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A Series of Letters, in Defence of Divine Revelation: In Reply to Rev. Abner Kneeland's Serious Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Same. To Which is Added, a Religious Correspondence, Between the Rev. Hosea Ballou, and the Rev. Dr. Joseph Buckminster and Rev. Joseph Walton, Pastors of Congregational Churches in Portsmouth, N. H.Ballou, Hosea

Religion

A Series of Letters, in Defence of Divine Revelation: In Reply to Rev. Abner Kneeland's Serious Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Same. To Which is Added, a Religious Correspondence, Between the Rev. Hosea Ballou, and the Rev. Dr. Joseph Buckminster and Rev. Joseph Walton, Pastors of Congregational Churches in Portsmouth, N. H.

Name: A Series of Letters, in Defence of Divine Revelation: In Reply to Rev. Abner Kneeland's Serious Inquiry into the Authenticity of the Same. To Which is Added, a Religious Correspondence, Between the Rev. Hosea Ballou, and the Rev. Dr. Joseph Buckminster and Rev. Joseph Walton, Pastors of Congregational Churches in Portsmouth, N. H.
Author: Ballou, Hosea

Ballou, Hosea

Revelation; Universalism -- Doctrines

That _God originally designed death_, is one idea; that he _designed_
it for the _good of mankind_ is another idea. In order to do you
justice and to attach no other meaning to your communication than such
as I conceive to be consistent with your real sentiments, I must
suppose that you would not wish to fault the first of those ideas, as
it is an item in your creed, that "God foreordained whatsoever comes
to pass;" of course, you believe that God _originally designed death_.
But, that God designed death for the _good of mankind_, I do not know
it to be an article of your faith, and therefore, may, without doing
you any injustice, suppose that you believed that God originally
designed death, but _not_ for _the good of mankind_! Here, sir, I
acknowledge that my sentiment differs from yours; and as you have
given me no reason why God should not have designed death for the
_good_ of mankind, I have only to consider the "friendly admonition,"
with which you oppose my idea. I would query why the idea that God
should design death for the good of mankind renders me justly
admonishable? Would the idea, should I avow it, that God designed
death for the _damage_ of mankind, render me commendable? So, it
seems; but at this expense I cannot avoid admonition! I would further
query what interest God could have consulted which required him to
design death for a _damage_ to those creatures whom he made subject to
death? And I think it expedient to ask how God can be justified, in
the sight of his rational creatures, if the idea be once established
that he designed evil against them, even before they existed?

I feel it to be my duty, dear sir, to call on you to support this high
allegation against the Father of our spirits. I would not pretend that
you designed to bring an allegation against our Creator, but I am
satisfied that every unprejudiced mind must see the nature of an
allegation in what you are disposed to maintain. For if we say God,
our Creator, designed death for the damage of those dependent beings
whom he has made, it is giving him a character which, I believe, the
wisest of men would find it difficult to justify.

Again, if the notion be true, that God designed death for the damage
of mankind, is it not from hence evident that he was an enemy to
mankind when he thus designed? Now, if God be considered an enemy to
mankind even before he made them, I wish to know what reason can be
given why mankind ought to love God since creation?

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.