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were in vogue. And had any one the rashness to avow his disbelief that these supposed witches and wizzards were really under the influence of some personal devil at that time, his temerity would probably have cost him his life.

5. But, sir, I avow it as my solemn, deliberate and conscientious opinion, that the Bible contains no evidence of the real personal existence of a being called the devil, any more than it does of a real personal being called Wisdom, which is personified by Solomon, and represented as a female, a lady, "uttering her voice in the streets-crying in the openings of the gates," &c. Where, sir, is your evidence of the personal existence of such a being, or if he exist, that he was once an angel of purity in heaven? You have none but tradition.

6. In answer to your 4th paragraph, I again repeat, that Solomon said nothing about the world of spirits in Eccl. ix. 10. If he did, and is to be believed, the world of spirits is a state of unconsciousness, and can neither be happy nor miserable. The word hades here simply means the grave, and has no bearing on the future existence or condition of spirits. You say, paragraph 5, I "have annihilated satan to get rid of hell," and "made foolish the death of Christ, to obviate both punishment and pardon!" Another false charge: for I believe in all the satans and hells, and just such ones as the Bible speaks of; and you knew I believed both in punishment and pardon, while you do not, but are obliged to reject one to make room for the other. Your perverseness is truly astonishing. In your very next paragraph, you say, my "hope of heaven" is founded on the belief that there is no satan, no devil, no hell!" Sir, suppose there were none-would this prove the existence of a heaven? You know it would not; and you knew you were perversely wicked when you penned the charge. You next introduce a common infidel pun to get rid of meeting the strength of Calvinistic and Arminian Universalism. What a faithful disciple, and what a brave soldier!

7. Your 11th, 12th, and 13th paragraphs are too obvious and ridiculous a caricature to deserve any notice, excepting the sentence in which you state that the object of your 28th letter was "to show that the ultimate destiny of the wicked shall not be as the righteous." If such was your object, you wholly failed in your proof; for not one of the passages you quoted says one syllable about the ultimate destiny of the wicked. You are too prone to apply temporary judgments to express the ultimate destiny of their subjects. I have proved the ultimate destiny of all men to be salvation through Christ Jesus the Saviour of the world. I have never, as you accuse me, quoted the Apocrypha in proof of my sentiments, and but one text in illustration; while you have not only resorted to the Apocrypha, but even to the Targums. You say, "Remember, Mr. Skinner, that we all die because our father stole an apple." I remember, sir, that the Bible says no such thing. Read Luke xii. 47,48. and blot out your 14th paragraph forever!

8. The much talked of "Universalist dogma," often commented on by you, and quoted by me, letter 13, paragraph 7, fully refutes your 15th paragraph, and shows it to be a mere caricature. Your 16th, 17th, and 18th are of the same perverse character. It is useless to repel and disclaim, again, and again, and yet again, the scores of false charges you bring against me. If you wish to continue the game of caricature and rdicule, I might inform you that two can play at it as well as one; and

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your own weapons could be turned against you with tenfold power. But I despise that game that only excites for it the regret of sober minds and the contempt and ridicule of infidels. Indeed, sir, the bona fide features of your system are altogether more abhorrent than the misshapen caricature of mine, which you play upon. For at the very worst, mine only embraces a limited, temporary and remedial evil, resulting in universal good, while yours embraces an illimitable and endless evil, resulting in no possible good, and that too, foreordained in the eternal counsels of God! Suppose by caricature and sarcasm, you could make me or any private opinion of mine, entirely unconnected with either of our propositions, appear ever so ridiculous, would that refute my yet unanswered arguments, or help you out of the strong ramparts of Universalism with which you are completely environed? Have you the presumption to believe that you or I can save immortal souls from endless wo, and give them endless bliss? What folly! You or I may by our influence, affect the temporary characters and well-being of our fellow-men; but I rejoice in believing their eternal destinies are in safer hands.

