Creeds you please are Just those neither more nor less that are every one of them required to be believed to make a Man a Christian and such as without the actual or since that word displeases you the explicit belief whereof he cannot be saved When you have answer'd this Question we shall then see which of us two is nearest the right But if you shall forbear Railing which I fear you take for arguing against that Summary of Faith which our Saviour and his Apostles taught and which only they propos'd to their Hearers to be believed to make them Christians till you have found another perfect Creed of only necessary Articles that you dare own for such you are like to have a large time of Silence Before I leave the Passage above cited I must desire the Reader to take notice of what he says concerning his List of Fundamentals viz. That these his Articles of Faith necessary to constitute a Christian are such as must IN SOME MEASURE be known and assented to by him A very wary Expression concerning Fundamentals The Question is about Articles necessary to be explicitly believed to make a Man a Christian. These in his List the Unmasker tells us are necessary to constitute a Christian and must IN SOME MEASURE be known and assented to I would now fain know of the Reader whether he understands hereby that the Unmasker means that these his necessary Articles must be explicitly believed or not If he means an explicit Knowledge and Belief why does he puzzle his Reader by so improper a way of speaking for what is as compleat and perfect as it ought to be cannot properly be said to be in some Measure If his in some Measure falls short of explicitly knowing and believing his Fundamentals his necessary Articles are such as a Man may be a Christian without explicitly knowing and believing i. e. are no Fundamentals no necessary Articles at all Thus Men uncertain what to say betray themselves by their great Caution Having pronounced it Folly in himself to make up the defects of my short and therefore so much blam'd Collection of Fundamentals by a full one of his own though his Attempt shews he would if he could he goes on thus p. 22. From what I the Unmasker have said it is evident that the Vindicator is grosly mistaken when he saith Whatever Doctrine the Apostles required to be believed to make a Man a Christian are to be found in those places of Scripture which he has quoted in his Book And a little lower I think I have sufficiently proved that there are other Doctrines besides that which are required to be believed to make a Man a Christian Answ. Whatever you have proved or as you never fail to do boast you have proved will signifie nothing till you have proved one of these Propositions and have shewn either X. That what our Saviour and his Apostles preach'd and admitted Men into the Church for believing is not all that is absolutely required to make a Man a Christian Or That the believing him to be the Messiah was not the only Article they insisted on to those who acknowledg'd one God and upon the belief whereof they admitted Converts into the Church in any one of those many places quoted by me out of the History of the New Testament I say any one For though it be evident throughout the whole Gospel and the Acts that this was the one Doctrine of Faith which in all their Preachings every where they principally drive at Yet if it were not so but that in other places they taught other things that would not prove that those other things were Articles of Faith absolutely necessarily required to be believed to make a Man a Christian unless it had been so said Because if it appears that ever any one was admitted into the Church by our Saviour or his Apostles without having that Article explicitly laid before him and without his explicit assent to it you must grant that an explicit assent to that Article is not necessary to make a Man a Christian Unless you will say that our Saviour and his Apostles admitted Men into the Church that were not qualified with such a Faith as was absolutely necessary to make a Man a Christian which is as much as to say that they allow'd and pronounced Men to be Christians who were not Christians For he that wants what is necessary to make a Man a Christian can no more be a Christian than he that wants what is necessary to make him a Man can be a Man For what is necessary to the being of any thing is Essential to its being and any thing may be as well without its Essence as without any thing that is necessary to its being and so a Man be a Man without being a Man and a Christian a Christian without being a Christian and an Unmasker may prove this without proving it You may therefore set up by your unquestionable Authority what Articles you please as necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian If our Saviour and his Apostles admitted Converts into the Church without preaching those your Articles to them or requiring an Explicit assent to what they did not Preach and explicitly lay down I shall prefer their Authority to yours and think it was rather by them than by you that God promulgated the Law of Faith and manifested what that Faith was upon which he would receive penitent Converts And though by his Apostles our Saviour taught a great many other Truths for the explaining this Fundamental Article of the Law of Faith that Jesus is the Messiah some whereof have a nearer and some a more remote connexion with it and so cannot be deny'd by any Christian who sees that connexion or knows they are so taught yet an explicit belief of any one of them is no more necessarily required to make a Man a Christian than an explicit belief of all those Truths which have a connexion with the being of a God or are reveal'd by him is necessarily required to make a Man not to be an Atheist Though none of them can be denied by any one who sees that connexion or acknowledges that revelation without his being an Atheist All these Truths taught us from God either by Reà son or Revelation are of great use to enlighten our Minds confirm our Faith stir up our Affections c. And the more we see of them the more we shall see admire and magnifie the Wisdom Goodness Mercy and Love of God in the Work of our Redemption This will oblige us to search and study the Scripture wherein it is contain'd and laid open to us All that we find in the Revelation of the New Testament being the declar'd Will and Mind of our Lord and Master the Messiah whom we have taken to be our King we are bound to receive as Right and Truth or else we are not his Subjects we do not believe him to be the Messiah our
pertinent Now what can there be more impertinent than to confess the Matter of Fact upon which the Objection is grounded but instead of destroying the Inference drawn from that Matter of Fact only amuse the Reader with wrong Reasons why that Matter of Fact was so No considerate Man he says doth wonder that the Articles and Doctrines he mentioned are omitted in the Apostles Creed Because that Creed is a form of outward Profession Answ. A Profession of what I beseech you Is it a Form to be used for Form's sake I thought it had been a Profession of something even of the Christian Faith And if it be so any considerate Man may wonder necessary Articles of the Christian Faith should be lest out of it For how it can be an outward Profession of the Christian Faith without containing the Christian Faith I do not see unless a Man can outwardly profess the Christian Faith in words that do not contain or express it i. e. profess the Christian Faith when he does not profess it But he says 't is a Profession chiefly to be made use of in Assemblies Answ. Do those solemn Assemblies privilege it from containing the necessary Articles of the Christian Religion This proves not that it does not or was not designed to contain all Articles necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian unless the Unmasker can prove that a From of outward Profession of the Christian Faith that contains all such necessary Articles cannot be made use of in the Publick Assemblies In the Publick Assemblies says he when Prayers are put up by the Church and the Holy Scriptures are read then this Abridgment of Faith is properly used or when there is not generally time or opportunity to make an Enlargement Answ. But that which contains not what is absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian can no where be properly used as a form of outward Profession of the Christian Faith and least of all in the solemn Publick Assemblies All the sense I can make of this is That this Abridgment of the Christian Faith i. e. imperfect Collection as the Unmasker will have it of some of the Fundamental Articles of Christianity in the Apostles Creed which omits the greatest part of them is made use of as a form of outward Profession of but part of the Christian Faith in the Publick Assemblies when by reason of reading of the Scripture and Prayers there is not time or opportunity for a full and perfect Profession of it 'T is strange the Christian Church should not find time nor opportunity in Sixteen hundred Years to make in any of her Publick Assemblies a Profession of so much of her Faith as is necessary to make a Man a Christian. But pray tell me has the Church any such full and compleat form of Faith that hath in it all those Propositions you have given us for necessary Articles not to say any thing of those which you have reserved to your self in your own Breast and will not communicate of which the Apostles Creed is only a scanty form a brief imperfect abstract used only to save time in the Croud of other pressing Occasions that are always in hast to be dispatch'd If she has the Unmasker will do well to produce it If the Church has no such compleat form besides the Apostle's Creed any where of Fundamental Articles he will do well to leave talking idlely of this Abstract as he goes on to do in the following words But says he we are not to think that it expresly contains in it all the necessary and weighty Points all the important Doctrines of our Belief it being only designed to be an Abstract Answ. Of what I beseech you is it an Abstract For here the Unmasker stops short and as one that knows not well what to say speaks not out what it is an Abstract of But provides himself a Subterfuge in the generality of the preceding terms of necessary and weighty Points and Important Doctrines jumbled together which can be there of no other use but to cover his Ignorance or Sophistry For the Question being only about necessary Points to what purpose are weighty and important Doctrines join'd to them unless he will say that there is no difference between necessary and weighty Points Fundamental and important Doctrines And if so then the distinction of Points into necessary and not necessary will be foolish and impertinent And all the Doctrines contain'd in the Bible will be absolutely necessary to be explicitly believed by every Man to make him a Christian. But taking it for granted that the diction of Truths contain'd in the Gospel into Points absolutely necessary and not absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian is good I desire the Unmasker to tell us what the Apostles Creed is an Abstract of He will perhaps answer that he has told us already in this very Page where he says it is an Abridgment of Faith and he has said true in words but saying those words by rote after others without understanding them he has said so in a sense that is not true For he supposes it an Abridgment of Faith by containing only a few of the necessary Articles of Faith and leaving out the far greater part of them And so takes a part of a thing for an Abridgment of it Whereas an Abridgment or Abstract of any thing is the whole in little and if it be of a Science or Doctrine the Abridgment consists in the essentâ—al or necessary Parts of it contracted into a narrower compass than where it lies diffus'd in the ordinary way of delivery amongst a great number of Transitions Explanations Illustrations Proofs Reasonings Corollaries c. All which though they make a part of the Discourse wherein that Doctrine is deliver'd are lest out in the Abridgment of it wherein all the necessary parts of it are drawn together into a less room But though an Abridgment need to contain none but the essential and necessary parts yet all those it ought to contain Or else it will not be an Abridgment or Abstract of that thing but an Abridgment only of a part of it I think it could not be said to be an Abridgment of the Law contain'd in an Act of Parliament wherein any of the things required by that Act were omitted which yet commonly may be reduced into a very narrow compass when strip'd of all the Motives Ends Enacting Forms c. expressed in the Act it self If this does not satisfie the Unmasker what is properly an Abridgment I shall referr him to Mr. Chillingworth who I think will be allow'd to understand sense and to speak it properly at least as well as the Unmasker And what he says happens to be in the very same Question between Knot the Jesuit and him that is here between the Unmasker and me 'T is but putting the Unmasker in the Jesuit's place and my self if it may be allow'd
me without Vanity in Mr. Chillingworth's the Protestants and Mr. Chillingworth's very words Chap. IV. § 65. will exactly serve for my Answer You trifle affectedly confounding the Apostles Belief of the whole Religion of Christ as it comprehends both what we are to do and what we are to believe with that part of it which contains not Duties of Obedience but only the necessary Articles of simple Faith Now though the Apostles Belief be in the former sense a larger thing than that which we call the Apostles Creed Yet in the latter sense of the word the Creed I say is a full Comprehension of their Belief which you your self have formerly confessed though somewhat fearfully and inconstantly And here again unwillingness to speak the Truth makes you speak that which is hardly sense and call it an Abridgment of some Articles of Faith For I demand those some Articles which you speak of which are they Those that are out of the Creed or those that are in it Those that are in it it comprehends at large and therefore it is not an Abridgment of them Those that are out of it it comprehends not at all and therefore it is not an Abridgment of them If you would call it now an Abridgment of Faith this would be sense and signifie thus much That all the necessary Articles of the Christian Faith are comprised in it For this is the proper Duty of Abridgments to leave out nothing necessary So that in Mr. Chillingworth's judgment of an Abridgment it is not sense to say as you do p. 47. That we are not to think that the Apostles Creed expresly contains in it all the necessary Points of our Belief it being only designed to be an Abstract or an Abridgment of Faith But on the contrary we must conclude it contains in it all the necessary Articles of Faith for that very reason because it is an Abridgment of Faith as the Unmasker calls it But whether this that Mr. Chillingworth has given us here be the nature of an Abridgment or no this is certain that the Apostles Creed cannot be a form of Profession of the Christian Faith if any part of the Faith necessary to make a Man a Christian be left out of it And yet such a Profession of Faith would the Unmasker have this Abridgment of Faith to be For a little lower in the 47. p. he says in express terms That if a Man believe no more than is in express terms in the Apostles Creed his Faith will not be the Faith of a Christian Wherein he does great Honour to the Primitive Church and particularly to the Church of England The Primitive Church admitted converted Heathens to Baptism upon the Faith contain'd in the Apostles Creed A bare Profession of that Faith and no more was required of them to be received into the Church and made Members of Christ's Body How little different the Faith of the Ancient Church was from the Faith I have mentioned may be seen in these words of Tertullian Regula fidei una omnino est sola immobilis irreformabilis Credendi scilicet in unicum deum omnipotentem Mundi conditorem filium ejus Iesum Christum natum ex Virgine Maria Crucifixum sub Pontio Pilato tertia die resuscitatum à Mortuis receptum in Coelis Sedentem nunc ad dextram Patris Venturum judicare vivos Mortuos per carnis etiam resurrectionem Hâc lege fidei manente caetera jam disciplinae conversationis admittunt novitatem correctionis Tert. de Virg. Velan in Principio This was the Faith that in Tertullian's time sufficed to make a Christian. And the Church of England as I have remarked already only proposes the Articles of the Apostles Creed to the Convert to be baptized and upon his Professing a Belief of them asks whether he will be Baptized in THIS FAITH which if we will believe the Unmasker is not the Faith of a Christian. However the Church without any more ado upon the Profession of THIS FAITH and no other Baptizes them into it So that the Ancient Church if the Unmasker may be believed baptized Converts into that Faith which is not the Faith of a Christian. And the Church of England when she Baptizes any one makes him not a Christian. For he that is Baptized only into a Faith that is not the Faith of a Christian I would fain know how he can thereby be made a Christian So that if the Omissions which he so much blames in my Book make me a Socinian I see not how the Church of England will escape that Censure Since those Omissions are in that very Confession of Faith which she proposes and upon a Profession whereof she Baptizes those whom she designs to make Christians But it seems that the Unmasker who has made bold to Unmask her too reasons right that the Church of England is mistaken and makes none but Socinian Christians or as he is pleased now to declare no Christians at all Which if true the Unmasker were best look to it whether he himself be a Christian or no For 't is to be fear'd he was baptized only into that Faith which he himself confesses is not the Faith of a Christian. But he brings himself off in these following words All matters of Faith in some manner may be reduced to this brief Platform of Belief Answ. If that be enough to make him a true and an Orthodox Christian he does not consider whom in this way he brings off with him For I think he cannot deny that all Matters of Faith in some manner may be reduced to that Abstract of Faith which I have given as well as to that brief Platform in the Apostles Creed So that for ought I see by this rule we are Christians or not Christians Orthodox or not Orthodox equally together But yet he says in the next words When he calls it an Abstract or Abbreviature it is implied that there are more Truths to be known and assented to by a Christian in order to making him really so than what we meet with here The quite contrary whereof as has been shewn is implied by its being called an Abstract But what is that to the purpose 'T is not sit Abstracts and Abbreviatures should stand in Unmasker's way They are Sounds Men have used for what they pleased and why may not the Unmasker do so too And use them in a Sense that may make the Apostles Creed be only a broken scrap of the Christian Faith However in great Condescention being willing to do the Apostles Creed what honour he could he says That all Matters of Faith in some manner may be reduced to this brief Platform of Belief But yet when it is set in competition with the Creed which he himself is making for it is not yet finish'd it is by no means to be allow'd as sufficient to make a Man a Christian. There are more Truths to be known and assented to in order to make a
course Thread of Inconsistencies which runs quite through his Book That 't is with great justice I put him here in the Jesuits place and address the same Request to him His very next words give me a fresh reason to do it For thus he argues p. 72. May we not expect that those who deal thus with the Creed i. e. Discard all the Articles of it but one will use the same Method in reducing the ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer Abbreviate the former into one Precept and the latter into one Petition Answ. If he will tell me where this Creed he speaks of is it will be much more easie to answer his Demand Whilst his Creed which he here speaks of is yet no where it is ridiculous for him to ask Questions about it The Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer I know where to find in express words set down by themselves with peculiar marks of distinction Which is the Lord's Prayer we are plainly taught by this Command of our Saviour Luk. XI 1. When we pray SAY Our Father c. In the same manner and words we are taught what we should believe to make us his Disciples by his Command to the Apostles what they should Preach Mat. X. 7. As ye go preach SAYING What were they to say Only this the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Or as St. Luke expresses it IX 2. They were sent to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the Sick Which what it was we have sufficiently explain'd But this Creed of the Unmasker which he talks of where is it Let him shew it us distinctly set out from the rest of the Scripture If he knows where it is let him produce it or leave talking of it till he can 'T is not the Apostles Creed that 's evident For that Creed he has discarded from being the Standard of Christian Faith and has told the World in words at length That if a Man believes no more than is in express terms in the Apostles Creed his Faith will not be the Faith of a Christian. Nay 't is plain that Creed has in the Unmasker's Opinion the same tendency to Atheism and Irreligion that my Summary has For the Apostles Creed reducing the Forty or perhaps Four hundred Fundamental Articles of his Christian Creed to Twelve and leaving out the greatest part of those necessary ones which he has already and will hereafter in good time give us does as much dispose Men to serve the Decalogue and the Lord's Prayer just so as my reducing those Twelve to Two For so many at least he has granted to be in my Summary viz. The Article of one God Maker of Heaven and Earth and the other of Jesus the Messiah though he every where calls them but ONE Which whether it be to shew with what love and regard to truth he continues and consequently began this Controversie or whether it be to beguile and startle unwary or confirm prejudiced Readers I shall leave to others to judge 'T is evident he thinks his Cause would be mightily maimed if he were forced to leave out the charge of ONE Article and he would not know what to do for Wit or Argument if he should call them two For then the whole weight and edge of his strong and sharp reasoning in his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism p. 122. would be lost There you have it in these words When the Catholick Faith is thus brought down to one single Article it will soon be reduced to none the Unit will dwindle into a Cypher And here again it makes the whole Argument of his Atheistical Speech which he winds up with these convincing words We are glad to hear that Christianity is brought so low by this worthy Pen-man for this is a good Presage that it will dwindle into nothing What! ONE Article and that so brief too We like such a Faith and such a Religion because it is so near NONE But I must tell this Writer of equal Wit Sense and Modesty That this Religion which he thus makes a dull Farce of and calls near none is that very Religion which our Saviour Iesus Christ and his Apostles preach'd for the Conversion and Salvation of Mankind no one Article whereof which they propos'd as necessary to be received by Unbelievers to make them Christians is omitted And I ask him whether it be his Errand as one of our Saviour's Ambassadors to turn it thus into Ridicule For till he has shewn that they Preach'd otherwise and more than what the Spirit of Truth has recorded of their Preaching in their Histories which I have faithfully collected and set down all that he shall say reflecting upon the Plainness and Simplicity of their Doctrine however directed against me will by his Atheistical Rabble of all kinds now they are so well enter'd and instructed in it by him be all turn'd upon our Saviour and his Apostles What tendency this and all his other trifling in so serious a cause as this is has to the propagating of Atheism and Irreligion in this Age he were best to consider This I am sure the Doctrine of but one Article if the Author and finisher of our Faith and those he guided by his Spirit had Preach'd but one Article has no more tendency to Atheism than their Doctrine of one God But the Unmasker every where talks as if the Strength of our Religion lay in the number of its Articles and would be presently routed if it had but a few And therefore he has mustered up a pretty full band of them and has a reserve of the Lord knows how many more which shall be forthcoming upon occasion But I shall desire to mind this Learned Divine who is so afraid what will become of his Religion if it should propose but one or a few Articles as necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian that the Strength and Security of our Religion lies in the Divine Authority of those who first promulgated the terms of admittance into the Church and not in the Multitude of Articles suppos'd by some necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian And I would have him remember when he goes next to make use of this strong Argument of ONE dwindling into a Cypher that One is as remote as a Million from none And if this be not so I desire to know whether his way of arguing will not prove Pagan Polytheism to be more remote from Atheism than Christianity He will do well to try the force of his Speech in the Mouth of an Heathen complaining of the tendency of Christianity to Atheism by reducing his great number of Gods to but one which was so near none and would therefore soon be reduced to none The Unmasker seems to be upon the same Topick where he so pathetically complains of the Socinians p. 66. in these words Is it not enough to rob us of our God by denying Christ to be so But must they
worse than Silence His words are p. 258. It may be questioned from what he the Animadverter hath the confidence to say p. 31. viz. There is no Enquiry in the Reasonableness of Christianity concerning Faith subjectively considered but only objectively c. And thus having set down Mr. B d's Words otherwise than they are for Mr. Bold does not say there is no Enquiry i. e. no Mention for so the Creed-maker explains Enquiries here For to convince Mr. Bold that there is an Enquiry i. e. Mention of Subjective Faith he alledges That Subjective Faith is spoken of in the 191. and 192. pages of my Book But Mr. Bold says not that Faith considered subjectively is not spoken of any where in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. But That the Author 's Enquiry and Search i. e. the Author's Search or Design of his Search was not concerning Christian Faith considered subjectively And thus the Creed-maker imposing on his Reader by perverting Mr. Bold's Sence from what was the Intention of my Enquiry and Search to what I had said in it he goes on after his scurrilous fashion to insult in these words which follow I say it may be guessed from this what a Liberty this Writer takes to assert what he pleases Answ. To assert what one pleases without Truth and without Certainty is the worst Character can be given a Writer And with Falshood to charge it on another is no mean Slander and Injury to a Man's Neighbour And yet to these shameful Arts must he be driven who finding his strength of managing a Cause to lie only in Fiction and Falshood has no other but the dull Billinsgate way of covering it by endeavouring to divert the Reader 's Observation and Censure from himself by a confident repeated Imputation of that to his Adversary which he himself is so frequent in the Commission of And of this the Instances I have given are a sufficient Proof In which I have been at the Pains to set down the Words on both Sides and the Pages where they are to be found for the Reader 's full Satisfaction The Cause in Debate between us is of great Weight and concerns every Christian That any Evidence in the Proposal or Defence of it can be sufficient to conquer all Men's Prejudices is a Vanity to imagine But this I think I may justly demand of every Reader that since there are great and visible Falshoods on one side or the other for the Accusations of this kind are positive and frequent he would examine on which Side they are And upon that I will venture the Cause in any Reader 's Judgment who will be but at the pains of turning to the Pages marked out to him And as for him that will not do that I care not much what he says The Creed-maker's following words p. 258. have the Natural Mark of their Author They are these How can this Animadverter come off with peremptory declaring that Subjective Faith is not enquired into in the Treatise of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. When in another place p. 35 and 36. he averrs That Christian Faith and Christianity consider'd Subjectively are the same Answ. In which words there are two manifest â—ntruths The one is That Mr. Bold peremptorily declares that Subjective Faith is not inquired into i. e. Spoken of in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. Whereas Mr. Bold says in that place p. 31. If he i. e. the Author had not said one word concerning Faith subjectively considered The Creed-maker's other Untruth is his saying That the Animadverter averrs p. 35. 36. that Christian Faith and Christianity considered subjectively are the same Whereas 't is evident that Mr. Bold arguing against these words of the Creed-maker The belief of Iesus being the Messiah was one of the first and leading Acts of Christian Faith speaks in that place of an act of Faith as these words of his demonstrate Now I apprehend that Christian Faith and Christianity consider'd subjectively and an ACT of Christian Faith I think cannot be understood in any other sence are the very same I must therefore desire him to set down the words wherein the Animadverter peremptorily declares LIII That subjective Faith is not enquired into or spoken of in the Treatise of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. And next to produce the words wherein the Animadverter averrs LIV. That Christian Faith and Christianity consider'd subjectively are the same To the Creed maker's saying That the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. brings us no tidings of Evangelical Faith belonging to Christianity Mr. Bold replies That I have done it in all those Pages where I speak of taking and accepting Iesus to be our King and Ruler and particularly he sets down my words out of p. 301. But to this Mr. Edwards Answers not The Creed-maker says p. 59. of his Socinianism Unmasked that the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity tells men again and again that a Christian Man or Member of Christ needs not know or believe any more than that one individual Point To which Mr. Bold thus replies p. 33. If any Man will shew me those words in any part of the Reasonableness c. I shall suspect I was not awake all the time I was reading that Book And I am as certain as one awake can be that there are several Passages in that Book directly contrary to these words And there are some Expressions in the Vindication of the Reasonableness c. one would think if Mr. Edwards had observed them they would have prevented that Mistake But to this Mr. Edwards answers not Mr. Bold p. 34. takes notice that the Creed-maker had not put the Query or Objection right which he says some and not without some shew of ground may be apt to start And therefore Mr. Bold puts the Query right viz. Why did Jesus Christ and his Apostles require assent to and belief of this one Article alone viz. That Iesus is the Messiah to constitute and make a Man a Christian or true Member of Christ as it is abundantly evident they did from the Reasonableness of Christianity if the belief of more Articles is absolutely necessary to make and constitute a Man a Christian. But to this Mr. Edwards answers not And therefore I put the Objection or Query to him again in Mr. Bold's words and expect an Answer to it viz. LV. Why did Iesus Christ and his Apostles require assent to and belief of this one Article alone viz. That Jesus is the Messiah to make a Man a Christian as it is abundantly evident they did from all their Preaching recorded throughout the whole History of the Evangelists and Acts if the belief of more Articles be absolutely necessary to make a Man a Christian The Creed-maker having made believing Iesus to be the Messiah only one of the first and leading Acts of Christian Faith Mr. Bold p. 35. rightly tells him That Christian Faith must be the belief
Excellencies he ascribes to himself or Faults he blames in me in the management of the Dispute between us any further than as particular Passages of his Book as I come to examine them shall suggest unavoidable Remarks to me I think the World does not so much concern it self about him or me that it need be told in that Inventory he has given of his own good Parts in his first Paragraph which of us two has the better hand at Flourishes Iesting and Common-Places If I am as he says pag. 2. troubled with angry Fits and passionate Ferments which though I strive to palliate are easily discernable c. and he be more laudably Ingenuous in the openness of that Temper which he shews in every Leaf I shall leave to him the entire glory of boasting of it Whatever we brag of our Performances they will be just as they are however he may think to add to his by his own Encomiums of them The difference in Stile Order Coherence good Breeding for all those amongst others the Unmasker mentions the Reader will observe whatever I say of them and at best they are nothing to the question in hand For though I am a Tool Pert Childish Starch'd Impertinent Incoherent Trifling Weak Passionate c. Commendations I meet with before I get to the 4th Page besides what follows as Upstart Racovian p. 24. Flourishing Scribler p. 41. Dissembler 106. Pedantick 107. I say although I am all this and what else he liberally bestows on me in the rest of his Book I may have truth on my side and that in the present case serves my turn Having thus placed the Laurels upon his own Head and sung Applause to his own Performance he pag. 4. enters as he thinks upon his Business which ought to be as he confesses pag. 3. to make good his former charges The first whereof he sets down in these words That I unwarrantably crowded all the necessary Articles of Faith into one with a design of favouring Socinianism If it may be permitted to the subdued to be so bold with one who is already Conqueror I desire to know where that Proposition is laid down in these terms as laid to my Charge Whether it be true or false shall if he pleases be hereafter examined But it is not at present the Matter in question There are certain Propositions which he having affirm'd and I denied are under debate between us And that the Dispute may not run into an endless ramble by multiplying of new before the Points in contest are decided those ought first to be brought to an issue To go on therefore in the order of his Socinianism Unmask'd for p. 3. he has out of the Mishna taught me good Breeding to answer the First first and so in order the next thing he has against me is p. 5. which that the Reader may understand the force of I must inform him that in the 105. p. of his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism he said that I give this plausible conceit as he calls it over and over again in these formal words viz. That nothing is required to be believed by any Christian man but this that Iesus is the Messiah This I denied To make it good Socinianism Unmask'd p. 5. he thus argues First It is observable that this guilty Man would be shifting off the Indictment by excepting against the formality of Words as if such were not to be found in his Book But when doth he do this in the close of it when his Matter was exhausted and he had nothing else to say Vind. p. 38. then he bethinks himself of this salvn c. Answ. As if a Falshood were ever the less a Falshood because it was not opposed or would grow into a Truth if it were not taken notice of before the 38th Page of the Answer I desire him to shew me these formal words over and over again in my Reasonableness of Christianity Nor let him hope to evade by saying I would be shifting by excepting against the formality of the words To say that I have over and over again those formal words in my Book is an Assertion of a Matter of Fact let him produce the words and justifie his Allegation or confess that this is an Untruth publish'd to the World And since he makes so bold with Truth in a Matter visible to every Body let the World be Judge what Credit is to be given to his Allegations of Matters of Fact in things foreign to what I have Printed and that are not capable of a Negative Proof A sample whereof the Reader has at the entrance in his Introductiâ—â— Page A 4 and the three or four following Pages Where he affirms to the World not only what I know to be false but what every one must see he could not know to be true For he pretends to know and deliver my Thoughts And what the Character is of one that confidently affirms what he does not know no body need be told But he adds I had before Pleaded to the Indictment and thereby owned it to be true This is to make good his Promise p. 3. to keep at a distance from my feeble strugglings Here this strong Arguer must prove that what is not answer'd or deny'd in the very beginning of a Reply or before the 38th Page is owned to be true In the mean time till he does that I shall desire such of my Readers as think the Unmasker's Veracity worth the examining to see in my Vindication from p. 26. to 31. wherein is contain'd what I have said about one Article whether I have owned what he charged me with on that Subject This Proposition then remains upon him still to be proved viz. I. That I have over and over again these formal words in my Reasonableness of Christianity viz. That nothing is required to be believed by any Christian Man but this That Iesus is the Messiah He goes on pag. 5. And indeed he could do no other for it was the main Work he set himself about to find but one Article of Faith in all the Chapters of the four Evangelists and the Acts of the Apostles This is to make good his Promise pag. 3. To clear his Book from those sorry Objections and Cavils I had raised against it Several of my sorry Objections and Cavils were to represent to the Reader that a great part of what he said was nothing but Suspicions and Conjectures and such he could not but then own them to be But now he has rid himself of all his Conjectures and has raised them up into direct positive Affirmations which being said with Confidence without Proof who can deny but he has clear'd throughly clear'd that part from my sorry Objections and Cavils He says it was the main Work I set my self about to find but one Article of Faith This I must take the liberty to deny And I desire him to prove it A Man may set himself to find two or
