DISCOURSE VII. THE REDEMPTION OF MAN UNIVERSAL. [Preached on Good Friday.] 1 CORINTHIANS, CHAP. XV.-VERSE 22. As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. IT is a remarkable circumstance in the constitution of this world, that the effects of malevolence are more certain and more extensive than those of the kinder affections. Whatever we may hope or think of the inclinations of men, it is undoubtedly much more in their power to give pain than pleasure, to produce misery than happiness. But how closely soever this unfortunate privilege may be connected with the imperfection of human nature, or wisely accommodated to the probation of accountable creatures, it is surely little consistent with our ideas of infinite wisdom and goodness to imagine that the same prevalence of evil pervades the whole of the divine government; that the inflictions of justice have been very imperfectly counterbalanced by the effects of the beloved attribute of mercy; that the fall of Adam has entailed its bitter consequences, in different degrees, on the whole species; while the redemption wrought by Jesus Christ, being revealed to a comparatively small part of mankind, and disregarded or abused by very many even of those who acknowlege its importance, cannot in any sense be said to have communicated blessings equivalent to the mischiefs it was appointed to repair. To the sincere believer indeed this difficulty, when taken in its utmost strength, is by no means insuperable: he contemplates by the eye of faith that remote and blissful period, when the glory of God and the veracity of his prophets shall be fully displayed in the final and perfect establishment of pure and undefiled religion; when all men shall know the Lord, from the least to the greatest;'* when ، they shall not hurt nor destroy in all God's holy mountain;'t and ، the Lord God shall wipe away tears from off all faces;'‡' and the voice of weeping shall no more be heard, nor the voice of crying.'§ But without having recourse to expectations, which, however solidly grounded, are not yet realised, it may be observed, that the advantages held out by the Christian system are many and obvious; and if its real effects on those who confess its authority be less than might have reasonably been expected, the difficulty is not peculiar to revelation; it presses at least equally on natural religion; and therefore must be resolved into an additional melancholy instance of our own degeneracy, rather than insisted on as an argument of any want of wisdom or kindness in the scheme of our redemption. This observation will of itself amount to a complete vindication of the divine conduct in this particular, if it shall appear farther, that the blessings of redemption are not confined to the actual members of the Christian community; but are in such a degree extended to all nations in every age of the world, as that sincerity shall be every where accepted in the stead of perfection, and no individual shall fail of final happiness, but in consequence of wilful, personal, and unrepented transgression. I would not be understood to assert, that the exact measure, in which the advantages of the Christian covenant will be dispensed to those who are unacquainted with its laws, is any where distinctly revealed: if only the general communication of them can be clearly evinced, we shall have little dispute about its extent and effects. In the following observations it is intended to point out, I. The proofs of the proposition, That the redemption of mankind is universal; II. The doctrinal inferences which may be drawn from its truth. * Jer. xxxi. 34. † Isa. xxv. 8. + Isa. lxv. 25. § Ib. lxv. 19. I. The universality of man's redemption is supported by proofs, which are to me neither weak nor obscure: if they should appear less convincing to any one else, let him consider them as drawn from writings which were composed for the use of Christians, and in which therefore the natural object of the several authors is to represent the peculiar benefits enjoyed by believers; and if they mention the situation of other men, it is generally with no other view, than to show its difficulties and its dangers. The effects attributed to the death of Christ, within whatever limits we may choose to confine them, are certainly described by his apostles in very large and comprehensive terms. Thus he is said to have given himself a ransom for all;** to have 'tasted death for every man ;'t to be the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world;'‡the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world;'§ and the Lamb, which was slain from the foundation of the world.'|| The last two passages give light to each other; one of them pointing out the peculiar end of the death of Christ, and the other intimating at least more strongly the extensiveness of its effects. To these general expressions, (and more of the same kind might have been easily collected) may be added other passages, which convey the same sentiment in more precise and definite language. Thus St. John, having asserted of Christ, that he is the propitiation for our sins,' adds these remarkable words, ' and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.' ¶ So St. Paul also makes one purpose of the death of Christ to be the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant;'** and in another place, comparing together the redemption and the fall, he points out a remarkable similarity both in their causes and consequences; that as one of these events was occasioned by the offence, so was the other accomplished by the righteousness of one man; and that as from the consequences of the one no man is exempted, so from the * 1 Tim. xi. 6. § John, i. 29. + Heb. xi. 9. Rev. xiii. 8. ↑ John, i. 9. effects of the other is no man excluded. For if by one man's offence death reigned by one, much more they, which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness, shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.'* The doctrine for which we are contending is here, you will observe, very fully and strongly expressed : it is not indeed represented as being discoverable by human reason, for the whole scheme of redemption is pure matter of revelation; but on the supposition of such a dispensation taking place, the universality of it is here asserted to be highly reasonable. And certainly, that the remedy provided by divine goodness would be thus proportioned to the evil it was meant to repair, is perfectly consistent with the hopes and apprehensions we should most readily entertain of its nature and extent, with the exalted ideas we are taught to conceive of the Redeemer himself, and with the best notions we are able to form concerning the attributes and government of God. There is another passage of the same apostle, which is totally inexplicable, but on the supposition that the sacrifice of Christ had a retrospective efficacy, extending through every age of the world to the very origin of sin, and the creation of man on the earth. It was one considerable defect of the offerings under the law, that their expiatory virtue was limited with respect to time, and therefore was to be renewed by the repetition of the same sacrifices, the high-priest entering into the holy place every year with blood of others.' From this imperfection the sacrifice of Christ was intirely exempt: it was not necessary that he should offer himself often; for then,' as the apostle argues, 'must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world.' The effect, therefore, of Christ's one sacrifice once offered, was understood by the apostle to be precisely the same as if it had been actually repeated at different intervals from the very creation; and that effect would certainly have been the expiation of sins committed from the time of the creation. * Rom. v. 17, 18. + Heb. ix. 25, 26. Perhaps the train of the apostle's reasoning, and the conclusion I wish to derive from it, may be more clearly represented thus: Once, in the end of the world, hath Christ appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself; nor was it necessary,' for the accomplishment of this purpose, that he should offer himself often; for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world.' Among the sins, therefore, which he appeared to put away, must be included those antecedent to his appearance; otherwise the argument of the apostle is without force or foundation: for if the death of Christ had really no connexion with the ages preceding it, whatever reasons might be urged for his often suffering to the end of the world, none could be pretended for his suffering often, or even at all, from the beginning. To the proofs already given may be added the following declarations of our Saviour: I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven: but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness;'* where, if by the children of the kingdom be meant unworthy believers; by the many, who are opposed to them, must be understood those virtuous men, who possessed not the advantages of revelation. Again, in the representation of the final judgment, all nations are gathered before the Son of man, and are separated one from another,'t not according to the religious privileges they had enjoyed, but according to the obedience which they had paid to the divine will. And in the parable of the laborers, who were at different hours hired into the vineyard, we are taught, that from the morning to the eleventh hour, from the creation of the world to its dissolution, it is the same Lord who calleth; and of those, who are standing in the market-place,' who are willing to work the works of God,' all are called, and all receive the reward of their labors. We see then that our Saviour, though he does not in any of these passages explain the particular means by which the divine mercy is communicated to fallen man, does yet in them all clearly describe it as extending universally to all good men in + Ib. xxv. 32. Ib. xx. 1. &c. Matth. viii. 12. |