23
Nov

The Westminster Annotations on 1 Timothy 2:4

   Posted by: CalvinandCalvinism   in 1 Timothy 2:4-6

Annotations:

Verse. 1. Exhort] Or, desire.
Supplications, prayers] Either these words are synonymous, all signifying the public devotion of the Church in her service and Liturgy; or they may be thus distinguished: by demseis: and meant prayers as we make in our necessities and distresses, to prevent and avoid evils that may befall, or are come upon us, by proseuchas, such prayers wherein we sue for good things at God’s hand, namely spiritual and temporal blessings; by enteuxeis, such prayers wherein we entreat for the good of others.

For all men] That is, all kinds of men, Jew and Gentiles, bond, free, faithful, infidels, friends, enemies, great men and mean ones, public and private; or, as the word is often taken in Scriptures, as Matthew 4:23, pasan noson, all diseases, that is, all sorts of diseases, Luke 11:42, pan lachanon, all manner of herbs.

V. 2. For Kings] He mentions Kings particularly, either because the Kings and Magistrates were then enemies to the Church, and persecutors of the Saints of God, and some might peradventure make scruple whether they ought to pray for such; the Apostle therefore resolves they ought; and yields a double reason for it, the former in this verse, that through God’s blessing upon their Government we may enjoy peace (Jer. 29:7). The latter in the fourth verse, because God excludes no sorts or conditions of men from the means of salvation. Or he names Kings in the first place, because they are highest in dignity, and upon the good use of their power very much depends the safety of the Church and Common-wealth.

authority] Or, eminent place.
honesty] Or, comeliness.

V.4. all men to be saved] By as much as appeared unto us by the will revealed in the Gospel, he excluding none by name, neither nation or condition whatsoever, Matthew 28:19. Mark 16:15. Or all, may be taken, not pro singulus generium, but pro geniribus singulorum. Verse. 1.

V. 5. Between] Gr. of. the man Christ Jesus] The Apostle does not add man to exclude the divine nature from his Mediatorship: for he is God revealed in the flesh, 1 Tim. 3:16. And God has purchased his Church by his blood, which through the eternal Spirit he offered without spot unto God, Heb. 9:14, but to express that nature in which he paid the ransom for us, mentioned in the verse following; and to show that our Mediator being a man, all sorts of men have by faith free access unto him and his offering, Heb. 2:10.

V. 6. a ransom for all] All that do believe in him, Matthew 20:28. John 3:16 and 10:15, Rom. 1:16 and 3:22.
to be testified in due time] Or a testimony. Gr. Tec. For all in due time. The word marturion, is left out in the Greek copy by Tecla, and the sense is full without it, “Who gave himself a ransom for all in due time;” but if retain the word because most copies have it, the meaning is, “That the ransom he paid was a real testimony of his Mediatorship betwixt God and man, whereby he reconciled both.” Or the meaning is, “That though their ransom were paid at one time, yet it is testified to several nations, kairois idois, at several seasons appointed by God for their conversion.

Annotations Upon all the Books of the Old and New Testament: This Second Edition so enlarged, As they make an entire Commentary on the Sacred Scripture: The like never before published in English. Wherein The Text is Explained, Doubts Resolved, Scriptures Paralleled (London: Printed by John Legat, 1651). [Some reformatting; some spelling modernized; italics original; and underlining mine.]

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3
Apr

The Westminster Annotations on Psalm 81:13

   Posted by: CalvinandCalvinism   in Psalm 81:13

Annotations:

O that my people had harkened unto me] God shows, that the obedience of his people is as pleasing to him, as things wished for are to men, Deut. 5:29, Isa. 48:18. See before upon the title of the Psalm 72 of God’s conditional promises, out of Ezek. 33:13, &c.

Annotations Upon all the Books of the Old and New Testament: This Second Edition so enlarged, As they make an entire Commentary on the Sacred Scripture: The like never before published in English. Wherein The Text is Explained, Doubts Resolved, Scriptures Paralleled (London: Printed by John Legat, 1651).

2 Peter 2:1:

Denying] By total apostasy, or evil life, unbelieving the servants of Christ, Tit. 1:16. See more on Jude 4.

The Lord that bought them] That gave a price sufficient for them, even his own precious Blood, Acts, 20:27; 1 Cor. 6:20; 1 Pet. 1:18, 19. Or, by whom they professed that they were redeemed: and therefore they should not have denied him.

Annotations Upon all the Books of the Old and New Testament: This Second Edition so enlarged, As they make an entire Commentary on the Sacred Scripture: The like never before published in English. Wherein The Text is Explained, Doubts Resolved, Scriptures Paralleled (London: Printed by John Legat, 1651). [No pagination.]

Jude 4:

ungodly men] Such as worship God not aright; or have no fear of God at all, Gen. 20:11; Psa. 30:1; Rom. 3;18.

turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness] The grace of God invites us to sobriety, Tit. 2:11,12, but they turn it to a contrary end.

Denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ] Denying Christ to be God, who was their master by profession (for the professed themselves to be of his household) and their Lord by public authority over them. Or, by their deeds denying Christ.

Annotations Upon all the Books of the Old and New Testament: This Second Edition so enlarged, As they make an entire Commentary on the Sacred Scripture: The like never before published in English. Wherein  The Text is Explained, Doubts Resolved, Scriptures Paralleled (London: Printed by John Legat, 1651). [No pagination.]

[Notes: These two brief comments demonstrate that the early Reformed theology was able to interpret these verses in such a way that Christ, as Lord and Master, is the subject, while also allowing that the “buying” was by way of a sufficient redemptive price for them.]

The Annotations:

First edition:
V. 16. For God so loved the world] 1 Joh. 4.9. Mankind.

