to furnish them with the Knowledge of the Sense in which those People to whom the Proposition was first delivered understood those Terms Whosoever doth duly believe that Proposition doth oblige himself to hearken to that is to believe and obey whatsoever this Jesus hath delivered so far as he shall obtain the Knowledge thereof and to endeavour seriously to know what his Mind and Will is Which Faith makes a Man a Christian and hath the Promise of Eternal Life made to it The Proposition doth not comprehend in it an explicite Account of all the Matters of Faith which a Christian is to endeavour to know and believe nor is the explicite Knowledge of them necessary to a Man's believing that Proposition But his believing of it brings him under an Obligation to endeavour to know them all and to believe explicitely whatsoever he shall attain to know Jesus hath taught which is to be the great Work and Business of the Remainder of his Life when he is a Christian. Those Jews and Lewd Fellows of the baser sort at Thessalonica who set themselves against Paul and Silas understood that their preaching that Jesus was the Christ for that was the great Point they opened and alledged in the Synagogue there amounted to this that he was the Person they persuaded the People to receive for their Lord and King For how malicious soever their intent was in accusing them before the Ruler it is most plain from their Accusation that they clearly apprehended that Paul by preaching that Jesus was the Christ did mean that they were to take him for their King saying that there is another King one Iesus Act. 17. 7. Vid. Second Vindic. of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. p. 108 109. For besides saith this Author if every Text of Scripture must be looked upon as sufficient to Salvation upon the Belief of which eternal Life is promised even the very Scripture will hardly be found reconcilable to it self For though in some Places Salvation is promised to those who believe Jesus to be the Messiah yet in others it is declared to be Life Eternal to know the only true God as well as Jesus Christ whom he hath sent Both of which Places if they must be understood in their limited Sense will be almost found contradictory to each other Because the one proposes a larger Faith to Salvation than is required by the other p. 9. Answ. The Propositions here spoken of as they are delivered in the Scripture are in effect the same For it is not possible for a Man to believe that Jesus is the Messiah without believing antecedently in the only True God The Word of Salvation by Christ is not sent to any but those who fear God Act. 13. 26. But I deny that it is any where in Scripture declared to be Eternal Life to know the only True God as well as Jesus Christ whom he hath sent That is either of them separately The Text of Scripture which comes nearest to these Words is Ioh. 17. 3. where the Knowledge of the only True God taken apart from the Knowledge of Jesus Christ as sent by him is not declared to be Eternal Life But the Knowledge of both is declared to be Eternal Life I wave a particular considering what this Author saith p. 9 10. concerning the true Notion of believing in Christ when alone required to make a Man a Christian Because the plain Truth of the Matter we are discoursing of consists in this viz. That the sincere Belief of all those Doctrines Christ hath declared are absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation is of it self sufficient to Salvation But this is so far from excluding that it doth include a necessity of believing other Doctrines if the Person is allowed space to obtain the Knowledge of more Doctrines which Christ hath revealed and that he hath revealed them Yet if the Person who sincerely believes the aforesaid Doctrines should dye before he could obtain the Knowledge of any other Doctrine Christ hath taught he will receive the Salvation promised to the Belief of those Doctrines he doth believe Christ knows his Sincerity and will not fail to perform the Promise he hath made to him There are many even very many Articles Christ hath revealed which those who are Christians are necessarily obliged to endeavour to know and then explicitely believe and as many of these Doctrines as they do attain to understand whether they be delivered in the Gospels or Acts or Epistles are Fundamental to them But the Explicite Belief of these Doctrines is not absolutely necessary to make Men Christians or to Salvation Our Faith is true and saving when it is such as God by the new Covenant requires it to be But it is not intire 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 contained in the Scripture Second Vindic. of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. p. 310. This Author p. 11. distinguishes betwixt Truths which are only to be believed upon the general Ground of Faith which is the Veracity of God and those of a higher Nature which have an immediate Tendency to the Salvation of Mankind and the Method by which our Saviour has obtained it for us And these latter sort of Truths he saith are to be explicitely believed by all in order to their Salvation And the Reason he gives for this is because the only End for which he hath revealed these Truths is the Eternal Benefit and Happiness of Mankind Answ. This seems to be a Distinction without a Difference for seeing they are all Divine Revelations the Ground and Reason of our believing them is the very same and every Way equal viz. because God hath revealed them If it be revealed that some of these Doctrines are absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians or to Salvation we must believe them to be so and that the Ground or Reason of that Belief is Divine Revelation But if Men will believe them to be absolutely necessary to be explicitely known c. in order to Salvation and God hath not revealed any such thing concerning them their Faith in that case will want a just Foundation or Reason But it 's said These Truths of a higher Nature have an immediate Tendency to the Salvation of Mankind Answ. Christ's observing the Methods appointed him by the Father in order to his obtaining Salvation for Mankind had undoubtedly their appointed Tendency to his obtaining Salvation for Mankind But the Doctrines which relate what those Methods were have not thesame Tendency to the Salvation of Mankind nor can a Person 's believing those Doctrines which declare that Christ hath observed these Methods and thereby obtained Salvation for Mankind be properly said to have
an immediate Tendency to the Salvation of Mankind But that which should be proved is this that Christ or his Apostles have revealed that the explicite Belief of all those Doctrines which declare what was necessary on Christ's part in order to his obtaining Salvation for Mankind is absolutely necessary to make a Man a Christian or to a Person 's being entitled to and partaking of the Salvation which was so obtained But 't is said These respect the End for which he has revealed any thing to us and that is only the Eternal Benefit and Happiness of Mankind Answ. If this be only the End for which God hath revealed any thing to us and therefore these are absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation this will bring in all the other Truths to be absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation and so the general Direction here laid down to distinguish fundamental Truths will be of no use For those Truths being things God hath revealed to us and the Eternal Benefit and Happiness of Mankind being the only End for which he hath revealed any thing unto us they must equally respect the same End and consequently be equally necessary to be explicitely believed in order to that End But I fancy the Author's Meaning was thus That the only End for which God revealed those Truths of a higher Nature is the Eternal Benefit and Happiness of Mankind That is to bring it home to the present purpose the only End why God revealed those Truths was to make the explicite Belief of them absolutely necessary to Salvation And if this were proved the Controversy would be at an End But I think the great Reason and End why God hath revealed those Doctrines which declare the way and Method how our Saviour did obtain Salvation for Mankind was that Christians might know and believe the way how the Lord Jesus Christ did procure and purchase Salvation for Sinners and that they might make such use and improvement of these Truths as he particularly directs or their own Natures are proper to suggest Some Doctrines may be of greater consequence to be explicitely known and believed by those who are Christians than many others may which are revealed But the Point in discourse is not concerning weighty or important Truths with respect to those who are Christians but concerning Doctrines absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians See Second Vindic. of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. p. 87 88. and 172 c. That the Salvation of Mankind