the Messias and yet will reject or refuse to believe what he knows he hath taught he doth thereby manifest that he is not a true Christian i. e. that he doth not indeed believe that Jesus is the Messias Those who say they would not believe such or such a Doctrine if it were expresly taught in the New Testament do plainly declare they do not own those Books to be divinely inspired And if they should say they would not believe them if Jesus Christ himself did deliver them they would more immediately declare that they do not believe him to be the Messias The Ebionites who out of Design pretended to believe Jesus to be the Messias were so sensible of this that because they would not acknowledg him to be God they rejected the Books of the New Testament and provided themselves another Book which had not that Doctrine in it which they pretended did contain the Doctrines which he taught It hath been the way of those who have set themselves against the Holy Scriptures or some of the Doctrines taught in them either to advance some Doctrines as necessary to be believed which are not taught in those sacred Writings or to alter some of the Doctrines taught in them by annexing their own Sense and Interpretation to the Words in which Jesus Christ and his Apostles delivered them Of this latter sort were those who opposed the Divinity of Christ and the Doctrine of the Trinity which occasioned the Primitive Christians to make it their Business to shew that the Words which Christ and his Apostles used did import a great deal more than what those Persons pretended was the full Sense of them Those false Teachers and their Successors especially those who have of late contended against these Doctrines applied themselves to an Artifice very common amongst them who have set up to combate the Doctrines of our Blessed Saviour and undermine the Christian Religion which is to endeavour to enlarge the Controversy as much as possible that thus they might have the more room to turn in They have by this Means obtained certain unhappy Advantages They have amused and bewildered many of the weaker sort of People They have found out many Evasions and Shifts under which to hide and shelter themselves They have created Persons of prodigious Learning and Parts much unnecessary Trouble Whereas bad they been kept strictly to this one Point that Jesus is the Messias and not suffered to start from that and its immediate Consequence the Controversy would have been brought to a speedy Issue by producing the Messias's own Words For then the utmost they could do would be only to talk of Accents Articles and Copies which I conceive are Topicks they do not much care now to insist on and amongst other Reasons besides their having been so often baffled already because very few Persons in comparison would regard the Debate when those things would be all they could discourse of But they have exceedingly extended the Controversy by prevailing with the Orthodox to fix on other Topicks for Discourse They have greatly indangered the Truth under a Pretence of being revenged on those Terms the Antient Christians had settled for the expressing of their Sense concerning these Doctrines in opposition to those who formerly set themselves against these Doctrines And thus the Controversy is run into Antiquity and Reason By which means the Socinians and the Orthodox have had opportunity to produce very great Proofs of the Strength of their Natural Endowments and their acquired Accomplishments Vpon these Points we have had of late very notable Encounters The Orthodox have all things considered acquitted themselves bravely and with singular Dexterity except some of them falling together by the Ears one with another that their Adversaries might have some breathing Space and a little Diversion to boot but I am apt to suspect that the great Reason why they have done so little Execution is because they have yielded for a while to lay aside the Sword of the Spirit the Testimony of the Messias and have consented to fight their Adversaries at their own Weapons Did I enjoy my former Health I should think it a very pleasant Diversion to see Prizes plaid this way by Persons who are well-skill'd at these sort of Weapons provided the Matters in Debate were of another Nature But in the present Matters these Methods seem to me little other than if David had laid down his Sling and Pouch and had gone forth to fight the huffing Philistine in Saul's Armour Neither Reason nor Antiquity can determine any thing immediately concerning these Doctrines whether they be true or not whether we are to believe them or no. Our Certainty of their Truth depends entirely on the Testimony of Jesus Christ The Proofs that Jesus is the Messias lie level to the Senses or Reason of Mankind And if we have Reason to believe that Jesus is the Messias and are convinced of that his Testimony affords us as good and satisfactory Reason why we should believe what we know he hath taught as the Testimony of our Senses can yield us why we should believe any Proposition which respects their proper Objects Our Reason doth not immediately judg concerning the thing treated of in the Proposition but concerning the Evidence whether it be such as by virtue of it we ought to assent to the Proposition The Reasonableness of our believing any particular Doctrine taught in the New Testament as delivered there depends upon the Reasons we have to believe that Jesus is the Messias And if we are fully satisfied that we have sufficient Reason to believe him to be the Messias our Reason must certify us that it is the most reasonable thing in the World to believe whatever we know he hath taught For could there be any Reason to doubt whether what he hath said is true we could not have sufficient Reason to believe that he is the Messias If we believe him to be the Messias his Testimony is