believing the eternity of future punishment, and by the inability to give a conclusive answer to a few imposing objections, that "unlearned and unstable" minds are led first to doubt whether future punishment will be strictly eternal, then to be sure it must be limited in duration, then to listen with a favorable and believing ear to the sophistries of those who scoff at the thought of any future retribution.

The defect, if so it may be called, to which we have alluded, is common to most of the modern discussions of Universalism. It seems commonly to be forgotten that the dispute with the Universalists respects not simply, nor first, the question whether future. punishment is to be eternal; but rather begins with the fundamental question whether man is a moral agent, and God a moral governor. It seems not to be known that modern Universalism is not a single and disconnected error, but a compact and comprehensive system of delusion,-a system not like Unitarianism and Deism, made up of mere negations, but like some ancient heresies, constructed of positive falsehoods from the foundation to the top-stone -a system which has as few points in common with christianity as Mohammedanism, or some of the simpler forms of Paganism. Ought not such a system-propagated as it is with great assiduity, and making common cause with popery, infidelity, atheism, and every element of evil-to be fully understood by those who are set for the defense of the gospel? Ought not the course of didactic and polemic theology in a Theological Seminary, to be so arranged as to allow room for the detailed exhibition and refutation of that system ? Is it enough, in respect to the controversy with Universalists, if the professor batters down for the hundreth time the exploded and abandoned schemes of Chauncey and Winchester, of Huntington and Murray, while the system now actually living and making its ravages in the land, remains undescribed, and lies altogether beyond the range of the student's reading and researches ?

We have been at some little pains to look into this subject; we have collected and studied a few of the standard authors of Universalism; we have examined the history of the sect as published by themselves, and as collected from other sources; we have tried to ascertain the form and scheme in which their favorite doctrine is now taught; and we have thought that some service may be rendered to the cause of truth by exhibiting in a narrow compass some of the results of our inquiries. Our purpose here, it will be noticed, is not controversy with the defenders of the Universalist faith; for the present we pray to be excused from such controversy; we do not propose to refute their opinions, but only to declare them; and to show the progress of error in their sect since the days when their sect first had a being. We propose to show from their example how true is that saying of inspired wisdom, “ Evil

men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived."

The doctrine that in the revolutions of the eternity to come, a period will arrive when sin and suffering are to cease from the universe of God, is by no means an invention of modern times. It is not to be denied that as early as the third century, and perhaps even in the second, some christian writers expressed, if not the decided opinion, at least the conjecture and the hope that after many ages of future punishment, all the lost, whether men or devils, will finally be reconciled to God, and saved. By Origen, in the third century, the notion of a final and universal restoration seems to have been expressly argued for, not indeed as a clear and fundamental point of christian doctrine, but as a proposition deserving of examination and discussion, among those who were in no danger of being perverted by its corrupting tendency.* By Clemens of Alexandria, in the second century, it seems to have been adopted as a principle of reasoning, that the end of punishment is always the reformation of the offender; and some of his expressions seem to imply a probability that the punishments in a future world may ultimately result in bringing all lost spirits to repentance.† And few, probably, will be inclined to deny that from the days of Origen onward, the same sort of opinions may have been entertained in every age, by here and there an individual particularly prone to loose and conjectural speculation.

At the period of the reformation from popery, when the human mind suddenly, and as it were by a violent and convulsive effort, broke the chains that had weighed it down, and held it fast for ages; and when, in the wild excitement of that new found liberty, all doctrines that could be framed or conjectured, were brought forward for speculation and belief; it was a matter of course that the doctrine of the ultimate restoration of all fallen intelligences to perfect rectitude and happiness, should find some to embrace it, and some to argue for it. Yet it was held by individuals, separate and unconnected, rather than by embodied communities. Or if among the innumerable sects of the reformation, any are found into whose common creed this doctrine seems to have been incorporated, still it may be maintained that with none of these sects was it regarded as the ground of separation from other parties, or as the common bond of union. Among the Anabaptists, which general title of op

* Muenscher's Elements of Dogmatic History, translated by Murdock. pp.39-40. In regard to the opinion of the fathers on the subject of future punishment, a full and candid statement may be found in Muenscher's larger work, entitled, "Handbuch der christlichen Dogmengeschichte." vol. ii. 478-517 One of the standard books of the Universalist sect, is "The Ancient History of Universalism." By Hosea Ballou, 2d. Boston. 1829.

