1627-1673
Swinnock held to Limited Atonement, as described in his sermon on John 1:29
Heaven and Hell Epitomized, in his Works, vol. 3
p. 342-346, James Nicol edition, 1868, this quote was compiled by David Ponter
Have you never beheld a condemned prisoner dissolved into tears, upon the unexpected and unmerited receipt of a pardon, who all the time before was as hard as a flint? The hammer of the law may break the icy heart of man with terrors and horror, and yet it may remain ice still, unchanged; but when the fire of love kindly thaws its ice, it is changed and dissolved into water it is no longer ice, but of another nature. Where the sun is most predominant, there are the sweetest spices, the richest mines, and the costliest jewels. Do you therefore meditate much on the love of God and Christ to your unworthy soul: think what love is it that still spares you, notwithstanding all your God-daring and soul damning provocations, and that when others, probably better than yourself, are every day and night sent to that place, where God has large interest for his long patience. What love is it, not only to forbear you, but also to do you good! You his enemy are hungry, He feeds you; you are thirsty, He gives you drink. If a man find his enemy, will he let him go? 1 Sam. 24:19. But lo, God finds thee every moment. As all your sins are within the reach of his eye, so you yourself are continually within the reach of his arm; He can as easily turn you into hell, as tell you of hell: and yet He lets you go, and more than that, does you good. You spend every hour upon the stock of mercy. God is at great charge and much cost in continuing meat and drink, and health and strength, and time which you do ravel out, and wanton away unprofitably.
What love was that in the Father which sent his own Son to die, that you might live! Well might the beloved disciple [John] say, God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life, John 3:16. In this the bowels of divine love are naked, as in an anatomy: in other things the love of God is as the beams of the sun scattered, which are warm and comfortable; but in this it is as the beams of the sun united in a burning glass, hot, fiery, burning love. God so loved the world, so dearly, so entirely, so incomparably, so infinitely: it is a sic [thus] without a sicut [just as], as one observes a pattern which can never be paralleled. In this God commended his love towards us, in that when we were sinners Christ died for us, Rom. 5:8. When God sent his Son into the world, He did, as it were, say to Him, ‘My dear Son, thou Son of my chief love and choicest delight, go to the wicked, unworthy world, commend me to them, and tell them, that in thee I have sent them such a love-token, such an unquestionable testimony of my favor and good-will towards them, that hereafter they shall never have the least color of reason to suspect my love, or to say, Wherein hast thou loved us?’ Mal. 1:2.
What love was that in the Son of God, which moved Him to become the Son of man, that you might become the son of God! What love was that which made Him so willingly undergo the scorns, and flouts, and derisions of wretched men, the rage, and malice, and assaults of ravenous devils, the wrath and fury of a righteous God; such pangs and tortures in his body as no mouth can express, such sorrows and horror in his soul as no mind can conceive; and all that you might escape such misery, and obtain everlasting mercy! Greater love than this hath no man, that a man lay down his life for his friend, John 15:13. The passion of Christ was the greatest evidence of his affection. The laying down of life did abundantly proclaim his love. His love before was like wine in a cask, hardly seen; but oh how did it sparkle and cast its color in the glass of his sufferings! This diamond, before hid in the shell, does shine radiantly in the ring of his death. If his tears did so much speak his love to Lazarus, that the Jews who saw Him weeping, cried out, Lo, how He loved him! surely his heart-blood does far more demonstrate his love to his members. They that beheld Him bleeding in the garden, had far more reason to say, Look, lo how He loved his!
What love is that which did all this for such a worm as you are, such a sinner, such a rebel? what would God lose if you were eternally lost? the least tittle of his happiness would not be diminished. This sun is no loser when men shut their eyes, and will not behold its light; what gains God, if He gain you to Himself, to his service? You cannot add the least cubit to the stature of his perfections. The refreshment is to men, not to the spring, when the weary passengers drink of it. He does not command you to repent from any need He has of you, but from the pity He has to you. He entreats you to return, not that He may be blessed and happy, but that He may be bountiful and liberal in bestowing on you those blessings which accompany salvation. Methinks the apprehension of God’s great love and goodness should have such an impression on you as to make you little and low in your own thoughts. Is it not a wonder that God should vouchsafe a gracious look upon such a clod of earth, a piece of clay, as you are? but what admiration can answer this love and condescension, that God should wait and entreat to lift you up, who would cast Him down? that an emperor should sue to a traitor; that majesty should thus stoop to misery; that the Lord of life and glory should prepare for you exceeding rich and precious promises, a crown of life, a purchased possession, and beseech you to accept of them! Were your heart never such hard metal, one would think that such a hot fire of burning love should melt it.
