Goodwin:

I begin with Calvin himself, and humbly desire those that oppose his judgment and authority to obstruct the course of the doctrine avouched in this discourse, lest it should “run and be glorified” as truth ought to “be, to consider whether these passages and sayings next ensuing be with it and for it, or against it. “Although,” says he, “there is nothing to be found in the world worthy the favor of God, yet he shows himself propitious” or favorable “unto the whole world, in that he calls all men without exception to believe in Christ, which is nothing else but an entrance into life;”¹ with more to like purpose transcribed Chap. v. p. 142, of this discourse. Certainly if God’s calling of all men without exception to believe in Christ be a sufficient argument or sign of his propitious and favorable inclination towards them, he must needs really intend the grace or good of salvation unto them; otherwise his calling of them to believe, as, namely, if it should be accompanied with a purpose or intent in him, either simply to destroy them, or to increase their destruction, would rather argue his hatred than any propitiousness of affection towards them. And if God intends the salvation of all men without exception, certainly he hath provided salvation in Christ for them all. Elsewhere the same author says, that “Although Christ suffered for the sins of the whole world, and be through the kindness or good will” “Of God indifferently offered unto all. men, yet all men. do not receive” or take hold on him.”² See this, and much more cited from him of like notion, Chap. vi. p. 176. In another place he discourses thus: “Inasmuch as the utmost end of a blessed life stands in the knowledge of God, that the entrance” or access “unto blessedness might not be shut up against any man, God hath not only implanted in the minds of men that which we call the seed of religion, but hath also manifested himself in the whole fabric” or workmanship “of the world after such a manner, and offers himself daily so plainly” or openly unto men “that they cannot open their eyes, but they must needs behold him.”³ If God provides that the passage or way unto happiness may be open for every man. or, which is the same, obstructed or shut up against no man, doubtless there is happiness, and consequently salvation, provided in, or procured by Christ for every man. For there is no way or access for any man unto happiness but by Christ; no, nor yet by Christ himself except only for those whose sins are atoned by him. Of like import with the former is that saying also: “The fuller and more comprehensive sense is this, that God was in Christ; and then, that by his intercession he reconciled the world unto himself.”⁴ Questionless if an expositor of Scripture meets with a figurative term or expression, I mean so apprehended by him, in the text which is before him, and which he is about to open, it is very improper for him to use the same word in the same figurative or improper sense in his exposition, especially without giving any notice of the figurativeness of it, or substituting a word of a more plain and ready signification for the explaining of it. Therefore, if Calvin, by the word “world,” 2 Cor. v. 19, understood the elect of God only, dispersed up and down the world, he would not in his exposition have used the same word to express them, especially without the help of some other, one or more, of a more plain and known signification in that kind. So that there is not the least question but that he, both in the text mentioned, as likewise in his Commentaries upon it, understood the word “world,” in the ordinary and best known signification” of it, i. e. for the generality or universality of men. Upon the same Scripture afterwards he demands, “For what purpose did God appear unto men in Christ. He answers and says,” For reconciliation, that enmities being taken out of the way, those that were estranged” from him “might be adopted for sons.” Now they that were estranged from God were not the elect only, but the whole universe of mankind with them. Therefore according to the express import of this piece of commentary, God designed in Christ the adoption of all men without exception for sons. Nor doth he any whit less than confirm the same doctrine in saying, that ” As by the offence of one Adam, judgment or guilt came upon all men to condemnation: so by the righteousness of one Jesus Christ, the gift or benefit of God abounded unto all men to the justification of life.”⁵ He speaks likewise to the heart of the cause we plead, when he terms that saying of the apostle, 1 Cor. viii. 11, “A memorable saying, whereby we are taught of how great an account the salvation of the brethren ought to be with us ; and not only the salvation of them altogether, but of every one of them apart, inasmuch as the blood of Christ was shed for every one of them.”⁶ By “brethren,” it is evident that he cannot mean only such who are elect, or predestinated unto salvation. 1. Because he speaks of all that profess Christianity, or that are members of any Christian church, amongst whom it is the known judgment of this author that there still are many hypocrites, and such who will not in fine be saved. 2. The elect, in his sense, I mean such who come at last to be actually saved, cannot be certainly known or discerned from others beforehand. Therefore this consideration, that Christ hath shed his blood for a man, can be no argument or motive at all unto me to regard his salvation the more, since it is impossible for me to know whether Christ hath shed his blood for him or no. His meaning then, when he says that the blood of Christ was shed for every particular person of the brethren, must needs be that it was shed as well for those who will not be saved by it as for those that will. See before upon this account, Chap. viii. p. 191. And doth he not yet further plead the cause of the same doctrine with us when he says, that “Since Christ will have the benefit of his death common unto all men, they do him wrong” or are injurious unto him “who by any opinion of theirs, restrain” or keep back “any man from the hope of salvation?“⁷ Take this passage of his also into the account: “This is a marvelous love” of his “towards mankind, that he is willing to have all men saved, yea, and is ready to gather into salvation such as are perishing of their own accord. But the order here is to be observed, viz. that God is ready” or prepared ” to receive all men unto” or upon “repentance, lest any man should perish.”⁸ In the heads of accord between him and the ministers of the Tigurine church, about the Sacrament, he says, speaking of Christ, that “He is to be considered as a sacrifice of expiation, by which God is appeased or pacified “towards the world.”⁹ In the Geneva Catechism, he teaches all those that are to be catechized to look upon Christ as “salutem mundi,” “the salvation of the world,” yea, and to own him and believe in him, “as their surety, who hath undergone that judgment which they deserved, that he might render them free from guilt;¹⁰ with much more of like consideration. So that unless it be supposed, that Christ died for all such persons without exception, who should be persuaded and brought to learn and use this catechism, it will apparently follow, that the composer of it, and all parents and others that shall put their children or other persons upon the learning and pronouncing the words hereof, shall put them upon the speaking and professing those things, and that as matters of. their Christian faith, of the truth whereof they have no sufficient ground or assurance; yea, and which are much more likely to be false than true. For if Christ died for the elect only, i. e. only for such who in the event will be saved, these being but few, in comparison of those who will perish, evident it is, that; speaking of particular persons before they believe savingly, or to justification, it is more likely they will perish than that they will be saved; or, however, there is no sufficient ground to judge of” them, or of any particular person of them by name, before they believe, that they are elected; or, consequently, that Christ was their surety, or died to free them from the guilt of sin. And if so, then they that are taught to say and profess, as an article of their Christian faith, that Christ died to save them, are put upon it, or tempted to profess that, as an article of their religion, which they have no rational or competent ground to believe to be so much as a truth. Yea, the clear truth is, that the opinion, which denies the redemption of all men, without exception, by Christ, puts all our ordinary catechisms to rebuke, as being snares and temptations upon all, or the greatest part of those who use them, to pretend a belief or confident persuasion of such a thing, which they have more cause to suspect for an error than to embrace as a truth. This by the way. If the reader, to those passages lately insisted upon from the undoubted writings of Mr. Calvin, will please to add those other, from the same pen, formerly mentioned,¹¹ which, though produced, happily, upon somewhat a more particular occasion respectively, yet speak, for substance, the same thing, he will, I presume, acknowledge, that which hath in effect been already said, that Calvin was not so far an enemy to general redemption, but that, without straining either his judgment or conscience, he did upon all occasions reconcile himself” unto it, yea, and bottomed many carriages and passages of discourse upon it.

