Diodorus, Bishop of Tarsus, in Silicia, A.D. 378, was of that faith. “The wicked,” he says, “are to suffer, not eternal torment, but a punishment proportioned in length to the amount of their guilt; after which, they are to be happy without end.” About the same time, lived Fabius Manus Victorinus. He maintained, that “Christ will regenerate all things; through him all things will be purged, and return to eternal life.”
Other learned, good, and influential men in those early days, believed in and taught this truth. I will name Titus, Bishop of Bostia; Basil the Great, Bishop of Cæsarea; Didymus the Blind, and the learned and powerful Jerome. In fact, most of the Christians, Orthodox and anti-Orthodox, in the first age of the Christian Era, entertained this faith. The writers of those times speak of this faith as if it was not questioned; they offer no labored argument in its defence, and when they do refer to it, it is only incidentally. But darkness was rapidly covering the earth, and gross darkness the people. The enlightened and benevolent doctrine of the Restitution was not adapted to the savagism of the dark ages that was then threatening the world, and so in the year of our Lord 553, at Constantinople, by the Fifth Ecumenical Council, it was condemned. From that period till the Reformation of the fourteenth century, the religions of the world corresponded with the ignorance and brutality that prevailed. Our wise, benevolent, and pure faith, not harmonizing with the savagism of the times, had but few adherents. But in the great religious awakening of the fourteenth century, it was again entertained, and has been ever since gradually gaining in favor.
In A.D. 1650, Gerard Winstonley, an Englishman, in a book called, “Mystery of God,” thus writes, “The whole creation of mankind shall be delivered from corruption, bondage, death, and pain.” He was persecuted for his faith, and thrown into prison. At the same time lived and labored William Earbury, an eminent preacher among the Independents. He was a defender of the same faith. He asked, “What gospel, what glad tidings is it to tell the world, that none can be saved but the elect and believers? Christ came to save only the lost, giving the word of life to all men, that they might believe, a shutting all up in unbelief, that he might have mercy on all.” “For the ministry of God shall be finished, fully known, and the angel swears by God, that time shall be no more; for all shall be taken up into eternity, unto God himself, and God shall be all in all.” (Terror of Tythes, pages 175, 244.)
Another noble defender of the Restitution in those times, was Richard Coppin. He was charged with blasphemy for believing in Universal Salvation, and he replied, “Whatever is the will of God is not blasphemy to affirm. The will of God is the salvation of all men, therefore to say that all men shall be saved is not blasphemy.” (Truth’s Triumph, page 7.) He confounded his opposers in discussion, and that so enraged them, they had him imprisoned. This took place in 1656. At this time a book by an unknown author appeared, with this title: “Of the Torments of Hell; The Foundation; And the Pillars Thereof Discovered, Searched, Shaken and Ruined. With infallible proof that there is not to be punishment for the wicked after this life; for any to endure that shall not end.” The author was certainly a man of ability, and much reading. He gives Orthodoxy some pretty hard hits. This was written over two hundred years ago.
At the same time lived Jeremy White, a chaplain to Protector Cromwell. He published a book called, “The Restitution of All Things: or, a vindication of the goodness and grace of God, to be manifested at last in the recovery of the whole creation out of their fall.” He was truly a christian man; his soul was imbued with the spirit of his faith. Dr. Thomas Burnet of that age, was of like faith, and Lord Macauley, in his “History of England,” says he was a “clergyman of eminent genius, learning and virtue.” In one of his works he writes, “I know not by what means it happens at present, that some divines of a cruel and fiery temper are extremely pleased with eternal and infinite punishment, and can hardly endure to have the point fairly examined and debated on both sides.” There are some of that kind in the world now.
William Whiston, the well known translator of Josephus, was an unbeliever in endless misery. He wrote a book entitled, “The Eternity of Hell Torments Considered.” Archbishop Hare says, he was “a fair, unblemished character; all his life he cultivated piety, virtue and good bearing.” He succeeded Sir Isaac Newton as Professor of Mathematics, at Cambridge. In his book he offers some cogent arguments against eternal woe, but I have not time to state them on this occasion. R. Roach, another English clergyman, who flourished over an hundred years ago, say, “Then will the general redemption be accomplished, and the mediating office of the great High Priest be at an end, for he will then deliver up the kingdom thus completed to his Father, that ‘God may be all in all.’” Bishop Warburton, the celebrated author of the “Divine Legation of Moses,” had no faith in ceaseless woe. He justly calls the preachers of that doctrine, “unmerciful doctors,” “merciless doctors.”
But I have not time to cite any more English testimony, that the doctrines of the Restitution have been long entertained by many of the purest, best, and most learned of that nation. I will cross over into Germany, and see if these sentiments have not been entertained in that enlightened land.
As early as 1590, Samuel Huber, Professor of Divinity, in Wittemburg, was a believer in the Restitution, according to Spauheim, Professor of Divinity at Geneva: “We think,” says the latter, “the opinion of Huber on this subject absurd, who about the close of the last century, began to publish and defend a universal election of all men in Christ to salvation.” At the same early day our righteous faith had a talented, learned and pious advocate in John William Petersen. He was Professor of Poetry at Rostock, in 1677. He was also superintendent at Lubic and Lunenburg, and court preacher at Lutin. In 1700, he published a work in three volumes, in defense of the Restitution, which was extensively read, and caused much excitement in Germany.
At the same time was published a book which has been widely circulated and extensively read. It is entitled, “The Everlasting Gospel,” by Paul Seigvolk. It clearly and forcibly advocates the salvation of mankind. It was very popular in Germany, and has been republished at various times in different parts of Europe. It was also published in this country as early as 1753. That our divine faith was widely diffused in those days, we learn from many other sources. In the Analytical Review, an English periodical published in 1780, we find the following:
“The doctrine of the final happiness of mankind, which present the prospect of the termination of all evil, and of a period in which the deep shades of misery and guilt, which have so long enveloped the universe, shall be forever dispelled, is so pleasing a speculation to a benevolent mind, that we do not wonder it meets with so many advocates. From the earliest period, we doubt not the belief of it has been secretly entertained by many, who, in the face of opposition and danger, had not the resolution to avow it. Now, however, it has broken through every restriction, and walks abroad in every form that is adapted to convince the philosophic, to arouse the unthinking, and to melt the tender.”