PRIMITIVE UNIVERSALISM.
Rise of the Sect in America-Doctrine of their first Preach-The original system abandoned-The new scheme and its founder-Transition-state.
'Sing, muse! (if such a theme so dark, so long,
May find a muse to grace it with a song,)
By what unseen and unsuspected arts,
The serpent, Error, twines round human hearts;
Tell where she lurks, beneath what flow'ry shades,
That not a glimpse of genuine light pervades,
The pois'nous, black, insinuating worm
Successfully conceals her loathsome form."-Cowper.
"THE Father of Universalism in America" was JOHN MURRAY. Born of pious parents in Alton, Hampshire, England, at an early age he became a follower of Wesley and a preacher of his views. Afterwards brought, by a constant round of folly and dissipation during a short residence in London, to the borders of starvation, he was again awakened by the preaching of Whitefield, and soon became distinguished for his fluency in prayer and exhortation. Shortly after, he became a follower of James Relly, who was then