them for condemnation? No other world can be meant in these passages but the world of the elect, made up out of Jews and Gentiles, without any regard to nation, or condition→→ the world of those whose sins Christ is said to have borne, in his own body on the tree, that they being dead to sin might live unto righteousness➡✶ those who are said to be blessed, on account of the taking away of their sins.t

When it is said that, "Christ is a propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world," it is not meant to extend the propitiation, to all collectively and severally, but to those only, who can comfort themselves by the intercession of Christ, by that pardon which they have obtained through him. They are the elect only. Christ is a propitiation for those alone, whose cause he pleads, as intercessor with the Father; for these are joined together by the apostle as equal and inseparable. Our learned opponents confess, in their explanation of John xvii. 9. that Christ is not an advocate for all. Christ should actually appease and reconcile the Father to all those for whom he has made propitiation in his blood, unless we will maintain that Christ has missed his aim, and shed his blood in vain, contrary to the assertion of the apostlef that no one can be condemned for whom Christ died. Will it be said that he cannot be condemned, who is excluded from salvation, and on whom the wrath of God abides? Surely not. Finally, the scope of the apostle, which is, to comfort believers against the remains of sin, proves that he does intend every one of the posterity of Adam. Now what comfort can a believer take from that grace which is common to the elect, and the reprobate? What comfort if he knows that Christ in his death has done nothing more for him, than for unbelievers. Therefore the phrase of John has respect not to all men of all nations, but to the believing inhabitants of the whole world; or as Calvin speaks, "the sons of God dispersed through the whole world." Lest any one should think that the blessing Rom. viii. 34.

*2 Pet. ii. 24.

†Psal. xxxii. 1.

of Christ's atonement was confined to the apostles alone, or to those believers to whom this epistle was directed; John says that it was much more extensive, embracing men of all nations, and belonging to believers redeemed out of every tribe, tongue, kindred, and people of the whole world. It is of little moment whether by the phrase our sins, are understood those of the apostles, or those of believing Jews of the dispersion, then living (to whom, without doubt, this epistle was directed, while the epistles of Peter and James are called catholic, because not inscribed to any particular city or person) as distinguished from those who had believed before Christ appeared in the flesh, or from those who would afterwards believe to the end of the world. The question still comes to the same point. It is sufficient that the world here mentioned cannot embrace universally all men; as John and those to whom he writes were distingnished from it; while yet they are included in that universality, which embraces the whole of the human race. This was the opinion of Calvin. "Not for our sins only, says the apostle, by way of amplification, that believers might be firmly persuaded, that the propitiation extended to all who would embrace Christ by faith,”—and again," the object of John was none other, but to make it known that the blessing of which he discourses is common to the whole church, therefore under all he does not comprehend the reprobate, but designates them who would afterwards believe from among those who were scattered over every clime. Then truly with the greatest propriety the grace of Christ is illustrated, when he is preached as the only salvation of the world."

Though Christ came to save that which was lost* and saves none others, yet it is not necessary that he should save all those who are lost sinners. So far from this, Christ himself clearly testifies, that he came not to call those lost sinners who are both utterly ignorant of their lost state and swollen with an exalted opinion of their own righteousness,

* Matt. xviii. 11.

but those only who labour and are heavy laden with the burden of their sin, perceiving its burden.* Whence he says, he came to save that which was lost, in order to mark the character and condition of those who will be saved, but not all that which was lost. He designates the quality, not the number of those whom he would save.

