very material in these Papers which has not been observed before in the Writings of the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. I shall not account that a just Prejudice against them For if the Answers here propounded be very material to what is alledged against the Reasonableness of Christianity c. it cannot reasonably be supposed that the Objections insisted on should be of any great weight with me And my deriving the Answers from that Authors Writings I hope may pass with Persons of Candor Reason and Discernment for some justification of the Value I set on the Reasonableness of Christianity c. Observations on the Vindication of the Epistles THIS Author begins his Animadversions with that Part to which he gives this Title A Vindication of the Epistles And he enters on this Part with assigning Two Reasons why the Reasonableness of Christianity doth not as he saith give such Satisfaction to an inquisitive Mind as might prevent all Exception against it whether it was designed for the Benefit of those who were not throughly and firmly Christians or to be a general Rule of Faith to all sorts of Men Answ. That Author's Design was to give a clear and distinct Account of what Articles or Doctrines are absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians And the Treatise gives me full Satisfaction concerning this Matter because it lays down all that Jesus Christ and his Apostles have declared to be thus necessary and nothing but what they have declared to be so And his giving so full and large Proof that Christ and his Apostles did require the Belief of the Articles he hath laid down and did not require the Belief of any other Article as absolutely necessary to make Men Christians redered his Treatise very proper to be published for the Benefit of those who were not throughly and firmly Christians For nothing can tend more to the Benenefit of such Persons than a clear distinct full and true Information of what is absolutely necessary to be believed by them in order to their being Christians What this Author understands by a General Rule of Faith to all sorts of Men I do not know The whole New Testament is the General Rule of Faith to all Christians as the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. hath declared And the Doctrines he hath insisted on are the Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed by those who are not Christians to make them Christians The First Reason this Author gives why the Reasonableness of Christianity c. does not seem to give Satisfaction to an inquisitive Mind is because it introduces a new Scheme of Belief in Opposition to the anciently received Doctrine of the Church Answ. Here I must observe it is not opposite to the most anciently received Doctrine of the Church Because it is the very same Scheme Jesus Christ introduced and his Apostles constantly kept to in admitting of Unbelievers into the Church His Second Reason is Because it doth not answer the full Sense and Intent of Revelation which is the only Reason and Measure of our Faith Answ. Here I must observe it doth answer the full Sense and Intent of Revelation as to what the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity was inquiring after Because it delivers all that Revelation requires to be believed as absolutely necessary to make Men Christians and we are not to insist on any thing as absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians but what Revelation the only Reason and Measure of our Faith in this Case doth declare is absolutely necessary to be believed to that end Whoever affirms any Doctrine though the Doctrine it self is revealed is absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian which Revelation doth not declare to be so affirms it without Reason according to this Authors own Arguing because Revelation is the only Reason why we are to affirm any Doctrine is absolutely necessary to be believed to this purpose and so he goes beyond the only Measure of our Faith in this Matter The Reason why we are to insist on such or such Doctrines as absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians is because Revelation requires the Belief of them as absolutely necessary to make Men Christians not barely because the Doctrines are revealed for then every Doctrine which is revealed must be absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make a Man a Christian because the Reason assigned for the Particulars we are minded to insist on extends to every particular which is revealed and obliges as much to every one as to any one For make your Catalogue as large as you will if you leave out any one Doctrine or any Branch of it that is revealed your Catalogue cannot possibly answer the full Sense and Intent of Revelation unless a defective partial Scheme of Faith can answer the full Sense and Intent of Revelation or some parts of Revelation have no Sense and were revealed for no purpose or Intent Both which are equally uncapable of Proof and altogether unreasonable to suppose This Author declares p. 4. what it is he undertakes to prove in this First part of his Book His Words are these It shall be my business in the First Place to prove that there are Doctrines in the Epistles distinct from those delivered in the Gospels or Acts which are as absolutely necessary to be believed and to be made Fundamental Articles of Faith as any other Parts of Revelation That is in short that there are Doctrines in the Epistles distinct from any delivered in the Gospels and Acts which are absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians The Argument he makes use of to prove what he hath undertaken is this to word it so as that it may reach the Point he hath undertaken to prove Some of the Doctrines set down in the Epistles which are distinct from any delivered in the Gospels and Acts have been confest viz. by the Church from the very First Ages of Christianity to be altogether as necessary to be actually or explicitely believed unto Salvation as any whatsoever Here I shall observe that before this Argument can do the Business for which it is brought the Author must 1. Relate what he means or understands by the Term Church 2. He must prove clearly that whatsoever the Church in the Sense in which he understands that Term hath from the first Ages of Christianity confest to be absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians is so and that the Confession or Testimony of that Church is the sole or ultimate Rule by which the Question concerning what is absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians or to Salvation is to be resolved and determined That is That we are not to be determined in this Matter by the Testimony of Christ and his Apostles but by the Churches Testimony at least that it is thus as to the Doctrines which are
