From Bankruptcy To Founding A Faith – John Murray

February 28, 1988
Lakeland

John Murray, who was bankrupt, came to America and became known as a founder of Universalist churches in America. To describe him as a founding father of Universalism is true, but incomplete and oversimplified. There were roots to Universalism, religious convictions [that were] underground and repressed during all the centuries of the Christian movement.

Consequently, before recounting the life and describing the influence of John Murray, the stage must be set with political and economic backdrops as well as religious scenery. Although I shall make brief reference to the ancient history of Universalism, a larger need is to understand the turmoil of 17th century England, when the lives of several English kings were tied to the carnage, bloodshed, and radical change of the Puritan Revolution of the 1640s, the beheading of King Charles I, the dictatorship of Oliver Cromwell, and the restoration of the monarchy in the person of King Charles II.

First, a definition which expresses the principle of Universalism as it was generally held in the 18th and 19th centuries: “Universalists are all those who accept the doctrine of the final salvation of all mankind .... The denomination reaches the conclusion of the final holiness and happiness of all from the teachings of scripture, corroborated by the deductions of reason” (HANSON’S POCKET ENCYCLOPEDIA). Universalists refused to believe that anyone would be punished eternally in hell; they believed that the nature of God’s love would prohibit the endless suffering of anyone.

Lest you think that such theological talk is of antiquarian interest only, a recent survey taken in this country reported 79% of those surveyed believed in Hell. Those who believe that undoubtedly hold widely differing notions of what and when Hell is. Some believe it refers to suffering, misery, and disaster occurring here in this life. Others believe Hell to be a psychological state wherein passions, fears, vanities, guilt, and repressions make a person’s life hell on earth, so to speak.

But many still believe Hell to be a place of endless punishment after death. Just eight days ago in our Lakeland Ledger a local minister wrote this in the “Saturday Sermon” column:

[Editor’s note: clipping from THE LEDGER, February 20, 1988, “The Lord gives man three crucial appointments”, by minister Danny Williamson of Christian Home Freewill Baptist Church. CJW quoted from a passage dealing with a literal and punitive hell.]

Some fundamentalist preachers might be disconcerted to learn, or embarrassed to admit, that eternal punishment was a doctrinal development, not an original position among the early Christians.

There is no substantive evidence that in the Judeo part of our Judeo-Christian heritage, among the laws, prophets, and poets in the literature we call the Old Testament, there is any belief in, or doctrine of, everlasting punishment. Sheol, the Hebrew equivalent of Hades, was not the location of a place of punishment for bad people, but the grave of all, the place of death. In Sheol there was no punishment, no joy; it was a place of shades.

In the early centuries of the Christian church such “Church Fathers” as Origen and Clement of Alexandria believed all souls would be saved, no one would be forced to endure everlasting torture. Not until Augustine developed his intricate theology would universal salvation be regarded as heresy. Not until the Church Council at Constantinople in 553 A.D. would universal salvation be officially condemned as heresy and anathematized. Nevertheless, many expressions of Universalism emerged during the centuries following, even though officially heretical and frequently punishable by death.

The more immediate historical context for beliefs in Universalism surfaced in England during the 17th century amid the turbulent times referred to as the Puritan Revolution, the Restoration, and the Glorious Revolution.

Puritans, [were] so-called because they were determined to purify the Anglican Church of what they called “Popery” - bishops, sacraments, rituals, pomp, all of which they saw as an effort by Roman Catholics to regain power. When James VI of Scotland became James I of England, Puritan hopes were high because James I was a Calvinist Presbyterian – he had to be, because Scotland was Presbyterian. However, James did not act on the grievances of Parliament, which was largely Presbyterian.

James’ son, Charles I was even more obstinate in such matters – leading to the Revolution, the beheading of Charles, and the dictatorship of Cromwell. Cromwell organized an effective military force, "The New Model Army", never lost a battle, and Puritanism prevailed over the Royalists, also called Cavaliers.

Important in this context is the economic situation of England. The various Parliaments in this revolutionary period were composed of men of wealth and a rising middle-class. They were country squires, lawyers, other professionals, [and] entrepreneurs in the rather new and growing system of Capitalism. Many Royalists, particularly Roman Catholics, had been dispossessed of property, beginning a century earlier in the time of Henry VIII.

In spite of, or perhaps because of this growing capitalistic wealth, the gap between rich and poor was wider than it ever had been. Unemployment was great, the poor were driven off the land as the country squires enclosed common lands formerly available to the poor. The country gentry and the business men who controlled Parliament and the Church did not care much, seemingly, about the grinding poverty, cruel suffering and desperate anguish of these dispossessed and oppressed people. [CJW note: one historian estimates to be 50% of the population.]

But their cries began to be heard for several reasons. The Bible, printed in English, had become widely circulated, and many who studied the scriptures came to conclusions different from the doctrines which had been imposed by the Church for centuries. A printing press could be assembled for relatively low cost. In the period 1640 to 1660, the years of the Puritan Revolution, there was more latitude for the distribution of tracts and pamphlets attacking the standing order – a standing order which combined doctrine, politics, and economics.

