An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches

CHAP. XVI. Of the State of Heathens and others, that have not the Gospel.

§. 1. THE opening of the several Laws or Covenants of God before, hath taken up most that is necessary to be said about this ⟨p. 189⟩point: The question, Whether any but Christians are saved, is agitated on both sides by so much the sharper Censures, by how much the nearer it seemeth to concern the Fundamentals of Religion.

§. 2. On one side some say, That nothing is more fundamental than God's Nature, and Government, and Beneficence, and the Attributes which belong to him in respect to each: And they say, That for God to be the Ruler and Benefactor of the World, and to be also¹ gracious and merciful and Love it self, and a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him, are our Fundamentals; which are not consistent with this, That all the World since Adam, except a few Believers or Jews and Christians, that were born from Adam, under as absolute a necessity of being remedilessly damned, as of dying.

§. 2. On one side some say, That nothing is more fundamental than God's Nature, and Government, and Beneficence, and the Attributes which belong to him in respect to each: And they say, That for God to be the Ruler and Benefactor of the World, and to be also¹ gracious and merciful and Love it self, and a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him, are our Fundamentals; which are not consistent with this, That all the World since Adam, except a few Believers or Jews and Christians, that were born from Adam, under as absolute a necessity of being remedilesly damned, as of dying.