Jews understood not these things prophesied of Him nor yet the Prophets that prophesied them seeing they ministred those things says the Apostle not to themselves but to us which are reported by them that preach the Gospel 1 Pet. 1.12 and therefore he hath it before That they prophesied of the Grace which should come or was to come and not then come v. 10. St. Paul accordingly lets the Romans understand Rom. 16.25 26. how the Gospel therefore was mainly a Revelation of the Mystery which was kept secret since the World began that now is made manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the Commandment of the Everlasting God made known to all Nations for the Obedience of Faith That is as much as to say God by his Spirit hath opened those Prophecies to these first Preachers commanding them to Reveal the same to the World for Confirmation of what Christ said and did suffer'd and rose again they being such as abode with him as Eye and Ear-Witnesses of the same For which cause says he again Ephes 3.1 2 3 4 5 6. I Paul the Prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles if you have heard of the Dispensation of the Grace of God which is given me to you-ward how that by Revelation he made known unto me the Mystery which in other Ages was not made known to the Sons of Men as it is now revealed to his holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit The Knowledge of Christ dying and risen again as now revealed by the Gospel that is as dying for our Sins and rising again for our Justification with the Application thereof by Faith we see plainly was a Mystery and not made known to the Sons of Men till the times of the Apostles It appears therefore that the Redemption of Christ and Benefits of his Death and Resurrection must be of larger extent than the Knowledge of him for else no Man in the World till Faith came till Christ and the Gospel came could as is said before have been saved As for the Distinction here which you used of an Implicit and Explicit Faith or Knowledge of Christ I count it but a yielding the Cause For when we say The Benefit of Christ's Redemption and the Knowledge of Him or Faith in Him are not Commensurate we mean it of such a Kowledge of him or Faith as is now preached by the Gospel that is that Explicit Knowledge as was revealed by the Spirit to the Apostles and by them made known and so required of us as necessary to our Salvation And if this be granted that such an Explicit Knowledge of Christ and Faith in him is not of the same Extent Necessitate medii with our Benefit by him the Point is obtained If you will not grant it the matter is enforced or proved by this Text. A bare Implicit Knowledge of the Messiah to come without an Explicit Knowledge of his Death and Resurrection as now revealed is a thing that could be of no more avail to the Salvation of the Jews than the Faith of a Gentile only in God's Mercy upon his Repentance which we see the Ninevites had without the Knowledge of Christ at all and if either the one or the other had Repentance unto Life wrought upon their Hearts by the Spirit of God which is fâ—ee to operate where he will for the Wind bloweth where it listeth Christ himself says they were accepted only through the Satisfaction and Merits of our Redeemer whereof indeed they were both a-like Ignorant this being the Mystery of the Gospel yet hid from the Sons of Men. I must confess when I ask'd you Whether you did or could really believe that every Jew and Heathen that ever was saved allowing the Salvability of such had a Faith in Christ's dying and rising And you said You did verily believe so I wonder'd at it and told you I lik'd you the better as being a Man of a stronger Faith than I who can believe no such thing if I would never so fain On the contrary I do believe that there never was any Man in the World that had the Knowledge of Christ Dying for his Sins and Rising again for his Justification so as to make Application of it to his own Soul by Faith as is required now of us under the Gospel until the Prophecies which the Jews had were accomplished by Him that is till after his Death and Resurrection We are sure the Apostles knew nothing of his Death and Resurrection and consequently of his Satisfaction and Merit thereby though Christ did more than once tell them of it for indeed they were not yet under that Dispensation as they should believe it And when the Disciples undestood nothing thereof for all the Scriptures how can you believe that others did or could understand their Meaning before these Scriptures were fulfilled You ask in your Book Who taught Abraham Job our first Parents but God and Christ by the Holy Spirit in their Hearts I say the like as to any good man that ever was among the Heathen That it was God by his Spirit that wrought that Good in him as in us But I say also that God did teach them every one of them the one as well as the other so much in their day as was necessary to their Salvation by such way and means