to instruct them in what was necessary to make them Believers but it is sufficient that they could not continue true Christians or Believers without acknowledging the Doctrines there delivered for fundamental Articles of Faith and necessary to be believed by all Christians Answ. I am not certain that I comprehend what this Author means by Material here and in some other Places But I think the Apostles would have thought it very impertinent for them to attempt and utterly impossible to teach those who were Christians any Doctrines they were ignorant of which were absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make them Christians or Believers And according to the Sense which I put on the Word Material on such occasions as this I conceive it very material whether the Persons the Epistles were writ to were Christians before they did explicitly know and believe the Doctrines the Epistles were designed to instruct them in for if they were the explicite Belief of those Doctrines could not be absolutely necessary to make them Christians How Christians were under a necessity of believing them when they understood them hath been formerly shewed But they might continue good Christians without acknowledging they were necessary to be believed by all Christians It was sufficient to acknowledge that all Christians ought to endeavour to know them and that they are necessary to be believed by all Christians when they understand them to be Doctrines taught by the Apostles To what this Author hath further writ in this Page I will only say these Two things 1. That those to whom the Apostles writ their Epistles did profess to believe all that was absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians otherwise they would not have writ to them under the Name of Christians 2. That there are very few if any Christians who have a perfect Knowledge of all the Articles of Faith delivered in the New Testament and yet other People may be very good Christians and take the Epistles for a part of the Rule of their and other Christians Faith In p. 38. This Author appears not willing to admit That the Epistles to the Corinthians Galatians Thessalonians and Philippians were writ upon particular Occasions because they were designed for whole Provinces and obliged a great Number equally with those Churches they were sent to Answ. That which made the Epistles oblige Christians who were out of the Provinces made them oblige all the Christians in the Provinces therefore passing over Metropolitical Controversies I will take Notice of these few things 1. All the Epistles were designed for the use of the whole Church of God in that and all succeeding Ages yet they might be writ upon particular Occasions and for that Reason be directed immediately to those particular Churches or Persons who were more especially concerned in those parts of them which have a respect to the particular Occasions of their being written 2. It will be very hard to give a rational and satisfactory Account of many Passages in the Epistles to the Corinthians c. if there was no particular occasion of writing them to those Churches Some may be apt to suspect they have Ground to think the Apostles were not well advised which is a Jealousy those who believe they were inspired should not be forward to suggest in writing several things which are to be found in these Epistles if there was no particular Occasion of writing them to those Churches to which they were sent and particularly addressed 3. That which makes the Epistles oblige all Christians is this that they are Divine Revelations and therefore all who acknowledge they were writ by inspired Persons and are of Divine Authority must be obliged by them for their being writ on particular Occasions does not lessen or impair their Authority 4. What is precisely limited in these Epistles to the particular occasions on which they were writ did not then oblige any directly and immediately whose Circumstances were not the same and they will oblige all whose Occasions are the same to the End of the World This Author further takes notice That The First Epistle of St. Iohn is directed to all Christians c. p. 39. Answ. From that I think we may rationally argue that it can directly concern none but those who are Christians and that its main design could not be to instruct them in the Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed by them in order to their becoming Christians This Author in p. 44. doth acknowledge That The general Design of the Epistles was to settle and strengthen Men in the Faith c. And if so must they not be in the Faith that is Christians before they could be setled and strengthened c. in the Faith And is not the Design of them the same still viz. not to teach Articles absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians but to settle and strengthen those who are Christians in the Faith But saith this Author it cannot be denied that the Epistle to the Hebrews doth contain some Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation by all