Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A25439
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Animadversions on a late book entituled, The reasonableness of Christianity as delivered in the Scriptures
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1697
(1697)
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Wing A3191; ESTC R11192
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66,692
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112
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who were Believers and Christians the occasion and end of writing them could not be to instruct them in that which was necessary to make them Christians Yet this seems rather to strengthen than lessen the force of the Argument that the Apostles had taught those same Doctrines for Fundamentals before which they afterwards communicated as sacred Depositums of their Faith For it is strange to suppose that a Doctrine should cease to be a Fundamental to those who had known it before For though the Epistles might not be written to those who believed all the Truths contain'd in them to instruct them in any thing which they were ignorant of yet it might be for this End to put them in remembrance of all the parts of their Profession to prevent all Disputes that possibly might arise and to remain as exact Rules and Directions how they might convert and instruct others But says our Author p. 294. If those to whom the Epistles were written wanted not such fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion without a Belief of which they could not be saved it cannot be supposed that the sending of such Fundamentals was the reason of the Apostles writing to any of them But how can it be proved that all those the Epistles were written to understood all the Fundamentals of Religion May there not be supposed to be some less knowing amongst them and some who would not throughly believe several Doctrines of Christianity without such an Authority as the Apostles had to convince them of the Truth of them But however if this Argument of Men's knowing the Fundamentals contain'd in the Epistles before they were sent to them may be sufficient to overthrow their Authority the Gospels also I am afraid will not escape much better For we cannot suppose but almost all Christians were very well acquainted with the Doctrines taught by our Saviour before the Gospels were written but 't is to be hoped that they ought not upon that account to be thought less necessary to be believed even by those who had been already converted to the Faith For certainly they cannot be supposed to contain less fundamental Truths because they have deliver'd nothing but what was received before for the Doctrine of our Saviour Nor can it be imagined that the Gospel of St. Luke which was writ with a particular Design to Theophilus who was already a Believer and a Christian should contain less fundamental Truths or less necessary to be believed than those which perhaps were written with a more general Design The Acts were also written to the same Theophilus and therefore if our Author's Argument will prove any thing it must exclude both that and the foremention'd Gospel as well as the Epistles from being any part of the Rule of Faith For they were more certainly written to a Believer and a Christian and One who wanted not the fundamental Articles of Christianity without a Belief of which he could not be saved than can be proved of so much as any of the Epistles And therefore it will follow notwithstanding all our Author has urged to the contrary that it is from the Epistles as well as the Gospels that we are to learn what are the fundamental Articles of Faith For if in the History of the Evangelists and the Acts all things are so plainly set down that no Body can mistake them it must unavoidably be granted That the Apostles tho' Inspired by the Holy Ghost were yet very unfaithful to their Trust in clogging Men's Faith with unnecessary Points of Belief Since they could not be ignorant that what they writ would be as much thought necessary to be believed as what was taught by our Saviour himself And therefore the Apostles ought certainly to be blamed for writing such Doctrines in their Epistles which tho' they were not necessary to be believed might yet give occasion to a great many unwary Christians to think far otherwise and embrace them as firmly as any other Doctrines whatsoever But if it can be proved that the great and principal End of the writing their Epistles was to deliver several Doctrines that should be necessarily believed to Salvation by all who were Converted to the Faith we are obliged to receive them as such And this might be made appear from very many places of them St. Paul thus expresses himself 1 Cor. 14.37 That if any Man think himself to be a Prophet or Spiritual let him acknowledge that the things which I write unto you are the Commandments of the Lord. And in the beginning of the next Chapter Moreover Brethren I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you by which also ye are saved c For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received how that Christ died for our Sins according to the Scriptures By which Words he re-minds them of a Primary Article of their Faith without the Remembrance of which he shews they have believed in vain For the design of the Apostle's Argument is to acquaint them that they could not be saved without they kept in Memory what he had before Preached unto them v. 2. which was amongst other things the fore-mention'd Article the Belief of which if there is any Force in his Argument he declares to be absolutely necessary to Salvation After this he mentions to them some other Articles which he enjoins them to believe that their Faith might not be in vain And these are the Belief not only of Christ's Resurrection but that by vertue of his rising from the Dead we also should be raised again And also that in Adam all die For since by Man came Death by Man came also the Resurrection of the Dead For as in Adam all die even so in Christ shall all be made alive And these are Articles that are absolutely necessary to be believed for upon these the Apostle lays the great Foundation of Christianity and yet the Two last of them are not to be found either in the Gospels or Acts. There are also other places in the Epistles which are expresly required to be believed to Salvation as Rom. 10.9 For if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved And that in Timothy Without controversy great is the Mystery of Godliness that is of the Christian Religion God was manifest in the Flesh And in St. Joh. Epist 1. C. 4. Every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is of God and he that does not confess it is not of God which shews the necessity of believing Christ's Incarnation And again We have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world And whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God which is a distinct act of Faith from believing him to be the Messiah as I shall shew
