us to look down with contempt upon those that are beneath us in life, and banish humility from our hearts? Does the belief of this, cause our breasts to swell with pale envy, and rancorous malice, at the happiness of others? Does it cause us to burn with hellish rage, fury and madness, against mankind? Does it tend to destroy meekness and increase wrath? If these questions require (either from the nature of things, or from known facts) the answers to be in the affirmative; then I would abhor such a system, and wish it to be universally detested: but, if on the contrary, the candid inquirer must answer in the negative, and say, that the doctrine of the final Restoration does not tend to produce selfishness, envy, pride, or wrath; but, on the contrary, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men ;" that it causes benevolence, meekness, humility, forbearance, forgiveness, charity, and all goodness, to abound and increase; then it cannot be a licentious doctrine, and is not to be discarded on that account; for it is a maxim with St. John, that "He that loveth his brother, abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him." 1 John, ii. 10. That is, he cannot receive, hold, maintain, or do, any thing essentially or materially wrong; and, therefore, can give no just occasion of offence. "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. For he that loveth another, hath fulfilled the law. For this, thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet:

:

and if there be

Love

any other commandments, it is briefly comprehended in this saying: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law." Gal. v. 14. Rom. xiii. 8, 9, 10.

"But it is not only from reasoning, but from facts, that I am able to prove that the belief of the doctrine of the Universal Restoration, does not lead men to sin. The Tunkers, or German Baptists, in Pennsylvania, and the states adjacent, who take the scriptures as their only guide, in matters of faith and practice, have always (as far as I know) received, and universally, at present, hold these sentiments: but such Christians, I have never seen as they are; so averse are they to all sin, and to many things that other Chris→ tians esteem lawful, that they not only refuse to swear, to go to war, &c. but are so afraid of doing any thing contrary to the commands of Christ, that no temptation would prevail upon them even to sue any person at law, for either name, character, estate, or any debt, be it ever so just. They are industrious, sober, temperate, kind, charitable people; envying not the great, nor despising the mean: They read much, they sing and pray much, they are constant attendants upon the worship of God; their dwelling houses are all houses of prayer; they walk in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless, both in public and private. They bring up their children in tlie nurture and admonition of the Lord. No noise of rudeness, shameless mirth, loud, vain laughter, is heard within their doors. The law of kindness is in their mouths; no sourness or moroseness, disgraces their religion; and whatsoever they believe their Saviour commands, they practice without inquiring or regarding what others do.

"I remember the Rev. Morgan Edwards, formerly minister of the Baptist church in Philadelphia, once said to me, "GOD always will have a visible people on earth; and these are his people at present, above any other in the world." And in his history of the Baptists in Pennsylvania,

speaking of these people, he says: "General redemption they certainly held, and, withal, general salvation; which tenets (though wrong) are consistent. In a word, they are meek and pious christians; and have justly acquired the character of the harmless Tunkers."

The Restoration not only inculcates and enforces the purest morality and piety, but it is the strongest guard of the mind against the insidious attacks of scepticism. The just conceptions it affords of the Divine character and the Purposes of the Divine Administration, are happily adapted to excite in the soul a sentiment of filial reverence and gratitude, and to save it from the contaminating and destructive influence of unbelief, into which numbers have been driven by the partial and derogatory views of the Westminster Confession. That the doctrines of personal partial election, eternal reprobation of the non-elect, and interminable misery, have caused many to reject divine revelation altogether, is a lamentable truth in ecclesiastical history. Had Lord Shaftsbury been acquainted with a system of religion that maintains a future righteous retribution, according to the deeds done in the body, resulting, in connexion with divine instruction, in the subjugation of the sinner, and his restoration to the moral image from which he fell, his pen might have been employed in recording and spreading the honors of his God, and his tongue in sounding the praises of his Redeemer, rather than have been perverted to the service of infidelity. But being instructed that endless punishment was a constituent of divine revelation, and unhappily neglecting to assure himself it was not, by a careful and prayerful investigation of the subject," he declared himself incapable of assenting to a system of religion which maintained a tenet so repugnant to all his views of the benignity of the great Governor of the

Universe." A very sensible Deist, a physician, once said to a friend of Mr. Winchester, who was a preacher of the Restoration, "Had I been acquainted with your system thirty years ago, I should have been a zealous Christian; and as great a friend to Revelation as I have been an enemy." "And pray why not now, Doctor?" "Because I am ashamed, having so long been fighting against, to receive it now." A wretched apology in the day of judgment to that Saviour who has said, "whoever is ashamed of me, of him will the son of man be ashamed."

CHAPTER V.

Mr. Winchester becomes acquainted with Mr. Murray-They correspond their first interview-Sketch of Mr. MurrayMr. Winchester visits Providence-Dr. Hitchcock-acquires the French language-Returns to PhiladelphiaDr. De Benneville.

At the period of Mr. Winchester's conversion, there were but few public advocates of the, Rostoration in this country. The principal of these was Rev. JOHN Murray. He was born in the town of Alton, in Great Britain, Dec. 10, 1741. His mind was early awakened to the subject of religion. He joined the Methodist connection, and was intimate with Wesley and Whitfield. The former was much at his father's house.. Circumstances called his attention to the Restoration, which after an attentive and prayerful investigation, he embraced. This, as in Mr. Winchester's case, drew upon him the opprobrium of his professed friends, who almost universally forsook him. He came to America in 1770, and during the residue of life was a public promulgator of the Gospel. He travelled extensively, and finally settled in

Boston, where he died, Sabbath morning, Sept. 3, 1815, in the 75th year of his age. His departure out of time was triumphant. For him death had no terrors. A few days before his decease, he observed to a young friend, "I am hastening through the valley of the shadow of death; I am about to quit this distempered state; yet a little moment, and I shall be received into the city of the living God, with the innumerable company of the Apostles, and spirits of just men made perfect, and I shall continue forever in the presence of my divine master." His last audible words were, "To Him shall the gathering of the people be, and his rest shall be glorious, glorious, glorious. I am blessed uith all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus; Nor 1 alone, Christ Jesus hath tasted death for every man." He was a

man of uncommon powers, and suffered much for the cause of truth. His life has been published, and is replete with interest. Though the doctrine had been preached in several places previous to his arrival in this country, yet himself and Mr. Winchester are emphatically the Father's of Distinctive Restorationism in America.t

Mr. Murray though differing from Mr. Winchester in some points of theology, harmonized with him in the great fundamental truths of the soul's immortality, future misery, a general judgment subsequent to the resurrection, and a

* Mr. Murray was sometime Chaplain in the army of the Revolution, where he formed lasting friendships with Generals Green and Varnum, both of whom were Restorationists,

t In 1784, Dr. Charles Chauncey, pastor of the First Church in Boston, published a learned work in London, in illustration and defence of the Restoration. It first appeared anonymously. It bears the following title: "The mystery hid from Ages and Generations, made manifest by the Gospel Revelation: Or the Salvation of All Men, the grand thing aimed at in the Scheme of God, &c. By one who wishes well to the whole human race.' Twenty-two years previous, 1762, the same doctrine was avowed in a Thanksgiving discourse by Dr. Jonathan Mayhew, pastor of the West Church, Boston.