With the opinions of the elder Ballou in regard to future (or no-future) punishment he had no sympathy; and an estrangement somehow grew up, which led him to connect himself, later in life, with the Unitarians, instead of remaining with those in the Universalist ministry, such as H. Ballou, 2d., the Streeters and Skinners, Rev. L. Willis, Thomas F. King, and others, whose opinions coincided with his own. A severe illness in 1811 wrought a marked change in him. Before this he was quite robust and erect, afterwards he appeared more feeble. Previous to this sickness, like Mr. Ballou, he had been exclusively an extemporaneous preacher, and is said to have been one of the "rousing" sort,--live, vehement, electric; but from this period his whole manner changed, and his ordinary preaching became subdued, languid, what is called "moderate," at times, perhaps, even heavy. Dr. E. G. Brooks, in an excellent biographical notice of him, says:-- "He had immense latent power. At times, when kindled by some great occasion, or stirred by opposition or some peculiar circumstance, this came out. Then he preached with all his old fire, and sometimes rose into impassioned and commanding eloquence. 'All the fountains of the great deep' within him 'were broken up,' and thought and feeling came in a flood. Rev. Russell Streeter writes me, 'On Convention occasions he was, on the whole, _second to no one_.' My parents tell me that he was 'sometimes _very_ animated.' They speak particularly of one sermon in Portsmouth, called forth by some bitter outbreak of opposition, when he preached with surpassing effect. Others report similar instances. Doctrinal sermons in abundance he preached, but even those most argumentative and most sharply controversial were flavored with a religious meaning and reasoned to practical ends. He never preached a sermon that was _merely_ doctrinal, but always made dogmatic discussion subordinate to moral impression. Though in a mistaken estimate of duty, as we believe, he separated from us, his name can never be taken out of our records as one of the worthiest of our early heroes, nor his work cease to be an occasion of gratitude and honorable pride to us, nor his reverent and saintly character fail to be one of the most precious portions of our denominational inheritance."[39] The STREETER brothers are to be numbered in this "company of the preachers." SEBASTIAN was for more than thirty years pastor of the First Universalist Church, on Hanover Street, Boston. He was a minister of marked character, light-framed, nervous, dark-eyed, of quick movement, clear and strong-minded, voluble in speech, affable, at home everywhere, especially in the pulpit.