SATURDAY, P. M.
Mr. Ballou is happy to acknowledge the honour done him by the Doctor's note of Friday, P. M. by which he realizes the hope expressed in his epistle of the 11th inst, that what appeared to be intimated by the Doctor's letter of the 10th inst. in relation to final judgment was not meant. In the mean time Mr. Ballou thinks it a duty which he owes to himself to point out to the Doctor the items in his letter which were misunderstood. The Doctor's expression, "I therefore endeavoured so to express myself that no reply should be necessary," was understood to intimate that the reply was unnecessary; and the Doctor's expression, "there will be no liberty to reply," was understood to intimate that liberty had been assumed unnecessarily. In confirming the opinion, that "disputes however temperately conducted, are rarely productive of any good." Mr. Ballou thinks his mistake has produced but little consequence, as that opinion was so confirmed before, that even a reason for an assertion could not with propriety be given.
LETTER I.
FROM THE REV. JOSEPH WALTON TO THE REV. HOSEA BALLOU.
PORTSMOUTH, Nov. 19, 1810.
Dear Friend,—I take this method to write to you, with a desire you would receive it as a friendly admonition. You recollect, no doubt, that I have heard you make two speeches at funerals, as they are commonly called, one at the grave and the other at the house of sorrow and mourning, upon a very solemn and singular occasion. At the grave you were short, and said, if I mistake not, viewing the grave, "this is the house appointed for all living," two or three times, and then said, "what reflection shall we make from it? is it done by an enemy? has the Almighty suffered the government to be taken out of his hands?"—and spake as if death was originally designed by the Almighty for the good of mankind, and made it a very desirable thing. My dear sir, doth not the bible, which is the word of God, or the scriptures of truth say, "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned," Rom. v. 12, and Rom. vi. 23, "For the wages of sin is death." God who is a gracious and holy sovereign "made man upright, but he sought out many inventions." By listening unto that apostate spirit, Satan, he transgressed and disobeyed his maker and sovereign, by eating the forbidden fruit. "God made man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and to keep it; and the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shall not eat of it, for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shall surely die." Gen. ii. 15, 17. Sin is that enemy that introduced or was the cause of death, as we may further see by considering that portion of scripture, I John. iii. 8, "He that committeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning." For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Sin is the work of the devil; "the soul that sins shall die." If you will read the whole chapter and seriously consider it, and pray to God through Jesus Christ to open your understanding, that you may understand the scriptures, you would not misappply and pervert them as I fear you do. In your speaking at the house of mourning, you began and spake very eloquently at first upon death; then you brought forward the same ideas, with respect to death, as you did before at the grave. I do not remember that you, at either place, spake one word of the necessity or nature of repentance. Christ began his personal and public ministry by preaching repentance, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand"—again, "but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish," Luke xiii. 5. And after his resurrection from the dead he appeared to his disciples and confirmed them in the certainty of it, and chose them witnesses of the truth of it, and said "thus it is written, and thus it behoveth Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in my name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things," Luke xxiv. 46, 47, 48. The apostles, after Christ's ascension, practised as he commanded them, as we may see by reading the Acts of the apostles, Peter in particular, in the 2d and 3d chapters; and we do not find that they ever gave any encouragement that their hearers could or should be forgiven their sins without faith and repentance. Peter says, "Repent, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out;" which presupposes that if they did not repent and be turned to God by converting grace their sins would not be forgiven. Thus the apostle Paul preached, see Acts xxvi. 18, 19, 20, which I entreat you to read and seriously to consider. See likewise 20th chap. of the Acts of the apostles, how he appealed to the elders of the church; in the 17th verse it is written, "And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church; and when they were come to him he said unto them, ye know from the first day I came into Asia after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears and temptations which befell me, by the lying in wait of the Jews; and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ." The apostles spake of the nature of repentance that they should bring forth fruits meet for repentance, and that Godly sorrow worked repentance to salvation, not to be repented of; but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For a minister of the New Testament to advance such doctrine as will give hopes to their hearers that all will be happy in a future state, whether they have repented or no, is not preaching as Christ and