It is true, indeed, some of the ancient fathers, before the rising of the Pelagian heresy, — who had so put on Christ, as Lipsius speaks, that they had not fully put off Plato, — have unadvisedly dropped some speeches seeming to grant that divers men before the incarnation, living μετὰ λόγου, “according to the dictates of right reason,” might be saved without faith in Christ; as is well showed by learned Casaubon in his first exercitation on Baronius. But let this be accounted part of that stubble which shall burn at the last day, wherewith the writings of all men not divinely inspired may be stained. It hath also since (as what hath not?) been drawn into dispute among the wrangling schoolmen; and yet, which is rarely seen, their verdict in this particular almost unanimously passeth for the truth. Aquinas⁹ tells us a story of the corpse of a heathen, that should be taken up in the time of the Empress Irene and her son Constantine, with a golden plate on his breast, wherein was this inscription:— “Christ is born of a virgin, and I believe in him. O sun, thou shalt see me again in the days of Irene and Constantine.” But the question is not, Whether a Gentile believing in Christ may be saved? or whether God did not reveal himself and his Son extraordinarily to some of them? for shall we straiten the breast and shorten the arm of the Almighty, as though he might not do what he will with his own; but, Whether a man by the conduct of nature, without the knowledge of Christ, may come to heaven? the assertion whereof we condemn as a wicked, Pelagian, Socinian heresy, and think that it was well said of Bernard, ¹⁰“That many labouring to make Plato a Christian, do prove themselves to be heathens.” And if we look upon the several branches of this Arminian novel doctrine, extenuating the precious worth and necessity of faith in Christ, we shall find them hewed off by the two-edged sword of God’s word.

First, For their denying the patriarchs and Jews to have had faith “in Christum exhibendum et moriturum,” as we in him “exhibitum et mortuum,” it is disproved, —

First, By all evangelical promises made from the beginning of the world to the birth of our Saviour; as that, Gen. iii. 15, “The seed of the woman shall break the serpent’s head;” and chap. xii. 3, xlix. 10; Ps. ii. 7, 8, cx.; with innumerable others concerning his life, office, and redeeming of his people: for surely they were obliged to believe the promises of God.

Secondly, By those many clear expressions of his death, passion, and suffering for us, as Gen. iii. 15; Isa. liii. 6–10, etc., lxiii. 1–3; Dan. ix. 26. But what need we reckon any more? Our Saviour taught his disciples that all the prophets from Moses spake concerning him, and that the sole reason why they did not so readily embrace the faith of his passion and resurrection was because they believed not the prophets, Luke xxiv. 25, 26; showing plainly that the prophets required faith in his death and passion.

Thirdly, By the explicit faith of many Jews, as of old Simeon, Luke ii. 34; of the Samaritan woman, who looked for a Messiah, not as an earthly king, but as one that should “tell them all things,” — redeem them from sin, and tell them all such things as Christ was then discoursing of, concerning the worship of God, John iv. 25.

Fourthly, By the express testimony of Christ himself. “Abraham,” saith he, “rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad,” John viii. 56. His day, his hour, in the Scripture, principally denote his passion. And that which he saw surely he believed, or else the father of the faithful was more diffident than Thomas, the most incredulous of his children.

Fifthly, By these following, and the like places of Scripture: Christ is a “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” Rev. xiii. 8; slain in promises, slain in God’s estimation and in the faith of believers. He is “the same yesterday, and today, and for ever,” Heb. xiii. 8, under the law and the gospel. “There is none other name under heaven given unto men, whereby we must be saved,” Acts iv. 12. Never any, then, without the knowledge of a Redeemer, participation of his passion, communication of his merits, did ever come to the sight of God; no man ever came to the Father but by him. Hence St Paul tells the Ephesians that they were “without Christ,” because they were “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,” Eph. ii. 12; intimating that God’s covenant with the Jews included Christ Jesus and his righteousness no less than it doth now with us. On these grounds holy Ignatius called Abel ¹¹“A martyr of Christ;” he died for his faith in the promised Seed. And in another place, ¹²“All the saints were saved by Christ; hoping in him, and waiting on him, they obtained salvation by him.” So Prosper, also, ¹³“We must believe that never any man was justified by any other faith, either before the law or under the law, than by faith in Christ coming to save that which was lost.” Whence Eusebius contendeth ¹⁴that all the old patriarchs might properly be called Christians; they all ate of the same spiritual meat, and all drank of the same spiritual drink, even of the rock that followed them, which rock was Christ.

