Example To make use of the Instance above-mentioned is not every sincere Christian necessarily and indispensibly obliged to endeavour to understand these Words of our Saviour This is my body and this is my blood that he may know what he receives in the Sacraments Does he cease to be a Christian who happens not to understand them just as the Creed-maker does Or may not the old Gentleman at Rome who has somewhat the ancienter Title to Infallibility make Transubstantiation a Fundamental Article necessarily to be believed there as well as the Creed-maker here makes his Sence of any disputed Text of Scripture a Fundamental Article necessary to be believed Let us suppose Mr. Bold had said that instead of one point the Right Knowledge of the Creed-makers One Hundred Points when he has resolved on them doth constitute and make a Person a Christian yet there are many other Points Jesus Christ hath taught and revealed which every sincere Christian is indispensibly obliged to endeavour to understand and to make a due use of For this I think the Creed-maker will not deny From whence in the Creed-maker's Words I will thus argue Now if there be other Points and particular Articles and those many which a sincere Christian is obliged and that necessarily and indispensibly to understand and believe and assent to then this Writer doth in effect yield to that Proposition which I maintained viz. That the Belief of those one hundred Articles is not sufficient to make a Man a Christian. For this is that which I maintain That upon this ground the Belief of the Articles which he has set down in his List are not sufficient to make a Man a Christian and that upon Mr. Bold's Reason which the Creed-maker insists on against one Article viz. because there are many other Points Jesus Christ hath taught and revealed which every sincere Christian is as necessarily and indispensibly obliged to endeavour to understand and make a due use of But this Creed-maker is cautious beyond any of his Predecessors He will not be so caught by his own Argument and therefore is very shy to give you the precise Articles that every sincere Christian is necessarily and indispensibly obliged to understand and give his assent to Something he is sure there is that he is indispensibly obliged to understand and assent to to make him a Christian but what that is he cannot yet tell So that whether he be a Christian or no he does not know and what other People will think of him from his treating of the serious things of Christianity in so trifling and scandalous a way must be left to them In the next Paragraph p. 242. The Creed-maker tells us Mr. Bold goes on to confute himself in saying a true Christian must assent unto this that Christ Jesus is God But this is just such another Confutation of himself as the before-mentioned i. e. as much as a Falshood substituted by another Man can be a confutation of a Man's self who has spoken Truth all of a piece For the Creed-maker according to his sure way of baffling his Opponents so as to leave them nothing to answer hath here as he did before changed Mr. Bold's words which in the 35. p. quoted by the Creed-maker stand thus When a true Christian understands that Christ Jesus hath taught that He is a God he must assent unto it Which is true and conformable to what he had said before that every sincere Christian must endeavour to understand the Points taught and revealed by Jesus Christ which being known to be revealed by him he must assent unto The like piece of Honesty the Creed-maker shews in the next Paragraph p. 243. where he charges Mr. Bold with saying that a true Christian is as much obliged to believe that the Holy Spirit is God as to believe that Iesus is the Christ p. 40. In which place Mr. Bold's words are When a true Christian understands that Christ Jesus hath given this Account of the Holy Spirit viz That he is God He is as much obliged to believe it as he is to believe that Iesus is the Christ. Which is an uncontestable Truth but such an one as the Creed-maker himself saw would do him no Service and therefore he mingles it and leaves out half to make it serve his turn But he that should give a Testimony in the slight Affairs of Men and their Temporal Concerns before a Court of Judicature as the Creed-maker does here and almost every where in the great Affairs of Religion and the Everlasting Concern of Souls before all Mankind would lose his Ears for it What therefore this worthy Gentleman alledges out of Mr. Bold as a Contradiction to himself being only the Creed-maker's Contradiction to Truth and clear Matter of Fact needs no other Answer The rest of what he calls Reflections on Mr. Bold's Sermon being nothing but either rude and mis-becoming Language of him Or pitiful Childish Application to him to change his Perswasion at the Creed-maker's Intreaty and give up the Truth he hath owned in Courtesie to this doubty Combatant shews the Ability of the Man Leave off begging the Question and superciliously presuming that you are in the right and instead of that shew it by Argument And I dare answer for Mr. Bold you will have him and I promise you with him one Convert more But Arguing is not it seems this notable Disputant's way If Boasting of himself and contemning others false Quotations and feigned Matters of Fact which the Reader neither can know nor is the Question concerned in if he did know will not do there is an end of him He has shewn his excellency in scurrilous Declamation and there you have the whole of this unanswerable Writer And for this I appeal to his own Writings in this Controversie if any judicious Reader can have the patience to look them over In the beginning of his Reflections on Mr. Bold's Sermon he confidently tells the World That he had found that the Manager of the Reasonableness of Christianity had prevailed on Mr. Bold to Preach a Sermon upon his Reflections c. And adds And we cannot but think that that Man must speak the truth and defend it very impartially and substantially who is thus brought on to undertake the Cause And at the latter end he Addresses himself to Mr. Bold as one that is drawn off to be an under Journey-man Worker in Socinianism In his gracious Allowance Mr. Bold is seemingly a Man of some relish of Religion and Piety p. 244. He is forced also to own him to be a Man of Sobriety and Temper p. 245. A very good rise to give him out to the World in the very next words as a Man of a profligate Conscience For so he must be who can be drawn off to Preach or Write for Socinianism when he thinks it a most dangerous Errour who can dissemble with himself and choak his inward Perswasions as the Creed-maker insinuates that Mr. Bold
the dead which are Characteristical marks of the Messiah and belong peculiarly to him should sometimes in Scripture be put alone as sufficient descriptions of the Messiah And the believing them of him put for believing him to be the Messiah Thus Acts X. our Saviour in Peter's Discourse to Cornelius when he brought him the Gospel is describ'd to be the Messiah by his Miracles Death Resurrection Dominion and coming to judge the quick and the dead These which in my Reasonableness of Christianity I have upon this ground taken the Liberty to call concomitant Articles where they are set alone for the Faith to which Salvation is promis'd plainly signifie the believing Iesus to be the Messiah that Fundamental Article which has the promise of Life And so give no Foundation at all for what the Unmasker says in these words Here one Article of Faith viz. The belief of Christ's Resurrection because it is of so great Importance in Christianity is only mention'd but all the rest must be suppos'd because they are mention'd in other places Answ. If all the rest be of absolute and indispensible Necessity to be believed to make a Man a Christian all the rest are every one of them of equal importance For things of equal Necessity to any end are of equal Importance to that end But here the Truth forced its way unawares from the Unmasker Our Saviour's Resurrection for the reason I have given is truly of great importance in Christianity so great that his being or not being the Messiah stands or falls with it So that these two important Articles are inseparable and in effect make but one For since that time believe one and you believe both Deny one of them and you can believe neither If the Unmasker can shew me any one of the Articles in his List which is not of this great importance mention'd alone with a promise of Salvation for believing it I will grant him to have some colour for what he says here But where is to be found in the Scripture any such Expression as this If thou shalt believe with thy heart the corruption and degeneracy of humane nature thou shalt be saved or the like This place therefore out of the Romans makes not for but against his List of necessary Articles One of them alone he cannot shew me any where set down with a Supposition of the rest as having Salvation promis'd to it Though it be true that that one which alone is absolutely necessary to be superadded to the Belief of one God is in divers places differently expressed That which he subjoins as a Consequence of what he had said is a farther Proof of this And consequently says he if we would give an impartial account of our belief we must consult those places And they are not all together but dispersed here and there Wherefore we must look them out and acquaint our selves with the several particulars which make up our belief and render it entire and consummate Answ. Never was Man constanter to a loose way of talking The Question is only about Articles necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian And here he talks of the several particulars which make up our belief and render it entire and consummate Confounding as he did before essential and integral parts which it seems he cannot distinguish Our Faith is true and saving when it is such as God by the new Covenant requires it to be But it is not entire and consummate till we explicitely believe all the Truths contained in the Word of God For the whole Revelation of Truth in the Scripture being the proper and entire Object of Faith Our Faith cannot be entire and consummate till it be adequate to its proper Object which is the whole divine Revelation contain'd in the Scripture And so to make our Faith entire and consummate we must not look out those places which he says are not all together To talk of looking out and culling of places is Nonsense where the whole Scripture alone can make up our belief and render it entire and consummate Which no one I think can hope for in this frail State of Ignorance and Error To make the Unmasker speak Sense â— and to the purpose here we must understand him thus That if we will give an impartial Account of the Articles that are necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian we must consult those places where they are for they are not all together but dispersed here and there wherefore we must look them out and acquaint our selves with the several particulars which make up the Fundamental Articles of our belief and will render a Catalogue of them entire and consummate If his Supposition be true I grant his Method to be reasonable and upon that I join issue with him Let him thus give us an impartial Account of our belief Let him acquaint us with the several particulars which make up a Christian's belief and render it entire and consummate Till he has done this let him not talk thus in the air of a Method that will not do Let him not reproach me as he does for not taking a course by which he himself cannot do what he reviles me for failing in But our hasty Author says he took another course and thereby deceived himself and unhappily deceived others If it be so I desire the Unmasker to take the course he proposes and thereby undeceive me and others and acquaint us with the several particulars which make up a Christian's belief and render it entire and consummate For I am willing to be undeceived But till he has done that and shewn us by the success of it that his course is better he cannot blame us for â—ollowing that course we have done I come now to his Fourth and last particular p. 78. which he says is the main Answer to the Objection and therefore I shall set it down in his own words entire as it stands together This says he must be born in our Minds that Christianity was erected by degrees according to that Prediction and Promise of our Saviour that the Spirit should teach them all things Joh. XIV 26. and that he should guide them into all truth Joh. XVI 13. viz. after his departure and ascension when the Holy Ghost was to be sent in a special manner to enlighten Mens minds and to discover to them the great Mysteries of Christianity This is to be noted by us as that which gives great light in the present case The discovery of the Doctrines of the Gospel was gradual It was by certain steps that Christianity climbed to its heighth We are not to think then that all the necessary Doctrines of the Christian Religion were clearly publish'd to the World in our Saviour's time Not but that all that were necessary for that time were publish'd But some which were necessary for the succeeding one were not then discover'd or at least not fully They had ordinarily no belief before