was obtained by Christ's observing such and such Methods we know only by Divine Revelation But notwithstanding our Salvation was obtained in such ways and we are certain of the same from the Testimony of Christ we are not to affirm that the explicite Belief of the Doctrines which declare these Truths is absolutely necessary to make Men Christians or to Salvation without Christ's Warrant The ways and Methods related in these Doctrines were necessary to be observed by Christ in order to his obtaining the Salvation of Mankind and so might several others for ought we know which are not revealed But it will not thence follow that the explicite Belief of every thing which necessarily pertained to Christ in order to his obtaining Salvation for Mankind or of every thing of that Nature which is revealed is absolutely necessary to be believed in order to our receiving from him the Salvation which he hath purchased There is no more absolutely necessary to be believed in order to Mens partaking of that Salvation than what Christ absolutely requires to be believed in order to his dispensing it unto Men. Our believing explicitely the several Steps Jesus was to take for the obtaining of Salvation for Mankind has not the same Relation to our receiving that Salvation from him on the account of what he hath done and suffered as his doing and suffering those things had to his obtaining Salvation for Mankind He has by certain Methods obtained to himself a Right to dispence Salvation to those who shall unfeignedly take him for their Lord and King But his Right to bestow Salvation on Persons doth not depend on nor is limited to their explicite believing every Doctrine which relates any of the Steps he was indispensably obliged to take and observe in order to his obtaining and being invested with that Right In Matters of revealed Religion Revelation is the Ground or Reason of our Faith let the Matter revealed be what it will of greater or less importance And where the Reason of our Assent is the same the Act must be the same I agree with this Author p. 13. That the Design of Miracles was not immediately to give Authority to particular Doctrines but to testify in general that those who wrought them had such a Commission from God as they professed And in my Judgment this is no contemptible Argument to prove that the due believing Jesus to be Christ doth make Men Christians His Miracles did not immediately and directly but only consequentially prove the particular Doctrines he taught But they did most eminently prove he was the Messiah and they were wrought for this purpose to induce People to become his Disciples or Christians or to own and acknowledge him to be the Messiah If those Persons whose Faith did answer the Intendment of the Miracles were Christians I think it cannot handsomly be denied that the Faith which made them Christians was a Belief that Jesus was the Messiah Yet if it shall be clearly proved that the Explicite Belief of any one Article distinct from this That Iesus is the Messiah is required in any part of the New Testament as absolutely necessary to make a Man who acknowledges and believes in the True and Living God a Christian I will acknowledge that something absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian is omitted in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. and I have Reason from that Author's Books to believe that he will do the same But as that Doctrine must be known before it can be proved to be absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian so I must know what it is before I can be satisfied that it is such a Doctrine And it may very reasonably be desired of them who affirm that there are more Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians that they would draw out a just Scheme of them No saith this Author It will be sufficient to our present purpose if we can produce any Doctrines that are absolutely enjoyned to be believed by all Christians c. p. 16. Answ. This is quite from the present purpose for the enquiry is not what Doctrines are enjoyed absolutely to be believed by all Christians but what Doctrines are declared by Christ and his Apostles to be absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians Yet I do not think it an easy Task to prove a certain Number of Articles absolutely
not sincere in their Profession as they give of the Mistake of their Judgment in the present Point This Author certifies he will endeavour hereafter to shew there are Some Doctrines in the Epistles distinct from those contained in the Gospels or Acts which are of that Nature without the Belief of which though we may grant Men might be saved before they were known yet when they were divulged they could no more be stiled true Christians without the Belief of them than if they had not at all believed p. 17. Answ. When our belief of a Doctrine is grounded purely upon the Nature of the Doctrine we believe it only as we are rational Creatures and do imploy our Reason about the Doctrine it self considering it's Nature and not as Christians for the only Ground of our Belief as Christians is Divine supernatural Revelation And let the Nature of the Doctrine be what it will Revelation is the Ground and Reason of our believing it If you will therefore produce Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians because of the Nature of them you must fetch them from Natural Religion and they are to be judged of as to their Nature and the Reason of our believing them by Natural Reason without any regard to Revelation which is a Notion that will do Christianity I doubt but little Service Hitherto it hath done no inconsiderable Hurt The divulging of more Doctrines to be believed by Christians as they should attain the Knowledge of them did not make more Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians than were asolutely necessary to that purpose before they were divulged For if it did every new Doctrine when it was divulged became a new Condition to be explicitely consented to in order to any Man's admission into the Covenant of Grace and consequently there were so many New Covenants Yet these other Doctrines when they were divulged were necessarily to be believed by those particular Christians who did understand and know them and so they are now not to make them Christians but by Virtue or Reason of that Obligation they are under by being Christians to believe whatsoever they shall know their Lord hath revealed The Difference between those who were Christians before these Doctrines were divulged and those who become Christians since is this They were obliged by their being Christians or believing Jesus to be Messiah to believe whatsoever he had or should reveal when they should know the same now his Revelation is compleated those who believe him heartily to be the Messiah are thereby obliged to believe whatsoever he hath Revealed as they attain the Knowledge thereof For a more clear and full understanding of these things see Second Vindicat. of the Reasonableness c. p. 82 83 252 c. 337 c. 343 344. Whereas this Author saith p. 17. It will be necessary to consider an Objection or rather an Evasion of the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. since it intimates that he believes as much of the Epistles and in as true a Sense as any Man whatsoever And then relating some Passages in p. 299. of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. afterwards saith They do not seem altogether unexceptionable p. 18. I shall observe that the Author of the Reasonableness c. doth in p. 298. begin his Answer to an Objection concerning the Epistles or to this Question Whether the Truths delivered in the Epistles may be believed or disbelieved by a Christian without any Danger To which he answers That the Law of Faith being a Covenant of Free Grace God alone can appoint what shall be necessarily believed by every one whom he will justify what is the Faith which he will accept and account for Righteousness depends wholly on his good Pleasure For it is of Grace and not Right that this Faith is accepted and therefore he alone can set the Measures of it Where we have the most Rational Evidence for that Point that I think Words can express Afterwards in p. 299. he answers directly to the Question affirming that the other Parts of Divine Revelation are Objects of Faith and are so to be received they are Truths whereof none that is once known to be such may or ought to be disbelieved c. Yet notwithstanding he affirms the Doctrines in the Epistles are Divine Truths very weighty to us now and which no Christians who know them may disbelieve This Author Saith these Passages are not altogether unexceptionable For though these allow the Truths contained in the Epistles to be Objects of our Faith yet they do not suppose them or any Parts of them to be more so than any other Places of Scripture which have no Relation to the Salvation of Mankind and which we are only bound to believe to be true upon the Veracity of God that revealed