Stonehouse, James

Universal Restitution a Scripture Doctrine (1761), published anonymously in London and followed by later companion volumes, argued from Scripture that the torments of hell are not endless and that all people will finally be restored, making it an influential early English statement of universalism. Library catalogs list the author as James Stonehouse, whom the Dictionary of National Biography identified as Sir James Stonhouse (1716-1795), a physician at Northampton who later took Anglican orders; some historians of Universalism have instead credited the work to his kinsman Sir George Stonhouse, a former vicar of Islington associated with the early Methodists who joined the Moravian Brethren.

An early Anglican statement of the universal restitution, argued in a series of letters to a friend and published anonymously in 1761 — catalogued under the name of Stonhouse. Emerging from the circles touched by the Methodist revival, it shows the doctrine surfacing within the established church a generation before Winchester preached it in London, and it was read and cited by the English universalists who followed.

(Note: this summary was automatically generated and may be inaccurate.)