the Apostles time 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 of these things First That the Authors were not Divinely Inspired But this is already granted us by our Author that they were Holy Writers inspired from above p. 297. who writ nothing but Truth But what sort of Truth he here means shall hereafter be enquired into Or Secondly That the Apostles had no Authority or Commission to deliver any thing for a necessary Article of Faith But there can be no pretence for such an Assertion since it is granted by our Author that their Doctrine as delivered in the Acts does require our actual Belief Since then what they taught in their Preaching was of so great Authority why should not their Writings be of the same Consequence especially since they are allowed by our Author to be of Divine Inspiration If then the want of sufficient Commission does not seem to be an Argument against the Doctrines contain'd in the Epistles it must be made appear in the Third Place before they should be rejected that none of the Doctrines were writ with any design that all Christians should be necessarily required to believe them to Salvation But how can this be proved Are there any such hints in the Epistles themselves or have we any foot-steps of a Tradition that informs us that the Apostles left them to be received with such an Indifference For if neither of these can be shewn or if the contrary is evident Namely that the Apostles did not submit their Doctrines to Mens choice whether they would Believe them or not without hazarding their Salvation and if it appear from the design of the Epistles and from many places of them which I shall hereafter mention that they did enjoin the explicite Belief of several of their Doctrines without which Men could not be saved then we have still the more reason to be confirmed in acknowledging them for Fundamentals of our Faith Fourthly Then there must be some Contradiction in the Epistles to the other parts of Scripture that can prevent their Doctrines from being as necessary to be Believed as any other the most important parts of Revelation But as this can never be made appear so it is not possible to suppose that the Epistles should contain Contradictions if we allow what our Author has granted p. 297. that they were Divinely inspired Then Fifthly and Lastly The only Plea remaining why the Doctrines delivered in the Epistles are not to be received with the same degrees of Assent with those in the Gospels and Acts or that particular Article so much insisted upon in the Reasonableness of Christianity must be because they are none of them of equal necessity to be known to make a Man a Christian But how does this appear Are there no great and fundamental Truths inserted in the Epistles as well as in the Gospels Vindic. p. 16. But it is urged That they are promiscuously set down and have no such Mark of Distinction as his Article is found to have in the Gospels and Acts. But this Objection seems too precarious For I question not but I shall make it appear that there are Doctrines in the Epistles that are as much distinguished by the great importance which they are declared to be of and by the necessity that is laid upon all Christians of actually Believing them by the Inspired Writers as any other universally acknowledg'd Article of our Faith Indeed they are mixt with other things which are not of such immediate concern to us but so are the Doctrines contain'd in the Gospels And therefore if this is a Prejudice to one it must be so equally to the other Indeed this seems objected That though the Apostles were Divinely Inspired in their Epistolary Writings and although they had a Divine Commission to teach what was necessary to Salvation yet their Commission did not extend to the making any other Article necessary to Salvation than what our Saviour had already declared to be sufficient for it And this is manifest from the whole Tenour of the Epistles where there are no Doctrines proposed to be Believed upon the absolute Promise of Salvation and nothing declar'd to be so much a Fundamental distinct from what is deliver'd in the Gospels or Acts as that we cannot be saved without an explicite Belief of it Since therefore the Apostles have not laid such stress upon any Doctrines in their Epistles we ought not to do it And therefore of what use soever the Epistles may be to us otherwise for the resolving Doubts and reforming Mistakes which are of great Advantage to our Knowledge and Practice p. 295.297 as also for the expounding clearing and confirming the Christian Doctrine and establishing those in it who had embraced it yet there can be no distinct Truths contain'd in them of so great Consequence in order to Salvation as there are in the Gospels and Acts were all that is necessary to be Believed to make a Man a Christian is declared to be sufficient to that End and Eternal Life proposed upon such a Faith and Eternal Damnation denounced upon a Disbelief which are not annex'd to any of the Doctrines in the Epistles And therefore we must be very unwary Christians to lay a greater force upon any Doctrines than the Apostles have done or make any Terms of Salvation or Church-Communion absolutely necessary which were never by the Apostles so declared For an Answer to this it will 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 And this seems to be a Query of no small importance For if this is made the only Rule whereby to judge of Fundamentals viz. A Doctrine's being expresly declared to be necessary to be actually Believed to Salvation we should I fear by this means raise several Exceptions against a great part of Religion For if this must universally hold in matters of Faith it must also in those of Practice most of which would unavoidably lose their Force and Obligation if the Observance of no other Duties was required of us but such alone as the Scripture had declared to be absolutely necessary to Salvation In like manner if in matters of Faith nothing is to be required for a Fundamental but what is so proposed and to which Salvation is expresly annexed and promised it would very probably make way for a very unintelligible Faith in which Christians could not possibly agree For if nothing more is to be Believed as necessary to Salvation than what is so proposed then it will follow that no more than the bare Proposition which is declared to be of that great Importance is to be assented to As suppose in that Proposition which I shall
he was the Messiah as our Author instances in St. Peter's Sermon to Cornelius that whosoever believeth on him should receive remission of Sins Act. 10.43 But will our Author assert that this implies no more than the bare believing him to be the Messiah without knowing what is meant by the Word Does it not also in the same place intimate that he by Vertue of his Dignity and Office had Power to forgive Sins which none can do but God alone And thus in the 36 ver that this Messiah was Lord of all i.e. Was over all God blessed for ever All which as they are implied in the Sermon of St. Peter so they there seem necessarily required to be believed in order to Baptism and consequently to Salvation And we cannot besides imagine that the Apostle would so far impose upon Men as to oblige them to believe what they knew nothing of or to build their Faith upon Words without Meaning Which we must suppose them to do if they made the bare believing Jesus to be the Messiah to be all that was necessary without explaining what they meant by Messiah how he was our Messiah or what he must be either God Man or both that he might be capacitated to be the Messiah And therefore we are to understand by believing Jesus to be the Messiah in this and almost all other places the full Extent and Meaning of those Words as they are explain'd by this and other Apostles in all parts of Scripture Which were all of them Inspired by the same Holy Ghost and therefore must all have the same Meaning unless the Holy Spirit dictated different or contradictory kinds of Doctrine which would be too impious to assert And therefore the believing Jesus to be the Messiah as it is now requir'd for a Fundamental of our Faith must comprehend the full Sence that is given of it in Scripture unless we can prove that there was not the same Inspiration and consequently not the same Reason for our Faith Nor does the believing Jesus to be the Messiah appear to be all that is necessary to make a Man a Christian from that place of the Acts where the Eunuch is mentioned to have been Baptized upon that Confession of his Faith to Philip I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Act. 8.37 For though here is no more set down yet no doubt there is more implied For we have none of the Doctrines recorded that Philip Preacht to him but that he instructed him in the Christian Religion from that Chapter of