Writer's passing by the Epistles and not collecting any Articles of Faith out of them shew his Contempt of them His Evasion viz. that the Epistles were writ to those who were already Believers is proved to be groundless If it were true it is nothing to his purpose The Epistles teach Fundamentals His other Evasion viz. that the Fundamental Articles in the Epistles are mixed without distinction with other Truths discovered to be of no force and Retorted upon him The true Reason why he went no further than the Gospels and the Acts. His other Excuses for rejecting the doctrines contained in the Epistles examined and found to be Sophistical He travels as far as China for Prudence and there borrows it of the Missionary Jesuites The Rom. 14. 1. which he alledges authorizes him not to impose upon Weak Christians His Evasions are inconsistent with themselves and accordingly not well approved of by the Party His Objection about the Apostles Creed fully answered Our Church's Iudgment concerning the Articles of this Creed This Profession of Faith hath several Articles in it which Socinians will not subscribe to Whilest he is censuring he commits a great Blunder He mistakes and misrepresents the Gospel-Dispensation BUT the Gentleman is not without his Evasions and he sees it is high time to make use of them This puts him into some disorder for when he comes to speak of my mentioning his ill treatment of the Epistles which he purposely omitted when he made his Collection of Articles or rather when after all his search he found but One Article you may observe that he begins to grow Warmer than before Now this Meek Man is nettled and you may perceive that he is sensible of the Scandal that he hath given to good people by his slighting of the Epistolary Writings of the Holy Apostles yet he is so cunning as to disguise his Passion as well as he can He requires me to publish to the World those passages which shew his Contempt of the Epistles p. 19. But what need I Good Sir do this when you have done it your self I appeal to the Reader whether after your tedious Collections out of the Four Evangelists your passing by the Epistles and neglecting wholly what the Apostles say in them be not publishing to the World your Contempt of them But let us hear why he did not attempt to collect any Articles out of these Writings he assigns this as One Reason The Epistles being writ to those who were already Believers it could not be supposed that they were writ to them to teach them Fundamentals p. 13 14. Vindic. Certainly no man could have conjectured that he would have used such an Evasion as this I will say that for him he goes beyond all Surmises he is above all Conjectures he hath a faculty of Shifting which no creature on Earth can ever fathom Do we not know that the Four Gospels were Writ to and for Believers as well as Vnbelievers Are we not particularly and expresly told by St. Luke that he writ his Gospel to the most Excellent Theophilus Luk. 1. 3. whom all grant to be a Believing Christian of some eminent rank Or if this Author be so singular as to question it he may be satisfied in v. 4. by the Evangelist himself And so the Acts of the Apostles we find are dedicated to the same Eminent Believer Acts 1. 1. By the same Argument then that he would perswade us that the Fundamentals are not to be sought for in the Epistles we may prove that they were not to be sought for in the Gospels and in the Acts for even these were writ to those that believed And yet it is clear that this Writer did not make use of this Argument otherwise he would not have confined the Fundamentals to the Gospels and the Acts. Here then is want of Sincerity in a great measure which hath been accounted heretofore a good qualification in a Writer Again granting that the Epistles were all of them writ to those that already believed yet what can this be to his purpose Must no Believers have any Fundamentals taught them What is the meaning then of 1 Iohn 2. 21. I have not written unto you because you know not the Truth but because you know it Suppose they have forgot the Fundamentals or have corrupted and perverted them as was the case of the Galatians who mixed the Law with the Gospal Legal Works with Faith and of the Dispersed Hebrews who had received the Christian Doctrine but were falling away from it Might not the Apostle yea did he not in his Epistles to these Persons remind them of the Great Articles of the Christian Faith Did he not when he writ to the Galatians assert the doctrine of Justification through faith in Christ's Righteousness without the Works of the Law Did he not in his Epistle to the Wavering Hebrews endeavour to establish them in Christianity by displaying the Excellency and Transcendency of the Priesthood of Christ by convincing them of the Efficacy and Perfection of the One Sacrifice of the Messias on the Cross whereby the sins of mankind are perfectly Expiated So St. Iohn's first Epistle was written on occasion of the Christian Churches converted from Judaism being endanger'd by certain Seducers that were crept in among them and labour'd to unsettle their belief concerning the Divinity as well as the Humanity of our Saviour Whereupon this Apostle who had clearly delivered the doctrine of the Holy Trinity in the beginning of his Gospel now more