L I B R A^ R Y OF TIIK Theological Seminary, PRINCETON, N. J. ( BL 23 5 D9 2 Dunn, Henry, 1800-1878. >^ The destiny of the human r race THE DESTINY OF THE HUMAN EACE. "As it is owned, the whole scheme of Scripture is not yet understood : so, if it ever comes to be understood before the restitution of all things, and without miraculous interpositions, it must be in the same way as natural knowledge is come at — by the continuance and progress of learning and liberty ; and by particular persons attending to, comparing, and pursuing intimations scattered up and down it, which are overlooked and disregarded by the generality of the world. For this is the way in which all improvements are made ; by thoughtful men's tracing on obscure hints — as it were dropped by nature acci- dentallj% or which seem to come into our minds by chance. Nor is it at all incredible that a book, which has been so long in the possession of mankind, should contain many truths as yet undiscovered." — Butler s Analogy, p. a, c. iii. "Correct not my writings out of your own opinion, or out of contention ; but from reading of the Divine Word, or by unshaken argument. Should you lay hold of anything in them that is true,— in being so it is not mine ; but by the understanding and the love of it, let it be both yours and mine. Should you, however, detect anything that is false, — in the error, it may have been mine; but henceforth, by guarding against it, let it be neither mine nor yours."— A ugtistine. " The times have changed. • • • At this moment we may be quite sure that no scheme of religious belief will be able to hold its footing abroad in the world, or beyond the walls of closets and saloons, which does not, in some intel- ligible and coherent manner, make provision for securing our peace of mind in regard to the present lot, and to the prospects of the human family."— /jaac Taylor. THE DESTINY OF THE HUMAN RACE A SCRIPTURAL INQUIRY. By henry DUNN. A NEW AND REVISED EDITION. " Even now, after eighteen centuries of Christianitj-, we maybe involved in some tremendous error, of which the Christianity of the future will make us asb.amed."— F/w^i*, LONDON : SIAIPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO., stationers' hall court. LONDON : 'RlNTEn BY J. AND ">V. RIDER, BARTHOLOMEW CLOSE. AD VER TISEMENT. The present work first appeared about nine years ago. It has long been out of print, and many requests have been made for its re-publication. It is now, after careful revision and some abridgment, offered at half the original price. The portions that have been withdrawn will not, it is hoped, essentially lessen the value of the book, while its reduction in cost may be expected to widen the circle of its readers. The first chapter fully explains the object and character of the publication. Blackheath, January i, 1872. CONTENTS. PART I. Chap I.— THE OBJECT OF THE WORK: — Not to uphold Universalism . Not to deny an Elect Church . Regards the Race considered as a whole The question — Whither do they go ? The inquiry neither unpractical nor dangerous The Apostle John and the closed book . A virtuous heathen and a modern Christian The existence of evil not the great mystery God yearns for human affection Satan's lie involves God's truth The one great and awful question . Bishop Butler on truths yet undiscovered Revealed facts of the Bible The authority of the Church The teaching of St. Paul Christ promoted doubt . Faith not childish . The duty of private judgment Acceptance of a doctrine not faith in it Why men prefer half-convictions Investigation not inexpedient . God has provided for all difficulties PAGE 3 3 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 9 9 I T 12 13 14 14 15 17 18 19 20 Vlll CONTENTS. Chap. IL— MAN A SINNER AND A SUFFERER The message of the Gospel remedial Sin a great Educator Also like night, a great Revealer . The cost of the education terrific . Evil not independent of God . Chap. III.— THE REDEEiMER OF HUMANITY :— The hopes of Ancient Seers . Universal aspect of Redemption Individual aspect of it . The privileged must be the perfected Higher mysteries for believers PAGE 22 22 24 25 26 27 27 28 28 Chap. IV.— THE WORLD OF PROBATION :— The language of Moses to the Israelites . . 30 Bishop Butler on the analogy of probation to early education and discij^line . . -31 Dr. Harris to John Foster on Probation . . 33 The pulpit, the platform, and the closet . . 33 The ' whispers ' of Divine Revelation . . 35 PART II. Chap. I.— SIN FROM THE CHRISTIAN STANDPOINT:— Wrong-doing the habit and the joy of man The Saviour comes to alter this The Usurper dethroned . Proofs of this fact . Few love evil for its own sake The extent of Christ's redemption 40 41 42 43 45 46 CONTENTS. Logical difficulties .... Dr. Archer Butler on liability to error The potter and the clay . Chap. II.— THE WRATH OF GOD :— An expression of Divine indignation Illustrations from the Old Testament Different degrees of Wrath Illustrations from the Prophets Misuse of Prophetic language Outside nations not without God John the Baptist's call to the Jews Alford, Gill, and others on ' the Wrath to come St. Paul's use of the word ' wrath ' in Romans His approach to Universalism * Vessels of Wrath,' meaning of the phrase Interpretation of Doddridge and others * The Children of Disobedience ' The ' Wrath of the Lamb ' The ^ Greater Damnation ' The basis of the Evangelical Theology Inferential conclusions . Chap. III.— REVELATIONS REGARDING HELL : Hell and Future Punishment . Sheol, or the grave, translated Hell Hades often mistaken for Gehenna . St. Peter on Tartarus, or * the deep' Meaning of the word Gehenna Illustrations from Scripture and the Talmud The ' Lake of Fire ' — what it signifies The ' furnace of fire ' . . . . The ' second death ' . . . . PAGE 47 48 49 X CONTENTS. PAGE The ' mist of darkness ' 72 Different significations of the word 'Perish ' . 73 Destruction not necessarily Eternal death . 74 Hell admits of no degrees . . . -75 * These shall go away into Eternal Punishment' 76 Meaning of the text — the sifting of the heathen 77 The parable of Dives and Lazarus . . .80 Hades a place of punishment to the wicked . 81 Stuart on 'perishing' and the ' second death' . 86 Will any be ultimately annihilated ? . .86 Bishop Pearson on Eternal torment . .86 God never sanctions torture . . . • S7 Statements of President Edwards and others . 9 1 Chap. IV.— THE UNCONVERTED MAN :— Are all such 'vessels of wrath'? Grounds for the conclusion . Dr. Chalmers on the virtuous and the vicious Future retribution discriminating . Dr. Owen on limitations in the word ' all ' Reconciliation depends on the Reconciler Dean Alford on remission of ' sins that are past Redemption may involve a future probation The Son and the hired Servant The peculiar position of the believer The element of fear in Scripture 93 94 95 96 99 lOI lOI 102 103 105 106 Chap. V.— THE DOCTRINE OF THE ATONEMENT :— The Atonement a great fact . . . .109 Mr. Hebert on the infcre7Ke from the fact . no The Old Testament on the coming of Messiah 1 1 1 The narrative in the Gospels . . . .112 The teaching of Christ 113 CONTENTS. xi PAGE Coleridge on the twenty-second Psalm — a note 114 Christ ' stricken ' but not punished by God .115 Necessity for the death of the Redeemer. . 116 False views on this subject . . . • 117 Dean Alford on Propitiation . . . .118 Counterpart and contrast to Mosaic sacrifice . 118 Dr. Candhsh on the extent of the Atonement . 119 Chap. VI.-CONVERSION AND REGENERATION :— Meaning of the term ' Conversion ' . . .120 Regeneration imphes a new Birth . . .121 Further distinctions between the two . .122 Cecil on preaching to dead sinners . , .123 Dr. Griffin (of Boston,) on the same topic . 123 The inexorable demands of Logic in Theology 125 Where the difficulty arises . . . .126 Conversion regarded as apart from Regeneration 1 2 7 Chap. VII.— THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW BIRTH : - The word ' Regeneration ' explained . .131 The doctrine not peculiar to the New Testament 1 3 2 The conversation with Nicodemus . Two distinct suppositions The Regenerate are the Elect The ' little flock ' and the saved world . Chap. VHI.-THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT Regarded as Power and as Life Illustrations from Scripture Bezaleel, Cyrus, Balaam, and Judas The mission of ' the Comforter ' The world and the Church 133 134 137 139 142 142 143 145 148 xii CONTENTS. PAGE Various forms of error regarding the Spirit . 149 The view of the Fathers 149 That of the Reformers 150 Modern delusions 151 Chap. IX.— REVELATIONS REGARDING HEAVEN Its diverse meanings in the Bible . To be distinguished from the invisible world The Rich man in Hell .... Hades may be a probationary state . -157 Not to be confounded with ' Purgatory ' . .158 The visions of the Apocalypse . . -158 The beHever in ' the Heavenlies ' . . -159 Bishop Newton on ' the pattern ' on the Mount 159 Isaac Taylor on the state of seclusion . .160 The immediate happiness of the saint , .161 The Father's house and ' many mansions ' .161 Testimony of Scripture in relation to Heaven . 163 The Elect Church, — the Bride . . .164 The perpetual humanity of man . . .164 Dr. Chalmers on the renewed earth. . .167 Isaac Taylor on the Employments of the Future 168 The New Jerusalem 170 PART III. CHA.P. I.— SIGNIFICATIONS OF 'SALVATION':— Three distinct senses in Scripture . Never means mere deliverance from Hell The Jews on Future punishment Who were by them regarded as ' the wicked' Belief in the final salvation of Israel Salvation commonly from ' Sin ' 154 156 156 175 177 177 178 180 i8r CONTENTS. xiu PAGE Sometimes from ' wrath,' — St. Paul. . .181 Represented as a thing of degree . . .183 Illustrations from Scripture . . . .185 A present blessing, yet ' an inheritance ' . .186 Chap. II.— GREATER AND LESSER SALVATION :- Why this distinction so distasteful to many . 187 The entire question one of Divine testimony . 188 All salvation is ' of grace ' . . . .189 The higher only by personal faith exercised here 1 90 Degrees of happiness in the world to come . 191 The parable of the ten virgins. . . . i93 The man who is taken captive . . -193 The destruction of ' the power of death ' . .194 The blessing of Abraham .... 195 Faith exercised in other states of existence . 196 Rationahzing yet evangelical divines . .196 Forgiveness may be retracted . . . -199 The mocking shadows of the True . . . 200 Chap. III.— SALVATION OF THE MULTITUDE : — The multitudes of Judea . . . .201 Christ's dealings with them .... 202 Facts not to be over-ridden by inferences . 202 The necessities of systematic Theology . . 203 The agency of the Elect Church . . . 205 The salvation of infants and of idiots . . 206 Dean Alford on 'by faith' and ' through faith ' 207 ' Bastards and not sons ' 208 ' As many as be perfect ' . . . • 209 Chap. IV.— ELECTION TO SPECIAL SERVICE :— Divine choice implied from the beginning . 213 Service the purpose of the choice . . -213 XIV CONTENTS. Election a doctrine in the New Testament Its characteristics in Scripture Ahvays mercy grafted on mercy Its individual character . ' The Covenant with Abraham . The Jews the elite of the world as it then was The last election under the Gospel St. Paul's teaching regarding it Consists of the most Christ-like souls Does not exclude or prejudice others Exposition of texts .... Chap. V.— THE GOSPEL PREACHED BY PAUL:— This dispensation hidden from the Prophets . Special revelation to St. Paul . The mystery hitherto kept secret . His anxiety not for the Heathen Characteristics of the last days '■ According to my Gospel ' The Resurrection and the new Moral World Dr. Arnold and Dean Stanley on the Future The ' times of Restitution of all things PAGE 214 215 215 216 2 16 217 219 219 221 222 225 228 229 230 231 232 233 235 235 237 PART IV. Chap. L-THE RESURRECTION A REVEALED FACT :— First notice of it in the New Testament . . 243 The complement of the earthly life . . . 244 Supposes a return to a sensuous existence . 245 Prebendary Griffith on the Apostles' Creed . 245 The body the medium of communication. . 246 The Sadducean spirit, ancient and modern . 247 Exposition of texts 248 CONTENTS. XV PACK St. Paul before the Council, Felix and Agrippa 252 ' With what body do they come "? . . -253 The Egyptian ' Book of the Dead ' . . .254 Chap. II.— THE RESULTS OF RESURRECTION :— The announcement to the Shepherds . -256 Notice of three texts in particular . . -257 Joseph John Gurney on ' the light in every man ' 258 St. Paul before Festus 260 Illustrated by Moses and the Prophets . .260 Three passages in the Epistle to the Romans . 262 Dean Alford and Professor Hodge . . .264 Man thinking himself wiser than God . . 265 Isaac Taylor on interpretations of Scripture . 266 Robert Haldane on 'the Sons of God' . . 266 Views of Scott, Hodge, and Adam Clarke . 267 St. Paul's testimony in the Epistles . . .268 The destruction of the works of the Devil . 270 Stuart, Guyse, Owen, and Gill. . . .271 Mr. Birks on ' the First-Born ' . . . .272 The 'Salvation to be revealed in the last time' 273 ' Things hard to be understood ' . . -275 The testimony of Ezekiel and Isaiah . .276 Chap. III.— THE KINGDOM OF GOD :— Various significations of the term . . .278 Both subjective and objective . . . . 27S An inheritance in reversion . . . -279 The expectations of the Disciples . . .280 A synonym for ' Eternal Life ' . . . .281 In mystery and in manifestation . . -283 The testimony of the Gospels . . . . 284 Those who are to enter the Kingdom . . 284 Forms of its realization . . . . -285 xvi CONTENTS. PAGE Exposition of /tv/ passages in the Gospels . 286 Testimony of the Acts and the Epistles . . 296 Exposition of obedience to a more convenient season. But if, after long and anxious investigation, he has arrived at the con- clusion that what he professes to have received as Divine is absolutely and eternally true, he has no choice between submission and misery ; for if truth, thus received, be not a sovereign good to man, its possession must be a source of constant wretchedness. OBJECT OF THE WORK. 19 In our own day, Christian men shrink from independent investigation, chiefly because they think it inexpedient. Certain forms of thought, right or wrong, have, it is said, for generations been regarded as 'worthy of all acceptation ;' under these forms men have received spiritual blessings of the highest value ; in the belief of them they have lived well, and died happily. Why unsettle such landmarks ? The only answer that can be made to such a remonstrance is this : The forms of thought, of which you speak, are either true or false. If true, inquiry will only strengthen their hold on men, and lead to their being still more generally supported and honoured. But if, from whatever cause, the suspicion has arisen that they are, after all, only partially true, — that they are, at the best, only one- sided exhibitions of truth, that they involve fal- lacies, or that they produce exaggerated, and therefore inaccurate impressions, they must on no account be shielded from examination ; for what- ever may be the supposed value of any form of thought, if it involve important error, the support of it, or, which is the same thing, the determination not to undeceive those who hold it, is, in the eye of God, an immoral procedure. The exercise of integrity in this matter may be a sore trial to faith, but we may rely upon it, obedience will, in the end, bring with it its own ' exceeding great reward.' 20 INTR OD UCTOR Y. The truth is, all the diffiadties and dangers that attend 7ipon the exeixise of private judgment are specially provided for by Him zvho has tJiroivn upon us the responsibility of its exercise. Not, indeed, as some would tell us, by the resi- dence upon earth either of an Individual or a Corporation, who, as Christ's Vicar, can solve all difficulties, and prove an infallible guide ; not, indeed, by the bodily presence of Christ himself as an abiding court of appeal ; but by what is far better, the presence and guidance of His Holy Spirit in the hearts of all those who desire Him. And for what end is He thus willing to abide amongst us ? To strengthen the natural powers, — to illuminate the intellect, — to place the sage and the simpleton on the same platform, — to do in reality what the Roman Pontiff only pretends to do, — to solve all doubts, to make us infallible in our decisions, to render it impossible that we should go wrong in our pursuit after truth ? CERTAINLY NOT. Such a gift would in no important sense differ from inspiration, and if imparted generally, would as completely destroy the character of our pro- bation as that indolent reliance on human authority of which we complain. The only difference would be, that, in the one case, infallibility would be a reality, in the other it is a delusion. Far otherwise is the intent and end of God's OBJECT OF THE WORK. 21 great gift ; for it annihilates no distinctions, it supersedes no effort, it counteracts no weakness that is merely intellectual. It is, from first to last, an action on the heart. Under its blessed influence pride departs, prejudice gives way, and selfish passions, in all their endless variety, are weakened and subdued. But it does no more. It leaves us still to search after evidence, to balance proba- bilities, to be misled if we permit the old enemy to becloud our faculties. For the rest, God has adapted the human intellect to truth, just as surely as He has adapted the eye to outward nature ; and, in either case, we see truly, only in proportion as, by His mighty power, films are removed, and the organ of vision is purged and purified from im- iiatural defilejuent. 22 T CHAPTER II. MAN A SINNER AND A SUFFERER. HE FALL OF MAN is the one great fact on which all the further revelations of the Bible hang. Not to man as man, but to man as a sinner, — as fallen, depraved, alienated by wicked works, and in captivity to Satan, — is the word of the living God addressed. The message it delivers is, from first to last, RE- MEDIAL ; it is a message of grace, — the announce- ment of a provision for the restoration of the lost. Into tJie origin of evil it is vain for us to inquire. All we know on this point is, that it existed before the creation of man. Of its ill effects experience is but too constantly our teacher. Its bitterness no human pen can describe. The end it is intended to subserve — for without an object and purpose its permission is inconceiv- able — may, more or less, be learned from the pages of Holy Scripture. It is, under God, THE GREAT EDUCATOR of the human family. It is the INSTRUMENT by which man learns how frail, how helpless, how dependent he is. SINNING AND SUFFERING. 23 Therefore it was that our first parents were introduced into a world where evil existed. This fact alone is surely evidence enough that not for tinconditional happiness, but for a relative one, more or less connected with moral trial, man was created ; that it was as much foreordained that *the first man, Adam,' should struggle with evil, as that by 'the second man, the Lord from heaven,' it should be destroyed and made of none effect. Sin, like night, is a great REVEALER. Through it man advances to a more intimate acquaintance with the character of God than, so far as we knoiv, he could gain in any other way. Without its agency it is hard to see how he could ever be enabled voluntarily to choose God as his portion, and goodness as his chief joy ; could ever be fitted to rise higher than the angels ; or, as we have already intimated, here attain to that peculiar affection for his Maker which so strangely, and yet so lovingly, intermingles awe and filial confidence, shame and exultation, abasement and hope. This kind of love, unknown, probably, to other beings, is the fruit of sin and sanctification, of guilt and pardon, of the loss and the recovery of the Divine favour. And thus it comes to pass, as Luther well puts it, that 'prayer and temptation make the Christian.' But what a costly educator sin is ! The humi- 24 SINNING AND SUFFERING. liatlon of the Glorified, — the suffering of the Sinless One, — is, in itself, a dreadful price to pay for its removal. Yet even this is not all ; for there are those (God only knows how many) who by it are ruined fo?^ ever. In no aspect whatever is it possible to contemplate the wickedness, the cruelty, the crime to which sin has given birth, — the sickness, the sorrow, the pain and misery which have followed in its train, — without feel- ing that it is indeed a stern teacher and a hard master. One thought only is permissible. Evil is subject to, not independent of God. In no sense what- ever can sin reverse the decisions or disturb the equanimity of the Lord of all. Anger, wrath, and jealousy, as connected with sin and sinning, are indeed attributed to God in Scripture, as well as love and grief, long-suffering and repent- ing. But these are only translations into human speech of things that cannot be conceived of by us except under a phraseology adapted to finite beings. Confidently may we assume that the Fall can never permanently derange the purposes of God ; that the ultimate design He had in view in the creation of man, whatever that might be, will be eventually carried out ; that Satan can do nothing which, if it should seem good, God cannot utterly undo ; that, under any circumstances, the SINNING AND SUFFERING. 25 Divine intentions, however accomplished, will finally be brought about with the least possible amount of loss consistent with the honour of the Creator and the welfare of the creature. More than this we do not know ; less than this it is impossible to believe, without something like an implied reflection on the wisdom and goodness of the Father of us all 26 CHAPTER III. CHRIST THE REDEEMER OF HUMANITY. THE promise involved in the mystic prophecy that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head, in due time found its fulfilment in the birth of the Redeemer. Ancient seers had long anticipated the advent of this Deliverer, in language glowing with expec- tation and delight. His coming is to them the res- toration of the Paradise that was lost. ' They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks : nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more ' (Isa. ii. 4). * The government shall be upon his shoulder : and his name shall be called Won- derful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The ever- lasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end.' ' Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid ; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together ; and a little child shall lead them. They shall not THE REDEEMER OF HUMANITY. 27 hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain : for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea ' (Isa. xi. 5 — 9). The angels announce His birth to the shepherds as 'good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people! Heaven re-echoes with the song, ' Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to man! He is ' a light to lighten the Gen- tiles, and the glory of His people Israel ' (Luke ii. 32). He is ' the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of tJie ivorld' (John i. 29). Such is the gladdening and UNIVERSAL ASPECT of man's redemption. But it has also an INDIVIDUAL AND EXCLUSIVE side, — one for tJie believer only. ' He that believeth is not condemned : but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God ' (John iii. 16—18). Not to all, but to * as many as received Jiim, to them gave he power (or privilege) to become the sons of God, even to them which believe on his name : which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God ' (John i. 12, 13). * No man,' says Christ himself, ' can come to Me, except the Father, which hath sent Me, draw (attract) him ' (John vi. 44). And yet, ' except a man be born again, he cannot see (know or perceive) the king- dom of God ' (John iii. 3). 2 8 THE REDEEMER OF HUMANITY. Further, — the privileged must also be the per- fected. They are to be ' poor in spirit,' ' meek,' ' merciful/ ' pure,' ' peacemakers,' the ' salt of the earth,' the ' light of the world.' They are relatively few, — everywhere the minority ; for the gate is ' strait,' the way ' narrow,' and ' few there be that find it' (Matt. vi. and vii. 14). TotJiese\>^\ong the higher mysteries of the Gospel. ' Unto you (the disciples) it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God : but unto them tJiat are witJioiit, all these things are done in para- bles : that seeing they may see, and not perceive : and hearing they may hear, and not understand ; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them ' (Mark iv. 11, 12). For these — we had almost said for these alone — the Redeemer prays. ' These words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said. Father, the hour is come ; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee ; as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him! ' I have manifested Thy name 7into the men wJiicJi TJion gavest Me out of the world. I pray for them : I pray not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given Me ; for they are Thine. Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, as zve are ' (John xvii). THE REDEEMER OF HUMANITY. 29 Such, and so striking, is the apparent contrast between the two sides of Redemption, — between the anticipations of those who waited for the ad- vent, and the actual experience of those who wit- nessed it. It seems Impossible for any candid man to read the Scriptures fairly without being struck by the fact, that everything revealed prior to the introduc- tion of Christianity would lead to the expectation that the triumphs of the Redeemer would be imme- diate and universal ; while everything relating to its development, either In its earlier days, or during the eighteen hundred years of Its existence, as clearly indicates delay and limitation. Theories in explanation have never been wanting; but they are all utterly unsatisfactory. We turn from them to THE BOOK. There, If anywhere, shall we find the true solution of the problem that oppresses us. From no other quarter can even a solitary ray of light fall upon our darkness. We ask, therefore, for a purged eye and a purified heart, to enable us to discern In Revelation Itself the hid- den harmony which unites THE Elder Brother OF THE Elect with the Redeemer of the Race. 30 CHAPTER IV. THE WORLD OF PROBATION. TEMPTATION, the P^all, sin, suffering, and Redemption, all alike suppose the present condition of mankind to be probationary and educational. The language of Moses to the Israelites seems to embody the great principle which underlies all human existence. 'The Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilder- ness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart ; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord ' (Deut. viii. 2, 3). What other ends the TEST to which God sub- jects His creatures may be intended to subserve beyond this, it may not be easy for us to decide. Butler, in his great work, regards the probation of man as analogous to that early education and dis- cipline by which he is fitted for the obligations and services of mature life ; and intimates that it may probably be intended to preserve us from THE WORLD OF PROBATION. 31 falling in other states of existence, — a supposition founded on the admission of at least a possibihty that such future state may not be free from temp- tation ; and that it may demand the exercise of tempers akin to, if not identical with, resignation, submission, and faith. Whether this be so or not, or for whatever service in other worlds man may now be fitting, it seems at least clear that, in some form or other, the application of a test is, in this zvorld, essential to his development and training as an intelligent and responsible creature. We judge thus, because we have a right to sup- pose that otJierwise God would not expose His children to the dangers involved in trial ; and we partly see the reason of this proceeding in the apparent impossibility of revealing man to himself, and making him fully conscious of his weakness and dependence, without a test. Yet, on the other hand, nothing is plainer than that a large portion of the race, dying in infancy, or in an otherwise irresponsible condition, escape everything in the form of trial JLcre, and pass into the unseen world without having had any oppor- tunity of developing, even in the slightest degree, the nature and tendencies connected with their birth. Again, it is quite certain that the probation of those who live to mature years in the enjoyment of 32 THE WORLD OF PROBATION. unimpaired faculties, differs so widely both in kind and extent, that it is difficult, if not impossible, to speak of mankind generally as subjected to trial in any sense which carries with it the notion of a common discipline. Everywhere Probation comes before us as a tiling of degree, involving more or less, according to the various conditions and cir- cumstances of different men. Facts like these, regarded by themselves, in the absence of any revelation to the contrary, would cer- tainly seem to imply that in other worlds Probation may be extended to those who have not been sub- jected to it here, or continned in the case of others who have but imperfectly been brought under its influence. Further, since all probation implies risk, — the risk of failure, with its attendant consequences, — it would seem equally evident that its all but infi- nite diversity in character and extent must carry with it a corresponding diversity in the actual responsibility and future condition of those who are subjected to the discipline it involves. In the retirement of the closet, thoughtful and devout men rarely shrink from admitting that " the Divine standard of man's accountability is a scale of all but unlimited graduation ; that the place of every man in the future world will be the exact counterpart of his moral character here ; that while some will be ' beaten with many stripes,' THE WORLD OF PROBATION. 33 there will be for the minimum of guilt the minimum of punishment ; " ^ and such like. But it is otherwise in the pulpit. There, or on the missionary platform, it seems to be accounted dangerous to admit this diversity ; for the appeal, whether to the individual sinner or on behalf of the heathen world, is almost always made on the assumption that every child of Adam is destined either for heaven or hell ; that the only alternative in the case of each separate man is, everlasting blessedness or eternal misery. But opposite views cannot be equally true. Either the conclusions of the closet are erroneous or the declamations of the platform are unwar- ranted. Surely it becomes us to inquire which is right and which is wrong ; or — if the two appa- rently conflicting modes of thought are both Scrip- tural, and therefore reconcilable — whether that reconciliation is to be sought, as so many are now seeking it, in the denial of an objective hell alto- gether, — the mind being regarded as its oAvn place, and therefore making its own hell ; or whether it is not rather to be found in those por- tions of Divine Revelation which seem to teach that the destinies of the Elect Church and those of the World are, in many important respects, dif- ferent ; that the one class is intended to form the 1 Dr. Harris's Note on a Letter from John Foster.— Foster's Corresp., vol. ii., p. 446. D 34 THE WORLD OF PROBATION. court, and the other the commonalty, of the world (or age) to come ; that the former, in glory, is to be identified with its Lord at His coming, and there- fore with Him to judge both men and angels ; Avhile the latter, each one according to his works, is to be placed in that position which \\'\\\ form the appropriate retribution of his belief or unbelief, of his love or scorn of the Gospel, and of his kindness to, or hate of, the little flock while on earth. That retribution may involve degradation or death, few stripes or many stripes, grievous loss or the lake of fire, — all but the irreparably lost being, on this supposition, again brought under influences which involve a further and probably less severe ^ probation, terminating either in restoration or the second death. I pass no opinion, at present, either on the one view or the other. I desire to commence the inquiry with an earnest endeavour simply to ascertain the truth so far as it is recorded in Holy Writ, and, unless greatly deceived, with a perfect willingness to bow at once and for ever to the decision of that sacred record, whatever it maybe. One word only would I add. An indolent, 1 'Less severe,' because ^ SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY word used to denote this severance is the same as that by which St. Paul expresses his own separa- tion from his mother's womb for the service of Christ (Gal. i. 15), and the same as that employed in the Acts (xiii. 2), — ' Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.' The * severed ' or ' separated ' persons, therefore, whatever their number, are, probably, in each case comparatively few, since they are men who have either actively aided the followers of the Redeemer in times of persecution, or aggravated their sorrow by hard-hearted coldness and neglect, which could, of course, only be done by the few. We are thus taught that persons, alike ignorant of Christ and of His Gospel, are not, as we are often told, all alike in the eye of God. There are those among them, as among Christians, who have improved the light they had, and there are those who have deliberately excluded themselves from it. Hence this judgment is purely of zvorks ; and not of works generally, but of one particular work, — that of helping or hindering the people of God when under persecution, hungry, thirsty, naked, or in prison. The righteous — doubtless some of the 'other sheep not of this fold ' (John x. 16) — 'Gentiles, which have done by nature the things contained in the law' (Rom. ii. 14), are commended and rewarded, although they knew not that in aiding 'the just 'they were aiamg the REGARDING HELL. 79 Judge of all ; while the 'cursed' — those who, from hatred to the light, have united with the perse- cutors — are banished from the Divine presence, although they, too, knew not that in gratifying their evil passions, and opposing goodness, they were opposing One who regardeth His children as 'the apple of His eye' (Zech. ii. 8); all of which is in exact accordance with the word of our Lord, — ' Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple {i. e., knowing that the man to whom he gave it was a disciple, and daring the risk involved in rendering such assistance), verily, I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward' (Matt. X. 42). Of the great mass from whom these persons are selected, nothing is here revealed. The parable relates only to the sifting of the heathen, just as the two preceding ones related to the sifting of professed believers. But it will be said, Granting this exposition to be a correct one, we are still left altogether in the dark as to the future condition of mankind as a zuhole, — whether heathen or nominally Christian. I admit it ; nor do I think that it was the inten- tion of our Lord here to reveal what on all other occasions He kept back. Yet we are not wholly left without guidance on this subject. That such 8o SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY persons are sinners is, with the word of God before us, unquestionable ? that, whether with or without a written law, — whether nominally Christian, or actually heathen, — they are justly exposed to * wrath,' cannot be doubted ; that they are at present unfit for the fellowship of holy beings, is certain. Yet they are among those for whom Christ died; they are the very 'captives' to sin and Satan that He came to deliver. Nor can we believe that His ' finished work ' is to tJiem of none effect. It can only be so regarded on the sup- position — utterly unsupported by Scripture — that the second Adam came, not to repair the ruin in- volved in the disobedience of the first, but only to render salvation possible to those — alas ! the very few — who in various ages should on earth be renewed by the Holy Ghost. This question — one which certainly ought not to be evaded — brings us to the consideration of future punishment generally, so far as it can be distinguisJicd from the highest expression of the Divine indignation, in the final doom of the ' second death.' The parable of Dives and Lazarus clearly indicates some important difi"erences between 'Hades' and 'Gehenna,' and, coming as it does from our Lord's own lips, it is peculiarly weighty ; it is, perhaps, the only portion of Scripture, in which, so to speak, the veil which hangs over the REGARDING HELL. 8i immediate condition of the dead is lifted, and the retiHbictive character of the invisible world made known. The suffering- of Dives, judging from what he says, is mental, — it seems to arise from restlessness and fever of the mind, the effect of an awakened conscience ; he sorroivs. This is evident from the fact that the word translated 'torment,' means something very different from torture, to express which another and distinct word is employed. This is done in the case of those who are de- scribed, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, as having been 'tortured, not accepting deliverance' (Heb. xi. 35). Here the word employed is TVfnraviZofxaiy a word derived from rvfiiravovy an instrument of torture. It is clear — apart altogether from the use of the word hades — that * hell,' properly so termed, is not intended by our Lord, Jirst, because the state described is one entered upon immediately after death, and therefore /rw to the judgment; secondly, because Dives is regarded as being sufficiently near tc Lazarus to converse with Abraham, on whose bosom the beggar is represented as reclin- ing ; and thirdly, because his state of mind is one in which, if penitence is not directly expressed, pity for others is certainly felt. There are mani- fest in him the germs, at least, of a better mind ; he is anxious that those whom he loved on earth should G 82 SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY be warned, tJiat they migJit repent ; conditions which it is certainly very difficult to suppose can apply to the lost in hell. The testimony of Scripture, so far as it can be gathered, relative to the invisible world, seems to me distinctly to point to the conclusion that the punishments of the wicked — that is, of all but the irreclaimable who are utterly destroyed — commence in Hades immediately after death ; that they spring out of past character and conduct ; that they are ^yL^iO-^Xy proportioned \.o guilt — * few stripes,' or ' many stripes,' as God sees necessary ; and that they are 7tot incompatible with moral improvement. Mnch, on such a subject we may not be permitted to discern, for Scripture is not given us to satisfy " an inbred and restless curiosity." Yet the little we do know is too instructive to be neglected, since we are sadly prone to misrepresent our heavenly Father, either on the side of justice or of mercy. