tended work of my devotion; it being a felicity I can neither think to deserve nor scarce in modesty to expect. For these two ends of us all, either as rewards or punishments, are mercifully ordained and disproportionably disposed unto our actions; the one being so far beyond our deserts, the other so infinitely below our demerits. SECT. LIV. There is no salvation to those that believe not in Christ; that is, say some, since his nativity, and, as divinity affirmeth, before also; which makes me much apprehend the end of those honest worthies and philosophers which died before his incarnation. It is hard to place those souls in hell, whose worthy lives do teach us virtue on earth. Methinks, amongst those many subdivisions of hell, there might have been one limbo left for these. What a strange vision will it be to see their poetical fictions converted into verities, and their imagined and fancied furies into real devils! How strange to them will sound the history of Adam, when they shall suffer for him they never heard of! When they, [that] derive their genealogy from the gods, shall know they are the unhappy issue of sinful man! It is an insolent part of reason, to controvert the works of God, or question the justice of his proceedings. Could humility teach others, as it hath instructed me, to contemplate the infinite and incomprehensible distance betwixt the Creator and the creature; or did we seriously perpend that one simile of St. Paul, "shall the vessel say to the potter, why hast thou made me thus?" it would prevent these arrogant disputes of reason; nor would we argue the definitive sentence of God, either to heaven or hell. Men that live according to the right rule and law of reason, live but in their own kind, as beasts do in theirs; who justly obey the prescript of their natures, and therefore cannot reasonably demand a reward of their actions, as only obeying the natural dictates of their reason. It will, therefore, and must, at last appear, that all salvation is through Christ; which 5 whose worthy lives do] All the MSS. and Edts. 1642 read, "whose life doth." -Ed. 6 when they [that] derive] That is inserted on the authority of all the MSS. and Edts. 1642. Ed. 1643 reads, "when they derive;" and this evidently erroneous reading is followed in most of the Editions; some insert, who.- Ed. 7 simile] MS. W. and Edts. 1642 read, principle.-Ed. verity, I fear, these great examples of virtue must confirm, and make it good how the perfectest actions of earth have no title or claim unto Heaven.8 8 There is no salvation, &c.] On the interesting question discussed in this section, viz. "what will be the future state of those who have died in ignorance of the christian dispensation?"-the first chapter of Mr. Gurney's Observations on the Religious Peculiarities of the Society of Friends contains so interesting a train of argument, that we shall without hesitation make the following extracts : "Let us in the first place endeavour to form some estimate of the breadth of that foundation in religion, on which we are standing in common with mankind in general. God is the Creator and merciful Father of us all. Christ died for us all. A measure of the influence of the Holy Spirit enlightens and, if obeyed, would save us all. Upon these successive positions I will venture to offer a few remarks. "The attributes of God, as the Creator and Father of all mankind, were admirably unfolded by the apostle Paul, in his address to the philosophical Athenians; Acts xvii. 24-28." "Let it not be imagined that God is the merciful Father of all mankind, only inasmuch as he makes his rain to fall, and his sun to shine for them all, and bestows upon them all a variety of outward and temporal benefits. The Scriptures plainly declare that he wills for them a happiness of a far more exalted and enduring nature. Fallen and corrupt as they are, and separated by their iniquities from the Holy One of Israel, 'he willeth not that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance;' 2 Pet. iii, 9." "He who offers deliverance to all men, has appointed for all men a way of escape. 'God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved; John iii, 17." "This observation naturally leads to my second proposition, that Christ died for all a proposition in order to the proof of which I need do nothing more than simply cite the explicit declarations, on this subject, of inspired writers; 1 John ii, 1, 2; 1 Tim. ii, 5, G; Heb. ii,.9; Rom. v. 18-21. The complete parallelism observed in this last passage between the effects of Adam's transgression on the one part, and those of the righteousness of Christ on the other, appears to afford a plain and satisfactory evidence for the truth of the doctrine of universal redemption. The two things are described as being in their operation upon mankind absolutely co-extensive; and as it is true, without limit or exception, that all men are exposed to death through the sin of Adam, so it is true, without limit or exception, that all men may obtain eternal life through the righteousness of Christ." "As men participate in the disease arising from the sin of Adam who are totally ignorant of its original cause, so, we may with reason infer, that men may also participate in the remedy arising from the obedience of Christ who have received no outward revelation whatever respecting that obedience." "What was the remark suggested by the case of Cornelius to the apostle Peter? Of a truth I perceive,' said he, that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation, he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him; ver. 34, 35. When the apostle used these words, the truth which he contemplated appears to have been this: that amongst the nations of the Gentile world, ignorant as they generally were, both of the institutions of the Jews and of