especially urges that Principal Article of their Faith the Deity of Christ chap. 2. v. 22 23. and also in express words asserts the Whole Trinity chap. 5. v. 7. Thus it is manifest that the Apostles in their Epistles taught Fundamentals which is contrary to what this Gentleman saith that such a thing could not be supposed and he would pretend That as a reason why he did not look for any Necessary Articles of Faith in the Epistles But we see how groundless his pretence is Hear another feigned ground of his omitting the Epistles viz. because the Fundamental Articles are here promiscuously and without distinction mix'd with other Truth p. 14. But who sees not that this is a mere Elusion for on the same account he might have forborn to search for Fundamental Articles in the Gospels for they do not lie there together but are dispersed up and down the Doctrinal and Historical part are mix'd with one another but he pretends to sever them why the did he not make a separation between the Doctrines in the Epistles and those Other Matters that are treated of there He hath nothing to reply to this and therefore we must again look upon what he hath suggested as a cast of his Shuffling faculty Or if he should excuse himself by saying that Necessary and Fundamental Principles can't be distinguish'd from those other Truths which occur in the Epistolary Writings any one may discover the insufficiency of such a plea because
satisfying for us and purchasing Salvation by vertue of his Death when he designedly undertook to enumerate the Advanvantages and Benefits which accrue to mankind by Christ's coming into the World And in the making good of these Particular Charges I shall as I did before evidence to the World that this Writer hath not only a design to cherish Socinianism but at the same time to make way for Atheism I begin with the First on which I will enlarge more than on any of the rest because it comprehends in it several other Particulars and because in discussing of this I shall have opportunity to lay open the Sophistry and Dissimulation of this Vindicator and likewise to discover to the Reader how Mischievous and Pernicious his Design is First it is observable that this Guilty Man would be shifting off the Enditement by excepting against the formality of the Words as if such were not to be found in his Book But when doth he do this In the close of it when his matter was exhausted and he had nothing else to say Vindic. p. 38. Then he bethinks himself of this Salvo whereas he had generally before pleaded to the formal Enditement and had thereby owned it to be True And indeed he can do no other for it was the main work he set himself about to find but One Article of Faith in all the Chapters of the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles and accordingly he over and over again declares that there is but that One Truth viz. Iesus is the Messiah necessarily to be assented to by Christians or as he sometimes words it absolutely required to make a man a Christian or a member of Christ. This is the SOLE Doctrin press'd and requir'd to be believ'd in the whole tenour of our Saviour's and his Apostles preaching p. 192. of his Reasonableness of Christianity And again in the same place This was the ONLY Gospel Article of Faith which was Preached to them This he often inculcates having left out several considerable passage in the very Gospels and having thrown aside the Epistles as if they were no part of the New Testament hoping that some of his Readers would be bubbled by this means And when I told him of his One Article he knew well enough that I did not exclude the Article of the Deity for that is a Principle of Natural Religion whereas I only took notice of his passing by and wholly omitting those points which are Evangelical Yet he willfully mistakes me in this p. 27. of his Vindication and saith he doth not deny the necessary belief of a Deity or One only True God and so the belief of the Messias with that makes Two Articles Thus he would perswade the Reader that I misunderstood him and that I tax'd him with setting up One Article when he acknowledges two But the Reader sees his Shuffling for my Discourse did not treat neither doth his Book run that way of Principles of Natural Religion but of the Revealed one and Particularly the Christian. Accordingly this was it which I taxed him with that of all the Principles and Articles of Christianity he chose out but One as necessarily to be believed to make a Man a Christian. And though since he hath tried to split this One into two p. 28. yet he labours in vain for to believe Iesus to be the Messias amounts to the same with believing him to be a King or Ruler his being Anointed i. e. being the Messias including that in it Yet he hath the Vanity to add in great Characters THESE ARE ARTICLES as if the putting them into these Great Letters would make one Article two Such is the fond fancy and conceitedness of the Gentleman whereas in other places he hath formally declared that there is but One Article that is the necessary Matter of Faith This I had just reason to except against and now I will give a farther account of my doing so by shewing that besides that One Fundamental Principle or Article which he so often mentions there are Others that are as necessarily to be believed to make a Man a Christian yea to give him the denomination of a Believer in the sense of the Gospel Several of these I particularly but barely enumerated in my former Discourse and now I will distinctly insist on the most of them and let the Reader see that it is as necessary for a Convert to Christianity to give assent to them as to that other he so frequently specifies This Proposition that by one man sin entred into the World and death by sin and this which follows Death passed upon all men for as much as all men have sinned Rom. 5. 