A30249:215
Vindiciae legis, or, A vindication of the moral law and the covenants, from the…Vindiciae legis, or, A vindication of the morall law and the covenants, from the…
Vindiciae legis, or, A vindication of the moral law and the covenants, from the errors of Papists, Arminians, Socinians, and more especially, Antinomians in XXX lectures, preached at Laurence-Jury, London / by Anthony Burgess ...Vindiciae legis, or, A vindication of the morall law and the covenants, from the errours of Papists, Arminians, Socinians, and more especially, Antinomians in XXX lectures, preached at Laurence-Jury, London / by Anthony Burgess ...
London: printed by James Young for Thomas Underhill, 1647
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The third Question concerning this natural light is, Whether it be sufficient for salvation? For, there are some that hold, If 1any man, of whatsoever Nation he be, worship God according to the light of Nature, and so serve him, he may be saved. Hence they have coined a distinction of a three-fold piety: Judaica, Christiana, and Ethnica. Therefore say they, What Moses was to the Jews, and Christ to the Christians; the same is Philosophy, or the knowledge of God by nature, to Heathens. But this opinion is derogatory to the Lord Christ; for only by faith in his Name can we be saved, as the Scripture speaketh. And, certainly, if the Apostle argued that Christ died in vain, if works were joined to him; how much more if he be totally excluded? It is true, it seemeth a very hard thing to mans reason, that the greater part of the world, being Pagans and Heathens, with all their infants, should be excluded from heaven. Hence, because Vedelius, a learned man, did make it an aggravation of Gods grace to him, to choose and call him, when so many thousand thousands of pagan-infants are damned: this speech, as being full of horridness, a scoffing Remonstrant takes, and sets it forth odiously in the Frontispiece of his Book. But, though our Reason is offended, yet we must judge according to the way of the Scripture; which makes Christ the only way for salvation. If so be it could be proved, as Zwinglius held, that Christ did communicate himself to some Heathens, then it were another matter. I will not bring all the places they stand upon, that which ⟨p. 81⟩is mainly urged is Act. 10. of Cornelius; his prayers were accepted, and, saith Peter, Now I perceive, &c. But this proceedeth from a mere mistake; for Cornelius had the implicit knowledge and faith of Christ, and had received the doctrine of the Messiah, though he was ignorant of Christ, that individual Person. And as for that worshipping of him in every Nation, that is not to be understood of men abiding so, but whereas before it was limited to the Jews, now God would receive all that should come to him, of what Nation soever.
The third Question concerning this naturall light is, Whether it be sufficient for salvation? For, there are some that hold, If 1