A Series of Letters, in Defence of Divine Revelation Part 15

Tradition makes the most horrible things acceptable to the mind which becomes blind to their deformity, and even the most detestable things, desirable, by a certain feigned sanct.i.ty which it attaches to them.

But the charm once broken, the rational mind becomes transformed into another image, totally different, and entirely repugnant to the things which it before venerated as divine. You very justly remark, that if truth be in any way connected with endless misery, you are not reconciled to it; but the time has been when you and I viewed this doctrine as an essential article of the faith of the gospel. What an absurdity! Eternal misery an essential article of the faith of a Saviour!

And this very moment there are thousands who set their feet on this vagary, believing it to be the only rock of safety.

But we have reason to be thankful for our happy deliverance from such a pernicious tradition; a tradition which has poisoned the doctrine of the church, and hardened the hearts of Christian professors to such a degree, that cruelty of the worst kind has become habitual.

Will our _pious clergy_ contend against this charge? Let them account then for all the persecutions, the anathemas, the hangings and the burnings, which owe their origin to this doctrine of eternal misery.

Let them account for their own sermons, in our day, which sentence age, middle age, and infancy to endless torture, for offences they never heard of, nor will they ever be informed of them until they find themselves in h.e.l.l for what a man and a woman did thousands of years before they were born, and of whom they never had heard one word in the land of the living! This they as constantly preach as they contend that man must be sensible of his fall in Adam, of the justice of his being eternally miserable for that offence, and of pardon through the atonement of Christ in this life, or be miserable forever hereafter; for thousands in all ages have lived and died who never heard this absurd story while on earth.

Sir, we have no reason to wonder that religion is so little set by, while it is held up in such a character. Let it put on the mild form of the meek and humble Jesus, let it appear in the mercy of him who said "the son of man came not to destroy men's lives but to save them," let it be represented by its own similitude, by pouring oil and wine into the wounds of an enemy, let it be heard when it declares in apostolic language, G.o.d "will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth," let its language be strictly regarded when it informs us that charity is greater than faith or hope, then it will be pure and undefiled before G.o.d and the Father; it will engage the best affections of the human heart, and call to its devotion all the energies of man. Who can count the damages which have been occasioned by the preposterous error of setting up _faith_ as a criterion of _charity_? Creed makers and creed defenders surely must have been averse to St. Paul's sentiment concerning the superiority of charity over faith; for they have sat charity at defiance with undefined items in their creeds, which were acknowledged mysterious in their own minds, and evidently repugnant to reason in the judgment of those who were proscribed as heretics by their authority.

Relative to my quotations from the epistle of Barnabas and others, your argument, as far as it is intended to lessen our belief in the genuineness of these epistles, has no direct bearing on the argument which I endeavoured to support by them; for it makes no difference _who wrote_ those epistles, it is their containing quotations from the New Testament which gives them the consequence for which they were quoted.

In reply to what you say respecting Clement's not quoting Mat. v. 7, xviii. 6. as the writing of St Matthew, but as the words of "our Lord," I here set down Paley's answer.

"It may be said, that, as Clement hath not used words of quotation, it is not certain that he refers to any book whatever. The words of Christ, which he has put down, he might himself have heard from the apostles, or might have received them through the ordinary medium of oral tradition. This has been said; but that no such inference can be drawn from the absence of words of quotation is proved by the three following considerations:--First, that Clement in the very same manner, namely, without any mark of reference, uses a pa.s.sage now found in the epistle to the Romans;[9] which pa.s.sage from the peculiarity of the words which compose it, and from their order, it is manifest that he must have taken from the book. The same remark may be repeated of some very singular sentiments in the epistle to the Hebrews. Secondly, that there are many sentences of St. Paul's epistle to the Corinthians standing in Clement's epistle without any sign of quotation, which yet are certainly quotations; because it appears that Clement had St. Paul's epistle before him, inasmuch as in one place he mentions it in terms too express to leave us in any doubt--'Take into your hands the epistle of the blessed apostle Paul.' Thirdly, that this method of adopting words of scripture, without reference or acknowledgment, was, as will appear in the sequel, a method in general use among the most ancient christian writers. These a.n.a.logies not only repel the objection, but cast the presumption on the other side; and afford a considerable degree of positive proof that the words in question have been borrowed from the places of scripture in which we now find them."[10]

[Footnote 9: Rom. i. 29.]

