Psal. xvi. 3.

"The holy seed, which is the substance (support) of the earth." Isa. vi. 13. And as the Jews are wont to speak, the just are the pillars of the world. But what is more usual, what more suitable, than that the whole should, by a synecdoche, signify the better, as sometimes the greater part? It is therefore not without its emphasis, and yields useful instructions, when we hear the collective body of the elect designed by the name of the world.

XIV. Now let us apply these things to the passages we have already quoted, SV. Christ indeed says, when speaking of impetration, John vi. 51. that "he will give his flesh for the life of the world;" but in the same chapter, verse 33. when speaking of the application, he says, that he giveth life to the world; and so he explains what in the subject of redemption he would have us to understand by the world. But it is a capital truth, that the application of redemption extends no further than to believers and the elect.

XV. When John writes, 1 John ii. 2. that "Christ is the propitiation not only for our sins, but also for the sins of the whole world:" he shews us by these words who they are that can take comfort to themselves from the intercession of Christ, and the remission purchased by him. But elect believers alone can do this; he is their advocate with the Father, and not that of the reprobate. To them, and not to the reprobate, "God hath set him forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood," Rom. iii. 25. Moreover this consolation belongs not only to the elect from among the Jewish nation, such as John was, but also to the elect from among the Gentiles, whom Paul expressly points out by the name of the world, Rom. xi. 12, 15. By a phraseology very usual among the Hebrew doctors, who call the Gentiles the nations of the world. Nor does this saving truth yield comfort to those believers only who lived at that time, and to whom, as to his children, John was writing; but also to those who lived in the antediluvian world, and under the Mosaical pedagogy, whose sins were no otherwise expiated than by the blood of Christ; and in fine, to those believers who from John's days were to be brought to Christ out of all nations whatever, to the end of the world; which very great multitude is deservedly designed by the name of the whole world. For it is very certain that by the whole world is not denoted the collective body of all mankind; for John expressly discriminates himself and those to whom he is writing from the whole world, and yet he could not seclude them from being a part of the collective body of mankind.

XVI. When Paul says, 2 Cor. v. 19. that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself," he immediately subjoins, that this was by not imputing their trespasses unto them; to teach us, that reconciliation, and non-imputation, are of equal extent. But the latter is the privilege of the elect and of believers alone, and of those in whose heart there is no guile. For David declares "those blessed, to whom God imputeth not iniquity," Psal. xxxii. 1, 2. Rom. iv. 6, 8. Therefore by the world, the world of the elect is signified.

XVII. John i. 29. Christ is called "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." But like that goat on which the iniquity of the children of Israel was laid, he taketh them away by taking them upon himself, by satisfying for them as if they were his own, and by taking them away from his people, as to their guilt by justification, and as to their dominion and stain by sanctification: see 1 Pet. ii. 24. But as these things point to the impetration of salvation, so as at the same time to include its application, they can extend no farther than to the world of the elect believers. "Blessed is he whose transgression is taken away [forgiven]," Psal. xxxii. 1.

XVIII. And thus we have shewn, that though the scripture, when speaking of the world of the redeemed, really designs some collective body, yet it is that of the elect only. Which Prosper elegantly expressed, de Vocat. Gent. lib. 1. c. 3. or in another edition, c. 9. "In the elect, even those foreknown, and discriminated from every generality, or collective body, there is deemed to be a certain peculiar kind of universality; so as that a whole world seems to be delivered out of a whole world, and all men to be redeemed from among all men."

XIX. Let us now more especially shew that Christ made satisfaction for the elect only. To this purpose are those passages of scripture, in which the death of Christ is restricted to his sheep, his church, his people, nay, and his peculiar people, John x. 15. Acts xx. 28. Eph. v. 25. Tit. ii. 14. from which we thus argue: what the scriptures restrict to some certain kind of men, to the manifest exclusion of the rest, ought not to be extended absolutely to all men. But the scriptures, in the passages quoted, limit the death of Christ to a certain kind of men, so as manifestly to exclude the rest. Therefore, &c. The truth of the major, or first proposition, is evident from the terms: that of the minor, from the passages quoted: In order to illustrate this, we are to shew these two things: 1st. That the subject matter is the

impetration of salvation, which is the act of Christ; and not the fruition alone, which is our act. 2dly. That the death of Christ is so restricted to those who are there described, as to exclude the rest of mankind. The Remonstrants, not being able otherwise to resist the force of this argument, deny both chese.

XX. As to the former, namely, that the impetration of salvation is here intended, I thus prove: 1st. The very terms which the Holy Spirit uses in the passages quoted,