Isaiah which is a Prophesy of the Sacrifice of Christ and that he was to Die for our Sins which Doctrines as they must be part of what Philip taught so no doubt they were requir'd as absolutely necessary to be believed and besides since Philip Baptized him no question but he did it in that Form which Christ himself enjoin'd In the Name of Father Son and Holy Ghost and then it will follow that the Belief and Confession of the Three Persons was required For where the Form of Baptism is not mention'd we ought to understand it to be the same which was Instituted and Commanded by Christ himself and which was observ'd by the Primitive Church But Secondly I shall shew that the Gospels and Acts are directly opposite to our Author's Scheme of Doctrine and do require much more to be believed concerning our Saviour than barely that he was the Messiah As first It is plainly laid down in those Holy Writings that he was God nay his Divinity is so plainly asserted by St. John in the first Chapter of his Gospel that it seems almost impossible for Words to express it more clearly In the beginning was the word and the word was God c. Now it is most certain as has been already observed that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both in Jewish and Heathen Writers was meant a Divine Person and was much used by the Platonists that liv'd in this Apostle's Time and that the most Learned a mongst the Jews did appropriate that Title to their expected Messiah as well as they 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 also to be God And this is also evident from the Jews never objecting Idolatry at the first to the Christans upon supposition that he was the Messiah whom they Worshiped which certainly they would have done had they not expected their Messiah should be God Which is an Argument manag'd with such Strength and Judgment in a late Discourse by a Learned Prelate of our Church that it may seem of it self sufficient to silence all Opposition except that of Malice that can be made against it or against the Divinity of Christ Indeed Trypho the Jew in his Dispute with * Justin Martvr Dialog cum Tryphon Judaeo p. 2668. Ed. Paris Justin Martyr asserts that the Jews did not expect their Messiah to be God but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he expresseth it but that he does not here speak the true sence of the Jews who lived before him is evident from what †Dem. Evang. l. 4. c. 1. Eusebius declares that the Jews had the same Opinion with the Christians concerning Christ's Divinity till they changed it in direct Opposition to the Christians Which gives us a very good account of the Reason why Trypho and the rest of the Jews fell from their Notion concerning the Divinity of their expected Messiah the Christians having gain'd great Advantages over them from the Opinions of the ancient Rabbins about it And therefore we may best judge of the Opinions of the Jews concerning the Divinity of the Messiah from those who lived before our Saviour since the latter Jews have differed very much from them And this is plain from their different Interpretation of the second Psalm For †R. David sunt qui interpretantur Psalmum istum de Gog Magog estque Messiah Rex Messias atque ita exposuerunt Doctores nostri Estque Psalmus hoc modo explicatus perspicuus at vero proprius est dixisse ipsum Davidem de seipso uti a vobis expositum Not. Miscel in Maimon C. 8. p. 314. One of them ingeniously confesses That all their Doctors had expounded it it of the Messiah which he allows to be a clear Explication of it but however that it would be more to the Purpose for them now to understand it as spoken by David of himself And * Doctores nostri exposuerunt hujus Psalmi significatum de Rege Messiah at prout sonat ut respondeatur Menaeis seu Hereticis expedit intepretari ipsum de ipso Davide R. Salamo Jarchi p. 315. another of them also acknowledges That this Psalm was constantly interpreted by their Doctors to signify
fully satisfied was an Error Whether I have said enough to convince him he has been in a mistake I cannot promise For I may fancy that a demonstration to me which may be no proof to others I have endeavoured to represent his sense with the utmost justice and sincerity and if I have any where mistaken it I can only say it was both against my Intention and Knowledge And now I have only thus much to assure my Adversary of that I have not made any Observations upon his Book out of bigottry to a Party or prejudice to any set of opinions For I have no other Interest to serve than that of Truth nor have I any Byass to incline me besides my own Impartial Enquiries And if they have misguided me I shall be very ready to submit to better Information THE CONTENTS I. A Vindication of the Epistles Page 1. II. Of the Reason of Christ's coming into the World pag. 53 III. What we are to believe concerning Christ pag. 64. A VINDICATION Of The Epistles c. WHatsoever Design the Author of The Reasonableness of Christianity might propose in Publishing that Treatise whether it was 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 it does not seem to give such satisfaction to an Inquisitive Mind as might prevent all Exceptions against it in relation to either of those Ends. Not only because it introduces a new Scheme of Belief in opposition to the anciently received Doctrine of the Church but because it does not answer the full Sense and Intent of Revelation which is the only Reason and Measure of our Faith I shall not make it my Business to compare it with the Socinian or any other Hypothesis or enquire to what Sect or Party the Author seems most inclined but shall only so far consider his Opinions as they seem to me to be inconsistent with Truth For I cannot think my self obliged to fix any Man to a Party which He will not own himself to be of though some of his Opinions should chance to have a Tendency towards it For that is so unfair as well as an undecent Method of managing a Dispute that instead of stifling the old it may serve only to provoke fresh Opposition and inflame where perhaps milder Reasons might convince And besides since every one that publishes his Thoughts with no other Design than for the Benefit of others or to the End he may be better informed if he be in the wrong has a right to be treated with equal Charity or Humanity at least by others it can certainly be no Prejudice even to the right side to allow him a Civility which he has so just a claim to And therefore I shall think my self concerned to examine the Reasonableness of Christianity with such an impartial Temper as it may justly challenge And to be the more distinct and methodical in my Examination I shall consider the chief Parts of it which are these First To shew the Reason of Christ's coming into the World Which the Author tells us was to restore Mankind to that State p. 3 4 5. c. which was forfeited by the Sin of our First Parents But as he makes Adam's Punishment to consist only in a Temporal Death or a total ceasing to be p. 10. so does he confine the End and Design of our Saviour's coming into the World to the freeing us from such a Death only and restoring us to that Immortality which our First Parents lost Which overthrows the Notion of our Saviour's redeeming us from an Eternity of Torments and makes the effect of Original Guilt no more than becoming subject to Death and so destroys in a great measure the Doctrine of Christ's Satisfaction But how agreeable this will prove to the Tenour of Scripture I shall enquire more hereafter The Second Principal Part of it is to shew what Faith is required to make a Man a Christian And that he asserts to be only the Belief of this one Proposition That Jesus is the Messah p. 30 31 32. c. or which he thinks signifies the same the Son of God He does not deny other Doctrines to be true but maintains that this alone is absolutely necessary to be believed Indeed we all acknowledge this as the Fundamental Article of our Faith as Christians that Jesus is the Messias the Prophet that was to come into the world But here the difference lies between us Whether there is not something more required as necessary to be Believed As that this Messiah was God as well as Man and that through the Merits of his Satisfaction he redeemed us from Eternal Misery c. For the Decision of which we can only appeal to Scripture The Third and Last Part of it which I shall have occasion to take Notice of is this That whatsoever is necessary to be believed to Salvation is contain'd in the Holy Gospels and Acts of the Apostles p. 291 292 c. And that the Epistles which were only occasional Writings and Directions to particular Churches were not design'd to deliver such Fundamental Articles as must necessarily be Believed explicitely by all Christians And therefore an actual Belief of any of the Doctrines therein mentioned is not