[Footnote 10: Paley's Evidences, p. 109, 110.]

I think, if we take into consideration the authority of external evidence, especially if we duly consider how easily Celsus couid have overthrown the gospels, if they had not been genuine, it must be acknowledged sufficient, even of itself, to establish any matter of fact however important, allowing no natural improbability were involved in the fact. And this is as much as we want of external evidence, of the sort refered to.

But as even the internal evidences of scripture would be insufficient to support their authority without the concurrence of external evidence, so would the external be found wanting without the internal.

But these together are abundantly sufficient to establish the credibility of this gospel, which is, like every thing else of the work and wisdom of G.o.d, the wonder and admiration of the believing soul.

The purity of your motives in writing on the subject of our discussion, will fully justify the exertions you have made to draw forth such arguments as your brother has been enabled to adduce in support of our common faith. I regret that my almost constant employ on other subjects and other duties, has afforded so little time as I have been able to devote to your queries, which, together with my want of abilities to do justice to a subject of this importance is now an embarra.s.sment on my mind in regard to giving my consent to the publication of this correspondence. And there is still another circ.u.mstance which seems to operate as an objection to the publis.h.i.+ng of these letters, viz. the want of _extension of argument_ in many instances, which would have been attended to, if the work had been written for the conviction of common readers, which was not thought to be necessary for the benefit of the mover of the queries.

However, as all human productions are imperfect and ought so to be considered, and especially those from your humble servant, I am willing to appear to some disadvantage if any considerable advantage may thereby result to the cause of Jesus Christ our Lord.

I cannot close this valedictory epistle without a solemn acknowledgement of heart felt grat.i.tude to the merciful disposer of all events, for the ample evidence which his providence and grace have given of the truth of our religion, especially when consider the glorious hope set before us; and am permitted to antic.i.p.ate the promised era when there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying; when there shall be no more pain; but when tears shall be wiped from all faces, and the rebuke of the nations removed from off all the earth, and every creature in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea shall harmoniously ascribe blessing, and glory, and honor unto him who sitteth upon the throne and unto the lamb forever and ever, I loose myself in the contemplation of the transporting scene.

To conclude, as you, my brother, have laboured together with your fellow servant, to look into, and examine these things which belong to the kingdom of righteousness, and as we have been favoured with mutual satisfaction in these researches, may it please the Great Head of the church still to hold us in his hand, still to engage us in his blessed cause, and render our mutual labours promotive of his grace among men.

And however distant from each other it may best suit the captain of our salvation to place us, may it be his pleasure to continue our fellows.h.i.+p in the bonds of the gospel.

Yours affectionately,

H. BALLOU.

A SERIES OF LETTERS, BETWEEN THE REV. JOSEPH BUCKMINSTER, D.D.

THE REV. JOSEPH WALTON, A.M.

PASTORS OF CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES IN PORTSMOUTH, N.H.

AND THE REV. HOSEA BALLOU.

A SERIES OF LETTERS

LETTER I.

FROM THE REV. JOSEPH BUCKMINSTER TO THE REV. HOSEA BALLOU.

PORTSMOUTH, DEC. 28, 1809.

_Dear Sir_,--At the close of the interview which we had at my house, some little time since, you expressed a wish to live in habits of friends.h.i.+p with the ministers of this town, and I think I expressed a hope that I should be always disposed to treat you and all men with those fruits of benevolence and friends.h.i.+p which the law of our common nature and the spirit and principles of the Christian religion, demand of me; with this profession, without its fruits, my conscience is not satisfied. It was neither friends.h.i.+p nor piety that dictated that early question, "_Am I my brother's keeper_?"--There is a reciprocal responsibility among mankind, both for the interest of time and eternity. Were I to see you or any others exposing themselves to danger, or running into situations that I apprehend would be prejudicial and destructive, friends.h.i.+p would require me to warn and admonish, and endeavour to restrain; and can I support my pretensions to this principle in withholding my warning and admonition, while I am verily persuaded that the present tendency and final issue of that system of sentiments which you have embraced, and which you have come among us to advocate and to support, will expose you, and those that embrace and build upon it, to danger and distress, with which no temporal calamity or ruin can bear any sort of comparison?

