Innocency and the Law of Lapsed Nature which is the Law of Grace and Mercy towards Man in regard to his fallen Condition To express it more fully there is Lex Naturae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Lex Connaturalis Gratiae the Law of Nature and the Connatural Law of Grace as Suarez hath it in his Book De Legibus I am much pleased with the Terms though I found not that he did well understand them or explain them himself Only thus much he says That the Ancients before Moses who were govern'd by the Law of Nature only must have this Lex Connaturalis Gratiae together with it or comprehended under it or else no Man then upon Earth could be saved which is a Truth so evident as makes the Proof of that Law by that Reason alone to be good When he terms this Law then Connatural I understand by it that this Law of Lapsed Nature this Law of Grace or Remedying Law is written in the Heart of Man in regard to his fallen Nature no less than the Law of pure Nature it self was The Law of Nature as I take it is the Dictates of right Reason declaring to us our Duty to God to our Selves to our Neighbours and the Light of the same Reason will dictate to us when we have fail'd in that Duty to repent and turn to God with trusting in his Mercy for pardon if we do so and not else We do find it legible in our Hearts that God is good and wisely gracious to pity our Infirmities and consider our lost Estate and necessary Frailty as that there is a God and any Worship that is at all due to him There is Mercy with thee that thou should'st be feared And these Characters thus engraven in the Heart of Man is the same Law of Grace in the Practical Contents as is more largely Paraphrased on by the Prophets in the Old and the Apostles in the New Testament There is no difference at all in the Substance as Divines speak but in the Administration It is no otherwise than as a Book thrice Printed the second Edition is larger than the first and the third most compleat and perfect This I will say the Covenant was still on foot the Condition sincerity in walking according to their Light Men were judged by it and many saved Here only is the difference that the Foundation on which all this is laid the Mediation Sacrifice and Righteousness of Christ comes not to be revealed but in Types and darker Promises till the Promulgation of the Gospel Now I say that though the Heathen be not under or have not this Law of Grace in the third and last setting out or in the State under the Gospel yet they are under it or have it in the State of the Ancients or as they had it in the first Promulgation and upon Supposition that any of them do according to the Light they have live up in Sincerity to this Law I dare not be the Man that shall deny but through the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ procuring this Law or Covenant for them as for us and all the World they shall be saved even as we and we shall be saved even as they To them who by patient Continuance in well-doing seek for it Eternal Life Not to leave this yet I have learned from Cicero That all Laws must be derived from the Divine Reason and Will I have learned from others That this Reason of God in his Government of all things agreeable to his own Nature and the Nature of his Creatures is the Eternal Law I have learned from the Scripture That there is a Law of Works and a Law of Grace I do learn by consequence That these Laws as Frames of God's Government over Man must be Reconcileable with the Eternal Law or the Reason of his Wisdom and Justice and Goodness the one of them being fit for the State of Man in Innocency the other for his Lapsed Condition How these Laws do now consist and not consist with one another while the Scriptures say sometimes that we are freed from the Law and sometimes that it is Established sometimes that not a tittle of it shall pass and sometimes that we are not under the Law but under Grace I do not intend here any full decision I will draw only one chief Stroke towards it The Law may be considered as the Rule of Man's Duty or Measure of Good and Evil according to his own Nature and God's or as the Instrument of God's Government over Man or Measure of his Dealing with us or Judging us according to our deservings It cannot be conceived but so long as the Nature of God and Man is the same and Good and Evil which consists of agreeableness or disagreeableness to them both is the same the Law of Nature must remain unchangeable as the Measure of our Moral Actions But as it is the Instrument of God's Government in the World it is as certain that through the Mediation of Christ who hath satisfied his Father for our breach of it it is relaxed so as we are not dealt withal according to the Tenor of the Law in the Matters of this Life or of that which is to come I distinguish these two things A Rule of Life and a Rule for Life A Rule for Life is expressed in these words He that doeth them shall live in them We are freed from the Law on the latter account we are made free to it in regard to the former That is we are under the Law so as that we are still bound to live according to it but we are delivered