absolutely required to make a Man a Member of the Christian Church For he thinks a Man may be a Christian and a Believer Vindis p. 31. without actually believing them because those whom our Saviour and his Apostles by their Preaching and Discourses converted to the Faith were made Christians and Believers barely upon the receiving what they Preached unto them long before any of the Epistles were written Upon this Supposition the other two Parts of his Treatise are built and therefore it shall be my Business in the first place to prove that there are Doctrines in the Epistles distinct from those delivered in 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 It may indeed seem an unnecessary Labour to Vindicate those Sacred Writings which have almost all of them been received from the very first Ages of Christianity with as equal degrees of Assent as all other Parts of Scripture and some of the Doctrines there set down confest to be altogether as necessary to be actually Believed unto Salvation as any whatsoever For what should the reason of all this be if the Epistles were not real and essential Parts of the Rule of Saving Faith Was the Church then Imposed upon or did it of it self enjoin the Belief of any Doctrine as necessary to Salvation when it had no express Commission from God for it For one of these we must grant if the Epistles were not designed to deliver Fundamentals to be actually Believed by all Christians Now if several of the Doctrines contain'd in those Parts of Revelation have all along down from
Revealed to us we are under a necessity to believe upon the Veracity of Him that Revealed it And here we are not so to divide our Belief as to confine it to one part of Revelation and deny it to another unless we are assured that it has different degrees of Evidence For this would destroy the force of Revelation and resolve all Religion into the Wills and Humours of Men. There are indeed as has been before observed different Acts of Faith required of us according to the different Matter of Revelation But where the Matter is of as great importance in one place as in another there also must our Assent be equal Unless we can prove that there is not the same certainty for the Revelation i e. That there is not the same Testimony of Divine Miracles to assure us of the Truth of it But here it is not material to examine Whether the Apostles work'd Miracles to evince the Truth of their Doctrines in the Epistles It is enough that their Miracles attested their Divine Mission and were sufficiently demonstrative that their Doctrines had a Divine Authority and Original and were confirmed by a Divine Power For the Design of their Miracles was not to give Authority to such a particular Doctrine only but to testify in general that they had a Commission from God to teach what was necessary to be believed or practiced to Salvation Now that the Apostles wrought many Miracles such as were before done by our Saviour for the Confirmation of their Mission and Doctrines is undeniably evident from the whole History of the Acts where they are said to heal the Sick raise the Dead and to be endued with all other supernatural Gifts which might be sufficient to convince the World that they received their Mission and Authority from God But to what End should the Apostles work Miracles if after all their Doctrines which they deliver'd for Fundamentals were not absolutely necessary to be believed Now Miracles are never wrought but to convince Men of some great Truths which would be of great Importance to them and which perhaps they would not otherwise be induced to believe If therefore the Apostles had such a Power of working Miracles committed to them to confirm the Truth of their Doctrines we are under as great Obligations to make them Articles of our Faith especially if they were designed for such as any other parts of Holy Writ Now what Reason have we to believe the Holy Gospels but only the undeniable Attestation of Miracles But are there not the same for the Confirmation of the Epistles too That is Were not the Authors Divinely Inspired and did they not work Miracles to shew that they were so If then it be granted that the Apostles had this supernatural Power given them to be an unquestionable Evidence of their Inspiration this alone is sufficient to enforce our actual Belief of the Doctrines in the Epistles as much as in the Gospels unless we can shew that the Apostles were not Inspired when they writ them or that their Power of working Miracles to convince the World that they were so was then ceased or else that they did not design any Doctrines in them to be necessary to be believed But if none of these can with any tolerable Reason be pretended there can be little excuse for our not admitting them as necessary and fundamental Parts of the Rule of Faith And this moreover ought to make us very cautious how we rejected them because if we deny such an Authority to the Epistles as requires an absolute necessity of believing any of the Doctrines as therein contain'd we shall have no very strong Arguments remaining whereby to defend those of the Gospels which have only the Authority of Inspirations confirmed by Miracles so that they must unavoidably stand or fall together For if it be granted that the Evidence for the Truth of both be the same and the same Divine Authority stampt upon both we cannot deny that the Measures of our Belief must be equally taken from them both where the Matter is of the same importance And this will necessarily lead us to these Conclusions First That whatsoever we are firmly assured is Revealed by God we are obliged to believe it upon his Veracity since he neither can or will Reveal any thing but what is undeniably true Secondly That whatsoever is made by this Revelation a fundamental Article of our Faith we cannot be ignorant of without great hazard of our Salvation Thirdly and Lastly For the true Knowledge of any Article of Faith we must not judge of it from some particular Place but from the universal Consent and Harmony of Revelation And now since the Epistles must be granted to be a particular Revelation I would ask to what End there should be this Revelation and several Doctrines therein deliver'd which concern both our Faith and Practice if there was no necessity for them in order to Salvation 1 Cor. 14.37 Why should the Inspired Writers give any Instructions to a Church for the Commandments of God if yet without the least hazard of Salvation they might be ignorant of them For it does not seem consistent with the End or Nature of Revelation which under the Christian Dispensation was designed only for the eternal Advantage of Mankind that no parts of it deliver'd in the Epistles which are all of them of Divine Revelation should be absolutely necessary for that End and that those who had the Name and Benefit of Christians should not be indispensably obliged to form their Faith or govern their Practice according to its Directions Certainly any one that reads and considers the Epistles impartially must judge that the Authors did design some parts of them at least for Rules to guide Men in the way to Happiness without the Observance of which those to whom they should be known could not be saved For if all the Instructions in the Epistles might be safely disregarded then their Inspiration was in vain Since if Men might be as easily saved without them the Revelation must be confest to be superfluous If it be said that the Doctrines were only writ for the use of particular Churches yet that though it should be granted which there is no reason for will prove nothing unless it appears that there were no general Directions designed which are of the same importance to all Christians now that they could be of to any particular Church then for certainly what was necessary to be believed to Salvation by the Members of a Church in the Apostles days must be so now and to the end of the World If it be demanded that if there are any such Fundamentals in the Epistles as we contend for we should draw out a Scheme of them just so many and no more that are to be explicitely believed to Salvation and which will equally oblige all Mankind tho' we should not be able to satisfy this Demand yet it will be sufficient to our
