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
Revelation than any of the other Apostles For he was neither instructed by Christ himself while on Earth as not being his Disciple nor had he any account of the Doctrines which he taught from those Apostles who had constantly heard him but he received all his Instructions immediately from Heaven as he himself hath told us in the first Chap. of Gal. 11 and 12. Ver. But I certifie you Brethren that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man For I neither received it of man neither was I taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ From whence 't is plain that his Doctrines were of equal Authority with what were taught by Christ himself and that the things which he writ as himself testifies of them in the 1 Cor. 14.37 were the Commandments of the Lord i. e. Were of as great necessity to be believed to Salvation as any other parts of Revelation which cannot in the least be doubted if we also consider that Men are to be Judg'd by that Gospel which St. Paul taught at the last Day As he assures us in Rom. 2.16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of Men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel which Gospel he must mean that Epistle to be part of for he had taught those at Rome no otherwise than by this Epistle for he never had been there when this was writ nor do we know that he had sent them any Epistle before it But besides the Doctrines which St. Paul has delivered in this Epistle to the Romans are no more than what he had before taught to others as is plain from his own words to the Elders of Ephesus Act. 20.27 That he had not shun'd to declare unto them all the Counsel of God Which he would not have said if he had a Commission to make any thing necessary to be believed to Salvation by others which was not revealed to them thro' his Ministry So that as both what he taught and writ in his Epistles are the same Doctrines so are they both equally Obligatory But Lastly There is this more remarkable of St. Paul that he was the Apostle of the Gentiles and for the most part the first that had preach'd the Gospel amongst them And therefore what he taught could be the only Rule of Faith to them especially till the Gospels were written which none of them were till some time after he had begun to preach the Gospel amongst the Gentiles From whence it follows that as what he taught was the only Rule of Faith to them before they could have the Gospels so neither would his Doctrines after the publishing the Gospels be less necessary to be believed since their Authority would be much rather increased than lessened by the assistance of so great a Foundation as the Gospels to support them What I have here said of St. Paul is not with a Design to lessen the Authority of the other Epistles for they are all Inspired by the same Holy Spirit and are therefore equally necessary to be believed but only as we have a greater Number of his transmitted to us than of all the other Apostles so I thought it most necessary to shew that the reason why we are obliged to believe them to Salvation was as great as can possibly be produced for any thing of that Nature And thus I hope I have made it fully evident that the Apostles had a sufficient Commission from God to make those Doctrines which they taught in their Epistles absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation And that they did declare some of their Doctrines to be of this Nature I shall come now in a little time to prove And Thirdly The End and Reason for which the Epistles were written will make this more fully appear For to make any thing more firmly believed and assented to there is not only required a certain knowledge of its being Revealed but also of the End for which it was Revealed Now nothing can be more worthy of God and more beneficial to Man than the revealing the Conditions which he has made necessary for our obtaining Happiness and this is fully done in the Covenant of the Gospel And as the Conditions are necessary to be known before we can perform them so God has taken sufficient care to give us a full Revelation of them First In a large History of the Method that Christ made use of for the purchasing our Redemption and the Miracles which he wrought for the Confirmation of his Mission and Doctrine And Secondly In a more full and clear Manifestation by the coming of the Holy Ghost of all those things which were required of us to be believed And this he intrusted to the Apostles who were to that End both Divinely Inspired and had the Power of working Miracles committed to them to establish and confirm the Truth of their Doctrines So that it may be no very great Absurdity to affirm that all things which are necessary to be believed to Salvation are not fully and clearly contain'd in the Gospels Indeed * Tota Religio Christiana omnia illius dogmata fidei praecepta vitae ad salutem necessaria quatuor Evangeliis imo unico Mathaei Evangelio continentur neque ex Epistolis Apostolorum imo nec Apostoli Pauli ullum dogma ad salutem creditu necessarium proferetur quod non antea in Evangelio clare expressum exstat Ausim itaeque dicere etiamsi sola quatuor exstarent Evangelian os perfectum habituros Canonem seu Regulam