them p. 18. Answ. The Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. teacheth That the Truths contained in the Epistles are Objects of our Faith because they are Divine Revelations or Divine Truths And this Author p. 11. teacheth That the only End for which God hath revealed any thing to us is the Eternal Benefit and Happiness of Mankind The Author of the Reasonableness c. doth not detract from the Honour due to any part of Divine Revelation But asserts That as they are all equally Divine Revelations so they are all equally Objects of our Faith when known and have all a Relation to the Salvation of Mankind But how this Author will reconcile his teaching That the only End for which God hath revealed any thing to us is the Eternal Benefit and Happiness of Mankind with his saying That some Places of Scripture have no Relation to the Salvation of Mankind I cannot tell without a very singular Account of what is meant by Doctrines having a Relation to the Salvation of Mankind Some Doctrines acquaint us with the Gracious Purpose of God towards Sinners and with the Ways and Methods how Jesus Christ obtained Salvation for Mankind which may be said to have an Historical Relation to the Salvation of Mankind Some Doctrines are absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make and constitute Men Christians and entitle them to that Salvation Which Doctrines may be said to have a Conditional Relation to our Salvation There are Doctrines which those who are Christians must endeavour to understand and explicitely believe as they attain to know them Such are those which belong to the First Head and a great many more delivered in the New Testament These have not an Immediate Relation to our Salvation But they may be said to have a Consequential and Obediential Relation to our Salvation The Doctrines we are now discoursing of are those which pertain to the Second Head And if any Man think there are Doctrines in the Epistles distinct from those laid down by the Author of the Reasonableness c. that are absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed
Ghost was not given to the Apostles to empower them to make a New Covenant with People by making more Articles absolutely necessary to be believed to Make Men Christians than Christ himself had made so though they were to produce more Proof and Evidence of what he had made absolutely necessary to be believed than was given before and were to furnish Christians with a more compleat Body of the Laws of that Kingdom they were Members of than was before published See Second Vindic. of the Reasonab p. 89 90 325 330. It may therefore with great Truth and I think for that Reason without any absurdity be affirmed that all things which are absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to Salvation are fully and clearly contained in the Gospels See Second Vindic. of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. p. 73. In p. 30. This Author discourses concerning the Apostles Creed and saith That The Articles of that Creed are not to be looked on as the only Fundamentals unless we also firmly believe the natural Consequences and Conclusions from them and the frequent Explanations of them which are set down in the other Parts of Revelation That is those Explanations of them which are set in the Epistles distinct from what is said of them in the Gospels and Acts. Answ. I will wave taking Notice of several things which might be observed here from the Generality and Extensiveness of the Expressions here used And shall only put this Author in mind that the Question he should peremptorily answer to is this Whether all that is absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed by Christ's and his Apostles Appointment to make Men Christians be contained in that Creed If those who answer this Question Negatively be in the Right let them talk what they please of the great Esteem and Veneration they have for this Creed and the Church of England there is no help for it but both the one and the other must unavoidably fall under a very ugly Reflection for the more full clearing of which and answer to what this Author hath further writ on this Subject I shall refer to the Second Vindic. of the Reasonab p. 74 c. 77 163 169 c. In p. 31 and 32. This Author offers considerations in answer to a Passage he quotes out of p. 297. of the Reasonab of Christianity c. I shall here only observe First That these Considerations are grounded upon Two great Mistakes 1. A Supposition that the Force of the Argument he opposeth depends upon the time when the Gospels and Acts and when the Epistles were writ viz. which were writ first Whereas the Force of the Argument lies in this That those Truths delivered in the Epistles cannot be absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians which were not revealed till after the Decease of many who were Christians By the Epistles we understand what Doctrines the Apostles were intrusted to instruct Christians in but supposing the Acts and every one of the Gospels had been writ after all the Epistles they acquaint us most clearly and distinctly what were the Doctrines which Christ and his Apostles proposed as absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed by Unbelievers to make them Christians 2. A Supposition that the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. rejects the Epistles from being part of that Rule of Faith that Christ hath given to Christians for which I cannot perceive the least Ground Secondly that this Passage this Author pretends to answer hath the full Evidence of Demonstration with respect to the Words immediately before it Having declared that the Authors of the Epistles were inspired from above and writ nothing but Truth and in most Places very weighty Truths to us c. He adds But yet every Sentence of theirs must not be taken up and looked on as a Fundamental Article necessary to Salvation without an explicite Belief whereof no Body could be a Member of Christ's Church here nor be admitted into his Eternal Kingdom hereafter Where we see what he means by Fundamental Articles in the very next Sentence which is the Passage reflected on by this Author and delivered in these Words If all or most of the Truths declared in the Epistles were to be received and believed as Fundamental Articles what then became of those Christians who were fallen asleep as St. Paul witnesses in his First to the Corinthians many were before these things in the Epistles were revealed to them To this Passage in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. p. 294. The Epistles being all written to those who were Believers and Christians the Occasion and End of writing them could not be to instruct them in that which was necessary to make them Christians This Author replies in these Words This seems rather to strengthen than lessen the Force of the Argument That the Apostles had taught those same Doctrines for Fundamentals before which they afterwards communicated as sacred Depositums of their Faith p. 33. Answ. Supposing they had taught the very same Doctrines before to the Christians or Churches they afterwards writ to and so they were Fundamentals to those Christians who had been instructed in them yet there is no force in the Argument that these Doctrines are absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians or were so to them till it be proved that they had propounded these Doctrines to be explicitely believed to make them Christians In answer to another Passage quoted out of the same Page of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. this Author propounds this Question How can it be proved that all those the Epistles were written to understood all the Fundamentals of Religion Answ. The Question is whether they were Christians though they did not understand all those Doctrines you call Fundamentals here If they were Christians then those you call Fundamentals were not absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make them Christians If any shall say they were not Christians to whom the Apostles writ their Epistles they may if they please excuse my want of Complaisance in declaring I shall chuse to believe the Apostles rather than them Again saith this Author May there not be supposed to be some less knowing amongst them In answer to which I ask Were those less knowing Persons Christians if not how came they to be concerned in the Epistle or how came they to be Members of the Church to which the Epistle was writ The latter part of the Question And some who would not throughly believe several Doctrines of Christianity without such an Authority the Apostles had c. seems not to bear a propitious Aspect to what this Author formerly advanced as the way to distinguish Fundamental Truths from other Parts of Divine Revelation What this Author further saith on this Subject is no more than what I think is sufficiently answered in my Animadversions p. 26 27. But I do not perceive how it will follow from what
