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exhortations and instructions of that aged minister of the reconcilia-
tion, may be long remembered and practically regarded by the In-
stitute.

The principal part of the "Memoir of the Author," is extracted
from Whittemore's "Modern History of Universalism"-for which
valuable and interesting work, it was specially written by Br. Ballou.

The articles inserted in the Appendix, are offered in illustration
of portions of some of the Sermons. The Address of the Philadel-
phia Universalist Institute is specially commended to the attention
of the reader.
A. C. T.

Philadelphia, January, 1835.

BRIEF MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.

HOSEA BALLOU was born in the town of Richmond, N. H., April 30, 1771. The circumstances which induced his youthful connexion with the Calvinistic church of which his father was pastor, and his subsequent advances in religious knowledge, are stated in the following auto-biographical sketch :—

"As to the doctrine of Calvinism, in which my honoured father was a believer, and which doctrine he preached until nearly the end of his public labours, my acquaintance with its various tenets, while quite a youth, was by no means very limited. Owing to the pious endeavours of a parent, whose affections for his children rendered him extremely anxious for their spiritual welfare, and to an early desire of my own to understand the doctrine of Christianity correctly, I was well acquainted with the most common arguments which were used in support of predestination, election, reprobation, the fall of man, the penal sufferings of Christ for the elect, the justice of reprobation, and many other particulars, such as regard the moral agency of man and his inability to regenerate himself, the sovereignty and irresistibility of regenerating grace, &c. &c.

When I was in my nineteenth year, there was what was termed a reformation in the vicinity where I lived, and many of my young friends and acquaintances professed religion and joined the Baptist church, of which my father was pastor. At this time I became more specially attentive to the subject of religion, and thought it my duty to become a professor, and to join the church, which I did, in the sincerity of my heart, in the month of January, 1789. From that period to the present I have been a constant student of the science of divinity. But owing to the strongly rooted prejudices which had so early taken possession of my mind, and to circumstances. which necessarily limited my means, in youth, of acquiring know ledge, my progress has been but small,

At the time I joined the Baptist church, there were in Richmond and Warwick, a few individuals, who called themselves Universalists, and who occasionally heard Br. Caleb Rich hold forth that doctrine. There was also an elderly gentleman by the name of Ballou, a distant relation of my father, who also occasionally preached the same doctrine. These individuals frequently attended the Baptist meetings, and being of my acquaintance, we often conversed on the question, whether all mankind would alike be made partakers of the salvation of God. In those conversations I frequently found that my Calvinistic tenets could be managed either to result in Universal Salvation, or to compel me to acknowledge the partiality of the divine favour. This gave me no small inquietude of mind; as I was always unable to derive satisfaction from sentiments which I could not defend. That which more than any thing else contributed to turn my thoughts seriously towards the belief of Universal Salvation, was the ardent desires, with which I found myself exercised, that sinners might be brought to repentance and salvation. I found it utterly impossible to bring the feelings of my heart to conform to the doctrine of eternal reprobation; and I was compelled to allow, either that such feelings were sinful, or that my heavenly Father, in giving them to me, had imparted an evidence in favour of the salvation of all men, the force of which I found no means to resist. As yet I was, like young converts in general, very little acquainted with the Scriptures. But the trials which I was then undergoing led me to examine the written word, to satisfy myself on the great question which had such weight on my mind. On reading the Bible, there would now and then, here and there, a passage appear to favour the doctrine of universal, and impartial grace. But all the prejudices of my early education, in those things, were arrayed against my making any advances. But in the spring following my union with the Baptist church, I left Richmond, my native place, and went with my brother Stephen, next older to myself, who joined the church a short time after me, to Hartford, in N. Y. then called Westfield, where we spent the summer. In this town there was a Baptist church and congregation, enjoying the pastoral labours of Elder Brown, on whose ministry we attended. My brother was apprehensive that my mind was inclined to Universalism; and told me that he had a desire that I should converse with Elder Brown on the subject, by which means he hoped I should become fully convinced that the doctrine was false, and be more settled in the belief in which I had made profession. It must be here understood that I

by no means, at that time settled in my faith. There was, at

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