I know not what system of Universalism you have embraced or advocate, nor is it of any material consequence in my view; I presume I do not mistake or injure you in supposing that you publicly preach and advocate the final salvation of all mankind, their restoration and a.s.sociation with Jesus Christ in realms of glory. Whatever human ingenuity or plausible and sophistic reasoning may do with respect to either of these systems, they each and all of them are, in my view, dest.i.tute of divine authority, and have not a "thus saith the Lord,"

for their support.

There may be some little difference in the present tendency and effect of these different systems upon the present conduct of men, and so upon the interest of society; but in their general influence, and in their final results, they meet in the same point, and will be attended with the same dreadful consequences. They are neither of them true, and so can have no effect in quickening into life or sanctifying the soul, for it is the _spirit_ that _quickeneth_, and the _truth_ that _sanctifieth_; they may exhilarate, please, and produce triumph; but it will be a triumphing that is short, and a joy that is but for a moment; for G.o.d, to my apprehension, has been so far from giving any countenance to either of those systems, that he hath long ago p.r.o.nounced them false, and their tendency destructive--these are his words:"_Because with lies ye have made the hearts of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad, and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way by promising him life_." But it is not my intention to enter into a dispute upon this subject, neither to enlarge upon arguments to support my own sentiments, nor to disprove yours; I have no apprehension that any good would result from it; it would be a tax upon time that might be better employed.

When persons have adopted a system and are engaged in its support, when the pride of peculiarity or the influence of party views are enlisted as auxiliaries, there is little ground to hope for a conviction of its errors by formal disputation, however temperately conducted; nothing will effect a change of views and feelings but "_that still small voice_" which induced the prophet to wrap his face in his mantle. This voice is more likely to attend our calm, retired reflections, than the perusal of arguments that tend to disprove what we have been accustomed to advocate and support.

The object of this letter is not to revile, to censure, nor to dispute; but, in friends.h.i.+p and affection, to entreat you to reflect and consider the consequences to yourself and others of that system of sentiments which you are advocating--antic.i.p.ate the day of judgment, and realize yourself called upon to give an account of your stewards.h.i.+p. I am not disposed, my dear sir, to impeach your sincerity and honesty. I know how far men may be deluded and deceived. I am disposed to believe that you conscientiously think the sentiments you advocate are true. But remember, dear sir, this does not make them true, nor secure you from the dreadful consequences in which they may issue. With all this moral sincerity and uprightness, if you cease to warn the wicked, that he turn from his wicked way (and how can this be more effectually done than by leading him to expect final, everlasting happiness) his blood will be required at your hands. The apostle Paul most conscientiously persecuted the christians and declared to the council before whom he was arraigned, that he had lived in all good conscience before G.o.d till that day. He verily thought he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, yet his persuasion did not acquit him from guilt, nor would it have s.h.i.+elded him from destruction had he not been renewed to repentance and faith in Christ, while as yet Christ was in the way with him. Christ said to his disciples, "The time will come when whosoever killeth you will think he doth G.o.d's service;" and he has added, "many will say unto me, in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity." What must be your situation in the day of retribution if the system you advocate should in final evidence prove false? of which I have not the least shadow of doubt upon my mind, and therefore have all the forebodings for my erring and deceived fellow mortals which may be supposed to be the result of such conviction.--I cannot cease to warn and to entreat you to consider, friends.h.i.+p forbids, my withholding the voice of warning and adjuration; and both duty and respect to my own safety require me to endeavour to save you from the issue, of which I have such awful forebodings. We must both stand before the Son of man, and each one must give an account of himself and of his stewards.h.i.+p to G.o.d.--From our connextion here, there will probably be some interest in each other in that day; and I cannot bear the thought of your being able to say when the scheme of Universalism shall all vanish like the baseless fabric of a vision, and all the hopes built upon it will be like the spider's web and like the giving up of the ghost, that you should be able to say, I never warned you of this issue, nor admonished you of your danger.