as he thought best But such a Faith and Knowledge of Christ as is necessary to the Salvation of a Christian that is one to whom the Gospel is preached and received I do by no means believe to be necessary to the Salvation of every Man on the Earth that is or ever was saved no nor to any one of those that lived before Christ came We read in John when Christ was going from his Disciples and from the World to his Father he has these remarkable words Ye believe in God believe also in me John 14.1 Under that Dispensation the Jews and the Disciples were before the Christian Dispensation was opened they were to have Faith in God and to put their whole trust in him and it was that Faith by which the Just Man was to Live Hab. 2.4 But the Dispensation was coming on and is now come when we must believe also in Christ It was Life Eternal for the Jews to know God the God of Abraham to be the only true God and to live in the Acknowledgment and Service of him But now we are to know Jesus Christ also and believe in Him whom he hath sent John 17.3 6.29 In both places note the word Sent which was not of necessity to Salvation therefore before he was sent When Christ had finished the Work of our Redemption by his Death on the Cross and Risen again he enter'd into that Kingdom which John and He Preached was at hand All Power is given me saith he in Heaven and Earth Go and Disciple all Nations The Jews were under a Theocracy and so God's People It pleased him now to have that
committed the Oracles of God I interpret not these words but give this Paraphrase The Heathen were under the same Law of Grace for Life as the Jews but the Jews advantage was that they had it in the second Promulgation with this priviledge of Ordinances and our advantage is the like over them that we have it in the third and last Promulgation by the Gospel I argue then once more If this was the chief advantage the Jew had over the Gentile that the one had the Oracles of God and the other had not then was there not this difference between them that one was in a Capacity and the other under an Impossibility of Salvation for this were an advantage of a far greater Nature But this was the chief advantage Chiefly because Ergo. The Objections against this Doctrine are two The one is from the Scriptures which in many places in the New Testament do require Faith in Christ or Believing the Gospel as the Condition of Salvation He that believeth not shall be damned I answer As the Apostle says of the Law Now we know that whatsoever things the Law saith it saith to them that are under the Law So say I of the Gospel Whatsoever things of this kind the Gospel saith it saith to those that are under the Gospel Where the Gospel is preached and Revelation is sufficient so that Men wilfully reject it such are left without excuse the case of such is dangerous indeed and these Texts applicable to them If you believe not that I am he you shall dye in your Sins But as for those who never heard the Gospel or when the Revelation hath been insufficient for such Conviction the case I hope is otherwise the case is I think as I have said and our good God will not require of any more than he hath given The other Objection is from the Authority of Men or of the Church more generally that condemns this Opinion But I account the Verdict of Christians in this point is for themselves and so partial I suppose it taken again upon trust and followed by the most for want of Light and I believe also that if they had but this Light only that I offer they would have determined as I do It is true I grant as the Church thinks That there is no Religion by which a Man can be saved but one only that is the true Religion But this is a great Truth here to be received That Christianity in the Root according to what is said is the Universal Religion of Mankind whom therefore ye ignorantly worship him declare I unto you so that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that live according to Reason as Socrates Heraclitus and the like Men were Christians though they were not so called according to Justin Martyr in his Apology Which Doctrine nevertheless to salve most fully the Eighteenth Article of the Church at first mentioned is not to be harboured but as it is compatible with this certain Position That there is no way for all that under Heaven whereby a Man is was or can be saved but through the Name and Mediation only of our Saviour For other Foundation can no Man lay than that is laid which is Christ Jesus Out of a Book concerning the Universality of Redemption and two other Points From the Universality of Redemption there does arise a Government of Grace which God hath over the whole World that is a Government by the Law of Grace which Christ hath purchased as the Instrument of that Government whereby Salvation is made possible to all Mankind or whereby Pardon and Life are made attainable by all Men on a Possible Condition If you ask me what that is wherein this Possibility is placed