as many as there be and yet find but one Or a Man may set himself to find but one and yet find two or more It is no Argument from what a Man has found to prove what was his main Work to find unless where his aim was only to find what there was whether more or less For a Writer may find the Reputation of a poor contemptible Railer Nay of a downright impudent Lyar and yet no body will think it was his main work to find that Therefore Sir if you will not find what 't is like you did not seek you must prove those many confident Assertions you have published which I shall give you in tale whereof this is the second viz. II. That the main Business I set my self about was to find but one Article of Faith In the following part of this Sentence he quotes my own words with the Pages where they are to be found The first time that in either of his two Books against me he has vouchsafed to do so concerning one Article wherewith he has made so much noise My words in pag. 192. of my Reasonableness of Christianity stand thus For that this is the sole Doctrine pressed and required to be believed in the whole tenor of our Saviour's and his Apostles preaching we have shew'd through the whole History of the Evanlists and Acts and I challenge them to shew that there was any other Doctrine upon their assent to which or disbelief of it Men were pronounced Believers or Unbelievers and accordingly received into the Church of Christ as Members of his Body as far as mere Believing could make them so or else kept out This was the only Gospel Article of Faith which was preached to them Out of this Passage the Unmasker sets down these words This is the SOLE Doctrine pressed and required to be believed in the whole tenor of our Saviour's and his Apostles preaching p. 129. this was the ONLY Gospel Article of Faith which was preach'd to them I shall pass by all other Observations that this way of citing these words would suggest and only remark that if he brought these words to prove the immediately preceding Assertion of his viz. That to find but one Article of Faith was the main Work I set my self about This Argument reduced into form will stand thus He who says that this is the sole Doctrine pressed and required to be believed in the whole tenor of our Saviour's and his Apostles Preaching upon their assent to which or disbelief of it Men were pronounced Believers or Unbelievers and accordingly received into the Church of Christ as Members of his Body as far as mere believing could make them so or else kept out sets himself to find out but One Article of Faith as his main Work But the Vindicator did so Ergo If this were the use he would make of those words of mine cited I must desire him to prove the major But he talks so freely and without book every where that I suppose he thought himself by the Privilege of a Declaimer exempt from being called strictly to an Account for what he so loosely says and from proving what he should be called to Account for Rail lustily is a good Rule something of it will stick true or false proved or not proved If he alledges these words of mine to answer my Demand Vind. p. 27. where he found that I contended for one single Article of Faith with the exclusion and defiance of all the rest which he had charged me with I say it proves this as little as the former For to say That I had shew'd through the whole History of the Evangelists and the Acts that this is the sole Doctrine or only Gospel-Article pressed and required to be believed in the whole Tenor of our Saviour and his Apostles Preaching upon their assent to which or disbelieving of it Men were pronounced Believers or Unbelievers and accordingly received into the Church of Christ or kept out is the simple Assertion of a positive Matter of Fact and so carries in it no defiance no nor exclusion of any othâ—r Doctrinal or Historical Truth contained in the Scripture And therefore it remains still on the Unmasker to shew where 't is I express any deâ—iance of any other Truth contain'd in the Word of God or where I exclude any one Doctrine of the Scriptures So that if it be true that I contend for one Article my Contention may be without any defiance or so much as exclusion of any of the rest notwithstanding any thing contained in these words Nay if it should happen that I am in a mistake and that this was not the sole Doctrine which our Saviour and his Apostles preached and upon their assent to which Men were admitted into the Church yet the Unmasker's Accusation would be never the truer for that unless it be necessary that he that mistakes in one Matter of Fact should be at defiance with all other Truths or that he who erroneously says that our Saviour and his Apostles admitted Men into the Church upon the believing him to be the Messiah does thereby exclude all other Truths published to the Jews before or to Christian Believers afterwards If these words be brought to prove that I contended for one Article barely one Article without any defiance or exclusion annext to that Contention I say neither do they prove that as is manifest from the words themselves as well as from what I said elsewhere concerning the Article of One God For here I say this is the only Gospel-Article c. upon which Men were pronounced Believers which plainly intimates some other Article known and believed in the World before and without the Preaching of the Gospel To this the Unmasker thinks he has provided a Salvo in these words Socinianism Unmask'd pag. 6. And when I told him of this one Article he knew well enough that I did not exclude the Article of the Deity for that is a Principle of Natural Religion If it be fit for an Unmasker to perceive what is in debate he would know that the Question is not what he excluded or excluded not but what Articles he charged me to have excluded Taking it therefore to be his meaning which it must be if he meant any thing to the purpose viz. That when he charged me so often and positively for contesting for one Article viz. that Iesus was the Messiah he did not intend to accuse me for excluding the Article of the Deity To prove that he did not so intend it he tells me that I knew that he did not Answ. How should I know it he never told me so either in his Book or otherwise This I know that he said pag. 115. That I contended for one Article with the exclusion of all the rest If then the belief of the Deity be an Article of Faith and be not the Article of Iesus being the Messiah it is one of the rest and if all the rest were
Writings being all of the same Divine Authority must all equally in every Article be Fundamental and necessary to be believed if that be a reason that makes any one Proposition in it necessary to be believed But the Law of Faith the Covenant of the Gospel being a Covenant of Grace and not of Natural Right or Debt nothing can be absolutely necessary to be believed but what by this new Law of Faith God of his good pleasure hath made to be so And this 't is plain by the preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles to all that believed not already in him was only the believing the only true God and Iesus to be the Messiah whom he hath sent The performance of this puts a Man within the Covenant and is that which God will impute to him for Righteousness All the other acts of assent to other Truths taught by our Saviour and his Apostles are not what make a Man a Christian but are necessary acts of Obedience to be performed by one who is a Christian and therefore being a Christian ought to live by the Laws of Christ's Kingdom Nor are we without some glimpse of Light why it hath pleased God of his Grace that the believing Iesus to be the Messiah should be that Faith which he would impute to Men for Righteousness 'T is evident from the Scripture that our Saviour despised the Shame and endured the Cross for the Joy that was set before him Which joy 't is also plain was a Kingdom But in this Kingdom which his Father had appointed to him he could have none but voluntary Subjects such as leaving the Kingdom of Darkness and of the Prince of this World with all the Pleasures Pomps and Vanities thereof would put themselves under his Dominion and translate themselves into his Kingdom which they did by believing and owning him to be the Messiah their King and thereby taking him to rule over them For the Faith for which God justiâ—ieth is not an empty Speculation but a Faith joyn'd with Repentance and working by Love And for this which was in effect to return to God himself and to their natural Allegiance due to him and advance as much as lay in them the Glory of the Kingdom which he had promised his Son God was pleased to declare he would accept them receive them to Grace and blot out all their former Transgressions This is evidently the Covenant of Grace as deliver'd in the Scriptures And if this be not I desire any one to tell me what it is and what are the terms of it 'T is a Law of Faith whereby God has promised to forgive all our Sins upon our Repentance and believing something and to impute that Faith to us for Righteousness Now I ask what 't is by the Law of Faith we are required to believe for till that be known the Law of Faith is not distinctly known nor the terms of the Covenant upon which the Almerciful God graciously offers us Salvation And if any one will say this is not known nay is not easily and certainly to be known under the Gospel I desire him to tell me what the greatest Enemies of Christianity can say worse against it For a way propos'd to Salvation that does not certainly lead thither or is propos'd so as not to be known are very little different as to their consequence and Mankind would be left to wander in darkness and uncertainty with the one as well as the other I do not write this for Controversies sake for had I minded Victory I would not have given the Unmasker this new Matter of exception I know whatever is said he must be bawling for his fashionable and profitable Orthodoxy and cry out against this too which I have here added as Socinianism and cast that Name upon all that differs from what is held by those he would recommend his Zeal to in Writing I call it bawling for whether what he has said be Reasoning I shall referr to those of his own Brotherhood if he be of any Brotherhood and there be any that will joyn with him in his Set of Fundamentals when his Creed is made Had I minded nothing but how to deal with him I had tied him up short to his List of Fundamentals without affording him Topicks of declaiming against what I have here said But I have enlarged on this point for the sake of such Readers who with a love of truth read Books of this kind and endeavour to inform themselves in the things of their everlasting concernment It being of greater consideration with me to give any light and satisfaction to one single Person who is really concerned to understand and be convinced of the Religion he professes than what a Thousand fashionable or titular Professors of any sort of Orthodoxy shall say or think of me for not doing as they do i. e. for not saying after others without understanding what is said or upon what Grounds or caring to understand it Let us now consider his Argument to prove the Articles he has given us to be Fundamentals In his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism p. 119. he argues from 1 Tim. iii. 16. where he says Christianity is called a Mystery that all things in Christianity are not plain and exactly level to every common apprehension that every thing in Christianity is not clear and intelligible and comprehensible by the weakest Noddle Let us take this for proved as much as he pleases and then let us see the force of this subtle Disputant's Argument for the necessity there is that every Christian Man should believe those which he has given us for Fundamental Articles out of the Epistles The Reason of that Obligation and the Necessity of every Man and Woman's believing them he has laid in this that they are to be found in the Epistles or in the Bible This Argument for them we have over and over again in his Socinianism Unmask'd as here p. 9. thus Are they set down to no purpose in these inspired Epistles Why did the Apostles write these Doctrines was it not that those they writ to might give their assent to them P. 22. They are in our Bibles for that very purpose to be believed p. 25. Now I ask can any one more directly invalidate all he says here for the necessity of believing his Articles Can any one more apparently write booty than by saying that these his Doctrines these his Fundamental Articles which are after his fashion set down between the 8. and 20. Pages of this his First Chapter are of necessity to be believed by every one before he can be a Christian because they are in the Epistles and in the Bible and yet to affirm that in Christianity i. e. in the Epistles and in the Bible there are Mysteries there are things not plain not clear not intelligible to common apprehensions If his Articles some of which contain Mysteries are necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian because
they are in the Bible than according to this rule it is necessary for many Men to believe what is not intelligible to them what their Noddles cannot apprehend as the Unmasker is pleased to turn the Supposition of vulgar Peoples understanding the Fundamentals of their Religion into ridicule i. e. it is necessary for many Men to do what is impossible for them to do before they can be Christians But if there be several things in the Bible and in the Epistles that it is not necessary for Men to believe to make them Christians then all the Unmasker's Arguments from their being in the Epistles is no Proof that all his Articles are necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian because they are set down in the Epistles much less because he thinks they may be drawn according to his Sysâ—em out of what is set down in the Epistles Let him therefore either confess these and the like Questions Why did the Apostles write these was it not that those they writ to might give their assent to them Why should not every one of these Evangelical Truths be believed and imbraced They are in our Bibles for that very purpose and the like to be impertinent and ridiculous Let him cease to propose them with so much ostentation for they can serve only to mislead unwary Readers Or let him unsay what he has said of things not plain to common apprehensions not clear and intelligible Let him recant what he has said of Mysteries in Christianity For I ask with him p. 8. where can we be informed but in the sacred and inspired writings It is ridiculous to urge that any thing is necessary to be explicitly believed to make a Man a Christian because it is writ in the Epistles and in the Bible Unless he confess that there is no Mystery no thing not plain not intelligible to Vulgar understanding in the Epistles or in the Bible This is so evident that the Unmasker himself who p. 119. of his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism thought it ridiculous to suppose that the Vulgar should understand Christianity is here of another Mind And p. 30. says of his Evangelical Doctrines and Articles necessary to be assented to that they are intelligible and plain There is no Ambiguity and Doubtfulness in them They shine with their own light and to an unprejudiced eye are plain evident and illustrious To draw the Unmasker out of the Clouds and prevent his hiding himself in the doubtfulness of his Expressions I shall desire him to say directly whether the Articles which are necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian and particularly those he has set down for such are all plain and intelligible and such as may be understood and comprehended I will not say in the Unmasker's ridiculous way by the weakest Noddles but by every illiterate Countryman and Woman capable of Church Communion If he says yes Then all Mysteries are excluded out of his Articles necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian. For that which can be comprehended by every Day-Labourer every poor Spinster that is a Member of the Church cannot be a Mystery And if what such illiterate People cannot understand be required to be believed to make them Christians the greatest part of Mankind are shut out from being Christians But the Unmasker has provided an Answer in these words p. 31. There is says he a difficulty in the Doctrine of the Trinity and several Truths of the Gospel as to the exact manner of the things themselves which we shall never be able to comprehend at least on this side of Heaven But there is no difficulty as to the reality and certainty of them because we know they are revealed to us by God in the Holy Scripture Which Answer of difficulty in the manner and no difficulty in the reality having the appearance of a distinction looks like Learning but when it comes to be applied to the case in hand will scarce afford us sense The Question is about a Proposition to be believed which must first necessarily be understood For a Man cannot possibly give his assent to any Affirmation or Negation unless he understand the terms as they are joyn'd in that Proposition and has a Conception of the thing affirm'd or deny'd and also a Conception of the thing concerning which it is affirm'd or deny'd as they are there put together But let the Proposition be what it will there is no more to be understood than is expressed in the terms of that Proposition If it be a Proposition concerning a Matter of Fact 't is enough to conceive and believe the Matter of Fact If it be a Proposition concerning the manner of the Fact the manner of the Fact must also be believed as it is intelligibly expressed in that Proposition v. g. should this Proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be offer'd as an Article of Faith to an illiterate Countryman of England he could not believe it Because though a true Proposition yet it being propos'd in words whose meaning he understood not he could not give any assent to it Put it into English he understands what is meant by the Dead shall rise For he can conceive that the same Man who was dead and senseless should be alive again As well as he can that the same Man who is now in a Lethargy should awake again or the same Man that now is out of his sight and he knows not whether he be alive or dead should return and be with him again And so he is capable of believing it though he conceives nothing of the manner how a Man revives wakes or moves But none of these manners of those actions being included in those Propositions the Proposition concerning the Matter of Fact if it imply no contradiction in it may be believed and so all that is required may be done whatever difficulty may be as to the exact manner how it is brought about But where the Proposition is about the manner the belief too must be of the manner v. g. The Article is The Dead shall be raised with spiritual Bodies And then the belief must be as well of this manner of the Fact as of the Fact it self So that what is said here by the Unmasker about the manner signifies nothing at all in the case What is understood to be expressed in each Proposition whether it be of the manner or not of the manner is by its being a Revelation from God to be believed as far as it is understood But no more is required to be believed concerning any Article than is contain'd in that Article What the Unmasker for the removing of Difficulties adds farther in these words But there is no difficulty as to the reality and certainty of the truths of the Gospel Because we know they are revealed to us by God in the Holy Scripture is yet farther from signifying any thing to the purpose than the former The Question is
about understanding And in what sense they are understood believing several Propositions or Articles of Faith which are to be found in the Scripture To this the Unmasker says there can be no difficulty at all as to their reality and certainty because they are revealed by God Which amounts to no more but this That there is no difficulty at all in understanding and believing this Proposition that whatever is revealed by God is really and certainly true But is the understanding and believing this single Proposition the understanding and believing all the Articles of Faith necessary to be believed Is this all the explicit Faith a Christian need have If so then a Christian need explicitly believe no more but this one Proposition viz. That all the Propositions between the two Covers of his Bible are certainly true But I imagine the Unmasker will not think the believing this one Proposition is a sufficient belief of all those Fundamental Articles which he has given us as necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian For if that will serve the turn I conclude he may make his Set of Fundamentals as large and express to his System as he pleases Calvinists Arminians Anabaptists Socinians will all thus own the belief of them viz. That all that God has revealed in the Scripture is really and certainly true But if believing this Proposition that all that is reveal'd by God in the Scripture is true be not all the Faith which the Unmasker requires what he says about the reality and certainty of all Truths reveal'd by God removes nothing of the difficulty A Proposition of Divine Authority is found in the Scripture 't is agreed presently between him and me that it contains a real certain truth But the difficulty is what is the Truth it contains to which he and I must assent v. g. The Profession of Faith made by the Eunuch in these words Iesus Christ is the Son of God upon which he was admitted into the Church as a Christian I believe contains a real and certain Truth Is that enough no says the Unmasker p. 87. it includes in it that Christ was God and therefore it is not enough for me to believe that these words contain a real certain truth But I must believe they contain this truth that Jesus Christ is God That the Eunuch spoke them in that sense and in that sense I must assent to them Whereas they appear to me to be spoken and meant here as well as in several other places of the New Testament in this sense viz. That Iesus Christ is the Messiah and in that sense in this place I assent to them The meaning then of these words as spoken by the Eunuch is the difficulty And I desire the Unmasker by the Application of what he has said here to remove that difficulty For granting all Revelation from God to be really and certainly true as certainly it is how does the believing that general truth remove any difficulty about the sense and interpretation of any particular Proposition found in any passage of the Holy Scriptures Or is it possible for any Man to understand it in one sense and believe it in another because it is a Divine Revelation that has reallity and certainty in it Thus much as to what the Unmasker says of the Fundamentals he has given us p. 30. viz. That No true Lover of God and Truth need doubt of any of them For there is no ambiguity and doubtfulness in them If the distinction he has used of difficulty as to the exact manner and difficulty as to the reality and certainty of Gospel Truths will remove all ambiguity and doubtfulness from all those Texts of Scripture from whence he and others deduce Fundamental Articles so that they will be plain and intelligible to every Man in the sense he understands them he has done great Service to Christianity But he seems to distrust that himself in the following words They shine says he with their own light and to an unprejudiced eye are plain evident and illustrious and they would always continue so if some ill minded Men did not perplex and entangle them I see the Matter would go very smooth if the Unmasker might be the sole authentick Interpreter of Scripture He is wisely of that Judge's Mind who was against hearing the Counsel on the other side because they always perplexed the Cause But if those who differ from the Unmasker shall in their turns call him the Prejudiced and Ill-minded Man who perplexes these Matters as they may with as much Authority as he we are but where we were Each must understand for himself the best he can till the Unmasker be received as the only unprejudiced Man to whose Dictates every one without Examination is with an implicit Faith to submit Here again p. 32. The Unmasker puts upon me what I never said and therefore I must desire him to shew where it is that I pretend XI That this Proposition that Jesus is the Messiah is more intelligible than any of those he has named In his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism p. 120. he argues that this Proposition Iesus is the Messiah has more difficulty in it than the Article of the Holy Trinity And his Proofs are worthy of an Unmasker For says he Here is an Hebrew word first to be explain'd or as he has this strong Argument again Socinianism Unmask'd p. 32. Here first the Name Iesus which is of Hebrew extraction though since Grecized must be expounded Answ. Iesus being a proper Name only denoting a certain Person needs not to be expounded of what extraction soever it be Is this Proposition Ionathan was the Son of Saul King of Israel any thing the harder because the three proper Names in it Ionathan Saul and Israel are of Hebrew extraction And is it not as easie and as level to the understanding of the Vulgar as this Arthur was the Son of Henry King of England though neither of these Names be of Hebrew extraction Or cannot any Vulgar Capacity understand this Proposition Iohn Edwards writ a Book Intituled Socinianism Unmask'd till the Name Iohn which is of Hebrew extraction be explained to him If this be so Parents were best beware how hereafter they give their Children Scripture Names if they cannot understand what they say to one another about them till these Names of Hebrew extraction are expounded to them And every Proposition that is in Writings and Contracts made concerning Persons that have Names of Hebrew extractions become thereby as hard to be understood as the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity His next Argument is just of the same size The word Messias must he says be explained too Of what Extraction soever it be there needs no more Explication of it than what our English Bible gives of it where it is plain to any vulgar capacity that it was used to denote that King and Deliverer whom God had promised So that this Proposition Iesus is
necessary to be believed till there be some other way found to distinguish them than that they are in a Book which is all of Divine Revelation Though therefore Doctrines of Faith and Rules of Practice are very distinguishable in the Epistles yet it does not follow from thence that Fundamental and not Fundamental Doctrines Points necessary and not necessary to be believed to make Men Christians are easily distinguishable in the Epistles Which therefore remains to be proved And it remains incumbent upon him XVIII To set down the Marks whereby the Doctrines deliver'd in the Epistles may easily and exactly be distinguished into Fundamental and not Fundamental Articles of Faith All the rest of that Paragraph containing nothing against me must be bound up with a great deal of the like stuff which the Unmasker has put into his Book to shew the World he does not imitate me in Impertinencies Incoherences and trifling Excursions as he boasts in his first Paragraph Only I shall desire the Reader to take the whole Passage concerning this Matter as it stands in my Reasonableness of Christianity p. 295. I do not deny but the great Doctrines of the Christian Faith are dropt here and there and scatter'd up and down in most of them But 't is not in the Epistles we are to learn what are the Fundamental Articles of Faith where they are promiscuously and without distinction mixed with other Truths and Discourses which were though for Edification indeed yet only occasional We shall find and discern those great and necessary Points best in the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles to those who were yet Strangers and ignorant of the Faith to bring them in and convert them to it And then let him read these words which the Unmasker has quoted out of them It is not in the Epistles that we are to learn what are the Fundamental Articles of Faith they were written for the resolving of Doubts and reforming of Mistakes With his Introduction of them in these words He commands the Reader not to stir a jot further than the Acts. If I should ask him where that Command appears he must have recourse to his old shift that he did not mean as he said or else stand Convicted of a malicious Untruth An Orator is not bound to speak strict Truth though a Disputant be But this Unmasker's Writing against me will excuse him from being of the latter And then why may not Falshoods pass for Rhetorical flourishes in one who hath been used to popular Haranguing to which Men are not generally so severe as strictly to examine them and expect that they should always be found to contain nothing but precise Truth and strict Reasoning But yet I must not forget to put upon his Score this other Proposition of his which he has p. 42. and ask him to shew XIX Where it is that I command my Reader not to stir a jot farther than the Acts In the next two Paragraphs p. 42. 46. The Unmasker is at his natural Play of Declaiming without Proving 'T is pity the Mishna out of which he takes his good breeding as it told him that a well-bred and well-taught Man answers to the first in the first place had not given him this Rule too about Order viz. That Proving should go before Condemning Else all the fierce Exaggerations ill Language can heap up are but empty Scurility But 't is no wonder that the Iewish Doctors should not provide Rules for a Christian Divine turn'd Unmasker For where a Cause is to be maintain'd and a Book to be writ and Arguments are not at hand yet something must be found to fill it Railing in such cases is much easier than Reasoning especially where a Man's Parts lie that way The first of these Paragraphs p. 42. he begins thus But let us hear further what this Vindicator saith to excuse his rejection of the Doctrines contained in the Epistles and his putting us off with one Article of Faith And then he quotes these following words of mine What if the Author designed his Treatise as the Title shews chiefly for those who were not yet throughly and firmly Christians purposing to work upon those who either wholly disbelieved or doubted of the Truth of the Christian Religion Answ. This as he has put it is a downright Falshood For the words he quotes were not used by me to excuse my rejection of the Doctrines contained in the Epistles or to prove there was but one Article But as a reason why I omitted the mention of Satisfaction To demonstrate this I shall set down the whole Passage as it is p. 6. of my Vindication where it runs thus But what will become of me that I have not mention'd Satisfaction Possibly this Reverend Gentleman would have had Charity enough for a known Writer of the Brotherhood to have found it by an Innuendo in those words above quoted of laying down his Life for another But every thing is to be strained here the other way For the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. is of necessity to be represented as a Socinian Or else his Book may be read and the Truths in it which Mr. Edwards likes not be received and People put upon examining Thus one as full of happy Conjectures and Suspitions as this Gentleman might be apt to argue But what if the Author designed his Treatise as the Title shews chiefly for those who were not yet throughly or firmly Christians Proposing to work on those who either wholly disbelieved or doubted of the Truth of the Christian Religion To this he tells me p. 43. that my Title says nothing for me i. e. shews not that I designed my Book for those that disbelieved or doubted of the Christian Religion Answ. I thought that a title that professed the Reasonableness of any Doctrine shew'd it was intended for those that were not â—ully satisfied of the Reasonableness of it unless Books are to be writ to convince those of any thing who are convinced already But possibly this may be the Unmasker's way And if one should judge by his manner of treating this Subject with Declamation instead of Argument one would think that he meant it for no body but those who were of his Mind already I thought therefore The Reasonableness of Christianity as deliver'd in the Scripture a proper Title to signifie whom it was chiefly meant for And I thank God I can with satisfaction say it has not wanted its effect upon some of them But the Unmasker proves for all that that I could not design it chiefly for Disbelievers or Doubters of the Christian Religion For says he p. 43. How those that wholly disregard and disbelieve the Scriptures of the New Testament as Gentiles Iews Mahometans and Atheists do I crave leave to put in Theists instead of Atheists for a reason presently to be mention'd are like to attend to the Reasonableness of Christianity as deliver'd in the Scripture is not to be conceived
Religion disguise the Faith of the Gospel and betray Christianity it self If they did not I am sure I have not For I have not omitted any of the main Articles which they Preached to the Unbelieving World Those I have set down with so much care not to omit any of them that you blame me for it more than once and call it tedious However you are pleased to acquit or condemn the Apostles in the case by your Supream Determination I am very indifferent If you think fit to condemn them for disguising or betraying the Christian Religion because they said no more of Satisfaction than I have done in their Preaching at first to their Unbelieving Auditors Iews or Heathens to make them as I think Christians for that I am now speaking of I shall not be sorry to be found in their Company under what censure soever If you are pleased graciously to take off this your censure from them for this omission I shall claim a share in the same Indulgence But to come to what perhaps you will think your self a little more concerned not to censure than what the Apostles did so long since for you have given instances of being very apt to make bold with the Dead Pray tell me does the Church of England admit People into the Church of Christ at hap-hazard Or without proposing and requiring a Profession of all that is necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian If she does not I desire you to turn to the Baptism of those of riper Years in our Liturgy Where the Priest asking the Convert particularly whether he believes the Apostles Creed which he repeats to him Upon his Profession that he does and that he desires to be baptized into that Faith without one word of any other Articles Baptizes him and then declares him a Christian in these words We receive this Person into the Congregation of Christ's Flock and sign him with the sign of the Cross in token that he shall not be asham'd to CONTINUE Christ's faithful Soldier and Servant In all this there is not one word of Satisfaction no more than in my Book nor so much neither And here I ask you whether for this omission you will pronounce that the Church of England disguises the Faith of the Gospel However you think fit to treat me yet methinks you should not let your self loose so freely against our first Reformers and the Fathers of our Church ever since as to call them Betrayers of Christianity it self because they think not so much necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian as you are pleased to put down in your Articles but omit as well as I your main Article of Satisfaction Having thus notably harangued upon the occasion of my saying Would any one blame my Prudence and thereby made me a Socinian a Iesuit and a Betrayer of Christianity it self he has in that answer'd all that such a Miscreant as I do or can say and so passes by all the Reasons I gave for what I did without any other notice or answer but only denying a Matter of Fact which I only can know and he cannot viz. My design in Printing my Reasonableness of Christianity In the next Paragraph p. 45. in answer to these words of St. Paul Rom. XIV 1. Him that is weak in the Faith receive ye but not to doubtful Disputations which I brought as a reason why I mention'd not Satisfaction amongst the Benefits receiv'd by the coming of our Saviour Because as I tell him in my Vindication p. 5. My Reasonableness of Christianity as the title shews was designed chiefly for those who were not yet throughly or firmly Christians He replies and I desire him to prove it XX. That I pretend a design of my Book which was never so much as thought of till I was sollicited by my Brethren to Vindicate it All the rest in this Paragraph being either nothing to this place of the Romans or what I have answer'd elsewhere needs no farther Answer The next two Paragraphs p. 46. â—49 are meant for an Answer to something I had said concerning the Apostles Creed upon the occasion of his chargeing my Book with Socinianism They begin thus This Author of the New Christianity Answ. This New Christianity is as old as the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles and a little older than the Unmasker's System Wisely objects that the Apostles Creed hath none of those Articles which I mention'd p. 12 13. Answ. If that Author wisely objects the Unmasker would have done well to have replied wisely But for a Man wisely to reply it is in the first place requisite that the Objection be truly and fairly set down in its full force and not represented short and as will best serve the Answerers turn to reply to This is neither wise nor honest And this first part of a wise Reply the Unmasker has failed in This will appear from my words and the occasion of them The Unmasker had accused my Book of Socinianism for omitting some Points which he urged as necessary Articles of Faith To which I answer'd That he had done so only to give it an ill Name not because it was Socinian for he had no more reason to charge it with Socinianism for the Omissions he mentions than the Apostles Creed These are my words which he should have either set down out of p. 12. which he quotes or at least given the Objection as I put it if he had meant to have clear'd it by a fair Answer But he instead thereof contents himself that I object that the Apostles Creed hath none of those Articles and Doctrines which the Unmasker mention'd Answ. This at best is but a part of my Objection and not to the purpose I there meant without the rest join'd to it which it has pleased the Unmasker according to his laudable way to conceal My Objection therefore stands thus That the same Articles for the Omission whereof the Unmasker charges my Book with Socinianism being also omitted in the Apostles Creed he has no more reason to Charge my Book with Socinianism for the Omissions mention'd than he hath to charge the Apostles Creed with Socinianism To this Objection of mine let us now see how he answers p. 47. Nor does any considerate Man wonder at it i. e. That the Apostles Creed hath none of those Articles and Doctrines which he had mention'd For the Creed is a form of outward Profession which is chiefly to be made in the Publick Assemblies when Prayers are put up in the Church and the Holy Scriptures are read Then this Abridgment of Faith is properly used or when there is not generally time or opportunity to make any Enlargement But we are not to think it expresly contains in it all the necessary and weighty Points all the important Doctrines of Belief it being only designed to be an Abstract Answ. Another indispensible requiquisite in a wise Reply is that it should be
