ransom for all, to be testified in due time.' Except we make the apostle to assert quite another thing than he meant, there can be nothing more plain than this. For first he here directs them to pray for all men and to prevent such an ob jection as this, "Christ prayed not for the world, neither willeth he us to pray for all: Because he willeth not that all should be saved, but hath ordained many to be damned," he adds, This is good and acceptable with God, who willeth all men to be saved.' I desire to know what can be more expressly affirmed? Or, can any two propositions be sated in terms more contradictory than these two.

'God willeth not some men to be saved, and 'God willeth all men to be saved?'

If we believe the last, as the apostle hath affirmed, the first cannot be true. Whence (to conclude) he gives us a reason of Christ's willingness that all men should be saved, in these words, Who gave himself a ransom for all.' As if he had said, since he gave himself a ransom for all, it is plain he willeth all men to be saved.

13. The same thing is positively affirmed, Heb. ii. 9. We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, orowned with glory and honour, that he by the grace of God might taste death for every man.' He that will but open his eyes, may see this truth here asserted. If he tasted death for every man, then certainly there is no man for whom he did not taste death; and then there is no man who may not be made a sharer of the benefit of it.

14. Again, our Lord himself says,' he came not

to condemn the world. but that the world through him might be saved,' John iii. 17 And John xii. 47. he came not to judge the world, but to save the world;' whereas, according to that doctrine, he did come rather to condemn the world, and not that it might be saved by him. For if he did not come to bring salvation to the greater part of mankind, but to increase their condemnation, it necessarily follows, that he did not come with an intention to save, but to judge and condemn the greater part of the world, contrary to his express testimony.

15. Yet again, as the apostle Paul asserts, That God willeth the salvation of all, so doth the apostle Peter assert, That he willeth not the perishing of any, 2 Pet. iii. 9. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.' And this is agreeable to that of the prophet,Ezek. xxxiii. 11. "As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live.' Now if it be safe to believe God, we must not think that he intends to cheat us by all these expressions, but that he is in good earnest.— And if his will take not effect, the blame is on our parts; which could not be if Christ had never died for us, but left us under an impossibility of salvation. What mean all those earnest invitations, all those regretting expostulations the scripture is full of? As, 'Why will ye die,O house, of Israel? They will not come unto me that they might have life. I have waited to be gracious un

to you. How often would I have gathered you, and ye would not? Are men who are so invited under no capacity of being saved? Is salvation impossible to them. Will you then suppose God in this, to be only like the author of a romance, or master of a comedy, who amuses and raises the various affections and passions of the spectators: sometimes leading them into hope and sometimes into despair: all this being in effect, but a mere illusion, while he hath appointed what the conclusion of all shall be?

16. Farther yet: This doctrine is abundantly confirmed by that of the apostle, 1 John ii. 1, 2, "If any man sin, we 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.' The way which our adversaries take to evade this testimony, is most foolish and ridiculous. The world here, say they, is the world of believers; for which we have nothing but their own assertion. For, first, let them show me if they can, in all the scripture, where the whole world is taken for believers only. I shall show them where it is many times taken for the quite contrary, as, 'The world knoweth me not: the world receiveth me not I am not of this world' Besides all these. scriptures, Psalm xvii. 14. Isai. xiii. 11. Matth. xviii. 7. John vii. 7. and viii. 26. and xii. 19. and xiv. 17. and xv. 18, 19. and xvii. 14. and xviii. 20. 1 Cor. i. 21. and ii. 12. and vi. 2.-Gal. vi. 14. James i. 27. 2 Peter ii. 20. 1 John ii. 15. and iii. 1, and iv. 4, 5. and many more. Secondly, The apostle in this very place

contradistinguishes the world from the saints. thus, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world.' What means the apostle by ours here? Is not that the sins of believers? Was not, he one of those believers? And was not this an universal epistle, written to all the saints that then were? So that according to these men's comment, there would be a very unnecessary and foolish redundancy in the apostle's words, as if he had said, "he is a propitiationnot only for the sins of all believers, but also for the sins of all believers." Is not this to make the apostle's words. nonsense? Let them show us, wherever there is such a manner of speaking in all the scripture: where any of the penmen first name the believers together with themselves, and then contradistinguishes them from some other whole world of believers.

17. But we need no better interpreter for the apostle than himself, who uses the very same expression in the same epistle, c. v. 19. Saying, We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.' There cannot be. found in all the scripture, two places which better answer one another: seeing in both, the same apostle, in the same epistle, to the same persons, contradistinguishes himself and the saints to whom he writes from the whole world; which yet according to these men's comments ought to be understood of believers; as if St. John had said, "We know particular believers are of God, but the whole world of believers lieth in wickedness." What absurd wresting of scripture were it is ?-And yet it may be as well pleaded for

as the other. Seeing then the apostle tells us plainly, that Christ died not only for the church of God to whom he wrote, but also for the whole world, let us hold fast this truth, which we have received, not of men, but of God.

18. But in order to make it yet more plain, we shall show these two things;

First, That God hath given to every man born into the world, a time or day of visitation, during which they may be saved.

Secondly, That for this end, he hath given to every man, a measure of light and grace, which if it is not resisted, will work the salvation of all; but if it is, will become their condemnation.

19. Now, according to this doctrine, the mercy of God is excellently well set forth, in that none are necessarily shut out from salvation; and his justice, in that he condemns none but such as might have been saved, and would not.

This doctrine agrees with the whole tenour of the gospel, wherein repentance and remission of sins are commanded to be preached to every crea

ture.

It magnifies the merits and death of Christ, in that it not only accounts them sufficient to save all, but declares them to be brought so nigh to all, that they are thereby put into a capacity of salvation.

It exalts, above all, the grace of God, to which it attributes all good, ascribing thereto not only the first motions of good, but also the whole con version and salvation of the soul.

As it makes the whole salvation of man to depend on God, so it makes his condemnation to be