This I perceive is a hard Question made but I will answer easily It is to be placed in the lowering the Condition to the capacity of the Persons having the power and use of their Natural Faculties so that whosoever he be that lives up sincerely to the Light that he has shall be saved Such is the Law of Grace I say purchased by Christ by which we are Govern'd and shall be Judged that whosoever lives up to the Light and Means he has in sincerity shall be saved by it I will add Whosoever does but what he can in order to his Salvation is sincere and consequently the Condition must be possible But seeing no Mortal does what he can every Man can do more Good and less Evil than he does I say If he does sincerely what he can which all the Elect from the four quarters of the Earth and the Elect only will surely do he shall have Life notwithstanding all his Imperfections This being premised as to the possibility of the Performance then it self it is founded in Dono Supernaturali a Viatore quocunque possibiliter recipiendo secundum Legem Ordinariam as the Schools speak It is an Error one of them call'd Vulgar which hath reigned too long in the Christian Church to think that none can be saved by the Name of Christ who have not heard him preached to them or that the Extent of Christ's Death and the Benefit of it is Commensurate with the Knowledge of him The Error hath arose through Carelesness of Divines in not considering the Point and the Partiality of the People to their own Religion The Jew will have none but the Jews the Mahometan none but the Mahometans the Christian none but the Christians to be saved But I am hugely perswaded otherwise that there are Millions that have been and Thousands are living in the World that have never known and shall never know how much they are beholding to Jesus Christ till they come before him in Judgment and then they shall know it to their Comfort and Christ will stay for his Thanks till that day when that Comfort and those Thanks shall be Everlasting To say that any Man was is or can be saved without Christ is an Error indeed and if any one shall go to preach up the Salvability of the Heathen without this Foundation that is to say Lay any other Foundation than what is laid Christ Jesus the Eighteenth Article of the Church does Anathematize that Person for such Ignorance is truly accursed But that Article must not be thought to Curse or Condemn any that maintain Salvation alone by Christ though he hold also that some Heathen may be saved Let the Title of the Article give the Interpretation Out of another Book of his wherein some of the Articles of the Church are occasionally Explained Art 18. Of obtaining Eternal Salvation only by the Name of Christ They are to be held accursed that presume to say That every Man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth so that he be diligent to frame his Life according to that Law and the Light of Nature For Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus Christ whereby Men must be saved I observe the Church
A LETTER TO George Keith CONCERNING The Salvability of the Heathen Together with A Testimony to the same Doctrine as Long held and not Newly taken up out of several former Books of him that writ it By his Respectful Neighbour J.H. If therefore the Doctrine of Christ hath demonstrated to all Nations the same God whom the Ancients even before Moses have served there is no doubt but that we are made Partakers with them of the same Divine Worship and having moreover the same common Religion it is manifest that we shall likewise enjoy the same Blessedness or Benediction Eusebius de Demonstratione Evangelii L. 1. C. 5. London Printed and Sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster 1700. A Letter to George Keith c. Mr. George Keith UNderstanding that you came to live near me I was willing to be acquainted with you as a Person learned and whose Converse is profitable but I am sorry to find you so engaged and hot in your Opinion though Zeal in a good Cause is commendable that you cannot let another differ from you without Anger when if he be angry too whom you differ from there must be Contention Which is to be avoided by a prudent Man Prov. 17.14 Look you George You and I do believe a Salvability for some Heathen You and I for all that do believe That no Man is was or ever can be saved but through the Name Mediation or Redemption of Jesus Christ neither of us are Deists therefore but both Christians You proceed further and say That no Man ever was is or can be saved but by Faith in Jesus Christ and the knowledge of him Crucified and Risen again Here I must differ from you for though Redemption be Universal and it is true That no Man ever could or can be saved without the Benefit thereof Yet must we not make the Redemption of Christ or the Benefit of his Death and our Knowledge of it to be Commensurate God forbid it should be so for then indeed no Heathen could be saved In your Truth Advanced p. 40. you very