from it so as through Mercy and the Merits of Christ we shall not be judged by it There is Norma Vitae and Norma Judicii The Law is of force as a Rule of Life or Duty but we are not under it as a Rule of Judgment We shall be Judged says St. James by the Law of Liberty and Paul says According to my Gospel Blessed be God for this good Truth Now that the Government of God over the whole World is by the Law of Grace and not of Works thus much being said only for light in the way does appear as the Sun or Moon in the Heavens For God hath not left himself without Witness in that he does good and gives us Fruitful Seasons These are Effects of his Mercy which he could not shew to the World as he does if he dealt with it according to the Law of Works When Abraham pleads with God for Sodom that he would spare it if there were ten Righteous Persons there it is manifest that he must account of God's Government over the Earth to be a Government of Grace That the Righteous be as the Wicked that be far from thee says he shall not the Judge of all the Earth do Right If God should do but Right to the best of Men according to the Righteousness of the Law of Works there could be no such Pleading as
Man according to his present State so long as it is performed in Sincerity of Heart towards God and is called the Law of Grace As Man in Innocency had the Notices of the most Holy God and his Duty writ in his Heart or could gather it from the Light of his Reason being to live perfectly in that State So must the World after Man's fall and the loss of his Innocency have some the Like Notices implanted there or arising naturally from the Exercise of his Faculties that God is good and merciful and will not punish him if he Repent but consider him according to his frail Condition and consequently that he must now have no Government at all over him for Life and Salvation or else that he must be under another Law than that of Innocency or under other Conditions in obeying it for else must every Man on the Earth Everlastingly Perish Upon what account or upon what ground the Righteousness of God could stand in dealing with Man when fallen by another Law than that at first implanted in him in Innocency was a Mystery hidden from the Foundation of the World and not revealed but Darkly till the times of the Gospel But the Belief that God was good and would pardon the Sinner upon his Repentance though they could not tell how or upon what ground it was the way of Reconciliation through Christ being beyond the Ken of all Humane Understanding was General in the World as does appear in particular by the Ninevites as also by the Sacrifices for appeasing the Deity which have been in use in all Nations Not but they all are under the same Law as Adam was the Law that was for our Nature cannot be altered but we are not under it upon the same terms We are under it so as we are bound to live according to it but we are not under it so as to be Justified or Condemned by it We are under it as a Rule of Life but not under it as the Rule of Judgment There is One Religion therefore Law or Rule for all Mankind to obtain Life by which being the Law of our Lapsed Nature or Remedying Law containing God's Grace administred to all the Earth in a threefold State of such as were or are without the Law or before it and under the Law and under the Gospel As this Administration is threefold so hath the Faith which is the Condition thereof been diversifyed But now is the Righteousness of God revealed from Faith to Faith The Righteousness of God is the Righteousness of this Law which hath ever been a-foot in the World And though a Heathen hath not that Faith as is required of the Christian in the Third Edition of it or that which was required of the Jew under the Second yet hath he such a Faith as belongs to the First such as the Ancients before Abraham had And so long as that Faith he has does work by Love or by sincere Obedience to God according to the Light he has it will justifie him as well as that which is now farther required of us under the Gospel It follows that this Law being that which is given for Life and so the one only true Measure of Religion to all the World must belong to the Government of God which is Universal and that is the Natural Government of God The Government of God which is Conventional is that Government which he hath taken over some certain Persons as they are gathered or joyned together in Societies unto which they are called out from the World for the Glorifying his Name in that Worship or Service of him which he hath instituted by his Positive Law Precepts Ordinances I mean such as he hath any ways revealed to be his Will whether they be such as belong to the Law of Nature also or such as do not in order to the taking owning and acknowledging him for their God in a peculiar manner that is in opposition to the Worship of any other God or Idols and the serving him the true God in any other way but what he hath appointed and their becoming thereby a Peculiar People to him and so being under his Favour and Blessing in regard to all the good things of this Life and that which is to come I