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lief, and not punishment for them, which will extend into the future world, because sin and unbelief will exist there. Mr. Winchester held to a day of judgment after death, at which men would be sentenced to punishment; but the judgment in which Dr. Murray believed was designed to deliver men from all sin and unbelief, by revealing to them the character of God, "showing the things that belong to their peace," and "making them acquainted with salvation." "In that day all knees should bow and accept Christ and enter into eternal rest." *

The early conventions of 1785 and 1803, and of the intervening period also, embraced men of the two schools, Murray's and Winchester's, who agreed as to the final happiness of all men; and in the platform which was adopted in 1803 the differences were ignored, as in the second Article:

We believe in one God, whose nature is Love, revealed in our Lord Jesus Christ by one Holy Spirit of grace, who will finally restore the whole family of mankind to holiness and happiness.

Such was the condition of things during the first period of Universalism. I. It was a departure from the generally accepted evangelical theology chiefly at one point-the final salvation of all men. It had no taint of Unitarianism or of Rationalism. 2. Murray held to the salvation of all men at the general judgment, and that unbelievers would be in a state of misery until that time; not penal, but the natural consequence of sin and unbelief, † Christ having endured the penalty for them. 3. Winchester held to a local hell and a long period of disciplinary punishment after the general judgment,

*See Trumpet, August 11, 1832. Also Murray's Hints to the Forming of a Church, Boston, 1792.

+ In further confirmation of the decidedly evangelical character of the views of Mr. Winchester on all points except that of the final restoration of all men, we adduce the following testimony from Rev. Enoch Mudge, the first native Methodist preacher raised up in New England. In a letter in Zion's Herald, March, 1827, he gave an account of an interview which he had with Mr. Winchester a short time before his death, in which Mr. Winchester related his conversations with Rev. John Wesley, whom he had frequently met in England, in the latter part of his life. In those conversations their doctrinal agreements and disagreements were freely discussed.

"In stating the points of agreement (with Mr. Wesley) I well recollect," said Mr. Mudge, “Mr. Winchester commenced with a view of the doctrine of the depravity of man in his fallen state, a full and complete atonement by Christ, the necessity of repentance and regeneration, of justification by faith, of sanctification. On this he enlarged fully, observing that the doctrine was the same; their only difference was in the manner of preaching it. He also dwelt on the similarity' of their views with regard to the general calls and invitations of the Gospel, the moral account... bility of man and of future rewards and punishments-the necessity of being holy in order to be happy. Thus far," said he, "we could usually preach in nearly the same strain; but when we went to speak of the nature and duration of the punishment of the wicked, we differed, Mr. Wesley supposing the state of probation to close with the present life, and that the states of all men are unalterably fixed in the day of judgment. He viewed punishment as penal and eternal; as chastisatory and designed for reclaiming the criminal, and that when reclaimed they shall be restored."

resulting in the final salvation of all men. In what proportion these different opinions then prevailed in the denomination we have no means of judging.

The first Universalist society in the United States was organized by Rev. John Murray, in Gloucester, Mass., January, 1779. At the end of the first ten years from the landing of Murray, there were two societies and four or five ministers. In 1801 there were twentytwo preachers of that faith in America. *

Section 3.-The New Jerusalem Church.

was introduced into the United States during this period. In the life-time of Emanuel Swedenborg there were but few individuals who were known to have cordially received the doctrines taught in his writings. Swedenborg did nothing, and there was nothing done in his day to effect an organization of those who accepted the doctrines taught by him. Swedenborg lived many years in London for the purpose of publishing his works, and died there, in 1772, in the eighty-fifth year of his age.

In 1782 a society was formed in Manchester to print and publish Swedenborg's volumes in the English language. This society is still in active existence. In 1783 meetings were established in London for reading Swedenborg's works and for free conversation, and the first public meeting was held the same year. Those who attended it were so highly gratified that they determined to promote their "plan of holding up to the view of the world a light which could no longer be concealed in a secret place nor hid under a bed or a bushel." Rooms were immediately engaged, and advertisements were inserted in some of the newspapers giving a general invitation to all the readers of Swedenborg's writings in London and elsewhere, to join the Standard, "and by a common exertion to assist in extending the knowledge of them." This advertisement was immediately noticed by Mr. James Glen, a Scotch gentleman, about to settle in Demarara, in South America. He introduced himself to the newly-formed society at its second meeting. Mr. Glen had accepted the doctrines of the New Church from reading the treatise on Heaven and Hell while on the ocean, on his return to Europe from America, where he had been to purchase a plantation, the book having been presented to him by the captain of the vessel on which he sailed.