candidly declare That to conclude all Gentiles however diligent they have been to live up to their Illumination to be finally and irrecoverably Lost and Damned is a rash and uncharitable Opinion And in the same page you say I do positively affirm according to the Scriptures That Eternal Salvation is to be had only through Faith and Knowledge of Christ crucified and raised again This is to maintain two things inconsistent with one another And here I ask'd you therefore how you could make out the Mystery And you answered me That you had three ways to do it Two of them you expressed but because they were to me unsatisfactory I can remember neither and the third upon which you lay'd most stress you would not deliver thinking me at present not like to receive it I very much desire to know what that reserve was but what you have in your Book and in the same Page I see Though God giveth this Knowledge and Faith say you ordinarily by preaching and reading the Scriptures yet I nothing doubt but that God hath inwardly Revealed it to divers without I cannot but remember upon this what you told me That when W.P. put this Question to you and pressed you with it as unanswerable asking you how you could hold any Heathen to be saved seeing you do maintain that a Faith in Christ without is necessary to Salvation You answered him That the Light within is sufficient for the Revelation When you told me this I could not but commend it as a present ingenious Repartee ad hominem or to a Quaker but that is no answer to me or any other Man that is no Quaker nor fit for you to own as good for then it renders you still to be one of them who take Enthusiasm for your Guide W.P. would never have declared you an Apostate over the Head of you for this saying That you nothing doubt but God doth inwardly Reveal whatsoever is of necessity to be believed without Preaching or Reading Whereas I for my part am so far from an assent to you that I am perswaded to the contrary by those express words of the Apostle How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard And how shall they hear without a Preacher Rom. 10.14 We read in the Acts of the Eunuch that Man of Authority a Proselyte reading in Isaiah Philip asks him Understandest thou what thou readest And he answered How can I except some Man should guide me Acts 8.31 From whence we may see that though the Prophets speak of Christ in many places and in none more amply than in this yet the Readers understood them not nor indeed could they the Understanding being reserved till the time of the Apostles who had the Spirit with-held till Christ was Glorified John 7.39 to enlighten them with that Knowledge which they were to communicate to us The Knowledge of Christ and Faith in him is indeed a Treasure and those Riches of the Gospel which as to the times before were unsearchable for it was to them a Treasure in the Field Hid in those Ages till Found by the Apostles through the Revelation thereof by the Spirit for the Publication of the same to the World And this is to be noted for a matter exceeding remarkable That though God had declared to Abraham that in his Seed all Nations should be blessed whereby the Gospel is said to be Preached to him Gal. 3.8 Yet was the Preaching the same by Peter to the Gentiles such a strange thing to them who were of the Circumcision that they contended with him for going to the Uncircumcised as what ought not to be done until Peter rehearsed from the beginning and expounded in order to them the Visions that he and Cornelius had and how the Holy Ghost fell upon them before he Baptized them which put them to silence so that they held their peace and glorified God saying Then hath God also unto the Gentiles granted Repentance unto Life Acts 11.18 This was the thing they wondered at this the Mystery hid from them the Apostle so calls it though Preached so long ago to their Father Abraham himself That the Gentiles should be fellow Heirs and of the same Body and partakers of his Promise in Christ by the Gospel Ephes 3.6 I deny not therefore but the Old Testament Scripture speaks of Christ and that so fully as to his Person his Office his States of Humiliation and Exaltation that Christ in his appearing to the two Disciples going to Emmaus did shew them how Moses and all the Prophets speaking concerning him fore-told that he was to suffer and so to enter into his Glory Luke 24.26 St. Peter likewise preaches the same That unto him gave all the Prophets witness collecting from thence that through his Name whosoever believes in him shall receive Remission of Sins Acts 10.43 Nevertheless it is very manifest that the
