THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF UNIVERSALISM, FROM THE TIME OF THE APOSTLES TO ITS CONDEMNATION IN THE WITH AN APPENDIX, TRACING THE DOCTRINE DOWN TO THE ERA OF THE REFORMATION. BY HOSEA BALLOU, 2o. PASTOR OF THE UNIVERSALIST CHURCH IN MEDFORD. SECOND EDITION, REVISED. PROVIDENCE: PUBLISHED BY Z. BAKER, GOSPEL MESSENGER OFFICE. 1842. ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, IN THE YEAR 1842, BY IN THE CLERK'S OFFICE OF THE DISTRICT COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS. PROVIDENCE: BENJAMIN F. MOORE, PRINTER. BX 9931 ·B3 1842 cop. 2 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. THE reader will perceive, in the commencement of the following work, that I have not introduced a statement of the Scripture doctrine upon the subject of my History. For the omission, which some may consider a defect, I submit these reasons: it seemed to me that a brief statement would prove useless, since every one would form his own opinion from other authority; and it was thought that a satisfactory discussion of the important question, belonged rather to the Polemic than to the Historian. Accordingly, for the commencement of my undertaking, I fixed on a date posterior to the publication of most of the New Testament; and yet, as it was desirable to take into view every other Christian production extant of the first ages, it was necessary to begin as early as A. D. 90, before some of St. John's writings were composed. The attentive reader will also discover, as he proceeds, that the Ancient History of Universalism is naturally distinguished, by certain peculiarities, into three successive Periods: the FIRST, extending to the year 190, and embraced in the first two chapters, affords but few indisputable traces either of that doctrine, or of its opposite; the SECOND, running through the third, fourth, fifth and sixth chapters, to the year 390, or 394, is distinguished by the prevalence both |