Ghost was not given to the Apostles to empower them to make a New Covenant with People by making more Articles absolutely necessary to be believed to Make Men Christians than Christ himself had made so though they were to produce more Proof and Evidence of what he had made absolutely necessary to be believed than was given before and were to furnish Christians with a more compleat Body of the Laws of that Kingdom they were Members of than was before published See Second Vindic. of the Reasonab p. 89 90 325 330. It may therefore with great Truth and I think for that Reason without any absurdity be affirmed that all things which are absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to Salvation are fully and clearly contained in the Gospels See Second Vindic. of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. p. 73. In p. 30. This Author discourses concerning the Apostles Creed and saith That The Articles of that Creed are not to be looked on as the only Fundamentals unless we also firmly believe the natural Consequences and Conclusions from them and the frequent Explanations of them which are set down in the other Parts of Revelation That is those Explanations of them which are set in the Epistles distinct from what is said of them in the Gospels and Acts. Answ. I will wave taking Notice of several things which might be observed here from the Generality and Extensiveness of the Expressions here used And shall only put this Author in mind that the Question he should peremptorily answer to is this Whether all that is absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed by Christ's and his Apostles Appointment to make Men Christians be contained in that Creed If those who answer this Question Negatively be in the Right let them talk what they please of the great Esteem and Veneration they have for this Creed and the Church of England there is no help for it but both the one and the other must unavoidably fall under a very ugly Reflection for the more full clearing of which and answer to what this Author hath further writ on this Subject I shall refer to the Second Vindic. of the Reasonab p. 74 c. 77 163 169 c. In p. 31 and 32. This Author offers considerations in answer to a Passage he quotes out of p. 297. of the Reasonab of Christianity c. I shall here only observe First That these Considerations are grounded upon Two great Mistakes 1. A Supposition that the Force of the Argument he opposeth depends upon the time when the Gospels and Acts and when the Epistles were writ viz. which were writ first Whereas the Force of the Argument lies in this That those Truths delivered in the Epistles cannot be absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians which were not revealed till after the Decease of many who were Christians By the Epistles we understand what Doctrines the Apostles were intrusted to instruct Christians in but supposing the Acts and every one of the Gospels had been writ after all the Epistles they acquaint us most clearly and distinctly what were the Doctrines which Christ and his Apostles proposed as absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed by Unbelievers to make them Christians 2. A Supposition that the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. rejects the Epistles from being part of that Rule of Faith that Christ hath given to Christians for which I cannot perceive the least Ground Secondly that this Passage this Author pretends to answer hath the full Evidence of Demonstration with respect to the Words immediately before it Having declared that the Authors of the Epistles were inspired from above and writ nothing but Truth and in most Places very weighty Truths to us c. He adds But yet every Sentence of theirs must not be taken up and looked on as a Fundamental Article necessary to Salvation without an explicite Belief whereof no Body could be a Member of Christ's Church here nor be admitted into his Eternal Kingdom hereafter Where we see what he means by Fundamental Articles in the very next Sentence which is the Passage reflected on by this Author and delivered in these Words If all or most of the Truths declared in the Epistles were to be received and believed as Fundamental Articles what then became of those Christians who were fallen asleep as St. Paul witnesses in his First to the Corinthians many were before these things in the Epistles were revealed to them To this Passage in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. p. 294. The Epistles being all written to those who were Believers and Christians the Occasion and End of writing them could not be to instruct them in that which was necessary to make them Christians This Author replies in these Words This seems rather to strengthen than lessen the Force of the Argument That the Apostles had taught those same Doctrines for Fundamentals before which they afterwards communicated as sacred Depositums of their Faith p. 33. Answ. Supposing they had taught the very same Doctrines before to the Christians or Churches they afterwards writ to and so they were Fundamentals to those Christians who had been instructed in them yet there is no force in the Argument that these Doctrines are absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians or were so to them till it be proved that they had propounded these Doctrines to be explicitely believed to make them Christians In answer to another Passage quoted out of the same Page of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. this Author propounds this Question How can it be proved that all those the Epistles were written to understood all the Fundamentals of Religion Answ. The Question is whether they were Christians though they did not understand all those Doctrines you call Fundamentals here If they were Christians then those you call Fundamentals were not absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make them Christians If any shall say they were not Christians to whom the Apostles writ their Epistles they may if they please excuse my want of Complaisance in declaring I shall chuse to believe the Apostles rather than them Again saith this Author May there not be supposed to be some less knowing amongst them In answer to which I ask Were those less knowing Persons Christians if not how came they to be concerned in the Epistle or how came they to be Members of the Church to which the Epistle was writ The latter part of the Question And some who would not throughly believe several Doctrines of Christianity without such an Authority the Apostles had c. seems not to bear a propitious Aspect to what this Author formerly advanced as the way to distinguish Fundamental Truths from other Parts of Divine Revelation What this Author further saith on this Subject is no more than what I think is sufficiently answered in my Animadversions p. 26 27. But I do not perceive how it will follow from what
OBSERVATIONS ON THE Animadversions Lately Printed at OXFORD ON A Late BOOK ENTITULED THE Reasonableness of Christianity As delivered in the SCRIPTURES By S. BOLD Rector of Steeple Dorset Not for that we have Dominion over your Faith But are Helpers of your Ioy for by Faith ye stand 2 Cor. 1. 24. LONDON Printed for A. and I. Churchill at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row 1698. PREFACE TO THE READER READER I Am not concerned to enquire why other Persons have given such accounts as they have of the main Proposition laid down in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. of the Design that Author had in publishing his Treatise and of the Reason why he observed the Method he hath taken to clear and prove the great Point treated of there It may suffice to declare why I apprehend that his Proposition his Design and the Reason of his Method are very different from what they have represented them which in short is because I cannot help it The Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. being perfect Master of his own Notions hath expressed them in such perspicuous and proper Terms I must offer Violence to my own Understanding and Reason to put that Construction on them which some have assigned them The worthy Author of the Animadversions c. having very particularly related what he took to be the Design c. of the Author of the Reasonableness c. occasioned my setting down all along as I read his Account what I conceived was the Design c. of the aforesaid Author and my making some Observations on what he offered in answer to those Passages he quoted out of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. which are now published to prompt others to peruse attentively that excellent Treatise and to make themselves Masters of the Truths there delivered and because I am perswaded that neither the Doctrines delivered in the New Testament nor Christians can have their full Right done them till People do understand and entertain the great Point insisted on in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. and do preserve themselves under the Influence and Conduct of it It is a Notion that tends not so much to gratify some People's Ambition and serve their secular Interest as another may But it is more adapted to the Advantage of pure and undefiled Religion and will contribute more to Christians Growth in Scripture Knowledge and all Godliness of living and to their rational Comfort and good Assurance than any other Notion I am acquainted with One thing which hath occasioned many to entertain a Prejudice against the Reasonableness of Christianity c. I conceive is a wrong Notion they have imbibed concerning those Composures we call Creeds viz. Their fancying that all the Articles contained in all or some of the Creeds are absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians Concerning which I shall observe 1. That not one of the Authors we have who wrâ—te in the first Century after Christ doth make any mentiâ—n of a Creed in their Days So that we cannot have aâ—y certainty that there was any such thing during the Firâ—â— Hundred Years after Christ though we are very sure theâ—â— were Christians during that space 2. Creeds were not originally designed to relate whaâ— Articles were absolutely necessary to be explicitely believeâ— to make Men Christians though some did afterwardâ— turn them to that purpose but to direct the Clergy anâ— those who were to instruct Christians in the Matters of Reâ—ligion what Heads Points or Articles and Doctrines of Faith they were to take particular Care to discourse of and insist on in order to their building up Believers in their most Holy Faith Of this very good Evidence might be produced from Antiquity if there were occasion 3. We have no certainty concerning the precise Number of the Articles which did make up the First Creeds We are certain that some of the Articles that now constitute the oldest Creeds we have any Knowledge of were not at first in them but were afterwards added on particular occasions 4. A Doctrine's being placed in a Creed is so far from making the explicite Belief of it absolutely necessary to make Men Christians that it doth not make it an Object of Christian Faith No Doctrine is an Object of Christian Faith but what Iesus Christ or his Apostles have taught And a Christian's Faith must be grounded on Evidence that he or his Apostles have taught it Now the placing of a Doctrine in a Creed doth not make it a Doctrine that Christ c. have taught nor doth it sufficiently evidence that they have taught it A Christian as such is not to believe any Doctrine because it is in a Creed though when he is convinced that Christ or his Apostles have taught such or such a Doctrine which is placed in a Creed he is to believe it He that should say that Faction first occasioned Men's composing of Creeds and that the Abuse of Creeds hath contributed no small Assistance to the maintaining and keeping up of Factions would not be wholly disbelieved Creeds are of great use if they be used aright We may say of a Creed as the Apostle doth of the Law 1 Tim. 1. 8. We know that it is good if a Man use it lawfully I hear that some who having a Mind to talk of what they do not understand apply themselves to rail against the Reasonableness of Christianity c. in that Phrase with which the worst of Men made such a Noise under the late Reigns affirming confidently upon their own Word that it is contrary to the Church of England If these People are capable of thinking would they exercise that Faculty to any good purpose they might easily perceive that when Iesus Christ and his Apostles have determined a point it is the most scandalous and wicked Aspersion that can be devised to pretend to introduce the Church of England in opposition to them Had these People that respect for and would they pay to the Church of England that Deference which is due to her they would not prostitute her venerable Name at every turn in Imitation of those bad Persons who neither believing in our Blessed Saviour nor in the Living God do constantly prophane their Sacred Names when ever they have a mind to give vent to some unreasonable Passion There is one thing which should particularly recommend the Reasonableness of Christianity c. to good Christians and for which they can hardly set too great a value on it viz. That it fully resolves some Difficulties in our Saviour's Conduct which I think were never throughly cleared to the World till it was published Some time after the following Observations were sent to the Press I met with some Papers writ by Mr. Edwards against the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. and against my self but to pass them over without saying any thing of them is the greatest Civility that can be expressed to
Doctrines which are affirmed to be absolutely necessary to be believed to make men Christians be Doctrines which Christ hath taught yet if he hath not taught that the Belief of them is absolutely necessary to make Men Christians but only requires them to be believed for other Purposes the requiring the Belief of them as absolutely necessary to make Men Christians must be built upon a Foundation and Authority distinct from Christ's and his Apostles which therefore at best can be but Humane Authority Till this Clause is agreed to the former Clauses in the Reason will not avail much to put a happy Conclusion to Religious Controversies Besides I cannot understand why the assumed Authority of the several Parties may not be yielded to for the deciding of particular Controversies in Religious Matters as well as for the determining and assigning what Points are to be be believed in order to any Peoples being Christians I leave it to others to enquire how much Men's assuming Authority to impose certain of Christ's Doctrines without his Warrant as absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians hath contributed to their Stretching the like Authority further even to make some things Parts of the Christian Religion which Christ and his Apostles have not authorized which is infamously done in the Church of Rome and perhaps in some degree in most of the Parties truly termed Protestant It may be easy to prove to those who are Christians that they are to believe such or such Doctrines by shewing them plainly that Christ Jesus whom they have received to be their Lord hath taught them But when we require those who are not Christians to believe them as absolutely necessary to make them Christians we must undertake to prove to them the Truth of those Doctrines by some other Medium than Christ's Authority For it cannot rationally be expected that People who do not believe Jesus to be the Messiah or the Christ will assent to believe and receive Doctrines meerly because he they do not believe to be the Christ hath taught them And when they are brought to believe that Jesus is the Messiah so as to take him for their Lord and King if that do not constitute them Christians it will not suffice to make them Christians to prove to them that Christ hath taught such or such Doctrines which therefore they must believe but it must be proved to them that that same Jesus hath taught that these same Doctrines are absolutely necessary to be believed to make them Christians unless their believing this Branch upon some other Authority will serve the turn And if that will do the Business why may they not be required to believe that Jesus is the Messiah upon the same Authority and consequently all the other Doctrines the said Authority shall