Clarke:

Quest. Do reprobates receive any benefit by Christ’s death?

Answ. In some respects it had been better for them if there had not been a Christ, because when they wilfully refuse him, it aggravates their sin and condemnation, John 3:19, and 15:22, yet several mercies do redound even to the reprobate by Christ’s death. As,

1. There is no man that lives under the means of grace, but he may hereby be encouraged to repent, and to believe for his salvation; whereas the apostate angels are left without hope.

2. The ministers of the gospel may hereupon promiscuously preach the Gospel to all, as within the sphere of Christ’s death; so the apostle writing to churches, wherein many were corrupt both for doctrine and manners, yet calls them a church, saints, believers, not excluding any from the benefit of Christ. So, therefore, may ministers do in their preaching; yet they must not propound Christ as a saviour to them in the first place, but must do as Paul when he preached to Felix, Acts 24:25, laying open the wrath of God to him for his sins, so that he trembled. So must they humble them by the law before they preach the gospel.

3. Reprobates have this advantage by Christ, that they enjoy all the mercies they have. For all being forfeited by Adam’s sin, by Christ (who is the heir of all things) they come lawfully to enjoy the mercies they have. For it’s Christ that bears up the world. Indeed, they have not a sanctified use of what they enjoy; for to the impure all things are impure, Tit. 1:15, but otherwise they have a lawful right before God and man to what they enjoy, Psal. 115:8.

4. It’s by Christ’s death that many wicked are partakers of the common gifts of God’s Spirit. It is the Spirit of Christ that gives several gifts to men, 1 Cor. 14, Christ is the vine, and so not only grapes, but even leaves come from his sap and juice.

5. Christ by his death is made Lord of the whole world, and has conquered all the inhabitants that are therein, so that they are Christ’s as a Lord, who has bought by his death, 2 Pet. 2:1, “The denied the Lord that bought them.” Wicked men are brought by him to be his vassals and servants, and he may dispose of them as he pleases for his churches good.

Samuel Clarke, Medulla Theologiæ: Or the Marrow of Divinity, Contained in Sundry Questions and Cases of Conscience, both Speculative, and Practical; the Greatest Part of them Collected out of the Works of Our Most Judicious, Experienced, and Orthodox English Divines, The Rest Supplied by the Authour, (London: Printed by Thomas Ratcliff, for Thomas Underhill, of the Blue Anchor and Bible in Pauls Church-Yard, 1659), 284. [Some reformatting; some spelling modernized; and italics original.]

[Note: While I think what Clarke says is fairly sterile and bleak, what he does say here is of historical and theological interest and which further undercuts modern Hypercalvinist claims regarding what is and is not “true” Reformed orthodoxy.]

Clarke:

Thirdly, we must distinguish of the sufficiency, and worth of Christ’s death in itself, and the effectual application of it: Christ’s death is of value enough to redeem ten thousand worlds, because it’s the obedience to death of that person who is God as well as man, and by reason of his Deity there is such a merit, and satisfaction upon his death, that the sins of all men, and devils are not able to counterpoise it: But Christ’s intention, and purpose was to lay down his life only for his sheep, John 10:11.

Samuel Clarke, Medulla Theologiæ: Or the Marrow of Divinity, Contained in Sundry Questions and Cases of Conscience, both Speculative, and Practical; the Greatest Part of them Collected out of the Works of Our Most Judicious, Experienced, and Orthodox English Divines, The Rest Supplied by the Authour, (London: Printed by Thomas Ratcliff, for Thomas Underhill, of the Blue Anchor and Bible in Pauls Church-Yard, 1659), 282. [Some spelling modernized.]

Boettner:

1. The Terms “Will” and “All.” 2. The Gospel is for Jews and Gentiles Alike. 3. The Term “World” is Used in Various Senses. 4. General Considerations.

1. THE TERMS “WISH,” “WILL,” AND “ALL“

It may be asked, Is not the doctrine of Predestination flatly contradicted by the Scriptures which declare that Christ died for “all men,” or for “the whole world,” and that God wills the salvation of all men? In 1 Tim. 2:3, 4 Paul refers to “God our Saviour, who would have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (And the word “all,” we are dogmatically informed by our opponents, must mean every human being.) In Ezek. 33:11 we read, “As I live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live”; and in II Peter 3:9 we read that God is “not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” The King James Version reads, “Not willing that any should perish. . . .”