the fullest Evidence we can desire of the Truth of what he hath taught And if we allow the Evidence to be compleat and full tho we cannot form a distinct Idea of the Matter treated of we have all imaginable Reason to believe the Proposition When our Adversaries talk of Reason as to these Matters they seem to mean that the things discoursed of must be brought down to that degree that laying aside Revelation we may form distinct and clear Notions of the things themselves by the sole Exercise of our natural Faculties so that by contemplating them we may find out intrinsick Reasons to believe or assent to the Propositions Christ hath delivered concerning them Which is the absurdest thing that can be For herein they require that the Nature of the things should be altered and they renounce Revelation whilst they pretend to avow and own it And they might with every jot as much Reason require that People should judg of Sounds by their Eyes and of Colours by their
those things bears a Proportion to the Reasons we have to be satisfied of his Credibility and depends not at all on our forming clear and distinct Notions of the things themselves much less on our adjusting what he saith to the Notions we have of other things which are perfectly of another Nature The main Business of Antiquity with relation to these Doctrines is either 1st To shew upon what Occasion other Words than those in which Christ and his Apostles delivered these Doctrines were made use of in asserting and teaching them Or 2dly To shew that the Primitive Christians did manifest that they did believe the Words in which Christ and his Apostles delivered these Doctrines do comprehend a great deal more than what the Opposers of the Divinity of Christ and of the Holy Ghost pretend is the full Sense of them Or 3dly To shew that the Sense in which we understand the Terms in which we ordinarily speak of these Doctrines was the agreed and settled Sense of them in the Christian Church when these Terms were fixed on to be ordinarily used in discoursing of and professing our Belief of these Doctrines Thus the Discourses about Reason and Antiquity do not immediately reach these Doctrines as Christ hath taught them but the way of expressing them when we deliver our selves concerning them in other Words than Christ hath done When we use other Terms in speaking of these Doctrines than Christ hath delivered them in our Words are accommodated to the natural Notions we have of Things And tho these Notions comprehend much more than the Notions do which we oppose yet they do not contain the whole Meaning of Christ as delivered in the Words he hath used for that far surpasses our Capacities So that when all is done we must come to this at last to believe these Doctrines as Christ hath delivered them and for this very Reason because he hath taught them Now before a Person can be brought to this he must believe that Jesus is the Messias And if the due Belief that Jesus is the Messias doth not constitute a Man a Christian I cannot imagine how the Belief of other Articles can constitute him a Christian seeing that Belief is the formal Reason of his believing the other Articles and his believing other Articles is no more but a repeated Belief of that Article in proportion to the Occasions which are administred to him for it Produce as large a Proof as is possible that the Church hath all along taught such a Doctrine that she hath taught it in such Words that she understood those Words in such a Sense before a Person can be satisfied regularly that he is obliged to believe it he must be convinced that Jesus is the Messias and he must be satisfied that that Jesus hath taught it The like may be said as to Reason When you have produced as many Reasons as you can that there may be more Subsistencies than one in the Divine Nature you can neither prove the Necessity nor the Certainty nor the Number of them by Reason But as to all these Matters the Testimony of the Messias must determine our Belief Our Reason doth not only fall short as to the manner how these things are but also as to the Truth and Certainty of them And our Reason cannot assure us that this is all that is imported by and comprehended in the Words in which the Messias hath delivered his Doctrines Mr. Edwards in his Socinian Creed p. 130. doth stile the Proposition discoursed of tho he words it otherwise than it ought to be A Mushroom Notion that hath no Root and Foundation and saith It is probable it will soon decay and come to nothing But this Notion is not of such a late Original as he pretends if Christ and his Apostles are to be credited concerning it And tho I pay Mr. Edwards a great Deference yet I must declare I cannot but prefer their Word to his It is so far from having no Root and Foundation that it is the Root of the New Testament and the Foundation on which the Christian Church is built And whereas be saith It is probable it will soon decay and come to nothing Probabilities are of little Weight when placed in the Ballance against Certainties I am perswaded it will continue safe to the end of the World because the Messias hath undertaken that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Mat. 16.18 If all the Deists Scepticks Socinians c. in the World should pretend to approve of the Proposition discoursed of and that they do believe that Jesus is the Messias I shall not renounce the Proposition on that account But if they continue regardless of oppose or refuse to endeavour to understand and believe the particular Doctrines the Messias hath taught I will maintain in opposition to them all that they do not believe that Jesus is the Messias with such a Faith as is necessary to make a Man a Christian Tho I think I am not mistaken about the Point debated yet I will attend diligently to Scripture and Reason and endeavour to yield a just Submission to