in still more striking contrast for the act of transgression was but one, and yet death, with all the calamities connected with it, passed upon the whole human race; while the act of obedience provides justification for many offences: nor is this all; for the blessings procured for mankind by the obedience of Christ are unspeakably greater than the calamities brought upon them by the offence of Adam.

This is undoubtedly the argument of the apostle. Notwithstanding all the obscurity and perplexity of his language, whoever reads the passage with attention, must perceive that these are the ideas which were in his mind. And in the whole compass of Christian truth, there is no doctrine more important or more glorious than that which is thus disclosed. It is a direct and positive declaration, that the blessings provided by the obedience of Christ shall, in the number of persons who partake of them, be co-extensive with the calamities produced by the offence of Adam, and in their magnitude and value shall greatly exceed them. This is sufficient; this is decisive; these ideas were in the mind of the apostle; this is the doctrine which he plainly and indisputably teaches, and nothing more is necessary. For, even though it should be proved that he illustrates his doctrine by a fanciful allusion to what was itself only an allegory; that his reasoning is not in every respect complete,

and even that he did not himself fully comprehend all the glorious consequences of the sublime truth he disclosed, that truth would be neither the less important nor the less certain. The great fact itself, the fact which it was his object and his office to teach, and in which he could not be mistaken, was, that the blessings produced by the obedience of Christ shall be as extensive as the evils occasioned by the offence of Adam; that all who suffer from the one shall partake of the benefits of the other, while these benefits themselves shall infinitely exceed and overbalance the calamities entailed upon mankind by the first transgression. The conclusion is inevitable, that the whole human race without exception, shall ultimately be restored to virtue and happiness. By one passage of Scripture then, at least, the doctrine which it is the object of this work to establish, is positively and expressly affirmed; and this is decisive.

But this passage is of great importance in another view. It may be justly considered as confirming, in no inconsiderable degree, the interpretation which has been suggested of the pas sages in Ephesians and Colossians: for in this passage it cannot be doubted, that, while it is the object of the apostle's reasoning to show that all mankind, whether Jews or Gentiles, are alike participators of the Divine favor, and included in the gospel-dispensation, it likewise follows,

from his argument, that it is equally the intention of the benevolent Author of this dispensation, to bestow immortality upon the whole human race, and to advance them to a state of pure and perfect virtue and happiness.

Iomit 1 Timothy iv. 10, ii. 8, 4; 1 John ii, 2; Philippians ii. 9-11; Hebrews ii. 8; which were formerly adduced as proofs that all mankind will ultimately be placed in a state of virtue and happiness. All these passages, indeed, seem perfectly to harmonize with this opinion, but some of them I now think too obscure to be alleged in proof of any controverted doctrine; and all of them, it is probable, relate to a different subject than that of the future condition of mankind.

There is, however, another passage, which still appears to me expressly to the point, and decisive of it; namely, 1 Corinthians xv. 21-29 "For since by man came death, by man also cometh the resurrection of the dead. For as through Adam all die, so likewise through Christ all will be made alive. But every one in his own order: Christ the first-fruits; afterwards those that are Christ's at his appearance. Then will be the end, when Christ shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father 3 when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power: for he must reign till he have put all enemies under his feet. The last

But

enemy shall be destroyed, even death. For he hath subjected all things under his feet.' when it is said, All things are subjected,' it is manifest that He is excepted who subjected all things to him. And when all things shall be subjected to him, then the Son himself also will be subjected to Him who subjected all things to him, that God may be all be all among all." Although it may be difficult to ascertain the exact meaning of certain parts of this passage, yet, it appears to me to contain a clear and po sitive annunciation of the sublime and glorious truth, that the consummation of the Divine dispensations will be the extinction of death and sin and misery, and the universal and eternal prevalence of immortality, virtue, and happi"For since by man came death, by man

ness.

For

also cometh the resurrection of the dead. as through Adam all die, so likewise through Christ all will be made alive." "It is evident,' as Mr. Belsham observes, "that the apostle here assumes, as the foundation of his analogy, the account of the fall of man, as recorded in the book of Genesis, and argues upon it as literally true; that, according to this account, all the posterity of Adam, the whole human race without exception, were victims to mortality, in conse

1

: See Belsham on the Epistles of Paul, in loc.

quence of the fall of their first parents in Paradise that, according to the same account, as all were sufferers through him, so all shall be raised to life, and restored to that state of dignity and happiness from which Adam unhappily fell; · that thus Christ shall amply repair the ruins of the Fall; and the second Adam completely efface the dishonor and misery entailed by the first."

Mr. Belsham, in his excellent commentary on this passage, further remarks,* that "it is very plain that the resurruction of which the apostle treats in this celebrated chapter, is the resurrection, not of a chosen few, of a select number, whether greater or less, but that of the whole human race. The apostle's language is so clear and full, with respect to the final happiness of those who are thus raised, and that their resurrection to life will be ultimately a blessing, that the generality of Christians have supposed that he is here treating of the resurrection of the vir tuous only. But this is not the fact; he evidently speaks of the restoration of the whole human race,-All who die by Adam, shall be raised by Christ otherwise the apostle's assertion would be untrue. The case, then, would have been this, As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall

*See Belsham on the Epistles of Paul, in loc.