the offices of the Messiah, there were individuals who, like Cornelius, feared God and worked righteousness-who had experienced, THEREFORE, in some degree, the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit-and that such individuals were accepted by the Father of mercies, who is no respecter of persons." "And such also we may believe to have been the happy experience of all those Gentiles whom the apostle was considering, who might be so influenced by the power of the Lord's Spirit, as to live in the fear of God, and to work righteousness. this was, to a great extent, the character of some of the most virtuous of the ancient Gentile philosophers, their recorded sentiments and known history afford us strong reasons to believe: and that it was the character also of many besides them, who were destitute of an outward revelation, we may learn without difficulty from the apostle Paul; Rom. ii, 13—15. That "As the Gentiles to whom the apostle was here alluding were, according to their measure of light, sanctified through SECT. LV.-Nor truly do I think the lives of these, or of any other, were ever correspondent, or in all points conformable, unto their doctrines. It is evident that Aristotle transgressed the rule of his own ethicks; the Stoicks, that con the Spirit, and when sanctified accepted; so I think every christian must allow that they were accepted not because of their own righteousness, but through the merits and mediation of the Son of God. Now the benefit of those merits and that mediation, is offered according to the declarations of Scripture, only to those who believe; for "without faith it is impossible to please God." The doctrine that we are justified by faith, and that without faith none can obtain salvation, is to be freely admitted as a doctrine revealed to mankind on the authority of God himself. Let it, however, be carefully kept in view, that God is equal. It is unquestionably true in great as well as in little things, that "if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not; 2 Cor. viii, 12. The extent of faith required in man in order that he may be accepted with the supreme Being, will ever be proportioned to the extent of light communicated. Those to whom the merits and mediation of the Son of God are made known, are undoubtedly required to believe in the merits and mediation of the Son of God. Those from whom the plan of redemption is concealed, and to whom the Deity is made manifest only by his outward works, and by his law written on the heart, may nevertheless so believe in God, that it shall be counted to them "for righteousness." "The reader will observe that I have already deduced the universality of saving light from the declarations of Scripture, that God's tender mercies are over all his works, and that Christ died for all men. The most plausible objection to this inference, arises from the notion, so prevalent amongst some christians, that the Spirit of God operates on the heart of man only in connexion with the outward knowledge of the Scriptures and of Christ, and that consequently such outward knowledge is indispensable to salvation. Having, therefore, endeavoured to remove this objection, and to shew on apostolic authority, that there were individuals in the Gentile world who had no acquaintance with the truths of religion as they are revealed in the Holy Scriptures, but who were never theless enabled to fear God and work righteousness, I consider there is nothing in the way to prevent our coming to a sound conclusion, that, as, on the one hand, God is merciful to all men, and Christ is a sacrifice for all men; so, on the other hand, all men have received a measure of that spiritual influence, through which alone they can permanently enjoy the mercy of God, or participate in the benefits of the death of Christ."-Ed. 9 It is evident that Aristotle, &c.] And so they did all, as Lactantius hath observed at large. Aristotle is said to have been guilty of great vanity in his clothes, of incontinency, of unfaithfulness to his master Alexander, &c. But 't is no wonder in him, if our great Seneca be also guilty, whom truly notwithstanding St. Jerome would have inserted into the catalogue of saints, yet I think he as little deserved it, as many of the heathens who did not say so well as he did; for I do not think any of them lived worse. To trace him a little.-In the time of the Emperour Claudius we find he was banished for suspicion of incontinency with Julia the daughter of Germanicus. To look upon him in his exile, we find that then he wrote his cpistle De Consolatione to Polybius, Claudius's creature, and therein he extols him and the emperour to the skies; in which he did grossly prevaricate, and lost much of his reputation, by seeking a discharge of his exile by so sordid a means. Upon Claudius's marriage with Agrippina, he was recalled from banishment by her means, and made prætor; then he forgets the emperour, having no need of him, labours all he can to depress him, and the hopeful Britannicus, and procured his pupil Nero to be adopted and designed successor, and the emperour's own son to be disinherited; and against the emperour, whom he so much praised when he had need of him, after his death he writes a scurrilous libel. In Nero's court, how ungratefully doth he behave himself towards Agrippina! who although she were a wicked woman, yet she deserved well of him, and of her son too, who yet never was at rest till he had taken away her life, and upon suspicion cast in against her by this man. After demn passion, and command a man to laugh in Phalaris's bull, could not endure without a groan a fit of the stone or colick. The scepticks, that affirmed they knew nothing,1 even in that opinion confute themselves, and thought they knew more than all the world beside. Diogenes I hold to be the most vainglorious