cy over those who shall be saved by him. If otherwise; if he shall still retain a superintendency over those who shall be saved by him; if he shall still be their immediate head or ruler, and the source of their happiness; though he shall not be the supreme ruler of the universe, nor even of the redeemed; but in this respect he shall resign the kingdom to the Father; he may be said yet to have a kingdom, and to sit on his throne; and to reign, etc. Before the resignation of the mediatorial kingdom, the government of all things is in the hands of Christ, being delegated by the Father to this government. Or as Dr. C. expresses it, "he will be head over all; he will govern all; he will be all unto all."* Christ during that period acts as the supreme head of the universe. But when he shall have resigned the mediatorial kingdom, the Father will act as supreme head. Still Christ may, under the Father, be the head and governor of his redeemed and saved people. The Father will be supreme ruler, and Christ with his church united to him, and dependent on him, will receive the benefits of his government. This does not imply, but that Christ himself, in subordination to the Father, will have a government over his saints.

Nor does it imply, but that the Son as one with the Father, as being in the Father, and the Father in him, shall reign after the resignation of the delegated sovereignty over all things. It may be presumed, that no man will say, that the Father does not reign now while the administration of universal government is in the hands of the Son. If he did not now reign, there would be no propriety in speaking as the scripture often does, "of him that sitteth on the throne, and the Lamb;" nor any propriety in the promise, John 15: 16, "That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you;" nor in those words of James, Chap. 1: 17, "Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." But I need not add texts to prove this. For the same reason therefore that the Father now reigns in and with the Son; so after the resignation of the general delegated administration, the Son will still reign in and with the Father. Now the government is conducted in the name and by the immediate agency of the Son; then it will be conducted in the name and by the immediate agency of the Father. Yet as now the Father reigns in and with the Son; so then will the Son reign in and with the Father. Christ now reigns with supreme sovereignty by delegation from the Father. After the resignation of this sovereignty, he will still reign over the saints by delegation from the Father, but with a domin* Page 217.

ion, which shall be subordinate to that of the Father. He will also at the same time reign in and with the Father, in the exercise of a dominion, which shall not be delegated, but which is essential to him as a divine person, and one with the Father; as the Father, by virtue of his divinity, now necessarily reigns in and with the Son. So that although Christ shall immediately after the general judgment, resign the supreme delegated sovereignty, which he now possesses; still he will reign in these two respects, by a delegated subordinate authority over his saints; and by an undelegated, essential authority, which by virtue of his divinity, he possesses necessarily with the Father,

But whether the true idea of Christ's delivering up the kingdom to the Father, concerning which divines have greatly differed, have been now precisely exhibited or not; still the scriptures necessitate us to believe, that in some sense Christ will reign to an absolute eternity. Heb. 1: 8, "Unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever." Rev. 22: 5, "They" [the saints] "shall reign forever and ever." 1 Pet. 5: 4, "When the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." 1 Cor. 9: 25, "We do it to obtain an incorruptible crown." ." Heb. 12: 28, "We receiving a kingdom that cannot be moved." Both these last texts are quoted by Dr. C.* to prove that the righteous shall live and be happy without end; and they equally prove that they shall reign without end. But the saints are to sit down with Christ on his throne and reign with him; and it is absurd to imagine, that they are to reign after the cessation of his reign; that they are to wear crowns which are incorruptible and fade not away; but that his crown is corruptible and fadeth away. Beside; the kingdom which the apostles and primitive christians received, according to Heb. 12: 28, was not the kingdom of the Father, as distinguished from that of the Son, but was the kingdom of the Son, which he himself had then lately set up. This kingdom is said to be incapable of being shaken or dissolved; and therefore is endless, as Dr. C. himself believed; otherwise it was absurd for him to quote that text to prove, that the righteous will live and be happy without end. Dan. 7: 14, "His" [the Son of man's] "dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." Isa. 9: 7, "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end." Luke 1: 33, "He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end." More determinate language

* Page 287.

could not be used, to express the endless continuance of Christ's kingdom.

It is therefore granted, that the kingdom of Christ will continue, after the general judgment, and even without end. Yet it does not thence follow, that he will not at that time have finished the mediatorial work, or rather the work of saving sinners. I make this distinction, because though Christ will at the general judgment have finished the work of saving sinners from wrath; yet he will without end be the mediator between the Father and the saints, and will be the medium of all divine communications to them, whether of knowledge, of happiness or of honor. It by no means follows from the circumstance, that Christ will, after the general judgment, retain a kingly power and dominion, that he will exert that power in delivering sinners from sin and misery.

The whole of Dr. C's discourse on this subject implies, that the kingdom of the Father, in which he shall be all in all, will not begin immediately after the general judgment. But how can this be reconciled with Matt. 13: 40-44, "As therefore the tares are gathered and burnt in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them that do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then, rore, at that very time, shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." This single text proves that the kingdom becomes the Father's immediately after the end of this world, and therefore entirely overthrows all Dr. C's labor to prove, that the kingdom does not become the Father's till ages of ages after the end of this world; and equally overthrows his great labor to fix a construction on 1 Cor. 15: 24, consistent with his scheme.