Secondly, If the ancient people of God, notwithstanding divers other especial revelations of his will and heavenly instructions, obtained not salvation without faith in Christ, much less may we grant this happiness without him to them who were deprived of those other helps also. So that though we confess the poor natural endeavours of the heathen not to have wanted their reward (either positive in this life, by outward prosperity, and inward calmness of mind, in that they were not all perplexed and agitated with furies, like Nero and Caligula; or negative in the life to come, by a diminution of the degrees of their torments, — they shall not be beaten with so many stripes), yet we absolutely deny that there is any saving mercy of God towards them revealed in the Scripture, which should give us the least intimation of their attaining everlasting happiness. For, not to consider the corruption and universal disability of nature to do anything that is good (“without Christ we can do nothing,” John xv. 5), nor yet the sinfulness of their best works and actions, the “sacrifice of the wicked being an abomination unto the Lord,” Prov. xv. 8 (“Evil trees cannot bring forth good fruit; men do not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles,” Matt. vii. 16, 17); — the word of God is plain, that “without faith it is impossible to please God, Heb. xi. 6; that “he that believeth not is condemned,” Mark xvi. 16; that no nation or person can be blessed but in the Seed of Abraham, Gen. xii. 3. And the “blessing of Abraham” comes upon the Gentiles only “through Jesus Christ,” Gal. iii. 14. He is “the way, the truth, and the life,” John xiv. 6. “None cometh to the Father but by him.” He is the “door,” by which those that do not enter are “without,” with “dogs and idolaters,” Rev. xxii. 15. So that “other foundation” of blessedness “can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ,” 1 Cor. iii. 11. In brief, do but compare these two places of St Paul, Rom. viii. 30, where he showeth that none are glorified but those that are called; and chap. x. 14, 15, where he declares that all calling is instrumentally by the preaching of the word and gospel; and it will evidently appear that no salvation can be granted unto them on whom the Lord hath so far poured out his indignation as to deprive them of the knowledge of the sole means thereof, Christ Jesus. And to those that are otherwise minded, I give only this necessary caution, — Let them take heed, lest, whilst they endeavour to invent new ways to heaven for others, by so doing, they lose the true way themselves.

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← Chapter X. Of the cause of faith, grace, and righteousness · Contents · Chapter XII. Of free-will, the nature and power thereof →

Footnotes

1. “Certum est locum nullum esse, unde appareat fidem istam, sub Vet. Test., præceptam fuisse aut viguisse.” — Rem. Apol., cap. vii. p. 91. ↩

2. “Consideretur omnis descriptio fidei Abrahæ, Rom. iv.; et apparebit in illa Jesu Christi non fieri mentionem, expresse, sed illa tantum implicatione, quam explicare cuivis non est facile.” — Armin. “Gavisus est videre natalem Isaac, qui fuit typus mei.” — Idem. ↩

3. “Gentes sub Veteri Testamento viventes licet ipsis ista ratione qua Judæis non fuit revelatum, non tamen inde continuo ex fædere absolute exclusæ sunt, nec a salute præcise exclusi judicari debent, quia aliquo saltem modo vocantur.” — Corv. Defens. Armin. ad Tilen., p. 107. ↩

4. “Nego hanc propositionem: neminem posse salvari, quam qui Jesu Christo per veram fidem sit insitus.” — Bert. ad Sibrand., p. 133. ↩

5. “Ad hanc queestionem an unica via salutis, sit vita, passio, mors, resurrectio, et ascensio Jesu Christi? respondeo, Non.” — Venat., apud Fest. Hom. et Peltium. ↩

6. Zuing. Profes. Fid. ad Reg. Gall. ↩

7. Art. of the Church of Eng., art. xvii. ↩

8. “Nihil magis repugnat fidei, quam sine fide salvum esse posse quempiam hominum.” — Acost. de Indo. Salu. Proc. ↩

9. Aquin. 2, 2æ q. 2, a. 7, c. — “Christus nascitur ex virgine, et ego credo in eum. O sol, sub Irenæ et Constantini temporibus iterum me videbis.” ↩

10. “Dum multum sudant nonnulli, quomodo Platonem faciant Christianum, se probant esse ethnicos.” — Bern. Epist. ↩

11. Παραδοθείς γε, τῶν διὰ Χριστὸν ἀναιρουμένων, ἀπὸ τοῦ αἵματος Ἄζελ τοῦ δικαίου. — Ignat. Epist. ad Ephes. [cap. xii.] ↩

12. Πάντες οὖν οἱ ἅγιοι ἐν Χριστῷ ἐσώθησαν, ἐλπίσαντες εἰς αὐτὸν καὶ αὐτὸν ἀναμείναντες, καὶ δι’ αὐτοῦ σωτηρίας ἔτυχον. — Epist, ad Philippians [cap. v.] ↩

13. “Non alia fide quemquam hominum, sive ante legem sive legis tempore, justificatum esse, credendum est, quam hac eadem qua Dominus Jesu,” etc. — Prosp. ad Ob. viii., Gallorum. ↩

14. “Omnes ergo illos qui ab Abraham sursum versus ad primum hominem, generationis ordine conscribuntur, etsi non nomine, rebus tamen, et religione Christianos fuisse, si quis dicat, non mihi videtur errare.” — Euseb. Hist. Eccles., lib. i. cap. 4. ↩