had left men free from all and all manner of Command and Obligation to Repent under the former and onely charged them with this duty under the latter but onely sheweth or supposeth that that Obligation to repent which lay upon men under the former the times of ignorance was but weak faint obscure and with little authority upon the Consciences of men in comparison of that tye obligation or engagement hereunto which God by an express Command imposeth upon the World under the latter the times of the Gospel This to be the genuine and true import of the said Antithesis appears 1. By the frequent and familiar usage of the Scripture in like cases 2. By consideration of the state and condition of the Heathen throughout the World in the Point in question before the times of the Gospel First It is a thing of frequent Observation amongst Expositors and Divines that the Holy Ghost intending to mention and assert any considerable encrease or advance of some former Dispensation is wont to express it in simple positive and absolute terms and as if it were a new kinde of Dispensation and which had not formerly been known or heard of in the World i Thus the Promises made to Abraham Gen. 12. concerning the multiplication of his seed and their inheriting the Land of Canaan are afterwards as viz. Cap. 17. 2 4 5 c. again mentioned and expressed as if they had now been new or first made onely because they are expressed more largely fully and emphatically When Christ spake thus to his Disciples after his Resurrection These are the words which I spake unto you whilest I was yet WITH YOU Luk. 24. 44. in this latter clause whilest I was yet with you he insinuates his present being with them by way of Antithesis to his former being with them viz. before his Death not as if he were not now present with them as well as he had been formerly but because his being now with them was of a more transcendent and peculiar nature and consideration then his former presence had been in as much as he was now in the estate of the Resurrection whereas in his former being with them he was but in the ordinary condition of men When Moses and the Priests spake thus unto all Israel Take heed and harken O Israel that this day thou art become the People of the Lord thy God Deut. 27. 9. their meaning was not to imply that they never had been the People of the Lord until now i. e. a People whom God had owned and countenanced from Heaven taken into Covenant with himself c. but that God by the constant Tenor of his gracious Administrations towards them from time to time until that day had made them now more his People then ever had further declared himself to be their God and to accept and own them for a People peculiar to him then formerly and that upon this account it concerned them more neerly then ever to harken unto him and obey his voyce In like Notion our Saviour promiseth his Disciples that he will pray the Father and that he should give them another Comforter even the Spirit of Truth when as in the very same period or passage of speech he affirmeth that this Comforter or Spirit was already given them or which is the same dwelt now with or in them Joh. 14. 15 16. So that he mentioneth a larger Effusion or Donation of the same Spirit as if it were the primitive or first gift thereof In like manner when being now upon his Journey for the raising of Lazarus from the dead he saith to his Disciples I am glad for your sakes that I was not there to the intent that you MIGT BELEEVE Joh. 11. 15. he expresseth their beleeving to a further degree as if it were the first of their beleeving and that they had not beleeved before Whereas it is evident from Joh. 2. 11 22. and other places that they had beleeved on him before When the Apostle affirms this to be Gods end in chastising his People That they might be Partakers of his Holiness Hebr. 12. 10. he doth not suppose that they were in no degree partakers of his Holiness before their chastisement but he expresseth a fuller and richer participation hereof as if it were a simple absolute or original participation in this kinde So again when the Evangelist John saith that the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not glorified Joh. 7. 39. his meaning is not that the Spirit had in no measure been formerly given for questionless all those who under the Law beleeved and so those who in the days of our Saviours converse on Earth before his Glorification beleeved unto Justification were led hereunto by the Spirit here spoken of but he expresseth that abundant and most remarkable Donation and pouring out of it upon the Apostles and others after upon and by vertue of Christs Ascention into Glory as if it had been the first and only giving of it And it is a good rule or observation which Testardus delivers hereupon Those things saith he are said not to be or not to be done before the times of the Gospel which do less or not appear or are less perceived or felt before this fulness of times k So that when the Apostle saith in the Scripture under debate that God now in the times of the Gospel commandeth all men every where to repent it doth not necessarily imply that God never till now commanded the same thing I mean Repentance unto them but that now he commanded it upon other terms with more expressness