TEXTS.

THESE then are some of the texts to be considered. They surely entitle us to the fullest benefit of the remark, that "such texts of Scripture as are in number much the fewer, and in phrase more obscure and allegorical, are, by a just interpretation, to be reconciled to these other opposite texts as are more in number, and more clear in phrase and signification, than à contra." The comments which I have quoted must be understood with such limitations as I have previously indicated.

Gen. iii. 15. "And 1 will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."1

Gen. xii. 3. "And in thy seed shall all families of the earth be blessed." See also Gen. xxii. 18, Gal. iii. 8, Acts iii. 25.2

Ps. ciii. 9. "He will not alway be chiding: neither keepeth He His anger for ever." See the Psalms passim, and Mic. vii. 18. "He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He delighteth in mercy."

1 "How could this be so, if Satan triumphed by gaining millions to be his slaves? In this case could it be said, as in Is. liii. 13, 'He shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied, for he shall bear their iniquities'?" Dr. Chauncey, The Mystery hid from all ages, or the Salvation of all Men.1784.

2 Yet Du Moulin (Reflections on the Number of the Elect, 1622) affirms that not one in a million from Adam downwards shall be saved.

Ps cxxxix. 8. "If I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there"

Lam. iii. 31-33.

"For the Lord will not cast off for ever: but

though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according

to the multitude of His mercies.

nor grieve the children of men.'

For He doth not afflict willingly

Isaiah lvii. 16. "For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before Me, and the souls which I have made." (Is. xii. 1, xxvi. 20, liv. 7, 8.)

Isaiah xlix. 9

"That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves." "There is no God else besides me-a just God and (See 22, 23.)

Is. xlv. 21. a Saviour."

Is. liii. II. satisfied." 3

Hos. vi. I

"He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be

"Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up." Hos. xiv. 4. "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for Mine anger is turned away from him."

Mic. vii. 18, 19.

"Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth

iniquity? . . . He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He de

'What Hell may be I know not: this I know,

I cannot lose the presence of the Lord:
One arm-Humility-takes hold upon
His dear humanity: the other, Love,
Clasps His divinity, so where I go

He goes; and better fire-walled hell with Him,
Than golden-gated Paradise without."

* Is. xxxiii. 14, and other passages sometimes quoted to prove endless torment, have not the very remotest connection with the subject. And the fact that in Mark ix. 44, 48, our Lord is borrowing the purely temporal language of Is. lxvi, 24, is, even alone, an argument of overwhelming force against the meaning which has been attached to his expressions.

3 Rusca's De Inferno (1621) "is dedicated with fearful simplicity to our Saviour." Milman, Latin Christianity, vi. 426.

lighteth in mercy. He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea."

John i. 29. "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the

sin of the world. '

John iii. 17. "God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved."1

John iii. 35. "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand." (C. 42, and 1 John iv. 14, "The Saviour of the Universe.") 2

John xii. 32. "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men (but leg. návra) unto me." See also Luke ix. 56, "For the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them."

Luke xii, 48. commit things stripes."

I John ii. 2.

"He that knew not his Lord's will and did worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few

"He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also περὶ ὅλου τοῦ κόσμου.”

Acts iii. 21. "Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things (ἀποκατασάσεως πάντων), which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began."

Eph. i. 10.

"That in the dispensation of the fulness of times

What affinity is there between these utterances and such a sentence as this from Calvin? "Unde factum est, ut tot gentes una cum liberis eorum infantibus aeternâ morte involveret lapsus Adae absque remedio, nisi quia Deo ita visum est? Decretum horribile fateor" (Instit. iii. 23, 7).

2 "The happiness of the blest rests, not on a word or syllable, but on their perfect union with God; we have no data whatever on which to ground the assertion that the eternity of evil is equally unlimited, absolute, and infinite." -REV. ARCHER GURNEY

He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth."1

Phil. ii. 10, II. "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth." 2

Col. I. 19, 20. "For it hath pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself (ἀποκαταλλάξαι τὰ πάντα εἰς αὑτὸν εἰρηνοποιήσας, κ. τ. λ.) ; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven." See also Rom. viii. 19, 24. "For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject unto vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we are saved by hope."

Rom. v. 15. "For if through the offence of one many (oi Toλλoí) be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many (TOÙS TOλλoús)”; and verse 17 and verse 18. "Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon

1 "Will any one contend that the Pauline conception would be satisfied by the endless existence of the majority of the human race in misery and sin? Has Christ subdued those who gnash their teeth at Him because He makes them suffer? Is this the working whereby He is able to subdue even all things unto Himself? Will God be all in all when vast multitudes of His creatures are in impotent but absolute rebellion against Him?"-Rev. J. LI.. DAVIES, Manifestation of the Sons of God, p. 358.

2

...

"Every number of destroyed sinners must through the all-working, all-redeeming love of God, which never ceaseth, come at last, to know that they had lost, and have found again such a God of Love as this."-WILLIAM LAW.

all men unto justification of life;" and verses 20, 21. "But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Tesus Christ our Lord."

Rom. xi. 32. "For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all." Rom. xiv. 9. "For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living.” I Cor. xv. 22. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive;" and verses 24-28. "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 all authority and power. For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For He hath put all things under His feet. But when He saith all things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted, which did put all things under Him. And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all (τὰ τάντα ἐν πᾶσιν).”

2

2 Cor. v. 19. "To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." 3

"If all things without exception shall be subjected to Christ, then death, the second death as well as the first death, will be finally swallowed up in victory." -DR. CHAUNCEY.

2" Ut sit Deus omnia in omnibus. Significatur hic novum quiddam sed idem summum et perenne, omnia (adeoque omnes), sine ullâ interpellatione, nullâ creaturâ obstantè, nullo hoste obturbante, erunt subordinata Filio, Filius Patri. Hoc Téλos est, hic finis, et apex. Ultra ne Apostolus quidem quo eat habet... Ab impiis in mundo habetur Deus pro nihilo, et apud sanctos multa obstant ne sit unus omnia apud ipsos, sed tum erit Omnia in Omnibus.”—BENGEL, Gnomon, p. 760.

3 "The sacrifice for sin was infinitely more potent for good, than sin for evil." -Rev E. S. FFOLKES.