There were numerous movements and groups to which many historians seem to have paid little attention: Quakers, Lollards, Levellers, Diggers, Ranters, [and] Familists, all of which passionately attacked the status quo, not only with pamphlets and tracts, but also frequently [through] civil disobedience and riots.... Many of these radical groups advocated strange and weird ideas (to us). But in relation to Universalism as a denomination to emerge in America a century or so later, one man merits focus because he is one who was quoted and cited by later Universalists, Gerrard Winstanley.

Gerrard Winstanley, born in Wigan, England, came to London in the early 1640s, and after an apprenticeship in the clothing business, set up his own business, but soon lost [it]. He then herded cows and wrote religious pamphlets. He reported a vision in a trance, telling him to publish abroad that “the earth should be a common treasury of livelihood to whole mankind, without respect to persons.”

He attacked the Calvinistic doctrine of pre-destination theology, with heaven for the elect and hell for most persons. He condemned the prevailing notion of Puritanism that success and prosperity were signs that one was among the elect. Winstanley blasted the clergy, writing, e.g., “Priests lay claim to heaven after they are dead and yet grumble mightily against the people that will not give them a large temporal maintenance. And yet they tell the poor people they must be content with their lot and they shall have heaven hereafter.” (Hill, p. 113)

Winstanley was passionately convinced of Universalism – that all would be saved. He also wrote succinctly, “The rich are the enemies to true freedom.”

Winstanley knew the Bible well, but treated it as mythology and allegory. He noted contradictions. He believed the Bible should be used to illustrate truths of which one was already convinced by reason. He used the story of early Christian communism found in Acts to support his belief that all of the riches of the earth should be equally shared. Many of these dissenting radical groups advocated that all property is community property. These were communist principles and theories two centuries before Marx and Engels.

(One of the subjects which interests me, although I have not studied it enough, is why there are numerous instances where radical theologies were integrated with radical economics in their beginnings, but decades, sometimes centuries later, the radical theology remained, but the radical economics had faded out. But that is a subject for another day, when I know more and have thought more about it.)

Winstanley, as well as other radical persons of his time, influenced dissenters in later decades. Most of the early radicals gave up or were totally defeated in their convictions that all wealth should be shared by all. But the theological idea that all would be saved had powerful influence on John Murray, born 10 December 1941 in Alton, England (50 miles southwest of London). His family was middle-class; his father was a stern Calvinist who warned his little son continuously about how terrible was the lot of the damned in hell.

As a young man, Murray experienced a different gospel as he heard and came to know George Whitfield, the famous evangelist and revivalist, and John Wesley, the pioneer of Methodism, who was a visitor in the Murray home.

John Murray went into business, although he was never successful. He married at the age of 18 to Eliza Neale. Because of his interest in religion and his self-educated but wide and deep knowledge of the Scriptures, he was in demand as a Methodist “lay preacher.”

Then a momentous event happened. Murray was asked by his Methodist congregation to check out a dissenting preacher, James Relly, who had a London congregation. When Murray visited, he found that he was unable to answer the biblically based and logically sound arguments that all mankind would be saved. Relly, a Welchman, found warrant for his beliefs not only in the Bible, in the arguments and challenges come down from Winstanley and others, but also in a book THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL, written in Germany by one Siegfolk (an alias), which was also influential in the colonies.

Murray, more and more taken by the universal gospel, eagerly attended Relly’s preaching, was soon named as an apostate and was voted out of his Methodist congregation.

But in the midst of his new religious enthusiasm, his world began to crumble. He had trouble paying his bills; his business failed; he was jailed briefly for debt. His little son, aged one year, died. His wife’s health began to fail. Murray was not well himself. When Eliza died, his debts increased, and his morale and hopes were sunk.

James Relly urged Murray to become a public preacher of Universalism. Although sustained in his sorrow and trouble by Relly's friendship, Murray did not respond to the urging. In his words, Murray preferred to “pass through life, unheard, unseen, unknown to all as though I had never been.” (Miller p. 10)

Someone talked with him about America, and he decided to come here and bury himself in the wilderness. Helped by his late wife’s brother, Willie Neale, he sailed July 21, 1770 on the vessel “Hand-In-Hand”. His possessions were few: a Bible, a bundle of his wife’s letters, clothing, and a few other papers.

Not far from New York, the Hand-In-Hand ran aground on a sandbar at Cranberry Inlet, Barnegat Bay, New Jersey. Murray, who was acting as super-cargo, went ashore at a point called Good Luck to buy provisions, and met a farmer named Thomas Potter. Potter was unlettered but deeply religious, believed in universal salvation, and had built a meeting house to invite preachers to speak. Potter had been influenced by the Ephrata Brethren from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, who openly taught universal salvation (they did not persist as an organization because they also believed in celibacy).

