the patient acted on, a man-the time and tense the present-where is the patient? Is he in England? or is he elsewhere? The agent who acts, is in England, London, for instance. He is this moment acting on a man, in London-Where is the man, the patient of the Agent's action or operation?

Reader, look again at Paul's premises, and consider them in a close relation to the commentator's objection: Paul says, of the end, the object and aim of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, (God the Father being in him in the resurrection from the dead! not in the death!*) "that he died for all, [in the past tense,] that they which live [in the future tense, posterior to Christ's resurrection] should not henceforth [that is, in futuro,] live unto themselves, but unto him which [who] died for them, and rose again." [for them.] Do you not see that Paul's doctrine took time by the forelock, as the phrase goes, and ascended too high in the regions of truth, for any grovelling objection ever to reach it? I ask you, reader, to ponder this matter well. Ask yourself, if this was the end and aim of the death and resurrection of Christ, as affirmed by Paul, both here, and in his summary, which I have quoted from his Epistle to the Romans, when, at any time since the completion of the work by the Agent, the Creator, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, any one of the ktisis or kosmos, shall have passed through the gate of mortality, and awake to a life beyond the grave, to whom shall that life be dedicated? Who shall he live to? An orthodox, imaginary Devil? or to him that died for all and rose again? for the express purpose, that, in futuro, no man shall die to himself that whether we live or die, we shall live or die unto the Lord.

Reader, look once more at Paul's premises: Paul does not admit the possibility of any man being in Christ, in any possible way, shape, or manner, unless he is the patient of the new creation, the reconciliation effected by the Agent, the Creator. No man can live, can exist, or

* Orthodox Trinitarians, and all those who profess to believe that God the Creator, the Deity, became incarnate, and who sing,

"When God the mighty Maker died,

"For man the creature's sin;"

will please to remember, that when God's Son Jesus was suspended, and dying on the Cross, he exclaimed, "My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" Comment, on this testimony, for a rational man, is wholly superfluous.

have any being whatsoever, out of the flesh, unless he exists in Christ. There is no life nor existence whatsoever out of Christ beyond the grave! He is, emphatically, as he affirmed of himself, "The resurrection, and the life." And no man can die in any other way or manner, but to him. For no man dieth to himself.

Let me ask a question

Certainly, reader.

Shall the vilest among the vile, go to your heaven? No, reader; they shall be damned, every one of them. O, very well; you may proceed.

Reader, look again at Paul's premises. The Agent, the Creator, made him, Jesus Christ, a sin offering, for the express purpose to effect as an end, the righteousness of the patient, the kosmos, viz: "that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Here we have the future tense again. The commentator's objection has died a natural death. The metonymy used cannot be mistaken, unless we are blind as bats. It is the righteousness of God in Christ, that man in the future tense, is made the recipient of; not by imputation, but by living unto Christ.

I will now request the reader's attention to Paul's par abola, as exhibited in his Epistle to the Romans. Paul there (chap. v.) represents man as the patient of God the Creator's purpose. He affirms of man, in the aggregate, as a genus humanum, that he was made, a mere passive creature, a patient, sinners in the aggregate, by the sin of one man Adam. Then Paul affirms of the same ag gregate man, that to the same extent, shall the man be made righteous by the obedience of the one righteous. And in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, (chap. xv.) Paul runs the parallel so close that no ingenuity can find any line of variation. Viz:-"For as in Adam [the genus humanum] all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." There is but one possible contingent that can be found, to force so much as one solitary soul of Adam's race out of the parallel line, and beyond the pale of the life in Christ. Look at it: It is to execute a plan or contrivance, by which a man shall escape the death in Adam! Now Paul is positive, that all die in Adam. But Paul is equally positive, that of all who die in Adam, no man, no one, no, not one, shall ever die unto himself. Therefore, when a man dies, no matter who the man is, all is over and gone for ever, and ever, and ever, ad infinitum—ADAM IS GONE.

If the Adam that dies, shall ever live again, it is by Paul's new creation-the old man in the flesh, that Paul says "henceforth know we him no more," is gone beyond the possibility of recal. He has perished for ever. His im age is blotted out. He will never be seen again. He has perished with the beasts that perish; and died in like The sentence that was passed shall be fulfilled to the letter--"DUST THOU ART-UNTO DUST SHALT THOU RETURN." There is nothing left for the orthodox Hell to burn; for the dust has the prior claim. And here is the great mystery, the secret, that is the object of faith-the thing that hope and expectation is looking for, yet to be revealed, when death shall be swallowed up in victory!

manner.

Ah, how is this? If this be true, what good will your damnation of the vile wretches do? I thought they were to be tormented, and damned to some purpose.