be pleased to avouch The Difference is not much in rational Discourse whether a Person believes a certain Doctrine to be Christ's which he never taught upon the Testimony of such a Person or Church or whether he believes a Doctrine Christ hath certainly taught to be absolutely necessary to a certain Purpose which Christ never declared to be absolutely necessary to that purpose upon the same Testimony or Authority For the Ground Foundation and Reason of the Belief in both Cases is the very same and is an Authority distinct from Christ's In the next place the Author of the Animadversions relates what he thought was the main Design of the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. in these Words The main Design which the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. seems to have had is to lay down such a Scheme of Faith only as he finds delivered in Scripture and not to rest satisfied with those Collections of Articles which are to be met with in the common Systems without any sufficient warrant from Scripture I will keep as near as I can to this Author's Words in relating what I conceive to be the Truth touching this Matter The main Design of the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. seems to have had as to one main part of his Book was to lay down such a Scheme of those matters of Faith only that are absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christistian as he found delivered in the Scripture but not to lay down such a Scheme of those Matters of Faith as he found in Scripture which any Man after he is a Christian may be necessarily obliged to Believe The Reason why the Author of the Reasonableness did not rest satisfied with those Collections of Articles which are to be met with in the common Systems doth not appear to be because all or most or perhaps any of the Articles in some of those Systems were without any sufficient Warrant from Scripture Though it may be the Composers of those Systems might assert something concerning several of those Articles for which there might not be any sufficient Warrant from Scripture There might be sufficient Warrant from Scripture for the Articles themselves and not the like Warrant for every thing those Authors might deliver concerning them But the Reasons why he was not satisfied with those Collections seem to me to be 1. Because those Collections did not agree some of them consisting of more some of fewer Articles and those which had the greatest number left out some of the Articles which were insisted on or inserted in another 2. Because it was pretended by the Composers of those Systems of their Followers or both that all the Articles collected into those Systems were necessarily to be believed to make Men Christians Now according to that Notion what certainly could there be who were Christians or to be admitted and owned as such whilst there was so great a Disagreement concerning the Articles which were absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians For those who were Christians according to the Composers and followers of one System were not Christians according to the Followers of another because they wanted something in their Judgment absolutely necessary to make them Christians The Design of those who write Systems of Christian Divinity I apprehend should be to collect those Articles which are mainly insisted on in the New Testament and to which most or all that is delivered in those Sacred Writings may be pertinently and conveniently reduced together with an account of the principal things there taught concerning those Articles And if the Composers of Systems did carefully distinguish the Articles those Sacred Writings teach are absolutely necessary to be believed to make men Christians from those which are of great Moment to be known and believed by them who are already Christians I am of Opinion the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity would not think their doing so any Blemish to their Systems and that he would not be dissatisfied with any of those Articles of which their Systems should consist nor with any thing they should say concerning those
very material in these Papers which has not been observed before in the Writings of the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. I shall not account that a just Prejudice against them For if the Answers here propounded be very material to what is alledged against the Reasonableness of Christianity c. it cannot reasonably be supposed that the Objections insisted on should be of any great weight with me And my deriving the Answers from that Authors Writings I hope may pass with Persons of Candor Reason and Discernment for some justification of the Value I set on the Reasonableness of Christianity c. Observations on the Vindication of the Epistles THIS Author begins his Animadversions with that Part to which he gives this Title A Vindication of the Epistles And he enters on this Part with assigning Two Reasons why the Reasonableness of Christianity doth not as he saith give such Satisfaction to an inquisitive Mind as might prevent all Exception against it whether it was designed for the Benefit of those who were not throughly and firmly Christians or to be a general Rule of Faith to all sorts of Men Answ. That Author's Design was to give a clear and distinct Account of what Articles or Doctrines are absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians And the Treatise gives me full Satisfaction concerning this Matter because it lays down all that Jesus Christ and his Apostles have declared to be thus necessary and nothing but what they have declared to be so And his giving so full and large Proof that Christ and his Apostles did require the Belief of the Articles he hath laid down and did not require the Belief of any other Article as absolutely necessary to make Men Christians redered his Treatise very proper to be published for the Benefit of those who were not throughly and firmly Christians For nothing can tend more to the Benenefit of such Persons than a clear distinct full and true Information of what is absolutely necessary to be believed by them in order to their being Christians What this Author understands by a General Rule of Faith to all sorts of Men I do not know The whole New Testament is the General Rule of Faith to all Christians as the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. hath declared And the Doctrines he hath insisted on are the Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed by those who are not Christians to make them Christians The First Reason this Author gives why the Reasonableness of Christianity c. does not seem to give Satisfaction to an inquisitive Mind is because it introduces a new Scheme of Belief in Opposition to the anciently received Doctrine of the Church Answ. Here I must observe it is not opposite to the most anciently received Doctrine of the Church Because it is the very same Scheme Jesus Christ introduced and his Apostles constantly kept to in admitting of Unbelievers into the Church His Second Reason is Because it doth not answer the full Sense and Intent of Revelation which is the only Reason and Measure of our Faith Answ. Here I must observe it doth answer the full Sense and Intent of Revelation as to what the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity was inquiring after Because it delivers all that Revelation requires to be believed as absolutely necessary to make Men Christians and we are not to insist on any thing as absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians but what Revelation the only Reason and Measure of our Faith in this Case doth declare is absolutely necessary to be believed to that end Whoever affirms any Doctrine though the Doctrine it self is revealed is absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian which Revelation doth not declare to be so affirms it without Reason according to this Authors own Arguing because Revelation is the only Reason why we are to affirm any Doctrine is absolutely necessary to be believed to this purpose and so he goes beyond the only Measure of our Faith in this Matter The Reason why we are to insist on such or such Doctrines as absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians is because Revelation requires the Belief of them as absolutely necessary to make Men Christians not barely because the Doctrines are revealed for then every Doctrine which is revealed must be absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make a Man a Christian because the Reason assigned for the Particulars we are minded to insist on extends to every particular which is revealed and obliges as much to every one as to any one For make your Catalogue as large as you will if you leave out any one Doctrine or any Branch of it that is revealed your Catalogue cannot possibly answer the full Sense and Intent of Revelation unless a defective partial Scheme of Faith can answer the full Sense and Intent of Revelation or some parts of Revelation have no Sense and were revealed for no purpose or Intent Both which are equally uncapable of Proof and altogether unreasonable to suppose This Author declares p. 4. what it is he undertakes to prove in this First part of his Book His Words are these It shall be my business in the First Place to prove that there are Doctrines in the Epistles distinct from those delivered in the Gospels or Acts which are as absolutely necessary to be believed and to be made Fundamental Articles of Faith as any other Parts of Revelation That is in short that there are Doctrines in the Epistles distinct from any delivered in the Gospels and Acts which are absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians The Argument he makes use of to prove what he hath undertaken is this to word it so as that it may reach the Point he hath undertaken to prove Some of the Doctrines set down in the Epistles which are distinct from any delivered in the Gospels and Acts have been confest viz. by the Church from the very First Ages of Christianity to be altogether as necessary to be actually or explicitely believed unto Salvation as any whatsoever Here I shall observe that before this Argument can do the Business for which it is brought the Author must 1. Relate what he means or understands by the Term Church 2. He must prove clearly that whatsoever the Church in the Sense in which he understands that Term hath from the first Ages of Christianity confest to be absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians is so and that the Confession or Testimony of that Church is the sole or ultimate Rule by which the Question concerning what is absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians or to Salvation is to be resolved and determined That is That we are not to be determined in this Matter by the Testimony of Christ and his Apostles but by the Churches Testimony at least that it is thus as to the Doctrines which are
divinely revealed and set down in the New Testament 3. He is then to set down the particular Doctrines he hath a regard to in this place And 4. He must prove that from the very First Ages of Christianity the Church hath confest that every one of those Doctrines is absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians or to Salvation It is not the bare saying that the Church hath such an Authority nor the bare affirming such a Matter of Fact concerning the Church that will prove the Business in Hand The explaining and full proving the Particulars already named will require some time and Consideration And when they are fully cleared and substantially confirmed there will not be any need to inquire whether or how the Church was imposed on In the mean time I shall lay down a few Considerations which I conceive are true and consonant with the Judgment of the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. 1. That which makes a Doctrine of supernatural Revelation absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian is not its being placed in one part of the New Testament or in another but the Divine Determination that it must be necessarily believed for that purpose 2. That our knowing that such a Doctrine is absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians depends upon God's declaring that the Belief of it is absolutely necessary to make Men Christians let this Declaration lie in what part of the New Testament soever 3. That what is revealed to be absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians may be better discerned in the Gospels and Acts than in the Epistles though the same Doctrines are likewise to be found in them And this for the Reasons the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. hath assign'd 4. The New Testament comprehends the entire Revelation the Lord Jesus Christ hath made of the Mind of God In which Sacred Writings our Blessed Saviour declares what Articles are absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men his Disciples and Subjects or Christians and in these Holy Scriptures he hath also delivered or declared all the Laws of his Kingdom by which those he admits for his Subjects must be govern'd so that they are not to admit or receive any thing for a Part of their Religion as Christian but what he hath taught and delivered in some part of these Holy Writings 5. The enquiry is not how many are the Laws of Christ's Kingdom or how many Articles he hath taught and delivered which those who are his Subjects are obliged to endeavour to understand believe and observe but what are those Articles he doth require to be believed as absolutely necessary to make Men his Subjects or Christians 6. All the Doctrines delivered in the New Testament are equally Divine Revelations and are therefore to be received with equal Degrees of Assent by all those Christians who do understand them and know that they are revealed or delivered in those Sacred Writings But these Doctrines are not absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians Indeed there are several Doctrines which I know are delivered in the New Testament which have not the like Effect and Influence on me at present in proportion to their Nature that other Doctrines have which I know are taught there But this Difference ariseth not from the Nature of the former Doctrines which is always the same and unalterable nor from my not receiving them with equal Degrees of Assent for I do receive them with equal Degrees of Assent being as firmly persuaded they are Divine Revelations as the other but this Difference spoken of now ariseth from something else viz. my present State and Circumstances or the like Now saith this Author if several of the Doctrines contained in those parts of Revelation viz. the Epistles have all along down from the Apostles Times been reputed necessary to be believed to Salvation then certainly they ought not to be denied to be absolutely subservient to that end without the Proof of one or all these things which are Five in Number Answ. 1. It is not particular Persons or Churches reputing things to be absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation that makes them absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation In the very early times of Christianity even long before the Apostles decease there were People professing themselves Christians and who set up for Teachers in the the Church who affirmed certain things were absolutely necessary to Salvation which were not so as is undeniably evident from Act. 15. 1. 2. When this Author shall be pleased to set down plainly the Doctrines his Words seem to have a Secret Relation to a Judgment may be made whether they were justly reputed absolutely necessary to be believed explicitly to make Men Christians or not by considering whether Christ and his Apostles reputed them absolutely necessary or not 3. If the Church did originally repute any Doctrines to be absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to Salvation without warrant the successive continuance of that Reputation cannot make those Doctrines to be absolutely necessary Length of Time and reiterated Applause cannot advance an original Mistake into Truth The Second Concoction will not in this case rectify the Error of the First 4. A Person who doth suppose yea acknowledge that several Doctrines delivered in the Epistles which are distinct from any taught in the Gospels and Acts have been justly reputed necessary to be believed to Salvation may regularly and with good Warrant deny that they are absolutely necessary for that I suppose this Author means for otherwise the Consequence he draws is not to his Purpose though he useth the Word Subservient to be believed to Salvation without being obliged to prove either one or Five Negatives For many Doctrines may be very justly reputed necessary to Salvation which are not absolutely necessary to Salvation And therefore when it is inferred that such and such Doctrines are absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to Salvation if they have all along been reputed necessary to be believed to Salvation the Consequence may be regularly denied and no necessity follow thereupon that the Person denying it must be obliged to prove 1. That the Authors of the Epistles were not divinely inspired 2. c. And for that Reason I suppose it is that this Author applies himself in the Remainder of this part of his Animadversions to prove these Five Points 1. That the Authors of the Epistles were Divinely Inspired 2. That the Apostles had Authority or Commission to deliver some things for necessary Articles of Faith 3. That some of their Doctrines were writ with a Design that all Christians should be necessarily required to believe them to Salvation 4. That there is no Contradiction in the Epistles to the other parts of Scripture 5. That some of those Doctrines are of equal Necessity to be explicitely known to make a Man a Christian with