Man really a Christian. Which what they are the Church of England shall know when this new Reformer thinks fit And then she may be able to propose to those who are not yet so a Collection of Articles of Belief and Baptize them anew into a Faith which will really make them Christians But hitherto if the Unmasker may be credited she has failed in it Yet he craves leave to tell me in the following words p. 48. That the Apostles Creed hath more in it than I or my Brethren will subscribe to Were it not the Undoubted Privilege of the Unmasker to know me better than I do my self for he is always telling me something of my self which I did not know I would in my turn crave leave to tell him that this is the Faith I was baptized into no one tittle whereof I have renounced that I know And that I heretofore thought that gave me title to be a Christian. But the Unmasker hath otherwise determin'd And I know not now where to find a Christian. For the Belief of the Apostles Creed will not it seems make a Man one And what other Belief will it does not yet please the Unmasker to tell us But yet as to the Subscribing to the Apostles Creed I must take leave to say however the Unmasker may be right in the Faith he is out in the Morals of a Christian It being against the Charity of one that is really so to pronounce as he does peremptorily in a thing that he cannot know and to affirm positively what I know to be a downright Falsehood But what others will do it is not my talent to determine That belongs to the Unmasker Though as to all that are my Brethren in the Christian Faith I may answer for them too that they will also with me do that without which in that sense they cannot be my Brethren P. 49. The Unmasker smartly convinces me of no small Blunder in these words But was it not judiciously said by this Writer that it is well for the Compilers of the Creed that they lived not in my days P. 12. I tell you Friend it was impossible they should for the Learned Usher and Vossius and others have proved that that Symbol was drawn up not at once but that some Articles of it were adjoyn'd many years after far beyond the extent of any Man's Life and therefore the Compilers of the Creed could not live in my days nor could I live in theirs Answ. But it seems that had they liv'd altogether you could have liv'd in their days But says he I let this pass as one of the Blunders of our thoughtful and musing Author Answ. And I tell you Friend that unless it were to shew your reading in Usher and Vossius you had been better let this Blunder of mine alone Does not the Unmasker give here a clear Proof that he is no Changeling Whatever Argument he takes in hand weighty or trivial material or not material to the thing in question he brings it to the same sort of sense and force He would shew me guilty of an absurdity in saying It was well for the Compilers of the Creed that they lived not in his days This he proves to be a Blunder because they all lived not in one anothers days Therefore it was an absurdity to suppose they might all live in his days As if there were any greater absurdity to bring the Compilers who lived possibly within a few Centuries of one another by a Supposition into one time than it is to bring the Unmasker and any one of them who lived a Thousand Years distant one from another by a Supposition to be Contemporaries For 't is by reason of the Compilers living at a distance one from another that he proves it impossible for him to be their Contemporary As if it were not as impossible in Fact for him who was not born till above a Thousand Years after to live in any of their Days as it is for any one of them to live in either of those Compilers days that died before him The Supposition of their living together is as easie of one as the other at what distance soever they lived and how many soever there were of them This being so I think it had been better for the Unmasker to have let alone the Blunder and shew'd which was his Business that he does not accuse the Compilers of the Creed of being all over Socinianized as well as he does me since they were as guilty as I of the omission of those Articles viz. That Christ is the Word of God That God was incarnate The eternal and ineffable Generation of the Son of God That the Son is in the Father and Father in the Son which expresses their Unity for the omission whereof the Unmasker laid Socinianism to my Charge So that it remains still upon his Score to shew XXI Why these Omissions in the Apostles Creed not as well make that Abstract as my Abridgment of Faith to be Socinian Page 53. The Unmasker desires the Reader to observe that this lank Faith of mine is in a manner no other than the Faith of a Turk And I desire the Reader to observe that this Faith of mine was all that our Saviour and his Apostles preach'd to the Unbelieving World And this our Unmasker cannot deny As I think will appear to any one who observes what he says p. 76 and 77. of his Socinianism Vnmask'd And that they preach'd nothing but a Faith that was in a manner no other than the Faith of a Turk I think none amongst Christians but this bold Vnmasker will have the irreverence profanely to say He tells us p. 54. That the Musselmen or as he has for the Information of his Reader very pertinently proved should be writ Moslemim without which perhaps we should not have known his Skill in Arabick or in plain English the Mahometans believe that Christ is a good Man and not above the Nature of a Man and sent of God to give instruction to the World And my Faith he says is of the very same Scantling This I shall desire him to prove or which in other words he insinuates in this and the neighbouring Pages viz. XXII That that Faith which I have affirm'd to be the Faith which is required to make a Man a Christian is no other than what Turks believe and is contain'd in the Alchoran Or as he expresses it himself p. 55. That a Turk according to me is a Christian for I make the same Faith serve them both And particularly to shew where 't is I say XXIII That Christ is not above the Nature of a Man or have made that a necessary Article of the Christian Faith And next where it is XXIV That I speak as meanly of Christ's Suffering on the Cross and Death as if there were no such thing For thus he says of me p. 54. I seem to have consulted the Mahometan Bible which did say Christ did not
great Business And yet the good Unmasker in a fit of Zeal displays his Throat and crys out p. 59. Hear O ye Heavens and give ear O Earth judge whether this be not the way to introduce Darkness and Ignorance into Christendom whether this be not blinding of Mens Eyes c. For this mighty Pathos ends not there And all things consider'd I know not whether he had not reason in his want of Arguments this way to pour out his concern For neither the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles nor the Apostles Creed nor any thing else being with him the Faith of a Christian i. e. sufficient to make a Christian but just his set of Fundamental Articles when he himself knows what they be In fine nothing being Christianity but just his System 't is time to cry out Help Neighbours hold fast Friends Knowledge Religion Christianity is gone if this be once permitted that the People should read and understand the Scripture for themselves as God shall enlighten their Understandings in the use of the means and not be forced to depend upon me and upon my choosing and my Interpretation for the necessary Points they are to believe to make them Christians If I the great Unmasker have not the sole Power to decree what is or is not Fundamental and People be not bound to receive it for such Faith and the Gospel are given up Darkness and Barbarism will be brought in upon us by this Writer's Contrivance For he is an underhand Factor for that Communion which cries up ignorance for the Mother of Devotion and Religion i. e. in plain English for Popery For to this and nothing else tends all that sputter he makes in the Sections before mention'd I do not think there was ever a more through-paced Declaimer than our Unmasker He leaves out nothing that he thinks will make an affrighting noise in the Ears of his Orthodox Hearers though all the blame and censure he pours out upon others light only on himself For let me ask this Zealous Upholder of Light and Knowledge does he think it reasonable that any one who is not a Christian should be suffer'd to be undisturb'd in his Parish Nay does he think fit that any such should live free from the Lash of the Magistrate or from the Persecution of the Ecclesiastical Power He seems to talk with another Air p. 65. In the next place I ask whether any one is a Christian who hath not the Faith of a Christian Thirdly I ask whether he has the Faith of a Christian who does not explicitly believe all the Fundamental Articles of Christianity And to conclude I ask him whether all those that he has set down are not Fundamental necessary Articles When the Unmasker has fairly answer'd these Questions it will be seen who is for Popery and the Ignorance and Tyranny that accompanies it The Unmasker is for making and imposing Articles of Faith But he is for this Power in himself He likes not Popery which is nothing but the Tyranny and imposing upon Mens Understandings Faith and Consciences in the hands of the old Gentleman at Rome But it would he thinks do admirably well in his own hands And who can blame him for it Would not that be an excellent way to propagate Light and Knowledge by tying up all Men to a bundle of Articles of his own culling Or rather to the Authority of Christ and his Apostles residing in him For he does not nor ever will give us a full view of Fundamentals of his Christianity But like the Church of Rome to secure our Dependance reserves to himself a Power of declaring others and defining what is Matter of Faith as he shall see occasion Now therefore vail your Bonnets to the Unmasker all you that have a Mind to be Christians Break not your Heads about the Scriptures to examine what they require of you Submit your Faith implicitly to the Unmasker he will understand and find out the necessary Points for you to believe Take them just so many as he thinks fit to deliver them to you This is the way to be knowing Christians But be sure ask not whether those he is pleas'd to deliver be every one of them Fundamental and all the fundamental Articles necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian Such a capricious Question spoils all Overturns Christianity which is intrusted to the Unmasker's sole keeping to be dispensed out as he thinks fit Iâ— you refuse an implicit Faith to him he will presently find you have it for the whore of Babylon he will smell out Popery in it immediately For he has a very shrewd Scent and you will be discover'd to be an Underhand Factor for the Church of Rome But if the Unmasker were such an Enemy as he pretends to those Factors I wonder he should in what he has said concerning the Apostles Creed so exactly jump with Knot the Jesuit If any one doubt of this I desire him to look into the Fourth Chapter of Knot 's Charity maintain'd and there he will see how well our Unmasker and that Iesuit agree in Argument nay and Expressions too But yet I do not think him so far guilty as to be imployed as an Underhand Factor for Popery Every Body will I suppose be ready to pronounce him so far an Innocent as to clear him from that The Cunning of his Design goes not beyond the laying out of his preaching Oratory for the setting up his own System and making that the sole Christianity To that end he would be glad to have the Power of interpreting Scripture of defining and declaring Articles of Faith and imposing them This which makes the absolute Power of the Pope he would not I think establish at Rome but 't is plain he would have it himself if he could get it for the Support of the Christianity of his System An implicit Faith if he might have the Management of it and the taking Fundamentals upon Trust from his Authority would be of excellent Use. Such a Power in his Hands would spread Truth and Knowledge in the World i. e. his own Orthodoxy and Set of Opinions But if a Man differs nay questions any thing of that whether it be absolutely necessary to make one a Christian 't is immediately a Contrivance to let in Popery and to bring Darkness and Barbarism into the Christian World But I must tell the Innocent Unmasker whether he designs it or no That if his calling his System the only Christianity can bring the World to receive from him Articles of Faith of his own chusing as Fundamentals necessary to be believed by all Men to make them Christians which Christ and his Apostles did not propose to all Men to make them Christians he does only set up Popery in another Guise and lay the Foundatians of Ignorance Darkness and Barbarism in the Christian World For all the Ignorance and Blindness that Popery introduced was only upon this Foundation And if
spoil us of all the other Articles of Christian Faith but one Have a better heart good Sir for I assure you no body can rob you of your God but by your own consent Nor spoil you of any of the Articles of your Faith If you look for them where God has placed them in the Holy Scripture and take them as he has framed and fashion'd them there there you will always find them safe and sound But if they come out of an Artificer's Shop and be of humane Invention I cannot answer for them They may for ought I know be nothing but an Idol of your own setting up which may be pull'd down should you cry out never so much Great is Diana of the Ephesians He who considers this Argument of one and none as managed by the Unmasker and observes his Pathetical way of reasoning all through his Book must confess that he has got the very Philosopher's Stone in disputing That which would be worthless Lead in others he turns into pure Gold His Oratory changes its Nature and gives it the noble Tincture So that what in plain reasoning would be Nonsence let him but put it into a Speech or an Exclamation and there it becomes strong Argument Whether this be not so I desire Mode and Figure may decide And to those I shall desire he would reduce the Proofs which p. 73. he says he has given of these following Propositions viz. XXIX That I have corrupted Mens Minds XXX That I have depraved the Gospel XXXI That I have abused Christianity For all these three p. 73. he affirms of me without Proof and without Honesty Whether it be from confusion of Thought or unfairness of Design either because he has not clear distinct notions of what he would say or finds it not to his purpose to speak them clearly out or both together so it is that the Unmasker very seldom but when he rails delivers himself so that one can certainly tell what he would have The Question is what is absolutely necessary to be believed by every one to make him a Christian. It has been clearly made out from an exact Survey of the History of our Saviour and his Apostles that the whole aim of all their Preaching every where was to convince the unbelieving World of these two great Truths First That there was one Eternal invisible God Maker of Heaven and Earth And next That Iesus of Nazareth was the Messiah the promised King and Saviour And that upon Mens believing these two Articles they were Baptized and admitted into the Church i. e. received as Subjects of Christ's Kingdom and pronounced Believers From whence it unavoidably follows that these two are the only Truths necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian. This Matter of Fact is so evident from the whole tenor of the four Gospels and the Acts And presses so hard that the Unmasker who contends for a great number of other Points necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian thinks himself concern'd to give some Answer to it But in his usual way full of Uncertainty and Confusion To clear this Matter he lays down four Particulars The First is p. 74. That the believing Iesus to be the promised Messiah was the first step to Christianity The Second p. 76. That though this one Proposition viz. of Jesus the Messiah be mentioned alone in some places yet there is reason to think and be perswaded that at the same time other Matters of Faith were proposed The Third p. 76. That though there are several Parts and Members of the Christian Faith yet they do not all occur in any one place of Scripture The Fourth p. 78. That Christianity was erected by degrees These particulars he tells us p. 74. he offers to clear an Objection To see therefore whether they are pertinent or no we must examine what the Objection is as he puts it I think it might have been put in a few words This I am sure it ought to have been put very clear and distinct But the Unmasker has been pleased to give it us p. 73. as followeth Because I designed these Papers for the satisfying of the Reader 's Doubts about any thing occurring concerning the Matter before us and for the establishing of his wavering Mind I will here before I pass to the Second general Head of my Discourse answer a Query or Objection which some and not without some shew of Ground may be apt to start How comes it to pass they will say that this Article of Faith viz. That Iesus is the Messiah or Christ is so often repeated in the New Testament Why is this sometimes urged without the mentioning of any other Article of Belief Doth not this plainly shew that this is all that is requir'd to be believed as necessary to make a Man a Christian May we not inferr from the frequent and sole repetition of this Article in several places of the Evangelists and the Acts that there is no other Point of Faith of absolute necessity but that this alone is sufficient to constitute a Man a true Member of Christ. By which he shews that he is uncertain which way to put the Objection so as may be easiest to get rid of it And therefore he has turn'd it several ways and put several Questions about it As First Why this Article of Faith viz. That Jesus is the Messiah is so often repeated in the New Testament His next Question is Why is this sometimes urged without the mentioning any other Article of Belief which supposes that sometimes other Articles of Belief are mentioned with it The Third Question is May we not infer from the frequent and sole repetition of this Article in several places of the Evangelists and Acts. Which last Question is in effect Why is this so frequently and alone repeated in the Evangelists and the Acts i. e. in the Preachings of our Saviour and his Apostles to Unbelievers For of that he must give an account if he will remove the difficulty Which three though put as one yet are three as distinct Questions and demand a Reason for three as distinct Matters of Fact as these three are viz. frequently proposed Sometimes propos'd alone and always propos'd alone in the Preachings of our Saviour and his Apostles for so in truth it was all through the Gospels and the Acts to the unconverted Believers of one God alone These three Questions being thus jumbled together in one Objection let us see how the Four particulars he mentions will account for them The first of them is this The believing of Iesus to be the promised Messias was says he the first step to Christianity Let it be so what do you infer from thence The next words shew Therefore this rather than any other Article was propounded to be believed by all those whom either our Saviour or his Apostles invited to imbrace Christianity Let your Premises be never so true and your Deduction of this
Proposition be never so regular from them it is all lost Labour This Conclusion is not the Proposition you were to prove Your Questions were why this Article is so often proposed And in those frequent repetitions why sometimes urged alone and why always proposed alone viz. to those whom either our Saviour or his Apostles invited to imbrace Christianity And your Answer is because the believing Iesus to be the Messias was the first step to Christianity This therefore remains upon you to be proved XXXII That because the believing Iesus to be the Messias is the first step to Christianity therefore this Article is frequently proposed in the New Testament Is sometimes proposed without the mentioning any other Article and always alone to Vnbelievers And when you have proved this I shall desire you to apply it to our present Controversie His next Answer to those Questions is in these words p. 76. That though this one Proposition or Article be mentioned alone in some places yet there is reason to think and be perswaded that at the same time other Matters of Faith were proposed From whence it lies upon him to make out this reasoning viz. XXXIII That because there is reason to think and be perswaded that at the same time that this one Article was mentioned alone as it was sometimes other Matters of Faith were propos'd Therefore this Article was often proposed in the New Testament Sometimes proposed alone and always proposed alone in the Preachings of our Saviour and his Apostles to Unbelievers This I set down to shew the force of his Answer to his Questions Supposing it to be true not that I grant it to be true That where this one Article is mentioned alone we have reason to think and be perswaded that at the same time other Matters of Faith i. e. Articles of Faith necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian were proposed And I doubt not but to shew the contrary His Third particular in Answer to the Question proposed in his Objection stands thus p. 76. That though there are several Parts and Members of the Christian Faith yet they do not all occur in any one place of the Scripture which Answer lays it upon him to prove XXXIV That because the several parts of the Members of the Christian Faith do not all occur in any one place of Scripture Therefore this Article That Jesus was the Messias was often proposed in the New Testament sometimes proposed alone and always proposed alone in the Preachings of our Saviour and his Apostles through the History of the Evangelists and the Acts. The Fourth and last Particular which he tells us is the main Answer to the Objection is in these words Pag. 78. That Christianity was erected by degrees Which requires him to make out this Argument viz. XXXV That because Christianity was erected by degrees Therefore this Article that Jesus was the Messias was often proposed in the New Testament sometimes proposed alone and always proposed alone in the Preachings of our Saviour and his Apostles to Unbelievers recorded in the History of the Evangelists and Acts. For as I said before in these three Questions he has put his Objection To which he tells us this is the main Answer Of these four Particulars it is that he says p. 74. To clear this Objection and to give a full and satisfactory Answer to all doubts in this Affair I offer these ensuing particulars which will lead the Reader to the right understanding of the whole case How well they have clear'd the Objection may be seen by barely setting them down as Answers to these Questions wherein he puts the Objection This is all I have hitherto done Whereby is very visible how well supposing them true they clear the Objection and how pertinently they are brought to answer those Questions wherein his Objection is contain'd Perhaps it will be said that neither these nor any thing else can be an apposite Answer to those Questions put so together I answer I am of the same mind But if the Unmasker through ignorance or shuffling will talk thus confusedly he must answer for it He calls all his three Questions one Objection over and over again And therefore which of those Questions it does or does not lie in I shall not trouble my self to divine Since I think he himself cannot tell For which ever he takes of them it will involve him in equal Difficulties I now proceed to examine his particulars themselves and the truth contain'd in them The first pag. 74. stands thus 1. The believing of Iesus to be the promised Messias was the first step to Christianity It was that which made way for the imbracing of all the other Articles a Passage to all the rest Answ. If this be as he would have it only the leading Article amongst a great many other equally necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian This is a reason why it should be constantly preach'd in the first place But this is no reason why this alone should be so often repeated and the other necessary Points not be once mention'd For I desire to know what those other Articles are that in the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles are repeated or urged besides this In the next place if it be true that this Article viz. That Iesus is the Messiah was only the first in order amongst a great many Articles as necessary to be believed how comes it to pass that barely upon the Proposal and believing of this Men were admitted into the Church as Believers The History of the New Testament is full of instances of this as Act. VIII 5. 12. 13. IX and in other places Though it be true what the Unmasker says here That if they did not give Credit to this in the first place that Iesus of Nazareth was that Eminent and Extraordinary Person propheâ—ied of long before and that he was sent and Commissioned by God there could be no hope that they would attend to any other Proposals relating to the Christian Religion yet what he subjoins That this is the true reason why that Article was constantly propounded to be believed by all that looked towards Christianity and why it is mention'd so often â—n the Evangelical Writing is not true For First this supposes that there were other Articles joyn'd with it This he should have first proved and then given the reason of it And not as he does here suppose what is in the Question and then give a reason why it is so and such a reason that is inconsistent with the Matter of Fact that is every where recorded in Holy Writ For if the true reason why the Preaching of this Article that Iesus was the Messiah as it is recorded in the History of the New Testament were only to make way for the other Articles one must needs think that either our Saviour and his Apostles with reverence be it spoken were very strange Preachers Or that the
Evangelists and Author of the Acts were very strange Historians The first were to instruct the World in a new Religion consisting of a great number of Articles says the Unmasker necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian i. e. a great number of Propositions making a large System every one whereof is so necessary for a Man to understand and believe that if any one be omitted he cannot be of that Religion What now did our Saviour and his Apostles do Why if the Unmasker may be believed they went up and down with danger of their Lives and Preach'd to the World What did they Preach Even this single Proposition to make way for the rest viz. This is the Eminent Man sent from God to teach you other things which amounts to no more but this That Iesus was the Person which was to teach them the true Religion but that true Religion it self is not to be found in all their Preaching nay scarce a word of it Can there be any thing more ridiculous than this And yet this was all they Preach'd if it be true that this was all which they meant by the Preaching every where Iesus to be the Messiah And if it were only an Introduction and a making way for the Doctrines of the Gospel But it is plain it was called the Gospel it self Let the Unmasker as a true Successor of the Apostles go and Preach the Gospel as the Apostles did to some part of the Heathen World where the Name of Christ is not known Would not he himself and every body think he was very foolishly imploy'd if he should tell them nothing but this that Iesus was the Person promised and sent from God to reveal the true Religion But should teach them nothing of that true Religion but this Preliminary Article Such the Unmasker makes all the Preaching recorded in the New Testament for the Conversion of the Unbelieving World He makes the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles to be no more but this that the great Prophet promised to the World was come and that Iesus was he But what his Doctrine was that they were silent in and taught not one Article of it But the Unmasker mis-represents it For as to his accusing the Historians the Evangelists and Writers of the Acts of the Apostles for their shameful omission of the whole Doctrine of the Christian Religion to save his Hypothesis as he does under his next Head in these words That though this one Proposition be mention'd alone in some places yet there is reason to think and be perswaded that at the same time other Matters of Faith were proposed I shall shew how bold he makes with those inspired Historians when I come to consider that particular How ridiculous how senseless this bold Unmasker and Reformer of the History of the New Testament makes the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles as it stands recorded of them by infallible Writers is visible But taking it as in truth it is there we shall have a quite other view of it Our Saviour Preach'd every where the Kingdom of God and by his Miracles declar'd himself to be the King of that Kingdom The Apostles Preached the same and after his Ascension openly avowed him to be the Prince and Saviour promis'd But Preach'd not this as a bare Speculative Article of simple belief But that Men might receive him for their King and become his Subjects When they told the World that he was the Christ it was not as the Unmasker will have it Believe this Man to be a Prophet and then he will teach you his new Religion which when you have received and imbraced all and every Article thereof which are a great number you will then be Christians if you be not ignorant or incredulous of any of them But it was Believe this Man to be your King sent from God Take him for such with a resolution to observe the Laws he has given you and you are his Subjects you are Christians For those that truly did so made themselves his Subjects And to continue so there was no more required than a sincere endeavour to know his Will in all things and to obey it Such a Preaching as this of Iesus to be the Messiah the King and Deliverer that God Almighty had promised to Mankind and now had effectually sent to be their Prince and Ruler was not a simple preparation to the Gospel But when received with the Obedience of Faith was the very receiving of the Gospel and had all that was requisite to make Men Christians And without it be so understood no body can clear the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles from that incredible Impersection or their Historians from that unpardonable negligence and not doing either what they ought or what they undertook which our Unmasker hath so impiously charged upon them as will appear yet plainer in what I have to say to the Vnmasker's next Particular For as to the remainder of this Paragraph it contains nothing but his censure and contempt of me for not being of his Mind for not seeing as he sees i. e. in effect not laying that blame which he does either on the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles or on the inspired Writings of their Historians to make them comply with his System and the Christianity he would make The Unmasker 's Second Particular p. 76. tells us That though this One Proposition or Article be mention'd alone in some places yet there is reason to think and be perswaded that at the same time other Matters of Faith were proposed For it is confess'd by all intelligent and observing Men that the History of the Scripture is concise and that in relating of Matter of Fact many Passages are omitted by the Sacred Penmen Wherefore though but this one Article of belief because it is a Leading one and makes way for the rest be expresly mention'd in some of the Gospels yet we must not conclude thence that no other Matter of Faith was requir'd to be admitted of For things are briefly set down in the Evangelical Records and we must suppose many things which are not in direct terms related Answ. The Vnmasker here keeps to his usual custom of speaking in doubtful terms He says that where this one Article that Iesus is the Messiah is alone recorded in the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles We have reason to be perswaded that at the same time other Matters of Faith were propos'd If this be to his purpose by Matters of Faith must be meant Fundamental Articles of Faith absolutely necessary to be believed by every Man to make him a Christian. That such Matters of Faith are omitted in the History of the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles by the Sacred Historians this he says we have reason to be perswaded of Answ. They need be good Reasons to perswade a rational Man that the Evangelists in their History of our Saviour and his
the presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Book So far his History is by his own Confession concise But these says he are written that ye might believe that Iesus is the Messiah the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his Name As concise as it was there was yet if the Apostle's word may be taken for it against the Unmâ—sker's enough contain'd in his Gospel for the procuring of eternal life to those who believed it And whether it was that one Article that he there sets down viz. That Iesus was the Messiah or that Set of Articles which the Unmâ—sker gives us I shall leave to this Modern Divine to resolve And if he thinks still that all the Articles he has set down in his Roll are necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian I must desire him to shew them to me in St. Iohn's Gospel or else to convince the World that St. Iohn was mistaken when he said that he had written his Gospel that Men might believe that Iesus is the Messiah the Son of God and that believing they might have life thorugh his Name So that granting the History of the Scripture to be so concise as the Unmasker would have it viz. That in some places the infallible Writers recording the Discourses of our Saviour and his Apostles omitted all the other Fundamental Articles propos'd by them to be believed to make Men Christians but this one that Iesus was the Messiah Yet this will not remove the Objection that lies against his other Fundamentals which are not to be found in the Histories of the Four Evangelists nay which are not to be found in every one of them If every one of them contains the Gospel of Jesus Christ and consequently all things necessary to Salvation Whether this will not be a new ground of Accusation against me and give the Unmasker a right to charge me with laying by three of the Gospels with contempt as well as he did before charge me with a contempt of the Epistles must be left to his soveraign Authority to determine Having shew'd that allowing all he says here to be as he would have it yet it clears not the Objection that lies against his Fundamentals I shall now examine what truth there is in what he here pretends viz. that though the one Article that Jesus is the Messiah be mention'd alone in some places yet we have reason to be perswaded from the conciseness of the Scripture History that there were at the same time join'd with it other necessary Articles of Faith in the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles It is to be observed that the Unmasker builds upon this false Supposition that in some places other necessary Articles of Faith join'd with that of Iesus the Messiah are by the Evangelists mention'd to be propos'd by our Saviour and his Apostles as necessary to be believed to make those they Preach'd to Christians For his saying that in some places that one necessary Article is mention'd alone implies that in other places it is not mention'd alone but join'd with other necessary Articles And then it will remain upon him to shew XXXVI In what place either of the Gospels or of the Acts other Articles of Faith are join'd with this and propos'd as necessary to be believed to make Men Christians The Unmasker 't is probable will tell us that the Article of Christ's Resurrection is sometimes join'd with this of the Messiah as particularly in that first Sermon of St. Peter Acts II. by which there were Three Thousand added to the Church at one time Answ. This Sermon well consider'd will explain to us both the Preaching of the Apostles what it was that they propos'd to their unbelieving Auditors to make them Christians and also the manner of St. Luke's recording their Sermons 'T is true that here are deliver'd by St. Peter many other Matters of Faith besides that of Iesus being the Messiah For all that he said being of Divine Authority is Matter of Faith and may not be disbelieved The first Part of his Discourse is to prove to the Iews that what they had observed of Extraordinary at that time amongst the Disciples who spake variety of Tongues did not proceed from Wine but from the Holy Ghost And that this was the pouring out of the Spirit prophesied of by the Prophet Ioel. This is all Matter of Faith and is written that it might be believed But yet I think that neither the Unmasker nor any body else will say that this is such a necessary Article of Faith that no Man could without an explicit belief of it be a Christian Though being a Declaration of the Holy Ghost by St. Peter it is so much a Matter of Faith that no body to whom it is now propos'd can deny it and be a Christian. And thus all the Scripture of the New Testament given by Divine Inspiration is Matter of Faith and necessary to be believed by all Christians to whom it is propos'd But yet I do not think any one so unreasonable as to say that every Proposition in the New Testament is a Fundamental Article of Faith which is required explicitly to be believed to make a Man a Christian Here now is a matter of Faith join'd in the same Sermon with this Fundamental Article that Iesus is the Messiah And reported by the Sacred Historian so at large that it takes up a Third part of St. Peter's Sermon recorded by St. Luke And yet it is such a matter of Faith as is not contain'd in the Unmasker's Catalogue of necessary Articles I must ask him then whether St. Luke were so concise an Historian that he would so at large set down a matter of Faith propos'd by St. Peter that was not necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian and wholly leave out the very mention of all the Unmasker's additional necessary Articles if indeed they were necessary to be believed to make Men Christians I know not how any one could charge the Historian with greater unfaithfulness or greater folly But this the Unmasker sticks not at to preserve to himself the Power of appointing what shall and what shall not be necessary Articles and of making his System the Christianity necessary and only necessary to be received The next thing that St. Peter proceeds to in this his Sermon is to declare to the Unbelieving Iews that Iesus of Nazareth who had done Miracles amongst them whom they had Crucified and put to Death and whom God had raised again from the Dead was the Messiah Here indeed our Saviour's Crucifixion Death and Resurrection are mentioned And if they were no where else recorded are matters of Faith which with all the rest of the New Testament ought to be believed by every Christian to whom it is thus propos'd as a part of Divine Revelation But that these were not here propos'd to the Unbelieving Iews as the Fundamental Articles which
