed that they admitted persons who had religious fellowship with avowed heretics in the sense of the word, intimated in the passage quoted from the letter of the ten, provided they were themselves sound in the faith of the Son of God; I should not have even entertained the question of receiving them or not. Under such avowal I could never have been happy in their presence among us. I can again say, 'indeed, dear brother, how truly do I desire that all Bethesda Could 'seriously consider this-we are all learning, we are all in the school of God, we have much to correct, as well as in many things to advance. It is but little to confess ignorance and mistakes; I am confessing more at this moment, I am confessing carelessness and haste, and again I say to you, seek to bring their souls to the calm consideration of this, and do it as you may; on the sanction of some serious and solemn motives. I dread going, in unneeded vigilance or strictures with Bethesda, humble, upright, unworldly Ways have long marked her Course, services of singular praise to God are connected
with her, and I do not deny I have been unable to understand the word and action of many in the course of the resistance which has been offered to her, and to some supposed to be defiled with her; so stumbled have I been by these things, that had I been in certain places, I must have abstained from the Lord's table, fearing that such actions were sanctioned there, but this I do not pursue.
The request from brethren around London gives hope that all needed revenge on all disobedience (2 Cor. 10:66And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled. (2 Corinthians 10:6)), will in due season be taken, let us but use the moment in the fear of God. I had more to notice on the letter of the ten (especially on the ground for declining to judge the tracts), but I rather think that my present purpose might make more than I have already said upon it inconvenient, for I am. now only designing to call to consideration the serious nature of this refusal to meet the-proposal of the London brethren, and how it may shut out all hope of restoration and work even further separation-and also by one instance (and one is enough)-to show how much the letter of the ten needs, in the Church principles of it, to be considered afresh; for we have to take heed that the order and testimony of the house of God pass through our hands without contracting defilement;- and, indeed, I would add, for my own admonition especially, dear brother, that we have also to take heed of heartless exercise of the mind over principles and doctrines.
God is not to be so served. " My son, give me thine heart." I need not tell what is, in His esteem, the first and greatest commandment, and the apostle says, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus, let him be anathema." It has been observed that the worst thing in controversy is its tendency to engender an intolerant spirit We must watch against the disturbing force of long-cherished points of discussion. The present uneasiness may be allayed, the Lord grant it, indeed! In the meanwhile, it has its profit with its sorrows. It helps to give our souls immediate business with Himself, and no lessons are so thoroughly or so deeply learned as those which we learn through our necessities. What is then taught us is likely to be something more than theory, in such a way (as I said at the beginning), the early churches learned many of their lessons. We are now at school, under the sorrow that has come upon our once happy and unsuspecting brotherhood in Christ. It may be well-it may be that not only ourselves, but others of the family of God, through our follies, exercises, and experiences, and the Lord's working in and by them, all, may be profited with us. The occasion lead us all (as I have done briefly in this letter), to consider the ways of the house of God; a knowledge of which, according to God, is in a great sense more important than the settlement of the present immediate matter.
May we advance in that holy knowledge, dear brother, and walk altogether again, and that speedily; and more in the sight of the Lord than ever! Amen.
Believe me, ever
Your affectionate brother,
J. G. Bellett.