"But Paul teaches us (continues Georgius) that
God 'would have all men to be saved.'" It follows, therefore, according
to his understanding of that passage, either that God is disappointed
in His wishes, or that all men without exception must be saved. If he
should reply that God wills all men to be saved on His part, or as far
as he is concerned, seeing that salvation is, nevertheless, left to
the free will of each individual; I, in return, ask him why, if such
be the case, God did not command the Gospel to be preached to all men
indiscriminately from the beginning of the world? why He suffered so
many generations of men to wander for so many ages in all the darkness
of death? Now it follows, in the apostle's context, that God "would
have all men come to the knowledge of the truth." But the sense
of the whole passage is perfectly plain, and contains no ambiguity to
any reader of candour and of a sound judgment. We have fully explained
the whole passage in former pages. The apostle had just before
exhorted that solemn and general prayers should be offered up in the
Church "for kings and princes," etc., that no one might have
cause to deplore those kings and magistrates whom God might be pleased
to set over them; because, at that time, rulers were the most violent
enemies of the faith. Paul, therefore, makes Divine provision for this
state of things by the prayers of the Church, and by affirming that
the grace of Christ could reach to this order of men also, even to kings,
princes and rulers of every description.
Membership of Baptists in a Presbyterian Church
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