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Hosea Ballou




Hosea Ballou ( April 30 , 1771 - June 7 , 1852 ) was an American Universalist Clergyman and theological Writer .

Hosea Ballou was born in Richmond , New Hampshire . 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 preached at Barnard , Vermont and surrounding towns in 18011807 ; at Portsmouth , New Hampshire in 18071815 ; at Salem, Massachusetts in 18151817 ; and as pastor of the Second Universalist Church in Boston from December 1817 until his death there.

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 Hymn s, 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.

Ballou has been called the "father of American Universalism," along with John Murray , who founded the first Universalist church in America. Ballou, sometimes called an "Ultra Universalist," differed from Murray in that he divested Universalism of every trace of Calvinism , and opposed Legalism and Trinitarian views.

:"Real happiness is cheap enough, yet how dearly we pay for its counterfeit." -- Hosea Ballou


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