Reader, to damn a man, is to condemn him, in toto, as a bad man. And the vile man thus condemned, has no peace he is a miserable creature, and will remain so, as long as he exists. But, remember, he shall be destroyed, root and branch. (See Mal. iv. 1.) There shall be nothing left of him, save the man that God created, in Jesus Christ, the new creation that Paul speaks of. Reader, this is not our business, to judge our brethren of the human family. If the Creator has seen proper, as did the potter who marred a vessel on the wheel, to reconstruct, and make anew the spoiled vessel, to reconstruct, and make anew the spoiled man, let us, reader, rejoice, and not object. Are not all sinners?

Reader, you must look once more at Paul's premises. Paul declares, that "God was in Christ reconciling kosmos unto himself, NOT imputing their trespasses unto them." Why should you, reader, impute their trespasses unto them? Are you more just than God? Can you arrive at more equitable ends or conclusions, than Infinite wisdom and knowledge? Are you determined to know men only as they are known in the flesh? Answer to your conscience, and your God. How will you appear, if you are thus judged, with all your imperfections on your head?

Let the commentator's objection appear again. Then a difficulty is raised, and it must be met by sound argument, by clear testimony. It is objected that the past tense is used, and the forgiveness of the kosmos, is therefore only for the sins committed by the kosmos, anteVOL. II.-6

rior to the time of reconciliation specified. But the time of reconciliation specified, is the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Paul knew not even Jesus in the flesh, subsequent to this event. Hence the difficulty-this objection descends to a literal date, for the purpose of excluding from the reconciliation affirmed by Paul, as happening at a certain time, all men who had not actually appeared and lived in the flesh, at the time, or antecedent to the time of Christ's resurrection. There can be no question that the authors of this objection were blind to its incongruity, and consequences. The objection can be used quite as well against any declaration in the Scriptures, which affirms any thing positively of God's purpose in man's redemption in Jesus Christ. It will apply to the same extent, to Paul's repetition of his synopsis of God's salvation of man in Christ, in Romans v., as in the chapter containing our text. I will not say of this objection that it proves too much, for it proves nothing; unless it proves its own falsity, by a comparison with facts as narrated by the inspired writers. How blind must the objectors have been, not to perceive that their objection, if it proved any thing, must prove that the reconciliation of God, in Christ, would be confined to that portion of kosmos who lived previously to the time, or who were in the flesh, and living at the time, of Christ's resurrection; and must exclude all the residue of kosmos, in the future tense, from any and all partici pation in the promised blessings in Christ for a lost world. I will prove that the objectors were ignorant of the gospel of Christ, as preached by Paul.

There is a sense, and a Scriptural sense, too, which gathers together in one, all things in Christ, in a parallel with all things as gathered in one head in the earthly Adam. That is, all the sentient offspring of God, as they are all seen by God in his purpose of creation, and redemption in Christ Jesus. And to this end, as expressive of this truth, I consider the first truth affirmed, that is related to man directly, in the account of the sentient creation. Viz: That when God created man, the earthly Adam, He breathed into him the breath of lives, in the indefinite plural; so that, in fact, all God's sentient offspring, from Adam personally down to his youngest son, received a certain existence from the breath that ushered Adam into actual existence, as a living soul. Therefore Adam was the Head of all earthly men of all who have

lived, or who shall ever live in the flesh and image of the earthly Adam. And the Lord Jesus Christ, is expressly styled the "Second Man, the Lord from heaven," and the "Head of every man ;" and the every man, which constitute the kosmos, are declared to be members of his body.

The reader, by referring to Paul's Epistle to the Colossians, (chap. i.) will find Paul preaching this great truthPaul affirms of Christ, that "he is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature"-also, "the head of the body the church"-also, "the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence"-also, that "he made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself." To the Ephesians Paul affirmed (chap. ii.) that "God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace are ye saved ;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." And Paul also declares that "we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." And to the Corinthians Paul says, (1 Cor. xii. 12, 27,) "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ." Also, "Now ye are the body of Christ." And with emphasis, does Paul affirm, “But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ." (Chap. xi. 3.) Reader, would Paul have men know this, which he affirms, if it were not a solemn truth? The inspired Paul, the great Apostle to the Gentiles, teaches the important truth, that the Second Man, the Lord from heaven, is the Head of every man. That we are members of his body. That we were quickened with him, rose with him, and are in Christ Jesus. And this doctrine which Paul preached, illustrates the great truth of all men being in both the earthly Adam, and "the second man, the Lord from heaven." (1 Cor. xv. 47.) This is not all, for Paul declares of the union of God's purpose, with the great truth affirmed, viz: in the parallel of all men in the earthly Adam or first man, and all men to the same extent, in the Second Man, the Lord from heaven; the fact is this, that when we were dead in sins, God loved us with a great love-and the dead in sins are quickened together with Christ-therefore, of