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
committed the Oracles of God I interpret not these words but give this Paraphrase The Heathen were under the same Law of Grace for Life as the Jews but the Jews advantage was that they had it in the second Promulgation with this priviledge of Ordinances and our advantage is the like over them that we have it in the third and last Promulgation by the Gospel I argue then once more If this was the chief advantage the Jew had over the Gentile that the one had the Oracles of God and the other had not then was there not this difference between them that one was in a Capacity and the other under an Impossibility of Salvation for this were an advantage of a far greater Nature But this was the chief advantage Chiefly because Ergo. The Objections against this Doctrine are two The one is from the Scriptures which in many places in the New Testament do require Faith in Christ or Believing the Gospel as the Condition of Salvation He that believeth not shall be damned I answer As the Apostle says of the Law Now we know that whatsoever things the Law saith it saith to them that are under the Law So say I of the Gospel Whatsoever things of this kind the Gospel saith it saith to those that are under the Gospel Where the Gospel is preached and Revelation is sufficient so that Men wilfully reject it such are left without excuse the case of such is dangerous indeed and these Texts applicable to them If you believe not that I am he you shall dye in your Sins But as for those who never heard the Gospel or when the Revelation hath been insufficient for such Conviction the case I hope is otherwise the case is I think as I have said and our good God will not require of any more than he hath given The other Objection is from the Authority of Men or of the Church more generally that condemns this Opinion But I account the Verdict of Christians in this point is for themselves and so partial I suppose it taken again upon trust and followed by the most for want of Light and I believe also that if they had but this Light only that I offer they would have determined as I do It is true I grant as the Church thinks That there is no Religion by which a Man can be saved but one only that is the true Religion But this is a great Truth here to be received That Christianity in the Root according to what is said is the Universal Religion of Mankind whom therefore ye ignorantly worship him declare I unto you so that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that live according to Reason as Socrates Heraclitus and the like Men were Christians though they were not so called according to Justin Martyr in his Apology Which Doctrine nevertheless to salve most fully the Eighteenth Article of the Church at first mentioned is not to be harboured but as it is compatible with this certain Position That there is no way for all that under Heaven whereby a Man is was or can be saved but through the Name and Mediation only of our Saviour For other Foundation can no Man lay than that is laid which is Christ Jesus Out of a Book concerning the Universality of Redemption and two other Points From the Universality of Redemption there does arise a Government of Grace which God hath over the whole World that is a Government by the Law of Grace which Christ hath purchased as the Instrument of that Government whereby Salvation is made possible to all Mankind or whereby Pardon and Life are made attainable by all Men on a Possible Condition If you ask me what that is wherein this Possibility is placed This I perceive is a hard Question made but I will answer easily It is to be placed in the lowering the Condition to the capacity of the Persons having the power and use of their Natural Faculties so that whosoever he be that lives up sincerely to the Light that he has shall be saved Such is the Law of Grace I say purchased by Christ by which we are Govern'd and shall be Judged that whosoever lives up to the Light and Means he has in sincerity shall be saved by it I will add Whosoever does but what he can in order to his Salvation is sincere and consequently the Condition must be possible But seeing no Mortal does what he can every Man can do more Good and less Evil than he does I say If he does sincerely what he can which all the Elect from the four quarters of the Earth and the Elect only will surely do he shall have Life notwithstanding all his Imperfections This being premised as to the possibility of the Performance then it self it is founded in Dono Supernaturali a Viatore quocunque possibiliter recipiendo secundum Legem Ordinariam as the Schools speak It is an Error one of them call'd Vulgar which hath reigned too long in the Christian Church to think that none can be saved by the Name of Christ who have not heard him preached to them or that the Extent of Christ's Death and the Benefit of it is Commensurate with the Knowledge of him The Error hath arose through Carelesness of Divines in not considering the Point and the Partiality of the People to their own Religion The Jew will have none but the Jews the Mahometan none but the Mahometans the Christian none but the Christians to be saved But I am hugely perswaded otherwise that there are Millions that have been and Thousands are living in the World that have never known and shall never know how much they are beholding to Jesus Christ till they come before him in Judgment and then they shall know it to their Comfort and Christ will stay for his Thanks till that day when that Comfort and those Thanks shall be Everlasting To say that any Man was is or can be saved without Christ is an Error indeed and if any one shall go to preach up the Salvability of the Heathen without this Foundation that is to say Lay any other Foundation than what is laid Christ Jesus the Eighteenth Article of the Church does Anathematize that Person for such Ignorance is truly accursed But that Article must not be thought to Curse or Condemn any that maintain Salvation alone by Christ though he hold also that some Heathen may be saved Let the Title of the Article give the Interpretation Out of another Book of his wherein some of the Articles of the Church are occasionally Explained Art 18. Of obtaining Eternal Salvation only by the Name of Christ They are to be held accursed that presume to say That every Man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth so that he be diligent to frame his Life according to that Law and the Light of Nature For Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus Christ whereby Men must be saved I observe the Church