These verses simply teach that God is benevolent, and that He does not delight in the sufferings of His creatures any more than a human father delights in the punishment which he must sometimes inflict upon his son. God does not decretively will the salvation of all men, no matter how much He may desire it; and if any verses taught that He decretively willed or intended the salvation of all men, they would contradict those other parts of the Scripture which teach that God sovereignly rules and that it is His purpose to leave some to be punished.

The word “will” is used in different senses in Scripture and in our every day conversation. It is sometimes used in the sense of “decree,” or “purpose,” and sometimes in the sense of “desire,” or “wish.” A righteous judge does not will (desire) that anyone should be hanged or sentenced to prison, yet at the same time he wills (pronounced sentence, or decrees) that the guilty person shall be thus punished. In the same sense and foe sufficient reasons a man may will or decide to have a limb removed, or an eye taken out, even though he certainly does not desire it. The Greek words thelo and boulomai, which are sometimes translated “will,” are also used in the sense of “desire,” or “wish;” e.g., Jesus said to the mother of James and John, “What wouldest thou?” Matt. 20:21; of the scribes it was said they “desire to walk in long robes,” Luke 20:46; certain of the Scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus, “Teacher, we would see a sign from thee,” Matt. 12:38; Paul said, “I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue,” I Cor. 14:19.

Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Comp. 1981), 287.

Witsius:

1)

(2) When the produce which the earth, through the divine blessing, has yielded, is bestowed on individuals, and is possessed by them in their barns, in their houses, and at their tables. Those blessings are actually bestowed by God on individuals when they enjoy them, not as the bread of slothfulness, or of covetousness, or of deceit, or of robbery,–but when his providence enables them to obtain them by a just title. Those who possess them in any other way cannot be said to have them as a gift from God, bit as the fruits of wicked robbery. “The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou gives them their meat in due season. Thou opens thine hand, and satisfies the desire of every living thing.”

(3) When he bestows all those things on believers, not from the ordinary love which he bears to mankind,¹ but from a Fatherly love which he regards them in Christ. When the smallest crumb of bread, or drop of cold water, is bestowed, it becomes inconceivably preferable to all the delicacies of the rich. When those things are enjoyed as the earnest of better and heavenly blessings, “a little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked.” Herman Witsius, Dissertations on the Lord’s Prayer, (Escondido, California: The den Dulk Christian Foundation, 1994), 278. [Some spelling modernized; footnote value modernized; footnote content original; and underlining mine.]

2)

XCV. Further, we should ascend by the creatures, as be an erect ladder, to God the Creator; who exhibits himself in them, not only to be seen, but also to be felt.²–whose glory the heavens declare,³ and to whom the brute animals of the earth, and the dumb fishes of the sea, bear witness, that they proceeded from his hand.⁴

XCVI. Nor is a general acknowledgment of this sufficient. But those perfections of God which he has brightly displayed in the work of creation, ought to be particularly observed:–that the infinite Power, at whose command all things rose into existence:–that unbounded Goodness, to which alone the creatures must own themselves entirely indebted for whatever portion of good is in them:–that unsearchable Wisdom, which has arranged every thing in so beautiful and order, that it appears no less admirable in the last than in the greatest works:–that amazing Philanthropy, in fine, which he has shown towards man, not only adorning his body by so exact a proportion of all its parts, which has beyond measure astonished Hippocrates and other anatomists; but also suspending his soul, as in the hidden vault of the temple, an image of himself and a representation of his own holiness; and at the same time, granting him dominion over the rest of the creatures. Herman Witsius, Dissertations on the Apostles’ Creed, (Escondido, California: The den Dulk Christian Foundation, 1994), 224-225. [Some spelling modernized; footnote value modernized; footnote content original; and underlining mine.]

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¹Philantropia

²Acts xvii. 27.

³Ps. xix.1.

⁴Job xii.9.