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A48888
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The reasonableness of Christianity as delivered in the Scriptures
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Locke, John, 1632-1704.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing L2751; ESTC R22574
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121,736
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314
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they feared greatly saying Truly this was the SON OF GOD this was that extraordinary Person that was looked for Acts IX St. Paul exercising the Commission to Preach the Gospel which he had received in a Miraculous way v. 20. Straitway preached Christ in the Synagogues that he is the Son of God i. e. that Jesus was the Messiah For Christ in this place is evidently a Proper Name And that this was it which Paul preached appears from v. 22. Saul increased the more in strength and confounded the Jews who dwelt in Damascus proving that this is the very Christ i. e. the Messiah Peter when he came to Cornelius at Cesarea who by a Vision was ordered to send for him as Peter on the other side was by a Vision commanded to go to him What does he teach him His whole Discourse Acts X. tends to shew what he says God commanded the Apostles to Preach unto the People and to testifie That it is he Jesus which was ordained of God to be the Iudge of the quick and the dead And that it was to him that all the Prophets give witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall have remission of sins v. 42 43. This is the Word which God sent to the Children of Israel that WORD which was published throughout all Judea and began from Galilee after the Baptism which Iohn preached v. 36 37. And these are the words which had been promised to Cornelius Acts XI 14. Whereby he and all his house should be saved Which words amount only to thus much That Iesus was the Messiah the Saviour that was promised Upon their receiving of this for this was all was taught them the Holy Ghost fell on them and they were baptized 'T is observable here that the Holy Ghost fell on them before they were baptized which in other places Converts received not till after Baptism The reason whereof seems to be this That God by bestowing on them the Holy Ghost did thus declare from Heaven that the Gentiles upon believing Iesus to be the Messiah ought to be admitted into the Church by Baptism as well as the Jews Whoever reads St. Peter's Defence Acts XI when he was accused by those of the Circumcumcision that he had not kept that distance which he ought with the uncircumcised will be of this Opinion and see by what he says v. 15 16 17. That this was the ground and an irresistible Authority to him for doing so strange a thing as it appeared to the Jews who alone yet were Members of the Christian Church to admit Gentiles into their Communion upon their believing And therefore St. Peter in the foregoing Chapter Acts X before he would Baptize them proposes this Question to those of the Circumcision which came with him and were astonished because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost Can any one forbid water that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Ghost as well as we v. 47. And when some of the Sect of the Pharisees who believed thought it needful that the converted Gentiles should be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses Acts XV. Peter rose up and said unto them Men and Brethren you know that a good while ago God made choice amongst us that the Gentiles viz. Cornelius and those here converted with him by my mouth should hear the Gospel and believe And God who knoweth the hearts bear them witness giving them the Holy Ghost even as he did unto us and put no difference between us and them purifying their hearts by Faith v. 7-9 So that both Jews and Gentiles who believed Jesus to be the Messiah received thereupon the Seal of Baptism whereby they were owned to be his and distinguished from Unbelievers From what is above said we may observe That this Preaching Jesus to be the Messiah is called the Word and the Word of God and believing it receiving the Word of God Vid. Acts X. 36 37. XI 1. 19 20. And the Word of the Gospel Acts XV. 7. And so likewise in the History of the Gospel what Mark Chap. IV. 14 15. calls simply the Word St. Luke calls the Word of God Luke XIII 11. And St. Matthew Chap. XIII 19. the Word of the Kingdom which were it seems in the Gospel-writers Synonymous terms and are so to be understood by us But to go on Acts XIII Paul Preaches in the Synagogue at Antioch where he makes it his business to convince the Jews that God according to his promise had of the seed of David raised to Israel a Saviour Iesus v. 24. That he was He of whom the Prophets writ v. 25-29 i. e. the Messiah And that as a demonstration of his being so God had raised him from the Dead v. 30. From whence be argues thus v. 32 33. We Evangelize to you or bring you this Gospel how that the Promise which was made to our Fathers God hath fulfilled the same unto us in that he hath raised up Iesus again as it is also written in the second Psalm Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And having gone on to prove him to be the Messiah by his Resurrection from the Dead he makes this Conclusion v. 38 39. Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you forgiveness of sins and by him all who believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses This is in this Chapter called the Word of God over and over again Compare v. 42. with 44. 46. 48 49. And Chap. XII v. 24. Acts XVII 2-4 At Thessalonica Paul as his manner was went into the Synagogue and three Sabbath-days reasoned with the Iews 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 And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas But the Iews which believed not set the City in an uproar Can there be any thing plainer than that the assenting to this Proposition that Jesus was the Messiah was that which distinguished the Believers from the Unbelievers For this was that alone which three Sabbaths Paul endeavoured to convince them of as the Text tells us in direct words From thence he went to Berea and preached the same thing And the Bereans are commended v. 11. for searching the Scriptures whether those things i. e. which he had said v. 2 3. concerning Jesus his being the Messiah were true or no. The same Doctrine we find him Preaching at Corinth Acts XVIII 4-6 And he reasoned in the Synagogue every Sabbath and perswaded the Iews and the Greeks And when Silas and Timotheus were come from Macedonia Paul was pressed in spirit and testified to the Iews that Iesus was the Messiah And when they opposed themselves and blasphemed he shook his raiment and said unto