A LETTER TO George Keith CONCERNING The Salvability of the Heathen Together with A Testimony to the same Doctrine as Long held and not Newly taken up out of several former Books of him that writ it By his Respectful Neighbour J.H. If therefore the Doctrine of Christ hath demonstrated to all Nations the same God whom the Ancients even before Moses have served there is no doubt but that we are made Partakers with them of the same Divine Worship and having moreover the same common Religion it is manifest that we shall likewise enjoy the same Blessedness or Benediction Eusebius de Demonstratione Evangelii L. 1. C. 5. London Printed and Sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster 1700. A Letter to George Keith c. Mr. George Keith UNderstanding that you came to live near me I was willing to be acquainted with you as a Person learned and whose Converse is profitable but I am sorry to find you so engaged and hot in your Opinion though Zeal in a good Cause is commendable that you cannot let another differ from you without Anger when if he be angry too whom you differ from there must be Contention Which is to be avoided by a prudent Man Prov. 17.14 Look you George You and I do believe a Salvability for some Heathen You and I for all that do believe That no Man is was or ever can be saved but through the Name Mediation or Redemption of Jesus Christ neither of us are Deists therefore but both Christians You proceed further and say That no Man ever was is or can be saved but by Faith in Jesus Christ and the knowledge of him Crucified and Risen again Here I must differ from you for though Redemption be Universal and it is true That no Man ever could or can be saved without the Benefit thereof Yet must we not make the Redemption of Christ or the Benefit of his Death and our Knowledge of it to be Commensurate God forbid it should be so for then indeed no Heathen could be saved In your Truth Advanced p. 40. you very candidly declare That to conclude all Gentiles however diligent they have been to live up to their Illumination to be finally and irrecoverably Lost and Damned is a rash and uncharitable Opinion And in the same page you say I do positively affirm according to the Scriptures That Eternal Salvation is to be had only through Faith and Knowledge of Christ crucified and raised again This is to maintain two things inconsistent with one another And here I ask'd you therefore how you could make out the Mystery And you answered me That you had three ways to do it Two of them you expressed but because they were to me unsatisfactory I can remember neither and the third upon which you lay'd most stress you would not deliver thinking me at present not like to receive it I very much desire to know what that reserve was but what you have in your Book and in the same Page I see Though God giveth this Knowledge and Faith say you ordinarily by preaching and reading the Scriptures yet I nothing doubt but that God hath inwardly Revealed it to divers without I cannot but remember upon this what you told me That when W.P. put this Question to you and pressed you with it as unanswerable asking you how you could hold any Heathen to be saved seeing you do maintain that a Faith in Christ without is necessary to Salvation You answered him That the Light within is sufficient for the Revelation When you told me this I could not but commend it as a present ingenious Repartee ad hominem or to a Quaker but that is no answer to me or any other Man that is no Quaker nor fit for you to own as good for then it renders you still to be one of them who take Enthusiasm for your Guide W.P. would never have declared you an Apostate over the Head of you for this saying That you nothing doubt but God doth inwardly Reveal whatsoever is of necessity to be believed without Preaching or Reading Whereas I for my part am so far from an assent to you that I am perswaded to the contrary by those express words of the Apostle How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a Preacher Rom. 10.14 We read in the Acts of the Eunuch that Man of Authority a Proselyte reading in Isaiah Philip asks him Understandest thou what thou readest And he answered How can I except some Man should guide me Acts 8.31 From whence we may see that though the Prophets speak of Christ in many places and in none more amply than in this yet the Readers understood them not nor indeed could they the Understanding being reserved till the time of the Apostles who had the Spirit with-held till Christ was Glorified John 7.39 to enlighten them with that Knowledge which they were to communicate to us The Knowledge of Christ and Faith in him is indeed a Treasure and those Riches of the Gospel which as to the times before were unsearchable for it was to them a Treasure in the Field Hid in those Ages till Found by the Apostles through the Revelation thereof by the Spirit for the Publication of the same to the World And this is to be noted for a matter exceeding remarkable That though God had declared to Abraham that in his Seed all Nations should be blessed whereby the Gospel is said to be Preached to him Gal. 3.8 Yet was the Preaching the same by Peter to the Gentiles such a strange thing to them who were of the Circumcision that they contended with him for going to the Uncircumcised as what ought not to be done until Peter rehearsed from the beginning and expounded in order to them the Visions that he and Cornelius had and how the Holy Ghost fell upon them before he Baptized them which put them to silence so that they held their peace and glorified God saying Then hath God also unto the Gentiles granted Repentance unto Life Acts 11.18 This was the thing they wondered at this the Mystery hid from them the Apostle so calls it though Preached so long ago to their Father Abraham himself That the Gentiles should be fellow Heirs and of the same Body and partakers of his Promise in Christ by the Gospel Ephes 3.6 I deny not therefore but the Old Testament Scripture speaks of Christ and that so fully as to his Person his Office his States of Humiliation and Exaltation that Christ in his appearing to the two Disciples going to Emmaus did shew them how Moses and all the Prophets speaking concerning him fore-told that he was to suffer and so to enter into his Glory Luke 24.26 St. Peter likewise preaches the same That unto him gave all the Prophets witness collecting from thence that through his Name whosoever believes in him shall receive Remission of Sins Acts 10.43 Nevertheless it is very manifest that the
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
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