[210] [Mr. Newman notices a distinction between the facts of revelation, and its principles; and considers the argument from analogy more concerned with its principles than with its facts. “The revealed facts are special and singular, from the nature of the case, but the revealed principles are common to all the works of God; and if the Author of nature be the author of grace, it may be expected that the principles displayed in them will be the same, and form a connecting link between them. In this identity of principle, lies the analogy of natural and revealed religion, in Butler’s sense of the word. The Incarnation is a fact, and cannot be paralleled by any thing in nature: the doctrine of mediation is a principle, and is abundantly exemplified in nature.”—Essay on Developments.]
[211] [The student will find the inadequacy of repentance to cancel guilt, beautifully exhibited by Wayland, Mor. Science: Magee, Atonement: Howe, Living Temple.]
[213] John iii. 16.
[214] It cannot, I suppose, be imagined, even by the most cursory reader, that it is, in any sort, affirmed or implied in any thing said in this chapter, that none can have the benefit of the general redemption, but such as have the advantage of being made acquainted with it in the present life. But it may be needful to mention, that several questions, which have been brought into the subject before us, and determined, are not in the least entered into here, questions which have been, I fear, rashly determined, and perhaps with equal rashness contrary ways. For instance, whether God could have saved the world by other means than the death of Christ, consistently with the general laws of his government. And had not Christ come into the world, what would have been the future condition of the better sort of men; those just persons over the face of the earth, for whom Manasses in his prayer[A] asserts, repentance was not appointed. The meaning of the first of these questions is greatly ambiguous: and neither of them can properly be answered, without going upon that infinitely absurd supposition, that we know the whole of the case. And perhaps the very inquiry, What would have followed, if God had not done as he has, may have in it some very great impropriety: and ought not to be carried on any further than is necessary to help our partial and inadequate conceptions of things.
[A] [The “prayer of Manasses” is one of the apocryphal books of the Old Testament, which next precedes “Maccabees.”]
[215] John i., and viii. 12.
[216] Rom. iii. 25, v. 11: 1 Cor. v. 7: Eph. v. 2: 1 John ii. 2: Matt xxvi. 28.
[217] John i. 29, 36, and throughout the book of Revelation.
[218] Throughout the epistle to the Hebrews.