31
Aug

David Paraeus on 2 Peter 3:9 and Roms 2:4.

   Posted by: CalvinandCalvinism   in 2 Peter 3:9

[For the Harvest] This is the second reason, from the next cause, or order of nature requiring harvest when the corn is white, John. 4:35. “Lift up your eyes,” says Christ, and look on the fields, “for they are already white to harvest.” Therefore being ripe, the time of the harvest is at hand. This “ripeness” signifies that the measure of the Church’s calamities, Anti-Christ’s tyranny, and the inequity of the wicked was now full, as God in Gen. 18:21. says touching the sins of the Sodomites: that he was come to see whither they were come to the full height or not: And Christ of the Pharisees: Matt. 23:32. Full yee up the measure of your fathers.” This also commends both the patience and justice of God: The Lord is not slack in his judgement, but is patient towards us, not willing that any should perish: but by longsuffering leads us to repentance. So then he will execute judgement most justly, because he will do it, till there be no hope of the world’s recovery, and that the sins of men are come to that height as none shall have cause to complain either of the overmuch haste or severity of the Judge.

David Pareus, A Commentary Upon the Divine Revelation of the Apostle and Evangelist, John (Amsterdam: Printed by C.P. Anno, 1644), 361.

His name is sometimes spelt: Parreus, or Pareus.

One modern secondary source

1) Christ carried, dissolved, expiated the sins of all, if we consider the magnitude of the price or sufficiency of the ransom, but only the faithful and not of all, if we consider the efficacy, fruit and application of the ransom. Irenicum,” Source: G. Michael Thomas, The Extent of the Atonement, (Cumbria, UK: Paternoster: 1997), 116.

Two early secondary sources:

2) “And thus Pareus himself in his Irenicon saith, “That the sins of all men lay on Christ; and so he died for all, that is, for all mens sins as the cause of his death: And you may tell any wicked man, Thy sins killed Christ (what-ever the deniers say to excuse them).” Richard Baxter, Catholick Theologie (London, 1675), I.ii.53.

3) “The cause and matter of the passion of Christ was the sense and sustaining of the anger of God excited against the sin, not of some men, but of the whole human race; whence it arises, that the whole of reconciliation was not obtained or restored to all.  [Act. Synod. Dortrect. p. 217.]”

David Paraeus, “Letter to the Synod of Dort, on the Second Article of the Remonstrants,” cited by John Davenant, A Dissertation on the Death of Christ, 1832, 2:356.

Primary sources:

4) “Thou wast slain”] that is, by dying for the sins of the world, that declares thyself to be the Messiah, whom Isaiah forward should be led “as a sheep to the slaughter,” to take away the sins of the world. Here we are taught that the mediator ought both to be slain for us, that is, to merit: and also to take the book, that is meritoriously to bestow life an righteousness upon others. Seeing therefore he only merited by his sacrifice, it must necessarily follow, that none else could take the book, that is, reveal the counsel of God to the Church, and by his power give salvation.

“And thou has redeemed us to God by thy blood”] Now the Church triumphant praises the Lamb, and applies the price of her redemption with the effects thereof unto herself. Thus we ought so acknowledge the benefits of Christ, as to make them our own, not only in believing that he has redeemed others by his blood, “and made them kings and priests to God,” but ourselves also: for true justifying faith is accompanied with a certain persuasion of our own salvation: “I live,” says the Apostle, “by the faith of the son of God who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Hence we observe two things: “First” that the death of Christ is truly a ransom satisfactory for our sins: and that our redemption by it, is not metaphorical (as the new “Samosatenians” blasphemously affirm) but proper: for the redemption which is made by a price is proper. But such is ours by Christ, because by the shedding of his blood, he has paid a full ransom, and satisfied the justice of God, as the Scripture witnesses Matt. 20:28. and 1 Tim. 2:6. being the same with what is here said, “that has redeemed us by thy blood:” and Chap. 1:5. “who has washed us in his blood,” and Heb. 1:3. “purged our sins by himself:” unless that by the word “redemption” is properly signified the whole work of our salvation: by “washing” and “purging” a part thereof, viz. our justification or sanctification. This place therefore and so many others, proving Christ’s satisfactory ransom, are to be apposed against “Socinian blasphemies.”

“Secondly,” that the redemption by Christ’s blood, is truly universal, as sufficient, and propounded not only to one nation, or a few, but to all nations, tongues and peoples: yet not so, as if all promiscuously should be saved: but those of every tribe, people and language, who believe in Christ. And this much the Elders teach us: “Thou have redeemed us of every tribe.”

…“And behold, and round about the throne”] The third apparition is of angels who sing “the new song” together with the beasts and Elders: for howsoever the Angels are not Redeemed by the blood of Christ, as men: yet in Christ they are gathered together into one, being subject unto him as the head of the Church, whereof they are members: and therefore they also praise the Lamb, as their Lord, and bless him in regard to the redemption of man-kind. David Pareus, A Commentary Upon the Divine Revelation of the Apostle and Evangelist, John (Amsterdam: Printed by C.P. Anno, 1644), 103 and 104.

5) The same benefit of redemption the Elders celebrate, Chap.5:9. “Thou has redeemed us to our God by thy blood.” And indeed this benefit we enjoy in this life: for now, as many as through faith, are “sealed” in the blood of the lamb, are redeemed; howbeit the fulness of our redemption is reserved to the life to come.

But are not all redeemed by Christ, died he not for all? Says not the Apostle Peter that he bought these “false prophets,” by whom he is denied? To this Augustine well answers, that all are said to be redeemed, according to the dignity of the price: which would suffice for the redemption of all men, if all by faith did receive the benefit offered. But as many as pass the time of their being in this life in infidelity, they remain unredeemed through their own fault. The sealed therefore are only redeemed, because they alone by faith receive the grace of redemption, through the grace of election, which God vouchsafed them (not to the others) from all eternity. David Pareus, A Commentary Upon the Divine Revelation of the Apostle and Evangelist, John (Amsterdam: Printed by C.P. Anno, 1644), 333-334.

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