and particularity of Command upon more lively and pregnant grounds or motives with another edg of Authority under greater severity of punishment threatened in case of disobedience then he had commanded it formerly Many instances from the Scriptures have been presented unto you and many more I doubt not upon a little further search might be added unto them wherein such a construction as this must of necessity be admitted And that this is the true and genuine sence of the place in hand appears yet further by the latter consideration mentioned which respects the state or condition of all Mankind under the times of that ignorance of which the Apostle speaketh and before the days of the Gospel For that the World was then under a Command from God to Repent is evident from hence viz. because otherwise their impenitency and obdurate proceedings in such ways and practises which are contrary to the Law of God yea and the Law of Nature it self had been no sin in them nor obligatory unto punishment the Apostles assertion being express that it is the Law that worketh Wrath i. e. that subjecteth men unto punishment because where no Law is there is no transgression Rom. 4. 15. meaning as he expresseth himself upon the account in the Chapter following vers. 13. that sin is not imputed i. e. charged upon men or punished where there
same into a way of having the Gospel even in the letter of it made known unto them by their enlightening those parts of the World with the Knowledg of it in which they preached it Nor can that of the Apostle claim the honor of truth where speaking of the Gospel he saith it was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the word so emphatically urged by you {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. preached unto every Creature which is under Heaven Col. 1. 23. but upon the account and warrant of such a construction But 2. neither will my Principles allow me to gratifie you with my belief of this your saying unless very rigidly understood and in such a sence wherein it will little accommodate your cause That the Light of Nature neither can nor ever could discover to Mankinde that there was or ever would be such a Man and Mediator as Jesus Christ c. What the Light of Nature hath de facto discovered unto Mankinde may much better be known and judged of then what it can or could discover I confess my apprehensions concerning the extent of the Power and Abilities of the Light of Nature carefully preserved prudently managed and industriously improved and imployed run very high and I judg that the greatest part of what this Light hath hitherto discovered unto Mankinde is not commensurable to the least part of what it is and hath been able to discover But what if it be granted That it neither is nor hath been able to discover that there was or ever would be such a Man and Mediator as Jesus Christ viz. in all particularities relating to his Person wherein the Gospel presenteth him to the World yet may it be able so far to discover him that a man by the discovery may be rationally perswaded through or by means of him to depend upon God for the Pardon of his Sins and Salvation of his Person yea and this to the real obtaining of both at the hand of God I have no ground at all to beleeve or think that such Jews who before and under yea and long after Moses did beleeve in God unto Salvation had Jesus Christ discovered unto them in any such Vision of Particularities as that exhibited in the Gospel The sum and substance of what they at least the far greater part of them apprehended knew or beleeved concerning Christ amounted not I suppose to much more then this viz. That God had found out and pleased himself in a way or means how to shew Mercy and to forgive the Sins and save the Souls of such who should put their trust in him and live righteously and holily in this present World For that God did not declare i. e. make plainly and fully known in the World upon what account of Righteousness or Justice he pardoned sin committed in the World before the great Attonement made by the Death of Christ until this Attonement was actually made is evident by this passage of the Apostle Rom. 3. 24 25 26. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood TO DECLARE HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS THAT ARE PAST through the forbearance of God meaning that God through his great patience or strength of forbearance {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} remitted sin even long before any Satisfaction or Attonement made for it To declare I say at this time viz. when Christ suffered in the flesh his Righteousness that he might be just and a Justifier of him that is of the Faith of Jesus i. e. that he might appear to be and to have been just in justifying him i. e. every one or whosoever {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that was is or shall be a Beleever in Christ From this last clause {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} that is of the Faith of Jesus i. e. that beleeves or depends on Christ for Righteousness relating in special manner to the beleeving Jews before the coming of Christ in the flesh it is observable that they are reputed by God and consequently ought to be so reputed by men also Beleevers in Christ not onely who know him by Name or in the hypostatical union of the two Natures or the like and beleeve on him under such a Notion as this for thus the beleeving Jews who were justified by God before the Coming of Christ neither knew him nor beleeved on him as was formerly said but also they that beleeve on God by or through him as Peter expresseth it 1 Pet. 1. 