connected with the moral and internal evidence for Christianity. It is quite in vain, I apprehend, for men to write or read the most elaborate or ingenious treatises on Natural Theology, or to study the analogy of Natural and Revealed Religion, so long as any doubt remains, whether the great majority of the human race are interested in "the only name which is given under heaven whereby we may be saved."

It is true, that many have condemned all such enquiries as fruitless, if not presumptuous. Thus the excellent Bishop Horne: "To the curiosity, which, negligent of its own interest in Christ, is ever anxiously enquiring into the future destination of those who have never heard of him, the proper answer, surely is, "What is that to thee? Follow thou me." Sermon on the Epiphany, p. 145. But this, it should be remembered, is taking for granted the point, that the Scriptures have left us no information on this interesting topic. Not only so, it is, in some measure, misrepresenting the object of enquiry; which is, not as to the number of the Heathen

who shall be saved, but as to their universal capability of salvation through the Redemption of Christ.

For my part, I shall not disguise my opinion, that, if there has been but one Revelation from God to man, that Revelation must, in its virtues and effects, be designed for the common benefit of all; and that it is quite nugatory to enlarge on the love, the justice, and the equity of God, and then to exclude the great body of mankind from the means of salvation.

As to its being a merely curious enquiry, I answer, that nothing is merely curious, which concerns our reverence for the Divine Attributes, or which relates to the moral and spiritual happiness of our fellow-crea

tures:

Homo sum, humani nihil à me alienum puto.

When I look back upon past ages, and survey the multitudes of millions who lived and died before the Christian era; when I then contrast the wild wastes of heathen barbarism with the narrow limits of the Christian Church; when I carry forward

my views, and reflect, that, probably for ages to come, the great majority may still remain strangers and exiles from our communion; I feel myself bound, by every tie of nature and of grace, to examine whether the system of the Bible is not built on the history of the world, and whether it is not commensurate with the whole family of mankind.

And what is it which encourages this cheering expectation? It is surely this, that, if our Religion has proceeded from the one and only God, it must have been baptized into the divine attributes. If it be divine, it cannot be partial; if it be celestial, it cannot be local; if it proceed from Him" with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning;" as, it began with the origin of the human race, so must it comprehend all tongues and kindreds and nations and families, even to the end of the world.

The objections of infidelity can never be effectually refuted, till we take away the matter of such reasoning. No man is bound to believe that of his Maker, which

he would not dare to impute to any just or benevolent man. If you lay it down as a fundamental doctrine of the Gospel, that none can be saved but through the redemption of Christ, and that Christ is essentially divine; then, be assured, that either the redemption of Christ must be extended to the whole human race, or that the truth of the Gospel must be established on the sacrifice of all the divine attributes.

Hence it is, also, that our controversies with Calvinists have been attended with such dubious and imperfect success. What is it that we have been labouring to prove? That God's "covenanted" mercies are confined to the members of the Christian Church. Now, this is Calvinism in all its force to the great body of mankind; because it supposes, that God could treat them in the very same manner which the Calvinist supposes that he does treat all but some elect members of the Church. There is no rational hope of success against the Predestinarian, whilst we thus demolish the very foundation of Universal Re

demption. Whilst the battle is fought merely amongst Christians and for Christians, the Calvinists, I think, will always possess a decided advantage; because you give them up the very point at issue, viz. That God is no respecter of persons, and that he does treat all men with equity and impartiality.

Let no man, therefore, view this question respecting the salvability of the heathen, as a mere question of curiosity; it stands connected with all our controversies with unbelievers, and with many of the controversies amongst ourselves. Thus, if the proper divinity of Christ is to be maintained against the Socinian, I am of opinion, that we must not only " strengthen our stakes, but lengthen our cords." doctrine of Christ's divinity is most intimately connected with the question, whether" he is the Saviour of all men, as well as of them who believe." Once confine the benefits of his atonement to the members of the Church, and you destroy the foundation of his divinity. Did He create

The