the New Covenant has already been shewn An explicit belief of these is absolutely required of all those to whom the Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached and Salvation through his Name proposed 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 may or ought to be disbelieved For to acknowledge any Proposition to be of Divine Revelation and Authority and yet to deny or disbelieve it is to offend against this Fundamental Article and Ground of Faith that God is true But yet a great many of the Truths revealed in the Gospel every one does and must confess a man may be ignorant of nay disbelieve without danger to his Salvation As is evident in those who allowing the Authority differ in the Interpretation and meaning o several Texts of Scripture not thought Fundamental In all which 't is plain the contending Parties on one side or tother are ignorant of nay disbelieve the Truths delivered in Holy Writ unless Contrarieties and Contradictions can be contained in the same words and Divine Revelation can mean contrary to it self Though all divine Revelation requires the obedience of Faith yet every truth of inspired Scriptures is not one of those that by the Law of Faith is required to be explicitly believed to Justification What those are we have seen by what our Saviour and his Apostles proposed to and required in those whom they Converted to the Faith Those are fundamentals which 't is not enough not to disbelieve Every one is required actually to assent to them But any other Proposition contained in the Scripture which God has not thus made a necessary part of the Law of Faith without an actual assent to which he will not allow any one to be a Believer a Man may be ignorant of without hazarding his Salvation by a defect in his Faith He believes all that God has made necessary for him to believe and assent to And as for the rest of Divine Truths there is nothing more required of him but that he receive all the parts of Divine Revelation with a docility and disposition prepared to imbrace and assent to all Truths coming from God And submit his mind to whatsoever shall appear to him to bear that Character Where he upon fair endeavours understands it not How can he avoid being ignorant And where he cannot put several Texts and make them consist together What Remedy He must either interpret one by the other or suspend his Opinion He that thinks that more is or can be required of poor frail Man in matters of Faith will do well to consider what absurdities he will run into God out of the infiniteness of his Mercy has dealt with Man as a compassionate and tender Father He gave him Reason and with it a Law That could not be otherwise than what Reason should dictate Unless we should think that a reasonable Creature should have an unreasonable Law But considering the frailty of Man apt to run into corruption and misery he promised a Deliverer whom in his good time he sent And then declared to all Mankind that whoever would believe him 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 should be saved This is a plain intelligible Proposition And And 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 This is a Religion suited to vulgar Capacities And the state of Mankind in this World destined to labour and travel The Writers and Wranglers in Religion fill it with niceties and dress it up with notions which they make necessary and fundamental parts of it As if there were no way into the Church but through the Academy or Lyceum The bulk of Mankind have not leisure for Learning and Logick and superfine distinctions of the Schools Where the hand is used to the Plough and the Spade the head is seldom elevated to sublime Notions or exercised in mysterious reasonings 'T is well if Men of that rank to say nothing of the other Sex can comprehend plain propositions and a short reasoning about things familiar to their Minds and nearly allied to their daily experience Go beyond this and you amaze the greatest part of Mankind And may as well talk Arabick to a poor day Labourer as the Notions and Language that the Books and Disputes of Religion are filled with and as soon you will be understood The Dissenting Congregations are supposed by their Teachers to be more accurately instructed in matters of Faith and better to understand the Christian Religion than the vulgar Conformists who are charged with great ignorance How truly I will not here determine But I ask them to tell me seriously whether half their People have leisure to study Nay Whether one in ten of those who come to their Meetings in the Country if they had time to study them do or can understand the Controversies at this time so warmly managed amongst them about Justification the subject of this present Treatise I have talked with some of their Teachers who confess themselves not to understand the difference in debate between them And yet the points they stand on are reckoned of so great weight so material so fundamental in Religion that they divide Communion and separate upon them Had God intended that none but the Learned Scribe the disputer or wise of this World should be Christians or be Saved thus Religion should have been prepared for them filled with speculations and niceties obscure terms and abstract notions But Men of that expectation Men furnished with such acquisitions the Apostle tells us I Cor. I. are rather shut out from the simplicity of the Gospel to make way for those poor ignorant illiterate Who heard and believed promises of a Deliverer and believed Jesus to be him Who could conceive a Man dead and made alive again and believe that he should at the end of the World come again and pass Sentence on all Men according to their deeds That the poor had the Gospel Preached to them Christ makes a mark as well as business of his Mission Mat. XI 5. And if the poor had the Gospel Preached to them it was without doubt such a Gospel as the poor could understand plain and intelligible And so it was as we have seen in the Preachings of Christ and his Apostles FINIS Printed for A. J. Churchil in Pater-Noster-Row A View of Universal History from the Creation to 1695. Wherein the most Remarkable Persons and Things in the known Kingdoms and Countries of the World are set down in several Columns by way of Synchronism according to their proper Centuries and Years In 16 Copper Plates By F. Talents A. M. A compleat Journal of both Houses of Parliament throughout the whole Reign of Q. Elizabeth By Sir Symonds Dewes Knight Fol. Notitia Monastica Or A History of all the Religious Houses in England and Wales c. 8vo By Tho. Tanner The Resurrection of the same Body asserted from the Tradition of the Heathens the Ancient Jews and the Primitive Church With an Answer to the Objections brought against it By Humph. Hody D. D. Octavo Bishop Wilkins of Prayer and Preaching enlarged by the Bp. of Norwich and Dr. Williams Octavo The Gentleman's Religion with Grounds and Reasons of it 20. By a Private Gentleman Dr. Patrick's New Version of all the Psalms of David 120. To be sung in Churches Gen. III. 17-19