SERMON III. The Doctrine of Univerfal Redemption afferted and explained. I TIM. IV. 10. -The living God; who is the Saviour of all men, THERE a III. HERE are two points of doctrine here plainly S ER M. afferted by St. Paul, which I fhall endeavour to explain, and to apply: one, that God is the Saviour of all men; another, that he is peculiarly the Saviour of the faithful. For the firft, God in many refpects may truly be conceived and called the Saviour of all men; for the word fave doth in a large acceptation denote the conferring any kind of good; as implying a removal of need, or indigence. Whence God is the Saviour of all men, as the Pfal. xxxvi. univerfal preserver and upholder of all things in their old Tranfl. being and natural ftate, as it is in the Pfalm: Thou, and the Lord, faveft man and beaft, or, as the general benefac- LIX. σώσεις, tor, who is good to all, and whofe mercies are over all Pfal. cxlv. his works; who maketh his fun to rife upon the good Matt. v. · Θεῖ γὰρ πολλῶν ὄντων, ἐφ ̓ οἷς θαυμάζεται, ἐδὶν ἔτως, ὡς τὸ πάντας sspyślał, idúrator. Naz. Orat. 26. VOL. I. D and οι σώζεις. 45. Luke vi. 5. SER M. and bad, rains upon the juft and unjust, is kind and beIII. nign even to the ungrateful and evil: or, as the common affiftant, protector, and deliverer of all men, who in need or diftrefs have recourse unto him for fuccour and relief, according to what is faid in the Pfalms; Pfal ix. 9. The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times cxlvi. 7, &c. of trouble. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call cvii. 13,&c, upon him. They cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he faved them out of their diftreffes. cxlv. 18. Ixviii. 19, 20. In these kinds of fenfes especially respecting natural and temporal good, it is manifeft that God is the Saviour of all men. But that he is in this place termed fuch in a higher fenfe, with regard to mercies and bleffings of a more excellent kind, and greater confequence, (to mercies and bleffings of a spiritual nature, and relating to the eternal ftate of men,) may from feveral confiderations appear. 1. For that according to apoftolical use the word Saviour, Save, Salvation, are wont to bear an evangelical fenfe, relating to the benefits by our Lord Jefus Chrift procured, purchased, and difpenfed, concerning the future state of men. 2. For that queftionless St. Paul doth here intend God to be Saviour of the faithful in this higher fenfe, and confequently he means him in the fame fenfe (although not in the fame degree and measure, or not altogether to the fame effects and purposes) a Saviour of all men. 3. Because it is plain, that in other places of Scripture, like and parallel to this, fuch a fenfe is defigned. As, where, in this very Epiftle, we are enjoined to pray 1 Tim. ii. 4. for all men, for this reafon; For (faith St. Paul) this is good and acceptable before God our Saviour, who would have all men to be faved, and to come to the knowledge (or acknowledgment) of the truth; where corne nav, the Saviour of us, feems to denote the Saviour of us as men, (that interpretation beft fuiting with the argument St. Paul ufeth,) however it is expreffed that God is, according to defire or intention, the Sa III. viour of all men, in reference to their fpiritual and $ ERM. eternal advantage; as willing that all men fhould embrace the Gospel; which is farther moft evidently confirmed by the words immediately following; For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Chrift Jefus. 4. Because, according to the tenour of Scripture, and the analogy of Chriftian doctrine, St. Paul's afsertion thus interpreted is true, as our fubfequent difcourse may declare. I 3 2 Tim. i. 4. i. 3. I 16. Rom. ix. 5. 5. I might add, that the living God in our text Tim. i. 1. may very well be understood and expounded to be our Lord Jefus himself; not only as partaking of the 10. Tit. ii. divine nature, but as exhibited in the Gofpel, the 1013. iii. Word incarnate, who as fuch may feem commonly Tim. iii. by St. Paul to be ftyled, God our Saviour; God mani- Aas xx. fefted in the flesh; God, that purchased the Church with 28. his own blood; Chrift, who is over all, God blessed for evermore. However it from the premises is fufficiently apparent, that God's being the Saviour of all men doth relate unto our Saviour Jefus's undertakings and performances for the falvation of all men; fince God in a fenfe evangelical is no otherwise faid to fave, than in concurrence with what Jefus did undertake and perform; than as defigning, ordering, accepting, profecuting, and accomplishing our Lord's performances; Jefus being the conduit through which all evangelical mercies and bleffings are from God conveyed and difpenfed to mankind. So that God being the Saviour of mankind, is either directly and Eph. i. 3, 6. immediately, or by equivalence and