OBJECTIONS AND TEXTS OF SCEIPTURE CONSIDERED. 325
Therefore, if the love there mentioned be the cause of sending Christ, as it is, it must also cause all other things to he given with him, and so can be towards none but those who have those things bestowed on them ; which are only the elect, only believers. Who else have gxace here, or glory hereafter?
Fifthly, The word here, which is '^yd--y]es, signifieth, in its native importance, valde dilexit, — to love so as to rest in that love; which how it can stand with hatred, and an eternal purpose of not bestow- ing effectual grace, which is in the Lord towards some, will not easily be made apparent. And now let the Christian reader judge, whether by the love of God, in this place mentioned, be to be understood a natural velleity or inclination in God to the good of all, both elect and reprobate, or the peculiar love of God to his elect, being the foun- tain of the chiefest good that ever was bestowed on the sons of men. This is the first difference about the interpretation of these words.
Secondly, The second thing controverted is the object of this love, pressed by the word "world;'' which our adversaries would have to signify all and every man ; we, the elect of God scattered abroad in the world, with a tacit opposition to the nation of the Jews, who alone, excluding all other nations (some few proselytes excepted), before the actual exhibition of Christ in the flesh, had all the bene- fits of the promises appropriated to them, Rom. ix. 4 ; in which pri- vilege now all nations were to have an equal share. To confirm the exposition of the word as used by the Universalists, nothing of weight, that ever yet I could see, is brought forth, but only the word itself; for neither the love mentioned in the beginning, nor the design pointed at in the end of the verse, will possibly agree with the sense which they impose on that word in the middle. Besides, how weak and infirm an inference from the word world, by reason of its ambi- guous and wonderful various acceptations, is, we have at large de- clared before.
Three poor shifts I find in the great champions of this course, to prove that the word world doth not signify the elect. Justly we might have expected some reasons to prove that it signified or im- plied all and every man in the world, which was their own assertion; but of this ye have a deep silence, being conscious, no doubt, of their disability for any such performance. Only, as I said, three pretended arguments they bring to disj^rove that which none went about to prove, — namely, that by the world is meant the elect as such ; for though we conceive the persons here designed directly men in and of the world, to be all and only God's elect, yet we do not say that they are here so considered, but rather under another notion, as men scattered over all the world, in themselves subject to misery and sin. So that whosoever will oppose our exposition of this place must either, first, prove that by the %vorld here must be necessarily under-
326 THE DEATH OF DEATH. [BOOK IV.
stood all and every man in the world ; or, secondly, that it cannot be taken indefinitely for men in the world which materially are elect, though not considered under that formality. So that all those vain flourislies which some men make with these words, by putting the word elect into the room of the word %uorld, and then coining absurd consequences, are quite beside the business in hand. Yet, farther, we deny that by a supply of the word elect into the text any absurdity or untruth will justly follow. Yea, and that flourish which is usually so made is but a bugbear to frighten weak ones; for, suppose we should read it thus, " God so loved the elect, that he gave his only- begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish," what inconvenience will now follow? "Why," say they, "that some of the elect, whom God so loved as to send his Son for, may perish." Why, I pray? Is it because he sent his Son that they might not perish? or what other cause? "No; but because it is said, that whosoever of them believeth on him should not perish; which intimates that some of them might not believe." Very good ! But where is any such intimation? God designs the salvation of all them in express words for whom he sends his Son ; and certainly all that shall be saved shall believe. But it is in the word ivliosoever, which is distributive of the world into those that believe and those that believe not. Ans. First, If this word whosoever be distribu- tive, then it is restrictive of the love of God to some, and not to others, — to one part of the distribution, and not to the other. And if it do not restrain the love of God, intending the salvation of some, then it is not distributive of the fore-mentioned object of it; and if it do restrain it, then all are not intended in the love which moved God to give his Son. Secondly, I deny that the word here is dis- tributive of the object of God's love, but only declarative of his end and aim in giving Christ in the pursuit of that love, — to wit, that all believers might be saved. So that the sense is, "God so loved his elect throughout the world, that he gave his Son with this intention, that by him believers iiiight be saved." And this is all that is by any (besides a few worthless cavils) objected from this place to dis- prove our interpretation ; which we shall now confirm both positively and negatively: —