only the members of the Church? Is he to be the Judge only of professing Christians ?

It is surprising that this subject has not been viewed in all the extent of its importance; but too many are fond of a little corporate religion, and they seem to think, that, in the same proportion as they can prove their privileges to be exclusive, in the same degree do they demonstrate their value. And thus, because there are many valuable privileges annexed to the profession of Christianity, there are not a few who consign the heathen to certain and inevitable perdition. Others affect to know nothing about their situation, and at the very moment they are advocating the doctrine of Universal Redemption against Calvinists, they confine this Universal Redemption to the Members of the Christian Church, that is, to about one in a hundred of all who have existed. Others, whilst they avow that there is no salvation, but through Christ, make them over to " the uncovenanted mercies" of God. Now, it is against such wavering, inconsistent, and

contradictory behaviour, that I enter my protest. Let the doctrine of Universal Redemption either be given up, or let it be supported as it relates to all mankind. Let us no longer fight the battle with Calvinists, as if we could separate our interests from the great body of our fellowcreatures; and let us found our hope of redemption, not upon any partial or exclusive privileges, but on that Covenant to redeem the world which was made with God in Christ from before the foundation of the world, but which has been manifested to us in these last times.

"I speak of the dispensation of Christianity," says Paley, "as distinct from Christianity itself. The dispensation may already be universal. That part of mankind which never heard of Christ's name, may, nevertheless, be redeemed. That is, placed in a better condition with respect to their future state by his intercession; may be the objects of his benignity, as well as of the propitiatory virtue of his passion." Natural Theology, p. 530.

As it is on this important distinction be

tween the Dispensation of Christianity, and its Revelation, that our present argument is built; I shall beg leave to point out its truth and reality, and to assign my reasons why the timid and hypothetical language of Paley and other writers, should hereafter be exchanged for a more definite and deeided avowal.

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And first, as it is the doctrine of Scripture, that God created all things by Jesus Christ,"- "that he is the head of all things, and that by him all things do consist," it will follow, that this world is the Mediatorial kingdom of Christ, and that, as "the one Mediator between God and man, he bears the same relation to the whole human race.

On the admission, that Christ is the Creator, the Saviour and the Judge of all men, it will follow, that Christianity, as a system and Dispensation, has always been in the world, and that it is the only channel of communication between heaven and earth. Admitting the truth of these facts and transactions, the consequences arising from them are quite independent of the

knowledge or ignorance of individuals; the unconsciousness of infancy, and the ignorance of barbarism cannot affect them any more than they can affect the existence of the Deity. The Gospel is founded on matters of fact, which facts have an unlimited and immutable reference to all men. Butler's Analogy. Part II. ch. I. Sect. 2.

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Secondly, that the system or dispensation of the Gospel is not dependent on its historical Revelation, is plain from the whole series of prophecies and promises concerning it, extending from the creation of the world to the end of time. Whatever might be the knowledge or ignorance of the Patriarchs, and of others under the Jewish economy; we are expressly told, that they were saved in virtue of those promises which they had not received, but which they beheld afar off. Heb. xi.

The whole of St. Paul's reasoning concerning the priority of the promise to the Jewish law, and of its reference to the Gentile world, proceeds on the same distinction. See Gal. iii. 17.

And here, let me observe, that when the

Scriptures of the Old or New Testament speak of the Gentiles, they speak of “all the families of the earth," and not of the converted Gentiles, or Christians only, as is commonly understood. The Jews, it is true, under the term Gentiles (D) ŷvn) concealed the bitterest sentiment of reproach. But we are, by no means, authorized to follow them in such narrow prejudices; and indeed, it would be absurd to do so, because we should thus be necessarily reproaching ourselves. "Is he the God of the Jews only, is he not of the Gentiles also ?" Rom. iii. 29. "When the Gentiles which have not the law do, by nature, the things contained in the law; these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves." Rom. ii. 14. Under the term "Jew and Gentile," or "Jew and Greek,' the whole body of mankind are denoted in the New Testament. Let my reader, therefore, remember, that the term Gentile as opposed to Jew, implies no matter of necessary reproach, but that it merely designates a line of descent.

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