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Overall:

So that out of the side of Christ’s dying upon the Cross, not only the Sacraments of the Church, but likewise all saving Goods and Graces must be understood to flow. And this opinion is so manifest in the Scriptures, that Calvin has every where interpreted them of All. Thus upon Heb. 9.20 he says, that [Many] is taken for [All.] So again upon Rom. 5.18, 19. “It is certain,” says he, “that all men do not receive advantage from the death of Christ, but then this is owing to their own infidelity that hinders them (who was otherwise sufficiently rigid about Predestination) in explaining those very places, which others brought to take away the universality of Christ’s death (as in some it is said that he died for Many). Which words do plainly enough favor the common opinion.

John Overall, “The Opinion of the Church of England Concerning Predestination,” in A Defence of the Thirty Nine Articles of the Church of England by John Ellis (London: Printed for H. Bonwicke, T. Goodwin, M. Wotton, S. Manship, and B. Tooke, 1700), 133. [Italics original and underlining mine.]

Lorimer:

1) (4thly.) Yet by some Passages in his¹ letter, we guess that he points at the controversy about the extent of Christ’s Death, which hath been amongst Protestant divines since the Reformation, or since the time that Beza and Piscator began to write on that Head after the Reformation.

And if that be the thing he points at without naming it, we will, first, give the true state of the controversy. Secondly, declare briefly what our opinion is, as to that matter. And for the state of the controversy:

First, there are some divines in the world, who are said to hold that Christ died equally for all men, Elect and Non-elect; and that God on the account of Christ’s death, gives a common sufficient grace to them all, whereby they may all (if they will) apply to themselves the virtue of Christ’s Death, and thereby obtain justification and salvation. But that Christ did not dye for the elect, out of any special love to them above others; and that God through Christ doth not give any special effectual, determining grace to the elect more than to the non-elect. This is the Arminian extreme.

