'WHERE sin abounded, Grace did [even] MUCH MORE abound.'---Rom. v. 20. Listen to this passage of truthful criticism, and the involuntary burst of fervent rapture which fell, almost unconsciously, it must have been, from the pen of the learned Adam Clarke, in his comments on Rom. v: 'It,' [the Grace of the Gospel,] he says, "restores All to life at the resurrection, and over and above that, has provided a gracious dispensation for the pardon of their sins; for reducing them to obedience; for guarding them against temptations; supplying them with strength and comfort; and for advancing them to eternal life. The Grace of the Gospel extends to All Men, with respect to the surplusage [i. e. the 'much more,'] in which it extends far beyond the consequences of Adam's transgression.--- As extensively, as deeply, as Universally, as Sin hath reigned, subjected the whole earth and all its inhabitants unto death, temporal of the body, and spiritual of the soul; EVEN so, as extensively, as deeply, as Universally might Grace reign, &c. Thus,' he adds, 'we find here that the Salvation from sin, is as Extensive as the guilt and contamination of Sin. Death is conquered! Hell disappointed! The Devil confounded! and SIN TOTALLY DESTROYED! Amen! Hallelujah! The Lord God Omnipotent Reigneth!" 'The times of THE RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS, which God hath spoken by the mouth of All His holy Prophets since the world began.'---Acts iii. 21. 'Every valley shall be exalted, every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places, smooth. And the Glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and ALL FLESH shall see it together.'---Isa. xl. 4, 5. "Thine for a space are they, Yet shalt thou yield thy treasures up at last, Thy bolts shall fall,-inexorable PAST! All that of good and fair, Has gone into thy womb from earliest time, The glory and the beauty of its prime. They have not perish'd-no! Kind words, remember'd voices, once so sweet, And features, the great soul's apparent seat ; ALL shall come back,-each tie Of pure affection shall be knit again; Alone shall Evil die, And Sorrow dwell a prisoner in thy reign !" WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, Mr. SAWYER remarks on the above stanzas,---"Could language express more beautifully the doctrine of Universalism? All is to be restored but Evil, which alone is to die, and have no resurrection; and Sorrow itself is to remain a prisoner forever in the empire of the Past." PROPOSITION TWENTY-SECOND. The God of Abraham shall Redeem and Glorify All THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL.' PROOFS. "The First shall be last, and the Last, first.'-CHRIST. 'What, are we then better than the Jews? No, in no wise; for we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, they are all under Sin. - - ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified Freely by His Grace, -- Where is boasting then? It is Excluded.'---Rom. iii. 'Hath God [hopelessly] cast away His People? God hath not cast away His People, whom He foreknew,' and fore-ordained to fall.---Rom. xi. 1, 2. 'I say then, have they stumbled that they should [utterly] fall? God forbid.' ---ver. 11. 'What shall the Receiving of them be but life from the dead?'---ver. 15. 'God is able to graff them in again. For if the Gentiles wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree; how much more shall the children of Israel, which be the natural branches, be graffed again into their own olive-tree? And so ALL ISRAEL SHALL BE SAVED. -- For this is My Covenant unto them saith the Lord, that I shall take away their Sins, -touching the election, these are beloved for the fathers' sake. - - so, through the Gentiles' mercy, these also shall obtain mercy.'---vers. 24--31. "That he might Reconcile both [Jews and Gentiles] in ONE BODY by the cross.'---Eph. ii. 16. "The Sin of Israel shall be Destroyed.'---Hosea x. 8. The Iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be None; and the Sins of Judah, and they shall not be found.' Jer. 1. 20. ‘In the Lord shall All the Seed of Israel be justified and shall glory. Israel shall be Saved in the Lord with an Everlasting Salvation; Ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world [duration] without end.'---Isa. xlv. 15, 17. 'Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is Mercy, and with Him there is PLENTEOUS Redemption.