of his coming into the World I must not undertake to determine therefore I shall only ask Whether they had a true Knowledge of Christ and the End of his coming so far as was absolutely necessary to make them Christians If they had their not knowing any thing more than what was then revealed and made known to them in order to their being Christians cannot be a good Reason why what was sufficient to warrant their being denominated Christians should not be sufficient to warrant Persons being denominated Christians now unless together with the Proof that there are more Articles revealed now than were then there be also as clear Proof that all or some of these latter Articles are now required to be explicitely believed for that Purpose But saith this Author It is natural to infer from Act. 1. 6 7 8. that the Apostles had not yet attained to that clear Knowledge of him and the Design of his coming which it was necessary they should be endewed with p. 74. Answ. They had not all that Knowledge of Christ and of his Design which it was necessary they should be endowed with in order to their own Advantage and to their giving the World that entire and compleat Revelation Christ would make of his Will by them But it cannot be infer'd that they had not all that Knowledge which was absolutely necessary to make them Christians were there no Christians upon Earth after Christ's Ascention till after the Descent of the Holy Ghost or were not the Apostles Christians till they were endeued with a clear Knowlededge of all those things Christ would make known for the Benefit of his Church and which they were gradually to instruct People in and commit to writing for the use of future Ages Can no Man be a Christian till he hath an explicite Knowledge of every Particular in the fullest import of it which is delivered in the Scripture and hath a respect to Jesus as the Messias Which is the true Notion of believing Jesus to be the Messias absolutely necessary to make Men Christians that he is the Person God hath sent to be our King and Saviour whose Doctrines and Laws we are conscientiously to endeavour to learn and believe and observe as we attain to know them O That he is the Person sent from God c. who hath taught these and these particular Doctrines neither more nor fewer and so as touching his Precepts every one of which we do actually believe and practice Can no Person be a Christian now till he hath as explicite and full a Knowledge of every thing Christ hath taught and revealed as that Apostle ever had who was endowed with the largest measure of Revelation whatever he did know this way had a respect to Jesus as the Messiah And the very last Information he had this way acquainted him with something concerning the Messiah which he did not so clearly and fully know before so that he could not form a just and adequate Rule of Faith concerning him till he knew that It will not saith this Author alter the case by saying That those who died then in that Faith were undoubtedly saved for that would be no more an Argument than the proving that because a Jew was saved before Christ's coming into the World by Virtue of Christ's Mediation in the Observance of the Mosaick Law he might be equally capable of Salvation now in the Profession of that Religion p. 74. Answ. What this Author hath delivered in these Words would afford room for many Remarks But I shall only observe That believing that Jesus is the Messiah was not absolutely necessary to Salvation before he came into the World nor was any thing more absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation under the Mosaick Dispensation than God had made absolutely necessary to be believed for that purpose under it But at the coming of our Saviour a New Covenant being substituted in the Place of the Mosaick Dispensation it was under a New Condition viz. the believing and taking Jesus to be the Messiah our King and submitting to his Law If that Dispensation were not abrogated but did still continue the way of Salvation nothing more would now be absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation than what was made so by that Constitution And if the Christian Dispensation were to be abrogated and another to come into its room whereby something distinct from what is contained in the Gospel or Christian Dispensation should be made absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation the Belief of every thing delivered in the New Testament would not when the Gospel Dispensation was at an end be sufficient to Salvation But the adding of more Revelations which are to be studied and explicitely believed when known doth not alter the Dispensation or make more absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation or to interest a Person in that Dispensation than was at first absolutely necessary to that Purpose any more than every new Law made in a Nation doth alter the Constitution of that Government and make something more absolutely necessary to be known and explicitely assented to to make a Person a Subject of that Government than was absolutely necessary to that Purpose before Will any serious considering Christian affirm that Jesus Christ will reject any Person who by the gracious Influence of the Holy Ghost is effectually brought to receive him with all his Heart to be his Lord and King and sincerely endeavours to fulfil that Engagement people are generally very willing to believe that Jesus has died for them and satisfied for their Sins and they can be contented to own him for a Prophet to furnish them with Notions but they are not so easily prevailed with to give Substantial Evidences that they do heartily take him for their King Were they generally brought to a sound Belief and Acknowledgment of his being their King they would make a much better Improvement of what he hath delivered in the Holy Scripture concerning his Priesthood and his being a Prophet than they commonly do notwithstanding the great Zeal they pretend to discover for those Offices The Courses they ordinarily allow themselves in are evidently and utterly inconsistent with their receiving Jesus unfeignedly for their King and their preserving a Sense of that Relation upon their Spirits whatever way they have got to reconcile them to the Notions they entertain concerning his other Offices For saith this Author we are to direct our Faith and Practice according to the most full and clear Revelation of God's Will and to believe that to be necessary to Salvation which appears from the full extent of Revelation to be requir'd in order to it p. 74. Answ. Those who are Christians are to direct their Faith and practice according to the fullest Measure of the Knowledge they can attain of what God hath revealed that is They must believe explicitely and actually perform whatsoever they can attain to know Christ hath taught and made their
to Salvation 5. The Author of the Reasonableness c. did search the Scriptures to find what are the Articles the Belief of which God hath made absolutely necessary to Salvation and he hath given a full Account of what he found there concerning this Matter 6. It is an eminent Demonstration of the Condescention and Goodness of God towards Man that whereas he might have made the explicite Belief of incomprehensible Articles absolutely necessary to Salvation he hath not made the explicite Belief of any but that plain and intelligible Proposition the Author of the Reasonableness c. hath set down as absolutely necessary to Salvation This Discovery of the Divine Condescention and Goodness ought to be taken Notice of by those who have a Sense of it and the Reflection the Author of the Reasonableness c. hath made on this Occasion is so pertinent and so pious I do a little wonder that Pious and Good Men can prevail with themselves to make invidious Animadversions upon it But Secondly Why all this Concern for the Illiterate and Men of weak Capacities as though it would be so very prejudicial to them to be obliged to believe what they cannot comprehend p. 96. Answ. If God is pleased to shew his Concern for the illiterate and Men of weak Capacities it is very fit that Writers and Good Men should take Notice of it And though we are obliged to believe explicitely whatsoever we shall attain to know God hath revealed be matters discoursed of ever so much above our Comprehension yet it may be very prejudicial to the illiterate Men and some Offence against Jesus Christ to require of them the Belief of Articles they cannot comprehend as absolutely necessary to their Salvation when Jesus Christ doth not require the explicite Belief of any such Articles as absolutely necessary to that Purpose and more particularly because it is a Subjecting their Faith to some other Authority than his who is their only Lord. For the Misteries of Religion which are incomprehensible are equally so to all p. 96. Very true But some learned Men can say a great many things whether they understand what they say or not concerning the Mysteries of Religion which illiterate Men cannot comprehend And their Authority may as well oblige them to believe their incomprehensible Speeches as absolutely necessary to Salvation as Mysteries which Jesus Christ hath not made absolutely necessary to that purpose But lastly since our Author is of Opinion that it would be very advantageous to Mankind in general to have only such a Religion as is very easy to be understood by all sorts of Men we ought to consider how very intelligible his Rule of Faith is if compared with that of our Church and how agreeable his one Article is to the Comprehension of Vulgar Capacities p. 98. Answ. To this the Author of the Reasonableness c. hath given a very full Reply I think in these Words He should have remembred that I speak not of all the Doctrines of Christianity nor all that is published to the World in it but of those Truths only which are absolutely required to be believed to make any one a Christian c. First Vindication of the Reasonableness c. p. 30. Here I expected some Discovery that our Church had taught somewhat contrary or exceedingly different touching this Matter from what is delivered in the Reasonableness c. concerning it But that Comparison is not pursued I shall therefore say no more but that our Church doth require the explicite Belief of all that Christ and his Apostles have made absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians and presses to a serious dilligent care and endeavour to understand as much as may be of what Christ and his Apostles have taught without limiting People to a precise Number of Articles beyond which they must not dare to stir and if she had not done so I should not have that high Esteem for her I most justly have This Author bestows his 99th Page and most of the Two following Pages in shewing that this Proposition Iesus is the Messiah is not easy to be understood I will not undertake to declare what his Design is in this I suppose he doth not make a Question whether the Belief of that Proposition is absolutely necessary to make Men Christians and therefore that it must be understood For he contends That there are many more Propositions together with this equally necessary to be explicitely known and believed to make Men Christians So that he doth not exclude but acknowledge that the Belief of this Proposition is absolutely necessary Now this Proposition is like easy to be understood whether the due believing of it doth make a Man a Christian or the explicite believing of a great many more Propositions together with it be absolutely necessary to make a Man a Christian. For I suppose it will not be denied that it is as easy to understand this one Proposition standing alone as to understand this same Proposition when it is joined with a great many others which are also to be believed The making the explicite Belief of more Propositions distinct from this that Jesus is the Messiah absolutely necessary together with the explicite Belief of it to make Men Christians doth not make that Proposition more easy to be understood than it would be if the explicite Belief of those other Propositions were not made absolutely necessary to make Men Christians The Way this Author takes to shew that this Proposition is not easy to be understood is by supposing an inquisitive labouring illitera'e Man who knows many things which are delivered in the New Testament and who understands what it is for Books to be Divinely inspired but is ignorant what is meant by a Saviour asking several Questions concerning this Proposition and another much more Ignorant than him answering to every one of these Questions I neither like the Questions nor the Answers as they are set down in these Pages therefore I shall only observe 1. That whoever will reply directly to an impertinent Question must unavoidably give an impertinent Answer Wherefore when Questions are not rightly propounded he that puts them must be made sensible of his Mistakes and assisted to form them aright 2. That if a Person is Inquisitive concerning the Sense of this Proposition That Jesus is the Christ or only Saviour of Sinners and doth acknowledge the true God make him but throughly sensible of his own Sin and Guilt and he will then easily understand what is meant by a Saviour Then his Inquiries will be how he may be satisfied that the Person discoursed of is by God's Appointment the only Saviour of Sinners and on what Terms he may with good warrant expect Salvation from him To which Questions there are very proper clear and plain Answers to be given 3. Most of the Questions proposed in this Author's Pages when rightly formed must have such Answers made to them as Christ doth authorize us in the Scriptures to give to them But what Entertainment can you expect his Answers will have with them who are not truly convinced and therefore do not really believe he is the Messiah Convince your Querist though roughly of that viz. That Jesus is the Christ or Messiah so that he does truly receive him to be his Lord and King and then you will find him in a fair way and very well disposed to receive Satisfaction when you make him perceive that your Answers to his Questions are the very same which Christ himself has given to them or such as he doth warrant you to offer for Peoples Satisfaction in those Cases This Author concludes his Book with observing That those Parts of the Reasonablenes of Christianity c. which treat of the Necessity of Revelation the Conditions of Repentance Good Works c. seem to carry an Air of Piety along with them and to be writ with such Strength of Iudgment as may be supposed that the Author had thought more upon them than upon any other parts of that Treatise As I think those parts of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. here approved by this Author have a very pious Relish and are writ with a Strength Vivacity and Fineness very much above what is common so I fully concur with this Worthy Anthor in all or most of the Points he hath treated of in his Book which I have not made some Remark on in these Papers I will conclude with taking Notice that as we are very apt to Imagine a Person hath thought well on a Point when he treate it to our liking so we are very prone to fancy he is defective or in an Error when his Discourse upon a Subject is not such as we would have it to be Yet the Mistake may really be in our selves and may arise from our having not exactly enough considered the Matter when we impute Neglect or Remisness in Study to him whose Sentiments are opposite to ours In such a Case People are not to be concluded by the Opinions of those who are for the one side or the other but ought to descend into and impartially weigh the Merits of the Cause FINIS
