are virtually univerfal. Indeed the original Declaration of God to the Serpent, that he would put Enmity between him and the Woman, and between bis Seed and her Seed, that it should bruife his Head, and he should bruife his Heel, apparently includes. the whole Race of Mankind; and God's fubfequent Promise to Abraham, that in him all Nations fhould be bleffed, is evidently of no less Extent. It is certain however, God entered into no immedíate Covenant with any Nation for many Ages but that of the Jews, who were therefore emphatically ftiled his peculiar People. Shall we therefore wholly confine the Goodnefs of God through fo long a Tract of Time to the narrow Circle of Judæa? Since, indeed, the Christian Covenant (of which the other was only prefigurative) has comprised a far more confiderable Portion of Mankind; though the greater Part of the known World does ftill live either in utter Ignorance of it, or in Oppofition to it.Now, I fuppofe, human Reason can never affign a fufficient Cause why God should vouchsafe to illuminate with the Light of his Gospel fome particular Nations, and leave others in Darkness, especially fuch as may be reasonably fuppofed to have been equally qualified for the Reception of the fame. But though this Caufe can never be affigned, and it would be prefumptuous to attempt to trace those Ways that are past finding out, yet the feeming Inequality of fuch a Dispensation will

VOL. I.

M

perplex

b

perplex us no longer, if we suppose infinite Love (and what less can we fuppose of infinite Love?) has virtually and intentionally fome Respect unto all Men. It is faid in the moft general Terms, that* Chrift Jefus came into the World to fave Sinners, that as by the Offence of one, Judgment came upon all Men to Condemnation, even fo by the Righteouf nefs of one, the free Gift came upon all Men unto Juftification of Life: Jefus Chrift is faid to have tafted Death for every Man; he is the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sin of the World, i.e. (as the Expreffion seems to have been reasonably explained) that taketh away the Guilt contracted, and the Penalty incurred by the original Sin of Adam, in the Confequences of which, as has been obferved, the whole World was involved. And therefore, though both Nations and Perfons may, through their own wilful Folly, Blindness, and Corruption, be given up by God to the Lufts of their own Hearts; or in other Words, though God may take from them the common Grace or away Light of human Reason, and in fuch Cafes they will be judicially infatuated to their own Destruction, yet fure there can be no good Foundation either in Nature, or Scripture, to doubt that every Individual, every Man, as fuch, is, in virtue of the universal Atonement by Chrift, capacitated for Salvation.-St. Paul exprefly ascribes the vile Cor

1 Tim. i. 15.

b John i. 29.

ruptions

ruptions and Enormities of the Gentiles, to their wilful Abuse of their own natural Faculties, and the Judgment of their own Understanding. That which may be known of God is manifeft in them, fays he, for God hath shewed it unto them: for the invifible Things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly feen, being understood by the Things that are made; even his eternal Power and Godhead: fo that they are without Excufe. For this Cause God gave them up unto vile Affections; or, as he afterwards expreffes it, to a reprobate Mind, a Mind void of Judgment, according to the marginal Reading. (Rom. i. 19. 26.)-The Confequence of Reprobation then is univerfally the fame in all Men; they are hereby become paft feeling, as our Apostle elsewhere fays; and their Confcience is feared with a bot Iron. But the fame Apostle, in the Chapter following that before quoted, represents the fame Gentiles as qualified for Divine Mercy, and the great Privileges of the Jewish Covenant, provided they acted in Conformity to their own Knowledge, and agreeably to the Light of Reafon within them. For when the Gentiles, which have not the Law, do by Nature the Things contained in the Law, thefe having not the Law, are a Law unto themselves; which fhew the Work of the Law written in their Hearts, their Confcience alfo bearing Witness, and their Thoughts the mean while accufing, or else excufing one another. (Ch. ii. 14.) The Application

of this Paffage, and of the Doctrine of the whole Chapter, from the Jewish to the Chriftian Church, might very naturally be made;—but it will be fufficient to obferve from it, that no Man's Title to Acceptance with God is founded in his Profeffion, as fuch; that the Mercies of the Gofpel Covenant are transferable even to those that never heard of it, and that mere Inability and Want of Knowledge cannot invalidate the natural, inherent Right and Interest all Men have in the great Redeemer, nor confequently incapacitate them for Salvation.- -If ye were blind, faid our Saviour to the Jews, ye should have no Sin; but now ye fay, we fee; e fee; therefore your Sin remaineth; (John ix. 41.) St. Paul was by his own Account a Blafphemer, a Perfecutor, and injurious: but he obtained Mercy because he did it ignorantly in Unbelief; (1 Tim. i. 13.) And no doubt the very fame Circumstances will be finally entitled to the fame Compaffion. For that Servant which knew his Lord's Will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his Will, fshall be beaten with many Stripes; but he that knew not, and did commit Things worthy of Stripes, shall be beaten with few Stripes; (Luke xii. 47.) Thus far then Scripture and Reafon go hand in hand together; and as the first Truth in Religion is, that there is a God, so the second I take to be this; that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Indeed we read of particular Perfons of old who were eminently distinguished by the Divine Favour; but we are not therefore to conclude that this Favour was partially, and arbitrarily conferred. ENOCH, as the Apoftle to the Hebrews declares, was tranflated that he should not fee Death, for before his Tranflation he had this Teftimony, that he pleafed God.-NOAH found Grace in the Eyes of the Lord.-But then for this Grace he was perfonally qualified; for Noah, as the next Verse tells us, was a juft Man, and perfect in his Generations: fo the extraordinary Faith of ABRAHAM was counted to him for Righteousness; who against Hope believed in Hope, that he might become the Father of many Nations.-There was in these therefore, and many others, a certain Pre-eminence of Virtue and Righteoufness, that recommended them to the particular Notice and Affection of their heavenly Father.-Indeed it is not always easy to afcertain the Impartiality of Divine Juftice in temporal and tranfitory Difpenfations; but these, which are only a Part of the System of infinite Wisdom, must not be confidered feparately from the whole; and if not, no Impeachment can from hence be brought against the Goodness and Justice of God in Matters relative to the spiritual and eternal State of Man, with which if the present be compared, it finks abfolutely below our ferious Confideration.