(2.) Those to whom the object of faith was but more obscurely pro- pounded ; who are of several sorts.
(1st.) Those that lived before the flood and after the flood ; as Abel, Enoch, and Noah, are mentioned in the chronicle and history of faith,
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as well as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And believers of a later stamp and edition, Heb. xi. And among unbelievers are reckoned all those who, through their obstinate incredulity, rejected the divine revelation made to them ; as the world of the ungodly in Noah's time, who were disobedient when the Spirit of the Lord in him preached righteousness to them, or to God opening the way to life and salvation ; as it is said, 1 Peter iii. 19, 20, ' By his Spirit Christ preached to the spirits now in prison, who were sometime disobedient in the days of Noah, when the long-suffering of God waited for them.' Now these, though they had but an obscure presignification of the seed of the woman, who should break the serpent's head, or that in Abraham's seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed, shall be condemned for not improving the gospel delivered to them, in such notions as God saw fit to convey it to them, not for want of explicit knowledge in all mysteries.
(2c/.) Some lived under the legal administration of the covenant of grace. To whom two things were propounded, the duties of the law and some strictures and obscure rudiments, or the first beginnings of the gospel. Now they shall be judged according to the administration they were under ; for the apostle telleth us, Kom. ii. 12, ' As many as have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law ; ' for the violating of the law of Moses, or neglecting the first dawnings of grace, which God offered to their view, search, and contemplation. Indeed the law was more manifest ; but the gospel was not so obscure but they might have understood God's willingness to be propitiated and recon- ciled ; and therefore God will call them to account about not keeping his law, or not flying by faith and repentance to the mercy of God, which by divers ways and types of the Messiah was then revealed to them. The holy psalmist did so : Ps. cxxx. 3, 4, ' If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, 0 Lord, who shall stand ? but there is for- giveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared ; ' Ps. cxliii. 2, ' Enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.' And the neglect of grace in others is inexcusable; and therefore they are condemned for not keeping the law, and for their unbelief and impenitency, which, though it be not so grievous a sin as theirs who lived under a clearer revelation, yet it sufficiently vindicateth the righteous judgment which is exercised upon them.
(3d.) Some lived in Christ's time, when John the Baptist invited them to a gospel covenant, and our Lord himself set afoot the great salvation, and offered grace to believing penitents, confirming the dig- nity of his person and office by divers miracles, and that he had suffi- cient power to repeal the law of Moses, and erect the gospel kingdom foretold by the prophets. It was more dangerous then not to believe in the Son of God ; for Christ telleth the Jews to slight him, appearing in so clear a light of miracles, was damnable : John viii. 24, ' If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.' But yet because the Spirit was not yet poured out, and Christ's person was veiled under much obscurity and abasure, their condition was not altogether so bad as it was afterward when the gospel kingdom was now solemnly pub- lished, and the Spirit did abundantly convince the world that it was a sin not to believe in Christ, John xvi. 9, and Christ was so plainly proved by his resurrection to be the Son of God, and the great prophet
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and Messiah, and judge of the world. Therefore God gave them the morning market of the gospel : Acts iii. 26, ' Unto you first, God, having raised up Ins Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning every one of you from his iniquity ; ' and did not cut off their estate till they rejected the gospel, as well as crucified the Lord of glory : 1 Thes. ii. 15, 16, 'Therefore wrath is come upon them to the uttermost' It was a great sin before, a damnable sin not to receive them ; but God considered their prejudices, and the judgment will be more or less grievous upon them according to the advantages and opportunities they had of knowing Christ to be the Saviour and Redeemer of the world.
(4ith.) Since the pouring out of the Spirit, and the setting up of the gospel kingdom in the world, some know Christ by clear doctrine, others by hearsay and obscure fame. Take, for instance, the Turks and modern Jews. The Turks acknowledge one merciful and true God ; they deny not Christ to be a great prophet, but they deny him to be the Son of God, the Saviour of the world and Redeemer of man- kind, and wickedly prefer their false prophet Mahomet before him, and his fond superstition before the law of Christ. Now according as Christ is more or less perspicuously revealed to them, they shall have a more tolerable or heavy judgment, for the clearer is the revelation of the truth, the more culpable is the rejection or contempt of it; for there is no man that heareth of Christ suffering for sinners, and rising again from the dead, and ascending into heaven, but is bound more diligently to inquire into it, and to receive and embrace this truth so suitable to our desires and necessities. The Jews inherit the obstin- acy of their ancestors, confess there was such a person as Jesus the son of Mary, who gave out himself in the country of Judea to be the Messiah, and gathered discij)les, who from him are called christians; but they call him an impostor, question the miracles done by him as done by the power of the devil. Surely these shall be judged by the gospel, which is so proudly and obstinately contemned by them after so many disappointments, and so long an expectation of another Me-siah.