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Meetings for worship soon grew out of these first meetings for study and conversation, and the next year, 1784, in the month of June, Mr. James Glen, who had now reached the United States, delivered public lectures in Philadelphia-the first promulgation of the doctrines of the New Church on the continent of America. These lectures were well attended, and some of those who were present became the first receivers of these doctrines in the New World. Mr. Glen traveled in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky, for the purpose of making these doctrines known. He also gave lectures in Boston not long after. He had brought with him from England such English translations of these writings as were there published; and after he had left for Demarara a further supply of books from England gave opportunity for others to study the writings of the Church. The work of republication was immediately begun and earnestly prosecuted.

In 1795 Rev. Wm. Hill came to America from England. He preached new Church doctrines in Massachusetts-in Boston, Dedham, Cambridge, and Salem. He went back to England, but afterward returned to this country, where he died, in Philadelphia, in the year 1804. His wife was a daughter of Rev. Jacob Duché, rector of St. Peter's Church in Philadelphia, and chaplain to the first Continental Congress. In the year 1792 a sermon explaining the doctrines of the New Church was preached in the courthouse in Baltimore, Md., by Rev. James Wilmer, formerly a clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Others took up the work. Among the most efficient laborers was Rev. John Hargrove who had been a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church. The first regularly organized society of the New Church in this country which continued in existence was formed in Baltimore, in the year 1798, under the ministry of Rev. Ralph Mather and Rev. John Hargrove. Mr. Mather was an Englishman, and had preached in England. Mr. James Glen, who attended the second public meeting in London, and who first made known the doctrines of the New Church in Philadelphia, was the first who lectured upon them in Boston. A few years after Mr. Glen was followed, as has been said, by Rev. Wm. Hill, who presented the Arcana Celestia, and a number of the smaller works of Swedenborg, in Latin, to the college library at Cambridge, Mass. A small number of persons were led by his labors to receive the doctrines taught in Swedenborg's writings.*

*The author is indebted to Rev. Samuel M. Worcester, M.D., of Salem, Mass., for the foregoing sketch.

Section 4.-The Shakers.

These religionists arose in Europe in the first half of the eighteenth century. In 1705 they appeared in England. In 1757 Mrs. Ann Lee joined the Society and soon became its conspicuous head. In 1774 she came to the United States and settled in Watervliet, near Albany, N. Y. In a religious revival among the Baptists, at New Lebanon, Columbia County, in 1780, some of those most visibly affected visited "Mother Lee," and through her were led to believe that they had found the "key to their experiences." Mother Lee traveled widely several years, performing alleged miracles, broaching the idea of a community of property, forming her followers into a model for Shaker organizations, and died in 1784. James Whitaker, called "Father James," who came from England with her, succeeded her at the head of the organization, and died in 1787. The same year, Joseph Meacham, a Baptist preacher, and a convert of Mother Lee, collected her followers in a settlement in New Lebanon, which thenceforth became a center of union. Under his administration in the course of five years eleven Shaker settlements were founded; namely, at New Lebanon and Watervliet, N. Y.; at Hancock, Tyringham, Harvard and Shirley, Mass.; at Enfield, Conn.; at Canterbury and Enfield, N. H.; and at Alfred and New Gloucester, Me. No other societies were formed until after 1800.

TH

HE most serious opposing influence encountered by Christianity during this period was the gross infidelity which then abounded, surpassing in virulence, extent and influence all manifestations of skepticism in previous or more recent periods. The rising spirit of "free inquiry" in the colonial period has been briefly sketched in previous pages, and was traced to its twofold origin-deism in England and atheism in France, but reaching the colonies through English channels. It will now be seen coming from another source.

Section 1.-Peculiar Type of French Unbelief.

Although somewhat later in its origin than the English, French infidelity soon outstripped the former in the evil race, and exerted a wider and more destructive influence. About the time of the American Revolution, French deism culminated in atheism; atheism and naturalism, in materialism. Doubt soon became almost universal, and scoffing burst into "a scream of maniac rage." The growing climax of skepticism which had been rising through the century reached its height in France among the most active, daring, witty and philosophic minds of that age. There, too, infidelity became organized, and from that burning focus it went forth upon its evil mission. We cannot pause to speak at length of the apostles of the movement nor of the passion and genius with which they entered upon their work.

By jibes and jeers corrupting the moral sensibilities, by shining sophistries and soft subtleties of sentiment relaxing the moral sense, by specious generalities upon personal liberty and freedom of

Pp. 194-196.