"He brushed the cobwebs from his brethren's urn,
Yet spared the insect that wove the web."
But we judge the insect was not wholly spared. It is ably written. Perhaps a glance into the boldness of the speculations of Mr. P. may be gained in the statement that among his common-place are positions like these: "The Bible is the God of thousands, a stumbling-block to the blind, and the foundation of Priestcraft—the means by which Satan, through his prelates, has served himself to the best advantage;" that those who advocate the Bible, though less numerous than those who follow the Alcoran, are probably not less blind or wicked; and that the Scriptures "are not so much as one stone in the foundation upon which God has made man's salvation dependent;" and that through scripture medium no man derives spiritual knowledge. Why Mr. Badger's reply was never published, is unknown; perhaps the passing away of the excitement attendant on the first introduction of the work of Mr. P., led to the conclusion that its publication was unnecessary. "I have traced with care," says Mr. B., "the writings of Volney, the noted French atheist, and I think he treats the Scripture with more fairness and respect; whilst Hume and Bolingbroke are decidedly too modest to rank with him. But when we turn to the pages of Mr. Paine, Mr. Allen, and Voltaire, we find a style and manner that admit of comparison with the writings now under discussion."
December 14, 1820, in writing to his father from West Bloomfield, he said:—
"The church under my care in this region is in a flourishing state, and my work is in this country. I think it my duty to continue here. I shall endeavor ere long to visit you, as my anxiety is great to see you once more. Though I ceased to keep house the day after the death of Mary Jane, I think it will be my duty, at some future period, to resume my home in this place—a home which is now left unto me desolate."
December 17, from Lima, he speaks of an important reformation, and of a prospering society of Christians in the town of Williamson, now Marion, Wayne County, New York, a town in which Mr. Badger at different times has labored with success, and where to this day the society of liberal Christians under the ministry of Rev. Amasa Staunton, is prosperous and strong. It was his primary intention to have journeyed to the land of his birth and early ministerial success in New England, when the sacred ties of his domestic life were broken; but a sudden misfortune, which deprived him of his intended method of conveyance, caused him to employ the time in visiting those places in eastern New York, spoken of in the latter pages of this chapter. On his return, whilst at Brutus, he received a message from Mr. Oliver True, then in Ontario county, that from Williamson an urgent request had arrived that he should come to baptize a large number of converts; and though no answer positively decides his compliance at that time, it is certain that he has frequently bestowed labor on that community, and was present and assisted in the organization of that church in 1820.
[CHAPTER XII.]
WRITINGS, MARRIAGE, TRAVELS.
A discourse on the Atonement, written the early part of 1821, vindicates the paternity of God, in the equal generosity of his provisions for the salvation of all men who will obey the truth. It is indeed a strong vindication, one that sifts the premises of Calvinism most thoroughly; and though changes that have since been wrought in the public mind render the present value of such arguments and discussions far less than their worth at the period of their formation, they are still valuable as evidences of the former states of theological thinking and of the force and clearness of mind with which the author treated the subject. His discourse is entitled "The Way of Salvation, or, The Nature and Effects of Atonement." He shows in the expressive motto of the first leaf, that he centres all in Christ: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world;" the sermon is founded on Romans 5:18: "Therefore, as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life."