9. The Apostle says, and I say, and you repeat, that "perfect love casts out tormenting fear." It is obvious too, that tormenting fear never produces perfect love. Why, then, leave perfect love untouched,' untold, and seek to reform men by tormenting fear alone? I urge all the motives of fear that the Bible does. My system, sir, presents as much stronger restraints against vice, in the certain punishments it holds up against every sin, and as much purer motives to virtue, in the lovely character of God, and the endless purity and beatitude it holds up, than yours does, as heaven is purer and better than hell. The grace of God manifested in Christ, in which I devoutly believe, has converted thousands from Belial to Christ-from sin to holiness-from vice to virtue. But where are the converts made by the preaching of endless wo-your hell-fire converts? Answer, they are either hypocritical pretenders that fear hell, not love God, or else are driven to open infidelity and the abhorrence of the very name of religion.

To your 9th and 10th paragraphs I can reply in few words. Paul says, "Jesus expiated or purged away our sins:” Mr. Campbell says, sin shall never be expiated or purged away. John says, "We love him because he first loved us:” Mr. Campbell says, We love him for fear he will hate us if we don't. David says, "Unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy; for thou renderest to every man according to his work:" Mr. Campbell says, If God render to all according to their works, he cannot exercise any mercy towards them. Paul says, "He that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done, and there is no respect of persons." Mr. Campbell says, There is great respect of persons; for some shall receive, and others shall not receive according to the wrong they have done, so as to make room for the pardon of a few. Paul says, "How shall we escape [from the coming calamities of Jerusalem] if we neglect so great salvation?" Mr. Campbell says, How shall we escape [from an endless hell] if we neglect so little salvation? Christ says, "The night cometh," &c. Campbell says, Death and hades cometh. Christ says, "They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." Mr. Campbell thinks the heavenly Physician will cure the whole only, and make the sick still sicker. He thinks he has but one kind of medicine, and can

Mr.

not vary his prescriptions to suit different cases-that it would be monstrous absurdity to think sweet medicines could cure one patient, and bitter another, or that judgments and mercies could alike be made efficacious by the Divine Physician.

11, You fill nearly two pages with L. C. Todd's second renunciation of Universalism in 1833, (for recollect he had once before renounced the doctrine.) You consider it a triumphant argument against Universalism. You say he is good authority. Sir, did you ever know a traitor speak well of the company he abandoned? You say that I "most shamefully abused him because of his honesty." Sir, I appeal to the whole world, including Mr. T. himself, when I affirm that I never abused him, either for his honesty or any thing else. I published the whole of his renunciation in my paper of August 10, 1833, accompanied with some mild strictures and remarks, breathing altogether a kinder spirit than either of your letters to me has for months past. That was the only article I ever wrote about him. To that I appeal. God knows I never had an unkind feeling towards, or wish to injure him. But if he is good authority against us, then all who have renounced your doctrine and embraced Universalism, are equally good against you. L. C Todd's venerable and worthy father was once a Baptist preacher, like yourself; but he renounced the barbarous notion of endless damnation, and embraced the doctrine of universal salvation, and will now testify as unfavorably against your doctrine, as his recreant son does against ours. Moreover, we have at least ten converts from your doctrine where you have one from ours, and by your own rule, we have ten times as much evidence against you as you have against us.

12. If I am rightly informed, Mr. Todd as deeply regrets his renunciation of Universalism, and the course he pursued in that matter, as a man can do―he has stopped preaching, abandoned the Methodists, and it is believed that nothing but pride and mortification prevents him from returning to us. If you wish for any more articles of a like character, I suppose I can furnish you with one or two more Universalist renunciations, to enable you to fill out your other two letters

13. I now hasten to notice your letter No. 36. It is made up of vain efforts to garnish a desperate cause in its last struggles for existence, to reiterate threadbare gasconade and caricature, and to evade arguments which you are now obviously convinced you cannot refute. It reminds one of the croaking of frogs when afflicted with cold, of the grating sounds of a musical instrument sadly out of tune, of the faint and evanescent glimmerings of expiring embers. Your first four paragraphs give a wretched analysis of my 35th letter, without an effort to refute it. But, truly, it is news to me that my rule for explaining the phrases, all, all men, &c. is also your own rule! Let this fact be remembered, and let the reader just turn to letter 35, paragraph 5, and see what doctrine is there proved.