I have in two or three authors read of five men that met together, and asked each other what means they used to abstain from sin? The first said, the thoughts of the certainty of death, and uncertainty of the time, moved him to live every day as if it were his last day. The second said, he meditated of the day of judgment, and the torments of hell, and they frighted him from meddling with his dangerous enemy, sin. The third considered of the deformity of sin, and beauty of holiness. The fourth, of the abundant happiness provided in heaven for holy ones. The last continually thought of the Lord Jesus Christ and his love, and this made him ashamed to sin against God. Reader, if you have but any ingenuity, the abuse of such love and kindness should work upon you. Some say, the blood of a goat will soften an adamant [hard rock]; shall not then the blood of this true goat dissolve your adamantine [refusing to be persuaded] heart? Beasts themselves have been won by kindness, and will you be worse than a beast, that such philanthropy and kindness of God shall no whit stir you or humble you?
p. 352-354, this quote was compiled by Tony Byrne
Works
3:698-702, this quote was compiled by David Ponter, see here for the larger context.
SERMON 16
THE LAMB OF GOD, THE GREAT ATONEMENT
“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”
John 1:29
…
But, on the other hand [after finding universalism and hypothetical-universalism inadequate], I cannot think the sense of the expression is sufficiently explained, by saying, That the world, and the whole world is spoken of, to teach us that the sacrifice of the Lamb of God was not confined, like the Levitical offerings, to the nation of Israel only; but that it is available for the sins of a determinate number of persons, called the Elect, who are scattered among many nations, and found under a great variety of states and circumstances inhuman life. This is undoubtedly the truth, so far as it goes; but not, I apprehend, fully agreeable to the scriptural manner of representation. That there is an election of grace, we are plainly taught; yet it is not said, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save the elect, but that he came to save sinners, to seek and to save them that are lost, 1 Tim. 1:15; Luke 19:10. Upon this ground, I conceive that ministers have a warrant to preaching the gospel to every human creature, and to address the conscience of every man in the sight of God; and that every person who hears this gospel has thereby a warrant, an encouragement, yea, a command, to apply to Jesus Christ for salvation. And that they who refuse, thereby exclude themselves, and perish, not because they never had, nor possibly could have any interest in his atonement, but simply because they will not come unto him that they may have life. I know something of the cavils and curious reasonings which obtain upon this subject, and I know I may be pressed with difficulties, which I cannot resolve to the full satisfaction of inquiring and speculative spirits. I am not disheartened by meeting with some things beyond the grasp of my scanty powers, in a book which I believe to be inspired by Him, whose ways and thoughts are higher than ours, as the heavens are higher than the earth, Isa. 55:8,9. But I believe, that vain reasonings, self-will, an attachment to names and parties, and a disposition to draw our sentiments from human systems, rather than to form them by a close and humble study of the Bible, with prayer for divine teaching, are the chief sources of our perplexities and disputes.
…
…so in Jesus, the Sun of righteousness, there is plenteous redemption, He is rich in mercy to all that call upon him (Psal. 130:7; Rom. 10:12); and He invites sinners, without exception, to whom the word of his salvation is sent, even to the ends of the earth, to look unto Him, that they may be saved, Isa. 45:22.