I know not with what sentiments you will receive this address, nor what use you may make of it; my concern is with the sentiments and spirit that dictate it. I think they are such as will induce me continually to pray that you may not pierce yourself through with many sorrows, nor be left to mourn at the last.

Your friend and humble servant,

J. BUCKMINSTER.

LETTER II.

FROM THE REV. HOSEA BALLOU TO THE REV. JOSEPH BUCKMINSTER.

PORTSMOUTH, JAN'Y. 1, 1810.

_Rev. Sir_,--The receipt of your affectionate, friendly address, bearing date December 28, 1809, is gratefully acknowledged, and although I have not words fully adequate to express the satisfaction I feel arising from the circ.u.mstance and spirit of your epistle, I cannot be willing to suppress my feelings so much as not to notice, that it is with uncommon pleasure that I appreciate your favour, which, I am happy to acknowledge, is a demonstration of that friends.h.i.+p first reciprocated at your house, and secondly recapitulated in your epistle. This friends.h.i.+p founded, as you justly observe, in the _law_ of our _common nature_ and in the _spirit_ and _principles_ of the _christian religion_, is such an inexhaustible treasure of moral riches that the aggregate sum of earthly wealth is poverty in the comparison.

This friends.h.i.+p, sir, being founded on such principles, will undoubtedly last as long as such principles remain; and if you are my real friend on the principle of the law of our common nature, so long as you possess the law of our common nature, you will be my real friend; and if you are my real friend, on the principles and spirit of the christian religion, so long as you possess the principles and spirit of the christian religion, you will remain my real friend. And if I be, as I trust in G.o.d I am, your real friend, on those imperishable principles, I shall continue to possess this friends.h.i.+p for you so long as I possess those principles. If these observations on friends.h.i.+p be correct, as I conceive they are, you will know why I so highly prize the treasure, especially when I find it in a man capable of exercising it to so much advantage as your learning, ability and experience enable you to do. You justly observe that neither piety nor friends.h.i.+p dictated the question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" How different must have been the spirit which dictated that question from the spirit of him who saith, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, my mother's children were angry with me, they made me the keeper of the vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept?

Your next observation is highly worthy, not only of general consideration, but of particular notice; and I am the more pleased with it on account of its falling from your pen as I am sure you must understand the truths which are necessarily connected with the one expressed in the observation; your words are, "there is a reciprocal responsibility among mankind both for the interest of time and eternity." As it cannot reasonably require any argument to discover the propriety of supposing that the eternal interest of mankind is connected with eternal causes and predicated on eternal principles, so when it is acknowledged that a reciprocal responsibility exists among mankind for their eternal interest, it is evident that this reciprocal responsibility is eternal. Should any conviction of mind render it necessary that we give up the idea of the eternal nature of this reciprocal responsibility, that conviction would drive the idea of eternal interest, predicated on such responsibility from our mind. How n.o.ble are your sentiments communicated in this observation! How rich must you and I feel in the enjoyment of such reciprocal principles and in the consequent interest arising from them; not only for time, but for eternity!

You very justly observe again--"Were I to see you or any others exposing themselves to danger or running into situations which I apprehended would be destructive, friends.h.i.+p would require me to warn and admonish, and to endeavour to restrain." These expressions, sir, ill.u.s.trate the good fruits of real friends.h.i.+p, and as our Saviour has told us that the tree is known by its fruits, so we are to distinguish between real and pretended friends by their fruits. Suppose, sir, we move the position a little, and say, notwithstanding you warn me and endeavour to restrain me from danger, I persist in my error, and my calamity comes upon me; in this situation you come and tell me that you are heartily glad that I am tormented, and that you are glad to think there is no probability of my misery's being any less; that you feel no pity for me now; could I look back and remember your warning, and believe that you warned me out of real friends.h.i.+p? We have just seen that friends.h.i.+p predicated on the law of our common nature and on the principles and spirit of the Christian religion must necessarily be as durable as those eternal principles. It is no less the characteristic of real friends.h.i.+p to endeavour to meliorate than to preserve from sufferings.

