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DISCUSSION

ON UNIVERSAL SALVATION.

LECTURE I.-Future Judgment.

"We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ," Romans xiv, 10.

CHRISTIAN FRIENDS,-We are assembled here before God not to judge the Universalists, but Universalism. I trust that I am not insensible of what is due from me to an erring fellow creature, at the time that I am required to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.

Were Universalism an error of moderate size, did it affect the minor points only of our holy religion, charity and humility would enjoin forbearance and Christian fellowship. But I take this modern doctrine to be another gospel; and, when considered as a system, to be totally unevangelical. It lays another foundation than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ our Redeemer and atoning High Priest, by teaching that sinners are saved (and we are all sinners) not by the merits of Christ, but by suffering in our own persons, and in this life, the whole penalty of the Divine law: thus excluding the grace of God from having any proper efficiency, either in forgiving our

sins, or in renewing our souls after the image of God. And by holding salvation on the ground of personal suffering, it implicitly denies the necessity of experimental and practical religion in this life. According to this doctrine, mankind may reject the Gospel, treat the blood of the covenant as an unholy thing, blaspheme Christ, assert Atheism, and live accordingly up to their last moment, without incurring the displeasure of God or forfeiting their title to everlasting felicity.

The effects of this doctrine are what might be supposed. As far as it obtains among men, it banishes all concern about a preparation for heaven, and produces the most fatal neglect of their spiritual and eternal interest.

Are we deceived in these views? Is not Universalism an epistle known and read of all men? But on this point I forbear at present, as I would say nothing to prevent a calm attention to the points at issue. I have said enough to show our views of the doctrine; and if we are deceived respecting its effects, those who advocate it, instead of resenting what I have said, will produce its holy fruits, and thereby undeceive us. And I assure them that no one would rejoice more than the speaker to be enlightened on this subject, if he is in an error respecting it.

If the doctrine of Universal Salvation, as generally taught at the present day, be true, the transgressor receives his whole punishment in this life, even all that is threatened

by the law of God. There is another system which asserts a limited future punishment. With this I have nothing to do at present; but shall limit the discussion to that which denies all punishment in the future state. And my object will be to prove what that denies-future punishment. If I succeed in this, I overthrow the whole system as completely as though I took it up, piece by piece, and confuted each point separately. If the main pillar be taken away, the whole fabric falls to the ground.

The method I have adopted is this: to prove in the present lecture the doctrine of future judgment, or judgment in the future state; because if the judgment is in the future state, there will be punishment in the future state also. These cannot be separated. Of this the Universalists themselves are sensible, and therefore deny that the judgment is in the future state, and assert that all the judgment there is for the transgressor is in the present life. But, says the apostle, "We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ."

This is an allusion to courts of judicature, where criminals are arraigned, evidence produced, and the sentence of the law pronounced upon the transgressor;—where the innocent, when unjustly accused, may be heard and publicly acquitted. This process does not imply that the states of the righteous and wicked are not determined immediately on their leaving this world; it does not put in

"jeopardy" the souls of the righteous, as some Universalists have expressed themselves; much less is it needed for the information of the Judge: but for the all-important ends of consummating the purposes of the mediatorial kingdom of Christ: making a full disclosure of the moral characters of the righteous and the wicked, which cannot be done in this world that the mysteries of Providence may be made clear, and the rectitude of the whole Divine administration disclosed to the view of the assembled universe: "That thou mightest be justified," says the psalmist, "when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest."

The proposition which, by the grace of God, I mean to support, is as follows:

There will be a judgment of all mankind; for which a particular time is assigned at the end of the world.

My hearers, we have come to a subject which is infinitely interesting to us all! The question before us relates to our standing before the judgment seat of Christ, where the secrets of all hearts shall be laid open to the inspection of men and of angels, and where we shall receive, at the hand of the Judge, according to that we have done, whether it be good or bad. We have no need of the images of poetry, or the excellencies of speech on this subject, All that you have ever heard of the trappings of royalty; all that you have ever witnessed of the solemn and affecting in courts of judicature, where a fellow creature

was to be tried for his life, and sentenced to an ignominious death; all, all that you can imagine will be immeasurably transcended by the scene before us. Here is the Judge himself, clothed with Divine Majesty, and invested with infinite power, from whose face the heavens and the earth flee away; here is an innumerable company of angels, the attendants and ministers of his court; here are all the generations of men that have lived upon the face of the earth, brought before him to be judged, and to receive that sentence which shall raise them to thrones of glory in the kingdom of their Father, or banish them from his presence and from the glory of his power, to dwell in the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels, where the smoke of their torment shall ascend up for ever and ever!

And while this momentous question is pending, can you feel any desire but that of knowing the truth? Can you suffer any prejudice against an unwelcome doctrine to blind your eyes, and hold you in unbelief, when light is offered you? The disposition with which we ought to listen to this discussion is expressed in these words: "Lord, what I know not, that teach thou me." I hold it my duty to give up the doctrine of future judgment if it can be proved to be unscriptural; and you are all equally bound to embrace it if it can be shown to be the doctrine of the Bible. And can we say, before Him who searches

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