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"no remedy." Without mercy it inflicts "the whole penalty of the law." Rom. 5: 9. Ez. 18: 20-22, 27, 28. See also

Ez. 33: 14-16.

2. My second argument in this letter is drawn from the fact that modern Universalism destroys the whole plan of salvation by Christ. Take whatever view of the subject you please, and the result here stated is inevitable. It destroys the whole plan of salvation, in the first place, by denying that mankind are or ever were lost. If you are at all acquainted with the sentiments of your standard authors on this point, you know that they ridicule the idea that mankind are in a fallen, revolted and ruined state. They believe man is now, as he was originally created. This view you will find expressed very fully in Mr. Balfour's works. But the whole plan of salvation proceeds upon the ground that man is LOST. Hence Christ came to seek him, died his ransom, and presents overtures of reconciliation. If man is not lost, then he cannot be saved. Universalism knows of no salvation worth calling by that endearing name. Salvation-UNIVERSAL SALVATION!! Universal salvation from a future hell? No-it says there is no such place. Universal salvation from future sufferings and death? No: it says mankind have never been exposed to any such sufferings. Universal salvation from punishment in this world? No-it says: "if an individual sins, he has got to suffer the whole penalty of the law"* and "there is no remedy." Universal salvation from sin in the world to come? No: it says, "Universalists now know of no condition for man beyond the grave, but that in which he is as the angels in heaven."+ Universal salvation from sin in this world? No : for Universalists freely admit that there is much moral evil in this world. What then, according to their own system, are Universalists saved from? I know of no salvation for them, if their system is true, unless it be a salvation of all persevering Universalists from believing the gospel. Such a system may, with much more propriety be denominated Universal damnation, than Universal salvation. It universally punishes all, and universally saves none.

You will please pardon my seeming severity. The inconsistencies of the system cannot be shown up without great plainness of speech. I have some other illustrations going to show to my own mind, that the system which you have, in an evil hour embraced, destroys all salvation by Christ, which I must reserve for next week.

Yours respectfully,

*Mr. Fernald, Universalist Preacher.

+ Mr. Whittemore.

My Dear Sir :

LETTER III.

With your permission, I will now proceed to give some additional reasons for rejecting the distinguishing sentiment of Universalism, viz, that the righteous are always fully rewarded, and the wicked fully punished in this world. My closing position in my last was that Universalism destroys salvation by Christ. I will give one more illustration of this fact. According to your system there is, strictly speaking, no grace of God, no mercy, no forgiveness, no salvation; but if you call a state of future happiness-a state never forfeited by sin, salvation, then DEATH and not Jesus Christ, is the Saviour. Death pacifies the guilty conscience, reconciles the soul to God, saves it from a Universalist hell, and instantaneously fits it for the presence of God and the society of angels and perfected saints. Death is the "universal catholicon," "the grand panacea," "the good physician and matchless sanative" for the souls of the wicked. The most hardened rebel against God is by the soul-saving energies of death, made at once

"To meet the endless glories of the dead,
By cold submersion, razor, rope or lead."

Souls thus redeemed, on reaching heaven, cannot sing the new song, "Worthy is the Lamb who has redeemed us to God by his blood out of every nation, kindred, tongue and people." No-if they sing at all, they must ascribe their salvation to death and those bloody tyrants and human butchers who have literally "scattered around them fire-brands, arrows and death," and

"Now, Buonaparte is dead he'll find,
Ten thousand of the human kind,
Far, far beyond the sun and moon,
Thank him for killing them so soon."

I am aware that your preachers attempt to evade this objection to your system by saying, that death is only the instru ment of salvation. Well, if it be an instrument, it is not an. instrument which Christ uses for the salvation of souls. Where in the word of God do you find it revealed that Christ employs death to save souls? Nowhere. Such a text cannot be found in the oracles of God. Jesus found death in our world

when he descended from heaven. He came rather to destroy death than to render death an instrument of salvation. He on one occasion expressly declared, that he came not to destroy men's lives but to save them. Jesus Christ saves souls by his death and mediation, by his teachings and the foolishness of preaching his gospel. But Universalism saves by any and every means "which throws off this mortal coil." Such men as Xerxes, Alexander the Great, and Buonaparte, have had the pleasure of snatching souls hy thousands, from the quenchable fires of a Universalist hell, and colonizing them in heaven by the summary process of the battle field ! ! !

I have one more serious objection to your system, which 1 will present for your serious consideration at this time. It is this Universalism is evidently licentious in its influence. This is a trite objection I know; but it is, nevertheless, capable of almost mathematical demonstration. The truth is saving and salutary. Error is always poisonous and hurtful to the soul. When I say that Universalism is licentious in its influence, I do not mean that every Universalist is immoral in his habits; I mean the system is lax and loose; that it lowers the standard of christianity down to the very dust, and that its practical illustrations are just what might be expected from such a system of unbelief. That it does not and cannot co-exist with a healthy state of religious feelings. It is the grave-digger of piety. Let me prove and illustrate this position.

