love each other, with the love wherewith God has thus loved us all. To the same effect is also a passage already quoted, "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."* As to praying for others, we are thus taught, "I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth; for there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time." Here it is manifest that we are exhorted to pray for all, because that is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour that it is proved to be good and acceptable in the sight of God, because God WILL have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth; and the existence of this will on the part of God, is proved by the truth, that as there is one God, so there is one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, and that this Mediator, in whom we see God, and in knowing whom we know God, gave himself a ransom for all. So that the call to pray for all rests on the willingness of God to save all, as manifested by the death of Christ for all. While the Scriptures call us to repentance towards God, and would teach us to have the mind of God in us towards others, by considerations which imply the universality of the atonement, they teach the same doctrine by the view they give of the future history of men, and of the character and results of that judgment which awaits them. It is appointed to all men once to die, and after death the judg +1 Tim. ii. 1-6. ] John iii. 16. ment: This judgment supposes resurrection from the dead -it supposes some common rule or principle of judgment; and one judge having equal right and authority over all. If we consider the first of these things-that the men who are to be judged are to be raised for judgment, and inquire what the Scriptures teach on the subject of resurrection, we are taught what distinctly implies the universality of the atonement, and (as it is written) that "Christ tasted death for every man.' "*"For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead; for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive but every man in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterwards they that are Christ's at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and authority and power; for he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy which shall be destroyed is death." Here we learn that the resurrection of the dead has come by Christ, and that all the dead shall be made alive in Christ. Accordingly we find, in the book of Revelation, the destruction of the last enemy, death, thus recorded," And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire; this is the second death;"+ so that after the final judgment there is no record of the death which came through the first Adam, and which the second Adam tasted for every man, so bringing in the resurrection of the dead. Again, as to the principle or rule of that judgment which awaiteth all men, and for which they are to be raised, that which the Scriptures teach on this subject, equally implies the universality of the atonement. Paul thus describes the judgment of God-"For there is no respect of persons with God; for as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in 1 Cor. xv. 21-26. • Heb. ii. 9. Rev. xx. 14. the law, shall be judged by the law, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel."* One talent-his forgiving love, flowing through the atonement of Christ as a goodness leading men to repentance, is that for which God holds all men responsible, and according as it hath or has not led them to repentance, shall they be judged. Under the darkest heathenism with which man hath ever enveloped himself, the charge of God against his ungodliness is, "Despisest thou the riches of my goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance, but, after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." And in these last times, and this dispensation of the Spirit, the "scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming," are herein condemned of the Lord, in that they understand not that the "Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance; neither account that the long-suffering of our God is salvation." This one grace-one goodness, giving opportunity to return to God, revealed with different measures of light, in that God hath never left himself without a witness, is the fruit of the atonement made once for all, and therefore, saith the Apostle, "God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my Gospel." No doubt that is a far higher light, for which he is responsible, to whom it is preached that Christ is risen, and hath received the promise of the Father, and is soon coming for judgment, than that for which he is responsible, who, in his condition of rebellion, has God's forgiving love announced to him, and * Rom. ii. 11, 12, 16. Rom. ii. 4, 5. 2 Pet. iii. 9. God's call to repentance addressed to him by the rain from heaven, and the fruitful seasons; but of the least manifestation of that goodness which affords space for return to God, the atonement is the great channel, and the only explanation, consistent with the glory of the holiness and righteousness of God. And as to His right to judge, who is revealed as the judge, the universality of the atonement is taught by the statements of Scripture on this subject also; inasmuch as the bond which connects Christ with all mankind, is given as the reason why he is appointed judge of all. "For the Father judges no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. He hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.' In the 19th chapter of Luke, our Lord thus speaks of his going to receive a kingdom, "A certain nobleman went unto a far country to receive a kingdom to himself and to return." In Revelation 5th chap. we see him, as in the far country, receiving the kingdom, thus described, "And I looked, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb, as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne." We have thus his receiving the book of the inheritance, connected with his character as the Lamb that had been slain. And when he returns and calls for his enemies that they may be slain before him, we have his right over them declared, and the refusal to acknowledge his right, represented as the just ground of their judgment. We cannot thus see Christ reigning and judging as the Son of man, receiving the inheritance as the Lamb that had been slain, and at the same time punishing sin as rebellion against his rightful authority, * John v. 22, 27. without understanding that we are taught by these things, that he gave himself a ransom for all," and that, according as it is written, those who deny his Lordship over them, "Deny the Lord that bought them."* But the counsel of God revealed to us in his word, contains a farther discovery besides that of his present grace to men, and the judgment that awaits them; in that it carries us back from the contemplation of the distinction that holds among men, between those who receiving the grace of God in vain, are heirs of damnation, and have awaiting them the wrath to come; and those who, receiving the grace of God into believing hearts, are heirs of glory, and partakers in the kingdom that is to be revealed, to an electing purpose in God, which hath been accomplished in that work of the Father, whereby they have been made willing to receive the Son to reign in their hearts. Now, what the scriptures state on the subject of Election, distinctly teaches also the universal extent of the atonement. Thus it is written, "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ."+ By which words we are made to know that the thing to which the Elect are chosen, in respect of Christ, and by which they are marked and distinguished from the non-elect, is the obedience and sprinkling of His blood (which is the same with the purging the conscience from dead works, Heb. ix. 14), and not the having that blood shed for them. In like manner it is written, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son." Not to the having the blood of his Son shed for the remission of their sins, which is no where said to be distinctive of them; and which, had it been distinctive, we would have expected to find enu • 2 Pet. ii. 1. + 1 Pet. i. 2. Rom. viii. 29. |