not that he found them friends or brethren, or children, but thatRom. 5.6,10. he might make them such, as by the participation of the benefits of his death they are made such indeed. The faithfull are the seed or children of Christ, which he hath brought forth with pain and travell. Isai. 53. 10, 11. The inheritance of Christ, which he hath purchased by his death, given unto him of the Father, that they might be redeemed from death, and possessed of him for their Salvation. Psal. 2. 8. as the Psalmist elsewhere expounds it, All the ends of the world shall remember and turne unto the Lord: and all the kinreds of the Nations shall worship before thee.Psal. 22.27.
Psal. 72.11.
and 86.9. And if Christ died thus for his people, seed, inheritance, sheep, and Church, he died not equally for all and every man: for then in his death he considered none to be made his sheep or brethren before others, nor did he purchase grace that one should be made the child of God rather then another. For though grace be distributed, in different degrees, yet that being so common to them that beleeve and them that beleeve not, that sometimes the greater measure is given to them that reject and cast it off, it cannot be the cause why one man differs from another.
Many things are answered to this argument; As first, that it is not saidSynodal. circ. Art. 2. pa. 317.
Vorst. amica collat. cum Piscat. sect. 26.
Gal. 2.20. Christ died for his sheep, or brethren only, and that his dying for them doth not exclude others; as Paul saith, Christ died for him, applying the death of Christ to himself, but not excluding others. But the instance is not like; for these words (for me) are not disjunctive to distinguish Paul from the rest of the faithfull, but from unbeleevers, or them that were not in the same state or kind. This is a priviledge common to Paul with all beleevers, that Christ died for him: in respect of them then it is not disjunctive, but in respect of them who be not partners in that prerogative, it is disjunctive. Therefore the example doth rather prove the speech to be restrictive, then otherwise: for as these words of Paul, Who loved me, and gave himself for me, distinguish Paul from the company of unbeleevers, and so are exclusive: in like manner are these words of our Saviour, I lay down my life for my sheep, restrictive and exclusive. In those Texts there is no exclusive particle expressed, but the proposition for sense is restrictive. For when difference or distinction is contained in some terme, the Proposition is for sense exclusive, no lesse then if it wasexpressly