St. Peter principally aimed at and endeavoured to convince them of is evident from hence That they are made use of as Arguments to perswade them of this Fundamental Truth viz. That Iesus was the Messiah whom they ought to take for their Lord and Ruler For whatsoever is brought as an Argument to prove another Truth cannot be thought to be the principal thing aimed at in that argumentation though it may have so strong and immediate a connexion with the Conclusion that you cannot deny it without denying even what is inferr'd from it and is therefore the fitter to be an Argument to prove it But that our Saviour's Crucifixion Death and Resurrection were used here as Arguments to perswade them into a belief of this Fundamental Article that Iesus was the Messiah and not as Propositions of a new Faith they were to receive is evident from hence that they Preach'd here to those who knew the Death and Crucifixion of Iesus as well as Peter And therefore these could not be propos'd to them as new Articles of Faith to be believed But those Matters of Fact being what the Iews knew already were a good Argument joyn'd with his Resurrection to convince them of that truth which he endeavoured to give them a Belief of And therefore he rightly inferred from these Facts joined together this Conclusion the believing whereof would make them Christians Therefore let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Iesus whom ye have crucified Lord and Christ. To the making good this sole Proposition his whole Discourse tended This was the sole Truth he laboured to convince them of This the Faith he endeavoured to bring them into which as soon as they had received with Repentance they were by Baptism admitted into the Church and three Thousand at once made Christians Here St. Luke's own Confession without that of intelligent and observing men which the Unmasker has recourse to might have satisfied him again that in relating matters of Fact many passages are omitted by the sacred Pen-men For says St. Luke here v. 40. And with many other words which are not set down One would at first sight wonder why the Unmasker neglects these demonstrative Authorities of the Holy Pen-men themselves where they own their Omissions to tell us that it is confessed by all intelligent and observing men that in relating matters of Fact many Passages are omitted by the sacred Pen-men St. Iohn in what he says of his Gospel directly professes large Omissions and so does St. Luke here But these Omissions would not serve the Unmasker's turn For they are directly against him and what he would have And therefore he had reason to pass them by For St. Iohn in that passage above-cited Ch. XX. 30 31. tells us that how much soever he had left out of his History he had incerted that which was enough to be believed to eternal Life But these are written that ye might believe and believing ye might have life But this is not all he assures us of viz. That he had recorded all that was necessary to be believed to eternal Life But he in express words tells us what is that ALL that is necessary to be believed to eternal Life and for the Proof of which Proposition alone he writ all the rest of his Gospel viz. That we might believe What Even this That Iesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing this we might have life through his Name This may serve for a Key to us in reading the History of the New Testament And shew us why this Article that Iesus was the Messiah is no where omitted though a great part of the Arguments used to convince Men of it nay very often thâ— whole Discourse made to lead Men into the Belief of it be entirely omitted The Spirit of God directed them every where to set down the Article which was absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians So that That could no ways be doubted of nor mistaken But the Arguments and Evidences which were to lead Men into this Faith would be sufficient if they were once found any where though scattered here and there in those Writings whereof that infallible Spirit was the Author This preserved the Decorum used in all Histories and avoided those continual large and unnecessary Repetitions which our critical Unmasker might have call'd tedious with juster Reason than he does the Repetition of this short Proposition that Iesus is the Messiah which I set down no oftner in my Book than the Holy Ghost thought fit to insert in the History of the New Testament as concise as it is But this it seems to our Nice Unmasker is tedious tedious and offensive And if a Christian and a Successor of the Apostles cannot bear the being so often told what it was that our Saviour and his Apostles every where preach'd to the Believers of one God though it be contain'd in one short Proposition What cause of Exception and disgust would it have been to Heathen Readers some whereof might perhaps have been as Critical as the Unmasker if this sacred History had in every Page been filled with the repeated Discourses of the Apostles all of them every where to the same purpose viz. to perswade Men to believe that Iesuâ— was the Messiah It was necessary even by the Laws of History as often as their preaching any where was mention'd to tell to what purpose they spoke which being always to convince Men of this one Fundamental Truth 't is no wonder we find it so often repeated But the Arguments and Reasonings with which this one Point is urged are as they ought to be in most places left out A constant Repetition of them had been superfluous and consequently might justly have been blam'd as tedious But there is enough recorded aboundantly to convince any rational Man any one not willfully blind that he is that promised Saviour And in this we have a reason of the Omissions in the History of the New Testament which were no other than such as became prudent as well as faithful Writers Much less did that Conciseness with which the Vnmasker would cover his bold Censure of the Gospels and the Acts and as it seems lay them by with Contempt make the holy Writers omit any thing in the preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles absolutely necessary to be known and believed to make Men Christians Conformable hereunto we shall find St. Luke writes his History of the Acts of the Apostles In the beginning of it he sets down at large some of the Discourses made to the unbelieving Iews But in most other Places unless it be where there was something particular in the Circumstances of the Matter he contents himself to tell to what purpose they spoke Which was every where only this That Iesus was the Messiah Nay St. Luke in the first Speech of St. Peter Act. 11. which he thought fit to give us a great part
receive a Prophets reward and he that receiveth a righteous man shall receive a righteous mans reward And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a Disciple verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his reward And it came to pass when Iesus had made an end of Commanding his twelve Disciples This is the Commission our Saviour gave the Apostles when he sent them abroad to recover and save the lâ—st Sheep of the house of Israel And will any of the Unmasker's intelligent and observing Men say that the History of the Scripture is so concise that any passages any essential any material nay any parts at all of the Apostles Commission are here omitted by the Sacred Penman This Commission is set down so at full and so particularly that S. Matthew who was one of them to whom it was given seems not to have left out one word of all that our Saviour gave them in charge And it is so large even to every particular Article of their Instructions that I doubt not but my citing so much verbatim out of the Sacred Text will here again be troublesome to the Unmasker But whether he will venture again to call it tedious must be as Nature or Caution happen to have the better on 't Can any one who reads this Commission unless he hath the Brains as well as the Brow of an Unmasker alledge that the conciseness of the History of the Scripture has concealed from us those Fundamental Doctrines which our Saviour and his Apostles Preach'd but the Sacred Historians thought fit by consent for unconceivable Reasons to leave out in the Narrative they give us of those Preachings This Passage here wholly confuteth that They could Preach nothing but what they were sent to Preach And that we see is contain'd in these few words Preach saying the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Heal the Sick cleanse the Lepers raise the Dead cast out Devils i. e. Acquaint them that the Kingdom of the Messiah is come and let them know by the Miracles you do in my Name that I am that King and Deliverer they expect If there were any other necessary Articles that were to be believed for the saving of the lost Sheep they were sent to can one think that St. Matthew who sets down so minutely every Circumstance of their Commission would have omitted the most important and material of it He was an ear Witness and one that was sent And so without supposing him inspired could not be misled by the short account he might receive from others who by their own or others forgetfulness might have drop'd those other Fundamental Articles that the Apostles were order'd to Preach The very like account St. Luke gives us of our Saviours Commission to the Seventy Ch. X. 1 16. After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place whither he himself would come Therefore said he unto them The harvest truly is great but the labourers are few Pray ye therefore the Lord of the hâ—rvest that he would send forth labourers into his harvest Go your ways behold I send you forth as Lambs among Wolves Carry neither purse nor scrip nor shooes and salute no man by the way And into whatsoever house ye enter first say Peace be to this house And if the son of peace be there your peace shall rest upon it if not it shall return to you again And in the same house remain eating and drinking such things as they give for the labourer is worthy of his hire Go not from house to house And into whatsoever city ye enter and they receive you eat such things as are set before you And heal the sick that are therein and SAY VNTO THEM THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS COME NIGH VNTO YOV But in whatsoever city ye enter and they receive you not go your ways out into the streets of the same and say Even the very dust of your city which cleaveth on us we do wipe off against you Notwithstanding be ye sure of this that the Kingdom of God is come nigh unto you But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city Wo unto thee Chorazin Wo unto thee Bethsaida For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which have been done in you they had a great while ago repented sitting in sackcloth and ashes But it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you And thou Capernaum which art exalted to Heaven shalt be thrust down to Hell He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Our Saviour's Commission here to the Seventy whom he sent to Preach is so exactly conformable to that which he had before given to the Twelve Apostles that there needs but this one thing more to be observed to convince any one that they were sent to convert their Hearers to this sole belief that the Kingdom of the Messiah was come and that Iesus was the Messiah And that the Historians of the New Testament are not so concise in their account of this Matter that they would have omitted any other necessary Articles of Belief that had been given the Seventy in Commission That which I mean is the Kingdom of the Messiah is twice mentioned in it to be come v. 9. 11. If there were other Articles given them by our Saviour to propose to their Hearers St. Luke must be very fond of this one Article when for conciseness sake leaving out the other Fundamental Articles that our Saviour gave them in charge to Preach he repeats this more than once The Unmasker's Third Particular p. 76. begins thus This also must be thought of that though there are several parts and members of the Christian Faith yet they do not all occur in any one place of Scripture Something is in it whether owing to his Will or Understanding I shall not enquire that the Unmasker always delivers himself in doubtful and ambiguous terms It had been as easie for him to have said There are several Articles of the Christian Faith necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian as to say as he does here There are several parts and members of the Christian Faith But as an evidence of the clearness of his Notions or the fairness of his Arguing he always rests in generals There are I grant several parts and members of the Christian Faith which do no more occur in any one place of Scripture than the whole New Testament can be said to occur in any one place of Scripture For every Proposition deliver'd in the New Testament for Divine Revelation is a part and member of the Christian Faith But 't is not those parts and members of the Christian Faith
we are speaking of But only such parts and members of the Christian Faith as are absolutely necessary to be believed by every Man before he can be a Christian. And in that sense I deny his Assertion to be true viz. That they do not occur in any one place of Scripture For they do all occur in that first Sermon of St. Peter Act. II. 11. by which Three Thousand were at that time brought into the Church and that in these words Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Iesus whom you have Crucified Lord and Christ. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Iesus Christ. Here is the Doctrine of Jesus the Messiah the Lord and of Repentance propos'd to those who already believe one God Which I say are all the parts of the Christian Faith necessary to be received to make a Man a Christian. To suppose as the Unmasker does here that more is required is to beg not prove the Question If he disputes this Collection of mine out of that Sermon of St. Peter I will give him a more authentick Collection of the necessary parts of the Christian Faith from an Author that he will not question Let him look into Act. 20. 20 c. and there he will find St. Paul saying thus to the Elders of Ephesus whom he was taking his last leave of with an Assurance that he should never see them again I have kept back nothing that was profitable unto you But have shew'd you and have taught you publickly and from house to house testifying both to the Iews and also to the Greeks repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Iesus Christ. If St. Paul knew what was necessary to make a Christian here it is Here he if he knew how to do it for 't is plain from his words he designed to do it has put it together But there is a greater yet than St. Paul who has brought all the parts of Faith necessary to Salvation into one place I mean our Saviour himself Ioh. XVII 13. in these words This is Life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent But the Unmasker goes on Therefore when in some places only one single part of the Christian Faith is made mention of as necessarily to be imbrac'd in order to Salvation we must be careful not to take it alone but to supply it from several other Places which make mention of other necessary and indispensable points of belief I will give the Reader a plain instance of this Rom. X. 9. If thou shalt believe in thy heart that God hath rais'd him i. e. the Lord Iesus from the dead thou shalt be saved Here one Article of Faith viz. the belief of Christ's resurrection because it is of so great Importance in Christianity is only mention'd But all the rest must be supposed because they are mention'd in other places Answ. One would wonder that any one conversant in holy Writ with ever so little Attention much more that an Expounder of the Scriptures should so mistake the sense and stile of the Scripture Believing Iesus to be the Messiah with a lively Faith i. e. as I have shew'd taking him to be our King with a sincere submission to the Laws of his Kingdom is all that is required to make a Man a Christian for this includes repentance too The believing him therefore to be the Messiah is very often and with great reason put both for Faith and Repentance too which are sometimes set down singly where one is put for both as implying the other And sometimes they are both mention'd and then Faith as contradistinguish'd to Repentance is taken for a simple Assent of the mind to this Truth that Iesus is the Messiah Now this Faith is variously expressed in Scripture There are some particulars in the History of our Saviour allow'd to be so peculiarly appropriated to the Messiah such incommunicable marks of him that to believe them of Iesus of Nazareth was in effect the same as to believe him to be the Messiah and so are put to express it The principal of these is his Resurrection from the dead which being the great and demonstrative Proof of his being the Messiah 't is not at all strange that the believing his Resurrection should be put for believing him to be the Messiah Since the declaring his Resurrection was a declaring him to be the Messiah For thus St. Paul argues Act. XIII 32 33. We declare unto you good tidings or we preach the Gospel to you for so the word signifies how that the promise that was made unto the Fathers God hath fullfilled the same unto us their children in that he hath raised up Iesus again The force of which Argument lies in this that if Iesus was raised from the dead then he was certainly the Messiah And thus the promise of the Messiah was fullfilled in raising Iesus from the dead The like Argument St. Paul useth 1 Cor. XV. 17. If Christ be not raised your faith is vain you are yet in your Sins i. e. If Iesus be not risen from the dead he is not the Messiah your believing it is in vain and you will receive no benefit by that Faith And so likewise from the same Argument of his Resurrection he at Thessalonica proves him to be the Messiah Act. XVII 2 3. And Paul as his manner was went into the Synagogue and three Sabbath Days reasoned with the Jews out of the Scriptures opening and alledging that the Messiah must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead And that this Iesus whom I preach unto you is the Messiah The necessary Connection of these two that if he rose from the dead he was the Messiah And if he rose not from the dead he was not the Messiah The chief Priest and Pharisees that had prosecuted him to Death understood very well who therefore came together unto Pilate saying Sir we remember that that deceiver said whilst he was yet alive after three days I will rise again Command therefore that the Sepulchre be made sure unto the third day least his disciples come by night and steal him away and say unto the people he is risen from the dead So the last error shall be worse than the first The error they here speak of 't is plain was the opinion that he was the Messiah To stop that Belief which his Miracles had procured him amongst the People they had got him put to Death But if after that it should be believed that he rose again from the dead this demonstration that he was the Messiah would but establish what they had laboured to destroy by his Death Since no one who believed his Resurrection could doubt of his being the Messiah 'T is not at all therefore to be wonder'd that his Resurrection his Ascension his Rule and Dominion and his coming to judge the quick and
the dead which are Characteristical marks of the Messiah and belong peculiarly to him should sometimes in Scripture be put alone as sufficient descriptions of the Messiah And the believing them of him put for believing him to be the Messiah Thus Acts X. our Saviour in Peter's Discourse to Cornelius when he brought him the Gospel is describ'd to be the Messiah by his Miracles Death Resurrection Dominion and coming to judge the quick and the dead These which in my Reasonableness of Christianity I have upon this ground taken the Liberty to call concomitant Articles where they are set alone for the Faith to which Salvation is promis'd plainly signifie the believing Iesus to be the Messiah that Fundamental Article which has the promise of Life And so give no Foundation at all for what the Unmasker says in these words Here one Article of Faith viz. The belief of Christ's Resurrection because it is of so great Importance in Christianity is only mention'd but all the rest must be suppos'd because they are mention'd in other places Answ. If all the rest be of absolute and indispensible Necessity to be believed to make a Man a Christian all the rest are every one of them of equal importance For things of equal Necessity to any end are of equal Importance to that end But here the Truth forced its way unawares from the Unmasker Our Saviour's Resurrection for the reason I have given is truly of great importance in Christianity so great that his being or not being the Messiah stands or falls with it So that these two important Articles are inseparable and in effect make but one For since that time believe one and you believe both Deny one of them and you can believe neither If the Unmasker can shew me any one of the Articles in his List which is not of this great importance mention'd alone with a promise of Salvation for believing it I will grant him to have some colour for what he says here But where is to be found in the Scripture any such Expression as this If thou shalt believe with thy heart the corruption and degeneracy of humane nature thou shalt be saved or the like This place therefore out of the Romans makes not for but against his List of necessary Articles One of them alone he cannot shew me any where set down with a Supposition of the rest as having Salvation promis'd to it Though it be true that that one which alone is absolutely necessary to be superadded to the Belief of one God is in divers places differently expressed That which he subjoins as a Consequence of what he had said is a farther Proof of this And consequently says he if we would give an impartial account of our belief we must consult those places And they are not all together but dispersed here and there Wherefore we must look them out and acquaint our selves with the several particulars which make up our belief and render it entire and consummate Answ. Never was Man constanter to a loose way of talking The Question is only about Articles necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian And here he talks of the several particulars which make up our belief and render it entire and consummate Confounding as he did before essential and integral parts which it seems he cannot distinguish Our Faith is true and saving when it is such as God by the new Covenant requires it to be But it is not entire and consummate till we explicitely believe all the Truths contained in the Word of God For the whole Revelation of Truth in the Scripture being the proper and entire Object of Faith Our Faith cannot be entire and consummate till it be adequate to its proper Object which is the whole divine Revelation contain'd in the Scripture And so to make our Faith entire and consummate we must not look out those places which he says are not all together To talk of looking out and culling of places is Nonsense where the whole Scripture alone can make up our belief and render it entire and consummate Which no one I think can hope for in this frail State of Ignorance and Error To make the Unmasker speak Sense â— and to the purpose here we must understand him thus That if we will give an impartial Account of the Articles that are necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian we must consult those places where they are for they are not all together but dispersed here and there wherefore we must look them out and acquaint our selves with the several particulars which make up the Fundamental Articles of our belief and will render a Catalogue of them entire and consummate If his Supposition be true I grant his Method to be reasonable and upon that I join issue with him Let him thus give us an impartial Account of our belief Let him acquaint us with the several particulars which make up a Christian's belief and render it entire and consummate Till he has done this let him not talk thus in the air of a Method that will not do Let him not reproach me as he does for not taking a course by which he himself cannot do what he reviles me for failing in But our hasty Author says he took another course and thereby deceived himself and unhappily deceived others If it be so I desire the Unmasker to take the course he proposes and thereby undeceive me and others and acquaint us with the several particulars which make up a Christian's belief and render it entire and consummate For I am willing to be undeceived But till he has done that and shewn us by the success of it that his course is better he cannot blame us for â—ollowing that course we have done I come now to his Fourth and last particular p. 78. which he says is the main Answer to the Objection and therefore I shall set it down in his own words entire as it stands together This says he must be born in our Minds that Christianity was erected by degrees according to that Prediction and Promise of our Saviour that the Spirit should teach them all things Joh. XIV 26. and that he should guide them into all truth Joh. XVI 13. viz. after his departure and ascension when the Holy Ghost was to be sent in a special manner to enlighten Mens minds and to discover to them the great Mysteries of Christianity This is to be noted by us as that which gives great light in the present case The discovery of the Doctrines of the Gospel was gradual It was by certain steps that Christianity climbed to its heighth We are not to think then that all the necessary Doctrines of the Christian Religion were clearly publish'd to the World in our Saviour's time Not but that all that were necessary for that time were publish'd But some which were necessary for the succeeding one were not then discover'd or at least not fully They had ordinarily no belief before
not then â—â—â—cover'd or at least not fully We must here excuse the doubtfulness of his talking concerning the discovery of his other necessary Articles For how could he say they were discover'd or not discover'd clearly or obscurely fully or not fully when he does not yet know them all nor can tell us what those necessary Articles are If he does know them let him give us a List of them and then we shall see easily whether they were at all publish'd or discover'd in our Saviour's time If there are some of them that were not at all discover'd in our Saviour's time let him speak it out and leave shifting And if some of those that were not necessary for our Saviour's time but for the succeeding one only were yet discover'd in our Saviour's time why were they not necessary to be believed in that time But the truth is he knows not what these Doctrines necessary for Succeeding times are and therefore can say nothing positive about their Discovery And for those that he has set down as soon as he shall name any one of them to be of the number of those not necessary for our Saviour's time but necessary for the Succeeding one it will presently appear either that it was discover'd in our Saviour's time And then it was as necessary for his time as the Succeeding Or else that it was not discover'd in his time nor to several Converts after his time before they were made Christians And therefore it was no more necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian in the Succeeding than it was in our Saviour's time However general Positions and Distinctions without a Foundation serve for shew and to beguile unwary and inattentive Readers 2 o. Having thus minded him that the Question is about Articles of Faith necessary to be explicitly and distinctly believed to make a Man a Christian I then in the next place demand of him to tell me XXXIX Whether or no all the Articles necessary now to be distinctly and explicitly believed to make any Man a Christian were distinctly and explicitly published or discover'd in our Saviour's time And then I shall desire to know of him XL. A Reason why they were not Those that he instances in of Christ's Death and Resurrection will not help him one jot For they are not new Doctrines revealed new Mysteries discovered but Matters of Fact which happen'd to our Saviour in their due time to compleat in him the Character and Predictions of the Messiah and demonstrate him to be the Deliverer promised These are recorded of him by the Spirit of God in holy Writ but are no more necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian than any other part of Divine Revelation but as far as they have an immediate Connexion with his being the Messiah and cannot be denied without denying him to be the Messiah And therefore this Article of his Resurrection which supposes his Death and such other Propositions as are convertible with his being the Messiah are as they very well may be put for his being the Messiah and as I have shew'd propos'd to be believed in the place of it All that is reveal'd in Scripture has a consequential necessity of being believed by all those to whom it is propos'd Because it is of Divine Authority one part as much as another And in this sense all the Divine Truths in the inspired Writings are Fundamental and necessary to be believed But then this will destroy our Vnmasker's select Number of Fundamental Articles And the choicest and sublimest Truths of Christianity which he tells us are to be met with in the Epistles will not be more necessary to be believed than any which he may think the commonest or meanest Truths in any of the Epistles or the Gospels Whatsoever part of Divine Revelation whether reveal'd before or in or after our Saviour's time whether it contain according to the distinction of our Unmasker's nice palate choice or common sublime or not sublime Truths is necessary to be believed by every one to whom it is propos'd as far as he underâ—tands what is propos'd But God by Iesus Christ has entred into a Covenant of Grace with Mankind a Covenant of Faith instead of that of Works wherein some Truths are absolutely necessary to be explicitly believed by them to make Men Christians and therefore those Truths are necessary to be known and consequently necessary to be propos'd to them to make them Christians This is peculiar to them to make Men Christians For all Men as Men are under a necessary obligation to believe what God proposes to them to be believed But there being certain distinguishing Truths which belong to the Covenant of the Gospel which if Men know not they cannot be Christians and they being some of them such as cannot be known without being propos'd those and those only are the necessary Doctrines of Christianity I speak of without a knowledge of and assent to which no Man can be a Christian. To come therefore to a clear decision of this Controversie I desire the Unmasker to tell me XLI What those Doctrines are which are absolutely necessary to be proposed to every Man to make him a Christian XLII 1 o. Whether they are all the Truths of Divine Revelation contain'd in the Bible For I grant his Argument which in another place he uses for some of them and truly belongs to them all viz. That they were reveal'd and written there on purpose to be believed and that it is indispensibly necessary for Christians to believe them XLIII 2 o. Or whether it be only that one Article of Iesus being the Messiah which the History of our Saviour and his Apostles Preaching has with such a peculiar distinction every where propos'd XLIV 3 o. Or whether the Doctrines necessary to be propos'd to every one to make him a Christian be any set of Truths between these two And if he says this latter then I must ask him XLV What they are that we may see why those rather than any other contain'd in the New Testament are necessary to be propos'd to every Man to make him a Christian And if they are not every one propos'd to him and assented to by him he cannot be a Christian. The Vnmasker makes a great noise and hopes to give his unwary though well-meaning Readers odd Thoughts and strong Impressions against my Book by declaiming against my lank Faith and my narrowing of Christianity to one Article which as he says is the next way to reduce it to none But when it is consider'd it will be found that 't is he that narrows Christianity The Unmasker as if he were Arbiter and Dispenser of the Oracles of God takes upon him to single out some Texts of Scripture and where the words of Scripture will not serve his turn to impose on us his Interpretations and Deductions as necessary Articles of Faith which is in Effect to make them of equal Authority with the
of the Iews The Son of God was so known a Name amongst the Iews to stand for the Messiah that having got that from his Mouth they thought they had Proof enough of Treason against him This carries with it a clear and easie meaning But if the Son of God be to be taken as the Unmasker would have it for a Declaration of his Deity I desire him to make common and coherent sence of it I shall add one Consideration more to shew that the Son of God was a Form of Speech then used amongst the Iews to signifie the Messiah from the persons that used it uiz Iohn the Baptist Nathanael St. Peter St. Martha the Sanhedrim and the Centurion Luke XXVII 54. Here are Iews Heathens Friends Enemies Men Women Believers and Unbelievers All indifferently use this Phrase of the Son of God and apply it to Iesus The Question between the Unmasker and me is whether it was used by these several persons as an Appellation of the Messiah or as the Unmasker would have it in a quite different Sence As such an Application of Divinity to our Saviour that he that shall deny that to be the meaning of it in the minds of these Speakers denies the Divinity of Iesus Christ. For if they did speak it without that meaning it is plain it was a Phrase known to have another meaning or else they had talked unintelligible Jargon Now I will ask the Unmasker whether he thinks that the Eternal Generation or as the Unmasker calls it Filiation of Iesus the Son of God was a Doctrine that had enter'd into the Thoughts of all the Persons above-mentioned even of the Roman Centurion and the Soldiers that were with him watching Jesus If he say he does I suppose he thinks so only for this time and for this occasion And then it will lie upon him to give the World convincing Reasons for his Opinion that they may think so too Or if he does not think so he must give up this Argument and allow that this Phrase in these places does not necessarily import the Deity of our Saviour and the Doctrine of his eternal Generation And so a Man may take it to be an Expression standing for the Messiah without being a Socinian any more than he himself is one There is one place the Unmasker tells us p. 87. that confutes all the Surmises about the Identity of these terms It is says he that famous Confession of Faith which the Aethiopian Eâ—nuch made when Philip told him he might be baptized if he believed This without doubt was said according to that apprehension which he had of Christ from Philip's instructing him for it is said he Preached unto him Iesus v. 35. He had acquainted him that Iesus was the Christ the anointed of God and also that he was the Son of God which includes in it that he was God And accordingly this Noble Proselyte gives this account of his Faith in order to his being Baptiz'd in order to his being admitted a Member of Christ's Church I believe that Iesus is the Son of God Or you may read it according to the Greek I believe the Son of God to be Iesus Christ. Where there are these two distinct Propositions 1 o. That Iesus is the Christ the Messiah 2 o. That he is not only the Messiah but the Son of God The Unmasker is every where steadily the same subtil Arguer Whether he has proved that the Son of God in this Confession of the Eunuch signifies what he would have we shall examine by and by This at least is Demonstration that this Passage of his overturns his Principles and reduces his long List of Fundamentals to two Propositions the belief whereof is sufficient to make a Man a Christian. This Noble Proselyte says the Unmasker gives this account of his Faith in order to his being baptized in order to being admitted a Member of Christ's Church And what is that Faith according to the Unmasker He tells you there are in it these two distinct Propositions viz. I believe 1 o. That Jesus is the Christ the Messias 2 o. That he is not only the Messias but the Son of God If this famous Confession containing but these two Articles were enough to his being Baptized If this Faith were sufficient to make this Noble Proselyte a Christian what is become of all those other Articles of the Unmasker's System without the belief whereof he in other places tells us a Man cannot be a Christian If he had here told us that Philip had not time nor opportunity during his short stay with the Eunuch to explain to him all the Vnmasker's System and make him understand all his Fundamentals he had had Reason on his side And he might have urged it as a Reason why Philip taught him no more But nevertheless he had by allowing the Eunuch's Confession of Faith sufficient for his Admittance as a Member of Christ's Church given up his other Fundamentals as necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian even that of the Holy Trinity And he has at last reduced his necessary Articles to these two viz. That Iesus is the Messiah and that Iesus is the Son of God So that after his ridiculous calling mine a lank Faith I desire him to consider what he will now call his own Mine is next to none because as he says it is but one Article If that reasoning be good his is not far from none If consists but in two Articles which is next to one and very little more remote from none than one is If any one had but as much Wit as the Unmasker and could be but as smart upon the number two as he has been upon an unit here were a brave opportunity for him to lay out his Parts and he might make vehement Complaints against one that has thus cramp'd our Faith corrupted mens Minds depraved the Gospel and abused Christianity But if it should fall out as I think it will that the Unmasker's two Articles should prove to be but One he has saved another that labour and he stands painted to himself with his own Charcoal The Unmasker would have the Son of God in the Confession of the Eunuch to signifie something different from the Messiah And his reason is because else it would be an absurd Tautology Answ. There are many Exegetical Expressions put together in the Scripture which though they signifie the same thing yet are not absurd Tautologies The Unmasker here inverts the Proposition and would have it to signifie thus The Son of God is Iesus the Messiah which is a Proposition so different from what the Apostles proposed every where else that he ought to have given a Reason why when every where else they made the Proposition to be of some thing affirm'd of Iesus of Nazareth the Eunuch should make the Affirmation to be of something concerning the Son of God As if the Eunuch knew very well what the Son of God signified
