་་

Educated. And we must leave all this to God, who will require from none more than He has given, for the Lord is good to all; and His tender Mercies are over all his Works, Pfal. cxlv. 9.

(13.) L. Can any be faved then but by Chrift?

G. No. But many may be faved by Him who never heard of him. He dyed to make Satisfaction to the Infinite Juftice for the Sins of the whole World and took our Nature upon Him, to atone for our fallen Nature, to be applied to fuch who perform the Conditions required. He will judge the Gentiles, by the Law of Morality, which he has planted in their Hearts, and we call Natural Religion: But from Chriftians He requires Faith in Chrift, joined with fincere Repentance.

L. Then the Gentiles are in better Condition than we, because lefs is required of them.

G. Is it no Advantage then to have the Glory of God revealed to us, in the face of Jefus Chrift? As the Apostle fpeaks, 2 Cor. iv. 6. And the Effect of it upon us is defcribed, chap. 3. ver. 18. viz. That we all with open face, beholding as in a glafs the glory of the Lord, are changed into the fame image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. The fight of the wonderful Oeconomy of our Redemption muft needs fill our Souls with Rapture and Joy, when we behold the Glory of God in

all

all His Attributes, each Exalting the other to the Uttermoft, as it is faid, Jam. ii. 13. Miferecordia Superexaltat Judicium, that the Mercy of God exalts His Juftice; for Justice requires full Satisfaction, it cannot remit a farthing: To Remit is Mercy and not fuftice: And God is Juftice it felf, Juftice in the Abstract. Here then Infinite Wisdom finds out a full Satisfaction to Infinite Justice: And Infinite Goodness affords that Satisfaction, by the Incarnation, perfect Obedience, Meritorious Paffion, and Glorious Refurrection, &c. of the only begotten Son of God! This enflames our Devotion, invigo rates our Obedience, and gives Compunction to our Repentance, when we have finned and come (hort of the glory of God, Rom. iii. 23. God has vouchfafed to make a Covenant with us in Chrift, by vertue of which we may ap peal to His Justice and Veracity. It is a pardon Signed and Sealed by the King, which we may Plead in Court. The Heathen have not this, but they are ftill under his Mercy, they may fay, God is merciful to forgive us: But we may fay with St. John, that God is Faithful and Just to forgive us our Sins,and to cleanse us from all Unrighteoufnefs, 1 John i. 9. This is a great, a very great Advantage we have above the Gentiles. And may not we enjoy it with Thankfulness, and not Damn them all to the Pit of Hell? Because God has made a Covenant with us, may we not leave them to His Un-covenanted Mercy? Is our Eye evil to them, because He has been good to us? Or

would

would we limit His Mercies to His Creatures, with whom we have nothing to do? For what have we to do to Judge them that are without?

Them that are without God judgeth, 1 Cor. V. 12. And God did Judge one who was with out, that is, out of the Pale of the Church, to be the most Beloved of God, and that there was none like him in the Earth, Job i. 8. And he is put upon the Level with the greatest in the Church, Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, &c. Ezek. xiv. 14. And as God chofe a Gentile to be the great Example of Patience to all Ages, Fam. v. 11. And of another Gentile it was faid by Chrift, I have not found fo great faith, no, not in Ifrael, Luk, vii. 9. And He who faid often to His Difciples, Ope of little Faith And upbraided his Apoftles with their Unhelief, Mark xvi. 14. yet faid to a Woman of Canaan, (who would not be difcouraged for the Objection He put against her, of her not being within the Pale of the Church, but without among the Dogs) O Woman great is thy faith, Matth. xv. 26. And of the ten healed there was but one thankful, and he was a Samaritan, Luke xvii. 16. that is, a Schifmatick, a Stranger, as Chrift here calls him, ver. 18. and faid to him, thy Faith bath made thee whole. And the Pattern of Charity is placed in the Person of a Samaritan, in oppofition to both a Prieft and a Levite, Luke x. 30. &c. Which makes good what St. Peter faid of Cornelius a Gentile, A&s x. 34. Of a truth I perceive that God is no refpecter of Perfons : But in every Nation, he that feareth Him,

and

iv.

and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. This is the Doctrine which Chrift taught, Luke 25. &c. When he minded the Jews, that a Widow of Sarepta, a City of Sidon, and Naaman the Syrian were preferred to all the Wi dows and Lepers in Ifrael. Which fo enraged the Jews, tenacious of the Privilege of the Church, that they thrust Him out of the City, and led him unto the brow of the Hill (whereon their City was built) that they might caft him down beadlong. And it is faid, that they were filled with Wrath. The like Fury they fhewed when St. Paul told them that the Gospel was to be extended beyond the Pale of their Church, and that God had fent him to the Gentiles. And they gave bim Audience unto that word,and then lift up their voices, and faid, Away with such a fellow from the Earth, for it is not fit that be fhould live. And they cried out, and cast off their clothes, and threw duft into the Air, Acts xxii. 22. And the like Rage is feen among the Zealots of your Church, when they hear of the Gospel being extended out of the Pale of their Communion; though with Chriftians who hold the three ancient Creeds, and have every thing Effential to a Church, except what Rome has made fo, viz. The Univerfal and Unlimited Soveraignty of her Bishop. Which is the great Bone of Contention, wherein Rome ftands fingle by her felf, thrusting all other Chriftian Churches from her; like a Man in a Boat who thinks he thruft the Shore from him, whereas he only thruft himself from the

Shore;

Shore; as Firmilian faid to Stephen Bishop of Rome, Excidifti te ipfum, nolite fallere,-"Do "not deceive your felf, you have cut your felf off from the Church; for he is truly a "Schifmatick who has made himself an Apoftate from the Communion of Ecclefiaftical Unity; for while you think you can Excommunicate all other Churches from you, "you have only Excommunicated your felf from them. Dum enim putas omnes à tè Abftineri poffe, te ipfum Abftinuifti. Cyprian Ep. 75. p. 228. Edit. Öxon.

But the Church of the Jews had a much ftronger Plea for her Univerfal Supremacy and Infallibility, because all Profelytes, of whatever Nations, muft come in to Her, for there was no other visible Church of God upon Earth; and the Sacrifices were limited to the Temple at Jerufalem. Accordingly we find, As viii. 27. that the Eunuch came out of Ethiopia to Ferufalem for to Worship.

Now if the Chriftian Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Chrift, the most folemn Wor fhip of God, were confined to St. Peter's Church at Rome, and could be had no where elfe; as the moft folemn Worfhip of God; the legal Sacrifices, which were Types of the Chriftian, were confined to the Temple at Jerufalem And if the Church of Rome, like that of the Jews, were the only Church. in the World: Yet after all, would the Church of Rome have no more Pretence to Infallibility and Perpetuity than the Church of the Jews

had