Kingdom enlarged and the Gentiles brought into it and to commit it to his Son so that the Church in the Wilderness is now Catholick a Church over the World and the Law by which it is governed is the same as was on foot since Adam fell but under a diverse Dispensation Administration or Edition Upon this account do we read of Cornelius a devout Servant of God though a Roman Gentile or Heathen is commanded to send for Peter to Preach to him the Gospel which is the Scepter of Christ's Kingdom and by Baptism to receive his Allegiance and declare him a Subject From which Instance there is one Objection that by many is urged against the Salvability of any Heathen If Cornelius say they could have been saved without an explicit Knowledge of and Faith in Christ Dying for his Sins and Rising again for his Resurrection this need not have been done They urge besides the Angel's speech That Peter should tell him such words whereby He and his Household should be saved But this is indeed standing on Words more than Things It was fit it was meet that so eminent a worthy Servant of God as this should be chosen out to be first brought in for a leading Example to other Gentiles at the opening the Gospel Dispensation It is to be more throughly considered that since it pleased God that this Covenant of Grace which is the Covenant of Life and Salvation for Mankind according to which every Man and Woman shall Live or Dye as they perform or not perform the condition thereof should have a diverse Administration we cannot but think it to be advantageous for any Man to be brought under that Administration thereof that is most perfect and such being this of the Gospel Cornelius hath his gracious call into it Not that Cornelius was out of a state of Grace and Salvation before for it is plain that he was a Man that feared God a Devout Man his Prayer heard and accepted of God which no Man can be but in the beloved or through Christ's Satisfaction and Merits and such an acceptance is an acceptance unto Life and Salvation To say he was accepted but not justified is to speak without Book and with prejudice I am satisfied to the contrary and if you are not I pray what think you of the Disciples I hope you believe that Peter James and John Nathaniel and the rest were in a state of Salvation while under the Jews Administration and understood not the Scriptures as is said before nor Christ hmself when he spake of his Death and Resurrection and could have no Faith in him Dying for their Sins and Rising again for their Justification then as they had afterwards when accomplished Well consider it then Cornelius is one that fears God and worketh Righteousness and performing the condition of the Covenant of Life he is in a state of Salvation according to that Administration of it as the whole World is under The Disciples likewise fear God and work Righteousness and are in a state of Salvation according to the Jewish Administration they both being in such a state Cornelius hears Peter Preaching and believes in Jesus Christ lives up to the Gospel and is now in a state of Salvation according to the Covenant under the Christian Administration The Disciples likewise Preach themselves and they believe and live according as they Preach and are in the same condition What inconsistency is there here but that the same Persons may be in a state of Grace under one Administration of the Covenant and under the other when they are called from one into the other Abraham is called out of his Country and he obeyeth God promises to make him a Nation which shall inherit Canaan He believes God and his Faith is imputed for Righteousness After this God appeared and makes a Covenant with him and requires Circumcision Will any say here What need is there of this seeing Abraham was in a justified State already No indeed there was no need of this for that end but it is God's Will that though Abraham is a Man that walked before God and was Perfect that is Evangelically and so in a saved State yet because here is a new Administration of the Covenant to be set up it is the Command of God alone is both the Rule and Reason for the doing As for the Good and Benefit he shall have by it Abraham is to be assured of that seeing God who is good and doth good thought it good to be done Abraham believes and goes out of his Country and is thereby justified Abraham believes and receives Circumcision and is thereby justified Abraham believes and Offers up his Son Isaac and is thereby justified He received Circumcision as a Seal of the Righteousness of that Faith which he had when he was Uncircumcised He is justified by the Obedience of Faith in doing all and his Justification by one is no impediment to his being justified also by the other The Angel's telling Cornelius That he shall bear words whereby he shall be saved is no more than Paul's saying That the Gospel is the Power of God to the Salvation of all that believe which is true whether the Believer was in a State of Grace already or no whether he be a Jew or Gentile whether Cornelius or the Disciples themselves of the Lord Jesus If this be so that a Heathen may be saved you may say Then is his Condition easier and his State better than that of the Jew or Christian I Answer This is not only False because the Condition of Salvation to walk before God and be Perfect being the