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probrium seems to include all the lesser sects of protestantism, the doctrine was received to such an extent that the public renuncia tion and condemnation of it, appeared necessary to the compilers of the Augsburg Confession. And when, in the reign of Edward VI. the forty-two articles of religion, afterwards reduced to thirty-nine, were drawn up by Cranmer and his associates, and published as the faith of the church of England, the forty-second was expressly aimed against the same error. These facts, and others of the same kind, show that the ancient doctrine of a universal restoration had been revived, and was received by so many as to excite some serious apprehensions. Yet it was not till a much more recent period, that any sect or organized party appeared, holding the doctrine that all men shall be saved, as its grand peculiarity, teaching that doctrine as essential to christianity, and making it the bond of mutual fellowship.

The origin of Universalism, as a sect, may be traced to England, and to the times of the extended religious excitement there in connection with the preaching of Whitefield and the Wesleys. James Relly, one of Whitefield's preachers, dissatisfied with the high toned doctrines of that remarkable man, yet probably infected deeply with antinomian views of imputation and atonement, gradually swerved from the faith, and formed a scheme peculiar to himself, a scheme which represented the doctrine that all men shall be saved, as the grand and leading doctrine of the christian revelation. This was a step in advance of all ancient Universalism.

Among the changes which were made, when the forty-two articles of King Edward became the thirty-nine articles of Queen Elizabeth, was the omission of the sentence condemning the opinion of a universal restoration. The Univer salists claim that since that era, their doctrine has not been inconsistent with the standards of the church of England. "From the time of the revision of the articles," says one of the organs of the sect, "it has not been considered an offense in the church of England, to avow the doctrine of universal salvation. Some of her most eminent divines have maintained it without incurring any displeasure or disability on that account. And perhaps there have been furnished as spirited arguments on both sides of this question, by members and divines of the church of England, as the world has ever seen." Modern History of Universalism, by Thomas Whittemore. Boston, 1833. pp. 49-50. We would will. ingly be informed, whether an avowal of the doctrine of universal salvation is an offense against the daughter church in these United States. "Recollection retains the fact," that a presbyter of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in regular standing, in the diocese of Connecticut, having charge of St. Peter's, St. Paul's, and we know not how many other churches, received and accepted an invitation to become the preacher to a congregation of Universalists in one of our cities. Did he become a Universalist for the consideration of a higher salary, or was his previous Universalism a notorious fact, on which the call was founded? The Rev. John Tyler, pastor of an Episcopal Society in Norwich, Conn." figures in the annals of Universalism, as the author of a book which is said to be "an interesting defense of Universalism upon the Rellyan principles." Was his avowal of the doctrine of universal salvation an offense against the doctrines and order of that apostolical church, in which, unless the historian of modern Uni versalism misrepresents the matter, he retained his priestly office till his death? We pause for a reply

Others had conjectured, had believed, had taught that all fallen beings will, at some future period, be restored to happiness; but none, we believe, had ever published this, and preached it, as the essence and glory of the gospel. Here was the beginning of Universalism as a sect. Relly gathered a congregation in London which is believed to be still in existence, and which holds fellowship with four or five other congregations of Rellyan Universalists in different parts of England.*

