ask, can be greater than that which changes the light of God into darkness, denies his paternity, and makes all the exhibitions of his goodness an illusion and solemn mockery.

I need not say that these two views can never coalesce, never be harmonized. If what the Scriptures teach be true, that God is good, universally, infinitely, changelessly good; that he is the Father of the spirits of all flesh; that we are all his offspring; that he is love, and love worketh no ill to its objects; and that of his infinite love Jesus Christ was sent forth from the bosom of the Father, with all power in heaven and earth, to work out man's salvation, if all this be true as the Scriptures plainly teach, then it seems to us to follow, that God can neither purpose nor do much that human creeds ascribe to him. If, on the contrary, he be not all this, if he is such a being as confessions of human origin represent him, then we have read the volume both of his works and his word wrongly; then indeed are we blind, and misguided; then is man miserable beyond expression, and may give himself over to despair. But it is not, my brethren, it cannot be so. "God is light and in him is no darkness at all." He is love without hatred, goodness without malice, justice without cruelty or revenge; and the measures of his beneficence already communicated to our race, should be gratefully acknowledged as the pledge and foretaste of the boundless store reserved to show forth his goodness in the future. We can believe anything of God, rather than that he will choose evil and perpetuate it in his empire for ever, or that his plan of goodness shall end in defeat. We cannot ascribe to our Father in heaven the base passions of fallen and sinful man. This would be to dishonor

rather than to glorify him.

We know that he who

commands us to love our enemies cannot hate his. We know that he who enjoins it upon weak man to put away all bitterness and wrath and anger, with all malice, cannot indulge these dark passions himself. Nor can he who requires us to overcome evil with good, attempt to rectify the evils of time by the torments of an eternity.

I have now pointed out what I conceive to be the prominent feature of our cause, the characteristic that distinguishes it from all other causes around us. It is true our system of faith differs from most others in many other particulars; but they are generally more or less intimately connected with the great doctrine of the divine goodness, and cannot be separated from it. These minor differences I shall not stop to specify, nor is it necessary. The grand excellence, or the grand error, of our faith is believed by us and our opposers to be the doctrine that God is good; or in the language of that excellent man, William Law, that " God from eternity to eternity is mere unchangeable and ever-overflowing love ;" and that his whole economy of providence and grace is benevolent, not only to the whole, but to every individual part, and all tending wisely and certainly to the chief end of man, which is "to glorify God, and enjoy him for ever."

Having thus glanced at the cause in which we are engaged, and contemplated its principal and distinctive feature, I shall now pass to consider the position which it is at the present time occupying in the world.

It admits of no doubt, so apparent is the fact, that the cause of universal goodness and grace is now far more prosperous than it has been in any period for centuries past. It is more widely diffused, and more ardently and successfully, if not more ably ad

vocated; it holds a more conspicuous place in the church, and is commanding a greater degree of attention, than it has in many a bygone age. In some respects its position is new and more favorable for exerting an influence, securing respect and making progress.

That the great truth, which we maintain, in relation to the divine character and the end of the divine government, was taught by our Lord and his apostles, is capable, we think, of conclusive proof. That all the early Christians fully understood and appreciated it, may, I suspect, admit of much doubt. This will at least appear probable when we reflect how slow even the apostles themselves were to comprehend the spirituality and all-embracing design of the gospel. With the crude and grovelling views that, we know, existed in many a mind in the apostolic churches, with the avowed anxiety on the part of the apostles to perfect that which was lacking in their faith, we have much reason to conclude that there were many who had not attained to clear conceptions of God, or to comprehensive notions of his government and purposes. Indeed I cannot think that the intellectual and moral development of that age was generally high enough to justify an expectation on our part, that all the disciples were cordial and intelligent believers in the universality of the divine grace and salvation. It is enough for us that Christ and his apostles clearly taught it.

In the writings of the fathers called apostolic, from the circumstance that they succeeded the apostles, but who were all illiterate and ignorant men, we find their views undeveloped with respect to the ultimate condition of the wicked. But as early as the year of Christ 150 we meet with distinct traces of the doctrine of universal salvation. In several

subsequent ages of the church, we know this doctrine was boldly proclaimed by many of the fathers, and among them a large portion of those who were the brightest ornaments of the Christian profession, and who would not suffer in comparison with any of their age, in learning, talents, or piety. Tertullian, about the year 204, is thought to have been the first to assert the absolute eternity of punishment, in which opinion he was followed by Cyprian. They seem to have had little of the gentle, benevolent, and forgiving spirit of Christianity, and are said to show by their exultation that this horrible dogma found a too congenial soil in their hearts.

It is a fact worthy of particular notice, that notwithstanding the doctrine of universal salvation was widely diffused, especially in the eastern church, and though it was maintained by many of the most distinguished fathers, yet it was never made the subject of either public or private reproach till near the close of the fourth century. It seems to have excited no disaffection, to have provoked no controversies, to have called forth no censures or condemnation. Thus for two and a half centuries, the most enlightened of any period after the apostles, till the Reformation, Universalism existed unchallenged in the orthodox church, and was orthodoxy itself. For a part of this period the dogma of endless misery also existed under similar circumstances. Thus our own more merciful doctrine stood side by side in the church with that of interminable torments. the author of the Ancient History of Universalism, to whom I am indebted for these facts, well remarks, "the wolf and the lamb lay down together."

As

The next century opens a new scene, barbarism and "old night" begin to resume their throne. Another race, another spirit-a race and a spirit that

seemed to revel in universal destruction-gathered like a thunder-cloud around the Roman Empire. The hoofs of Attila's war-horse were heard clattering through all the south of Europe, and behind them rushed on the myriads of his barbarous Huns. The sun of civilization, of philosophy, of moral culture, was going down, and the night of the dark ages was about to set in. The church wrapped herself in the folds of her drapery, and amidst imposing forms and ceremonies sat down till the storm was overpast and a brighter morning should dawn! on the cross.

It is instructive to observe how Universalism waned after the close of the fourth century, and seems soon to have become extinct throughout nearly all Christendom. The peculiar spirit of Christianity, the spirit of gentleness and love, vanished away, and all that remained of our holy religion was the shell, the form, was what was imbodied in sensible rites, well calculated, and wisely designed I doubt not, by a beneficent Heaven, to preserve its being in the earth. But in the spirit of the dark ages Universalism found no sympathy, no aliment. The ignorance, the cruelty, the superstition of that period of the world's history, proved uncongenial to so high and pure a faith. The dogma of endless torments, on the contrary, then held its carnival. Never before had it enjoyed such an authority, and never will it again unless the dark ages return once more. During the long lapse of eight or ten centuries, I know of but two or three names that can be enrolled among the friends of Universalism, and these seem to have been born before the world was prepared either to receive or appreciate them. The human mind seemed incapable of rising to the conception of a grace broad enough for the salvation