12. and that other that even the Regenerate for the Apostle speaks of himself and the Converted Ephesians are by nature the Children of wrath as well as others Eph. 2. 3. these I say are as absolutely necessary to be known assented to and believed in order to our being Christians as this Proposition Iesus is the Messias or Sent of God For I ask what was the end of his being sent Was it not to Help Mankind to rescue and deliver them from some Evil And where can we be inform'd concerning the Rise and Nature of this Evil but in the Sacred and Inspired Writings And do not these foresaid Texts which we find in St. Paul's Epistles acquaint us with the true Source and Quality of our condition by nature Do they not discover the Root of Mans Misery viz. the Apostacy of Adam for he is that one Man and the dreadful Consequences of it expressed by Death and Wrath And is this set down to no purpose in these Inspired Epistles Is it not requisite that we should know it and believe it Yea is not this absolutely requisite For it is impossible any one should firmly imbrace or so much as seriously attend to the Doctrin of the Messias unless he be persuaded that He stands in need of him And can he be persuaded of this unless he be acquainted with his Degenerate and Miserable State his universal Depravity and innate Proness to what is Vitious and with the true Original of it viz. The voluntary Defection and Fall of our First Parents and with that the loss of our Happiness The word Messias is an insignificant term till we have a belief of this Why then is there a Treatise published to tell the World that the bare belief of a Messias is all that is required of a Christian Again it is not only necessary to know that Iesus is the Messias but also to know and believe who this Iesus this Messias is viz. whether he be God or Man or both For every one will grant that there is a Vast Difference between the one and the other as much as there is betwixt Infinite and Finite and therefore that we may have a due apprehension concerning the Messias it is absolutely necessary that we should believe him to be what he is declared to
upon us by the Messias are necessary matters of our Belief for we can't duly acknowledge him for our Benefactor and Saviour unless we believe that these Great Prerogatives are confer'd upon us Moreover it is of undoubted necessity in order to our being Christians that we know and believe what the Messias requires of us which is contained in such general Texts as these That ye being delivered out of the hands of your enemies may serve him Christ our Deliverer without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life Luke 1. 75. The grace of God which bringeth salvation teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts c. Tit. 2. 11 12. He gave himself for us that he might re-redeem us from all iniquity c. Tit. 2. 14. This is the will of God even your sanctification 1 Thess. 4. 3. Without Faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11. 6. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12. 14. Which places yield us such Propositions as these that the Messias who vouchsafed to come into the world to redeem lost Man requires of him universal Holiness and Righteousness and the abandoning of all sin and ungodliness That it was one grand end and design of Christ's visiting the would to redeem men from their iniquities to sanctifie their Natures and to make them entirely godly sober and righteous in their Lives That without these there is no Salvation no Seeing of God in the regions of Glory no hopes of Everlasting Happiness The disbelieving of these Articles hath made so many Sorry Christians as we see every where such as lay claim to that Honourable Title but are regardless of that Holiness which should accompany it We must not only believe that Iesus is the Messias but we must believe this also that we can have no Benefit by this Messias unless we by Faith and Obedience adhere to him Neither is this enough it is further matter of our Belief as we are Christians that our Salvation springs from the mere Favour and Bounty of God through his Son Iesus Christ and that this is the only source of that Happiness which we expect By grace we are saved through faith and that not of our selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2. 8. Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his Mercy he saveth us Tit. 3. 