but had gone down to an early grave. Benjamin, the eldest brother, had sometimes preached as a Baptist, and David had commenced to serve his day and generation in the same manner, as a Universalist. Besides these, there was an elderly man in Richmond, a Mr. James Ballou, who occasionally preached the doctrine of Universalism. What was more natural, under these circumstances, than that it should seem to the young man his duty to enter the ministry, if possessed of the talents requisite to make him useful in his Master's cause? If it was the will of God that he should preach the gospel, he would not decline. He desired to know his duty, and to perform it faithfully.

We have said that he returned to Richmond from New York, and entered the family of his brother David; but yet not having formed the determination to devote his life to the proclamation of the gospel. He had great doubts whether he possessed the requisite ability. Books on divinity he had scarcely read at all; books on Universalism he had never seen, if we except the Bible. In fact, there were no such books in that part of the country where he lived. There was only one sense in which he was a student of divinity. He had a natural propensity for investigation. He was never content to look only on the surface of things; he must know the wherefore. It was impossible for him to throw off this state of mind and these propensities. He could not believe any doctrine merely because others believed it. He had, perhaps, as much confidence in his father as an honest man, as in any man living; but he knew that even honest men might be in error; and he could not believe the doctrines which

his venerable sire preached, unless he saw the proof of their truth in the Bible. Such was Hosea Ballou at nineteen years of age. The theological school which he attended was at his brother David's house; his text-book the Bible, and the Bible only; but of teachers, if we except his brother, he had none. He gave himself up wholly to the influence of truth. He opened the windows of his mind, and said, "Shine in upon my soul, O thou Sun of righteousness!" When the thought of preaching occurred to him, it was always accompanied with diffidence and fear. But, if God had designed him for a preacher, he had no doubt that he should succeed.

CHAPTER IV.

THE FIRST FIVE YEARS OF MR. BALLOU'S MINISTRY, DURING WHICH HE ABANDONED THE DOCTRINES OF THE TRINITY, OF ATONEMENT (IN THE FALSE SENSE OF THAT TERM), AND OF VICARIOUS SUFFERING.

SOON after it was known that young Mr. Ballou had embraced the doctrine of Universalism, he was excommunicated, in due form, from the Baptist church. It was for his faith, and this only, that he was rejected. To be cast out of a church for such a reason, is no disgrace. In our day, the fact of a person believing in the doctrine of the final holiness and happiness of all men, would not of itself be regarded a cause for excommunication, unless he should make himself particularly obnoxious by a disputatious spirit, and by attempts to press his opinions upon others. But, at the time Mr. Ballou embraced this doctrine, it was regarded as one of the most deadly of all heresies, especially if viewed in reference to its consequences; as it was taught that it not only exposed the believer of it to endless perdition, as being out of the true faith, but also exposed society to be deluged

with wickedness.

For, if such a doctrine should prevail, the flood-gates of vice (it was thought) would at once be opened. The great barrier against the flood of wickedness, was the public belief in the terrible consequences that awaited the sinner in the eternal world. The church did not excommunicate Mr. Ballou for anything vicious that he had done. They found no fault with his life e; neither could they, for it had been pure. They had known him from his birth; and, in notifying him of the act of excision, they assured him it was not done on account of any sins of which he had been guilty, but for the reason, solely, that he believed in the salvation of all men.* This excommunication, however, did not remove him from the church of Christ, but merely from the Baptist church in Richmond. No church on earth, even though we regard it to be a branch of the church of Christ, has power to eject a member from Christ's church. for which he gave himself a ransom. Mr. Ballou, therefore, did not regard himself as being an excommunicate from the church of the Great Head. He felt more than his former love for the Saviour, and for the Bible. He knew he was no less a Christian than before. He had no ill-will towards his brethren of the Baptist church. He

*Soon after it was known that I believed in the doctrine, I was excommunicated from the church, and was honored with a copy of the document, carefully stating that no fault was found in me, excepting that I believed that God would finally save all men."— Mod. Hist. Universalism, first edition, p. 436, note.

Those who would see his views on "The Church of Christ," are referred to his sermon on that subject, in the volume entitled "Select Sermons, delivered on various occasions, from important passages of Scripture." Boston, 1844, p. 131.

thought, indeed, they had treated him with as much tenderness as could reasonably be expected under the circumstances; and he continued to love them, not only while his aged father survived, but as long as any of the members survived whom he had known. He knew they were obliged to cut him off from their church, according to their own views of right, and he knew they did it without inflicting any pain upon him which it was possible for them, under these circumstances, to avoid.

SECTION II.

FIRST VISIT TO THE CONVENTION.

It was in the month of September, 1791, that young Mr. Ballou made his first visit to the General Convention of Universalists. This body had been organized in 1785, at Oxford, Mass., at which time he was fourteen years of age. Its sessions had been annually holden in Oxford, Boston and Milford, to wit: in Oxford in 1785, in Boston in 1786, in Milford in 1787, and probably in Oxford in 1788, in Boston in 1789, and in Milford in 1790. This would bring it to Oxford again in 1791. The statements here made rest on conjecture, so far as the years 1788, 1789, and 1790 are concerned; but we are sure that the body met in Oxford in 1791. Mr. Ballou, we have said, was present. He had not then preached. He was twenty years of age, and went down from Richmond in company with his brother David. It was on this occasion he saw, for the first time, the Rev. John Murray, who is so well known to the world as having been an able and successful defender of the great fact, that God "will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of