present Purpose if we can produce any Doctrines that are absolutely enjoined to be believed by all Christians and that are either distinct from or more fully exprest than any of those contain'd in the Gospels or Acts as I shall hereafter endeavour to shew there are some of that nature without the Belief of which though we may grant Men might be saved before they were known yet when they were divulged they could no more be stiled true Christians without the Belief of them than if they had not at all believed To instance in a like case None could any longer be called Christians or admitted into that Communion after that form of Baptism was requir'd in the Name of Father Son and Holy Ghost tho' they might have that Denomination before who did not acknowledge their Faith in the Holy Trinity since as none could be Baptized Christians without the Confession of that Faith so none could continue in the Number of Christians that denied it But of this more in its proper place And thus we may be convinced from the Nature of Revelation that all the parts of it have an equal Authority and that where the End of the Revelation was the Glory of God and the Salvation of Mankind as I shall hereafter shew was the Apostles Designs in writing their Epistles there the same Acts of Faith are required of us But before I proceed any farther in the Vindication of these sacred Writings it will be necessary to consider an Objection or rather an Evasion of our Author's in his Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity Vindic. p. 19. which may seem to render what has been hitherto urged superfluous since it intimates that he believes as much of the Epistles and in as true a sence as any man whatsoever And for the Proof of this he cites what he had before declared in the Reasonableness of Christianity it self p. 299. These Holy Writers viz. The Pen-men of the Scriptures inspired from above writ nothing but Truth and in most places very weighty Truths to us now for the expounding clearing and confirming the Christian Doctrine and establishing those in it who had embraced it And again p. 299. The other parts of Divine Revelation are Objects of Faith and are so to be received They are Truths of which none that is once known to be such i. e. Revealed may or ought to be disbelieved And if this as he goes on does not satisfy you that I have as high a Veneration for the Epistles as you or any one can have I require you to publish to the World those Passages which shew my contempt of them Indeed if he said no more concerning the Epistles than what is mention'd in these Passages there would not have been so much occasion for a Defense of them But however even these do not seem altogether unexceptionable for though these allow the Truths contain'd in the Epistles to be Objects of our Faith yet they do not suppose them or any parts of them to be more so than any other places of Scripture which have no relation to the Salvation of Mankind and which we are only bound to believe to be true upon the Veracity of God that reveal'd them For that this is all which the Author meant is very plain from what he maintains a little after Vindic. p. 31. viz. That all the rest of the Inspired Writings or if you please Articles are of equal necessity to be believed to make a Man a Christian with what was preacht by our Saviour and his Apostles by which he only means what is recorded in the Gospels and Acts that I deny So that it plainly appears that all the Respect which he professes for the Epistles consists only in this That he believes them to be true but that the Doctrines contain'd in them are no more necessary to be actually believed or to be made fundamental Articles of Faith than any indifferent or Historical Matters in the Bible all which we believe to be true because they are contain'd in that Book which we are fully perswaded is the Word of God So that a bare Assent to them only as they are true is no higher an Act of Faith than the believing that there was such an Apostle as St. Paul and that he was the Author of such Epistles But if our Author does indeed believe that all is true which is contain'd in the Epistles why should he deny that any of the Truths therein mention'd are to be made Fundamentals For methinks it would be no great Imposition to be obliged to believe that as a necessary Article of Faith in order to Salvation which he is already perswaded is a real Truth But besides this is what we contend for that there are Doctrines contain'd in the Epistles that are of equal necessity to be believed to make a Man a Christian with those in the Gospels or in the Acts of the Apostles as being of as great Importance to us and therefore they are also to be believed upon another Ground besides that of meer Revelation And for the Proof of this it will be necessary to consider in the second place the Authority that our Saviour intrusted in his Apostles Which is exprest in their Commission given them by Christ immediately before his Ascension in these words Go and teach all Nations And elsewhere Mat. 28 19. Joh. 20.21 As my Father hath sent me even so send I you 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 For whosoever acts by another's Commission acts in his Name and whatever he does by vertue of that Commission it is look'd upon to be his who gave him such Authority Now that the Apostles did not exceed this Authority or teach for Doctrines the Commandments of Men is very evident since it is granted they were Divinely Inspired and taught nothing as necessary to be believ'd but what they received from God So that all that can be here objected seems to be this That the Apostles had no Commission to write any fundamental Doctrines in the Epistles but only in their Sermons which are set down in the Acts of the Apostles If this indeed could be proved it would be a material Objection but if there is not the least shadow of Reason to countenance such a groundless Supposition without shewing that the Apostles did exceed their Commission though at the same time they were Divinely Inspired then we are bound to acknowledge that the Epistles as well as the Acts are an indispensible part of the Rule of our Faith for God himself has put no difference betwixt them But there is yet something more to be observed in the Epistles written by St. Paul which are much the greatest part and that is that he received his Doctrines therein contain'd by a more particular
Revelation than any of the other Apostles For he was neither instructed by Christ himself while on Earth as not being his Disciple nor had he any account of the Doctrines which he taught from those Apostles who had constantly heard him but he received all his Instructions immediately from Heaven as he himself hath told us in the first Chap. of Gal. 11 and 12. Ver. But I certifie you Brethren that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man For I neither received it of man neither was I taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ From whence 't is plain that his Doctrines were of equal Authority with what were taught by Christ himself and that the things which he writ as himself testifies of them in the 1 Cor. 14.37 were the Commandments of the Lord i. e. Were of as great necessity to be believed to Salvation as any other parts of Revelation which cannot in the least be doubted if we also consider that Men are to be Judg'd by that Gospel which St. Paul taught at the last Day As he assures us in Rom. 2.16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of Men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel which Gospel he must mean that Epistle to be part of for he had taught those at Rome no otherwise than by this Epistle for he never had been there when this was writ nor do we know that he had sent them any Epistle before it But besides the Doctrines which St. Paul has delivered in this Epistle to the Romans are no more than what he had before taught to others as is plain from his own words to the Elders of Ephesus Act. 20.27 That he had not shun'd to declare unto them all the Counsel of God Which he would not have said if he had a Commission to make any thing necessary to be believed to Salvation by others which was not revealed to them thro' his Ministry So that as both what he taught and writ in his Epistles are the same Doctrines so are they both equally Obligatory But Lastly There is this more remarkable of St. Paul that he was the Apostle of the Gentiles and for the most part the first that had preach'd the Gospel amongst them And therefore what he taught could be the only Rule of Faith to them especially till the Gospels were written which none of them were till some time after he had begun to preach the Gospel amongst the Gentiles From whence it follows that as what he taught was the only Rule of Faith to them before they could have the Gospels so neither would his Doctrines after the publishing the Gospels be less necessary to be believed since their Authority would be much rather increased than lessened by the assistance of so great a Foundation as the Gospels to support them What I have here said of St. Paul is not with a Design to lessen the Authority of the other Epistles for they are all Inspired by the same Holy Spirit and are therefore equally necessary to be believed but only as we have a greater Number of his transmitted to us than of all the other Apostles so I thought it most necessary to shew that the reason why