same to all So much the lesser means that one hath thereunto must needs make it to be so much the harder But it is also Profane to say so because the Apostle to the Romans is express that the Advantage of the Jew is much every way above the Gentile Rom. 3.1 2. And to the Hebrews he is express That we Christians have a better Covenant than the Jew Heb. 8.6 The first and second Covenant he speaks of there are nothing but the two Administrations of the Covenant of Grace the same in Substance say our Divines in regard to the Jews which preceded and then to us Christians If you will ask wherein the second Administration is better than the first consult the common place of our Divines That I fix upon as the result of them all is that these new Administrations did still afford more Means and Inducement to the bringing up their Hearts unto the terms of the Covenant of Life it self by which it was only that any were or could be Saved No doubt but there was more wrought on of the Jewish Nation having the advantage of the Oracles of God and among us that have a fuller Revelation in regard to our Saviour to come up to a sincere walking before God which are the terms and the same I say to all than among the Heathen who are without
hath but one Anathema in all her Articles and that seems to be denounced here against all those who do or shall hold that any Persons can be saved that are not Christians by Profession as if the Death of Christ or the Benefits thereof and the Knowledge of him were Commensurate through the World But God forbid I am out of doubt that God hath a Government over all Mankind which is Moral in order to Life or Salvation and that the Instrument of that Government must be the Law of Grace the Law of Innoceney becoming in the State of Lapsed Nature uncapable to that end which being at first Promulgated to Adam after his Fall and to Noah must belong to all his Posterity insomuch as every one whosoever he be that lives up in sincerity to this Law according to the Administration of it he is under shall be saved For my Assent then to this Article I do desire the word By may be especially noted I could not assent to this Article if it were In in the Law or Sect he professeth but being By I hold plainly that if an Heathen or any Person that never heard the Gospel repents of his Sins and trusts to a good God and so lives up to the Law or Covenant of Grace according to the first Edition of it I say if any such indeed do Rom. 2.26 Acts 10.35 and thereby comes to be saved it is by the Christian Religion which he implicitly holds in Substance with us and not by the Law and Sect he professeth that he is saved And this Salvation of his is in and through the Name and Mediation of Jesus Christ no less than ours is who procured that Law for them and all the World as well as for Abraham and the Jews under the Old and for us under the New Testament A Note hereupon Note here that the Writer of this being a Non-conformist Minister Episcopally Ordained and holding Communion with his Parish-Church as the old Non-conformists did thought good to make a Trial for the recovery of the use of his Ministry in Preaching an Occasional Sermon when called though without Benefice or Emolument which requires farther Compliance did in order to obtain a License unto which an Approbation of the Thirty nine Articles is required by the Uniformity-Act propose a Subscribing to them with a Liberty of Explication if that might be granted his Judgment being That as all Impositions are to be taken in the Sense of the Imposers these Articles must be taken in the Sense of the Compilers or at least he must be construed so to take them if he did Subscribe them without that liberty first granted and declared Upon this account he made for himself his Explications of all the Articles he scrupled and the Bishop of Salisbury hath light upon the same Explication of this Eighteenth Article which is cited before as he Only this difference must be observed That this Explications is reckoned satisfactory in point of Conscience by him upon the supposition of a Liberty of Explication to be first granted but the Bishop proposes this Explication as satisfactory to a Clergy-Man for his Subscribing without the grant to him of a Liberty to make it There have been great Divines who looking on the Articles to be Articles for Peace and not Articles of Faith have thought it enough for their Subscription to them that they engage to bear with and not contradict them This worthy Bishop therefore does honestly show that this is a Sense too loose for the Clergy-Man who is to declare That what he Subscribes is his Opinion and is bound to take every Artiâ—â—e in the Literal and Grammatical Sense of it as is enjoyned by the King's Declaration before the Articles Upon this account the Bishop's distinction between the words By and In is proper as easy if the Authentick Sense be not to be stood upon but a Literal and Grammatical Construction altogether I would fain therefore