Resurrection All the Instances and Degrees of which Obedience and Sufferings were appointed by his Father with infinite Wisdom and for most good and wise Reasons That his Obedience and Sufferings had the Virtue and Efficacy of making Satisfaction for Sinners provided they should comply with the Terms he should propose to them was from the Father's appointing and accepting them for that Purpose as well as for several other Purposes they had by the same Appointment a Relation to both with respect to Christ himself and those who should believe in him not to say any thing of the respect they had to all Mankind and the Benefits that redound therefrom to all Men. Observations on the Third Part. THE Title given to this Part is What we are to believe concerning Christ. This Author saith p. 65. That The Author of the Reasonableness c. and Mr. Hobs agree so exactly concerning the necessity of believing this one Article only viz. that Jesus is the Christ and in the Method they have taken for the Proof of it by citing several Texts from the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles in the Acts and no further that they only differ so much as a Copy does from an Original Yet this Author is so ingenuous he grants This can be no good Reason for rejecting what the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. hath asserted if his Doctrine be otherwise found agreeable to the whole Tenour of Scripture Answ. I desire no more but that these Words may be added so far as it discourses concerning what the Author of the Reasonableness c. was enquiring after viz. what Articles are absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed by one who acknowledges the true God to make him a Christian. A few Days ago I accidentally met with a Book entituled Hobs's Tripos and perceiving that one part of it was entituled De Corpore Politico I was so curious as to read that Part to see whether he did there treat of Religion and what he did say concerning it In the Sixth Chapter of the Second Part of it I found him discoursing very agreeably to what this Author quotes out of the Eighteenth Chapter of his Book De Cive Mr. Hobs doth proceed in this Book I speak of further than the Acts citing several Texts out of the Epistles And if I reach his Sense and Design Mr. Hobs's Notion is vastly different from that laid down in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. Mr. Hobs's Notion seems to be this That one who is a Christian cannot be necessarily obliged to believe any more Articles than this that Iesus is the Messiah That one who is a Christian is necessarily obliged to believe as many Articles as he can attain to know are taught in the Holy Scriptures is the Notion of the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. I think Mr. Hobs's Discourse is neither consistent with it self nor with that he intended it should support His Expressions are many times so general they comprehend enough to overthrow all he aims at He seems willing that several Distinct Articles should be absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to Salvation though how his bringing in the Belief of the Scriptures amongst them can be consistent with what he principally designed is above my Reach But when he comes to prove his Fundamentals as he calls them he produceth no Scriptures but what particularly teach this Doctrine that Iesus is the Christ and therefore at last concludes this is the only Fundamental Point of Faith But if he would have spoken exactly and truly he should have said The only Point absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed by those who acknowledge the only True and Living God Though other Points saith he may be true they are not so necessary to be believed as that a Man may not be saved though he believe them not As to the former Part of this Assertion I shall take Notice that he only saith They may be true But the Author of the Reasonableness c. saith They are Divine Truths and that they must be received with stedfast Faith c. As to the latter part of Mr. Hobs's Assertion I shall observe that the Point is not whether a Man may not be saved though he believe them not But 1. Whether the Belief of them is not necessary to Salvation in him who doth know they are taught in the Holy Scriptures 2. Whether a Christian subject may without hazard of his Salvation do Actions in Obedience to his Sovereign which imply a Denial of them notwithstanding he knows they are revealed in the Scripture Mr. Hobs declares for the affirmative p. 214. Mr. Hobs saith the Belief of that Point viz. That Jesus is the Christ is sufficient for the Salvation of any Man whosoever he be p. 208. That is let a Man know ever so many Doctrines delivered in the New Testament and that they are taught there he is not obliged to believe them Nothing saith he is truly a point of Faith but that Iesus is the Christ p. 110. The Author of the Reasonableness c. delivers the direct contrary Truths And these are Notions which cannot possibly consist with a Person 's believing Jesus to be the Christ so as to take him heartily for his Lord and King Yet Mr. Hobs saith Christian Faith consisteth in acknowledging our Saviour Christ to be King of Heaven and therefore we must endeavour to obey his Laws p. 211. But it seems believing what our Saviour hath taught was not with Mr. Hobs any part of our Obedience to him The contradictory of this is what the Author of the Reasonableness c. hath delivered most justly for the Truth Mr. Hobs seems to lay much stress on this that the Controversies of Religion amongst Christians are about Points unnecessary to Salvation by which I conceive he means unnecessary for Christians to believe But a Points being controverted doth not make the Belief of it unnecessary Men may raise and maintain Controversies about what Points they please but I am obliged to believe what I do know Jesus Christ hath taught and to endeavour to know as many more Doctrines which he hath taught as I can and to believe explicitely as many as I shall attain an explicite Knowledge of let other People dispute and make as many Controversies about them as they please Controversy may occasion and engage Christians to enquire more accurately whether Christ hath said any thing concerning the Points and what he hath taught concerning it And what a Christian understands Christ hath taught concerning it he is necessarily to believe let those who controvert it say what they will I find Mr. Hobs was for a Publick Conscience and for Peoples transferring their Right of Iudging in matters of Religion to another Which Notion agrees well enough with that of a great many Persons in the World He differs from them in this That he is for having the Right transferred to the Civil Magistrate
the Collection those who shall believe every one of those Articles which shall be proposed to them will not believe that Jesus is the Messias in the full Sense given of that Term in Scripture and therefore according to this Notion will not be Christians It may further be enquired whether those who shall believe explicitely every one of these Doctrines will be obliged to endeavour to know and believe any more Doctrines If the Answer be No then either these are all Doctrines which are delivered in Scripture or there are some Doctrines taught in the Scripture which Christians are not obliged to endeavour to know though they have Opportunity to understand them or to believe them though they do know them If the Answer be Yes it may be asked how that comes about Perhaps it will be said because amongst the Doctrines before spoken of this is one That Jesus is our King and therefore to testify our Submission and Obedience to him we are to endeavour to know and believe other Doctrines This indeed is a way whereby they may acquire some assurance to themselves and give Evidence and Proof to others that they believe Jesus to be their King but not according to the Notion we are now discoursing of that they believe him to be the Messiah or that they are Christians How comes it to pass that seeing the explicite Belief of every one of the other Doctrines is equally necessary to make them Christians with the Belief of this only a part of that Faith which makes them Christians must oblige and govern them after they are Christians Whence is it that some Doctrines delivered in Scripture must be believed in Obedience to Jesus and others not whilst he is equally the Teacher of them all This Author saith That Though no more is set down Act. 8 37. but that the Eunuch believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God yet no doubt there is more implied For Philip instructed him in the Christian Religion from that Chapter of Isatah viz. which the Eunuch was reading which Doctrines were no doubt required as absolutely necessary to be believed Besides since Philip baptized him no doubt but he did it in that Form which Christ himself enjoined in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and then it will follow that the Belief and Confession of the Three