we are obliged to believe them to Salvation was as great as can possibly be produced for any thing of that Nature And thus I hope I have made it fully evident that the Apostles had a sufficient Commission from God to make those Doctrines which they taught in their Epistles absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation And that they did declare some of their Doctrines to be of this Nature I shall come now in a little time to prove And Thirdly The End and Reason for which the Epistles were written will make this more fully appear For to make any thing more firmly believed and assented to there is not only required a certain knowledge of its being Revealed but also of the End for which it was Revealed Now nothing can be more worthy of God and more beneficial to Man than the revealing the Conditions which he has made necessary for our obtaining Happiness and this is fully done in the Covenant of the Gospel And as the Conditions are necessary to be known before we can perform them 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 our Redemption and the Miracles which he wrought for the Confirmation of his Mission and Doctrine 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 And this he intrusted to the Apostles who were to that End both Divinely Inspired and had the Power of working Miracles committed to them to establish and confirm the Truth of their Doctrines So that it may be no very great Absurdity to affirm that all things which are necessary to be believed to Salvation are not fully and clearly contain'd in the Gospels Indeed * Tota Religio Christiana omnia illius dogmata fidei praecepta vitae ad salutem necessaria quatuor Evangeliis imo unico Mathaei Evangelio continentur neque ex Epistolis Apostolorum imo nec Apostoli Pauli ullum dogma ad salutem creditu necessarium proferetur quod non antea in Evangelio clare expressum exstat Ausim itaeque dicere etiamsi sola quatuor exstarent Evangelian os perfectum habituros Canonem seu Regulam fidei ac Morum p. 189. Limborch in his Conference with a Learned Jew in his Book De Veritate Religionis Christianae seems to have granted more than he had Authority for in asserting that All the Doctrines of Faith and Practice necessary to Salvation are contain'd in the four Evangelists or even in St. Matthew only and that none of the Epistles of St. Paul or the rest of the Apostles contain any Doctrine necessary to be believed to Salvation which was not clearly and expresly set down before in the Gospels c. Whether all the fundamental Doctrines of Christianity were before laid down in the Gospels is indeed made by some a matter of Dispute but that many of them are not there so plain and intelligible as in the Epistles is none For it may be very justly question'd if the Epistles had not been written whether we should not have remained wholly ignorant of the true meaning of several things in the Gospels Particularly as to the Reasons of the Death and Resurrection of our Saviour for I much doubt whether we should so unanimously have believed that Christ's Death was a Sacrifice for our Sins or that by vertue of his Resurrection alone we should all be raised again at the last day from the alone Declaration of the Gospels Since neither of these can be so clearly proved from the Gospels as from the Epistles the latter of which is I think no where mentioned in
Explanations of something before Revealed in the Gospels yet since the Authors of them were Divinely Inspired they are to be received as part of the Rule of Faith as well as the Gospels themselves since an infallible divine Explanation of a Doctrine is as necessary to be believed as the Doctrine it self So that if it should be granted that this was one End of writing the Epistles to set those Things in a clearer Light which were before taught by our Saviour yet this will not be sufficient to invalidate their Authority or render them less necessary to be believed For thus far * Verum tanta est erga genus hominum benignitas divina ut quae in Evangeliis plene ac perfecte tradita sunt etiam in Apostolorum Epistolis saepius repeti à variis objectionibus Vindicari ad majorem fidelium in fide confirmationem ac constantiam singulari Providentia voluerit ibid. Limborch seems to have granted That though all the Doctrines of Christianity are fully and perfectly deliver'd in the Gospels yet God has so much expressed his Goodness towards Mankind as to take care by a particular Providence that they should be very often repeated in the Epistles that they might be freed from all Objections to the greater strengthning and confirming Believers in the Faith And thus it seems very evident for many Reasons that the Gospels alone are not to be made the Measure of our Faith Nor will the Acts of the Apostles together with the Gospels afford us a full and clear Scheme of whatsoever is necessary to be believed For these also are chiefly Historical and contain an account of the Mission of the Holy Ghost of the Miracles that were done by the Apostles of the Converts they made to Christianity and where they Preacht but we have not there any full and large account of their Doctrines We are indeed told that they Preacht Faith in Christ Jesus Act. 20.21 and Repentance towards God But few or no particulars of those Duties or how far they extended which seem on purpose reserved for the Epistles where they are more fully treated of But it is urged That if the Apostles Creed is a Summary of all that is necessary to be believed and if all the Articles of that are to be found in the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles then it is in them alone that we are to look for Fundamentals To this it may be answered That it can indeed hardly be denied but that we may draw most of the Articles of the Apostles Creed from the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles but these are not to be looked upon 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 To instance only in the first Article I believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth Now we cannot be supposed to be confin'd by this to the believing just so much of Him and no more For we are to understand by these Words whatsoever is implied in them and whatsoever else the Scripture has reveal'd to us concerning Him And the like Rule must be observed in all the other Articles And besides this is justly believed to be the first Fundamental of all Reveal'd Religion which is supposed in our Creed that the Scriptures are of Divine Inspiration and that whatsoever is there laid down as necessary to Salvation must be believed as such And upon this it is that the Creed is built So that as we must believe That Summary of our Faith to be taken from Revelation so also that the only true Explanation of it is to be found there For necessary Deductions from such Truths are as much Fundamentals as the Principles from which they are drawn So that we cannot in a true Sence believe all the Articles of our Creed unless we also are perswaded that those places of Scripture which contain a full and express Explanation of them are necessary parts of our Faith But our Author urges That if all p. 297. or most of the Truths declared in the Epistles were to be received and believed as Fundamental Articles what then became of those Christians that were fallen asleep as St. Paul witnesseth in the 1 Cor. many were before those things in the Epistles were revealed to them Most of the Epistles not being written till above Twenty Years after our Saviour's Ascension and some after Thirty To this we may answer First That some of the Epistles were written before some of the Gospels particularly that of St. John which was not writ till almost Threescore Years after our Saviour's Ascension So that this Argument will exclude that Gospel from containing any part of the Fundamentals of Faith as well as the Epistles Secondly It is to be considered that a great many of the Epistles as the first and second to the Thessalonians which were writ sooner than Twenty Years after Christ's Ascension as also the first and second to the Corinthians to the Galatians and Romans were all written before the History of the Acts of the Apostles which is continued to the time of St. Paul's being first at Rome which was not till near Thirty Years after our Saviour's Ascension and therefore that History which takes in all that time cannot be thought to be of greater Authority than those Epistles which were writ much sooner So that this Argument if it is at all to the Purpose must give the Preference to some of the Epistles at least before the Acts of the Apostles But Thirdly It cannot be supposed but that many Christians were fallen asleep before the writing any of the Gospels since St. Matthew's Gospel which was the first was not written till about Eleven Years after our Saviour's Ascension So that