3. There shall be a general judgment of soul and body at the end of the world, in which all unrenewed men shall be arraigned and condemned, before the judgment seat of Christ. Jude 14, 15. 2 Cor. v. 10. The hearing of this future day, made Felix, and should make other sinners tremble. The divine character requires such a day, because the dispensations of Providence lead men to question the justice of God; and were not a future reckoning to come, this attribute would suffer a total eclipse. The glory of Christ, moreover, requires this general judgment: for, because he was arraigned and condemned by men, he shall judge mankind. John

v. 27.

The time of this general judgment cannot be precisely ascertained; but we know it shall not take place, until Antichrist has been consumed, until the Jews have been restored to their own land; until all the tribes of Israel have been gathered into the Christian church; and until all the elect, for whose sake the world stands, shall have been effectually called.

Concerning the manner of this judgment, let it be remarked, that Christ shall come from the third heavens, to be seen in our atmosphere, before any of the dead arise; and his coming shall be with an admirable shout, as when a king cometh to triumph among his subjects, and over his enemies.

Then shall the voice of the Archangel, which is Jesus Christ himself, be heard from the clouds, saying audibly, Rise ye dead, and come to judgment.

Then as the trumpet sounded at the giving of the law, so shall it sound now, but much louder, when he comes to judge men for having violated that law.

Then shall the dead arise, and the living on the earth be changed. The bodies of them that have died in the Lord shall rise first, and at the same time the bodies of the liv

ing saints shall be translated, with them.

When Christ shall be seated on his throne, and the saints as justices on thrones at his right hand, then shall the still guilty sinners be brought forth from their graves, and from their residence on the face of the earth, and stand quaking before this glorious judge.

Ye that live in sin now, and yet feel secure, O consider, who shall be your judge. It is goodness itself; even Jesus Christ, who many times held out his compassions toward you. A child of God may say, yonder is my brother, friend, husband: but you must say, yonder is my enemy. He may say, yonder is he who shed his blood to save me : but you must say, yonder he comes whose heart I have pierced with my sins; whose blood I have despised. He may say, come, Lord Jesus, and cover us under thy wings; but you must then cry out, Oh! rocks, rocks, fall on me, and hide me from the face of the Lamb.

Consider, that he shall come in flaming fire, in the glory of his Father, taking vengeance on them that know not God.

Reflect, that then, thy secret sins, thy self-pollution, thy speculative wantonness, as well as thy public offences shall all be disclosed. Think not that the judgment day will soon be over. No, no: it must take up some large portion of time, that all the universe may see all the sins of wicked men: and possibly this day of Christ's kingly office may be as long as the one in which he is governing the world, by his providence.

4. After the general judgment shall have separated all the righteous from the wicked, then the fearful sentence shall be passed upon all the latter collectively: Depart, accursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

5. When the judgment day has closed, then the fearful wrath of God shall be poured out, and piled

upon their bodies and souls, and the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, shall kindle it: and here thou shalt lie burning, and none shall quench it. They shall be banished from God; shall be the subjects of his fiery indignation for ever; shall be tortured by their own memory and conscience; shall become the companions of devils; shall be filled with despair; and shall be the subjects of the most painful emotions through all eternity. In the anguish of their feelings, they will vomit blasphemies in the face of God, and curse God, that never elected them; and the Lord Jesus, that never shed one drop of blood to redeem them; and the Holy Ghost, that passed by without effectually calling them.

This is the misery of every natural man. Oh! labour to be humbled, day and night, in this woful estate; and if thou dost not obtain an interest in Christ, then farewell God, Christ, and mercy forever. Had Christ shed seas of blood, there would not be one drop of it for thee, until thou comest to see, and feel, and groan under this miserable estate of thy fallen nature.

(To be continued.)

ON THE DURATION OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT.

(Continued from page 125.)

In examining the supposed scriptural objections to a particular redemption, it would be unreasonable to expect much novelty. It would be difficult to find any raw material entirely new. Sometimes new arrangements, different combinations of light and shade, may so affect the appearance, and even the real worth of the article, as to make it more marketable, and consequently extend the range of its circulation. We make no pretensions even to this humble merit. instrumental in exhibiting truththe truth of the word of God, in a simple and unsophisticated dress;

To be

to help to stem the torrent of error and delusion, is our most earnest wish, whether the arguments be new or old. Both the heresy we combat, and its refutation, have excited the attention of the days of other years. When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord animates his followers to lift up a standard against him. In the discharge of this duty, the continuance of the contest must be commensurate with the duration of the torrent of hostility. War must be carried on with Amalek from generation to generation.