21. i. e. who either by Grace purchased or procured by him or by any Providence or Dispensation one or more issued by God for his sake or upon his account in the World are brought or prevailed with to depend on God for the forgiveness of their sins upon their Repentance And that the Jews I speak of when they did beleeve on God unto Justification did not explicitely or by Name beleeve in Jesus Christ seems to me very apparant from those words of Christ to his Apostles Joh. 14. 1. Ye beleeve in God beleeve also in me If they had beleeved in him as explicitely and distinctly as they did beleeve in God there had been no more ground why he should exhort or encourage them to beleeve in him then in God nor why he should have owned them in their belief in God more then in their belief in himself And that that their belief in God which our Savior here acknowledgeth in them was unto Justification I suppose that you neither will nor reasonably can deny Now then if such a Faith which had Jesus Christ onely vertually and interpretatively in it and none but God himself explicitely and directly was notwithstanding available to the Justification of the Jews who had better opportunities of means for an explicite Knowledg of him then the Gentiles much more reasonable is it to conceive that the like Faith will be accepted in the Gentiles to their Justification especially considering 1. That same Divine Attribute which the Scripture calls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a non-acceptation of persons so frequently asserted and inculcated by the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures and 2. That the Justification of men is a judiciary act awarded according to the Tenor of a known Law by God Besides That Jesus Christ is in such a Faith by which men are actually enabled to come with acceptation unto God I presume you will not deny considering what Christ himself saith No man cometh unto the Father but by me Joh. 14. 6. That by such a Faith whereby a man beleeves 1. That God is 2. That he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him he is enabled thus to come unto God is the express Doctrine of the Apostle Hebr. 11. 6. And that the Heathen who never had the advantage of the letter of the Gospel were notwithstanding
made with their Fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the Land of Egypt because they continued not in my Covenant AND I REGARDED THEM NOT saith the Lord For this is the Covenant that I will make c. These words And I regarded them not seem to run somewhat parallel with those in question And the times of this ignorance God winked at and withall to carry some such sence and import as this That God considering the weakness and imperfection of that Covenant which he made with them at Mount Horeb upon their Deliverance from Egypt how little spirit and life there was in this Covenant to render them a people excellent and worthy God in comparison of that Covenant which he purposed to make with them afterwards in the Gospel upon their great Deliverance from Sin and Hell to be accomplished by Jesus Christ did accordingly expect no great matters from them but was content {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the Apostle speaks Acts 13. 18. to bear with their manners to over-look many miscarriages neglected to punish and take vengeance on them for such sins the commission whereof under a Covenant of more grace he would have vindicated most severely But this onely by the way Towards the Conclusion of your Writing you make this ingenuous and Christian Promise which contains as much as I can with Reason or a good Conscience expect from you That if I can make it appear upon just and carrying grounds that Infants Naturals to whom God hath not given the use of Reason and those many millions in all ages who never heard the Gospel are bound to beleeve in Christ for Salvation then you shall grant my Minor and admit my Argument to be good viZ. That Christ dyed for all without exception because all without exception are bound to beleeve I suppose I have and this upon no worse or weaker grounds then you require made it fully apparant that all the three sorts of persons you speak of are in a sence which I with many others call sensus divisus and which I have explained bound to beleeve on Christ for Salvation As for the sence which haply you mean and which I have termed sensus compositus your self have in a former passage and herein done nothing neither but what Reason and Ingenuity together with the Interest of your own Credit and Conscience obliged you unto acquitted me and my Doctrine from intending it in reference to the two former sorts of persons Infants and Naturals Nor do I conceive that your self judg it any ways prejudicial to the Salvation of either of these by Christ that they are in this sence utterly uncapable of beleeving on him unless you either judg them salvable by the Law of Nature