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus will be of great value to us if it keeps us from either of these errors. Manifold are its lessons. It teaches us how little it avails to be nominally Christian ; for the punished one is a son of Abraham. It teaches us that the selfish and the worldly (for the rich man is not represented as vicious or profligate), whatever may be in reserve for them at the coming of the Lord, are in the REGARDING HELL. 83 unseen world punished, like Dives, or disciplined, as God knows how, by solitary thought, each reap- ing precisely as he has sown. It teaches us that the * righteous ' alone, washed in the blood of the Lamb, and sanctified by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, wait, like Lazarus, in the blessed repose of paradise for the perfection of their bliss ; and probably receive tJiere, from Christ himself, lessons of love, and revelations of glory, which could not be imparted on earth without endan- gering a frame unfitted for the reception of more than earthly splendours. This much, at least, may fairly be predicated from Scripture regarding a state which, though unseeen by mortal eye, is yet intensely real, and into which the children of men are every moment entering. But not there alone will the past and the present influence the future. Under that further pro- bation, after the resurrection, which I believe awaits the great majority of the race, will the result of time well spent, or misspent, still more decidedly bring forth its appropriate fruit, and every man gather precisely as he has sown. Some, with weeping and gnashing of teeth (the Jewish mode of expressing grief and vexation), will in that world, I doubt not, mourn, with a bitterness proportioned to what they will tJien feel to be the loss sustained by their self-wrought exclusion from the Church of the first-born ; and some who, on 84 SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY earth, lived and died fancying themselves within the guest-chamber, will then, to their utter astonishment, find themselves zvitJioiit, — plunged into that ' outer ' (or rather, outside) darkness, which so strikingly contrasts with the brilliancy of the marriage banquet. They were disciples, but they neglected the charge, ' Enter ye in at the strait gate,' and they now find it is too late, for 'the door is shut' (Luke xiii, 24). In vain do they cry, * Lord, Lord, open unto us. We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets.' The only reply is, ' I know not whence ye are ; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when they shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and they themselves thrust out ' (ver. 26 — 28). Then will some, like ' Chorazin and Bethsaida ' (cities of privilege), find 'Tyre and Sidon ' (heathen and untaught) in a condition far better than their own ; and others (the self-satisfied), like ' Caper- naum,' will discover, to their amazement, that Sodom, with all its abominations, is nearer to God than they. Now will one find himself a ' vessel to honour,' and another to 'dishonour;' to whom * much has been given,' of him will ' much be required ;' he who has improved his 'one talent' will find iiimsclf entrusted with 'five' or with 'ten' REGARDING HELL. 85 talents ; and there are * last ' which shall be ' first,' and 'first' which shall be Mast' He who has stored his riches in the heavens now enjoys his wealth. * The meek ' are inheriting the earth. Every man receives ' according to his deeds,' and each goes * to his own place.' The result of the inquiry is, that future punish- ment, properly so termed, commences in Kades ; that it is strictly retributive ; that its general cha- racter arises from the natural working out of the great laws under which man is placed, and that its degrees diXQ as manifold as the degrees of human guilt. Further, it has no gradations ; for how any- thing like degree can be associated with an ever- lasthig punishment, first represented as being cast into a Make of fire,' and tJien explained to be a ' second death,' it passes my comprehension to imagine. Such terms, natwally understood, would cer- tainly seem to imply the absolute extinction of being, by a Divine and judicial execution. I say naturally, because in no other sense would any unprejudiced reader ever think of understanding either such a passage as Matt. x. 28, where the killing of the body and the killing of the soul are spoken of under the same term (ctTroicrai^at, to kill, is used in both cases), or in Rev. xx. 14, where, as we have just said, the ' lake of fire ' is distinctly stated to be the ' second death.' To allege, as the S6 SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY late Moses Stuart does, that such words as de- stroyed, perishing, and eternal death, are '' the most eligible that could have been chosen " to express the idea of eternal life in misery, " seems," as has been well said, " to be trifling with that common sense which God in His mercy has given to the unlearned, to preserve them from the infatua- tions occasionally incident to their superiors in knowledge." To suggest such a possibility, however, as the ultimate annihilation of the irreclaimably wicked, is, at present, an offence ; it takes away, it is said, all terror from the minds of the guilty, and, in so doing, at once emboldens them in sin, and makes them reckless of consequences ; for zvho, it is argued, will care for the ' lake of fire,' if separated from eternal sensitive torment in its flame ? To this some add the strange notion, that, in propor- tion as we lessen the fearfulness of future punish- ment, we diminish the value of the death of Christ. ^ Some assert that the doctrine of the Atonement ijuplies that of the eternal torment of all the unregenerate ; and others (as Bp_ Pearson) say, " He who believeth not the eternity of torments to come, can never sufficiently value that ransom by which Ave are redeemed from them." How strange that it should be thought more glorious that the redemption of Christ should be a blessing to the few than to the many; that God's 'unspeakable gift' should alone make credible never ending sin and misery ; that the Gospel of holiness and love obliges us to believe in the hopeless ruin of the race !" {Quoted fratn ^^The Duration of Evil," an Essay.) REGARDING HELL. 87 I am not, however, disposed to argiie this ques- tion. The duty of the Christian, with the Word of God in his hand, is plain. It is simply to ask,— 'What is truth.?' not, what is it most expedient to teach, as if it zvere truth.? But I may be permitted to say to the defenders of eternal sin and suffering, that the arguments they use are the very same arguments that were employed for ages in defence of inflicting the most horrible tortures on criminals. What, it was said, is death (since all must die) to a murderer or a traitor t For myself I frankly allow, — that, having searched diligently, and I hope with a sincere desire to ascertain the whole truth, I cannot find a syllable in Scripture to sanction the popular notion (really derived from the fathers and founders of the Romish apostacy), that God ever allows torture, or ever practises it Himself The punishment of death— capital punishment— He commanded of old: 'Thine eye shall not pity' (Deut. xix. 13); that eminent criminals were, by Divine authority, burnt, seems also certain (Lev. xx. 14), — but whether alive, or after being otherwise put to death (as was the case with those who were cast into Tophet), is not so clear ; that under the Christian dispensation, the judicial taking away of life is sanctioned, cannot fairly be disputed, — for the magistrate * beareth not tJie sword in vain ' (Rom. 8S SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY xiii. 4) ; but nozvJiere, and under no conditions, does God sanction torture. The stipposition that He did, led in past time to its infliction in Cliristian countries by man on man ; formed the chief justification of the horrors of the Inquisition ; and laid the foundations, deep and firm, of purgatory and priestcraft. If this barbarity has so entirely ceased from among our- selves, that even the most cruel assassins are exempt from its agonies, it is only because the advancing steps of Christianity have driven it away. If the doctrine of the future — nay, the eternal — infliction of it by God yet lingers in the Church, it is because the dark shadow of the apostacy still falls over us, and because base notions of what it seems expedient to teach, over- ride that love of truth which makes a man fearless of all consequences in its service. It is impossible to suppose that St. Paul, who so strikingly calls God to witness that he kept nothing back from his converts, — that he had ' not shunned to declare' unto them 'the whole counsel of God ' (Acts XX. 26, 27), could have used the term * death ' as he does in so many passages, — and always, be it observed, as the antithesis of * life,' — had he intended to teach that this 'death' meant eternal life in torture. The same may be observed of Peter, John, and James, the three dis- ciples who had been most intimate with the Lord ; REGARDING HELL. 89 of all of them we say, it is impossible to suppose that they could have kept back such a doctrine, — so unlike everything else in Scripture, — when a few plain sentences would have sufficed both to explain and to enforce it. One apparent exception to all that has been stated certainly exists ; and as I have not the least wish to evade a single line of Scripture, I call attention to it. It is this,— 'The third angel,' flying in the midst of heaven (Rev. xiv. 9 — 11), proclaims, — * If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, w^hich is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation ; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb ; and tJie smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever ; and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.' On this passage it may simply be observed, /ri-/, that it is a special judgment, threatened only in connection with a particular form of idolatrous worship in the last days, carried on in ' Babylon the great ;' secondly, that the torment (PaaavKTfxog) is not said to be inflicted in Jiell, or after the last judgment, but, as it would appear from the con- text, on earthy and at the second coming of Christ. 90 SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY The reference to 'day and night' also indicates that earth is the place of punishment ; thirdly, that the same word (/Sacrav/'^w) is applied to the city itself, whose overthrow and utter destruction is called her torment (Rev. xviii. 7 — lo), and * her smoke ' is said, in like manner, to rise up * for ever and ever' (xix. 3), just as in Jude, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is called ' suffering the vengeance of eternal fire ' (ver. 7), although we are told by Ezekiel (xvi. 53 — 63), that Sodom shall ' return ' to her ' former estate,' and be given ' to Israel for a daughter, thougJi not by covenant! St. Paul speaks of these very sinners, — those of the last days, — as men who shall be punished (lit., suffer as punishment) everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power. It is obviously neither wise nor safe to found any doctrine on a passage confessedly so obscure, and certainly so symbolic, as the one in question, — especially as it does not specifically point to hell at all, and is acknowledged by every intelligent reader to refer to a state of things still hidden in the future. Yet beyond this solitary and most in- conclusive text, there is not anything in Scripture which even seems to justify the assertion that im- penitent men are everlastingly tormented. I repeat, — Hell, as revealed in Scripture, has no tortures, and, therefore, no degrees in punishment ; REGARDING HELL. 91 it is utter, hopeless, irremediable ruin ; and it is but right solemnly to warn every Christian man to beware what he is about when he asserts the contrary. Heathenism is an abomination unto God, mainly because it represents Him to be ivJiat He is not, — vindictive and cruel. Christians mis- represent Him no less when they forget either His Fatherhood on the one hand, or His hatred of sin on the other; when they represent Him either as all mercy, or as so arranging the final destinies of the world, that evil triumphs in the ruin of the race. I am quite aware that many will only glance at what I have written, and then * pass by on the other side,' with the exclamation, — WJio now holds to physical torture, or to material fire .'* Who now would endorse the statements on this subject of President Edwards and Jeremy Taylor, of the Fathers, and the Reformers, and the Puritans } Who now believes that the great majority of men will be miserable for ever } I reply, the bulk of English Christians do. The ignorant, — all of them ; children, — without excep- tion ; well-informed adults, — generally. I am quite aware that the topic of future punishments is, in the present day, rarely introduced into the pulpit, and that when it is mentioned, it is always in the most vague and general terms ; for neither the re- wards nor the retributions of the world to come, 92 SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY, occupy any prominent place in modern teachin^^. 'Y\vQ. former are frequently considered to be some- what inconsistent with a full and free salvation ; the latter are regarded as too dreadful for popular handling. The loss occasioned by this unbelieving avoidance of important truth is far greater than is generally supposed ; but things can never be otherwise so long as men hold to the ' glorification' of all the saved, and the eternal misery of all the lost. CHAPTER IV. ON THE DOCTRINE THAT EVERY UNCONVERTED MAN IS A VESSEL OF WRATH, FITTED ONLY FOR DESTRUCTION. IN relation to this question, I propose now to examine, carefully and reverentially, those texts which are supposed to imply — nay, to involve as of necessity — the doctrine that every un- converted man is to be regarded as a sentenced criminal, daily and hourly in danger of eternal woe. They are the following : — (i) ' He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that believeth not shall be damned ' (Mark xvi. i6),^ — a declaration of Christ himself, immediately following the command, ' Preach the Gospel to every creature.' (2) * He that believeth on the Son hath everlast- ing life : and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; but the wrath of God abideth on him ' ^ Internal evidence is veiy weighty against Mark's being the author of that portion of the chapter (viz., ver. 9 — 20) in whicli this statement occurs, (See Dean Alford.) 94 SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY. (John iii. 36), — words addressed by John the Bap- tist to the Jews. (3) ' He that beheveth on Him (the only begot- ten Son) is not condemned : but he that beHeveth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God' (John iii. 18), — part of our Lord's discourse to Nicodemus, and to be taken in connection with the declaration (ver. 3), ' Except a man be born again (born from above — marg.), he cannot see the kingdom of God.' (4) ' For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature' (Gal. vi. 15). (5) ' According to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost' (Tit. iii. 5). These passages, with many others that might be named, will be sufficient to show the ground on which the Church of Christ has come to the con- clusion that, apart from the regeneration of his nature by the Holy Spirit, no man can escape the damnation of hell ; that, in short, if he that be- Heveth hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed y;'^ permission alone it is that either sin or suffering can exist, but as the ordainer of a destiny over which, however appearances may in- dicate the contrary, human volitions have no power. I am quite aware that the faithful minister of the Gospel, however " high " his theology, always labours to show that this fixed Divine purpose in no way interferes with the freedom of the human wnll, or with the efficiency of human effort ; that God hears the prayers of the living for the spi- 126 CONVERSION ritually dead ; that every man mig-ht, if he would, arise and receive hght and hfe ; that human powerlessness is but another name for human sin ; that no man finally perishes, save by his own suicidal act. Such reasoning, inconsistent as it may seem, generally commends itself to the devout mind ; for its defects are all lost sight of in the relief v.hich is felt at finding that even the sternest theology cannot venture to ignore those irrepressible instincts of the heart which assure us that God is just, or those plain statements of Scripture which declare that He is Love. Yet, after all, we cannot but feel that preaching of this character, if not a riddle, is a torment ; and that its perplexity must be occa- sioned, either, on the one hand, by some strange perversion of the teaching of Scripture, or, on the other, by vain attempts to reconcile those partial and fragmentary revelations of the Infinite which we alone possess, with the demands of a logic which is, at best, but finite and human, and may, therefore, be an altogether inappropriate medium for the exposition of truths which are superhuman and illimitable. I believe that much of the difficulty in question arises from a complete misapprehension of those portions of Scripture which reveal the existence of an elect Church ; from extending to all mankind statements which are intended to apply only to the NO T RE GENERA TION. 1 27 subjects of the Divine predestination ; from the consequent assertion — implied, if not expressed — of a doctrine of reprobation ; and the final evolu- tion of a system which no ingenuity can ever make consistent with human responsibility, with a judg- ment according to works, with ' few stripes,' or with ' many stripes.' At the foundation of this error lies the notion I am endeavouring to controvert ; viz., that in Scripture regeneration and conversion mean the same thing ; that both alike are sovereign and superhuman ; that election from the foundation of the world is the distinctive characteristic of every soul of man who escapes the damnation of hell ; that when St. Paul speaks of the power of the ' potter ' over the clay, * to make one vessel to honour and another to dishonour,' he teaches not, as one would naturally suppose, that the same God who here, without injustice, makes one a peasant and another a prince, may also, in the world to come, give or withhold dignities at His pleasure — that would be intelligible enough — but, incredible as it may seem, that they intimate His right, as sovereign, to ordain to eternal misery all who are not the subjects of His electing grace. To support this theory, the choice of Jacob, even before his birth — an illustration used by the same apostle — is held to have had relation, not to the birthright only, but to all spiritual blessings. 128 COXVERSION I ' have not so learned Christ.' I beheve as firmly as any in electing love, and in the regenera- tion of those who are made partakers of it. Evi- dence of the fact is found in what such men do and dare in vindication of their high calling ; justifying it, sometimes, at the price of all that the world calls good or great — comfort, reputation, human love, nay, even life itself; always at the cost of much self-denial, in the crucifixion of sin, the mortifica- tion of every evil desire, the abandonment of many of the objects of this world's ambition, and the constant sacrifice of self-will and self-gratification to the obedience of Christ and the love of the brethren. These I hold to be the invariable cJiaracteristics of the man who is born, not of the flesh, but of the Spirit ; and if such persons form, as they certainly do, a very small proportion indeed, even of those Avho are surrounded by the purest light, and who enjoy the highest advantages, I cannot but con- clude that beyond these there will be found a mul- titude whom no man can number, to swell the sono- of redeeming" love, and to celebrate the vie- tory of the God-man, when He shall have ' the heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession.' I believe, therefore, in CONVERSION, even though it may not be accompanied by the regene- ration of the entire nature. I believe in it as NO T REGENERA TION. 1 29 the result of human influences co-working with God ; co-operating with that blessed Spirit who not only gathers His elect, but is ever convincing 'the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judg- ment' I believe that the work of the Church is iioiv, as it will be in the world to come, the con- version of sinners to the Redeemer ; that its real, as distinguished from its apparent success, will always be proportioned to its zeal, and love, and truthfulness, both in word and deed ; that its only sword is ' the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God ; ' that just in proportion as the Church illustrates the faith it preaches by a holy and consistent life, must be its power to elevate and to bless ; that while nothing is too large for its expectations, nothing should be too small for its thankfulness ; that as its one message is, ' Be ye reconciled unto God,' and its one encouragement the assurance of the deliverance of the world, through Christ, both from the power and punish- ment of sin, so its one objcet should be the moral and spiritual advancement of all with whom it comes in contact. Every step in this direction, taken how or by whom it may, is to be regarded as of inestimable value ; every putting forth of desire after the good and the true, and especially after Him who is embodied truth and goodness, is to be welcomed as a work of the Spirit ; and since every ^^^ privilege, granted to those who, * chosen from the foundation of the world,' are, in an emphatic sense, the ' sons of God.' Beyond these forms, Scripture reveals no work of the Spirit of which we have a right to speak, or on which we ought to rely. And, with few exceptions, all Christians are agreed that it is only as Divine life that the gift of the Holy Ghost is permanent, or in any intelligible sense promised to ourselves. WORK OF THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 149 But while this is admitted in words, it is com- monly denied in fact. It has been thus denied ever since the dark shadow of the coming apostasy first fell upon the early Church. From that hour the Divine * counsel ' on this, as on almost every other matter, has been 'darkened,' and the word of God too often dealt with ' deceitfully.' The forms of error relating to the work of the Holy Spirit thus generated, have been many and dangerous. (i.) Losing sight of the distinction, always pre- served in Scripture, between the gift of the Holy Ghost as power and as life — regarding the action of the Spirit as being alike on the intellect and on the heart, men soon came to believe that while purifying, it was "a light playing on the rational faculties, and clearing mental perplexities, — a secret energy, through which every organ dis- charges its functions aright." ^ It was under the influence of this delusion that the creeds were de- veloped, that doctrine w^as drawn from doctrine, that liturgies were collected, and that Gentile customs were adopted. It is under this same delusion that the Pope and Cardinals to this day invoke the Holy Spirit on all their transactions. (2.) The Protestant Reformation, \vhile it changed the direction, and somewhat modified the character Basil. 150 SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY. of the error in question, was far from eradicating it. That great event simply transferred the supposed Divine light, first from the Church Catholic, re- garded as a unity, to the various branches which, by their separation, bore testimony against the errors of Rome; tJien to the diverse fellowships which soon after separated from the original seceders ; and finally to every individual Christian who, to this day, each for himself, devoutly believes that in answer to his supplications, he, amid all the diversities of theological opinion, certainly attains to those views which are best for him, and, as he thinks, which are most in accordance with the will of God. (3.) The most common form of delusion, how- ever, is that which supposes that the Holy Spirit, in some special manner, accompanies and gives effect to sacred oratory;^ that He co-operates with ani- 1 Scripture does not support this view. When Peter speaks of the apostles as preaching the Gospel ' with the Holy Ghost sent dowTi from heaven' (i Pet. i. 12), he simply means that what they taught was by inspiration. When St. Paul says his preaching was 'in demonstration of the Spirit and of power' (i Cor. ii. 4), he refers to the signs and miracles by which it was accompanied (Rom. XV. 19). The ' treasure ' is in ' earthen vessels,' that the ' excellency of the power may be of God ' (2 Cor. iv. 7). But that power is the Gospel of Christ, which ' is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth' (Rom. i. 16). And whensoever and where- soever that Gospel comes with renezoi/ig force upon the heart, it is because it is received, not outwardly and in word only, but inwardly as the voice of the Holy Ghost (i Thess. i. 5). WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 151 mal excitements, exaggerated appeals, and inflated eloquence ; that He gives pozver to all the various devices— borrowed, although unconsciously, from Rome— by wh-.L men, with the best intentions, and under the influence of the purest motives, are ever seeking to awaken and alarm the thoughtless through the influence of the imagination, and by action on the nervous system. Into the '* Natural History" of these extrava- gances, or the sources of the delusion which con- nects them with a Divine blessing, and regards them as more or less endorsed by the Holy Spirit, I cannot here enter ; but I may be permitted to observe that they will never vanish until texts are interpreted more soberly than they are at present, and their bearing controlled by the context ; until this dispensation is viewed in its true character, as one marked rather by selection than by univer- sality ;' until the age to come is connected with 1 The notion that Scripture leads us to expect the universal triumph of the Gospel under this dispensation is for the most part based on passages which were never intended to be thus applied. Some of them {e.g., Psa. Ixxii. i6, 17 ; Isa. xi. 6-9 ; xxxu. 15-20) predict the reign of Messiah, without any reference to the time when it shall take place ; others {e. g., Zech. xii. 10 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 25-27) evidently belong only to the Jewish people regarded as God's chosen ; and others {e.g., Isa. Ixv. 25 ; xlv. 23, comp. with Rom. xiv. II ; and Isa. xxv. 6-8, comp. with i Cor. xv. 54) are as plainly connected with the resurrection, and with 'the new heavens and new earth in which dwelleth righteousness' (Psa. civ. 29, 30; Isa. Ixv. 17). 152 SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY. the age that is ; and the distinction drawn in Scrip- ture between the glorified Church and the ' nations of the saved ' (Rev. xxi. 24) is fully and fairly recognised. Then will it be seen that Christ is indeed the Redeemer of the world ; that mankind form a community, common participants in the miseries of the fall, and therefore common sharers in the blessings of the recovery ; that Satan's apparent triumph is unreal and but temporary ; that Divine love is wider and deeper than we are apt to imagine ; that ' all things ' are working together for good to them that love God ; that Christ, raised from the dead, is not only in this age, but also in the age which is to come, head over all things for the ex- altation of the Church (Ephes. i. 22) ; that they who love Him are not ' strangers and foreigners,' as were the men of other nations in Jerusalem, and as in the age to come will those be who are not of the Church, but ' fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God' (Ephes. ii. 18, 19) ; that what we know not now we shall know hereafter. Then, and not till then, shall we learn to separate the superhuman process by which God calls and trains His elect, from the great principles on which He governs the world ; to be thankful for a light which, however dim, clears up many dark and painful mysteries ; and to rejoice in a hope which relieves the sadness of the renewed heart when WORK OF THE HOL Y SPIRIT. 153 crushed by the thought of abounding sin and sorrow, holding out the blessed prospect in a future age of a ransomed world, dwelling under the righteous rule of its lawful Lord and loving Saviour. But this can never be so long as we persist in maintaining that the conviction of the world by ' the Comforter ' is but aggravated condemnation, — that God has no blessing for an Esau, and can show no favour to any man short of absolute union with Himself, 154 CHAPTER IX. ON THE REVELATIONS OF SCRIPTURE REGARDING HEAVEN. THE word ' Heaven ' (ovpavoc), or, as it is fre- quently found in the plural form, ' Heavens,' occurs about two hundred and eighty times in the New Testament alone. In ten of these it is trans- lated ' air ' — as in the parable of the sower, — ' the fowls of f/ie air' (Luke viii. 5). In_^^^ others it is rendered ' sky ' — as in the discourse of our Lord, — 'Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of tJic sky' (Luke xii. 56). In eighty-six other places although translated 'heaven,' it is obviously put rather for the visible firmament — as in Mark xiii. 25, — 'the stars of Jieaven shall fall;' or as indica- tive of the direction from which Divine communi-^ cations seemed to come — as in Matt. iii. 16, 17, — * Lo, the heavens were opened ;' and again, * Lo, a voiCQ. from heaven' In eighty-three instances heaven is expressly intended to indicate the peculiar residence of God and of the holy angels ; the place from which Christ came, to which He is gone, and whence He ON HEAVEN. 155 will one day come again ; the locality, so to speak, from which all authority and all blessing proceeds ; e.g., * Our Father which art in heaven ' (Luke xi. 2). ' Heaven is My throne ' (Acts vii. 49). * No, not the angels which are m heaven' (Mark xiii. 32). 'He that came down from heave7i ' {]o\\n iii. 13). ' The great High Priest, that is passed into the heaz'ens ' (Heh. iv. 14). ' To wait for His Confront heaven (i Thess. i. 10). 'The true bread /r^;;^ heaven' (John vi. 32) ; and such like. In tJdrty-tJircc other places the term is associated w^ith ' the kingdom ' of the Redeemer, which is styled ' the kingdom of heaven ' (Matt. iii. 2), and the 'heavenly kingdom' (2 Tim. iv. 18); just as the calling of the Christian is termed a 'heavenly calling' (Heb. iii. i) — his resurrection body a 'celestial' or heavenly body (i Cor. xv. 40), and the future residence of the saints the 'heavenly Jerusalem ' (Heb. xii. 22). In the book of the Apocalypse the term occurs fifty-four times, sometimes indicating the immediate residence of Jehovah, but commonly the world of separate spirits, or Hades. This intermediate state between death and the resurrection is generally called, in reference to the Christian, heaven ; but not properly so, for it is but the temporary residence of the dead, and should never be confounded with the dwelling-place of God and of the holy angels. The existence_of this state, although rarely if ever 156 SCRIPTURE TESTIMONV. denied, is, in our own day, commonly ignored, under an impression, — altogether unsupported by Scrip- ture, that at death, — and therefore long before either the second coming of Christ or the judgment day, the souls of the departed, according to their cha- racter, enter into the full enjoyment of the blessed- ness of heaven, or into the untold miseries of the lake of fire. And yet nothing can be plainer than that the Bible teaches that the soul at death goes to hades, and that the word hades, although in our English version usually translated " hell," simply means the invisible state — the place of departed spirits — with- out any reference whatever to the condition of its inhabitants. Whether the fact that Dives, when suffering, dis- tinctly expresses pity for others, and desires their timely repentance, is intended to indicate that the Retributions of hades may be — nay, that in some cases they are — disciplinary as well as punitive, many will be inclined to doubt. Yet it is, at least, far from improbable. And if it be so, why may not these sorrows be regarded as introductory to that further probation in the world (or age) to come, which, it is believed. Scripture in many places hints at ? I am quite aware that the very term ' probation ' implies more or less of pain and sorrow, of perplexity and of depression, arlsing/r^;;^ evil, and can quite ON HEAVEN, 157 understand the indignation with which some will resent the very thought that, in any other world than this, evil can exist out of hell. Such objectors, however, may be reminded that from the teachings of the Bible it is an indisputable fact that evil existed in heaven before it camed own to earth; that * the angels w^ho left their first estate ' did so, if not under temptation from without, certainly from the workings of evil within them ; and that there is nothing v/hatever, either in the Bible or in the analogy of God's dealings, which should lead us to suppose that moral tidal terminates here. For the redeemed, — for the elect Church of Christ, — for all that are here one with Him, trial obviously does terminate ; for they have 'washed their robes, and made them w^hite in the blood of the Lamb ; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes' (Rev. vii. 13 — 17). And again, 'Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from hence- forth : Yea, saith the Spirit, tJiat they may rest from their labours ; and their works do follow them ' (Rev. xiv. 13). But where is the authority for applying to every professing Christian — however cold, or negligent, or inconsistent he may be — passages which, in Scripture, are carefully confined to martyrs, apostles, and eminent saints } (John xii. 26\ xvii. 24). The prejudiced, or the careless, may call the very idea of a probation for anybody in the world 158 SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY. to come, ' purgatory,' and content themselves with the sneer ; but thoughtful readers will perceive at once that it is at least no such purgatory as that with which Rome deludes her victims. The sorrows of hades may, indeed, and in some cases I think will be, only the prelude to final destruction ; but that such w^ill be invariably the case is nowhere taught in Holy Scripture. |! The revelations of the Old Testament cannot be expected, for reasons we have already stated, to throw any additional light on this subject ; for the few highly figurative passages which are found in the prophets, such as the triumphal song which celebrates the overthrow of the king of Babylon, — deceased monarchs taunting him on his entrance into sJieol(l^2.. xiv. 9 — 12), — or Ezekiel's description of ' the strong among the mighty ' speaking to the king of Egypt ' out of the midst of hell ' (sheol, or hades, Ezek. xxxii. 21) ; or Pharaoh seeing the fall of empires, and being ' comforted over all his mul- titudes slain by the sword' (ver. 31), can scarcely teach us more than that the wicked dead in the invisible world are, to some^^extent, under the in- fluence of the passions that enthralled them on earth, and that they are capable of aggravating each other's sorrow. In the book of the Apocalypse, the apostle John, entranced, finds himself indeed in vision before the throne of God ; but that throne seems to be set in ON HEAVEN. 159 hades, where the Father, In His official character, as the originator of the work of redemption, is, in this magnificent imagery, supposed to preside. The form of worship described as carried on there corresponds to the course and manner of worship in the earthly temple ; and, as has been well observed, there is a remarkable analogy between this representation of the invisible, and the taber- nacle service generally, which, as we are told, was arranged according to the pattern (or copy) showed to Moses in the mount ; all seeming to imply that the employment of happy separate spirits is that of frequent worship, and that this holy and blessed service is very closely adumbrated by that of the Jewish tabernacle/ It is in this upper world that the Christian is called even now to dwell. This is 'the heavenly,' in which the believer should, by faith, already feel himself at hojne, domesticated, so to speak, with the Redeemer. For 'God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, hath qinck- ened us together with Christ, ^nd hath raised tts np together, and made us sit together in heavenly places [lit., in the heavenlies] in Christ Jesus' (Ephes. ii. 4 — 6). Now, says the apostle to the olcr-ians, ' Ye are dead, and your life is hid with r* 1 See Bishop Newton's 'Dissertation on Rev. iv.,' and 'Satur- day Evening,' by Isaac Taylor. i6o SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY. Christ in God.' Here ye are but aliens, for your spirits are not the property of this world ; by faith ye dwell in that holy seclusion from the tempests of time to which the Redeemer has risen. But ' when Christ, who is our life, shall appear,' or manifest Himself, — when He shall renew His sensible rela- tion to earth, and bring it into subjection to Him- self, — THEN all shall be changed. ' Ye also shall appear with Him in glory' (Col. iii. 4), and enter into diviner relations both with Him and it (i Thess. iv. 14 ; Matt. xiii. 43). In harmony with the view we have here taken of the separate state is that beautiful dehneation of its character which has been set forth by Mr. Isaac Taylor in his ' Saturday Evening.' " The spirit," says he, '' is then, when freed from the body, to be thrown upon the play of its AFFEC- TIONS — whether these be malign or benign, pure or depraved, — and it is moreover to be thrown upon them in preference of objects of the most stupen- dous magnitude. In place of the measured and mingled emotions of the present life, there are to be encountered, in the next stage of our existence, excitements of overwhelming force, and all of one quality. And amid them, the soul, quiescent in regard to what might move it to wonder or terror, is to be nakedly sensitive to the MORAL QUALITY of what it beholds. Human nature, thus reduced to its most simple element, shall exist in one mood ON HE A VEN. i6i only, — that of AN INTENSE CONSCIOUSNESS OF ITS OWN MORAL CONDITION." Of the immediate Jiappiness of the saint after his departure from earth, no Christian who refuses to accept the theory that the soul sleeps till the day of the resurrection, can entertain a doubt. To such men unquestionably ' to die is gain ;' to be 'with Christ' is 'far better' (Phil. i. 21, 23). ' Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth : Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours ; and their works do follow them' (Rev. xiv. 13). * In My Father's house are many mansions : if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself ; that where I am, there ye may be also ' (John xiv. 2, 3). The phrase, ' My Father's house,' is, I am aware, usually understood to mean the peculiar and special dwelling-place of God. But not justly so. For everywhere else ' the Jiouse of God ' clearly stands for the people o^ God, the family, who are constantly represented c s a ' household,' a * build- ing,' a 'temple,' and such like. The natural mean- ing surely is — ' In My Father's (household or family) are many (dwelling-places) ; ' not, as it is usually read, * In My Father's habitation are many habitations.' Where Enoch is, or Elijah, or Moses, we know M i62 SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY. not, for these are exceptional instances ; but zue do knozu that 'David is not ascended into the heavens* (Acts ii. 34), but that his soul is yet in hades, and his flesh has seen corruption. We know, also, that while angels ascend and descend from heaven, humanity in the * Son ' alone has entered its ever- lasting gates (John i. 51 ; xx. 17). For, says Christ himself, ' No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven' (John iii. 13). Nothing seems to be clearer than that we must all wait in the invisible till ' the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised.' * Beloved,' says St. John, ' now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be : but we know that, when He shall appear ' (or rather, ' that if it were mani- fested ' — Alford), 'we shall be like Him ; for we shall see Him as He is' (i John iii. 2). But we can And no authority whatever for asserting that the happiness of the redeemed, either immediately after death, or subsequent to judgment, is enjoyed in Jieaven properly so called. On the contrary. Scripture distinctly teaches that after the resurrec- tion the spirit, till then in the separate state, is again united to the body, and finds its home and its work on the regenerated earth. The point to be noticed is — and, as contrasted with popular impressions, it is a very singular one — that THE WORD ' HEAVEN ' IS NEVER USED IN ON HE A VEN. 163 Scripture to denote the final dwelling- place OF believers in the world that is to come. We all speak of going to heaven when we die, and are apparently quite unconscious that we are using a term which is nowhere sanctioned in Holy Writ. Heaven, as the abode of Christ, is always and justly regarded as the spot where our 'hopes' rest (Col. i. 5), and where that reward is ' reserved ' which is to be revealed in the last time (i Pet. i. 4). There our ' inheritance among all them that are sanctified' is deposited (Acts xx. 32); our 'trea- sure ' is there (Matt. vi. 20 ; Heb. x. 34) ; our 'names' are 'written' there (Luke x. 20) ; our ' re- ward ' is tJiere (Matt. v. 12) ; the 'crown of righ- teousness ' is laid iLp there (2 Tim. iv. 8) ; our ' conversation ' (moral life) is tJiere, ' from whenee also we look for the Saviour' (Phil. iii. 20) ; but our final home is not there ; for the ' house ' with which we are to be ' clothed upon,' although as yet, by a figure, sp6ken of as ' in the heavens,' and declared to be ' eternal ' in character, is to be a house '■from heaven ' (2 Cor. v. 2) ; and ' the holy city, the new Jerusalem,' is to ' come down from God out of heaven' (Rev. xxi. 10) ; and the dwell- ing-place of risen men is to be 'a neiu earth! in which dwelleth righteousness (Rev. xxi. i) ; and Christ is to return, — 'for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice i64 SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY. of the archangel, and with the trump of God ' (i Thess. iv. i6) ; and 'the tabernacle of God' is to be ' with men,' and ' He will dzvcll with them, and they shall be His people, and God him- self shall be with them, and be their God ' (Rev. xxi. 3). That the elect Church, ^ the Bride,' will occupy a position higher t han the rest, nearer to Christ, and more glorious than that of many who will be saved, we have already seen to be probable from the statement that such shall be with Christ within * the holy city,' while others, ' saved nations,' only dwell ' in the light ' of it (Rev. xxi. 24) ; but there is nothing whatever to support the ordinary expec- tation that, at the resurrection, this material world of ours will be destroyed, and the righteous con- veyed to heaven, to be for ever happy among the angels of God, sharing with them in the services of the upper world. There is far more reason to sup- pose that the angels will continue for ever to be * ministering spirits ' to those who are * the heirs of salvation ' (Heb. i. 14). In all the speculations \\\\\^ excellent persons so freely indulge in about ' being happy in heaven ' — for, unsupported by Scripture, they are nothing but speculations — the point forgotten is, the per- petual humanity of man, so clearly indicated in the incarnation of the Redeemer, and in the fact that He ascended, in His human body, to * His ON HE A VEN. 165 Father and to our Father, to His God and to our God.' To a similar forgetfuhiess may probably be traced a tendency, now very common, to contem- plate future happiness apart altogether from its connection with locality. That there is a sense In which heaven may be within us is certain ; for where God is, heaven is ; and unfettered communion with Him, through Christ and by the Holy Spirit, is perfect happi- ness. But this is no argument whatever against a locality as the future residence of the redeemed. God is everywhere, but we cannot be everywhere ; and since, at present — even were it true that space is merely subjective to the mind of man — we can comprehend the idea only as a relation, all the probabilities are that we shall continue to do so ; for however glorious may be the spiritual bodies of the saints, however free from imperfection or corrup- tion, however much they may transcend the limita- tions of our earthly conditions, the notion of place seems inseparable from the possession of a body. That tJie body will be raised is the distinct teach- ing of revelation. That this union of the soul, after death, witJi matter — however spiritualized the new material frame may be — is essential to the re- birth of the spirit into * the new world of know- ledge and action,' may fairly be gathered from Scripture. That the first consequence of this birth i66 SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY. must be Hhe acquirement of locality in the ex- tended universe ' is certain. The mischief involved in the tendency to think of the future in connection with the spirit alone, and of heaven as merely subjective, commences whenever such interpretations are supposed to in- clude all that Scripture is intended to teach tis rela- tive to the world to come. Such is certainly not the case. Heaven is there always spoken of as a locality, the special residence of the Court of the Most High ; hell is distinctly revealed to us as a place ' prepared for the devil and his angels ; ' and the ' new earth, in which dwelleth righteousness,' as clearly declared to be the final abode of the ' children of the resurrection.' And why should it not be so .'' Has not God made the world to be inhabited ? Hath He not made all nations of men for to dzuell on the face of the earth ? ' Thus saith the Lord that created the heavens ; God himself that formed the earth and made it ; He hath established it. He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited : I am the Lord ; and there is none else ' (Isa. xlv. i8). The assurance given to man of sovereignty in it — a do- minion far too absolute to be regarded as fulfilled either in the present or in the past — alone proves that it is not destined to destruction (Heb. ii. 8, and Psa. viii.). It is ' //// the day of Christ' that St. Paul prays the Philippians may be preserved ; ON HE A VEN. 167 and it is ' in that day ' — the day of His return — that He is so desirous to 'rejoice' (Phil. i. 10; ii. 16). Further, the world is a redeemed world. Christ died to restore all things ; to deliver all things from the grasp of the evil one ; and who will ven- ture to say that this design can ever be thwarted ? that Satan is able to hinder the world from be- coming the dwelling-place of the creature formed in God's image t or that ' Wisdom ' can be com- pelled to cease ' rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth,' and no longer to find ' delights with the sons of men ' ? (Prov. viii. 31). These views, so far as they relate to the proba- bility of this world becoming, when purified by fire, the future abode of man, are not new. Dr. Chalmers, in his 'Astronomical Discourses,' sup- ports them with all the argument and eloquence of which he was so distinguished a master ; and Mr. Isaac Taylor, in his 'Physical Theory of Another Life,' expresses his conviction that "all the prac- tical skill we acquire in managing affairs ; all the versatility, the sagacity, the calculation of chance s the patience and assiduity, the promptitude and facility; as well as the higher virtues which we are learning every day, will find scope in a world such as is rationally anticipated when we think of heaven as the stage of life that is next to follow the discipline of earth." i68 SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY. " With no other indication of the destinies of the universe than what may be furnished by the swelHng emotions of pity that are now working, pent up in tender and noble hearts, we should hardly fear to err in assuming that a sphere will at length open upon such spirits, wherein they shall find millions needing to be governed, taught, rescued, and led forzvard frovi a ivorsc to a better, or from a lozver to a higher stage of life. It is quite as easy to suppose that the Creator should have imparted to human nature the notion and the desire of immortality, without intending to realize it, as that He should have instilled a boundless benevolence, which is to have no more opportunity to express itself than it may chance to meet with in the present state." ^ It may be added — and who so likely to be the objects of this benevolence as those who, on earth, have never been under any government deserving of the name ; who from birth upwards have been abandoned to ignorance, superstition, and vice ; and who wait only for a wise and kindly hand to lead them from evil to good, and from self to Christ ? It is a favourite idea with many, and doubtless regarded as a very spiritual one, that the employ- ment of the redeemed will be perpetual worship. 1 ' Physical Theory,' p. 190. ON HE A VEN. 169 This notion proceeds on an utter forgetfulness of the fact that " our Lord carried up into heaven, to live there for ever, Jiuinan nature complete — all the powers of a perfect man. Does any one believe that these powers, being carried into heaven, are to lie dormant there for ever ? Is it not manifest that there must be some exercise for them all ? Will any one maintain that a glorified spirit will be more spiritually-minded, more full of love to God, than * God manifest in the flesh ' was ? Yet He had room in His human nature for persoiial friendsJiip, as well as for the perfect love of God. Or will any one deny that the Perfect Man de- lighted Himself in the contemplation of the flowers of the field, the fowls of the air, the great order of God's works ? Surely there must be room in heaven for the infinite pleasure of studying God's works — for 'dressing and keeping' the mar- vellous 'garden' of a perfected universe, in all its infinite expanse, in all its unnumbered pro- vinces !" 1 The main difficulty in the way of impressing these truths upon mankind arises from the false associations that are commonly thrown around matter. We forget that when God first framed the body of a man. He pronounced it ' very good ;' ^ The Hon. and Rev. W. II. Lyttleton, M.A., in 'Tracts for Priests and People,' No. xii., pp. 36-7. 170 SCRIPTURE TESTIMONY. and that it was in his material dweUing-place that Adam originally enjoyed unclouded fellowship with his Maker. We forget that there is no essen- tial connection between materialism and sin ; that it was over the material world that ' the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy ;' that it is the material and visible 'heavens' that ' declare the glory of God ; ' that if the body were indeed nothing better than the prison-house of the soul, Divine love itself would hinder the possibility of its resurrection ; that it is the sub- stitution of righteousness for sin, of the pure for the vile, of love for selfishness, and not of spirit for matter, that will distinguish the new economy; for its special and distinctive mark is simply this, 'A NEW EARTH, WHEREIN DWELLETH RIGH- TEOUSNESS.' Such a view — the only revealed, and therefore the only reasonable idea of the future life — puts to shame not merely the " dreamy Elysium of classical antiquity, and the sensualisms of Oriental beliefs ; it rises above all the wearisome and vapid inanities of modern poetical or philosophical surmises," and transcends every speculation which would attempt to draw evidence of the nature of man's futurity from the analogies of nature. '' It is," as has been well said, *' the belief to which a genuine philosophy would instantly give the preference, if, among the many hypotheses of a future stage of human exist- ON HE A VEN. 171 ence which have been imagined as probable, it must make a choice." We gather from our investigation that, whatever may be the final destiny of the race, Scripture clearly teaches that the soul of the believer in Jesics passes at death into the world of separate spirits — the ' paradise ' of which Christ spoke to the peni- tent thief ; that it remains there in a state of blessed repose, and in the enjoyment of close fellowship with the Redeemer, till the resurrection of the body ; that when that great event takes place, the wJwle man, body and soul once more united, be- comes again an inhabitant of a material world {probably our earth, purified by fire), a dweller in the new Jerusalem, and a participator in the regal and priestly glories of the Redeemer. PART III. ON SALVATION. Chap. I. Various Significations of the Term IN Scripture. II. The Greater and the Lesser Salva- tion. III. The Multitude — Lost or Saved? IV. Election— TO Special Service. V. The Gospel as preached by St. Paul. 175 CHAPTER I. SALVATION, — VARIOUS SIGNIFICATIONS OF THE TERM. THE word ' Salvation ' occurs in the Old TES- TAMENT in t/iree distinct senses. First, — It is put for signal deliverances wrought by human agency ; e.g., ' Shall Jonathan die, who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel.'*' (l Sam. xiv. 45). Men are, in this sense, frequently called 'saviours' (Judg. iii. 9 — 15 ; Obad. 21). Secondly, — It is used to indicate Divine protec- tion and blessing. God is spoken of as a ' rock ' of salvation, a ' shield,' and a ' horn ' (2 Sam. xxii. 3), and special manifestations of His providence are emphatically called ' His salvation' (Exod. xiv. 13 ; I Chron. xvi. 23 — 35 ; Psa. xxvii. i). In this sense, too, Jehovah is said to be 'the saviour' of Israel (Isa. xiv. 15 ; Hos. xiii. 4). Thirdly, — It is employed to describe a state of mind, — consciousness of peace with God, and deli- verance from the dominant power of evil ; e.g., 'Let Thy priests, O God, be clothed with salvation, and let Thy saints rejoice in goodness' (2 Chron. vi. 41) ; and again, ' He hath clothed me with the 176 SALVATION, garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness' (Isa. Ixi. lo). 'Salva- tion,' in this sense, was joy and peace to its pos- sessor. So David prays, after his sad fall, ' Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation ' (Psa. li. 12) ; by which he means, 'Give me again the sweet con- sciousness of forgiven sin.' Prophetically, the everlasting blessedness of Israel (whatever that state might signify to the Jew) is called her 'salvation' (Isa. xlv. 17; xlvi. 13 ; lii. 7). I say, ivJiatever \\\-dX state might signify to the Jew; but I have no doubt as to what it did signify to him. \ believe that, to the ancient Israelite, it always and rigJitly meant, the exaltation of Abra- ham's seed under the Messiah, after the resurrection (Isa. XXV. 6—Z\ xxvi. 19; xlv. 17 — 23, comp. with Rom. xiv. 11; Ezek. xxxvii. i — 14; xvi. 53 — 63). It is in this sense that the coming King is emphatically termed by Isaiah ' a Saviour, and a great one' (xix. 20), and is spoken of by the same prophet (xlix. 8) as given ' in a day of salva- tion,' — to ' establish [raise up — marg?^ the earth,' — to cause ' to inherit the desolate heritages,' — to * say to the prisoners (in the grave), Go forth ; to them that are in darkness. Show yourselves ' (xlix. 9), — to cause the chosen people to enter upon a period when 'they shall not hunger nor thirst ; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them : for He that hath mercy on them shall lead them, ITS VARIOUS SIGNIFICATIONS. 177 even by the springs of water shall He guide them' (xlix. 10, comp. with Rev. vii. 16). * Salvation,' as it is now generally understood, in the sense of deliverance from hell, is a term un- known to the Old Testament. Such passages as, * Thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest heir (Psa, Ixxxvi. 13), or, 'Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell ' (Prov. xxiii. 14), refer only to the grave, and are usually so translated in the margin. That the ancient Jews believed \\\ future punish- ment is clear enough. The amount of light they had on this subject may be gathered from the various Scriptures which speak of sinners as 'silent in darkness ' (i Sam. ii. 9) ; as * reserved to the day of destruction' (Job. xxi. 30); as persons whose * name ' shall, by God, be ' put out for ever and ever' (Psa. ix. 5) ; on whom He will * rain burning coals, fire, and brimstone, and an horrible tempest ' (xi. 6) ; w ho ' shall not inhabit the earth ' (Prov. X. 30) ; who shall be slain by 'the breath of the lips ' of Messiah (Isa. xi. 4) ; who shall be made as * ashes under the soles of the feet ' of the righteous (Mai. iv. 3) ; and whose ' carcases ' (dead corpses) shall be for an enduring memorial of God's judg- ment on them, for 'their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh ' (Isa. Ixvi. 24). From these passages, — a?id tJierc are none of a contrary 1/8 SALVATION, character, — it is difficult to see how the Jew could gather more than that the wicked would rise again, and, at the judgment, be subjected to the punish- ments thus threatened. What classes of persons were by the Jews in- cluded under the term ' wicked,' it is not difficult to gather. Primarily, and as a ride, the idolatrous enemies of Israel, — their seducers and oppressors, — constituted the great body of transgressors ; ex- ceptionally, apostate Jews, — men of violence and blood, flagrant opposers of God and goodness, — were comprehended ; but there is nothing what- ever to indicate even a suspicion, on the part either of priest or prophet, that mankind as a race, in consequence of Adam's fall, were born under a liability to eternal misery after death, — that all alike were, by natiwe, involved in this one great and common condemnation. Explain the fact as we may, it cannot be denied that the doctrine of the liability of all mankind, in consequence of the fall, to eternal misery, if revealed at all in Scrip- ture, can be found only in that later revelation, the advent of which was announced to the wondering shepherds as 'good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people' (Luke ii. lo). Nothing can be plainer than that the Jew looked at the condition of the race from a stand-point dif- fering in many respects from our own. It never seems to have occurred to him that man, as ma7i. ITS VARIOUS SIGNIFICATIONS. 179 was under condemnation ; that the original threat- ening, ' In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die,' meant more than God declared it to mean when He said to Adam, ' Cursed is the ground for thy sake ; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life ; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground ; for out of it wast thou taken : for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return ' (Gen. iii. 17 — 19) ; or that a Jewish babe was bom 'under wrath,' and, until regenerated, regarded as a child of the devil. Explain this state of things as we may, we are forced to conclude that, if man did really then enter upon existence in the condition supposed, the Antediluvian, the Patriarch, and the Israelite, were alike ignorant of the fact. That the distinctions which exist 7ww, between the spiritual and unspiritual, the merely moral and the truly devout, the men of form and ritual, and the men whose purged eye pierced through these outer coverings into the invisible and eternal, existed among the Jews, cannot be doubted. Such men knew, as well as we do, that they were fallen and depraved, that they had natures prone to sin and averse to holiness, and that God therefore re- quired *a new heart and a right spirit' (Ezek. xi. 19 ; xviii. 31) ; but, as I have said before, this ne- cessity is, in the Old Testament, never spoken of as attaching to man, as man, in consequence of i8o SALVATION, Adam's sin ; is never regarded as existing apart from personal transgression, or ever supposed to be essential to salvation. Whether rightly or wrongly, the Jews assuredly believed that, whatever might become of other nations, * Israel ' would be ' saved.' Individually, they were quite aware that the birthright might be cast away, that God might be rejected, and His favour lost by apostacy ; but, as a nation, they always regarded themselves, and were regarded by the prophets, even in the midst of their backslid- ings, as a chosen people (Rom. xi. 26). In the New Testa^ieNT, the word 'salvation ' first meets us in the announcement of the angel that the holy child shall be called Jesus {i. e., Saviour), because He shall save His people from their sins (Matt. i. 21). Peter, addressing the Israelites, says, * Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turn- ing aivay every one of you from his iniquities ' (Acts iii. 26) ; and Paul but teaches the same doctrine to the Gentiles when he tells them that * the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation ' (Rom. i. 16) ; that they must ' work out ' their ' salvation with fear and trembHng' (Phil. ii. 12) ; that salvation is ' a helmet ' for daily use in the warfare of time ; and that the * wise ' are they who live it (Ephes. v. 15'; vi. 17). Nothing can be clearer than that the primary and pi'incipal idea of salvation in the New ITS VARIOUS SIGNIFICATIONS. i8i Testament is deliverance from the bondage of evil, emancipation from the ^captivity' of Satan. But this is not the only sense in which it is used, — for St. Paul, writing to the Romans regarding Christ, says, * Being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved /r/^^r, even for a present luiion with Christ ; involving; freedom from the love of sin, — the partaking of a ' Divine nature,' — being * born 182 SALVATION, again,' — ' created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them' (Ephes. ii. lo). Hence it is that Peter is sent to tell Cornelius 'words whereby he and all his house should be saved ' (xi. 14), although before he heard those zuords the Lord himself had said to him, * Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God ' (x. 4). Hence, too, Zaccheus, a man evi- dently accepted beforehand on account of his works (Luke xix. 8), has salvation * brought to his house ' by that blessed Redeemer who * came to seek and to save that which was lost' (ver. 9, 10). It is in this higher sense alone that salvation comes to the Gentile throicgh the fall of the Jew (Rom. xi. 11) ; that some are 'from the beginning chosen to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth' (2 Thess. ii. 13) ; and that for others there is ' a day ' (or period) in which, as * in a time accepted,' they may gain or lose the precious boon. And so it is recorded on one occasion, that ' as many as were ordained (set in order) to eternal life believed ' (Acts xiii. 48) ; and on another, that ' the Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved,' or, as Alford trans- lates it, ^ those ivho were being saved' (Acts ii. 47). \\\ all these cases the salvation spoken of is mnch more than deliverance from wrath, much more than emancipation from the captivity of Satan ; it is ITS VARIOUS SIGNIFICATIONS. 183 admission to fellowship with the Redeemer, it is the earnest and pledge of a full and final victory over all evil. Greatly, therefore, as some may be stumbled at being told that salvation is represented in Scripture as a thing of degree, involving more or less accord- ing to circumstances, we fearlessly affirm it to be true. Scripture does indeed teach that to be ' hi Christ' involves a title to every form of spiritual blessing, whether for time or eternity ; but it does not teach that every man not thus united to the Saviour is abandoned to Satan, or that he who fails to become in the highest sense a child of God, is by necessary consequence a child of the devil. Not so easily does the Father in heaven let His feeble and erring ones go. For men are His children in tivo senses, — by birth, and by adoption ; they can be the devil's only in one, — by giving themselves up to his power and service, and by a voluntary and wicked rejection of the offered love of the Redeemer. If salvation be not a things of decrree, what does St. Paul mean when he speaks of it as especially sent to God-fearing men — * Whosoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent' (Acts xiii. 26)} when, writing to 'saints' — saved men — he says, ' Whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation ' (2 Cor. i. 6) .'* v/hen he tells the Philippians that the contradic- 1 84 SALVATION, tions he experienced should turn to his * salvation ' through their prayer, and 'the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ' (i. 19)? when he bids Timothy 'take heed' unto himself, and to 'the doctrine' he teaches, since ' in so doing ' he should ' both save himself and them that heard him' (i Tim. iv. 16) ? when in one place he affirms it to be certain that 'all Israel shall be saved' (Rom. xi. 26), and, in another, labours ' if by any means he might save some of them ' (xi. 14) .^ In what other sense than in that of a present and higher salvation, as distinguished from a future and lower one, is it possible to conceive of the loving Saviour saying, ' Unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables : that seeing they may see, and not perceive ; and hearing they may hear, and not understand ; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be for- given them' (Mark iv. 12).? Does any reasonable being, with the fear of God before his eyes, dare to say that words like these, whether found in the Prophets or on the lips of the Lord himself, mean more than that the parties here referred to were not tJien capable of profiting by the instruction He imparted, — that they were not fit to be numbered among His chosen disciples, — that their reception of His teaching at that time would only lead to its misapprehension and abuse .? Does any one ima- p-ine that the Redeemer meant it to be supposed ITS VARIOUS SIGNIFICATIONS. 185 that He abandoned the multitude to Satan for ever ? The conclusion may be a startling one, but it cannot be escaped, — Grace, in one form or other, must extend beyond this dispensation ; Mercy must be future as well as present ; Forgiveness must hQ possible, not only in this world, but in the world to come ; Pardon and Union to Christ cannot be identical ; Salvation is a thing of degree. And now we come to understand why it is that salvation is spoken of in Scripture as accomplished through so many agencies ; that belief in Christ's power to heal saved when He was on earth (Luke vii. 50) ; that baptism once serued (i Pet. iii. 21) ; that hope saves (Rom. viii. 24) ; that memory saves (i Cor. XV. 2) ; that the Word saves (J as. i. 21) ; that the love of the truth saves (2 Thess. ii. 10) ; that preaching saves (i Cor. i. 21) ; that grace saves (Ephes. ii. 5, 8) ; that endurance to the end saves (Matt. xxiv. 13) ; that calling on the name of the Lord saves (Acts ii. 21) ; that coming to Christ saves (John x. 9) ; that His life saves (Rom. v. 10) ; that His death saves (Col. i. 22) ; that faith saves (Acts xvi. 31) ; that belief in the resurrection of the Lord saves (Rom. x. 9) ; that the knowledge of Scripture saves (2 Tim. iii. 15); that Christ is • himstXi ^ sak'atioji' (Luke ii. 30; Acts iv. 12); and that real Christians, while saved already, come at 1 86 SALVATION. leng-th to sav, 'Now is our salvation nearer than when we beheved' (Rom. xiii. ii). Hence, too, it is that ' salvation,' while a present blessing, is yet an 'inheritance' (Heb. i. 14); en- joyed now, yet to be received by them that ' look for the Saviour when He shall appear the second time without sin (a sin offering) unto salvation ' (Heb, ix. 28); in one sense entered upon when faith \s first exercised ; in another, the crown and completion of the Christian life. It is in this latter sense, as an inheritance ' re- served ' for those ' who are kept by the power of God,' that 'salvation' was so deep an object of interest to holy men of old. For this, — the highest privilege of the elect and the gift of Christ, — was the salvation ' of which [or, regarding which] the prophets have [in all ages] inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace [the pecu- liar favour] that should come unto [the saints] : searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow. Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us [of the Gentile dispensation] they did minister the things which are now reported by them [the in- spired apostles] that preached the Gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven ; which things the angels desire to look into' (i Pet. i. 10 — 12). i87 CHAPTER II. ON THE GREATER AND THE LESSER SALVATION. I AM by no means unaware that the course of inquiry here pursued will be very distasteful to that large class of dubious Christians who — to use a phrase of their own — never do more than indulge the hope of being eventually saved, and yet are, nevertheless, marvellously satisfied with their spiritual condition. Accustomed, as such persons have always been, to regard * salvation ' only in one light, viz., as complete deliverance from evil and sorrow after death, anything which seems to indicate the pos- sibility of the future state involving trial is to them intolerable. Impatient under the discipline of this life, irri- tated rather than improved by its cares, people of this class cling only the more closely to the con- viction that, if * saved ' from hell, they imcst, in the world to come, be perfectly happy ; have done for ever with the vexations and contradictions which have tormented them in this mortal state, and find 1 88 SALVATION, no further occasion for the exercise of a forbear- ance, the practice of which has been so difficult and disagreeable while here. It never seems to occur to them as possible that those who leave the earth meek and chastened, loving and truthful, may, perchance, carry with them, even into paradise, the elements of their joy ; or that others, by the same law of continuance, may bear in their own bosoms- seeds of sorrow capable of development even in a world of bliss. How can it be so, they say, since * saints ' are by grace alone made * heirs ' of heaven, and * sinners ' altogether excluded from joy or hope } Beyond this awful alternative. Scripture, they imagine, reveals absolutely nothing. Not such, however, so far as I have yet been able to discover, is the teaching of the Bible. If it were so, our only duty would be silence. But believing that such is not the case — that some por- tions of revelation, at least, are intended to lead us to a very different conclusion, and that while Scrip- ture distinctly reveals a salvation of the highest kind for the few, it intimates also a salvation of a much lower kind for the many, we may venture to pursue our search /c^r the whole truths without fear or hesitation. The entire question is simply one of Divine tes- timony, and its only importance is that which it derives from its bearing on the revealed character of God ; on the extent and efficiency of the work GREATER AND LESSER, 189 of Christ ; and on the promotion of hohness among those who beheve themselves to be emphatically His children. The ground over which we have to pass is one that has been little trodden. Whether 'Redemp- tion ' be general or particular — whether Christ, properly speaking, died for the Church only, or for the world also, is a point which has long divided theologians ; but all parties appear to have agreed that, whatever be the right way of viewing this question, redemption can only become practi- cally available to anychild of Adam by the exer- cise in this life of a personal faith, wrought by the Holy Spirit. That the salvation, whether of the individual or of the race, is of grace alone, I should be the last to dispute ; but I am not quite so ready to accept the logical consequence, necessary as it may seem to be, that the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus can have no efficacy apart from the present and personal faith of the sinner ; or, which is the same thing, that the redemption of mankind by Christ becomes a reality only in so far as the truths of revelation are applied by the Holy Spirit to the hearts of individuals. I see, indeed, abundant reasons in Scripture for believing that a man may reject the salvation thus wrought out for him ; that he may count himself ' unworthy of eternal life,' and so perish in his pride ; but I can discover none in 190 SALVATION, support of the notion that the great sacrifice, after all, only rendered it possible for men to be saved in connection with their faith in it while on earth ; or that if no man in Judea had believed in Christ, the only result of His boundless love would have been the deeper condemnation of us all. That there is a salvation which is only hy faith may readily be admitted, for in no other way can any man attain to that vital union with the Re- deemer, which is life eternal ; but that where this great and vital change is not effected, nothing which can be of any avail to the sinner is accom- plished, I as strenuously deny; for the world is given to Christ, and not to Satan ; and the redemp- tion which suffices, 'through the forbearance of God,' for 'sins that are past' — the sins of those who lived before the incarnation, and therefore never knew the Lord, suffices also, through the same forbearance, for sins committed by men to whom the Gospel has never been preached, or by whom it has been so imperfectly understood, that it cannot truthfully be said either to have been in- telligently received, or consciously rejected. ' If I had not come and spoken unto them,' says our Lord of the Jews, * they had not had sin;' and again, * If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin'— ?. Yi of multitudes, who never get be- yond it, but live and die in this wTetched bondage } Further, — the Lord, through His own death, is said *to deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage ' (Heb. ii. 15). This text is generally supposed to intimate that by faith in Christ timid believers are freed from the fear of physical death. But this is not its meaning, for the words are obviously connected with the ninth verse, in which the Saviour is spoken of as tasting * death for every man,' and with the fourteenth verse, where the Redeemer is repre- sented as, ' through death,' destroying * him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.' It must, therefore, in some form or other, apply to all men. The true meaning, probably, is that Christ, ' by the favour of God,' suffered for ' every man ' (ver. 9), in order that * He might subdue him who has a deadly power — that is, the devil — and free those who, through fear of condemnation (death being here us^d as including its consequences), had GREATER AND LESSER. 195 during their whole Hves been subject to bondage.' — Stuart) The phrase ' power of death,' or deadly power of the devil (Heb. ii. 14), is probably parallel to 'works of the devil' (i John iii. 8); and both imply that Christ's death delivers the race from 'the curse of the law,' that 'the blessing of Abra- ham might come on the Gentiles' (Gal. iii. 13, 14). But ivJiat is the blessing of Abraham 1 Clearly the restoration of his race at the resurrection. And this is the blessing which the Gentiles also are to enjoy. For 'the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed ' (Gal. iii. 8). There is nothing to show that all nations would, by the exercise here of a living faith, be spiritually united to the Redeemer. The teaching is, that by faith in Christ alone, as opposed to works of law, could they be saved ; and that ' the Scripture hath con- cluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe' (Gal. iii. 22). But since myriads who lived before the Incarnation are, 'through the forbearance of God,' saved by a Redeemer whom on earth they never knew ; so, in virtue of the like forbearance, myriads who have subsequently lived on earth under similar circumstances, will be saved too ; not, indeed, without faith, but by a faith exercised in other states of existence, — saved in that lower 196 SAL VA TION, sense, which implies dehverance from the captivity of Satan, but not that higher and closer com- munion with Christ which belongs to those who love and trust Him here, and, by His grace, ' en- dure unto the end.' The words of the Apostle Paul to Timothy ( 1 Ep. iv. 10), * We trust in the living God, who is tlie Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe' caw scarcely have any other meaning than that son:e will be saved with a higher, and some with a lower, salvation. They seem distinctly to imply that /6V' some there is a salvation, inseparably connected with belief, entered upon hei^e, by faith ; and for others, who — it may be for want of a teacher — have not accepted the Gospel, a salvation of an inferior kind. Divines have felt the difficulty, and tried to get rid of it by rationalizing, and asserting that Saviour here does not mean Saviour. So they read it thus : — * God preserves all by the care of His pro- vidence, but saves believers from eternal death' (so Macknight, Baxter, and Gill). Alford, following Clarke, interprets, — ' Saviour intended for all, but appropriated only by believers.' The reply to such interpretation is decisive. The text does not say intended for all ; it says, ' ivJio is ' (6c tfTTi), in some sense or other, * the Saviour of all,' but specially and in a higher sense 'of those diat believe.' The same word is used for Saviour GREATER AND LESSER. 197 here as everywhere else ; and it is sought to dis- regard this, merely lest countenance should be given to Universalism. But why should it be supposed that evasion of this kind can ever be necessary to protect truth ? Why cannot we — without pushing the word * all ' to the absurd extent of practically denying that any man can destroy himself by his wickedness and impenitence, accept the teaching in its simple and obvious sense ? If we do so, the passage is confirmed by another text in the second epistle (2 Tim. ii. 20), where we are told that in the Church, as in ' a great house,' there are ' some vessels to honour, and some to dishonour ; ' and that he who wx!uld be *a vessel unto honour,' must spurge him- self from 'profane and vain babblings,' — such as those indulged in, who maintained that the resur- rection, being merely a spiritual thing, was * past already,' — and, in addition thereto, live a holy and godly life (2 Tim. ii. 16 — 18 ; Rom. vi. 4). Then would such a man be ' meet for the Master's use,' ■ — fit for closer union with the Redeemer than others, and therefore for more distinguished service. Viewed by the light thus thrown upon the Divine procedure, other passages of Scripture, which often perplex us, become clear, — such as those which speak of tJie forgiveness of sins. ' Thy sins are forgiven thee,' is a declaration frequently 198 SALVATION, made by the Saviour, and apparently quite apart from a consideration of the previous character of those to whom the words were spoken. Some- times it is made in connection with bodily heal- ing, and then it is under but one requirement, — faith in the Saviour's ability and willingness to grant the required boon. ' Believe ye that I am able to do this .? ' (Matt. ix. 2, 5). Now, without going here into the question as to what forgiveness comprehended when connected with bodily healing, — whether it implied, as we think probable, only the forgiveness of the par- ticular sin for which the disease, thus miraculously removed, had been under that peculiar economy inflicted (in which case the phrase was simply an equivalent for 'Arise, and walk'), or whether, as in the case of the woman 'who was a sinner' (Luke vii. 37 — 50), it involved the pardon of sin generally, — it is surely safe to affirm that it did not, in all cases and necessarily, imply spiritual communion with the Redeemer. In the case of the sick, it was a low, not a high salvation ; for it healed the body without necessarily purifying the heart. Nor are these the only cases in which the forgiveness of sin is separated from oneness with Christ. * If ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive your trespasses,' is a direct assertion from the lips of one who can- not deceive ; and yet, who will say that a forgiving GREATER AND LESSER. 199 spirit is the only requisite for union to Christ ? To h^ forgiven a sin is one thing; to be so completely delivered from its power, that we shall altogether abstain from it, is another : to know that we shall h^ pardoned {ox Christ's sake is a mercy truly ; but infinitely greater is the blessing which reveals to us the place we shall occupy * among them that are sanctified' (Acts xxvi. 18). Y\xx\\\^x, forgiveness maybe retracted. At least, so the parable of the unforgiving servant (Mati-. xviii. 34) is usually understood to teach. But one- ness with Christ, once enjoyed, can never be lost. God forbid that we should think lightly of the for- giveness of sins by Christ in any sense ; yet what renewed man does not /rr/ the difference — however difficult it may be for him to expound it — between the words addressed to the palsied sufferer, ' Man, thy sins are forgiven thee ' (Luke v. 20), and the call so soon after made to Levi the publican, ' Follow me ; and he left all, and rose up, and fol- lowed Him' } In the one case there is a declara- tion of pardon ; in the other, an invitation to com- munion. To the former, the gift is bodily health ; to the latter, tJie honour of service. To forgive sins (whatever the term may mean) was, as our Lord himself tells us, equivalent to saying, 'Arise, and walk ; ' it was a boon capable of being conferred by mortal man ; for whomsoever the apostles for- gave on earth were to be forgiven in heaven. But 200 SALVATION. w ho imagines that the twelve could forgive sin in any sense which implies a change of heart ? Who does not know that they possessed no power to insure even their own continued union with the Master? The conclusion to be drawn from the whole is, that the pardon of the sinner, and the glorification of the saint, are two distinct things, and ought never to be confounded ; that the work of Christ and of His Gospel on earth is twofold \— first, to call out His Bride, — His Elect Church; and secondly, to destroy the works of the devil, by forgiving sins, by delivering captives, and by preparing mankind at large for higher and nobler revelations in the age to come, when Christ himself will rule and teach through those whom He has Jierc, for that special end, taught and trained. TJien will it be seen that the falsehoods of Romanism on the one hand, and the delusions of Infidelity on the other, have been but mocking shadows of the true ; that the Lord is at once a Priest upon a throne, and the social Regenerator of the race ; that while, on the one hand, as King and Judge, He executes vengeance on His enemies, He is still— YV\^ nature being un- changeable — * kind even to the unthankful and to the evil' (Luke vi. 35). 