It is one thing to perish in reality, and that finally, another to receive from a brother an occasion by which he might perish, through the disorderly walk of a fellow-member of the church; and for any exertions which his brother makes to prevent him from perishing. When the apostle Paul speakst concerning the perishing of a brother, for whom Christ died; he does not intend actual perdition, as if he meant to teach that one for whom Christ died might perish in reality, for none can snatch Christ's sheep out of his hand; nor can any one of those perish whom the Father has given him, to be redeemed.§ "They are kept by the power of God through faith."|| The apostle, when treating of a brother, cannot surely be understood to say that he shall finally perish; for though very weak in faith, he is yet established or stands by the assistance of the Lord.¶ The apostle intends to develope the mischievous consequences of an improper, and preposterous use of liberty in things which are in themselves indifferent, to shew that it wounds and offends the conscience of a weak brother, and thus gives an occasion, as far as in us lies, to his injury, and exposes him, as far as we can expose him, to the danger of perishing. The scriptures often use words which naturally signify effects and actions, when nothing more is intended, than to point out those occasions, and motives which may lead to the effects and actions mentioned. Thus he is said to be guilty, as far as in his power, of adultery, who only looks upon the wife of another man to lust after her.** He is said to "make God a liar, who believes not the record,

which God has given of his Son."* By which nothing more can be meant than that the unbeliever, does every thing in his power to make God a liar, or that he esteems God a liar. No one will say that he does so in reality. In this way a weak brother is said to perish by our knowledge, when we do nothing to preserve him; as it is expressed Rom. xiv. 15, "do not destroy thy weak brother by thy meat."

When heretical, apostate teachers are said "to deny the Lord that bought them;" we are not to understand the buying to mean that kind of purchase which is made by paying a price to divine justice, and thus redeeming the sinner from the wrath and curse of God, and from eternal death. No one is so redeemed, but those who were given by the Father to Christ to be redeemed, and who consequently will be kept by Christ and saved with an everlasting salvation, as the members of his body and his peculiar treasure. It is respecting deliverance from error and idolatry that Peter here speaks a deliverance effected by an outward exhibition of the gospel, and a setting apart to the ministry, for which these false teachers were in a certain respect bought by Christ as Lord of the church. Christ had acquired a peculiar title to them, as his own, by calling them into his church, the house which he owns, as masters formerly bought servants for the discharge of domestic duties. That this is the intention of Peter is collected from the following considerations:-1. He uses the word decorns, which signifies a master or an owner rather than a Saviour, to which redemption properly so called belongs. 2. The word ayopa is that which the apostle here employs to express the buying that he intends, and it is used generally to express that kind of buying which is practised in markets, and often to express simple deliverance. 3. The kind of buying here contemplated, is that through which those bought, are said "to have escaped the corruptions that are in the world." v. 20.—and this, "through the knowledge of God our Sa viour," by which "they have known the way of righteous.

ness. All these belong to deliverance from pagan errors and idolatries, and to a calling to the knowledge of the truth, from which, through apostacy and the introduction of most pernicious heresies, they make defection. Hence they are said to deny their master who bought them, and called them to the work of the ministry. 4. The denying of the Lord here mentioned, is a sin which is spoken of as peculiarly aggravated; and that which constitutes the peculiar aggravation is, that they deny their master who bought them. But if Peter intends by the purchase here mentioned, that atonement which Christ in his death made for sin, then there was nothing in the conduct of these teachers peculiarly wicked; the same thing might be affirmed of every man, upon the hypothesis of our opponents; for they maintain that he bought every man. On the supposition, however, that the buying here intended is the calling of these false teachers out of the darkness of heathen superstitions, to a knowledge of the glorious gospel of God, and making them teachers of that gospel; then their denial of a master who had done such great things for them, was a crime aggravated by the foulest ingratitude.

Sanctification by the blood of the covenant may be understood, in a twofold sense. One internal, spiritual, and real, which belongs to those who are actually redeemed and regenerated by the blood of Christ: another external and apparent only, which consists in a profession of the truth. The former necessarily presupposes that Christ died for those who are thus sanctified. The latter kind of sanctification does not presuppose this at all. Many hypocrites obtain that internal sanctification, by an external calling to membership in the church, and the enjoyment of its privileges, especially baptism and the Lord's Supper; to whom, notwithstanding, Christ with his saving benefits does not belong; because they are destitute of justifying faith. When Paul speaks of those who profane the blood of the covenant (testament) wherewith they had been sanctified;* we

* Heb. x. 29.