men,'

the term must likewise be restricted, as there are not only many who enter into marriage dishonourably, but many who never marry at all. Further, when he says, 'I exhort, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all that the term is to be understood not collectively but distributively, is plain from what follows, 'for kings and for all that are in authority.' Keeping these things in mind, the passages in which similar language is used in connexion with the death of Christ, can give us no difficulty. But it may be proper to look a little more closely into these passages themselves.

44

‘And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.' The word 'men' is a supplement; the original is 'all' (Tάvras), leaving the sense to be filled up agreeably to the nature of that which is spoken of. What is spoken of is, the attractive power of the Saviour's cross, in drawing men to him. This power is exemplified in justification, regeneration, communion, and perfect salvation; and is rather moral than legal in its nature. It is the actual efficacy of the crucifixion of Christ that is the subject of this assertion, and this, by the acknowledgment of all, is limited with respect to the number of its subjects. Besides, the words were spoken in consequence of certain Greeks, who had come up to worship at the feast, having expressed a desire, through Andrew and Philip, to be introduced to Jesus from

which it is fair to infer that the 'all' here means all without distinction, not all without exception.

"The free gift came upon all men unto justification.' 45 Here, also, the actual result, justification, is spoken of. Are all men, without exception, actually justified, that is, delivered from condemnation and accepted of God?

46

'For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.' It would be out of place here, to enter into the controversy, whether the death in this passage means any thing more than temporal death, and the life any thing more than the bodily resurrection which is common to the righteous and the wicked. There seems to us to be very satisfactory grounds for rejecting this view." But we submit the following remarks, as, in our humble opinion, sufficient to neutralize the objection founded on this and similar texts in the writings of Paul.-There is good reason to believe that the comparison or parallelism instituted between Adam and Christ refers to the public representative capacities of both; which brings the matter to the question, whether Christ stood in a federal relation to the whole human race, and, if he did not, because the all represented by Adam are all without exception, to conclude that the all represented by Christ must be so too, is an unfounded inference. The comparison is, also, obviously meant to be understood with reference to the actual efficacy of what is performed by each: and as the offence of

45 Rom. v. 18.

46 1 Cor. xv. 22. 47 Wardlaw's Essays, pp. 247-270.

Adam has not merely procured condemnation for all, which may or may not come into operation, according to circumstances, but has actually brought all in him under the curse of death, so we are bound to admit that the all who are made alive in Christ, are not merely according to the supposition of our opponents-those for whom Christ has procured life, but those on whom this blessing is actually bestowed.

949

48

'For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead, and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them, and rose again.' What does this passage affirm? Not that Christ died for all who were dead, but that all for whom he died were previously dead. There is a vast difference betwixt these two things; the latter, however, is all that is either affirmed or supposed, and leaves room for the supposition, that there might be many more who were dead than those for whom Christ died. Besides, the very words themselves limit the all to those who feel the obligation arising from the death of Christ to promote his glory:-'he died for all, that they who live-or rather, that these all living, "va of Lavres should not live to themselves,' &c. Moreζῶντεςover, the passage establishes the inseparable connexion between the death and resurrection of Christ

48 Such as wish to pursue this subject will find an able and satisfactory disquisition on the passages in which a parallelism is instituted betwixt Christ and Adam, in Dr Wardlaw's Essays, pp. 297-310.

49 2 Cor. v. 14, 15.

'him who died for them and rose again'--which, as before shown, necessarily requires a limitation in the number of those for whom he died.

50

'Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.' The context leaves no room to doubt that the universal term is employed, in this instance, distributively, as meaning all without distinction. The reference, in what goes before, is to kings and persons in authority, (v. 2;) and, in what follows, to the 'gentiles,' (v. 7). And this explains the apparent difficulty, (v. 4,) 'who will have all men to be saved,' as if there were a contrariety between the 'secret and revealed will of God,' or between the purpose of Deity and the real state of things. We are exhorted to pray for men of all ranks and descriptions; for it is God's will that men of all ranks and descriptions should be saved; and of this we have sufficient evidence in Christ's having given himself a ransom for all ranks and descriptions of men. Such is plainly the connexion of the various clauses in this chapter, and how far is it, in this view, from giving any support to the doctrine of indefinite atonement!

A

'We trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those that believe." Saviour is one, not merely who designs to save, but who actually effects salvation; and as all men without exception are not actually saved from sin, the term 'Saviour,' in this passage, must have some other meaning. It means Preserver; and in this

sense the living God is the Saviour of all men without exception; he upholds them in being, he sustains them in temporal life, in him they live and move and have their being; while he extends a peculiar care to believers who are partakers of his special grace.

παντὸς.

52

'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 grace of God, should taste death for every man.' The word man here is not in the original; the phrase runs for every one,—VTÈg TaνTÒS. Now, the rule with regard to universal terms is, not to extend them beyond the subject of which the writer happens to be treating; and, in the case before us, the persons spoken of are the (sons' whom the Captain of salvation brings to glory, they who are sanctified,'-his brethren,''the children which God had given him'; from all which we are surely warranted to presume the meaning of the disputed expression to be, that Jesus tasted death for every one of these, and not for every one of the human race. Nor is this interpretation different from what we are required to adopt in similar instances, in which even stronger language is employed in the original. 'But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man (izάora) to profit withal.' 5 This cannot possibly be understood universally. Neither can the following, where even the term man occurs in the Greek,-'Whom we preach, warning every man (Tάvτa üvegwTov) and teaching every man,' (πάντα ἄνθρωπον). 6

54

52 Heb. ii. 9.

.53 1 Cor. xii. 7.

54 Col. i. 28.