Excellencies he ascribes to himself or Faults he blames in me in the management of the Dispute between us any further than as particular Passages of his Book as I come to examine them shall suggest unavoidable Remarks to me I think the World does not so much concern it self about him or me that it need be told in that Inventory he has given of his own good Parts in his first Paragraph which of us two has the better hand at Flourishes Iesting and Common-Places If I am as he says pag. 2. troubled with angry Fits and passionate Ferments which though I strive to palliate are easily discernable c. and he be more laudably Ingenuous in the openness of that Temper which he shews in every Leaf I shall leave to him the entire glory of boasting of it Whatever we brag of our Performances they will be just as they are however he may think to add to his by his own Encomiums of them The difference in Stile Order Coherence good Breeding for all those amongst others the Unmasker mentions the Reader will observe whatever I say of them and at best they are nothing to the question in hand For though I am a Tool Pert Childish Starch'd Impertinent Incoherent Trifling Weak Passionate c. Commendations I meet with before I get to the 4th Page besides what follows as Upstart Racovian p. 24. Flourishing Scribler p. 41. Dissembler 106. Pedantick 107. I say although I am all this and what else he liberally bestows on me in the rest of his Book I may have truth on my side and that in the present case serves my turn Having thus placed the Laurels upon his own Head and sung Applause to his own Performance he pag. 4. enters as he thinks upon his Business which ought to be as he confesses pag. 3. to make good his former charges The first whereof he sets down in these words That I unwarrantably crowded all the necessary Articles of Faith into one with a design of favouring Socinianism If it may be permitted to the subdued to be so bold with one who is already Conqueror I desire to know where that Proposition is laid down in these terms as laid to my Charge Whether it be true or false shall if he pleases be hereafter examined But it is not at present the Matter in question There are certain Propositions which he having affirm'd and I denied are under debate between us And that the Dispute may not run into an endless ramble by multiplying of new before the Points in contest are decided those ought first to be brought to an issue To go on therefore in the order of his Socinianism Unmask'd for p. 3. he has out of the Mishna taught me good Breeding to answer the First first and so in order the next thing he has against me is p. 5. which that the Reader may understand the force of I must inform him that in the 105. p. of his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism he said that I give this plausible conceit as he calls it over and over again in these formal words viz. That nothing is required to be believed by any Christian man but this that Iesus is the Messiah This I denied To make it good Socinianism Unmask'd p. 5. he thus argues First It is observable that this guilty Man would be shifting off the Indictment by excepting against the formality of Words as if such were not to be found in his Book But when doth he do this in the close of it when his Matter was exhausted and he had nothing else to say Vind. p. 38. then he bethinks himself of this salvn c. Answ. As if a Falshood were ever the less a Falshood because it was not opposed or would grow into a Truth if it were not taken notice of before the 38th Page of the Answer I desire him to shew me these formal words over and over again in my Reasonableness of Christianity Nor let him hope to evade by saying I would be shifting by excepting against the formality of the words To say that I have over and over again those formal words in my Book is an Assertion of a Matter of Fact let him produce the words and justifie his Allegation or confess that this is an Untruth publish'd to the World And since he makes so bold with Truth in a Matter visible to every Body let the World be Judge what Credit is to be given to his Allegations of Matters of Fact in things foreign to what I have Printed and that are not capable of a Negative Proof A sample whereof the Reader has at the entrance in his Introductiâ—â— Page A 4 and the three or four following Pages Where he affirms to the World not only what I know to be false but what every one must see he could not know to be true For he pretends to know and deliver my Thoughts And what the Character is of one that confidently affirms what he does not know no body need be told But he adds I had before Pleaded to the Indictment and thereby owned it to be true This is to make good his Promise p. 3. to keep at a distance from my feeble strugglings Here this strong Arguer must prove that what is not answer'd or deny'd in the very beginning of a Reply or before the 38th Page is owned to be true In the mean time till he does that I shall desire such of my Readers as think the Unmasker's Veracity worth the examining to see in my Vindication from p. 26. to 31. wherein is contain'd what I have said about one Article whether I have owned what he charged me with on that Subject This Proposition then remains upon him still to be proved viz. I. That I have over and over again these formal words in my Reasonableness of Christianity viz. That nothing is required to be believed by any Christian Man but this That Iesus is the Messiah He goes on pag. 5. And indeed he could do no other for it was the main Work he set himself about to find but one Article of Faith in all the Chapters of the four Evangelists and the Acts of the Apostles This is to make good his Promise pag. 3. To clear his Book from those sorry Objections and Cavils I had raised against it Several of my sorry Objections and Cavils were to represent to the Reader that a great part of what he said was nothing but Suspicions and Conjectures and such he could not but then own them to be But now he has rid himself of all his Conjectures and has raised them up into direct positive Affirmations which being said with Confidence without Proof who can deny but he has clear'd throughly clear'd that part from my sorry Objections and Cavils He says it was the main Work I set my self about to find but one Article of Faith This I must take the liberty to deny And I desire him to prove it A Man may set himself to find two or
as many as there be and yet find but one Or a Man may set himself to find but one and yet find two or more It is no Argument from what a Man has found to prove what was his main Work to find unless where his aim was only to find what there was whether more or less For a Writer may find the Reputation of a poor contemptible Railer Nay of a downright impudent Lyar and yet no body will think it was his main work to find that Therefore Sir if you will not find what 't is like you did not seek you must prove those many confident Assertions you have published which I shall give you in tale whereof this is the second viz. II. That the main Business I set my self about was to find but one Article of Faith In the following part of this Sentence he quotes my own words with the Pages where they are to be found The first time that in either of his two Books against me he has vouchsafed to do so concerning one Article wherewith he has made so much noise My words in pag. 192. of my Reasonableness of Christianity stand thus For that this is the sole Doctrine pressed and required to be believed in the whole tenor of our Saviour's and his Apostles preaching we have shew'd through the whole History of the Evanlists and Acts and I challenge them to shew that there was any other Doctrine upon their assent to which or disbelief of it Men were pronounced Believers or Unbelievers and accordingly received into the Church of Christ as Members of his Body as far as mere Believing could make them so or else kept out This was the only Gospel Article of Faith which was preached to them Out of this Passage the Unmasker sets down these words This is the SOLE Doctrine pressed and required to be believed in the whole tenor of our Saviour's and his Apostles preaching p. 129. this was the ONLY Gospel Article of Faith which was preach'd to them I shall pass by all other Observations that this way of citing these words would suggest and only remark that if he brought these words to prove the immediately preceding Assertion of his viz. That to find but one Article of Faith was the main Work I set my self about This Argument reduced into form will stand thus He who says that this is the sole Doctrine pressed and required to be believed in the whole tenor of our Saviour's and his Apostles Preaching upon their assent to which or disbelief of it Men were pronounced Believers or Unbelievers and accordingly received into the Church of Christ as Members of his Body as far as mere believing could make them so or else kept out sets himself to find out but One Article of Faith as his main Work But the Vindicator did so Ergo If this were the use he would make of those words of mine cited I must desire him to prove the major But he talks so freely and without book every where that I suppose he thought himself by the Privilege of a Declaimer exempt from being called strictly to an Account for what he so loosely says and from proving what he should be called to Account for Rail lustily is a good Rule something of it will stick true or false proved or not proved If he alledges these words of mine to answer my Demand Vind. p. 27. where he found that I contended for one single Article of Faith with the exclusion and defiance of all the rest which he had charged me with I say it proves this as little as the former For to say That I had shew'd through the whole History of the Evangelists and the Acts that this is the sole Doctrine or only Gospel-Article pressed and required to be believed in the whole Tenor of our Saviour and his Apostles Preaching upon their assent to which or disbelieving of it Men were pronounced Believers or Unbelievers and accordingly received into the Church of Christ or kept out is the simple Assertion of a positive Matter of Fact and so carries in it no defiance no nor exclusion of any othâ—r Doctrinal or Historical Truth contained in the Scripture And therefore it remains still on the Unmasker to shew where 't is I express any deâ—iance of any other Truth contain'd in the Word of God or where I exclude any one Doctrine of the Scriptures So that if it be true that I contend for one Article my Contention may be without any defiance or so much as exclusion of any of the rest notwithstanding any thing contained in these words Nay if it should happen that I am in a mistake and that this was not the sole Doctrine which our Saviour and his Apostles preached and upon their assent to which Men were admitted into the Church yet the Unmasker's Accusation would be never the truer for that unless it be necessary that he that mistakes in one Matter of Fact should be at defiance with all other Truths or that he who erroneously says that our Saviour and his Apostles admitted Men into the Church upon the believing him to be the Messiah does thereby exclude all other Truths published to the Jews before or to Christian Believers afterwards If these words be brought to prove that I contended for one Article barely one Article without any defiance or exclusion annext to that Contention I say neither do they prove that as is manifest from the words themselves as well as from what I said elsewhere concerning the Article of One God For here I say this is the only Gospel-Article c. upon which Men were pronounced Believers which plainly intimates some other Article known and believed in the World before and without the Preaching of the Gospel To this the Unmasker thinks he has provided a Salvo in these words Socinianism Unmask'd pag. 6. And when I told him of this one Article he knew well enough that I did not exclude the Article of the Deity for that is a Principle of Natural Religion If it be fit for an Unmasker to perceive what is in debate he would know that the Question is not what he excluded or excluded not but what Articles he charged me to have excluded Taking it therefore to be his meaning which it must be if he meant any thing to the purpose viz. That when he charged me so often and positively for contesting for one Article viz. that Iesus was the Messiah he did not intend to accuse me for excluding the Article of the Deity To prove that he did not so intend it he tells me that I knew that he did not Answ. How should I know it he never told me so either in his Book or otherwise This I know that he said pag. 115. That I contended for one Article with the exclusion of all the rest If then the belief of the Deity be an Article of Faith and be not the Article of Iesus being the Messiah it is one of the rest and if all the rest were
