III. Many places there are that point out the persons for whom Christ died, as designed peculiarly to be the object of this work of redemption, according to the aim and purpose of God ; some of which we will briefly recount. In some places they are called many : Matt, xxvi. 28, " The blood of the new testament is shed for many, for the remission of sins." " By his knowledge shall my righteous ser- vant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities," Isa. liii. 11. " The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and give his life a ransom for many," Mark x. 45 ; Matt. xx. 28. He was to " bring many sons unto glory ;" and so was to be the " captain of their salvation, through sufferings," Heb. ii. 10. And though perhaps the word many itself be not sufficient to restrain the object of Christ's death unto sovie, in opposition to all, because m,any is sometimes placed absolutely for all, as Rom. v. 19, yet these many being de- scribed in other places to be such as it is most certain all are not, so it is a full and evident restriction of it: for these many are the "sheep" of Christ, John x. 15 ; the " children of God that were scattered abroad," chap. xi. 52 ; those whom our Saviour calleth " brethren," Heb. ii. 11 ; *' the children that God gave him," which were "partakers of flesh and blood," verses 18, 14; and frequently, "those wlio were given unto him of his Father," John xvii. 2, 6, 9, 11, who should certainly be pre- served ; the "sheep" whereof he was the "Shepherd, through the blood of the everlasting covenant," Heb. xiii. 20 ; his " elect," Rom. viii. 33 ; and his " people," Matt. i. 21 ; farther explained to be his " visited and redeemed people,"Luke i. 68; even the people which he "foreknew," Rom. xi. 2 ; even such a people as he is said to have had at Coriutli be- fore their conversion ; his people by election, Acts xviii. 10 ; the people that he " suffered for without the gate, that he might sanctify them," Heb. xiii. 12 ; his "church, which ho redeemed by his own blood," Acts XX. 28, which "he loved and gave himself for," Eph. v. 25 ; the "many" whose sins he took away, Hel). ix. 28, with whom he made a cove- nant, Dan. ix. 27. Those many being thus described, and set forth
THE PROPER END OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST ASSERTED. 215
with such qualifications as by no means are common to all, but proper only to the elect, do most evidently appear to be all and only those that are chosen of God to obtain eternal life through the offer- ing and blood-shedding of Jesus Christ. Many things are here excepted with much confidence and clamour, that may easily be removed. And so you see the end of the death of Christ, as it is set out in the Scripture.
That we may have the clearer passage, we must remove the hinderances that are laid in the way by some pretended answers and evasions used to escape the force of the argument drawn from the Scripture, affirming Christ to have died for " many," his " sheep," his "elect," and the like. Now, to this it is replied, that this "reason," as it is called, is " weak and of no force, equivocal, subtile, fraudulent, false, ungodly, deceitful, and erroneous;" for all these several epithets are accumulated to adorn it withal, (" Universality of Free Grace," page xvi.) Now, this variety of terms (as I conceive) serves only to de- clare Avith what copia verborum the unlearned eloquence of the author is woven withal; for sucli terrible names imposed on that which we know not well how to gainsay is a strong argument of a weak cause. When the Pharisees were not able to resist the spirit whereby our Saviour spake, they call him " devil and Samaritan." Waters that make a noise are usually but shallow. It is a proverb among the Scythians, that the " dogs which bark most bite least." But let us see " quid dignum tanto feret hie responsor hiatu," and hear him speak in his own language. He says then, —
" First, This reason is weak and of no force: for the word many is oft so used, that it both signifies all and every man, and also ampli- fieth or setteth forth the greatness ol that number; as in Dan. xii. 2, Rom. V. 19, and in other places, where many cannot, nor is by any Christian understood for less than all men."
Bep. 1. That if the proof and argument were taken merely from the word many, and not from the annexed description of those many, with the presupposed distinction of all men into several sorts by the purpose of God, this exception would bear some colour; but for this see our arguments following. Only by the way observe, that he that shall divide the inhabitants of any place, as at London, into poor and rich, those that want and those that abound, afterward affirming that he will bestow his bounty on many at London, on the poor, on those that want, will easily be understood to give it unto and bestow it upon them only. 2. Neither of the places quoted proves directly that many must necessarily in them be taken for all. In Dan. xii. 2, a distribution of the word to the several parts of the affirmation must be allowed, and not an application of it to the whole, as such; and so the sense is, the dead shall arise, many to life, and many to shame, as in another language it would