Under the gospel-dispensation, and by it, God commands all men, everywhere, to repent, Acts 17:30. All men, therefore, everywhere, are encouraged to hope for forgiveness, according to the constitution prescribed by the gospel; otherwise repentance would be both impracticable and unavailing. And therefore the command to repent implies a warrant to believe in the name of Jesus as taking away the sin of the world. Let it not be said, that to call upon men to believe, which is an act beyond their natural power, is to mock them. There are prescribed means for the obtaining of faith, which it is not beyond their natural power to comply with, if they are not willfully obstinate. We have the word of God for our authority. God cannot be mocked (Gal. 6:7), neither does He mock his creatures, Our Lord did not mock the young ruler, when He told him that if he would sell his possessions upon earth, and follow Him, he should have treasure in heaven, Luke 17:22. Had this ruler no power to sell his possessions? I doubt not but that he himself thought he had power to sell them if he pleased. But while he loved his money better than he loved Christ, and preferred earthly treasures to heavenly, he had no will to part with them. And a want of will in a moral agent is a want of power in the strongest sense. Let none presume to offer such excuses to their Maker as they would not accept in their own concerns. If you say of a man, he is such a liar that he cannot speak a word of truth; so profane that he cannot speak without an oath; so dishonest that he cannot omit one opportunity of cheating or stealing; do you speak of this disability to good, as an extenuation, and because you think it renders him free from blame? Surely you think the more he is disinclined to good, and habituated to evil, the worse he is. A man that can speak lies and perjury, that can deceive and rob, but is such an enemy to truth and goodness that he can do nothing that is kind or upright, must be a shocking character indeed! Judge not more favorably of yourself if you can love the world and sensual pleasure, but cannot love God; if you can fear a worm like yourself, but live without the fear of God; if you can boldly trample upon his laws, but will not, and therefore cannot humble yourself before him, and seek his mercy, in the way of his appointment.
The Christian Man’s Calling, in The Works, Banner of Truth edition, 2:478-485, this quote was compiled by David Ponter.
12. He is thus patient towards men, who did not wait at all on angels. The angels were more noble creatures, and able to have done him more and better service than man; yet, when they sinned, he did not wait a moment for their repentance; but He stretches out his hand all the day long to man. [Isa. 65:2] He that would not wait upon disloyal courtiers, waits upon rebellious beggars. Consider the causes of it.
The moving cause is his own gracious nature. Men forbear punishing malefactors, sometimes because they are related to them, sometimes from hope of advantage by them, sometimes because they are afraid of them; but God forbears none upon any such grounds. His goodness is the only string that ties his hand from striking; ‘Yea, many years did thou forbear them, for thou art a gracious and a merciful God,’ Neh. 9:30,31.
The final cause is manifold [multiple and diverse]:
1. That He might exalt his great name. It is light straw that upon the least spark takes fire. The discretion of a man defers his anger, and it is his glory to pass by infirmities; mean and low spirits are most peevish and passionate; sickly and weak persons are observed to be the most impatient. God makes his power known, when He endures with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction. He intends the advancement of his praise in the lengthening of his patience: ‘For my name’s sake will I defer mine anger; for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off,’ Isa, 48:9.
2. That sinners might amend, He is patient, that men might not perish, ‘The Lord is not slack, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.’ [2 Pet. 3:9] He defers their execution, that they might sue out their pardon. The Lord waits, not that He might be blessed in Himself, but that He may be gracious to sinners.
3. That impenitent sinners might be left without excuse. If sinners that are turned out of the womb into hell [unsaved babies], will justify God, surely those upon whom He waited twenty, or thirty, or forty, or fifty years for their conversion, will condemn themselves. If all forbearing mercy may well be silent. Oh, how little will they have to say for themselves upon whom grace waited so many years, knocking hard at the door of their hearts for acceptance, and they refused to open to it [Rev. 3:20], or bid it come in. How justly will they suffer long in the other world, to whom God was so long-suffering to no purpose in this world, Rom. iv. 2.
How fully, O my soul, does the Scripture mention this patience of thy God! ‘The Lord passed by and proclaimed his name, The Lord, The Lord God, gracious, long-suffering.’ Though sinners try his patience by their heaven-daring provocations, yet the Lord is gracious, slow to anger, and of great kindness; oftentimes they do their utmost to kindle the fire of his anger, but many a time turned He away his anger, and did not stir up all his wrath. What monuments of his patience has He reared up in his word! It is also written in broad letters in his works; He bore with the Jews after their unparalleled murder of his own Son, above forty years. The old world had larger experiences of his forbearance. My Spirit shall not always strive with man, yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.’ [Gen. 6:3] The Egyptians, though cruel persecutors of his own people, that were as dear to Him as the apple of his eye, yet were suffered four hundred years. He bears with men till He can no longer forbear. The woman with child is forced, though she hold out long, to fall in labor at last. ‘I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman,’ Isa. 42:14.