201 CHAPTER III. SALVATION OF THE MULTITUDE. THAT in Christian countries the multitude, — ignorant, thoughtless, and too often abso- lutely irreligious, — die hopefully, if not happily, can scarcely be disputed. The question recurs con- tinually, — Whither do they go ? ' Say, — are they lost or saved ? ' Ls it not certain that such persons live and die very much as the crowds lived and died, who eighteen hundred years ago witnessed our Lord's miracles, and heard His words, on the hills and in the plains of Judea } Whatever conclusions, there- fore, we arrive at as to the one, must greatly affect our conclusions as to the other. But here it will be said, ' How can we arrive at any judgment at all on such a subject V I reply, in one way only, by carefully observing our Lord's conduct and teaching in relation to these same multitudes when He was on earth. They were not • ranked, we know, among the disciples ; for He dis- tinctly tells us that He spake to them ' in parables, 202 THE MULTITUDES, that seeing- they might not see, and hearing they might not understand ' (Luke viii. lo). It is equally certain they were not classed with the Scribes and Pharisees, whom He denominates 'vnpers;' He never says to than, ' How shall j'<:' escape the dam- nation of hell ?* On the contrary, His sympathies seem to have been, as a rule, with these common people. He heals their diseases ; He forgives their sins, what- ever that phrase may be intended to include ; He mourns over them as ' sheep without a shepherd ;' and He regards them as * the harvest.' These are Scriptiwe facts, and we ask, Are they intended to teach anything ? or are they to be altogether over-ridden by irjercnces of our own, drawn from other Scriptures, such as the declara- tion of our Lord to Nicodemus, or the various state- ments in the Epistles which speak of Christians as ' a peculiar people/ called with a ' holy calling,' re- generated by the Spirit, sanctified by grace, and preserved unto the end } I know how easy it is to maintain that such inferences are necessary; — that a man unconverted is morally unfit for the companionship of the re- deemed ; and that, were such an one in heaven, he could have no sympathy either with its inhabitants or its employments. I am not insensible to the force of this reasoning ; and within limits fully admit its truthfulness. But I cannot, therefore, LOST OR SAVED? 203 come to the conclusion that no man can be saved who is not on earth made morally and spiritually 'meet for the inheritance of the saints in light ;' or that all, who are not made ' partakers of the Divine nature ' here, are for ever left to the com- panionship of Satan, and doomed to eternal hatred of God and goodness in the regions of darkness and despair. I cannot admit such a view, (i) Because it is by no means clear that our Lord's w^ords to Nicodemus oiigJit to be understood in the sense ordinarily attached to them. (2) Because other texts usually adduced to prove that the way to heaven is very narrow, and \hdX fezv reach the realms of bliss, are for the most part irrelevant, being addressed, not to the unbelieving world, but to the disciples as sucJi. (3) Because the course pursued by the Saviour towards the unconverted, both in His teaching and conduct, are inconsistent with the supposition that none but the regenerate can be saved ; and (4) Because the later revelations of the Holy Spirit through the apostles, lead to the conclusion that the salvation of mankind, and the glorification of the saints, are by no means one and the same thing. The necessities of a systematic theology, con- sisting, as I have frequently said, mainly of human inferences, may require us to believe, on the one hand, that the young man whom Jesus Moved,' 204 T^HE MULTITUDES, since he was not 'perfect,' was for ever abandoned to Satan ; and on the other, that the Divine Redeemer, while heahng the diseases of the body, kept back the Word of Life from the perishing multitude, lest they should be saved : but, apart from such bias, renewed hearts, interpreting their Lord by the love with which He has Himself in- spired them, revolt from such conclusions, and feel assured that the highest form of spiritual blessing only was withheld ; that he who could not give up all for Christ was sent away sorrowing, simply be- cause he was morally unfit to rank with the apostles ; and that they whose eyes were 'closed,' lest they should see, were blinded but for a time, and if in judgment, in mercy also ; for He who said on one occasion, ' For judgment {i. e., as a test) am I come into the world,' assures us on another that he came ' not to judge ' (to condemn) the world, but to 'save it' (John ix. 39; iii. 17; xii. 47). Never should we forget that it was the same voice which said to one, ' If thou wilt be perfect, sell that thou hast, and follow me ' (Matt. xix. 21), that said to another, i<.^Jio luished to folloiu Him, ' Return to thine own house,' — be thankful for deliverance, and ' show how great things God hath done unto thee' (Luke viii. 38, 39); that the crowds, sustained more than once by the Lord's bounty, were, when fed, sent aivay ; and that from these masses many forms of truth were avowedly LOST OR SAVED? 205 withheld, because they were not able to receive them. To what conclusion can we come, then, but that the spiritually unenlightened, — those who have never understood^ and therefore neither accepted nor rejected the Gospel, — whether involved in the thick darkness of heathenism, or lost amid the mists of a superstitious and sectarian Christianity, are saved, but with a lower salvation ; saved, not in the sense in which apostles and martyrs are saved, but saved from the ' captivity ' of Satan, and brought under a probation adapted to their weak- ness, and in harmony with what is to be their final position in the universe ? Where, and in what precise way, such probation will be effected, I do not profess to know. I think it most probable that it will commence immediately after the Resurrection ; that it \wi\\ follow the teach- ing and discipline of the invisible world, so far as that teaching may be brought to bear on the dis- embodied spirit ; that it will be carried on upon the new earth in which dwelleth righteousness ; and that it will be accomplished through the agency of the Elect Church. That the saints of God, ' the Church of the First- born,' will in that blessed state be free from sin and all its seductions, cannot be doubted, for they will •be united to their Lord ; but there is nothing to show that tliis will be the condition of all \\\\o rise 2o6 THE MULTITUDES, from the dead, or that they who have had no pro- bation on earth will have no enemy to fight in the world (or age) that is to come. Salvation is, in Scripture, never regarded as separable from probation. And yet it must be so, if infants, and idiots, and the utterly unenlightened, are to be regarded as saved, /;/ the same sense, and with the same glorious results, as the faithful of all ages. For then must heaven be entered by millions without faith, or love, or holiness, or discipline, or a new heart ; or — which is still more opposed to all that is revealed concerning God — these same millions must be regarded as lost ; multitudes of them without having committed actual sin, — with- out having, even once, exercised a rebellious Avill ; and other multitudes without ever having heard of the Law which condemns them, or of the Saviour whom they are supposed in this case, by something like a legal fiction, to have rejected. But the entire difficulty passes away if we are permitted to suppose that such, wdiile saved from the captivity of Satan, are not yet made partakers of the glory that shall be revealed ; that faculties, never developed here, will find development in other states of existence ; and that the offspring of believers, under the care and love of parents then perfected in Christ, will there be trained for * glory, honour, and immortality,' in a school far higher and purer than that of the world they so prematurely left. LOST OR SA VED? 20; Whether such texts as John xi. 25, ' I am the Resurrection AND the Life,' phrases not necessarily synonymous, may mean that the one (the Resur- rection) relates to physical life, and is for all, while the other (the Life), which is spiritual, is for the Church ; or Rom. iii. 30, 'It is one God, which shall justify the circumcision BY faith, and un- circumcision THROUGH faith,' — a distinction 'not to be made,' as Dean Alford says, * too much of,' yet not without its meaning ; or Heb. xii. 23, ' The general assembly and Church of the Firstborn^ as distinguished from * the spirits of just men made perfect;' or 2 Tim. ii. 10, ' The salvation v/hich. is in Christ Jesus, WITH {ji^ra) eternal glory ' (salva- tion here, and glory hereafter, — so Alford); ^r John i. 4, * The life was the light of men,' I e., Christ the life (of the Church), and that hfe the light of multi- tudes who partake not of the life ; or such passages as ' God gave His Son ' for the world, ' that who- soever believeth on Him should not perish,' and Christ gave Himself for the Church, 'that he might sanctify and cleanse it,' and 'present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing ;' — whether, I say, any of these Scriptures bear on the question now under our notice ; whether or no the distinctions in them, to which we have adverted, are real and important, and intended to teach us what they appear to teach, I will not positively affirm. But there is one text 2o8 THE MUL TITUDES, which it seems difficult to read without receiving a strong impression that it is intended to indicate the existence of two classes of saved persons. I mean that in the Hebrews, where St. Paul, speaking of the blessedness of sorrow to a child of God, says, ' But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons ' (Heb. xii. 8). The precise distinction here drawn by the Apostle is indicated under the figure of illegiti- mate (yoOoi) and legitimate (vloi) children. The words are specially addressed to believers as such. Both classes of children are therefore sons, although not in the same sense. The one is the child who inherits the Father's name, wealth, and position ; the other, although provided for, is altogether in a lower rank, — helped or supported, as may be needful ; acknowledged, but not honoured. What we really want to know is, whether or not we are to understand, from the~e words, that some of the saved will occupy the position of unrecog- nized, and others of recognized children .^ It is difficult to see what else eaji be intended. The general lesson imparted is plain ; that per- secution, severe discipline, and painful trial, so far from being indications of a zvant of love to us on the part of God, are, in fact, evidences that they who are 'exercised thereby' are intended for hif^her services and nobler rank in the world to come. LOST OR SA VEDf 209 But how, on this supposition, is it possible to avoid the conclusion that Hvo distinct classes of saved persons will be found in that coming age, and that the illegitimate are those who, though delivered from the captivity of Satan, and brought under the rule of Christ, are yet not invested with the dignity and glory of the Elect Church ? It may, indeed, be said, that the * bastard ' is a child only by creation, and therefore, as such, has no share in a blessing which is of grace. But this goes on the supposition that the writer meant, * If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are par- takers,' then are ye undistinguishable from those who are * in danger of hell fire ;' he does not, how- ever, say anything of the kind, nor is there any reason to suppose that he intends to leave such an impression. Again, in reading the Epistle to the Philippians (iii. 15), we find a somewhat similar distinction made by the Apostle Paul ; where, after speaking of himself as counting 'all things but loss,' if by any means he ' might attain unto the resurrection of the dead,' and as ever pressing 'toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus,' he adds, * Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded;' indicating, that among the Philippians there were those who, like himself, were already striving for the crown, and others who needed to have this high calling revealed to them. 210 THE MULTITUDES, Some, indeed, there were who were ' enemies of the cross of Christ,' whose 'end is destruction;' but others were plainly regarded as imperfect and ill- instructed persons, who, though professedly Chris- tian, had 'not apprehended' that for which they had been 'apprehended of Christ Jesus.' It is because salvation is a thing of degree, and because of the consequent possibility of losing ground for eternity by continued life, that pre- mature death is sometimes a blessing. When our Lord says, ' Whoso shall offend (hinder, or become a stumblingblock to) one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a mill- stone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea' (Matt, xviii. 6), He expresses this thought. It is as if He had said, It is better to die than to deteriorate ; better to die to-day, than to sin in some aggravated form to- morrozv ; better for yourself through all eternity to be drowned now, than to live to hinder the progress of others. And why .'' Simply because death is a less evil than sin, — a doctrine to which every true-hearted disciple instinctively responds. And now, in the light of all these considerations, let us look at the great facts of the world, with which, it should never be forgotten, the facts of Divine revelation cannot clash. These, explain it as we may, bring before us, as we have already said, not two, but three classes of character, even LOST OR SAVED? 211 among men who alike live under the light of the Christian dispensation ; those who, by Divine grace made free, resist evil, and by faith obtain the victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil ; those who, from ignorance or weakness, or under the pressure of overw^helming circumstances, as * captives,' sitbmit to the evil they cannot overcome ; and those who, from sheer wickedness, as the vohmtajy servants of Satan, love iniquity, and rejoice in it as their chosen portion. Accepting these distinctions as real, — for they cannot be set aside or denied, — I again ask, Are they, or are they not, in harmony with what Scrip- ture (if read without reference to existing schemes of theology) would lead us to expect ? If they are, let us thank God, and, with renewed courage and energy, carry on the warfare against the world, the flesh, and the devil, both in ourselves and in all around us, assured of this, that although multitudes may refuse to believe that God hath called them to * glory, honour, and immortality,' inasmuch as they will not come to Christ that they may have ' life,' our labour is not lost, nor does it necessarily aggravate their guilt and misery. The message we bring is one of 'life unto life,' and it may, by wilful rejection, become 'a savour of death unto death.' But such rejection is happily the excep- tion, not the rule. Dulness, misapprehension, and indifl"erence are the evils we have mainly to con- 212 THE MULTITUDES. tend with ; and, in relation to these, it is indeed a comfort to feel that God permits us to believe that a day is coming when the veil shall be re- moved ; that w^hat we accomplish not now, shall be accomplished hereafter ; that though we fall short of our hopes, we cannot fall short of His purposes ; that no word of God, however feebly or imperfectly ministered by us, shall return to Him void, or fail to accomplish the design for which He sent it. 213 CHAPTER IV. ON THE DOCTRINE OF ELECTION. THE doctrine of Election, viewed scripturally, and apart altogether from inferences drawn by theologians, seems to me to be in perfect har- mony with the opinions I have been advancing. A few pages may perhaps not be unprofitably occupied in stating distinctly what I regard as the teaching of the Bible on this important subject. Divine choice, or 'election,' as it is usually termed, although wiplied from the beginning in the Scriptures of the Old TESTAMENT, is nowhere distinctly asserted until Moses, in the book of Deuteronomy, affirms it of the people of Israel, — 'The Lord thy God hath cJiosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth ' (Deut. vii. 6). The purpose and peculiarity of the choice is in- volved vcv the declaration of tJic fact. It is election to service. The Israelites are to be *a special people unto the Lord, above' (but not to the ex- clusion of) others ; they are — as is subsequently revealed — to be ' witnesses ' to the Divine unity 214 ELECTION (Isa.xliv. 8) ; publishers 'to the sons of men of God's n:ighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His king- dom ' (Psa. cxlv. 10 — 12) ; and they are to become eventually the channel through which mercy should be extended to all nations (Gen. xxvi. 3, 4 ; xlix. 10; Isa. xlix. 6). But there is nothing to show that it was ever the design of God to save them only, and to abandon the rest of the world to ruin. Even their final restoration — come when and how it may — is distinctly declared to have other and higher ends than their own benefit. ' Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you : be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel ' (Ezek. xxxvi. 32). In the New TESTAMENT, election becomes a doctrine. The elect there, whoever they may be, and whether many or few, are spoken of as persons peculiarly dear to God (Mark xiii. 20 ; Luke xviii. 7) ; who shall be preserved from apostacy under every form of seduction or fiery trial to which the saints shall be subjected (Mark xiii. 22 ; Rev. xiii. 8) ; who are the special objects of apostolic solicitude (2 Tim. ii. 10 ; Titus i. i) ; and who shall finally be gathered by the angels from the four winds of heaven into the garner of God (Mark xiii. 27) ; while elec- tion itself, as distinguished from ' calling ' (Matt. XX. 16), is said to be a sovereign gift (Rom. ix. 15, 16; I Cor. i. 27, 2Z),— personal (i Thess. i. 4; TO SPECIAL SERVICE. 215 2 Tim. ii. 19), — limited QAdiit. xx. 23 ; Rom. xi. 7), — absolute (Rom. ix. 11), and eternal (Ephes. i. 4) ; yet needing to be made 'sure' (2 Pet. i. 10), since it is to sanctification, or setting apart for Divine service (2 Thess. ii. 1 3), to holiness of heart and life (Ephes. i. 4; Col. iii. 12), and to office (i Pet. ii. 9). It is in relation to office, and to office only, that the term * Elect ' is applied to Christ (Isa. xlii. i ; Matt. xii. 18; I Pet. ii. 6); — to angels (i Tim. V. 21) ; — to David (2 Sam. vi. 21 ; Psa. Ixxviii. 70) ; and to the apostles (John xv. 16—19). We gather from the whole, that election is a privilege granted to some, but not to all ; that its object is special service ; that it in no way what- ever interferes with the condition of others, ex- cepting in so far as it improves that condition, by providing for them further instruction ; that, in short, its one distinguishing characteristic is mercy, grafted on vntYcy,— favour to the few, that through their agency its blessings might be ex- tended to the many; just as God includes ^ air (whether Jew or Gentile) *in unbelief, that He DiigJit have mercy npoji all. O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out ! ' (Rom, xi. 32, 33). • I have already said that an ' election of grace,' in some sense or other, is implied from the begin- 2i6 ELECTION ning of the Old Testament. Abel, Seth, Enoch, and Noah, were obviously, in the Divine eye, ' chosen and precious ' in a sense which did not, and could not, belong to the men by whom * the earth was filled with violence.' On such, as the appointed heads of their families or tribes, — * sons of God ' (Gen. vi. 2), as distinguished from the unrighteous seed, — devolved the preserva- tion of purity and love upon the earth, in con- nection with the worship and service of the one true God. Nor is it easy to conceive of such an election — if so it may be called — as other than personal ; for it was as individuals these men feared God above many ; and it was in their individual character that they acted as guides and examples to those among whom their lot was cast. We see no im- propriety in regarding these Antediluvians as the subjects of the first, or primitive election. The covenant made with Abraham indicates, if we may so say, the commencement of t/ie second election ; and it differs from the earlier one chiefly in its national character. For the covenant is made, not with Abraham only, but with his seed after him ; tJiey, rather than he, being the destined inheritors of Canaan, the depositories of Divine truth, and the future lights of the world. It is the election of a whole people, through all their gene- rations, to be, in a peculiar sense, 'the people of TO SPECIAL SERVICE. 217 God,' a 'holy nation,' a community of 'kings and priests ' to all around. That the Jewish nation was set apart, by this solemn act of choice, to be the rulers and teachers of the rest of the world, cannot be doubted. Their miraculous history — miraculous from its commencement to its close ; their instinctive con- sciousness of a regal destiny — a consciousness still clinging to them as closely as ever ; their marvel- lously unworldly institutions — such especially as the Sabbatic year, — all testify to the fact that God intended them to enjoy pre-eminence, as the best men of that period of the world's history. Nor should it be forgotten, while perusing that dark record of their folly and crime which it has pleased God to stereotype for use in all ages, that while no other people ever had their inner life so faithfully depicted, or their faults so unsparingly disclosed, the nation, as a nation, during by far the greater part of its existence, was ininieasiLvably superior to any other people then existing ; and that its representative men, its kings and warriors, its prophets and its priests, its heads of families and well-conducted households, were really the elite of the world, and the ' salt of the earth,' as it then was. Who can read David's heart-stirring comparison between the pure and cheerful worship of Jehovah, perpetually celebrating on Mount Zion, and the horrid and foul rites of the surrounding 2i8 ELECTION nations, without feeling how righteous was the scorn which made him exclaim, ' Their drink-offer- ings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips ? ' Who can think of the/^^f;/;'t^; ' and finally, like Esau of old, they cast away ' their birthrigJit' never again to find it, even though it should be sought * carefully and with tears ' (Heb. xii. 17). Spiritually indeed, and in relation to individuals, ■ — for then, as now, ' all ' were * not Israel ' who were ' of Israel ' (Rom. ix. 6), — the covenant was unchangeable, and so, one after another, the holy fnen of old * died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,' and assured that in ' the better country,' to which they were hastening, every word of God would find a glorious fulfilment. But, as a zvJiole, and in rela- tion to the purpose for which it was designed, the Jewish election must be termed a failure, — so TO SPECIAL SERVICE. 219 far at least as we may venture, without irre- verence, thus to speak of a transaction in which God, to our short-sighted conceptions, appears to allow His intentions to be thwarted by human perversity. The tJiird and final election, — that under the Gospel, which, be it observed, proceeds on pre- cisely the same principle as the earlier ones, — viz., the setting apart of the noblest and the best for special service, — dates from the advent of the Redeemer, and, like the Jewish, has a twofold character ; externally, embracing all professors of Christianity, however feeble their faith, or however inconsistent their conduct ; but spiritually, and in a deeper sense, including only the highest and purest among the children of men. St. Paul clearly indicates this when he addresses as ' elect,' all the members of a Church which con- tained, at that very time, in its fellowship, some who denied the resurrection of the dead, and others who lived in flagrant sin (i Cor. v.) ; St. Peter, when he tells us that 'election' is a 'calling* which has to be made 'sure' (2 Pet. i. 10) ; and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, when he speaks of the falling away of persons whom it is 'impossible' to 'renew again unto repentance' (Heb. vi. 6). In no case, however, as some have thought, is the Divine choice represented as proceeding on the 220 ELECTION assumption that the persons elected merit distinc- tion, or are chosen on account oi foreseen goodness ; m all the choice is regarded as made for reasons which are 7'eserved in the Divine mind. Hence we very properly speak of it as sovereign, — not mean- ing by that term anything arbitrary or capricious, but simply using the phrase as descriptive of an act commenced and completed for reasons which are concealed from us. Yet, not altogether so; for while nothing is told us which explains, or is intended to explain, zuhy this individual is taken, and that left, the general principle embodied is, as we are distinctly in- formed, the ultimate elevation of the many, through the agency of the few. On this point Scripture is explicit, — * Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,' says St. Paul, who hath ' predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,' — 'that in tJie dispen- sation' ("economy," so Alford) ' of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him' (Ephes. i. 3 — 10). Election, then, regarded in its twofold character, is visible and invisible ; visible, in so far as it ex- ternally embraces all who ' profess and call them- selves ' Christians ; invisible, so far as it relates to the truly regenerate, — to those who, in the words TO SPECIAL SERVICE. 221 of the Apostle John, are born, ' not of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.' It is in this latter sense alone that the elect Church is the ' Bride of Christ ; ' for none but the 'regenerate,' — and we should clearly distinguish these from the merely ' converted,' — can share in the throne and the priesthood of the risen Saviour. WJlo these are it is not for us to inquire. Hidden at present from mortal eye, they will one day be owned and made manifest before an assembled world, as the best, the noblest, the most Christ-like souls earth, with all its discipline, and heaven, with all its love, can fashion and bring forth. Lawful enough it may be for us, in our ignorance, to Jiope that we ourselves, and those whom we see around us in the daily Christian intercourse of life, — with whose prayers we mingle our own, and with whom we share the fellowship alike of Christian effort and of Church communion — all belong to that blessed company, for, in the absence of evi- dence to the contrary, it is not fitting that we should form any other judgment. But it is not really so. Only a part are chosen to honour. For God's elect, did we know them, would be found even now zvorthy of tJicii^ name, and very different from those who only perplex by their inconsist- encies, or plague by their folly. Loving, trustful, and unselfish ; broad in their sympathies, candid in their judgments, honourable 222 ELECTION in their lives, and humble in the estimate they form of themselves, these, the true sons and daugh- ters of the Highest, will one day issue from the obscurity in which it pleases God as yet to hide them, and * tJiey shall zualk in zvJiite, for they are woi'thy' From deepest poverty and peasants' huts — with here and there, it may be, one from the palaces of princes ; from lonely prisons, and from martyrdoms severer than those of the axe or the stake ; cultured, or rude of speech ; great souls, of whom the world knows nothing, will then come forth, — 'a multitude which no man can number,' and stand confessed God's own nobility, the aristo- cracy of the skies. That the rest of the professing Church will be saved, need not be doubted. For to be ' saved ' is one thing, but to be honoured of God and of Christ is quite another thing. To be ' forgiven ' is imich ; but to hold rank among the sanctified is far more. The one is not unfrequently found in combination with the ambitions of this world ; the other, even now, has no heartfelt affinities with anything that does not more or less bear on the world that is to come. Diversities of condition, we are also distinctly taught (i Cor. xv. 41), will be as characteristic of the world (or age) that is to come, as they are of this ; yet then, as now, each will receive, not less, but far more than he deserv^es ; and each, whatever TO SPECIAL SERVICE. 223 he may have to lose or to suffer, as the just penalty of folly or of sin, will be obliged to admit that ' the Judge of the whole earth ' does ' right! Looking forward to that glorious period — the day of Christ, and the resurrection of the body — the elect, under the symbolic title of Elders, are presented to us in the apocalyptic vision as already exercising priestly functions — holding censers full of odours — and filling heaven with anticipative praise. 'And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof : for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation ; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests : and wc shall REIGN oji the earthl Without the recognition of the twofold salvation — that of the elect, the * kings ' who are to ' reign with Christ,' and that of ' the world,' who are to be subjects in the kingdom, it seems impossible to reconcile the * strait gate,' the ' narrow way,' and the *few there be that find it,' with the various promises which speak of the kingdoms of this world becoming ' the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ; Regarded as these passages usually are — all alike made to apply to the same class, they leave the impression of a total contrast, if not of inex- plicable contradiction. Viewed, as they should be, 224 ELECTION separately and apart ; the fovvier regarded as re- lating to the elect alone — the special result of this dispensation ; the latter, as referring to the ultimate condition of tJie race as a wJiole, they fully harmo- nize ; for they then intimate that "the completed salvation of the elect Church, instead of closing- the fountains of Divine love, only introduces a wider and fuller display of it;" that, for aught we know, *' there may be a thousand stages and varie- ties of union with Christ distinguishable from the glory of the elect Church;"^ that as God, ' at the first, visited the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name ' (Acts xv. 14), so, at last, through that visitation of mercy, will Christ event- ually secure 'the heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession;' that as by the fall of the chosen people the Gentiles were enriched, so, in their fulness, shall ' all Israel be saved ; ' and the cross, so long ' a stumbling- block to the Jew,' and ' folly to the Greek,' shall become at length the centre of the world's at- traction, and the word of the Redeemer be verified — ' /, if I be lifted up, will draw all men tinto me! ^ Rev. Edw. Bickersteth. See also, Birks's "Outlines of Pro- phecy," pp. 141, 143, 147. TO SPECIAL SERVICE. 22^ Note. It will probably be said that certain texts of Scripture are dis- tinctly opposed to the view I have taken, since they clearly assert that the Divine sovereignty is exercised, not with regard to office or service merely, but in relation to acceptance or rejection, salvation or damnation, love or hate. I cannot, of course, determine what particular texts any one thus arguing might think fit to bring forward, nor would it be possible here to deal with them controversially. But it may not be unsuitable to notice, however briefly, two or three of the more prominent ones, which are generally regarded as conclusive. They are the follow- ing :— (i). Rom. ix. 13, ^ Jacob have I loved' {[it., preferred, as in Luke xvi. 13) *■ and Esau have I hated' (lit., disregarded, as in Luke xiv. 26). These words, let it be observed, are avowedly a quotation from Mai. i, 2, 3, where they clearly refer, not to individuals, but to Edom and Israel, and the respective conditions in which it pleased God to place them. To say, as Mr. Robert Haldane does, that * Esau y^2A justly the object of hatred before he was bom, be- cause he was viewed in Adam as a sinner ; ' that ' Jacob was justly the object of God's love before he was born, because he was viewed in Christ as righteous ; ' and that ' the whole of the context proves that the declaration has reference to their spiritual and eternal state,' is to travesty the Word of God, and to libel the Divine character. (2). Rom. ix. 18, * The7'efore hath He mercy on who7n He will have ??iercy.' This passage is grossly misread by those who imagine that mercy is here used in the sense of saving from pujtishtnent. Such is not the case. The Apostle uses it in the sense of conferring benefit. It is as if he had said, ' All the Lord's mercies are sove- reign. He blesseth ivhom He will, and in the way that seems best to Him.' St. Paul uses the same word when he says, in this very Epistle (xi. 31), 'Through your mercy' — i.e., favour. So also in the Second Epistle to Timothy (i. 16), *The Lord give mercy io the house of Onesiphorus.' So Luke uses it (xviii. 38), where the blind man cries for mercy — i.e., the favour of receiving sight. How very absurd, then, to read, as most persons do, 'He savcth fro/n hell whom He will ' ! Q 226 ELECTION (3). Rom, ix. 21 — 33, ^ Hath 7iot the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honoicr and another unto dis- honour?'' These words are used in reply to a supposed objector, who practically says, ' Why does God disapprove of any, if all alike are but clay, and moulded as He will ? ' ' Why then doth He yet find fault ? ' The Apostle retorts, ' Who art thou that repliest against God ? ' Is it reasonable to suppose that you — a creature — have a mind comprehensive enough to judge the Creator's conduct? What says Jeremiah? (xviii, 6) — 'Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel,' — an illus- tration, be it observed, used by the prophet to exhibit God's right to change the position or co7tdition of His people by degrading them, as He was about to do, in the sight of all the nations (ver. 7 — 21). It is in this sense St. Paul uses it in the passage on which we are remarking, for he practically goes on to say, ' Have not these words of Jeremiah all been fulfilled, and are not we ourselves evidences thereof?' For, 'if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering (our fathers the Jews) vessels of wrath fitted to destruction : ' and that He might make known the riches of His glory, rejected them, and called us (of the new election, Jew and Gentile), what shall we say, or how explain such sovereign grace ? (ver. 22 — 30). The passage does not teach that election is to salvation as opposed to damnation, but to honour ; to blessing and service, without doubt ; but in contra- distinction only to dishonour, and in no case to the prejudice in the slightest degree of others. (4), One passage — the parable of the Marriage Feast, — as re- corded by St. Matthew (xxii. 2 — 14), seems distinctly to teach that * the kingdom of God,' properly so termed, is not for the many, but for the few. This parable, it is admitted, represents '•^ the gi-eat marriage supper of the Son of God, i. e., His full and complete union to His Bride, the Church, in glory" — (so Alford). The guests fonn the Church (Ephes. v. 27.) But two things must be noticed ; fii'st, that the feast is ne\t\\er provided nor intended for all the king's subjects. The invitation is only given to a certain part of them ; and it is not till the first invited (the Jewish, as the elect nation) refused to come, that the servants are sent out to the highways and hedges (the Gentile world). Secondly, that even when the call becomes indiscriminate as to class, it is still limited as to number ; all are not to be brought iu, only as many as were TO SPECIAL SERVICE. 227 required, that ' the house might be filled ' (Luke xiv. 23) ; or, as St. Matthew expresses it, that ' the wedding' might be ' furnished with guests.' One of these guests, represented as wanting the * weddini^ garment,' is cast from the brilliancy of the bridal hall, into the outer (outside) darkness, deepened by contrast with the glory he has lost ; and there, with others similarly disappointed, in ineffectual vexation he weeps and gnashes his teeth, — the Jewish mode of manifesting sorrow and rage. The teaching of the parable can scarcely be mistaken. It is that God has on earth a people who, in distinction from others, are called, as the Bride of Christ, to honour and glory ; that these are gi-adually being gathered in ; but that even among them will be found some who have failed to make their calling and election sure. It implies, — since the number of guests is limited, while the invita- tions of the Gospel are universal, — that beyond those who are thus specially honoured will be found redeemed persons, saved equally by grace, yet not in the same sense, or with the same result, as ' the Church of the Firstborn, whose names are written in heaven ; ' saved from the captivity of Satan, and brought under the blessed rule of the Deliverer, yet not partakers of that higher glory which is to be the peculiar privilege of the elect. 228 CHAPTER V. ON THE GOSPEL AS PREACHED BY ST. PAUL. THE first thing that strikes us in relation to the pubhcation of the Gospel is, that while certain events which have taken place under it are the subject of Old Testament prophecy, the true character of the age or period, as a whole, was evidently either concealed from, or misunderstood by, the prophets. Nothing startles a careful observer more than the discovery of the fact that, in the eyes of all the Old Testament seers, the humihation and the o-lorification of Messiah on the earth seem to touch each othei\ His advent is always regarded as the immediate harbinger of the world's subjection. Not a hint is given oi delay ; not a suspicion seems to have entered their minds that eighteen hundred years and more, of struggle and persecution, should inter\^ene, at the end of which five-sixths of the human race should be found even historically un- acquainted with the fact of Christ's existence. Who can wonder that, under these circumstances, the apostles, reverencing the prophets as they did, THE GOSPEL. 