them tho offered by the meanest Man living But if Imperious Ramble shall drop from the Learnedest Person in the whole Vniverse touching this Matter it will not be honoured with either of those Titles but be utterly disregarded by Reader Your Faithful Servant S. BOLD A Brief Reply to Mr. Edwards's Brief Reflections c. THE Reverend Mr. Edwards hath caused a Postscript to be tack'd to his Socinian Creed intituled Brief Reflections on a short Discourse of the true Knowledg of Christ Jesus c. That Reverend Author amongst his other Excellencies is taken notice of for his Skill in Critical Learning which requires a guessing Faculty This Talent he hath been pleased to exercise to a considerable Extent in the present Papers termed Brief Reflections c. But as it is often the mishap of those who indulge much to Conjectures that their Guesses are not always right so it happens to Mr. Edwards in the present Case For notwithstanding his Gatherings and Findings and many probable Shows there is not to my particular knowledg one word of Truth in the whole Lump of his Guesses He is every jot as much out in every particular here as he was in his former Writings when he both assured his Reader he could not believe Mr. L. was the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. and substituted his Reasons why he could not believe it and yet he is peremptory in these Papers that that same Gentleman was the Author of that Treatise So that it is evident Mr. Edwards is not so sure in his Guesses no not when he hath declared the Grounds on which they are erected as that either other People or he himself may depend on them as infallible Oracles or of such Credibility that any stress should be laid on them tho he sincerely protests that he intends to give
Edwards then adds that I reckon up several Articles and Propositions which are the very same which he had mentioned in his Discourses against the Conceit of one Article I will not stay to compare them to see whether they are exactly the same The Sermon was writ before I saw his Discourses I may have read them all somewhere or other I pretend not to be an Original but I did not then mind any particular Author where I had read them altogether Upon such Occasions I only set down what occurs to my Mind so far as I apprehend pertinent without troubling my self to try whether I can recollect where I have read any Sentence or Phrase I am beholden to some or other for ought I know for every Passage and Word I write Now saith Mr. Edwards if there be other Points and particular Articles and those many which a sincere Christian is obliged and that necessarily and indispensably to understand and believe and assent unto he should have said to endeavour to understand c. then this Writer doth in effect yield to that Proposition which I maintained viz. That the Belief of one Article is not sufficient to make a Man a Christian and consequently he runs counter to the Proposition which he had laid down Answ If there are more Articles c. which a sincere Christian is obliged to endeavour to understand and then believe it doth not immediately follow that the Belief of more than this one Article That Jesus is the Messias is necessary to make a Man a Christian It must first be proved that the explicite Knowledg and Belief of all those Articles any Christian may be necessarily c. obliged to endeavour to understand and believe is necessary to make a Man a Christian And then it will follow that the Belief of this Article That Jesus is the Messias is not sufficient to make a Man a Christian But the Discourse now is not concerning the Truth of either Mr. Edwards's Opinion or of mine touching that Matter but whether I did contradict the Proposition I had laid down Now supposing the Proposition I had laid down were false my declaring that there are many Articles which a sincere Christian is necessarily obliged to endeavour to understand and then believe doth not contradict my Proposition for my Proposition was not That a sincere Christian is not obliged to endeavour to know and believe any more than this one Article That Jesus is the Messias If it were clearly proved that Jesus Christ hath taught that the explicit Knowledg and Belief of all those Articles which any Christian can be necessarily obliged to endeavour to know and believe is absolutely necessary to make a Man a Christian then it might very fairly be said that my Proposition doth contradict the Truth but it could not with any colour even then be pretended that my declaring that there are other Articles which sincere Christians are necessarily obliged to endeavour to know and believe doth contradict the Proposition I had laid down For saith Mr. Edwards I bring the Business to this issue If the believing of one single Article be enough to constitute a Man a Christian then the Belief of something more is not necessary and indispensable Answ If the right Belief of this single Article that Jesus is the Messias be enough to constitute a Man a sincere Christian then the Belief of something more is not necessary indispensably necessary to make a Man a Christian Nor hath Mr. Edwards produced any Passage out of my Sermon which affirms that any thing more is necessarily c. to be believed to constitute a Man a Christian For saith Mr. Edwards the knowing or believing of more may be some Ornament and Embellishment to him viz. a Christian yet it cannot be said that it is necessary and indispensable Answ True it cannot be said to be necessary to make him a Christian but it may be said to be necessary and that he is indispensably obliged to endeavour to know it and believe it with respect to those Ends and Purposes for which it is revealed and for which he is commanded to endeavour to know and believe it If Mr. Edwards speaks here of knowing and believing Doctrines which Jesus Christ and his Apostles have taught