do observe here the Government of God which is Natural is over all the World This Government which is Conventional is over some Persons only called out of the World into a peculiar Relation to God That the One is over all but considered as single Persons taking in every Individual in the World the Other over some and so over Singulars also but considered as Incorporated for the publick Service of God That the One Government is by the Law of Nature I mean both of Lapsed and Innocent Nature The Other is by his Positive and Revealed Laws That these Laws and Ordinances of God therefore which he hath revealed as they are more and as they are revealed otherwise or farther than by the Light of Nature or Natural Reason only are a high Priviledge to such as they are vouchsafed to What advantage then hath the Jew above the Gentile Much every way chiefly because unto them was committed the Oracles of God Rom. 3.1 2. He hath shewed his Mind to Jacob his Statutes and Judgments unto Israel He hath not dealt so with any other Nation Ps 147.19 20. This giving to a People his Oracles or Positive Institutions are advantagious upon this account That they are means for obtaining his Blessing or else there could be no such advantages in them This Blessing of God must be look'd on not only to concern Temporal things but Spiritual and Eternal For seeing Man consists of a Body and a Soul and that Soul is Immortal he cannot be blessed but in both and the great and principal Advantage therefore that we have by these Ordinances or Government of God which is Conventional must and does lie in being Means for the bringing Men up to the performance of the Terms of that Law which God by his Government that is Natural and Universal hath made to be the Rule of Judgment to all Men for Everlasting Life or Condemnation Thus much as Introductory out of that Book I come now to another Out of a Book call'd Peaceable Disquisitions There is a threefold Government in one to speak accurately that God hath had in the World over Man in reference to his chief end the Salvation of his Soul The first was by the Law of Nature the second by the Law of Moses and the third by the Law of Christ Before God gave his Law unto Israel the whole World was under that Law which is written in the Heart God must govern Man by that only when there was no other This Law now writ in Man's Heart we are to know is two-fold for Nature coming under a double Consideration as Entire and as Fallen the Law must be double the Law of Innocent Nature or Law of
upon his Repentance as appears by their Sacrifices and that if they lived uprightly it should be well with them Now if upon this it pleased God to choose any one of them as he did Abraham when he was an Idolater in Ur of the Caldees and by his Spirit gave him an inward and effectual Call by stirring him up to lay hold on God and his Covenant in a desire and endeavour to walk up to his Light within or Knowledge he hath attained with Sincerity of Heart and Life which is performing the Condition of the Covenant of Grace according to the Dispensation he is under although such a Man does not know upon what account Sin is expiated God reconciled and the Sinner saved yet is it certain that this Man's Sins are pardoned God reconciled to him and his Soul in a State of Salvation as well as the Christians who hath the Explicit Knowledge of Christ's Death and Resurrection and that is upon the same account as his even through the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant to wit through the Covenant of Grace preached and purchased for us by his Blood the Death Satisfaction Mediation Redemption of Christ Jesus so that if any held or are willing to hold a Salvability for the Heathen and yet deny their Salvaon by Covenant but by an uncovenanted Miraculous Mercy they do but trip in plain Ground upholding a Doctrine that is Good and Generous but without its Foundation For there is no Way nor ever was but one Way which is this by the Covenant of Grace procured for us by Christ of Salvation to any Mortal under Heaven As for them whom God hath left in Darkness says the Bishop intending all the Heathen they are certainly out of Covenant out of those Promises and Declarations that are made in it so that they have no foederal Right to be saved neither can we affirm that they shall be saved This I must needs say I take to be spoken without second Thoughts and I like nothing so inconsiderate though in this excellent Person There is no Man coming into the World so left in Darkness but he hath a Light within which if he lives up to he is one of God's People says the Quaker There is no Man in the Earth that loves God sincerely I say for certain can perish The Quakers Doctrine in this point is to be preferr'd before the Bishops I will say more there is no Man in the Earth Heathen or Christian but he is a Subject of the Covenant the Covenant of Grace and God is certainly his Governour by this Law or Covenant so far that if he obeys him answers it and keeps it or lives up to that Revelation of God's Will which he has he hath by performing the Condition the Promise thereof accordingly to be