that Writer by Your Faithful Servant S. BOLD OBSERVATIONS ON THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON THE Reasonableness of Christianity c. Observations on the Preface IT cannot be denied but that a wrong Construction may be put upon a very good and useful Book And that what it discourses of may be represented quite contrary to what the Author designed and hath delivered in most intelligible apposite and plain Expressions Now if a Person who pretending to write against a Book he does not rightly understand or mis-represents doth propose any thing that is pertenent in opposition to that Book it is very rational to suppose his doing so is rather to be attributed to Chance than to the Exactness of his Iudgment and his certain Intention For it is hardly to be conceived that a Rational Person will deliberately and advisedly write any thing but what he conceives hath a clear Connection with what he directly and immediately proposeth to be the Subject of his Discourse And though at some distance he aims at the Book he talks of yet he mainly designs to confirm the Propositions he lays down as he conceives directly contrary to those delivered in that Book But if the Propositions on both sides are in Truth very well consistent though he doth not apprehend so he can hardly offer any Considerations to weaken the Force or expose the Truth of the Propositions advanced by the Author he professeth to oppose but those very Considerations will as certainly wound his own Propositions and reflect as unluckily on them as they can on the other which it will not be allowed to suppose a wise and prudent Writer could design Whilst he mistakes the Author he in Words opposeth let him confirm and establish his own Assertions ever so strongly he does not at all distress what that Author hath indeed Published One Man affirms that all the Doctrines which are absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians or to Salvation are laid down in the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles Another professeth to oppose this and therefore lays down and elaborately endeavours to prove this Proposition That the Epistles are part of the Rule of Saving Faith Now both these Propositions are very true and consistent and whatever Arguments can be produced to prove the latter comport very well with the Truth of the former and cannot at all invalidate but may very much confirm it But if he who undertakes to prove the latter do let fall Passages which reflect on the former Proposition those Passages have really the same ill Aspect with relation to his own Proposition they have to the other The whole amounts to no more than if one should declare that all that is absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian or to Salvation is delivered in the Epistles And another out of a sort of Zeal for the Gospels and the Acts should professedly oppose that Proposition and publish a Book to prove that the Gospels and Acts are part of the Rule of Saving Faith But when the Question is this seeing the Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians are laid down both in the Gospels and Acts and in the Epistles In what parts of the New Testament may it be best discerned which be the Doctrines that are absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians Then certain Reasons may be assigned why they may be better discerned by consulting the Gospels and Acts than the Epistles Peoples misrepresenting a good Book may be derived from various Originals as Wilfulness Inadvertence Weakness Prepossession c. I will not suspect that the Author of the Animadversions lately Printed at Oxford on the Reasonableness of Christianity as delivered in the Scriputers hath misrepresented that excellent Treatise through an Indulgence to any thing for which he may be justly blamed because he writes for the most part with so much Temper and hath made a Profession in the Close of his Preface so every way becoming a worthy and good Christian. But if I understand the true Meaning of the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. as expressed in that Treatise it is mightily misrepresented in those Animadversions how innocent and harmless soever the Author may be in what he has done That I may do both these Authors all the Right I am able I will observe all along wherein they do agree and give as true impartial and distinct an Account of the Sense of the Reasonableness of Christianity as I can in those Points treated of especially in the First and Third Parts of these Animadversions and take some notice of what this Author hath offered against what he hath alledged out of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. And that I may proceed the more orderly I will begin my Observations where the Author of the Animadversions begins his viz. P. 1. of his Preface Where he declares his Agreement with the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. That the most Rational Means of silencing all Religious Controversies is to take the Scriptures for the only Rule of Faith This I apprehend is a true Account of the Judgment of the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity concerning this Matter And I conceive he agrees with the Author of the Animadversions in the main of that Reason which he hath annexed to that Proposition Though to express what I apprehend a more clear and full Account of the Sense of the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. I will take the Liberty to word it in some Places otherwise than this Author hath done and to add one Passage or Clause he hath not inserted For there might be some probable Grounds to hope for a happy Conclusion of all Disputes in Religion if all Parties would joyn issue in this that no Christian ought to be required to believe any thing but what is injoyned by the clear and express Declarations of Scripture nor any thing so injoyned till it be made appear to him that it is so injoyned and that no Christian may reject or with-hold his assent from any Article which appears to him to be plainly delivered in the Holy Scriptures The Clause I shall add is this That nothing ought to be required to be believed as absolutely necessary to make Men Christians but what is injoyned by the clear and express Declaration of Scripture to be believed for that purpose And I add this Clause for this Reason amongst others because whoever imposeth on People certain Doctrines though the Doctrines are really Christ's Doctrines as absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians which Christ and his Apostles have not declared to be absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians doth as really advance a Foreign Authority and set it up equally with Christ's as he doth who imposeth any thing as a necessary part of the Christian Religion which Christ and his Apostles never made a part of it For notwithstanding the
Articles which had sufficient warrant from Scripture And to this end saith the Author of the Animadversions he has run through the Gospels and Acts to discover upon what Terms our blessed Saviour who first founded and his Apostles who afterwards built up Christianity admitted Men into that Religion Answ. The Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity finding so great a Disagreement amongst the Writers of Systems concerning the Articles which must necessarily be believed to make Men Christians did betake himself to the sole reading of the Scriptures to discover upon what Terms our blessed Saviour and his Apostles did admit Men for Disciples or Christians or did own them to be Christians And upon his having made an attentive and unbiassed Search throughout the Scriptures upon what Terms they admitted Men into the Christian Religion he found that what those Terms were were best to be discerned in the Gospels and Acts of the Apopostles and for that Reason confined himself in his giving an account of those Terms to the frequent and exact Relations which are given of them in those parts of the New Testament And saith the Author of the Animadversions having declared at large all that he can find required by them to make a Man a Christian which he tells us was only the believing Jesus to be the Messiah he concludes that nothing ought to be made necessary to be believed now which was not so then nor any Articles imposed upon us which were not injoyned in order to Salvation in those parts of Scripture which he has considered which alone according to him declare the Conditions upon which Men are denominated Believers or Christians Answ. The Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity having shewn at large that Jesus Christ and his Apostles did not require any thing to be believed as absolutely necessary to make a Man who believed in the only True and Living God a Christian but only this that Jesus was the Messiah He concluded that nothing ought now to be imposed on Men as absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians which is not injoyned as absolutely necessary to be believed in order to Salvation in the Gospels and Acts in which parts of Scripture the Conditions upon which Men are denominated Believers or Christians are best to be discerned But I do not remember that he doth any where say that the Gospels and Acts are the Parts of Scripture which alone declare the Conditions upon which Men are denominated Believers or Christians He doth expresly declare that the Articles necessarily to be believed to make Men Christians are to be found in the Epistles Reasonab of Christianity c. p. 295. This way of examining our Faith by the Scripture saith the Author of the Animadversions had been an unexceptionable method for fixing the measure of it if he had omitted no Articles which are there made as necessary to be believed by all Christians as what is observed in his Treatise Answ. The Method then observed by the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. was unexceptionable for the fixing the Measure of Faith so far as he was inquiring after it viz. what Artiticles are absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian not what Articles may be necessary to be believed by all or any who are already Christians provided he did not omit any Articles which the Scripture makes absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian. And if he hath omitted any such Article that may be a good Exception against his Collection but not against his Method But had he collected a certain Number of Articles delivered in the Scripture proper to be believed by them who are Christians and then affirmed that every one who is or ever shall be a Christian must necessarily explicitely believe every one of them and no Christian must believe any more I think there would have been very just Ground to have excepted against his Collection how unexceptionable soever his way of examining our Faith had been unless he could have proved that every Christian shall have both Capacity to understand every one of them and Space enough to be convinced that every one of them is delivered in Scripture Many more Articles may be necessary to be believed by some Christians than may be necessary to be believed by other Christians because some may attain to the Knowledge of more Articles and that they are delivered in Scripture than many other very good Christians can The Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. appears to be a Person whose Understanding and Charity are of a different Size from theirs who are for Persons swallowing Articles of Faith as some People do Pills a precise Number because said to be taken out of such a Box or of such a Persons prescribing to make their Operation certain without understanding either what they are made of or for what particular Reasons they are to be administred For that there are others required even to make a Man a Christian in these parts of Sacred Writ from whence he hath extracted his Article of Faith is saith the Author of the Animadversions what I purpose to make appear in the following Observations Answ. Prove from any part of the New Testament that there are other Articles distinct from those the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity doth insist on which are taught by Christ and his Apostles to be absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christians you do your business as effectually as if you prove it from the Gospels and Acts. But this Author intends to prove more than this not only that there are more Doctrines in the Gospels and Acts absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians than the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity hath set down in his Treatise but that there are Doctrines in the Epistles which are not in the Gospels and the Acts which yet are absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians as appears from these following Words As also to shew that there are some distinct Articles from what are set down in the Gospels and Acts delivered in the Epistles that are absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation Answ. Here this Author undertakes to shew not that there are Articles in the Epistles distinct from all which are set down in the Gospels and Acts which may be necessary to be believed to Salvation for both these Authors agree as to that But that these distinct Articles are absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians or to Salvation So that should a Person upon found Conviction heartily yield up himself without any Reservation unto Jesus Christ as the Messiah and unfeignedly receive him for his Lord to be absolutely governed by him year should sincerely follow his Conduct as long as he lives and having attained the Knowledge of all the Articles taught in the Gospels and Acts does firmly assent to and