and revealed for if he means knowing and believing other Matters it is not to our purpose the distinguishing of gospel-Gospel-Doctrines into necessary and such as are only for Ornament and Embellishment seems somewhat harsh to me A Distinction in Matters of Faith very like to that in Practicals between Evangelical Precepts and Counsels The Reason Mr. Edwards doth assign for his saying that the knowing and believing of more than what is necessary to constitute a Man a Christian cannot be said to be necessary and indispensable is this because nothing is so viz. necessary and indispensable in Christianity but what contributes to the making a Man a Christian a sincere Christian Answ We are now discoursing concerning the Articles which are necessarily to be believed whether one or more not concerning the Faith with which they are to be believed therefore what is necessary to a Man's being a sincere Christian is not the Subject of our Enquiry here By this term Christianity therefore Mr. Edwards must mean the Articles necessarily to be believed to make a Man a Christian And the term Christianity in this Proposition There is nothing necessary and indispensable in Christianity but what contributes to the making a Man a Christian must then signify either a certain precise Number of Articles collected out of the New Testament the Belief of every one of which is indispensably necessary to make a Man a Christian Or all the Doctrines Propositions and Articles which Christ and his Apostles have taught and are contained in the New Testament If Mr. Edwards understands Christianity in this latter Sense then this Proposition There is nothing indispensably necessary in Christianity but what contributes to the making a Man a Christian must be understood I think in one of these Senses 1. There is no Doctrine Proposition or Article in the New Testament but the explicit Knowledg and Belief of it is indispensably necessary to make a Man a Christian because there is no Doctrine c. in the New Testament but what contributes to the making of a Man a Christian And if this be his Meaning then the Articles he hath reckoned up are not sufficient when believed to make a Man a Christian because there are a great many more Articles in the New Testament than those he hath named And it will be very hard for any Man to prove that no Man can be a Christian till he hath an explicit Knowledg and Belief of every particular Article taught in the New Testament 2. There is no Article c. taught in the New Testament that is indispensably necessary to any purpose but what is indispensably necessary to make a Man a Christian and that because there is no Article there
from what I had said that I must hold that the assenting to this Proposition that Christ Jesus is God is necessary to make a Man a Christian and whether I have in effect positively said as Mr. Edwards doth phrase it that the believing of more than that one Article before mentioned is absolutely requisite to make a Man a Christian I leave the Reader now to determine But for my own part I am not sensible that I have yet contradicted the Proposition I had laid down which is the thing Mr. Edwards is still upon In another Place saith Mr. Edwards speaking of the Account which the Scripture gives of the Holy Spirit viz. That he is God he adds that a true Christian is as much obliged to believe this as to believe that Jesus is the Christ pag. 40. Answ What my words are may be seen in the Page referred to But certainly I did not say that a Person is as much obliged to believe that to make him a Christian as he is to believe that Jesus is the Christ to make him a Christian See here saith Mr. Edwards the force and energy of Truth it will make its way through the Teeth of those who oppose it Answ Let the Reader consider my words referred to before and then conclude whether the Force and Strength of Prejudice doth not appear so great as to prevail sometimes with People to oppose Truth in spite of their Teeth and Lips yea and Eyes too Mr. Edwards saith I have plainly and professedly contradicted the Proposition I had laid down for this saith he is the Case If a true Christian be as much obliged to believe one as the other then it is certain that Christianity is as much concerned in the Belief of the one as of the other and if so then a Man cannot be a Christian without this Belief Answ The former part of that Speech may be true or otherwise according to the Sense in which the term Christianity shall be understood But there is no consequence at all that because one who is a Christian may be as much obliged to believe that Truth or Doctrine as the other therefore the Belief of it is so necessary that a Man cannot be a Christian without it It is as necessary for me to believe that Jesus was at Cana of Galilee and turned Water into Wine there as it is that he was Crucified without the Gates of Jerusalem because I have the same Evidence for the one I have for the other But I cannot say it is of as much importance for a Man to know the one as it is to know the other much less can I say that no Man can be a Christian till he knows and believes that Jesus was at Cana in Galilee c. And tho I cannot submit to this non-sense that a Man can be a Christian tho he believe not those things without which he cannot be a Christian Yet if any Man will call this non-sense viz. That a Man may be a Christian without the explicit Belief of several Articles which after he is a Christian he may be obliged to believe I can submit very easily and with a great deal of Reason to it Mr. Edwards having thus concluded his Proof of my self-Contradiction is pleased in the next Page to set down these words Tho he appears in the Form of a Preacher yet he hath said nothing answerable to the specious Title of his Sermon The true Knowledg of Christ Jesus but on the contrary hath said very