and without Christ which I judg you cannot reasonably do or not at all which I suppose to be further from your thoughts then the other So that whether Infants or Naturals be capable or not capable of beleeving in Christ yet if they be salvable by him it undeniably follows that he dyed for them Concerning the third and last sort persons who though competent of understanding yet never from first to last tasted of the letter of the Gospel I have proved at large and I trust to your satisfaction and other mens That such men as these stand bound both by the Law of Nature and by positive Law from God to beleeve in Jesus Christ and that without the letter of the Gospel they are in a capacity of beleeving in him so or so far as to be accepted therein unto Salvation Thus having performed your conditions I trust I may upon a legitimacy of claim demand the courtesie of your Promise being nothing but what is very lawful for you to grant the admitance of my Minor and consequently the concluding validity of my Argument Whereas you somewhere in your Papers represent it as a thing very irrational and unworthy belief that Christ should dye for those who he knew were in no capacity or possibility of receiving benefit thereby as all those were who had perished in their sins and were eternally condemned before his Death my Answer is That as at Christs riding into Jerusalem as well the multitudes that went before as those that followed cryed Hosanna to the Son of David Matt. 21. 9. so those that lived in the World before his Incarnation and Sufferings were in a blessed capacity of receiving Remission of Sins and the great Blessing of Salvation by his Death by beleeving on him as then to come as well as those who take their turns of Mortality after him and beleeve on him as already come Otherwise how should Abraham Isaac and Jacob have been in a capacity of siting down and eating bread in the Kingdom of God So that how ever the persons you speak of who were under an irreversible sentence of Condemnation for their sins at the time when our Saviour dyed and in this respect were in no possibility of receiving benefit by his death yet there was a time viZ. whilest they lived in the World when they were under the same possibility with other men of receiving the great benefit and blessing of Salvation by him and in this respect he may properly enough be said to have dyed for them i. e. to have dyed upon such terms that they beleeving on him whilest the day of Grace lasted as intending or as being to dye for them in time might have been saved by his death And if this Objection were of any force neither can it truly be said that he dyed for Abraham Isaac or Jacob or for other Saints who had dyed in the Faith as the Apostle speaketh before his coming in the Flesh at least it cannot be said that he dyed for the remission of their sins because they having obtained already and being in full possession of this heavenly Priviledg were in no possibility of obtaining it by Christ at the time of his death Nor is it nor can it reasonably be imagined that it should be the intent of the Doctrine which teacheth that Christ dyed for all men without exception to affirm or teach withall that he dyed upon such terms for all men that all men at any time or in every state and condition whether living or whether dead whether free from or whether insnared with the guilt of the unpardonable sin c. should be in a capacity or under a possibility of being saved by him The intire and clear meaning of the said Doctrine as it is in effect stated by me Cap. 17. 1. of my Book of Redemption is That all persons of Mankind whatsoever are or were put into such a capacity of Salvation by the Death of Christ that if their own voluntary neglect and notorious unworthiness do not intervene and hinder they may or might be all actually saved thereby And thus I have in the midst of many distractions and under much encumbrance of business
is no Law So that unless we shall suppose the World to have been absolutely lawless and that the generality of men might without contracting any guilt or making themselves liable unto punishment have committed all the abominations which they did commit yea and ten times more until the times of the Gospel we must of necessity make or suppose them subject to some Law or other of God whereby he commands Repentance unto men Yea the Apostle himself in the same Sermon and a very few verses before the words in contest plainly supposeth the men we speak of even all the Nations of men to have been all the time before the Gospel under an engagement or obligation from God to have sought him which supposeth at least their repentance And hath made of one blood all Nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the Earth and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitations that THEY SHOULD SEEK THE LORD if haply they might feel after him and find him though he be not far from every one of us c. Act. 17. 