'and pardon through the death of Christ, here stated as one doctrine, as in truth they are, separately.

First, As to the extent of the atonement; I hold and teach that Christ died for all men-that the propitiation which he made for sin, was for all the sins of all mankind -that those for whom he gave himself an offering and a sacrifice unto God for a sweet smelling savour, were the children of men without exception and without distinction. And this the Scriptures teach.

It is written in Deut. xvii. 15, "Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose; one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother." Upon this principle God hath ordained a kingdom in the hand of a mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. "Thou spakest in vision to thy Holy One, and saidst, I have laid help on one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people."* The Lord Jesus is therefore set before us, first as our brother, and then as our king; and his work in our flesh-the atonement which he made for sin-the offering of himself a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour unto God-the giving himself a ransom for many, is first the manifestation of his meeting the law of God as our brother; and is then the foundation of his throne as our king; and what the scriptures teach concerning him in both respects, equally prove the extent of the atonement, as for all mankind.

As our brother-our fellow-servant-come, by his own voluntary deed, under the law of God, under which we were created, it was due from him that he should love his neighbour as himself, and every man was his neighbour; therefore that work by which he expressed his love, and proved it was a work for all. Certainly we know he was made under the law-certainly we know that he magnified

*Psalm lxxxix. 19.

the law and made it honourable-certainly we know that by one work he both bore its curse, and fulfilled its requirements-certainly we know that that law is love, yea, love to all and to limit the love of Christ to some from among those to whom he became related, as bone of their bone, and flesh of their flesh, would be to deny that the righteous law of God had any fulfilment in him. "Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God; neither he that loveth not his brother, for this is the message (margin commandment) that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother."* "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer, and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him-hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.Ӡ

Again, as our king-he of whom it is written, "Unto me every knee shall bow," the principle of his reigning is his manifested love to all. The footing upon which his exaltation to the throne is placed, is that "he loved righteousness," even the righteous law of love. "Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness; therefore O God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." The homage that is required to this King, is the homage of love; the ground upon which it is demanded, is, that " He hath loved us and given himself for us :" and the condemnation to which men are exposed, and which bringeth along with it the wrath to come, is the refusing to have such a one to reign over us. Therefore it is clear that the work by which he hath manifested the love which hath been rewarded with the throne on which he sits, has been a work of love for all who are called upon to obey the sceptre of his kingdom.

power act

The ordination of a kingdom in the hand of a Mediator -the manifestation of the Lord Jesus, first in suffering humanity, the man of sorrows-the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world; and then as God's King upon Zion, reigning in righteousness-all has its explanation in the result that the Son is to deliver up the kingdom to the Father, that God may be all in all. Therefore when we see first character manifested apart from power in what Christ did in his state of humiliation; and then, ing according to that character in his glory; God is teaching us truly to know himself; first to know what he is, that he is love, and then, to know that he who is love is God-that power belongs to Him alone to whom also belongs mercy. Thus it is the glory of God which we have unveiled to us in the face of the Lord Jesus Christhence can Jesus say of himself, "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father;" and while we are contemplating in the history of the Messiah, the history of a love suffering unto death for its enemies, and then taking the seat of power, and on the ground that it hath so loved, beseeching these its enemies to be reconciled to its sceptre, we are not only seeing the award of the righteous God to him who loved righteousness, but we are seeing God vindicating the character of his own government, and proving that He hath another claim on the hearts of his intelligent creatures than that they depend upon him-even that he loves them. To limit the atonement is to deny that this is the counsel of God which he hath accomplished in Jesus Christ; seeing that if Christ only loved some, and died for some, we have no longer the Creator revealed in the Redeemer; and we can no longer say to every man, that he is to look to the sufferings of Calvary if he would know the heart of Him in whom he lives, and moves and has his being-and we cannot say, that that which was prophesied of the forerunner of the Lord, that he should say unto the cities of Judah,

Behold your God, was fulfilled when John the Baptist said of Jesus of Nazareth, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."

To be more particular.

In more pointedly and specifically vindicating this doctrine, of the universal extent of the atonement, from the charge of being inconsistent with the Scriptures, seeing that there is no specification, in the libel, of any portion of the Word of God as opposed to it; I would first distinctly deny that it is any where stated in the Scriptures, that the work of Christ was only for some men. I am aware that certain passages are often quoted as amounting to such a statement; these are John x. 10, 15, 27, 28, 29, and xv. 13-16, Titus ii. 14, Eph. v. 25. Yet it is manifest that these passages only contain the assertion of a part of a wider truth, by which that which they state is comprehended. It is utterly unwarrantable to say, that when Christ states that he lays down his life for the sheep, he denies that he has also laid down his life for the many who refuse to receive him as the good Shepherd, and to follow him as the sheep of his pasture; Or that, whilst he recognises the election of the Father in the coming of those who come to him for life; and regards them as given to him, and not as drawn out of the mass by any peculiar readiness in them to be attracted by the love which he was manifesting to all, that therefore he teaches, that there was no such love to all manifested. It is unnecessary to consider the passages singly, as the principle. on which they are all misapplied is the same, viz. understanding the statement of the love manifested to some, as amounting to a denial of the love manifested to the rest.

If indeed there had been no statements but those in question on the subject of the work of Christ, with reference to those for whom it was undertaken, it might have been assumed as likely that it had no more extended reference than that which was expressed; although, even in that case,

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simple silence would not be enough to prove that there was nothing true beyond what was stated; but it must be held utterly unwarrantable to use such an argument to the contradiction of distinct and pointed statements of the Word of God. The Scriptures say that "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not perish, but have everlasting life."* Nothing but a distinct statement that the world does not mean the world can limit this declaration as to the object of the work of Christ.

The Scriptures say, He is the propitiation "for the sins of the whole world:"† nothing but a distinct and pointed contradiction could warrant us in hesitating to receive these words in their plain and obvious meaning; and even such a contradiction could only have the effect of leaving us in the dark as to what the truth of God was; for no words could more plainly say that Christ did not die for all, than these say that He did.

The Scriptures say that "All we like sheep had gone astray, and that the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all." And we cannot hesitate to believe the all who have gone astray are the same all whose iniquities were laid on

Jesus.

The Scriptures say that "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 :"§ and it is manifest, that no words could be more fitted to mislead us than these are, if the all upon whom the judgment hath come to condemnation, be not the same all upon whom the free gift hath come to justification of life.

The ordination of the kingdom in the hand of a Mediator is announced in the second Psalm, "Yet have I set my King