A discourse of the true nature of the Gospel demonstrating that it is no…

If also from this Proposition, He that believeth shall be saved, we argue that the Gospel is a new Law, promising Life upon the observance of this its Precept, it will follow, that God in the promulgation of this new Law, offers Life universally to all Men, to Tartars, Negroes, and the Savages in America; to all the Nations from Peru to Japan, on condition they obey the Command of the Gospel, and believe and repent: For if God in giving his Moral Law to all reasonable Creatures, said universally to Angels and Men, Do this, and you shall live; by the same Rule, if the Gospel is a new Law, God speaks generally to all Men, Believe, and you shall live. Now from this, two amazing Absurdities will naturally spring; the one is, that God should by this his new Law promise Pardon and Life, on condition they believe on his Son, to People who have never heard that there is such a thing as the Christian Religion in the World, nor such a Person as Christ, and to whose Ears not so much as the sound of his Name ever arrived. Doth this become the Wisdom of God to act so preposterously? How can we think that the Depths of that Knowledge, as the Apostle speaks, Rom. 11. 33. hath such shallow Designs, as to proclaim a Pardon to all Men, on condition they believe, and yet to make no Provision that the least Syllable of this gracious Proclamation should ever come to their Ears? It is also as repugnant to the Wisdom and Goodness of God, to promise a Pardon to all Men, on condition they believe, when he knows that the Performance is impossible to them all, by their mere natural Powers depraved as they are; when he knows also, that without his All-conquering Grace they cannot believe and repent: To promise to them all Life, on condition they do so, and at the same time to resolve to withhold this Grace from the greatest part of Mankind, without which it is impossible for them to do it, what is this but to illude Men? For any one to offer Food to a Wretch, who hath not a Limb whole, starving in a Dungeon, on condition that he would come up and receive it, and yet refuse to put forth a Finger to give him the least lift, what would this be but to mock him, and to make a sport of his Misery? To avoid these Absurdities, the Arminians, who do not want Wit or Reason to discern the Consequences of their Opinions, as boldly own and maintain them:

If also from this Proposition, He that believeth shall be saved, we argue that the Gospel is a new Law, promising Life upon the observance of this its Precept, it will follow, that God in the promulgation of this new Law, offers Life universally to all Men, to Tartars, Negroes, and the Savages in America; to all the Nations from Peru to Japan, on condition they obey the Command of the Gospel, and believe and repent: For if God in giving his Moral Law to all reasonable Creatures, said universally to Angels and Men, Do this, and you shall live; by the same Rule, if the Gospel is a new Law, God speaks generally to all Men, Believe, and you shall live. Now from this, two amazing Absurdities will naturally spring; the one is, that God should by this his new Law promise Pardon and Life, on condition they believe on his Son, to People who have never heard that there is such a thing as the Christian Religion in the World, nor such a Person as Christ, and to whose Ears not so much as the sound of his Name ever arriv'd. Doth this become the Wisdom of God to act so preposterously? How can we think that the Depths of that Knowledg, as the Apostle speaks,