14. I neither stultify Adam Clarke nor quote him on the Apocalypse with less approbation than on other books. Will you tell your readers in what paragraph I have said, "All sorrow, crying and tears have ceased ages before we were born"? You say you argue "that such words as elect, saved, condemned, &c. always imply another class of men who are not approved, justified, saved, &c." Well, do you argue

that none but those called "the elect" will ever be saved?-that when God says he will have "all men to be saved," it is implied he will have

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another class to be damned?-that when Paul says, "the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life,” it is implied that another class should receive cendemnation to endless misery?

15. You call it a "calumny" to mention Destructionists as your brethren! Take care, or your brothers Thomas and Shepard will be in your hair. You say Destructionism "is indeed less revolting to sinners [should you not have added, to saints and all good beings?] than endless misery." You say my 13th paragraph is "a beggarly account of empty boxes." Most true! I handed you the box and asked you to contribute a reason for the well known fact that the early Fathers, who were well known advocates of universal restoration, spoke, notwithstanding, frequently of ever [age] lasting punishment. You return the box empty-and can give no reason!! I have replied to all your letters and more than all your arguments.

16. Yon decline, as I expected, giving your own Notes from the Family Testament, to your readers. You dare not do it! You know they refute your positions in this discussion. Hundreds of your readers have never seen them. They will, they must know your motivss. What a predicament! Your 6th paragraph is a lament because you could not prevail on me to acknowledge all your caricatures to be true representations of my sentiments. Still, you half repeat, though with a faint heart, in this and your 10th paragraphs, the same miserable caricatures. Your 7th paragraph is another vain effort to maintain the old serpent's doctrine, that God will not "render to every man according to his work," and to set aside the Psalmist's doctrine, that he will. Psalm xviii. 25, 26., so far from explaining away Psalm lxii. 12., is but a confirmation of it, and another refutation of the doctrine of the deceiver. On both of them I remark, that if God "render to every man according to his work," and your doctrine be true that every sin deserves endless damnation, then universal endless damnation must be the portion of our race! Again, God says, Amos iii. 1, 2., "Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, you only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities." Of course, if your notion of the deserts of sin be true, not a soul of the children of Israel down to the days of Amos, can escape an endless hell!

17. You still talk, paragraphs 7, 8, 18, 19, of justice and mercy, as though they were jarring and discordant attributes in the divine character, and as though, to maintain the justice of God, I am obliged to deny his mercy and the doctrine of pardon and the forgiveness of sin; whereas, I as fully believe in the latter as you can, and am not, like you, obliged to deny the former. See Letter 25, and Letter 35, paragraph 23. God "is a just God and a Saviour." He both punishes and forgives sin in the same individuals. See Ps. xcix. 8; lxii. 12. His ways and thoughts are as far above ours, as the heavens are above the earth. If you can find a single text that speaks of God's forgiving the punishment of sin, why do you not adduce it? There is none. You will have punishment exclude forgiveness, justice annihilate mercy, penitentiaries to confine criminals after sin is finished and an end made of transgression, and gibbets to hang folks on after there shall cease to be any murderers! Your little hypercriticism on the accidental omission of a letter in writing or printing aphiemi, is greatly to your credit!

18. The six texts referred to in my last, and quoted in previous letters, on four of which you profess to comment, paragraphs 14-47, are no stronger in favor of Universalism than scores of others quoted in letters 23, 25, 27, and 29, which, with my comments thereon, yet remain unanswered. Your comments on these four are but a ruse de guerre, which will prove wholly unavailing to your cause Look at the plain language and obvious meaning of Psalm xxii-27-"All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee." This language implies, first, every individual of the human family, unless you can find some one who is neither of any nation, nor a kindred or relative of any nation; and if you can find any such, you may have them eternally damned, if you please! Second, That, as yet, they had not remem hered or turned unto the Lord and worshipped before him. Third, That all certainly should do it. Fourth, That remembering, turning to the Lord and worshipping before him, is equivalent to hearty reconciliation to him, and consequently implies salvation. And, fifth, The next verse assigns the reason for all this, viz.—"For the kingdom is the LORD's, and he is the Governor among the nations."