Persons was required p. 77 78. Answ. It is not at all doubted but there is something absolutely necessary to be believed by an Unbeliever in order to his becoming a Christian besides that the due believing whereof doth constitute him a Christian. For a Man cannot believe a Proposition to be true without some Proof and Evidence that it is true Now the enquiry is not what Arguments and Proofs are absolutely necessary to be believed to bring a Man to the due Belief of what is absolutely necessary to be believed to make him a Christian. That is a Question no Man can possibly determine by assigning one in particular or a precise Number For the Arguments Proofs and Evidences are many and various and God has not limited himself to make only one of them effectual nor obliged himself that he will not give forth his Blessing but with a certain Number of them in conjunction He that doth duly believe all that is absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians is a Christian whether he was brought to this Belief by the Belief of more or fewer Arguments There are Truths to be believed antecedently to a Man's believing what is absolutely necessary to be believed to make him a Christian and there are Truths to be believed by him after he is a Christian the due believing of which are Proofs and Evidences that he doth believe what is absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians But it is not the Belief of the one sort or the other sort of these Truths nor of both together which is the Faith that constitutes Men Christians but only the Belief of that to which the Belief of those other Truths hath an Antecedent or Consequential Relation How many Doctrines the Eunuch was instructed in or what those Doctrines were in particular we cannot tell because they are not revealed to us but what it was upon the believing of which he was owned for a Christian and Baptized is expresly declared and we have Reason to believe that if the explicite Belief of more Articles had been required of him as absolutely necessary to make him a Christian they would have been set down and expressed in his Confession I think also it is more than probable that the Eunuch was baptized in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost unless it can be proved that that Form was in those Days confined or appropriated to the Apostles who were intrusted with conferring the miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost Whatever Articles the Eunuch did explicitely believe at present he was by believing Iesus to be the Messiah obliged to endeavour to know explicitely and believe as many more as he could both concerning the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost even all that was or should be revealed concerning them which I think reaches the whole extent of the New Testament In p. 78 c. This Author undertakes To shew that the Gospels and Acts are directly opposite to our Author's Scheme of Doctrine and this he will do by shewing they do require much more to be believed concerning our Saviour than barely that he was the Messiah Here this Author proves very well and learnedly the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour and on that Account we cannot set too high a value on his Book He also mentions some other Doctrines very clearly delivered in the Gospels and Acts. But the Reason why he offers these things in Opposition to the Reasonableness of Christianity c. I suppose was his mistaking the Design of that Treatise The Author of the Reasonableness c. did not propose to enquire how many Doctrines are delivered in the Gospels and Acts concerning our Saviour but what Christ and his Apostles did require as absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians Reckon up therefore as many Articles as you please which are clearly and expresly taught in the Gospels and Acts yea in all the New Testament this will not affect or make any thing against the Reasonableness of Christianity c. unless withal you prove that Jesus or his Apostles required the explicite Belief of all or some of them which are distinct from this that he is the Messiah whom we are to take for our Lord and King to make Men Christians Whereas this Author saith That the most Learned amongst the Jews did appropriate the Title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to their expected Messiah and also believed he should be God So that this may be a very good Reason for our Saviour and his Apostles requiring no more to be believed in their preachings amongst the Jews than that Jesus was
Doctrines which are affirmed to be absolutely necessary to be believed to make men Christians be Doctrines which Christ hath taught yet if he hath not taught that the Belief of them is absolutely necessary to make Men Christians but only requires them to be believed for other Purposes the requiring the Belief of them as absolutely necessary to make Men Christians must be built upon a Foundation and Authority distinct from Christ's and his Apostles which therefore at best can be but Humane Authority Till this Clause is agreed to the former Clauses in the Reason will not avail much to put a happy Conclusion to Religious Controversies Besides I cannot understand why the assumed Authority of the several Parties may not be yielded to for the deciding of particular Controversies in Religious Matters as well as for the determining and assigning what Points are to be be believed in order to any Peoples being Christians I leave it to others to enquire how much Men's assuming Authority to impose certain of Christ's Doctrines without his Warrant as absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians hath contributed to their Stretching the like Authority further even to make some things Parts of the Christian Religion which Christ and his Apostles have not authorized which is infamously done in the Church of Rome and perhaps in some degree in most of the Parties truly termed Protestant It may be easy to prove to those who are Christians that they are to believe such or such Doctrines by shewing them plainly that Christ Jesus whom they have received to be their Lord hath taught them But when we require those who are not Christians to believe them as absolutely necessary to make them Christians we must undertake to prove to them the Truth of those Doctrines by some other Medium than Christ's Authority For it cannot rationally be expected that People who do not believe Jesus to be the Messiah or the Christ will assent to believe and receive Doctrines meerly because he they do not believe to be the Christ hath taught them And when they are brought to believe that Jesus is the Messiah so as to take him for their Lord and King if that do not constitute them Christians it will not suffice to make them Christians to prove to them that Christ hath taught such or such Doctrines which therefore they must believe but it must be proved to them that that same Jesus hath taught that these same Doctrines are absolutely necessary to be believed to make them Christians unless their believing this Branch upon some other Authority will serve the turn And if that will do the Business why may they not be required to believe that Jesus is the Messiah upon the same Authority and consequently all the other Doctrines the said Authority shall be pleased to avouch The Difference is not much in rational Discourse whether a Person believes a certain Doctrine to be Christ's which he never taught upon the Testimony of such a Person or Church or whether he believes a Doctrine Christ hath certainly taught to be absolutely necessary to a certain Purpose which Christ never declared to be absolutely necessary to that purpose upon the same Testimony or Authority For the Ground Foundation and Reason of the Belief in both Cases is the very same and is an Authority distinct from Christ's In the next place the Author of the Animadversions relates what he thought was the main Design of the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. in these Words The main Design which the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. seems to have had is to lay down such a Scheme of Faith only as he finds delivered in Scripture and not to rest satisfied with those Collections of Articles which are to be met with in the common Systems without any sufficient warrant from Scripture I will keep as near as I can to this Author's Words in relating what I conceive to be the Truth touching this Matter The main Design of the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. seems to have had as to one main part of his Book was to lay down such a Scheme of those matters of Faith only that are absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christistian as he found delivered in the Scripture but not to lay down such a Scheme of those Matters of Faith as he found in Scripture which any Man after he is a Christian may be necessarily obliged to Believe The Reason why the Author of the Reasonableness did not rest satisfied with