Edward Polhill (1622-1694) on 1 Timothy 2:4 (with Ezekiel 33:11)

Polhill:

Having thus debated the manner of conversion, I proceed to the last thing proposed, viz.;

Query 3. Whether the will of God touching conversion be always accomplished therein? For answer whereunto, I must first lay down a distinction as a foundation. God may be said to will the conversion of men two ways; either by such a will as is effective, and determinative of the event, or by such a d as is only virtual, and ordinative of the means tending thereunto: both parts of this distinction are bottomed upon scripture.

1. God wills the conversion of some by a will as is effective and determinative of the event. There are some chosen to holiness, (Eph. i. 4), called kata prothesin according to purpose, (Rom. vii. 28); predestinated to be conformed to Christ’s Image, (ver. 29); begotten of God’s own will to be first-fruits to him, (Jam. i. 18); and within that election of grace which doth ever obtain, (Rom. xi. 5, 1). Touching these, the will of God is effective and determinative of the event, in these, conversion is wrought after an irresistible and insuperable manner.

2. God wills the conversion of others by such a will as is only virtual and ordinative of the means tending thereunto. Thus God would have healed Israel, (Hos. vii. 1). Thus God wills “the turning of the wicked, who yet dies in his sin,” (Ezek. xxxiii. 11), because the true tendency of the means is to heal and turn them. Thus the apostle asserts, that God ” will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth,” (1 Tim. ii. 4). In which place, as I take it, the word “all” extends further than to the elect; for those words of the apostle are laid down as a ground of that exhortation to “pray for all men,” (ver. 1); and that exhortation to prayer extends further than to the elect: wherefore, the ”all” whom God would have to be saved, being parallel and co-extensive to the “all” whom we are to pray for, must also extend beyond the elect. Wherefore, I conceive that the latter part of the words, viz., “and to come to the knowledge of the truth,” is a key to the former, viz, “that God would have all to be saved.” God would have all to be saved, so far, as he would have all to come to the knowledge of the truth, and he would have all to come to the knowledge of the truth, so far, as he wills means of knowledge unto them; for the true end and tendency of the means (and that from the will of God ordaining the same thereunto) is that men might be turned and saved: wherefore, in respect of that ordination, God may be truly said, by a kind of virtual and ordinative will, to will the turning and salvation of all men.

Edward Polhill, “The Divine Will Considered in its Eternal Decrees,” in The Works of Edward Polhill (Morgan, PA.: Soli Deo Gloria Publications, 1998), 208. [Some spelling modernized, and underlining mine.]

William Tyndale (1494–1536) on 1 Timothy 2:4

Tyndale:

How this place (God will have all men saved) is understood.

God will have all men saved.  ¶  That is, will have the Gospell preached to all men, without exception, & offer to all men repentance, and will have all men praied for. Tyndale.

Iohn Marbeck, A Book of Notes and Common Places, collected and gathered out of the works of diuers singular Witers, and brought Alphabetically in order (Imprinted at London by Thomas East, 1581), 24. [Original spelling retained.]

Thanks to Tony for the find.

Robert Rollock (1555-1599) on 1 Timothy 2:4

Rollock:

God wills all men to be saved. 1 Tim. 2:4. He wills, I say, salvation even of the reprobate, because salvation of the creature in itself is a good thing: it is true, he does not decree it, it is true, he decrees the death and destruction of them [the reprobate]. This will is a certain willing and approving simply, it is true even a certain decreeing. [...] for there is either an effective decreeing, or a permissive decreeing.

Deus vult omnes homines salvos fieri. I. Tim. 2.4. vult, inquam, salutem etiam reproborum, quia salus creaturae in se res bona est: verùm non decernit eam, imò verò decernit mortem ac perniciem eorum. [...] Estque voluntas quaedam verò etiam decernens. [...] est enim vel decernens effective, vel decernens permissive.

Rollock, “Analysis Dialectica” [...] in Pauli Apostoli Epistolam ad Romanos 8:19-39, p. 140.