Christians if this may be granted that the same Faith was required after Conversion both from Jew and Gentile p. 39. Answ. This is wholly foreign to the present Purpose For the Enquiry is not about what is or may be necessary for Christians or Persons after they are converted to believe But what Doctrines are absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians Yet because this Author frequently speaks of some Doctrines being absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation by all Christians some of which Doctrines are not to be found any where but in the Epistles I will propose Two or Three short Questions to be considered by the Reader 1. Must every Christian explicitely believe these Doctrines 2. Can any Christian explicitely believe a Doctrine he knows nothing of 3. If he â—ust know the Doctrines proposed to be believed and must know that Jesus Christ hath taught them before he can be obliged to believe them how can any Doctrine be absolutely necessary to be believed by Christians to Salvation when there are Conditions necessary to his being obliged to believe them There are Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians because without believing them they cannot be Christians But there cannot be any other Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed by one who is a Christian for by being a Christian he is obliged not to believe any Doctrine but upon certain Conditions He must explicitely know the Doctrine before he believes it and he must know that it is a Doctrine which Jesus whom he hath taken for his Lord hath taught A Christian is not to believe Doctrines at all adventure nor upon every ones Word who has a mind to thrust Doctrines upon him His believing a Doctrine must be an intelligent rational Act of Submission and Obedience to his Lord. All the Doctrines any Christians whether before
Duty And in order to their attaining to the clearest and fullest Knowledge of their Lord's Will they must take care they do not confine themselves to a certain Number of Articles and Precepts of Mens collecting but must diligently read and study the entire and compleat Revelation Christ hath made of his Fathers Pleasure in the Holy Scriptures Yet we are not to believe any Article is absolutely necessary to Salvation but what he hath revealed to be so for if we do we transgress our Bounds and go further than the utmost extent of Revelation reaches as to that Matter and consequently do that which we have no warrant for in Divine Revelation It doth not follow that because Christians are not to believe any thing as an Article of the Christian Faith but what is taught in the New Testament and must endeavour to know as many of the Doctrines which are taught there as they can and believe every one as they attain to know them therefore every Doctrine delivered in the New Testament is absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians But saith this Author if all that was absolutely necessary to Salvation or to denominate Men truly Christians was the bare believing Jesus to be the Messiah the believing Jesus to be the Messias so as to take him absolutely for their King why should our Saviour promise the Mission of the Holy Ghost to instruct them viz. his Disciples farther in what they ought to believe concerning him p. 75. Answ. Our Saviour did not promise the Holy Ghost to instruct them in what they were to believe to make them Christians for they were Christians when the Promise was made to them or how could they be his Disciples but in such Matters as they must believe when instructed in by Virtue of their having received him for their Lord and as other Christians must endeavour to understand and then believe on the same Account To what purpose did they oblige themselves in taking Jesus for their Lord to believe whatever he should teach them if they knew and believed before all that they should ever be obliged to believe This Author thinks he hath Reason to conclude from Act. 10. 43. c. That we are to understand by believing Jesus to be the Messiah in this and almost all other Places the full extent and meaning of those Words as they are explained by this and other Apostles in all Parts of Scripture because they were all of them inspired by the same Holy Ghost and therefore must all have the same Meaning And that therefore the believing Jesus to be the Messiah as it is now required for a Fundamental of our Faith must comprehend the full Sense that is given of it in Scripture p. 76 77. Answ. If I comprehend the Force of this Author 's arguing here it is thus The Apostles by the Term Messiah did understand all those particular Doctrines they have delivered throughout the Holy Scriptures concerning that Jesus of whom they preached so that by Peoples believing Jesus to be the Messiah they meant their believing explicitely every one of those Doctrines This Notion now is built upon this Supposition that the Apostles when they preached Jesus to any they did particularly acquaint them with every one of those Doctrines and then promising them Pardon c. if they did believe Jesus to be the Messiah they declared to them that by believing Jesus to be the Messiah they meant the explicite believing of every one of those Doctrines they had proposed to them The Reason given for this Supposition is as I apprehend this They were all inspired by the same Holy Ghost and therefore must all have the same Meaning that is I suppose they must all understand the Term Messiah in the same Sense viz. as signifying precisely every one of those Doctrines Many Remarks might be made on this Occasion I will only observe 1. That the Supposition is perfectly precarious without any warrant at all from Scripture Several of these Doctrines might be propounded as very proper Inducements to believe Jesus to be the Messiah but that is not the Point in Discourse but whether the Term Messiah did with the Apostles signify just such a set of Doctrines 