Excerpt from Notes on the Parables of the New Testament
Perhaps it may be faid, without encroaching on the feel ings of the reader, that mofi of the ideas imbibed by people, in general, in divinity; are received from the pulpit. And while one congregation is attending to explanations of the Parables in one way, another is entertained with different ideas on the fame pafl'ages. When thofe ideas are received, they form quite a difference in the Opinions of chrifiians this diliirnilarity of fentiment engenders twice as much dif affeaion in the heart, where nothing contrary to charity ought to be found this difaffeaion is like a hot bed to the feeds of contention, and roots of bitternefs.
Hosea Ballou was an American Universalist clergyman and theological writer. osea Ballou was born in Richmond, New Hampshire, to a family of Huguenot origin. The son of Maturin Ballou, a Baptist minister, he was self-educated, and devoted himself early on to the ministry. In 1789 he converted to Universalism, and in 1794 became a pastor of a congregation in Dana, Massachusetts.
He founded and edited The Universalist Magazine (1819 -- later called The Trumpet), and The Universalist Expositor (1831 -- later The Universalist Quarterly Review), and wrote about 10,000 sermons as well as many hymns, essays and polemic theological works. He is best known for Notes on the Parables (1804), A Treatise on Atonement (1805) and Examination of the Doctrine of a Future Retribution (1834). These works mark him as the principal American expositor of Universalism.
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