ill things to the lessening and impairing yea to the defaming of that Knowledg and Belief of our Saviour and of the Articles of Christianity which are necessarily required of us Answ If Mr. Edwards had affirmed that I had said nothing answerable to what he would have said on that great Subject The true Knowledg of Christ Jesus had he undertaken to discourse of it I should readily agree to it But seeing he saith I have said nothing answerable to the Title of my Sermon it would not have been unfair to have set down the true Title of my Sermon which was A short Discourse of the true Knowledg c. And if I have said nothing answerable to the Subject yet the Sermon is something answerable to the Title for then it must be acknowledged short with a Witness If I have said as Mr. Edwards affirms any thing to the lessening impairing or defaming of the Knowledg and Belief of our Saviour or of any Articles in the New Testament I cannot be sorry enough for it I am sure I had no Design to say any thing of that Nature or Tendency I think I have expresly asserted that all the Doctrines in the New Testament are of Divine Authority that being known by Christians to be taught there they must be believed by them that Christians are obliged to use their utmost endeavours to know them and that Peoples attaining to a Knowledg of them before they are true Christians may contribute much to the bringing of them to be true Christians Indeed I did not assert that the Belief of them all is indispensably necessary to make and constitute a Man a Christian but did declare it was my Opinion that the right Belief of this one Article That Jesus is the Christ or Messias doth constitute and make a Man a Christian Now whether the Belief of this one Article alone or of more Articles be indispensably necessary to make a Man a Christian doth not depend on my Judgment nor on the Judgment of any other Man That must be learned from Christ and his Apostles If they have determined for more than the one before mentioned then more are necessary let who will say the contrary If they have determined for the one abovenamed then that alone is indispensably necessary to the purpose spoken of tho all the World should oppose it and say it is not sufficient for that end but more Articles must necessarily be believed to make or constitute a Man a Christian Every honest and good Man who discourses of the Point will speak according to the best of his Judgment And if any Persons differ in their Judgments about this recourse is to be had to the New Testament to see who accords best with what Christ and his Apostles have said upon the Matter Now this I am certain of that Jesus Christ and his Apostles do insist upon this one Article to be believed to make Men Christians and that they have taught many other Doctrines in order to their being known believed and made use of Upon the best Inquiry I have been able yet to make I cannot find that they have required the Belief of any of those other Doctrines as absolutely necessary to make a Man a Christian The Reverend Mr. Edwards and many other very Learned and Godly Persons whom I very greatly honour and reverence for their Labours Piety and extraordinary Accomplishments do think they perceive that Christ and his Apostles did teach and deliver
of your Answer viz. That you believe these Articles because you know that Jesus Christ and his Apostles have taught them For I conceive you here ground your Belief upon their Authority and so believe them because you know they taught them before you believe them under that precise and formal Consideration as Articles necessarily to be believed to make you Christians For I suppose you have that Esteem and Veneration for Jesus Christ as to look upon your selves obliged to believe whatever you know he hath taught Therefore I ask 5. Were you not Christians before you believed all these Articles because you knew that Jesus Christ and his Apostles had taught them Answ No for who can submit to such Nonsense as to believe or think they are Christians who do not believe those things without the Belief of which they cannot be Christians 6. Why do you believe these Articles because Jesus and his Apostles have taught them rather than because any other Persons have taught them Answ We believe them upon our knowing that the Apostles taught them because we know the Apostles were commissioned by Jesus to publish his Mind and Will and Doctrines to the World And we believe what we know Jesus hath taught because we believe he was the Christ or Messias 7. Why do you believe or what hath induced and determined you to believe that Jesus is the Messias Here I doubt with many Persons the main stop would be But I will suppose my Friends can answer this Question with very good Judgment tho they might tell me without answering in a Circle and believing as the Collier did that they believed Jesus to be the Messias because they believed the forementioned Articles that is they understood those Articles and did believe them to be Truths on other Considerations distinct from this that Jesus whom now they believe to be the Messias had taught them and that Belief of them did contribute much to induce them to believe that Jesus was the Messias Here I shall only mind my Friends that that former Belief of these Articles tho joined with the consequent Belief that Jesus is the Messias is not pretended to be that which made them Christians but their believing those same Articles after another manner and upon a distinct Consideration after they did duly believe Jesus to be the Christ from that or those Considerations on which they believed them before is that which made them Christians for you could not believe them because they were taught by Jesus as the Messias till you did believe him to be the Messias tho you might upon other Considerations be induced to believe those