at a time when an installation service was in progress, ....After listening to the discourse which was preached on the occasion.....
The object of the preacher was, to show in what the power of the Gospel consisted.
From the commencement, he assumed it as the design of the gospel, to save men from sin, and thereby prepare them for heaven; and it was therefore his object to show in what the power of the gospel to save men consisted. Now, that the preacher was right in his assumption, that it is the design of the gospel to save men from sin, I am fully prepared to admit.
From the commencement, he assumed it as the design of the gospel, to save men from sin, and thereby prepare them for heaven; and it was therefore his object to show in what the power of the gospel to save men consisted. Now, that the preacher was right in his assumption, that it is the design of the gospel to save men from sin, I am fully prepared to admit.
The preacher remarked That the power of the Gospel did not consist in mysteries. On this point I have only to remark, that the Bible declares "great is the mystery of Godliness," and also speaks of "the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in us the hope of glory."
The Preacher then proceeded to show---. In what the power of the gospel to save from sin, did consist; and stated that it consisted,
1st. In the love of God.
2nd. In the doctrine of a common brotherhood.
3rd. In the nature of its punishment.
4th. In the doctrine or hope of life and immortality.
Now the fundamental and fatal mistake of the preacher consisted, as I expect to show, from the Bible, not so much in what he did say, as in what he did not say.
But that there will be those who will never be reclaimed from sin by the love of God, we learn from the Bible when it speaks as in the second chap. of the 2nd Epist. to the Thess. of them that perish, because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved.
The apostle Paul tells us in what the power of the gospel consists, 
when he says as in the first chapter of his 1st Epistle to the Thessalonians, "For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost."
Peter in the first chapter of his 1st Epistle, speaks of "the things which were reported by them that have preached the gospel, with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven."
Paul also says to Titus. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, i. e. from sin, "by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior."
The power of the gospel then to save from sin, consists in the regenerating, renewing, and sanctifying influences of the Spirit of God, shed forth to attend the gospel through Jesus Christ our Savior, and without these influences, the Gospel with all the love which it reveals, is utterly powerless, in working in the hearts of men, that "holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord."
Peter preached at the house of Cornelius, and the Holy Ghost fell on all which heard the word.-"Then remembered I," said he, "the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptised with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost."
We may see that while the advocates of Universal Salvation take correct ground, in assuming it as the design of the gospel to save men from sin, they fail entirely of gaining that salvation, by leaving out of the account the work of the Holy Ghost in renewing and cleansing the heart. "Create in me" said the Psalmist "a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow."
--Here it is recognized as the work of God to save from sin, to cleanse the heart,
--while the Universalist expects to cleanse his own heart, by his contemplations of the universal love of God."
Charles Fitch
