from men as christians do, and saying that they are to "do them out of respect to conscience, and ought even to lose their reputation to preserve it, and that to live according to nature, and, ɛiθεσθαι τῷ θεῷ, καὶ ἕπεσθαι τὸν θεὸν, ' to obey or follow the direction and example of God' is the same thing; that in every thing, be it great or little, we are to have respect to God, and glorify him for ever and ever, and can do nothing well towards man unless we do it in respect to divine things: that God is to be revered above all things, to be owned, thought upon, and respected in all things, to be invoked that we may obtain them, and to be celebrated for them;" to omit many things of a like nature.

SECONDLY. If God hath given to all men immortal souls, it seemeth plainly hence to follow that he hath put them some way in a capacity of being happy after death, and hath not left them under an inevitable necessity of being always, miserable. For since, according to our Saviour's words, it had been better for such men that they had not been born,' and, according to right reason, it is better not to be, than to be miserable:" and since all such men must be subject to a necessity of being miserable, only by being born into the world, that is, only by God's own action in giving them life, and infusing a spiritual soul into them, and all their offspring must be miserable by that which God himself hath called his benediction on our first parents, by which they were enabled to increase and multiply;' I say, seeing these things are so, it follows that either we must deny the immortality of the souls of these Heathens, and say that "they will die with their bodies, and be liable to no account hereafter," or allow that they are placed by divine providence in a capacity of avoiding the being ever miserable in that future state. And that God hath vouchsafed some means of grace and kindness even to the souls who by his providence have wanted that light which he imparted to the Jew and Christian, may be concluded from his goodness to them

Се

Ως γαρ φασιν οἱ Πυθαγόρειοι τιμήσεις τὸν θεὸν ἄρισα ἐὰν τῷ θεῷ τὴν διάνοιαν ὁμιώσης. Hierocl. in Carm. Pythag. p. 23, 24. Δεῖ μὲν πᾶν καὶ τὸ μικρότατον ὅτω ποιεῖν ἔτε γαρ ἀνθρώπινον τὶ ἄνευ τῆς ἐπὶ τὰ θεῖα συναφορᾶς εὖ πράξεις. Antoninus 1. 5, sec. 13. Hinc Thaletis monitum illud, εἰς τὰς αἰῶν νας τῶν αἰώνων δοξαζεσθαι τὸν θεὸν. Apud Clem. Αlex. Strom. 5, p. 594. Do

d Vide Gatak, voce Deus.

in things temporal. For since he is that God, who doth good to all, and whose tender mercies are over all his works, who giveth to all men liberally, filling their hearts with food and gladness;' is it likely that he should wholly neglect their spiritual concerns, leaving their precious souls entirely destitute of help, and under a sad necessity of pining away in their iniquities, and being miserable for ever, and to be fatally exposed to eternal death, without affording them any means of redress? This, even to a Heathen, seemed a most unworthy apprehension, that God should be gas Mèr τὰ φαῦλα καλῶς καὶ ἀφθόνως παρασκευόμενος, πρὸς δὲ τὰ κρεῖττω zoços, liberal in bestowing mean things, and sparing in better things;' why therefore should we Christians, who have clearer discoveries of the divine goodness, think that he who gives to all men life, breath, and all things,' should utterly withhold from any the means of serving him acceptably? They surely might infer from his declarations that he is the Saviour of all men, and that all souls are his, (which is plainly said to answer the complaints of those who thought he dealt hardly with them,) that he is the God of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews; the same God who is rich unto all that call upon him; that he hath not left himself without a testimony of his goodness, that he made them to seek after him,' in order to the finding him, and so far manifested himself to them that they might know him so as to 'worship him as God and to be thankful to him for his benefits: that, Lastly, he hath made them so as to be a law unto themselves,' by virtue of that light of reason he hath implanted in them, so that they have an inward satisfaction in doing well, and an accusing conscience when they do that which is naturally evil; they, I say, may more rationally conclude he is not utterly deficient in communicating interior assistances, and promoting the good use and improvement of these talents, since otherwise they are not only bestowed in vain, and so as to produce no good effect, but are really unkindnesses, as being only apt to produce ill effects on those on whom they are conferred, viz. the aggravation of their sin, and consequently of their future punishment.

COROLLARY. Hence then it follows that no Heathen nations are wholly left without some means of knowing and some ability

e Max. Tyr. Diss. 22, p. 216.

of doing those things God hath made absolutely requisite to free them from his future wrath, since otherwise they must be born under an absolute necessity of being ever miserable.

V. Thirdly. I add that it cannot be consistent with divine equity and goodness to make that a condition of any man's happiness which he cannot know to be his duty, or, knowing, cannot do; since this must certainly subject him to an impossibility of being happy, and therefore to a certainty of being miserable; which, by the former proposition, must be repugnant both to the justice and the goodness of God.

COROLLARY. Hence it is evident that the knowledge of any revelation made to Jew or Christian, cannot be necessary to the happiness of the Heathens in general, and much less the practice of any purely christian duty; because it is morally impossible that many of them should come to the knowledge of these things: and therefore 'faith in Christ Jesus' cannot be necessary to the salvation of as many of them as have never heard of him; 'for how,' saith the apostle, shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?! And to whom no preacher of Christ Jesus hath been ever sent; for how shall they hear without a preacher?”