"The sa

Among the disciples of Relly was John Murray. This man was, by his own account, the son of pious parents who educated him with unusual strictness and severity. He was in early life the subject of many religious impressions. In his childhood, notwithstanding the strong Calvinism of his father, he became the leader of of forty boys, to which station he was called by none other than John Wesley. By natural disposition he was unstable, one of those who seem made to be driven by every impulse. tiety consequent upon one unvaried routine," was dreadful to him. He tells us, "He who had appointed me to a life of wandering, gave me a disposition which relucted at the constant recurrence of the same scene." Yielding to such a disposition, he forsook his widowed mother, tore himself away from a family which had adopted him as a son, and without business, without resources, without friends, went from Ireland to London as an adventurer. There, he pursued "an inconsiderate, destructive course for upwards of a year;" he "plunged into the vortex of pleasure, greedily grasping at all enjoyments which both his habits and his circumstances should have taught him to shun." Having been reduced by this course to entire want, he became again religious; and again experienced the kindness of religious friends. His connections were now with the Tabernacle and the followers of Whitefield. He was once more a zealous attendant on religious meetings, and was again put forward to pray and exhort, till he looked upon himself and was regarded by others, as eminent alike in graces and in gifts. A few months afterwards he married, most improvidently, a young woman with whom he had formed a religious acquaintance, and who, by receiving him for her husband, renounced the protection and friendship of her grandfather, under whose roof she had been brought up m the expectation that with her brothers she would inherit his estate. The next recorded event of Murray's changeful history, is his and his wife's conversion to the faith of Relly, and his consequent exclusion from the fellowship of all his former religious acquaintances. Next we find him without a friend in the world, in

Modern Hist. of Universalism. pp. 276-279. 299-301. Buck's Theological Dictionary. Art. Rellyan.

want and in debt, his wife sinking under a fatal disease, and her brothers so utterly estranged from him and from her, that in all their distress he never went to them for the least kindness till the day in which she died. Afterwards we find him again, by the kindness of these same brothers-in-law, relieved from his pecuniary embarrassments, and placed in favorable circumstances. His mother having come from Ireland about the time of his wife's death, with three of her younger children, she and two of his brothers were received into his house and constituted his family. In these circumstances, he suddenly formed the resolution of going to America, that he might "close his life in solitude." The resolution thus formed, no advice, no entreaties, could shake. He according ly embarked for this country, where he arrived in 1770.

Before his departure from Ireland, Murray had been not only an exhorter, but an occasional preacher, among the Wesleyans. While he was connected with the Tabernacle in London, though he had never ventured to resume the business of preaching, he had been forward and fluent in prayer and exhortation. After bis conver sion to Universalism, he was importuned by Relly to be a preacher of his new faith; but, for some reason not sufficiently explained, he never undertook to preach in England. No sooner, however, had he put the broad Atlantic between himself and all who had ever known him, than he found himself compelled to preach by a call which he represents as irresistible and little less than miraculous. He preached first at a place called Cranberry, in NewJersey, then in New-York and Philadelphia, and soon made his way into New England. At Gloucester, in Massachusetts, he found a few individuals who were acquainted with Relly's writings and had embraced his faith; these he gathered into a society, of which he was the pastor. During the revolutionary war, he had a chaplaincy in the army. In 1793, he removed from Gloucester to Boston, where he died in 1815.

About ten years after Murray's arrival in this country, while yet Universalism was in its nascent state, Elhanan Winchester, a Baptist minister of considerable popular reputation, and of no mean talents, came out in Philadelphia, where he was then preaching, with the doctrine of a universal restoration. He drew with him, to a separate place of worship, a large part of the congregation to

See the "Life of Rev. John Murray, late minister of the reconciliation, and senior pastor of the Universalists congregated in Boston. Written by himself. Stereotype edition. Boston, 1832." pp. 134-146. From this strange rhapsody, the narrative above has been collected. In many instances, the writer seems to imply something approaching to a miraculous guidance, a divine call, which made him a chosen vessel to bear the blessed doctrine of Universalism. The writer, in the preface, calls him "the philanthropic, the inspired preacher," and speaks of "the divine and soul-soothing tenets of which it was his distinguished lot to be ORDAINED a promulgator."