ask the Bishop whether a Literal and Grammatical Construction can be made to salve all the other Articles as well as this I will propose two words in two Articles The one is that word thorowly in the Eighth Article The three Creeds ought Thorowly to be received and believed If Thorowly then in every part then the beginning the middle and the end of the Athanasian Creed must be believed then must the Proem and the Conclusion be believed Does the Bishop believe so If he indeed does not then is that fair Grammatical Literal come-off to no purpose in the Eighteenth Article when he is gravell'd in the same matter in the Eight The common Answer says the Bishop of the most eminent Men of the Church is That these Expressions are only to be understood to relate to those who having the means of Instruction offered them have rejected them Upon such as do thus reject this great Article of the Christian Doctrine concerning One God and Three Persont and that other concerning the Incarnation of Christ are these Anathemaes denounced This is well exceeding well but is this a Literal Gramatical Construction Will the word thorâ—â—ly so Literally and Grammatically be thus expounded The other word I have to propose is the word Only in the Eleventh Article That we are Justified by Faith Only is a wholsome Doctrine In the Literal Grammatical Construction this cannot be subscribed because it is Litterally and Grammatically contrary to St. James who says Not by Faith only but by Works also In the Authentick Sense one may believe the Compilers meant by Only what Paul says By Faith without Works which by distinguishing Works may be reconciled to St. James If the Articles then must be subscribed in the Literal Grammatical Sense what shall we do with them Subscribe them we cannot Why they must be let alone The Truth is these Articles if conscienciously Subscribed must be Subscribed in the Authentick Sense or Meaning of the Church and so of the Compilers and that construed Literally and Grammatically which makes them the harder They may remain therefore as standing still for the Articles of the Church but without the Injunction of her Sons to Subscribe them For no Man of a free Judgment that will Subscribe nothing but what he understands and believes will be able to bring his Ego libenter ex animo to do it O quando Oh when will the time come that we may have an Act for Comprehension which may provide for the forbearance of such Subscriptions Declarations and Oaths that the largest Exposition that can be made of them does but render a Noli me tangere to Conformist and Non-conformist and even to himself that makes or hath made it There is a Threefold Interpretation An Authentick a Usual and a Doctrinal Interpretation according to Suarez De Legibus The Authentick Interpretation of an Imposition is the Exposition of it according to the Sense and Meaning of the Imposer and the Authentick Interpretation of the Articles is to understand them according to the Meaning of those who compiled them and consequently of the Church which enjoyned them according to their Meaning The Usual Interpretation of these Articles who can tell But if any shall cite Chillingworth and Arch-Bishop Usher and say that any Interpretation of an Article as it pleaseth the Taker so long as he obliges himself not to contradict it is that which is Usual I think he speaks true But then this Usual Interpretation is not allowed the Clergy-Man by the Bishop as is noted before because it is loose and sinful as he shews upon clear Reason and in this the Bishop will have a good Conscience at the great Day A Doctrinal Interpretation is the Explication of any Doctor or Doctors of the Church concerning an Article which is but Rational and not inconsistent with the Scripture and the Analogy of Faith especially if it be ingenuous and candid and sit to be received Now if upon the Call of any Parliament there should be occasion for the Convocation to sit and they should make a Canon on purpose to authorize declare and signifie that the Subscription to the Articles which is enjoyned is be understood not in the Authentick or Usual but only in a Doctrinal Interpretation then would this Book of the Bishop be of singular use and highly to be approved But if it serve only to justifie the imposing this Subscription and continue it without a Liberty of Explication or any such Canon there being these two ways only I can think on to make the Imposition Conscionable I must declare what I apprehend That this Book of the Bishop will be and must needs be a Snare unto many I will add That if it were writ with the Intention to uphold and continue the Subscription which I believe not of this worthy Author or if it does but hinder the taking of it off which was designed in the Convention Parliament as this Bishop knows there is no Man will have more cause of regret and to be more deeply touched at the Heart about the Book than he himself that hath so ingenuously and exquisitely wrote it THE END