those Collections of Articles which are to be met with in the common Systems doth not appear to be because all or most or perhaps any of the Articles in some of those Systems were without any sufficient Warrant from Scripture Though it may be the Composers of those Systems might assert something concerning several of those Articles for which there might not be any sufficient Warrant from Scripture There might be sufficient Warrant from Scripture for the Articles themselves and not the like Warrant for every thing those Authors might deliver concerning them But the Reasons why he was not satisfied with those Collections seem to me to be 1. Because those Collections did not agree some of them consisting of more some of fewer Articles and those which had the greatest number left out some of the Articles which were insisted on or inserted in another 2. Because it was pretended by the Composers of those Systems of their Followers or both that all the Articles collected into those Systems were necessarily to be believed to make Men Christians Now according to that Notion what certainly could there be who were Christians or to be admitted and owned as such whilst there was so great a Disagreement concerning the Articles which were absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians For those who were Christians according to the Composers and followers of one System were not Christians according to the Followers of another because they wanted something in their Judgment absolutely necessary to make them Christians The Design of those who write Systems of Christian Divinity I apprehend should be to collect those Articles which are mainly insisted on in the New Testament and to which most or all that is delivered in those Sacred Writings may be pertinently and conveniently reduced together with an account of the principal things there taught concerning those Articles And if the Composers of Systems did carefully distinguish the Articles those Sacred Writings teach are absolutely necessary to be believed to make men Christians from those which are of great Moment to be known and believed by them who are already Christians I am of Opinion the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity would not think their doing so any Blemish to their Systems and that he would not be dissatisfied with any of those Articles of which their Systems should consist nor with any thing they should say concerning those
is to administer Baptism to others ought explicitely to believe the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity yet I am very far from being certain that every one who is to be initiated into Christianity must necessarily explicitely believe the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity I am not yet convinced that Jesus Christ or his Apostles did ever require the explicite Belief of the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity as absolutely necessary in every Person who was to be Baptized It may be my Opinion that a Person cannot be a Christian without partaking of the gracious Influences of the Father Son and Holy Ghost wherein I may perhaps differ from some worthy learned and good Men as much as I may from this worthy Author about the Point of Baptism But I do not perceive any Ground to conclude that a Person 's pertaking of their gracious Influences doth necessarily depend on his explicite knowing and believing all that Jesus Christ hath revealed and taught concerning the Father Son and Holy Ghost Indeed saith this Author at the first Men might be denominated Christians upon the bare believing Jesus to be the Messias yet when there was more revealed concerning him and consequently a larger Faith required they could no more have continued Christians if they had not believed this also than if they had still been altogether Unbelievers Answ. The Question here will be whether Men might at first be truly and justly denominated Christians upon the bare believing Jesus to be the Messiah I think the bare believing Jesus to be the Messiah was not at any time enough to denominate Men truly Christians but tht believing him to be the Messiah so as to take him for their Lord King and Ruler was at first absolutely necessary to make and so denominate them truly Christians And such a believing him to be the Messiah I think will make Men Christians to the end of the World But to speak strictly and properly it is the due believing of Jesus to be the Messiah which consists in Mens believing him to be the Messiah so as to take him for their absolute Lord and King which makes or constitutes Men Christians And it is their professing of this Faith that denominates them Christians When more Articles of Faith were revealed and those who professed themselves to be Christians did know they were revealed and it was known that they did understand that Jesus Christ had revealed or taught them they could not justly retain the Denomination of Christians if they did not own and acknowledge their Belief of them not because the Belief of these Doctrines was absolutely necessary to continue them Christians but because their refusing to acknowledge them when it was known they understood that that Jesus they professed to have received for their Lord had taught them was a Demonstration that they did not sincerely take him for their Lord and so had not that Faith which was absolutely necessary to make them Christians It was not their believing these new Articles which did continue them Christians but that did further Evidence they were Christians or did really believe what was absolutely necessary to be believed to make them Christians The continuance of tht Faith which makes a Man a Christian continues him a Christian not his obtaining a new sort of Faith or acting and exerting the aforesaid Faith regularly with relation to new Objects as they come to be proposed to and understood by him This Author makes one Observation more on what I have writ which is to this Effect That I have been a little too hasty in expressing my Opinion of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. in the Words set down in the Two and Fiftieth Page of my Animadversions The Reason he assigns for this Observation is delivered in these Words Pref. p. 4. Since I suppose he will hardly deny that Mr. Hobs writ within that space who maintained the very same Assertion Answ. I do not deny that Mr. Hobs writ within these Sixteen Hundred Years but that he maintained the very same Point maintained in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. is more than I can affirm I received so early such a Character of Mr. Hobs's Writings from my aged Tutor the Learned Mr. Lawson as created in me such an Aversion to that Author's Books I do not remember that ever I read half a Score Pages of any thing Mr. Hobs hath published But I dare say if Mr. Hobs hath maintained this very same Assertion that is maintained in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. viz. that the believing that Jesus is the Messiah so as to take him heartily for our Lord and King is all that Jesus and his Apostles required as absolutely necessary to make Men Christians who did believe in the True and Living God he maintained a very great and important Truth And if he never published any Notion less true and less useful than that he could not justly fall under the Censure of any of those who have employed their Pens against him But if Mr. Hobs or any other Person had writ on this or any other Subject a Book that was absolutely the best that has been published this Sixteen Hundred Years the Reasonableness of Christianity c. may for all that be justly reputed one of the best Books which hath been published within that Space and this for the Reasons I laid down in the Close of my Animadversions which I conceive are of that Nature they cannot be invalidated by the bare mentioning of Mr. Hob's Name And if I am not mistaken the latter Reason this Author gives why he needed not to reflect any further upon any thing I had propounded viz. because there does not seem to be any thing very material which was not before observed in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. or the Author's Vindication of it doth in some measure justify the Character I gave of that excellent Treatise For certainly it cannot be a Blemish to a Treatise that it discourses its Subject so clearly and so fully that very material Answers may be brought from the Treatise it self to whatsoever is produced by way of Objection against it Some Authors write after such a rate their own Books may be pertinently made use of to confute their Notions But the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. whoever he is seems to have this peculiar Excellency and Advantage that he treats the Points he discourses of in such a manner he fully answers his Adversaries before they can make their Objections publick I write not to justifie my self or any one else in Errors or Mistakes but to vindicate and clear if I can disguised Truth and wrong'd Innocence and let those who are contrary minded know I cannot be of their Judgment till they produce other kind of Arguments against the Book they profess they oppose than are fully answered in that Author's Writings which they knew were publick before theirs were offered to common view And though there is nothing