fidei ac Morum p. 189. Limborch in his Conference with a Learned Jew in his Book De Veritate Religionis Christianae seems to have granted more than he had Authority for in asserting that All the Doctrines of Faith and Practice necessary to Salvation are contain'd in the four Evangelists or even in St. Matthew only and that none of the Epistles of St. Paul or the rest of the Apostles contain any Doctrine necessary to be believed to Salvation which was not clearly and expresly set down before in the Gospels c. Whether all the fundamental Doctrines of Christianity were before laid down in the Gospels is indeed made by some a matter of Dispute but that many of them are not there so plain and intelligible as in the Epistles is none For it may be very justly question'd if the Epistles had not been written whether we should not have remained wholly ignorant of the true meaning of several things in the Gospels Particularly as to the Reasons of the Death and Resurrection of our Saviour for I much doubt whether we should so unanimously have believed that Christ's Death was a Sacrifice for our Sins or that by vertue of his Resurrection alone we should all be raised again at the last day from the alone Declaration of the Gospels Since neither of these can be so clearly proved from the Gospels as from the Epistles the latter of which is I think no where mentioned in
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
to the Colossians in these Words Col. 4.16 And when this Epistle is read amongst you cause that it be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans and that ye likewise read the Epistle from Laodicea which very probably is that which is now inscribed to the Ephesians For it seems most likely that it was sent to those of Laodicea where St. Paul had never been at that time they having lately received the Christian Religion and had a wrong Inscription put to it by the Collector of the Epistles into one Body Which was an easy Mistake considering that a Copy of it was very probably at Ephesus as well as Coloss as appears from the Câ—ose of that Epistle and other places Some indeed are of Opinion that St. Paul did not write any Epistle to the Laodiceans and that the Passage in the Colossians that ye likewise read the Epistle from Laodicea must mean an Epistle writ by the Laodiceans to St. Paul Of this Opinion is †Baronius Annal. Tom. 1. ad Ann. D. 60. Baronius and cites both Chrysostom and Theodoret for it who thought that St. Paul never writ any Epistle to the Laodiceans But there is little ground for this Opinion especially from the Words in the Colossians that from Laodicea for the natural Meaning of them is that they of Coloss should receive that Epistle which was writ to Laodicea from thence and read it in their Assembly And this meaning Dr. Hammond applies to it in his Note on the Place And he is of Opinion that a Copy of it was sent from Ephesus to Laodicea since Tertullian affirms that the Epistle which is inscribed to the Ephesians was sent to those of Laodicea But he thinks this solves the Difficulty that Ephesus being the Metropolis of Asia and Laodicea being a Church within that Circuit it might not only be design'd thither as well as Ephesus but that it was also Copied out and communicated to them and so might be called the Epistle to the Laodiceans or which the Church of Laodicea had received But tho' indeed it might have been so yet I think it most probable that it was writ only to those of Laodicea and not to Ephesus For as it is certain that St. Paul did write an Epistle to the Laodiceans which we have not under that Title so is there great reason to imagine that this Epistle was not writ to the Ephesians For St. Paul had liv'd three Years at Ephesus as is plain from the History of the Acts and therefore it is not probable that he would write to them there as in the third Chapter If so be ye have heard of the dispensation of the Gospel given me to you-ward And besides it is very strange that if this was writ to the Ephesians amongst whom St. Paul had so long been there should be no Salutations in it to any particular Persons which is so very usual in the rest of his Epistles And thus it seems most probable that this Epistle was that which was mention'd to be writ to them of Laodicea And this Remark is the more material because if this Epistle is looked upon as it seems designed to contain several Doctrines necessary to be believed by a Church at its first Constitution the Doctrines contain'd in it may carry a greater weight with them especially amongst those who will admit no other Doctrines as necessary to be believed but what have such a reason to confirm them But however it be this is certain that as this Epistle was writ by one Divinely Inspired so it is necessary to be believed to Salvation in those places where the Sense is plain and easy and of the highest Importance to us whether it was written with a Design to instruct or to confirm a Church in the Christian Faith But to return Let us suppose that some of the Epistles contain Matter proper to those Times and Churches to which they were sent May not the same Objection be raised against the Gospels most of our Saviour's Parables and very many of his Discourses relate to the State of