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work_n	faith_n	james_n	justify_v	30,002	5	9.4646	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45134	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 J.H.	Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.; Keith, George, 1639?-1716.	1700 (1700)	Wing H3684; ESTC R25550	27,967	37

hath but one Anathema in all her Articles and that seems to be denounced here against all those who do or shall hold that any Persons can be saved that are not Christians by Profession as if the Death of Christ or the Benefits thereof and the Knowledge of him were Commensurate through the World But God forbid I am out of doubt that God hath a Government over all Mankind which is Moral in order to Life or Salvation and that the Instrument of that Government must be the Law of Grace the Law of Innoceney becoming in the State of Lapsed Nature uncapable to that end which being at first Promulgated to Adam after his Fall and to Noah must belong to all his Posterity insomuch as every one whosoever he be that lives up in sincerity to this Law according to the Administration of it he is under shall be saved For my Assent then to this Article I do desire the word By may be especially noted I could not assent to this Article if it were In in the Law or Sect he professeth but being By I hold plainly that if an Heathen or any Person that never heard the Gospel repents of his Sins and trusts to a good God and so lives up to the Law or Covenant of Grace according to the first Edition of it I say if any such indeed do Rom. 2.26 Acts 10.35 and thereby comes to be saved it is by the Christian Religion which he implicitly holds in Substance with us and not by the Law and Sect he professeth that he is saved And this Salvation of his is in and through the Name and Mediation of Jesus Christ no less than ours is who procured that Law for them and all the World as well as for Abraham and the Jews under the Old and for us under the New Testament A Note hereupon Note here that the Writer of this being a Non-conformist Minister Episcopally Ordained and holding Communion with his Parish-Church as the old Non-conformists did thought good to make a Trial for the recovery of the use of his Ministry in Preaching an Occasional Sermon when called though without Benefice or Emolument which requires farther Compliance did in order to obtain a License unto which an Approbation of the Thirty nine Articles is required by the Uniformity-Act propose a Subscribing to them with a Liberty of Explication if that might be granted his Judgment being That as all Impositions are to be taken in the Sense of the Imposers these Articles must be taken in the Sense of the Compilers or at least he must be construed so to take them if he did Subscribe them without that liberty first granted and declared Upon this account he made for himself his Explications of all the Articles he scrupled and the Bishop of Salisbury hath light upon the same Explication of this Eighteenth Article which is cited before as he Only this difference must be observed That this Explications is reckoned satisfactory in point of Conscience by him upon the supposition of a Liberty of Explication to be first granted but the Bishop proposes this Explication as satisfactory to a Clergy-Man for his Subscribing without the grant to him of a Liberty to make it There have been great Divines who looking on the Articles to be Articles for Peace and not Articles of Faith have thought it enough for their Subscription to them that they engage to bear with and not contradict them This worthy Bishop therefore does honestly show that this is a Sense too loose for the Clergy-Man who is to declare That what he Subscribes is his Opinion and is bound to take every Arti●●e in the Literal and Grammatical Sense of it as is enjoyned by the King's Declaration before the Articles Upon this account the Bishop's distinction between the words By and In is proper as easy if the Authentick Sense be not to be stood upon but a Literal and Grammatical Construction altogether I would fain therefore ask the Bishop whether a Literal and Grammatical Construction can be made to salve all the other Articles as well as this I will propose two words in two Articles The one is that word thorowly in the Eighth Article The three Creeds ought Thorowly to be received and believed If Thorowly then in every part then the beginning the middle and the end of the Athanasian Creed must be believed then must the Proem and the Conclusion be believed Does the Bishop believe so If he indeed does not then is that fair Grammatical Literal come-off to no purpose in the Eighteenth Article when he is gravell'd in the same matter in the Eight The common Answer says the Bishop of the most eminent Men of the Church is That these Expressions are only to be understood to relate to those who having the means of Instruction offered them have rejected them Upon such as do thus reject this great Article of the Christian Doctrine concerning One God and Three Persont and that other concerning the Incarnation of Christ are these Anathemaes denounced This is well exceeding well but is this a Literal Gramatical Construction Will the word thor●●ly so Literally and Grammatically be thus expounded The other word I have to propose is the word Only in the Eleventh Article That we are Justified by Faith Only is a wholsome Doctrine In the Literal Grammatical Construction this cannot be subscribed because it is Litterally and Grammatically contrary to St. James who says Not by Faith only but by Works also In the Authentick Sense one may believe the Compilers meant by Only what Paul says By Faith without Works which by distinguishing Works may be reconciled to St. James If the Articles then must be subscribed in the Literal Grammatical Sense what shall we do with them Subscribe them we cannot Why they must be let alone The Truth is these Articles if conscienciously Subscribed must be Subscribed in the Authentick Sense or Meaning of the Church and so of the Compilers and that construed Literally and Grammatically which makes them the harder They may remain therefore as standing still for the Articles of the Church but without the Injunction of her Sons to Subscribe them For no Man of a free Judgment that will Subscribe nothing but what he understands and believes will be able to bring his Ego libenter ex animo to do it O quando Oh when will the time come that we may have an Act for Comprehension which may provide for the forbearance of such Subscriptions Declarations and Oaths that the largest Exposition that can be made of them does but render a Noli me tangere to Conformist and Non-conformist and even to himself that makes or hath made it There is a Threefold Interpretation An Authentick a Usual and a Doctrinal Interpretation according to Suarez De Legibus The Authentick Interpretation of an Imposition is the Exposition of it according to the Sense and Meaning of the Imposer and the Authentick Interpretation of the Articles is to understand them according to the Meaning of those who compiled them and consequently of the Church which enjoyned them according to their Meaning The Usual Interpretation of these Articles who can tell But if any shall cite Chillingworth and Arch-Bishop Usher and say that any Interpretation of an Article as it pleaseth the Taker so long as he obliges himself not to contradict it is that which is Usual I think he speaks true But then this Usual Interpretation is not allowed the Clergy-Man by the Bishop as is noted before because it is loose and sinful as he shews upon clear Reason and in this the Bishop will have a good Conscience at the great Day A Doctrinal Interpretation is the Explication of any Doctor or Doctors of the Church concerning an Article which is but Rational and not inconsistent with the Scripture and the Analogy of Faith especially if it be ingenuous and candid and sit to be received Now if upon the Call of any Parliament there should be occasion for the Convocation to sit and they should make a Canon on purpose to authorize declare and signifie that the Subscription to the Articles which is enjoyned is be understood not in the Authentick or Usual but only in a Doctrinal Interpretation then would this Book of the Bishop be of singular use and highly to be approved But if it serve only to justifie the imposing this Subscription and continue it without a Liberty of Explication or any such Canon there being these two ways only I can think on to make the Imposition Conscionable I must declare what I apprehend That this Book of the Bishop will be and must needs be a Snare unto many I will add That if it were writ with the Intention to uphold and continue the Subscription which I believe not of this worthy Author or if it does but hinder the taking of it off which was designed in the Convention Parliament as this Bishop knows there is no Man will have more cause of regret and to be more deeply touched at the Heart about the Book than he himself that hath so ingenuously and exquisitely wrote it THE END

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

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