VI. Fourthly. This I think certain, that God will only judge men at the last for sinning against the means he hath vouchsafed them to know, and to perform their duty, and only by that law which he hath given them; for sin being only a 'transgression of a law,' where God hath given no law forbidding any action, there can be no imputable transgression of it; and where he hath given no law commanding, there can be no neglect of duty.

COROLLARY. Hence it must follow, that those Heathens to whom the law of nature hath been only given, can be judged only for the violations of that law; that is, for the neglect of that which by that law they might discern to be their duty to perform, or their sin to commit; God's wrath being only revealed from heaven against them who held the truth in unrighteousness.' And therefore, as almost all the theses laid down by Vossius, in his disputation De Virtutibus Gentilium, are absurd, so the first thesis which makes this a requisite of a good action, "that it be done according to the law of God," if he understands this of a written law,

f Romans x, 14,

of which the texts alledged by him only speak, is the first-born of absurdities; as requiring the Heathens to know the revealed will of God, (in order to their doing good,) without a revelation, and saying that a righteous judge will judge the Heathens by a law he never had revealed to them, and condemn them for not walking by that rule he never gave them for the direction of their actions. As absurd is his fifth thesis which requires this condition as necessary to render the actions of the Heathens profitable to them, ut promiserit Deus remunerari se ea velle æternâ vitâ, that God should have promised to reward them with eternal life;' this being to make it necessary in order to any motive they can have, that is, to any hope they should be better for any good they do, that they should have a promise of eternal life, who are 'strangers to the covenant of promise,' and are incapable of having it, no such promise being ever made to any without a revelation. Sure it is, from the words of the apostle, that if they have any motive to serve God, they must have reason to believe that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him,' and so their service must be done in faith; but then what that reward will be, it being not of debt but grace, it is impossible for them to know without a promise. And this I think so far unnecessary to their good actions, that I rather incline to believe that they among them who endeavoured to live holily and righteously with respect to a recompence without a promise, on the account of divine goodness, and of his love to virtue wherever it was found, will find a suitable reward from God; and that he highly did approve that noble resolution of Socrates, that "being persuaded that good men living and dying should be happy, and bad men punished; I," saith he, "bid adieu to the applauses of the world, καὶ σκοπῶ ὅπως ἀποφανᾶμαι τῷ κριτῇ ὡς ὑγιεςάτην ἔχων τὴν ψυχὴν, καὶ πειράσομαι τῷ ὄντι ὡς ἄν δύναμαι βέλτιςος ὤν, καὶ ζῆν, καὶ ἐπειδὰν ἀποθνήσκω ἀποθνήσκειν, * and will make it my care how I may appear before my judge with a most pure soul, and how I may live and die the best of men':" As also that of Scipio," who being told in a dream by Africanus, certum esse in cælo et definitum locum ubi beati avo sempiterno fruantur, that there was a certain place in heaven where the blessed lived for ever,' and that "the way to it was that of piety

g Plato Georg. p. 358.

h Som. Scip. apud Cicer. n. 8.

and righteousness," enters into this serious resolution, “ I have always had some regard to these things, nunc autem tanto præmio proposito enitar multo vigilantius, but now in prospect of this high reward, I will pursue them with the greater diligence'."i

VII. FIFTHLY. God having laid down this method in the dispensation of his gifts, that he who is, v λanisw misos, FAITHFUL IN THE LEAST talent, shall have a suitable reward, and that to him that hath, so as to improve what he enjoys, shall more be given,' and vice versû,—we may hence rationally conclude that he who diligently endeavours to do good according to that light he hath received, shall find some tokens of the favour of God; and that if any farther aid be requisite to enable the Heathens acceptably to perform their duty, the divine goodness will impart that also to them by those secret dispensations of his providence which we are not acquainted with. For as to idiots and infants, among christians, God's mercies are vouchsafed, and our Saviour's meritorious performances are applied in a manner not understood by us, without any capacity in them to know or believe any thing, so may God's grace be communicated to, and the merits of Christ avail for, ignorant Heathens, in a way unknown to and unsearchable by us. And therefore as the Heathens did acknowledge that the divine assistance was necessary to the performance of their duty, so did they accordingly expect it, and declare that nullus unquam vir magnus fuit sine aliquo afflatu Divino, no man ever was or could be excellent without some divine assistance; and that by reason of men's proneness to vice, and the difficulty of a virtuous life, "they stood in need, ɛ συλλήπτορος καὶ συναγωνις," of God to be their helper and their co-adjutor'." Whence we may argue, that where this was wanting, it is not for want of knowledge, or of power, but for their slothfulness, and the abusing of their talents, they shall be condemned.

เ

VIII. And, LASTLY, We may reasonably conclude God will deal with them in respect both to the acceptation and reward of their good, and his displeasures against, and punishment of, their evil actions according to the measures of their ignorance and knowledge, the abilities, motives, and inducements

1

N. 11, N. 18. 7 Cic. de Nat. Deor. 1. 2, n. 124, 125. m Max. Tyr. Diss. 22, p. 218.