5. Where there is not this perswasion and belief the true notion of Christianity vanishes and the conceit of Merit comes in its room Wherefore there is a Necessity that we believe and be perswaded aright as to this matter We are Worthless Creatures of our selves but there is a Worthiness derived to us from the Unspotted and Meritorious Righteousness of him that is the Eternal Son of God He that knows not this he that believes not this deserves not the Name of a Christian I should have been glad to have found something of this nature in this Gentleman's Christianity But he endeavours to seduce his Readers by other apprehensions he tells them that the bare assenting to this that Iesus is the Messias is the Summ Total of the Christian Faith and the Gospel requires no more Lastly The doctrines of the Resurrection of the Final Iudgment and of Eternal Glory in heaven are contained in such passages of the New Testament as these Christ will raise up his at the last day Iohn 6. 44. The Lord Iesus Christ shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing 2 Tim. 4. 1. Father I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory Iohn 17. 24. And are not these Truths the proper Object of our Faith now under the Gospel they so peculiarly belonging to the doctrine and belief of the Messias Can we believe in him and yet not believe these Great things which are brought to light by his preaching the Gospel For though they were in some measure discovered and revealed before i. e. the General Doctrine concerning a Future State and the Endless Happiness accompanying it was not unknown yet Christ's Words and those of the Apostles do more abundantly assure us of the truth of them especially Christ's Rising from the dead and ascending into Glory have irrefragably confirmed the reality of them according to that of St. Peter We are begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Iesus Christ from the dead to an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us 1 Pet. 1. 4. Who but the Vindicator could imagine that these Evangelical Doctrines are not Necessary Matter of Faith to Christian Men Who but he could fancy and which is more publickly assert that the belief of the Messias's being sent from God without being acquainted with his gracious appointment as to our Future Rewards is all that is required as necessary to constitute a Christian Believer Especially when it is said He that comes unto God must believe that he is a Rewarder Heb. 11. 6. Observe it he must believe then it is not indifferent but a Necessary Article of faith CHAP. II. The foresaid Articles and Doctrines are proved to be Necessary matter of Christian Faith Not that a man is supposed Actually to exert his Assent and Belief every moment That we may be True Christians All these Fundamental Truths must be imbraced and none excluded The late Writer's forgetfulness It is prov'd that he grounds his notion of One Article upon the Weakness of Vnderstanding and Capacity in the Generality of people Herein he follows the Steps of the Racovians who submit the greatest Mysteries to the judgment of the Vulgar and if they will not bear that Test reject them The Doctrine of the Trinity how said to have no Difficulty in it It contains in it no Contradiction This Proposition Jesus is the Messias is not more intelligible than any of the Articles before mentioned THUS I have briefly set before the Reader those Evangelical Truths those Christian Principles which belong to the very Essence of Christianity I have proved them to be such and I have reduced most of them to certain Propositions which is a thing the Vindicator call'd for p. 16. If what I have said will not content him I am sure I can do nothing that will And therefore if he should capriciously require any thing more it would be as great Folly in me to comply with it as it is in him to move it From what I have said it is evident that he is grosly mistaken when he saith Whatever doctrines the Apostles required to be believed to make a man a Christian are to be found in those places of Scripture which he hath quoted in his book p. 11. The places which he quotes are made use of by him to shew that there is but One Article of Belief viz. that Christ is the Messiah but I think I have sufficiently proved that there are Other Doctrines besides That
they have made sure of hereafter by another Tenent of theirs Thirdly by vertue of this Expedient they can throw off any Doctrine when they please especially those Main Articles of the Holy Trinity of Christ's Satisfaction c. for it is but saying that they are not necessary to be believed there being a Necessity of believing but One and the business is done Thus you see how it is their Concern to hold up their One Article But who sees not that hereby they depress Christianity and unspeakably injure the Faith of the Gospel What is the meaning of Catechizing which hath been so universally commended and practised by the Ancients There were in the Primitive Church particular persons that made it their business to instruct and inform the ignorant in a Catechetical Way yea it was a Distinct Office among the Christians of old Saint Mark in the Church of Alexandria was a Catechist Pantaenus succeeded him then Origen had the same Employment there and Heraclius after him What! was this only to teach One Article of Faith Who but a Socinian can believe this Is it not enough to rob us of our God by denying Christ to be so but must they spoil us of all the Other Articles of Christian Faith but One Who would think that the Popular Man who pretends to take such care of the Multitude should do them the greatest Mischief imaginable