is to administer Baptism to others ought explicitely to believe the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity yet I am very far from being certain that every one who is to be initiated into Christianity must necessarily explicitely believe the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity I am not yet convinced that Jesus Christ or his Apostles did ever require the explicite Belief of the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity as absolutely necessary in every Person who was to be Baptized It may be my Opinion that a Person cannot be a Christian without partaking of the gracious Influences of the Father Son and Holy Ghost wherein I may perhaps differ from some worthy learned and good Men as much as I may from this worthy Author about the Point of Baptism But I do not perceive any Ground to conclude that a Person 's pertaking of their gracious Influences doth necessarily depend on his explicite knowing and believing all that Jesus Christ hath revealed and taught concerning the Father Son and Holy Ghost Indeed saith this Author at the first Men might be denominated Christians upon the bare believing Jesus to be the Messias yet when there was more revealed concerning him and consequently a larger Faith required they could no more have continued Christians if they had not believed this also than if they had still been altogether Unbelievers Answ. The Question here will be whether Men might at first be truly and justly denominated Christians upon the bare believing Jesus to be the Messiah I think the bare believing Jesus to be the Messiah was not at any time enough to denominate Men truly Christians but tht believing him to be the Messiah so as to take him for their Lord King and Ruler was at first absolutely necessary to make and so denominate them truly Christians And such a believing him to be the Messiah I think will make Men Christians to the end of the World But to speak strictly and properly it is the due believing of Jesus to be the Messiah which consists in Mens believing him to be the Messiah so as to take him for their absolute Lord and King which makes or constitutes Men Christians And it is their professing of this Faith that denominates them Christians When more Articles of Faith were revealed and those who professed themselves to be Christians did know they were revealed and it was known that they did understand that Jesus Christ had revealed or taught them they could not justly retain the Denomination of Christians if they did not own and acknowledge their Belief of them not because the Belief of these Doctrines was absolutely necessary to continue them Christians but because their refusing to acknowledge them when it was known they understood that that Jesus they professed to have received for their Lord had taught them was a Demonstration that they did not sincerely take him for their Lord and so had not that Faith which was absolutely necessary to make them Christians It was not their believing these new Articles which did continue them Christians but that did further Evidence they were Christians or did really believe what was absolutely necessary to be believed to make them Christians The continuance of tht Faith which makes a Man a Christian continues him a Christian not his obtaining a new sort of Faith or acting and exerting the aforesaid Faith regularly with relation to new Objects as they come to be proposed to and understood by him This Author makes one Observation more on what I have writ which is to this Effect That I have been a little too hasty in expressing my Opinion of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. in the Words set down in the Two and Fiftieth Page of my Animadversions The Reason he assigns for this Observation is delivered in these Words Pref. p. 4. Since I suppose he will hardly deny that Mr. Hobs writ within that space who maintained the very same Assertion Answ. I do not deny that Mr. Hobs writ within these Sixteen Hundred Years but that he maintained the very same Point maintained in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. is more than I can affirm I received so early such a Character of Mr. Hobs's Writings from my aged Tutor the Learned Mr. Lawson as created in me such an Aversion to that Author's Books I do not remember that ever I read half a Score Pages of any thing Mr. Hobs hath published But I dare say if Mr. Hobs hath maintained this very same Assertion that is maintained in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. viz. that the believing that Jesus is the Messiah so as to take him heartily for our Lord and King is all that Jesus and his Apostles required as absolutely necessary to make Men Christians who did believe in the True and Living God he maintained a very great and important Truth And if he never published any Notion less true and less useful than that he could not justly fall under the Censure of any of those who have employed their Pens against him But if Mr. Hobs or any other Person had writ on this or any other Subject a Book that was absolutely the best that has been published this Sixteen Hundred Years the Reasonableness of Christianity c. may for all that be justly reputed one of the best Books which hath been published within that Space and this for the Reasons I laid down in the Close of my Animadversions which I conceive are of that Nature they cannot be invalidated by the bare mentioning of Mr. Hob's Name And if I am not mistaken the latter Reason this Author gives why he needed not to reflect any further upon any thing I had propounded viz. because there does not seem to be any thing very material which was not before observed in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. or the Author's Vindication of it doth in some measure justify the Character I gave of that excellent Treatise For certainly it cannot be a Blemish to a Treatise that it discourses its Subject so clearly and so fully that very material Answers may be brought from the Treatise it self to whatsoever is produced by way of Objection against it Some Authors write after such a rate their own Books may be pertinently made use of to confute their Notions But the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. whoever he is seems to have this peculiar Excellency and Advantage that he treats the Points he discourses of in such a manner he fully answers his Adversaries before they can make their Objections publick I write not to justifie my self or any one else in Errors or Mistakes but to vindicate and clear if I can disguised Truth and wrong'd Innocence and let those who are contrary minded know I cannot be of their Judgment till they produce other kind of Arguments against the Book they profess they oppose than are fully answered in that Author's Writings which they knew were publick before theirs were offered to common view And though there is nothing
this that Jesus is the Messiah But First of all the fullest Proof imaginable of every one of these Points will not in the least confirm the Proposition or Argument they are immediately designed to confirm viz. That all those Doctrines delivered in the Epistles which are distinct from any that are taught in the Gospels and Acts which the Church from the first Ages of Christianity hath confest to be absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians are absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians For there is not any Connection between the Truth of any or all of these Five Points and the Churches Authority by her continual Confession to make any Doctrines which are only to be found in the Epistles absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians If it shall be said that it is not pretended that the Churches Confession makes them absolutely necessary to be believed but discovers and proves that they are absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians I answer 1. The Proof of the forementioned Points is no Proof at all of the Churches Confession but must be supposed and is Antecedent to the Churches Confession 2. That the Churches Confession doth not discover or prove that those Doctrines are absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians it discovers or proves no more but that the Church did think those Doctrines were absolutely necessary to be believed explicitely to make Men Christians Now when the Question is whether the Church hath thought right concerning this Matter that Question must be determined if she have not Authority to make at least revealed Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians by ascending higher and seeing what Jesus Christ and his Apostles have declared is absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians which is the way the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. took to discover what Doctrines are absolutely necessary to be believed to the aforesaid purpose without making any Hubbub concerning the Church in the matter The Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. hath not writ one Word that I can find that hath any Tendency to the Disadvantage of the Christian Church but very much that would contribute greatly to her Honour and Interest were People generally of the Mind to attend her greatest Concernments heartily without suffering themselves to be swayed by their own petty Interests and peevish Humours which they sacrilegiously dignify with her Name She might enjoy a profound Rest and become daily more and more truly Glorious would other People let her be quiet and not disturb her Repose by a rude abusing her Name to justify their espousing and talking for Matters both Scripture and Reason do disclaim Secondly The exactest Proof of the Four First Points will not afford any Proof of what this Author declares shall be his Business to prove in this First Part of his Book viz. That there are Doctrines in the Epistles distinct from those which are delivered in the Gospels and Acts which are absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians The Truth of the Four First Points is agreed on on both Sides especially some allowance being made for that Latitude of Expression in which the third is laid down So that it is only the Fifth and Last Point on which the Controversy doth depend It will therefore be needless to make any Observations on what this Author offers for the Proof of his Four First Points unless he happens to mistake any thing in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. which he brings in under these Heads or misapplies what he hath to say on these Points to that Treatise or some Passages in it This Author bestows his Seventh Page in setting down an Objection that hath some Relation to his Two First Points I think the Objection is not accurately expressed but that I shall pass over and only take notice of his speaking of Doctrines proposed to be believed upon the Absolute Promise of Salvation This is a Passage I confess I do not well understand I know there are at this time many amongst us who make a great Noise in affirming That Salvation is absolutely promised to some Persons and the Stir they have made about or with that Notion I apprehend was an occasion of the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. applying himself to search with particular exactness into the Holy Scriptures to find out in what Manner Salvation is there promised But I do not conceive that this Author of the Animadversions is one of that Party Now I think there is not an absolute Promise of Salvation in all the Scripture And that if there were such a Promise there could not be any thing absolutely necessary to be believed unto Salvation For an Answer to this viz. Objection spoken of before it will saith this Author be material to examine First whether nothing is absolutely necessary to be believed to salvation but what is declared to be so or whether any Doctrine upon which Salvation is proposed is singly of it self sufficient for it P. 8. He immediately adds This seems to be a Query of no small Importance Here I will 1. Propound some Reasons why it may be justly affirmed that a due believing Jesus to be the Christ or Messiah doth constitute and make Men Christians 2. I will consider what this Author propounds to be examined 3. I will take Notice of what this Author hath here writ upon this Point First I will lay down some Reasons why it may be justly affirmed that a due believing that Jesus is the Messiah or Christ doth constitute and make a Man a Christian. As 1. Because Jesus Christ and his Apostles did admit Persons to be his Disciples and owned them for Christians upon their believing this Doctrine without requiring the Belief of any other Doctrine to this purpose provided they did believe in the True and Living God as every where appears in the Accounts given of their admitting Disciples 2. Because they have promised salvatition to the due Belief of this Doctrine without requiring the explicite Belief of any other Gospel-Doctrines together with this as absolutely necessary to Salvation 3. Because Salvation is not promised to the Belief of any one or Number of Doctrines separately from this Doctrine 4. Because no other Doctrine Christ or his Apostles have taught can be believed aright but by virtue of the Persons believing this Doctrine Let a Man believe all the Doctrines delivered in the New Testament upon Considerations purely distinct from this that they are Doctrines taught by Jesus Christ whom he hath received for his Lord he does not believe them as a Christian ought to believe them nor will his Belief of them on those Accounts at all avail him as to Salvation by virtue of any Promise in the Gospel He that believes any of these Doctrines with the Faith of a Christian or
an immediate Tendency to the Salvation of Mankind But that which should be proved is this that Christ or his Apostles have revealed that the explicite Belief of all those Doctrines which declare what was necessary on Christ's part in order to his obtaining Salvation for Mankind is absolutely necessary to make a Man a Christian or to a Person 's being entitled to and partaking of the Salvation which was so obtained But 't is said These respect the End for which he has revealed any thing to us and that is only the Eternal Benefit and Happiness of Mankind Answ. If this be only the End for which God hath revealed any thing to us and therefore these are absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation this will bring in all the other Truths to be absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation and so the general Direction here laid down to distinguish fundamental Truths will be of no use For those Truths being things God hath revealed to us and the Eternal Benefit and Happiness of Mankind being the only End for which he hath revealed any thing unto us they must equally respect the same End and consequently be equally necessary to be explicitely believed in order to that End But I fancy the Author's Meaning was thus That the only End for which God revealed those Truths of a higher Nature is the Eternal Benefit and Happiness of Mankind That is to bring it home to the present purpose the only End why God revealed those Truths was to make the explicite Belief of them absolutely necessary to Salvation And if this were proved the Controversy would be at an End But I think the great Reason and End why God hath revealed those Doctrines which declare the way and Method how our Saviour did obtain Salvation for Mankind was that Christians might know and believe the way how the Lord Jesus Christ did procure and purchase Salvation for Sinners and that they might make such use and improvement of these Truths as he particularly directs or their own Natures are proper to suggest Some Doctrines may be of greater consequence to be explicitely known and believed by those who are Christians than many others may which are revealed But the Point in discourse is not concerning weighty or important Truths with respect to those who are Christians but concerning Doctrines absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians See Second Vindic. of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. p. 87 88. and 172 c. That the Salvation of Mankind was obtained by Christ's observing such and such Methods we know only by Divine Revelation But notwithstanding our Salvation was obtained in such ways and we are certain of the same from the Testimony of Christ we are not to affirm that the explicite Belief of the Doctrines which declare these Truths is absolutely necessary to make Men Christians or to Salvation without Christ's Warrant The ways and Methods related in these Doctrines were necessary to be observed by Christ in order to his obtaining the Salvation of Mankind and so might several others for ought we know which are not revealed But it will not thence follow that the explicite Belief of every thing which necessarily pertained to Christ in order to his obtaining Salvation for Mankind or of every thing of that Nature which is revealed is absolutely necessary to be believed in order to our receiving from him the Salvation which he hath purchased There is no more absolutely necessary to be believed in order to Mens partaking of that Salvation than what Christ absolutely requires to be believed in order to his dispensing it unto Men. Our believing explicitely the several Steps Jesus was to take for the obtaining of Salvation for Mankind has not the same Relation to our receiving that Salvation from him on the account of what he hath done and suffered as his doing and suffering those things had to his obtaining Salvation for Mankind He has by certain Methods obtained to himself a Right to dispence Salvation to those who shall unfeignedly take him for their Lord and King But his Right to bestow Salvation on Persons doth not depend on nor is limited to their explicite believing every Doctrine which relates any of the Steps he was indispensably obliged to take and observe in order to his obtaining and being invested with that Right In Matters of revealed Religion Revelation is the Ground or Reason of our Faith let the Matter revealed be what it will of greater or less importance And where the Reason of our Assent is the same the Act must be the same I agree with this Author p. 13. That the Design of Miracles was not immediately to give Authority to particular Doctrines but to testify in general that those who wrought them had such a Commission from God as they professed And in my Judgment this is no contemptible Argument to prove that the due believing Jesus to be Christ doth make Men Christians His Miracles did not immediately and directly but only consequentially prove the particular Doctrines he taught But they did most eminently prove he was the Messiah and they were wrought for this purpose to induce People to become his Disciples or Christians or to own and acknowledge him to be the Messiah If those Persons whose Faith did answer the Intendment of the Miracles were Christians I think it cannot handsomly be denied that the Faith which made them Christians was a Belief that Jesus was the Messiah Yet if it shall be clearly proved that the Explicite Belief of any one Article distinct from this That Iesus is the Messiah is required in any part of the New Testament as absolutely necessary to make a Man who acknowledges and believes in the True and Living God a Christian I will acknowledge that something absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian is omitted in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. and I have Reason from that Author's Books to believe that he will do the same But as that Doctrine must be known before it can be proved to be absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian so I must know what it is before I can be satisfied that it is such a Doctrine And it may very reasonably be desired of them who affirm that there are more Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians that they would draw out a just Scheme of them No saith this Author It will be sufficient to our present purpose if we can produce any Doctrines that are absolutely enjoyned to be believed by all Christians c. p. 16. Answ. This is quite from the present purpose for the enquiry is not what Doctrines are enjoyed absolutely to be believed by all Christians but what Doctrines are declared by Christ and his Apostles to be absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians Yet I do not think it an easy Task to prove a certain Number of Articles absolutely