1. The effects of this doctrine wherever preached are directly the opposite of that produced by the preaching of Christ and his Apostles.

What were the effects of the preaching of Christ and his Apostles? Alarm-repentance-reformation-prayer. Did any one ever know these effects to follow the preaching of Ultra-Universalism? NEVER. When Paul and Silas preached at Phillippi, the jailor trembled and said to them: "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" When Paul stood before Felix, at the peril of his life, he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and a judgment to come, until his royal and voluptuous auditor trembled like Belshazzar, when an invisible hand wrote his destination in hieroglyphics upon the wall of his banquetting house. Why this agitation and alarm if the Apostles preached Ultra-Universalism? Did you ever know Universalist preaching to produce such an effect upon the minds of the wicked? You cannot produce a single instance. Indeed the whole tendency and design of Universalism is to

produce the very opposite effect. Instead of arousing the fears of the guilty, it calms and pacifies their rebel hearts.

for

I am not ignorant of the manner in which Universalists attempt to evade this argument. They tell us that the jailor was not alarmed about his sins, but about his personal safety, that having supposed the prisoners had escaped, his life was endangered as the forfeiture; and that Felix was not alarmed at a judgment to come, but in view of the near approach of the destruction of Jerusalem. The whole of this is easily disposed of. As to the jailor. He could not have inquired for his personal safety from the penalty of the Roman laws. (1) Because he had not incurred that penalty. The prisoners had not one of them escaped. (2) He knew this, for Paul had just before said to him, "Do thyself no harm, for we are all here.” (3) He consulted the wrong persons such information. Would a jailor go to his prisoners to know what he should do to evade the penalty of a law which was not broken? (4) He would have consulted some civilian had his life been in danger from the laws of his country, and not two Jewish missionaries passing through the city on a preaching tour, who could not be supposed to be very learned in matters of civil law. (5) The manner in which Paul answered him indicates the manner in which the Apostles understood his inquiry"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." Well, now if the jailor inquired what he should do, not to be hung, and the Apostle recommended faith as a remedy, he was guilty of trifling with the jailor's feelings and deceiving him. Faith in Jesus Christ so far from saving from the penalty of Roman laws, was almost the sure way to incur that penalty. Paul had just been stoned at Lystra, and the day before had been whipped in the public streets of Philippi, for believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul knew this; and the jailor knew this. (6) The result of his inquiry shows that his nind was laboring under deep conviction of sin, and that he sought the salvation of his soul. He believed the same hour of the night, and was baptized. As to Felix being alarmed at the approaching destruction of Jerusalem, the thought is too ridiculous to be entertained for one moment. Who was Felix? A Roman governor-a Roman officer appointed by the emperor, and in the interests of his government and country.Who destroyed Jerusalem? The Romans. Felix trembled then with fearful apprehensions that his country would conquer the rebellious Jews and take their beloved city!! Supreme absurdity! This is just what Felix desired. How

much do you suppose Lord Wellington would have trembled on the eve of the battle of Waterloo, to have been informed by an inspired teacher that British arms and valor would vanquish Buonaparte and destroy his dynasty? But,

2. The lax and deadening influence of Universalism is seen in the fact that it cannot co-exist with experimental religion. Whenever and wherever a soul harboring this delusion is heartily converted to God, the Universalism immediately disappears. Hundreds of cases occur every year in the progress of revivals to illustrate this remark.

3. The same characteristic of the doctrine is seen in the fact that Universalism is the common pit into which backsliders and apostates fall, just as the poor tippler falls into the gutter. Go into almost any place where there is a Universalist Society, and you will find a colony of blacksliders and apostates who have been cut off from the Evangelical churches and who have fled for refuge to lay hold of Universalism, Were it not for being personal I could give you many names to illustrate this remark.

4. The licentious tendency of the doctrine may be seen also in the fact that so many Universalists become infidels and that infidels in many places associate with Universalists, help build their meeting-houses and support their preachers, and frequently hold offices in their churches and societies. Mr. Kneeland, who was once a Universalist preacher, calls Universalism"the salism "the stepping-stone to infidelity." Go into almost any place where your present views have been preached for a number of years, and you will find a rank crop of infidelity growing up in the field. I will give the town of Milford, Mass. as one place among many that will illustrate this remark.'

I have many other facts, going to illustrate the lax, licentious, and down-hill influence of Ultra-Universalism, but my sheet admonishes me that I must close for this time. So I remain, yours as ever.

LETTER IV.

My Dear Sir:

You are aware that Christ and his apostles enforced with great earnestness the duty of repentance. Paul, when giving a summary of his preaching at Ephesus, calls it " testifying both to the Jews and Greeks REPENTANCE toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." Well, now, one serious ob

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