Wherever there is heart-belief in Christ, there, there will be life in Christ. However moved by an erring judgment in other respects, or constrained by the variety of influences exerted over us, yet where this heart-belief is there is union. And our Lord said, "He that hath me hath life." And St. John writes, "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son hath not life." If we turn our eyes back upon the gloomy state of Christendom in some of the past ages, we shall see many who worshipped the beast, and few who worshipped the Son of Man. The efficacy of His atonement was all but lost to the world. His faithful ones, the Church, were few. In the language of the Apocalypse the woman, the Church, fled into the wilderness. There were few faithful ones, either of those driven out from, or of those retained within, the pale of Rome. But all who knew Christ savingly, that is, believed on Him so that the spirit confessed Him, put their trust in Him. All others put their trust in the priest, or in the Virgin Mary, or in deified saints, or in purchased masses. Those who put their trust in Him were of His Church, and undoubtedly saved, let them have been called what they may. The opinion promulgated that THE ANTICHRIST has yet to appear, is opposed to the whole prophetical writings. Such an opinion will not bear the smallest scrutiny. The time having arrived when knowledge has increased, and men run too and fro, and they circulate the truth, and the promise of a millennial future being now not very distant, preclude the reign of the Antichrist for a lengthened future period. I do not say that infidelity may not rise its hideous head for a short time. I think it probable that the change out of Romanism, from the great ignorance among Romanists of religious truth, may lead, in some countries, to infidelity; and that to rid themselves of an incubus, great excesses may be committed. A festering sore needs sometimes to be removed by sharp excision. Having written thus much of those who, in the Christian economy, will be saved, I am induced to support a further opinion I have advanced* of those who will be saved. Not only do the Scriptures assure the salvation of all in spiritual union with Christ, but they, also, assure the salvation of the virtuous heathen. This declaration, I know, will not meet with the assent of divines; nevertheless, it appears to me undoubtedly true. Some texts of Scripture appear opposed to this truth. Such as "Except ye abide in me ye have no life in you." "He that hath not the Son hath not life." As I have said before, the sacred Scriptures must always be read as a whole. It is no use to take solitary passages in hopes to deduce from them the whole truth. The whole is conveyed often in antithetical propositions, and we are to judge of the meaning of a passage by its relation to the context, and the general and governing object. For instance, we are told "to take no thought of the morrow,' and again we are told "to be diligent in business." These two rules appear opposed, nevertheless, we know they are not. Without both, probably, either alone would lead to a false conclusion. Again, our Lord declared "I and my father are one," but he also declared "my Father is greater than I." In the one our Lord asserted His divinity, and as such his co-equality; in the other declaration he asserted His humanity, and in this His inferiority, being in His humanity the faithful servant of God, and great high priest of His people. Now of the declaration "he that hath not the Son hath not life," it means those have not life who reject the Son. St. John is teaching a knowledge of the true spirit in men, and he is declaring that every one that hath this spirit will confess the Son, and he that hath not the true spirit will not confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. And he, therefore, declares, that all who do not so confess have no life in them. He is here alluding to all who have heard of Christ, all to whom He has been preached. He is telling the Church to "believe not every spirit, * In the "True Church." but to try the spirits whether they are of God;" and he means the spirits who claim to be of God. All who so claim, and yet deny that Christ or God is come in the flesh, have no life in them. This text, and others of like character, are not, then, conclusive against ignorant unbelievers. against wilful unbelievers. They are conclusive All to whom the Gospel has not been preached do not stand in the same relation to God as they do to whom it has been preached. Our Lord says, "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloke for their sin." This teaching is applied in Acts xvii., as I have shown in the "True Church." In this chapter is the relation of St. Paul preaching to the men of Athens, to whom he taught the God that made the world, whereas before they dedicated their altar to, and worshipped, the Unknown God. He told them that they ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device; and he says "The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." He went on to teach them of the law of righteousness, and gave them to understand that though God winked at their former ignorance, they would now be judged by the law propounded to them. St. Paul to the Romans in a similar manner excuses ignorance. He is teaching them that there is no distinction of men with God, and he says that the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And he adds, "How shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? " It is not to be expected, in a book expressly written to teach the knowledge of God, that many exculpatory passages for the heathen would be met with. But God, who is rich in mercy to all His creatures, has not left Himself without witness that He will not unjustly condemn. It is intended that the law of righteousness shall be taught to all, and that the Gospel shall speed over the whole earth with its life-breathing influence, and its rejection, when made known, is the denial of our Lord, so that the spirits of men do not confess Him, and these will be tried by the law of righteousness, which will condemn them; but those who have never heard the Gospel, those to whom the law of righteousness is altogether unknown, will be tried by other laws; they will be tried out of the books from whose precepts, if received by them as holy, they have regulated their lives (Rev. xx. 12).* Our Lord, in the Gospels, recognised this exemption from sin in the absence of wilful intention. To err in ignorance does not meet with condemnation. He stated that He came into the world that they which see not might see. And when the Pharisees said unto Him, are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, "If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, we see; therefore, your sin remaineth" (John ix. 40, 41). This doctrine is upheld in other language by our Lord, He said, "That servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes." St. James, in his epistle, teaches this truth, He writes, “Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." In my Father's house are many mansions. In some of these will the good of every class find habitations. It is the vile of every class, who have no feelings attuned to the great Spirit above, who will find themselves where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth; where the worm never dieth. They will look and behold the just in harmonious union with their God, and this, to them, will be a source of continual condemnation. To return to the main subject of this paper. If the passage in the Revelation, which the writer has adduced for his opinion * I have maintained in the "True Church" that the scene depicted in the Apocalypse, and usually received as a scene of the future judgment day, has relation wholly to Paganism. upon THE ANTICHRIST, be carefully examined with its context, it will be seen that the term earth is limited to the meaning I have shewn, and that the whole chapter relates to a power accurately described, and which description will not apply to universal anarchy, or universal rejection of Christ, whether from ignorance or wilfulness. And it is also worthy of note, that the passage itself seems to refer to a rejecting class, an opposing class. It says, "all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (the beast), whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev. xiii. 8). What are we to understand by the words "slain from the foundation of the world?" Do they not imply, that the same opposing principle which crucified our Lord began to operate from the foundation of the world, and issues still in the worship of the beast? This principle operates alike at all times; it works with the instructed, not with the ignorant. "He came to His own, and His own received him not." Is the term "world" to be limited to mean the things about which the Apocalypse is concerned, and to bear date from the crucifixion of our Lord? I think not. The declaration "slain from the foundation of the world," intimates an early opposing principle; that from the very foundation of the world there have been rebellious spirits; and that the same opposing principle is still actively at work. It is still slaying the Lord of glory. To crucify Him afresh is to deny Him. And has not this been the case throughout the career of the Papacy. To confess Jesus was, in past times, to be a martyr. Do not Papists now put the Lord to an open shame? They profess Him with their lips, but they have no heart-belief in Him. Have they not committed all sorts of abominations in His name? set up other names whereby they may be saved? lift up the Pope to an equality? Nay, not alone to an equality, but above Him. In past ages to accept the Pope and to deny Christ was orthodox, but to accept Christ and to deny the Pope Do they not |