to make Men Christians and entitle them to Salvation when he shall set down a List of them and produce his Proof that every one of them is absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians c. a Judgment may be made of them But till this is done the distinction of Revealed Truths to be believed upon God's Veracity and Truths of a higher Nature will be of little or no use unto me I shall here further observe That 1. It is certain the Doctrines which relate what Christ hath done and suffered have not the same Relation to the Salvation of Mankind the Obedience and Sufferings of Christ had The Doctrine which instructs us what was paid to obtain Salvation for Mankind is not the Price it self with which that Salvation was purchased 2. The Belief of these Doctrines hath no Relation to the Salvation of Mankind The most that can be pretended with any Colour is only that the Belief of these Doctrines hath a Relation to the Salvation of the Person who doth believe them or to whom they are delivered and made known 3. The Relation the Belief of these Doctrines hath to his Salvation who doth know and believe them is the very same which the Belief of any other Doctrines delivered in the New Testament hath to his Salvation who doth know and believe them which consists in this That it is an Act of Submission and Obedience to Jesus whom he hath taken to be his Lord. Whatever those Matters be which notwithstanding they are revealed in the New Testament some are pleased to Term Indifferent Matters a sincere Christian is as much obliged to believe them when he knows they are revealed there as he is to believe any other Matters which are revealed there For 4. The Reason of my believing any Doctrine as I am a Christian is Divine Revelation and not the Nature of the Doctrine that is of the Matter taught And therefore my believing one Doctrine hath the same Relation to my Salvation that my believing another Doctrine Christ hath taught hath to my Salvation they being equally Acts of Obedience to Christ and the Ground and Reason of each Belief being the very same Yet I will acknowledge that if our Belief of these Doctrines this Author hath a respect to had the same Relation to our partaking of Salvation the Obedience and Sufferings of Christ which were the real Price and a proper purchasing of Salvation for Mankind had to the purchasing of Salvation for Mankind the Belief of them would be absolutely necessary to Salvation But then I must add we should hereby as properly purchase our own Salvation as Jesus Christ did Salvation for Mankind which is a Notion I cannot easily be reconciled to 5. If a Judgment is to be made from the Nature of Doctrines what Doctrines are absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians or to Salvation then this Necessity of believing them to this Purpose must be obvious to the Natural Reason of Mankind and every Man must judge for himself by considering the Nature of these Doctrines which and how many are absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation which is a Notion that as it lays aside Christ's and his Apostles Authority to determine the Matter so it will not do the Church any great Service without pretending that one certain Man or a Number of Men is to make this Judgment from the Nature of the Doctrines Christ and his Apostles have taught and all others must rest satisfied with and depend wholly on his or their Determination This indeed may have a Tendency to raise humane Authority to a great height in the most important Business of Religion but then it will be no Advantage to the Nature of Doctrines for hereby People will be determined to take them for Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed not from their perceiving that such a necessity arises from their Nature but from bare humane Authority Nor can they be certain that he or those who have judged them to be absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation have been determined in their Judgment by the Nature of their Doctrines and not by their own arbitrary Pleasure till they have resolved the Matter themselves by exercising their own Reason about the Nature of the particular Doctrines which shall be recommended to rather imposed on them It plainly appears by what the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. hath writ that though he doth not think the Epistles the most proper parts of the New Testament to be consulted in order to our discerning which be the Doctrines Christ and his Apostles did require to be believed as absolutely necessary to make Men Christians or to Salvation yet that he thinks the Doctrines contained in the Epistles are Fundamental Articles to be actually believed by Christians now as they obtain the Knowledge of them And that they are to make such use of them as they shall understand they ought to make of them either by considering their Nature or what they find the Scripture doth instruct concerning the same See Reasonableness of Christianity c. p. 300. Second Vindic. of it p. 201. and 319. But saith this Author These Doctrines which have a Relation to the Salvation of Mankind are to be believed upon another Ground besides that of mere Revelation p. 19. Answ. Upon what Ground are they to be believed besides the Veracity of God who revealed them Is that Ground better or worse doth it lay a greater or less Obligation on People to believe them than Divine Revelation does I expect not to meet with a better Reason why I am to believe any of Christ's Doctrines than this that he taught them Those who will not acquiesce here may wander where they please for Satisfaction provided they will not go about to compel others to rove with them Moreover are not those places of Scripture where these Doctrines lie Historical declaring the Way and Method how Jesus obtained Salvation for Mankind And is there any way for People to know that what is declared in those Doctrines had a Relation to the Salvation of Mankind but Revelation It had no natural Relation to the Salvation of Mankind How is it possible then to know from its Nature that it was graciously appointed to have a Relation to that End We cannot know any thing more from the Nature of a thing than the Nature of the thing is fitted to discover If it be said that the Discourse is not concerning the Nature of the Thing treated of in the Doctrine but concerning the Nature of the Doctrine it self I answer we can learn no more from the Nature of the Doctrine than the Doctrine doth deliver Therefore if the Doctrine do not declare that the Belief of it is absolutely necessary to Salvation we cannot learn any such thing from the Nature of the Doctrine because the Nature of the Doctrine doth not deliver any such thing Besides the Doctrine it self being
a Divine Revelation Divine Revelation is the only Reason and Ground of our believing it And the Nature of that Doctrine consist in this that it is a Divine Revelation In the next Place this Author considers the Authority of our Saviour intrusted in his Apostles which is exprest in their Commission Mat. 28. 19 20 21. Which Commission as it invests them with as full a Power of teaching whatsoever was necessary to Salvation so it lays as great a Necessity upon others of believing them as if Christ himself had taught in his own Person p. 19 20. Answ. Very true But all that Jesus Christ himself did teach was not nor is not absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians or to Salvation only so much of it as he required to be believed as absolutely necessary thereunto And the same is to be said as to the Apostles Our Saviour intrusted his Apostles with Authority to Disciple People to him and upon their avouching him for their Lord to Baptize and externally admit them into his Church and then to teach them the other Doctrines he had authorized them to divulge as the Laws of his Kingdom and Matters they were to learn and having learned must necessarily believe But he did not intrust them with an Authority to make a New-Covenant with People and to require the Belief of more Articles as absolutely necessary to make them Christians or to Salvation than he himself had required as absolutely necessary to be believed for that purpose The Epistles are part of that Revelation Christ hath given to be the Rule of all Christians Faith But no other Doctrines are absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians or to Salvation than those on the believing and owning of which Christ and his Apostles did admit those Unbelievers to whom they preached into the Church and Kingdom of Christ if our Saviour himself did understand the Covenant of Grace and the Terms on which People were to be admitted into it or if the Apostles did understand their Commission For they neither required the explicite Belief of those Distinct Doctrines they have delivered in their Epistles as absolutely necessary to make Men Christians in their Preaching to Unbelievers if we may credit the Relation given of the Method and Tenour of their Ministry in the Acts of the Apostles Nor do they in their Epistles any where require the explicite Belief of these Doctrines as absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians They have in their Epistles delivered many Doctrines which Believers or Christians are to be pressed to endeavour to understand and explicitely believe on hazard of their Salvation which I conceive they had pressed on those who were converted before they writ their Epistles as well as they did then and afterwards But they do not any where in their Epistles teach that these Doctrines are absolutely necessary to be believed explicitely to make Men Christians or to Salvation See Second Vindic. of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. p. 76 83 c. In p. 23. this Author saith something concerning the Covenant of the Gospel but gives not a clear and distinct Account in my Judgment of that Covenant and the Conditions thereby made absolutely necessary for our obtaining Happiness though he truly saith This is fully done in the Covenant of the Gospel The Covenant of the Gospel in short I think is this That all those shall have Eternal Life who do so heartily believe Jesus to be the Messiah or Christ as to receive him for their Lord with invincible Purpose and Resolution to be absolutely governed by him so far as they shall obtain the Knowledge of his Pleasure let what Inconveniencies Difficulties or Hardships soever happen to be in their way and that they will seriously apply themselves to know his Pleasure Eternal Life is the Benefit or Blessing here Promised by Christ. The Condition he appoints to be complied with or performed on our Part in order to our being entitled to receive that Benefit from him is not an explicite believing a certain Number of particular Doctrines he or his Apostles should teach but only a believing him to be the Messiah or Christ so as to take him absolutely for our Lord and King And as the Conditions are necessary to be known saith this Author before we can perform them which is very true and undeniably certain so God has taken sufficient care to give us a full Revelation of them first in a large History of the Method that Christ made use of for the purchasing of our Redemption and the Miracles which he wrought for the Confirmation of his Mission and Doctrine p. 23. Answ. 1. God has given us a large History of the Method Christ took by his Order to purchase our Redemption that is to purchase to himself a Right to publish the aforesaid Covenant and to perform what is there promised to them who shall comply with and perform the Conditions there expressed But neither the Method nor the explicite believing of it is made the Condition on our part of the Covenant The actual observing of that Method was Christ's part in order to his obtaining or purchasing to himself the Right before mentioned And seeing he hath revealed that he did take this Method for this End it is an Article a Fundamental Article to be believed by every one who hath received him for his Lord and is thereby entred into Covenant with him or with God through him when he knows that he hath revealed it 2. The History of the Miracles Christ wrought is a mighty proper and powerful Inducement to us to believe that he is the Messiah and a very good Introduction to our taking him for our Lord. And Secondly In a more full and clear Manifestation by the coming of the Holy Ghost of all those things which were required of us to be believed Answ. The Holy Ghost was sent or poured forth on the Apostles to inable them to work Miracles to prove their Mission by or from Christ to publish the same gracious Declaration Jesus Christ had made before and to admit those who should receive Jesus for their Lord into his Kingdom upon their professing the same and acknowledge them for his Subjects and to instruct and teach them and leave to the Church a particular compleat Account and Body of all the Laws of Christ's Kingdom which must be studied believed and observed by his Subjects as long as they live These are not the Conditions which are absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed or consented to to make Men Christians but they are the Laws of Christ's Kingdom which those who receive him for their Lord and King are to endeavour to learn and as they attain to know them explicitely believe and observe which is a good and full Employment for them as long as they live after they are Christians let their Lives be lengthened to ever so great an Extent But the Holy
