ART. XXIII.

Speculative and Practical Universalism.

MANKIND have been slow and dull in comprehending the gospel. Much as they have rejoiced in its "simplicity," they have habitually ignored its "fulness," and justified their ignorance by an appeal to its "mysteries." Like the secrets of nature, which have exhausted the wisdom while stimulating the research of generations, the magnitude and diversity of the gospel have always transcended the range or baffled the perception of the mind of man. The wisdom of "Him whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain," the "grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men;" it is a conception too generous for our hearts-too sublime for our imaginations. The human mind resembles the "field" in the Saviour's parables, where "good seed" was indeed sown, and sown in abundance, but where much of it fell upon stony and shallow ground, and where the best growths have been. compelled to struggle with the "tares." The truths of Christ, dropped upon a dull and perverted generation, where they germinated for a season in isolated hearts, were withered under the sirocco of Eastern fanaticism; winter-killed by Gothic barbarism; and buried in the ruins of Roman society-whence they re-appeared, at length, in battered convents and mouldering cells, where the breath of prayer and the light of knowledge fostered their resurrection.

Auspicious as their growth has been since that springtime of faith, which we call the Reformation, in how many souls, in how many lands, must they yet be planted, fostered, and matured ere humanity shall be vernal with the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ!

As a consequence of man's inaptitude to comprehend all the truths of the gospel simultaneously, he seizes upon one with avidity; magnifies its importance; takes it apart from its relations, and so disfigures the symmetry of the spiritual economy. It is as though the astronomers should respectively select some member of the solar system for

exclusive contemplation; ignoring the other celestial confederates, and guaging the magnitude of nature by the extent of their own perceptions. The Christian sects are the result of this limited perception and partial adoption. of the great system of truth. Each sect gravitates to some special truth, which it severs from its organic connection with other truths, thereby changing the divine harmony into a human discord. Thus the primitive church magnified the truth of immortality till it encouraged a revolting asceticism, and made the hope and assurance of heaven incentives to dishonor the world. It transformed chastity itself into a vice, by striking it from its place in the accordant scale of morals, and allying it with arrogance and spiritual pride; and it pushed the serene faith of the early martyrs into a frantic passion for suffering, and a vain affectation of spiritual triumph. The Romish hierarchy, seizing upon the truth of the supreme authority of the church of Christ, took that truth from its qualifying relations, assumed to be the infallible representative of that church, and built up an oppressive despotism. The Calvinistic church, awed by the truth of the Divine sovereignty and ignoring alike the freedom of the human will and the claims of filial dependence, conceived a God like an Asiatic tyrant; whose sole pleasure is found in the exercise of irresponsible power-whose sole anxiety is the maintenance of his own sanguinary glory. The Arminian church, recoiling from such a God, and catching at the truth of man's freedom and responsibility, elevated the agency of man to such a height as seriously to impair the dignity and qualify the power of the divine Ruler.

Not to instance the minor divisions of christendom, let it suffice to observe, that each sect seems to have possessed itself of some fragment of truth, to which its microscopic vision has been limited, and which its loyal exaggeration has made paramount to all others. So a tribe of plundering savages come, unawares, upon a Grecian temple, at midnight. The glare of their torches but vaguely reveals its outlines, or discloses its magnitude, or detects its sculptured beauty; and their uncultured taste glides over a treasury of art without exciting emotion. Each coarse marauder plucks down a statue and bears it away to his

lodge, where in the light of morning he gazes on its marvellous grace, ponders its mute and tranquil features, until a strange awe steals over his spirit, and he falls down and worships, as the supreme beauty, this forlorn image which he has exiled from its peers in the temple of art.

We congratulate ourselves on having comprehended at length, in our denominational faith, "the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ." It is our boast that we recognize and adore the whole pantheon of divine truths, in their natural and august relations-replacing the fugitive deities in their original seats, and restoring the broken fellowship of the temple of faith. It is no very modest claim which we here assert; but one, the audacity of which must provoke the most rigid investigation; one that ought not to be rashly assumed or pretentiously paraded; and the authenticity of which must ever form the theme of most vital and interesting discussion.