will in that one place be reasonable Till then this ridiculous Cant will be a Foundation too weak to sustain that Usurpation that is raised upon it 'T is not that I do not think every one should be perswaded of the Truth of those Opinions he professes 'T is that I contend for And 't is that which I fear the great Sticklers for Orthodoxy often fail in For we see generally that Numbers of them exactly jump in a whole large Collection of Doctrines consisting of Abundance of particulars as if their Notions were by one common Stamp printed on their Minds even to the least Lineament This is very hard if not impossible to be conceived of those who take up their Opinions only from Conviction But how fully soever I am perswaded of the Truth of what I hold I am in common Justice to allow the same Sincerity to him that differs from me And so we are upon equal Terms This Perswasion of Truth on each side invests neither of us with a right to censure or condemn the other I have no more reason to treat him ill for differing from me than he has to treat me ill for the same cause Pity him I may inform him fairly I ought but contemn malign revile or any otherwise prejudice him for not thinking just as I do that I ought not My Orthodoxy gives me no more Authority over him than his for every one is Orthodox to himself gives him over me When the Word Orthodoxy which in effect signifies no more but the Opinions of my Party is made use of as a pretence to domineer as ordinarily it is it is and always will be ridiculous He saith I hate even with a deadly hatred all Catechisms and Confessions all Systems and Models I do not remember that I have once mentioned the Word Catechism either in my Reasonableness of Christianity or Vindication But he knows I hate them deadly and I know I do not And as for Systems and Models all that I say of them in the Pages he quotes to prove my Hatred of them is only this viz. p. 8. of my Vindication Some Men had rather you should write booty and cross your own Design of removing Mens Prejudices to Christianity than leave out one Title of what they put into their Systems Some Men will not bear it that any one should speak of Religion but according to the Model that they themselves have made of it In neither of which places do I speak against Systems or Models but the ill use that some Men make of them He tells me also in the same place p. 104. that I deride Mysteries But for this he hath quoted neither words nor place And where he does not do that I have reason from the frequent Liberties he takes to impute to me what no where appears in my Books to desire the Reader to take what he says not to be true For did he mean fairly he might by quoting my Words put all such Matters of Fact out of doubt and not force me so often as he does to demand where it is as I do now here again LI. Where it is that I deride Mysteries His next Words p. 104. are very remarkable They are O how he the Vindicator grins at the Spirit of Creed making p. 18. Vind. the very thoughts of which do so haunt him so plague and torment him that he cannot rest till it be conjured down And here by the way seeing I have mention'd his rancour against Systematick Books and Writings I might represent the Misery that is coming upon all Booksellers if this Gentleman and his Correspondents go on sucâ—essfully Here is an effectual Plot to undermine Stationers-Hall for all Systems and Bodies of Divinity Philosophy c. must be cashier'd Whatever looks like System must not be bought or sold. This will fall heavy on the Gentlemen of St. Paul 's Church-yard and other places Here the Politick Unmasker seems to threaten me with the Posse of Paul's Church-yard because my Book might lessen their Gain in the Sale of Theological Systems I remember that Demetrius the Shrinemaker which brought no small gain to the Crafts-men whom he called together with the Workmen of like Occupation and said to this purpose Sirs Ye know that by this Craft we have our Wealth Moreover ye see and hear that this Paul hath perswaded and turned away much People saying that they be no Gods that are made with hands so that this our Craft is in danger to be set at naught And when they heard these Sayings they were full of wrath and cried out saying Great is Diana of the Ephesians Have you Sir who are so good at Speech-making as a worthy Successor of the Silver-smith regulating your Zeal for the Truth and your writing of Divinity by the Profit it will bring made a Speech to this purpose to the Craftsmen and told them that I say Articles of Faith and Creeds and Systems in Religion cannot be made by Mens Hands or Fancies But must be just such and no other than what God hath given us in the Scriptures And are they ready to cry out to your content Great is Diana of the Ephesians If you have well warm'd them with your Oratory 't is to be hoped they will heartily join with you and bestir themselves and choose you for their Champion to prevent the Misery you tell them is coming upon them in the loss of the Sale of Systems and Bodies of Divinity For as for Philosophy which you name too I think you went a little too far Nothing of that kind as I remember hath been so much as mention'd But however some sort of Orators when their hands are in omit nothing true or false that may move those that they would work upon Is not this a worthy Imployment and becoming a Preacher of the Gospel to be a Sollicitor for Stationers-Hall and make the Gain of the Gentlemen of Paul's Church-yard a Consideration for or against any Book writ concerning Religion This if it were ever thought on before no body but an Unmasker who lays all open was ever so foolish as to Publish But here you have an account of his Zeal The views of Gain are to measure the truths of Divinity Had his Zeal as he pretends in the next Paragraph no other aims but the defence of the Gospel 't is probable this Controversie would have been managed after another fashion Whether what he says in the next p. 105. to excuse his so oâ—ten pretending to know my Heart and Thoughts will satisfie the Reader I shall not trouble my self By his so often doing it again in his Socinianism Unmask'd I see he cannot write without it And so I leave it to the Judgment of the Readers whether he can be allow'd to know other Mens thoughts who in many Occasions seems not well to know his own The Railing in the remainder of this Chapter I shall pass by as I have done a great deal of the same
of the Epistles Why do you not especially having been so called upon to do it set down those words wherein I most irreverently treat a great part of the Apostolical Writings At least why do you not quote those many Pages wherein I do it This looks a little suspiciously that you cannot And the more because you have in this very Page not been sparing to quote places which you thought to your purpose I must take leave therefore if it may be done without Irreligion to assure the Reader that this is another of your many Mistakes in Matters of Fact for which you have not so much as the excuse of Inadvertency For as he sees you have been minded of it before But an Vnmasker say what you will to him will be an Unmasker still He closes what he has to say to me in his Socinianism Unmask'd as if he were in the Pulpit with an Use of Exhortation The false Insinuations it is filled with makes the Conclusion of a Piece with the Introduction As he sets out so he ends and therein shews wherein he places his Strength A custom of making bold with Truth is so seldom curable in a grown Man and the Unmasker shews so little sence of Shame where it is charged upon him beyond a possibility of clearing himself that no body is to trouble themselves any farther about that part of his established Character Letting therefore that alone to Nature and Custom two sure Guides I shall only intreat him to prevent his taking Railing for Argument which I fear he too often does that upon his entrance every where upon any new Argument he would set it down in Syllogism and when he has done that that I may know what is to be answered let him then give Vent as he pleases to his noble Vein of Wit and Oratory The lifting a Man's self up in his own Opinion has had the Credit in former Ages to be thought the lowest Degradation that Humane Nature could well sink it self to Hence says the Wise Man Prov. XXVI 6. Answer a Fool according to his folly lest he be wise in his own conceit Hereby shewing that Self-conceitedness is a Degree beneath ordinary Folly And therefore he there provides a fence against it to keep even Fools from sinking yet lower by falling into it Whether what was not so in Solomon's days be now by length of time in ours grown into a mark of Wisdom and Parts and an Evidence of great Performances I shall not enquire Mr. Edwards who goes beyond all that ever I yet met with in the Commendation of his own best knows why he so extols what he has done in this Controversie For fear the Praises he has not been sparing of in his Soâ—inianism Unmask'd should not sufficiently trumpet out his Worth or might be forgotten He in a new Piece entituled The Socinian Creed proclaims again his mighty Deeds and the Victory he has established to himself by them in these words But he and his Friends the One-Article-Men seem to have made Satisfaction by their profound silence lately whereby they acknowledge to the World that they have nothing to say in Reply to what I laid to their Charge and fully proved against them c. Socinian Creed p. 128. This fresh Testimony of no ordinary Conceit which Mr. Edwards hath of the Excellency and Strength of his Reasoning in his Socinianism Unmask'd I leave with him and his Friends to be considered of at their leisure And if they think I have mis-applied the term of Conceitedness to so Wise Understanding and every way accomplished a Disputant if we may believe himself I will teach them a way how he or any body else may fully convince me of it There remains on his Score marked in this Reply of mine several Propositions to be proved by him If he can but find Arguments to prove them that will bear the setting down in form and will so publish them I will allow my self to be mistaken Nay which is more if he or any body in the 112. Pages of his Socinianism Unmasked can find but Ten Arguments that will bear the test of Syllogism the true Touchstone of right Arguing I will grant that that Treatise deserves all those Commendations he has bestowed upon it though it be made up more of his own Panegyrick than a Confutation of me In his Socinian Creed for a Creed-maker he will be and whether he has been as lucky for the Socinians as for the Orthodox I know not p. 120. he begins with me and that with the same conquering Hand and Skill which can never fail of Victory if a Man has but Wit enough to know what Proposition he is able to Confute and then make that his Adversary's tenet But the Repetitions of his old Song concerning one Article the Epistles c. which occur here again I shall only set down that none of these excellent things may be lost whereby this Accute and Unanswerable Writer has so well deserved his own Commendations viz. That I say there is but one single Article of the Christian Truth necessary to be believed and assented to by us p. 121. That I slight the Christian Principles curtail the Articles of our Faith and ravish Christianity it self from him p. 123. And that I turn the Epistles of the Apostle into Waste Paper p. 127 c. These and the like Slanders I have already given an Answer to in my Reply to his former Book Only one new one here I cannot pass over in Silence because of the remarkable Prophaneness which seems to me to be in it which I think deserves publick notice In my Reasonableness of Christianity I have laid together those Passages of our Saviour's Life which seemed to me most eminently to shew his Wisdom in that Conduct of himself with that Reserve and Caution which was necessary to preserve him and carry him through the appointed time of his Ministry Some have thought I had herein done considerable Service to the Christian Religion by removing those Objections which some were apt to make from our Saviour's Carriage not rightly understood This Creed-maker tells me p. 127. That I make our Saviour a Coward A Word not to be applied to the Saviour of the World by a Pious or Discreet Christian upon any pretence without great Necessity and sure Grounds If he had set down my words and quoted the Page which was the least could have been done to excuse such a Phrase we should then have seen which of us two this impious and irreligious Epithete given to the Holy Iesus has for its Author In the mean time I leave it with him to be accounted for by his Piety to those who by his Example shall be incouraged to entertain so vile a thought or use so prophane an Expression of the Captain of our Salvation who freely gave himself up to Death for us He also says in the same p. 127. that I every where strike at Systems the Design of which
It is worth the Reader 's observing That notwithstanding I had in twelve Pages together viz. from the Eighth to the Twentieth proved that several Propositions are necessary to be believed by us in order to our being Christians yet this Sham-Animadverter attends not to any one of the particulars which I had mentioned nor offers any thing against them but onely in a Lumping way dooms them all in those magisterial Words I do not see any Proof he produces p. 21. This is his wonderful way of confuting me by pretending that he cannot see any Proof in what I alledge and all the World must be led by his eyes Answ. It is worth the Reader 's observing That the Creed-maker does not reply to what Mr. Bold has said to him as we have already seen and shall see more as we go on and therefore he has little reason to complain of him for not having answered enough Mr. Bold did well to leave that which was an insignificant lump so as it was together For 't is no wonderful thing not to see any Proof where there is no Proof There is indeed in those Pages the Creedmaker mentions much Confidence much Assertion a great many Questions asked and a great deal said after his Fashion But for a Proof I deny there is any one And if what I have said in another place already does not convince him of it I challenge him with all his Eyes and those of the World to boot to find out in those Twelve renowned Pages one Proof Let him set down the Proposition and his Proof of its being absolutely and indispensibly necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian And I too will join with him in his Testimonial of himself that he is irrefragable But I must tell him before-hand talking a great deal loosely will not do it Mr. Bold and I say we cannot see any Proof in those Twelve Pages The way to make us see or to convince the World that we are blind is to single out one Proof out of that Wood of Words there which you seem to take for Arguments and set it down in a Syllogism which is the fair trial of a Proof or no Proof You have indeed a Syllogism in the 23 d. Page but that is not in those Twelve Pages you mention Besides I have shew'd in another place what that proves to which I referr you In Answer to the Creed-maker's Question about his other Fundamentals found in the Epistles Why did the Apostles Write these Doctrines Was it not that those they Writ to might give their Assent to them Mr. Bold p. 22. replies But then it may be asked again Were not those Persons Christians to whom the Apostles writ these Doctrines and whom they required to Assent to them Yes verily And if so What was it that made them Christians before their Assent to these Doctrines was required If it were any thing besides their Believing Iesus to be the Messiah it ought to be instanced in and made out But to this Mr. Edwards Answers not The next thing in Controversie between Mr. Bold and the Creed-maker for I follow Mr. B d's Order is about a Matter of Fact viz. Whether the Creed-maker has proved That Iesus Christ and his Apostles have taught That no Man can be a Christian or shall be saved unless he have an explicit Knowledge of all those things which have an immediate respect to the Occasion Author Way Means and Issue of our Salvation and which are necessary for the knowing the true Nature and Design of it This Mr. Bold p. 24. tells him he has not done To this the Creed-maker replies p. 258. And yet the Reader may satisfie himself that this is the very thing that I had been proving just before and indeed all along in the foregoing Chapter Answ. There have been those who have been seven Years proving a thing which at last they could not do And I give you seven Years to prove this Proposition which you should there have proved and I must add to your score here viz. LII That Iesus Christ or his Apostles have taught That no Man can be a Christian or can be saved unless he hath an explicit Knowledge of all those things which have an immediate respect to the Occasion Author Way Means and Issue of our Salvation and which are necessary for our knowing the true Nature and Design of it Nor must the poor Excuse of saying It was not necessary to add any farther Medium and then proceed to another Syllogism because you had secured that Proposition before go for Payment If you had secured it as you say it had been quite as easie and much more for your Credit to have produced the Proof whereby you had secured it than to say you had done it and thereupon to reproach Mr. Bold with Heedlessness and to tell the World that he cares not what he saith The Rule of fair Dispute is indispensibly to Prove where any thing is Denied To evade this is Shuffling and he that instead of it answers with ill Language in my Country is call'd a Foul-mouth'd Wrangler To the Creed-maker's Exception to my Demand about the Actual Belief of all his Fundamentals in his new Creed Mr. Bold asks p. 24. Whether a Man can believe particular Propositions and not actually believe them But to this Mr. Edwards Answers not Mr. Bold p. 25. farther acknowledges the Creed-maker's Fundamental Propositions to be in the Bible and that they are for this purpose there that they may be believed And so he saith is every other Proposition which is taught in our Bibles But asks How will it thence follow that no Man can be a Christian till he particularly know and actually assent to every Proposition in our Bibles But to this Mr. Edwards Answers not From p. 26 to 30. Mr. B d shews that the Creed-makers Reply concerning my not gathering of Fundamentals out of the Epistles is nothing to the purpose and this he demonstratively proves And to this Mr. Edwards Answers not The Creed-maker had falsly said That I bring no Tydings of an Evangelical Faith And thence very readily and charitably inferrs Which gives us to understand that he verily believes there is no such Christian Faith To this Mr. Bold thus softly replies p. 31. I think Mr. Edwards is much mistaken both in his Assertion and Inference And to shew that he could not so inferr adds If the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. had not brought any Tidings of such a Faith I think it could not be thence justly inferr'd that he verily believes there is no such Christian Faith Because his Enquiry and Search was not concerning christianâ—Christianâ—Faith considered subjectively but objectively What the Articles be which must be believed to make a Man a Christian and not with what sort of Faith these Articles are to be believed To this the Creed-maker answers indeed But it is something as much worse than nothing as Falshood is
excluded certainly that being one of All the rest must be excluded How then he could say I knew that he excluded it not i. e. meant not that I excluded it when he positively says I did exclude it I cannot tell unless he thought that I knew him so well that when he said one thing I knew that he meant another and that the quite contrary He now it seems acknowledges that I affirmed that the Belief of the Deity as well as of Iesus being the Messiah was required to make a Man a Believer The Believing in one God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth is one Article and in Iesus Christ his only Son our Lord is another Article These therefore being two Articles and both asserted by me to be required to make a Man a Christian let us see with what truth or ingenuity the Unmasker could apply besides that above-mention'd these following Expressions to me as he does without any exception Why then must there be one Article and no more pag. 115. Going to make a Religion for his Mermidons he contracts all into one Article and will trouble them with no more pag. 117. Away with Systems away with Creeds let us have but one Article though it be with the defiance of all the rest pag. 118. Thus we see why he reduces all Belief to that one Article before rehearsed pag. 120. And all this without any the least Exception of the Article of a Deity as he now pretends Nor could he indeed as is evident from his own words pag. 121 122. To conclude This Gentleman and his Fellows are resolved to be Unitarians they are for one Article of Faith as well as one Person in the Godhead But if these learned Men were not prejudiced they would perceive that when the Catholick Faith is thus brought down to one single Article it will soon be reduced to none the Unite will dwindle into a Cypher By which the Reader may see that his Intention was to persuade the World that I reduced ALL BELIEF the CATHOLICK FAITH they are his own words to One Single Article and no more For if he had given but the least hint that I allowed of Two all the wit and strength of Argument contained in Unitarians Unite and Cypher with which he winds up all had been utterly lost and dwindled into palpable Nonsence To demonstrate that this was the sence he would be understood in we are but to observe what he says again pag. 50. of his Socinianism Unmask'd where he tells his Readers That I and my Friends have new-modell'd the Apostles Creed yea indeed have presented them with ONE Article instead of TWELVE And hence we may see what Sincerity there is in the Reason he brings to prove that he did not exclude the Article of the Deity For says he p. 6. That is a Principle of Natural Religion Answ. Ergo He did not in positive words without any exception say I reduced All Belief the Catholick Faith to one single Article and no more But to make good his Promise not to resemble me in the little Artifices of Evading he wipes his Mouth and says at the bottom of this Page But the Reader sees his the Vindicator's shuffling Whilst the Article of One God is a part of ALL Belief a part of the Catholick Faith ALL which he affirm'd I excluded but the one Article concerning the Messiah every one will see where the shuffling is And if it be not clear enough from those words themselves let those above quoted out of pag. 50. of his Socinianism Unmask'd where he says That I have new-modell'd the Apostles Creed and presented the World with ONE Article instead of TWELVE be an Interpretation of them For if the Article of One Eternal God Maker of Heaven and Earth be one of the Article of the Apostles Creed and the one Article I presented them with be not that 't is plain he did and would be understood to mean that by my one Article I excluded that of the One Eternal God which Branch soever of Religion either Natural or Revealed it belongs to I do not endeavour to persuade the Reader as he says p. 6. that he misunderstood me but yet every body will see that he mis-represented me And I challenge him to say that those Expressions above quoted out of him concerning One Article in the obvious sence of the words as they stand in his Accusation of me were true This flies so directly in his Face that he labours mightily to get it off and therefore adds these words My Discourse did not treat neither doth his Book run that way of Principles of Natural Religion but of the Revealed and particularly the Christian Accordingly this was it which I taxed him with That of all the Principles and Articles of Christianity he chose out but One as necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian. Answ. His Book was of Atheism which one may think should make his Discourse treat of Natural Religion But I pass by that and bid him tell me where he taâ—ed me That of all the Principles and Articles of Christianity I chose out but One Let him shew in all his Discourse but such a word or any thing said like one Article of Christianity and I will grant that he meant particularly but spoke generally misled his Reader and left himself a Subterfuge But if there be no Expression to be found in him tending that way all this is but the covering of one Falshood with another which thereby only becomes the grosser Though if he had in express words taxed me That of all the Principles and Articles of the Christian Religion I chose out but one that would not at all help him till he further declares that the Belief of One God is not an Article of the Christian Religion For of ALL the Articles of the Christian Religion he says I chose but One which not being that of a Deity his words plainly import that that was left out among the rest unless it be possible for a Man to chuse but One Article of the Christian Religion viz. That Iesus is the Messiah and at the same time to chuse Two Articles of the Christian Religion viz. That there is One Eternal God and that Iesus is the Messiah If he had spoken clearly and like a fair Man he should have said That he taxed me with chusing but One Article of Revealed Religion That had been plain and direct to his purpose But then he knew the Falshood of it would be too obvious for in the seven Pages wherein he taxes me so much with One Article Christianity is several times named though not once to the purpose he here pretends But Revelation is not so much as once mentioned in them nor as I remember in any of the Pages he bestows upon me To conclude the several Passages above quoted out of him concerning one sole Article are all in general terms without any the least limitation
or restriction and as they stand in him fit to persuade the Reader that I excluded all other Articles whatsoever but that one of Iesus the Messiah And if in that sence they are not true they are so many Falshoods of his repeated there to mislead others into a wrong Opinion of me For if he had had a mind his Readers should have been rightly informed why was it not as easie once to explain himself as so often to affirm it in general and unrestrained terms This all the boasted strength of the Unmasker will not be able to get him out of This very well becomes one who so loudly charges me with Shuffling Having repeated the same thing over and over again in as general terms as was possible without any the least limitation in the whole Discourse to have nothing else to plead when required to prove it but that it was meant in a limited sence in an Unmasker is not shuffling For by this way he may have the convenience to say and unsay what he pleases to vent what stuff he thinks for his turn and when he is called to an Account for it reply He meant no such thing Should any one publish that the Unmasker had but One Article of Faith and no more viz. That the Doctrines in fashion and likely to procure Preferment are alone to be received That all his Belief was comprised in this one single Article And when such a Talker was demanded to prove his Assertion should he say he meant to except his Belief of the Apostles Creed Would he not notwithstanding such a Plea be thought a shuffling Lyar And if the Unmasker can no otherwise prove those universal Propositions above-cited but by saying he meant them with a tacit restriction for none is expressed they will still and for ever remain to be accounted for by his Veracity What he says in the next Paragraph p. 7. of my splitting One Article into Two is just of the-same force and with the same ingenuity I had said That the Belief of One God was necessary which is not now denied I had also said That the Belief of Iesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah together with those concomitant Articles of his Resurrection Rule and coming again to Judge the World was necessary p. 291. And again p. 301. That God had declared whoever would believe Iesus to be the Saviour promised and take him now raised from the Dead and constituted the Lord and Judge of all Men to be their King and Ruler shall be saved This made me say These and Those Articles in words of the plural number more than once Evidence enough to any but a Caviller that I contended not for one single Article and no more And to mind him of it I in my Vindication reprinted one of those places where I had done so and that he might not according to his manner overlook what does not please him the words THESE ARE ARTICLES were printed in great Characters Whereupon he makes this Remark p. 7. And though since he has tried to split this One into Two pag. 28. yet he labours in vain For to believe Iesus to be the Messiah amounts to the same with believing him to be King and Ruler his being Anointed i. e. being the Messiah including that in it Yet he has the vanity to add in great Characters THESE ARE ARTICLES as if the putting them into these great letters would make One Article Two Answ. Though no Letters will make One Article Two yet that there is One God and Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord who rose again from the Dead ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the Right-Hand of God shall come to judge the Quick and the Dead are more than One Article and may very properly be called THESE ARTICLES without splitting One into Two What in my Reasonableness of Christianity I have said of One Article I shall always own and in what sence I said it is easie to be understood and with a Man of the least Candour whose Aim was Truth and not Wrangling it would not have occasion'd one word of Dispute But as for this Unmasker who made it his business not to convince me of any Mistakes in my Opinion but barely to mis-represent me my business at present with him is to shew the World that what he has captiously and scurrilously said of me relating to One Article is false and that he neither has nor can prove one of those Assertions concerning it above-cited out of him in his own words Nor let him pretend a Meaning against his direct Words Such a Caviller as he who would shelter himself under the pretence of a Meaning whereof there are no Footsteps whose Disputes are only Calumnies directed against the Author without examining the Truth of Falshood of what I had published is not to expect the Allowances one would make to a fair and ingenuous Adversary who shew'd so much Concern for Truth that he treated of it with a Seriousness due to the weightiness of the Matter and used other Arguments besides Obloquy Clamour and Falshoods against what he thought Error And therefore I again positively demand of him to prove these words of his to be true or confess that he cannot Viz. III. That I contend for One Article of Faith with the exclusion and defiance of all the rest Two other Instances of this sort of Arguments I gave in the 29th Page of my Vindication out of the 115th and 119th Pages of his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism and I here demand of him again to shew since he has not thought fit hitherto to give any Answer to it IV. Where I urge that there must be nothing in Christianity that is not plain and exactly levelled to all Mens Mother Wit and every common Apprehension Or where he finds in my Reasonanableness of Christianity this other Proposition V. That the very manner of every thing in Christianity must be clear and intelligible every thing must immediately be comprehended by the weakest Noddle or else it is no part of Religion espicially of Christianity These things he must prove that I have said I put it again upon him to shew where I said them or else to confess the Forgery For till he does one or t'other he shall be sure to have these with a large Catalogue of other Falshoods laid before him Pag. 25. of his Socinianism Unmask'd he endeavours to make good his saying that I set up One Article with defiance of all the rest in these words For what is excluding them wholly but defying them Wherefore seeing he utterly excludes all the rest by representing them as USELESS to the making â— Man a Christian which is the design of his whole Undertaking it is manifest that he defies them Answ. This at least is manifest from hence that the Unmasker knows not or cares not what he says For whoever but he thought that a bare Exclusion or passing by was Defiance If he understands it so
I would advise him not to seek Preferment For Exclusions will happen and if every Exclusion be Defiance a Man had need be well assured of his own good Temper who shall not think his Peace and Charity in danger amongst so many Enemies that are at defiance with him Defiance if with any propriety it can be spoken of an Article of Faith must signifie a professed Enmity to it For in its proper use which is to Persons it signifies an open and declared Enmity raised to that height that he in whom it is challenges the Party defied to Battle that may there wreek his hatred on his Enemy in his Destruction So that my Defiance of all the rest remains still to be proved But Secondly There is another thing manifest from these words of his viz. That notwithstanding his great Brags in his first Paragraph his main Skill lies in â—ansying what would be for his turn and then confidently fathering it upon me It never enter'd into my Thoughts nor I think into any body's else I must always except the acute Unmasker who makes no difference between Useful and Necessary that all but the fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith were useless to make a Man a Christian though if it be true that the Belief of the Fundamentals alone be they few or many is all that is necessary to his being made a Christian all that may any way persuade him to believe them may certainly be useful towards the making him a Christian And therefore here again I must propose to him and leave it with him to be shew'd Where it is VI. I have represented all the rest as useless to the making a Man a Christian And How it appears that this is the design of my whole Undertaking In his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism he says pag. 115. what makes him contend for one single Article with the exclusion of all the rest He pretends it is this that all Men ought to understand their Religion This reasoning I disowned p. 26. of my Vindication and intimated p. 27. that he should have quoted the Page where I so pretended To this p. 26. he tells me with great confidence and in abundance of words as we shall see by and by that I had done so As if repetition were a Proof He had done better to have quoted one place where I so pretend Indeed p. 27. for want of something better he quotes these words of mine out of p. 301. of the Reasonableness of Christianity The all merciful God seems herein to have consulted the poor of this World and the bulk of Mankind THESE ARE ARTICLES that the labouring and illiterate Man may comprehend I ask whether it be possible for one to bring any thing more direct against himself The thing he was to prove was That I contended for one single Article with the exclusion of all the rest because I pretended that all Men ought to understand their Religion i. e. The Reason I gave why there was to be but one single Article in Religion with the exclusion of all the rest was because Men ought to understand their Religion and the place he brings to prove my contending upon that ground for one single Article with the exclusion of all the rest is a passage wherein I speak of more than one Article and say these Articles Whether I said These Articles properly or improperly it matters not in the present case and that we have examin'd in another place 't is plain I meant more than one Article when I said these Articles and did not think that the labouring and illiterate Man could not understand them if they were more than one And therefore I pretended not that there must be but one because by illiterate Men more than one could not be understood The rest of this Paragraph is nothing but a repetition of the same Assertion without Proof which with the Unmasker often passes for a way of proving but with no body else But that I may keep that distance which he boasts there is betwixt his and my way of writing I shall not say this without Proofs One instance of his repetition of which there is such plenty in his Book pray take here His Business p. 26. is to prove that I pretended that I contended for one single Article with the exclusion of all the rest because all Men ought to understand their Religion Pag. 27. of my Vindication I denied that I had so pretended To convince me that I had thus he proceeds Unmasker He founds his Conceit of one Article partly upon this thaâ— a multitude of Doctrines is obscure and hard to be understood Answer You say it and had said it before But I ask you as I did before where I did so Unm. And therefore he trusses all up in one Article that the poor People and bulk of Mankind may bear it Answ. I desire again to know where I made that Inference and argued so for one Article Unm. This is the scope of a great part of his Book Answ. This is saying again shew it once Unm. But his Memory does not keep pace with his Invention and thence he says he remembers nothing of this in his Book Vind. p. 27. Answ. This is to say that it is in my Book You have said it more than once already I demand of you to shew me where Unm. This worthy Writer does not know his own reasoning that he uses Answ. I ask where does he use that reasoning Unm. As particularly thus that he troubles Christian Men with no more but one Article BECAUSE that is intelligible and all people high and low may comprehend it Answ. We have heard it affirm'd by you over and over again but the question still is where is that way of arguing to be found in my Book Unm. For he has chosen out as he thinks a plain and easie Article Whereas the others which are commonly propounded are not generally agreed on he saith and are dubious and uncertain But the believing that Iesus was the Messiah has nothing of doubtfulness or obscurity in it Answ. The word For in the beginning of this Sentence makes it stand for one of your Reasons though it be but a repetition of the same thing in other words Unm. THIS the Reader will find to be the drift and design of several of his Pages Answ. This must signifie that I trouble Men with no more but one Article because one only is intelligible and then it is but a Repetition If any thing else be meant by the word This it is nothing to the purpose For that I said that all things necessary to be believed are plain in Scripture and easie to be understood I never denied And should be very sorry and recant it if I had Unm. And the reason why I did not quote any single one of them was because he insists on it so long together and spins it out after his way in p. 301. of his Reasonableness of
to quit mine for nothing I have then one that being set by mine I may compare them and so be able to chuse the true and perfect one and relinquish the other He that does not do this plainly declares that without shewing me the certain way to Salvation he expects that I should depend on him with an implicit Faith whilst he reserves to himself the liberty to require of me to believe what he shall think fit as he sees Occasion and in effect says thus Distrust those Fundamentals which the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles have shew'd to be all that is necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian and though I cannot tell you what are those other Articles which are necessary and sufficient to make a Man a Christian yet take me for your Guide and that is as good as if I made up in a compleat List the Defects of your Fundamentals To which this is a sufficient Answer Si quid novisti rectius imperti si non his ut ere mecum The Unmasker of his own accord p. 110. of his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism sets down several which he calls Fundamental Doctrines I ask him whether those be all For answer he adds more to them in his Socinianism Unmask'd But in a great pet refuses to tell me whether this Second List of Fundamentals be compleat And instead of answering so reasonable a Demand pays me with ill Language in these words pag. 22. subjoyn'd to those last quoted If what I have said will not content him I am sure I can do nothing that will and therefore if he should Capriciously require any thing more it would be as great folly in me to comply with it as it is in him to move it If I did ask a Question which troubles you be not so angry you your self were the occasion of it I proposed my Collection of Fundamentals which I had with great care sought and thought I had found clear in the Scripture you tell me no it is imperfect and offer me one of your own I ask whether that be perfect Thereupon you grow into Choler and tell me 't is a foolish Question Why then I think it was not very wise in you so forwardly to offer one unless you had had one ready not liable to the same exception Would you have me so foolish to take a List of Fundamentals from you who have not yet one for your self nor are yet resolved with your self what Doctrines are to be put in or left out of it Farther pray tell me if you had a settled Collection of Fundamentals that you would stand to why should I take them from you upon your word rather than from an Anabaptist or a Quaker or an Arminian or a Socinian or a Lutheran or a Papist who I think are not perfectly agreed with you or one another in Fundamentals and yet there is none amongst them that I have not as much reason to believe upon his bare word as an Unmasker who to my certain knowledge will make bold with Truth If you set up for Infallibility you may have some claim to have your bare word taken before any other but the Pope But yet if you do demand to be an unquestionable Proposer of what is absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian you must perform it a little better than hitherto you have done For it is not enough sometimes to give us Texts of Scripture Sometimes Propositions of your own framing and sometimes Texts of Scripture out of which they are to be framed as p. 14. you say These and the like places afford us such Fundamental and Necessary Doctrines as these And again p. 16. after the naming several other Texts of Scripture you add which places yield us such Propositions as these and then in both places set down what you think fit to draw out of them And Page 15. you have these words And here likewise it were easie to shew that Adoption Iustification Pardon of Sins c. which are Privileges and Benefits bestow'd upon us by the Messiah are Necessary Matters of our Belief By all which as well as the whole frame wherein you make shew of giving us your Fundamental Articles it is plain that what you have given us there is nothing less than a compleat Collection of Fundamentals even in your own Opinion of it But Good Sir why is it a foolish Question in me you have found fault with my Summary for being short The defect in my Collection of Necessary Articles has raised your Zeal into so severe Censures and drawn upon me from you so heavy a Condemnation that if half that you have said of me be true I am in a very ill case for having so curtailed the Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity Is it folly then for me to ask from you a compleat Creed If it be so dangerous as certainly it is to fail in any necessary Article of Faith why is it folly in me to be instant with you to give me them all Or why is it folly in you to grant so reasonable a Demand a short Faith defective in Necessaries is no more tolerable in you than in me nay much more inexcuseable if it were for no other reason but this that you rest in it your self and would impose it on others and yet do not your self know or believe it to be compleat For if you do why dare you not say so and give it us all entire in plain Propositions and not as you have in great measure done here give only the Texts of Scripture from whence you say necessary Articles are to be drawn which is too great an uncertainty for Doctrines absolutely necessary For possibly all Men do not understand those Texts alike and some may draw Articles out of them quite different from your Systeme and so though they agree in the same Texts may not agree in the same Fundamentals and till you have set down plainly and distinctly your Articles that you think contain'd in them cannot tell whether you will allow them to be Christians or no. For you know Sir several Inferences are often drawn from the same Text and the different Systems of dissenting I was going to say Christians but that none must be so but those who receive your Collection of Fundamentals when you please to give it them Professors are all founded on the Scripture Why I beseech you is mine a foolish Question to ask What are the necessary Articles of Faith 'T is of no less consequence than nor much different from the Jaylor's Question in the 16th of the Acts What shall I do to be saved and that was not that ever I heard counted by any one a foolish Question You grant there are Articles necessary to be believed for Salvation would it not then be Wisdom to know them nay is it not our Duty to know and believe them If not why do you with so much outcry reprehend me