or restriction and as they stand in him fit to persuade the Reader that I excluded all other Articles whatsoever but that one of Iesus the Messiah And if in that sence they are not true they are so many Falshoods of his repeated there to mislead others into a wrong Opinion of me For if he had had a mind his Readers should have been rightly informed why was it not as easie once to explain himself as so often to affirm it in general and unrestrained terms This all the boasted strength of the Unmasker will not be able to get him out of This very well becomes one who so loudly charges me with Shuffling Having repeated the same thing over and over again in as general terms as was possible without any the least limitation in the whole Discourse to have nothing else to plead when required to prove it but that it was meant in a limited sence in an Unmasker is not shuffling For by this way he may have the convenience to say and unsay what he pleases to vent what stuff he thinks for his turn and when he is called to an Account for it reply He meant no such thing Should any one publish that the Unmasker had but One Article of Faith and no more viz. That the Doctrines in fashion and likely to procure Preferment are alone to be received That all his Belief was comprised in this one single Article And when such a Talker was demanded to prove his Assertion should he say he meant to except his Belief of the Apostles Creed Would he not notwithstanding such a Plea be thought a shuffling Lyar And if the Unmasker can no otherwise prove those universal Propositions above-cited but by saying he meant them with a tacit restriction for none is expressed they will still and for ever remain to be accounted for by his Veracity What he says in the next Paragraph p. 7. of my splitting One Article into Two is just of the-same force and with the same ingenuity I had said That the Belief of One God was necessary which is not now denied I had also said That the Belief of Iesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah together with those concomitant Articles of his Resurrection Rule and coming again to Judge the World was necessary p. 291. And again p. 301. That God had declared whoever would believe Iesus to be the Saviour promised and take him now raised from the Dead and constituted the Lord and Judge of all Men to be their King and Ruler shall be saved This made me say These and Those Articles in words of the plural number more than once Evidence enough to any but a Caviller that I contended not for one single Article and no more And to mind him of it I in my Vindication reprinted one of those places where I had done so and that he might not according to his manner overlook what does not please him the words THESE ARE ARTICLES were printed in great Characters Whereupon he makes this Remark p. 7. And though since he has tried to split this One into Two pag. 28. yet he labours in vain For to believe Iesus to be the Messiah amounts to the same with believing him to be King and Ruler his being Anointed i. e. being the Messiah including that in it Yet he has the vanity to add in great Characters THESE ARE ARTICLES as if the putting them into these great letters would make One Article Two Answ. Though no Letters will make One Article Two yet that there is One God and Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord who rose again from the Dead ascended into Heaven and sitteth at the Right-Hand of God shall come to judge the Quick and the Dead are more than One Article and may very properly be called THESE ARTICLES without splitting One into Two What in my Reasonableness of Christianity I have said of One Article I shall always own and in what sence I said it is easie to be understood and with a Man of the least Candour whose Aim was Truth and not Wrangling it would not have occasion'd one word of Dispute But as for this Unmasker who made it his business not to convince me of any Mistakes in my Opinion but barely to mis-represent me my business at present with him is to shew the World that what he has captiously and scurrilously said of me relating to One Article is false and that he neither has nor can prove one of those Assertions concerning it above-cited out of him in his own words Nor let him pretend a Meaning against his direct Words Such a Caviller as he who would shelter himself under the pretence of a Meaning whereof there are no Footsteps whose Disputes are only Calumnies directed against the Author without examining the Truth of Falshood of what I had published is not to expect the Allowances one would make to a fair and ingenuous Adversary who shew'd so much Concern for Truth that he treated of it with a Seriousness due to the weightiness of the Matter and used other Arguments besides Obloquy Clamour and Falshoods against what he thought Error And therefore I again positively demand of him to prove these words of his to be true or confess that he cannot Viz. III. That I contend for One Article of Faith with the exclusion and defiance of all the rest Two other Instances of this sort of Arguments I gave in the 29th Page of my Vindication out of the 115th and 119th Pages of his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism and I here demand of him again to shew since he has not thought fit hitherto to give any Answer to it IV. Where I urge that there must be nothing in Christianity that is not plain and exactly levelled to all Mens Mother Wit and every common Apprehension Or where he finds in my Reasonanableness of Christianity this other Proposition V. That the very manner of every thing in Christianity must be clear and intelligible every thing must immediately be comprehended by the weakest Noddle or else it is no part of Religion espicially of Christianity These things he must prove that I have said I put it again upon him to shew where I said them or else to confess the Forgery For till he does one or t'other he shall be sure to have these with a large Catalogue of other Falshoods laid before him Pag. 25. of his Socinianism Unmask'd he endeavours to make good his saying that I set up One Article with defiance of all the rest in these words For what is excluding them wholly but defying them Wherefore seeing he utterly excludes all the rest by representing them as USELESS to the making â— Man a Christian which is the design of his whole Undertaking it is manifest that he defies them Answ. This at least is manifest from hence that the Unmasker knows not or cares not what he says For whoever but he thought that a bare Exclusion or passing by was Defiance If he understands it so
to quit mine for nothing I have then one that being set by mine I may compare them and so be able to chuse the true and perfect one and relinquish the other He that does not do this plainly declares that without shewing me the certain way to Salvation he expects that I should depend on him with an implicit Faith whilst he reserves to himself the liberty to require of me to believe what he shall think fit as he sees Occasion and in effect says thus Distrust those Fundamentals which the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles have shew'd to be all that is necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian and though I cannot tell you what are those other Articles which are necessary and sufficient to make a Man a Christian yet take me for your Guide and that is as good as if I made up in a compleat List the Defects of your Fundamentals To which this is a sufficient Answer Si quid novisti rectius imperti si non his ut ere mecum The Unmasker of his own accord p. 110. of his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism sets down several which he calls Fundamental Doctrines I ask him whether those be all For answer he adds more to them in his Socinianism Unmask'd But in a great pet refuses to tell me whether this Second List of Fundamentals be compleat And instead of answering so reasonable a Demand pays me with ill Language in these words pag. 22. subjoyn'd to those last quoted If what I have said will not content him I am sure I can do nothing that will and therefore if he should Capriciously require any thing more it would be as great folly in me to comply with it as it is in him to move it If I did ask a Question which troubles you be not so angry you your self were the occasion of it I proposed my Collection of Fundamentals which I had with great care sought and thought I had found clear in the Scripture you tell me no it is imperfect and offer me one of your own I ask whether that be perfect Thereupon you grow into Choler and tell me 't is a foolish Question Why then I think it was not very wise in you so forwardly to offer one unless you had had one ready not liable to the same exception Would you have me so foolish to take a List of Fundamentals from you who have not yet one for your self nor are yet resolved with your self what Doctrines are to be put in or left out of it Farther pray tell me if you had a settled Collection of Fundamentals that you would stand to why should I take them from you upon your word rather than from an Anabaptist or a Quaker or an Arminian or a Socinian or a Lutheran or a Papist who I think are not perfectly agreed with you or one another in Fundamentals and yet there is none amongst them that I have not as much reason to believe upon his bare word as an Unmasker who to my certain knowledge will make bold with Truth If you set up for Infallibility you may have some claim to have your bare word taken before any other but the Pope But yet if you do demand to be an unquestionable Proposer of what is absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian you must perform it a little better than hitherto you have done For it is not enough sometimes to give us Texts of Scripture Sometimes Propositions of your own framing and sometimes Texts of Scripture out of which they are to be framed as p. 14. you say These and the like places afford us such Fundamental and Necessary Doctrines as these And again p. 16. after the naming several other Texts of Scripture you add which places yield us such Propositions as these and then in both places set down what you think fit to draw out of them And Page 15. you have these words And here likewise it were easie to shew that Adoption Iustification Pardon of Sins c. which are Privileges and Benefits bestow'd upon us by the Messiah are Necessary Matters of our Belief By all which as well as the whole frame wherein you make shew of giving us your Fundamental Articles it is plain that what you have given us there is nothing less than a compleat Collection of Fundamentals even in your own Opinion of it But Good Sir why is it a foolish Question in me you have found fault with my Summary for being short The defect in my Collection of Necessary Articles has raised your Zeal