Diodati:

V.16. The world] Namely, mankind in its generality, which being all subject to eternal perdition through sin, God out of his Sovereign and absolute good pleasure, has saved his elect from it; whom he has taken of all degrees, and out of all the Nations in the world indifferently, that the whole kind might not perish, but that in his number of elect, as in a new and holy community, it might subsist before God for ever. A benefit wich he has not imparted to the apostate Angels, not universally to all men.

John Diodati, Pious and Learned Annotations upon the Holy Bible: Plainly Expounding the most difficult places thereof, 2nd edition (London: Printed by Miles Flesher, for Nicolas Fussels, 1648), 83.

Romans 2:4:

III. He draws up a charge against them (v. 4, 5) consisting of two branches:—

1. (v. 4), the riches of his goodness. This is especially applicable to the Jews, who had singular tokens of the divine favour. Means are mercies, and the more light we sin against the more love we sin against. Low and mean thoughts of the divine goodness are at the bottom of a great deal of sin. There is in every wilful sin an interpretative contempt of the goodness of God; it is spurning at his bowels, particularly the goodness of his patience, his forbearance and long-suffering, taking occasion thence to be so much the more bold in sin, Eccl. viii. 11. Not knowing, that is, not considering, not knowing practically and with application, that the goodness of God leadeth thee, the design of it is to lead thee, to repentance. It is not enough for us to know that God’s goodness leads to repentance, but we must know that it leads us—thee in particular. See here what method God takes to bring sinners to repentance. He leads them, not drives them like beasts, but leads them like rational creatures, allures them (Hos. ii. 14); and it is goodness that leads, bands of love, Hos. xi. 4. Compare Jer. xxxi. 3. The consideration of the goodness of God, his common goodness to all (the goodness of his providence, of his patience, and of his offers), should be effectual to bring us all to repentance; and the reason why so many continue in impenitency is because they do not know and consider this.

2. Provoking the wrath of God, v. 5. The rise of this provocation is a hard and impenitent heart; and the ruin of sinners is their walking after such a heart, being led by it. To sin is to walk in the way of the heart; and when that is a hard and impenitent heart (contracted hardness by long custom, besides that which is natural), how desperate must the course needs be! The provocation is expressed by treasuring up wrath. Those that go on in a course of sin are treasuring up unto themselves wrath. A treasure denotes abundance. It is a treasure that will be spending to eternity, and yet never exhausted; and yet sinners are still adding to it as to a treasure. Every wilful sin adds to the score, and will inflame the reckoning; it brings a branch to their wrath, as some read that (Ezek. viii. 17), they put the branch to their nose. A treasure denotes secrecy. The treasury or magazine of wrath is the heart of God himself, in which it lies hid, as treasures in some secret place sealed up; see Deut. xxxii. 34; Job xiv. 17. But withal it denotes reservation to some further occasion; as the treasures of the hail are reserved against the day of battle and war, Job xxxviii. 22, 23. These treasures will be broken open like the fountains of the great deep, Gen. vii. 11. They are treasured up against the day of wrath, when they will be dispensed by the wholesale, poured out by full vials. Though the present day be a day of patience and forbearance towards sinners, yet there is a day of wrath coming—wrath, and nothing but wrath. Indeed, every day is to sinners a day of wrath, for God is angry with the wicked every day (Ps. vii. 11), but there is the great day of wrath coming, Rev. vi. 17. And that day of wrath will be the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. The wrath of God is not like our wrath, a heat and passion; no, fury is not in him (Isa. xxvii. 4): but it is a righteous judgment, his will to punish sin, because he hates it as contrary to his nature. This righteous judgment of God is now many times concealed in the prosperity and success of sinners, but shortly it will be manifested before all the world, these seeming disorders set to rights, and the heavens shall declare his righteousness, Ps. l. 6. Therefore judge nothing before the time.  Romans 2:4

[Note: Davenant was the leader of the English delegation to Dort. For a brief comment on Davenant’s Dortian orthodoxy, see Richard Muller’s comments here and here.]

Davenant:

Unlimited Expiation:

1) That the Apostle here lays down what be calls reconciliation procured from God through the mediation of Christ, as a common benefit for the whole world. And indeed to haw reconciled the world generally can mean nothing else than to have ordained and granted to the world that universal remedy or propitiatory sacrifice of the death of Christ, which is applicable to all. Secondly, It is proper to observe, in what sense God is said actually to have reconciled the world to himself by the merit of the offering of Christ, namely, because the sacrifice of Christ being made, he will not impute their trespasses unto them; that is, He will not require from any man that he should make satisfaction for his own sins, that being impossible; nor, further, will he punish any one for his sins who shall make use of this propitiatory sacrifice. And lastly, it is to be remarked, that this reconciliation, this not imputing of sins, of which the Apostle speaks, is considered as performed on the part of God and Christ, as soon as Christ is understood to have laid down his life for the sins of the world. But on the part of sinful men there remains the Ministry of the Gospel, by which it is made known to men; there remains that the Gospel should be believed, before men are brought as it were into the actual possession of this grace. Davenant, Dissertation on the Death of Christ, 347-348.

2) He who by undergoing death by the ordination of God sustained the punishment due not only to the sins of certain individual persons, but of the whole human race; His passion, by virtue of the same ordination, is applicable not only to certain definite persons, but to every individual of the human race. But Christ by dying sustained the punishment due to the sins of the world: Therefore, he willed that his death should be, as it were, an universal cause of salvation applicable to all. He who denies the major, is bound to shew why God willed that his Son should bear the sins of the human race, if he was unwilling to appoint in his death a cause at least applicable to the human race, although the application world not follow in many. Davenant, Dissertation on the Death of Christ, 354.

3) Now let us descend to the minor, in which it is affirmed, that Christ sustained the punishment due to the sins of the human race. Thus the Scriptures speak, All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity, of us all. Isaiah liii. 6. Thus the Fathers speak, The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ is the ransom of the whole world, from which they are excluded, who, either being delighted with their captivity are unwilling to be redeemed, or after redemption have rerurned to the same slavery. Prosper ad Capit. Gallor. sent. super. 9. Davenant, Dissertation on the Death of Christ, 355.

4) The last argument is taken from a comparison of the twofold covenant, and according to it, of a twofold ordination of men to salvation. As, therefore, in the covenant of nature, that is, the agreement with Adam at the time of creation, salvation was procurable by Adam and all his posterity under the condition of obedience to be paid to the law of nature, and to the express commandment of God; so in the covenant of grace, which was confirmed by the blood of the Mediator, salvation is also understood to be procurable for all men under the condition published in the Gospel, that is, of faith in this Mediator, who hath made satisfaction for the sins of the human race. Davenant, Dissertation on the Death of Christ, 364.

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Marlorate:

Therefore the testimony of John tends to this end, which he bears of Christ, that we believe in him. Faith is that by which behold this light, know the same and embrace it. By this grace was set forth to the world, not only the testimony which John bare concerning Christ, but also the testimony of all the Apostles and Evangelists, both by voice and writing. And therefore it is said in the end of the Gospel: “These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Son of God.”

But what is the profit of this faith? The profit (says he) of this faith is, that ye believing might have life through his name.

Moreover the grace of this light, must be set forth before all men, for God would have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. Also it is said, “Preach ye the Gospel to every creature,” &c. B. [Bucer] Whereupon Saint John Baptist Preached the Gospel to the Soldiers and Publicans.

Augustine Marlorate, A Catholike and Ecclesiasticall exposition of the holy Gospel after S. Iohn, trans., Thomas Timme (Imprinted at London by Thomas Marshe, Anno Domini. 1575), 13. [Some spelling modernized.]