2. The Holy Ghost was not given to the Apostles to teach them the Meaning of the Term Messiah for they understood it very well before nor did they in preaching to the Jews use the Term Messiah in a Sense they never heard of before and which would therefore need a particular Explanation but as a Term so common and so distinctly understood amongst them as the Term in any Nation is commonly understood by the Inhabitants which expresseth and signifieth their Supream Governour All the Apostles understood the Term Messiah in the same Sense and used it in the same Sense in which those who heard them did commonly understand it Their Business was not to preach and explain New Terms nor to tack New Meanings unto Old Terms 3. In their preaching to Unbelievers they insisted on such Considerations as were most proper to convince them that Jesus was the Messiah according to the known and common Meaning of the Term and not such as did immediately prove the Truth of a certain Number of New Doctrines which they were Strangers to and which must make up a New Sense for an Ancient Word 4. We have good Warrant from the Scripture to believe that the Apostles were not instructed at once but gradually in the Doctrines concerning Jesus which are delivered in the several Parts of Scripture and therefore they could not mean every one of these Doctrines constantly by the Term Messiah for they could not acquaint their Hearers at first with any more of these Doctrines than they were at that time instructed in and if they added more Doctrines when they were instructed in more as the Sense in which they understood the Term Messiah they used it then in a New Sense and Meaning It may be said but now we have a full Account in the Scripture of the full Meaning in which the Term Messiah is to be used and consequently what is to be understood by believing Jesus to be the Messiah taking the Term Messiah to signify every one of the Doctrines delivered in the Scripture concerning Jesus and therefore these are to be collected out of the Scripture and Persons must now explicitely believe every one of them in order to their believing Jesus to be the Messias in the full Sense given of it in Scripture 'T is very true all the Doctrines we are to believe concerning Jesus are set down in the Scripture But it may be ask'd seeing all these Doctrines are not set down in any one place of Scripture together for this End to whom is the Office of collecting them for this purpose committed And what assurance shall People have if uninspired Men may undertake it that their Collection is compleat For if any one Passage be omitted distinct from what shall be in
that Writer by Your Faithful Servant S. BOLD OBSERVATIONS ON THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON THE Reasonableness of Christianity c. Observations on the Preface IT cannot be denied but that a wrong Construction may be put upon a very good and useful Book And that what it discourses of may be represented quite contrary to what the Author designed and hath delivered in most intelligible apposite and plain Expressions Now if a Person who pretending to write against a Book he does not rightly understand or mis-represents doth propose any thing that is pertenent in opposition to that Book it is very rational to suppose his doing so is rather to be attributed to Chance than to the Exactness of his Iudgment and his certain Intention For it is hardly to be conceived that a Rational Person will deliberately and advisedly write any thing but what he conceives hath a clear Connection with what he directly and immediately proposeth to be the Subject of his Discourse And though at some distance he aims at the Book he talks of yet he mainly designs to confirm the Propositions he lays down as he conceives directly contrary to those delivered in that Book But if the Propositions on both sides are in Truth very well consistent though he doth not apprehend so he can hardly offer any Considerations to weaken the Force or expose the Truth of the Propositions advanced by the Author he professeth to oppose but those very Considerations will as certainly wound his own Propositions and reflect as unluckily on them as they can on the other which it will not be allowed to suppose a wise and prudent Writer could design Whilst he mistakes the Author he in Words opposeth let him confirm and establish his own Assertions ever so strongly he does not at all distress what that Author hath indeed Published One Man affirms that all the Doctrines which are absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians or to Salvation are laid down in the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles Another professeth to oppose this and therefore lays down and elaborately endeavours to prove this Proposition That the Epistles are part of the Rule of Saving Faith Now both these Propositions are very true and consistent and whatever Arguments can be produced to prove the latter comport very well with the Truth of the former and cannot at all invalidate but may very much confirm it But if he who undertakes to prove the latter do let fall Passages which reflect on the former Proposition those Passages have really the same ill Aspect with relation to his own Proposition they have to the other The whole amounts to no more than if one should declare that all that is absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian or to Salvation is delivered in the Epistles And another out of a sort of Zeal for the Gospels and the Acts should professedly oppose that Proposition and publish a Book to prove that the Gospels and Acts are part of the Rule of Saving Faith But when the Question is this seeing the Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians are laid down both in the Gospels and Acts and in the Epistles In what parts of the New Testament may it be best discerned which be the Doctrines that are absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians Then certain Reasons may be assigned why they may be better discerned by consulting the Gospels and Acts than the Epistles Peoples misrepresenting a good Book may be derived from various Originals as Wilfulness Inadvertence Weakness Prepossession c. I will not suspect that the Author of the Animadversions lately Printed at Oxford on the Reasonableness of Christianity as delivered in the Scriputers hath misrepresented that excellent Treatise through an Indulgence to any thing for which he may be justly blamed because he writes for the most part with so much Temper and hath made a Profession in the Close of his Preface so every way becoming a worthy and good Christian. But if I understand the true Meaning of the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. as expressed in that Treatise it is mightily misrepresented in those Animadversions how innocent and harmless soever the Author may be in what he has done That I may do both these Authors all the Right I am able I will observe all along wherein they do agree and give as true impartial and distinct an Account of the Sense of the Reasonableness of Christianity as I can in those Points treated of especially in the First and Third Parts of these Animadversions and take some notice of what this Author hath offered against what he hath alledged out of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. And that I may proceed the more orderly I will begin my Observations where the Author of the Animadversions begins his viz. P. 1. of his Preface Where he declares his Agreement with the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. That the most Rational Means of silencing all Religious Controversies is to take the Scriptures for the only Rule of Faith This I apprehend is a true Account of the Judgment of the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity concerning this Matter And I conceive he agrees with the Author of the Animadversions in the main of that Reason which he hath annexed to that Proposition Though to express what I apprehend a more clear and full Account of the Sense of the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. I will take the Liberty to word it in some Places otherwise than this Author hath done and to add one Passage or Clause he hath not inserted For there might be some probable Grounds to hope for a happy Conclusion of all Disputes in Religion if all Parties would joyn issue in this that no Christian ought to be required to believe any thing but what is injoyned by the clear and express Declarations of Scripture nor any thing so injoyned till it be made appear to him that it is so injoyned and that no Christian may reject or with-hold his assent from any Article which appears to him to be plainly delivered in the Holy Scriptures The Clause I shall add is this That nothing ought to be required to be believed as absolutely necessary to make Men Christians but what is injoyned by the clear and express Declaration of Scripture to be believed for that purpose And I add this Clause for this Reason amongst others because whoever imposeth on People certain Doctrines though the Doctrines are really Christ's Doctrines as absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians which Christ and his Apostles have not declared to be absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians doth as really advance a Foreign Authority and set it up equally with Christ's as he doth who imposeth any thing as a necessary part of the Christian Religion which Christ and his Apostles never made a part of it For notwithstanding the
not possibly agree Answ. Here the Author seems to speak concerning the Doctrines which those who are Christians must endeavour to understand and believe and if so it is besides the Question But that Peoples keeping close to God's Declaration either as to Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians or as to Doctrines they are to believe afterwards hath a probable tendency to make way for a very unintelligible Faith is very strange to me Is the surest way to have the most intelligible Faith for People to go as far as they can from God's express Declarations There will be some Difference indeed amongst Christians as to the particular Doctrines they believe some believing more Articles some fewer and this must needs be till they be all equal in their Knowledge Yet in the way excepted against they will every one be obliged to believe and practise according to the extent of their Knowledge and to agree in Faith and Practise so far as they do in Knowledge And let People advance what Notions they please concerning what Articles are necessary to make Men Christians they cannot rationally agree any further than they will this way unless they must all be stak'd down to believe just one set of Doctrines without extending their Endeavours after Knowledge any further And if this be a way to prevent Peoples raising Exceptions against a great part of Religion I cannot excuse it from doing unsufferable Wrong to a great part of Religion In believing Jesus to be the Messiah so as to take him for our Lord and King we yield up our selves intirely to him to believe and practise whatsoever we shall know he hath taught and commanded And therefore we must not suffer our selves to be coupt up and confined to a precise Number of Doctrines and Laws but must every one employ our best Endeavours to be continually increasing and improving in Knowledge Faith and Holiness This believing Jesus to be the Messiah doth not imply our explicite believing a certain Number of Doctrines he hath taught but it is a submitting our Faith implicitly to him believing that all he hath taught is true with a Disposition and purpose to search after and endeavour to know what Doctrines he hath particularly taught and to believe on his Authority whatsoever we shall understand he hath taught For saith this Author if nothing