this Author hath said that it cannot be better discerned by consulting the Gospels and Acts what are the Articles Christ and his Apostles propounded as absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians than the Epistles And if that do not follow from his Discourse nothing follows from it that is to the purpose against the Reasonableness of Christianity c. Nor will it follow The Apostles were unfaithful to their Trust or that they clog Mens Faith with unnecessary Points of Belief because they have taught several Doctrines which are not absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians but which Christians must labour to understand and which will then be necessary to be explicitely believed by them The Apostles Fidelity to their Trust is not to be judged of by Mens prejudicated Fancies and therefore Persons had need take heed of determining that The Apostles ought certainly to be blamed for Writing such Doctrines in their Epistles as are not absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians It is no Argument of an unwary Christian but the Duty of a good Christian to embrace the Doctrines delivered in the Epistles when he knows them and that they are delivered there as firmly as any other Doctrines whatsoever But saith this Author if it can be proved that the great and principal End of the Writing of their Epistles was to deliver several Doctrines that should be necessarily believed to Salvation by all who were converted to the Faith we are oblieged to believe them as such p. 35. Answ. Very true But then 1. If what you suggest here was the great and principal End of writing their Epistles the Cause is clearly given up to the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. For then the great and principal End of the writing of their Epistles was not to deliver several Doctrines absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians or Converts to the Faith 2. It will not be easy to prove that all that are Christians must necessarily explicitely believe every Doctrine delivered in the Epistles though the Doctrines are necessarily to be believed by all Christians who do understand them This Author then proceeds to prove what he hath declared to be the great and principal End of writing the Epistles was really so by producing many Places out of them All which I may pass over without any Observation because it is not pretended that they prove any thing more than that that those who are Christians must necessarily believe them But because this Author sometimes infers That the explicite Belief of them is absolutely necessary to Salvation I will briefly intimate what I conceive to be the proper import of those Places of Scripture he quotes 1 Cor. 14. 37. speaks not barely of Christians but Persons who pretended at least to be inspired But take it of Christians all who did know what he had writ or that he had writ things were to believe explicitely or implicitely that the things he writ were the Commandments of God because they knew he had given full Proof of his Apostleship and in the same manner are Christians now to acknowledge the same 1 Cor. 15. 1. c. Is a very plain Account how he had preached to them that Jesus was the Messiah and what sorts of Proofs he had propounded for their Conviction and that they had believed this Gospel â—s also that this was the Faith by which they were saved and made Christians without the believing of which whatever else they believed would not avail them to Salvation Vid. Second Vindic. of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. p. 269. The Apostle in his Third Chapter of this Epistle had declared that Jesus Christ is the Foundation without borrowing other Articles to underprop it some proof of which he here minds them of and that all the other Articles of the Christian Religion are Superstructures erected on that Foundation Rom. 10. 9. hath been formerly considered Vid. Second Vindic. of the Reasonab c. p. 303 c. 1 Tim. 3. 16. Is a Motive to Timothy to take care to behave himself in the Church of God as he ought 1 Th. 4. 1. Is a Direction to Christians to take heed of entertaining the Doctrines which false Teachers would obtrude on them certifying they might justly conclude those to be false Teachers who did deny Jesus Christ to be real Man The 14th and 15th Verses are express that believing Jesus to be the Son of God or the Messiah doth make a Man a Christian. Whether believing him to be the Son of God be a distinct Act here from the believing him to be the Messiah may be considered when we come to the place where it is to be shewed 2 Cor. 1. 13. Doth not considered strictly declare any thing more than that they did know and own the Truth of what he had writ in the former Verse concerning his Conversation 2 Thes. 2. 15. shews that Believers or Christians must take care to hold fast whatever Doctrines they have been instructed in and fully assured are Christ's Doctrines Not one of these Places of Scripture considered by it self nor all of them considered together do prove that the Apostles enjoyned the explicite Belief of all that they writ in their Epistles as absolutely necessary to Salvation These and innumerable other Places of Scripture are of great use to those who are of the same Judgment with the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. to shew them that are Christians that they ought to set a very great value on the Writings of the Apostles that they ought to be very diligent in endeavouring to acquire as distinct a Knowledge as they can of the Doctrines they have delivered in their Epistles that they ought to take great care to retain and hold fast what Doctrines they have learned from their Writings and that they must not entertain any Doctrines for Articles of their Faith but what Christ and his Apostles have taught And saith this Author it would be absurd to imagin that the Apostles should fill their Writings with any of the Doctrines of Christianity if they did not impose a necessity upon Men of believing them p. 37. Answ. True if Christians when they know they have writ them should be at liberty not to believe them But would it be absurd to imagine they should fill their Epistles to Believers or Christians with Doctrines of Christianity if they did not impose an absolute necessity on Unbelievers to believe them all explicitely to make them Christians Is every particular Doctrine that is to be be believed to be explicitely known and believed by Unbelievers to make them Christians so that when once they are Christians there is nothing more for them to endeavour to know and believe And here adds this Author it is not material whether the Epistles were written to those who were already Christians and whether designed to teach them any Doctrines
to instruct them in what was necessary to make them Believers but it is sufficient that they could not continue true Christians or Believers without acknowledging the Doctrines there delivered for fundamental Articles of Faith and necessary to be believed by all Christians Answ. I am not certain that I comprehend what this Author means by Material here and in some other Places But I think the Apostles would have thought it very impertinent for them to attempt and utterly impossible to teach those who were Christians any Doctrines they were ignorant of which were absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make them Christians or Believers And according to the Sense which I put on the Word Material on such occasions as this I conceive it very material whether the Persons the Epistles were writ to were Christians before they did explicitly know and believe the Doctrines the Epistles were designed to instruct them in for if they were the explicite Belief of those Doctrines could not be absolutely necessary to make them Christians How Christians were under a necessity of believing them when they understood them hath been formerly shewed But they might continue good Christians without acknowledging they were necessary to be believed by all Christians It was sufficient to acknowledge that all Christians ought to endeavour to know them and that they are necessary to be believed by all Christians when they understand them to be Doctrines taught by the Apostles To what this Author hath further writ in this Page I will only say these Two things 1. That those to whom the Apostles writ their Epistles did profess to believe all that was absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians otherwise they would not have writ to them under the Name of Christians 2. That there are very few if any Christians who have a perfect Knowledge of all the Articles of Faith delivered in the New Testament and yet other People may be very good Christians and take the Epistles for a part of the Rule of their and other Christians Faith In p. 38. This Author appears not willing to admit That the Epistles to the Corinthians Galatians Thessalonians and Philippians were writ upon particular Occasions because they were designed for whole Provinces and obliged a great Number equally with those Churches they were sent to Answ. That which made the Epistles oblige Christians who were out of the Provinces made them oblige all the Christians in the Provinces therefore passing over Metropolitical Controversies I will take Notice of these few things 1. All the Epistles were designed for the use of the whole Church of God in that and all succeeding Ages yet they might be writ upon particular Occasions and for that Reason be directed immediately to those particular Churches or Persons who were more especially concerned in those parts of them which have a respect to the particular Occasions of their being written 2. It will be very hard to give a rational and satisfactory Account of many Passages in the Epistles to the Corinthians c. if there was no particular occasion of writing them to those Churches Some may be apt to suspect they have Ground to think the Apostles were not well advised which is a Jealousy those who believe they were inspired should not be forward to suggest in writing several things which are to be found in these Epistles if there was no particular Occasion of writing them to those Churches to which they were sent and particularly addressed 3. That which makes the Epistles oblige all Christians is this that they are Divine Revelations and therefore all who acknowledge they were writ by inspired Persons and are of Divine Authority must be obliged by them for their being writ on particular Occasions does not lessen or impair their Authority 4. What is precisely limited in these Epistles to the particular occasions on which they were writ did not then oblige any directly and immediately whose Circumstances were not the same and they will oblige all whose Occasions are the same to the End of the World This Author further takes notice That The First Epistle of St. Iohn is directed to all Christians c. p. 39. Answ. From that I think we may rationally argue that it can directly concern none but those who are Christians and that its main design could not be to instruct them in the Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed by them in order to their becoming Christians This Author in p. 44. doth acknowledge That The general Design of the Epistles was to settle and strengthen Men in the Faith c. And if so must they not be in the Faith that is Christians before they could be setled and strengthened c. in the Faith And is not the Design of them the same still viz. not to teach Articles absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians but to settle and strengthen those who are Christians in the Faith But saith this Author it cannot be denied that the Epistle to the Hebrews doth contain some Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation by all Christians if this may be granted that the same Faith was required after Conversion both from Jew and Gentile p. 39. Answ. This is wholly foreign to the present Purpose For the Enquiry is not about what is or may be necessary for Christians or Persons after they are converted to believe But what Doctrines are absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians Yet because this Author frequently speaks of some Doctrines being absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation by all Christians some of which Doctrines are not to be found any where but in the Epistles I will propose Two or Three short Questions to be considered by the Reader 1. Must every Christian explicitely believe these Doctrines 2. Can any Christian explicitely believe a Doctrine he knows nothing of 3. If he â—ust know the Doctrines proposed to be believed and must know that Jesus Christ hath taught them before he can be obliged to believe them how can any Doctrine be absolutely necessary to be believed by Christians to Salvation when there are Conditions necessary to his being obliged to believe them There are Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians because without believing them they cannot be Christians But there cannot be any other Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed by one who is a Christian for by being a Christian he is obliged not to believe any Doctrine but upon certain Conditions He must explicitely know the Doctrine before he believes it and he must know that it is a Doctrine which Jesus whom he hath taken for his Lord hath taught A Christian is not to believe Doctrines at all adventure nor upon every ones Word who has a mind to thrust Doctrines upon him His believing a Doctrine must be an intelligent rational Act of Submission and Obedience to his Lord. All the Doctrines any Christians whether before
p. 214 215. Perhaps he was then or had a mind to be in Favour with the Civil Magistrate Those who are willing to part with their Consciences and put them forth to Trust no doubt are desirous to place them where they think it will be most for their own Advantage But I think there cannot be a Notion more contrary to what the Author of the Reasonableness c. delivers than this is Many more Particulars might be mentioned to discover that what is laid down in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. hath no Agreement with the Notions Mr. Hobs advanced but stands at the very same Distance from them the Doctrines delivered by Christ and his Apostles do but I think these are enough to satisfy any indifferent and impartial Person In p. 66. This Author proposeth to examine Whether the Son of God and Messiah or Christ always signify the same in Scripture Answ. This is not the Question to be examined with respect to what the Author of the Reasonableness c. doth assert But whether the Son of God and the Messiah or Christ do always signify the same when they are used either alone or together in those Places of Scripture which declare what it is the due believing whereof doth constitute or make People Christians or which relate what Christ and his Apostles did propose to People acknowledging the True God to be believed to make them Christians and upon their believing of which they did own and acknowledge them for Christians That these Terms when thus made use of in Scripture do signify the same I think the Author of the Reasonableness c. hath proved very clearly and fully in that Book and in his Second Vindication of it they very plainly appear to signify the same with St. Paul on such occasions For soon after his Conversion 't is said he preached Christ in the Synagogues that he is the Son of God Act. 9. 20. That which he proposed to be believed was this That Jesus Christ of Nazareth or that Person who was eminently known by the Name Christ is the Son of God Now in v. 22. it is said he confounded the Iews the Persons who opposed this Doctrine how did he confound them By proving this is the very Christ. Now if the Son of God and the Christ or Messiah did not here signify the same his proving that the Person he preached of was very Christ could not be a Proof and such a Proof as would confound the Jews that he was the Son of God I acknowledge the Son of God is an Expression that denotes our Saviour's Divinity in very many Places of Scripture even in all those where it is made use of in declaring and teaching that particular Doctrine But the Author of the Reasonableness c. was not enquiring in how many Senses that Phrase the Son of God was used in Scripture but what its Sense and Meaning is in such Places of Scripture as I before spoke of The Reasonableness c. neither treats of our Saviour's Divinity nor enquires how many things Christians must endeavour to know and then believe concerning Christ. But it lays down the Articles which Christ and his Apostles have taught are absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians by Virtue of their believing of which aright they will be necessarily obliged to employ their best Endeavours to attain to a sound Knowledge of what Christ hath taught and to believe our Saviour's Divinity and the other Doctrines which are delivered in all those Sacred Writings which make up the entire Rule of Christian Faith when they know that they are taught there This Author urges That The Son of God is of a larger Signification than the Christ or Messiah in Iohn 20. 