229 should expect the glory of Messiah to follow im- mediately on His humiliation, and ask, even at the last moment, ' V/ilt Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel ? ' Who can wonder that, after the ascension of their Lord, both they and their followers s\vo\x\d, for soiiie years, have lived in daily expectation of His second and glorious coming in the clouds of heaven ? It was not, probably, till Paul received, by special revelation, a knowledge of ' the mystery which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men,' that jusi views began to prevail relative to the true character of the dispensation under which they were placed. The statement that such a revelation had been given appears first in the Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians (iii. i — 11), in which the Apostle speaks of that which had been specially committed to him. And as this passage has generally been interpreted as teaching, either simply that the Gentiles should be ' fellow-heirs ' with the Jews, or else the kindred truth that, in becoming 'heirs/ Gentiles were not to pass through Judaism, it may be necessary to observe that the bringing in of the Gentiles was no * mystery ' at all, inasmuch as it had been from the beginning revealed to Abraham (Gal. iii. 8), and was fully recognized, in the plainest terms, by Isaiah and other prophets (Isa. ii. 2 ; xi. 10; Mai. i. 11) ; while the further truth that these 230 THE GOSPEL privileges were to be enjoyed without reference to Judaism, had been taught to Peter in a vision soon after Pentecost (Acts xi. i — 18 ; xv, 7 — 11). In the Epistle to the Romans (xvi. 25, 26), the Apostle again refers to ' the revelation of the mys- tery which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.' It is this preaching of Jesus Christ * according to the revelation of the mystery,' which, by the power of God, is to establish them in the faith (ver. 25). Now what ca7i this be but the preaching of the great love of Christ to the Gentiles, manifested in His gathering out of them a people who shall share His crown, and be numbered among His chosen ? That it cannot mean the entire subjugation of them under this dispensation, seems clear from another jjassage in the same Epistle (xiv. 1 1), where, quot- ing Isaiah (xlv. 23), the Apostle connects the ful- filment of the prophecy that 'unto God every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear,' and ' all the ends of the earth ' look unto Christ to be saved, with that day when ' every one of us shall give account of himself to God.' ' We shall all stand/ he says, 'before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written. As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me' (Rom. xiv. 10, ii). PREACHED BY ST. PAUL. 231 I scarcely see how, on any other hypothesis, the conduct of St. Paul — so different from our own — can be explained. Prince of missionaries as he was, he never seems to look forward to the conver- sion of the masses of mankind. His prayers, and tears, and efforts, are always for the few, rathei than for the many. His supplications are not, as we might have expected they would have been, for the subjugation of the Empire to Christ, but always for ' the saints ; ' and especially for those who had been called under his own ministry, that they might 'grow in grace,' and that he might 'present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.' " It seems, indeed, impossible to deny the essen- tially limited nature of a dispensation that consists of a Church — a body of callcd-otit ones — an election out of the mass. If it be an election, it cannot be universal ; if it be universal, then there is no more Church or election." Further, that 'the mystery' spoken of as one ' which from the beginning of the world had been hid in God,' must have involved imicJi more than ordinary interpretations suppose, is evident from the subsequent teaching of the apostles, which fre- quently relates, on the one hand, to the election of a chosen people out of all nations, who, like the Master, should be hated and rejected of men, yet honoured to be under Him kings and priests for ever ; and on the other, to a ' mystery of iniquity,' 232 THE GOSPEL then at work, soo?i to bring forth * ravenous wolves,' who should ' traffic in the Word/ make * booty ' of the flock, account 'godliness a means of gain,' and finally culminate in a 'man of sin,' and 'son of perdition,' whom the Lord should ' consume with the spirit of His mouth, and destroy with the brightness of His coming.' All this clearly indi- cates that the light received by this special revela- tion fell on the entire economy, and was intended to guide the expectations of believers into a right channel. This view is confirmed by the Second Epistle to Timothy (chap, iii.), in which Paul enlarges on the character of the ' last days ; ' and still more, perhaps, by the way in which St. Peter, in the third chapter of his Second Epistle, treats the entire subject. Without at all withdrawing the assertion in his first letter, that ' the end of all things ' was at hand (i Eph. iv. 7) — for this is ever true — he now warns them that great delay will take place before Christ's return ; a delay so great, that scoffers will arise, ridiculing the very thought of His Second Advent, and saying, 'Where is the promise of His coming.? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation ' (2 Ephes. iii. 4). The fact of the Deluge, regarded as a Divine judgment, will, he tells us, first be denied (ver. 5, 6), and then the prophecy of the future destruction of the world PREACHED BY ST. PAUL. 233 by fire will be rejected as a similar exaggeration. He assures us, however, that the Word of God will stand ; that ' the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness,' but that mercy is involved in the delay ; that the ' long- suffering' of God arises only from His unwilling- ness ' that any should perish ; ' that it means ' sal- vation,' even as Paid had tang] it them, ' according to the wisdom given unto him,' revealing in his Epistles some things ' hard to be understood,' which the unlearned (or rather, unteachable) and unstable wrest, as they do the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction (iii. 15, 16). What the ' things hard to be understood' may precisely be, we know not ; but it is worth notice that the Apostle Paul often uses the phrase ' my GospeV as if his message to mankind included matters directly and specially revealed to himself. In the Epistle to the Galatian Church (ii. 2) he says that, seventeen years after his conversion, he went up to Jerusalem 'by revelation,' in order that he might communicate to the Church in that city, and to the other apostles, the Gospel which he preached among the Gentiles. Judging by what is said in that Epistle alone, we should naturally come to the conclusion that its sole peculiarity was that it asserted the liberty of Gentile converts to abstain from the observances of the Mosaic law. But it is by no means probable 234 THE GOSPEL that this was all ; for, as we have before seen, Gentile freedom had not only been directly taught to Peter soon after Pentecost, but, in conscquaice of his testimony, had been formally and officially recognized as the revealed will of God by the apostles and brethren in Judea (Acts x. and xi.) In his Second Epistle to Timothy, after saying to him, * Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my GospeV (ii. 8), the Apostle adds, ' Therefore I endure all things for the elecfs sakes, that they may also obtain the sal- vation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory' (ver. lo). Here he would seem to say that he suf- fered for preaching a special salvation for the elect. If we ask, What more did Paul's revelation or Gospel include ? what else could it embrace that was in any way peculiar to him ? w^e must look for an answer to the First Epistle to the Corinthians (chap. XV.), in which we find the doctrine of tJie re- surrection of the body first clearly set forth as a necessary consequence of Christ's having raised His own body. This particular doctrine he declares to be ' ///^ Gospel ' which he had 'preached' unto them — that wlierein they 'stood,' and by which they were ' saved ' from the power of this present evil world (ver. i, 2). But again it may be asked, — What is there in the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, as PREACHED BY ST. PAUL. 235 taught by this Apostle, which makes it so pecu- harly his own ? One is certainly at a loss to see what it can be, tniless the resurrection be connected — as it always is by St. Paul — with the fulfilment of those glorious promises of a new moral world which abound in the writings of the Old Testament. Other apostles had taught this to the Jews (Acts iii. 21) ; but Paul seems to have been specially called to open up the doctrine, and to impress upon the Gentiles that the dispensation of the fulness of times must be a result of the resurrection. Such I believe it to be ; and I cannot but think that if Scripture be carefully searched, and its various announcements relative to the resurrection be thoughtfully examined, it will become evident, that while glorious days may be expected after the return of Christ and the binding of Satan, it is not till mortality is merged in life that the restoration of the race will be effected. Dr. Arnold, when lecturing in Oxford, after taking a survey of the field of modern history, once asked whether there were, in the existing re- sources of the nations of mankind, any materials for a new epoch distinct from those which have gone before } and he answered — None. Dr. Stanley, meditating on this conclusion, which he does not dispute, observes : — " We cannot hesi- tate to say, that if the Christian Church be draw- 236 THE GOSPEL ing- to its end, or if it continue to its end with no other objects than those which it has hitherto sought, it will end with its acknowledged resources confessedly undeveloped, its finest hopes of useful- ness almost untried and unattempted. It will have been like an ungenial spring, cut short in full view of the summer — a stately vessel wrecked within the very sight of shore." ^ St. Paul seems to remove this difficulty, and to reconcile the apparent discrepancy which exists between things as they are, and what we are as- sured they shall be, when he expounds inspired prophecy (as no other man does), teaching that it is not till ' death is swallowed up in victory,' that ' the veil that is spread over all nations ' shall be removed (comp. i Cor. xv. 54, with Isa. xxv. 6 — 8). If so, tJien it is that Israel, though she has destroyed herself, shall be ransomed from the power of the grave (Hosea xiii. 9 — 14) ; and as tins dispensation is the one in which God visits the Gentiles, ' to take out of them a people for His name' (Acts XV. 14), so, when that period is ended, and the de- cisions of the last day have been made known, will the Church enter upon its great mission, as the ruler and teacher of the nations. May not St. Paul point to this when he says, * Flesh and blood ' ^ ** Advantages of Ecclesiastical History." Introduction to Eastern Church, page 79, PREACHED BY ST. PA UL. 237 — men in their present condition — cannot inherit the kingdom of God ' (i Cor. xv. 50) ? If this be the true view, the " stately vessel " is not " wrecked ;" it but disappears for a season in the narrow straits of death, soon to emerge in new splendour on the ocean of unclouded felicity. This doctrine is by no means confined to Paul. The very first teaching of Peter and John relates to * times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord ' (Acts iii. 19); to 'the times of restitution of all things ' — predicted by the Old Testament prophets — 'which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began' (ver. 21). TJien, in effect, say they to the Jews, will 'the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed,' be enjoyed in its fulness (ver. 25) ; the preparatory work being the first advent of Christ, to turn men away from their iniquities (ver. 26). It was \as they spake' unto the people these words, ' the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus t/ie resurrection from the dead' (iv. I, 2). Nothing can be clearer, from these concluding words, than that, by Peter and John, ' the times of restitution,' which ' all the prophets, from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, 238 THE GOSPEL have foretold,' had been connected with the 'resur- rection from the dead.' TJieir crime was that they had taught that this great and expected national blessing was to come through Jesus, whom the Jews had crucified. The peculiarity of Paul's ' Gospel,' or teaching, appears to have been, that it was received, not through any other apostle, but by direct revelation from the Lord Jesus (Gal. i. 12), and that it com- prised, so far as we can ascertain, six distinct particulars. (i). That idolatrous Gentiles, when converted, should be received into the Church without being subjected to Mosaic law, or in any sense passing through Judaism (Ephes. iii. 3 — 7). (2). That God had cast off the Jews as the elect nation (Rom. xi. i — 10). (3). That in place of this national calling, an * election of grace,' consisting both of Gentiles and believing Jews, should be accomplished (Rom. xi. 5). (4). That while this process was going on, a * mystery of iniquity' and a *son of perdition' should arise, and remain till the second advent of the Lord (2 Thess. ii.). (5). That when this work was completed, and * the fulness of the Gentiles ' should arrive, the Jews, as a Elation, would again be ' graffed in ' (Rom. xi. 24) ; those on earth in the latter day, — during PREACHED BY ST. PAUL. 239 the Millennium ; those that had died in unbelief, — after the resurrection. (6). That the last generation of saints should not die (i Cor. xv. 5 i). These seem to have been the topics specially con- stituting St. Paul's Gospel ; they mark his teach- ing out as distinct from that of the other apostles, and constitute, without doubt, 'the mystery hid from ages and generations ' (Col. i. 26 ; Rom. xvi. 25), which he was * to make all men see' (Ephes. iii. 9) ; and it was in connection with these truths that he preached everywhere the resurrection of the dead, as the perfected triumph of Messiah, and the great time of restitution. The Apocalypse of St. John, as we think, com- pletes the lesson by the presentation of what may almost be termed a prophetic history of the fortunes of the Church during the period that is to intervene between the first and second advents of the Redeemer. PART IV. THE RESURRECTION. Chap. I. The Revealed Fact of a Resurrection. II. The Glorious Result of it. III. The Kingdom of God. 243 CHAPTER I. THE RESURRECTION,— A REVEALED FACT. npHE first distinct notice in the New Testament J- of the Resurrection occurs, in the question put by the Sadducees to our Lord touching the supposed relationship in that state of a woman who had, in conformity with the Mosaic law, suc- cessively married seven men (Mark xii. i8). The question seems to imply, first, that Jesus had been teaching the doctrine of the Resurrection ; secondly, that He had spoken of it as a restoration or renewal of social life; and, thirdly, that the objectors denied the doctrine altogether— the form of the query being intended ironically to express their contempt for it. The reply of the Saviour, therefore, first, re- asserts the fact— m^w shall rise from the dead ; secondly, charges the objectors with ignorance of Scripture in misconceiving its nature ; and, thirdly, reminds them that the doctrine He taught was by no means new, but one that was involved in the very earliest records of their history, God having said to Moses, that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, although dead in the flesh, were even then living. 244 THE RESURRECTION, The misconception into which they had fallen, and which the study of their own Prophets ought to have corrected, was this : — they imagined that the resurrection would be but the repetition of the earthly life, the rebinding of its broken ties, the renewal of relations which were adapted only to a world of perpetual waste — a world in which gene- ration succeeds generation, and life and death are ever tracking each other's footsteps. Scripture (the Law and the Prophets) might have taught them that the next world was t/x coinplojient rather than the repetition of this — reconciling its discrepancies, supplementing its deficiencies, completing its imperfect probations, retributively rectifying the respective conditions of the righteous and the wicked, and, above all revealing the glory and the grace which the pro- phets had invariably declared should follow the humiliation and sufferings of Messiah. It should, however, here be noticed that the question had reference exclusively to the condition of one supposed to be among the chosen people of God, and our Lord answers it accordingly. He speaks of those only who are accounted wortJiy to obtain the resurrection from the dead, in the highest sense — who shall die no more, be equal to the angels, and be called ' the children of God, beincf the children of the resurrection.' The one truth here distinctly taught us in rela- A REVEALED FACT. 245 tion to the world that is to come, is simply this : — It will not, like the present one, be a world of re- production. The spirit of the objection was, ' How can the body be raised, since from it earthly rela- tions are inseparable ?' The spirit of the answer is, ' The body will be raised ; but those relations which have exclusive reference to a world like the present, which is always passing away, and there- fore always in process of renewal, will cease.' It is, however, impossible to deny that the resur- rection of tJie body, whatever that term may pro- perly imply, seems almost necessarily to suppose our return to a sensiwits life tipon earth, however pure or glorious our state may be. The body, it should be remembered, is not an essential VidiXt of us, since we can both live and be happy without it, as the blessed spirits in the in- visible world now are. It is but our tent or taber- nacle, and here our temporary dwelling (2 Pet. i. 14 ; 2 Cor. V. 4). " But it is," as has been well said,^ '' the medium of communication between the immaterial spirit and sensible things ; the instru- ment by which we receive impressions from a sensuous world, and produce impressions on that world in return ; and therefore it is the indispens- able condition of our intercourse o?i earth with the things and the persons of earth." Individually, 1 Griffith on the Apostles' Creed, a book to which, in this and the succeeding chapter, I have been more than once indebted . 246 THE RESURRECTION, we might, perhaps, be to some extent independent of it ; but it is essential to social intercourse in a material world. It is not essential to a spiritual world, to mental life, to consciousness, or to sym- pathy, for all these may be, and probably are, exercised without it in Paradise, even though the spirit there is probably not altogether unclotJied ; but it is essential to material intercourse. Is it not, then, reasonable to suppose that if the body is to be raised, it is in order to fulfil some at least of the purposes for which it was so wonder- fully and curiously framed ? Is there any other supposition beyond that of the perpetual humanity of man which is sufficient to explain the incarna- tion of the Redeemer, when we are distinctly told that, ' forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, Christ also Himself likewise took part of the same ; that througJi death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil ' ? (Heb. ii. 14). Is there any other way in which we can account for the fact that He took this very body to heaven with Him, or for the kindred fact that the resurrection of the material frame, and the renovation of the world, are always spoken of in Scripture as coincident ? True, the body of the saint is to be a glorified body, but " even a glorified body must still possess those in- separable qualities of natural bodies by which they are limited in regard to time and plaee, and become A REVEALED FACT. 247 OBJECTS OF SENSE ; or the doctrine of a resurrec- tion after death would be reduced to unmeaning- sounds." ^ The Sadducee, denyin^^ both angel and spirit, looked for the triumph of Messiah in this ivorld, to be enjoyed then and there, and apart altogether from moral excellence. The Pharisee, encased in the mere forms of a dead ritualism, although in- dulging different expectations, had scarcely reached loftier conceptions. But the devout and thought- ful among the people, then as now, lived in the future, and looked forward to the morning of the resurrection as the dawn of a day brighter than any that earth could furnish — the true day of con- solation for all the troubles of this mortal life. Peter, when first announcing the resurrection of Christ, felt that he might confidently appeal to this event as evidence of his Messiahship, since, in their own sacred books, David had declared of this Prophet, that ' His soul should not be left in Hades, nor his flesh see corruption.' The denial of a resurrection was, however, in all probability, not peculiar to the Sadducees. All through the Gospel history sceptics on this subject make their appearance. Paul says to the Corinth- ians, ' How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead.?' (i Cor. xv. 12); and 1 Prof. Miller to Dr. Pusey, quoted by Mr. Griffith. 248 THE RESURRECTION, Timothy is warned of men who teach that * the resurrection is past already,' and, in so doing, ' overthrow the faith of some ' (2 Tim. ii. 18). The Church of Christ in every age has had those among its members who have endeavoured so to spirituahze this great event as to make it rather a subjective change than an outward reahty ; and probably there never was a time when such notions prevailed more widely among professing Christians than they do at the present day. And yet a belief in tJie fact of a resurrection of the body lies at the very basis of the Gospel ; for ' if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen ; ' and if Christ be not risen, then is preaching and faith alike * vain ' (i Cor. xv. 13, 14). The event itself is declared, on inspired au- thority, to be the fulfilment of the prophecy re- garding Messiah, in which God says of Him, * Thou art my Son ; this day have I begotten thee ' (Psa. ii. 7 ; Acts xiii. 33). It is the proclamation by God himself that Christ is His only Son, clothed * with power, according to the spirit of holiness ' (Rom. i. 4) ; and the reception of it as a truth is regarded in Scripture, not as a late attainment, or as * wisdom for the perfect,' but as one of the very first elements of the Christian life (Heb. vi. 2). Of the nature of the resurrection little is re- vealed ; of its results much. The passages which relate to its nature arc chiefly the following : — A R£ VEAL ED FACT. 249 (i). Luke xiv. 14 — ' T/iou sJialthe i^ecoinpeitsed at the resurrectioji of the just ' — for feeding * the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the bhnd.' Here future reward for kindness shown to the needy on earth is distinctly recognized. The pro- mise, be it observed, is made, not to the disciples, but to one of the Pharisees that bade Him to a feast (xiv. i). May it not, then, fairly be asked whether such a passage does not seem natitrally to refer to a dispensation of rewards and punishments to be entered upon at the resurrection, differing, both in kind and in degree, from the blessedness which awaits the elect } (2). John V. 28, 29 — * TJie Jionr is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come fort Ji ; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they that have done evil, ujtto the resui'rection of condemnation' Here the retributive character of the w^orld (or age) to come, is again clearly stated, although in this case it is rather wdth reference to the general course and character of the life than to any par- ticular act. (3). Matt. xii. 3 1, 32 — ' // shall not be forgiven him, neitJier in this world, neitJier in the world to come! This text is properly regarded as in itself conclu- sive against universalism. Be it so ; but is it not, then, equally conclusive in favour of the supposi- tion that some sins, not forgiven in this world, wall 250 THE RESURRECTION, be forgiven in the world to come ? Dean Alford says, " No sure inference can be drawn from these words with regard to forgiveness of sins in a future state." I admit this, for all inferences, deduced from Scripture, however necessary they may seem to us, introduce a human element, and should therefore never be placed side by side with a Divine statement. Olshausen understands the passage (as many others have done) to imply for- giveness on repentance /;/ the imperfect state of the dead before the judgment. (4). Matt. xix. 28—30 (compared with Luke xxii. 28 — 30) — * Ye also sJiall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the tzvelve tribes of Israel' This text is commonly expounded as referring to '' a renewing work of grace." The apostles, it is said, " entered, while on eartJi, upon the royalty referred to, in their own persons, and continue it in their writings." If this be not rationalistic inter- pretation, it is hard to say what is. The word TTaXiyyeveala (regeneration) is construed, at the public schools and the universities, '* in the resur- rection," and there is no doubt as to that being its true meaning. Why not, then, take it as it stands, and regard it as teaching that at the resurrection the apostles will literally be rulers, under Christ, of their nation ? (5). Phil. iii. ii — 'Iffy ^^0' ^neans I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead! A REVEALED FACT. 251 Is it possible to imagine that St. Paul only refers here to that resurrection which is common to all ? Is it reasonable to separate this from what is said elsewhere about ' the first resurrection ' ? ( i Thess. iv. 16; Rev. XX. 5), — that ^^nox judgment of saints which is to take place before the rest of the dead are raised, and which is so closely associated with tJieir taking part in the judgment of the world (i Cor. vi. 2, l) \ a judgment which is not to decide whether they (the saints) are Christ's or not, but to allot to them rewards or deprivations, * according to their w^orks.' The resurrection to which St. Paul aspired was evidently one which implied, to him, the reception of the unfading crown (i Cor. ix. 25 ; 2 Tim. iv. 8). It i very remarkable that in the Apocalypse (chap. XX.), after a symbolic vision of thrones of judgment (ver. 4), there follows a distinct explana- tory assertion, — ' This is the first resurrection^ just as we are told, after the casting of death and hell into the lake of fire, — * TJiis is the second death ' (Rev. XX. 14). After the actual resurrection of the Redeemer, the doctrine seems to assume a new form. It is now preached, not in the old form, as taught by the prophets, but as inseparable from the work of the Lord Jesus. The vexation of the Jews at the apostles is not that the mere fact of the resurrec- 252 THE RESURRECTION, tion is taught, but that they preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead (Acts iv. 2). * With great power,' we are told, ' gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus : and great grace was upon them all ' (ver. 33). This topic, it is evident, occupied a very promi- nent place in the ministrations of St. Paul. To the heathen his message seems to have been very much summed up in this, — ' He preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection' (Acts xvii. 18). It was when they heard ' of the resurrection of the dead' that 'some mocked' and others pondered. In relation to the Jews, the Apostle's teaching often took a similar shape. On any other sup- position, it seems difficult to see how he could say, when before the Council, ' Of the hope and resur- rection of the dead I am called in question ' (Acts xxiii. 6) ; for he was certainly not accused of preaching the resurrection as any other Pharisee would have done. Shortly after, when before Felix, he repeats his behef, in common with the Jew, ' that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust,' and says, * For this one voice. Touching the resurrection of the dead, I am called in ques- tion ' (Acts xxiv. 15, 21). Before Agrippa he puts the matter somewhat differently, but still involving the same thought ; ' I stand and am judged for the hope of the pro- A REVEALED FACT. 253 mise made of God unto our fathers : unto which pro- mise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead .'' ' (Acts xxvi. 6 — 8). The resurrection from the dead, and the happy consummation of the hopes and prayers of the twelve tribes, day and night, in the invisible world, are here regarded as one event. The triumphs of Messiah, — the fulfilment of all the promises to Abraham, and the glorious prospects held out in the Prophets, are one and all linked to the resur- rection from the dead. In later days, difficulties of another class pre- sented themselves. They are embodied in the sceptical inquiry of the Corinthians relative to the possibility of such an event. ' With what body do they come ?' (i Cor. xv. 35). What is this but the question, so often put now in forms like these, — How is it possible so to unite the present world and the next, as to consider the latter in any sense the complement of the former ? The body will have dissolved in the grave. With it will have disappeared all the countless influences it exercised over the spirit. How is it possible so to bridge the great gulf which separates time from eternity, that anything corresponding to this life can be carried on in another world } With what 254 1HE RESURRECTION, body do they come ? Discipline, and therefore pro- bation, must terminate on earth, for the natural body and the spiritual body can have little or nothing- in common. To all which Paul replies, — Thou fool, didst thou never sow wheat and reap wheat ? Is the wheat thou didst reap so different from the wheat thou didst sow ? Is it not rather, in spite of the primal decay, though not the same, yet the very same wheat ? So will it be at the resurrection. There is little reason to suppose that the Athe- nians would have ' mocked ' as they did when Paul, standing on Mars' Hill, preached to them ' the resurrection,' if he had only represented by that term a spiritual judgment of all mankind, to take place in some distant locality; for the immortality and judgment of the soul zvas a common belief. A modern writer says, ''The 'book of the dead,' which we can now decipher from Egyptian records, does not seem to differ much from our popular views, when it describes the passage of the soul, after judgment by Osiris, to the realms of light ; nor is the heathen notion of eternal punishment in Tartarus very unlike that of many modern Christians." It was the earthly part of the doctrine, — the resurrection of tJie body, — of all dead bodies, and the judgment of men by a man ordained to that office, and himself already raised from the dead, A REVEALED FACT. 255 that caused the scorn of the Athenians ; and it was this same doctrine, viewed in another aspect, which excited the hatred of the Jew. It is very questionable whether tJiis portion of trtitJi is now so preached amongst us, as to pro- duce resistance, either in the mind of the sceptic or of the Israehte. Both admit the immortaUty of the soul ; and neither are offended by anything we say or write regarding the resurrection. To the inquiry, * With zvhat body do they come ? ' St. Paul gives an answer, a portion of which seems, to a great extent, hitherto to have escaped notice. He says, in fact, that at the resur- rection bodies ivill differ — * to every seed his own body.' As * all flesh is not the same flesh,' so all bodies, in the future world, will not be alike. Just as the sun, moon, and stars differ in glory, and one star differeth from another, so in that world will it be at the resurrection from the dead. We shall all die, or be 'changed.' But the dead in Christ will be raised incorruptible, and the mortal put on im- mortality ; for of their bodies only can it be said, they are * sown in dishonour,' but * raised in glory.' What other changes will take place on that day, we can only infer from the words of the Prophet, ' He will swallow up death in victory ; ' He * will destroy the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations' (Isa. XXV. 7, 8.) 256 CHAPTER II. THE GLORIOUS RESULT OF THE RESURRECTION. THE results of the last and general resurrection, as distinguisJicd fi'om the first, seem, so far as they can be gathered from the Bible, to be em- bodied in statements which indicate to us, with more or less clearness, what may be expected to follow as a consequence of that great ev^ent. I shall take them as they stand in the order of Scripture. Before doing so, however, the reader must be reminded that certain passages — whether they are to be fulfilled at the resurrection or not — embody promises which are as yet unaccomplished. I refer, however, only to one, since it will be sufficient to serve as a specimen of tJie class in question : — ' Fear not : for, behold, I bring yoit good tidings of great joy, zvJiicJi shall be to all people. For 71 n to yon is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, ivJiich is Christ the Lord' (Luke ii. 10, ii). No one, I presume, will affirm that the joy here spoken of has ever yet been universally or even generally experienced ; for the great mass of earth's inhabitants, in every age, have certainly lived and THE RESURRECTION. 257 died without having heard even of the Saviour's name ; while of those to whom He has been an- nounced, ^Qw comparatively have spiritually re- ceived Him. Yet the word and promise of God cannot pass away unaccomplished. If, as many hold, the great mass of mankind — the myriads of the ages — are eternally lost, it is impossible to see how the news of the advent could be called ' good tidings of great joy to all people.' We seem forced, therefore, to look forward to the resurrection as the only period capable of throwing light on the announcement. TJiree texts bearing somewhat on the foregoing may now be noticed. (i). 'That (the Incarnate Word) was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometJi into the world' (John i. 9), an assertion — as plain as it was possible to make it — that Christ (at one period or other of human existence) affords to ail sufficient light to make the absence of faith in Himself inexcusable ; for the light is said to be given 'that all men through Him might believe' (ver. 7). (2). ' And I, if I be lifted uf) from the earth (put to death by crucifixion), will drecw all vicn tinto me' (John xii. 32). (3). 'The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, S 258 THE RESURRECTION, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone : but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit ' (John xii. 23, 24) ; indicating that what the work of the sower was to the work of the gatherer in of the harvest, the death of the Re- deemer would be to the abundant glory that should follow. On these passages I simply remark, — That there is no evidence whatever that, in this dispensation, Christ is or ever has been, such a light to the world at large, that eve7y man has had anything like an opportunity to believe on Him. It has been said, indeed, that *'a moral sense of right and wrong, accompanied with a portion of quickening and redeeming pozver, is implanted uni- versally ; "^ but even if this were true (although no missionary has ever yet been able to detect traces of it), the difficulty would still remain, for the Apostle is not speaking of any light which men had before Christ came into the world, but of an llumination leading to belief. Further, — On the supposition that the drazving of all men means, as some tell us, no more than invitation, we seem forced to apply the same gloss to the kindred declaration, * No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me drazv him,' a process which few would regard as allowable. 1 " Religious Peculiarities of Friends," by Jos. John Guraey. ITS GLORIOUS RESULT. 259 The true reconcilement of the whole is to be found in accepting the assurance that the solemn prelude to the harvest of the Redeemer is death ; and that, in some way or other, however difficult it may be for us to explain it, Christ will be found eventually to be the Saviour of the race, and we be forced to acknowledge, in spite of all our blunderings, the intense reality and truthfulness of every word inspired by God. We now proceed to inquire for the more direct teachings of Holy Writ relative to the great event in question. We shall find them, if anywhere, in the discourses and epistles of the apostles, speak- ing or writing under the inspiration of the Divine Spirit. One of the earliest addresses on record is that of Peter and John, found in the third chapter of the Acts (19 — 26). Here we have the most ele- mentary of all doctrines, that of repentance, en- forced chiefly, if not exclusively, in connection with its bearing on * the times of refreshment,' ' that great season of joy and rest which it was understood the coming of the Messiah iji His glory was to bring with it,' (so Alford) — * the times of restitution of all things.' That the resurrection is the period referred to, may, I think, be regarded as evident not only from what immediately follows, — ' And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain (ruler) of the temple, and the Sad- 26o THE RESURRECTION, ducees, came upon them, being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead,' — but also from the later and clearer discourses of St. Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles. The Acts of the Apostles furnishes us with the only specimens we have of St. Paul's preaching. So far as it related to the resurrection, it seems to be embodied in the following words : — ' That Christ should suffer, and that He should be the first that should rise from the dead, and shoidd shozu light unto the people, and to the Gentiles' (Acts xxvi. 23). Such, says St. Paul to Festus, has been my teaching — viz., that through the resurreetion from the dead, Christ should enlighten both Jew and Gentile. In all this, he says, I have done nothing more than witness to things * which the prophets and Moses did say should come ' (ver. 22). The question is, does the Apostle mean the doc- trine of Christ's resurrection, or that of the resur- rection generally, should be preached as a light to the Gentiles, or that /;/ tJie resiLrrection the light would be shown to them t For an answer we must go back to what Moses and the prophets had taught, for Paul assures us that his teaching is in harmony with their predic- tions. One instance at present can only be quoted. Tsaiah, speaking of Christ as given * for a light of ITS GLORIOUS RESULT. 261 the Gentiles,' regards Him as called ' to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house ' (Isa. xlii. 6, 7) — or, as he expresses it elsewhere, ' to establish (marg., raise up) the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages ; that thou mayest say to the prisoners. Go forth ; to them that are in darkness. Show yourselves.' Then, says he, * They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst ; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them : for He that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall He guide them ' (Isa. xlix. 8—10). It is impossible not to be struck by the identity of this language with that used in the Apocalypse (Rev. vii. 16, 17), which is admitted by all to apply to persons in the invisible world, who have been redeemed from the earth, who ' have come out of great tribulation,' who 'have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.' Is it not, then, at least probable that the teaching of Isaiah here — harmonizing, as it does, with that of the other prophets — implies, that the final and glorious fulfilment of the predictions of Moses and the prophets should take place at the I'estirrection ? The Epistle to the Romans has at least three passages which seem to me to have a bearing in the same direction as the one quoted from the 262 THE RESURRECTION, Acts. The first will be found in the fourth chapter (ver. 13 — 17). 'The promise, that he should be the heir of the Avorld, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righ- teousness of faith. * * * It is of faith, that it might be by grace ; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed. * * * (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations), before him whom he believed, even God, who qidckcncth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.' Here we have a distinct reference to the promise made to Abraham, that he should be heir of the world.^ But of what world was he the heir t Not of the world as it then was. Not of any world that has existed since. Manifestly it is of a world yet to come, and most probably at the resurrec- tion ; when, through Messiah, as his seed, he will fully enter into its possession. In some such light the promise was surely shadowed forth to the patriarch by the birth of Isaac, after he and Sara were, so to speak, hoili dead. The second passage is in the fifth chapter of the 1 "The actual promise (Gen. xii. 2, 3; xiii. 14—17; xv. 18; xvii. 8) was the possession of the land of Canaan. But more was mtended in the words which accompany this promise, ' In thee (or, in thy seed) shall all families of the earth be blessed,' than the mere possession of Canaan. The inheritance of the world is not the pos- session of Canaan merely (so that Koafiov should = ytjt;), either literally, or as a type of a better possession." — Alford. ITS GLORIOUS RESULT. 