Beside; the Doctor's construction of the last passage mentioned seems to be absurd in itself. For he "connects the end," as to the time of it, "with Christ's delivery of the kingdom to the Father." And by the end he in the same page explains himself to mean the "shutting up of the scene of providence with respect to the sons of Adam;" which is and can be no other than the end of Christ's mediatorial kingdom. According to Dr. C. therefore, the apostle, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, gravely tells us, that the end of Christ's kingdom will be, when he shall deliver up his kingdom to the Father; or the end of it will be at the very time, at which the end of it shall be! But what is this, but the most childish tautology! Whoever imagined, that Christ would still retain his kingdom, after he should have delivPage 198.

*

ered it up? Surely that scheme must be in distress indeed, which requires such construction as this to be put on the sacred scripture !

Doctor C. says, "The reward promised under the administration of Christ's kingdom, in this present state, in order to persuade men to become his good and faithful subjects, is not the final happiness God intends to bestow upon them; but the happiness of that state which intervenes between the resurrection and God's being all in all."* But all the promises of the Bible are given in this present state; therefore there are no promises in all the Bible of final happiness. How then does Dr. C. know that all men, or even any man will be finally happy? This is at once giving up his favorite doctrine, to establish which he wrote his whole book.

Doctor C. calls out, "What a poor, low, lean idea the common explanation of this text gives us of the final effects of Christ's reign-in comparison with that, the above interpretation lets us into!" Such exclamations occur in almost every argument of his book. I observe therefore concerning them once for all, that they seem better suited to work on the passions and imagination, than on the reason; that at least they are attempts to determine what is most for the general good and the glory of the Deity, not from revelation or from fact; but a priori, by our own imagination concerning what is best and most eligible. Now that we are in this way utterly incapable of determining what is most eligible, and most for the divine glory, in a thousand instances; every man of reflection must grant.

I have now finished my remarks on Dr. C's "decisive" argument from 1 Cor. 15: 24, etc. Whether it be indeed "decisive;" whether it be "unanswerably strong," is submitted to the reader.

We are next to consider the Doctor's argument from Rev. 5: 13: "And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I, saying, Blessing and honor, and glory and power be unto him, that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." The main question concerning these words is, whether they "look forward to a completion of the scheme of God," and assert a fact which is not to take place, till that scheme shall be completed. This is Dr. C's idea; he says, "they evidently look forward to the completion of that scheme;" he says it merely; he gives no reason to prove it. The context gives no suggestion of such an idea. It may be presumed, that

* Page 222.

† p. 225.

‡p. 211.

Dr. C. himself did not imagine, that the song of the four beasts and four and twenty elders, contained in verse 9th, etc. looked forward to the completion of the scheme of God. It was evidently sung on occasion of the Lamb's taking the book sealed with seven seals, and before any of these seals were opened. Nor is there the least hint, but that what is described in the 13th verse, took place on the same occasion; but the narration naturally implies that it did then take place. The 14th verse confirms the construction now given. "And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth forever and ever." These words are evidently a part of the song mentioned in the 9th verse, as it was sung by the same four beasts and four and twenty elders. Whereas according to Dr. C's construction of the 13th verse, they are either a song which is to be sung after the completion of the scheme of God; or though they are a part of the song mentioned in the 9th verse, the apostle's account of that song is interrupted by inserting in the midst of it, a song to be sung by all mankind, after the completion of the scheme of God. To assert therefore, that the fact of the 13th verse did not take place on the occasion of the Lamb's taking the book; but is to take place ages of ages after the end of this world; and to support this assertion by no proof or reason, is to act an unreasonable part; especially considering the context and the difficulties attending that construction.

These words appear to contain a figurative representation of all creatures joining in joy and praise to the Father and to the Lamb on occasion of Christ's taking and being about to open the seals of the book sealed with the seven seals; the book of providence toward the church. That such representations are common in scripture, we have already seen, while we were considering Rom. 8: 19, etc. Therefore no argument in favor of universal salvation is afforded by this passage.

Dr. C. mentions several other texts as favoring his scheme; but says himself, that he does not "depend on them as proofs," or as "conclusive in themselves." We need not therefore spend time to remark upon them. The reader of himself will easily conceive from the answers given to those on which he does depend as conclusive, what answers would be given to the rest.

Toward the close of that part of his book, which contains the direct evidence of universal salvation, Dr. C. comes down wonderfully, seems to relent, and to be scared at the result of his own reasoning. He owns, that after all, he may be mistaken; that concerning the state which he supposes will succeed the next state, neither the prophets, Jesus Christ, nor the apostles, have spoken