O you dear friend of mankind, that you were imprinted in my thoughts, engraven in my heart, and always before mine eyes! O my soul, consider this long-suffering of your God, till you taste some relish of its sweetness! This name of your God is as ointment poured out, which yields a refreshing fragrancy; has it been all your days so near you, and done so much for you, and will you not give it some warm entertainment within you? Have you not infinite cause to cry out, ‘Oh the depth of the patience and forbearance of God!’ As soon as you were conceived, you were corrupted; before you were born, sin was brought forth in you; your God might have turned you out of thy mother’s belly into the belly of hell; devils might have been the midwife to deliver your mother of such a monster, and their dungeon of darkness the first place in which you did breath; yet He, who might have caused eternal death to have trodden upon the heels of your natural birth, spared you. Had He then suffered the roaring lions, his executioners, to have dragged you to their own den, He had got Himself glory, and prevented much dishonor, which you have since brought to his name. As you did grow up, sin grew up in you, and patience grew up with you. Numberless have your iniquities been, and his advantages for you destruction, yet He has forborne you. What has He got by all his long-suffering toward you? He might have ruined you, to his eternal honor; but his forbearance has seemed to impair the revenues of heaven. Wicked men question his power, and good men quarrel with his providence, and all because of his patience. When some sinners are hanged on gibbets, as spectacles of his justice, others are kept in the more awe; but if judgment be not speedily executed, the hearts of the sons of men are set in them to do mischief. The thanks that are usually paid Him for his patience, are indignities and affronts; the sleeping of vengeance occasions the awakenings of sin. Besides, their thoughts of Him are the more profane as well as their actions. If He be patient towards the sinner, He is judged a party of the sin. ‘These things thou didst, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself;’ because He is silent, they judge Him consenting, when He abounds so much in it, though He be so great a loser by it? Was not the patience of your Redeemer on earth wonderful, in bearing such mockings, smitings on the cheek, spittings in his face, scourgings on his back? But your Redeemer in heaven endures more affronts ever moment against his divine nature, than He did all his time of abode in this world, against his human nature. Oh, why are you no more warmed with it, and wondering at it? Even a Saul was so affected with the forbearance of David, that he should spare his enemy when he had him in his hands, and might as easily have cut his throat as the skirt of his garment, that he lift up his voice and wept. And are not you affected with the patience of your God, in whose hand is your life, and breath, and all your comforts, who can with a glance of his eye turn you into the fiery furnace, against who you are an open traitor and professed rebel, that He should spare you so many years, and instead of heaping up judgments on you, lade you with his benefits? Consider:
…
3. He that spares you did not spare his own Son. The Son of God did no sooner stand in the place of sinners, but it pleased the Lord to bruise Him, and to put Him to grief, and to make his soul an offering for sin. Though He were free from sin, He was a man of sorrows; and you who are little else than sin has not so much as tasted what such sorrows are. Your God has forborne you, a monster of rebellion and wickedness, when He would not in the least forbear Him who was a miracle of obedience and dutifulness; nay, He did not spare Him, that He might spare you, and would not forbear Him, because He intended to forbear you. Wonder, O my soul, at this transcendent grace and goodness! Is it possible for you to consider how a sudden arrow has shot others dead on your right and left hand! how the angels themselves, upon their first breach of the divine law, were without any pity or forbearance reserved in chains of darkness, to the judgment of the great day! Nay, how the Son of God’s boundless love, who never offended Him, for becoming only a surety for other’s sins, was without the least forbearance arrested and forced to pay the utmost farthing; and that you who are a lump of lust, a sink of sin, an old enemy and traitor against the crown and dignity of the King of heaven, after thousands and millions of provocations against law and gospel, light and love, precepts and promises, are to this day spared! Can you, I say, consider all this, and not be transported into a high and holy passion of love and admiration, at such unparalleled patience? You may well say with the holy apostle, ‘In me Jesus Christ has showed forth all long-suffering and patience, for an example to them that should hereafter believe in Him unto eternal life.’
