father of Hosea, and on those of his numerous children, we are yet to learn that a single misdemeanor can be justly laid to the charge of either; we are yet to find the person who will not say they all lived Christian lives. David, like the rest, was a pure-minded man. The lines inscribed upon his humble grave-stone are truly indicative of his character:

"While mental power and moral worth
By man shall be approved,

The memory of this friend shall be
Both cherished and beloved.

"Long, with persuasive lips, he preached
In his Redeemer's name,

And lived the precepts taught by Him

By whom salvation came.’

On the death of David, Hosea remained the only survivor of all his father's children.

CHAPTER II.

HOSEA BALLOU'S BIRTH. THEOLOGY OF NEW ENGLAND AT THE TIME THEREOF.

HOSEA BALLOU was born in Richmond, N. H., on the 30th of April, 1771. At this time the troubles between Great Britain and her North American colonies were fast coming to a crisis; and this was the subject which, above all others, agitated the public mind. Richmond was far removed from the sea-coast, and at no time were the inhabitants put into any fear of an invasion of their town. It was a quiet place, in which the people supported themselves by hard labor, upon a soil not naturally very productive.

SECTION I. CALVINISM PREDOMINANT.

The predominant religion in New England, at the time of Mr. Ballou's birth, was Calvinism. In the view of the old Calvinistic divines, God was a sovereign, and had a right to do what He would with his own. Adam, the progenitor of our race, had sinned, and had fallen from the favor and communion of God; and by this act he and all his posterity had become liable to all the miseries of this life,-to death itself, and to the pains of hell forever. The divine law, which had thus been broken,

required that every offender should suffer endless misery, the just punishment for sins committed against an infinitely just and sin-hating God. But God, who from his own good pleasure inclined to mercy, determined not to leave all mankind to perish in this state of sin and misery; and therefore, of his own grace, he selected a portion of the fallen race of man, and entered into a covenant of grace with them, to deliver them from their state of sin and misery into a state of salvation, by a Redeemer. The rest of mankind, no more guilty than the elect (for all were worthy of endless condemnation), he was pleased to pass by, and ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sins, to the praise of his vindictive justice.

Why God, if truly benevolent, could not have elected the whole to salvation, under the circumstances we have named, was a question that does not seem to have obtruded itself greatly upon the minds of the clergy of the times of which we speak. But how were the elect to be saved? In the following manner: God himself assumed flesh, took upon himself the nature of man, and thus became God-man.- the infinity and the humanity united; and thus the Godhead became capable of death, and of offering an infinite sacrifice upon the cross. sus, in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, offered himself a sacrifice for sin, and bore the punishment of the sins of the elect in his own body. Thus the divine law was satisfied; God could be just, and yet be the justifier, of him who believed. This sacrifice, however, was for the elect only. The eternal damnation of the non-elect was just, because it was a deserved punishment. True, these deserved it no more than the elect;

Je

but blame God, said the old divines, not because he causes sinners to suffer what they justly deserve; blame him, if you must, for plucking the elect as brands from the burning.

This religion was the source of gloom. Some, perhaps, who believed it, could be occasionally merry, not excepting the clergy; for the horrible decree became familiar to them. By continually preaching about it, its repulsiveness wore away, as surgeons overcome their first dread of corpses and skeletons by a continued practice of their profession. But, to the great body of those who believed it, Calvinism was, more or less, a religion of gloom. God was looked upon with terror, and even his ministers upon the earth were regarded with awe. Few were to be saved. By far the larger proportion of mankind perhaps ninety-nine in a hundred of those who were then on the earth- were destined to sink down into irretrievable ruin. Few indeed there were who dared to question the truth of the doctrine of endless damnation. If men were permitted to question one point, they might question others; and the clergy were more jealous of the doctrine referred to, from the fact, perhaps, that it was more prominently exposed to objections than any other. It was regarded as an undoubted sign of unreconciliation to God for a man to deny to him the right to do what he would with his own; and, so far from a man being at liberty to murmur against God for the endless damnation of the sinner, even though it were his dearest earthly friend, he was required to be perfectly willing to be damned himself, it it were God's will, for the divine glory. What right had the non-elect to complain?

They would not be called to suffer anything they did not deserve; and a poor reward was it for the elect to render to God for making them the monuments of his grace, to dispute the rectitude of his government. The mandate of Calvinism was, "Let every mouth be stopped; the whole race of Adam are worthy of endless pains!" The slight distinctions which have been made by Hopkins and Emmons, and by which they have sought to soften the rigors of Calvinism, were little known at the time to which we refer; and, in fact, they amount to nothing in mitigation of the severity of the system, it is the same "horrible decree," after all.

SECTION II. MILDER FORMS LITTLE KNOWN.

Arminianism was but little known. The Methodists, after the form of Wesley, had not arisen in this country. Whitefield, who had produced so wide a sensation in the land, was a Calvinist. The Baptists were of the same faith. They differed from the clergy of the standing order principally in the matter of baptism. There was, here and there, a clergyman of more liberal faith; but he had to shine very cautiously with his truth. These clergymen were settled principally in the larger towns, where heresy was not so quickly seen; and the most of them in the vicinity of Boston. There were one or two clergymen in Boston who undoubtedly rejected the doctrine of endless misery altogether; but they seldom, if ever, preached upon the subject. These were Drs. Mayhew and Chauncy. The former was the bolder, more ingenuous, and more high-minded man; and, upon the