those and those only which are necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian may a Man not justly doubt whether those Propositions which the Unmasker has set down contain all those things and whether there be not other things contain'd in other Texts of Scripture or in some of those cited by him but otherwise understood that have as immediately a respect to the Occasion Author Way Means and Issue of Mens Redemption and Salvation as those he has set down And therefore I have reason to demand a compleater List. For at best to tell us that all things that have an immediate respect to the Occasion Author Way Means and Issue Issue of Mens Redemption and Salvation is but a general Description of Fundamentals with which some may think some Articles agree and others others And the terms immediate respect may give ground enough for difference about them to those who agree that the rest of your Description is right My demand therefore is not a general Description of Fundamentals but for the Reasons abovementioned the particular Articles themselves which are necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian. It is not my Business at pâ—â—sent to examine the validity of these Arguments of his to prove all the Propositions to be necessary to be believed which he has here in his Socinianism Unmask'd set down as such The use I make of them now is to shew the reason they afford me to doubt that those Propositions which he has given us for Doctrines necessary to be believed are either not all such or more than all by his own rule And therefore I must desire him to give us a compleater Creed that we may know what in his sense is necessary and enough to make a Man a Christian Nor will it be sufficient in this case to do what he tells us that he has done in these words p. 21. I have briefly set before the Reader these Evangelical Truths Those Christian Principles which belong to the very Essence of Christianity and I have reduced most of them to certain Propositions which is a thing the Vindicator called for p. 16. With Submission I think he mistakes the Vindicator What I called for was not that most of them should be reduced to certain Propositions but that all of them should and the reason of my demanding that was plain viz. that then having the Unmasker's Creed in clear and distinct Propositions I might be able to examine whether it was what God in the Scriptures indispensibly required of every Man to make him a Christian that so I might thereby correct the Errors or Defects of what I at present apprehended the Scripture taught me in the case The Unmasker endeavours to excuse himself from answering my Question by another exception against it p. 24. in these words Surely none but this Upstart Racovian will have the confidence to deny that these Articles of Faith are such as are necessary to constitute a Christian as to the Intellectual and Doctrinal part of Christianity such as must IN SOME MEASURE be known and assented to by him Not that a Man is supposed every moment to actually exert his assent and belief for none of the Moral Vertues none of the Evangelical Graces are exerted thus always Wherefore that Question in p. 16. though he says he asks it seriously might have been spared Whether every one of these Fundamentals is required to be believed to make a Man a Christian and such as without the actual belief thereof he cannot be saved Here is seriousness pretended when there is none for the Design is only to Cavil and if he can to expose my Assertion But he is not able to do it for all his Critical Demands are answer'd in these few words viz. That in the Intellectual as well as Moral Endowments are never supposed to be always in act They are exerted upon Occasion not all of them at a time And therefore he mistakes if he thinks or rather as he Objects without thinking that these Doctrines if they be Fundamental and Necessary must be always actually believed No Man besides himself ever started such a thing This terrible long Combate has the Unmasker managed with his own Shadow to confound the Seriousness of my Question and as he says himself is come off not only safe and sound but triumphant But for all that Sir may not a Man's Question be serious though he should chance to express it ill I think you and I were not best to set up for Criticks in Language and Nicety of Expression for fear we should set the World a Laughing Yet for this once I shall take the liberty to defend mine here For I demand in what Expression of mine I said or supposed that a man should every moment actually exert his assent to any Proposition required to be believed Cannot a Man say that the Unmasker cannot be admitted to any Preferment in the Church of England without an actual assent to or Subscribing of the 39 Articles unless it be suppos'd that he must every moment from the time he first read assented to and subscribed those Articles till he received Institution and Induction actually exert his assent to every one of them and repeat his Subscription In the same sense it is literally true that a Man cannot be admitted into the Church of Christ or into Heaven without actually believing all the Articles necessary to make a Man a Christian without supposing that he must actually exert that assent every moment from the time that he first gave it till the moment that he is admitted into Heaven He may Eat Drink make Bargains study Euclid and think of other things between nay sometimes Sleep and neither think of those Articles nor any thing else and yet it be true that he shall not be admitted into the Church or Heaven without an actual assent to them That Condition of an actual assent he has perform'd and until he recall that assent by actual Unbelief it stands good and though a Lunacy or Lethargy should seize on him presently after and he should never think of it again as long as he lived yet it is literally true he is not saved without an actual assent You might therefore have spared your pains in saying That none of the Moral Virtues none of the Evangelical Graces are exerted THUS always till you had met with some body who had said THUS That I did so I think would have enter'd into no bodies thoughts but yours it being evident from p. 298 and 300. of my Book that by Actual I meant Explicit You should rather have given a direct Answer to my Question which I here again seriously ask you viz. Whether IX Those you called Fundamental Doctrines in your Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism or those Christian Principles which belong to the very Essence of Christianity so many as you have given us of them in your Socinianism Unmask'd for you may take which of your two
King but cast him off and with the Iews say we will not have this Man reign over us But it is still what we â—ind in the Scripture not in this or that System what we sincerely seeking to know the Will of our Lord discover to be his Mind Where it is spoken plainly we cannot miss it and it is evident he requires our assent where there is obscurity either in the Expressions themselves or by reason of the seeming contrariety of other Passages there a fair endeavour as much as our Circumstances will permit secures us from a guilty Disobedience to his Will or a sinful Error in Faith which way soever our enry resolves the doubt or perhaps leaves it unresolved If he had required more of us in those Points he would have declared his Will plainer to us and discover'd the Truth contain'd in those obscure or seemingly contradictory places as clearly and as uniformly as he did that Fundamental Article that we were to believe him to be the Messiah our King As Men we have God for our King and are under the Law of Reason As Christians we have Iesus the Messiah for our King and are under the Law revealed by him in the Gospel And though every Christian both as a Deist and a Christian be obliged to study both the Law of Nature and the Revealed Law that in them he may know the Will of God and of Jesus Christ whom he hath sent yet in neither of these Laws is there to be found a Select Set of Fundamentals distinct from the rest which are to make him a Deist or a Christian. But he that believes one Eternal invisible God his Lord and King ceases thereby to be an Atheist and he that believes Iesus to be the Messiah his King ordain'd by God thereby becomes a Christian is delivered from the Power of Darkness and is Translated into the Kingdom of the Son of God is actually within the Covenant of Grace and has that Faith which shall be imputed to him for Righteousness and if he continues in his Allegiance to this his King shall receive the reward Eternal Life He that Considers this will not be so hot as the Unmasker to contend for a Number of Fundamental Articles all necessary every one of them to be explicitly believed by every one for Salvation without knowing them himself or being able to enumerate them to another Can there be any thing more absurd than to say there are several Fundamental Articles each of which every Man must explicitly believe upon pain of Damnation and yet not to be able to say which they be The Unmasker has set down no small Number but yet dares not say these are all On the contrary he has plainly confessed there are more but will not i. e. cannot tell what they are that remain behind Nay has given a general Description of his Fundamental Articles by which it is not evident but there may be ten times as many as those he had named and amongst them if he durst or could name them probably several that many a good Christian who died in the Faith and is now in Heaven never once thought of and others which many of as good Authority as he would from their different Systems certainly deny and contradict This as great an Absurdity as it is cannot be otherwise whilst Men will take upon them to alter the terms of the Gospel and when it is evident that our Saviour and his Apostles received Men into the Church and pronounced them Believers for taking him to be the Messiah their King and Deliverer sent by God have the boldness to say this is not enough But when you would know of them what then is enough they cannot tell you The reason whereof is visible viz. Because they being able to produce no other reason for their Collection of Fundamental Articles to prove them necessary to be believed but because they are of Divine Authority and contain'd in the Holy Scriptures and are as the Unmasker says writ there on purpose to be believed they know not where to stop when they have once begun Those Texts that they leave out or from which they deduce none of them being of the same Divine Authority and so upon that Account equally Fundamental with what they have culled out though not so well suited to their particular Systems Hence come those endless and unreasonable Contentions about Fundamentals whilst each censures the Defect Redundancy or Falshood of what others require as necessary to be believed and yet he himself gives not a Catalogue of his own Fundamentals which he will say is sufficient and compleat Nor is it to be wondred since in this way it is impossible to stop short of putting every Proposition divinely revealed into the List of Fundamentals all of them being of Divine and so of equal Authority and upon that account equally necessary to be believed by every one who is a Christian though they are not all necessary to be believed to make any one a Christian For the New Testament containing the Laws of the Messiah's Kingdom in regard of all the Actions both of Mind and Body of all his Subjects every Christian is bound by his Allegiance to him to believe all that he says in it to be true as well as to assent that all that he commands in it is just and good And what Negligence Perverseness or Guilt there is in his mistaking in the one or failing in his obedience to the other That this Righteous Judge of all Men who cannot be deceived will at the last day lay open and reward accordingly 'T is no wonder therefore there has been such fierce Contests and such cruel Havock made amongst Christians about Fundamentals Whilst every one would set up his System upon pain of Fire and Faggot in this and Hell Fire in the other World Though at the same time whilst he is exercising the utmost Barbarities against others to prove himself a true Christian he professes himself so ignorant that he cannot tell or so uncharitable that he will not tell what Articles are absolutely necessary and sufficient to make a Man a Christian. If there be any such Fundamentals as 't is certain there are 't is as certain they must be very plain Why then does every one urge and make a stir about Fundamentals and no body give a List of them But because as I have said upon the usual Grounds they cannot For I will be bold to say that every one who considers the matter will see that either only the Article of his being the Messiah their King which alone our Saviour and his Apostles preach'd to the Unconverted World and received those that believed it into the Church is the only necessary Article to be believed by a Theist to make him a Christian Or else that all the Truths contain'd in the New Testament are necessary Articles to be believed to make a Man a Christian And that between these two it is
Epistles which were all written to those who had imbraced the Faith and were all Christians already I thought would not so distinctly shew what were those Doctrines which were absolutely necessary to make Men Christians they being not writ to convert Unbelievers but to build up those who were already Believers in their most holy Faith This is plainly expressed in the Epistle to the Hebrews V. 11 c Of whom i. e. Christ we have many things to say and hard to be utter'd seeing ye are all dull of hearing For when for the time ye ought to be Teachers ye have need that one teach you again which be the first Principles of the Oracles of God and are become such as have need of Milk and not of strong Meat For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness for he is a Babe But strong meat belongeth to him that is of full age even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and bad Therefore leaving the Principles of the Doctrine of Christ let us go on unto perfection not laying again the foundation of Repentance from dead Works and of Faith towards God and of the Doctrine of Baptism and of laying on of hands and of the resurrection of the Dead and of eternal Iudgment Here the Apostle shews what was his Design in writing this Epistle Not to teach them the Fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Religion but to lead them on to more Perfection That is to greater degrees of Knowledge of the wise Design and wonderful Contrivance and carrying on of the Gospel and the Evidence of it which he makes out in this Epistle by shewing its Correspondence with the Old Testament and particularly with the Oeconomy of the Mosaical Constitution Here I might ask the Unmasker whether those many things which St. Paul tells the Hebrews he had to say of Christ hard to be utter'd to them because they were dull of hearing had not an immediate respect to the Occasion Author Way Means or Issue of their Redemption and Salvation And therefore whether they were such things without the knowledge of which they could not be saved as the Unmasker says of such things p. 23. And the like I might ask him concerning those things which the Apostle tells the Corinthians 1 Ep. Chap. III. 2. that they were not yet able to bear For much to the same purpose he speaks to the Corinthians Ep. 1. Ch. III. as in the above-cited places he did to the Hebrews That he as a wise Master-Builder had laid the Foundation And that Foundation he himself tells us is Iesus the Messiah and that there is no other Foundation to be laid And that in this he laid the Foundation of Christianity at Corinth St. Luke records Act XVIII 4. in these words Paul at Corinth reason'd in the Synagogue every Sabbath-day and testified to the Iews that Iesus was the Messiah Upon which Foundation he tells them there might be a Superstructure But that what is built on the Foundation is not the Foundation I think I need not prove He further tells them that he had desired to build upon this Foundation But withal says he had fed them till then with Milk and not with Meat because they were Babes and had not been able to bear it neither were they yet able And therefore this Epistle we see is almost wholly spent in Reproofs of their Miscarriages and in Exhortations and Instructions relating to Practice and very little said in it for the explaining any part of the great Mystery of Salvation contain'd in the Gospel By these Passages we may see were it not evident to common sence it self from the Nature of things that the design of these Epistles was not to lay the Foundations or teach the Principles of the Christian Religion they being writ to those who had received them and were Christians already The same holds in all the other Epistles And therefore the Epistles seem'd not to me the properest parts of Scripture to give us that Foundation distinct from all the Superstructures built on it Because in the Epistles the latter was the thing propos'd rather than the former For the main intention of the Apostles in writing their Epistles could not be to do what was done already to lay down barely the Foundations of Christianity to those who were Christians already but to build upon it some â—arther Explication of it which either their particular Circumstances or a general evidencing of the Truth Wisdom Excellencies and Privileges c. of the Gospel required This was the reason that perswaded me to take the Articles of Faith absolutely necessary to be received to make a Man a Christian only from the Preachings of our Saviour and his Apostles to the Unconverted World as laid down in the Historical Part of the New Testament And I thought it a good Reason It being past doubt that they in their Preachings proposed to the Unconverted all that was necessary to be believed to make them Christians And also that that Faith upon a Profession whereof any one was admitted into the Church as a Believer had all that was necessary in it to make him a Christian because if it wanted any thing necessary he had necessarily not been admitted unless we can suppose that any one was admitted into the Christian Church by our Saviour and his Apostles who was not yet a Christian or pronounced a Believer who yet wanted something necessary to make him a Believer i. e. was a Believer and not a Believer at the same time But what those Articles were which had been Preach'd to those to whom the Epistles were writ and upon the Belief whereof they had been admitted into the Christian Church and became as they are called Believers Saints Faithful Elect c. could not be collected out of the Epistles This though it were my reason and must be a reason to every one who would make this Enquiry and the Unmasker quotes the place where I told him it was my reason Yet he according to his never erring Illumination flatly tells me p. 38. that it was not and adds Here then is want of Sincerity c. I must desire him therefore to prove what he says p. 38. viz. XV. That by the same Argument that I would perswade that the Fundamentals are not to be sought for in the Epistles he can prove that they are not to be sought for in the Gospels and in the Acts because even these were writ to those that believed And next I desire him to prove what he also says in the same Page viz. XVI That the Epistles being writ to those that believed was not an Argument that I did make use of He tells us p. 38. That it is the Argument whereby I would perswade and in the very same Page a few Lines lower says That it is not the Argument I did make use of Who but an arrant Unmasker would contradict himself so
And therefore we look upon this as all meer Sham and Sophistry Answ. Though the Unmasker teaches good breeding out of the Mishna yet I thought he had been a Minister of the Gospel and had taught Christianity out of the Scripture Why Good Sir would you teach Iews and Mahometans Christianity out of the Talmud and Alcoran because they are the Books that at present they attend to and believe Or would you laying by the Authority of all Books Preach Religion to Infidels in your own Name and by your own Authority laying aside the Scripture Is it not to be conceived no not by a Christian Divine that the way to make Unbelievers Christians is to shew them the Reasonableness of the Religion contained in the Scripture But it seems the Unmasker has a peculiar way of Preaching and propagating Christianity without the Scripture as some Men have a peculiar way of disputing without Reason In the beginning of this Paragraph p. 43. the Unmasker that is always a fair Interpreter of my meaning and never fails to know it better than I do tells me That by those that wholly disbelieve I must mean Atheists Turks Iews and Pagans and by those that are not firmly Christians a few weak Christians But did our Unmasker never hear of Unbelievers under a denomination distinct from that of Atheists Turks Iews and Pagans Whilst the Pulpit and the Press have so often had up the Name of Theists or Deists has that Name wholly scaped him 'T was these I chiefly designed and I believe no body of all that read my Vindication but the Unmasker mistook me if he did But there at least p. 9. he might have found the Name as of a sort of Unbelievers not unknown amongst us But whatever he thought it was convenient and a sort of Prudence in him when he would perswade others that I had not a Design which I say I had to lessen as much as he could and cover the need of any such Design and so make it that I could not intend my Book to work upon those that disbelieved or did not firmly believe by insinuating there were few or none such amongst us Hence he says that by those that are not throughly and firmly Christians I mean a FEW weak Christians as well as under those who wholly disbelieve he left the Theists out of my meaning I am very glad to hear from the Unmasker that there are but few weak Christians few that have Doubts about the Truth of Christianity amongst us But if there be not a great number of Deists and that the preventing their increase be noâ— worth every true Christian's Care and Endeavours those who have been so loud against them have been much to blame and I wish to God there were no reason for their Complaints For these therefore I take the liberty to say as I did before that I chiefly designed my Book And shall not be asham'd of this Sophistry as you call it if it can be Sophistry to alledge a Matter of Fact that I know Till you have Arguments to convince me that you know my intention in publishing it better than I do my self And I shall think it still no blameable Prudence however you exclaim against Prudence as perhaps you have some reason that I mention'd only those Advantages that all Christians are agreed in And that I observed that command of the Apostle Rom. XIV 1. Him that is weak in the Faith receive ye but not to doubtful Disputations without being a Socinian I think I did not amiss that I offer'd to the belief of those that stood off that and only that which our Saviour and his Apostles preach'd for the reducing the Unconverted World And would any one think he in earnest went about to perswade Men to be Christians who should use that as an Argument to recommend the Gospel which he has observed Men to lay hold on as an Objection against it To urge such Points of Controversie as Necessary Articles of Faith when we see our Saviour and the Apostles urged them not as necessary to be believed to make Men Christians is by our own Authority to add Prejudices to Prejudices and to block up our own way to those Men whom we would have access to and prevail upon I have repeated this again out of the 7th Page of my Vindication where there is more to the same purpose That the Reader may see how fully the Unmasker has answer'd it Because I said Would any one blame my Prudence if I mention'd only those Advantages which all Christians are agreed in The Unmasker adds p. 44. Socinian Christians and then as if the naming of that had gained him his Point he goes on victoriously thus He has bethought himself better since he first Publish'd his Notions and as the result of that he now begins to resolve what he writ into Prudence I know whence he had this Method and 't is likely he has taken more than this from the same hands viz. from the Missionary Iesuits that went to Preach the Gospel to the People of China We are told that they instructed them in some Matters relating to our Saviour they let them know that Iesus was the Messias the Person promised to be sent into the World But they conceal'd his Sufferings and Death and they would not let them know any thing of his Passion and Crucifixion So our Author their humble Imitator undertakes to instruct the World in Christianity with an omission of its Principal Articles and more especially that of the Advantage we have by Christ's Death which was the prime thing design'd in his coming into the World This he calls Prudence So that to hide from the People the main Articles of the Christian Religion to disguise the Faith of the Gospel to betray Christianity it self is according to this excellent Writer the Cardinal Virtue of Prudence May we be deliver'd then say I from a Prudential Racovian And there ends the ratling for this time not to be outdone by any Piece of Clock-work in the Town When he is once set a going he runs on like an Alarm always in the same strain of noisy empty Declamation wherein every thing is suppos'd and nothing prov'd till his own weight has brought him to the Ground And then being wound up with some new Topick takes another run whether it makes for or against him it matters not he has laid about him with ill Language let it light where it will and the Vindicator is paid off That I may keep the due distance in our different ways of Writing I shall shew the Reader that I say not this at random but that the place affords me occasion to say so He begins this Paragraph with these words p. 42. Let us hear farther what this Vindicator says to excuse his rejection of the Doctrines contain'd in the Epistles This rejection of the Doctrines contain'd in the Epistles was the not mentioning the Satisfaction of Christ amongst those Advantages
I shew'd that the World received by his coming This appears by the words he here quotes as my excuse for that omission In which place I also produced some Passages in my Book which sounded like it some words of Scripture that are used to prove it But this will not content him I am for all that a Betrayer of Christianity and Contemner of the Episâ—les Why Because I did not out of them name Satisfaction If you will have the truth of it Sir there is not any such word in any one of the Epistles or other Books of the New Testament in my Bible as Satisfying or Satisfaction made by our Saviour and so I could not put it into my Christianity as deliver'd in the Scripture If mine be not a true Bible I desire you to furnish me with one that is more Orthodox or if the Translators have hid that main Article of the Christian Religion they are the betrayers of Christianity and Contemners of the Epistles who did not put it there and not I who did not take a word from thence which they did not put there For truly I am not a Maker of Creeds nor dare add either to the Scripture or to the Fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion But you will say Satisfaction though not named in the Epistles yet may plainly be collected out of them Answ. And so it may out of several places in my Reasonableness of Christianity some whereof which I took out of the Gospels I mention'd in my Vindication p. 5. and others of them which I took out of the Epistles which I shall point out to you now As p. 74. I say the Design of our Saviour's coming was to be OFFERED up And p. 158. I speak of the Work of our REDEMPTION words which in the Epistles are taken to imply Satisfaction And therefore if that be enough I see not but I may be free from betraying Christianity But if it be necessary to Name the word Satisfaction and he that does not so is a Betrayer of Christianity you will do well to consider how you will acquit the Holy Apostles from that bold Imputation which if it be extended as far as it will go will scarce come short of Blasphemy For I do not remember that our Saviour has any where named Satisfaction or implied it plainer in any words than those I have quoted from him And he I hope will scape the Intemperance of your Tongue You tell me I had my Prudence from the Missionary Iesuits in China who conceal'd our Saviour's Suffering and Death because I undertake to ininstruct the World in Christianity with an omission of its Principal Articles And I pray Sir from whom did you learn your Prudence when taking upon you to teach the Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity in your Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism you left out several that you have been pleased since to add in your Socinianism Unmask'd Or if I as you say here betray Christianity by this Omission of this Principal Article What do you who are a Professed Teacher of it if you omit any principal Article Which your Prudence is so wary in that you will not say you have given us all that are necessary to Salvation in that List you have last published I pray who acts best the Jesuit whose humble Imitator you say I am you or I when pretending to give a Catalogue of Fundamentals you have not reduced them to direct Propositions but have left some of them indefinite to be collected as every one pleases and instead of telling us it is a perfect Catalogue of Fundamentals plainly shuffle it off and tell me p. 22. If that will not content me you are sure you can do nothing that will If I require more it is Folly in you to comply with me One part of what you here say I own to you savours not much of the Skill of a Jesuit You confess your inability and I believe it to be perfectly true That if what you have done already which is nothing at all will not content me you are sure you can do nothing that will content me or any reasonable Man that shall demand of you a compleat Catalogue of Fundamentals But you make it up pretty well with a Confidence becoming one of that Order For he must have rub'd his Forehead hard who in the same Treatise where he so severely condemns the Imperfection of my List of Fundamentals confesses that he cannot give a compleat Catalogue of his own You publish to the World in this 44 and the next Page that I hide from the People the main Articles of the Christian Religion I disguise the faith of the Gospel betray Christianity it self and imitate the Iesuits that went tâ— Preach the Gospel to the People of China by my Omission of its principal or main Articles Answ. I know not how I disguise the Faith of the Gospel c. in imitation of the Jesuits in China unless taking Men off from the Inventions of Men and recommending to them the Reading and Study of the Holy Scripture to find what the Gospel is and requires be a disguising of the Faith of the Gospel a betraying of Christianity and an imitating of the Iesuits Besides Sir if one may ask you in what School did you learn that prudent warineâ—s and reserve which so eminently appears p. 24. of your Socinianism Unmask'd in these words These Articles meaning those which you had before enumerated as Fundamental of Faith are such as must IN SOME MEASURE be known and assented to by a Christian such as must GENERALLY be received and imbraced by him You will do well the next time to set down how far your Fundamentals must be known assented to and received to avoid the suspicion that there is a little more of Jesuitism in these Expressions in some measure known and assented to and generally receiv'd and imbraced than what becomes a sincere Protestant Preacher of the Gospel For your speaking so doubtfully of knowing and assenting to those which you give us for Fundamental Doctrines which belong as you say to the very essence of Christianity will hardly scape being imputed to your want of Knowledge or want of Sincerity And indeed the word General is in familiar use with you and stands you in good stead when you would say something you know not what as I shall have occasion to remark to you when I come to your 91 Page Further I do not remember where it was that I mention'd or undertook to set down all the principal or main Articles of Christianity To change the â—â—rms of the Question from Articles necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian into principal or main Articles looks a little Jesuitical But to pass by that The Apostles when they went to preach the Gospel to People as much Strangers to it as the Chineses were when the Europeans came first amongst them Did they hide from the People the main Articles of the Christian
suffer on the Cross did not Die. For I and my Allies speak as meanly of these Articles as if there were no such thing To shew our Vnmasker's Veracity in this case I shall trouble my Reader with some Passages out of my Reasonableness of Christianity pag. 61. When we consider that he was to fill out the time foretold of his Ministry and after a life Illustrious in Miracles and good Works attended with Humility Meekness Patience and SVFFERING and every way conformable to the Prophecies of him should be led as a Sheep to the Slaughter and with all quiet and submission be brought to the CROSS though there were no Guilt or Fault found in him And p. 74. Contrary to the design of his coming which was to be OFFER'D up a Lamb blameless and void of offence And p. 116. Laying down his life both for Iews and Gentiles P. 178. Given up to Contempt Torment and Death But say what I will when the Vnmasker thinks fit to have it so it is speaking out of the Mahometan Bible That Christ did not suffer on the Cross did not Die or at least is speaking as meanly of these Articles as if no such thing had been His next Slander is p. 55. in these words This Gentleman presents the World with a very ill notion of Faith for the very Devils are capable of all that Faith which he says makes a Christian It is not strange that the Vnmasker should misrepresent the Faith which I say makes a Christian when it seems to be his whole Design to misrepresent my meaning every where The frequency of his doing it I have shew'd in abundance of instances to which I shall add an eminent one here which shews what a fair Champion he is for Truth and Religion Page 196. of my Reasonableness of Christianity I give this account of the Faith which makes a Christian That it is Mens entring themselves in the Kingdom of God owning and professing themselves the Subjects of Jesus whom they believe to be the Messiah and receive for their Lord and King For that was to be baptized in his Name This sense of believing Christ to be the Messiah that is to take him for our King and Lord who is to be obey'd I have expressed over and over again as p. 209. my words are That as many of them as would believe Jesus the Son of God whom he sent into the World to be the Messiah the promised Deliverer and would receive him for their King and Ruler should have all their past Sins Disobedience and Rebellion forgiven them And if for the future they lived in sincere Obedience to his Law to the utmost of their Power the Sins of humane frailty for the time to come as well as those of their past lives should for his Son's sake because they gave themselves up to him to be his Subjects be forgiven them And so their Faith which made them be baptized into his Name i. e. enroll themselves in the Kingdom of Iesus the Messiah and profess themselves his Subjects and consequently live by the Laws of his Kingdom should be accounted to them for Righteousness Which Account of what is necessary I close with these words This is the FAITH for which God of his free Grace Justifies sinful Man And is this the Faith of Devils To the same purpose p. 214. are these words The chief End of his coming was to be a King and as such to be received by those who would be his Subjects in the Kingdom which he came to erect And again p. 212. Only those who have believed Jesus to be the Messiah and taken him for their King with a sincere endeavour after righteousness in obeying his Law shall have their past Sins not imputed to them And so again p. 213. and 227. and in several other places Of which I shall add but this one more p. 228. 'T is not enough to believe him to be the Messiah unless we obey his Laws and take him to be our King to reign over us Can the Devils thus believe him to be the Messiah Yet this is that which by these and abundance of other places I have shew'd to be the meaning of believing him to be the Messiah Besides I have expresly distinguish'd the Faith which makes a Christian from that which the Devils have by proving that to the believing Jesus to be the Messiah must be join'd repentance or else it will not make them true Christians And what this repentance is may be seen at large in p. 193 c. some Expressions whereof I shall here set down As p. 198. Repentance does not consist in one single Act of Sorrow though that being first and leading gives Denomination to the whole but in doing Works meet for Repentance in a sincere Obedience to the Law of Christ the remainder of our Lives Again To distinguish the Faith of a Christian from that of Devils I say expresly out of St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians That which availeth is Faith but Faith working by Love and that Faith without Works i. e. the Works of sincere Obedience to the Law and Will of Christ is not sufficient for our Justification And p. 222. That to inherit eternal Life we must love the Lord our God with all our Heart with all our Soul with all our Strength and with all our Mind Anâ— 230. Love Christ in keeping his Commandments This and a great deal more to this purpose may be seen in my Reasonableness of Christianity particularly where I answer that Objection about the Faith of Devils which I handle from p. 193. to p. 251. and therein at large shew wherein the Faith of Devils comes short of the Justifying Faith which makes a Christian. And yet the good the sincere the candid Unmasker with his becoming Confidence tells his Readers here p. 55. That I present the World with a very ill notion of Faith For the very Devils are capable of all that Faith which I say makes a Christian Man To prevent this Calumny I in more places than one distinguished between Faith in a strict sense as it is a bare assent to any Proposition and that which is called Evangelical Faith in a larger sense of the word which comprehends under it something more than a bare simple assent as p. 43. I mean this is all is required to be believed by those who acknowledge but one Eternal invisible God the Maker of Heaven and Earth For that there is something more required to Salvation besides believing we shall see hereafter P. 47. All I say that was to be believed for Justification For that this was not all that was required to be done for Justification we shall see hereafter P. 92. Obeying the Law of the Messiah their King being no less required than their believing that Iesus was the Messiah the King and Deliverer that was promised them Pag. 192. As far as meer believing could make them Members of Christ's Body By these and more
