Adams:

This pours oil into the wounds of a contrite heart. Were our souls in such a strait, as Israel between the Red Sea and the Egyptians; the spirits of vengeance, like those enemies, pursuing us behind; hell and death, like that Red Sea, ready to in before: yet would I speak to you in the confidence of Moses, “Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord,” Exod. xiv. 13. Thou that art oppressed with the violence and clamor of thy sins, and wants an advocate either to intercede or pity hear the voice of the Lamb; Cry unto me, I will hear thee out of mine holy hill. Doth any soul hunger after righteousness Behold, I am the bread of fife: Take, eat, here is my body. Doth any thirst after the waters of grace? Lo, I am a living Fountain; come and drink; here is my blood. Art thou not yet quite dead in trespasses? are not thy ulcers past cure? are there any seeds of life remaining? is there any motion of repentance in thy soul? will thy pulse of remorse beat a little? hast thou but a touch of sorrow, a spark of hope, a grain of faith? Be comforted; the God of mercy will not have thee perish. Not a tear of repentance drop from thee, either unpitied, or unpreserved; God puts it into his bottle. Doth the Lord say, I would have none perish? And dost thou say, Nay, but he will have me to perish? Thee? why thee? He says, None; and dost thou except one? and that one thyself? What is this but to cross the cross of Christ? He would have all men saved, I Tim. ii. 4; and thou comes in with thy exceptive, All but me. What is this but, in effect, and at a distance, to give the lie to Truth itself? There be many that flatter away their souls in sport; but that a man should cast away his soul in wilful earnest, is a prodigious desperateness. Not so; but, God would have none to perish, therefore not me: this is a safe and comfortable inference. We are all naturally given to favour ourselves where we should not; why then do we not favour ourselves where we should? Justice thinks on us in the heat of our rebellions, but then we think not on justice; and in our sad remorse, when mercy thinks on us, cannot we think on mercy? If the greatness of thy sins, which is commonly heightened by thine own dejections, and exalted by thine own sinking, grow so strong against thee, that thou canst not quench the jealousy, nor devest the scruple of God’s desertion; do but consider who should occasion it. It must be God, or thyself. God it cannot be, for he is not willing that any should perish. It is then thyself, it is thy fault, if it be done: and if thou humbly acknowledge that fault, it is not done; for God doth never so irrevocably threaten judgment for sin, but the penitent confession of that sin cancels and avoids the sentence. If our clamorous conscience,like some sharp-fanged officer, arrest us at God’s suit, let us put in bail, two subsidy-virtues, faith and repentance, and so stand the trial. The law is on our side, the law of grace is with us: and this law is his that is our Advocate, and he is our Advocate that is our Judge, and he is our Judge that is our Saviour, even the Head of ourselves, Jesus Christ.

Thomas Adams, An Exposition upon the Second Epistle General of St. Peter, by Rev. Thomas Adams, Rector of St.Gregory’s, (London, 1633, revised by James Sherman, reprinted: Soli Deo Gloria, 1990), 696.

[Some spelling modernized and underlining mine.]

A.A. Hodge:

Refute the objection drawn from such passages as 1 Tim. ii. 4. “Who will (thelei) all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”

The word (thelei) has two senses–(a) to be inclined to, to desire; (b) to purpose, to will. In such connections as the above it is evident that it can not mean that God purposes the salvation of all, because (a) all are not saved, and none of God’s purposes fail, and (b) because it is affirmed that he wills all to “come to the knowledge of the truth” in the same sense that he wills all to be saved–yet he has left the vast majority of men to be born and to live and to die, irrespective of their own agency, in heathenish darkness.

Such passages simply assert the essential benevolence of God. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He does take great pleasure in the salvation of men. Yet as a matter of fact, in perfect consistent with his benevolence, for reasons sufficient, though not revealed to us, he has provided no redemption for lost angels, and no efficacious grace for the non-elect among mankind. These passages simply assert that, if it were not for these reasons, it would be agreeable to his benevolent nature that all men should be saved.

A.A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology (London: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1879), 227.

[Note: A.A Hodge is not as forceful as C Hodge was on this point, but his view is clear enough.]

As concerning the first, when the grace of God is dispensed in the Apostolical ministry by the preaching of the gospel, in this point we must answer, that it is commonly dispensed unto all, according to the institution of the Lord, when he commanded that the gospel should be preached to all creatures throughout the world, and to be taught unto all people. And thus far forth also the Old & New Testament do differ, that the dispensation of the world is appointed unto one people only of Israel, according unto the saying, “He did not like unto every nation”: but the dispensation of the new is by God’s goodness appointed unto all nations, and all men of the whole world. Herewith agrees that which the Apostle says, “who would that all men should be saved, & come to the knowledge of the truth,” (1 Timoth. 2.). In this respect the Apostle did acknowledge himself to be debtor unto all men, Greeks & Barbarians, wise & unwise to declare unto them the gospel of God. And would God, all the members of Christ were of this mind, that they were desirous to dispense the grace of salvation & life by preaching unto all men generally. Wolfgangus Musculus, Common Places of Christian Religion, trans., by Iohn Merton (London: Imprinted by Henry Bynneman, 1578), 335.

[to be continued]

Boston:

1) 6. Lastly, The salvation of lost sinners of the world of mankind is very acceptable to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus, as well as to himself, otherwise he had not sent his Son Saviour of the world, 1 Tim. ii. 3,4. “For this is good and acceptable in the sight of (for our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved.” Hence it is called “the pleasure of the Lord,” Is. liii. 10. “The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.” So he is said to make the marriage for his Son, and to send forth to bid to that marriage, Matth. xxii. Whence it is evident, that there is no impediment to the salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ, on Heaven’s part; it is pleasing to the Father, to his Son, and to his Spirit. Thomas Boston, “Christ the Saviour of the World,” in Works, 6:296.

2) 1. That God in Christ is full of good-will to poor sinners. Since he will have them thus to depend upon him as children on s father, fearing and hoping in him; he it is who will have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth, 1 Tim. ii. 4. Is not this a plain proof that he bath no pleasure in the death of him that dieth? Ecl. xviii. 13, and that their ruin is of themselves, if they should perish ; that he does not cast them off that hang by him, nor cast them out that come unto him, John vi. 37. Thomas Boston, ‘Fear and Hope Objects of Divine Complacency: The Same Continued,” in Works, 9:75.