At this late period of the contest, little new, on either side, can be expected. We despise that affectation of originality, which refuses to avail itself of the inventions and improvements of predecessors. Was the sword of Goliah one whit the worse, that it had cut off the head of a blaspheming gigantic Philistine? On the contrary, David says respecting it, "There is none like it; give it to me." Are the arguments of Luther and Calvin, or any of the other reformation sages, any thing deteriorated, by having been used successfully by them, against the antichristrian hierarchy? Does the solution of a difficulty, or the detection of a sophism, lose of its interest or any force, because it has been used by the venerable Edwards, when contending valiantly for the faith once delivered to the saints? Nay, though we would not rest a single item of the subject at issue on the mere authority of names,

"Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri,"

yet we confess, we cannot help viewing an argument, as ennobled and more venerable, which has been used by that philosophical Calvinist and redoubtable champion of sacred truth. We here give notice, that on his lucubrations we shall, occasionally, make liberal drafts; and shall never prefer a raw re

cruit, however fascinating his exterior, to the sunburnt veteran; and that too, for the very thing which should recommend him, namely, because he has seen some service, and has frequently triumphed over the haughty foe. On the contrary, these very circumstances are, in our view, recommendatory.

In the discussion of this subject, much stress has been laid on some general expressions, which are occasionally found in scripture; such as, for instance, all, every, all men, every man, the world, the whole world, &c. These expressions, it will be admitted, when taken detachedly and independently of their local connexion and modification by the context, are somewhat imposing; particularly in relation to a doctrine, apparently so philanthropic, and so flattering to the native depravity and accumulated guilt of rebel man.

There can be nothing more easy than to show, that the extent of the meaning of those expressions must always be determined by the connexion in which they are found; and that they must necessarily be regulated and modified by the radical principles and general analogy of the system of redemption. That all often means no more than a generality, and sometimes but only an inconsiderable number, is abundantly evident from scripture phraseology. The annunciation of the nativity of our Lord by the heavenly messenger, furnishes a striking evidence of this. Luke ii. 10. "Be

hold I bring you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." Was this true in an absolutely strict and universal sense of the term? Certainly not. Surely not to all, and every individual of the whole world, for many millions never heard of it. But it did not furnish great joy, even to all the Jews who did hear of it. Did Herod, or the Scribes and Pharisees, rejoice at it? Nay, on the contrary, we are informed, that "when HeVOL. I.

rod had heard the report of the wise men, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him." Matt. ii. 3. How comparatively limited, in this instance, must this universal term be! In like manner we might quote Mark i. 37, "All men seek thee;" and v. 20, “All men did marvel;" and xi. 32, “All men counted John as a prophet;" John iii. 16, "The same baptizeth, and all men come unto him;" Acts iv. 21, "All men glorified God, for what was done." In all these quotations, and numberless others which might be adduced, it requires no great stock of sagacity to discover the very li mited sense in which they are used, and that their extent is regulated and determined entirely by the circumstances and connexion in which they are found. By these circumstances, therefore, and connexions, and by the nature of the subject under discussion, and not by the detached universality of a term or phrase, we shall be guided in our investigation of this subject. But as the definite application and meaning of such expressions will be best ascertained by a reference to the texts where they are used in the sacred writings, we shall examine in succession the most striking of those passages or texts, which have been by our opponents generally adduced on this subject. To save time and useless repeti-. tion, we shall classify them in such manner, as their common qualities and general bearings on the subject under consideration, may indicate. According to this method, the exa

mination of two or three of the most prominent texts will supersede the necessity of farther analysis of any texts belonging to the same class. And,

1. Such as by the universality of the terms in which the mediatory interposition is frequently expressed in scripture, may seem to favour universal redemption.

Of such passages we have an example in Isa. liii. 6. "The Lord

2 C

hath laid on Him the iniquities of us all." In this text there are three different parties mentioned; namely, the LORD, HIM, and us all. That the first of these is JEHOVAH, the second MESSIAH, all are agreed. The only ground of controversy is about the extent of the meaning of the words us all. Does this expression mean every individual of the whole human race, or only a particular number? This, and this alone, is the point at issue. We maintain that the LORD did lay on Jesus the iniquity of all the elect-of all the Israel of God. The supposed proof of alleged universality contained in these words, we might consider as completely neutralized by the positive proof of the particularity of redemption, previously established. But however relevant this mode of refutation might be, we shall not avail ourselves of it; but shall examine and compare this, and the other texts which may be adduced, both with the context, and, when necessary, with the general analogy of faith. We put the question, then, Who are the persons designated by the general expression us all?