the Jews at that time and the Destruction of their Nation and Religion which was soon after accomplished Now there is nothing in the Gospels but what was thought at first by the Apostles to respect the Jews only nay and for some time after the Mission of the Holy Ghost St. Peter particularly amongst the Apostles had such a wrong Notion of our Saviour's coming as to imagine that the Jews were only to reap the Advantage of it as may be seen in the History of the Acts. But tho' in a little time the Reason of our Saviour's coming was more fully understood yet at the first it was looked upon as particular and all his Discourses were interpreted to such a Sence Which ought to caution us in judging of the Epistles which notwithstanding their Directions to particular Churches might be design'd for general Instructions And we have good Reason to judge that there are no Cases set down but what may on some Occasions be of use to all Christians But what if it should be granted that they were writ upon particular Occasions will this hinder them from being necessary to be believed If it will then some of the Gospels must suffer too For the Gospel of St. Luke seems to be writ particularly to give Theophilus a more perfect knowledge of those things in which he had been before instructed as I have already observed of it as well as of the Acts which were writ by the same Evangelist upon the same Occasion In like manner the Gospel of St. John was writ upon a particular Occasion to confute the Heresies of the Cerinthians and Ebionites who denied the Divinity of our Saviour as is confessed by the most Ancient Fathers and has lately been very * Vid. Dr. Williams 's Vindicat. of the late Arch-bishop's Sermons p. 16 17 c. Joan. Cleric in 18. prima Commenta Evang Joan. p. 15 16 c. 80. Learnedly proved and must it upon this account be rejected as not necessary to Salvation So that if all parts of the Scripture must be laid aside that were writ upon particular Occasions our Faith would lie indeed in a much narrower Compass But we should not be I am afraid the better Christians for it For tho' some things might be writ upon particular Occasions yet it will be difficult to prove that the Holy Spirit did not design them for general Directions and as necessary to be believed to Salvation by others as those to whom they were writ But besides whatever particular Occasions there might be for some of the Epistles yet the general Design of them is to settle and strengthen Men in the Faith and to be perpetual Guides and Directions to them in the way to Happiness and indeed if there had been no occasion for this they certainly would not have been written But it was also necessary that the Apostles should dictate and leave
Declarations of Scripture concerning it and that this is the full sence of it which he has deliver'd p. 31. and repeated in his Vindication p. 28. Believing Jesus to be the Saviour promised and taking him now raised from the Dead and constituted the Lord and Judge of Men to be their King and Ruler But it may be demanded whether this is the full Sence and Interpretation of it in Scripture and whether this is all that is required to be believed concerning the Messiah or where it is laid down in Scripture that this Sence and Meaning of Jesus being the Messiah exclusive of all others is to be believed as necessary to Salvation For this cannot be lookt upon as the only Explication unless it can be shewn that it is declared to be so in Scripture and that this alone neither more nor less is to be believed as necessary to Salvation which seems to be a Matter of no small difficulty So that the believing Jesus to be the Messiah tho' we should take in his Interpretation of it if it was design'd for such does not seem of it self to be sufficient to make a Man a Christian But for the clearer Examination of this Assertion we may consider first That what might be sufficient to denominate a Man a Believer or a Christian during the actual Ministry of Christ would not truly Entitle any one to that Character now or during the Ministry of the Apostles after our Saviour's Ascension and that for this Reason because we do not find from the whole History of the Gospels that any of those who believed on our Saviour had a just Knowledge of him or what was the true End of his coming into the World Which I have already observ'd of his Disciples from that Question of their's to our Saviour Lord wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel To which he does not give a direct Answer but shews them their Ignorance by telling them It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father hath put in his own Power but ye shall receive Power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you Acts 1. and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the Earth From whence it is natural to infer that the Apostles had not yet attained to that clear Knowledge of Him and the Design of his Coming which it was necessary they should be endued with And if the Apostles had not arrived to that fullness of Faith who had been with him from the beginning it is absurd to imagine That any others who had believed on Him could have entertain'd any clearer or more distinct Notions of Him So that we cannot form