O my soul, :what do you think of these things? Was ever patience represented in such lively lovely colors? You may now fully satisfy yourself in the reason of your abode so many years on this side the unquenchable lake. Do you ask, Why was I not cut off from the womb, and hurried through the light of this world to blackness of darkness for ever? I answer, Because your God is patient. Do you ask, Though I was not as a poisonous viper, crushed to death, as soon as brought forth, with the foot of divine wrath, for the venom which was in me; yet when I put it forth to the injury of others, and did spit it in the face of God Himself, why was I spared? I answer, Because God is patient. You sin often, every day, every hour, in every thought, in every word, in every deed, and He spares as often, because He is patient. You read of a season when the patience of the saints does especially triumph. ‘Here is the faith and patience of the saints;’ this world is the stage, and this life is the time, wherein the patience of your God does act its part, to the amazement of all judicious spectators; here is the faithfulness and patience of your God. Oh that I could affect and admire it, embrace and entertain it according to its worth! Oh that my heart were filled with its warmth, my tongue with its praise, and my life ,with its end! Oh you that are so much in favor with God, and so great a friend to men, that you were engraven upon the palms of my hands, and your walls were ever before me! Oh that your noble deeds, and what wonders You have wrought for the children of men, were written for the generations to come, that the people yet unborn might praise the Lord! When, oh when shall this patience of my God make a suitable impression upon my spirit! I live upon it, I live by it, I had been a firebrand of hell at this moment had it not been for it, yet how great a stranger am I to it [God’s patience]! It goes with me when I walk abroad, it abides with me when I stay at home, it follows me up and down day and night; I am beholden to it for my life and all my mercies, for my present enjoyments and future expectations; yet, alas, how little am I affected with it! I wonder at the patience of some choice Christians, that hold their tongues when others revile them, and their hands when others assault them; and do not wonder at the patience of my God, when their injuries are nothing to his, either for nature or number; and their patience to his far less than the smallest drop to the ocean. O my soul, how will you be able to answer for this senseless stupidity? Must the candles of creatures be gazed at with amazement, and your God alone be neglected? Is a beam of the sun worthy of such admiration, and not its glorious body worthy of much more? Will you not value a pearl of such infinite price, and disesteem all the meekness and forbearance of men, in comparison of the patience of your God? Oh, where is your judgment, that you value so little such unsearchable riches, that you do not cry out, Oh the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of the forbearance of God? Where are your affections, that they do not cling about it, cleave to it, close with it, delight in its presence, and desire its continuance? Where is your heart, that it does not taste its [God’s patience’s] sweetness, smell its savior, love its gracious author, and meditate on its precious nature and pleasant effects night and day? Where are my spiritual senses, that they are not conversant about so worthy an object? I cannot open mine eyes, but I may behold it in everything that is visible. The food, and raiment, and life, and health, and strength, and liberty, that I and others enjoy, present the patience of God unto me. Every friend I converse with, every drunkard and unclean person and atheist–yea, every man I meet, tells me, God is patient. The oaths, and curses, and murders, and adulteries, and blasphemies, and profaneness of wicked men, cry aloud in mine ears, that God is patient. The persecutions, and oppressions, and prayers, and cries, and tears of good men, proclaim to my conscience, that God is patient. The Sabbaths and ordinances, and seasons of grace, and offers of pardon and life, which both good and bad enjoy, speak plainly and distinctly, The Lord is patient. Oh that mine eyes could see it, mine ears hear it, and mouth taste it, my mind discern it, and my soul relish it in all these! O you beautiful beam, darted from the Sun of righteousness, that calls poor mortals to life, when they are at the brink of death, you that are the wonder of glorious angels, and glorified saints, be you unto me as a bundle of myrrh, and a cluster of camphor, always unto me; let me love you much for my own sake, because you have done so much for me, but most for the Lord’s sake, because He is all in all unto me.
