future world, the
term Salvation has naturally and not improperly been accommodated to
signify a state of future safety and bliss. That it did not always mean
this, however, is evident to all attentive readers of the Scriptures; as
there is not one of Paul's epistles or discourses which would be
intelligible, if he were supposed to declare his converts saved from the
pains of hell, instead of from the dominion of the evils of heathenism,
or the condemnation of the Jewish law. By _redemption_, we understand a
release from the same evils and penalties effected by a sacrifice on the
part of a benevolent mediator. By _remission of sins_, we understand the
forgiveness and consequent remission of punishment which are promised in
the Gospel on condition of repentance and newness of life. By
_justification_, we believe the sacred writers sometimes to signify the
process by which believers are released from all obligations incurred
towards the old law, and brought into a state of spiritual freedom; and
sometimes that free state itself. We conceive that this interpretation
of terms--not new and arbitrary, but only divested of the false
associations which have been long gathering round them--will clear up
most of the mysteries which obscure a very important Christian doctrine,
and enable us, in comparing scripture with scripture, to discern a
consistency of views and a depth of truth which afford an irresistible
evidence of their divine authority.

The whole scheme of revelation we conceive to be the method designed by
the divine wisdom, and adopted by the divine benevolence, for bringing
the human race into a state of purity and peace more rapidly than could
be effected by the religion of nature. The welfare of the whole race was
no less the object of the Jewish than of the Christian dispensation,
though its apparent privileges were confined to the peculiar people.
These privileges, immediately and positively advantageous to the chosen
people, were remotely and relatively so to others, by establishing
before their eyes evidences of a divine moral government; and as a moral
government implies consistency of authority, it affords a strong
presumption of the unity of the Governor. The Jews were led on from the
fundamental principle of the Divine Unity to the apprehension of a
divine moral government; while observant heathens, perceiving the moral
results of the national vicissitudes of the Hebrew people, deduced
thence the truth of