more is to be believed as it should be absolutely necessary to Salvation than what is so proposed then it will follow that no more than the bare Proposition which is declared to be of that great importance is to be assented to As suppose in that Proposition He that believeth that Iesus is the Messiah hath Eternal Life if what is there required to be believed is singly of it self sufficient to Salvation then it must be so as it is there proposed without any farther Explication of it because there is no Explication proposed to be believed to the like Promise Answ. This Author by assenting to a bare Proposition seems to mean a Person 's assenting to or believing that certain Words he never heard before nor understands any thing of the Sence or Meaning of any of them that is an insignificant Sound comprehend and express a real Truth which is absolutely impossible for though the Words may be a Proposition to him who utters them and to those who understand them they are no Proposition to him who never heard nor knows any thing of them and therefore cannot be assented to by him By Explication of it this Author here seems to mean proper Interpretation viz. declaring in another Language what the Terms in the said Proposition did ordinarily signify amongst them who were accustomed to the Language in which the Proposition was first of all delivered or declaring by other Words in the same Language the several simple Ideas of which those complex Ideas were made up for the expressing of which those Terms were used Yet in the next Page he seems to understand by Explication All those Doctrines which are delivered in the Holy Scriptures that either relate the Grounds and Reasons why we are to believe the Proposition he speaks of of such a Faith which is required to Salvation And that explain the Nature and Extent of it If this Author be of Opinion that the explicite Belief of all the Grounds and Reasons that are delivered in the Holy Scriptures why or upon which People ought to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and of every particular that is said in Scripture concerning Jesus Christ and every Branch of his Office is as absolutely necessary to make a Man a Christian or to Salvation as the belief that Jesus is the Messiah is I think it will require a considerable time to prove clearly the Truth of that Opinion and if we may introduce an account of our Fears in Discourses of this Nature I may take Liberty to declare I am afraid this Notion if it prevail will unavoidably fill the World with endless Wranglings and Distractions For I suspect all People will not presently agree how many the Texts be and which they are which relate all the things before spoken of not to say any thing of the improbability of their sudden Consent to understand every one of the Texts in the same Sense Or if they shou'd fall immediately into an Accord about all these Matters I suspect the Ground of their Consent will not be very intelligible It was never pretended that I know of that Eternal Life is promised to those who shall believe that this Proposition Iesus is the Messiah is true without understanding the Sense of the Terms of which it doth consist To believe a Proposition is not for a Person to believe he hears a Sound but to be satisfied of the Truth of what is affirmed or denied in the Proposition which a Man cannot be unless he understands the Sense of every part of the Proposition For a Man cannot possibly give his Assent to any Affirmation or Negation unless be understand the Terms as they are joyn'd in that Proposition and has a Conception of the Thing affirmed or denied 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 Second Vindic. of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. p. 99. This Proposition Jesus is the Messiah was first of all delivered to the Jews and consists of Terms which were very common and familiar amongst them which had a determined setled signification amongst them The one was the Proper Name of a Person the other ordinarily stood for the Description of a Person they lived in expectation of according to the Account Moses had given them of him a long time before See Deut. 18. 15 to the 20. and Act. 3 22 c. They did not need any Interpretation of the Proposition And People of another Language needed no other Interpretation of it than what was necessary
the Collection those who shall believe every one of those Articles which shall be proposed to them will not believe that Jesus is the Messias in the full Sense given of that Term in Scripture and therefore according to this Notion will not be Christians It may further be enquired whether those who shall believe explicitely every one of these Doctrines will be obliged to endeavour to know and believe any more Doctrines If the Answer be No then either these are all Doctrines which are delivered in Scripture or there are some Doctrines taught in the Scripture which Christians are not obliged to endeavour to know though they have Opportunity to understand them or to believe them though they do know them If the Answer be Yes it may be asked how that comes about Perhaps it will be said because amongst the Doctrines before spoken of this is one That Jesus is our King and therefore to testify our Submission and Obedience to him we are to endeavour to know and believe other Doctrines This indeed is a way whereby they may acquire some assurance to themselves and give Evidence and Proof to others that they believe Jesus to be their King but not according to the Notion we are now discoursing of that they believe him to be the Messiah or that they are Christians How comes it to pass that seeing the explicite Belief of every one of the other Doctrines is equally necessary to make them Christians with the Belief of this only a part of that Faith which makes them Christians must oblige and govern them after they are Christians Whence is it that some Doctrines delivered in Scripture