came not in to the Jew to be Circumcised and the Heathen come not in to us to be Baptized that is to the Profession of this Covenant they are yet all under the Verge of it in regard to Obligation and if any of them be wrought on by the Spirit so as inwardly to enter into and keep it they are made Partakers of the Benefit the Priviledge the Promise of it as well as the Christian I have had lately sent me some certain Manuscripts to read the Works of a Sedulous Divine I know not an Anti-Arminian Learned Pious Man who hath these words in one of these Manuscripts which I will transcribe Dr. Payne p. 513. says It has been an uncharitable Question Whether any of the Gentiles should be saved Now they cannot be saved in an ordinary way by Vertue of the Christian Covenant to which they have no Title or Claim Yet God may in extraordinary Mercy let all Mankind have the benefit of it and save them by Christ though they know him not Ans It is certain that all such of fallen Mankind as be Penitent and honour God by holy Love and Obedience have by God's holy Covenant in Christ true Right to Remission of Sins and the Kingdom of Heaven and shall be saved they are really and indeed true Saints But no one of fallen Mankind can be truly Penitent and honour God by holy Love and Obedience without special Grace And special Grace God gives to none of fallen Mankind save for the sake of Christ who hath merited it for all the Elect by Vertue of the Covenant between God and Christ according to the fore-knowledge and purpose of God These are the words of another and I am to give no more account of them than I please But this I will add to them That the Elect which are to be gathered from the four quarters of the Earth are I believe in some more places than where there are Christians I return To them pertain the Covenants and the giving the Law The Covenants of Circumcision and that Covenant when he took them by the hand to lead them out of the Land of Egypt and the Law and Ordinances given by Moses These indeed its true did pertain to the Jews only and not to any other People But there was a Promise which belonged to them also by which when none of them were justifiable by their works for by the deeds of the Law shall no Flesh living be justified the penitent believing Jew was saved The Promise was the Promise of the Woman's Seed made to Adam fallen and the same Promise made to Abraham that in his Seed should all the Nations of the Earth be blessed which was the Substance of the Gospel preached to him which is now preached to the World that is the Promise of a Redeemer who was then to come and so was only in Promise but now already come that Redemption obtained and the Promise fulfilled Again As for the giving the Law there is a Law which came from Mount Sinai and it is true this pertained to the Jew but there is a Law also from Zion and that belongs to Jew and Gentile Christian and Heathen Out of Zion shall go forth a Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem Isa 2.3 This is the Law of the Gospel and the same with the Covenant of Grace of Life and Salvation If there be any then that apprehend the Covenant of Grace to be made with Christ in behalf of the Elect and to belong only to them I am not of their Opinion The Covenant of Grace I account is God's Covenant with Mankind and made with Adam fallen in behalf of his Posterity and this is as good as expresly declared by Christ Go preach the Gospel to all Nations to every Creature or to all the World he that believes or whosoever believes shall be saved and he that believes not shall be damned Mat. 28.19 Mark 16.15 16. This is likewise as good as exprest by St. Paul This is the Covenant I will make with the House of Israel after those days Heb. 8.10 Who is the House of Israel now the Partition Wall between the Jew and Gentile is down but the whole World Besides if Christ be Party how is he Mediator A Mediator is to bring two Parties to Agreement If God and Christ be the Parties and not God and Man how is he the Mediator between God and Men For there is one God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 That the Redemption of Christ therefore is Universal and the Effect of it the Covenant belongs to all is not to be denyed nay because the Covenant belongs to all or because it must be granted that Christ hath died for all so far that he hath obtained an Universal Conditional Remission and Salvation or a Law or Act of Grace that whosoever believes and Repents or performs the Condition of the Gospel shall be pardoned and saved by the Gospel therefore must our Redemption by Christ be Universal And if any persist to deny it whosoever they be though they see it not for then they would not presume to do so they in effect do divest God as Redeemer of his Government over the World This must appear by what hath been said to an intelligent Man It is time for me then to come now to the Testimony I am willing to produce out of other Books I have formerly written that this Doctrine may not appear strange as newly taken up or not consider'd as throughly as I could but by the Confirmation and Inculcation thereof with the cumulative Light I bring out of them it may find the willinger Admission and give satisfaction to them that have free Minds and are meet to receive it Out of a Book Entituled The Ax laid to the Root of Separation As God has made all things so is he Universal Governour of his Creatures The Government of God over his Creatures that are Reasonable must be a Moral Government requiring Obedience from them upon Motives of Reward and Punishment The Instrument of this Government must be his Law The Law of God is either the Law of Nature or his Revealed and Positive Laws The Government of God is likewise double Natural or Conventional The Natural Government of God over Men and Women which he hath by right of Creation is over all the World as they are particular Persons giving them the Law of Nature to Live by that they may please him and be saved This Law of Nature is either the Law of Innocent or Lapsed Nature The Law of Innocent Nature is that perfect Rule of Righteousness that was writ in Adam's Heart when Created requiring him to preserve his Innocency and Integrity upon pain of Death and it is called the Law of Works The Law of Lapsed Nature is the same Law with Mitigation requiring the same Duty but not as the Condition of Life accepting of the imperfect Service of