to lay down his life for some, to purchase some, to give himself for some," import satisfaction, impetration, and acquisition. Nor do the scriptures usually speak in any other strain, when the subject is evidently concerning impetration. 2dly. In the passages quoted we have a clear description of what Christ has done both without us and without our concurrence; whereas the real fruition or enjoyment, concerning which the Remonstrants will have those passages to be understood, is our act. These two differ much both in nature and time. In nature; for the one resembles a mean appointed for some end; the other an external end, or rather the use or enjoy. ment of that for which that mean is appointed. In time; for these propositions were completely verified the moment in which Christ laid down his life; but the actual enjoyment or application, is a thing accomplishing gradually for a long tract of time in all the elect. 3dly. The Remonstrants themselves produce similar phrases from scripture, of dying for some, purchasing some, &c. when they contend, that the impetra tion of the grace of God reaches to others besides the elect; with what colour or pretence then, do they deny that impetration is here the subject matter? 4thly. They shew that they lay no stress on these passages, when they afterwards affirm, they cannot refer to believers alone, and maintain that by the church, we are not to understand the elect alone, or that Christ gave himself for them only. Therefore, I say, to purchase and give himself for a person cannot here be understood of real enjoyment, which is peculiar to believers only. 5thly. and lastly, By making this exception, the answer of the Remonstrants comes only to a begging the question: for we maintain, and are directly to prove it by the strongest arguments, that the application of saving grace is as extensive as its impetration; and we own the question here is not concerning such an impetration as may have its plenary effect though never applied. For such an impetration, we judge absurd, untheological, and highly unworthy of Christ.

XXI. The second, namely, which respects the exclusion

of the rest of mankind, when distinct mention is made of the sheep, the church, a peculiar people; I shall make evident, first, by shewing, that by these appellations, sheep, church, peculiar people, cannot be understood all men in general; and then that what is here asserted of the sheep, church, peculiar

people, flows from that extraordinary love of Christ, which he has not for the rest of mankind. The first has no great difficulty in it: for Christ expressly says to some, John x. 26. "ye are not of my sheep." And therefore, he divides mankind into sheep and goats; of whom the last are undoubtedly reprobate, the former, certainly the elect, and heirs of eternal life, Matt. xxv. 33.

XXII. Our opponents themselves will not affirm that all belong to the church. They indeed say, that the visible church is meant, in which there are others besides the elect. But, 1st. It sufficiently answers our purpose, that all and every one in particular cannot be understood. 2dly. That what is said of the visible church, is sometimes of such a nature, as can be understood only of the elect therein: as when the apostle, writing to the visible church of the Ephesians, i. 4. says, he hath chosen you in him and in like manner, 1 Thess. i. 4. and we shall presently shew, that what is said of the church in the places quoted, is of the same nature.

XXIII. In a word, the term all cannot be applied to the people of God, for God himself makes this clear, when he ordered some to be called, ny b ye are not my people, Loammi, Hos. i. 9. And they who dissent from us, take a wrong course, when, by people, they understand the Jews; for there were reprobates even among them. Thus we learn from Paul, that with respect to spiritual privileges, they are not all accounted Israel, who are of Israel, and therefore not to be reckoned the people, Rom. xi. 1, 2.*

XXIV. But it is not enough to have shewn, that the names sheep, church, people, do not comprehend every individual of mankind: for it is possible, that on a particular occasion, something might be said of some persons, which certainly agree to them, but not to them only. The question is not, whether Christ died for the elect, but whether for them only. Our adversaries say, this cannot be concluded from those passages where the particle only is not added. We must therefore shew, that these things are so appropriated to the elect, as to exclude the rest of mankind; I prove it thus: all the passages quoted tend to amplify the extraordinary love of

• To this quotation of the author's, may be added, Rom. ix. 6.

Christ towards his sheep, for whom he laid down his life, towards the church, which he purchased with his own blood, towards his people, for whom he gave himself. But if in this, the sheep, the church, and people of Christ, have nothing peculiarly distinguishing beyond all other men, what probable reason can be assigned, why that infinite love of Christ, in laying down his life, shedding his blood, and giving himself, should especially be appropriated to them?

XXV. To this reasoning our adversaries absurdly oppose Paul's gloriation, who while writing, Gal. ii. 20. that Christ was given for him, does not exclude others from a share in the same love. For in that text, Paul does not speak of any divine love, whereby God peculiarly distinguished him from others who had the like precious faith with himself; nor does he consider himself as Paul, but as an elect person, and a believer, proposing himself there, as an example, in the name of ́all believers: and we are so far from being able to infer from this, that what Paul affirms of himself was peculiar to him, that quite the reverse ought to be concluded: this instance therefore does not suit the case.

XXVI. But let us consider each passage apart when Christ publicly declares, that "he lays down his life for his sheep," he thence infers, that " he must bring them to hear his voice, that there may be one fold and one shepherd," John x. 15, 16, 17. But it is certain, that these last assertions agree to elect believers only, and therefore also the first, from which the others are deduced. For it would not be a just inference to say, I lay down my life for my sheep, therefore I must bring them to hear my voice, &c. Did he lay down his life for some, whom he never brings, &c.

XXVII. When Paul said, that Christ purchased his church with his own blood, Acts xx. 28. he more distinctly explains in his epistle to the Ephesians, v. 25. what he means by the church, which Christ loved and gave himself for, namely, the spouse of Christ, whom alone he loves with a conjugal affection, and sanctifies, and presents glorious to himself. But that love of Christ which was the motive of his giving himself, and of the sanctification and glorification of the church, which is the fruit of that donation, belongs to elect believers only; therefore also the very giving itself, which is the consequence of that love, and the cause of the sanctification of the church. Moreover, that this conjugal love of Christ, whereby he purchased the church as his spouse, by his own blood, has the general assembly of the elect alone, for its object, to wave other considerations, may be hence also infer