The Atonement
An essay on the atonement being an attempt to answer the question, Did Christ die for all mankind? By A Friend to Truth; 1811.
“From the nature of the atonement we learn, that those are in a very great error, who imagine that all men will be saved, merely on account of the fulness of the atonement. But if Christ died for the sins of all mankind, will not all be saved? We answer; No, not one of them, merely because Christ has died. God is not, on account of the atonement alone, exclusive of his promise, under obligation to grant to one sinner eternal life, or to deliver him from deserved punishment. The doctrine, that the obedience and sufferings of Christ were transferred to those for whom he died, or so imputed to them, that they can claim deliverance from punishment, and eternal happiness, as their just due, is, in our view, unscriptural, and irrational. We know that some excellent Calvinistic Divines have incautiously taught, that this is the nature of the atonement, and we also know, that others, taking advantage of this, have founded upon it the unscriptural doctrine of universal salvation.”