any adequate Rule of Faith from what is deliver'd in the Gospels concerning the believing Jesus to be the Messiah since the just Meaning of that Proposition was not then understood Nor will it alter the Case by saying That those who died then in that Faith were undoubtedly saved for that would be no more an Argument than the proving that because a Jew was saved before Christ's Coming into the World by Vertue of Christ's Mediation in the Observance of the Mosaick Law he might be equally capable of Salvation now in the Profession of that Religion For we are to direct our Faith and Practice according to the most full and clear Revelation of God's Will and to believe that to be necessary to Salvation which appears from the full Extent of Revelation to be requir'd in order to it For that Rule of our Blessed Saviour will always hold That where much is given or much Revealed there is also much required to be believed If therefore the Disciples did not then fully know what is necessary for a Christian now to believe as 't is very evident they did not it will necessarily follow that the bare believing Jesus to be the Messiah is not sufficient or all that is necessary to Salvation or even to make a Man a Believer or a Christian For the Disciples did already believe that Jesus was the Messiah as is granted in the Reasonableness of Christianity but did not understand how far his Mediation extended or what he must do in order to become our Mediator And this I shall prove from our Author 's own Concession to be an Argument of no small Force For if all that was necessary to Salvation or to denominate Men truly Christians was the bare believing Jesus to be the Messiah why should our Saviour promise the Mission of the Holy Ghost to instruct them farther in what they ought to believe concerning him as in Joh. 16.12 I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot hear them now howbeit when he the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth For he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you And at the 25 Ver. These things have I spoken unto you in Proverbs the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in Proverbs or Parables but shall shew you plainly of the Father Now to what End was all this Was it not to teach them more clearly something that concern'd their Faith and Knowledge But this according to our Author could not be for they had already believed he was the Messiah and if that was all that was necessary why should they need any other Instruction Since our Blessed Saviour had already given God Thanks in one of his last Prayers that they had already believed that God did send him Joh. 17.18 I have given unto them the Words which thou gavest me and they have received them and they have believed that thou didst send me p. 183. i. e. By our Author 's own Interpretation in effect that he was the Messiah promised and sent by God And in the 25 ver Ibid. speaking of his Disciples he says They already know that thou didst send me i.e. Are assured that I am the Messiah Now if they firmly believed all this already according to our Author and this was all required of them to be believed to what End was the Holy Spirit to be given them to instruct them more fully in the Belief of Him or to inform them more particularly of his Dignity and Office For the Coming of the Holy Ghost could not be only to endue them with the Power of working Miracles which were only to be made use of for the Converting of others Nor will that come up to the sence of our Saviour's Words that he should guide them into all Truth so that if they must be allowed to have any Meaning in them they must relate to those larger degrees of Understanding and Knowledge concerning the Mystery of Christ which should be infused into the Apostles by the Holy Ghost But it may be urged that the Apostles after they had received the Holy Ghost made no other Conditions of Faith in Christ than that
he was the Messiah as our Author instances in St. Peter's Sermon to Cornelius that whosoever believeth on him should receive remission of Sins Act. 10.43 But will our Author assert that this implies no more than the bare believing him to be the Messiah without knowing what is meant by the Word Does it not also in the same place intimate that he by Vertue of his Dignity and Office had Power to forgive Sins which none can do but God alone And thus in the 36 ver that this Messiah was Lord of all i.e. Was over all God blessed for ever All which as they are implied in the Sermon of St. Peter so they there seem necessarily required to be believed in order to Baptism and consequently to Salvation And we cannot besides imagine that the Apostle would so far impose upon Men as to oblige them to believe what they knew nothing of or to build their Faith upon Words without Meaning Which we must suppose them to do if they made the bare believing Jesus to be the Messiah to be all that was necessary without explaining what they meant by Messiah how he was our Messiah or what he must be either God Man or both that he might be capacitated to be the Messiah And therefore we are to understand by believing Jesus to be the Messiah in this and almost all other places the full Extent and Meaning of those Words as they are