must be believed in Obedience to Jesus and others not whilst he is equally the Teacher of them all This Author saith That Though no more is set down Act. 8 37. but that the Eunuch believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God yet no doubt there is more implied For Philip instructed him in the Christian Religion from that Chapter of Isatah viz. which the Eunuch was reading which Doctrines were no doubt required as absolutely necessary to be believed Besides since Philip baptized him no doubt but he did it in that Form which Christ himself enjoined in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and then it will follow that the Belief and Confession of the Three Persons was required p. 77 78. Answ. It is not at all doubted but there is something absolutely necessary to be believed by an Unbeliever in order to his becoming a Christian besides that the due believing whereof doth constitute him a Christian. For a Man cannot believe a Proposition to be true without some Proof and Evidence that it is true Now the enquiry is not what Arguments and Proofs are absolutely necessary to be believed to bring a Man to the due Belief of what is absolutely necessary to be believed to make him a Christian. That is a Question no Man can possibly determine by assigning one in particular or a precise Number For the Arguments Proofs and Evidences are many and various and God has not limited himself to make only one of them effectual nor obliged himself that he will not give forth his Blessing but with a certain Number of them in conjunction He that doth duly believe all that is absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians is a Christian whether he was brought to this Belief by the Belief of more or fewer Arguments There are Truths to be believed antecedently to a Man's believing what is absolutely necessary to be believed to make him a Christian and there are Truths to be believed by him after he is a Christian the due believing of which are Proofs and Evidences that he doth believe what is absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians But it is not the Belief of the one sort or the other sort of these Truths nor of both together which is the Faith that constitutes Men Christians but only the Belief of that to which the Belief of those other Truths hath an Antecedent or Consequential Relation How many Doctrines the Eunuch was instructed in or what those Doctrines were in particular we cannot tell because they are not revealed to us but what it was upon the believing of which he was owned for a Christian and Baptized is expresly declared and we have Reason to believe that if the explicite Belief of more Articles had been required of him as absolutely necessary to make him a Christian they would have been set down and expressed in his Confession I think also it is more than probable that the Eunuch was baptized in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost unless it can be proved that that Form was in those Days confined or appropriated to the Apostles who were intrusted with conferring the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost Whatever Articles the Eunuch did explicitely believe at present he was by believing Iesus to be the Messiah obliged to endeavour to know explicitely and believe as many more as he could both concerning the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost even all that was or should be revealed concerning them which I think reaches the whole extent of the New Testament In p. 78 c. This Author undertakes To shew that the Gospels and Acts are directly opposite to our Author's Scheme of Doctrine and this he will do by shewing they do require much more to be believed concerning our Saviour than barely that he was the Messiah Here this Author proves very well and learnedly the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour and on that Account we cannot set too high a value on his Book He also mentions some other Doctrines very clearly delivered in the Gospels and Acts. But the Reason why he offers these things in Opposition to the Reasonableness of Christianity c. I suppose was his mistaking the Design of that Treatise The Author of the Reasonableness c. did not propose to enquire how many Doctrines are delivered in the Gospels and Acts concerning our Saviour but what Christ and his Apostles did require as absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians Reckon up therefore as many Articles as you please which are clearly and expresly taught in the Gospels and Acts yea in all the New Testament this will not affect or make any thing against the Reasonableness of Christianity c. unless withal you prove that Jesus or his Apostles required the explicite Belief of all or some of them which are distinct from this that he is the Messiah whom we are to take for our Lord and King to make Men Christians Whereas this Author saith That the most Learned amongst the Jews did appropriate the Title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to their expected Messiah and also believed he should be God So that this may be a very good Reason for our Saviour and his Apostles requiring no more to be believed in their preachings amongst the Jews than that Jesus was