31. But these things are written that ye might believe that Iesus is the Christ the Son of God c. Because the Design of St. Iohn's Gospel was to assert the Divinity of Christ against those that opposed it Now if those Phrases mean only the same then St. Iohn himself does not assign the true I suppose he would say the compleat or full and adequate Reason for his writing that Gospel for it appears that he had certainly another End in it than barely to prove Jesus to be the Messiah But if they mean differently and Son of God does there denote Christ's Divinity then we have in that forementioned Passage the whole Intention of the Apostle assigned for his writing that Gospel namely to shew that Jesus was the Christ and that he was God p. 68 69. Answ. I acknowledge St. Iohn did design in his Gospel to assert the Divinity of Christ and that he hath proved his Divinity at large in his First Chapter as this Author most truly declares and I think he hath very clearly taught it in other Parts of his Gospel too I think likewise it is past doubt that St. Iohn in writing his Gospel did design to instruct People in several other Doctrines besides Christ's Divinity as he hath actually done for I cannot be persuaded that those other Doctrines were dropt there by Chance so that to shew that Jesus was the Christ and that he was God could not be the whole Intention of the Apostle in writing that Gospel Further I think this Author and I are agreed that the Miracles our Saviour wrought were not immediate Proofs of the Doctrines he taught but of his Mission or that he was the Christ. Moreover the Son of God denotes something besides our Saviour's Divinity or being God in those places of Scripture where it is used for the Proof of that Point but St. Iohn is not giving an Account in this Passage Chap. 20. 31. of his whole design in writing that Gospel but of the Reasons why he did so largely relate the Signs and Miracles which Christ did which Signs and Miracles did not prove any thing more directly and immediately than that he was the Messiah Thus the Christ and the Son of God seem here to signify the same In p. 73. This Author saith That What might be sufficient to denominate a Man a Believer or a Christian during the actual Ministry of Christ would not truly entitle any one to that Character after our Saviour's Assention and for this Reason because we do not find from the whole History of the Gospel that any of those who believed on our Saviour had a just Knowledge of him or what was the true End of his coming into the World Answ. The direct contrary appears by the Acts of the Apostles where we constantly find the Apostles propounding just the same Articles Jesus himself did to be believed in order to Peoples being Christians or denominated Believers And if Christ admitted Persons during his Ministry into the same Covenant People are admitted into since his Assention what was sufficient before for that purpose must be so after his Assention But what this Author means by a just Knowledge of Christ and the true End
the Collection those who shall believe every one of those Articles which shall be proposed to them will not believe that Jesus is the Messias in the full Sense given of that Term in Scripture and therefore according to this Notion will not be Christians It may further be enquired whether those who shall believe explicitely every one of these Doctrines will be obliged to endeavour to know and believe any more Doctrines If the Answer be No then either these are all Doctrines which are delivered in Scripture or there are some Doctrines taught in the Scripture which Christians are not obliged to endeavour to know though they have Opportunity to understand them or to believe them though they do know them If the Answer be Yes it may be asked how that comes about Perhaps it will be said because amongst the Doctrines before spoken of this is one That Jesus is our King and therefore to testify our Submission and Obedience to him we are to endeavour to know and believe other Doctrines This indeed is a way whereby they may acquire some assurance to themselves and give Evidence and Proof to others that they believe Jesus to be their King but not according to the Notion we are now discoursing of that they believe him to be the Messiah or that they are Christians How comes it to pass that seeing the explicite Belief of every one of the other Doctrines is equally necessary to make them Christians with the Belief of this only a part of that Faith which makes them Christians must oblige and govern them after they are Christians Whence is it that some Doctrines delivered in Scripture must be believed in Obedience to Jesus and others not whilst he is equally the Teacher of them all This Author saith That Though no more is set down Act. 8 37. but that the Eunuch believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God yet no doubt there is more implied For Philip instructed him in the Christian Religion from that Chapter of Isatah viz. which the Eunuch was reading which Doctrines were no doubt required as absolutely necessary to be believed Besides since Philip baptized him no doubt but he did it in that Form which Christ himself enjoined in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and then it will follow that the Belief and Confession of the Three Persons was required p. 77 78. Answ. It is not at all doubted but there is something absolutely necessary to be believed by an Unbeliever in order to his becoming a Christian besides that the due believing whereof doth constitute him a Christian. For a Man cannot believe a Proposition to be true without some Proof and Evidence that it is true Now the enquiry is not what Arguments and Proofs are absolutely necessary to be believed to bring a Man to the due Belief of what is absolutely necessary to be believed to make him a Christian. That is a Question no Man can possibly determine by assigning one in particular or a precise Number For the Arguments Proofs and Evidences are many and various and God has not limited himself to make only one of them effectual nor obliged himself that he will not give forth his Blessing but with a certain Number of them in conjunction He that doth duly believe all that is absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians is a Christian whether he was brought to this Belief by the Belief of more or fewer Arguments There are Truths to be believed antecedently to a Man's believing what is absolutely necessary to be believed to make him a Christian and there are Truths to be believed by him after he is a Christian the due believing of which are Proofs and Evidences that he doth believe what is absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians But it is not the Belief of the one sort or the other sort of these Truths nor of both together which is the Faith that constitutes Men Christians but only the Belief of that to which the Belief of those other Truths hath an Antecedent or Consequential Relation How many Doctrines the Eunuch was instructed in or what those Doctrines were in particular we cannot tell because they are not revealed to us but what it was upon the believing of which he was owned for a Christian and Baptized is expresly declared and we have Reason to believe that if the explicite Belief of more Articles had been required of him as absolutely necessary to make him a Christian they would have been set down and expressed in his Confession I think also it is more than probable that the Eunuch was baptized in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost unless it can be proved that that Form was in those Days confined or appropriated to the Apostles who were intrusted with conferring the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost Whatever Articles the Eunuch did explicitely believe at present he was by believing Iesus to be the Messiah obliged to endeavour to know explicitely and believe as many more as he could both concerning the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost even all that was or should be revealed concerning them which I think reaches the whole extent of the New Testament In p. 78 c. This Author undertakes To shew that the Gospels and Acts are directly opposite to our Author's Scheme of Doctrine and this he will do by shewing they do require much more to be believed concerning our Saviour than barely that he was the Messiah Here this Author proves very well and learnedly the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour and on that Account we cannot set too high a value on his Book He also mentions some other Doctrines very clearly delivered in the Gospels and Acts. But the Reason why he offers these things in Opposition to the Reasonableness of Christianity c. I suppose was his mistaking the Design of that Treatise The Author of the Reasonableness c. did not propose to enquire how many Doctrines are delivered in the Gospels and Acts concerning our Saviour but what Christ and his Apostles did require as absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians Reckon up therefore as many Articles as you please which are clearly and expresly taught in the Gospels and Acts yea in all the New Testament this will not affect or make any thing against the Reasonableness of Christianity c. unless withal you prove that Jesus or his Apostles required the explicite Belief of all or some of them which are distinct from this that he is the Messiah whom we are to take for our Lord and King to make Men Christians Whereas this Author saith That the most Learned amongst the Jews did appropriate the Title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to their expected Messiah and also believed he should be God So that this may be a very good Reason for our Saviour and his Apostles requiring no more to be believed in their preachings amongst the Jews than that Jesus was
the Messiah since if they once firmly believed that they must necessarily believe him to be God p. 78 79. I shall only observe 1. That the Sense of the Term Messiah is here acknowledged to be very different from what this Author has before declared the Apostles meant by it 2. That here is no Supposition that the People did not know what was meant by Messiah and therefore must have it either interpreted or explained to them but an Acknowledgment that our Saviour and his Apostles did use the Term according to the familiar and commonly known meaning of it amongst the Jews 3. That supposing the Jews did generally believe the Messiah should be God yet they must believe that Iesus of Nazareth was the Messiah before they could believe him to be God And it being this only that he was the Messiah which was propounded to be believed to make them Christians it must be a right believing of this that did make them Christians how near a Connection soever their believing any thing else which they knew and believed concerning him who should be the Messiah might have with their believing Jesus to be the Messiah Supposing they did generally believe that their expected Messiah should be God yet those who believed other Persons to be the Messiah and consequently believed them to be God too were not Christians So that it was not the believing a Person to be the Messiah nor a believing that Person to be God that made People Christians but a believing him to be the Messiah who really was the Messiah But as we are obliged to know who was the Author of our Being so also must it be equally a Crime not to know clearly who and what he was that could be the Author of our Salvation p. 87. In answer to this I shall only say That we are obliged to endeavour to know as much as we can of that God who is the Author of our Being This holds true as to all Men and so Christians are obliged to endeavour to know as much as they can of him who is the Author of their Salvation It is a Crime to be wilfully Ignorant of any thing that is revealed of him who is the Author of our Salvation There could be no Reason saith this Author for the defending his Divinity viz. our Saviour's with so much Care and Concern as St. Iohn did defend it if it was not absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian or if there was no Danger in believing him to be only Man p. 87. Answ. 1. The Reason we have to defend Divine Truths when opposed and denied by Persons is not to be taken barely from the End for which they are to be believed but also from their Nature viz. because they are Divine Truths and therefore Truths to be believed and which may by no means be denied 2. He that believes Jesus to be the Messiah does not therein believe him to be only Man he believes him to be Man but not only Man for that is not propos'd to his Belief when it is proposed to him to believe that Jesus is the Messiah And by believing him to be the Messiah he obliges himself to believe whatsoever he shall attain to know is revealed concerning him Believing in Christ saith this Author if it mean any thing must be interpreted of every thing that Scripture has required to be believed concerning him So that this we may be certain is a Fundamental that as Christ is the Author of our Salvation So that Revelation is the just Measure of our belief in him and that we must not believe either more or less of him than we are warranted by Scripture p. 92. Answ. Revelation is the just Measure of what we are to believe concerning Christ. So that a Christian let his Advances in Knowledge be ever so great must no believe any thing concerning him but what he is warranted or at least apprehends upon mature Consideration he is warranted by Scripture But that a Man cannot be a Christian till he doth explicitely believe every thing the Scripture doth warrant People to believe concerning Christ is a Notion the Scripture doth not any where warrant Were this Notion true no Man can be a Christian whose Knowledge of every thing relating to Christ is not every way equal to that of the most learned sagacious and understanding Person in the whole Christian World or that ever was or ever will be in the World Nay according to this Notion it may be justly questioned whether ever there was a Christian since the Apostles Days For there may be Ground to question whether any uninspired Man did or will attain to a just and adequate Knowledge of every thing the Scripture doth reveal concerning Christ. But it will probably be objected saith this Author to all this that though it is granted that there are several Articles to be believed by those who are throughly Christians yet there was no more required by our Saviour himself or his Apostles to make a Man a Christian or in order to his Admission into Christianity than the believing Jesus to be the Messiah and that this is all which the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. contends for The Objection is not proposed in its full weight but that I need not insist on for if the Answer reach it as it is here laid down it will serve the turn In answer to this saith this Author it may be observed First That the forementioned Articles as well as others that might be named are of the same Nature with that one Article of believing Jesus to be the Messiah and are a Repetition of it in all its Branches p. 92 93. Answ. This Answer is not at all satisfactory because it is wholly concerning another matter than that treated of in the Objection The Objection is concerning what our Saviour and his Apostles have required to be believed to make Men Christians The Answer is concerning the Nature of Articles Moreover it is not easy to understand what is meant here by several distinct Articles being of the same Nature with this That Iesus is the Messiah This Author hath formerly distinguished betwixt the Nature of several Doctrines and their being Divine Revelations Now consider several particular Doctrines singly in themselves and abstractedly from their being Divine Revelations they are not of the same Nature one with another how can they then be every one of the same Nature with this that Jesus is the Messiah I agree with this Author that a Person 's believing explicitely certain particular Doctrines Jesus hath taught for this Reason because he knows that Jesus who is the Messias hath taught them is a Repetition of his Belief of that Article the Ground and Reason of his believing every one of the other Doctrines But if his believing certain particular Doctrines be but a Repetition of his believing that Jesus is the Messiah how can the repeated or rather limited exercise