whilest he makes a shew of being extraordinarily kind to them for a greater Mischief there cannot be than to put them off with One Article of Christian Belief when there are Many others of absolute necessity CHAP. V. This Writer's doctrine tends to Irreligion and Atheism In what terms we may suppose the Atheists congratulate him The clipping of the Articles of the Creed is a preparatory to the diminishing of the Precepts of the Decalogue and the Petitions of the Lord's Prayer Obj. Doth not the frequent mentioning of this Article Jesus is the Messias in the New Testament yea the sole mentioning of it in some places argue that there is no other Article of Faith which is necessarily to be believed but this Answ. No because 1. the believing of Jesus to be the promised Messias was the first step to Christianity and therefore is so often propounded in the Evangelical Writings 2. Though this One Article be mentioned alone in some places it is to be supposed that other matters of Faith were at the same time proposed though they are not recorded 3. We must supply those places of Scripture where this One Article is set down alone from others which make mention of Other Necessary Points of Belief 4. The clear discovery of the doctrines of the Gospel was gradual and therefore we must not think that in the Four Evangelists and Acts are specified all the Necessary Articles of Faith but we must look for some of them in the Epistolary Writings when the Spirit of God had further enlightned the Apostles and other Christians AND now to prove yet further the Pernicious Nature of his Writings doth any man doubt of their Tendency to Irreligion and Atheisin I charge him not with any such thing as a formal designing of this No I will not entertain such a thought but I only take notice how serviceable his Papers and Opinions are to this purpose He hath mightily gratified the Atheistical Rabble by this his Enterprize and accordingly we may suppose them in such Words as these to express their great Obligations and Thankfulness to him on this occasion We are beholding to this Worthy Adventurer for ridding the world of so Great an Encumbrance viz. that huge Mass and unweildy Body of Christianity which took up so much room Now we see that it was this Bulk and not that of Mankind which he had an eye to when he so often mention'd this latter This is a Physician for our turn indeed we like this Chymical Operator that doth not trouble us with a parcel of Heavy Drugs of no value but contracts all into a Few Spirits nay doth his business with a Single Drop We have been in bondage a long time to Creeds and Catechisms Systems and Confessions we have been plagued with a tedious Beadroll of Articles which our Reverend Divines have told us we must make the matter of our Faith Yea so it is both Conformists and Nonconformists though disagreeing in some other things have agreed in This to molest and crucifie us But this Noble Writer we thank him hath set us free and eas'd us by bringing down all the Christian Faith into One Point We have heard some men talk of the Epistolary Composures of the New Testament as if Great Matters were contain'd in them as if the great Mysteries of Christianity as they call them were unfolded there but we could never make any thing of them and now we find that this Writer is partly of our opinion He tells us that these are Letters sent upon occasion but we are not to look for our Religion for now for this Gentleman's sake we begin to talk of Religion in these places We believe it and we believe that there is no Religion but in those very Chapters and Verses which he hath set down in his Treatise What need we have any other part of the New Testament That is Bible enough if not too much Happy thrice happy shall this Author be perpetually esteemed by us we will Chronicle him as our Friend and Benefactor It is not our way to Saint people otherwise we would certainly Canonize this Gentleman and when our hand is in his pair of Booksellers for their being so beneficial to the World in Publishing so Rich a Treasure It was a Blessed Day when this hopeful Birth saw the light for hereby all the Orthodox Creed-makers and Systematick Men are ruined for ever In brief if we be for any Christianity it shall be this Author's for that agrees with us singularly well it being so short all couch'd in four words neither more nor less It is a very fine Compendium and we are infinitely obliged to this Great Reformer for it We are glad at heart that Christianity is brought so low by this Worthy Pen-man for this is a good presage that it will dwindle into Nothing What! but One Article and that so Brief too We like such a Faith and such a Religion because it is so near to None And is not the Reader satisfied that such language as this hath real Truth in it Doth he not perceive that the discarding of all the Articles but One makes way for the casting off that too And may we not expect that those who deal thus with the Creed will use the same method in reducing the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer abbreviating the former into One Precept and the latter into One Petition So that not only our Faith but our Practice and Devotion shall be crampt There is as much reason to do one as the other and they that have done the former will in