19. On Psalm cxiv. 9. I ask, If God knew that any soul would be endlessly miserable when he gave it existence, was he good in giving an existence which he knew and intended should prove an endless curse? If this is goodness, what would he evil? If this is benevolence, what would be malevolence? How is God good to those he intends to make endlessly miserable? If not endlessly miserable, (as they cannot be if this text be true,) they will be ultimately happy: for we both reject annihilation. If God he now good to all, he eternally will be. Isaiah xliv. 22 24. not only asserts, on the oath of God, that every knee shall bow and every tongue swear, but tells us what they shall swear, viz, that in the Lord they have righteousness and strength, and this, sir, is sufficient salvation for me. Paul not only reiterates the sentiment that every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father, but also assures is that no man can make thus confession but by the Holy Ghost; consequently, the divine spirit must then dwell and operate in the heart See Philip. ii. 10, 11; 1 Cor. xii. 3.

20. 1 Cor. xv. proves something more than the mere resurrection of all men. It proves the manner and character of the resurrection and its subjects-that they shall be raised in incorruption, glory, power, with spiritual and celestial bodies, which can die no morethat death, the last enemy, shall be destroyed, the reconciled kingdom delivered up to God the Father, and God shall be all in all. See the whole chapter. Paul not only teaches these great truths here, and that all shall be made alive in Christ, but in 2 Cor. v. 17. he says, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new." Thus, sir, the more these texts are examined, the more clearly are they seen to teach the salvation of ail men. You suppose, paragraph 18, because God sometimes superadds outward calamities to mental anguish and remorse of conscience, as a punishment for sin, that therefore the latter are no punishment at all! Was the remorse of David, of Joseph's brethren, of the Prodigal, of Judas for betraying Christ, and of Peter for denying him, no punishment? What a theologian! The last part of your 18th paragraph is evidently better calculated to serve the cause of Destruetionism than endless misery To make Romans vi. 23. subserve your cause, it must read, "The wages of sin is endless damnation, and the gift of God is not eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." I prefer the Apostle's reading to yours.

21. I will now present our readers with a few of the sublime beauties and glories of your system. You first people your heaven of immortal purity and glory, with a race of ambitions, sinful, and rebellious angels, who. growing tired of such a paradise and such a government, mutiny against their sovereign King, raise a rebellion, where no discord or sin can ever exist, and after a long and bloodless fight, (because the combatants are immortal,) are hurled from heaven's bigh battlements, down to the shades of endless darkness and despair, and bound in chains of adamantine wo and endless pain. To console himself for this loss in heaven, your Divinity next creates an earthly paradise, and peoples it with human beings, all innocent and pure; but lest they should remain so, he places an appletree loaded with inviting fruit, before them, and inhibits their partaking thereof, although he knew they would disobey, and the consequence be infinite wo. He next unchains his demons of darkness, whilom his companions in glory, (or else they have escape without his knowledge or consent.) to make sure of the ruin of man, who succeed in seducing the first buman pair from purity and bliss,

22. Your Divinity next gets mad at Adam and Eve, for doing just what he knew, and ordained. and provided means, that they should do, and pronounces the malediction of endless damnation on them and all their innocent, unborn, and unoffending offspring, down to the latest posterity. He, however, soon began to relent somewhat of the severi ty of this dreadful malediction, and although he had unequivocally threatened it, and the chief fallen fiend had told Eve it would never be inflicted, he concluded to verify Satan's words and falsify his own! So he set about a plan with the least possible appearance of falsifying his word. He pretended that his justice was wronged, and he must either inflict the threatened penalty on man, or on some substitute; so he shapes himself over into a human form, calls himself his own son, and is the Father of himself! Then he inflicts the whole weight of his own almighty wrath upon the head of his innocent son, and lets the rebel siuner go unpunished, and this is his justice! Nay, not exactly so-he inflicts the penalty on himself! for the Son was but himself under a different name!! His justice cannot relinquish one iota of the infinite debt recorded against the sinner man, and so be himself pays the debt to himself, which himself demands!! And after all, the debt is

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