divinely revealed and set down in the New Testament 3. He is then to set down the particular Doctrines he hath a regard to in this place And 4. He must prove that from the very First Ages of Christianity the Church hath confest that every one of those Doctrines is absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians or to Salvation It is not the bare saying that the Church hath such an Authority nor the bare affirming such a Matter of Fact concerning the Church that will prove the Business in Hand The explaining and full proving the Particulars already named will require some time and Consideration And when they are fully cleared and substantially confirmed there will not be any need to inquire whether or how the Church was imposed on In the mean time I shall lay down a few Considerations which I conceive are true and consonant with the Judgment of the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. 1. That which makes a Doctrine of supernatural Revelation absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian is not its being placed in one part of the New Testament or in another but the Divine Determination that it must be necessarily believed for that purpose 2. That our knowing that such a Doctrine is absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians depends upon God's declaring that the Belief of it is absolutely necessary to make Men Christians let this Declaration lie in what part of the New Testament soever 3. That what is revealed to be absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians may be better discerned in the Gospels and Acts than in the Epistles though the same Doctrines are likewise to be found in them And this for the Reasons the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. hath assign'd 4. The New Testament comprehends the entire Revelation the Lord Jesus Christ hath made of the Mind of God In which Sacred Writings our Blessed Saviour declares what Articles are absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men his Disciples and Subjects or Christians and in these Holy Scriptures he hath also delivered or declared all the Laws of his Kingdom by which those he admits for his Subjects must be govern'd so that they are not to admit or receive any thing for a Part of their Religion as Christian but what he hath taught and delivered in some part of these Holy Writings 5. The enquiry is not how many are the Laws of Christ's Kingdom or how many Articles he hath taught and delivered which those who are his Subjects are obliged to endeavour to understand believe and observe but what are those Articles he doth require to be believed as absolutely necessary to make Men his Subjects or Christians 6. All the Doctrines delivered in the New Testament are equally Divine Revelations and are therefore to be received with equal Degrees of Assent by all those Christians who do understand them and know that they are revealed or delivered in those Sacred Writings But these Doctrines are not absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians Indeed there are several Doctrines which I know are delivered in the New Testament which have not the like Effect and Influence on me at present in proportion to their Nature that other Doctrines have which I know are taught there But this Difference ariseth not from the Nature of the former Doctrines which is always the same and unalterable nor from my not receiving them with equal Degrees of Assent for I do receive them with equal Degrees of Assent being as firmly persuaded they are Divine Revelations as the other but this Difference spoken of now ariseth from something else viz. my present State and Circumstances or the like Now saith this Author if several of the Doctrines contained in those parts of Revelation viz. the Epistles have all along down from the Apostles Times been reputed necessary to be believed to Salvation then certainly they ought not to be denied to be absolutely subservient to that end without the Proof of one or all these things which are Five in Number Answ. 1. It is not particular Persons or Churches reputing things to be absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation that makes them absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation In the very early times of Christianity even long before the Apostles decease there were People professing themselves Christians and who set up for Teachers in the the Church who affirmed certain things were absolutely necessary to Salvation which were not so as is undeniably evident from Act. 15. 1. 2. When this Author shall be pleased to set down plainly the Doctrines his Words seem to have a Secret Relation to a Judgment may be made whether they were justly reputed absolutely necessary to be believed explicitly to make Men Christians or not by considering whether Christ and his Apostles reputed them absolutely necessary or not 3. If the Church did originally repute any Doctrines to be absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to Salvation without warrant the successive continuance of that Reputation cannot make those Doctrines to be absolutely necessary Length of Time and reiterated Applause cannot advance an original Mistake into Truth The Second Concoction will not in this case rectify the Error of the First 4. A Person who doth suppose yea acknowledge that several Doctrines delivered in the Epistles which are distinct from any taught in the Gospels and Acts have been justly reputed necessary to be believed to Salvation may regularly and with good Warrant deny that they are absolutely necessary for that I suppose this Author means for otherwise the Consequence he draws is not to his Purpose though he useth the Word Subservient to be believed to Salvation without being obliged to prove either one or Five Negatives For many Doctrines may be very justly reputed necessary to Salvation which are not absolutely necessary to Salvation And therefore when it is inferred that such and such Doctrines are absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to Salvation if they have all along been reputed necessary to be believed to Salvation the Consequence may be regularly denied and no necessity follow thereupon that the Person denying it must be obliged to prove 1. That the Authors of the Epistles were not divinely inspired 2. c. And for that Reason I suppose it is that this Author applies himself in the Remainder of this part of his Animadversions to prove these Five Points 1. That the Authors of the Epistles were Divinely Inspired 2. That the Apostles had Authority or Commission to deliver some things for necessary Articles of Faith 3. That some of their Doctrines were writ with a Design that all Christians should be necessarily required to believe them to Salvation 4. That there is no Contradiction in the Epistles to the other parts of Scripture 5. That some of those Doctrines are of equal Necessity to be explicitely known to make a Man a Christian with
this that Jesus is the Messiah But First of all the fullest Proof imaginable of every one of these Points will not in the least confirm the Proposition or Argument they are immediately designed to confirm viz. That all those Doctrines delivered in the Epistles which are distinct from any that are taught in the Gospels and Acts which the Church from the first Ages of Christianity hath confest to be absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians are absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians For there is not any Connection between the Truth of any or all of these Five Points and the Churches Authority by her continual Confession to make any Doctrines which are only to be found in the Epistles absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians If it shall be said that it is not pretended that the Churches Confession makes them absolutely necessary to be believed but discovers and proves that they are absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians I answer 1. The Proof of the forementioned Points is no Proof at all of the Churches Confession but must be supposed and is Antecedent to the Churches Confession 2. That the Churches Confession doth not discover or prove that those Doctrines are absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians it discovers or proves no more but that the Church did think those Doctrines were absolutely necessary to be believed explicitely to make Men Christians Now when the Question is whether the Church hath thought right concerning this Matter that Question must be determined if she have not Authority to make at least revealed Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians by ascending higher