man of his time, and more ambitious in refusing all honours, than Alexander in rejecting none. Vice and the devil put a fallacy upon our reasons; and, provoking us too hastily to run from it, entangle and profound us deeper in it. The duke of Venice, that [yearly] weds himself unto the sea, by [casting thereinto] a ring of gold, I will not accuse of prodigality, because it is a solemnity of good use and consequence in the state but the philosopher, that threw his money into the sea to avoid avarice, was a notorious prodigal. There is 2 no road or ready way to virtue; it is not an easy point of art to disentangle ourselves from this riddle, or web of sin. To perfect virtue, as to religion, there is required a panoplia, or complete armour; that whilst we lie at close ward against wards, not to mention that he made great haste to grow rich, which should not be the business of a philosopher, how well did it become his philosophy to play the traitor against Nero himself, and to become an accomplice in the conspiracy of Piso?-Now let any man judge what a precious legacy it is that he bequeathes by his nuncupative will to his friends, in Tacitus Conversus ad amicos (saith he) quando meritis eorum referre gratiam prohiberetur, quod unum jam tamen et pulcherrimum habebat, imaginem vitæ suæ relinquere testatur." It cannot be denied of him, that he hath said very well; but yet it must as well be affirmed, that his practice hath run counter to his theory, to use the author's phrase.-K. 1 The scepticks, &c.] Their maxim was, “Nihil sciri siquis putat, id quoque nescit. An sciri possit, quod se nil scire fatetur."-K. 2 [yearly] weds himself, &c.] The words between brackets are from all the MSS. and Edts 1642. Towards the close of the thirteenth century, the Venetians compelled the neighbouring states to acknowledge their right of sovereignty over the Adriatick Sea;-a right which they have since contended was confirmed to them by Pope Alexander III, in his celebrated declara tion to their Doge: "Que la mer vous soit soumise comme l'épouse l'est à son époux, puisque vous en avez acquis l'empire par la victoire." It was in commemoration of this event that the annual ceremony here alluded to was established -Ed. The Duke and Senate yearly, on Ascension-day, used to go in their best attire to the haven at Lio, and there, by throwing a ring into the water, do take the sea as their spouse. Vid. Hist. Ital. by W. Thomas, Cambro-Brit. Busbequius reports that there is a custom amongst the Turks, which they took from the Greek priests, not much unlike unto this." Cum Græcorum sacerdotibus mos sit certo veris tempore aquas consecrando mare clausum veluti referare, ante quod tempus non facile se committunt fluctibus; ab ea ceremonia nec Turcæ absunt Busb. ep. 3, Legat. Turcic.-K. 3 But the philosopher, &c.] This was Apollonius Thyaneus, who threw a great quantity of gold into the sea with these words, "Pessundo divitias, ne pessunder ab illis Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos, cast the best jewel he had into the sea, that thereby he might learn to compose himself against the vicissitudes of fortune.-K. 4 at close ward] MSS. W. 2 & R. read, "at a close guard."— Ed. one vice, we lie not open to the veney of another. And indeed wiser discretions, that have the thread of reason to conduct them, offend without a pardon; whereas under heads may stumble without dishonour. There go so many circumstances to piece up one good action, that it is a lesson to be good, and we are forced to be virtuous by the book. Again, the practice of men holds not an equal pace, yea and often runs counter to their theory; we naturally know what is good, but naturally pursue what is evil: the rhetorick wherewith I persuade another cannot persuade myself. There is a depraved appetite in us, that will with patience hear the learned instructions of reason, but yet perform no further than agrees to its own irregular humour. In brief, we all are monsters; that is, a composition of man and beast: wherein we must endeavour to be as the poets fancy that wise man, Chiron; that is, to have the region of man above that of beast, and sense to sit but at the feet of reason. Lastly, I do desire with God that all, but yet affirm with men that few, shall know salvation,—that the bridge is narrow, the passage strait unto life: yet those who do confine the church of God either to particular nations, churches, or families, have made it far narrower than our Saviour ever meant it. 8 SECT. LVI.—The vulgarity of those judgements that wrap the church of God in Strabo's cloak, and restrain it unto Europe, seem to me as bad geographers as Alexander, who thought he had conquered all the world, when he had not subdued the half of any part thereof. For we cannot deny the church of God both in Asia and Africa, if we do not forget the peregrinations of the apostles, the deaths of the martyrs, the sessions of many and (even in our reformed judgement) 5 veney] Or venew;- the technical term used by fencers for a hit. See Love's Labour's Lost, act v, scene 1.—Ed. 6 under] Used adjectively, in the sense of inferiour.-Ed. 7 Sect. LVI.] This section is not in any of the MSS., nor in Edts. 1642. -Ed. 8 Strabo's cloak,] 'T is Strabonis tunica in the translation, but chlamydi would do better, which is the proper expression of the word that Strabo useth: it is not VOL. II. Europe, but the known part of the world that Strabo resembleth to a cloak, and that is it the author here alludeth to; but we have no reason to think that the resemblance of Strabo is very proper: Vid. Sir Hen. Savil, in not. ad Tac. in vita Agricolæ.-K. The passage alluded to, in which Strabo compares the exterior configuration of the then known habitable world to that of a cloak, is to be found, lib. ii, c. 5, tom. i, p. 315, in ed. Siebenkees.-Ed. G |