• Zuing. Trofes. Fid. ad Reg. Gall.
J Art. of the ('hurcb of Eng., art. xvii.
' " Nihil niagis rcpugnat fidei, quam sinc^de salvum esse posse quempiam houii- nuin." — Acost. de Iiido. Salu. Troc.
« Aquin. 2, 2tB q. 2, a. 7, c. — " Christus nascitur ex virgino, et ego credo in eum. 0 sol, Bub Ireuae et Constantini tomporibus iterum movidcbis."
SALVATION THROUGH FAITH IN CHRIST. Ill
sun, thou shalt see me again in the days of Irene and Constantine." But the question is not, Whether a Gentile ])elieving in Christ may be saved ? or whether God did not reveal himself and his Son extra- ordinarily to some of them? for shall we straiten the breast and shorten the arm of the Almighty, as though he might not do what he will with his own ; but, Whether a man by the conduct of nature, without the knowledge of Christ, may come to heaven? the assertion whereof we condemn as a wicked, Pelagian, Socinian heresy, and think that it was well said of Bernard, ^"That many labouring to make Plato a Christian, do prove themselves to be heathens." And if we look upon the several branches of this Arminian novel doc- trine, extenuating the precious worth and necessity of faith in Christ, we shall find them hewed off by the two-edged sword of God's word.
First, For their denying the patriarchs and Jews to have had faith " in Christum exhibendum et moriturum," as we in him " ex- hibitum et mortuum," it is disproved, —
First, By all evangelical promises made from the beginning of the world to the birth of our Saviour ; as that, Gen. iii. 1 5, " The seed of the woman shall break the serpent's head;" and chap. xii. 3, xlix. 10; Ps. iL 7, 8, ex. ; with innumerable others concerning his life, office, and redeeming of his people: for surely they were obliged to believe the promises of God,
Secondly, By those many clear expressions of his death, passion, and suffering for us, as Gen. iii. 15 ; Isa. liii. 6-1 0, etc., Ixiii. 1—8 ; Dan. ix. 26. But what need we reckon any more? Our Saviour taught his disciples that all the prophets from Moses spake concerning him, and that the sole reason why they did not so readily embrace the faith of his passion and resurrection was because they believed not the prophets, Luke xxiv. 25, 26; showing plainly that the prophets required faith in his death and passion.
Thirdly, By the explicit faith of many Jews, as of old Simeon, Luke ii. 34; of the Samaritan woman, who looked for a Messiah, not as an earthly king, but as one that should " tell them all things," — redeem them from sin, and tell them all such things as Christ was then discoursing of, concerning the worship of God, John iv. 25.
Fourthly, By the express testimony of Christ himself. " Abra- ham," saith he, "rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad," John viii. 56. His day, his hour, in the Scripture, principally denote his passion. And that which he saw surely he believed, or else the father of the faithful was more diffident than Thomas, the most incredulous of his children.
' " Dum multum sudant nonnulli, quomodo Platonem faciant Christiauum, se pro- bant esse ethnicos." — Bern. Epist.
112 A DISPLAY OF ARMINIANISM.
Fifthly, By these following, and the like places of Scripture: Christ is a " Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," Rev. xiii. 8 ; slain in promises, slain in God's estimation and in the faith of believers. He is ''the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever," Heb. xiii. 8, under the law and the gospel. " There is none other name under heaven given unto men, whereby we must be saved," Acts iv. 12. Never any, then, without the knowledge of a Redeemer, jDarticipation of his i^assion, communication of his merits, did ever come to the sight of God ; no man ever came to the Father but by him. Hence St Paul tells the Ephesians that they were " without Christ," because they were "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel," Eph. ii. 12; intimating that God's covenant with the Jews included Christ Jesus and his righteousness no less than it doth now with us. On these grounds holy Ignatius called Abel ^ " A martyr of Christ ;" he died for his faith in the promised Seed. And in another place, ^" All the saints were saved by Christ; hoping in him, and waiting on him, they obtained salvation by him." So Prosper, also, ^"We must believe that never any man was justified by any other faith, either before the law or under the law, than by faith in Christ cominj]: to save that which was lost." Whence Eusebius contendeth ^that all the old patriarchs might properly be called Christians; they all ate of the same spiritual meat, and all drank of the same spiritual drink, even of the rock that followed them, which rock was Christ.
Secondly, If the ancient people of God, notwithstanding divers other especial revelations of his will and heavenly instructions, ob- tained not salvation without faith in Christ, much less may Ave grant this happiness without him to them who were deprived of those other helps also. So that though we confess the poor natural en- deavours of the heathen not to have wanted their reward (either positive in this life, by outward prosperity, and inward calmness of mind, m that they were not all peiplexed and agitated with furies, like Nero and Caligula; or negative in the life to come, by a dimi- nution of the degrees of their torments, — they shall not be beaten with so many stripes), yet we absolutely deny that there is ai"!y saving mercy of God towards them revealed in the Scripture, which should give us the least intimation of their attaining everlasting happiness.