In the first place, they were professors of religion; they belonged to the commonwealth of Israel. Secondly, they were confessing penitents: " All we like lost sheep have gone astray, we have turned every man to his own way," is their humble confession to God. In the third place, they are such as are "healed by his stripes," as is plain from the context. Fourthly, they are such as had an interest in the vicarious atonement. Their language is "He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, chastised for our peace." In a word, they were neither strangers nor aliens, but of the household of faith. But will it follow, that because Jesus bare the iniquities of all such as are described above, that therefore the LORD laid on him the iniquities of all the human race? Should a citizen of the United States, either

orally or by written circular, thus address the people: Our Washington, by incredible perils and unremitting perseverance, under the benign auspices of the God of battles, achieved our independence, rescued us from the grasp of tyranny, and secured for us all invaluable rights and privileges-would it follow that every resident alien, although the bitterest enemy, was included in this general expression? Certainly not. Such a conclusion would be utterly repugnant to every bearing of the matter, the manner, and the design of the address. This would be, most illogically, drawing a general conclusion from particular premises. Because God has laid on Jesus the iniquities of persons of a particular character, therefore he hath laid upon him the iniquities of all the human race, even those who shall continue to reject his righteousness and despise his goodness. And in short, because all real penitents shall be healed, ergo, the most impenitent and ungodly shall also be healed! Wretched the argument which leads to such results!

Another passage of scripture is adduced from 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. “For the love of Christ constraineth us, judging this, that if one died for all, then were all dead. And that he died for all, that they that live, should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him that died for them and rose again." Whoever shall take the pains, carefully to consult the context, will find, that the apostle here apologizes, by very competent reasons, for his attachment to the Gentiles of the Corinthian church, for which he was censured by the Jewish zealots, v. 12-16. A great proportion of the church at Corinth, were Gentiles, and, as such, obnoxious to the bigots of the circumcision. Paul, as the great apostle to the Gentiles, defends himself and magnifies his ministry, by demonstrating that they also were heirs to the same

gospel privileges; that the sacred flame of the love of Christ constrained him to preach the gospel as well to the Gentiles as to the Jews. That he did this, under the conviction of a sound judgment, that if the only mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, died for all sorts of men, whether they be Jews or Gentiles; then it will plainly follow, that the Jew and the Gentile were, by nature, equally children of wrath, and dead in trespasses and sins; so that the former can have no better claim, than the latter, to gospel privileges.

Often we find the word all taken in this distributive sense, and in such circumstances as necessarily preclude its extension to every individual. Rom. xiv. 2. "One believes he may eat all things." Surely this cannot be understood universally of every individual! Again, (2 Kings viii. 9.) Hazael is said to have presented to Elisha "every good thing;" which can obviously bear none other than a distributive application, and even that in a modified and comparatively limited sense. But it ought not to be overlooked, that there is no substantive expressed with the word all, in the passage under consideration. It is not even said for all men.

We are

therefore at liberty to supply such a substantive, as the bearing and sense of the context and general analogy of faith may warrant. It might be all believers-all the elect

-all the sons and daughters, whom he brings to glory. Neither would there be any inconsistency in supplying the expression, the sheep, of his fold; particularly, as our Lord himself had declared, "I lay down my life (I die) for the sheep.” These sheep were not confined to the Jewish nation. "Other sheep have I," said our Lord," which are not of this fold." These also must be brought in. In Christ Jesus, there are no distinctions. Agreeably hereto, the apostle in preaching the gospel, disavows all regard to

pedigree or national privileges. Wherefore in the sixteenth verse he says, Henceforth know we no man after the flesh." Jew and Gentile; circumcision and uncircumcision; all nations, kindred and tongues; all ranks and conditions of men, are equally embraced by the benign and philanthropic system of gospel grace.

Another text, which has been rather unhappily pressed into the service of universalism, is the latter part of the 11th of the 4th chapter of the first epistle to Timothy: "God, who is the saviour of all men, but especially of those that believe.” The words themselves contain their limitation, and designate the particularity of redemption-"especially of those that believe." God is the saviour of all men, inasmuch as his providence is universal, and his kingdom ruleth over all. We will freely admit, that this providential salvation extendeth much farther, than the phraseology of this text would necessarily carry it. Ps. xxxvi. 6. "5 Lord, thou preservest man and beast."

One other text, involving also a general term, shall close the examination of the first class. 1st John, ii. 2. "And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world." After we shall have examined this text, we believe that all others marked with the same or similar characters of universality, will, by the same rule and manner of interpretation, become sufficiently obvious.

The term world has a variety of meanings in scripture. Sometimes it signifies the universe. John i. 10. "The world was made by him." It sometimes signifies metonymically the whole human race. Rom. v. 12.