QUESTION XV. 379 QuusT. XV. What is the State and Conditionof the Heathens, who have never heard of the Gospel, or have utterly forgot and lost all Notices of it ? It is not to be doubted that the gospel has been twice preached to all mankind : first by Adam to his family, which came from the mouth of God, who promised the seed of the woman to become a Saviour; and then by Noah, who was a preacher of righteousness, and doubtless of grace also, to his three sons Shem, Ham, and 3apheth. NowAdam and Noah were the fathers of all mankind, before and since the flood : And in the early ages it is evident, that the knowledge of the true God and religion, in some degrees of it, did continue in several families of Noah's sons for a considerable dine; such as the families of Melchizedek king of Salem, Abimelech king of Gerar, Job in the land of Uz, and his four friends, and many others. And whosoever in following ages retatned so much knowledge of God and his promised mercy, as to engage them in repentance of all their sins, in faith or dependence on divine grace, and in new obedience to the will of God, might obtain salvation. How many or how few these were, and what favour- able allowances God might make, and other enquiries relating to this subject, may be found more largely discoursed of in a treatise entitled, a Caveat against Infidelity, and in a book called, The Strength and Weakness of Human Reason, both published a few years ago. Nor do I know how to explain and determine the questions relating to this subject, in a more con- spicuous manner, than those two writings have done it; so that I chose to ask the fayour of my readers to seek their satisfaction in those discourses. However, concerning the heathens, I may venture to de- liver one plain and certain truth, because it is manifestly founded upon scripture ; and that is, since the corruption of nature through all mankind is so great and deplorable, since the hope of recovery, by the covenant of grace, bath only those faint and feeble discoveries of it made to the heathens, which the general goodness and long-suffering of God might afford them, and since they have no outward call from the word to repentance and hope, it is evident that the righteous God will inflict but small punish. ment upon such heathen sinners, in comparison of those who shall, fall under the express sentence of damnation, for having neglected or resisted the graceof the gospel, which has been published to them by Jesus Christ or the apostles, or by any dis- coveries of the things of the New Testament, in the nations or ages where they have lived. And thus our Lord himself de- clares, when he denounces his heavy woes against Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernauns ; and asserts, that the punishments of Tyre and Sidon, Sodom and Gomorrah, shall be tolerable in
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