That the apostles themselves, also, had deeply drunk in this opi- nion, learned by tradition from their fathers, appeareth, not only in their questioning about the restoration of the kingdom unto Israel, Acts i. 6, but also most evidently in this, that after they had received commission to teach and baptize all nations. Matt, xxviii. 19, or every creature, Mark xvi. 15, and were endued with power from above so to do, according to promise. Acts i. 8 ; yet they seem to have under- stood their commission to have extended only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, for they went about and preached only to the Jews, chap. xi. 19: and when the contrary was evidenced and de- monstrated to them, they glorified God, saying, "Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life," verse 18; admir- ing at it, as a thing which before they were not acquainted with. And no wonder that men were not easily nor soon persuaded to this, it being the great mystery that was not made known in former ages, as it
802 THE DEATH OF DEATH. [BOOK IV.
was then revealed to God's holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit — namely, " That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel,^' Eph. iii. 5, 6*.
But DOW, this being so made known unto them by the Spirit, and that the time was come wherein the little sister was to be considered, tlie prodigal brought home, and Japheth persuaded to dwell in the tents of Shem, they laboured by all means to root it out of the minds of their brethren according to the flesh, of whom they had a special care; — as also, to leave no scruple in the mind of the eunuch, that he was a dry tree ; or of the Gentile, that he was cut off from the people of God. To which end they use divers general expressions, carrying a direct opposition to that former error, which was absolutely destruc- tive to the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Hence are those terms of the ivorld, all men, all nations, every creature, and the like, used in the business of redemption and preaching of the gospel; these things being not restrained, according as they supposed, to one certain nation and family, but extended to the universality of God's people scattered abroad in every region under heaven. Especially are these expressions used by John, who, living to see the first coming of the Lord, in that fearful judgment and vengeance which he executed upon the Jewish nation -some forty years after his death, is very frequent in the asserting of the benefit of the world by Christ, in opposition, as I said before, to the Jewish nation, — civinfi- us a rule how to under- stand such phrases and locutions: John xi. 51, 52, " He signified that Jesus should die for that nation ; and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad;" conformably whereunto he tells the believing Jews that Christ is not a propitiation for them only, " but for the sins of the whole world," 1 John ii. 2, or the people of God scattered throughout the whole world, not tied to any one nation, as they sometime vainly imagined. And this may and doth give much light into the sense and meaning of those places where the words world and all are used in the business of redemption. They do not hold out a collective universality, but a general distribution into men of all sorts, in opposition to the before-recounted erroneous per- suasion.
5. The extent, nature, and signification of those general terms which we have frequently used indefinitely in the Scripture, to set out the object of the redemption by Christ, must seriously be weighed. Upon these ex{)ressions hangs the whole weight of the opposite cause, the chief if not the only argument for the universality of redemption being taken from words which seem to be of a latitude in their signification equal to such an assertion, as the world, the
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whole world, all, and the like; which terms, when they have once fastened upon, they run with, " lo triumphe/' as though the victory were surely theirs. The luorld, the tvhole ivorld, all, all men! — who can oppose it? Call them to the context in the several places where the words are ; appeal to rules of interpretation ; mind them of the cir- cumstances and scope of the place, the sense of the same words in other places; with other fore-named helps and assistances which the Lord hath acquainted us with for the discoverj'^ of his mind and will in his word, — they presently cry out, the bare word, the letter is theirs: "Away with the gloss and interpretation; give us leave to be- lieve what the word expressly saith;"— little (as I hope) imagining, being deluded with the love of their own darling, that if this asser- tion be general, and they will not allow us the gift of interpretation agreeable to the proportion of faith, that, at one clap, they confirm the cursed madness of the Anthropomorphites, — assigning a human body, form and shape, unto God, who hath none; and the alike cursed figment of transubstantiation, overthrowing the body of Christ, who hath one ; with divers other most pernicious errors. Let them, then, as long as they please, continue such empty clamours, fit to terrify and shake weak and unstable men ; for the truth's sake we will not be silent : and I hope we shall very easily make it appear that the general terms that are used in this business will indeed give no colour to any argument for universal redemption, whether absolute or conditionate.