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    gentleman is the Rev * Thomas Whitteroore , pastor of a Universalist Society in the town of Cambridge , near Boston . He informs me that , in connexion with his ministerial brother , the Ret . Hosea Baliou , second of 'Roxbiiry , ( a town which adjoins Boston on the South , ) he is engaged in collecting mate * rials for a history of the doctrine of Universal Salvation or Restoration- ; and he entreats answers to a number of biographical and historical questions relating to this work , some of which I may hereafter propose , on behalf of my correspondent , to your readers .

    Mr . Whittemore tells me that the American Universalists were originally the disciples of Mr . Relly , who , I believe , deduced the doctrine of Universal Salvation from the high Calvinistic scheme . The doctrine was introduced into America by Mr . Murray , a follower and zealous admirer of the founder of the sect . The following account of the present state of the Universalists of 4 ; he United States , in the words of my correspondent , is a pleasing proof of the natural tendency of serious minds towards scriptural trutn , when they are not checked by the influence of institutions bearing a mingled civil and religious character .

    " The denomination to which I belong is composed of upwards of three hundred societies , and about two hundred preachers . These numbers are continually receiving accessions . We have increased most in New England , New York , Ohio and Pennsylvania ; though there are Universalists scattered all over the United States . It will , perhaps , be pleasing to you to learn that this sect is , with indeed a very few exceptions , entirely Unitarian . I know of but three ministers , in the whole order , who are Trinitarians ; and I

    believe the greater proportion are Humanitarians . With the few exceptions just mentioned , we concur in rejecting , as absurd and unscriptural , the old idea of Atonement ; believing that this scheme of man ' s redemption from sin originated in the Father of all , who sent his Son to commend his love to mankind . —Devoted to the interests of this order in the United States , are ten or twelve periodical publications . We have six societies in , and within fifteen minutes * ride of , Boston 9 each accommodated with an elegant , commodious house , and each maintaining a preacher . ' *

    My friend , as the tenor of his communication allows me to call him , apprizes me that the ministers of his denomination in Boston and its neighbourhood , have sent me a package of their publications , " presuming that it will be agreeable to the Unitarians in England to become acquainted with the numbers , doctrines and arguments of the Universalists in the United States , " Of these , when they arrive , I may perhaps furnish you , Sir , with some account .

    In the package , I am informed , is a " Treatise on Atonement , " by Mr . Baliou , whose labours , Mr . Whittemore says , have greatl y promoted the change which has taken place amongst the American Universalists , with regard to the Atonement and the character of Christ . Of this " Treatise " and its author , he further saye , — " that it is the first American work in which the doctrine of Unitarianism was ever advanced and defended . Here

    you find it distinctly stated and argued . This work was first published about Jthe year 1803 , two years before Sherman ' s Treatise , which has generally but erroneously been considered the first public attack on Trinitarianism which America , afforded ; Dr . Priestley , being an European , I except . Mr . Ballou ' s work is the fruit of his own mind , aided onl y by the Scriptures . He never read an author , either on Atonement or the Unity of God , till after he wrote . He is now fifty-six years old , in good health , and joint-editor

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    Universalists in America * * \ 77

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    VOL . I . N

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1827, page 177, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1794/page/17/