neither can this Argument be any Prejudice to the Authority of the Epistles And therefore Fourthly It remains that all the Rule of Faith to the Believing Christians that were Converted for some Years after our Saviour's Ascension must be taken from what was taught by the Apostles And therefore if what they then taught was the Rule of Faith to those who were Converted to Christianity it is very reasonable to suppose that the Epistles which without doubt contain the very same Doctrines which they then taught are now to be received as absolutely necessary to be believed For this we may be certain of that the contrary can never be proved that the Apostles upon their receiving the Holy Ghost taught the very same Doctrines wherever they Preacht which they afterwards deliver'd in their Epistles And therefore if they writ no other Doctrines than what they taught and what they taught were Fundamentals then what they writ must be the same too And if this should be granted which the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity so much contends for p. 294. That 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 Yet 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 For it is strange to suppose that a Doctrine should cease to be a Fundamental to those who had known it before For though the Epistles might not be written to those who believed all the Truths contain'd in them to instruct them in any thing which they were ignorant of yet it might be for this End to put them in remembrance of all the parts of their Profession to prevent all Disputes that possibly might arise and to remain as exact Rules and Directions how they might convert and instruct others But says our Author p. 294. If those to whom the Epistles were written wanted not such fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion without a Belief of which they could not be saved it cannot be supposed that the sending of such Fundamentals was the reason of the Apostles writing to any of them But how can it be proved that all those the Epistles were written to understood all the Fundamentals of Religion May there not be supposed to be some less knowing amongst them and some who would not throughly believe several Doctrines of Christianity without such an Authority as the Apostles had to convince them of the Truth of them But however if this Argument of Men's knowing the Fundamentals contain'd in the Epistles before they were sent to them may be sufficient to overthrow their Authority the Gospels also I am afraid will not escape much better For we cannot suppose but almost all Christians were very well acquainted with the Doctrines taught by our Saviour before the Gospels were written but 't is to be hoped that they ought not upon that account to be thought less necessary to be believed even by those who had been already converted to the Faith For certainly they cannot be supposed to contain less fundamental Truths because they have deliver'd nothing but what was received before for the Doctrine of our Saviour Nor can it be imagined that the Gospel of St. Luke which was writ with a particular Design to Theophilus who was already a Believer and a Christian should contain less fundamental Truths or less necessary to be believed than those which perhaps were written with a more general Design The Acts were also written to the same Theophilus and therefore if our Author's Argument will prove any thing it must exclude both that and the foremention'd Gospel as well as the Epistles from being any part of the Rule of Faith For they were more certainly written to a Believer and a Christian and One who wanted not the fundamental Articles of Christianity without a Belief of which he could not be saved than can be proved of so much as any of the Epistles And therefore it will follow notwithstanding all our Author has urged to the contrary that it is from the Epistles as well as the Gospels that we are to learn what are the fundamental Articles of Faith For if in the History of the Evangelists and the Acts all things are so plainly set down that no Body can mistake them it must unavoidably be granted That the Apostles tho' Inspired by the Holy Ghost were yet very unfaithful to their Trust in clogging Men's Faith with unnecessary Points of Belief Since they could not be ignorant that what they writ would be as much thought necessary to be believed as what was taught by our Saviour himself And therefore the Apostles ought certainly to be blamed for writing such Doctrines in their Epistles which tho' they were not necessary to be believed might yet give occasion to a great many unwary Christians to think far otherwise and embrace them as firmly as any other Doctrines whatsoever But if it can be proved that the great and principal End of the writing their Epistles was to deliver several Doctrines that should be necessarily believed to Salvation by all who were Converted to the Faith we are obliged to receive them as such And this might be made appear from very many places of them St. Paul thus expresses himself 1 Cor. 14.37 That if any Man think himself to be a Prophet or Spiritual let him acknowledge that the things which I write unto you are the Commandments of the Lord. And in the beginning of the next Chapter Moreover Brethren I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you by which also ye are saved c For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received how that Christ died for our Sins according to the Scriptures By which Words he re-minds them of a Primary Article of their Faith without the Remembrance of which he shews they have believed in vain For the design of the Apostle's Argument is to acquaint them that they could not be saved without they kept in Memory what he had before Preached unto them v. 2. which was amongst other things the fore-mention'd Article the Belief of which if there is any Force in his Argument he declares to be absolutely necessary to Salvation After this he mentions to them some other Articles which he enjoins them to believe that their Faith might not be in vain And these are the Belief not only of Christ's Resurrection but that by vertue of his rising from the Dead we also should be raised again And also that in Adam all die For since by Man came Death by Man came also the Resurrection of the Dead For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive And these are Articles that are absolutely necessary to be believed for upon these the Apostle lays the great Foundation of Christianity and yet the Two last of them are not to be found either in the Gospels or Acts. There are also other places in the Epistles which are expresly required to be believed to Salvation as Rom. 10.9 For if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved And that in Timothy Without controversy great is the Mystery of Godliness that is of the Christian Religion God was manifest in the Flesh And in St. Joh. Epist 1. C. 4. Every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is of God and he that does not confess it is not of God which shews the necessity of believing Christ's Incarnation And again We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world And whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God which is a distinct act of Faith from believing him to be the Messiah as I shall shew
in its proper place These Places of Scripture now mention'd are sufficient to shew that there are Doctrines in the Epistles that are required to be explicitely believed And the Apostles did certainly design this End in writing their Epistles as in the 2 Cor. 1.13 For we write none other things unto you than what you read or acknowledge and I trust you shall acknowledge even to the end And in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians Chap. 2. Ver. 15. Therefore Brethren stand fast and hold the Traditions which ye have been taught whether by Word or our Epistle All which Places with innumerable others which might be cited to the same Purpose undeniably prove that the Apostles enjoin'd the Belief of what they writ in their Epistles as necessary to Salvation And it would be absurd to imagine 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 And here it is not material whether the Epistles were written to those who were already Christians and whether design'd 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 deliver'd for fundamental Articles of Faith and necessary to be believed by all Christians But however the word Christians is often used ambiguously and is promiscuously given to all who are Baptized into the Christian Faith And therefore tho' most of the Epistles might be written to those who were called Christians yet they might not be throughly so i. e. They might not have a perfect knowledge of all the Articles of Faith As is particularly plain in the Thessalonians by St. Paul's first Epistle to them Chap. 3. Ver. 10. Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking in your Faith So that our Author's Argument from the Epistles being written to those who were already Christians is also upon this account very insufficient to weaken their Authority But he farther urges That the Epistles were writ upon particular Occasions p. 295. and without those Occasions had not been writ and so cannot be thought necessary to Salvation But how can it be proved that all the Epistles were writ upon particular Occasions For the contrary seems plain in several of the Epistles For though they were directed to particular Churches yet were they design'd for whole Provinces as the Epistles to the Corinthians were intended for the Province of Achaia That to the Galatians for a whole Country and those directed to the Thessalonians and Philippians were design'd for the two Provinces of Macedonia It being usual with the Apostle to give such Preheminence to the Metropolis of any Province as to direct to that what he intended for the whole Which is sufficient to shew that those Epistles were not writ upon any particular Occasion to those Churches they were sent to since they obliged a great Number equally with them Nor can we suppose them to be design'd for those particular Provinces only tho' they should be known to others for if they only were obliged by them then no one could be required to observe them any longer than he continued in such a Province For if they affected none out of the Province then those who went from that to another must also be freed from all Obligations to them which is too absurd to imagine The like Observations may be made upon other Epistles The first Epistle of St. Peter is directed to the Strangers scattered throughout Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia His second Epistle is likewise General and so are the Epistles of St. James and St. Jude But there is nothing that can be more General than the first Epistle of St. John which tho' occasion'd by some new raised Heresies yet is directed to all Christians to give them true Notions of the Divinity and eternal Existence of the Son of God which are proved at large in that Epistle in Opposition to all Heresies that then were or that possibly might arise concerning them For all which reasons it is evident that a great many of the Epistles were design'd for all Christians in general Those indeed to the Romans and the Hebrews seem to have some things in them which particularly relate to those Churches But yet there are a great many Truths in them of general use and importance which seem to be design'd on purpose for all Christians in general But to look a little back upon the Epistle to the Hebrews which if well considered cannot be denied to 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 For the design of that Epistle was not only to convince the Jews that the Reason of the Ceremonial Law was ceased and consequently that they ought to discontinue their observance of it and that the Aaronical Priesthood was abolished by our Saviour's Entering upon his Priestly Office but also to obviate which the Author has done with very great care two Conceptions which Men might be tempted to have of our Saviour The one was to think him some Angelical Being the other some great Prophet like Moses or superior to him Now the Author of that Epistle does plainly deny our Saviour to be of that sort and order of Beings that either Angels or Moses was in the first second and third Chapters c. He does not only set him above them all in a Style that imports Superiority and Pre-eminence but does it in a set of Phrases that shew him to be of another Nature than they And to evince the Truth of this a great part of this Epistle was design'd For there was a Sect amongst the Jewish Converts to Christianity that were not only for continuing the Observation of the Mosaick Institutions but who also opposed the Divinity of our Saviour and against these the Apostle seems professedly to argue in this Epistle Which if looked upon to be writ with this Design is as full a Proof for the Divinity of our Saviour and the necessity of believing it to Salvation or without which Church-Communion cannot be maintain'd as need be desired for any thing of that Nature But besides this Epistle to the Hebrews there is no question but the very first Christians thought almost all the Doctrines in every Epistle of general Concern by their constant reading them every Lord's Day in all their publick Assemblies which was done not only amongst those to whom they were written but also amongst all those who had Copies of them And that an Epistle which was writ to one Church should also be read amongst others which would never have been commanded if they were writ upon particular Occasions to any Church is enjoin'd expresly by St. Paul himself in his Epistle
Reason to perswade us to build our Faith upon the Epistles too For it is very absurd to imagine that the very next Ages to the Apostles should be so far imposed upon and so down to the present Time as to receive several of the Doctrines contain'd in the Epistles for fundamental Articles of Faith if they were never design'd either by the Holy Ghost that Inspired them or by the Apostles themselves to be made such So that to assert the contrary is to affirm that either all Christians hitherto have wander'd in the Dark or that they were guilty of very great Folly and Superstition in making those parts of Scripture necessary to be believed to Salvation which were never intended to be so Some of the Epistles have indeed been rejected but so have some of the Gospels too But as this was done but by a very few so were they Men of Heretical Opinions The †Iraen Advers Heres l. 1. c. 26. Ebionites allowed of no more of the Gospels than St. Matthew and rejected all that was writ by St. Paul calling him an Apostate from the Law The * L. 1. C. 29. Marcionites owned but some part of the Epistles of St. Paul to be Canonical but they also denied the Authority of all the Gospels except that of St. Luke and then would admit no more parts of it than would agree with their own Model of Divinity Sed huic quidem says Iraeneus speaking of Marcion quoniam solus manifeste ausus est circumcidere Scripturas c. Which shews what an unpardonable Crime he thought it to be for any Man without a sufficient Warrant for it which can be nothing less than a Divine Commission to pretend to reject any parts of Holy Scripture and to cut them off from the rest which the whole Church had received for Canonical And thus whoever they were that denied the Divine Authority and the necessity of believing all the parts of Scripture such as were also the Valentinians and Manichees with some few others were always looked upon by the Church to be no better than Hereticks There were indeed some of the Primitive Christians that did not receive all the Books of the New Testament for Canonical but the reason was because they were not certain they were writ by the Apostles yet after a little time they were all admitted and universally believed as necessary parts of Faith But now by asserting the necessity of believing the Epistles as part of the Rule of Faith I don't mean that none could ever be saved but who had believed them for what then as our Author well observes would become of those Christians who were fallen asleep before any of the Epistles were written For no question but those who believed all that was taught them and lived up to that Knowledge which their most diligent Enquiries could carry them to should be admitted into Happiness as well as those who had afterwards attained to larger degrees of Faith and Knowledge Since no one can be obliged to believe that which he could not possibly have any knowledge of For should we suppose the Gospel to be spread in some Heathen Parts of the World that had never heard of Christ no Man certainly would be so uncharitable as to deny them Salvation if they believed whatsoever they found there and liv'd up exactly to the Precepts there delivered though they had never heard of the Acts of the Apostles or any of the Epistles or no more than one of the Gospels Or if the Case should be thus that they had no other parts of the New-Testament than barely some of the Epistles if they lived up to them in Matters of Faith and Practice there can no doubt be made but they would be saved So that in Cases of this nature the Argument holds as much for the Epistles as the Gospels and nothing from hence can be drawn to the Prejudice of either But where we have the Priviledge of both and are assured that both are of equal Authority as being equally of Divine Inspiration we are under a necessity of drawing the Articles of our Faith from them both as being a most exact Body of Christian Religion in all the Branches of it But