As one historian (Miller, p. 12) puts it, “Potter became convinced that Murray had been heaven-sent to fill the pulpit and preach on Universalism.” Murray did speak. Somehow word spread, and when he had landed in New York City a short time later, he began to receive receive numerous invitations to speak at various cities along the Atlantic Seaboard. Between journeys, he lived for several years with Thomas Potter and helped on the farm.

Then came the astonishing sequence of events that led to the founding and organization of the first Universalist church in America. In 1770, Gloucester was a seaport in touch with the European world. In 1769, a man named Gregory, whether ship’s officer, sailor, or passenger (no one knows), had brought to the town a book written by James Relly. The book signaled the organized beginning of Universalism in America, three years before Murray arrived in Gloucester. The meetings were discussion groups, Bible study – and a forerunner of what we have called the Fellowship movement in the 20th century.

Members of the group heard of John Murray’s itinerant preaching which had included Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Boston. Winthrop Sargent, a member of the Universalist group and one of Gloucester’s leading citizens, was requested to go to Boston and invite Murray to Gloucester. Responding to the invitation, Murray came and preached nine times on nine successive days. For the first time in his three years in America, he found a group of influential people, somewhat organized, and already in accord with his Universalist views.

From that time on for twenty years, with the exception of eight months when he was a chaplain in the Army of the Revolution, Gloucester was his home, although he did undertake occasional traveling preaching missions. His term in the Revolutionary Army also revealed another facet of his character. Although his chaplaincy service was very much limited because of a breakdown in health, when he returned to Gloucester he found a need to serve. Gloucester was in bad straits financially because the British blockade had effectively closed down the main industry – fishing, shipping, and port activities. Murray took it on himself to solicit aid from his former associates in the Revolutionary Army. His subscription list to help the distress in Gloucester was headed by a 10 pound donation from General George Washington.

At first Murray was given the use of the established parish church. Very soon after his coming, this privilege was denied him, and thereafter services were held in the homes of lay members, usually in the spacious parlors of Winthrop Sargent's hospitable mansion, which still stands and is preserved as an historic building. The congregation grew, converts increased in number, and opposition became more bitter and determined to shut Murray up. When his followers stopped attending the parish church, the storm broke – a mob assembled before the house of Winthrop Sargent, where Murray was living. He was called a British spy, among other slanders. They were set on riding Murray out of town. Being dissuaded, they continued to threaten violence if he remained. An effort was made to expel him as a vagrant, because anyone not a land-owner had no legal status at that time. This danger was averted when one of his supporters made him a gift of land.

Nevertheless, Murray was summoned before the committee of safety and ordered to leave town within five days. The town at its annual meeting, by a vote of 54 for and 8 against, approved the action of the committee of safety. But he refused to go. Curses followed Murray and stones were thrown at him as he walked the streets of the town. Through it all, Murray and his brave supporters stood firm and unwavering. In spite of this, or perhaps because of this, the number of Universalists steadily increased, and little by little the threats and dangers of physical violence diminished.

There is no time to spell out in detail the next and most formidable obstacle – the right of the Universalists not to pay taxes to the established church. They built a meeting house. In spite of the legal battle, the seizure of members' goods by the court, the jailing of at least one member, Epes Sargent, eventually the Universalists won the long, complicated, and landmark case in which some of the best legal counsel was employed on both sides. [CJW note: There is not time today to review that important legal case.]

In 1788, John Murray married Judith Sargent, the widowed daughter of Winthrop Sargent. She was an able, forthright, supportive spouse, liberated by the standards of the day, a poet and writer. When John Murray died in 1816, she moved to Louisiana to live with brother. There are no known descendants.

In focusing on John Murray as a founder of the organized religion of Universalism, I have attempted to point out that whenever a religious denomination begins, although one or a few names may seem all-important, always there are forces, prior conditions, opportunities, and pressure to produce change. The idea of theological salvation for every one may seem passé to some of you, but large numbers are still afraid of Hell and need to be liberated from that oppression.

Then, too, Universalism moved on to another logical conclusion. If God saves everyone, then everyone is worth saving. Thus, the first principle of today’s Unitarian Universalist Association is that “we affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person.” Whether one holds anything like the theology of the 18th and 19th century Universalists, it is hard to dispute that the evolution of such a principle of human dignity and worth began with the fervent belief of our forefathers and foremothers that everyone would be saved.

That’s a big idea – even today, most people would gulp when asked to affirm the inherent worth and dignity of everyone – both Sandanistas and Contras, for example, or Castro Cubans and Miami Cubans both, Iranians and Iraqis, Palestinians and Israelis – the list could go on in our wounded and warring world still divided by hates and fears of clan, economic ideology, nation, race, and religion.

It’s a big idea, unrealized with innumerable difficulties unresolved, but it’s as great a goal as ever Winstanley, Relly, or Murray and other radicals dreamed in their idealistic visions – visions, which now, as then, are born of human need, human experience, and human hope.