Articles to be true Now if my Friends think they have given very good rational Evidence from which they may justly perswade themselves that they are Christians I must tell them they may be very good Christians but they have not produced any Proof that they are Christians according to their own Notion Indeed if that Proposition be true at which upon my laying it down Mr. Edwards saith they have been staggered they may this way prove that they are Christians But if the Belief of all those Articles be absolutely necessary to make them Christians the precise Belief of all of them cannot be such a Proof or Evidence that they are Christians as we are speaking of For we speak not of inward Sensation if I may use that term or Sentiment as Monsieur Claud and some French Authors speak but of discoursive rational Proof and this as to Matters of Faith A Man 's believing that Jesus is the Messias is no Proof that he believes any one of the particular Doctrines taught in the Gospel But his believing particular Doctrines for this Reason because Jesus whom he believes to be the Messias hath taught them is a good Proof that he does believe that Jesus is the Messias And if the Belief of more Articles than this one that Jesus is the Messias is absolutely necessary to make a Man a Christian it is utterly impossible that any Man should obtain a rational discoursive argumentative Satisfaction that he is a Christian with respect to Matters of Faith tho I may safely enough extend the Assertion further For let a Man believe ever so many particular Doctrines taught by Christ and his Apostles that Belief will prove no more but that he believes Jesus is the Messias The Belief of those Articles can be no Evidence with respect to one another that is the Belief of one of those Articles cannot be a Proof that you believe another tho you do really believe it Now methinks the Resolution of this Question What is it that doth make or constitute a Man a Christian ought to issue in that into which all the Evidences respecting I will say both Faith and Practice that can be justly produced to prove a Man a Christian must be resolved and that is if I be not much mistaken a Belief that Jesus is the Messias But now I return to the latter part of the Answer given to my 4th Question and with regard to that I would ask my Friends 8. How do you know that Jesus Christ hath required the Belief of all those Articles you have named as absolutely necessary to make People Christians Here you must take notice that it will not serve your turn to shew that Jesus Christ hath taught them all and then say that they are therefore to be believed For the very same is to be said of a great many more Points But you must answer how you come to be satisfied that Jesus Christ doth require the explicit Belief of every one of those Articles as necessary to make People Christians If you answer that such and such a learned and godly Man doth say so You are to be minded that that Answer is feeble in the present case and that you build your Perswasion that you are Christians on a very weak bottom What will you answer when you are told that other learned and godly Men have insisted on certain other Articles and I could name some of no mean Character who have been very earnest for some Points which I think Jesus Christ hath not taught as necessary to be believed to make Men Christians If those who insist on some other Articles as necessarily to be believed to make Men Christians be in the right you are not yet Christians notwithstanding you believe all those Articles most firmly which you have named because there are more or other Articles necessarily to be believed to make you Christians But supposing all those Articles you have mentioned are necessarily to be believed to make Men Christians I ask you in the last place 9. How do you know that these are all the Articles which are necessarily to be believed to make Men Christians For it is past doubt that Jesus Christ hath revealed and taught many more Articles to be believed Can you shew now that he hath more expresly or plainly declared that this precise
to prove was this That there are other Doctrines besides this that Jesus is the Messias necessarily to be believed to make a Man a Christian The Medium he useth to prove this is that there are other Doctrines besides this required viz. by Christ or his Apostles for they are their Words he doth alledg to prove that other Doctrines are required to be believed to make a Man a Christian Now if he hath proved every Proposition laid down in the Chapter before that in which his Syllogisms are to be a Doctrine taught by Jesus Christ or his Apostles that is not the Point you must see whether he hath proved that Jesus Christ and his Apostles have required the explicit Knowledg and Belief of every one of those Propositions to make a Man a Christian It is not enough if he hath proved that they have required them to be believed but the Proof must be that they have required them to be believed particularly for this very purpose to make a Man a Christian And if Mr. Edwards hath done that still his Syllogisms will be faulty even according to his own Words For if the very thing he had been proving was this that other Propositions besides this that Jesus is the Messias are necessarily to be known and believed to make a Man a Christian and had been proving this by the Testimony of Christ and his Apostles shewing that they have required the Belief of more Propositions as indispensably necessary to make a Man a Christian when he reduced the Sum of his Discourse into Syllogisms that very Medium by which he had been proving his Proposition should be brought into his Syllogisms otherwise the Sum of his Discourse could not be there And that is not in either of his Syllogisms What he pretends he hath proved is not this that all those things which have