premise considered, is one of the strangest and most troublesome sayings that, to my remembrance, I have ever met from the pen of a learned and considerate man. I find it in the writings of a late opposer of universal atonement. “I know,” saith he, “no article of the gospel which this new and wicked religion of universal atonement doth not contradict.” That which he called a “new and wicked religion,” the doctrine of universal atonement, I shall, God assisting and granting life and health for the finishing of this present discourse, evince both from the main and clear current of the Scriptures themselves, as likewise by many impregnable and undeniable demonstrations and grounds of reason, to be a most ancient and divine truth. Yea, it is none other but the heart and soul, the spirit and life, the strength and substance, and very sum of the glorious gospel itself.
Yea, I shall make it appear from ancient records of best credit, and from the confessions of modern divines themselves, of best account, adversaries in the point, that universal atonement by Christ was a doctrine generally taught and held in the churches of Christ for three hundred years together after the apostles. And if I conceived it worth the undertaking, or were minded to turn the stream of my discourse that way, I question not but I could make it as clear as the sun shining in his might, that there is “no article of the gospel,” as this man’s dialect is, I mean, no great or weighty point of the Christian faith, that can stand with a rational consistency unless the doctrine of universal atonement be admitted for a truth.
Yea, upon a diligent and strict inquiry it will be found, that if any man holds such a limited redemption as is commonly taught and believed amongst us, and yet withal lives holily and like a Christian, he acts in full contradiction to such a principle, and happily denies that in practice which erroneously he holds in judgment. God, in such cases as these, makes grapes to grow on thorns, and figs on thistles: nor doth there want anything by sense and visibility of the disproportion between the cause and the effect, to make the lives and ways of such persons miraculous. Neither doth anything nor all things that I could ever yet meet with, either from the tongues or pens of the greatest patrons of particular redemption, deliver me from under much admiration, that conscientious and learned men, professing subjection of judgment to the Scriptures, should either deny universal or assert particular redemption; considering that the Scriptures, in particularly, plainness and expressness of words and phase, do more that ten times over deliver the former.
Whereas the latter is no where asserted by them, but only stands upon certain venturous consequences and deductions, which the weak judgments of men, so much accustomed to error and mistake, presume to levy from them; together with such arguments and grounds, which, upon examination, will be found either to have no consistency with the sound principles either of reason or religion, or else no legitimate coherence with the cause which they pretend unto.
Let us first hearken unto the Scriptures lifting up their voices together for the redemption of all men by Christ without exception. We shall afterwards, in due process of discourse, give a fair consideration to those inferences and consequences of men wherein the strength of their Scripture proofs standeth for the support of the contrary opinion.
And first it is considerable, that the Scriptures not only speak to the heart of the doctrine asserted in great variety of texts and places, but also in great veins and correspondences, or consorts of texts, each consort consisting of several particulars of like notion and phrase. I shall recommend only four of these companies unto the reader; which when we shall have pondered in some or all the particulars respectively relating unto them, we shall add, to make full measure, the contributions of some single texts besides.
The first division or squadron of Scriptures which speak aloud the universality of redemption by Christ, are such which present the gift and sacrifice of Christ as relating indifferently unto the world. The name of this kind of Scriptures, for the number of them, may be Legion for they are many. Some of the principal and best known of them are these: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten,” &c., John iii. 16; “that the world through him might be saved,” ver. 17. “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world,” John i. 29. “My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world,” John vi. 51. “And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world, 1 John ii. 2. “And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world, 1 John iv. 14. “For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world,” John xii. 48. “For God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself,” &c., 2 Cor. v. 19. To omit many others.
The second post of Scriptures standing up to maintain the same doctrine with uniformity of expressions amongst themselves, are such which insure the ransom of Christ, and the will or desire of God for matters of salvation, unto all men and every man. Some of these are – “Who gave himself a ransom for all,” 1 Tim. ii. 6. “Because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they who live,” &c. 2 Cor. v. 14, 15. “That he, by the grace of God, should taste of death for every man,” Heb. ii. 9; “who will have all men to be saved,” &c., 1 Tim. ii. 4; “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance,” 2 Pet. iii. 9. “Therefore, as by the offence of one the judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men to the justification of life,” Rom. v. 18; with some others.
A third sort of party of Scriptures, confederate with the former, (for substance of import, between themselves for matter of expression) are such which hold forth and promise salvation indifferently to him, and to whosoever will or shall believe. Of this sort are these, with their fellows: “And him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise case out,” John vi. 37; “He that believeth in me shall never thirst,” ver. 35; “He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved,” Mark xvi. 16; “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish,” John iii. 16; “That through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins,” Acts x. 43; “Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all that believe:… for all have sinned,” Rom. iii. 22, 23. It were easy to make this pile also much greater.
A fourth association of Scriptures, all pregnant with the doctrine we assert, consists of such places where Christ is said to have died for those who yet may perish, yea, and actually do perish: and again, where such men are said to have been bought by him, and to have been “sanctified by his blood,” who yet through their own negligence and wilfulness in sinning, bring destruction upon themselves, and perish everlastingly. Places of this kind are famously known. “Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died,” Rom. xiv. 15; “And through thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died?” 1 Cor. viii. 11; “Even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction,” 2 Pet. ii. 1; “For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning,” 2 Pet. ii. 20; “Of how much sorer punishment, supposed ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace?” Heb. x. 29; “Then his lord, after he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt because thou desiredst me. Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow-servant? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due to him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your heart forgive not every one his brother their trespasses?” Matt. xviii. 32, 33 &c.
Let us begin with the texts of the first of the four orders mentioned, where the death of Christ is presented as relating unto the world. From the tenor and import of all the Scriptures of this denomination and tribe, it will be made evident that