the Messiah since if they once firmly believed that they must necessarily believe him to be God p. 78 79. I shall only observe 1. That the Sense of the Term Messiah is here acknowledged to be very different from what this Author has before declared the Apostles meant by it 2. That here is no Supposition that the People did not know what was meant by Messiah and therefore must have it either interpreted or explained to them but an Acknowledgment that our Saviour and his Apostles did use the Term according to the familiar and commonly known meaning of it amongst the Jews 3. That supposing the Jews did generally believe the Messiah should be God yet they must believe that Iesus of Nazareth was the Messiah before they could believe him to be God And it being this only that he was the Messiah which was propounded to be believed to make them Christians it must be a right believing of this that did make them Christians how near a Connection soever their believing any thing else which they knew and believed concerning him who should be the Messiah might have with their believing Jesus to be the Messiah Supposing they did generally believe that their expected Messiah should be God yet those who believed other Persons to be the Messiah and consequently believed them to be God too were not Christians So that it was not the believing a Person to be the Messiah nor a believing that Person to be God that made People Christians but a believing him to be the Messiah who really was the Messiah But as we are obliged to know who was the Author of our Being so also must it be equally a Crime not to know clearly who and what he was that could be the Author of our Salvation p. 87. In answer to this I shall only say That we are obliged to endeavour to know as much as we can of that God who is the Author of our Being This holds true as to all Men and so Christians are obliged to endeavour to know as much as they can of him who is the Author of their Salvation It is a Crime to be wilfully Ignorant of any thing that is revealed of him who is the Author of our Salvation There could be no Reason saith this Author for the defending his Divinity viz. our Saviour's with so much Care and Concern as St. Iohn did defend it if it was not absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian or if there was no Danger in believing him to be only Man p. 87. Answ. 1. The Reason we have to defend Divine Truths when opposed and denied by Persons is not to be taken barely from the End for which they are to be believed but also from their Nature viz. because they are Divine Truths and therefore Truths to be believed and which may by no means be denied 2. He that believes Jesus to be the Messiah does not therein believe him to be only Man he believes him to be Man but not only Man for that is not propos'd to his Belief when it is proposed to him to believe that Jesus is the Messiah And by believing him to be the Messiah he obliges himself to believe whatsoever he shall attain to know is revealed concerning him Believing in Christ saith this Author if it mean any thing must be interpreted of every thing that Scripture has required to be believed concerning him So that this we may be certain is a Fundamental that as Christ is the Author of our Salvation So that Revelation is the just Measure of our belief in him and that we must not believe either more or less of him than we are warranted by Scripture p. 92. Answ. Revelation is the just Measure of what we are to believe concerning Christ. So that a Christian let his Advances in Knowledge be ever so great must no believe any thing concerning him but what he is warranted or at least apprehends upon mature Consideration he is warranted by Scripture But that a Man cannot be a Christian till he doth explicitely believe every thing the Scripture doth warrant People to believe concerning Christ is a Notion the Scripture doth not any where warrant Were this Notion true no Man can be a Christian whose Knowledge of every thing relating to Christ is not every way equal to that of the most learned sagacious and understanding Person in the whole Christian World or that ever was or ever will be in the World Nay according to this Notion it may be justly questioned whether ever there was a Christian since the Apostles Days For there may be Ground to question whether any uninspired Man did or will attain to a just and adequate Knowledge of every thing the Scripture doth reveal concerning Christ. But it will probably be objected saith this Author to all this that though it is granted that there are several Articles to be believed by those who are throughly Christians yet there was no more required by our Saviour himself or his Apostles to make a Man a Christian or in order to his Admission into Christianity than the believing Jesus to be the Messiah and that this is all which the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. contends for The Objection is not proposed in its full weight but that I need not insist on for if the Answer reach it as it is here laid down it will serve the turn In answer to this saith this Author it may be observed First That the forementioned Articles as well as others that might be named are of the same Nature with that one Article of believing Jesus to be the Messiah and are a Repetition of it in all its Branches p. 92 93. Answ. This Answer is not at all satisfactory because it is wholly concerning another matter than that treated of in the Objection The Objection is concerning what our Saviour and his Apostles have required to be believed to make Men Christians The Answer is concerning the Nature of Articles Moreover it is not easy to understand what is meant here by several distinct Articles being of the same Nature with this That Iesus is the Messiah This Author hath formerly distinguished betwixt the Nature of several Doctrines and their being Divine Revelations Now consider several particular Doctrines singly in themselves and abstractedly from their being Divine Revelations they are not of the same Nature one with another how can they then be every one of the same Nature with this that Jesus is the Messiah I agree with this Author that a Person 's believing explicitely certain particular Doctrines Jesus hath taught for this Reason because he knows that Jesus who is the Messias hath taught them is a Repetition of his Belief of that Article the Ground and Reason of his believing every one of the other Doctrines But if his believing certain particular Doctrines be but a Repetition of his believing that Jesus is the Messiah how can the repeated or rather limited exercise