3. Touro yap, for this) The reason, why we must pray for all. It may be asked, why are not more converted ? We do not sufficiently pray. It is a religious duty, that in behalf of our selves, and in behalf of others, we should meet the will of God, which is favourable to us. — xal) and, therefore. — rou 2wr?jpos qpuv, our Saviour) who has actually saved us that believe. The anti thesis is in the following verse : Who wishes that all, even in cluding those who do not believe, should be saved : comp. ch. iv. 10. It is strange if a soul, having found in reality the salva tion of God, can deny the universality of grace.
4. udvrag) all, not merely a part, much less a very small part ; ver. 3, note. — avfyuwovs, men) lost in themselves. — 6'efai, \_( wills'] wishes) in serious earnestness of wish : ibid. — GuS^vat, to be saved) This is treated of, at ver. 5, 6. — Ka/ g/V, and unto) This is treated of, at ver. 6, 7. — dX*j0f/«{) of saving truth. — sXfaTv, to come) They are not forced.
5. E%) one, common to all. They who have not this one God, by one Mediator, have none, [ — and therefore they are not saved. Yet GOD wishes all men to be saved by the saving know ledge of God and the Mediator ; but there is a legitimate and most holy order in the exercise of that will, wherewith men ought to receive it. All mankind constitute as it were one man before God ; wherefore it is right, that they who have obtained salvation should intercede for those who are farther distant from it. If that were done, how much better would be the condition of the human race I Let him pray, I request, who knows how to pray. — V. g.] — yap, for) ver. 4 is proved from ver. 5 ; ver. 1 from ver. 4. The whole is universal. Comp. Isa. xlv. 22. — sTg %ai, one also) [who is Mediator."] He does not say, also one ; therefore the stress of the voice does not so much fall upon the adjective, one, as upon the substantives. We could not rejoice that there is a God, if we did not rejoice also in the Man Mediator. — &7g — sT$, one — one) Mark xii. 29, 32 ; 1 Cor. viii. 6 ; Eph. iv. 5, 6. — pta'trw. Me diator) This is as it were an epithet of the noun, man ; and the word, one, coheres at the same time with both of these. — avfyuKos, man) The Saviour, not without reason, is here called man, rather than God ; that the reason may be marked, why all men should be converted to this Mediator, who [i.e. inasmuch as He, a man^ has given Himself for all [men] : coinp. Rom. v. 15, note.