be found at last to have received no benefit from Christ, and to have died in their sin?. I repudiate the idea of universal salva- tion, as a dangerous heresy, and utterly contrary to Scripture. — But ihe lost will not prove to be lost because Christ did nothing for them. He bore their sins. He carried their transgressions. He provided payment, but they would not put in their claim to any interest in it. He set the prison door open to all; but the majority would not come out and be free. In the w^ork of the Father in election, and of the spirit in conversion, I see limita- tion m the Bible most clearly. But in the work of Christ in atonement I see no limitation. The atonement was made for all the world, though it is applied to and enjoyed by none but be- lievers.— Christ's intercession is the peculiar privilege of His people. But Christ's atonement is a benefit which is ojBfered freely and honestly to all mankind.
In saying all this I am fully aware that the word ^' world " is sometimes used in a qualified sense, and must be interpreted with some limitation. When it is said, " The world knew him not," (John i. 10,) it cannot mean that not a single person in the world knew Him. Bat in the text before us I see no necessity for limitation. I see the whole mass of mankind's guilt brought together in one singular word, " the sin of the world," and that sin, I am told, Christ '' taketh away." And I believe the true meaning to be, that the Lamb of God has made atonement sufficient for all mankind, though efficient unquestionably to none but believers.
Augustine remarks, " How weighty must be the blood of the Lamb, by whom the world was made, to turn the scale when weighed against the world!"
Calvin, in his commentary on this verse, says, ' John uses the word sin in the singular number for any kind of iniquity ; as if he had said that every kind of unrighteousness which alienates men from God is taken away by Christ. And when he says ' The sin of the world,' he extends this favour indiscriminately to the whole human race, that the Jews might not think that He had been sent to them alone. Hence we infer that the whole world is involved in the same condemnation ; and that as all men, without exception, are guilty of unrighteousness before God, they need to be reconciled to Him. John the Baptist, by speak- ing generally of the sin of the world, intended to impress upon us the conviction of our own misery, and to exhort us to seek the remedy. Now our duty is to embrace the benefit which is offered to all, that each of us may be convinced that there is nothing to hinder him from obtaining reconciliation in Christ, provided that he comes to Him by the guidance of f lith."
Brentius says, "Although all the men in the world do not