Courtesy of Marty

John de l’ Espine (1506-1597) on 1 Timothy 2:5: Informal Reference

de l’ Espine:

Having shown by all the chapters and discourses going before, that the Apostates are without God, without Mediator, without law, without faith, without sacraments, it does follow thereof immediately, that they are also without the Church. For, as there is but one God, one creator and redeemer of the world [1 Tim. 2:5.]: so there is but one people which he has chosen and set apart and reserve them for himself, to sanctify them [Psal. 74:2.] and make then an everlasting covenant with them, to rule and govern them by his word and Spirit, and to defend them from all their enemies, even from death [Hos. 2:19.]: of whom he will also be particularly known, and called upon, served and worshiped in spirit and truth [John 4:24.].

M. Iohn de l’ Espine, An Excellent and Learned Treatise of Apostasie (Imprinted at London by Thomas Vautrollier dwelling in the Black-friers near Ludgate, 1587)  186b-187a. [Marginal references cited inline; some spelling modernized; pagination irregular; and underlining mine.]

William Burkitt (1650-1703) on 1 Timothy 2:3-5

Burkitt:

3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

Our apostle subjoins his reasons for our praying for all men, because Christ came into the world to save all men, chap. i. 15. Because it is the desire of God, us well as the design of Christ, that all men should be saved, and because such prayers are good and acceptable in the sight of God. Learn hence, 1. That to pray for all men, as well enemies as friends, especially and particularly for rulers and magistrates, magistrates, is good, acceptable, and agreeable to Almighty God, as all acts of obedience to his commanding will are: This is good and acceptable in the sight of God. Learn, 2. That it is not only all sorts of men that God and Christ desire should be saved, but our Lord willed, together with his Father, the salvation of all men in general, so far as to make a sacrifice sufficient for all, if they repent and believe, and to other a general pardon to all on condition of acceptance, and to send his ministers amongst all with the word of reconciliation, accompanying it with an hearty desire that all would accept of it; in short, what Christ offered to all, he undoubtedly purchased for all; but he offers to all pardon and life upon condition of acceptance, therefore he is so far willing that all men should be saved. Learn, 3. The means and method by which and in which God would have all men to be saved, namely, by coming to the knowledge of the truth; it is evidently false then, which some confidently affirm, that a man may be saved in any religion: no, he cannot come to salvation but by the knowledge of the truth ; without the knowledge of God, without faith in Christ, where he has been revealed, and without obedience to the gospel, where it has been made known, there is no possibility of salvation; God would have all men to be saved, by coming to the knowledge of the truth.

5 For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus: 6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

The apostle’s argument runs thus: We ought to pray for all, because there is one God who is good to all, and one Mediator between God and mankind, who took upon him the common nature of all men, and gave himself a satisfactory and sufficient ransom for all, which was in due time testified and borne witness to by us his apostles. Learn hence, 1. That the only way of friendly intercourse between God and fallen man, is by and through a Mediator, God cannot look upon fallen men out of a Mediator, but as rebels, traitors, and objects of his vindictive wrath; nor can fallen man, without a Mediator, look up to God, but as a provoked majesty, an angry judge, and a consuming fire. Learn, 2. That there is no other Mediator between God and man, but Jesus Christ, who was both God and man; for though the apostle calls him the Jesus Christ Jesus, this is not added to exclude the divine nature from the Mediatorship, but emphatically to declare that nature in which he gave himself a ransom for us; the human nature is the matter of our ransom; the divine nature gave worth and value to it; Christ suffered being man, and satisfied being God. Learn, 3. That this one Mediator, Jesus Christ, gave himself a ransom for all; whoever perishes under the gospel, it is not because no ransom was paid for him, nor because it was not sufficient for him, for it is most notorious that God has issued forth an universal act of grace, offering pardon of sin and eternal salvation to all men without exception, living under the gospel, upon condition of their believing acceptance; if they reject and refuse it, ’tis to their unutterable and inevitable condemnation. Learn, 4. That Christ’s mediation and intercession is founded upon redemption; because he gave himself a ransom for all, therefore is he, and he only, qualified to intercede for all, in virtue of that sacrifice which he offered for the salvation of mankind: therefore the distinction of the church of Rome, between a mediator of redemption, and a mediator of intercession, is groundless; for who dares plead with an offended God as an intercessor on the behalf of sinners, that has not first, as a redeemer, satisfied the justice of God for sin? As there was no redemption wrought by any, so there is no intercession to be made by any, but by Christ ; as there is but one God, so but one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

William Burkitt, Expostory Notes With Practical Observations on the New Testament (Philadelphia: Published by Thomas Wardle, 1835), 2:519-520. [Underlining mine.]