263 Epistle (ver. 15 — 19) — 'But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. * * * The judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. * * * As by 07ie viaiis disobedience many {the many) were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall (the many) be made righteous! Connect with this assertion another statement by the same Apostle (i Cor. xv. 22), 'As in Adam ALL die (/. e., the race, allowing for exceptions, such as Enoch and Elias), so in Christ (allowing, as a similar ex- ception, for the wilfully impenitent) sJiall ALL be made alive! Not, be it observed, made alive with a view to a deeper condemnation, for Jiere the Apostle is referring to the resurrection only as a blessing. He is speaking of Christ as " the bringer- in of LIFE," in contrast with Adam, as " the bringer- in of death." On these texts I would only observe, that while every scholar assures us that ' many,' as used by the Apostle, means ' the many' — the mass, the race, — and that his words are perfectly clear, as by one (Adam) the race were made sinners, so by one (Christ) the race shall be made righteous, — no evangelical commentator, that I am aware of, is disposed to admit such a truth, excepting in some 264 THE RESURRECTION, non-natural sense. It is both curious and distress- ing to observe how one after another labours to explain away what would at first sight appear to bid defiance to any such process. We must not even say, if we would be orthodox, that 7WZU no one is under the wrath of God, simply because he is a child of Adam, since the death of ' the second Adam ' has, in this aspect, removed the consequences of the disobedience of the first. TJiat is to be accounted unsound. How much greater the heresy to maintain, with the Apostle, that as the race was lost in Adam, so tJie race will be saved by Christ ! How frightful to afiirm that it will ever be said zvith truth, 'Where sin abounded, grace did 7n?ich more abound ' (Rom. v. 20). " The design of the Apostle here," says Professor Hodge, " is not to show that the blessings procured by Christ are greater than the evils caused by Adam, but to illustrate and confirm the prominent doc- trine of the Epistle — that we are justified on the ground of the righteousness of Christ." What can we say to such teaching .'* Must we suppose that salvation on any large scale is news too good to be believed by sinful man } or shall we imagine (the thought is too horrible) that the doctrine of an extension of salvation to the many, is rejected by the elect because it seems to detract something from their exclusive blessedness } The true cause of scepticism on this matter is, I ITS GLORIOUS RESULT. 265 believe, not to be explained on either supposition. It arises, without doubt, chiefly from an unbelieving fear that any announcement of a salvation for the race would tend to render men more careless than they now are, and so hinder the progress of the Gospel. It is the old story over again ; man thinks himself wiser than God, The ancient Church thought so, when she corrupted the Gospel in order to extend it. The modern Church thinks so, when she exaggerates that which is written re- garding the wrath of God, lest men should not come to the Saviour. The world at large thinks so, when by natural reaction, it ignores the justice of the Almighty altogether, and regards its Maker as too merciful finally to condemn any one. All parties might learn wisdom, if they would but accept the plain teachings of Divine Revela- tion, without regard to supposed consequences, or concern for theological systems. They would then perceive that a salvation of the many is as certain as the election of the few; that the death of Christ is fraught with blessing, not to His Church only, but to the race ; that the grace received through the second Adam far exceeds the evil introduced by the first ; and yet that it is wretched folly to be impenitent — a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God ; misery to live in sin, and deeper misery to die in wilful unbelief Is it too much to affirm, that until the Gospel is thus preached, in its 266 THE RESURRECTION, entireness and in its integrity, its power over the world will be but partial, and its strength but as weakness ? Truly has it been said, " Our interpre- tation of Christianity may be pure enough for pri- vate use ; it may be good in the closet, good as the source of the motives of common life, and good as the ground of hope in death, and yet may be alto- gether unfit for conquest and triumph. That it is so unfit sJioiUd he assumed, as the only pious and becoming explanation we can give of the almost universal ignorance and irreligion of mankind." ^ The last text to which I shall refer occurs in the eighth chapter (ver. 19, 25) — ' The earnest expecta- tion of tJie creature waitetJi for the manifestation of the sons of God' The varieties of opinion advanced by commen- tators in explaining this text are utterly confound- ing. Mr. Haldane — and in the main Scott and Hodge take the same view — says that "creature does not apply to men, all of whom are either the children of God or the children of the wicked one. It cannot," he argues, ** refer to the children of God, for they are here expressly distinguished from the creation, of which the Apostle speaks ; nor can it apply to wicked men, for they have no desire for the manifestation of the sons of God, whom they hate ; nor will they ever be delivered from the bondage of corruption, but cast into the 1 " Fanaticism," by Isaac Taylor. ITS GLORIOUS RESULT. 267 lake of fire. It remains, then, that the crcahircs destitute of intelligence, animate and inanimate, the heavens and the earth, the elements, the plants and animals, are here referred to." How absurd to suppose that the " inanimate creation," or, as Adam Clarke and others suppose, " animals^' are, to the exclusion of men, to be brought into ' the glorious liberty (or the liberty of glory) of the children of God' (ver. 21)! But nothing is too absurd for theologians, when inter- preting in accordance with a preconceived theory. Where, too, is the justification of such a course ? Is it not certain that Tracra Kxiaiq — ' the whole crea- tion,' or * every creature,' as it may be rendered — signifies in Scripture the nations of the world, the heathen, in distinction from the Jews t (Mark xvi. 15 ; Col. i. 23). Why, then, should we refuse to believe that in the resurrection, and in connection with the manifestation of the elect sons of God, tJie race of man, so long ' subject to vanity,' — shall be delivered from * the bondage of corruption,' and share (although in an inferior sense) in the glorious liberty of the children of the Highest } If it be so, one can understand how ' the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in (or, with regard to) us' (ver. 18). But if it be otherwise, all around and about us is utterly incomprehensible — a riddle or a torment, darkness or despair. 268 THE RESURRECTION, The distinction really drawn by the Apostle is between ' the creature ' — the ignorant masses, and * the sons of God ; ' the former zvaits for the glory which shall be revealed in the latter. All creation, animate and inanimate, is, indeed, by a bold figure of speech, represented as, with outstretched neck, longing for and anticipating this great event ; but certainly not to the exclusion of man, the head of that creation. The Epistle to the Ephesians furnishes its full share of testimony in favour of the same great expectation. In the first chapter of this Epistle, God is said to have chosen the elect in Christ 'before the foundation of the world,' and ' made known ' to them ' the mystery of His will,' that ' in the dis- pensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth.' I can see no reason whatever for supposing that it can justly be interpreted of the present dispensation. In that magnificent doxology with which the third chapter concludes, the Apostle ascribes unto the Father 'glory in the Chureh by Christ Jesus throughout all ages! It is generally admitted that the Church is here regarded as the theatre on which that glory must be recognized or rendered before men, to ' all the generations of the age of the ages.' If this be so— and it is difficult to see ITS GLORIOUS RESULT. 269 how it can be questioned — men capable of recog- nizing the glory — which lost spirits can never do — must exist, through all the ages, as saved men, and yet altogether distinct from the Church. In the Epistle to Timothy, St. Paul is more ex- plicit. Here — after having spoken of Christ as a ransom fo?^ ail — a testimony to be made known ' in due time,' since God would ' have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth' (i Tim. ii, 4 — 6), he exclaims with delight, * This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all accep- tation. We both labour and suffer reproach, be- cause we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe ' (iv. 9, 10). Few Christians would probably deny that i^ajiic- in the next world is connected with conduct and character in this ; but it is by no means going too far to say that many act as if they believed that salvation by grace was altogether inconsistent with a judgment of works ; and that many more so spiritualize the resurrection and the world to come, as practically to deprive it of all power over the human heart. The testimony of the Epistle to the Hebrews is not less striking. Take, first (Heb. ii. 14) — ' For- asmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same ; t/iat through death He might destroy Imn tJuit Iiad the power of death, that is, the devil! 2;o THE RESURRECTION, The destruction referred to here is obviously not of the person, but of the works of the devil. The passage is usually regarded as parallel to Rom. xvi. 20, ^ And the God of peace shall bruise Satan tmder yoitr feet shortly' The point to be observed is, that the great agency for the destruction of Satanic power is death. It is through death, through mortality, that the immortal is to be reached. That the primary meaning is — through Christ's own sacrificial death, may be freely admitted, without at all affecting the result. For the ques- tion is not hozv Satan's works shall be destroyed — Christ, all admit, can alone accomplish that result, but what is included in such destruction } Can Satan or Satanic works be said to be destroyed, if only an elect Church be snatched from his hold ? It is hard to see how this can be the case ; for, if ordinary views be correct, death, so far at least as the great proportion of the race is concerned, but consummates the triumph of Satan, since it passes an overwhelming majority of all who have ever lived, into his kingdom for ever. Bishop Beveridge, Interpreting a similar passage, viz., I John ill. 8, ' Tlie Sou of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil,' ex- plains it to mean simply this, that " Christ was manifested to undo all that the devil had done, by recoverinc: mankind out of that sinful state to ITS GLORIOUS RESULT. 271 which the devil had brought them." But may it not well be asked, Is this the case now ? Has it been the case during the 1,800 years that have elapsed since the words were penned ? Can it ever be the case, if almost all mankind since the fall of Adam are irrecoverably lost and given over to Satan ? Let us believe the Apostle when he says, ' We see not yet all things put under Him ' (Heb. ii. 8),. and not think it extravagant to look for such a consummation at the resurrection. It is vain to deny that if, as the fruit of Satan's ivork, the myriads of the heathen and of the unconverted of all ages go on sinning against God to all eternity, Christ cannot truthfully be said to destroy the works of the devil. Connect with this the succeeding verses in the second chapter of the Hebrews (9, 10), * We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour ; that He by the gj^ace of God should taste death for every man', and the argument is much strengthened. For here it is distinctly asserted that Christ (as the result of Divine love) tasted death for every man. The question, is, in what sense, and with what results } Stuart reads, " for Jew and Gentile ; " Alford understands the phrase to refer to the applieability of Christ's death to each individual man. Guyse, 272 THE RESURRECTION, Owen, and Gill, in effect say, ** Every man means the Church — all who savingly believe." My only reply is, What does the text say ? Certainly the very reverse of these interpretations. Which, then, are v/e to believe, God or man t Further — and I say it with deep reverence — where, to human eye, at least, is the grace or goodness of God to the race seen in allowing Christ to taste death for every man, if the great, the overwhelming majority of mankind, never hear of His death, and never profit by it } The next passage to w^hich I would draw atten- tion is of a somew^iat different character ; it is one in w^hich believers are reminded, that in accepting the Gospel, they come to ' the general assembly and Church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to the spirits of just men made perfect' (Heb. xii. 23). The question naturally arises here. Who are in- tended by the Church of the firstborn 1 The phrase has usually been explained by the analogy of the firstborn of Israel, who were dedi- cated to God specially as His priests (Exod. xxii. 29), a primogeniture which belongs to Christians as such. This, which seems the only reasonable interpretation, makes it include the whole elect Church. " The title of the firstborn, however," as Mr. Birks has remarked, " loses all its proper force if ITS GLORIOUS RESULT. 273 the results of redemption are limited to these alone. The whole emphasis of the phrase depends on the supposition that there are yotingcr brctJiren of the same family, who do not share in the privileges of birthright. Thus our Lord himself is said to be * the firstborn among many brethren.' He is one with His people, but eminent in privilege and honour above them all." The analogy betwixt these firstborn ones and the firstborn of Israel is indeed striking. They (the firstborn) were speeially dedicated to God (Exod. xiii. 1 1 — 15); but the other children were not the less ' of Israel ; ' they, too, were the Lord's. The apostle James (i. 18), in the same spirit, speaks of Christians as * begotten with the word of truth,' that they * should be a kind oi first fniits of His creatures.' By St Paul (Rom. xi. 16) we are told that ' if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy.' What can either statement mean, if the re- demption of others to God's service, besides those who are here new-born by the word of truth in the Gospel, be altogether excluded t The Apostle Peter, on this as on every other subject, teaches the same doctrine as St. Paul, and therefore, like him, speaks of a salvation not yet published to the world, a 'salvation ready to be revealed in the last time' (i Pet. i. 5 — 12). The salvation he speaks of is clearly the deliver- ance into which the redeemed should enter at the T 274 THE RESURRECTION, coming of Christ, for the words are addressed to men who had already passed from death unto hfe (ver. 2), and who were waiting only for the full fruition of their joy at the coming of the Redeemer (ver. 8). Yet it has, apparently, a wider bearing. For, again, it is the salvation respecting which the pro- phets 'inquired and searched diligently,' when the Spirit of Christ within them testified to His suffer- ings, and to ' the glory that should follow ' (ver, 10, 1 1). And this would appear to be connected with the preaching of Christ to ' the spirits in prison ' (iii. 19, 20), and the proclamation of the Gospel to * them that are dead ' (iv. 6) ; for the word trans- lated, the dead (i^fic/ooc), is the same as in ver. 5, and clearly means, not men dead in trespasses and sins, but men who had lived and died in the flesh, as those antediluvians had to whom the Apostle seems to refer. Now it was to these dead men — whoever they may be — that the apostle says ' the Gospel was preached,' and for a reason ; viz., that though judged according to men in the flesh, they might yet * live according to God in the spirit' (iv. 6). In his Second Epistle (iii. 13), Peter, after speak- ing of the coming of the Lord as an event near and yet distant ; of the scepticism that would lead men, in the latter day, to deny its reality ; and of the terrors by which it would be accompanied, ITS GLORIOUS RESULT. 275 adds, * Nevertheless wc, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness^ The point to be noticed is, that he regards this expectation as implying a blessing ; he asserts that the longsuffering of God with the world as it is, means salvation ; and he refers to the Epistles of St. Paul as confirming this view, although he admits that its revelation involves things hard to be under- stood, and is a doctrine which the unstable wrest, as they do other scriptures, to their own destruc- tion. We can, of course, only conjecture what he may refer to in the writings of St. Paul, but it seems difficult to select any portions as more probable than those to which attention has already been called. They are, many of them, 'hard to be understood ' in all their bearings, and, like other scriptures, liable to be abused by the unteach- able and unsettled. But they are not therefore either to be rejected or neglected. From other passages found in the prophets we may see that at the same period (that of the Re- surrection) both Israel and other nations are also to be blessed. Sodom is to return to her former state (Ezek. xvi. 55), and to be given to Israel for a daughter, but not by covenant, when the Lord shall be pacified towards her (ver. 60 — 63). Egypt is to have her altar to God, and ' the Lord shall 276 THE RESURRECTION, send them a saviour and a great one,' and ' the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and He shall heal them ' (Isa. xix. 19 — 22). Assyria, too, is to have her blessing — for * the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel Mine inheritance' (ver. 23 — 25). To such contrasts as are found in texts which speak of Christ's flock as being to the end of the ag-e ' a little flock,' and others which tell us that, * from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, the name of the Lord shall be great among the Gentiles' (Mai. i. 11), I have already drawn attention ; and now sum up all, by expressing my conviction that these apparent contradictions are only to be explained on the sup- position that THE DAY OF THE RESURRECTION is the great day of restitution ; and that this con- summation is ' the mystery, which from the begin- ning of the world hath been hid in God ' (Ephes. iii.. 9 ; Col. i. 27) ; for " all past analogy, as well as the direct revelations of prophecy, forbid us to look for absolute and unmingled judgment without any further revelation of forbearance and grace." Nor should it be unnoticed that in the conclud- ing portion of the apocalyptic prophecy — after the vision of the white throne ; after the dead, small and great, have stood before God ; after the sea has given up her dead ; when all have been judged ITS GLORIOUS RESULT, 277 according to their works ; and death and Hades cast into the lake of fire — we behold ' saved nations' not, indeed, in the New Jerusalem, yet ' walking in the light of it,' a tree of life being there, which yields fruits for those within the city, and leaves for the healing of those^ that are without. Once more, I say, these things, though hard to be understood, and liable to be abused, are not therefore to be set aside as either erroneous or un- 278 CHAPTER III. ON THE ' KINGDOM OF GOD.' THE term 'kingdom of God' occurs in the New Testament about seventy times ; ' king- dom of heaven ' about twenty times ; and other references to this same kingdom probably thirty times more. The signification of the term is not, however, always the same. Sometimes it implies that which is subjective — a moral and spiritual condition. It does so when our Lord says to the Pharisees, who demanded when the kingdom of God should come, — 'The kingdom of God is within you ' i^ivrh^ vjuwv) — rather among yon (as in marg.), for the kingdom could not be said to be zvithin the Pharisees, to whom He was speaking. The expression probably means, that the kingdom was embodied in Himself St. Paul, when viewing this kingdom subjectively, speaks of it as consisting in doing right, and beiiig happy ; or, as he expresses it, in ' righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost' (Rom. xiv. 17). More frequently, however, the term indicates THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 279 that which is also objective, — a reign of God, an- nounced as approaching ; a promised kingdom, in which the saints should rule ; a government, of which 'the poor of this world, rich in faith,' are, under Christ, the 'heirs' (J as. ii. 5). It is to the passages that speak of it in this latter aspect that I am chiefly desirous of directing attention, in order to ascertain whether or no they point only to a further and fuller development of good at the Millennium, or whether they refer to a dispensa- tion yet to come — that of the resurrection. Before doing so, however, it may be well to inquire what idea this phrase, * kingdom of God ' — for it was eminently a Jewish one, — conveyed to the Israelitish people. In order to ascertain the truth on this point, we must carefully bear in mind that the universal ex- pectation of the devout and thoughtful amongst them was, that there remained for the nation *' an inheritance in reversion^' — a national kingship over other peoples, — the fulfilment, in short, of the pro- mise to Abraham and to his seed, that he should be ' the heir of the world,' a promise repeated through Moses in those remarkable words, *Ye shall be a peculiar treasure to me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And ye shall be unto Me A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS, and an holy nation ' (Exod. xix. 5, 6). The certainty of the fulfilment of these high ex- 28d the resurrection. pectations was the continual theme of the Hebrew- prophets, and formed the basis of the national belief — carnal or otherwise — in the coming Mes- siah. And so, when our Lord was upon earth, no one thought of asking what ' the kingdom ' meant, although He was continually discoursing about it. The disciples, we are told, were always thinking * that the kingdom of God should immediately ap- pear' (Luke xix. ii) ; one of their latest inquiries was, ' Wilt Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel ? ' and throughout, they indicate what appears to us a very carnal expectation regarding it. Yet in no instance are they rebuked for appa- rent materialism ; in no case are they told that they were under a delusion ; nowhere are they taught that the kingdom was a purely spiritual thing. How strange, if their views were essentially wrong ! How unlike is silence, in such a case, to the conduct of their kind Master on other occasions ! Right or wrong, however, there can be no ques- tion that the kingdom of God meant to the Jew, Messiah's kingship, and his own kingship. To enter into that kingdom was not, to Jiivi, to be saved from hell ; it was to be a member of that kingly company who, as priests of God, should rule and teach all other nations. It was always to him identical with the enjoyment of his covenanted inheritance (Psa. cv. 8 — ii ; Isa. Ixii. i, 2). THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 281 I am perfectly satisfied that this idea was a right one, and therefore sanctioned by the Saviour. I am equally convinced that it is the only true idea of the Church of God in all ages, and that it is, as such, sustained throughout the New Testament by such phrases as 'reigning in life by Jesus Christ' (Rom. V. 17); ' If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him' (2 Tim. ii. 12); * To him that over- cometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne ' (Rev. iii. 21) ; 'Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests : and we shall REIGN on the earth' (Rev. v. 10). Throughout the New Testament, the ' kingdom ' is invariably associated with the blessings pf the world to come, and often used as a synonym for eternal life. Take, for instance, the conversation between our Lord and the young ruler, as recorded by St. Matthew (xix.). In the narrative, the phrase first used is 'eternal life ' (ver. 16) ; soon after, it is simply ' life' (ver. 17) ; it then becomes the 'king- dom of heaven ' (ver. 23) ; and finally, the ' king- dom of God ' (ver. 24) ; one and the same thing being unquestionably intended by these various appellations. At the close of the conversation, all are alike connected with the period of this world's regeneration (ver. 28). In similar variety of phrase, the apostle Peter speaks of the ' lively hope ' of the Church as the salvation ' ready to be revealed in the last time ; ' 282 THE RESURRECTION. as * an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away;' as the salvation of the soul; as that respecting which ' the prophets have in- quired and searched diligently; ' as ' the grace that is to be brought unto us at the revelation of Jesus Christ' (i Pet. i. 3—13). And all this is to be eternal. The elect are to ^ reign for ever and ever' (Rev. xxii. 5) ; the king- dom is one ' which cannot be moved ' (Heb. xii. 28) ; it is ' the kingdom of Christ and of God ' (Ephes. V. 5) ; it is 'the inheritance of the saints in light' (Col. i. 12); it is an 'eternal inheritance' (Heb. ix. 15). It is difficult to see how it could be possible to indicate more clearly that the kingdom of God is the last great manifestation of Christ's triumph, and of the everlasting blessedness of His Church. I do not at this time propose to enter into any discussion of the various opinions that have at dif- ferent periods been set forth, advocated, and con- troverted, as to the precise time when this kingdom ought to be regarded as commencing, or when it may be supposed to come to a termination. Neither shall I deal with vexed questions, such as the exact meaning of that difficult passage in St. Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians (i Cor. xv. 28), in which he speaks of Christ as finally delivering the kingdom up to the Father, that God may be ' all in all,' beyond observing that as the essential THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 283 dominion of God never had beginning or limit, and never will have increase or end, the passage can only refer to that mediatorial kingdom of the Re- deemer which will cease when all the ends for which it was set up are accomplished. Of this kingdom it has been well said, that the great characteristics at present are, " mystery and forbearance ;" and those of the future, "manifesta- tion and triumph." It is for that which is revealed regarding the full manifestation and final triumph of the kingdom that I propose, in this chapter, to make diligent search. In doing so, we shall find it advantageous to divide the inquiry into two parts ; to confine our- selves, first, to an examination of those passages in the Gospels which refer to the advent, progress, and nature of the kingdom } and to reserve for later consideration, the fuller developments fur- nished in the Acts and the Epistles. The former, — the testimony of the Gospels, — is very comprehensive ; embracing, first, the message of John, * Repent ye : for the kingdom of heaven is at hand ' (Matt. iii. 2) ; then, the prolongation of that message by Christ, — first, personally (Matt. iv. 23), and afterwards by the agency of the apostles (Matt. X. 7) : then the cJiaracteristics of those who should enter the kingdom — viz., humility (Mark x. 14) ; poverty of spirit (Matt. v. 3) ; perseverance (Luke ix. 62) ; open profession by baptism (John 284 THE RESURRECTION. iii. 5) ; consequent tribulation (Acts xiv. 22) ; and independence of all human authority (Matt. xi. 12, and X. 32) ; then the hindrances to its attainment, — viz., riches (Matt. xix. 24) ; self-righteousness (Matt. xxi. 31) ; self-indulgence (Mark ix. 47) ; injustice, impurity, dishonesty, covetousness, drunkenness, and reviling (i Cor. vi. 9, 10) : and finally, its realization in a judgment both of quick and dead (Matt. xiii. 39 — 43) ; in various forms of honour and dignity, such as — brilliant attire (Matt. xiii. 43) ; eating and drinking with Christ (Matt, xxvi. 29; Luke xiv. 15; xxii. 18 and 30); and royal rule and dominion (Luke xxii. 29). The whole being described as — glad tidings (Luke viii. i) ; and a free gift (Luke xii. 32) ; but not of this world (John xviii. 36) ; and therefore retribu- tive (Luke xiv. 13, 14) ; compensative (Luke xviii. 29) ; and restorative (Acts i. 6) ; to be introduced at Pentecost (Matt. xvi. 28 ; Luke ix. 27) ; yet an inheritance to be enjoyed after death, and ever- lasting in duration (Matt. xxv. 34 — 46 ; Rev. xxii. 5). As I am not writing for the indolent or the careless, I stop here to request, that before going further, my readers will take the trouble to exa- mine all these texts of Scripture in their connec- tion ; and then, with the impression made by a consideration of the whole fresh on the mind, to ask themselves whether it is possible to imagine THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 285 these various particulars can find a fulfilment in the present state of the world and the Church ; — or at the Millenniinn, taking the term in its popular acceptation, as simply implying the general or universal spread of the Gospel ; or, finally, on the supposition that at death, every individtial of man- kind proceeds at once either to heaven or to hell, — using these words also in their popular accepta- tion ? I cannot see Jiow, in their entireness, these various representations can be intelligently re- ceived, and become the object of our faith, apart from the expectation of a dispensation yet to come. Keeping these general statements in view, let us now proceed to the investigation of ten passages in particular, -djt, preliminary to the consideration of the more explicit teaching of the apostles after Pentecost. (i) Matt. V. 5 — ^Blessed are the meek : for they shall inherit the eartJi' This promise repeatedly occurs in the Old Tes- tament (Psa. xxii. ; xxxvii. ; Ixix. ; Isa. xi. 4 ; xxix. 19). The question is, zvJien and how does it find its fulfilment t The popular idea is, that all the beatitudes, and this, therefore, among the number, are but so many aspects or phases of the man who is new-born in Christ ; that he who is * meek,* in the sense here spoken of, is a renewed man, and that through the renewal he has expe- 286 THE RESURRECTION. rienced, he is at once ' poor in spirit,' a * mourner ' (for sin), ' merciful,' ' pure,' and so forth : and therefore that the inheritance of the earth referred to, is entered 7ipon when such persons get, as they often do, more enjoyment of the real good of this world than the proud and contentious. But this interpretation is far from being satisfactory ; for, first, the beatitude in question, like the other beati- tudes, is clearly spoken of as 2i future g\{t ; it is not said, the meek do inherit the earth, but shall do so; and, next, there is no reason whatever for merging all the blessed characteristics referred to by our Lord in one new life following conversion. It is as perverse to deny that a man may be meek and yet not spiritual, as to assert that all spiritual men are meek. As a fact, it is certainly not so. Why not, then, accept this class of texts as they stand, and allow, that in the age to come, it is as certain that the meek will inherit the earth, as that * a cup of cold water given to a disciple, in the name of a disciple,' will not ' lose its reward ' } We are too apt to speak of the beatitudes gene- rally as if they involved rewards which naturally follow of themselves. But this is not so. Length of life does not now, and probably never did, natu- rally follow obedience to parents ; nor do any of the blessings which Christ gives come in that form. As, therefore, * meekness ' and * poverty of spirit ' are very nearly, if not quite, identical, so 'the THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 287 kingdom of heaven,' and the inheritance of the earth, imply the same blessing. Both are future, and both were, doubtless, by the more spiritual of the Jews, applied to the long expected kingdom of Messiah. From other passages, we have seen that this kingdom was always spoken of by the prophets as one which should be enjoyed in the land of Jitdca, and after the resurrection. The very words before us are in that wonderful Messianic Psalm, to which our Lord recalled the attention of His disciples even in the agonies of death, clearly con- nected with the time of the Saviour's triumph. * The meek shall eat and be satisfied.' But when } When * all the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord,' when 'all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Him ' (Psa. xxii. 26, 27). (2) Matt. vi. 10 — * TJiy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.' That this prayer implies a promise few will be inclined to dispute. That it indicates a time will come when the will of God shall be tuiiversally obeyed — done as promptly, as unreservedly, and as certainly on earth as it is now done in heaven — can scarcely be doubted. The question presents itself. When shall this be } and the ordinary reply is, At the Millennium. I have already explained why this interpreta- tion cannot be accepted, either in the sense of a 288 THE RESURRECTION. future universal spread of the Gospel under this dispensation, or in the binding of Satan for a thousand years at the first resurrection — for that, too, is followed by an apostacy. It conveyed no such impression to those who were first taught to use the words. To them it necessarily meant the coming of that kingdom which from childhood they had been led to expect — which the prophets had foreshadowed — and to which alone all their hopes and wishes pointed — the triumph of Mes- siah on the earth. It is impossible to suppose that the Lord would teach them to pray for the coming of a kingdom the very notion of which was delusive ; and yet it could be nothing else, if they used the words, as He knew they did, in connection with hopes and expectations which were never to find a fulfilment. That they failed to see that this blessed consum- mation could only be arrived at through death ; that they fancied it would be more or less carnal, and so far consistent with human pride, is but too probable; but in so doing, they only showed how partial was their acquaintance with their own Scriptures. Yet this is surely no reason why we should refuse to receive the revelations of Scripture regarding it. Everywhere else the kingdom of God is connected with * eternal life ' — ' the world [or age] to come ' — the ' times of restitution,' and such like. Why, then, should we find it hard to admit that it is so here } THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 289 (3) Matt. vii. 21 — 23 — 'Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kmgdom of heaven.' That in this passage * the kingdom ' is spoken of as a future thing, to be enjoyed after death, no one disputes. Further, it will be admitted that all the parties introduced are //'^^j-^-^*^ disciples ; although some are unrecognised by the Judge, — ' I never knew you ! ' But observe, they are not spoken of as persons who shall be cast into the lake of fire. They are in the position of the ' foolish virgins,' shnt ont from the honour and dignity which they had made sure was their own ; for had they not eaten and drunk in the presence of the Lord .'* — had He not taught in 'their streets'.'' — they, of course, being His supporters and approving list- eners ; and were they not, therefore, fully entitled to rank among the best } To say that Christ can bestow no mercy on those who are not, in the highest sense, ojie with Him, is practically to deny all gradation, either of reward or punishment. (4) Matt. viii. 12 — * The children of the kingdom sJiall be cast out into enter darkness! This is usually interpreted as signifying that the Jews, ' the children of the kingdom,' in consequence of their rejection of Christ, shall be cast i/ito hell, while believing Gentiles enter heaven. But this cannot be sustained. The figure, which is a re- markably striking one, is based on an allusion to U 290 THE RESURRECTION, the lustre of the briUiantly illuminated rooms in which bridal feasts are generally held, and to the darkness without, which would seem so very deep to any one ejected from within. The reference is plainly to the bridal union of Christ and the elect Church, from which high dignity the Jewish nation, as such, was by its unbelief shut out ; being super- seded by that election of grace which includes both Jews and Gentiles from every tongue and tribe under heaven. The weeping and gnashing of teeth, the tears and anger, consequent on so bitter a dis- appointment, fitly represent the mixed feelings by which the Jews now, and at the resurrection, will be affected when they awake to the consciousness of having cast away their birthright. (5). Matt. xii. 28 — * The kingdom of God is come unto yon! It is come, says Christ, inasmuch as I * cast out devils by the Spirit of God.' The essential idea of the kingdom then is, the overthrow of Satan, and this not merely in the sense of delivering souls from sin, but bodies from * possession,' whatever that term might imply. It is, therefore, the un- doing of all that Satan has done ; the removal of past consequences arising out of his long-submitted usurpation, as well as of evils connected with his present continuance. In this sense the kingdom of God has been, more or less, coming during the past 1,800 years; its 'coming' has been seen, not THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 291 only in the destruction of Jerusalem (Matt. xvi. 28), and in the fall of paganism in the Roman empire, but in every alleviation of human suffering produced by the spread of the benevolent prin- ciples of the Gospel. These things, however, are but the precursors of that complete and triumph- ant coming which will be witnessed in the day of the resurrection, when, in the clouds of heaven, and surrounded by His holy angels, the feet of Jesus shall once more stand on Mount Olivet (Acts i. 1 1, compared with Zech. xiv. 4). (6). Matt. xxi. 43 — ' The kingdom of God shall be taken from you! In what sense } Not, certainly, in the sense of all offers of mercy being withdrawn. Not that they were never more to hear of Christ or His Gospel ; but taken from them so far as headsJiip was concerned. The root-idea of the kingdom from the first was the calling out and separation of an elect Church, through whom the blessings of re- conciliation and restoration might be subsequently extended. That Church was originally the Jewish nation, and it was because they despised this, their birthright, that it was taken from them, and trans- ferred to an elect people, Jews and Gentiles, selected out of every nation under heaven. (7) Matt. xxvi. 29 — * / will not drink hejiceforth of this fntit of the vine, ttntil that day zuhen I drink it new with yon in My Father s kingdom! 