Everlasting Gospel by Paul Siuegvolk
The below is from Thomas Whittemore's The Modern History of Universalism (1830) also in the public domain, and shows a brief history of the book, but not the content.
"We now come to a work which caused much excitement in its day, viz. the so called " Everlasting Gospel,"
which for years was understood to have had for its author one Paul Siegvolk. Long after the delusion ought to
have been corrected, the work was continued to be ascribed to Siegvolk, both in America and in Europe.
The name was kept up and applied to a series of works, about the beginning of the eighteenth century.
Dr. Sawyer says, " Few names are more familiar to our readers than that of Siegvolk. Not that he was distin-
guished for pre-eminent talents, but it was his fortune to enter upon the stage of action in a day of great religious controversy, and also to have one of his works translated and published in America, at a time, and under circumstances calculated to give it an enviable reputation and secure to it an extensive usefulness.
Yet of Siegvolk personally, we have hitherto known almost nothing, and even to the present day, our informa-
tion is singularly meagre. Indeed it is only within these last few years that we became aware that Seigvolk was
but an assumed name, nor were we ready to credit the fact when it was first announced to us."
In commenting on a paragraph which appeared in the first edition of this history, Dr. Sawyer further says, "We
now know that Siegvolk was a clergyman in Germany, and have no reason to suppose that he was born and educated in Holland or that his most popular work, the Everlasting Gospel, was written in. Low Dutch, or that he had corresponded with the persons mentioned in the above note. Still we would not positively deny these statements since they may possibly be true. The Everlasting Gospel was first published, continued Doctor Sawyer, so far as I have been able to learn, in the year I7OO. It appeared in the first volume of Petersen's great work, "The Mystery of the Restoration of all Things." In introducing it near the close of the volume, Petersen says, " the publication has been deferred a whole year or more, since I wished it to appear ; but in this as in other things, I see the providence of God, for I have meanwhile received an excellent tract on the subject, which is very precious and may properly be called a compendium of this whole work, and which I here communicate."
The Everlasting Gospel, thus introduced, acquired a deserved popularity in Germany. It was republished at
Leipsic in 1705 and again in 1713. In 1730 a new edition appeared at Frankfort and Leipsic, and another still in 1745 in Altona.
The first edition in English appeared at Germantown, near Philadelphia in 1753, and was doubtless the first
work in favor of Universalism, except the Bible, ever printed in America. This edition was printed by Christo-
pher Sower, more properly Sauer, and purports to have been " translated into English by John S----- ," probably a son or brother of the printer. There is every reason to suppose that it was thus introduced to the readers of English, through the influence of Dr. George De Benneville, who after a series of sufferings and persecutions for his faith in Universalism, came to this country about 1740, and was at this time residing near Germantown. Whether he brought the original from Germany, where he had lived several years and probably became acquainted with it, we have no means of determining. It might have been brought over by some of the German Baptists, who sympathized with its author. Be this as it may, it is understood that Winchester, in his preface to the London edition, 1792, alludes to De Benneville, when he says, " I am well acquainted with the good man at whose instance and expense it was translated. He has lived to see the little spark rise into a flame, and the small seed into a large tree; and may he still live many years," &c. Dr. De Benneville died the year following the date of Mr. Winchester's preface, 1793, aged 90 years. {Dr. Sawyer.)
...
Having said so much of Siegvolk's works, I must turn, (says Dr. S.) for a moment to consider the author him-
self But here I must confess my information very limited. Some years ago I learned from Thiess, what I could then scarcely credit, that Siegvolk was an assumed name. More recent information has confirmed the fact.
The following paragraph I copy from Von Einem, who revised and enlarged Hering's Lexicon of Church His-
tory and Heresies:
" George Klein-Nicolai was, in the beginning of this (the eighteenth) century, an active advocate of the restoration of all things. On this account he was deposed as the preacher at Friessdorf and Rammelburg,
in Mannsfeld. He was indeed called afterwards again to Zeulenrode in the county of Gratz, but created many disturbances. In his writings he called himself George Paul Siegvolk."
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