into so severe Censures and drawn upon me from you so heavy a Condemnation that if half that you have said of me be true I am in a very ill case for having so curtailed the Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity Is it folly then for me to ask from you a compleat Creed If it be so dangerous as certainly it is to fail in any necessary Article of Faith why is it folly in me to be instant with you to give me them all Or why is it folly in you to grant so reasonable a Demand a short Faith defective in Necessaries is no more tolerable in you than in me nay much more inexcuseable if it were for no other reason but this that you rest in it your self and would impose it on others and yet do not your self know or believe it to be compleat For if you do why dare you not say so and give it us all entire in plain Propositions and not as you have in great measure done here give only the Texts of Scripture from whence you say necessary Articles are to be drawn which is too great an uncertainty for Doctrines absolutely necessary For possibly all Men do not understand those Texts alike and some may draw Articles out of them quite different from your Systeme and so though they agree in the same Texts may not agree in the same Fundamentals and till you have set down plainly and distinctly your Articles that you think contain'd in them cannot tell whether you will allow them to be Christians or no. For you know Sir several Inferences are often drawn from the same Text and the different Systems of dissenting I was going to say Christians but that none must be so but those who receive your Collection of Fundamentals when you please to give it them Professors are all founded on the Scripture Why I beseech you is mine a foolish Question to ask What are the necessary Articles of Faith 'T is of no less consequence than nor much different from the Jaylor's Question in the 16th of the Acts What shall I do to be saved and that was not that ever I heard counted by any one a foolish Question You grant there are Articles necessary to be believed for Salvation would it not then be Wisdom to know them nay is it not our Duty to know and believe them If not why do you with so much outcry reprehend me
they are in the Bible than according to this rule it is necessary for many Men to believe what is not intelligible to them what their Noddles cannot apprehend as the Unmasker is pleased to turn the Supposition of vulgar Peoples understanding the Fundamentals of their Religion into ridicule i. e. it is necessary for many Men to do what is impossible for them to do before they can be Christians But if there be several things in the Bible and in the Epistles that it is not necessary for Men to believe to make them Christians then all the Unmasker's Arguments from their being in the Epistles is no Proof that all his Articles are necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian because they are set down in the Epistles much less because he thinks they may be drawn according to his Sysâ—em out of what is set down in the Epistles Let him therefore either confess these and the like Questions Why did the Apostles write these was it not that those they writ to might give their assent to them Why should not every one of these Evangelical Truths be believed and imbraced They are in our Bibles for that very purpose and the like to be impertinent and ridiculous Let him cease to propose them with so much ostentation for they can serve only to mislead unwary Readers Or let him unsay what he has said of things not plain to common apprehensions not clear and intelligible Let him recant what he has said of Mysteries in Christianity For I ask with him p. 8. where can we be informed but in the sacred and inspired writings It is ridiculous to urge that any thing is necessary to be explicitly believed to make a Man a Christian because it is writ in the Epistles and in the Bible Unless he confess that there is no Mystery no thing not plain not intelligible to Vulgar understanding in the Epistles or in the Bible This is so evident that the Unmasker himself who p. 119. of his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism thought it ridiculous to suppose that the Vulgar should understand Christianity is here of another Mind And p. 30. says of his Evangelical Doctrines and Articles necessary to be assented to that they are intelligible and plain There is no Ambiguity and Doubtfulness in them They shine with their own light and to an unprejudiced eye are plain evident and illustrious To draw the Unmasker out of the Clouds and prevent his hiding himself in the doubtfulness of his Expressions I shall desire him to say directly whether the Articles which are necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian and particularly those he has set down for such are all plain and intelligible and such as may be understood and comprehended I will not say in the Unmasker's ridiculous way by the weakest Noddles but by every illiterate Countryman and Woman capable of Church Communion If he says yes Then all Mysteries are excluded out of his Articles necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian. For that which can be comprehended by every Day-Labourer every poor Spinster that is a Member of the Church cannot be a Mystery And if what such illiterate People cannot understand be required to be believed to make them Christians the greatest part of Mankind are shut out from being Christians But the Unmasker has provided an Answer in these words p. 31. There is says he a difficulty in the Doctrine of the Trinity and several Truths of the Gospel as to the exact manner of the things themselves which we shall never be able to comprehend at least on this side of Heaven But there is no difficulty as to the reality and certainty of them because we know they are revealed to us by God in the Holy Scripture Which Answer of difficulty in the manner and no difficulty in the reality having the appearance of a distinction looks like Learning but when it comes to be applied to the case in hand will scarce afford us sense The Question is about a Proposition to be believed which must first necessarily be understood For a Man cannot possibly give his assent to any Affirmation or Negation unless he understand the terms as they are joyn'd in that Proposition and has a Conception of the thing affirm'd or deny'd and also a Conception of the thing concerning which it is affirm'd or deny'd as they are there put together But let the Proposition be what it will there is no more to be understood than is expressed in the terms of that Proposition If it be a Proposition concerning a Matter of Fact 't is enough to conceive and believe the Matter of Fact If it be a Proposition concerning the manner of the Fact the manner of the Fact must also be believed as it is intelligibly expressed in that Proposition v. g. should this Proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be offer'd as an Article of Faith to an illiterate Countryman of England he could not believe it Because though a true Proposition yet it being propos'd in words whose meaning he understood not he could not give any assent to it Put it into English he understands what is meant by the Dead shall rise For he can conceive that the same Man who was dead and senseless should be alive again As well as he can that the same Man who is now in a Lethargy should awake again or the same Man that now is out of his sight and he knows not whether he be alive or dead should return and be with him again And so he is capable of believing it though he conceives nothing of the manner how a Man revives wakes or moves But none of these manners of those actions being included in those Propositions the Proposition concerning the Matter of Fact if it imply no contradiction in it may be believed and so all that is required may be done whatever difficulty may be as to the exact manner how it is brought about But where the Proposition is about the manner the belief too must be of the manner v. g. The Article is The Dead shall be raised with spiritual Bodies And then the belief must be as well of this manner of the Fact as of the Fact it self So that what is said here by the Unmasker about the manner signifies nothing at all in the case What is understood to be expressed in each Proposition whether it be of the manner or not of the manner is by its being a Revelation from God to be believed as far as it is understood But no more is required to be believed concerning any Article than is contain'd in that Article What the Unmasker for the removing of Difficulties adds farther in these words But there is no difficulty as to the reality and certainty of the truths of the Gospel Because we know they are revealed to us by God in the Holy Scripture is yet farther from signifying any thing to the purpose than the former The Question is
about understanding And in what sense they are understood believing several Propositions or Articles of Faith which are to be found in the Scripture To this the Unmasker says there can be no difficulty at all as to their reality and certainty because they are revealed by God Which amounts to no more but this That there is no difficulty at all in understanding and believing this Proposition that whatever is revealed by God is really and certainly true But is the understanding and believing this single Proposition the understanding and believing all the Articles of Faith necessary to be believed Is this all the explicit Faith a Christian need have If so then a Christian need explicitly believe no more but this one Proposition viz. That all the Propositions between the two Covers of his Bible are certainly true But I imagine the Unmasker will not think the believing this one Proposition is a sufficient belief of all those Fundamental Articles which he has given us as necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian For if that will serve the turn I conclude he may make his Set of Fundamentals as large and express to his System as he pleases Calvinists Arminians Anabaptists Socinians will all thus own the belief of them viz. That all that God has revealed in the Scripture is really and certainly true But if believing this Proposition that all that is reveal'd by God in the Scripture is true be not all the Faith which the Unmasker requires what he says about the reality and certainty of all Truths reveal'd by God removes nothing of the difficulty A Proposition of Divine Authority is found in the Scripture 't is agreed presently between him and me that it contains a real certain truth But the difficulty is what is the Truth it contains to which he and I must assent v. g. The Profession of Faith made by the Eunuch in these words Iesus Christ is the Son of God upon which he was admitted into the Church as a Christian I believe contains a real and certain Truth Is that enough no says the Unmasker p. 87. it includes in it that Christ was God and therefore it is not enough for me to believe that these words contain a real certain truth But I must believe they contain this truth that Jesus Christ is God That the Eunuch spoke them in that sense and in that sense I must assent to them Whereas they appear to me to be spoken and meant here as well as in several other places of the New Testament in this sense viz. That Iesus Christ is the Messiah and in that sense in this place I assent to them The meaning then of these words as spoken by the Eunuch is the difficulty And I desire the Unmasker by the Application of what he has said here to remove that difficulty For granting all Revelation from God to be really and certainly true as certainly it is how does the believing that general truth remove any difficulty about the sense and interpretation of any particular Proposition found in any passage of the Holy Scriptures Or is it possible for any Man to understand it in one sense and believe it in another because it is a Divine Revelation that has reallity and certainty in it Thus much as to what the Unmasker says of the Fundamentals he has given us p. 30. viz. That No true Lover of God and Truth need doubt of any of them For there is no ambiguity and doubtfulness in them If the distinction he has used of difficulty as to the exact manner and difficulty as to the reality and certainty of Gospel Truths will remove all ambiguity and