the like Passages in my Book my meaning is so evident that no body but an Unmasker would have said that when I spoke of believing as a bare Speculative assent to any Proposition as true I affirm'd that was all that was required of a Christian for Justification Though that in the strict sense of the word is all that is done in believing And therefore I say as far as meer believing could make them Members of Christ's Body plainly signifying as much as words can that the Faith for which they were justified included something more than a bare assent This appears not only from these words of mine p. 196. St. Paul often in his Epistles puts Faith for the whole Duty of a Christian but from my so often and almost every-where interpreting believing him to be the Messiah by taking him to be our King whereby is meant not a bare idle Speculation a bare notional perswasion of any truth whatsoever floating in our Brains but an active Principle of Life a Faith working by Love and Obedience To take him to be our King carries with it a right disposition of the will to honour and obey him joyn'd to that assent wherewith Believers imbrace this Fundamental Truth that Jesus was the Person who was by God sent to be their King he that was promis'd to be their Prince and Saviour But for all this the Unmasker p. 56. Confidently tells his Reader that I say no such thing His words are But besides this Historical Faith as it is generally call'd by Divines which is giving Credit to Evangelical Truths as barely reveal'd there must be something else added to make up the true Substantial Faith of a Christian. With the assent of the Understanding must be joyn'd the consent or approbation of the Will. All those Divine Truths which the Intellect assents to must be allow'd of by this Elective Power of the Soul True Evangelical Faith is a hearty acception of the Messias as he is offer'd in the Gospel It is a sincere and impartial submission to all things requir'd by the Evangelical Law which is contain'd in the Epistles as well as the other Writings And to this practical assent and choice there must be added likewise a firm Trust and reliance in the blessed Author of our Salvation But this late Undertaker who attempted to give us a more perfect account than ever was before of Christianity as it is deliver'd in the Scriptures brings us no tidings of any such Faith belonging to Christianity or discover'd to us in the Scriptures Which gives us to understand that he verily believes there is no such Christian Faith for in some of his numerous Pages especially 191. and 192 c. where he speaks so much of Belief and Faith he might have taken occasion to insert one word about this compleat Faith of the Gospel Though the places above quoted out of my Reasonableness of Christianity and the whole tenor of the latter part of it shew the falshood of what the Unmasker here says Yet I will set down one Passage more out of it and then ask our Unmasker when he hath read them whether he hath the brow to say again that I bring no tidings of any such Faith My words are Reasonableness of Christianity p. 244. Faith in the Promises of God relying and acquiescing in his Word and Faithfulness the Almighty takes well at our hands as a great mark of Homage paid by us poor frail Creatures to his Goodness and Truth as well as to his Power and Wisdom and accepts it as an Acknowledgment of his peculiar Providence and Benignity to us And therefore our Saviour tells us Iohn XII 44. He that believes on me believes not on me but on him that sent me The Works of Nature shew his Wisdom and Power But 't is his peculiar care of Mankind most eminently discover'd in his Promises to them that shews his Bounty and Goodness And consequently engages their Hearts in Love and Affection to him This oblation of an heart fixed with dependance and affection on him is the most acceptable Tribute we can pay him the Foundation of true Devotion and Life of all Religion What a Value he puts on this depending on his Word and resting satisfied on his Promises we have an example in Abraham whose Faith was counted to him for Righteousness As we have before remarked out of Rom. IV. and his relying firmly on the Promise of God without any doubt of its Performance gave him the Name of the Father of the Faithful And gained him so much favour with the Almighty that he was called the Friend of God The Highest and most Glorious Title can be bestowed on a Creature The great out-cry he makes against me in his two next Sections p. 57. â—60 as if I intended to introduce Ignorance and Popery is to be entertain'd rather as the noise of a petulant Scold saying the worst things she could think of than as the arguing of a Man of sense or sincerity All this mighty Accusation is grounded upon these Falshoods That I make it my great business to beat Men off from Divine Truths That I cry down all Articles of the Christian Faith but one That I will not suffer Men to look into Christianity That I blast the Epistolary Wriâ—ings I shall add no more to what I have already said about the Epistles but those few words out of my Reasonableness of Christianity p. 295. The Epistles resolving Doubts and reforming Mistakes are of great Advantage to our Knowledge and Practise And p. 229. An explicit belief of what God requires of those who will enter into and receive the benefits of the New Covenant is absolutely required The other parts of Divine Revelation are Objects of Faith and are so to be received They are Truths whereof none that is once known to be such i. e. of Divine Revelation may or ought to be disbelieved And as for that other Saying of his That I will not suffer Men to look into Christianity I desire to know where that Christianity is locked up which I will not suffer Men to look into My Christianity I confess is contain'd in the written Word of God And that I am so far from hindring any one to look into that I every where appeal to it and have quoted so much of it that the Unmasker complains of being overlaid with it and tells me 't is tedious All Divine Revelation I say p. 300. requires the Obedience of Faith And that every one is to receive all the parts of it with a docility and disposition prepar'd to imbrace and assent to all Truths coming from God and submit his Mind to whatever shall appear to him to bear that Character I speak in the next Page of Mens endeavouring to understand it and of their interpreting one place by another This and the whole Design of my Book shews That I think it every Christian's Duty to read search and study the Holy Scriptures and make this their
he does not see this as there is Reason to excuse his Innocence 't would be no hard matter to demonstrate it If that were at present the Question between us But there are a great many other Propositions to be proved by him before we come to that new Matter of Debate But before I quit these Paragraphs I must go on with our Unmasker's Account and desire him to shew where it is XXV That I make it my Business to beat Men off from taking notice of any Divine Truths Next where it is XXVI That I cry down all Articles of Christian Faith but one Next how it appears XXVII That I will not suffer Mankind to look into Christianity Again where it is XXVIII That I labour industriously to keep People in Ignorance Or tell them That there is no necessity of knowing any other Doctrines of the Bible These and several others of the like strain particularly concerning One Article and the Epistles which are his common places are to be found in his 59. and 60. Pages And all this out of a Presumption that his System is the only Christianity And that if Men were not pressed and perswaded to receive that just every Article of it upon pain of Damnation Christianity would be lost And not to do this is to promote Ignorance and contemn the Bible But he fears where no fear is If his Orthodoxy be the truth and conformable to the Scriptures the laying the Foundation only where our Saviour and his Apostles have laid it will not overturn it And to shew him that it is so I desire him again to consider what I said in p. 8. of my Vindication Which because I do not remember he any where takes notice of in his Reply I will here offer again to his consideration Convince but Men of the Mission of Jesus Christ make them but see the Truth Simplicity and Reasonableness of what he himself hath taught and required to be believed by his Followers and you need not doubt but being once fully perswaded of his Doctrine and the Advantages which all Christians agree are received by him such Converts will not lay by the Scriptures But by a constant reading and study of them will get all the Light they can from this Divine Revelation and nourish themselves up in the words of Faith and good Doctrine as St. Paul speaks to Timothy If the reading and study of the Scripture were more pressed than it is and Men were fairly sent to the Bible to find their Religion and not the Bible put into their hands only to find the Opinions of their peculiar Sect or Party Christendom would have more Christians and those that are would be more knowing and more in the right than now they are That which hinders this is that select bundle of Doctrines which it has pleased every Sect to draw out of the Scriptures or their own inventions with an Omission and as our Unmasker would say a Contempt of all the rest These choice Truths as the Unmasker calls his are to be the standing Orthodoxy of that Party from which none of that Church must recede without the forfeiture of their Christianity and the loss of eternal Life But whilst People keep firm to these they are in the Church and the Way to Salvation Which in effect what is it but to incourage ignorance laziness and neglect of the Scriptures For what need they be at the pains of constantly reading the Bible Or perplex their Heads with considering and weighing what is there deliver'd when believing as the Church believes or saying after or not contradicting their Domine or Teacher serves the turn Further I desire it may be consider'd what Name that meer Mock-shew of recommending to Men the study of the Scripture deserves if when they read it they must understand it just as he that would be and they are too apt contrary to the Command of Christ to call their Master tells them If they find any thing in the Word of God that leads them into Opinions that he does not allow If any thing they meet with in Holy Writ seems to them to thwart or shake the received Doctrines the very proposing of their Doubts renders them suspected Reasoning about them and not acquiescing in what ever is said to them is interpreted want of due respect and deference to the Authority of their Spiritual Guides Disrepute and Censures follow And if in pursuance of their own Light they persist in what they think the Scripture teaches them they are turn'd out of the Church deliver'd to Sathan and no longer allow'd to be Christians And is thus a sincere and rightly directed study of the Scriptures that Men may understand and profit thereby incouraged This is the Consequence of Mens assuming to themselves a Power of declaring Fundamentals i. e. of setting up a Christianity of their own making For how else can they turn Men of as unblameable Lives as others of their Members out of the Church of Christ for so they count their Communion for Opinions unless those Opinions were concluded inconsistent with Christianity Thus Systems the Inventions of Men are turn'd into so many opposite Gospels and nothing is truth in each Sect but what just suits with them So that the Scripture serves but like a Nose of Wax to be turn'd and bent just as may sit the contrary Orthodoxies of different Societies For 't is these several Systems that to each Party are the just Standards of Truth and the meaning of the Scripture is to be measur'd only by them Whoever relinquishes any of those distinguishing Points immediately ceases to be a Christian. This is the Way that the Unmasker would have Truth and Religion preserv'd Light and Knowledge propagated But here too the differing Sects giving equal Authority to their own Orthodoxies will be quits with him For as far as I can observe the same Genius seems to influence them all even those who pretend most to freedom the Socinians themselves For when it is observed how positive and eager they are in their Disputes how forward to have their Interpretations of Scripture received for Authentick though to others in several places they seem very much strain'd How impatient they are of Contradiction and with what disrespect and roughness they often treat their Opposers May it not be suspected that this so visible warmth in their present Circumstances and Zeal for their Orthodoxy would had they the Power work in them as it does in others They in their turns would I fear be ready with their Set of Fundamentals which they would be as forward to impose on others as others have been to impose contrary Fundamentals on them This is and always will be the unavoidable effect of intruding on our Saviour's Authority and requiring more now as necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian than was at first required by our Saviour and his Apostles What else can be expected among Christians but their tearing and being torn
advise a Buâ—â—oon to talk gravely who has nothing left to draw attention if he should lay by his scurrility The remainder of this 4th Chapter p. 61. â—67 being spent in shewing why the Socinians are for a few Articles of Faith being a Matter that I am not concern'd in I leave to that forward Gentleman to examine who examined Mr. Edwards's Exceptions against the Reasonableness of Christianity and who as the Unmasker informs me p. 64. was chosen to vindicate my attempt c. If the Unmasker knows that he was so Chosen it is well If I had known of such a choice I should have desired that somebody should have been chosen to Vindicate my attempt who had understood it better The Unmasker and Examiner are each of them so full of themselves and their own Systems that I think they may be a fit match one for another And so I leave these Cocks of the Game to try it out in an endless battle of wrangling till Death them depart which of them has made the true and exact Collection of Fundamentals And whose System of the two ought to be the prevailing Orthodoxy and be received for Scripture Only I warn the Examiner to look to himself For the Unmasker has the whiphand of him and gives him to understand p. 65. that if he cannot do it himself by the strength of his Lungs the vehemency of his Oratory and endless attacks of his Repetitions the Ecclesiastical Power and the Civil Magistrates lash have in store demonstrative Arguments to convince him that his the Vnmasker's System is the only true Christianity By the way I must not forget to mind the Unmasker here again that he hath a very unlucky hand at guessing For whereas he names Socinus as one from whom I received my Platform and says that Crellius gave me my Kue it so falls out that they are two Authors of whom I never read a Page I say not this as if I thought it a fault if I had for I think I should have much better spent my time in them than in the Writings of our learned Unmasker I was sure there was no offending the Unmasker without the guilt of Atheism only he here p. 69. very mercifully lays it upon my Book and not upon my Design The tendency of it to Irreligion and Atheism he has proved in an Eloquent Harangue for he is such an Orator he cannot stir a foot without a Speech made as he bids us suppose by the Atheistical Rabble And who can deny but he has chose a fit Imployment for himself Where could there be found a better Speech-maker for the Atheistical Rabble But let us hear him For though he would give the Atheistical Rabble the Credit of it yet 't is the Unmasker speaks And because 't is pity such a pattern of Rhetorick and Reason should be lost I have for my Reader 's Edification set it all down verbatim We are beholding to this worthy Adventurer for ridding the World of so great an Incumbrance viz. That huge Mass and unweildy Body of Christianity which took up so much room Now we see that it was this bulk and not that of Mankind which he had an eye to when he so often mention'd this latter This is a Physician for our turn indeed We like this Chymical Operator that doth not trouble us with a parcel of heavy Drugs of no value but contracts it all into a few Spirits nay doth his business with a single drop We have been in bondage a long time to Creeds and Catechisms Systems and Confessions we have been plagued with a tedious Beadroll of Articles which our Reverend Divines have told us we must make the Matter of our Faith Yea so it is both Conformists and Nonconformists though disagreeing in some other things have agreed in this to molest and Crucifie us But this noble Writer we thank him hath set us free and eas'd us by bringing down all the Christian Faith into one Point We have heard some Men talk of Epistolary Composures of the New Testament as if great Matters were contain'd in them as if the great Mysteries of Christianity as they call them were unfolded there But we could never make any thing of them and now we find that this Writer is partly of our Opinion He tells us that these are Letters sent upon occasion but we are not to look for our Religion for now for this Gentleman's sake we begin to talk of Religion in these places We believe it and we believe that there is no Religion but in those very Chapters and Verses which he has set down in his Treatise What need we have any other part of the New Testament That is Bible enough if not too much Happy thrice happy shall this Author be perpetually esteemed by us we will Chronicle him as our Friend and Benefactor It is not our way to Saint People Otherwise we would certainly canonize this Gentleman and when our hand is in his pair of Booksellers for their being so Beneficial to the World in publishing so rich a Treasure It was a blessed day when this hopeful Birth saw the Light for hereby all the Orthodox Creed-Makers and Systematick Men are ruined for ever In brief if we be for any Christianity it shall be this Author's for that agrees with us singularly well it being so short all couch'd in four words neither more nor less It is a very fine Compendium and we are infinitely obliged to this great Reformer for it We are glad at heart that Christianity is brought so low by this worthy Pen-man for this is a good presage that it will dwindle into nothing What! But one Article and that so brief too We like such a Faith and such a Religion because it is so near to none He hath no sooner done but as it deserved he crys out Euge Sophos And is not the Reader quoth he satisfied that such Language as this hath real truth in it Does not he perceive that the discarding all the Articles but ONE makes way for the casting off that too Answ. 'T is but supposing that the Reader is a civil â—entleman and answers Yes to these two Questions and then 't is Demonstration that by this Speech he has irrefragably proved the tendency of my Book to Irreligion and Atheism I remember Chillingworth somewhere puts up this Request to his Adversary Knot Sir I beseech you when you write again do us the favour to write nothing but Syllogisms For I find it still an extream trouble to find out the conceal'd Propositions which are to connect the parts of your Enthymems As now for Example I profess to you I have done my best endeavour to find some Glue or Sodder or Cement or Thread or any thing to tie the Antecedent and this Consequent together The Unmasker agrees so much in a great part of his Opinion with that Jesuit as I have shew'd already and does so infinitely out-doe him in spinning Ropes of Sand and a
Apostles if they were but ordinarily fair and prudent Men did in an History publish'd to instruct the World in a new Religion leave out the necessary and Fundamental parts of that Religion But let them be consider'd as inspired Writers under the Conduct of the infallible Spirit of God putting them upon and directing them in the writing of this History of the Gospel and then it is impossible for any Christian but the Unmasker to think that they made any such gross Omissions contrary to the design of their Writing without a Demonstration to convince him of it Now all the reason that our Unmasker gives is this That it is confessed by all intelligent and observing Men that the History of the Scripture is concise and that in relating Matters of Fact many Passages are omitted by the Sacred Penmen Answ. The Unmasker might have spar'd the Confession of intelligent and observing Men after so plain a Declaration of St. Iohn himself Chap. XX. 31. Many other things did Iesus in the presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Book And again XXI 25. There are also many other things that Iesus did the which if they should be written every one I suppose the world could not contain the Books that should be written There needs therefore no opinion of intelligent and observing Men to convince us that the History of the Gospel is so far Concise that a great many Matters of Fact are omitted and a great many less material Circumstances even of those that are set down But will any intelligent or observing Man any one that bears the Name of a Christian have the Impudence to say that the inspired Writers in the relation they give us of what Christ and his Apostles Preach'd to Unbelievers to convert them to the Faith omitted the Fundamental Articles which those Preachers proposed to make Men Christians and without a belief of which they could not be Christians The Unmasker talks after his wonted fashion seems to say something which when examin'd proves nothing to his Purpose He tells us That in some places where the Article of Iesus the Messiah is mention'd alone at the same time other matters of Faith were proposed I ask were these other matters of Faith all the Unmasker's necessary Articles If not what are those other matters of Faith to the Unmasker's Purpose As for Example in St. Peter's Sermon Act. II. Other matters of Faith were proposed with the Article of Iesus the Messiah But what does this make for His Fundamental Articles Were They all propos'd with the Articles of Iesus the Messiah If not Unbelievers were converted and brought into the Church without the Unmasker's necessary Articles Three Thousand were added to the Church by this one Sermon I pass by now St. Luke's not mentioning a Syllable of the greatest part of the Unmasker's necessary Articles and shall consider only how long that Sermon may have been 'T is plain from v. 15. that it began not till about Nine in the Morning and from v. 41. that before Night Three Thousand were converted and Baptized Now I ask the Unmasker whether so small a Number of Hours as St. Peter must necessarily imploy in Preaching to them were sufficient to instruct such a mixed Multitude so fully in all those Articles which he has propos'd as necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian as that every one of those Three Thousand that were that day Baptized did understand and explicitly believe every one of those his Articles just in the sense of our Unmasker's System Not to mention those remaining Articles which the Unmasker will not be able in twice as many Months to find and declare to us He says That in some places where the Article of Iesus the Messiah is mentioned alone at the same time other matters of Faith were proposed Let us take this for so at present yet this helps not the Unmasker's case The Fundamental Articles that were propos'd by our Saviour and his Apostles necessary to be believed to make Men Christians are not set down but only this single one of Iesus the Messiah Therefore will any one dare to say that they are omitted every where by the Evangelists Did the Historians of the Gospel make their relation so concise and short that giving an account in so many places of the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles for the Conversion of the Unbelieving World they did not in any one place nor in in all of them together set down the necessary Points of that Faith which their Unbelieving Hearers were converted to If they did not how can their Histories be called the Gospels of Iesus Christ Or how can they serve to the end for which they were written Which was to publish to the World the Doctrine of Iesus Christ that Men might be brought into his Religion Now I challenge the Unmasker to shew me not out of any one place but out of all the Preachings of our Saviour and his Apostles recorded in the four Gospels and the Acts all those Propositions which he has reckon'd up as Fundamental Articles of Faith If they are not to be found there 't is plain that either they are not Articles of Faith necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian or else that those inspired Writers have given us an account of the Gospel or Christian Religion wherein the greatest part of Doctrines necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian are wholly omitted Which in short is to say that the Christianity which is recorded in the Gospels and the Acts is not that Christianity which is sufficient to make a Man a Christian. This as absurd and impious as it is is what our Unmasker charges upon the Conciseness as he is pleased to call it of the Evangelical History And this we must take upon his word Though these inspired Writers tell us the direct contrary For St. Luke in his Preface to his Gospel tells Theophilus that having a perfect knowledge OF ALL THINGS the Design of his Writing was to set them in order that he might know the certainty of those things that were believed amongst Christians And his History of the Acts begins thus The former Treatise i. e. his Gospel have I made O Theophilus of ALL that Iesus began to do and to teach So that how concise soever the Unmasker will have his History to be he professes it to contain ALL that Jesus taught Which ALL must in the narrowest sense that can be given it contain at least all things necessary to make a Man a Christian. 'T would else be a very lame and imperfect History of ALL that Jesus taught if the Faith contained in it were not sufficient to make a Man a Christian. This indeed as the Unmasker hath been pleased to term it would be a very lank Faith a very lank Gospel St. Iohn also says thus of his History of the Gospel Ch. XX. 30 31. Many other signs truly did Iesus in
of yet owns the Omission of several things that the Apostle said For having expressed this Fundamental Doctrine That Iesus was the Messiah and recorded several of the Arguments wherewith St. Peter urged it for the Conversion of the unbelieving Iews his Auditors he adds v. 40. And with many other words did he testifie and exhort saying Save your selves from this untoward Generation Here he confesses that he omitted a great deal which St. Peter had said to perswade them To what To that which in other words he had just said before v. 38. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ i. e. Believe Iesus to be the Messiah take him as such for your Lord and King and reform your Lives by a sincere Resolution of Obedience to his Laws Thus we have an account of the Omissions in the Records of Matters of Fact in the New Testament But will the Unmasker say that the preaching of those Articles that he has given us as necessary to be believ'd to make a Man a Christian was part of those Matters of Fact which have been omitted in the History of the New Testament Can any one think that the Corruption and Degeneracy of humane Nature with the true Original of it the Defection of our first Parents the Propagation of Sin and Mortality our Restoration and Reconciliation by Christ's blood the Eminency and Excellency of his Priesthood the Efficacy of his Death the full Satisfaction thereby made to divine Iustice and his being made an all-sufficient Sacrifice for Sin our Iustification by Christ's Righteousness Election Adoption c. were all proposed and that too in the Sense of our Authors System by our Saviour and his Apostles as Fundamental Articles of Faith necessary to be explicitely believed by every Man to make him a Christian in all their Discourses to Unbelievers And yet that the inspired Pen-men of those Histories every where left the mention of these Fundamental Articles wholly out This would have been to have writ not a concise but an imperfect History of all that Iesus and his Apostles taught What an account would it have been of the Gospel as it was first preached and propagated if the greatest part of the necessary Doctrines of it were wholly left out and a Man could not find from one end to the other of this whole History that Religion which is necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian And yet this is that which under the Notion of their being concise the Vnmasker would perswade us to have been done by St. Luke and the other Evangelists in their Histories And 't is no less than what he plainly says in his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism p. 109. Where to aggravate my Fault in passing by the Epistles and to shew the Necessity of searchin them for Fundamentals he in words blames me But in effect condemns the Sacred History contain'd in the Gospels and the Acts. It is most evident says he to any thinking Man that the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity purposely omits the Epistolary Writings of the Apostles because they are fraught with other Fundamental Doctrines besides that one which he mentions There we are instructed concerning these grand heads of Christian Divinity Here i. e. in the Epistles says he There are Discoveries concerning Satisfaction c. and in the close of his List of his Grand Heads as he calls them some whereof I have above set down out of him he adds These are the Matters of Faith contained in the Epistles By all which Expressions he plainly signifies that these which he calls Fundamental Doctrines are none of those we are instructed in in the Gospels and the Acts that they are not discover'd nor contain'd in the historical Writings of the Evangelists Whereby he confesses that either our Saviour and his Apostles did not propose them in their Preachings to their unbelieving Hearers or else that the several faithful Writers of their History willfully i. e. unfaithfully every where omitted them in the account they have left us of those Preachings Which could scarce possibly be done by them all and every where without an actual Combination amongst them to smother the greatest and most material parts of our Saviour's and his Apostles Discourses For what else did they if all that the Unmasker has set down in his List be Fundamental Doctrines every one of them absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian which our Saviour and his Apostles every where preached to make Men Christians but yet St. Luke and the other Evangelists by a very guilty and unpardonable Conciseness every where omitted them and throughout their whole History never once tell us they were so much as proposed much less that they were those Articles which the Apostles laboured to establish and convince Men of every where before they admitted them to Baptism Nay the far greatest part of them the History they writ does not any where so much as once mention How after such an Imputation as this the Unmasker will clear himself from laying by the four Gospels and the Acts with contempt let him look if my not collecting Fundamentals out of the Epistles had that Guilt in it For I never denied all the Fundamental Doctrines to be there but only said that there they were not easie to be found out and distinguished from Doctrines not Fundamental Whereas our good Vnmasker charges the historical Books of the New Testament with a total Omission of the far greatest part of those Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity which he says are absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian. To convince the Reader what was absolutely required to be believed to make a Man a Christian and thereby clear the holy Writers from the Unmasker's Slander any one need but look a little further into the History of the Acts and observe St. Luke's Method in the Writing of it In the beginning as we observed before and in some few other places he sets down at large the Discourses made by the Preachers of Christianity to their unbelieving Auditors But in the Process of his History he generally contents himself to relate what it was their Discourses drive at what was the Doctrine they endeavour'd to convince their unbelieving Hearers of to make them Believers This we may observe is never omitted This is every where set down Thus Acts V. 42. he tells us that daily in the Temple and in every house the Apostles ceased not to teach and to preach IESUS THE MESSIAH The particulars of their Discourses he omits and the Arguments they used to induce Men to believe he omits But never fails to inform us carefully what it was the Apostles taught and preach'd and would have Men believe The account he gives us of St. Paul's Preaching at Thessalonica is this That three Sabbath Days he REASON'D with the Iews out of the Scriptures OPENING and ALLEDGING that the Messiah must needs
have Suffer'd and risen again from the Dead and that Iesus was the Messiah Act. XVII 2 3. At Corinth That he REASON'D in the Synagogue every Sabbath and PERSWADED the Iews and the Greeks and TESTIFIED that Iesus was the Messiah XVIII 4 5. That Apollos mightily convinced the Iews SHEWING BY THE SCRIPTURES that Iesus was the Messiah XVIII 27. By these and the like places we may be satisfied what it was that the Apostles Taught and Preach'd even this one Proposition that Iesus was the Messiah For this was the sole Proposition they reason'd about this alone they testified and they shew'd out of the Scriptures and of this alone they endeavour'd to convince the Iews and the Greeks that believed one God So that it is plain from hence that St. Luke omitted nothing that the Apostles Taught and Preach'd none of those Doctrines that it was necessary to convince Unbelievers of to make them Christians Though he in most places omitted as was fit the Passages of Scripture which they alledg'd and the Arguments those inspired Preachers used to perswade Men to believe and imbrace that Doctrine Another convincing Argument to shew that St. Luke omitted none of those Fundamental Doctrines which the Apostles any where propos'd as necessary to be believed is from that different account he gives us of their Preaching in other places and to Auditors otherwise dispos'd Where the Apostles had to do with Idolatrous Heathens who were not yet come to the knowledge of the only true God there he tells us they propos'd also the Article of the one Invisible God Maker of Heaven and Earth And this we find recorded in him out of their Preaching to the Lystrians Act. XIV and to the Athenians Act. XVII In the later of which St. Luke to convince his Reader that he out of conciseness omits none of those Fundamental Articles that were any where propos'd by the Preachers of the Gospel as necessary to be believed to make Men Christians sets down not only the Article of Iesus the Messiah but that also of the one invisible God Creator of all things which if any necessary one might this of all other Fundamental Articles might by an Author that affected brevity with the fairest excuse have been omitted as being implied in that other of the Messiah ordained by God Indeed in the Story of what Paul and Barnabas said at Lystra the Article of the Messiah is not mention'd Not that St. Luke omitted that Fundamental Article where the Apostles taught it But they having here begun their Preaching with that of the one living God they had not as appears time to proceed farther and propose to them what yet remain'd to make them Christians But they were by the instigation of the Iews fallen upon and Paul stoned before he could come to open to them this other Fundamental Article of the Gospel This by the way shews the Unmasker's Mistake in his first Particular p. 74. where he says as he does here again in his second Particular which we are now examining that believing Iesus to be the Messiah is the first step to Christianity and therefore this rather than any other was propounded to be believed by all those whom either our Saviour or the Apostles invited to imbrace Christianity The contrary whereof appears here Where the Article of one God is proposed in the first place to those whose Unbelief made such a proposal necessary And therefore if his Reason which he uses again here p. 76. were good viz. That the Article of the Messiah is expresly mention'd alone because it is a leading Article and makes way for the rest this Reason would rather conclude for the Article of one God And that alone should be expresly mentioned instead of the other Since as he argues for the other p. 74. if they did not believe this in the first place viz. That there was one God there could be no hopes that they would attend unto any other Proposal relating to the Christian Religion The Vanity and Falshood of which reasoning viz. That the Article of Jesus the Messiah was every where propounded rather than any other because it was the leading Article we see in the History of St. Paul's Preaching to the Athenians St. Luke mentions more than one Article where more than one was propos'd by St. Paul though the first of them was that leading Article of one God which if not received in the first place there could be no hope they would attend to the rest Something the Unmasker would make of this Argument of a leading Article for want of a better though he knows not what In his first particular p. 74. he makes use of it to shew why there was but that one Article propos'd by the first Preachers of the Gospel and how well that succeeds with him we have seen For this is Demonstration that if there were but that one propos'd by our Saviour and the Apostles there was but that one necessary to be believed to make Men Christians Unless he will impiously say that our Saviour and the Apostles went about Preaching to no purpose For if they propos'd not all that was necessary to make Men Christians 't was in vain for them to Preach and others to Hear if when they heard and believ'd all that was propos'd to them they were not yet Christians For if any Article was omitted in the Proposal which was necessary to make a Man a Christian though they believed all that was proposed to them they could not yet be Christians unless a Man can from an Infidel become a Christian without doing what is necessary to make him a Christian. Further if his Argument of its being a leading Article proves that that alone was propos'd It is a Contradiction to give it as a Reason why it was set down alone by the Historian where it was not proposed alone by the Preacher but other necessary matters of Faith were propos'd with it unless it can be true that this Article of Iesus is the Messiah was propos'd alone by our Saviour and his Apostles because it was a leading Article and was mention'd alone in the History of what they preach'd because it was a leading Article though it were not propos'd alone but jointly with other necessary matters of Faith For this is the use he makes here again p. 76. of his leading Article under his second Particular viz. To shew why the Historians mention'd this necessary Article of Iesus the Messiah alone in places where the Preachers of the Gospel propos'd it not alone but with other necessary Articles But in this latter case it has no shew of a Reason at all It may be granted as reasonable for the Teachers of any Religion not to go any farther where they see the first Article which they propose is rejected where the leading Truth on which all the rest depends is not received But it can be no reason at all for an Historian who writes the History of these first Preachers
