This is the third of the lectures in Paul Dean’s 1832 A Course of Lectures in Defence of the Final Restoration, an homage to celebrate the Universalist minister’s 240th birthday.
The numbers in brackets are the beginning of the page in the original.
LECTURE III.
OBJECTION II.
HEBREWS XII. 14.
FOLLOW PEACE WITH ALL MEN, AND HOLINESS, WITHOUT WHICH NO MAN SHALL SEE THE LORD.
However some men of proud and selfish feelings may spurn the idea, there is no true christian, could he be perfectly convinced the whole intelligent creation of God would be made eternally happy, consistently with the divine perfections and the rights of human agency, that would not rejoice with joy unutterable at such a conquest over sin and death, such a triumph of the Redeemer’s grace, and such a glorious display of infinite goodness, wisdom, and power; and that would not most cor-[43]dially join the song of angels in acclamations of “Glory to God in the highest,and on earth peace and good will towards men.” But there are many who suppose that by the gospel, salvation is truly and freely offered to all, upon such conditions as they can readily accept or reject as they please; and that during what they term the day of probation, many will continue wilfully to reject the terms of grace, and so by their own sinful neglect, come forever short of the great salvation set before us in Jesus Christ.
This objection being made to our religious belief, not only by many persons, but by many of profound learning in theology, and of distinguished piety and usefulness in the church of God, we shall now investigate its merits with a care becoming its importance, and he that hath ears to hear let him hear.
The doctrine of the objection is asserted to have in its favour the most clear and unequivocal authority of both reason and scripture.
It is claimed to be perfectly reasonable, that the Deity should bestow salvation on his creatures by such conditions only as will perfectly secure his own glory, and as will promote and secure the obedience and perpetual happiness of all the subjects of his kingdom; and such the conditions of salvation are averred to be, as will more fully appear by reference to the [44] scriptures on the subject. The objector asserts, that the substance of his objection is very forcibly expressed in the text at the head of this discourse, where complete salvation is impliedly offered to the sinner’s acceptance, i.e. the blissful visions of God’s presence and glory, are presented to our most enraptured imagination, but not without conditions, which are these: perfect holiness of heart and life. What can be plainer than that no one can ever see and enjoy God in his heavenly kingdom, except he first follow after holiness, and obtain it; which irresistibly proves that holiness is the only condition on which God can accept and save the sinner.
The evangelical prophet Isaiah expresses the same sentiments in the most beautiful and familiar language, saying, “The willing and the obedient shall eat the good of the land” — which places it beyond controversy that the disobedient and the obdurate shall never enter into the rest, nor taste the riches of that heavenly and better country sought by the righteous. And Jesus subscribes to the same opinion, when he says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” If the impure in heart could have seen him also, would Jesus have thus spoken? Also, when St. John saw the most sublimated visions of the new heavens, and the new earth, and of the city of Jehovah, with [45] those that shared its freedom, he exclaimed, “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”
Not only these places, but much of the scriptures of both the old and new testament are supposed to establish the truth of the objection as clearly as the light of day shows us the objects that lie before us. But they also believe and affirm, that both Solomon, the wisest of the kings of Israel, and Jesus the Lord of the holy prophets, taught that the probation, or time, and only time, when these conditions could ever be accepted, is our day of life in this present world.
Solomon exhorted the people of his time in such language as may with great profit, be oft repeated in our ears, i.e. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest.” And Jesus, in the 8th chapter of John, warns the Scribes and Pharisees saying, “I go my way, and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot come: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.” These two passages, and some others, are accounted sufficient authority for believing that the day of grace is limited to the period of the present life: so that all beyond is [46] a night in which no work can be done, no means of grace enjoyed or improved.
The objection thus fully and fairly stated in connexion with the scriptural authority alleged in its support, very naturally divides itself into two branches: 1. The condition. 2. The day of salvation.
There are some christians who apply the doctrine of the objection to the first covenant, otherwise usually called the covenant of works, but not to the second covenant, i.e. the covenant of God’s free and all-sufficient grace in Christ Jesus. But as this view offers no objection to our sentiments, we shall waive its further notice as irrelevant to the argument, and call your attention to the first branch of the objection, the conditions or terms of salvation.