26 27. His meaning is that God hath taken such a wise and gracious course 1. In the creation and forming of men 2. In disposing and governing them that they might be in a good capacity of seeking him and this so as to finde him and consequently to enjoy him and to be made happy and blessed by him although their minds and understandings were much darkened through corrupt principles which they had voluntarily drank in and sinful practices wherein they had walked in as much as he was neer enough to them all to have been found by them even by groping or feeling as men use to seek for things in the dark meaning that by a very low strain of industry an ordinary diligence and enquiry they might have discovered and found him out so far as to have worshipped and served him with acceptation and this under all those great disadvantages for the finding him out which they had brought upon themselves These things import much more then their being under a simple Command from God to Repent though it is true that a Command to Repent vertually and with interpretation contains and comprehends the whole duty of man Nor do these words which you urge and insist upon And the times of this ignorance God winked at import any thing contrary to what hath been now argued or as if God had neither taken nor meant to take any account at all of those Heathen who before the times of the Gospel had only the Books of Nature Providence and Creation to instruct them for their misdemeanors in sinning The Apostle expresly saith that as many as have sinned without the Law shall perish without the Law Rom. 2. 12. And a little before Tribulation and anguish upon every Soul of him that doth evil of the Jew first and ALSO OF THE GENTILE to omit much more that might be readily cited from the same Apostle to the same purpose Therefore when God is said {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to have over-looked or winked at the times of ignorance i. e. the ways and doings of men under these times it is to be understood in a comparative sence implying onely some such thing as this That whilest means for the Conversion of Men from Sin to Righteousness and for the bringing of them to the true Knowledg and Fear of God were but low scant and weak in the World in comparison of what they are now advanced unto by the shining of the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ amongst men God was nothing so severe to mark what was done amiss nothing so swift to execute Judgment or take Vengeance on Transgressors as now he is and intends to be under the Gospel the vouchsafement whereof unto the World is as the laying of the Ax to the root of the Trees upon which follows the hewing down and casting into the fire every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit Mat. 3. 10. This sence is both very agreeable to the Scripture-phrase which frequently and familiarly expresseth a comparative sence in a positive and absolute form see Joh. 6. 27. 1 Cor. 1. 17. Luk. 12. 4. Joh. 7. 39. Gal. 4. 9. not to mention other places of like purport without number and likewise perfectly accordeth with that Principle of Righteousness and Equity in and about the punishing of sin and sinners which the Scripture from place to place ascribeth unto God and which inclineth him to punish sins committed against greater Light against means and motives of greater Efficacy and Power with more severity proportionably then those which though otherwise the same are perpetrated where means and motives for the refraining of such sins are either fewer or less effectual See upon this account Amos 3. 2. compared with Lam. 1. 12. and Dan. 9. 12. Deut. 6. 12. with 15. Matth. 11. 21 24. Luk. 12. 47 48. Jer. 32. 31. compared with Vers 33. besides many other passages of like import Calvin reading the words in present consideration between us thus Et tempora quidem hujus ignorantiae cùm hactenùs dissimulaverit Deus neither approves your sence of them nor mine though his censure falls much heavier on yours then on mine He affirms that Pauls intent was not to extenute the sins of men but onely to magnifie the Grace of God which had now on the sudden shone upon the World and labors to confute such an Interpretation from that of the same Apostle lately cited They that have sinned without the Law shall notwithstanding perish without the Law l His sence of the words is onely this God winked at or dissembled the times of that ignorance i. e. -that during the long tract and continuance of these times God did not discover or reveal himself unto men m I finde some other modern Expositors of good note steering the same course of Interpretation with him Some conceive that the Apostle speaks of the times past with those that were then living and that his meaning is that God would not lay to their charge i. e. punish or destroy them for their Idolatries past if now they were willing to repent Of this Judgment was Chrysostom and after him Oecumenius Neither of these Interpretations fall in with the genius of your inference from the words nor yet endamage my Notion in the least which saith That the Heathen here spoken of were under a Command from God to Repent even all along the times of the ignorance of which the Apostle speaketh But besides what hath been already offered to countenance the Interpretation of the words awarded by me I conceive this passage of the Apostle Hebr. 8. Vers 8 9 c. doth better the account For finding fault with them he saith Behold the days come saith the Lord when I will make a new Covenant with the House of Israel and the House of Judah Not according to the Covenant that I