explain'd by this and other Apostles in all parts of Scripture Which were all of them Inspired by the same Holy Ghost and therefore must all have the same Meaning unless the Holy Spirit dictated different or contradictory kinds of Doctrine which would be too impious to assert And therefore the believing Jesus to be the Messiah as it is now requir'd for a Fundamental of our Faith must comprehend the full Sence that is given of it in Scripture unless we can prove that there was not the same Inspiration and consequently not the same Reason for our Faith Nor does the believing Jesus to be the Messiah appear to be all that is necessary to make a Man a Christian from that place of the Acts where the Eunuch is mentioned to have been Baptized upon that Confession of his Faith to Philip I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Act. 8.37 For though here is no more set down yet no doubt there is more implied For we have none of the Doctrines recorded that Philip Preacht to him but that he instructed him in the Christian Religion from that Chapter of Isaiah which is a Prophesy of the Sacrifice of Christ and that he was to Die for our Sins which Doctrines as they must be part of what Philip taught so no doubt they were requir'd as absolutely necessary to be believed and besides since Philip Baptized him no question but he did it in that Form which Christ himself enjoin'd In the Name of Father Son and Holy Ghost and then it will follow that the Belief and Confession of the Three Persons was required For where the Form of Baptism is not mention'd we ought to understand it to be the same which was Instituted and Commanded by Christ himself and which was observ'd by the Primitive Church But Secondly I shall shew that the Gospels and Acts are directly opposite to our Author's Scheme of Doctrine and do require much more to be believed concerning our Saviour than barely that he was the Messiah As first It is plainly laid down in those Holy Writings that he was God nay his Divinity is so plainly asserted by St. John in the first Chapter of his Gospel that it seems almost impossible for Words to express it more clearly In the beginning was the word and the word was God c. Now it is most certain as has been already observed that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both in Jewish and Heathen Writers was meant a Divine Person and was much used by the Platonists that liv'd in this Apostle's Time and that the most Learned a mongst the Jews did appropriate that Title to their expected Messiah as well as they believed he should be God So that this may be a very good Reason for our Saviour and his Apostles requiring no more to be believed in their Preachings amongst the Jews than that Jesus was the Messiah since if they once firmly believed that they must necessarily believe him also to be God And this is also evident from the Jews never objecting Idolatry at the first to the Christans upon supposition that he was the Messiah whom they Worshiped which certainly they would have done had they not expected their Messiah should be God Which is an Argument manag'd with such Strength and Judgment in a late Discourse by a Learned Prelate of our Church that it may seem of it self sufficient to silence all Opposition except that of Malice that can be made against it or against the Divinity of Christ Indeed Trypho the Jew in his Dispute with * Justin Martvr Dialog cum Tryphon Judaeo p. 2668. Ed. Paris Justin Martyr asserts that the Jews did not expect their Messiah to be God but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he expresseth it but that he does not here speak the true sence of the Jews who lived before him is evident from what †Dem. Evang. l. 4. c. 1. Eusebius declares that the Jews had the same Opinion with the Christians concerning Christ's Divinity till they changed it in direct Opposition to the Christians Which gives us a very good account of the Reason why Trypho and the rest of the Jews fell from their Notion concerning the Divinity of their expected Messiah the Christians having gain'd great Advantages over them from the Opinions of the ancient Rabbins about it And therefore we may best judge of the Opinions of the Jews concerning the Divinity of the Messiah from those who lived before our Saviour since the latter Jews have differed very much from them And this is plain from their different Interpretation of the second Psalm For †R. David sunt qui interpretantur Psalmum istum de Gog Magog estque Messiah Rex Messias atque ita exposuerunt Doctores nostri Estque Psalmus hoc modo explicatus perspicuus at vero proprius est dixisse ipsum Davidem de seipso uti a vobis expositum Not. Miscel in Maimon C. 8. p. 314. One of them ingeniously confesses That all their Doctors had expounded it it of the Messiah which he allows to be a clear Explication of it but however that it would be more to the Purpose for them now to understand it as spoken by David of himself And * Doctores nostri exposuerunt hujus Psalmi significatum de Rege Messiah at prout sonat ut respondeatur Menaeis seu Hereticis expedit intepretari ipsum de ipso Davide R. Salamo Jarchi p. 315. another of them also acknowledges That this Psalm was constantly interpreted by their Doctors to signify