then some may urge That if this should be the Case of those who could attain to the Knowledge of but one part of the Christian Doctrine contain'd in the New Testament that they should as well be saved as those who have all the parts of it and upon that account are required to believe more then certainly the Condition of the other would be much more desirable To this it may be answered That this Objection is of little Force since those are certainly in the safest Condition who have the most Light to guide them For though a wary Traveller may possibly find his way through a very narrow obscure Passage yet those who take the broadest Road are most certain of finding the surest way to their Journeys end But besides the more Evidence we have for our Faith and the greater the Confirmation of it may be by the abundant Repetition of Inspiration and Miracles for the Establishment of it and lastly the more full clear and express the Articles of our Faith are and the oftner God has been pleased to give us an Explanation of them so much the more likely are we to avoid Mistakes to give our unfeigned Assent to them and to suffer them to make more lasting Impressions upon our Minds And thus I hope I have sufficiently Vindicated the Divine Authority of the Epistles and the necessity of making them part of the Rule of Faith that 's required to Salvation And we ought to be the more concerned for the Defense of them because several Doctrines which have been always maintained by the universal Church such as the Doctrine of the Satisfaction and the true Reason of Christ's coming into the World will not so easily be maintained without a Belief of them But if these sacred Writings are esteemed as they are and were really designed to be the infallible Guides to us in our understanding the Mystery of the great Work of our Redemption and for the more clearly stating and explaining of all that is required for our Belief and Practice we are under an absolute necessity to preserve them inviolably and to vindicate the Belief of them as much as of any other parts of Divine Revelation Of the Reason of CHRIST's Coming into the World AND now I come in the next place to examine the Reason our Author assigns for Christ's coming into the World And this we must allow can be understood no way so well as by considering what the Scripture shews we lost by Adam p. 1. For it is on this that the whole Decision of the Case depends Since which way soever it is that the whole Bent of Scripture inclines there we ought to fix our Faith And here also there is no reason why we should dissent from the
Evidence for the Truth of his Doctrine than his Death could possibly be But if we should say that he Died to gain us an Immortality which we lost by Adam yet this would not put a stop to his Enquiry for if this was all he Died for what should be the Meaning of those places in Scripture where he is said to be made Sin for us to free us from the Wrath to come For the frequent Repetition of his suffering for our Sins necessarily supposes that there was some severe Punishment due to them which we should otherwise have suffered But if upon his farther Enquiry why this one Article should only be required necessarily to be believed we should inform him that this is all that is required in the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles and that we are not obliged to an explicite Belief of any Doctrines delivered in other parts of the New Testament yet this would never satisfy because as he would easily perceive the Falsity of the former so it would be difficult to convince him of the other if he was perswaded that the Epistles had as great an Authority stampt upon them by being Divinely Inspired as any other parts of Scripture and that the Apostles had the same Commission from God in the writing their Epistles as in any other parts of their Ministry And Lastly If this Illiterate Man should demand Whether this Messiah is Man or God and whether we are not obliged to believe him to be God because Scripture has in divers places asserted his Divinity and because in the Form of Baptism by which we are made Christians He is represented as equal to God the Father if he should be answered That if those places meant any thing it must be some other Sence than we generally understand by them or at least that they do not require an actual Belief of that Doctrine to Salvation or that it is not material what we believe our Saviour to be so long as we acknowledge him to be the Messiah yet this would run him still into greater Perplexities and make him throw aside all in general rather than take up with such a Partial Religion For whatsoever is irreconcilable with all the parts of Revelation will never perswade any Considering Man to Embrace it that believes there is an Equal Authority from God for the whole Such a Scheme of Faith which our Author has drawn up I am afraid will give no better Satisfaction to those who are for searching the Scriptures to see whether these things are so The Holy Bible especially the New Testament is not so very large but that the Knowledge of it particularly where our Salvation is concern'd may be easily attain'd by the meanest Capacities Nor are there such Intricacies in the Matters of Faith but that a willing Mind may see sufficient Reason for assenting to them not because he can comprehend the Depths of them but because he perceives it is his Duty to Believe them since God that cannot Lie has assuredly Reveal'd them and made them necessary to be Believed in order to Salvation And why may not Almighty God that has contrived such a Salvation for us as our greatest Wisdom could never have discovered oblige us to the Belief of some things which our deepest Reasons cannot now comprehend Indeed we might with very great Reason complain if God had laid a necessity upon us of clearly Understanding whatsoever he has required of us to Believe I mean as to the Manner of it because he has not been pleased to explain the Manner But since all that he has enjoin'd us is only a firm Belief of whatsoever he has Reveal'd we ought in all Humility to submit our selves to his Wisdom and wait for a fuller Intuition into those Mysteries in the other World which we must be Ignorant of in this And there is no Question to be made but that a great many Things are hid from our present Views and which yet are required of us to be Believed on purpose to heighten our Desires after those higher Degrees of Knowledge which are particularly reserv'd for the next Life It seems indeed very plain that we are under an Obligation to make nothing more necessary to be Believed than what is clearly laid down in Scripture or necessarily to be drawn from it But this also is as certain that we ought not to deny any thing to be an Article of Faith which the Scripture has made such especially if it be clearly delivered For it is God's Word alone that must guide us in those Cases and it is as dangerous to detract from it as to add to it And thus I have Examined those Parts of the Reasonableness of Christianity which seem'd to me to be Erroneous as for those that treat of the Necessity of Revelation the Conditions of Repentance Good Works c. they seem to carry an Air of Piety along with them and to be writ with such strength of Judgment as may be suppos'd that the Author had thought more upon them than upon any other Parts of that Treatise FINIS POSTSCRIPT WHen these Papers were just coming Abroad there appear'd a Second Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. by the Author of it I was under Apprehension that some Arguments might be there propounded which ought to be consider'd But since I find they are chiefly directed against Mr. Edwards Reflections which tho' I have not Read I presume are different from these Observations by the Passages cited from them I did not think my self concern'd to examine them especially since they required more Time than the Press would allow If I have urged any Arguments that have been manag'd already by Others it is more than I knew What I have mention'd of Mr. Hobbs was with no Design to possess the Reader with Prejudices against the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity but only to shew that the same Doctrine had been maintain'd before our Author appear'd for it Tho' I don't believe he Borrow'd it from thence since he hath declared the contrary If in that or any thing else I have fall'n upon the same Notion with the Ingenious Author of the Occasional Paper Numb I. it is more than I did or could design since these Remarks were Drawn up long before that came Abroad ERRATA PAg. 4. lin 7. read in the Gospels p. 14. l. 28. r. reject them ibid. l. 33. r. Inspiration p. 20. l. 5. del it p. 35. l. 10. del the p. 44. in Not. r. commata p. 62. l. 1. r. Crimina p. 63. l. 12. for those are r. that is p. 69. l. 24. r. Apostle