292 THE RESURRECTION, Nothing is more certain, as Ave have seen, than that the apostles had, to the last day of Christ's being with them, what we should call carnal notions of the coming kingdom. The idea of an actual, visible reign, never seems to be out of their minds for a moment ; and the most anxious ques- tion they put to Him after the resurrection is, ' Wilt Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?' Now, if our views of the future are right, how strange it seems that to such men, with such pre- judices and tendencies, our Lord should simply say, — As to the times and seasons, these are with God alone (Acts i. 7) ; but as to the nature of the kingdom, I have already told you that, as, in the time of My humiliation, I drank of the fruit of the vine with you, so I will * drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom ; ' I have justified the saying, that * Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God' (Luke xiv. 15) ; and I have as- sured you that ' I have appointed unto you a king- dom, as My Father hath appointed unto Me ; that ye may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel ' (Luke xxii. 29, 30). Let that satisfy you. If all this is merely intended to indicate the spiritual triumphs of the Gospel — as we are so frequently told it is — such teaching to such men is altoG^eth er n?ilike\.h.Q conduct of Him who on one THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 293 occasion said, ' If it ivere not so, I ivould have told you,' — a mode of speaking which certainly imphes, I would never have allowed you to continue under a delusion. (8) Luke xii. 32 — * It is your Father s good pleasure to give you the kingdom' Surely this must mean the rule, or reign, as else- where promised, — the object of their constant hope, and to which they were continually looking for- ward. One can scarcely conceive of any other sense in which the kingdom itself could be spoken of as a gift. To give a man a kingdom is not to permit him to live under the rule of another ; it is to make him tJie ruler. Further, it is a kingdom in which it is possible even now to be laying up treasure ; yet it is a gift only to be actually received at the coming of the Lord (ver. 32 — 40). It is a kingdom in which every man will receive according to his deserts (ver. 41 — 48). It is emphatically a day of reward for those who have, by love and kindness, shared the burdens of the poor and the afflicted : * Thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just ' (xiv. 14). (9) Luke xix. 11 — 27 — * They tJwught that the kingdom of God should immediately appear! Observe how the Lord deals with this misappre- hension. He does not say, 'This notion of yours about a visible kingdom is altogetJier zvrong f but 294 THE RESURRECTION, He simply recites a parable, the object of which is to show that the manifestation of it is deferred. If their notion of the kingdom was fundamentally erroneous, He certainly leaves them in their error, a course which He never pursued. He does not even say, ' Ye are not able to bear ' the truth yet ; He directly and distinctly ^^///r;;/.?, while ///rZ/^'z;^^ their expectations. (lo) John xviii. 36 — ' My kingdom is not of this world' (worldly, like that of Caesar). The Romanist practically says, it is ; and, on the strength of that belief, unites in one man, as the vicar and representative of Christ on earth, both priestly and regal functions. So does the Russian Czar, when, blending in himself the same offices, he becomes, like the old Roman Emperor, the Pontifex Maximiis of his people, and consents to be regarded by the vulgar in the light of a God. So dreams the Antichrist which is yet to come, hoping that by such a union, universal monarchy will finally be established, and the rival claims of the Redeemer be, by fraud or violence, crushed out. The controversial use of this text, as if it were aimed at modern religious establishments, which, whatever may be their excellences or defects, cer- tainly proceed on the principle that Christ's king- dom is not of this world, and that, therefore, spiritual power should be subordinated to temporal, THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 295 has led to its true meaning dropping out of sight. The words clearly imply that Christ's kingdom, though not opposed to that of the Roman Emperor, was nevertheless a real one. Hence the inscription on the cross, * The King of the Jews,' must not be altered to, ' He said I am ' so ; for He actually was their monarch, although not yet manifested as such. But what force would the expression have, if the kingship and kingdom referred to were purely spiritual ? if it involved no kingship as man, and no kingdom over man, except that which God from the creation has exercised over all His crea- tures ? Had the case been put thus before Pilate, there can be little doubt but that he, with his pre- vious disposition to release Christ, would have re- plied, ' This is a question of religious creed, with which I do not intermeddle.' But he could not withstand the cry, * If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar's friend ; whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.' If, therefore, it be true, as it certainly is, that Christ was put to death for alleged blasphemy — for making Himself the Son of God, — it is equally true that He died for making Himself a king, in a sense which was supposed to involve treason against Caesar. The fact that the earliest apostasy consisted in the setting up of a claim, on the part of the Church, to rule over men in the affairs of this world as 296 THE RESURRECTION, Christ's vicegerent, is in itself proof that the ex- pectations of primitive Christians, in the second and third centuries, pointed in that direction ; and there is httle doubt but that the men of the fourth century regarded the downfall of paganism only as introductory to the full development of th s cherished hope. The Church was then big with a false expectation (compare Rev. xii. 2 with Isa. xxvi. 18) that Christians would now be kings on earth, and the Church the seat of universal empire. The almost immediate rise of a power, called ' the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world,' and which is subsequently exhibited to us as the great persecutor of the saints, was the consequence of this perversion (Rev. xii. i — 8). It is certain that it was before this Antichrist, and not before paganism, that the true Church fled ' into the wilderness.' The existence of the false, however, supposes the existence of the true ; just as hypocrisy supposes virtue, and falsehood, verity. That which Rome merely affects, Christ realizes ; the government which priests falsely claim in this age, Christ be- stows on the elect in the age that is to come. From the Acts and the Epistles I have selected the following passages as illustrative of those already quoted from the Gospels. (l) Acts xix. 8, 9 — ' Three months disputing and THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 297 persuading tJie things concerning the kingdom of God! The point to be noticed here is, that apparently the one topic of St. Paul's ministry at Ephesus — first for three months in the synagogue, and after- wards for two years in daily disputations ' in the school of Tyrannus ' — was 'the kingdom of God,' and the things concerning it. On this subject the apostle had most probably been instructed by special revelation, either at the time when God made known to him the mystery ' which had been kept secret since the world began ' (Ephes. iii. 3), or when he was informed as to the nature and per- manence of the Lord's Supper (i Cor. xi. 23 — 28) ; for Paul was not among the apostles with whom Christ, during tlie forty days that elapsed between the resurrection and ascension, so often conversed, ' speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God ' (Acts i. 3). Whether these communications related exclu- sively to the final triumph of the Redeemer, as the King of His people, and the subduer of Satan, may fairly be doubted ; but that they involved the interpretation of all those passages in the Law and the Prophets which speak of Messiah — His advent, life, death, and final victory — can scarcely admit of question. Whatever this particular teaching, how- ever, might be, it seems now to be in great measure lost ; for scarcely on any point do real Christians 298 THE RESURRECTION, differ more widely than in the views they take of that kingdom which is yet the object of their com- mon hope. Many of us have come to account those portions of Divine revelation, which speak most distinctly about it, as too obscure to be clearly understood ; many number them among the secret things that belong to God alone ; and many more merge all other hopes in one glorious expectation, that by the preaching of the Cross, and the out- pouring of the Holy Spirit, the world will even- tually be brought into subjection to Christ. Any spiritual excitement, therefore, which ends in the conversion of an unusual number of individuals, is hailed as the precursor, and welcomed as the pledge, of greater blessings yet to be vouchsafed. The question is, Was this supposed ultimate triumph of the Gospel the truth which the apostle taught under the appellation of ' things concerning the kingdom ' 1 I am constrained to say, / think not. It is indeed quite true that, in the touching interview he had with the elders at Ephesus before his departure for Jerusalem (Acts xx. 25), he speaks as if the doctrine of the kingdom embraced in its capacious arms everything else. But it is equally true that at Lystra, at Iconium, and at Antioch, he treats ' the faith ' and ' the kingdom ' as if they were distinct : for when he confirms the souls of the disciples, and exhorts them to contimLC in * the faith,' he reminds them that it is only through THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 299 * much tribulation ' we can ' enter into the kingdom ' (Acts xiv. 22). He speaks of the one (the faith) as a thing aheady possessed, and in which they were to remain steadfast; he regards the other (the kingdom) as a future inheritance, which could only be attained through sorrow, i.e., in connection with a lengthened course of discipline. There is, undoubtedly, an important sense in which Christ is reigning nozv as the monarch of the Church ; but it is equally clear, also, that He zvaits for ' the kingdom,' properly so called. So David writes, ' The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at My right hand, 2intil\ make Thine enemies Thy footstool' (Psa. ex. i). When this is done, and not till then, will Christ leave the right hand of the Father, and be enthroned over the riches of the universe. At present He 'rules' only *in the midst of His enemies' (ver. 2). This predictive statement, which is three times quoted in the New Testament (Luke xx. 42 ; Acts ii. 34; Heb. i. 13), finds its explanation in our Lord's own parable, delivered to the disciples ' because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately ap- pear,' in which He speaks of Himself under the figure of the nobleman who went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and wdio would in due time return to take possession (Luke xix. 12—27). St. Paul, in his Epistle to Timothy (2 Ep. iv. i), 300 THE RESURRECTION. unites ' the kingdom ' with ' the appearing ' of Christ, and the judgment of ' quick and dead ; ' and in the Hebrews (xii. 26, 27) he distinctly teaches that the reception of ' the kingdom ' which cannot be moved, will be amid shakings, both of earth and heaven, compared with which the coming down of God on Mount Sinai, terrible as it was, will sink into insignificance. T/uii will the promise made to Abraham find its complete fulfilment in the precise ivay in zvhicli he looked for it, viz., in the possession of ' a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God' (Heb. xi. 10). Then will his descendants, ' so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable,' receive the promises which on earth they saw ' afar off,' and in the faith of which they died (xi. 12 — 16). Then, and not till then, will it be seen that in Abraham, not the elect only, but 'all families of the earth,' * all nations,' are indeed 'blessed' (Gen. xii. 3 ; xxii. 18). Many judicious commentators argue that the phrase, ' these alT (Heb. xi. 13), should be referred, not to the descendants of Abraham, as the imme- diate context would seem to imply, but to the pa- triarchs enumerated in the preceding verses. This cannot, however, be admitted, since no promise of inheriting Canaan (the object of the faith in ques- tion) was made either to Abel, to Enoch, or to Noah. On the other hand, as Whitby remarks, it THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 301 is obvious enough that all the descendants of Abraham did not die, in any spiritual sense of the term, in faith. How then, it will be said, can the words apply to them ? The true answer probably is, that, allowing for individual exceptions, ivhicJi is ahvays do7ie in gene- ral statements, the Israelites elid all die in the firm faith that the promises made to Abraham would be fulfilled. It is most remarkable, that in the darkest periods of their history, however personally immoral or corrupt they might be, — amid prevail- ing carnality, and the most erroneous views of the nature of the kingdom promised them, the Jews as a nation never lost sight of the promise made to their great ancestor ; they lived, day by day, in hope of its accomplishment, and they died in the belief that whatever calamities might befall them or their children, the Israelite could not be lost, nor the promise of God be made of none effect. Such being the prevailing expectation of the Jew everywhere, it need excite no surprise that * the things concerning the kingdom,' its true cha- racter and certain approach, should be the per- petual theme of the apostolic ministry. (2) Acts xxiii. 6, and xxvi. 6 — 8 — ' Of the hope anel resiun-ection of the dead I am called in qiicstion' compared with, * / stand and am judged for the hope of the promise m.ade of God tinto onr fathers' I have already referred to these two texts, in 302 THE RESURRECTION. order to show how Paul preached. Let us turn to them again. The two passages throw Hght on each other, the second, in fact, explaining the first. ' I stand,' he says, * and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers : unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. 'For wJiich hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a tiling incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?' Here the apostle evidently connects two things together which are usually treated of as if they had no con- nection with each other, — ' the hope of Israel,' or ' the kingdom,' and the ' resurrection of the dead ; ' —the risen Christ, and ' the things which the pro- phets and Moses did say should come ' (xxvi. 6, and 22, 23). Now the theme of all the prophets unquestion- ably was a triumphant Messiah, and the fulfilment, in and by Him, of all those glorious predictions of a golden age which so enrich their discourses. Paul implies, by what he says, that he looked for this blessed period at the resurrection ; or why does he refer, immediately after speaking of 'the hope,' to the scepticism of Agrippa as to the pos- sibility of such an event ? Alford says, " The promise spoken of (ver. 6) is that of a Messiah and His kingdom, involving the resurrection!' Very true. But hozv involving it 1 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 303 The difference between Paul and the Jews really- consisted in this, — they (the Jews) looked for the kingdom in their own age, and apart from any special moral and spiritual preparation for it ; Paul looked for it at the resurrection. If this be ad- mitted, I ask no more. Except on the supposition that tlie JeivisJi i-ace is, in some sense or other, to enter into this promise in the world to come, it is very difficult to see how * the twelve tribes ' — the entire Jewish nation, those on earth and those in the invisible world — can, even by a bold figure of speech, be spoken of as ' instantly serving God day and night, in hope ' of its fulfilment (ver. 7). Nor is it easy to perceive — except on the hypothesis that ' the resurrection ' and ' the kingdom ' are synchronous — ze'/z^r^ 'Moses and the prophets ' predict a rising from the dead ; since they do so only inferentially, in proclaiming the advent of *the new heavens and the new earth,' or in passages which speak of the restoration of Israel, — the glory which is to follow as the conse- quence of the sufferings and death of Messiah (Isa. liii. 4 — 12, and Ixv. 17 — 25). The most direct, perhaps the only 'direct^ prediction of the resurrec- tion of the Redeemer, in the Old Testament, is that which occurs in the sixteenth Psalm; but how dim that light must have been felt to be, is evident from the inability of the apostles to comprehend the Lord, when He referred to the certainty of His 304 THE RESURRECTION. own rising again. It is not till the Psalm is ex- pounded by Peter on the day of Pentecost (Acts ii.) that its meaning is made plain. (3) I Cor. XV. 25 — ' For He viust reign, till He Jiath put all enemies iineler His feet' The reference here is, of course, to the media- torial reign of Christ ; for, as Goel, the rule of the Redeemer can have neither commencement nor termination. What, then, can the words imply but that, before the mediatorial reign terminates, Satan will be thoroughly subdued } The reply of many, I am quite aware, will be that no one doubts this conclusion ; that the prophets clearly predict such a triumph ; and that the victory in question may be fairly anticipated in the Millennium, when the spread of truth will be universal. But how does this affect the past? Can it be truthfully asserted that Christ has ' put all enemies under His feet' (///., brought to nought, not hostile power only, but all power, — Alfoi^ei) if His great enemy, Satan, has succeeded in ruining for ever the myriads who have lived in ignorance and sin betiuee?i the creation and the Millennium ^ I pro- fess an utter inability to see how this can be. I am satisfied that Scripture teaches it never will be. Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, and that blessed result He will assuredly accomplish. When He has done this, and not till then, will the kingdom, properly speaking, ' come.' THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 305 (4) I Cor. XV. 50 — 'Flesh and blood cannot in- herit the kingdom of God I A plain statement that ' the kingdom ' cannot be fully and properly inherited until flesh and blood have been exchanged for the spiritual body. That this is the meaning of the apostle is clear from what follows. He tells us that, although those who are alive when Christ returns 'shall not all sleep ' (i. e., die), they must ' all be changed,' — a process which wm"11 be accomplished * in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump.' (5) 2 Thess. i. 5 — ' That ye may be counted zvorthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer.' Here, again, the question arises, — When was this kingdom of God, for which, or with a view to which, they were suffering, to be manifested } From the context, clearly at the second coming of Christ, which here also seems to be distinctly associated with the first resurrection from the dead, and witli final * salvation [from sin] through sanctificat'on and belief of the truth ' (ii. 13). This, — the time of retribution (i. 6 — 9), and of the reappearance of the Lord (ver. 10), is the period of recompence and exaltation to the righteous, and of the consump- tion of 'that wicked one, whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of His coming ' (ii. 8). It is the day when the great impediment to the progress of the Gospel — the permissive power (A Satan to oppose Christ — will be removed. X 3o6 THE RESURRECTION. (6) Heb. ii. 5 — ' For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the zvorld to come \ry]v o\Kovfilvr]v, inhabited world,] zuJiereof we speak! The first question suggested is, What world ? Commentators generally reply, " The last and best dispensation," by which they mean the present one. Connecting the verse with the preceding ones, which speak of ' a word [Xoyoc] spoken by angels,' they infer that the teaching of the apostle is that, under the Gospel, angels are not invested with the authority they exercised under the Law. That this is true, as far as it goes, few will dis- pute ; but it is far from being the whole truth. The contrast (ver. 5 — 8) is not between the Law and the Gospel, but between angels and men ; be- tween angels, as administrators of the old economy, and redeemed 7nen, who are to be, under Christ, the sole administrators of the new, both now and in the world or age to come ; which world is but the complement of this, as the theatre of Christ's salvation. Under the Law, angels were clearly employed as messengers of God's will, and, in a certain sense, as revealers (Dan. viii. 16 ; ix. 21 ; Luke i. 19 — 26 ; Heb. ii. 2). Under the Gospel they have never been so employed. They are ' ministering spirits,' but not teachers or revealers. Hence, when Paul was to be converted by miracle, the Lord himself meets him, and not an angel. Under the Gospel, THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 307 ant^els are never spoken of as * co-workers with God and with Christ ' in the salvation of men ; tJiat dignity is reserved for the redeemed. (7) Heb. ii. 6 — 8 — ' We see not yet all tilings put njider hinil That is, nnder man, for the quotation (6 — 8) is from the eighth Psalm, where the subjection of the world to man is plainly spoken of '' All exegesis," says Dean Alford, " which loses sight of this gene- ral import, and attempts to force the Psalm into a direct and exclusive prophecy of the personal IMessiah, goes to conceal its true prophetic sense, and to obscure the force and beauty of its reference to Him. It is MAN who, in the Psalm, is spoken of, in the common and most general sense. The care taken by God of him, the lordship given to hi]n, the subjection of God's works to Jiini, — this high dignity he lost, but it is regained for him by one of his own race — the MAN Christ Jesus." All this is plainly set forth in the text (9 — 11). It follows, then, that one day all things are to be put under the dominion of man — /. e., of Christ, as the head of redeemed humanity, and of the elect as His brethren (ver. 11). But how can this ever come to pass, if our w^orld, till its termination, is to continue more or less under the bondage of the prince of darkness, and if, in the next state, the only living beings will be the redeemed (the elect kings and priests) and the hopelessly lost — wicked 3o8 THE RESURRECTION. men and wicked spirits ? In such a state of things, who are ' put under ' ? The only reply must be — animals, if they re-exist, and the wicked who are in * the lake of fire.' But is it credible, that the triumph of Christ and of His redeemed Church will consist of nothing more than the trampling under foot, or rather the eternal con- templation of the hopeless misery of the myriads of myriads who, since the creation, have lived and died ignorant and impenitent ? (8) Heb. viii. 8 — 13 — '/ zuiil make a neiv cove- nant zvith the house of Israel and zuith the house of JudaJi! The entire passage from which these words are taken is a quotation from the prophet Jeremiah (xxxi. 31 — 34). It is repeated in the tenth chapter of the Epistle (16, 17). The circumstances under which it was originally uttered are explained to us in the course of the prophecy. After the sack of Jerusalem, Jeremiah, with the other captives, was brought in chains to Ramah, where Nebuchad- nezzar had his head-quarters. There it was, at God's special command, that he prophesied regard- ing the future restoration of Israel ; of a risen David (Jer. XXX. 9) ; and of the New Covenant, resting on absolute and veritable forgiveness of sins (xxx. 34). Admitting, as we imagine most persons will do, that the prophet, as quoted in the Epistle, speaks of the covenant of which Christ is the Mediator. THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 309 the question arises, — -What does it involve ? Docs it mean that a day luoiild come when the men who were hving in the time of Jeremiah would be for- given ? — that God would be merciful to their un- righteousness, and remember their iniquities no more? (Heb. viii. 12, and x. 17) ; or, is it merely intended to teach that, at some distant period — more than 2,500 years after — for that period has already passed since the words were uttered, — God would be merciful to the unrighteousness of an Israel tJicji living on the earth, but that all the countless generations between would be left, as they have been, in unbelief, and therefore irrecover- ably lost ? No one pretends that a period has ever yet been seen when the Jews, no longer broken down or afflicted, could be spoken of as * forgiven,' either in the sense of their sins being forgotten, or by their having nationally ' looked unto Him whom they pierced.' The prediction, therefore, remains yet to be accomplished. On the supposition that it will be fulfilled in the race who may be living upon the earth in the times of the Millennium, and in them alone, — generations past being all lost, — I can only say, s?n'h a fulfil- ment is not like the dealings of Him who is both able and willing to do ' exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think ' (Ephes. iii. 20). On the supposition that it will be fulfilled in the 3IO THE RESURRECTION. resurrection, and embrace all who have ever Hved, the grandeur of the promise is obvious ; the joy of Paul at the thought that ' all Israel shall be saved ' becomes explicable ; and we exclaim, in wonder, ' His ways are not as our ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts.' If the promise merely related to national hXtss- ing, it might indeed be supposed to find its fulfil- ment in the conversion of the Israel of the latter day ; for nations, as such, having a corporate exist- ence, may be rewarded or punished ages after the performance of the acts thus judged ; but here it is individual men who are spoken of — men whose pe7'sonal sins are to be forgiven and forgotten — sins committed during the time of their impenitence ; persons who are to be brought under a new cove- nant, in which God will put His law ' in their in- ward parts, and write it in their hearts ;' \vhen He ' will forgive their iniquity, and will remember their sin no more.* It is supposed by many that in addition to for- giveness, the Israelitish nation will enjoy pre-emi- nence over the other ' saved nations.' This is quite possible. First, because Israel is the only nation that has ever been taken into covenant with God, — a peculiarity which was not temporary, but per- manent ; and, secondly, because the Jews are the only people that, as a nation, have ever recognisjd the earthly sovereignty of Messiah. THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 311 All truly Christian men hold, of course, that Christ is their king ; that His claim to reign over them is a real and rightful claim ; and that while the kingdoms of the world are already Christ's in fact, to the extent that individual believers are multiplied, they are so by right, in the largest and most comprehensive sense. But not a single Chris- tian natioji has retained the belief that it is the will of God ultimately to give '' a human, perfect, uni- versal monarch, to direct and head the world in that contest against evil which they all know and own to be going on." But it is otherwise w^ith the Jews. They could not exist as a State without the clearest and most distinct recognition of a heavenly Ruler. The Messiah they wait for, — amid whatever carnality and scepticism, — is an earthly as well as a hea- venly King, acting directly under the authority, and sustained by the wisdom and strength, of God. Hence they never expect the revival of their national life apart from their national supremacy. The veil is indeed over their eyes, both as to the person and character of Messiah, the time of His appearance, and the nature of His rule ; but the root-idea is a true one, viz., that He will be a perfect ruler, on earth, and over men who will be submitted to His government. It is, perhaps, not too much to affirm, that if the 312 THE RESURRECTION. God-man, Jesus of Nazareth, zvere now to be mani- fested as the ruler of the world, the Jews would be more ready to receive Him than any Christian people. And this simply because they are the only nation that, as suck, has not lost the idea of a Divine-human King. For these reasons, it is by no means improbable that they will be the first people nationally to turn to Christ. PART V. DIFFICULTIES AND SOLUTIONS. Chap. I. Objection and Reply. II. On Modern Thought. III. On Apostolic Expectations. 0^3 CHAPTER I. ON THE OBJECTION THAT A DOCTRINE OF RE- STITUTION AFTER THE RESURRECTION, IS INCONSISTENT WITH THE REVELATIONS OF SCRIPTURE REGARDING THE ETERNITY OF FUTURE PUNISHMENT, AND LIKELY TO IN- CREASE PREVAILING INDIFFERENCE TO RE- LIGION. TO this objection it might first of all fairly be replied, that the question we are examining has really nothing whatever to do either with the character or duration of the punishment which may be inflicted on the irreclaimably wicked. The inquiry relates neither to the temporary nor to the eternal character of the judgments of the last day ; but to the fact whether or no all mankind^ except- ing only the regenerate, are, notwithstanding the sacrificial life and death of the Saviour, doomed to eternal ruin. The point we are examining is not whether the finally lost will be for ever miserable, but whether Christ's sufferings have, in any intelligible sense, really and practically benefited tJie tinconvcrtcd world; whether He is the 'propitiation' for the 3 1 6 OBJECTION A ND RE PL V. sins of all, or whether He died only to render it possible for every n:ian to be saved who should, on earth, be renewed by the Holy Ghost ? To this question it is no reply to say, '' The Re- deemer has always had an Elect Church, and there is yet to come, before this dispensation closes, an era of light and love and triumph which, Vvhen it arrives, will so enlarge the Church as abun- dantly to compensate the losses and miseries of the past ;" for were this blessed period to stretch — as some think it possibly may— through three hundred and sixty-five thousand years, we should be still left to conclude that the plans and pur- poses of God have, with limited exceptions, been effectually thwarted by Satan for four thousand years prior to the Incarnation, and for nearly two thousand years after it. This can never be. Granting, for the sake of argument, that the expected Millennium is about to dawn, — that it may last as long as the wildest fancy can imagine, or the most devout heart desire, — that it comes, as many say, to close in glory this, the last dispensation ; or, as others affirm, that it folloius the second advent of the Lord, and con- sists in the indefinite multiplication of a remnant left on earth after the terrific judgments which accompany His return, the result is the same. In either case an absolute impossibility is supposed, viz., that Christ has suffered a long and disastrous OBJECTION AND RE PL Y. 317 defeat at the hand of the great enemy. For it proceeds on the assumption that, during nearly six thousand years, the countless myriads of earth, repeating themselves generation after generation, have, with comparatively few exceptions, been secured by Satan for ever. It is of no use shutting the eye to this conse- quence, or stopping the ear when we are reminded of it. There it is ; and it can never be got rid of True, we may be told — as we often are — that the loss of the adult population of the world will be made up by the salvation of its innumerable in- fants. But who does not see that such a supposi- tion only renders the failure still more complete ; 'jince, on this showing, the victories of Satan are over beings reasonable, intelligent, and responsible, while the majority of those whom Christ wins nev^er knew good or evil ; have therefore been sub- jected to no probation ; are, in fact, as incapable of choice as the beasts of the field or the clods of the valley } How near such conclusions approach to blasphemy it is hard to say. Nor is the case at all relieved by adding, We are content to leave the matter with God. For what right have we, first to take up a theory inconsistent with, if not altogether opposed to, the intimations of the Bible, and then to throw the difficulties we have created on our heavenly Father,'' Equally vain is it to say that universality is the 31 8 OBJECTION AND RE PL Y. aim and intention of the Gospel, — that Hmltation arises only from the perversity of man. If men had not been depraved and perverse, there would have been no need for the Gospel. But of what use can any Gospel be to a sinner, which is invari- ably made of none effect by the very disease it comes to cure, and which can never do anytlung for Jiini beyond aggravating his guilt, tinlcss it be accompanied by another and distinct gift, which is special and sovereign, — and not for all? The only reply that can be given is this, — God is a sovereign : man, every man, is by natnre so de- praved and rebellious as to deserve eternal misery. Salvation is, in every case, an exercise of free grace, the limitation of which no man has a right to complain of. If the Creator thinks fit to call into being myriads of men and women, each one as sensitive as ourselves, knowing well Xh-dX the only result of their creation will be their eternal wicked- ness and misery, who or what are we that we should question His doings t If it be so, — if God does, indeed, under such con- ditions give life to the great masses of mankind, — silence alone becomes us. But may it not be as well to ask, whether He does anything of the kind.^ Certainly nothing short of the clearest testimony of His Word should lead us for a moment to admit even the possibility of a course so opposed to all that He has revealed to us of His infinite compas- OBJECTION AND RE PL V. 319 sion, of His tender mercy, and of His pitifulncss towards the children of men. When Abraham ventured to remonstrate with God, under the sup- position that He was about to destroy the innocent with the guilty, saying, ' Shall not the Judge of all the earth do rigJit ? ' the Lord justifies his state of mind, by saying that such a thing shall not be. When Jonah, in anger and in insolence, reproaches God for being merciful (iv. 2), because Nineveh was not destroyed in accordance with the threatening he had been commissioned to deliver, it is God who deigns to reason on the side of mercy, — ' Should not I spare Nineveh, that great city ? ' (ver. 11). When James and John (the tender and loving John) desire that fire from heaven should fall on those who rejected their Lord, it is Christ who says, ' The Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them ' (Luke ix. 56). Scripture invariably represents God as more merci- ful than man, and tells us that it is better, in any case and in all worlds, to be in the hands of God than in the hands of our fellow-mortals. Yet even man's moral instincts, when purified by Divine love, revolt against the conception of eternal misery and eternal sin. And since no interpreta- tion of Scripture can be correct which sets the work of God in the heart, and the ivord of God, as expressed in the Bible, in opposition the one to the other, it surely becomes us to pause 3 2 D OBJE CTION A .YD R EPL F. before we commit Divine Revelation to such a controversy. But I again say, This is not the subject of our present inquiry. We are not asking whether the miUions — if miUions there were — of the anted iki- vians who perished in the Deluge are, after the judgment day, to be tormented /d?r ^z'^r .^ or whe- ther, after a given number of thousands of years shall have elapsed, they will be either annihilated or restored t but whether they may not, in that mysterious world in which they now dwell, or at the resurrection, be made acquainted with those later revelations of God's character and will which w^e possess, and which, for aught we can tell, may with them, as with us, be made powerful to the pulling down of strongholds, and to the bringing into subjection of every thought to the obedience of Christ } It is absurd to call this universalism. The re- storation of the race, whether existing before or since the Deluge, is far from involving of necessity the restoration of every individual ; and it is but trifling with a serious subject to assert that if it once be allowed that any man, not converted on earth, may hope for mercy in the next world, t/iai the doctrine of the universalist cannot be either denied or disputed. Yet such is the ground con- tinually taken by persons who think that God is dishonoured, and the teachings of Scripture denied. OBJECTION AND REPL V. 321 if a ray of hope is allowed to enter the invisible world. Would to God it were possible to make such reasoners see that their rash assertions on this sub- ject, however well intended, are, when taken in connection with the views they hold on eternal punishment, to be numbered "among the most effective of all the causes which are, at present, inducing among us that virtual abandonment of Christianity which assigns a mythic sense to almost every part of the sacred oracles." ^ Would that it were but felt that all this risk is run for a doctrine, " the evidence for which," says one of the most orthodox of divines, " is by no means to be compared to that which establishes our common Christianity." ^ Were it, indeed, indisputably true that the un- converted pass at death into the miseries of hell ; and that Dr. Chalmers's estimate of their number be accepted, when he tells us that '* spiritual reno- vation " is '* an event of exceeding rarity," — that those who are thus renewed are but " a handful out of the untouched mass," — it would be hard indeed to avoid the conclusion that men ought, above all things, to shrink from becoming parents ; that the fondest hope of woman should be that her children might die in infancy ; and that all classes alike 1 Sir James Stephen. ^ Rev. Robert Ilall. 322 OBJECTION AND REPL Y. should unite with one of our ablest modern writers — a devout and earnest Christian minister — when he says, " For my part, I fancy I should not grieve if the whole race of mankind died in its fourth year. As far as we can see, I do not know that it would be a thing much to be lamented." ^ A theo- logy zv/iieh can lead to such a coiichision must surely be defective soviezvhere. To the further objection that prevailing indiffer- ence to divine things would be increased, it might, and it ought to be sufficient to reply, that where our inquiries relate simply to what God has revealed to us in the Bible, or, in other words, to ' what is Truthl we have nothing whatever to do with sup- posed consequences. The one and sole question with us, as humble and devout inquirers, should be, What does the Book say ? The opposite course, — that which proceeds on the assumption that we are able to judge before- hand as to what will be the practical tendency of any doctrine, and therefore warranted in neglect- ing or rejecting what we may imagine likely to act injuriously on mankind, — cannot be sus- tained for a moment, either by reason or from Scripture. Yet how often is it acted upon. How many once both rejected and denounced the doctrine of ^ Prof. Henry Rogers, in Greysou's Letters. OBJECTION AND REPL V. 323 justification by Faith alone, simply because it ap- peared to tJiem to be unfavourable to holiness of life. How many others, on precisely the same ground, still speak of the doctrine of Election as " a delusion of Satan." How many more — some of whom may justly be numbered among the excellent of the earth — are utterly inaccessible to any evidence that may be presented in favour of a pre-millennial advent ; since they are fully per- suaded that such a view of the future imist be fraught with mischief, and, if generally adopted, prove destructive to all missionary zeal. But who, among them all, will deliberately venture to argue that such fears or suppositions ought either to over- ride or to interfere with just conclusions in regard to the evidence by which any of the doctrines in question are either to be rejected or sustained ? This, however, is not the position on which I propose to fall back. On the contrary, I desire to meet the objector on his own ground, and to maintain that the general reception of the views we have gathered (on the supposition of their being, as I firmly believe they are, revealed truths) would be every way beneficial ; stimulating the believer to seek after higher attainments in holi- ness, impressing the careless with a greater sense of the certainty of future retribution, and removing hindrances from the path of honest but sceptical inquirers. 