g to our argument, when they have been made
righteous, they are _saved_. Hence, quite consistently with this
passage in the Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul has said in his first
Epistle to Timothy (iv. 10), "We trust in the living God, who is the
Saviour of all men, especially of those that believe." If this
sentence had not contained the last clause, there might have been some
excuse for questioning whether St. Paul preached the doctrine of the
eventual salvation of all men; but inasmuch as he adds, "especially of
those that believe," it is as clear as words can make anything clear,
that he taught that all are saved in the sense in which he taught that
those who believe are saved. The reason for making the distinction
expressed by the word "especially" is, I think, sufficiently apparent
from the doctrine, previously maintained in this Essay (pp. 88-40),
that the elect righteous are raised up first, and partake already of
salvation, honour, {76} and glory, during a certain interval preceding
the resurrection of the rest of mankind.

Now, since all that are saved, as being at rest and in felicity, are
free from sin and evil, this teaching of St. Paul is directly opposed
to the doctrine of the perpetuity of evil which is usually inferred
(see p. 71) from the saying of our Lord in Matt. xxv. 46. Thus
apparently there is irreconcilable contradiction between the teaching
of Christ and the teaching of St. Paul on a most momentous subject.
Since, however, the same spirit of wisdom was in the apostle as in his
Lord, it is not possible that there can really be such contradiction;
and because, consequently, the seeming contradiction must be
attributable to our defect of knowledge, or inability, to interpret
rightly the allegorical teaching of Christ, we might do well, although
no solution of the difficulty should be at hand, to accept this gospel
of salvation, in the confidence that, as being declared by St. Paul in
plain terms, it must be true Christian doctrine.

I am not, however, prepared to grant that the solution of the
above-mentioned difficulty is not discoverable; and accordingly I make
bold to indicate a line of argument by which, as it seems to me, a
solution is attainable. The first step in this argument is to admit
the reality of that analogy between God's natural creation and His
spiritual creation which has already been taken into consideration (see
p. 14), {77} and to infer therefrom that the spiritual creat