Well, O my soul, how will you requite [return the favor of] the kindness you have received from this patience of your God? When Ahasuerus, a heathen, had read and considered how Mordecai saved his life, by discovering the two traitors that sought to lay hands on the king, he cried out, What honor has been done to Mordecai for this? and could take no rest till he had given him some signal honor. You have read, for your whole life is a book written within and without with it, how the patience of your God has saved your life, the life of your soul, when sin and Satan conspired together to take it away; now will you not say within yourself, What honor has been done to the patience of God for this? and be unsatisfied till you have done it some honor, for this good office it has done you? What love does that friend deserve who saves your life? What esteem does that hand of pity merit, that keeps you out of the bottomless pit? What thanks is that messenger worthy of, that brings you, a condemned sinner, certain news of a reprieve, and great hopes of a pardon? Surely the respect you owe to the patience of God, which does as much for you as all this, should be very great, especially considering your disrespects formerly to the God of patience have been very grievous. Lord, I acknowledge I have formerly much abused your patience, using it as an encouragement to profaneness, and turning your grace into wantonness; but now through your strength I will no longer despise the riches of your forbearance, but be led through your goodness to repentance, I know you intend it as a city of refuge to the penitent, not as a sanctuary to the presumptuous. Oh, let me never make it a pillow for a hard heart, but a plaster for a wounded spirit! Let this servant of yours [patience], and friend of mine, obtain his errand, and accomplish the end for which you have sent Him. You spare me here that you might spare me hereafter, you wait upon me that you might be gracious unto me, and are long-suffering, because not willing that any should perish, but that all might come to repentance. [2 Pet. 3:9] Oh that therefore I might wait upon You in all your providences and ordinances for grace, that so your longsuffering may be unto me salvation! You have told me, Though the sinner live a hundred years, and God prolong his days, yet it shall not go well with the wicked. His preservation is but a reservation to the sorer and great destruction. Though You suffer long, You will not suffer always; and when You strike impenitent ones, the slowness of your pace will be recompensed in the heaviness of your hand. The longer the child of vengeance is in the womb of the threatening, the bigger it grows, and the more pain it will put the sinner to, when it comes to the birth of its execution. Oh how dreadful will my doom be, when You come to reckon with me for all your patience, if I do not at this day prevent it by repentance! If your patience do not now make me bend, hereafter it will make me bleed; it is a sweet friend, but a bitter enemy; no fury like that which is extracted out of abused patience. It were far better to be sent from the mother’s breasts to everlasting burnings, than to live many years at the charge of patience, and then to die impenitent. If I cause You to suffer long now in vain, You will cause me to suffer long in the other world, and the more dreadfully for your long-suffering in this. Since you are gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, oh take me not away in your long-suffering, but give me to mind in this day of your patience, the things that concern mine everlasting peace, that I may to eternity-give You honor and praise for your wondrous and boundless patience. Amen.
The Door of Salvation Opened by the Key of Regeneration, in his Works, vol. 5
p. 140-1, Banner of Truth edition. This quote was compiled by Tony Byrne.
1671 edition, pp. 171-172, this quote was compiled by Tony Byrne
[Webmaster’s note: Swinnock clearly denies a hypothetical-universal atonement in his sermon on John 1:29 above in some length and detail (see the larger context), and affirms Limited Atonement. In light of that, the phrase above, “when He redeemed you with such a vast sum” should should either be taken as
(1) meaning, “He intended to redeem you with such a vast sum,” showing a sincere, revealed desire for the unconverted’s redemption, or
(2) many of Swinnock’s readers were nominal church members in 1600’s England. In this context it is fully Biblical to speak of them as being outwardly redeemed in some sense, per 2 Pet. 2:1; Ex. 15:13; Deut. 32:6, etc. Thus Swinnock used Micah 6:3,4, which speaks of the unconverted in the visible church being redeemed, already above with his indiscriminate hearers in his Heaven and Hell Epitomized, p. 352-354. Or,
(3) it is an anomaly. This is the only reference to such in his writings that the webmaster has seen.]
1671 edition, p. 177, this quote was compiled by Tony Byrne
The Incomparableness of God, in his Works, 4:493-497, Banner of Truth edition, this quote was compiled by Tony Byrne.
The Sinners Last Sentence to Eternal Punishment for Sins of Omission, 1675, pp. 48-51. This quote was compiled by Tony Byrne
[Webmaster’s Note: the “for” in “the great things He purchased for them by his own blood” above can be taken in two ways. “For” expresses purpose and can either mean (1) a revealed intention consistent with the Sincere Free Offer of the Gospel, as purchasing a redemption intended to be offered, given and received by the gospel hearer, or (2) in the sense of decree, actually paying for one’s personal sins in a universal-conditional atonement.
Seeing that Swinnock clearly denies a Hypothetical Atonement and affirms Limited Atonement in his sermon on John 1:29, “for” should be interpreted as (1) consistent with the Sincere Free Offer of the Gospel]
Related Pages
The Sincere Free Offer of the Gospel
Historic Reformed Quotes on the Sincere Free Offer of the Gospel