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
you must take from me before I can surrender But Sir very briefly and according to the short tedder of my time to touch some of the more material Heads of your Discourse though haply not in the same order unto which I might be directed by your Papers but onely as they come to remembrance some days after my perusal thereof as not having leasure for a second review 1. By your Judgment which stands for a possibility of Repentance I presume you mean that which is true and accompanying Salvation because otherwise you should not counter-argue me in my Notion without Faith I perceive you are a man of the same conscientious confederacy with me in leaving the road when you judg the Truth lies beside it Notwithstanding at this turn I conceive you leave it without cause For if there may be a Repentance found and saving without Faith either it must be a work or fruit of the Law whether natural or positive it varieth not the case we now speak of or else of some third Covenant made by God with Men in order to their Salvation really distinct both from the Covenant of Works in the Law and from the Covenant of Grace in the Gospel For you cannot affirm it to be a work or fruit of the Gospel because you hold 1. That it is required of those to whom the Gospel is never vouchsafed And 2. That there is no Law or Commandment given unto such persons which are in no capacity of yeelding obedience to it which latter Principle will do you worthy service at many turns if you will work it accordingly That the Repentance you speak of is any fruit or work of any third Covenant is not I presume in your thoughts however I am not able to comprehend what this third Covenant should be That it cannot be any work of the Law or of the Covenant of Works is evident from hence because by the Works of the Law shall no flesh be justified whereas this Repentance is judged by you to be both justifying and saving Besides it is the common and known Opinion of learned Divines and doubtless of good accord with the Truth that the Law knoweth no Repentance For the Tenor of the Law is more district and inexorable Cursed is every man that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Galat. 3. 10. By the way your Notion that Adam during the interìm between his Fall and the Evangelical Promise of the womans seed made unto him was obliged to Repentance is but a mistake Such an interìm supposed Adam was therein no more obliged to Repentance then the Devil is since his Fall The Premisses considered when I argued the Command of God to Beleeve from his Command unto Men to Repent Acts 17. 30. you had no commendable cause of that false demand Sed quid hoc ad Iphicli boves But I consider how hard a thing it is for a man not to be a little warm in a contest and I could for Iphiclus his Oxen return Balaams Ass in exchange but I shall not go forward with the bargain Certainly when God commands Men to Repent he doth in the very substance and import of this duty command them also to Beleeve in as much as that Repentance which he at any time commands is Evangelical and of a saving tendency and so can be no work of the Law unless it be the Law of Life I mean the Gospel From the said Premisses it further appeareth That the Gentiles to whom the letter or written letter of the Gospel never came and amongst whom the Name of Christ haply was never named may yet in sufficient propriety of speech and with largeness enough of Truth though not in that critical formality of the signification of the words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and praedicare which you urge from Grammarians and Civilians a curiosity of dialect which the Holy Ghost commonly neglecteth yea and Grammarians and Civilians themselves a may be said to have and to have had the Gospel preached unto them The Gospel is said to have been preached unto the ancient Jews Heb. 4. 2 6. yet Christ by Name was not preached unto them nor known amongst them And as the Rock out of which Moses or God by Moses gave them water to drink is said to have been Christ viz. spiritually in type or representation in like manner yea and with much more pregnancy and neerness of signification and revelation the patience and goodness and bountifulness of God dayly vouchsafed unto the Heathen may be termed Christ And upon this account the Apostle clearly implieth that the goodness of God leadeth men to Repentance Rom. 2. 4. and consequently the Premisses evincing it unto Faith in Christ whether known or not known by them For God being by the Light of Nature known or at least {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} knowable to be infinitely just infinitely bent in hatred and severity against sin when notwithstanding he shall express himself in goodness and patience and bountifulness towards those who know themselves to be sinners hereby he sufficiently testifieth and declareth unto them that his justice and severity against sin have been and this must in reason needs be supposed to have been by a way or means proportionable to so great and glorious an effect satisfied and that he hath so far accepted an attonement for them that in case they shall truly Repent of their former sins and persevere repentant unto the end they shall escape the punishment due unto their sins and consequently be saved And what is this being interpreted but to have {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the effect or substance of the Gospel preached unto them The Scriptures in several places which I have not leasure at present to examine or discuss plainly insinuate a capacity in the Heathen yea in all men by the Light of Nature I mean where this Light is given and shineth by such a regular and rational process of discourse as that mentioned to attain or make out this Evangelical Conclusion That some Mediation some Attonement or other hath been made and accepted by God for the sins of men But I demand saith the Apostle Paul Have they not heard Yes verily saith he their sound went forth into all the Earth and their words unto the ends of the World He had said in the Verse immediately foregoing that Faith comes by hearing In this Verse he shews in an Answer which he gives to a demand or question put by him what hearing it is by which Faith comes or at least what hearing is sufficient to beleeve upon or to produce Faith This hearing he saith is the hearing of that sound and of those words which the Heavens and the Day and the Night speak and that are gone forth into the ends of the World as appears by the place in Psal. 19. from whence these words are cited If you
