LETTER IV.
FROM THE REV. JOSEPH WALTON TO THE REV. HOSEA BALLOU.
PORTSMOUTH, JAN. 11, 1811.
_Sir_,--I have received your answer to my letter sent you, dated Dec. 7, 1810, and now desire to answer it, in the fear of God, in as concise a manner as I am capable, agreeable to the scriptures of _truth_. Sir, I thank you for the civilities you manifest toward me, and that you received my letter in a friendly manner as I think I sent it, wishing it might be received and improved for your benefit; not that I supposed that I was capable of convincing or confuting you of what I conceive to be erroneous in your doctrine or principles, but relying on the blessing of God to make it effectual for your everlasting good, and those you profess to be over in the Lord.
I shall not take into consideration every argument you make use of, but shall give it a general answer. Since I have received it I have had a great number of scriptures occuring to my mind which I might quote if I thought expedient. In the first place you speak or write as if I thought death was originally designed by the Almighty for the damage of mankind; I say death was threatened to be the consequence, if mankind did transgress the law of their Creator; our first parents transgressed, and the penalty was executed according to the threatening, "Thou shall surely die;" they were condemned to die; they were under sentence of death; they became spiritually dead, immediately; they lost the knowledge of their Creator; darkness covered their minds; they endeavoured to hide themselves from God among the trees of the garden; they brought misery upon themselves and upon their posterity; we feel the woeful effects of their fall and apostasy until this day; by nature we are spiritually dead; as it is written, "you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." Sir, if there is a law made by our legislature, is there not a penalty annexed unto it? If that law is transgressed, is not the person who transgressed punished some way or other?--Yet the law is made for the good of the whole; the legislature is not to be impeached, as if he made it for the damage of his people, whom he governs; the law-breaker is punished either in his own person or his surety, though the pain, shame and punishment is for the damage of the transgressor, yet the law is for the good of the whole, and the law maker is not in the least to blame; the transgressor also, if he repents and is reformed, is benefited by it, &c.
I think, sir, your giving your hearers encouragement in your preaching that Christ will save them all, whether they repent and believe the gospel or no, is of a dangerous nature. Christ has said, "if ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your sins," John viii. 24. Read, if you please, the proceeding context. The decrees of God, you say, is my creed, and that I believe that God foreordained whatsoever come to pass. I do not think I ever told you so. And so you think God foreordained, according to my _creed_, death, for a damage to his creatures. I have said death is punishment for sin, as I wrote, and I can maintain it from scripture; death was introduced by sin; the person that lives a life of sin and dies without regenerating grace, which all true believers in Christ have, will be miserable, and be "punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power." I believe every true believer is a true penitent, is regenerated, is in Christ by a vital union is a "new creature," and that those persons will be saved and none else, according to the doctrine of Christ and his apostles. I believe that God the Father worketh all things according to the council of his own will; that his redeemed and saved people should be to his glory. You say, in my writing to you, I said, "do you think Christ or his apostles would preach universal salvation in one place of scripture and contradict it in another? I believe they would not."--Here you designedly, I think mistake; I do not believe that Christ or his apostles ever did preach universal salvation, that is, that every son and daughter of apostate Adam, would be saved. I believe that this gospel of the kingdom is to be preached to every creature, and "whosoever believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." Do me justice, sir; do not animadvert upon what I have just quoted, as if I think our Saviour is to be understood as if every individual would have the privilege of hearing the gospel. I conceive that the apostles' commission runs thus: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every human or rational creature."--What I meant by saying, do you think Christ would preach universal salvation in one place, and in another contradict it, is, that those texts which you suppose supports your doctrine, is not to be understood as you apply them; for if they prove universal salvation, as you would have them, then they will contradict many texts which Christ and his apostles improved otherwise; therefore I still assert, that the scriptures ought to be carefully examined, conscientiously improved and applied. The faithful minister of Christ will renounce the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the _truth_, commending themselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. "For we are not as many which corrupt the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ."--See 2d Corinthians, ii. 17. And I would take it as a favour, if you would read the 15th and 16th verses in the same chapter, and seriously consider them. Those texts of scripture, which you have quoted from Rom. 8th chapter, are not to be applied as you apply them, neither doth the apostle apply them so. And methinks you know they are not, if you consider the connexion from the 28th verse of the chapter to the end. And that passage of scripture quoted from 1 Cor. iii. 21, 22, 23, is only to be applied to real Christians; and this, sir, I presume you know; but it would not suit you and your scheme of Universal Salvation to apply them so.
