A Treatise on Atonement, by Hosea Ballou
A Letter from the Author to the Publishers of the Third Edition
Boston, January 2, 1827
Dear Sir,--
In reply to yours of the 23rd ult., I will say that I am glad that another edition of the Treatise on Atonement is to be given to the public, though I regret that I could not have an opportunity to give the work a general revision.
I do not wish, by any means, to retract any of the general or leading sentiments which are maintained in that work, although more than twenty years have elapsed since I wrote it and first sent it abroad in the world. But there are some minor ideas and some particular applications of certain passages of Scripture which, undoubtedly, would receive some modifications were I to revise the whole.
Though I remain entirely staisfied that according to the theme of divine reconciliation, the whole race of man is destined to a state of immortality, which state will partake of perfect holiness and happiness, I am not certain that I have not, in my Treatise, indicated something in relation to man's first creation, previous to his formation, which is not clearly supported by Scripture. And yet I am not able fully to account for the following reading unless something like what I have suggested be true. (See Gen. ii. 4, 5, 6, 7.) "These are the generations of the heavens, and of the earth, when they were created; in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, and every plant of the field, before it was in the earrth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. But there went of a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed life into his nostrils the breath of life; and man become a living soul." It seems that every plant and every herb, as well as man, were created before they grew, or appeared in form as now beheld.
What I have alluded to in the Treatise is found on the 35th page.
On page 123, I say, "It is plain to me, from Scripture, that the Mediator is the first human soul which was created, etc." These passages which I understood to favor this opinion, I now believe have reference to the new creation or new order of things brought about by the Gospel dispensation. It is, however, to be understood that I now as fully believe in the entire dependence of Christ on God as when I wrote the Treatise.
When I wrote this work on Atonement I was strgonly inclined to believe that the Scriptures did not teach that either sin or its punishment would exist in man's future state, but my conviction of that fact was then by no means so strong as it now is. I mention this as a reason why the reader finds, in several passages of this book, experssions which seem to allow that sin and its corresponding miseries may exist out of a state of flesh and blood.
I wish furthermore to observe, that I am now apprehensive, that in the use of some passages which speak of fire, I may have applied them to the refining and purifying of men, in cases wherein their proper use applied to the destruction of the Jews, and to the sufferings which the Saviour foretold would come on that people.
[Complete. Typist, Dan Harper.]
If you find typographical or other errors, please notify Dan Harper (danrharperATaolDOTcom).