his apostles preached. If we know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, what will be the consequence? See 2 Thes. i. 8, 9. Ministers are directed by the inspired apostle Paul; see in his epistles to Timothy and Titus. See 2 Tim. 4th chap. from 1st to the end, the 5th verse, which I would entreat and beseech you to read and seriously consider. He, in some of those verses referred to, says to Timothy, "Reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and doctrine; for the time will come when men will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make proof of thy ministry." Paul was just about to leave the world; the time of his departure was at hand; the above were his dying words to his beloved son Timothy (in the faith.) The blessed and beloved apostle had through grace kept the faith, that is, the true faith of the gospel; he had finished his course, he had fought a good fight, and henceforth he says, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which God the righteous judge shall give me at that day; and not only to me, but unto all them also, that love his appearing. You, my friend, once professed the true faith of the gospel—have you kept it? I think not. I fear you have fallen from it. You are now preaching a doctrine which pleases the world, but it makes against you, according to scripture; the apostle John says, in 1st epistle, 4th chap, 5th and 6th verses, "They are of the world; therefore the world heareth them. We are of God; he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us; hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error." I beseech you again, my friend, examine and seriously consider the first five verses of that chapter, and pray God through Jesus Christ that he would open it to your understanding: Solomon says, "My son, lean not to your own understanding." I could not but observe with what an emphasis you at the grave mentioned those selected texts of scripture which you supposed would confirm your hearers in the doctrine of Universal Salvation. Would Christ or the apostles preach Universal Salvation in one place of scripture, and in another contradict it? I believe they would not. I am an old man, and have studied the scriptures twenty or thirty years; yea, I may say more or less from my youth up; I find it the best way of study, to compare scripture with scripture; to consider the preceding and following context; to be self-diffident; and to be much in prayer, that it would please God, by his holy spirit, to lead and guide us into all necessary truth; and I do not think it amiss to use sound authors, for as we are in some measure dependant on one another for temporal, so I think we may, under God, be for spiritual assistance; though by no means to put our trust in an arm of flesh.
We may observe how earnest David in prayer to God was in the 25th Psalm. He was a prophet as well the royal Psalmist, yet he comes in a very humble manner to God in prayer that he would shew him his ways, and teach him his paths; and in that Psalm, 8th verse, says, "good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in the way. The meek will he guide in judgment; and the meek he will teach his way." But if men will undertake to explain scripture in their own strength and wisdom, what must we expect but to have them mangled and made havoc of, or explained in a mere mystical or literal sense? "The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." See I Cor. ii. 14.
As you did not say any thing about the resurrection of the dead in either of your speeches, I began to query in my mind whether you believed it or no. I think, yea, I know, it was preached by Christ, and explained so as to confute the Sadducees. Our Lord says, "Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation." St. Paul in his defence before the Roman governor when accused by an orator, whom the Jews employed, as he was allowed to speak for himself, said, "they cannot prove the thing, whereof they now accuse me; but this I confess after the way which they call heresy; so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets, and have hope towards God, which they themselves also allow; that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust; and herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward man." We may observe what an influence the belief of a future state of rewards and punishments had on the blessed apostle to excite him to live a godly and self-denying life. In 2 Cor. v. 10, 11, speaking of a day of judgment, "when every one must give an account for himself as the deeds have been done in the body, that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad;" and says, "knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." My friend, is there the least room for us to believe from this scripture and many others, that the wicked who have died impenitent and in a disbelief of the gospel or without the true knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, whom God hath sent, have eternal life, in the fruition and enjoyment of God? Heaven consists in being made like God, and enjoying him: hence it is, that the pious thirst for God, the living God, saying, when shall I come and appear before him? Again, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth I desire besides thee. My flesh and heart fail me, but God is the strength of my heart and portion forever." These pious breathings are the exercises of the children of God. O may they be ours.
JOSEPH WALTON.
PORSTMOUTH, Nov. 19, 1810.