But let us see another proof, which haply may give more strength to the uncouth distinction we oppose, and that is 1 Tim. iv. 10, " Who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe." Had it been, " Who is the Mediator of all men, specially of them that believe," it had been more likely. But the consciences, or at least the foreheads of these men ! Is there any word here spoken of Christ as mediator? Is it not the "living God" in whom we trust that is the Saviour here mentioned, as the words going before in the same verse are? And is Christ called so in respect of his mediation? That God the Father is often called Saviour I showed before, and that he is here intended, as is agreed upon by all sound interpreters, so also it is clear from the matter in hand, which is the protecting providence of God, general towards all, special and peculiar towards his church. Thus he is said to " save man and beast," Ps. xxxvi. 6, ' AvOpaJvovi xal XTrjvri gussic v.vpii, rendering the Hebrew yt^'in by <rwtfs/5, " Thou shalt save or preserve." It is God, then, that is here called the " Saviour of all," by deliverance and protection in danger, of which the apostle treats, and that by his providence, which is peculiar toAvaixls be- lievers; and Avhat this makes fcr a universal mediation I know not
END OF Christ's death as actually accomplished. 191
Now, the very context in this place will not admit of any other interpretation ; for the words render a reason why, notwithstanding all the injury and reproaches wherewith the people of God are con- tinually assaulted, yet they should cheerfully go forward to run with joy the race that is set before them ; even because as God preserveth all (for " in him we live, and move, and have our being," Acts xvii. 28; Ps. cxlv. 14-16), so that he will not suffer any to be injured and un- revenged, Gen. ix. 5, so is he especially the preserver of them that do believe; for they are as the apple of his eye, Zech. ii. 8; Deut. xxxii. 10. So that if he should suffer them to be pressed for a sea- son, yet let them not let go their hope and confidence, nor be weary of well-doing, but still rest on and trust in him. This encourage- ment being that which the apostle was to lay down, what motive would it be hereunto to tell believers that God would have those saved who neither do nor ever will or shall believe? — that I say nothing how strange it seems that Christ should be the Saviour of them who are never saved, to whom he never gives grace to believe, for whom he denies to intercede, John xvii. 9 ; which yet is no small part of his mediation whereby he saves sinners. Neither the subject, then, nor the predicate proposition, " He is the Saviour of all men," is rightly apprehended by them who would wrest it to the mainte- nance of universal redemption. For the subject, " He," it is God the Father, and not Christ the mediator; and for the predicate, it is Q. providential preservation, and not a purchased salvation that is intimated ; — that is, the providence of God protecting and governing all, but watching in an especial manner for the good of them that are his, that they be not always unjustly and cruelly traduced and reviled, with other pressures, that the apostle here rests upon; as also he shows that it was his course to do, 2 Cor. i. 9, 10: " But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in our- selves, but in God wliich raiseth the dead : who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver us: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;" for "he is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that beheve." If any shall conceive that these words (" Because we hope in the living God, who is," etc.) do not render an account of the ground of Paul's confidence in going through with his labours and afflictions, but rather are an expression of the head and sum of that doctrine for which he was so turmoiled and afflicted, I will not much oppose it; for then, also, it includes nothing but an assertion of the true God and dependence on him, in opposition to all the idols of the Gentiles, and other vain conceits whereby they exalted them- selves into the throne of the Most High. But that Christ should be said to be a Saviour of, — 1. Those who are never saved from their sins, as he saves his people, Matt. i. 21; 2. Of those who never hear one word of saving or a Saviour ; 3. That he should be a Saviour in
192 THE DEATH OF DEATH. * [kOOK I,
a twofold sense, — (1.) For all, (2.) For believers; 4, That to believe is the condition whereby Christ becomes a Saviour in an especial manner unto any, and that condition not procured nor purchased by him; — that this, I say, is the sense of this place, " credat Judfeus Apella." To me nothing is more certain than that to whom Christ is in any sense a Saviour in the work of redemption, he saves them to the uttermost from all their sins of infidelity and disobedience, with the saving of grace here and glory hereafter.