doubtfulness from all those Texts of Scripture from whence he and others deduce Fundamental Articles so that they will be plain and intelligible to every Man in the sense he understands them he has done great Service to Christianity But he seems to distrust that himself in the following words They shine says he with their own light and to an unprejudiced eye are plain evident and illustrious and they would always continue so if some ill minded Men did not perplex and entangle them I see the Matter would go very smooth if the Unmasker might be the sole authentick Interpreter of Scripture He is wisely of that Judge's Mind who was against hearing the Counsel on the other side because they always perplexed the Cause But if those who differ from the Unmasker shall in their turns call him the Prejudiced and Ill-minded Man who perplexes these Matters as they may with as much Authority as he we are but where we were Each must understand for himself the best he can till the Unmasker be received as the only unprejudiced Man to whose Dictates every one without Examination is with an implicit Faith to submit Here again p. 32. The Unmasker puts upon me what I never said and therefore I must desire him to shew where it is that I pretend XI That this Proposition that Jesus is the Messiah is more intelligible than any of those he has named In his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism p. 120. he argues that this Proposition Iesus is the Messiah has more difficulty in it than the Article of the Holy Trinity And his Proofs are worthy of an Unmasker For says he Here is an Hebrew word first to be explain'd or as he has this strong Argument again Socinianism Unmask'd p. 32. Here first the Name Iesus which is of Hebrew extraction though since Grecized must be expounded Answ. Iesus being a proper Name only denoting a certain Person needs not to be expounded of what extraction soever it be Is this Proposition Ionathan was the Son of Saul King of Israel any thing the harder because the three proper Names in it Ionathan Saul and Israel are of Hebrew extraction And is it not as easie and as level to the understanding of the Vulgar as this Arthur was the Son of Henry King of England though neither of these Names be of Hebrew extraction Or cannot any Vulgar Capacity understand this Proposition Iohn Edwards writ a Book Intituled Socinianism Unmask'd till the Name Iohn which is of Hebrew extraction be explained to him If this be so Parents were best beware how hereafter they give their Children Scripture Names if they cannot understand what they say to one another about them till these Names of Hebrew extraction are expounded to them And every Proposition that is in Writings and Contracts made concerning Persons that have Names of Hebrew extractions become thereby as hard to be understood as the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity His next Argument is just of the same size The word Messias must he says be explained too Of what Extraction soever it be there needs no more Explication of it than what our English Bible gives of it where it is plain to any vulgar capacity that it was used to denote that King and Deliverer whom God had promised So that this Proposition Iesus is
the Messiah has no more difficulty in it than this Iesus is the promised King and Deliverer Or than this Cyrus was King and Deliverer of Persia Which I think requires not much depth of Hebrew to be understood He that understood this Proposition and took Cyrus for his King was a Subject and a Member of his Kingdom And he that understands the other and takes Iesus to be his King is his Subject and a Member of his Kingdom But if this be as hard as it is to some Men to understand the Doctrine of the Trinity I fear many of the Kings in the World have but few true Subjects To believe Jesus to be the Messiah is as he has been told over and over again to take him for our King and Ruler promised and sent by God This is that which will make any one from a Iew or Heathen to be a Christian. In this sense it is very intelligible to vulgar Capacities Those who so understand and believe it are so far from pronouncing those words as a spell as the Unmasker ridiculously suggests p. 33. that they thereby become Christians But what if I tell the Unmasker that there is one Mr. Edwards who when he speaks his Mind without considering how it will make for or against him in another place thinks this Proposition Iesus is the Messias very easie and intelligible To convince him of it I shall desire him to turn to the 74th Page of his Socinianism Unmask'd where he will find that Mr. Edwards without any great search into Hebrew Extractions interprets Iesus the Messiah to signifie this That Iesus of Nazareth was that eminent and extraordinary Person prophesied of long before and that he was sent and commissioned by God Which I think is no very hard Proposition to be understood But it is no strange thing that that which was very easie to an Unmasker in one place should be terrible hard in another where want of something better requires to have it so Another Argument that he uses to prove the Articles he has given us to be necessary to Salvation p. 22. is because they are Doctrines which contain things that in their Nature have an immediate respect to the Occasion Author Way End Means and Issue of Mens Redemption and Salvation And here I desire him to prove XII That every one of his Articles contains things so immediately relating to the Occasion Author Way Means and Issue of our Redemption and Salvation that no body can be saved without understanding the Texts from whence he draws them in the very same sense that he does And explicitly believing all these Propositions that he has deduced and all that he will deduce from Scripture when he shall please to compleat his Creed Pag. 23. He says of his Fundamentals not without good reason THEREFORE I called them Essential and Integral parts of our Christian and Evangelical Faith And why the Vindicator fleers at these terms p. 18. I know no reason but that he cannot confute the Application of them Answ. One would think by the word therefore which he uses here that in the precedent Paragraph he had produced some reason to justifie his ridiculous use of those terms in his Thoughts concerning Atheism p. 111. But nothing therein will be found tending to it Indeed the foregoing Paragraph begins with these words Thus I have briefly set before the Reader those Evangelical Truths those Christian Principles which belong to the very essence of Christianity Amongst these there is the word Essence But that from thence or any thing else in that Paragraph the Unmasker could with good sense or any sense at all inferr as he does not without good reason THEREFORE I called them the ESSENTIAL and INTEGRAL parts of our Christian and Evangelical Faith requires an extraordinary sort of Logick to make out What I beseech you is your good reason too here upon which you inferr Therefore c For it is impossible for any one but an Unmasker to find one word justifying his use of the terms Essential and Integral But it would be a great restraint to the running of the Unmasker's Pen if you should not allow him the free use of illative Particles where there are no Promises to support them And if you should not take Affirmations without Proof for reasoning you at once strike off above three quarters of his Book and he will often for several Pages togetâ—er have nothing to say As for Example from p. 28. to p. 35. But to shew that I did not without reason say his use of the terms Essential and Integral in the place before quoted was ridiculous I must mind my Reader that pag. 109. of his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism he having said that the Epistolary Writings are fraught with other Fundamentals besides that one which I mention and then having set them down he closes his Catalogue of them thus These are Matters of Faith contain'd in the Epistles and they are Essential and Integral parts of the Gospel it self p. 111. Now what could be more ridiculous than where the question is about Fundamental Doctrines which are the Essentials of Christian Religion without an assent to which a Man cannot be a Christian and so he himself calls them p. 21. of his Socinianism Unmask'd that he should close the List he had made of Fundamental Doctrines i. e. Essential Points of the Christian Religion with telling his Reader These are Essential and Integral parts of the Gospel it self i. e. these which I have given you for Fundamental for Essential Doctrines of the Gospel are the Fundamental and not Fundamental Essential and not Essential parts of the Gospel mixed together For integral parts in all the Writers I have met with besides the Unmasker are contra-distinguished to Essential and signifie such parts as the thing can be without but without them will not be so compleat and entire as with them Just such an accuteness as our Unmasker would any one shew who taking upon him to set down the parts Essential to a Man without the having of which he could not be a Man should name the Soul the Head the Heart Lungs Stomach Liver Spleen Eyes Ears Tongue Arms Legs Hair and Nails and to make all sure should conclude with these words these are Parts contain'd in a Man and are Essential and Integral Parts of a Man himself i. e. they are Parts some without which he cannot be a Man and others which though they make the Man entire yet he may be a Man without them As a Man ceases not to be a Man though he want a Nail a Finger or an Arm which are Integral Parts of a Man Risum teneatis If the Unmasker can make any better sence of his Essential and Integral Parts of the Gospel it self I will ask his Pardon for my Laughing Till then he must not be angry if the Reader and I laugh too Besides I must tell him That those which he has set down are not the
necessary to be believed till there be some other way found to distinguish them than that they are in a Book which is all of Divine Revelation Though therefore Doctrines of Faith and Rules of Practice are very distinguishable in the Epistles yet it does not follow from thence that Fundamental and not Fundamental Doctrines Points necessary and not necessary to be believed to make Men Christians are easily distinguishable in the Epistles Which therefore remains to be proved And it remains incumbent upon him XVIII To set down the Marks whereby the Doctrines deliver'd in the Epistles may easily and exactly be distinguished into Fundamental and not Fundamental Articles of Faith All the rest of that Paragraph containing nothing against me must be bound up with a great deal of the like stuff which the Unmasker has put into his Book to shew the World he does not imitate me in Impertinencies Incoherences and trifling Excursions as he boasts in his first Paragraph Only I shall desire the Reader to take the whole Passage concerning this Matter as it stands in my Reasonableness of Christianity p. 295. I do not deny but the great Doctrines of the Christian Faith are dropt here and there and scatter'd up and down in most of them But 't is not in the Epistles we are to learn what are the Fundamental Articles of Faith where they are promiscuously and without distinction mixed with other Truths and Discourses which were though for Edification indeed yet only occasional We shall find and discern those great and necessary Points best in the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles to those who were yet Strangers and ignorant of the Faith to bring them in and convert them to it And then let him read these words which the Unmasker has quoted out of them It is not in the Epistles that we are to learn what are the Fundamental Articles of Faith they were written for the resolving of Doubts and reforming of Mistakes With his Introduction of them in these words He commands the Reader not to stir a jot further than the Acts. If I should ask him where that Command appears he must have recourse to his old shift that he did not mean as he said or else stand Convicted of a malicious Untruth An Orator is not bound to speak strict Truth though a Disputant be But this Unmasker's Writing against me will excuse him from being of the latter And then why may not Falshoods pass for Rhetorical flourishes in one who hath been used to popular Haranguing to which Men are not generally so severe as strictly to examine them and expect that they should always be found to contain nothing but precise Truth and strict Reasoning But yet I must not forget to put upon his Score this other Proposition of his which he has p. 42. and ask him to shew XIX Where it is that I command my Reader not to stir a jot farther than the Acts In the next two Paragraphs p. 42. 