A third place is John i. 29, " Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world;" and this, saith he, is spoken of the world in general.
Ans. 1. If it should be spoken of the world in general, yet nothing could thence be inferred to a universality of individuals. 2. That Christ is he, o a'lpuiv, that taketh away, beareth, purgeth, pardon eth, as the word is used, 2 Sam. xxiv. 10 (taketh away by justification that it should not condemn, by sanctification that it should not reign.
342 THE DEATH OF DEATH. [BOOK IV.
by glorification that it should not be), rriv a/j^apriav, " the sin/' great sin, original sin, toj xo^/jlov, " of the world," common to all, is most certain ; but that he taketh it away from, beareth it for, pardoneth it unto, purgeth it out of, all and every man in the world, is not in the least manner intimated in the text, and is in itself exceeding false.
John iii. 1 7 is by him in the next place urged, " God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through liim might be saved.''
Ans. A notable avTavaxXaeig, or eminent inversion of the word world in this place was before observed ; like that of chap. i. 10, " He was in the world," or on the earth, a part of it, " and the world was made by him," the whole world, with all things therein contained, " and the world knew him not," or the most of men living in the world. So here, by the world, in the first place, that part of the world wherein our Saviour conversed hath the name of the whole assigned unto it. In the second, you may take it for all and every one in the world, if you please (though from the text it cannot be enforced) ; for the prime end of our Saviour's coming was not to condemn any, but to save his own, much less to condemn all and every one in the world, out of which he was to save his elect. In the third place, they only are designed whom God sent his Son on purpose to save, as the words eminently hold out. The saving of them who then are called the ^vorld was the very purpose and de- sign of God in sending his Son. Now, that these are not all men, but only believers of Jews and Gentiles throughout the world, is evident: — 1. Because all are not saved, and the Lord hath said "he will do all his pleasure, and his purpose shall stand." 2. Because the most of men were at the instant actually damned. Did he send his Son that they might be saved ? 3. Because Christ was appointed for the fall of some, Luke ii. 34, and, therefore, not that all and every one might be saved. 4. The end of Christ's actual exhibition and sending in the flesh is not opposite to any of God's eternal decrees, which were eternally fixed concerning the condemnation of some for their sins. Did he send his Son to save such ? Doth he act con- trary to his own purposes, or fail in his undertakings? The saved world is the people of God scattered abroad throughout the ivorld.
John iv. 42, and 1 John iv. 14, with John vi. 51 (which was be- fore considered), are also produced by Thomas More; in all which places Christ is called the " Saviour of the world."
Ans. Christ is said to be the Saviour of the world, either, first, because there is no other Saviour for any in the world, and because he saves all that are saved, even the people of God (not the Joavs only), all over the world; or, secondly, because he doth actually save all the world, and every one in it. If in this latter way, vicisti, Mr More ; if in the former, fihoiiiv uarep hfisv, — " we are still where we were."
OBJECTIONS AND TEXTS OF SCKIPTURE CONSIDERED. 343
The urging of John xii. 46, " I am come a light into the world/' in this business, deserves to be noted, but not answered. The following places of John iii. 16, 17, 1 John ii. 1, 2, have been already con- sidered. Some other texts are produced, but so exceedingly wrested, strangely perverted, and so extremely useless to the business in hand, that I dare not make so bold with the reader's patience as once to give him a repetition of them.
And this is our defence and answer to the first principal argument of our opposers, our explication of all those texts of Scripture which they have wrested to support it, the bottom of their strength being but the ambiguity of one word. Let the Christian reader " Prove all things, and hold fast that which is good.'^
CHAPTER IV.
Answer to the second general argument for the universality of redemption.
II, The second argument, wherewith our adversaries make no less flourish than with the former, is raised from those places of Scrip- ture where there is mention made of all men and everi/ man, in the business of redemption. With these bare and naked words, attended with swelling, vain expressions of their own, they commonly rather proclaim a victory than study how to prevail. Their argument needs not to be drawn to any head or form, seeing they pretend to plead from express words of Scripture. Wherefore we shall only consider the several places by them in this kind usually produced, with such enforcements of their sense from them as by the ablest of that persuasion have been used. The chief places insisted on are, 1 Tim. ii. 4, 6; 2 Pet. iii. 9; Heb. ii. 9; 2 Cor. v. 14, 15; 1 Cor. xv. 22; Rom. v. 18.