The question now to be decided is this, viz. Is the salvation of the gospel conditional? The only difficulty in the way of giving a plain answer to this plain question, grows out of the different senses in which the term condition has been used by different persons. Some for instance have used it for what must necessarily make uncertain, and limit the object to which it is applied; — for what is a valuable equivalent for the benefit received, as the terms of a contract are supposed to be equal in value to the object of it; or for something to be performed in our own strength; and when performed [47] to give us a meritorious claim to salvation. In this sense it has been employed by mere legalists, and perhaps inadvertently by some others; and in this sense we consider it as both unscriptural and useless. It is unscriptural, because in the sacred writings salvation is every where represented to be the effect of the free and saving grace of God in a Redeemer, and not in the least degree the production of works, or of human merit. And to have offered salvation to sinners on the terms of their giving what may in any possible way be considered an equivalent in value for it, would certainly have been offering it on such terms as could never have been accepted by any of those whom Jesus declares to be wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked; and whom, therefore, he counsels to buy of him (i.e. without money and without price) never failing riches, and the pure and spotless robes of righteousness, that they may walk with the blessed, and dwell forever with the redeemed. Others apply this term to faith, repentance, and other christian duties, as being the means without which no one can be saved; giving to conditions the force and use of means only; in which sense we are not opposed to them, though on account of the abuse to which they are liable, we much prefer the word means. Because the means of salvation being appoint-[48]ed by infinite wisdom, and adapted to reclaim the world from sin, are so far from limiting salvation, or even rendering it uncertain, that they are the method by which God has made it certain in the counsels of his goodness, and by which, in his own time, he will accomplish to his own everlasting praise, and the greatest possible good of the universe.
Before we proceed to show that the means of grace are sufficient to effect their most glorious end, the salvation of the world, we shall notice the other branch of the objection, viz. that all conditions or means of grace are limited to this life. That some of the means of grace are peculiar to this life we admit; but that all of them are, we see no cause to believe, but have many reasons for the opposite opinion. — So long and so deeply has this opinion been rooted in the minds of the greater part of Christendom, that to oppose it, or call its truth in question, will probably be deemed by many a species of profanity. But our object is truth, regardless of all such considerations, though it be found with the few, and be contemned by the many. The great names that have supported it are fallible like other men, and the scriptures quoted above for its authority are far from being conclusive.
Solomon by bidding us to do with our might whatever our hands find to do, because there [49] is no work, devise, wisdom, or knowledge in the grave, had reference to the temporal works, and social duties peculiar to the present world. This passage, therefore, might be as successfully quoted to prove there will be no consciousness of being beyond (not in) the grave, as that there will be no repentance felt, virtue acquired, or pardon obtained there.
Nor does it appear from an attentive perusal, and a careful regard to the scope of what our Saviour says in the 8th of John, and the parallel places, that he designed to teach the Jews that after death there would be no possible method for their salvation; but he seems rather to warn them that his peculiar mission to them as his own people, would soon close; that through the stubborness of their unbelief they would reject him, but after the Romans should besiege their city, and the woes denounced against them should threaten, they would then in vain seek deliverance by the appearance, not of himself, but of some false Messiah, and thus die in their sins; and the opportunity they then enjoyed of entering in with Christ into his kingdom on earth, and of so following him to glory as the first fruits of grace would be lost by them forever.
Had it been our Saviour’s purpose by the words, “whither I go ye cannot come,” to proclaim the endless seperation of the rulers and [50] people of Israel from his heavenly kingdom, we cannot think he would have addressed the same language to his own disciples, saying, “As I said unto the Jews, whither I go ye cannot come; so now I say unto you.” John xiii. 33.
Again, St. Paul, who certainly knew the mind of Christ, says of these very Jews, who were broken off for their unbelief, God is able to graft them in again, and the receiving of them shall be life from the dead; and so all Israel be saved. And to this agree the words of Jesus in another place, John xii. 32. “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”
The spirit of what our Lord says on this subject seems to us to be this, viz. no unbeliever, as such, can come to Christ either in the kingdom of his grace, or that of his glory; that those who continued in unbelief and die in sin, as all do who die in unbelief, will continue to have the same inability they had while living; and here he leaves the matter, but without the least indication that natural death, which is wholly a physical change, will make any moral or spiritual change in the condition of men, either for or against them.
And if, as St. Peter assures us was the case, the gospel was preached after the death of Christ to those who lived and died in sin in the days of Noah, that they might be judged [51] according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit; why should we count it strange that those who died in sin at Jerusalem should have extended to them equal means of final salvation?
The limitation of all means and methods of grace to the narrow span of this life, not only fails of a fair scripture support, but it is opposed to reason and equity; for if all means are limited to this world, there is a vast and glaring disproportion and partiality in their bestowment; some enjoying the clear day, and others sitting in the cold regions of night.
Think what vast numbers of the heathen have lived and passed off the stage of life, without ever hearing so much as the name of Jesus; — think how many infants die even before they are able to lisp the mercy of Christ; — and how many there have been, and are, to whom nature has been so sparing in her gifts that their responsibility is a problem beyond our reach.
Shall we at once turn all these to destruction without even the possibility of escape?
