pel. A very large portion of mankind have never heard the gospel of their salvation, and consequently are in no wise affected by it in this life, but who, as we shall show, will nevertheless be glorified in and by their head, Christ, in a spiritual, glorious, resurrectional body. Comparatively but few of mankind by the good providence of God, have heard the gospel, but those to whom he has given faith to believe it (for faith as well as the gospel is the gift of God) love God as the effect of that faith, in response to his infinite mercy and love to them, and (as we have before stated), loving God thus, they love righteousness and hate iniquity, which hatred is "repentance unto life." Now all those believers to whom God has given like precious faith, in all ages and among all sects of Christians, have enjoyed " the earnest of the heavenly inheritance, and have tasted the powers of the world to come," he having sent forth his spirit into their hearts, crying "Abba Father." In other words they sought and found communion with God in prayer, and God has given them a mental assurance which they have felt, of his presence and his love; and for all this joy and blessedness of faith they are indebted to the sovereign or elective providence of God, which, for a wise and gracious purpose, he has in all ages vouchsafed to a comparative few, but not to the many of his children. And such we believe is the bible doctrine of election. God has elected or chosen certain persons for purposes, never exclusively for their own, but for the good of others, or of all mankind also as well; instance Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and

even the whole nation of Israel, and in the case of Pharaoh, he chose a wicked king, by whom to bless the world, with the knowledge of himself. But in no case does that election or choice involve the ultimate salvation or glorification of any individual or portion of mankind to the exclusion of any other. And it is a great marvel to us how the good and great Calvin could reconcile any other doctrine of election, much less that of eternal reprobation, with the attributes which he himself ascribed to God.

CHAPTER IX.

We will now endeavor to answer a natural and highly important inquiry, which all good Christian inquirers will make, viz., how the great masses of mankind, probably a vast majority of the millions of millions of the race whom, as we have seen, the gospel declares are saved in Christ, "reconciled to God," and by Christ's righteousness "justified unto life;" but who, nevertheless, are in their individual mode of existence dead in trespasses and sin, and who live and die unregenerate and unrepentant, are to be duly punished for their sins, or to be made holy and meet for the repentance of the saints in light. We answer, first, the punishment of sin means retribution, expiation, atonement-so much suffering for so much sin and wrong doing. Such is the character of the suffering which human laws inflict upon transgressors; but it is not so with God, and for the simple reason that he sustains a different relation to the transgressor, viz., that of an infinitely merciful and loving Father; all sinners are ' his offspring, having been in and with him their head, Christ, God-born, before the world began, and because of that relation God loves all mankind

as he loves his Son, Christ, and being his children they are heirs also, and "joint heirs" of the whole universe. All suffering, therefore, which God inflicts for sin is "chastisement," simply for their good, that they may be made "partakers of his holiness." God requires neither retribution nor atonement. He can sustain no injury from any being, nor can he be angry, or strictly speaking, displeased, for the reason that he has the power to prevent the occurrence of any event or the doing of any act or thing contrary to his will at any time, and in all parts of the universe. There can be no such thing as justice between God and men; justice means mutual obligation of the parties, each to the other. God owes nothing to mankind but love, while they owe to him their very being and all things. All suffering inflicted by human laws is retributive, and should be reformatory also. God has ordained that all men shall "reap as they sow, and in the field where they sow," and all that is but the "chastisement" of infinite mercy and love; and it is clear and certain, from the very nature of God, which is simply love, that he can inflict no suffering upon any being, much less his children, but for their good., And it is equally clear that none but a Moloch could require suffering to gratify revenge or to satiate a thirst for blood. We trust, therefore, that all candid inquirers will see that there is no cause to fear; but that there will be just as much suffering in this life as God requires and is necessary for the well-being of all the parties concerned. The question yet to be answered is how

the whole humanity, past, present, and to come, are in this individual mode of existence to be saved as perfectly as the gospel declares them to have been saved in their mass and headship existence in and through Christ. In that case it was scripturally shown that the whole race, inclusive of the head, Christ, were made partakers in Adam of a fleshly body, and thereby of fleshly lusts, which lusts were the sole cause of all sin; and it was likewise shown that in its mass and headship existence that humanity died in and with Christ as truly, and in like manner, as the literal body dies with the head. And thus the whole humanity, in their headship existence, was shorn both of its body and its lusts, which lusts constituted its sinfulness, and the whole species, inclusive of the head, Christ, was by that death freed from sin. Now, therefore, inasmuch as the death of the fleshly body was, in the above case, the death and the destruction of the fleshly lusts also, the same must be true of every individual of that humanity. The same cause must produce the same effect. It is, therefore, certain that the death of the body of every human being always was and always will be to that being his perfect and eternal deliverance from sinfulness and sin. And from these premises it follows that death, natural death, frees the whole humanity, in its individual mode of being, from sinfulness and from sin.