These
scriptures therefore, of which Christ was the Author, were outward
instruments at the time, and continue so to posterity, to second his
inward aid. That is, they produce thought, give birth to anxiety, excite
fear, promote seriousness, turn the eye towards God, and thus prepare
the heart for a sense of those inward strivings of Christ, which produce
inward redemption from the power and guilt of sin.
Where, however, this outward aid of the Holy Scriptures has not reached,
Christ continues to purify and redeem by his inward power. But as men,
who are acted upon solely by his inward strivings, have not the same
advantages as those who are also acted upon by his outward word, so less
is expected in the one than in the other case. Less is expected from the
Gentile than from the Jew: less from the Barbarian than from the
Christian.
And this latter doctrine of the universality of the striving of Christ
with man, in a spiritually instructive and redemptive capacity, as it is
merciful and just, so it is worthy of the wise and beneficent Creator.
Christ, in short, has been filling, from the foundation of the world,
the office of an inward redeemer, and this, without any exception, to
all of the human race. And there is even [101] "now no salvation in any
other. For there is no other name under Heaven given among men, whereby
we must be saved.
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