--And He shall Redeem Israel from all his Iniquities.'--Ps. cxxx. 7, 8. 'Let Israel hope in the Lord, from henceforth and forever.'---cxxxi. 3. Let it be borne in mind that we have here collected some of the proofs, of the spiritual Redemption only, of the house of Israel, and not those which refer to the future, glorious, earthly, National Restoration of that degenerated people, to which event the Scriptural prophecies bear abundant, minute, and luminous testimony. But it is our settled opinion, an opinion for which there may be raised the strongest argument, and which has also many abettors, that the glorious exaltation and moral emancipation of the rest of the nations of the earth is greatly dependent upon, and nearly co-temporary with, the promised spiritual aggrandisement of the Jewish people; and that the ultimate universal blessedness bears the same relation to the period of the earthly triumph of the kingdom of peace, and that these events are, in fact, in the light of revelation, nearly synony mous in era and character. "Call thy God thy FATHER, and yet not thine alone, For thou art but one of Many, the Brotherhood is of All: Remember His high estate, that He dwelleth King of Heaven So shall thy thoughts be humbled, nor love be unmix'd with reverence: Pray for that blessed time when Good shall triumph over Eyil, And one Universal Temple shall echo the perfections of Jehovah.' Proverbial Philosophy. PROPOSITION TWENTY-THIRD. Salvation is Prepared for the Souls of All the Nations of THE GENTILES, that is, for All People besides the Jews, and All Generations of them, both Heathen and Civilized. PROOFS. 'And He said, It is a light thing, [comparatively,] that thou [Messias] should'st be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, [only.] and to restore the preserved of Israel, [merely.] I will also give thee for a Light to the Gentiles, that thou may'st be My Salvation UNTO THE END OF THE EARTH.-Isa. xlix. 6. 'Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of Old. Behold I will do a New thing; now it shall spring forth, shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the Wilderness, and Rivers in the Desert. The beast of the field shall know Me, the dragons and the owls, [the very vilest of men.] Because I give Waters in the Wilderness, and Rivers in the Desert, to give Drink to My People, My chosen. This People [also] have I formed for Myself; they [even] shall shew forth My Praise.'-Isa. xliii. 18--21. "The Fall of the Jews is the Riches of the World, and the diminishing of them the Riches of the Gentiles.'---'The casting away of them is the Reconciling of the World.'---'Blindness in part hath happened to Israel, until the Fulness of the Gentiles be Come in.' For of Him, and THROUGH Him, and TO Him are All Things.'—Rom. xi. 12, 15, 25, 36. The Gospel is, that God shall Justify the Heathen, and through Christ, Bless even All the Nations and the Kindreds of the Earth, by redeeming their souls from iniquity. ---Gal. iii. 8: Acts iii. 25. 'I will set My Glory among the Heathen, and ALL THE HEATHEN shall see My Judgment which I have execu ted, and My hand which I have laid upon them. So Israel, [also,] shall Know that I am the Lord, from thenceforward.' –Ezek. xxxix. 21, 22. And Rulest Thou 'Art not Thou God in heaven? not over All the kingdoms of THE HEATHEN? and in Thy hand is there not Power and Might, so there is None able to withstand Thee?'-2 Chron. xx. 6. "What though th' embattl'd legions Of earth and sin combine? And every tribe and tongue, PROPOSITION TWENTY-FOURTH. The Lord shall Ultimately Redeem THIS WORLD from the Dominion of Evil, which is a Pledge of His Ability and Purpose to Redeem All the sinful Souls that enter THE FUTURE WORLD also, so that All His Creation, the Physical and Spiritual, shall be Universally Glorified. PROOFS. 'And it shall come to pass in the Last Days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the tops of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills. And All Nations shall flow unto it; and many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the House of the God of Jacob; and He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths, for out of Zion shall go forth the Law, and the word of the Lord from [the New] Jerusalem. And He shall Judge among the Nations, and shall rebuke many people. And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears |