Appendix II: The Peculiar Absurdity and Fatal Tendency of the Modern Scheme of Universal Salvation

The doctrine of Universal Salvation is of great antiquity. It was first received and propagated by Origen and Clement of Alexandria, who lived in the latter end oTthe second century. They maintained, that God will, through the medium of the gospel, make all mankind eventually happy, though he will punish all who die in impenitence and unbelief, until they have received the due reward of their deeds, and are completely purged from their moral depravity, and become meet for the kingdom of heaven. This original scheme of universal salvation has been handed down from age to age, with a few modifications and shades of difference. But Mr. James Relly a few years since, formed a different scheme of universal salvation, which he founded upon a supposed personal union between Christ and the whole human race. By virtue of this mystical union, he supposes, that all men, whether penitent, or impenitent, will immediately, after death, go to heaven and be completely and forever happy there. He asserts,

^’ That Christ as mediator was so united to mankind, that his actions were theirs, his obedience theirs, and his sufferings theirs, and consequently he has as fullyrestored the whole human race to the divine favour, as if they had all obeyed and suffered in their own persons. The divine law has now no demands upon them, nor condemning power over them. Their salvation solely depends upon their union to Christ, which God established before the world began. Accordingly, they being in him, as branches in the vine, as members in the body, &c. they are considered together with him, through all the circumstances of his birth, life, death, resurrection, and glory. Thus considering the whole law fulfilled in Jesus, lis precepts obeyed, lis penalties endured, he now inherits the promise: and thus standing in him, and united to Azm, through all his doings, and sufferings, his condition, and state is theirs. And they can read the law, or the doctrine of rewards and punishments, without fear; because all the punishments threatened in the book of God, have been executed upon them (as sinners and law-breakers) in him. This is the corner-stone or sole foundation, which supports the scheme of universal salvation, as maintained by Mr. Relly”, Mr. Murray, Dr. Huntington, and all their unlearned, unstable, and deluded followers. If this should give way, their whole fabric falls to the ground, and their hopes perish. Though this novel doctrine may meet the wishes of those who are under the dominion of an unholy heart; yet it deeply concerns them to inquire whether it be true, before they build their future and eternal hopes upon it. And whoever will seriously and impartially consider the few following observations, it may be hoped, will be, convinced, that it is repug;nant to reason, scripture, and the plain dictates of common sense.

In the first place, the union upon which this doctrine is founded, is entirely false and visionary. It is impossible to conceive, that all mankind were personally “with Christ through all the circumstances of his birth, life, death, resurrection, and glory.” For he was born of the virgin Mary; was circumcised the eighth day; was baptized by John in Jordan; was forty days and forty nights in the wilderness; was betrayed by Judas; was condemned by Pilate; was crucified between two malefactors; was buried by Joseph of Arimathea; and was raised from the dead by the Father, and seated at his own right hand in glory. Had there been such a supposed personal union between Christ and all mankind, by which his obedience, sufferings, and glory are theirs; then, they must all row be conscious of having the same views, the same affections, and the same sorrows that he had, while he lived and when he died; and of the same glory and blessedness which he now enjoys in heaven. But where is the man, who is conscious of being personally united with Christ, in all these stupendous scenes of his birth, life, death, resurrection, and glory! If it be said, that this is an unfair representation of the matter; and that by “Christ’s being in mankind and their being in him,” is only intended, that according to a certain divine constitution, God considers what Christ did and suffered as being done and suffered by mankind personally; the answer to this is obvious. No divine constitution or appointment whatever, could make Chrisi’s personal obedience and sufferings theirs. A divine constitution cannot alter the nature of things, nor effect impossibilities. Who can conceive that it is now in the power (jf the Supreme Being, by a new positive constitution, to make Christ the betrayer of Judas, the crucifier of his crucifiers, and the perpetrator of all the sins that ever have been committed in the world? But it is no more impossible for God to do this now, than it was from eternity, to make a constitution by which, not only the actions of Christ and of Judas, but the actions of Christ and of all mankind should be the same. The supposition of a divine constitution relieves no difficulty here. The notion that all mankind were “with Christ through all the circumstances of his birth, life, death, resurrection, and glory,” is as absurd as the doctrine of transubstantiation, of which no man can form an idea. The doctrine, therefore, which is built upon such a false and visionary union, is repugnant to the plainest dictates of reason and common sense.

Nor, in the second place, is it less contradictory to the whole current of scripture, which assures us, that all unrenewed, unholy, impenitent sinners are unfit for, and shall never be admitted into the kingdom of heaven. Our Saviour said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Paul said, “Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord.” And Solomon said, “The wicked is driven away in his wickedness: but the righteous hath hope in his death.” These, with a multitude of other passages of scripture, which might be adduced, bear directly on the point under consideration, and clearly prove that those who die in their sins, are absolutely excluded from heaven, and shall never be suffered to enter into the kingdom of glory. We know nothina: about the state of the dead but what God has told us in his word, and what he has there told us we are bound to believe, because we know it is infallibly true. He has there told us some plain and undeniable facts, which confirm the construction given of the texts just quoted. He has there told us, that Judas was the son of perdition, that he did not go to heaven, but to his own place, and that it would have been good for him, if he had never been born, which plainly implies that he will never enter into the kingdom of heaven. He has told us, that he raised up Pharaoh, hardened his heart, and fitted him for destruction, that his name might be praised for his conduct towards him, in both time and eternity. He has caused it to be recorded, by the pen of inspiration, that Korah, Dathan and Abiram, Balaam and the men of Sodom and Gomorrah, are examples suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. And he who holds the keys of death and of hell has told us, that Dives lived and died in sin, and immtdiately lifted up his eyes in torments. Whether the account of Dives be literal or figurative, it equally proves, that the wicked are driven away in their wickedness, excluded from heaven, and doomed to destruction. If we may believe the declarations, the doctrines, and the facts contained in the Bible, we may as confidently believe, that some wicked men have been driven away in their wickedness, and are now in a state of misery and despair; as we may believe, that Enoch, Abraham, -Moses, and Elijah ar6 now in the kirtgdom of glory. We know of no doctrine, ever broached among those who call themselves Christians, so absurd and unscriptural as the novel notion, that all wicked men, even the most vile and profligate, when they leave the world, go immediately to heaven and enjoy endless felicity there.

Hence, thirdly this novel scheme of universal salvation is extremely licentious and dangerous. It directly tends to destroy all religion and morality. It teaches, that holiness and piety are empty names; that repentance, faith, humility, and devotion, are no other than hypocrisy, pride, and self-righteousness; and that the most irreligious, abandoned, and profligate sinners go immediately to heaven, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of glory. Such a doctrine as this is replete with infinite mischief. It strikes at the root of all experimental religion. It destroys all moral distinction between virtue and vice. It takes ofi’ every restraint from the corruption of the human heart, and opens the flood-gates of iniquity. It renders the prophets, Christ, and the apostles the ministers of sin; and speaks peace to all the wicked, to whom God says, there is no peace. It has every mark of a damnable doctrine. Some seem reluctant to pronounce absolutely upon its corrupt and fatal tendency, and choose only to say, if it be true, then those who deny it, are as safe as those who embrace it But we ought rather to say, if there be no future state, then we are all safe, hut not otherwise. Admit a future state, and there remains no room to doubt, whether God will make a difierence between him that serveth him, and him that serveth him not; between him that sweareth, and him that feareth an «ath. The very supposition that no distinction will be made between the righteous and wicked in a future state, supercedes the necessity and even propriety of a general Judgment. Why should God appoint a day, in which to judge the world in righteousness, if no persons are to be judged, no characters to be examined, and no displays of retributive justice to be made! Some of the most sensible, learned, and respectable Universalists despise and condemn this novel scheme of universal salvation. Dr. Chauncy in particular deserves to be mentioned in this connexion. In his Preface to the Extracts which he made from the writings of noted Authors on his side of the question, he condemns, in the strongest terms, the novel and licentious sentiment, that all men, however vile and vicious, go immediately to heaven, without passing through a previous state of extreme sufferings. He remarks; “It may not be unseasonable to add here, that it is fully and freely acknowledged, by all the above writers, that many among the sons and daughters of Adam, will pass through a state of unutterable misery; before they will be prepared for, and admitted to the joys of God’s presence, in the heavenly world. This I judge proper to mention, because the doctrine of universal salvation has, in this, and some other towns, been held forth by a stranger, (meaning Murray) who has, of himself, assumed the character of a preacher in direct contradiction not only to all the beforementioned writers, but to the whole tenor of the New Testament books, from their beginning to end. According to this preacher y a man may go to heaven, notwithstanding all the sins he has been guilty of in the course of his life. Such a doctrine looks very like an encouragement to libertinism, and falls in with the scheme of too many in this degenerate age, who, under the pretence oi promoting religion, undermine it at the very root. It is certainly fitted to this end, and has already had this effect upon many; especially of our younger people, who, by means of it, have lost all sense of religion, and given themselves up to the most criminal excesses! If this kind of preaching is encouraged, it may prove as hurtful to civil society as to religion. Would to God it might be realized as an undoubted truth, that there is the same reason, from scripture, to believe there is a Hell as a Heaven. And those who are infidels as to the former, would do well to take care lest they should know, from their own experience, the horrors of that dreadful place.^^

Since the human heart naturally prefers darkness to light and error to truth, there is a propriety in addressing the hopes and fears of men, and giving divine truths all the weight and influence, which they derive from the motives of Eternity. This the Apostles tell us was their practice. ‘’ Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.” Directed by their example, there needs no apology for addressing those, who are particularly concerned in this serious subject, and warning them against the fatal dangers to which they are exposed.

There are many, at this day, who are labouring to reason themselves out of the belief of all truth, both human and divine; and boast of arriving to a certainty that all things are uncertain. But it may be questioned whether the human mind, which is formed to see and feel the force of truth, will permit any man to approach nearer to perfect Scepticism, than perfect knowledge. By an habit of resisting truth, however, some may have unsettled their minds respecting divine things, and become exposed to embrace error instead of truth, in matters of religion. And for this reason, they are very liable to fall in with the delusive scheme of universal salvation, which has a tendency to diffuse some glimmering rays of light in their dark and desponding minds. But they are entreated to awake from their reveries, and attend to the great realities with which they are surrounded and connected. Eternal rewards and punishments are substantial realities, whether they them believe to be so or not. By shutting their eyes against them, their danger is not in the least diminished, but greatly augmented. The period is approaching when they must be thoroughly awakened from their delusive dreams. The solemn scenes of Eternity will draw the curtain aside, and open upon their astonished minds such awful realities as, at a distance, made Felix and Belshazzar tremble, and as will more terribly shock their guilty souls, when their presence can no longer be resisted.

There is a larger number than these, perhaps, who are making swift and bold advances in the cause of Infidelity, and leave no methods unemployed to discredit divine Revelation, and subvert the foundations of Christianity. They need not tell the world their motives. Were they not convinced that the Bible contains the doctrine of eternal punishments, they would not rack their invention to find arguments to persuade themselves and others, that the Scriptures are a ctmningly devised fable. Let this doctrine be erased from the Bible, and every Deist would become its votary, and exchange his Bolingbroke, Voltaire, or Chesterfield, for that sacred volume. It is this doctrine alone that compels them to renounce a book, which bears so many signatures of divinity, and which they are constrained to acknowledge contains the most excellent institutions, instructions, and commands. But so weak is their infidelity, we presume they would rejoice to find the Bible on their side, to confirm their wavering hopes and feeble prospects of future happiness. And this is what the scheme of universal salvation promises. It flatters them that the Bible is their friend, and announces eternal felicity to them and to all mankind. Accordingly, it is well known, that numbers of a deistical turn have become converts to this agreeable doctrine, and many others are imminently exposed to fall into the fatal snare. But this is flying from the iron weapon, and rushing on the bow of steel. For if any discard the Bible because they know that it does contain the doctrine of future and eternal punishments, or embrace it because they imagine it does not contain that doctrine, they will infallibly meet with disappointment and ruin in the end.

The sons of pleasure, who indulge in every sinful gratification, find it extremely difiicult, in their serious moments, to stifle their natural apprehensions of guilt and punishment; and therefore readily catch hold of any thing, which promises them impunity in the paths of vice. The doctrine of salvation for all men, without exception or distinction of characters, perfectly gratifies their hearts, and coincides with their reigning views and pursuits. Accordingly, when this doctrine is proposed to their belief, they will, if possible, yield their assent, and shake off their painful fears of wrath to come, through which, they have all their life time been subject to bondage. But let them beware of this slender shelter. It will infallibly deceive and disappoint them. The agreeableness of the doctrine is a strong indication of its repugnancy to the gospel of Christ, which was never relished by persons of an immoral, profligate character. When John preached, Herod was offended. When Christ preached, a whole congregation was filled with wrath. And when Paul preached upon righteousness, temperance and judgnient to come, the loose and abandoned Felix trembled. And it is the genuine tendency of the pure doclrlnes of the gospel to convince profligate sinners that they are in the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. They may therefore be assured, that the soothing doctrine of universal salvation is diametrically opposite to the truth as it is in Jesus. Let none then listen to the pleasing delusion, and bless themselves, saying, we shall have peace, though we walk in the imagination of our hearts, to add drunkenness to thirst. For the Lord will not spare them, but his anger, and his jealousy shall smoke against them, and all the curses that are written in the book of God shall fall and lie upon them forever. Rejoice, 0 young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: hut know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.

Here it seems proper to subjoin several directions how to shun the baneful influence of such dangerous opinions as some are propagating with great apparent zeal, at the present day.

In the first place, let none be deceived by their pretensions to superior penetration and knowledge. “Me.n of the strongest minds and most extensive literature have often committed the grossest blunders in their religious speculations, and then employed all their learning and ingenuity to maintain and propagate them. Some of their admirers seem to have been allured into their errors by an implicit faith in their great abilities. But this betrays weakness. Great men are not always wise. They are liable to err, and consequently their opinions are to be strictly examined, and admitted only upon the ground of real evidence.

Nor, in the second place, are we to be biassed in favour of the licentious principles of Errorists, on account of their amiable moral characters. Doctor Brown justly’ observes, that men of strict morality have disseminated very false and pernicious doctrines. It is well known, that Epicurus, the father of theoretical licentiousness, never lived up to his principles, but maintained a regular and exemplary life. Spinoza the Atheist was a man of sobriety and apparent devotion. And the Lord Heibert, who, if not the father, yet the principal advocate of Deism in England, appears to have had a serious mind, and a conscientious regard to duty. It is readily conceded, that some of the advocates of universal salva* tion are men of amiable dispositions and fair moral characters. But none ought to entertain a more favorable regard for atheism, deism, or any other licentious doctrines, on that account. Those who teach and disseminate them are to be shunned as dangerous corrupters.

Nor, in the last place, are any to believe the propagators of error, though they make the most solemn asseverations of their sincerity, impartiality, and uncommon intercourse with the Deity. Though we scruple not their sincerity, yet we scruple the propriety of their throwing out the profession of it, which can have no tendency to enlighten, but only to prejudice the minds of the credulous. This, which may properly be called an artifice, is often employed by the advocates of universal salvation, Mr. White, in his Treatise on the universal restoration of all sinful creatures to the divine favour,* makes the most solemn asseverations of his sincerity and sacred regard for the divine glory. His expressions are these: And here I do in the fear of God most humbly prostrate myself before his divine majesty, and in the deepest sense of my own darkness and distance from him, do with all my might beg of that infinite goodness I am endeavouring to represent to others, that if something like this platform and prospect of things be not agreeable to that revealed and natural light he hath given to us, that my understanding may be interrupted and my design 418 APPENDIX It.

Ml, and that the Lord would pardon my attempt-: and I know he will do so, for he hath given me to have no further concern for this matter, than as I apprehend it to be a most glorious truth, witnessed to, both by the scriptures of truth, and by the most essential principles of our own reason, and which will be found at the last opening of the everlasting gospel, to recover in that opening a degenerate world,”

Mr. Relly holds out the same lure to his readers, to place an implicit confidence in the rectitude 0/ his views and the divinity of his doctrines. In a Preface to one volume of his writings, he assures his readers, that his discourses were delivered extempore, without any previous study or forethought, and flowed from his lips as they were dictated by the divine Spirit. For, says he, I followed that divine direction given to the apostles, “Take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.” How presumptuous is it for any man, at this day, to pretend to imitate the apostles in this respect! and especially for Mr. Relly, who in his writings every where ridicules all experimental religion, inward piety, holy affections, and Christian graces!

Errorists often employ such artifices as divine truth neither requires nor approves. They sometimes, however, succeed, and deceive the inattentive and unguarded. Those who use such artifices, ‘^refore, are dangerous persons, and their seducing influence is studiously to be avoided. Their doctrines are fatal if imbibed; and even when they are not fully embraced, they tend to harden the heart, and stupify the conscience. The bare thought that some maintain that all men will be saved, begets a secret hope that possibly it may be true, and that there is not so much danger in impenitence and unbelief as many have long imagined and pretended. Therefore to hear the universalists preach, or to read their writings, merely to know what they can say in defence of their errors is like Eve’s listening to the sophistry of the serpent, and may in the end prove equally fatal. The Scripture characterizes false teachers, and warns every one to avoid them. The apostle Paul, who was troubled with the perverters of the gospel, treats them with great plainness and severitfc-. “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach ly other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” The beloved apostle John directs men to have no intimate connexion with false teachers. “If any man comfe unto you, and bring not this doctrine, (which he had just mentioned) receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed. For he that biddeth him God speed, is partaker of his evil deeds.” Solomon gives a similar caution and direction:” Cease, my son, to hear the instruction that causeth to err.^^ Thus we have not only the voice of reason, but the voice of God, to warn us to shun the presence and influence of those, who lie in wait to deceive and to destroy.