Fifthly, Unless ye will grant, — first. Some to be beloved and hated also from eternity; secondly. The love of God towards innumerable to be fruitless and vain; thirdly. The Son of God to be given to them who, first, never hear word of him ; secondly, have no power granted to believe in him ; fourthly. That God is mutable in his love, or else still loveth those that be in hell ; fifthly. That he doth not give all things to them to whom he gives his Son, contrary to Rom. viii. 32; sixthly, That he knows not certainly beforehand who shall believe and be saved ; — unless, I say, all these blasphemies and absurdities be granted, it cannot be maintained that by the U'orld here is meant all and every one of mankind, but only men in common scattered throughout the world, which are the elect.
Tlie THIRD difference about these words is, concerning the means whereby this love of the Father, whose object is said to be the world is made out v;nto them. Now, this is hi/ believing, 7m rrag 6 -Triimuuv, — " that whosoever belicveth," or " that every believer." The inten- tion of these words we take to be, the designing or manifesting of the way whereby the elect of God come to be partakers of the fruits of tlie love here set forth, — namely, by faith in Christ, God having appointed that for the only way whereby he will communicate unto us the life that is in his Son. To this something Avas said before, having proved that the term luhosoever is not distributive of the object of the love of God ; to which, also, we may add these follow- ing reasons: —
First, If the object be here restrained, so that some only believe
OBJECTIONS AND TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE CONSIDERED. S29
and are saved of them for whose sake Christ is sent, then this re- striction and determination of the fruits of this love dependeth on the will of God, or on the persons themselves. If on the persons themselves, then make they themselves to differ from others; con- trary to 1 Cor. iv. 7. If on the will of God, then you make the sense of the place, as to this particular, to be, " God so loved all as that but some of them should partake of the fruits of his love." To what end, then, I pray, did he love those other some? Is not this, " Out with the sword, and run the dragon through with the spear?"
Secondly, Seeing that these words, tJiat luhosoever helieveth, do peculiarly point out the aim and intention of God in this business, if it do restrain the object beloved, then the salvation of believers is confessedly the aim of God in this business, and that distinguished from others; and if so, the general ransom is an empty sound, having no dependence on the purpose of God, his intention being carried out in the giving of his Son only to the salvation of believers, and that determinately, unless you will assign unto him a nescience of them that should believe.
These words, then, whosoever helieveth, containing a designation of the means whereby the Lord will bring us to a participation of life through his Son, whom he gave for us; and the following words, of having life everlasting, making out the whole counsel of God in this matter, subordinate to his own glory; it followeth, —
That God gave not his Son, — 1. For them who never do believe; 2. Much less for them who never hear of him, and so evidently want means of faith ; 8. For them on whom he hath determined not to bestow effectual grace, that they might believe.
Let now the reader take up the several parts of these opposite expositions, weigh all, try all things, especially that which is espe- cially to be considered, the love of Ood, and so inquire seriously whether it be only a general affection, and a natural velleity to the good of all, which may stand with the perishing of all and every one so beloved, or the peculiar, transcendent love of the Father to his elect, as before laid down; and then determine whether a general ransom, fruitless in respect of the most for whom it was paid, or the effectual redemption of the elect only, have the firmest and strongest foundation in these words of our Saviour; withal remembering that they are produced as the strongest supportment of the adverse cause, with which, it is most apparent, both the cause of sending Christ and the end intended by the Lord in so doing, as they are here expressed, are altogether inconsistent.
330 THE DEATH OF DEATH. [BOOK IV.
CHAPTER III.
An unfolding of the remaining texts of Scripture produced for the confirmation of the first general ai'gument for universal redemption.
Next to the place before considered, that which is urged with most confidence and pressed with most imjDortunity, for the defence of the general ransom, in the prosecution of the former argument, is, —
2. 1 John ii. 1, 2, " If any man sin, Ave have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous : and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." Now, these words, and the deductions from thence, have been set out in various dresses, with great variety of observations, to make them appear advantageous to the cause in hand. The weight of the whole hangs upon this, that the apostle affirms Christ to be the " propitiation for the sins of the whole world ;" " which," say they, " manifestly appears to be all and every one in the world," and that, —