to set down only the one first and leading Article and omit all the rest in instances where more were not only propos'd but believed and imbraced and upon that the Hearers and Believers admitted into the Church 'T is not for Historians to put any distinction between leading or not leading Articles But if they will give a true and useful account of the Religion whose Original they are writing and of the Converts made to it they must tell not one but all those necessary Articles upon assent to which Converts were Baptized into that Religion and admitted into the Church Whoever says otherwise accuses them of falsifying the Story misleading the Readers and giving a wrong account of the Religion which they pretend to teach the World and to preserve and propagate to future Ages This if it were so no pretence of conciseness could excuse or palliate There is yet remaining one Consideration which were sufficient of it self to convince us that it was the sole Article of Faith which was preach'd And that if there had been other Articles necessary to be known and believed by Converts they could not upon any pretence of conciseness be supposed to be omitted And that is the Commissions of those that were sent to Preach the Gospel Which since the Sacred Historians mention they cannot be suppos'd to leave out any of the material and main Heads of those Commissions St. Luke records it Ch. IV. 43. that our Saviour says of himself I must go unto the other Towns to tell the good news of the Kingdom for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon this Errand am I SENT This St. Mark calls simply Preaching This Preaching what it contain'd St. Matthew tells us Ch. IV. 23. And Iesus went about all Galilee teaching in their Synagogues and preaching the good news of the Kingdom and healing all manner of Sickness and all manner of Diseases amongst the People Here we have his Commission or End of his being sent and the Execution of it Both terminating in this that he declar'd the good News that the Kingdom of the Messiah was come and gave them to understand by the Miracles he did that he himself was he Nor does St. Matthew seem to affect such conciseness that he would have left it out if the Gospel had contained any other Fundamental Parts necessary to be believed to make Men Christians For he here says all manner of Sickness and all manner of Disease when either of them might have been better left out than any necessary Article of the Gospel to make his History concise We see what our Saviour was sent for In the next place let us look into the Commission he gave the Apostles when he sent them to Preach the Gospel We have it in the X. of St. Matthew in these words Go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any City of the Samaritans enter ye not But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel And as ye go PREACH SAYING THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND Heal the Sick cleanse the Lepers raise the Dead cast out Devils Freely have ye received freely give Provide neither Gold nor Silver nor Brass in your Purses nor Scrip in your journey neither two Coats neither Shooes nor yet Staves for the Workman is worthy of his meat And into whatsoever City or Town ye shall enter enquire who in it is worthy and there abide till ye go thence And when ye come into any house salute it And if the house be worthy let your peace come upon it But if it be not worthy let your peace return to you And whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words When ye depart out of that house or City shake off the dust of your feet Verily I say unto you It shall be more tolerable for the Land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment than for that City Behold I send you forth as Sheep in the midst of Wolves Be ye therefore wise as Serpents and harmless as Doves But beware of Men for they will deliver you up to the Councils and they will scourge you in their Synagogues And ye shall be brought before Governours and Kings for my sake for a Testimony against them and the Gentiles But when they deliver you up take no thought how or what ye shall speak for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak For it is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you And the Brother shall deliver up the Brother to Death and the Father the Child and the Children shall rise up against the Parents and cause them to be put to Death And ye shall be hated of all men for my Name 's sake But he that endureth to the end shall be saved But when they persecute you in this City flee ye into another For verily I say unto you ye shall not have gone over the Cities of Israel till the Son of man be come The Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord. It is enough for the Disciple that he be as his Master and the Servant as his Lord. If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of his houshold Fear them not therefore For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed and hid that shall not be known What I tell you in darkness that speak ye in light And what ye hear in the ear that preach ye upon the house tops And fear not them which kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul But rather fear him which is able to destroy both Soul and body in Hell Are not two Sparrows sold for a farthing And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father But the very hairs of your head are all numbred Fear ye not therefore ye are of more value than many Sparrows Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men him will I confess also before my Father which is in Heaven But whosoever shall deny me before men him will I also deny before my Father which is in Heaven Think not that I am come to send peace on Earth I came not to send peace but a sword For I am come to set a man at variance against his Father and the Daughter against her Mother and the Daughter-in Law against the Mother in Law And a man's foes shall be they of his own houshold He that loveth Father and Mother more than me is not worthy of me And he that loveth Son or Daughter more than me is not worthy of me And he that taketh not his Cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me He that findeth his life shall lose it And he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall
Christ's Death and Resurrection of those Substantial Articles i. e. that he should die and rise again But we read in the Acts and in the Epistles that these were formal Articles of Faith afterwards and are ever since necessary to compleat the Christian belief So as to other great Verities the Gospel increased by degrees and was not perfect at once Which furnishes us with a reason why most of the choicest and sublimest truths of Christianity are to be met with in the Epistles of the Apostles they being such Doctrines as were not clearly discover'd and open'd in the Gospels and the Acts. Thus far the Vnmasker I thought hitherto that the Covenant of Grace in Christ Jesus had been but one immutably the same But our Vnmasker here makes two or I know not how many For I cannot tell how to conceive that the Conditions of any Covenant should be changed and the Covenant remain the same Every change of Conditions in my apprehension makes a new and another Covenant We are not to think says the Vnmasker That all the necessary Doctrines of the Christian Religion were clearly publish'd to the World in our Saviour's time not but that all that were necessary for that time were publish'd But some which were necessary for the Succeeding one were not then discover'd or at least not fully Answ. The Unmasker constant to himself speaks here doubtfully and cannot tell whether he should say that the Articles necessary to Succeeding times were discover'd in our Saviour's time or no And therefore that he may provide himself a retreat in the doubt he is in he says they were not clearly publish'd they were not then discover'd or at least not fully But we must desire him to pull off his Mask and to that purpose 1 o. I ask him how he can tell that all the necessary Doctrines were obscurely published or in part discover'd for an obscure publishing a Discovery in part is opposed to and intimated in not clearly published not fully discover'd And if a clear and full Discovery be all that he denies to them I ask XXXVII Which those Fundamental Articles are which were obscurely publish'd but not fully discovered in our Saviour's time And next I shall desire him to tell me XXXVIII Whether there are any Articles necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian that were not discover'd at all in our Saviour's time and which they are If he cannot shew these distinctly it is plain he talks at random about them But he has no clear and distinct conception of those that were publish'd or not publish'd clearly or obscurely discover'd in our Saviour's time It was necessary for him to say something for those his pretended necessary Articles which are not to be â—ound any where propos'd in the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles to their yet Unbelieving Auditors And therefore he says We are not to think all the necessary Doctrines of the Christian Religion were clearly published to the World in our Saviour's time But he barely says it without giving any Reason why we are not to think so It is enough that it is necessary to his Hypothesis He says we are not to think so and we are presently bound not to think so Else from another Man that did not usurp an Authority over our Thoughts it would have requir'd some Reason to make them think that something more was requir'd to make a Man a Christian after than in our Saviour's time For as I take it it is not a very probable much less a self-evident Proposition to be received without Proof That there was something necessary for that time to make a Man a Christian and something more that was necessary to make a Man a Christian in the succeeding time However since this great Master says we ought to think so let us in obedience think so as well as we can till he vouchsafes to give us some Reason to think that there was more requir'd to be believed to make a Man a Christian in the succeeding time than in our Saviour's This instead of removing does but increase the Difficulty For if more were necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian after our Saviour's time than was during his life how comes it that no more was propos'd by the Apostles in their Preaching to Unbelievers for the making them Christians after our Saviour's Death than there was before Even this one Article that he was the Messiah For I desire the Unmasker to shew me any of those other Articles mentioned in his List except the Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour which were intervening Matters of Fact evidencing him to be the Messiah that were propos'd by the Apostles after our Saviour's time to their Unbelieving Hearers to make them Christians This one Doctrine that Iesus was the Messiah was that which was propos'd in our Saviour's time to be believed as necessary to make a Man a Christian The same Doctrine was likewise what was propos'd afterwards in the Preaching of the Apostles to Unbelievers to make them Christians I grant this was more clearly propos'd after than in our Saviour's time But in both of them it was all that was propos'd to the Believers of one God to make them Christians Let him shew that there were any other propos'd in or after our Saviour's time to be believed to make Unbelievers Christians If he means by necessary Articles published to the World the other Doctrines contain'd in the Epistles I grant they are all of them necessary Articles to be believed by every Christian as far as he understands them But I deny that they were propos'd to those they were writ to as necessary to make them Christians for this demonstrative Reason Because they were Christians already For Example many Doctrines proving and explaining and giving a farther Light into the Gospel are publish'd in the Epistles to the Corinthians and Thessalonians These are all of Divine Authority and none of them may be disbelieved by any one who is a Christian But yet what was propos'd or publish'd to both the Corinthians and Thessalonians to make them Christians was only this Doctrine that Iesus was the Messiah As may be seen Act. XVII and XVIII This then was the Doctrine necessary to make men Christians in our Saviour's time And this the only Doctrine necessary to make Unbelievers Christians after our Saviour's time The only difference was that it was more clearly propos'd after than before his Ascension The Reason whereof has been sufficiently explain'd But any other Doctrine but this propos'd clearly or obscurely in or after our Saviour's time as necessary to be believed to make Unbelievers Christians That remains yet to be shewn When the Unmasker speaks of the Doctrines that were necessary for the succeeding time after our Saviour he is in doubt whether he should say they were or were not discover'd in our Saviour's time and how far they were then discover'd And therefore he says some of them were
unquestionable Word of God And thus partly in the words of the Scripture and partly in words of his own he makes a Set of Fundamentals with an Exclusion of all the other Truths deliver'd by the Spirit of God in the Bible Though all the rest be of the same Divine Authority and Original and ought therefore all equally as far as they are understood by every Christian to be believed I tell him and I desire him to take notice of it God has no where given him an Authority thus to garble the inspired Writings of the Holy Scriptures Every part of it is his Word and ought every part of it to be believed by every Christian Man according as God shall inable him to understand it It ought not to be narrowed to the Cut of the Vnmasker's peculiar System 'T is a Presumption of the highest Nature for him thus to pretend according to his own Phancy to establish a Set of Fundamental Articles This is to diminish the Authority of the Word of God to set up his own and create a reverence to his System from which the several parts of Divine Revelations are to receive their Weight Dignity and Authority Those Passages of Holy Writ which suit with that are Fundamental Choice Sublime and Necessary The rest of the Scripture as of no great moment is not Fundamental is not necessary to be believed may be neglected or must be tortur'd to comply with an Analogy of Faith of his own making But though he pretend to a certain Set of Fundamentals yet to shew the Vanity and Impudence of that pretence he cannot tell us which they are and therefore in vain contends for a Creed he knows not and is yet no where He neither does and which is more I tell him he never can give us a Collection of his Fundamentals gather'd upon his Principles out of the Scripture with the rejection of all the rest as not Fundamental He does not observe the difference there is between what is necessary to be believed by every Man to make him a Christian and what is requir'd to be believed by every Christian. The first of these is what by the Covenant of the Gospel is necessary to be known and consequently to be propos'd to every Man to make him a Christian The latter is no less than the whole Revelation of God all the Divine Truths contain'd in Holy Scripture which every Christian Man is under a necessity to believe so far as it shall please God upon his serious and constant endeavours to enlighten his Mind to understand them The Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles has sufficiently taught us what is necessary to be propos'd to every Man to make him a Christian. He that believes him to be the promised Messiah takes Iesus for his King and repenting of his former Sins sincerely resolves to live for the future in obedience to his Laws is a Subject of his Kingdom is a Christian. If he be not I desire the Unmasker to tell me what more is requisite to make him so Till he does that I rest satisfied that this is all that was at first and is still necessary to make a Man a Christian. This though it be contain'd in a few words and those not hard to be understood though it be in one voluntary act of the Mind relinquishing all irregular Courses and submitting it self to the rule of him whom God had sent to be our King and promised to be our Saviour Yet it having relation to the Race of Mankind from the First Man Adam to the End of the World it being a Contrivance wherein God has displaid so much of his Wisdom and Goodness to the corrupt and lost Sons of Men and it being a Design to which the Almighty had a peculiar regard in the whole Constitution and Oeconomy of the Iews as well as in the Prophecies and History of the Old Testament This was a Foundation capable of large Superstructures 1. In explaining the Occasion Necessity Use and End of his coming 2. Next in proving him to be the Person promis'd by a Correspondence of his Birth Life Sufferings Death and Resurrection to all those Prophecies and Types of him which had given the expectation of such a Deliverer and to those Descriptions of him whereby he might be known when he did come 3. In the discovery of the Sort Constitution Extent and Management of his Kingdom 4. In shewing from what we are deliver'd by him and how that Deliverance is wrought out and what are the Consequences of it These and a great many more the like afford great numbers of Truths deliver'd both in the Historical Epistolary and Prophetical Writings of the New Testament wherein the Mysteries of the Gospel hidden from former Ages were discover'd and that more fully I grant after the pouring out of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles But could no body take Christ for their promised King and resolve to obey him unless he understood all the Truths that concern'd his Kingdom or as I may say Mysteries of State of it The truth of the contrary is manifest out of the plain and uniform Preaching of the Apostles after they had received the Holy Ghost that was to guide them into all Truth Nay after the writing of those Epistles wherein were contain'd the Unmasker's Sublimest Truths They every where propos'd to Unbelievers Iesus the Messiah to be their King Ordain'd of God and to this join'd Repentance And this alone they Preach'd for the Conversion of their Unbelieving Hearers As soon as any one assented to this he was pronounced a Believer And these inspired Rulers of the Church these infallible Preachers of the Gospel admitted him into Christ's Kingdom by Baptism And this after long after our Saviour's Ascension when as our Unmasker expresses it the Holy Ghost was to be sent in a special manner to enlighten mens Minds and to discover to them the great Mysteries of Christianity even as long as the Apostles lived And what others were to do who afterwards were to Preach the Gospel St. Paul tells us 1 Cor. III. 11. Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid even Iesus the Messiah Though upon this Foundation Men might build variously things that would or would not hold the touch Yet however as long as they kept firm to this Foundation they should be saved as appears in the following Verses And indeed if all the Doctrines of the Gospel which are contain'd in the Writings of the Apostles and Evangelists were necessary to be understood and explicitly believed in the true sense of those that deliver'd them to make a Man a Christian I doubt whether ever any one even to this day was a true Christian Though I believe the Unmasker will not deny but that e're this Christianity as he expresses it is by certain steps climbed to its height But for this the Unmasker has found a convenient and wise remedy 'T is but for him to have the Power to
strain in his Book Only to shew how well he understands or represents my sense I shall set down my Words as they are in the Pages he quotes and his Inferences from them Vindicat. p. 22. Socin Unmask'd p. 108. I know not but it may be true that the Antitrinitarians and Racovians understand those places as I do But 't is more than I know that they do so I took not my sence of those Texts from those Writers but from the Scripture it self giving Light to its own meaning by one place compared with another What in this way appears to me its true meaning I shall not decline because I am told that it is so understood by the Racovians whom I never yet read nor embrace the contrary though the generality of Divines I more converse with should declare for it If the sence wherein I understand those Texts be a Mistake I shall be beholding to you if you will set me right But they are not popular Authorities or frightful Names whereby I judge of Truth or Falshood The professed Divines of England you must know are but a pitiful sort of Folks with this great Racovian Rabbi He tells us plainly that he is not mindful of what the generality of Divines declare for p. 22. He labours so concernedly to ingratiate himself with the Mobb the Multitude which he so often talks of that he hath no regard to these The generality of the Rabble are more considerable with him than the generality of Divines He tells me here of the Generality of Divines If he had said of the Church of England I could have understood him But he says The professed Divines of England And there being several sorts of Divines in England who I think do not every where agree in their Interpretations of Scripture which of them is it I must have regard to where they differ If he cannot tell me that he complains here of me for a Fault which he himself knows not how to mend Vindicat. p. 18. Socin Unmask'd p. 109. The list of Materials for his Creed for the Articles are not yet formed Mr. Edwards closes p. 111. with these words These are the Matters of Faith contain'd in the Epistles and they are Essential and Integral parts of the Gospel it self What just these neither more nor less l. 4. If you are sure of it pray let us have them speedily for the reconciling of Differences in the Christian Church which has been so cruelly torn about the Articles of the Christian Faith to the great Reproach of Christian Charity and Scandal of our true Religion This Author as demure and grave as he would sometimes seem to be can scoff at the matters of Faith contain'd in the Apostles Epistles p. 18. l. 4 c. Does the Vindicator here scoff at the Matters of Faith contain'd in the Epistles Or shew the vain Pretences of the Unmasker who undertakes to give us out of the Epistles a Collection of Fundamentals without being able to say whether those he sets down be all or no Vindicat. p. 33. Socin Unmask'd p. 110. I hope you do not think how contemptibly soever you speak of the Venerable Mob as you are pleas'd to dignifie them p. 117. that the bulk of Mankind or in your Phrase the Rabble are not concerned in Religion or ought not to understand it in order to their Salvation I remember the Pharisees treated the Common People with Contempt and said Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him But this People who knoweth not the Law are cursed But yet these who in the censure of the Pharisees were cursed were some of the Poor or if you please to have it so the Mob to whom the Gospel was Preach'd by our Saviour as he tells Iohns Disciples Mat. XI 5. To Coakse the Mob he prophanely brings in that place of Scripture Have any of the Rulers believed in him Where the Prophaneness of this is I do not see Unless some unknown Sacredness of the Unmasker's Person make it Prophaneness to shew that he like the Pharisees of old has a great contempt for the Common People i. e. the far greater part of Mankind as if they and their Salvation were below the regard of this elevated Rabbi But this of Prophaneness may be well born from him since in the next words my mentioning another part of his Carriage is no less than Irreligion Vindicat. p. 25. Socin Unmask'd p. 110. He prefers what I say to him my self to what is offer'd to him from the Word of God and makes me this Complement that I begin to mend about the close i. e. when I leave off quoting of Scripture and the dull Work was done of going through the History of the Evangelists and the Acts which he computes p. 105. to take up three Quarters of my Book Ridiculously and irreligiously he pretends that I prefer what he saith to me to what is offer'd to me from the Word of God p. 25. The Matter of Fact is as I relate it and so is beyond pretence and for this I refer the Reader to the 105. and 114. Pages of his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism But had I mistaken I know not how he could have call'd it Irreligiously Make the worst of it that can be how comes it to be Irreligious What is there Divine in an Vnmasker that one cannot pretend true or false that he prefers what I say to what is oâ—â—er'd him from the Word of God without doing it Irreligiously Does the very assuming the Power to deâ—ine Articles and determine who are and who are not Christians by a Creed not yet made erect an Unmasker presently into God's Throne and bestow on him the title of Dominus deusque noster whereby Offences against him come to be Irreligious Acts I have misrepresented his meaning Let it be so Where is the Irreligion of it Thus it is The Power of making a Religion for others and those that make Creeds do that being once got into any one's fancy must at last make all Oppositions to those Creeds and Creed-maker's Irreligion Thus we see in process of time it did in the Church of Rome But it was in length of time and by gentle degrees The Unmasker it seems cannot stay is in hast and at one jump leaps into the Chair He has given us yet but a piece of his Creed and yet that is enough to set him above the state of Humane Mistakes or Frailties and to mention any such thing in him is to do Irreligiously We may further see says the Unmasker p. 110. how counterfeit the Vindicator's Gravity is whil'st he condemns frothy and light Discourses p. 26. Vindic. And yet in many Pages together most irreverently treats a great part of the Apostolical Writings and throws aside the main Articles of Religion as unnecessary Answ. In my Vindic. p. 19. you may remember these words I require you to Publish to the World those Passages which shew my contempt
does in the same Address to him p. 248. and write contrary to his Light Had the Creed maker had reason to think in earnest that Mr. Bold was going off to Socinianism he might have reasoned with him fairly as with a Man running into dangerous Errour Or if he had certainly known that he was by any By-ends prevailed on to undertake a Cause contrary to his Conscience he might have some Reason to tell the World as he does p. 239. That we cannot think he should speak truth who is thus brought to undertake the Cause If he does not certainly know that Mr. Bold was THUS brought to undertake the Cause he could not have shewn a more Villainous and Unchristian Mind than in publishing such a Character of a Minister of the Gospel and a worthy Man upon no other Grounds but because it might be subservient to his ends He is engaged in a Controversie that by Argument he cannot maintain Nor knew any other way from the beginning to attack the Book he pretends to write against but by crying out Socinianism a Name he knows in great Disgrace with all other Sects of Christians and therefore sufficient to deterr all those who approve and condemn Books by hearsay without examining their Truth themselves from perusing a Treatise to which he could affix that imputation Mr. Bold's Name who is publickly known to be no Socinian he foresees will wipe off that false Imputation with a great many of those who are led by Names more than Things This seems exceedingly to trouble him and he labours might and main to get Mr. Bold to quit a Book as Socinian which Mr. Bold knows is not Socinian because he has read and considered it But though our Creed-maker be mightily concerned that Mr. B d should not appear in the Defence of it Yet this concern cannot raise him one jot above that Honesty Skill and good Breeding which appears towards others He manages this Matter with Mr. B d as he has done the rest of the Controversie just in the same strain of Invention Civility Wit and good Sence He tells him besides what I have above set down that he is drawn off to debase himself and the post i. e. the Ministry he is in p. 245. That he hath said very ill things to the lessening and impairing yea to the defaming of that knowledge and belief of our Saviour and of the Articles of Christianity which are necessarily required of us p. 245. That the Devout and Pious whereby he means himself for one and none is his own beloved Wit and Argument observing that Mr. Bold is come to the necessity of but ONE Article of Faith they expect that he may in time hold that NONE is necessary p. 248. That if he writes again in the same strain be will write rather like a Turkish Spy than a Christian Preacher That he is a Backslider and Sailing to Racovia with a side Wind Than which what can there be more Scurrilous or more Malicious And yet at the same time that he outrages him thus beyond not only what Christian Charity but common Civility would allow in an ingenuous Adversary he makes some awkward Attempts to sooth him with some ill timed Commendations And would have his under-valuing Mr. Bold's Animadversions pass for a Complement to him Because he for that reason pretends not to believe so crude and shallow a thing as he is pleased to call it to be his A notable Contrivance to gain the greater Liberty of Railing at him under another Name when Mr. B d's it seems is too well known to serve him so well to that purpose Besides it is of good use to fill up three or four Pages of his Reflections a great Convenience to a Writer who knows all the ways of baffling his Opponents but Argument and who always makes a great deal of stir about Matters foreign to his Subject which whether they are granted or denied make nothing at all to the Truth of the Question on either side For what is it to the Shallowness or Depth of the Animadversions who writ them Or to the Truth or Falshood of Mr. B d's Defence of the Reasonableness of Christianity whether a Lay-man or a Church-man a Socinian or one of the Church of England answer'd the Creed-maker as well as he Yet this is urged as a matter of great weight But yet in reality it amounts to no more but this that a Man of any Denomination who wishes well to the Peace of Christianity and has observed the horrible Effects the Christian Religion has felt from the Impositions of Men in Matters of Faith may have reason to defend a Book wherein the Simplicity of the Gospel and the Doctrine proposed by our Saviour and his Apostles for the Conversion of Unbelievers is made out though there be not one Word of the distinguishing Tenents of his Sect in it But that all those who under any Name are for imposing their own Orthodoxy as necessary to be believed and persecuting those who dissent from them should be all against it is not perhaps very strange One thing more I must observe of the Creed-maker on this Occasion In his Socinian Creed Ch. VI. The Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. And his Book must be judged of by the Characters and Writings of those who entertain or commend his Notions A professed Unitarian has defended it therefore he is a Socinian The Author of A Letter to the Deists speaks well of it Therefore he is a Deist Another as an Abettor of the Reasonableness of Christianity he mentions p. 125. whose Letters I have never seen And his Opinions too are I suppose set down there as belonging to me Whatever is bad in the Tenets or Writings of these Men infects me But the Mischief is Mr. Bold's Orthodoxy will do me no good But because he has defended my Book against Mr. Edwards all my Faults are become his and he has a mighty Load of Accusations laid upon him Thus contrary Causes serve so good a Natured so Charitable and Candid a Writer as the Creed-maker to the same purpose of Censure and Railing But I shall desire him to figure to himself the Loveliness of that Creature which turns every thing into Venom What others are or hold who have expressed favourable thoughts of my Book I think my self not concerned in What Opinions others have published make those in my Book neither true nor false and he that for the sake of Truth would confute the Errors in it should shew their Falshood and Weakness as they are there But they who write for other Ends than Truth are always busie with other Matters and where they can do nothing by Reason and Argument hope to prevail with some by borrowed Prejudices and Party Taking therefore the Animadversions as well as the Sermon to be his whose Name they bear I shall leave to Mr. B d himself to take what Notice he thinks fit of the little Sence
indispensible necessity Mr. Bold speaks of is not absolute but conditional His words are A Christian must believe as many Articles as he shall attain to know that Iesus Christ hath taught So that he places the indispensible necessity of Believing upon the condition of attaining to know that Christ taught so An endeavour to know what Iesus Christ taught Mr. B dsays truely is absolutely necessary to every one who is a Christian and to believe what he has attained to know that Iesus Christ taught that also he says is absolutely necessary to every Christian. But all this granted as true it is it still remains and eternally will remain to be proved from this which is all that Mr. Bold says that something else is absolutely required to make a Man a Christian besides the unfeigned taking Iesus to be the Messiah his King and Lord and accordingly a sincere resolution to obey and believe all that he commanded and taught The Jailor Acts XVI 30. in Answer to his Question what he should do to be saved was answer'd That he should believe in the Lord Iesus Christ. And the Text says that the Jailor took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes and was baptized he and all his straight-way Now I will ask our Creed-maker whether St. Paul in speaking to him the Word of the Lord proposed and explained to him all those Propositions and Fundamental Heads of Doctrine which our Creed-maker has set down as necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian. Let it be consider'd the Jailor was a Heathen and one that seems to have no more Sense of Religion or Humanity than those of that Calling use to have For he had let them alone under the Pain of their Stripes without any Remedy or so much as the ease of washing them from the Day before till after his Conversion which was not till after Midnight And can any one think that between his asking what he should do to be saved and his being baptized which the Text says was the same hour and straightway there was time enough for St. Paul and Silas to explain to him all the Creed-maker's Articles and make such a Man as that and all his house understand the Creed-maker's whole System especially since we hear nothing of it in the Conversion of these or any others who were brought into the Faith in the whole History of the Preaching of our Saviour and the Apostles Now let me ask our Creed-maker whether the Jailor was not a Christian when he was baptized and whether if he had then immediately died he had not been saved without the Belief of any one Article more than what Paul and Silas had then â—aught him Whence it follows that what was then proposed to him to be believed which appears to be nothing but that Iesus was the Messiah was all that was absolutely necessary to be believed to make him a Christian though this hinders not but that afterwards it might be necessary for him indispensibly necessary to believe other Articles when he attained to the Knowledge that Christ had taught them And the reason of it is plain Because the knowing that Christ taught any thing and the not receiving it for true which is believing it is inconsistent with the believing him to be the Messiah sent from God to inlighten and save the World Every word of Divine Revelation is absolutely and indispensibly necessary to be believed by every Christian as soon as he comes to know it to be taught by our Saviour or his Apostles or to be of Divine Revelation But yet this is far enough from making it absolutely necessary to every Christian to know every Text in the Scripture much less to understand every Text in the Scripture and least of all to understand it as the Creed-maker is pleased to put his sence upon it This the good Creed-maker either will not or cannot understand But gives us a List of Articles culled out of the Scripture by his own Authority and tells us those are absolutely necessary to be believed by every one to make him a Christian. For what is of absolute Necessity in Christianity as those he says are he tells us is absolutely requisite to make a Man a Christian. But when he is asked whether these are all the Articles of absolute Necessity to be believed to make a Man a Christian This worthy Divine that takes upon him to be a Successor of the Apostles cannot tell And yet having taken upon him also to be a Creed-maker he must suffer himself to be called upon for it again and again till he tells us what is of absolute Necessity to be believed to make a Man a Christian or confess that he cannot In the mean time I take the liberty to say That every Proposition delivered in the New Testament by our Saviour or his Apostles and so received by any Christian as of Divine Revelation is of as absolute necessity to be assented to by him in the Sence he understands it to be taught by them as any one of those Propositions enumerated by the Creed-maker And if he thinks otherwise I shall desire him to prove it The Reason whereof is this that in divine Revelation the ground of Faith being onely the Authority of the Proposer where that is the same there is no difference in the Obligation or Measure of believing Whatever the Messiah that came from God taught is equally to be believed by every one who receives him as the Messiah as soon as he understands what it was he taught There is no such thing as garbling his Doctrine and making one part of it more necessary to be believed than another when it is understood His saying is and must be of unquestionable Authority to all that receive him as their heavenly King and carries with it an equal Obligation of assent to all that he says as true But since no Body can explicitly assent to any Proposition of our Saviour's as true but in the Sence he understands our Saviour to have spoken it in the same Authority of the Messiah his King obliges every one absolutely and indispensibly to believe every part of the New Testament in that Sence he understands it For else he rejects the Authority of the Deliverer if he refuses his Assent to it in that Sence which he is perswaded it was delivered in But the taking him for the Messiah his King and Lord laying upon every one who is his Subject and Obligation to endeavour to know his Will in all things every true Christian is under an absolute and indispensible necessity by being his Subject to study the Scriptures with an unprejudiced mind according to that Measure of Time Opportunity and Helps which he has that in these sacred Writings he may find what his Lord and Master hath by himself or by the Mouths of his Apostles required of him either to be believed or done The Creed-maker in the following Page 256. hath these Words