324 OBJECTION AND RE PL Y. In our present teaching relative to the future, no man can find much that is calculated to promote spiritual groivtJi. He is told, indeed, that this world is not his home ; but of that which is to follow he learns nothing. He is led to believe that, epart from the direct and eternal consequences of faith and its opposite, this world and the next have but little in common ; that death, like a great gulf, separates men for ever from the particular training and discipline they have undergone on earth, from their knowledge and their ignorance, from their vices and their virtues, from their peculiar beliefs or unbeliefs ; that one unspeakably awful alter- native — heaven or hell — swallows up everything else, and practically annihilates those shades of character which so remarkably distinguish man from man while here. To the popular mind, heaven, supposed to be immediately entered upon at death, is simply and exclusively perpetual worship ; hell, eternal tor- ment in material flame. The great mass, even of instructed Christians, think little either of an inter- mediate world of spirits, or of a subsequent resur- rection of the body ; nor does it seem to them profitable to meditate on the fact, that since our Lord carried with Him to the Father all that con- stitutes a human being — all the varied affections and feelings of humanity — and since He exercised every one of these capacities on earth without a OBJECTION AND REPL Y. 325 stain of sin, it is at least reasonable to suppose that His saints, when again in the body, will find employment as practical, and yet as spiritual, as that which engaged their Redeemer while in the flesh. Hence it is that, in the absence of these thoughts, so few Christians are ambitious of distinction in the world to come — ever think about the ' crown ' that is to be lost or won ; or remember that their * calling and election ' is one that has to be ' made snre! How can they do so, while under the de- lusion — for such it is— that the spirits of the just at death mingle with the angels, and, in the enjoy- ment of a common felicity, are for ever employed in vocal and instrumental praise ? Equally defective are the views generally incul- cated relative to the condition of the departed saint at Christ's coining. So little, indeed, is now thought of this great event, or of the consequent earlier resurrection of the sainted dead, that it is not too much to say that, in the great majority of instances, these twin subjects of deep and ever- living interest to the early Church — these indi- visible truths of the New Testament, on which the sacred writers linger with delight — have little ap- preciable influence over ns, either as joy or strength. They are not the thoughts that either fill us with satisfaction, or modify our conduct and character. They are believed, in some sense or other, without •326 OBJECTION AND REPL Y. doubt ; they form no unimportant part of our creed ; but they are superseded, for all practical purposes, by the notion, that when the spirit of a man leaves earth, it enters at once upon its final joy or irreparable woe. So, in our modes of doing good, that which we value most is immediate and strong impression ; conversion, or rather that which appears to us to be such, is often supposed to include everything else ; safety, instead of sanctification, too fre- quently becomes the end of our religion ; Chris- tianity is diffused, without being deepened ; the * form of sound words ' rises in value as the force of an elevated moral life diminishes in esteem ; profession outruns practice ; union to the CJuirch, whether it be by outward rite or supposed inward change, is too often identified with union to Christ, until, as the result, living Christianity gradually retires before a Christianized population into secret places, and the life and power of the faith, as seen in a literal adherence to the precepts of the Saviour, is accounted little better than an extravagance. This state of things does not appear to me to be so particularly advantageous, that we should feel anything like regret at the possibility of its being- disturbed. Nor should it be forgotten that now, by all but universal consent, it is fully admitted that our present modes of thought and feeling relative to OBJECTION AND REPL Y. 327 the future misery of the unconverted, especially when regarded in connection with man's moral inability to repent and believe, have become the fruitful parents of the later forms of scepticism, — a circumstance w^hich in itself alone should lead us, with the deepest anxiety, to inquire whether or no these modes of thought are scripturally correct. What can be more striking or confounding than the words which have recently been uttered by a great Christian advocate,^ eminent for his ortho- doxy, when he tells us that " the same Gospel which penetrates our souls with warm emotions, dispersive of selfishness, brings in upon the heart a sympathy that tempts us often to zvish that itself were not true, or that it had not taught us so to feel " ? At these points, he goes on to say, *' we come upon an interior antagonism, a deep, counter- active energy, whence springs, almost with periodic regularity, a DISBELIEF, of which Christianity is the immediate object, inasmuch as it is its incita- tive cause." Is it possible to pass a severer condemnation on some parts of our modern Evangelical theology, than to show, as is here done, that, on the suppo- sition of its truth, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is suicidal in character ; that in proportion as Divine truth produces its intended and legitimate effect ^ Isaac Taylor's "Restoration of Belief." 328 OBJECTION AND RE PL K on human hearts, it brings them, in certain points, into direct antagonism with itself ? Again, what can be more paralyzing than thoughts and feelings such as have been avowed by Dr. Albert Barnes as his own ? He is speaking of the ordinary Evangelical theology, in its bear- ing on the unconverted, when these words are forced from him : — "These, and kindred difficulties, meet the mind when we think on this great subject; and they meet us when we endeavour to urge our fellow- sinners to be reconciled to God, and to put con- fidence in Him. I confess, for one, that I feel them, and feel them more sensibly and powerfully the more I look at them, and the longer I live. I do not know that I have a ray of light on this subject which I had not when the subject first flashed across my soul. I have read, to some ex- tent, what wise and good men have written. I have looked at their theories and explanations. I have endeavoured to weigh their arguments, for my whole soul pants for light and relief on these questions. But I get neither ; and in the distress and anguish of my own spirit, I confess that I see no light whatever. I see not one ray to disclose to me the reason why sin came into the world, why the earth is strewed with the dying and the dead, and why man must suffer to all eternity. ** I have never seen a particle of light thrown on OBJECTION AND RE PL Y. 329 these subjects that has given a moment's ease to my tortured mind ; nor have I an explanation to offer, or a thought to suggest, that would be of relief to you. I trust other men — as they profess to do — understand this better than I do, and that they have not the anguish of spirit which I have ; but I confess, when I look on a world of sinners and sufferers, upon death-beds and graveyards, upon the world of woe, filled with hosts to suffer for ever ; when I see my friends, my parents, my family, my people, my fellow-citizens, — when I look upon a whole race, all involved in this sin and danger, and when I see the great mass of them wholly unconcerned, and when I feel that God only can save them, and yet He does not do it, I am struck dumb. It is all dark, dark, dark, to my soul, and I cannot disguise it." 1 How different would be our conclusions if we could but believe that the eternal justice and in- finite mercy of our heavenly Father is " one and the same with His universal sympathy ; that the medicines of Christ are as manifold as our in- firmities ; and that, as there are * many mansions ' in the * Father's house ' (the redeemed congrega- tion), so, to that house are many approaches." Need it excite wonder that, under existing con- 1 Albert Barnes, " Practical Sermons," pp. 123 — 5, quoted from •' Hudson's Debt and Grace," 4th edit., Boston, U.S., 1858. 330 OBJECTION AND RE PL V. ditions, doubt spreads ? It is easy to say that scepticism, of whatever kind, is but another name for sin, — that it is not honest, — that it arises simply and solely from hatred to truth. Such is not the fact. There is such a thing, whether men will allow it or not, as honest doubt. The Bible every- where recognizes it. The Apostle Thomas is a striking example of it. And those who have read the sermon of the late Mr. Robertson, of Brighton, on the rationalism of this disciple, will enter into his meaning, when he speaks of men ** whose re- flective powers are stronger than their susceptive ;" of *' minds that must be convulsed with doubt before they can repose in faith ; " of the evidence afforded by the Gospel narrative that '* a sign may be given to the doubt of love which is refused to the doubt of indifference ;" and of the lesson which is taught by that Divine forbearance which did not disdain to say to the one sceptic of His little band, * Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands ; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing.' Never did the question, ' How can honest doubt be best dealt with } ' more urgently demand a so- lution than it does in the present day. Never was it so necessary as it is now to separate earnest and active doubters — men who so hrje truth that they dare not rest in doubt — from men whose scepticism is but a chronic malady, characterized chiefly by OBJECTION AND REPL Y. 331 conceit. For the latter, little or notJiing can be done ; for the former, vincJi. Nor should it surely be forgotten that " the real, though often unavowed, ground of the doubts which are thus overclouding the spirits of so many of the nominal disciples of Christ, is the hopeless dejection with which they contemplate that part of the Christian scheme which is supposed to con- sign the vast majority of our race to a future state in which woe, indescribable in amount, is also eternal in duration. From this doctrine the hearts of most men turn aside, not only with an instinc- tive horror, but with an invincible incredulity ; and of those who believe that it really proceeded from the lips of Christ himself, many are sorely tempted by it, either to doubt the Divine authority of His words, or to destroy their meaning by conjectural evasions of their force." ^ It is unquestionable, that in the Gospels the Redeemer is depicted as frequently turning away from the world, which then, as now, would be called religiotLs,\^\2X. He might more forcibly teach us that He has other sheep, not of this fold, sheep astray upon the mountains, despised and rejected of men. It is in these Gospels that " one by one we see and recognize them. The publican, who stands afar off, and will not lift up so much as his ^ Sir James Stephen, "Ecc. Biog.," ii. 495, Epilogue. 332 OBJECTION AND REPL Y. eyes to heaven ; the woman who is a sinner, from whose touch Simon shrank back in horror ; the soldier, who would not venture to ask Him under his roof; the heathen mother, whom His disciples would have driven away as a dog from His pre- sence ; the rough sailor, who had been washing his nets on the shores of the lake ; the man of busi- ness, who sat all day long at the receipt of custom ; the stranger, who did his works of mercy, not fol- lowing with the apostles ; the wild youth, who had wandered far from his father's house ; the savage robber, who hung on the accursed tree — to each and all He turns, and for each He has a blessing.'" Is it possible to imagine that love like this passed away for ever with the earthly life in which it was manifested ? These persons came to CJirist, it is true ; but what evidence is there, in relation to some of them at least, that they discerned His true character, or sought more than temporal good ? Is it conceivable, I say, that on the supposition of siLch like among ourselves not being truly re- generated here, there is, in the world that is to come, for tJicin neither pity, nor mercy, nor hope ? If it be so, wJiy the consciousness, that lies so deep in the hearts of all men, that sin is separation from God, and peace, and blessedness ? Why the sadness and the thoucfhtfulness that all but invari- 1 Stanley's "Canterbury Sermons. OBJECTION AND REPL Y. 333 ably accompany suffering and toil ? Why the universal consent of humanity to the Law that it is good ? Why the countless struggles that are con- tinually going on, in the minds of the unregene- rate, after ideals of excellence which are never reached ? Why, if in vain and for nought, should the most real and deep of all human experiences be the sense of guilt, and the longing after deliver- ance from its chain ? Why indeed, if earth be not the field in which the seed, at least, of reconcilia- tion with God is sown with no niggard hand ; if the world to come will see no richer harvest than that which wc behold ; if the multitude who now so darkly grope after God never find Him ; if con- scious helplessness leads to no helper, and life and death, and all the mystery of being, end only in one grand gigantic scene of all but universal desolation ? God forbid that I should, for a single moment, even seem to doubt that for sonic — for those of us, in particular, who have * tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come ' — the solemn issues of eternity do hang on the ioxY short years of our mortal existence ; but it does not thence follow that this is the case with every man ; that the possession, or the possibility of possessing, a copy of the Scriptures is equivalent to a full pre- sentation of the Gospel ; or that either tracts or sermons can in themselves so embody living truth, as to make the disregard of them equivalent to the 334 OBJECTION AND REPL V. rejection of the Redeemer. I do not despise either tracts or sermons ; but I am quite sure that none of these things, however good in their place, will accomplish much, so long as the stumbling-blocks occasioned by the corruptions of the Church, and the inconsistencies of individual believers, are un removed. Not till this is done will it be seen that the vioral stLpcriority of Christians, the winning excellence of those who love and imitate the Re- deemer, is tJie great agency employed by God to draw men to Christ ; inasmuch as in this way alone can the teachings of Scripture be practically illus- trated, and translated into action. So far from imagining that teaching \h^ possibility of this power being brought to bear on the unrenewed in other states of existence — \h.^ probability, I would rather say, of the redeemed Church being employed, in the world to come, in bringing to the know- leds^e and love of Christ multitudes of those who have never known Him here, — would have a ten- dency to promote religious indifference, I firmly believe that its effect would be precisely the reverse. For tJieji future retribution, instead of being, as now, alternately dreaded and doubted, would come to be acknowledged a solemn reality, as little open to question as the great facts of physical existence; while the exact apportioning of reward and punish- ment to every man according to his deeds, noiu all but universally lost sight of, would be found to har- OBJECTION AND REPL Y. 335 monize alike with the voice of conscience and the word of God. Virtue, of whatever kind, and by whomsoever displayed, would, as coming from the * Giver of every good and perfect gift,' then be con- sidered worthy of all honour and imitation ; and the one great desire of the child of God would be to be 'preserved blameless, body, soul, and spirit, to the coming of the Lord.' There are persons I know who will say. If hell can be escaped, let us go on in sin ; just as there were persons in a former day who said, ' Let us sin that grace may abound.' Of such, what more can be affirmed than this, ' Their condemnation is just' ? Baptism, the Lord's Supper, church-going, prayer, almsgiving, all have been in like manner abused. But it is not on this account, nor yet because ' things hard to be understood ' have, in all ages, been ' wrested by the unteachable and unstable to their own destruction,' that we are to regard any portion of the Divine V/ord either as dangerous or doubtful. Dr. Norman McLeod observes — " It does appear to me that there exists a wide- spread callousness and indifference, an ease of mind, with reference to the fate hereafter of ungodly men, which cannot be accounted for except on the supposition that all earliest faith is lost in either the dread possi- bilities of future sin, or of its future punishment."^ 1 " ParishPapers ;" chapter on Future Punishment. 336 OBJECTION AND REPL V. Even of professed believers the truth must be told, that/^i£/ attempt to realize the awful condition in which mankind are supposed to be placed ; that many shrink from even hinting danger to their nearest and dearest unconverted relatives ; and that some, it is to be feared, " compromise with conscience for the absence of a life in the spirit of their creed, by violent speculative denunciations on those who oppose it." The great multitude, in the meantime, live on and pass into eternity, devoid of every sentiment of anxiety in reference to the world that is to come ; the popular theology being, I am afraid, but too truly expressed in an epitaph I have seen somewhere, written upon the tombstone of a notoriously abandoned man, who was killed by a fall while hunting, — " Between the stirrup and the ground He mercy sought, and mercy found." This is the grand delusion we have to grapple with, and we shall do so most successfully by bringing under the notice of the impenitent, con- siderations which tend to attach certainty rather than horror to future retribution, and by avoiding exaggerated statements, which are only calculated to harden the hearer. Dr. Norman McLeod again asks, *' What If, in- stead of the wrath of God being poured upon them (the wicked) to the utmost, it will be inflicted in OBJECTION AND RE PL Y. 337 the least possible measure, and only in the way of natural consequence ? What if the sin which makes the hell hereafter is, in spite of all its suf- fering, loved, clung to, even as the sin is which makes the hell now ? Nay, what if every gift of God, and every capacity for perverting His gifts, be retained, and if the sinner shall suffer only from that which he himself chooses for ever, and for ever determines to possess ? I do not say that it must be so, but if it is so, then might a hell of unbridled self-indulgence be prefcnrd then, as it is by many now, to a heaven whose blessedness consisted in perfect holiness, and the possession of the love of God in Christ for ever and ever." ^ I can only say to this speculation, that a hell of this character (totally different from that which the Bible asserts it to be), would not assuredly be an object of much dread to the wicked ; but that God should for ever sustain sinners in \}ci\?, preference for evil, and in the eternal indulgence of it, passes all rational belief That Christians enlightened from above, and themselves partakers of a salvation which they acknowledge to be a free and sovereign gift, irre- spective altogether of their deserts, should be lui- willing to receive the testimony of Scripture, when it points to possibilities for the race, brighter than any they could have conceived : that they should 1 "Parish Papers," p. 154. Z 338 OBJECTION AND REPLY. be indisposed to examine such evidence as is pre- sented to them in favour of its truth ; that they should almost deem it ivicked to doubt the dogmas of past ages, or to question the vaHdity of the in- ferences on which they rest, would be utterly unac- countable, were it not for the recollection that want of faith is want of courage, and that cowardice in the study of the Divine Word is but one of the many sad consequences which result from man's alienation from his Maker, and the tendency of his soul to dread rather than to love his heavenly Father. 339 I CHAPTER II. ON MODERN THOUGHT. N all that has been advanced relative to the bearing of the work of Christ on the world at large, it will be observed that I have carefully confined myself to one question, — ' What saith the Scriptures ? ' I have done so advisedly, because I am satisfied that, on the answer given by the Divine oracle to that question, the reception or rejection of the doctrine of an extended future re- storation must and ought ultimately to depend. I should be sorry, however, for it to be supposed that because I have abstained from those more general considerations which belong to the pro- vince of reason and conscience, I deliberately set aside all such testimony as worthless. This is not the case. I am far indeed from disputing the authority, either in morals or religion, of the reason with which God has endowed us, or of the conscience — that ' candle of the Lord ' — which shines within us. Scripture itself teaches us a dift*erent lesson. For it tells us most distinctly that the same God who has revealed Himself in the Bible reveals Himself 340 ON MODERN THOUGHT. also in nature, in providence, and in the heart of man. No mistake can be much greater than that which leads certain devout persons to imagine they exalt Scripture by abasing reason, and mag- nify the light that comes to us from luithout by denying or attempting to extinguish the light that is zvithin. No course can be more perilous than one which brings the facts of the world into collision with the facts of Scripture, or admits for an instant that conscience and reason — the moral sense, pro- perly so termed — can ever be really and truly in opposition to the Bible, if only conscience be living and healthy, and Scripture be properly understood. To suppose that God has given us faculties which are utterly ?nitrustworth}', is to make Him precisely what Christ says He is not, — a Father who, when asked for * bread,' gives * a stone ; ' or, solicited for ' a fish,' presents ' a serpent.' The New Testament abounds with instances m which reason is both appealed to, and counted trustworthy. The Pharisees taught that external ceremonies purified the soul before God. But our Lord rebuked His disciples sternly for not at once contradicting and disbelieving the doctrines of these their appointed teachers. And on what ground } On the ground of the clear utterance of their imder standings, — ' Are ye also without under- standing, and perceive not that this cannot be } ' (Matt. XV. I — 20; Mark vii. i — 23). ON MODERN THOUGHT. 341 When the Baptist preached, all the people, by the light of conscience, — for it could be nothing else, — * counted John as a prophet.* St Paul pre- vails, not by contradicting the inner sense, but ' by manifestation of the truth commending himself to every man's conscience in the sight of God ' (2 Cor. iv. 2). When our Lord says, in relation to false prophets, 'By their fruits shall ye know them,' what can He be supposed to mean, but that the true was to be discerned by that inward sense of right and wrong, of good and evil, given us by our Creator as our light and guide in such matters ? And if these things be true in relation to man re- garded in his natural condition, how much more true must they be in relation to those of whom it is said, ' Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and know all things.' That we are charged to cultivate childlike submission is indisputable ; but in connection therewith it can assuredly do us no harm to remember another charge, — ' Be not children in understanding : howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men ' (i Cor. xiv. 20).^ It is in the light of these considerations that I ^ These texts, and many others equally applicable in their bear- ing on the testimony of Scripture to the authority of the conscience and reason, are brought forvvard in No. 12 of "Tracts for Priests and People," by the Hon. and Rev. W. H. Lyttleton, M. A., Rector of Hagley, and Hon. Canon of Worcester, 342 ON MODERN THOUGHT. am disposed to give just that amount of weight, and no more, to the moral argument against the ruin of the race, which, whether we will or not, perpetually forces itself upon our notice. For true as it undoubtedly is, that in searching the Bible the proper question for us to put is not, 'What thinkest thou ? ' but, ' How readest thou ? ' and true also as it may be, that the meaning of Scrip- ture is to be ascertained, not by sentiment but by grammar, it is neither wise nor right to carry this principle so far as to disregard or exclude alto- gether that Divine instinct which God has Himself implanted in the renewed heart. " There is a reasonable and Scriptural faith," says Mr. Gold win Smith, " which reposes on the wisdom and goodness of God, trusts Him entirely, and believes that everything in the ways of His providence which is now dark will, in the end, be made clear. " But there is also an ecclesiastical faith, neither reasonable nor Scriptural, which consists in wil- fully shutting the eye of the mind ; in putting force upon the conscience ; in receiving insufficient evidence and pretending that it is sufficient ; in embracing things unworthy of the Deity, and pre- tending that they are Divine. Those who practise this ecclesiastical faith, and think it meritorious, tacitly assume that the need of evidence is in an inverse ratio to the importance of the subject ; and O.Y MODERN THOUGHT. 343 that while they would be bound to demand full proof before believmg that anything of a question- able character came from a good man, they per- form an act of piety in believing, without full proof, and sometimes with no proof at all, that things of a questionable character come from God." The result of handling Divine truth in this way is already beginning to manifest itself in a manner that wnll one day make the most thoughtless reflect. It is seen in that sense of luicertainty which has come over us, in relation to so many of our reli- gious convictions, and which contrasts so painfully with that perfect conviction which the first Chris- tians had " of the certainty of that BODY OF FACTS which constituted, and in which consisted, their religious belief." It is seen in the absence of that high sense of the virtue and duty of ti'uthfulncss in our convictions which even heathens honoured ; in the rarity of that spectacle, said to have been dear to the pagan gods, " where a brave man is seen struggling with facts which are too strong for him, his honesty exposed to temptations to shirk or evade them, yet his honesty conspicuous, and invariably triumphant." It is seen, perhaps, most of all, among ourselves, in the preference which is now so widely shown by religious persons for that which is vague and inde- 344 ON MODERN THOUGHT. finite in statement rather than for words that are clear and expHcit. Preachers (some, at least) speak thus cloudily, not because they are unable to express themselves clearly, but because they think it most advisable to be vague on what are termed disputed subjects. They wish, if it be pos- sible, to be regarded as, in the main, " sound," and therefore shrink from committing themselves to views, the promulgation of which, on various ac- counts, they deem it expedient to avoid. Hearers like to have it so. And for obvious reasons. So long as a man is allowed to suppose that it is much the same thing whether he believes a given truth, or sometJdng like it, he is in little danger of being disturbed. Clearly defined statements bring men to the test. The positive obligation to accept or reject, will often occasion doubt, and doubt is to most persons irksome ; it compels inquiry, and occasions trouble. So the conclusion is a popular one, that to be indefinite is to be safe ; that in a teacher vagueness is at least a proof of modesty and humility ; while clear and definite assertion (unless indeed it be in support of some recognized opinion of a school or party, — ^^in which case the teacher can never be too dogmatic for the dis- ciple) is, however well sustained by Scripture, to be shunned as dangeroitSy chiefly because it is so unsettling. Week after week books issue from the press on ON MODERN THOUGHT. 345 * heaven/ and hell, and the world to come, in which the supposed social, intellectual, and even physical life of the departed is set forth in glowing colours, drawn, for the most part, simply from the imagination of the writers, and often without even the affectation of deriving support either from reason, analogy, or any statement of Scripture. All these productions, however numerous or how- ever shallow, are greedily received in quarters where anything like a thoughtful inquiry into the teachings of revelation would be regarded as dis- tasteful, if not perilous. Even so able and sober a writer as Dr. Norman McLeod is not free from this tendency to speculate on subjects which ask only for research. What can be more unsatisfactory from such a man, than to be told almost in the same breath, that while neither Christ nor the Apostles have *' given us by one word the slightest ground for hoping that any man who leaves this world an enemy to God, will ever repent and be- come a friend of God in the next," yet " we may hope that the number of the lost may be, to those who are ^^.v^A, fewer far than the number of those in penal settlements and prisons are to the inhabit- ants of a well-ordered and Christian kingdom".? And if we ask for the ground, Scriptural or other- wise, on which such hope is to be based, we are simply told (Laura Bridgman's case being regarded as an illustration) that '' the living God, who alone 346 ON MODERN THOUGHT. knows each man, may be dealing, in ways beyond our comprehension, with the most lonely savage, whose inmost spirit He even sees, and who is of more awful value in His sight than all the stars of the sky." Dr. McLeod's' imagination is, that, in some mysterious way, ** God can teach that spirit ivithoiU the Gospel, or the ordinary means of grace, so as to bring it under law to God." ^ I am aware it may be said. How can a man teach, definitely, anything on which his own mind is not quite made up 1 or be distinct and positive on matters which he believes to be but dimly and partially revealed } To this objection there is but one answer. The uncertainty in question is morbid ; it is the disease of the day, and it has become chronic. Indefinite- ness is not a characteristic of Divine revelation. Certainty may, on almost all subjects, be reached, if we have but entire confidence in the Divine Record, and will take pains enough to search 1 "Parish Paper.s,"pp. 152, 153. Dr. Guthrie all but avows similar views in Good Words (Jan. 1863, p. 3). He thinks it monstrous to suppose that /la/f the world will be lost, exclaiming, "If, at the close of the war, Satan retains /mtf his kingdom, his head is not crushed." And yet both of these eminent men profess to accept " the Assembly's Larger Catechism," and through it teach as truth that the heathen "■cannot be saved," and that God has "fore- ordained " all but the elect to eternal ruin (see Questions 13 and 60, with the answers and proofs). It is surely high time that men knew what divines really belicz'C, as distinguished from that which they profess to believe. ON MODERN THOUGHT. 347 minutely and fearlessly for all that it says. But how can we do so if we are embarrassed at every step by the traditions of centuries, and by the fear of man ? Is it needful to add that vagueness is always accompanied by a disposition to cling with a sort of dogged pertinacity to any view which has been long received and honoured among men, rather than to favour calm and serious inquiry into its precise truthfulness ? Feeble convictions are com- monly accompanied by adhesive tendencies in rela- tion to all that is traditional, just as obstinacy is the ordinary characteristic of a mind unable to reason, or distrustful of its ability to come to any satisfactory conclusion. The great Apostle of the Gentiles teaches that believers receive wisdom that they may know and comprehend the things that are freely given to them of God, and he denounces the sincerest fervour of spirit as defective, where it does not likewise bring forth fruits in the UNDER- STANDING. "To the modern mind, explain it as we may, there has come to belong an awful capacity of feeling, and a liability to intensities, both of suffer- ing and of enjoyment (the one as well as the other intellectual, not sensuous), of which the bright, gay, surface-loving mind of antiquity seems to have known little or nothing. Then along with this power of feeling, striking, as it does, into the 348 ON MODERN THOUGHT. » roots of the soul, there are perceptions, and in- stinctive judgments, of which it must be said that they are altogether modern developments of huma- nity : they are t7'ue elements of our nature ; but they have newly been brought from the subsoil. It is to the slow working of Christianity upon human nature that I attribute nearly the whole of this deeper vitality of the modern mind." ^ Professor Goldwin Smith has expressed similar convictions to those of Mr, Taylor. " The condition of mankind," he says, " presses severely upon us in the present day, chiefly because of the extension of onr sympathies beyond the pale of Christendom to the whole human race ; and there arises to countervail, the healing conviction that the commnnity of mankind is a comniiuiity indeed, and that which is given to one member of it is, though as yet we know not how, given to all" " Why should we think that the way to a solu- tion of Divine mysteries is inexorably closed, or that our efl"orts to solve them, if made in the sin- cerity of our hearts, are offences against God ? If the relation between God and man is one of affec- tion, it is quite natural (according to all we know or can imagine of such relations) that our know- ledge of the Divine goodness should not be given ^ " Restoration of Belief," pp. 254 and 228. ON MODERN THOUGHT. 349 to us at once, without exertion on our part, or without the interposition of difficulties and con- trary appearances at the outset which we may be permitted, in some measure at least, ultimately to pierce through. For it is under these, and not under the opposite conditions, that affection, as we experience it, is best formed, and becomes intense and deep." 1 Facts of the most mournful kind confront us at every turn, and refuse to be hidden from our eyes. A vast and overwhelming majority of the human race, we all well know, are not, and never have been, believers, either in God or in the Gospel. Myriads have never heard the name of the Re- deemer. Myriads more live and die, the victims of the grossest superstitions. Even in our own land, and amid the most favoured portions of the community, few, very few comparatively, can, in any intelligible sense, be spoken of as having been ' born again,' or as having become * new creatures in Christ Jesus.' And amid a strangely confused teaching, rela- tive to the future condition of such persons, a generation is rising around us, *' earnest and devout in a sense their fathers never were, who, however hopeful they may be as to their own safety, or that of their immediate relatives, can 1 " Rational Religion," by Goldwin Smith. 350 ON MODERN THOUGHT. find no peace so long as they are forbidden to cherish hope in relation to the future condition of the human family." It is among these that a re- vived Romanism, carrying with it something like confidence in the saving efficacy of ritual observ- ances, and a sort of half belief in the purifying character of purgatorial flames, carries off many a choice spirit ; while thousands more, bewildered by theories of universal salvation, are rapidly em- bracing one or more of those modern forms of sceptical thought which, unlike the infidelity of former days, arise, not so much out of practical ungodliness, as from the pressure of sincere and heartfelt difficulties in relation to the supposed teachings of Divine revelation. Viewing the Gospel as an embodiment of the loving character of their heavenly Father, they cannot hear, with- out a shock, of God "passing by" the majority of His creatures, and (notwithstanding the redeeming work of Christ) abandoning them to eternal ruin. And if, under the influence of this horror, such persons sometimes madly attack revelation itself as false or delusive, we can only say that, in such cases, theology wings the shaft that quivers in the heart of Christianity. 351 CHAPTER III. ON THE APPARENT CHARACTER OF APOSTOLIC EXPECTATIONS. IN endeavouring to ascertain what was the pre- cise point of view from which the Apostles took their survey of the Church and the world, — of the present and the future of humanity, — it is necessary to bear distinctly in mind both the t7'tiths they admitted, and the facts by which they were surrounded. The question is — In what aspect did they regard either the world or the Church 1 I reply fearlessly, As a great mystery. Yet — and here it is they differ so widely from ourselves — not as a painful mystery. The mystery was in- deed one which had been ' kept secret since the world began,' but it was also one which was * now made known to all nations for the obedience of faith' (Rom. xvi. 25, 26). It was a mystery with which Paul had been made acquainted by special revelation (Ephes. iii. 3) ; and it was one which he regarded as glorious riches — * the riches of God's glory' (Ephes. iii. 16; Col. i. 27); one which, far from bringing over his soul the profound gloom 352 APPARENT CHARACTER OF that crushes us as with a darkness that may be felt, was a perennial source of joy and strength. Nowhere do we find reason to conclude that St. Paul supposed, as we seem to do, that the Gospel has no work to accomplish on the earth beyond the salvation of the elect, and the condemnation of those who reject its offers of mercy. To me it seems plain that he looked much further ; that while, on the one hand, he regarded the good news of the grace of God -Si?, primarily intended to ' sepa- rate a peculiar people,' and to make them 'zealous of good works,' he believed that ultimately this same Gospel would bless tJie race ; not, indeed, every individual of it, for he always recognizes the eternal ruin of the wilfully impenitent, but the race as a ivJwle ; and that, consequently, every- thing a real Christian did and said in the spirit of his Master, tended to prepare multitudes of the unconverted for higher developments in the age that is to come. In that great expectation I doubt not he included the heathen generally, — the myriads who have passed away in infancy, — the hundred millions'^ of human beings who, in consequence of a defective physical formation, have lived and died incapable of distinguishing right from wrong, — and, in short, ^ It is now well known that one out of every thousand of our species is bom in idiocy. APOSTOLIC EXPECT A TIONS. 353 all, let them be found where they may, who, in consequence of their ignorance or weakness, or from other circumstances known only to God, have not consciously rejected Christ ; who, though not conquerors, are yet not devils ; sinners and sufferers through the temptations of Satan, but scarcely his conscious agents ; men who have too often submitted to evil, who have never resisted it as they ought to have done, yet who are not fairly to be classed with those who love and choose iniquity. Such and so magnificent, if I read aright, is the view that opens before us of THE MISSION FIELD OF THE Church after the Resurrection. Let us pause here, for a moment, to contemplate so glorious a termination of the miseries of earth, the malice of Satan, and the mysteries of Provi- dence. What if it should indeed be so .? What if, after all our stumbling, and rebellion, and question- ings about Divine sovereignty, it should at length be made manifest that God has but chosen His elect under the Gospel, as he chose Israel of old under the Law, the more wonderfully to * make known to the sons of men His mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom.?' that He who loved His people, and 'washed them from their sins in His own blood, and made them kings and priests unto God and His Father,' has done 354 APOSTOLIC EXPECTA TlONS. this, only to make them, m other states of existence as well as in this, * co-workers ' with Him in elevat- ing and blessing a multitude so vast, that the mind of man cannot conceive it, nor any human arith- metic calculate its number ? What if then the words of Christ should find their plain and natural signification — ' He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations ; ' and while to one it should be said, ' Thou good servant, because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities ; ' and to another, ' Be thou also over five cities ; ' these, and many other promises (then found to be not figuratively but literally true), should establish every word of the living God, and prove all alike to be marked by wisdom and by love ? Will it not then be said of us, as it was of the Jews of old, ' O slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken ' f J. S: \V. RIUEK, IKINTERS, LONDON.