Annotations Upon all the Books of the Old and New Testament Wherein the Text is Explained, Doubts Resolved, Scriptures Paralleled, and Various Readings Observed. By the Joynt-Labour of cerrtain Learned Divines, thereunto appointed, and therein employed, (London: Printed by John Legatt and John Raworth, 1645). [No pagination.]

Second edition:

v.16. For God so loved, &c.] In this verse Christ shows these four concurrent causes of our redemption and salvation. 1. The principal first impulsive; the love of God, which can have no cause but itself. 2. The material, or price of our redemption, his only begotten Son. 3. The instrumental; faith in Christ: that whosoever believes in him. 4. the final, eternal life.

the world] That is, mankind, for Christ speaks not here of the common love of God where he wills the good of conservation to the creature; so he loved all creatures, but of his special love, where he wills man should be saved by Christ, and he is truly to love the world, because they whom he loves to eternal life, are in the world, a part of the world, and gathered by his word and Spirit into the body of the Church, out of all ages and parts of the world, God loved all that he had made: he loves not sin which is neither in him nor of him, he loved a sinning world (for when we were enemies, he reconciled us. Rom. 5.10) but not the sins of the world: if we speak of the of God’s peculiar love which is to eternal life; we must understand the elect only, opposed to that part thereof, concerning which it is said; the whole world lies in wickedness. 1 Joh. 5.19. and, I pray not for the world-c. 17.9. Christ prayed for those whom he loved to salvation; that is, for the elect only I pray for them I pray not for the world, the elect are in the world, not of the world (c. 17.16) that is, of that party which lies in sin and unbelief; so two sorts of men are intimated, sub uno mundi nomine; under this one name, world (says Prosper) sicut enim dicitur mundus in impriis, ita dicitur mundus in sanctis—the wicked are called the world, and here the saints are called the world which God loves, God loves us such as we shall be by his gift, non quales sumus nostro merito. Augustin. de C.D. l.17. c.4. not such as we are by our desert, he loved, quod fecerat &c elegerat in filio, faith the same tr. 110. in Joh. 17. that which he had made, and chosen in his Son; out of whom he loves no man to eternal life: A Prince may be truly said, to love his Subjects specially then, when he punishes the perverse, rebellious, and seditious among them; and a Physician his patient, specially when humors which disaffect him: so neither can it prejudicate the love of God that he cuts off and condemns reprobates, or when with severe corrections, he fetches in, amends, and saves those whom he loved and elect from eternity, thus then the creator, and Lord of lords, loved the world; that is wretched mankind dispersed, upon the face of the the earth, without difference of nation, dignity, sex, or age: all the world with his common love, (of which all have some taste) of the elect only, according to the effect thereof, his purpose of saving them in Christ.   Annotations Upon all the Books of the Old and New Testament: This Second Edition so enlarged, As they make an entire Commentary on the Sacred Scripture: The like never before published in English. Wherein The Text is Explained, Doubts Resolved, Scriptures Paralleled (London: Printed by John Legat, 1651). [No pagination.]

[Notes: 1) As with the New Testament Henry and Poole commentaries, these Annotations were compiled by various authors and so can display a variety of theological and interpretative traditions at various points;  2) having read the enlarged comment, the one thing we can be sure about is that this annotator did believe in a general non-electing love and thought this to be an authentic expression of Westminsterian doctrine; and 3) credit to Donald MacLean of the James Durham Thesis for making me aware of this second edition.]

[comments below]

Fesko:

From within the early modern period authors identify several major positions on the extent of Christ’s satisfaction. John Ball (1585- 1640) acknowledges only two chief positions, covering Remonstrant and Reformed views; the Remonstrants hold that Christ "died for all and every man with a purpose to save," and the latter "distinguish the sufficiency and efficiency of Christ’s death."73 Francis Turretin first acknowledges, "Though all agree that Christ died for each and everyone, still they do not explain their meaning in the same way."74 He then delineates three different major classes, those who argue that Christ conditionally died for all and absolutely died only for the elect, those who claim that Christ died absolutely for all, and the "common opinion of the Reformed" that Christ died only for the elect.75 In this threefold classification Turretin has in mind the views of John Cameron (ca. 1579-1625) and Moise Amyraut (1596-1664) for the first view, the Remonstrants for the second, and the Reformed for the third. John Davenant (1572-1641), in his treatise on the death of Christ, notes that the church fathers and theologians of the Middle Ages contended that Christ died sufficiently for all, but efficiently, or effectually, for only the elect. Davenant points out that the doctors of the Reformed church from the beginning of the Reformation embraced this common sufficient-efficient theological distinction.76

Davenant points to several Reformed theologians to illustrate this claim, including Bullinger, Aretius, Musculus, and Zanchi. Heinrich Bullinger states quite simply: "The Lord died for all: but all are not partakers of this redemption, through their own fault. Otherwise the Lord excludes no one but him who excludes himself by his own unbelief and faithlessness."77 Benedict Aretius (1505-1574) says, "Christ died for all, yet notwithstanding all do not embrace the benefit of his death, because by their own wickedness, and the corruption of their nature, they despise the offered grace."78 Wolfgang Musculus (1497-1563) likewise offers, ‘We know that all be not partakers of this redemption, but yet the losse of them which be not saved, doth hinder nothing at all, why it shoulde not be called an universal redemption, whiche is appointed not for one nation, but for all the whole world."79 And Girolamo Zanchi (1516-1590) also holds to the universality of the satisfaction of Christ: "That it is not false that Christ died for all men as it regards his conditional will, that is, if they are willing to become partakers of his death through faith. For the death of Christ is set before all in the Gospel, and no one is excluded from it, but he who excludes himself."80 All of these Reformed theologians argue that in some sense Christ died for all. So the question arises, how do Reformed theologians relate the satisfaction of Christ to the redemption of the elect?

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