into the secret Affections of Men. Whether the present Vnitarian Writers will allow Divine Honours to be paid to our Saviour or not is not very material this every one must be convinc'd of that the Adoration of Christ is as much mention'd in the History of the Gospels and as much enjoin'd in those and other parts of Scripture as any other Doctrine whatever So that it would be much more convenient for them to reject all Revelation in general than to out off all those parts of it that are disagreeable to their Hypothesis For to own a Revelation and at the same time to disbelieve what is therein clearly deliver'd is such a Contradiction as I am afraid their Reason can hardly reconcile But since in some of their Pamphlets they have denied Omnipresence and Omniscience to Almighty God and so have left us at a loss for a God Infinitely Perfect they may with the same Assurance call in question either the Truth or Authority of his Revelation But seeing the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity does believe all that is contain'd in the Gospels and Acts I shall endeavour to convince him by one Text more for the Proof of Christ's Divinity and consequently for the necessity of believing more concerning him than barely that he was the Messiah from the Example and Expressions of the first Martyr St. Stephen who suffered some Years before any of the Gospels or Epistles were written and therefore his Authority ought to carry very great Weight along with it since such an Example seems to be of as great Force and Obligation as a Positive Command For as he was full of the Holy Ghost and saw the Glory of God and the Heavens opened whilst yet in the Body so his Dying Words are upon that account more particularly remarkable And they stoned Stephen calling upon God and saying Lord Jesus receive my Spirit And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice Lord lay not this sin to their charge Act. 7.59 60. In which Words these Two things are very considerable First The Divine Honours here paid to our Saviour wherein if Christ be not GOD he was guilty of Idolatry Secondly The Expressions contain'd in his Petition which are almost the very same which our Blessed Saviour had before made the subject of his last Petition to God the Father at his Passion upon the Cross Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit And as before in the 34 ver Father forgive them for they know not what they do Both which are as to the Matter the same with those St. Stephen offer'd up to our Blessed Saviour and attribute the same Honour and in almost the very same Words which Christ in his Humane Nature gave to God the Father From whence we may conclude that either both or that neither was God I might bring innumerable Instances from Scripture to prove the necessity of believing Christ's Divinity as where the Creation of all things is attributed to him and other things that declare his Divine Power and Authority But these few I have made use of are as sufficient as Ten Thousand where Men are resolv'd to believe according to the Evidence of Things Now the Question is not Whether Christ's Divinity is to be comprehended by our Reason but whether it is not attested by Revelation And if this be made out beyond all possibility of being denied all the Arguments that can be drawn from Humane Reason will prove much too weak to overthrow it unless we can prove that there is more Truth and Certainty in Man's Reason than in the Testimony of God And thus have I shewn from those places of Scripture which the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity does admit of that there is something more to be believed concerning our Blessed Saviour than that he was the Messiah And that those places which I have mention'd are direct Proofs of Christ's Divinity in the most plain and natural Sence of the Words such as they were design'd to have in the Mouths of the Speaker is what the meanest Capacity will easily apprehend But it may be said that Christ's Divinity being asserted in Scripture does not make it an Article of Faith or necessary to be believed to Salvation or to make a Man a Christian unless it was there so declared any more than several other parts of Holy Writ which indeed we acknowledge to be true but yet are of no Concern to us In answer to this it may be question'd in the first place whether the Scripture's asserting him to be God does not make it necessary to believe him to be so as well as we are to believe explicitely that God Created all things though it is not mentioned as an Article necessary to be believed to Salvation in Scripture 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 But Secondly The Design of the Scripture's mentioning him so often with the Characters and Titles of God make it necessary for us to believe him to be so For to what End should St. John so much contend for his being God in opposition to those who denied his Divinity if yet every Man might be at his liberty to believe as he pleased concerning him For there could be no reason for the defending his Divinity with so much Care and Concern 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 In like manner the Design of the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews in asserting so largely the Divinity of Christ by reason of the wrong Opinions that some Men had concerning him makes it necessary for us to entertain true Notions concerning his Divinity And this necessity of believing Christ to be God even to make a Man a Christian will also appear from St. Paul's reasoning in his Epistle to the Colossians where he tells them that all things were created by him and that he is before all things Chap. 1. Ver. 16 17. But chiefly in his second Chapter he admonishes them to Beware lest any man spoil them through Philosophy and vain Deceit after the Tradition of Men after the Rudiments of the World and not after Christ for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily The design of which Words seems plainly to be this To caution them lest they should fall from their Faith concerning Christ's being GOD through the deceitful Arguments of some sort of Men who might perswade them that it was irreconcilable to Reason For he did assure them with all the Sincerity of a faithful Apostle of Christ that the Godhead was really and substantially in him And thereupon he enjoins them to believe it if they would retain the Profession of Christianity And if this be allowed to be the Force of the Apostle's