Secondly, there are other divines, who hold that Christ died for the elect only and exclusively of all others, and that he died not for any of the non-elect in any proper tolerable true sense; that he no more died for any of those men, who are not elected to eternal life, than he died for the Devil; and that such Men have no more to do with the satisfaction and merits of Christ, than the Devil has. This is the other extreme. And we suppose that this is that which our author accounts the orthodox side, and that he is of this side himself.

But thirdly, between these two extreme opinions, there is a golden mean, there is a middle-way, which hath been many hundred years ago, and still is expressed in this form of words, “That Christ died only for the elect sinners of mankind both sufficiently and efficaciously, but that he died for the non-elect only sufficiently but not efficaciously.” This is the state of the controversy.

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Baxter:

[Objection:]¹

A. 1. ‘”The Calvinists and the Synodists deny Christ’s very Office, as he is the Savior of the World, and the second Adam, the Redeemer of Mankind, and the mediator between God and man. And all this they confine to a small part of the world.
[Answer:]²

…B, Calvin says, in Rom. 5:18. [Communem omnium gratium facit, quia omnibus exposita est: Non quod ad omnes extendatur reipsa: Nam & si passus est Christus pro peccatus totius mundi atq; omnibus Indifferenter Dei benignitate offetur, non tamen omnes apprehendunt].³

And in 1 Cor. 8:11. [Dictum moemorabile quo docemur equam (Chara) esse debeat nombis fratum salus; nec omnium modo, sed singulorum, quando pro unoquoq; fusus est sanguis Christi.]⁴

And in 2 Pet. 2:1 [Non immerito dicuntur Christum abnegare à quo redempi sunt,—-].⁵

And in 1 Joh. 2:2, he says, That qui dicunt [Christum sufficienter pro toto mundo passum ess, sed pro electis tantum efficaciter,] say true, and what which commonly obtains in the Schools, though he otherwise expounds that Text.⁶

Richard Baxter, Catholick Theologie, (London: Printed by Robert White, for Nevill Simmons at the Princess Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard, 1675), 2:51. [Some reformatting; footnotes mine; and underlining mine.] [Note: For more Calvin on this subject go here.]

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¹Bracketed insert mine.

²Bracketed insert mine.

³Calvin: He makes this favor common to all, because it is propounded to all, and not because it is in reality extended to all; for though Christ suffered for the sins of the whole world, and is offered through God’s benignity indiscriminately to all, yet all do not receive him. John Calvin. Romans 5:18.

⁴Calvin: There is, however, still greater force in what follows–that even those that are ignorant or weak have been redeemed with the blood of Christ; for nothing were more unseemly than this, that while Christ did not hesitate to die, in order that the weak might not perish, we, on the other hand, reckon as nothing the salvation of those who have been redeemed with so great a price. A memorable saying, by which we are taught how precious the salvation of our brethren ought to be in our esteem, and not merely that of all, but of each individual in particular, inasmuch as the blood of Christ was poured out for each individual… For if the soul of every one that is weak is the price of Christ’s blood, that man, who, for the sake of a very small portion of meat, hurries back again to death the brother who has been redeemed by Christ, shows how contemptible the blood of Christ is in his view. John Calvin, 1 Corinthians 8:11 & 12.

⁵Calvin: Though Christ may be denied in various ways, yet Peter, as I think, refers here to what is expressed by Jude, that is, when the grace of God is turned into lasciviousness; for Christ redeemed us, that he might have a people separated from all the pollutions of the world, and devoted to holiness ,and innocency. They, then, who throw off the bridle, and give themselves up to all kinds of licentiousness, are not unjustly said to deny Christ by whom they have been redeemed. John Calvin, 2 Peter 2:1.

⁶Calvin: Here a question may be raised, how have the sins of the whole world been expiated? I pass by the dotages of the fanatics, who under this pretense extend salvation to all the reprobate, and therefore to Satan himself. Such a monstrous thing deserves no refutation. They who seek to avoid this absurdity, have said that Christ suffered sufficiently for the whole world, but efficiently only for the elect. This solution has commonly prevailed in the schools. Though then I allow that what has been said is true, yet I deny that it is suitable to this passage; for the design of John was no other than to make this benefit common to the whole Church. Then under the word all or whole, he does not include the reprobate, but designates those who should believe as well as those who were then scattered through various parts of the world. For then is really made evident, as it is meet, the grace of Christ, when it is declared to be the only true salvation of the world. John Calvin, 1 John 2:2.