46. The Unmasker is at his natural Play of Declaiming without Proving 'T is pity the Mishna out of which he takes his good breeding as it told him that a well-bred and well-taught Man answers to the first in the first place had not given him this Rule too about Order viz. That Proving should go before Condemning Else all the fierce Exaggerations ill Language can heap up are but empty Scurility But 't is no wonder that the Iewish Doctors should not provide Rules for a Christian Divine turn'd Unmasker For where a Cause is to be maintain'd and a Book to be writ and Arguments are not at hand yet something must be found to fill it Railing in such cases is much easier than Reasoning especially where a Man's Parts lie that way The first of these Paragraphs p. 42. he begins thus But let us hear further what this Vindicator saith to excuse his rejection of the Doctrines contained in the Epistles and his putting us off with one Article of Faith And then he quotes these following words of mine What if the Author designed his Treatise as the Title shews chiefly for those who were not yet throughly and firmly Christians purposing to work upon those who either wholly disbelieved or doubted of the Truth of the Christian Religion Answ. This as he has put it is a downright Falshood For the words he quotes were not used by me to excuse my rejection of the Doctrines contained in the Epistles or to prove there was but one Article But as a reason why I omitted the mention of Satisfaction To demonstrate this I shall set down the whole Passage as it is p. 6. of my Vindication where it runs thus But what will become of me that I have not mention'd Satisfaction Possibly this Reverend Gentleman would have had Charity enough for a known Writer of the Brotherhood to have found it by an Innuendo in those words above quoted of laying down his Life for another But every thing is to be strained here the other way For the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. is of necessity to be represented as a Socinian Or else his Book may be read and the Truths in it which Mr. Edwards likes not be received and People put upon examining Thus one as full of happy Conjectures and Suspitions as this Gentleman might be apt to argue But what if the Author designed his Treatise as the Title shews chiefly for those who were not yet throughly or firmly Christians Proposing to work on those who either wholly disbelieved or doubted of the Truth of the Christian Religion To this he tells me p. 43. that my Title says nothing for me i. e. shews not that I designed my Book for those that disbelieved or doubted of the Christian Religion Answ. I thought that a title that professed the Reasonableness of any Doctrine shew'd it was intended for those that were not â—ully satisfied of the Reasonableness of it unless Books are to be writ to convince those of any thing who are convinced already But possibly this may be the Unmasker's way And if one should judge by his manner of treating this Subject with Declamation instead of Argument one would think that he meant it for no body but those who were of his Mind already I thought therefore The Reasonableness of Christianity as deliver'd in the Scripture a proper Title to signifie whom it was chiefly meant for And I thank God I can with satisfaction say it has not wanted its effect upon some of them But the Unmasker proves for all that that I could not design it chiefly for Disbelievers or Doubters of the Christian Religion For says he p. 43. How those that wholly disregard and disbelieve the Scriptures of the New Testament as Gentiles Iews Mahometans and Atheists do I crave leave to put in Theists instead of Atheists for a reason presently to be mention'd are like to attend to the Reasonableness of Christianity as deliver'd in the Scripture is not to be conceived
I shew'd that the World received by his coming This appears by the words he here quotes as my excuse for that omission In which place I also produced some Passages in my Book which sounded like it some words of Scripture that are used to prove it But this will not content him I am for all that a Betrayer of Christianity and Contemner of the Episâ—les Why Because I did not out of them name Satisfaction If you will have the truth of it Sir there is not any such word in any one of the Epistles or other Books of the New Testament in my Bible as Satisfying or Satisfaction made by our Saviour and so I could not put it into my Christianity as deliver'd in the Scripture If mine be not a true Bible I desire you to furnish me with one that is more Orthodox or if the Translators have hid that main Article of the Christian Religion they are the betrayers of Christianity and Contemners of the Epistles who did not put it there and not I who did not take a word from thence which they did not put there For truly I am not a Maker of Creeds nor dare add either to the Scripture or to the Fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion But you will say Satisfaction though not named in the Epistles yet may plainly be collected out of them Answ. And so it may out of several places in my Reasonableness of Christianity some whereof which I took out of the Gospels I mention'd in my Vindication p. 5. and others of them which I took out of the Epistles which I shall point out to you now As p. 74. I say the Design of our Saviour's coming was to be OFFERED up And p. 158. I speak of the Work of our REDEMPTION words which in the Epistles are taken to imply Satisfaction And therefore if that be enough I see not but I may be free from betraying Christianity But if it be necessary to Name the word Satisfaction and he that does not so is a Betrayer of Christianity you will do well to consider how you will acquit the Holy Apostles from that bold Imputation which if it be extended as far as it will go will scarce come short of Blasphemy For I do not remember that our Saviour has any where named Satisfaction or implied it plainer in any words than those I have quoted from him And he I hope will scape the Intemperance of your Tongue You tell me I had my Prudence from the Missionary Iesuits in China who conceal'd our Saviour's Suffering and Death because I undertake to ininstruct the World in Christianity with an omission of its Principal Articles And I pray Sir from whom did you learn your Prudence when taking upon you to teach the Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity in your Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism you left out several that you have been pleased since to add in your Socinianism Unmask'd Or if I as you say here betray Christianity by this Omission of this Principal Article What do you who are a Professed Teacher of it if you omit any principal Article Which your Prudence is so wary in that you will not say you have given us all that are necessary to Salvation in that List you have last published I pray who acts best the Jesuit whose humble Imitator you say I am you or I when pretending to give a Catalogue of Fundamentals you have not reduced them to direct Propositions but have left some of them indefinite to be collected as every one pleases and instead of telling us it is a perfect Catalogue of Fundamentals plainly shuffle it off and tell me p. 22. If that will not content me you are sure you can do nothing that will If I require more it is Folly in you to comply with me One part of what you here say I own to you savours not much of the Skill of a Jesuit You confess your inability and I believe it to be perfectly true That if what you have done already which is nothing at all will not content me you are sure you can do nothing that will content me or any reasonable Man that shall demand of you a compleat Catalogue of Fundamentals But you make it up pretty well with a Confidence becoming one of that Order For he must have rub'd his Forehead hard who in the same Treatise where he so severely condemns the Imperfection of my List of Fundamentals confesses that he cannot give a compleat Catalogue of his own You publish to the World in this 44 and the next Page that I hide from the People the main Articles of the Christian Religion I disguise the faith of the Gospel betray Christianity it self and imitate the Iesuits that went tâ— Preach the Gospel to the People of China by my Omission of its principal or main Articles Answ. I know not how I disguise the Faith of the Gospel c. in imitation of the Jesuits in China unless taking Men off from the Inventions of Men and recommending to them the Reading and Study of the Holy Scripture to find what the Gospel is and requires be a disguising of the Faith of the Gospel a betraying of Christianity and an imitating of the Iesuits Besides Sir if one may ask you in what School did you learn that prudent warineâ—s and reserve which so eminently appears p. 24. of your Socinianism Unmask'd in these words These Articles meaning those which you had before enumerated as Fundamental of Faith are such as must IN SOME MEASURE be known and assented to by a Christian such as must GENERALLY be received and imbraced by him You will do well the next time to set down how far your Fundamentals must be known assented to and received to avoid the suspicion that there is a little more of Jesuitism in these Expressions in some measure known and assented to and generally receiv'd and imbraced than what becomes a sincere Protestant Preacher of the Gospel For your speaking so doubtfully of knowing and assenting to those which you give us for Fundamental Doctrines which belong as you say to the very essence of Christianity will hardly scape being imputed to your want of Knowledge or want of Sincerity And indeed the word General is in familiar use with you and stands you in good stead when you would say something you know not what as I shall have occasion to remark to you when I come to your 91 Page Further I do not remember where it was that I mention'd or undertook to set down all the principal or main Articles of Christianity To change the â—â—rms of the Question from Articles necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian into principal or main Articles looks a little Jesuitical But to pass by that The Apostles when they went to preach the Gospel to People as much Strangers to it as the Chineses were when the Europeans came first amongst them Did they hide from the People the main Articles of the Christian