in the Synod of Dort express themselves to the same purpose thus So then Christ dyed for all Men THAT ALL AND EVERY ONE by the Mediation of Faith MAY through the vertue of this Ransom obtain Remission of Sins and Eternal Life So that the express sence of these men is That even the Heathen themselves omnes singuti to whom the Gospel was never preached in your sence I mean by men and in the letter of it are yet called by God to it yea and may so beleeve that by the Mediation of their Faith through the Ransom payd for them they may obtain Salvation But suppose we for Argument sake that the Heathen to whom the Gospel was never orally preached were not in an immediate capacity of beleeving it upon those terms of beleeving lately signified yet this proves not but that they might be in a remote capacity of beleeving it such a capacity I mean which by a regular and conscientious exercise and acting of those worthy abilities which God had conferred upon them might by the ordinary blessing and according to the standing course of the gracious Providence of God in such cases have risen up and grown to an immediate capacity in this kinde So that for example an Heathen man who never heard of the Name of Christ may notwithstanding by means of the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} i. e. the effect of the Law written in his heart quit himself to such a degree of well-pleasing unto God that God will not fail to reveal or make known his Son Christ unto him after some such manner and degree which shall be saving unto him This is the express Doctrine of learned M. Bucer Here saith he writing upon Rom. 2. let us observe two things That God in no Age whatsoever left Men destitute of the Doctrine of Salvation Therefore who ever at any time perished perished through their own default or neglect For God so bedeweth or besprinkleth Nature with his Light that they onely remain strangers unto Righteousness who willingly and of their own accord cast it from them There are at this day Nations not a few to whom the Gospel of Christ is not sincerely preached others there are WHO HEAR NOTHING OF IT But if these did not voluntarily put from themselves the desire of Righteousness the Lord QUESTIONLESS would so antmate or enliven them with his Spirit that they should or might perform the things of the Law commit themselves wholy to his grace or goodness and do unto their Neighbors what they would that they should do unto them Hence it would come to pass that God would sooner send an Angel unto them as he did unto Cornelius then suffer them to remain ignorant of his Christ But whilest through impious ingratitude they detain his Truth revealed unto them in Unrighteousness they do not onely deserve to have no more of the good Spirit of God given unto them but even to be given up to a reprobate sence c. The other thing to be taken notice of is That we our selves also harken unto the work or effect of the Law which is written in our hearts that same right and divinely impressed sence of things within us whereby we are continually called upon for holy and honest courses and called back from those that are dishonest c. Afterwards upon Vers 25. of the same Chapter he hath these words But as we formerly also shewed this was rather that which Paul intended viz. to offer to the consideration of the Jews that the Gentiles even before Christ was revealed unto them were Partakers of true Righteousness a The clear result of this Discourse is That the Heathen who never had the Gospel or Christ de facto preached in the letter or by men unto them were yet in a sufficient capacity of doing such things upon the account whereof God would have revealed them unto them by one means or other and this upon such terms which should have been available to Salvation I might add much from Calvin and other Protestant Writers of best account of like import who very frequently and familiarly in their Writings promise with greatest confidence the super-vening of the saving Grace of God unto the regular industry and diligence of men in the improvement of the light they have received Yea the substance of this Doctrine is ever and anon preached by those who are by some counted Pillars of the Ministry amongst us at this day who notwithstanding again destroy that Faith which they build up in such a Doctrine by denying the Universality of Redemption by Christ Mr Edmond Calamy in a Sermon preached by him Jan. 12. 1644. on 2 Chron. 25. 2. amongst many other Passages pointing the same way taught his People and Hearers thus A wicked man may do that which is right in the sight of the Lord by the Light of Nature and by the help of common Grace And although God be not bouna to reward him for it yet I DOUBT NOT but God out of the abyss of his Mercies if he make use of common Grace I DO NOT DOUBT I say but God out of his abundant Mercy though he be not bound unto it yet will give him spiritual or special Grace if he make use of common Nature well God will finde some way or other to do good to that mans Soul Luk. 16. 11. If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous Mammon who shall commit to your trust the true riches This place seems to hold out thus much That if a man improves the outward Mercies of God or the work of common Grace God will entrust that man with better riches God will finde out a way to do that man good Afterwards in the same Sermon thus Thou oughtest to do according to the gift and power which God hath given thee in a natural way and that God which hath given thee power to do it in a natural way will NO DOUBT assist thee with power to do things in a spiritual way For that man which improves his natural Talent God will one time or other entrust him with a spiritual Talent For there was never any man went to Hell for CANNOT but for WILL NOT If you shall please further to peruse my Answer to Mr Jenkin entituled {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} pag. 69 70 71 c. you shall finde the concurrent Judgment of some others of no mean esteem for Learning Piety and whatsoever is called Orthodox amongst us And the truth is that in such a Doctrine as this they cleave to the Scriptures themselves and are one spirit with them For when our Saviour towards the cloze of the Parable of the Talents teacheth thus For unto every one that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath he clearly avoucheth this for Truth That whatsoever a mans original stock in gifts or endowments in one
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