I would ask you, if, when I am writing a letter or an epistle to Mr. Hosea Ballou, it would be proper for me to apply what I write in particular to you, concerning your affairs or circumstances, to the whole world? Ministers of Christ should rightly "divide the word;" and should take the precious from the vile; then they would be as God's mouth to the people. See Jeremiah xv. 19, see likewise, Ezekiel xiiv. 23, "The priests of the Lord are to teach the Lord's people the difference between the holy and the profane," and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean;" it is by this _general_ way of preaching, errors are introduced, not only by your denomination, but by others also. I could multiply quotations from the Bible, both from the Old and New Testaments, but what would it avail, unless you will consider them and endeavour to improve them, and apply them as the Holy Ghost would have us to to? "For holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," see 2 Peter i. 25. You say, you were somewhat embarrassed in understanding what I meant when I wrote that men undertaking to explain the scriptures in their own strength and wisdom, and their making havoc of them, &c. by explaining them in a mystical or literal sense. I will endeavour to explain what I meant--1st. To allegorize the scriptures in a mere moral or mystical sense, or altogether in a figurative sense, is a degree of enthusiasm, (as to say there is no _devil_ but our carnal nature, &c.) and in a mere literal sense is to understand and improve them not in that spiritual sense in which they are to be understood, but resting in the letter only; as we may observe when Christ said in St. John, 6th chapter, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you;" "Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day;" "These things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum;" "Many therefore of his disciples when they heard this, said, this is a hard saying, who can hear it? Christ said, doth this offend you?"--And informed them he did not mean that they should eat his human flesh, and drink his blood literally, but he was to be understood in a spiritual sense. He informed them "it is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing, the words I speak unto you they are spirit and life." Some have since misunderstood him, and, to this day, misunderstand this piece of scripture; and have from thence introduced the absurd doctrine of transubstantiation, that after the words of consecration, the bread and wine are the real body and blood of Christ. So some adhere only to the letter of the word and expound the law of God in a mere literal sense. It seems the apostle Paul, before his conversion, understood it so.--Read the 7th chapter of Romans, from the 6th to the end of the 13th verse. Paul was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, a doctor of the law; yet, while in his unregenerate state, knew not the spiritual meaning of the law of God, (I mean the holy or moral law) and no doubt he spake by experience when he says, (as I wrote to you from I Cor. ii. 14) "But the natural man received not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." By the natural man, I conceive, the apostle meant the unregenerate man: yea, with the highest degree of human teaching and knowledge without he is taught of God, by his word and spirit, he cannot truly understand the things of the spirit of God; and therefore they are, as I say, misapplied, mangled and made havoc of. Faith is, by some, only held as a bare assent that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. None do truly believe that, but by the Holy Ghost.
You still will continue to maintain the doctrine of Universal Salvation, by those texts, which I said you spake at the grave with such an _emphasis_; if they are to be understood only in a literal sense as they are expressed, I can quote as many or more spoken by Christ and his apostles which will contradict them in their literal sense: Christ says, "He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. Then shall he say unto them on his left hand, depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal. Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall seek me and shall die in your sins: whither I go ye cannot come." John viii. 21, 24, "I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins; for if ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your sins." With respect to that text you quote from John xii. 32, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." It is, I conceive, explained by Christ himself in John iii. 14, 15, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life." By Christ being lifted on the cross the way of salvation is to be preached to all men; but it is only those that believe who will not perish and have eternal life, according to the foregoing scriptures I have quoted from Mark xvi. 16, and Mat. xxv. 41, 46. I could quote many more scriptures spoken by our Lord himself and explained by him; and I hope, sir, you will allow our Lord to be the best expositor of his own word. I conceive you think you have got a mighty argument when you mention the apostle Peter, who had a vision which instructed him in his duty to preach the gospel to the Gentiles; but remember, Peter says, "I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation, he that feareth God and worketh righteousness, is accepted of him." Then he began to preach the gospel to Cornelius and his friends; he preached Christ to them; he preached Jesus and the resurrection; he shows he is ordained of God to be the Judge of the quick and the dead; and says, "To him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins." Did he say that every individual of the human race would be saved? No such thing! And though he had further light concerning the Gentiles, he never, as I can find, preached Universal Salvation, but to the contrary. Read his epistles, first and second, particularly 2d epistle, 2d chapter from 1st to the end of the 9th verse. "The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation; and to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment, to be _punished_;" not to be _liberated_! Read 3d chapter, 7th verse, "But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." Peter wrote these epistles after he had further light with respect to the Gentiles' having the gospel preached unto them.