the like Passages in my Book my meaning is so evident that no body but an Unmasker would have said that when I spoke of believing as a bare Speculative assent to any Proposition as true I affirm'd that was all that was required of a Christian for Justification Though that in the strict sense of the word is all that is done in believing And therefore I say as far as meer believing could make them Members of Christ's Body plainly signifying as much as words can that the Faith for which they were justified included something more than a bare assent This appears not only from these words of mine p. 196. St. Paul often in his Epistles puts Faith for the whole Duty of a Christian but from my so often and almost every-where interpreting believing him to be the Messiah by taking him to be our King whereby is meant not a bare idle Speculation a bare notional perswasion of any truth whatsoever floating in our Brains but an active Principle of Life a Faith working by Love and Obedience To take him to be our King carries with it a right disposition of the will to honour and obey him joyn'd to that assent wherewith Believers imbrace this Fundamental Truth that Jesus was the Person who was by God sent to be their King he that was promis'd to be their Prince and Saviour But for all this the Unmasker p. 56. Confidently tells his Reader that I say no such thing His words are But besides this Historical Faith as it is generally call'd by Divines which is giving Credit to Evangelical Truths as barely reveal'd there must be something else added to make up the true Substantial Faith of a Christian. With the assent of the Understanding must be joyn'd the consent or approbation of the Will. All those Divine Truths which the Intellect assents to must be allow'd of by this Elective Power of the Soul True Evangelical Faith is a hearty acception of the Messias as he is offer'd in the Gospel It is a sincere and impartial submission to all things requir'd by the Evangelical Law which is contain'd in the Epistles as well as the other Writings And to this practical assent and choice there must be added likewise a firm Trust and reliance in the blessed Author of our Salvation But this late Undertaker who attempted to give us a more perfect account than ever was before of Christianity as it is deliver'd in the Scriptures brings us no tidings of any such Faith belonging to Christianity or discover'd to us in the Scriptures Which gives us to understand that he verily believes there is no such Christian Faith for in some of his numerous Pages especially 191. and 192 c. where he speaks so much of Belief and Faith he might have taken occasion to insert one word about this compleat Faith of the Gospel Though the places above quoted out of my Reasonableness of Christianity and the whole tenor of the latter part of it shew the falshood of what the Unmasker here says Yet I will set down one Passage more out of it and then ask our Unmasker when he hath read them whether he hath the brow to say again that I bring no tidings of any such Faith My words are Reasonableness of Christianity p. 244. Faith in the Promises of God relying and acquiescing in his Word and Faithfulness the Almighty takes well at our hands as a great mark of Homage paid by us poor frail Creatures to his Goodness and Truth as well as to his Power and Wisdom and accepts it as an Acknowledgment of his peculiar Providence and Benignity to us And therefore our Saviour tells us Iohn XII 44. He that believes on me believes not on me but on him that sent me The Works of Nature shew his Wisdom and Power But 't is his peculiar care of Mankind most eminently discover'd in his Promises to them that shews his Bounty and Goodness And consequently engages their Hearts in Love and Affection to him This oblation of an heart fixed with dependance and affection on him is the most acceptable Tribute we can pay him the Foundation of true Devotion and Life of all Religion What a Value he puts on this depending on his Word and resting satisfied on his Promises we have an example in Abraham whose Faith was counted to him for Righteousness As we have before remarked out of Rom. IV. and his relying firmly on the Promise of God without any doubt of its Performance gave him the Name of the Father of the Faithful And gained him so much favour with the Almighty that he was called the Friend of God The Highest and most Glorious Title can be bestowed on a Creature The great out-cry he makes against me in his two next Sections p. 57. â—60 as if I intended to introduce Ignorance and Popery is to be entertain'd rather as the noise of a petulant Scold saying the worst things she could think of than as the arguing of a Man of sense or sincerity All this mighty Accusation is grounded upon these Falshoods That I make it my great business to beat Men off from Divine Truths That I cry down all Articles of the Christian Faith but one That I will not suffer Men to look into Christianity That I blast the Epistolary Wriâ—ings I shall add no more to what I have already said about the Epistles but those few words out of my Reasonableness of Christianity p. 295. The Epistles resolving Doubts and reforming Mistakes are of great Advantage to our Knowledge and Practise And p. 229. An explicit belief of what God requires of those who will enter into and receive the benefits of the New Covenant is absolutely required The other parts of Divine Revelation are Objects of Faith and are so to be received They are Truths whereof none that is once known to be such i. e. of Divine Revelation may or ought to be disbelieved And as for that other Saying of his That I will not suffer Men to look into Christianity I desire to know where that Christianity is locked up which I will not suffer Men to look into My Christianity I confess is contain'd in the written Word of God And that I am so far from hindring any one to look into that I every where appeal to it and have quoted so much of it that the Unmasker complains of being overlaid with it and tells me 't is tedious All Divine Revelation I say p. 300. requires the Obedience of Faith And that every one is to receive all the parts of it with a docility and disposition prepar'd to imbrace and assent to all Truths coming from God and submit his Mind to whatever shall appear to him to bear that Character I speak in the next Page of Mens endeavouring to understand it and of their interpreting one place by another This and the whole Design of my Book shews That I think it every Christian's Duty to read search and study the Holy Scriptures and make this their
not then â—â—â—cover'd or at least not fully We must here excuse the doubtfulness of his talking concerning the discovery of his other necessary Articles For how could he say they were discover'd or not discover'd clearly or obscurely fully or not fully when he does not yet know them all nor can tell us what those necessary Articles are If he does know them let him give us a List of them and then we shall see easily whether they were at all publish'd or discover'd in our Saviour's time If there are some of them that were not at all discover'd in our Saviour's time let him speak it out and leave shifting And if some of those that were not necessary for our Saviour's time but for the succeeding one only were yet discover'd in our Saviour's time why were they not necessary to be believed in that time But the truth is he knows not what these Doctrines necessary for Succeeding times are and therefore can say nothing positive about their Discovery And for those that he has set down as soon as he shall name any one of them to be of the number of those not necessary for our Saviour's time but necessary for the Succeeding one it will presently appear either that it was discover'd in our Saviour's time And then it was as necessary for his time as the Succeeding Or else that it was not discover'd in his time nor to several Converts after his time before they were made Christians And therefore it was no more necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian in the Succeeding than it was in our Saviour's time However general Positions and Distinctions without a Foundation serve for shew and to beguile unwary and inattentive Readers 2 o. Having thus minded him that the Question is about Articles of Faith necessary to be explicitly and distinctly believed to make a Man a Christian I then in the next place demand of him to tell me XXXIX Whether or no all the Articles necessary now to be distinctly and explicitly believed to make any Man a Christian were distinctly and explicitly published or discover'd in our Saviour's time And then I shall desire to know of him XL. A Reason why they were not Those that he instances in of Christ's Death and Resurrection will not help him one jot For they are not new Doctrines revealed new Mysteries discovered but Matters of Fact which happen'd to our Saviour in their due time to compleat in him the Character and Predictions of the Messiah and demonstrate him to be the Deliverer promised These are recorded of him by the Spirit of God in holy Writ but are no more necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian than any other part of Divine Revelation but as far as they have an immediate Connexion with his being the Messiah and cannot be denied without denying him to be the Messiah And therefore this Article of his Resurrection which supposes his Death and such other Propositions as are convertible with his being the Messiah are as they very well may be put for his being the Messiah and as I have shew'd propos'd to be believed in the place of it All that is reveal'd in Scripture has a consequential necessity of being believed by all those to whom it is propos'd Because it is of Divine Authority one part as much as another And in this sense all the Divine Truths in the inspired Writings are Fundamental and necessary to be believed But then this will destroy our Vnmasker's select Number of Fundamental Articles And the choicest and sublimest Truths of Christianity which he tells us are to be met with in the Epistles will not be more necessary to be believed than any which he may think the commonest or meanest Truths in any of the Epistles or the Gospels Whatsoever part of Divine Revelation whether reveal'd before or in or after our Saviour's time whether it contain according to the distinction of our Unmasker's nice palate choice or common sublime or not sublime Truths is necessary to be believed by every one to whom it is propos'd as far as he underâ—tands what is propos'd But God by Iesus Christ has entred into a Covenant of Grace with Mankind a Covenant of Faith instead of that of Works wherein some Truths are absolutely necessary to be explicitly believed by them to make Men Christians and therefore those Truths are necessary to be known and consequently necessary to be propos'd to them to make them Christians This is peculiar to them to make Men Christians For all Men as Men are under a necessary obligation to believe what God proposes to them to be believed But there being certain distinguishing Truths which belong to the Covenant of the Gospel which if Men know not they cannot be Christians and they being some of them such as cannot be known without being propos'd those and those only are the necessary Doctrines of Christianity I speak of without a knowledge of and assent to which no Man can be a Christian. To come therefore to a clear decision of this Controversie I desire the Unmasker to tell me XLI What those Doctrines are which are absolutely necessary to be proposed to every Man to make him a Christian XLII 1 o. Whether they are all the Truths of Divine Revelation contain'd in the Bible For I grant his Argument which in another place he uses for some of them and truly belongs to them all viz. That they were reveal'd and written there on purpose to be believed and that it is indispensibly necessary for Christians to believe them XLIII 2 o. Or whether it be only that one Article of Iesus being the Messiah which the History of our Saviour and his Apostles Preaching has with such a peculiar distinction every where propos'd XLIV 3 o. Or whether the Doctrines necessary to be propos'd to every one to make him a Christian be any set of Truths between these two And if he says this latter then I must ask him XLV What they are that we may see why those rather than any other contain'd in the New Testament are necessary to be propos'd to every Man to make him a Christian And if they are not every one propos'd to him and assented to by him he cannot be a Christian. The Vnmasker makes a great noise and hopes to give his unwary though well-meaning Readers odd Thoughts and strong Impressions against my Book by declaiming against my lank Faith and my narrowing of Christianity to one Article which as he says is the next way to reduce it to none But when it is consider'd it will be found that 't is he that narrows Christianity The Unmasker as if he were Arbiter and Dispenser of the Oracles of God takes upon him to single out some Texts of Scripture and where the words of Scripture will not serve his turn to impose on us his Interpretations and Deductions as necessary Articles of Faith which is in Effect to make them of equal Authority with the
