An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches

§. 18. So then, though the Cause be not truly a Cause till it exist, and though all the Pardon and Salvation given for 4000 years, was before the ⟨p. 96⟩existence of the merits and sacrifice of Christ, yet the Promise and Notification of the Mediator and his merits and sacrifice, as the reason of this Pardon, did then exist, and was the cause of that Pardon, which Christ was afterward to merit.

§. 19. It is therefore no absurdity, that the existence of Man's Faith and Repentance should be necessary, when the Mediator's Existence and his Merits was not necessary: For it was not then an existent Mediator (and Sacrifice, &c.) that was the Object of Faith, but only a Promised Mediator.

§. 20. And whereas it is a doubt, seeing the Head is essential to the Church, and the Divine Nature only was Head of the Church before the Incarnation, and the Divine and Humane united was afterward the Head, whether it follow not the Church before the Incarnation and after (and so Faith and Religion) were divers in specie, and not the same? I answer, That while we agree all de re, that so much difference there is, it is not worth our trouble to strive about the Name or Logical Notion of [Sameness of Species.]