THE AUTHOR'S PRAYER.

PARDON me, O my God, if in the contempla- the highest example to them of all the goodtion and experience of thy super-abounding ness thou requirest us to show to one another. grace to myself, I have been transported in my I must believe then, thy grace will sooner or representation of thee beyond thy allowance. later super-abound, wherever sin hath most I think it impossible to exceed, when I am abounded; 'till I can think a little drop of admiring that grace of thinc, which is the being, and but one remove from nothing, can highest, the sweetest, the most exalted name excel in goodness that ocean of goodness of that love which is thyself, and the eternal spring of all loves and loveliness. I presume not to pry into the methods of thy love and thy seasons for the full manifestation of it. How far thy thoughts and ways, which are thy infinite wisdom, do transcend, I know not; but sure I am, they cannot fall short of the limited perfections of thy creatures. Thou hast in thy own first make, given me a nature all disposed to love. Thou hast by thy grace heightened and enlarged that love to all thy offspring, to every thing that bears any image or stamp of thyself upon it. I could not, as I ought to do, love thee, if I did not love thee wherever I find thee. Thou hast commanded me and all thine, to overcome all the evil of this lower world with good. No evil, no injury I have met with in this unkind world, for thy sake, or upon any other account what-is love. soever, hath yet exceeded my love and forgiveness. Yea, thou hast made it one of my highest pleasures to love and serve enemies. Can I then think any evil in any of thy creatures can over set thy goodness? Thou art

which hath neither shore, bottom, nor surface. Thou art goodness itself, in the abstract, in its first spring, in its supreme and universal form and spirit. We must believe thee to be infinitely good-to be good without any mea sure or bound-to be good beyond all expression and conception of all creatures, of men and angels; or we must give over thinking thee to be at all. All the goodness which is every where to be found scattered among the creatures, is sent forth from thee, the fountain, the sea of all goodness. Into this sea of all goodness I deliver myself and all my fellowcreatures. Thou art love, and canst no more cease to be so, than to be thyself. Take thy own methods with us, and submit us to them. Well may we so do, in an assurance that the beginning, the way, and the end of them al.

To the inexhaustible fountain of all grace and goodness, from all his creatures, be ascribed all glory and praise for ever and ever. Amen. Hallelujah!

380

THE END.

ADDRESSED TO

MR. PAINE,

IN ANSWER TO HIS PAMPHLET

ENTITLED

THE AGE OF REASON:

CONTAINING

SOME CLEAR AND SATISFYING EVIDENCES OF THE TRUTH OF DIVINE REVELATION; AND ESPECIALLY OF THE RESURRECTION

AND ASCENSION OF JESUS.

BY ELHANAN WINCHESTER.

"Thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name."-David.

THIRD EDITION.

PHILADELPHIA:

GIHON, FAIRCHILD & Co.

LETTER TO THE PUBLISHERS.

What seems to enrich every portion of this little book, in which our author was called to contend with the continued revilings of a scoffer, is the clear tokens of a most kind and conciliatory spirit, that pervades the whole from beginning to end. True, we find occasionally a turn of pleasantry and rebuke that must appear in the light of no small expense to the author of the Age of reason, in the estimation of an enlightened public. Yet, in no instance, do we perceive an uncalled for and cruel reflection, or a mere biting sarcasm.

MESSRS. GIHON, FAIRCHILD & Co.,-I send | plain good sense, most happily adapted to you Mr. Winchester's Ten Letters, addressed supply the wants of the great mass of a readto Thomas Paine, in answer to his Pamphlet, ing community. entitled, The Age of Reason. This little book is a very rare one,-by far too much so, for one of its intrinsic worth. In all my travels, I have no recollection, that I have ever seen another copy of the same work. Mr. Winchester's Dialogues have been often published, while these letters, though a smaller work, have been long overlooked. Undoubtedly the principal reason of this, which has exist ed since the multiplication of books in our order, is the very fact, that they have not been known. Formerly, Universalists rarely published any book, except it embraced the then new and interesting topic of vindicating the final salvation of all men. These letters are not of this peculiar character. They go to vindicate Christianity as resting upon the basis of the sacred pages, without calling any aid from sectarian views. The Bible is made by them to speak its own language, and thus to become its own vindicator. While they embrace less philological criticism than Bishop Watson's Apology, addressed to the same Thomas Paine, they abound in a rich fund of

This little book has long been a resident in the family of my library. I now part with it for a similar motive that the house of Bethuel parted with their sister, Rebekah. Although I do not claim authority to pronounce upon it an equal prophetic blessing, my best wishes for its prosperity strongly mingle in that oriental hyperbole; "Be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gate of those which hate them." SAMUEL C. LOVELAND.

Weston, Vt., Aug. 8, 1843.