On observing your admonitions, and believing you sincere in them, I am led to say, that had I such a friend as you are who possessed the means for making me eternally happy, I might entertain no doubt of obtaining the inestimable enjoyment; nor do I view you, sir, less a friend because you do not possess a power which is equal to the putting of all your friendly desires into full execution, but will acknowledge you my worthy friend, and accept the warnings which you give me against the system of doctrine which, as you say, I have embraced and come among this people to advocate, as a token of that friends.h.i.+p which would, if connected with suitable power, place me out of all final danger, or which would cause you to rejoice exceedingly, had you the evidence to believe that one who has such power possesses even stronger desires for my eternal welfare than you do.

You inform me that you do not know what system of Universalism I have embraced. Permit me, sir, to inform you, though you do not request it, that I have embraced the system of Universalism, which Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob embraced, in believing G.o.d, who said, "In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." If this faith of Abraham were imputed to him for righteousness, it must be a true faith, and if true, worthy to be embraced by all nations and families of the earth, without the exception of an individual. Permit me further to observe that I disclaim all authors as divine guides, except the divine author of those scriptures which cannot be broken.

You rightly apprehend me in supposing that I believe and teach that all mankind will be saved, restored and a.s.sociated with Christ Jesus in realms of glory; but I do not believe as you intimate, that human ingenuity, or plausible and sophistic reasoning are necessary to the support of this doctrine among men; nor will I attempt to say how sorry I am that you should declare the doctrine not true until you had produced a "_thus saith the Lord_" to prove it false; or that you should intimate that I am employing human ingenuity or plausible and sophistic reasoning to support the universal benevolence of G.o.d until the disagreeable circ.u.mstance should transpire, in which I might be justly thus charged.

Although in order to please myself, I might explain your meaning as directed against some others of the advocates of the heavenly gospel of universal salvation; I could find but little satisfaction in thus endeavoring to avoid any reproach which is directed against the true disciples of my divine Master.

You inform me that as universal salvation is not true, "it can have no effect in quickening into life or of sanctifying the soul, for it is the spirit that quickeneth, and the truth, which sanctifies." If, dear sir, you do not believe that the spirit of salvation quickeneth into life, would it not have been proper to inform me what spirit does? And I should have highly esteemed an ill.u.s.tration of the evidence which you have, that the truth, _that mankind will remain eternally unsanctified_, will sanctify the soul! I fully believe that as far as any proposition is capable of being proved from the written word, or of being demonstrated by logical reasoning from acknowledged facts, the doctrine of the salvation of all men is capable of being proved and substantially maintained. Does it require human ingenuity or plausible and sophistic reasoning to make it appear from the scriptures that Jesus Christ, by the grace of G.o.d, tasted death for every man; that he gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time; that he is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world; that it is the will of G.o.d that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth; that he worketh all things after the council of his own will?--Does it require this ingenuity, &c. to substantiate from the written word that the promise to Abraham will be fulfilled, and that all nations whom G.o.d hath made shall come and wors.h.i.+p before him and glorify his name; that Jesus will in the fulness of time, reconcile all things unto himself, whether they be things in heaven or things on earth, or things under the earth; that he will gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him? If it be an acknowledged fact that G.o.d will bless all the families of the earth in Christ, that all nations which G.o.d hath made shall come and wors.h.i.+p before him and glorify his name, that Jesus gave himseif a ransom for all men to be testified in due time, that he did by the grace of G.o.d taste death for every man, that he will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, that he hath made known the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fulness of times, he would gather together in one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, and that he worketh all things after the council of his own will, then the doctrine of the salvation of all men is as fully acknowledged as language can possibly express, or my error lies in not understanding the force of words and sentences.