immediate Respect to the Occasion Author c. of our Salvation are to be believed but this That Jesus Christ or his Apostles have required an explicit Knowledg and Belief of all those things which have immediate Respect to the Occasion c. of our Salvation as indispensably necessary to make a Man a Christian I might also observe to the Reader that allowing Mr. Edwards's Syllogism to comprise the Sum of his Discourse it proves a great deal too much for it proves that the Belief of all those Propositions he hath laid down in his former Chapter is not sufficient to make a Man a Christian For all those who do acknowledg there is not any thing in the New Testament but what Jesus Christ hath revealed cannot deny that every Proposition in the New Testament hath immediate Respect to the Author of our Salvation So that by virtue of his Syllogism no Man can be a true Christian till he hath an explicit Belief of every Proposition that is taught or delivered in the New Testament Mr. Edwards reflects on the Animadverter's Confidence and taking a liberty to assert what he pleases because he saith there is no Enquiry in the Reasonableness of Christianity concerning Faith subjectively considered Answ I will not retort the Aspersion But I must say that those are not the Animadverter's Words He doth take notice that subjective Faith is spoken of in that Treatise and so it might be and yet not be the Point that Author did chiefly propose to enquire into Who is so fit to satisfy us what it was he propos'd to enquire after as the Author himself who tells us it was what God requires us to believe now under the Gospel viz. to make or constitute us Christians Reasonableness of Christianity c. p. 25. Yet a little before he spake of Faith subjectively considered I do not know neither do I pretend to guess what that Author's Judgment is concerning certain particular Doctrines taught in the New Testament He may be as Orthodox in every one of them for ought I know as any Man in the World But this I am certain of the Accounts he gives occasionally in this Treatise of Faith considered subjectively comprehend not only the Assent of the Vnderstanding but the Consent or Approbation of the Will and also a firm Trust and Reliance which I think is as full an Account of that Faith as Mr. Edwards hath given of it But notwithstanding that Author hath spoken of Faith considered subjectively which the Animadverter did not deny but expresly affirmed as may be seen in the Animadversions p. 32. yet the thing that Author proposed to enquire after was what Articles are required to be believed to make a Man a Christian Again saith Mr. Edwards How can this Animadverter come off with peremptorily declaring that subjective Faith is not enquired into in the Treatise of the Reasonableness of Christianity when in another Place p. 35 36. he avers that Christian Faith and Christianity considered subjectively are the same Answ The Animadverter doth not any where declare what he is here said to declare and therefore cannot fairly be charged with declaring it peremptorily But if he had declared it peremptorily what Connection is there betwixt that and his averring that Christian Faith and Christianity considered subjectively are the same that it should be thought in that case so hard a thing for him to come off unless he had likewise peremptorily declared that the Author of the Reasonableness principally designed to discourse of Christianity considered subjectively Perhaps it will still be said the Animadverter hath averred that Christian Faith and Christianity considered subjectively are the same 'T is true there are those Words in the Animadversions For Mr. Edwards having said that the Belief of Jesus's being the Messias was one of the first and leading Acts of Christian Faith the Animadverter took notice that Christian Faith in that Proposition Mr. Edwards had laid down must be understood subjectively because an Act of Christian Faith cannot be understood in any other Sense as the Animadverter's Words are in the Parenthesis Mr. Edwards hath been pleas'd to leave out of the Sentence he quotes So that what the Animadverter said was this Christian Faith considered subjectively and Christianity considered subjectively are the very same Now is not this very true and consistent enough with his saying that the Enquiry the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity propos'd to make was not concerning Christian Faith considered subjectively but objectively Should another Person have published such weak and sorry Stuff and have suggested it as an invincible Difficulty to be got over peradventure some would have said One would have thought a Man might be ashamed to appear in the World with such poor Tackling In the next place Mr. Edwards is much offended because the Animadverter passed over the 4th and 8th Chapters of his Socinianism unmask'd and some of his former Pages with a bare Acknowledgment that he was too dull to perceive any Appearance of Reasoning in them In which saith Mr. Edwards there is nothing tolerable or excusable but this one thing his