How much more reasonable is it for us to believe that Christ, who is Lord both of the dead and living, will continue to use with all his creatures, in all conditions, the most appropriate means for their reformation, till all shall [52] be subdued to him, and he resign his kingdom perfect to the Father.
With both branches of this objection we have now done; and shall close the lecture by showing the strong probability there is of the truth of universal salvation from the fulness and efficiency of the means God has appointed for that end.
Certainly if conditions have only the use of means, no one could object to them; but as in that case nothing but means would be intended, it would clearly be more simple, as well as more analogous to nature, to use the latter. The universe is a vast assemblage of means and ends. God employs means for the display of his own perfections; and by them carries on the kingdom of nature, providence, and grace. Think of the vast number of means which must be employed by the Creator to effect the next eclipse of the sun, and with what minute exactness they must each operate to the same end. How countless are the means employed in the changes and government of the seasons, and the alterations of day and night.
When the Lord marked Jerusalem, Nineveh, or the old world, for destruction, no means to effect those astonishing events were wanting; nor when he would redeem his people from bondage in Egypt, or from captivity in Baby-[53]lon. But while these events were accomplished by the most perfect cooperation of such extended assemblages of instruments, others, perhaps, of no less importance, were apparently accomplished by single, or at least, a much more limited number. Thus, when in later times he would favour the world with a most wonderful improvement in the science of astronomy, he sent a Newton to measure the spheres, number the stars, and note their movements — and it was done. And when in his good pleasure he would give independence to the favoured descendants of the pilgrims, he gave a Washington to their armies; an Adams, a Jefferson, and a Franklin to their counsel; and a rich inheritance was theirs.
But when God would exhibit the glories of redemption, he sent his only begotten Son to be the Saviour of the world; and a glory above the brightness of the sun in the firmament beamed along the shores of death.
Jesus, also, in the amazing and benignant transactions of his mission on earth, honoured and employed means, simple means, in their accomplishment. The apostles, and faithful followers of Christianity, by the gentle, yet powerful and heavenly methods appointed by their master, in a few years, and against a most powerful and cruel opposition, established and triumphantly spread the gospel through many [54] nations of the earth; so that for it now to become the universal religion of the world within two centuries to come, would not be more surprising than that it spread as far as it did in the three first. Such an event is believed by most christians, and is very susceptible of proof by the scriptures. Consider how many and how powerful must be the means that shall unite the Jews and the Gentiles in faith, in friendship, and in good works; and yet the bible asserts, with peculiar force, that this shall be done.
Now if there be means of grace sufficient to fill the earth with a millenium glory; unite all nations in Christ, and perfect them in holiness, that they may see God and live forever; why should it be thought more difficult for the Deity to bring those of every age to see and enjoy his heavenly kingdom, than to bring all of a particular age? seeing the dead also are his, and when he will he can restore them to life, to holiness, and heaven. To conclude, if the united means of grace and power in the hands of Jesus be sufficient for the salvation of the world, as we think is very apparent from the consideration of their spirituality, variety, and efficiency when directed as they are by infinite wisdom, then it follows, that the method God has chosen by which to impart salvation to his creatures, can never limit, or make it uncer-[55]tain to any, but must tend to spread and perfect it, till heaven and earth shall be full of its praise.
I cannot close without remarking, that it would be a most gross abuse of this doctrine for any one to say, or attempt to argue, that because God has appointed sufficient means for the restoration of all men to purity and happiness, and because those means will, in the hands of moral agents, prove successful during the reign of the Messiah; therefore, there is no need of our using them, and so we may with impunity neglect our moral, social, or religious duties, under the pretence that our salvation is sure. We know that it is the perfection of the gospel salvation that it is sure, but it is no more sure than are the means used by Christ to procure it, and also those to be used by us for its attainment. While we neglect or refuse to use them, we can never expect to be happy in ourselves, or good examplers to others; for none but enthusiasts and immoral characters ever refuse to improve the means recommended by the gospel. On the other hand, what an encouragement does this sentiment give to every reasonable and good man, to try in good earnest to hear the gospel, read the scriptures, meditate on heavenly things, watch his heart, seek christian conversation, and also to hold communion with heaven by prayer [56] and praise; knowing that by this method he shall promote his best interest on earth, and be ripening for glory; and though but an humble servant, he will also be a coworker together with Christ the Lord, who by the light of his word, the blessed influence of his spirit, and the power of the resurrection, will happily succeed in bringing the world to see God, and enjoy him forever.
It may be said by some, though there can be no decree or condition shown to limit salvation, yet if God has declared that some shall suffer eternal misery, then of necessity all cannot be saved. In the next lecture, therefore, we shall, if God permit, respectfully, but fearlessly, examine the objection of endless misery.