them There is one thing remains which I remember you offered that requires some more large Considerations and it is this That though you were willing to allow that some Heathen may be saved you deny it to be by Covenant but only uncovenanted Mercy and you cited the Bishop of Salisbury for it That excellent Person Bishop Burnet in his Exposition of the Eighteenth Article of the Church which pronounces an Anathema to them that hold any Man may be saved by the Law or Sect he Professeth unless he be a Christian which seems to be the sense of the Article distinguishes between the word By and In. To be saved by a Law or Sect saith he signifies that by the Virtue of that Law or Sect such Men as follow it may be saved Whereas to be saved in a Law or Sect imports only that God may extend his Compassion to Men that are engaged in a false Religion And this he appears to own as not condemned by the Article The ingenuous Bishop proceeds And seeing Faith in Christ is in the Gospel required as necessary to Salvation there is no question he says to be made but that those that have the Gospel preached to them and believe not in him must be Damned The difficuly is only concerning those who never heard of the Christian Religion Here then the Bishop distinguishes again of Men in the Law and without the Law in the words of the Apostle that is between the Jew and Gentile Christian and Heathen and for the last though they have not the Law written they have it in their Hearts and shall be judged according to their Consciences This is fair but seeing Pardon of Sin is limited as he speaks to believing in Christ and Salvation is only through Christ's Name according to Scripture he distinguishes again thus It is on the account of the Death or Sacrifice of Christ that Men are Pardoned or Saved but it 〈◊〉 not so plainly â—aid that no Man can be saved unless he hath an â—â—pâ—icit Knowâ—â—â—gâ— o◠〈◊〉 together with a belief of it That is in effect the same I said before that the Redemption we have by Christ and the Knowledge of him is not to be reckoned Commensurate yet it is but unwarily said of him or too warily as one that is in the Water and feels not a bottom for his feet that Pardon of Sin is positively limited to believing in Christ and thereupon to be forced to mince the matter thus It is not so plainly said in the words fore-going Whereas Pardon of Sin is limited to a believer in Christ only as to such as have had a Preacher as is before understood by himself But the explicit Knowledge of Christ as the Gospel reveals him is not at all required of an Heathen Man nor of any Man as of necessity to Salvation before Christ came Upon this supposition then that this is not so clearly said in Scripture as the other he comes to another Distinction which he says is to be made as that which will clear the matter and all difficulties in it A great difference says he I will cite all his words is to be made between a Foederal certainty of Salvation secured by the Promises of God and of this new Covenant in Christ Jesus and the extent to which the Goodness and Mercy of God may go None are in a Foederal State of Salvation but Christians To them is given the Covenant of Grace and to them the Promises of God are made and offered so that they have a certainty of it upon their performing those Conditions that are put in the Promises All others are out of this Promise to whom the Tydings of it were never brought In this which is said by this worthy Bishop there is thus much of Truth to be acknowledged and noted That no Heathen or Jew under their Dispensations had or could have such certainty upon their turning to God so as to draw near to him in full assurance of Faith that they should be accepted and saved as Christians have or may have upon the Revelation of Jesus Christ and for that reason if there were no other the Dispensation the Christian is under is better than that of the Jew or Heathen to reflect again on your Objection before But to speak more fully to this matter otherwise I think fit to remember the Doctrine commonly received I suppose even by you and the Bishop if it be not out of your Minds There is a double Covenant the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace The Covenant of Works was made with Adam in Innoceney which he broke and none can keep to be saved by it There is therefore the Covenant of Grace which was made with Adam faln in the Promise of the Seed of the Woman that is of a Redeemer and of Salvation upon the terms of it There is a Government consequently arises to God from the right of Redemption and that must be by this Law or Covenant seeing the other is of impossible performance There is no Government but by a Law and that must be such as the Subject is in a capacity of reward by the keeping as of punishment by the breaking it or else it is not righteous and meet There is a diverse Administration therefore of this Covenant or Law of Grace according to the Revelation God hath made of his Will to the Sons of Men. What God reveals as his Will must be believed and obeyed Under the Administration of this Covenant to us Christians God's whole design of Redeeming and Saving us by his Son is fully revealed and accordingly a Faith in him dying for our Sins and rising again for our Justification is required of us as necessary to our Salvation Under the Jewish Dispensation they believed a Messiah to come and some Deliverance by Worldly Pomp and Conquest Acts 1.6 but as for the Salvation of their Souls by his dying for them or making Satisfaction to God for their Sins by the Sacrifice of himself on the Cross they understood nothing as appears by the Disciples aforesaid Then he took the Twelve and said unto them Behold we go up to Jerusalem and all things that are written by the Prophets concerning the Son of Man shall be accomplished They shall put him to Death and the third Day he shall rise again And they understood not these things and this saying was hid from them neither knew they the things which were spoken Likewise it appears as much by their Rulers and Chiefest among them For they that dwell at Jerusalem and their Rulers because they knew him not nor yet the Voice of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day they have fulfilled them in condemning him As for the Ancients before Abraham and Moses what Revelation they had of God's Will Who can tell A Law they had written in their Hearts which proves a Lawgiver and they had Tradition They believed a God and that he was gracious to forgive the Sinner
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
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