saved and we may affirm that he shall I must yet say further if it be farther That there is no Man on the Earth that is saved but it must be by the Covenant the Covenant of Grace and the Promise of it There is one Distinction therefore I must offer which the Bishop hath not and is wanting in the place and I will be solemn upon it It pleased God to call Abram out of his Country to make him a Nation and to give him Canaan and upon this account he is the first Elect we read of in Scripture Thou art the Lord the God who didst choose Abram and brought him out of Ur in the Caldees Neh. 9.7 That is in regard to his Posterity after him who were Chosen of God to be a Peculiar People to him by a Covenant which was a Political Covenant between him and them as their Ruler This Covenant required the mark of Circumcision in their Flesh by way of Separation of that Nation from all others Among all the Multitudes of People thou hast gotten thee a People and unto this People thou gavest a Law that is approved of all 2 Esd 5.27 Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord to enter into Covenant with the Lord thy God Deut. 27. Thou art a holy People unto the Lord thy God the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special People unto himself above all People that are upon the face of the Earth Deut. 7.6 So again Chap. 14. v. 2. A special People a peculiar People He hath not dealt so with other Nations as he did to them says the Psalmist He hath shewn his Mind unto Jacob his Statutes and Judgments to Israel Ps 147.19 20. To whom pertaineth the Adoption and the Glory and the Covenants and the giving the Law and the Service of God Rom. 19.4 By all which it appears That God was their God and they his People by a Covenant that was Peculiar to them as the Seed of Abraham with whom it began and is called by Divines therefore the Covenant of Peculiarity which is to be distinguished in this respect from the Covenant of Grace that does belong to all Mankind the Posterity of Adam the difference indeed being in regard to its divers Administrations When the Scripture therefore does speak of the Gentiles that they were in respect to the Jews without God in the World without the Covenant Aliens to the Commonwealth of Israel without Hope the hope of Israel without Christ Strangers to the Covenant of Promise We are to understand all this in regard to the Church State of the Jews which no Nation but the Jews were in as appears by all the Texts before-cited They were without God How is that As he was to the Jews a Peculiar Governour but not without God as Universal Soveraign of Heaven and Earth Is he the God of the Jews only Is he not of the Gentiles Yea of the Gentiles also Rom. 3.29 Without the Covenant How is that Without the Covenant of Peculiarity not without the Covenant of Grace but under the Government of God by this Law or Covenant which is the Law of the Gospel by which all Men at the great Day shall be judged According to my Gospel says the Apostle Rom. 2.16 That Law now cannot but be the Law we must Live by as govern'd by God which we must be Judged by That Law must be first Norma Officii a Rule of Life which at last must be Norma Judicii the Rule of Judgment Well then there is that Covenant which some call a Political some a Peculiar some a Subservient Covenant belonging to the Jews and now to us Christians also the Partition Wall being thrown down who are therefore as the Jews were called by Peter a Chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood a Holy Nation a Peculiar People 1 Pet. 2.9 and by Paul are said to be Grafted into their Olive that is into the same external Covenant-Relation Rom. 11.17 and this the Heathen are without But there is also the Covenant of Life of Grace of Salvation or of the Gospel and this we are all under Jew and Gentile Christian and Heathen and though the Gentile
this Neither is there any Righteous no not one says the Scripture nor could God have accepted of Abraham himself for one had there been nine besides but upon the account of the Law of Grace It is a Righteousness consisting in a Condecency of his Goodness and Mercy and not in the Rule of his district Holiness that Abraham intends When the Prophets call upon Israel to Repent and to do Righteousness that they may live it is a perpetual Discovery that God dealt not with them according to the Covenant of Works The Law admits no Repentance and there is no Righteousness that a Man can live by according to the Law It is such a Righteousness then they must mean still which is the same with the just Man's Faith whereby it is said he shall Live and that is the Righteousness of Faith or Righteousness of God in the Gospel which lies in a conformity to the Law of Grace We are Righteous according to this Law when we perform the Condition God is Righteous according to it when he accepts us thereupon unto Pardon and Life We have a most signal Instance in the Ninevites of these two things I do here stand upon If God's Government over the Heathen was not by the Law of Grace how could the Ninevites by their Repentance have diverted his Judgments And if this Law had not been