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DISCUSSION

OF

UNIVERSALISM,

OR A

Defence of Orthodoxy

AGAINST THE HERESY OF UNIVERSALISM,

AS ADVOCATED BY MR. ABNER KNEELAND,

IN THE DEBATE

IN THE UNIVERSALIST CHURCH, LOMBARD STREET,

JULY, 1824,

AND IN HIS VARIOUS PUBLICATIONS,

AS ALSO IN THOSE OF MR, BALLOU, AND OTHERS.

THE PROFITS OF THE IMPRESSION TO GO TO THE FUNDS OF THE YOUNG MEN'S NQ-

MESTIC MISSIONARY SOCIETY, COMPOSED OF DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS

BY W. L. M'CALLA,

PHILADELPHIA: PRINTED BY JOHN YOUNG, 34, NORTH THIRD STREET.

1825.

Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to wrt :

Be it remembered, that on the twenty-fourth day of January, in the forty-ninth year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1825, WILLIAM LATTA M'CALLA, of the said District, hath deposited in this Office the Title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as Author, in the words following,

to wit:

"A Discussion of Universalism; or a Defence of Orthodoxy, against the "Heresy of Universalism, as advocated by Mr. Abner Kneeland, in the Debate in "the Universalist Church in Lombard-street, July, 1824, and in his various publica"tions, as also, in those of Mr. Ballou and others. The profits of the impression "to go to the Funds of the Young Men's Domestic Missionary Society, composed " of different denominations. By W. L. M'Calla."

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, " An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the times therein mentioned ;"-And also to the Act, entitled, "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies during the times therein mentioned," and extending the Benefits thereof to the Arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints."

D. CALDWELL,
Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

BX 7746

•M11

PREFACE.

217 A

7

pa

SHORTLY after my arrival in this place, last May, information was received from various quarters, that Mr. Kneeland had long been in the habit of defying the armies of the living God, and of glorying in their silence as the effect of conscious guilt and error. Aware of my own weakness, but confiding in the Great Head of the Church, it was impossible to conceal my desire that he would challenge me. A mutual friend gave him an intimation of my willingness to accept a personal invitation, but without effect. His general challenge was then made the ground of a correspondence which terminated in a public conference. This was not, by any means, intended to supercede the necessity of a printed defence, but to excite the public attention to such a work, and to make it more worthy of their tronage, as well as to silence the audacious boasting of this enemy of God and man. He soon betrayed a great anxiety to terminate the debate. After several unsuccessful efforts, he cut it short by virtually closing the door of his desk upon me. Sickness and the heat of the city soon obliged me to retire to the country. This was called a retreat, and it was boldly and publicly denied that the doors of the church were shut upon me. To settle these points, an offer was made to resume the discussion, which offer he was very far from accepting. To retrieve their loss, a Universalist preacher, a pretended stenographer, was employed to write the debate in such a way as to transfer the victory from one side to the other. Although he at first promised verbal accuracy, he at last professed to give the argument only: but this was as far beyond his capacity as it was contrary to his wish. The performance of his enterprise with fidelity and ability, would have been much more gratifying to me and my friends than to him and his. Yet every one conversant with such matters, knows that in such discussions, an argument is more diluted than it should be when committed to paper; and that it is not necessary to record repeated refutations of the same error, which were made necessary in debate, in order to meet the extemporaneous and reiterated effusions of heretical sophistry. Although the employed stenographer professed to do justice to my argument, he has been guilty of such omissions and interpolations, transpositions and alterations, as were calculated to destroy it. While, for the sake of perspi

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