any, the word world in these places being necessarily to be understood in the proper and comprehensive signification of it, (I mean for all men and women in the world, in and according to their successive generation) and not for those that shall believe, or the like. We shall, for brevity’s sake, argue only some of these places, and leave the light of their interpretations for a discovery of the sense and meaning of the rest.
The first proposed of these, was that place of renown, “God so loved the world, that he gave,” &c. John iii. 16. Evident it is from hence, that Christ was given, viz. unto death for them, or for their sakes, whoever they be that are here meant by the world. There are but three significations of the world, that to my remembrance I ever heard of as competitors in this place. First, some by the world, here understand the elect dispersed up and down the world. By the elect, they mean all those, and those only, who shall in time actually be saved, whom they call the elect, because they judge them to have been chosen by God from eternity out of the generality of mankind, with an intent by him in time, with a strong hand and power irresistible, to be: 1. Brought to believe; 2. Caused, or made to persevere, believing unto the end; and, 3. Hereupon eternally saved, the residue of men being absolutely rejected and left to that unavoidable and heavy doom of perishing everlastingly. But that this is not the sense of the word world in the Scripture in hand, will appear by the light of these considerations.
1. The word kosmos, here translated world, was never known to have any such sense or signification in the Greek tongue; nor was it, nor is it to be found in any author who wrote in this language, before, or about the time, when John wrote his gospel, in such a signification, nor yet in anywhere near to it. Now the gospel, as is generally acknowledged, and that upon sufficient grounds, was written in the Greek tongue chiefly for the gentiles’ sake, amongst whom this language was known and understood far and near, that they might be brought to believe, and so be saved by it. It is no way likely that the evangelist should use words, especially in such master veins and main passages of it, as this is, in an uncouth, unknown, and unheard of signification.
2. Nor can it be proved, that it is to be taken in the sense now opposed, in any other place of the Scriptures themselves; but in very many places it signifies the universal system, body, or generality of men in the world, (we shall not need to instance for the proof of this, places being so frequent and obvious) as also for that part of the generality of men which is opposite, and contra-distinguished to the saints, i.e. to the elect, in their sense of the word elect, who yet would have these signified by the world. This latter signification of the word world, is evident in these Scriptures: - “We know that we are born of God, and that the whole world lieth in wickedness,” 1 John v. 19. “Even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, “&c. John xiv. 17; “If ye were of the world, the world would love her own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you,” John xv. 19; to omit many others.
3. If by the world in the Scripture in hand be meant the elect, in the sense of the assertors of this signification, then it will follow, that God out of his great love gave Christ unto those, or for those, who stood in no need of him, at least either to preserve them from perishing, or to invest them with a right or title to eternal life, which yet are here laid down as the two only, or at least as two main ends of that great gift. For if exemption from perishing, or salvation, be absolutely, and without all consideration, awarded or decreed by God unto men before, or from eternity, they have a full right and title unto them, or unto the possession and enjoyment of them, by virtue of this award or decree, without the intervening of anything else whatsoever. For what better right or title can there be to the enjoyment of anything than a decree of heaven? Or the award of him who hath an unquestionable right and power to dispose of all enjoyments whatsoever, as, and to whom he pleaseth? But more of this consequence hereafter.
4. The structure itself of the sentence, and tenor of these words, riseth up against this sense of the word in question. For (a.) If by the word world we understand the elect, we destroy the very grammar of the place, and make it an uncouth and harsh sentence, such, doubtless, as cannot be paralleled in any author, nor yet in the Scriptures themselves. Read we then the place thus, “So God loved his elect, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever . . .” – I demand how, or in what regular sense, that universal distributive particle, whosoever, pas ho, everyone that, shall be understood? It is a thing generally known to those that understand anything in the rules of grammar, yea, the vulgar dialect of those that speak reason or common sense confirmeth it, that partitive or distributive particles of speech always suppose a difference, at least in possibility, between the things parted or distributed, and this in reference to what occasioneth the distribution. As for example, suppose a great king having many sons, should express himself thus: “I so love my children, that whosoever of them shall be dutiful unto me; I will bestow principalities, dukedoms, or other great matters upon them.” Should he not plainly imply a possibility, at least, that some of them might not prove dutiful unto him? In like manner, if the word world, in the Scripture in hand, should signify the elect, the distributive, whosoever, must needs imply that some of these elect might possibly not believe, and so perish; because believing, and not perishing thereupon, occasions the distribution here made.
(b.) Though our Saviour, in this period of Scripture, mentioneth only the benefit intended by God in the gift of his Son, to those that shall believe, viz., non-perishing and the obtaining of everlasting life; yet he plainly implies, and supposeth withal, the misery and loss which they should certainly suffer who shall not believe. Except this be supposed, we shall altogether misfigure our Saviour’s mind and scope in the place, and make him speak more like a man void of understanding than himself. For then the taste and savour of his words would be this: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth or not believeth in him should not perish but,” &c. Therefore, certain it is, that he in the place in hand insinuates that condemnation or perishing of those who shall not believe, as he asserts the salvation or nonperishing of those who shall believe. And besides, it is contrary to reason, especially in seriousness of discourse, in a positive and strict manner to suspend that upon the performance of such or such a condition which may be had without any such performance. This then being granted, that our Saviour here supposeth the certain perishing of those who shall not believe, the place, according to their sense, who by the world will need understand the elect, must run thus: “So God loved the elect, that whosoever of them believed should not perish;” but on the contrary, that whosoever of them should not believe, should perish. Which, according to their principles, against whom we now argue, is as if a man should say, whichsoever of my sheep is no sheep, but a goat, shall have no pasture with his fellows.
(c.) They who by the world here understand the elect, must, if they will not baulk with their principles, suppose that Christ speaks at no better rate of wisdom or sense in this Scripture than thus: “So God loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever did that which was not possible for them to decline or not to do, should not perish, but,” &c. Whoever, being serious and in his wits, required that in the nature of a condition from any man, especially in order to the obtaining of some great important thing which he, of whom it was required upon such terms, was necessitated or had no liberty or power but to perform? What father ever promised his son his estate, either in whole or in part upon condition that whilst he rode upon a horse he should not go on foot? Or upon condition that he would do that, which a force greater than he was able to resist should necessitate him to do? So that the whole tenor and carriage of the verse renders the interpretation of the word world, hitherto encountered, a mere nullity in sense, reason, and truth.
5. The context and words immediately preceding, will at no hand endure that sense of the word world, against which we have declared hitherto. This little word for, “For God so loved,” &c., being casual, importeth not only a connexion of these words with what went before, but such a connexion or relation as that which intercedes between the cause and the effect. So that the words in hand must be looked upon as assigning or exhibiting the cause or reason of that effect, which was immediately before mentioned. This