Our speculative theology, indeed, stands majestic and beautiful amid the dogmatic sterilities of the older churches. As a Scriptural system, flanked and fortified by the testimony of "all God's holy prophets;" as a religious sentiment, appealing to the universal reason and sympathies of man; and as an intellectual idea, in harmony with the nature and perfection of things,-Universalism stands in the imagination as a vast spiritual symmetry, the synonyme of God's complete wisdom, love, and power, in their earthward manifestations.

Our theology affirms the universal Fatherhood, with respect to God; the universal brotherhood, with respect to man. It teaches that the mediatorial office of Christ involves the prospective reconciliation, and is to end in the eternal redemption, of all the tribes and ranks of humanity. Stated thus in its simplest terms, it presents the sublimest thought the mind can contemplate; and when we examine it in detail we find it as consistent as it is sublime. The first article of the faith involves all the rest. There is a mutual dependence and a harmony between the parts. If God created us by his voluntary act, we belong to him, and have a claim upon his protection. If he created all human beings, then all human beings stand on an equality before him. They are gath

ered into one group,-having proceeded from the same source, being endowed with the same nature, and encompassed by the same providence. The fact that God is the universal Father, involves the corresponding fact that all his creatures are brethren; and, if brethren, then heirs to whatever blessings eternal Goodness may have prepared for his people.

race.

God being the universal Father, and humanity comprising his undivided household, it follows that the benefits of Christ's mediation must be extended impartially to the The gift of Christ and the appointment of the means of redemption were voluntary acts of the divine. Governor,-like the act of creation; in other words, were manifestations of spontaneous goodness; and the redeeming grace must have been co-extensive, in its intent, with the creative grace. We cannot admit that God would have created any soul in the mere exercise of omnipotent caprice, or without having had its ultimate welfare in view. We cannot believe that creative goodness would have introduced any creature into the perils of existence, unless redeeming goodness had provided the means of securing its final blessedness. Therefore we conclude that the power of redemption must be parallel to the power of creation,-that the motive of one act will be justified by the success of the other; and that the renovating virtue which flows from the life and doctrine of Christ must spread to every clime and renew every heart which the almighty fiat has made vital with

existence.

Around these cardinal truths there is ample space for the whole galaxy of Christian doctrines, without dwarfing or obscuring one in order to recognize and display another.

The conviction of immortality is qualified by a rational interest in the present life; for the earthly and spiritual states are two friendly provinces included in one government, each having its specific conditions and uses, and both being consecrated to one progressive existence.

Decrees and free-will do not come into any fatal collision on a platform so broad as ours. However fiercely logic and consciousness may grapple, nobody feels the shock of the encounter. After the harmless conflict has

A man

sufficiently edified the spectators, common-sense goes down from the pavilion of experience and separates the combatants, the public, meanwhile, holding a divided judgment on their respective merits and success. may so display the Divine sovereignty as to prove that I am a mere machine, and all history an irresponsible mechanism; but, though I may not be able to break the chain of his logic, it can practically affect me no more than the trick of a magician, whose dexterity baffles my vigilance, but does not change my estimate of the natural uses and properties of things, in the slightest particular. A man may so exaggerate the freedom of the will as to virtually discrown the Almighty; but when calamity begins to swing him through the void, he will grasp the thought of an infinite Providence as an anchor in the storm. In practical life these truths play harmoniously; and, though speculative subtilty may bring them into apparent collision, the spirit and aim of the divine government, as Universalism presents them, show them to be according forces in one great system, whose evolutions sweep beyond our vision.

The outlines of our speculative theology-which this article does not assume to completely sketch-presents a stately fabric of spiritual doctrine, but not "the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ." It presents an ampler and more symmetrical form than any other church can boast; and let us not undervalue the form because it is not instantly quickened with commensurate vitality; for that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. The natural reason must first crystalize into an intellectual form; and then we may look, agreeably to the divine process, for the spiritual power of conscience to become its living soul.

Let us observe how apparently adequate the form of our theology is to develope, or receive, a moral inspiration, equal to all the wants of mankind.

From the doctrine of the universal Fatherhood, we derive the conviction.of accountability, the sentiment of trust, the means of resignation.

If God created us, we are his; he has the right to claim