The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-02-18
JOHN FOSTER.

Rev. John Foster, the eminent Bap-
tist, long ago set an example which
other Baptists might prOitably follow.
He wrote to young minister, (see his
life and correspondence, London, 1916
ENDLESS punishment acknowledge my in
ability q would say it reverently) to admit
this belief, together with a belief in the divine
goodness-the belief that God is love-" that
"his tender mercies are over all his works."
Goodness benevolence, charity are ascrbed in
supreme perfection to him, cannot mean
quality foreign to all human conception of
goodness; it must be something analogous in
principle to what he himself has defined and
required as goodness in his moral creatures,
that in adoring the divine goodness, we may
not be worshping an unknown God" But,
if so, how would all our ideas be confounded,
while contemplating him bringing of his own
sovereign will, race of creatures into exist
ence in such condition that they certainly will
and must,-must by their nature and circum-
stances go wrong and be miserable, unless pre-
vented by especial grace,-which is the priyi-
lege of only Il small proportion of them, and
at the same time aifxing on their delinquency
a doom which it is infinitely eyond the high
d
sandth part of the horror. a number mot
large, but of great piety and intelligenCel Of
ministers within my acquaintance, several
now dead. have been disbelievers of the doe
trinein question; at the same time not feeling
themselves imperatively called upon u make
public disavowal; content with employing
in their ministratons s rong general terms in
denouncing the doom of impeniJent sinners.
durable imputations and unmeasured
suspicious apt to be cast on any pub
licly declered practical detection from
rigid orthodoxy, has made them think
they would better consult their usefulness by
not giving a prominence to this dissentient
point; while yet they make no concaalment of
it in private communications and in answer
to serious inquiries. When, besides, they
have considerel. how strangely defective and
ss shass-tHe ata aang ta -::szz3t ae&srseaSas
less, irreligious minds, of the terffble doctrine
itself, naturally admitted by them. they
have thought themselves the less required
to propoupd one that so greatly quail :
f1es the blackness of the prospect They
could not be unaware of the grevious truth Of
what's sostrongy insistedon as an argument
by the defenders of the tenet-that thoughtless
mitigated doctrine to encourage themselves in
their impenitenoe. But this is only the same
perverse and fatal use that they make of the
doctrine of grace and mercy through Jesus
Christ. If they will so abuse the trdth we
cannot helpit But m1thinks even this fact
tells against the doctrine in question. If the
very nature of man as crea ed every in
dividual, by the Sovereign Power, be in such
desperate disorder tnat there is no possibility
of conversion and salvation in the instances
where that power interposes with a special
and redeeming efficacy, how can we conceive
that the main proportion of the race thus
morally impOtent that is really and abs olutey
impotenu Will be eternaly punished for the
inevitable result of TINS moral impotence2'
1t Will be seen that noJ only did the
clear head and great heart of this emf
nent thinker rel 9ct the doctrine of the
endless woe of any soul, but he testifes
that many who were regarded as sup
porters of the doctrine, and those men
of the best character and abilities, dis
carded it. How many there were then,
how many such in every age, and now
we cannot tell.