in confequence the fame with Jefus being the Saviour of all men. That our Lord Jefus is the Saviour of all men; or that the moft fignal of his faving performances do in their nature and their defign refpect all men, as meant for, as conducing and tending to all men's falvation, yea and as in their own nature (fuppofing men's due and poffible concurrence with them) effectually productive of their falvation; that, I say, D 2 this III. SER M. this ancient catholick point of doctrine (the which we profess to believe, when with the Church we say in the Nicene Creed-Who for us men, and for our falvation, came down from heaven, and the which particularly our Church in its Catechifm, in the Miniftration of Baptism, and in the Communion, doth moft evidently and exprefsly declare itself to embrace) is very true, many full and clear teftimonies of Scripture do fhew, many reasons grounded on Scripture do prove; the which we fhall firft touch, and then further both illuftrate and enforce the truth, by declaring upon what accounts, or in what refpects our Lord is the Saviour of all men; as also by an application to practice, declarative of its usefulness and fubferviency to the purposes of piety. For immediate teftimonies : 14. xii. 47. xvii. 31. 10. 2 Cor. v. 10. 1. Jefus is called the Saviour of the world; who was fent and came into the world to fave the world; whofe chief performances were defigned and directed John iv. 42. to the falvation of the world; We have heard and 1 John iv. known (faid the men of Samaria) that this is truly the John i. 10. Saviour of the world, the Chrift. We have feen and tef John iii. 17. tified (faith St. John) that the Father fent the Son to be John v. 22. the Saviour of the world, (that world, of which it is Acts x. 42. faid, He was in the world, and the world was made Rom. xiv. by him, and the world knew him not.) And, God fent his Son into the world, not to judge (or not to condemn) the world, but that the world by him fhould be faved, (that world, whereof a great part he in effect would 'both judge and condemn for unbelief and difobedience, he did come primarily upon intent to fave.) John vi. 51. And, The bread which I fhall give, is (faith he) my 2 Cor.v. 19. flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. And, Coloff.i.20. Behold (faith the Baptift) the Lamb of God, which tak1 John v. eth away the fins of the world. And, God was in Chrift, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their offences (faith St. Paul) to the world, which otherwise he expreffeth by ra návra, by him to reconcile all things unto himself. And, He is a propitiation not only for our John i. 29. 1 John ii. 2. 19. III. fins, but for the fins of the whole world, (the whole world, s E R M. in contradiction from all Chriftians, to whom St. John speaketh in that place of his Catholick Epiftle; that xooμos os, of which he faith in that fame Epiftle, κόσμος όλος ἐν τῷ πονηρῷ κεῖται, the whole world lieth in wickedness.) In all which places that the world according to its ordinary acceptation (and as every man would take it at first hearing) doth fignify the whole community of mankind, comprehending men of all forts and qualities, good and bad, believers and infidels, (not in a new, unufual fenfe, any special restrained world of fome perfons, particularly regarded, or qualified,) will, I fuppofe, eafily appear to him, who fhall without prejudice or partiality attend to the common ufe thereof in Scripture, efpecially in St. John, who most frequently applieth it as to this, fo to other cafes, or matters. 23. 2. The object of our Saviour's undertakings and intentions is defcribed by qualities and circumftances agreeing unto all men. All the fons of Adam are by disobedience in a loft condition, (loft in error and fin, loft in guilt and condemnation, loft in trouble and mifery;) and, The Son of man (faith He himself) Matt. xviii. came to fave, To amor whos, that which was loft, (or what-". ever was loft.) All men have finned, (faith St. Paul,) Rom. iii. and are fallen fhort of the glory of God; and, It is a Tim. i. faithful faying, (faith the fame Apoftle,) and worthy of 15. all acceptation, that Chrift Jefus came into the world to fave finners. God commended his love to us, that we being Rom. v. 8. All men naturally are &c. yet finners Chrift died for us. weak, and wicked; are in a state of alienation and enmity toward God: and, Even when we were without Rom. v. 6, ftrength, in due time Chrift died for the ungodly: When 10. we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son: Chrift once fuffered for fins, the righteous for Pet. iii. the unrighteous. All men have fouls, and lives exposed to mifery and ruin: and, The Son of man (so he af- Luke ix. 56. fures us) came not to deftroy, but to fave the fouls (or lives) of men. Those propofitions in form, refpecting Ephef. ii. 1, 18. |