Expressions applied to our Saviour But was his Discourse never so general how could that alter the plain Signification of his words viz. That those two are but different Expressions of the same thing 2 o. Because these Expressions are applied to the same person Answ. A very demonstrative Reason is it not that therefore they cannot be different Expressions of the same thing 3 o. And because they are both comprehended in one general Name viz. Iesus Answ. It requires some Skill to put so many Falshoods in so few words For neither both nor either of these Expressions are comprehended in the Name Iesus And that Iesus the Name of a particular Person should be a general Name is a discovery reserv'd to be found out by this new Logician However general is a Learned Word which when a Man of Learning has used twice as a Reason of the same thing he is cover'd with Generals He need not trouble himself any farther about sence he may safely talk what Stuâ—â— he pleases without the least Suspicion of his Reader Having thus strongly proved just nothing he proceeds and tells us p. 91. Yet it does not follow thence but that if we will speak strictly and closely we must be forced to confess they are of different Significations By which words if his words have any Signification he plainly allows that the Bishop meant as he says that these two are but different Expressions of the same thing But withal tells him that if he will speak closely and strictly he must say they are of different Significations My concernment in the case being only that in the Passage alledg'd the Reverend Author said that the Son of God and the Messiah were different Expressions of the same thing I have no more to demand after these words of the Unmasker he has granted all I would have But shall leave it to the decisive Authority of this Superlative Critick to determine whether this Learned Bishop or any one living besides himself can understand the Phrases of the New Testament and speak strictly and closely concerning them Perhaps his being yet alive may preserve this Eminent Prelate from the malicious driveling of the Unmasker's Pen which has bespotted the Ashes of two of the same Order who were no mean Ornaments of the English Church And if they had been now alive no body will doubt but the Unmasker would have treated them after another fashion But let me ask the Unmasker whether if either of these Pious Prelates whose words I have above quoted did understand that Phrase of the Son of God to stand for the Messiah which they might do without holding any one Socinian tenet he will dare to pronounce him a Socinian This is so ridiculous an Inference that I could not but laugh at it But withal tell him Vindic. p. 23. That if the sence wherein I understand those Texts be a Mistake I shall be beholding to him to set me right But they are not popular Authorities or frightful Names whereby I judge of Truth or Falshood To which I subjoin these words You â—ill now no doubt applaud your Conjectures the Point is gain'd and I am openly a Socinian Since I will not disown that I think the Son of God was a Phrase that among the Iews in our Saviour's time was used for the Messiah though the Socinians understand it in the same sence And therefore I must certainly be of their Perswasion in every thing else I admire the accuteness force and fairness of your Reasoning and so I leave you to triumph in your Conjectures Nor has he sailed my expectation For here p. 91. of his Socinianism Unmask'd he upon this erects his Comb and Crows most mightily We may says he from hence as well as other Reasons pronounce him the same with those Gentlemen i. e. as he is pleased to call them my good Patrons and Friends the Racovians which you may perceive he is very apprehensive of and thinks that this will be reckon'd a good Evidence of his being what he denied himself to be before The Point is gain'd saith he and I am openly Socinian He never utter'd truer words in his life and they are the Confutation of all his Pretences to the contrary This Truth which unwarily dropt from his Pen confirms what I have laid to his Charge Now you have Sung your Song of Triumph 't is fit you should gain your Victory by shewing XLIX How my understanding the Son of God to be a Phrase used amongst the Iews in our Saviour's time to signifie the Messiah proves me to be a Socinian Or if you think you have proved it already I desire you to put your Proof into a Syllogism For I confess my self so dull as not to see any such Conclusion deducible from my understanding that Phrase as I do even when you have proved that I am mistaken in it The places which in the New Testament shew that the Son of God stands for the Messiah are so many and so clear that I imagine no body that ever consider'd and compar'd them together could doubt of their meaning unless he were an Vnmasker Several of them I have Collected and set down in my Reasonableness of Christianity p. 25 26 27. 29. 34 35 36. 41. 50 51. 53 54. 60. 95. 101. First Iohn the Baptist Joh. I. 20. when the Iews sent to know who he was confessed he himself was not the Messiah But of Iesus he says v. 34. after having several ways in the foregoing Verses declar'd him to be the Messiah And I saw and bare record that this is the SON OF GOD. And again Chap. III. 26 36. he declaring Iesus to be and himself not to be the Messiah he does it in these Synonymous terms of the Messiah and the Son of God as appears by comparing v. 28. 35 36. Nathanael owns him to be the Messiah in these words Ioh. I. 50. Thou art the SON OF GOD Thou art the King of Israel Which our Saviour in the next Verse calls Believing a term all through the History of our Saviour used for owning Iesus to be the Messiah And for confirming that Faith of his that he was the Messiah our Saviour further adds that he should see greater things i. e. Should see him do greater Miracles to evidence that he was the Messiah Luke the 4 th 41. And Devils also came out of many crying Thou art the Messiah the Son of God and he rebuking them suffered them not to speak And so again St. Mark tells us Chap. III. 11 12. That unclean Spirits when they saw him fell down before him and cried saying Thou art the Son of God And he strictly charged them that they should not make him known In both these places which relate to different times and different occasions the Devils declare Iesus to be the Son of God ` T is certain whatever they meant by it they used a Phrase of a known Signification in that Country And what may we reasonably think they
venture upon Mr. Edwards who is so very quick-sighted in these matters and knows so well what villainous Man is capable of I should not here in this my Vindication have given the Reader so much of Mr. Bold's Reasoning which though clear and strong yet has more Beauty and Force as it stands in the whole Piece in his Book Nor should I have so often repeated this Remark upon each Passage viz. to this Mr. Edwards answers not had it not been the shortest and properest Comment could be made on that triumphant Paragraph of his which begins in the 128. page of his Socinian Creed wherein amongst a great deal of no small strutting are these Words By their profound silence they acknowledge they have nothing to reply He that desires to see more of the same noble strain may have recourse to that eminent Place Besides it was fit the Reader should have this one taste more of the Creed-maker's Genius who passing by in silence all these clear and apposite Replies of Mr. Bold loudly complains of him p. 259. That where he Mr. Bold finds something that he dares not object against he shifts it off And again p. 260. That he doth not make any offer at Reason there is not the least shadow of an Argument As if he were only hired to say something against me the Creed-maker though not at all to the purpose And truly any Man may discern a Mercenary Stroke all along with a great deal more to the same purpose For such Language as this mixed with Scurrility neither fit to be spoken by nor of a Minister of the Gospel make up the remainder of his Postscript But to prevent this for the future I demand of him That if in either of his Treatises there be any thing against what I have said in my Reasonableness of Christianity which he thinks not fully answer'd he will set down the Proposition in direct Words and note the Page of his Book where it is to be found And I promise him an Answer to it For as for his Railing and other Stuff besides the Matter I shall hereafter no more trouble my self to take notice of it And so much for Mr. Edwards THere is another Gentleman and of another sort of Make Parts and Breeding who as it seems ashamed of Mr. Edwards's Way of handling Controversies in Religion has had something to say of my Reasonableness of Christianity c. And so has made it necessary for me to say a Word to him before I let these Papers go out of my Hand It is the Author of The Occasional Paper Numb 1. The 2 3 and 4 Pages of that Paper gave me great hopes to meet with a Man who would examine all the Mistakes which come abroad in Print with that Temper and Indifferency that might set an exact Pattern for Controversie to those who would approve themselves to be sincere Contenders for Truth and Knowledge and nothing else in the Disputes they engaged in Making him Allowance for the Mistakes that Self-Indulgence is apt to impose upon Humane Frailty I am apt to believe he thought his Performances had been such But I crave leave to observe That good and candid Men are often misled from a fair unbiassed pursuit of Truth by an over-great Zeal for something that they upon wrong Grounds take to be so And that it is not so easie to be a fair and unprejudiced Champion for Truth as some who profess it think it to be To acquaint him with the Occasion of this Remark I must desire him to read and consider his 19th Page and then to tell me 1. Whether he knows that the Doctrine proposed in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. was borrowed as he says from Hobbs's Leviathan For I tell him I borrowed it only from the Writers of the Four Gospels and the Acts and did not know that those words he quoted out of the Leviathan were there or any thing like them Nor do I know yet any farther than as I believe them to be there from his Quotation 2. Whether affirming as he does positively this which he could not know to be true and is in it self perfectly false were meant to encrease or lessen the Credit of the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. in the Opinion of the World Or is consonant with his own Rule p. 3. of putting candid Constructions on what Adversaries say Or with what follows in these words The more Divine the Cause is still the greater should be the Caution The very Discoursing about Almighty God or our Holy Religion should compose our Passions and inspire us with Candour and Love It is very indecent to handle such Subjects in a manner that betrays Rancour and Spite These are Fiends that ought to vanish and should never mix either with a Search after Truth or the Defence of Religion 3. Whether the Propositions which he has out of my Book inserted into his 19th Page and says are consonant to the words of the Leviathan were those of all my Book which were likeliest to give the Reader a true and fair Notion of the Doctrine contained in it If they were not I must desire him to remember and beware of his Fiends Not but that he will find those Propositions there to be true But that neither he nor others may mistake my Book this is that in short which it says 1. That there is a Faith that makes Men Christians 2. That this Faith is the Believing Iesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah 3. That the Believing Iesus to be the Messiah includes in it a receiving Him for our Lord and King promised and sent from God And so lays upon all his Subjects an absolute and indisble necessity of assenting to all that they can attain the Knowledge that he taught and of a sincere Obedience to all that he commanded This whether it be the Doctrine of the Leviathan I know not This appears to me out of the New Testament from whence as I told him in the Preface I took it to be the Doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles And I would not willingly be mistaken in it If therefore there be any other Faith besides this absolutely requisite to make a Man a Christian I shall here again desire this Gentleman to inform me what it is i. e. to set down all those Propositions which are so indispensibly to be believed for 't is of simple Believing I perceive the Controversie runs that no Man can be a Believer i. e. a Christian without an Actual Knowledge of and an Explicit Assent to them If he shall do this with that Candour and Fairness he declares to be necessary in such Matters I shall own my self obliged to him For I am in earnest and I would not be mistaken in it If he shall decline it I and the World too must conclude that upon a review of my Doctrine he is convinced of the Truth of it and is satisfied that I am in the