As to what you write about my saying I do not envy you because great numbers go to hear you, I still say it, as far as I know my wicked and deceitful heart, and wish you might preach the pure and simple gospel, and that your hearers might desire nothing more than the sincere milk of the word, as new-born babes, preached unto them; that they might grow thereby, &c.
That place I directed you to in 1 John, iv. 5, 6, and wished you to consider, though I have in some measure already considered it, I will attempt more particular to consider it. 1st. You say, John says, "And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God, and this is that spirit of Antichrist whereof you have heard it should come and even now already is in the world." John in the preceding verse said, that every spirit that confesseth Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God; do you think, sir, that every person that assents to this truth is a true believer? But few that have been born in a land of gospel light but what assents to this; but the soul that is born of God truly believes it, according to what the same apostle writes, 5th Chapter 1st epistle 1st verse, "Whosoever believeth Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him." Do all men that confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh profess to be born of God? Do they love the children of God that bear his image? No; they, if unregenerate, are of the world; they "love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil." Who does our Lord mean when he says, "If the world hate you, it hated me before it hated you, if ye were of the world the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you?" Sir, you know that there has been many antichristian professors of this truth, _that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh_, that have shed much human blood, because they hated the dear children of God. Therefore I conceive this is the meaning of the text: we must know for ourselves that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, as Peter did when he confessed him, and Christ said to him, "Blessed art thou Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven--upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." I believe that true and saving faith is wrought in the heart by the spirit of the _living God_; and the soul that believes truly, is, as I have already said, born of God, is in union with Christ, is partaker of the divine nature, and has escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, and is pressing forward towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I have wrote more than I intended, having received your other epistle and have considered some of it. This remains to be considered: what you wrote concerning your having great numbers of hearers. It is true Christ had a great number which followed, and heard him, but few which followed because they loved his doctrine, and followed him from right motives. He said unto them, "Ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves and were filled. Labour not for the meat that perisheth, but for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you, for him hath God the Father sealed," John vi. 26, 27. Our Lord says, John viii. 47, "He that is of God heareth God's words; ye therefore hear them not because ye are not of God." Hence you may see how our Lord and his beloved disciple John agree; it is not the truth as it is in Jesus, the populace are after; it is to gratify their curiosity, or hear something about their salvation in a way that has no cross in it. But Christ says, "If any man will be my disciple let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow me." When Christ preached soul searching doctrine as he did in the 6th of John, "Many of his disciples went back and followed no more with him." And I believe when you preach repentance and faith, and shew what fruits they will produce in the true penitent and true believer, the world will not hear you and cordially like your doctrine. But they, as John says, are of the world, therefore they speak of the world, and the world heareth them; "We are of God, we 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 have reason to think some popular preachers are good men, but the world do not like them nor their doctrine, because they are so; but because of their popularity their curiosity is fed, or gratified--and not their souls with the pure milk of the word. Sir, you answer in some way which is ambiguous to me about your preaching repentance, and say repentance may be preached without speaking the word repentance. What makes you shun speaking plainly as Christ did? Be explicit in preaching it. You cannot deny, but Christ and his apostles preached it explicitly. Christ said in plain language, "Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish," Luke xiii. 3, 5. In your answer concerning the resurrection of the dead, you do not speak of that in a clear and explicit way, and your not mentioning it at either of the funerals, makes me doubt whether you believe it in as clear and literal a manner as it is expressed in the scriptures by Christ and his apostles. Paul says, "Seeing we have such hope we use great plainness of speech." I hope, sir, you will not be offended with me for plain dealing.
As to your apostasy, I hope I shall have an opportunity to confer with you about it. I am happy to say I feel no rancour or enmity against your person or people, as a neighbour and friend, but should be willing to assist you in, and as far as my ability and power with a good conscience will admit; and hope this will not interrupt our meeting together as usual in visiting the schools. I think we had best drop the controversy, and I think I shall no more write to you, and hope you will no more write to me on this subject. You may make what use you please of it; I hope it will be made of good use to you.
I now, dear sir, "commend you to God and the word of his grace, which is able to build yon up in the _truth_ as it is in _Jesus_, and give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified."
From your friend, and well wisher in the gospel of our dear Lord Jesus Christ.
JOSEPH WALTON.
Mr. Hosea Ballou, _Pastor of a Church_.
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