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heaven without Good Works; therefore a man may attain Salvation without being meet for heaven. If the endeavour to maintain such a distinction as this docs not deserve the name of direct absurdity and contradiction, surely it is at least a "strife of words," and "a perverse disputing," "which minister questions, rather than godly edifying (u).” Such subtleties, not to apply a harsher term, may amuse persons sitting and reasoning in their closets, but they are certainly not calculated to instruct and improve the bulk of mankind, and ought never to find their way into the pulpits of a Protestant Church. It was probably some refinement of this sort which caused errors in the doctrine of Faith among the philosophizing Greeks in the days of the Apostles, and against which St. Paul with great earnestness guarded Timothy, whom he had appointed superintendant of the Church at Ephesus, "O, Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust; avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: which some professing, have erred concerning the Faith (r)."

(u) 1 Tim. c. 6. v. 4 & 5; and c. I. v. 4.
(x) 1 Tim. c. 6. v. 20 & 21.

CHAPTER THE FOURTH.

OF UNIVERSAL REDEMPTION, ELECTION, AND
REPROBATION.

THE doctrine of Universal Redemption,

namely, that the benefits of Christ's Passion extend to the whole human race; or, that every man is enabled to attain Salvation through the merits of Christ, was directly opposed by Calvin, who maintained, that God from all eternity decreed, that certain individuals of the human race should be saved, and that the rest of mankind should perish everlastingly, without the possibility of attaining Salvation. These decrees of Election and Reprobation suppose all men to be in the same condition in consequence of Adam's Fall, equally deserving of punishment from God, and equally unable of themselves to avoid it; and that God, by his own arbitrary Will, selects a small number of persons, without respect to foreseen Faith or Good Works, and infallibly ordains to bestow upon them eternal happiness through the merits of Christ, while the greater part of mankind are infallibly doomed to suffer eternal misery.

I shall

I shall endeavour to prove that the doctrine of Universal Redemption is asserted in Scripture, and maintained in the Public Formularies of our Church; and that there is no authority in either for the Calvinistic doctrines of Election and Reprobation.

In referring to Scripture for proofs of the doctrine of Universal Redemption, we may first observe, that the original promise (y) of a Redeemer, made in general terms by God himself to Adam, the representative of mankind, immediately after the Fall, may be considered as an intimation, that He would be a common blessing to the whole human race, and that He would counteract and defeat the consequences of Adam's transgression upon all his posterity; which is allowed to have been the sole cause of the necessity of a Redeemer. It is natural to conclude, that the remedy, proposed by a Being of infinite power and infinite mercy, would be commensurate to the evil; and therefore, as the evil operated instantly in producing the corruption of Adam's nature, which was soon transmitted to his offspring, we may infer, that all, who were to partake of that corrupt nature, were to partake also of the appointed remedy. And when it pleased our Almighty Father to declare more explicitly

(y). Gen. c. 3. Y. 15.

his gracious design, and to point out the persons "of the fruit of whose loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ (y)," he made use of words of the most comprehensive signification: to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, he successively said, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed (2)." The Salvation thus announced is not, like the privileges of the Mosaic law, confined to the descendants of these distinguished patriarchs, or to any particular description of men : "All nations of the earth," past, present, and to come, without any exception or limitation, shall be blessed in the promised Messiah, that is, for his sake, and through his mediation. The benefits of Christ's incarnation are spoken of in the same language throughout the prophecies of the Old Testament: "The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the Salvation of our God (a): " " All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all (b): " In this passage, the universal depravity of mankind is asserted, and the expiation of Christ is declared to be as universal as the depravity of man. In

(y) Acts, c. 2. v. 30.

(z) Gen. c. 18. v. 18. (a) Is. c 52. v. 10.

c. 22. v. 18. c. 28. v. 14.
(b) Is. c. 53. v. 6.

of

In the New Testament, every expression which can denote Universality is applied to the merits and sacrifice of Christ: at the birth of our Saviour, the Angel of the Lord declared to the shepherds, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people (c)." The aged and devout Simeon, when supernaturally guided to the Temple, in the spirit of prophecy, pronounced the infant Jesus to be the "Salvation of God, prepared before the face of all people (d) ;" and John the Baptist, under the same divine influence, called him, before he entered upon his ministry, "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world (e)." Christ denominated himself "the Son of man,' as bearing in his mediatorial capacity an equal relation to the whole human race; and in allusion to the nature and efficacy of his death, he said, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me (f)." St. John, in his Gospel, says, that Christ is "the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world (g);" and that he is "the Saviour of the world (h);" and, in writing to his Christian brethren, he says, "Christ is the propitiation

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