Hosea Ballou

He was a son of Maturin Ballou[?], a Baptist minister, was self-educated, early devoted himself to the ministry, became a convert to Universalism in 1789, and in 1794 became a pastor of a congregation at Dana, Massachusetts.

He preached at Barnard[?], Vermont, and the surrounding towns in 1801—1807; at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in 1807—1815; at Salem, Massachusetts, in 1815—1817; and as pastor of the Second Universalist Church[?] in Boston from December 1817 until his death there on the 7th of June 1852. He founded and edited The Universalist Magazine[?] (1819; later called The Trumpet) and The Universalist Expositor[?] (1831; later The Universalist Quarterly Review[?]) wrote about 10,000 sermons, many hymns, essays and polemic theological works; and is best known for Notes on the Parables (1804), A Treatise on Atonement (1805) and Examination of the Doctrine of a Future Retribution (1834); in these, especially the second, he showed himself the principal American expositor of Universalism. His great contribution to his Church was the body of denominational literature he left. From the theology of John Murray, who like Ballou has been called “the father of American Universalism,” he differed in that he divested Universalism of every trace of Calvinism and opposed legalism and trinitarian views.