Connatural with Fallen Man so as to be written in their Hearts how could they trust in God that upon their forsaking Sin and their turning to him they should find Mercy and be saved from Destruction Both these things I say have in this one Instance their full Evidence And what think we of Cornelius the Centurion and Roman how could his Prayers and Alms be accepted with God if Cornelius as well as Paul a Roman as well as a Jew were not under the same Government of Grace when there is nothing we do but is imperfect and liable to a Curse by the Law of Works And what shall we conclude then from both Instances but that which Peter upon Conviction himself concludes Of a Truth I perceive that God is no Respecter of Persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him There are three things go to a Law That it be for the Publick Good That it be the Will of the Lawgiver That it be promulgated to the Subject That the Law of Grace is good for the World there can be no question that it is God's Will the World should be govern'd by it appears by what is spoken and that this Law hath been promulgated to Mankind appears both in the general Notice of it in Men's Hearts I will write my Law in their Hearts says God in the New Covenant as distinguished from that of Moses and in the express Declaration of God to our first Parents that the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpent's Head and in his Covenanting with Noah which must be understood without dispute in regard to all Posterity Now when such a Law hath been promulgated to Adam and Noah as belonging to all the World being to come of them it must be proved that this Law hath been somewhere or at sometime again repealed by God or else must every Man and Woman in the World be under this Government of God according to it and consequently be in a capacity of Salvation I will to these Reasonings add one Syllogism It is not the Hearers of the Law but Doers shall be justified This is express in one Verse of the Second to the Romans But some Heathen are Doers though not Hearers of it This is affirmed in the next Verse For when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law with the rest following Ergo Some Heathen are justified and saved If any cavil and say That no Man is a Doer of the Law he must be answered That the Apostle here speaks of such a doing only as is supposed to be among the Jews that were godly or Jews inwardly in the Verses after And I renew my Argument They that are Doers of the Law according to the Sense of such Texts as make the keeping the Commandments of God necessary to Salvation such as when Christ says If thou wilt enter into Life keep the Commandments and such as when the Apostle says as before They that by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory shall have Eternal Life that is They who are Doers of it as all that are Jews inwardly and in the Spirit do keep it and no otherwise to wit not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not according to the Rigour of the Law but according to Acceptation by the Equity of the Gospel they I say shall be justified and saved But some Heathen are Doers of the Law in this sense which is the sense of the Apostle Ergo Some Heathen are justified and saved I confirm the Mâ—nor by the words ensuing that we may be sure we have the Mind of the Apostle Therefore if the Uncircumcision keep the Righoeousness of the Law shall not his Uncircumcision be counted for Circumcision And shall not Uncircumcision which is by nature if it fulfil the Law judge thee who by the Letter and Circumcision doest break the Law It follows that such as these therefore are Jews inwardly and in the Spirit though they were not Outward Jews or in the Flesh or of the Circumcision as is apparent in the words already and the last Verses They that are Jews inwardly and in the Spirit then I follow my Argument though not outwardly so and in the Flesh do fulfil the Law in the sense of this place and are justified But such are some of the Heathen here according to the Apostle Ergo Some Heathen are justified and saved And what could be desired more full and convincing If iâ— were not for the first Verse which follows in the next Chapter which does yet add such abounding Confirmation to it as I must profess my self perfectly struck with the Evidence as with a Beam of Light never to be withstood or any more doubted What advantage then hath the Jew above the Gentile These are the words It cannot be imagined by me now that this Question could be offered after he had said thus much if there were such a difference between these two as that one of them only was under a possibility of Salvation and not the other It is brought as an Objection to his foregoing Assertion in this sense That if this be true there appears no difference in the matter whether a Man be a Jew or a Gentile seeing he that hath the Law written only in his Heart and keeps it that is in sincerity shall have the benefit and be saved as well as he that hath it written in the Bible The Apostle does as good as answer This is true yet is there a difference Chiefly because that unto the Jews were