some of those Doctrines as necessarily to be believed to make a Man a Christian There is then some mistake on one side or on the other Now before I entertain a disparaging Thought concerning any of those who are of a different Judgment from me in this Matter the Point ought to be placed in a very good Light and be exceeding clear on my side And an equitable Person will perhaps reckon I may with Reason expect that the other Point be made very plain before those who espouse it do grow Stormy and Tempestuous because I declare my Opinion and calmly represent wherein I conceive the weakness of what any of them do offer for the Support or Illustration of their Judgment doth lie It is agreed on both sides that Jesus Christ and his Apostles have taught that the Belief of that one Article I insist on is indispensably necessary to constitute and make a Man a Christian They alledg several Texts to prove certain other Propositions as necessarily to be believed to make a Man a Christian as that other Article is I acknowledg the Scriptures they quote are full Proof that the Propositions contained in them are Divine Truths But that is not the thing for which they produce those Scriptures for so far we are agreed but they produce them as Proofs that Jesus Christ and his Apostles have taught that the explicit Belief of those Propositions is indispensably necessary to make a Man a Christian I own they fully prove the former but I am utterly at a loss to find how they prove the latter which is the thing they are brought to prove and the very Point concerning which we differ viz. That Jesus Christ and his Apostles have as plainly taught not that these Propositions are Divine Truths but that the Belief of these Propositions is as necessary to constitute or make a Man a Christian as they have taught that the Belief that Jesus is the Christ or Messias is necessary to make a Man a Christian Great Care is to be taken to preserve the Doctrines of the New Testament in their Purity and in their proper Order All the particular Doctrines there taught are the Doctrines of Christ they are revealed that they may be learned and then believed upon his Authority every one of them hath its peculiar and proper Intendment and is to be used and improved especially for that purpose If a Person insists on the Necessity of one Article for a purpose for which Christ did not intend it he attributes that to it which doth not belong to it And if a Person oppose and reject the Necessity of any Article as to the purpose for which it was intended he does not give it its full due In this Case we are not only to consider whether Christ hath taught and revealed such or such an Article but also for what end and purpose he doth more especially require it should be learned and believed Now it is agreed on all Hands that the Belief that Jesus is the Messias is by Christ's appointment necessary to make a Man a Christian The Notion that the due and right Belief of this alone doth constitute a Man a Christian preserves to all the other Articles all the Necessity that Christ assigns them unless it can be made out that he hath made the Belief of every one of them or of a certain Number of them necessary to this very purpose And till that be very clearly proved there seems no great Reason that he who advanceth the aforesaid Notion should be treated presently as if he came immediately out of the Bottomless-pit and would fill the whole World with Locusts and worse Plagues than ever Egypt was afflicted with if not doomed peremptorily and without delay to bear all the invidious Characters and Epithets that an exalted fiery Genius can make a shift to jumble together The Notion of the one Article may induce those who embrace it to esteem more Persons Christians than the other Notion can allow of for they of the former must reckon all those Christians who give credible Evidence that they believe indeed that Jesus is the Messias and accept of and submit to him as their Lord and thus far I fancy the Advantage is on the former's side for I conceive there is no hurt in letting Charity as well as Patience have its perfect Work And if I be not much mistaken that Notion contributes most to engage People to take particular Care that the Belief of Jesus's being the Messias may be very well and firmly settled in their Hearts yea it seems to me to be the surest way to bring them to the sound Belief of the other Articles But let these things pass for Suggestions that come from a cold phlegmatick Temper yet methinks this Notion should be acknowledged to comport best with the Honour of the Gospel since it acquaints Christians that by virtue of their being Christians on the account of their unfeigned Belief of this Point they are under an indispensable Obligation to endeavour continually to encrease in the Knowledg and Belief of what Christ and his Apostles have taught Whereas by the other Notion according to Mr. Edwards when once they believe as much as is necessary to make them Christians they need not concern themselves to know any thing more of what Christ and his Apostles have taught except for Ornament-sake This we are sure of that Jesus Christ and his Apostles do lay a particular stress on this one Article for the Purpose discoursed of And it is not so evident that they require the explicit Belief of any more Articles as absolutely necessary to make a Man a Christian Besides if the Nature of the thing be well considered viz. what we mean when we use the term Christian it may afford some Light to this Matter Is the true Account of a Christian one who believes just such a number of Doctrines or one who believes in Jesus Christ who owns Jesus to be the Christ and therefore hath devoted and yielded up himself entirely to learn from and be governed and saved by him Moreover if all those Articles Mr. Edwards insists on are not to be expresly mentioned in the Definition or Description of that Faith which justifies a Sinner and constitutes him a Christian then something will be left out of it which must necessarily be explicitely believed according to his Notion in order to his Justification and to his being a Christian but if no particular Article besides this that Jesus is the Christ is to be inserted into it then I conceive it must be granted that is is only the Belief of that Article that doth make and constitute a Man a Christian In a word if the Belief of more Articles be necessary to make a Man a Christian then those who are for the Necessity of the one Article alone as to this purpose do not attribute to other Articles their full due and if the right Belief of that one Article be all