and seeing what Jesus Christ and his Apostles have declared is absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians which is the way the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. took to discover what Doctrines are absolutely necessary to be believed to the aforesaid purpose without making any Hubbub concerning the Church in the matter The Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. hath not writ one Word that I can find that hath any Tendency to the Disadvantage of the Christian Church but very much that would contribute greatly to her Honour and Interest were People generally of the Mind to attend her greatest Concernments heartily without suffering themselves to be swayed by their own petty Interests and peevish Humours which they sacrilegiously dignify with her Name She might enjoy a profound Rest and become daily more and more truly Glorious would other People let her be quiet and not disturb her Repose by a rude abusing her Name to justify their espousing and talking for Matters both Scripture and Reason do disclaim Secondly The exactest Proof of the Four First Points will not afford any Proof of what this Author declares shall be his Business to prove in this First Part of his Book viz. That there are Doctrines in the Epistles distinct from those which are delivered in the Gospels and Acts which are absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians The Truth of the Four First Points is agreed on on both Sides especially some allowance being made for that Latitude of Expression in which the third is laid down So that it is only the Fifth and Last Point on which the Controversy doth depend It will therefore be needless to make any Observations on what this Author offers for the Proof of his Four First Points unless he happens to mistake any thing in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. which he brings in under these Heads or misapplies what he hath to say on these Points to that Treatise or some Passages in it This Author bestows his Seventh Page in setting down an Objection that hath some Relation to his Two First Points I think the Objection is not accurately expressed but that I shall pass over and only take notice of his speaking of Doctrines proposed to be believed upon the Absolute Promise of Salvation This is a Passage I confess I do not well understand I know there are at this time many amongst us who make a great Noise in affirming That Salvation is absolutely promised to some Persons and the Stir they have made about or with that Notion I apprehend was an occasion of the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. applying himself to search with particular exactness into the Holy Scriptures to find out in what Manner Salvation is there promised But I do not conceive that this Author of the Animadversions is one of that Party Now I think there is not an absolute Promise of Salvation in all the Scripture And that if there were such a Promise there could not be any thing absolutely necessary to be believed unto Salvation For an Answer to this viz. Objection spoken of before it will saith this Author be material to examine First whether nothing is absolutely necessary to be believed to salvation but what is declared to be so or whether any Doctrine upon which Salvation is proposed is singly of it self sufficient for it P. 8. He immediately adds This seems to be a Query of no small Importance Here I will 1. Propound some Reasons why it may be justly affirmed that a due believing Jesus to be the Christ or Messiah doth constitute and make Men Christians 2. I will consider what this Author propounds to be examined 3. I will take Notice of what this Author hath here writ upon this Point First I will lay down some Reasons why it may be justly affirmed that a due believing that Jesus is the Messiah or Christ doth constitute and make a Man a Christian. As 1. Because Jesus Christ and his Apostles did admit Persons to be his Disciples and owned them for Christians upon their believing this Doctrine without requiring the Belief of any other Doctrine to this purpose provided they did believe in the True and Living God as every where appears in the Accounts given of their admitting Disciples 2. Because they have promised salvatition to the due Belief of this Doctrine without requiring the explicite Belief of any other Gospel-Doctrines together with this as absolutely necessary to Salvation 3. Because Salvation is not promised to the Belief of any one or Number of Doctrines separately from this Doctrine 4. Because no other Doctrine Christ or his Apostles have taught can be believed aright but by virtue of the Persons believing this Doctrine Let a Man believe all the Doctrines delivered in the New Testament upon Considerations purely distinct from this that they are Doctrines taught by Jesus Christ whom he hath received for his Lord he does not believe them as a Christian ought to believe them nor will his Belief of them on those Accounts at all avail him as to Salvation by virtue of any Promise in the Gospel He that believes any of these Doctrines with the Faith of a Christian or
not possibly agree Answ. Here the Author seems to speak concerning the Doctrines which those who are Christians must endeavour to understand and believe and if so it is besides the Question But that Peoples keeping close to God's Declaration either as to Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians or as to Doctrines they are to believe afterwards hath a probable tendency to make way for a very unintelligible Faith is very strange to me Is the surest way to have the most intelligible Faith for People to go as far as they can from God's express Declarations There will be some Difference indeed amongst Christians as to the particular Doctrines they believe some believing more Articles some fewer and this must needs be till they be all equal in their Knowledge Yet in the way excepted against they will every one be obliged to believe and practise according to the extent of their Knowledge and to agree in Faith and Practise so far as they do in Knowledge And let People advance what Notions they please concerning what Articles are necessary to make Men Christians they cannot rationally agree any further than they will this way unless they must all be stak'd down to believe just one set of Doctrines without extending their Endeavours after Knowledge any further And if this be a way to prevent Peoples raising Exceptions against a great part of Religion I cannot excuse it from doing unsufferable Wrong to a great part of Religion In believing Jesus to be the Messiah so as to take him for our Lord and King we yield up our selves intirely to him to believe and practise whatsoever we shall know he hath taught and commanded And therefore we must not suffer our selves to be coupt up and confined to a precise Number of Doctrines and Laws but must every one employ our best Endeavours to be continually increasing and improving in Knowledge Faith and Holiness This believing Jesus to be the Messiah doth not imply our explicite believing a certain Number of Doctrines he hath taught but it is a submitting our Faith implicitly to him believing that all he hath taught is true with a Disposition and purpose to search after and endeavour to know what Doctrines he hath particularly taught and to believe on his Authority whatsoever we shall understand he hath taught For saith this Author if nothing more is to be believed as it should be absolutely necessary to Salvation than what is so proposed then it will follow that no more than the bare Proposition which is declared to be of that great importance is to be assented to As suppose in that Proposition He that believeth that Iesus is the Messiah hath Eternal Life if what is there required to be believed is singly of it self sufficient to Salvation then it must be so as it is there proposed without any farther Explication of it because there is no Explication proposed to be believed to the like Promise Answ. This Author by assenting to a bare Proposition seems to mean a Person 's assenting to or believing that certain Words he never heard before nor understands any thing of the Sence or Meaning of any of them that is an insignificant Sound comprehend and express a real Truth which is absolutely impossible for though the Words may be a Proposition to him who utters them and to those who understand them they are no Proposition to him who never heard nor knows any thing of them and therefore cannot be assented to by him By Explication of it this Author here seems to mean proper Interpretation viz. declaring in another Language what the Terms in the said Proposition did ordinarily signify amongst them who were accustomed to the Language in which the Proposition was first of all delivered or declaring by other Words in the same Language the several simple Ideas of which those complex Ideas were made up for the expressing of which those Terms were used Yet in the next Page he seems to understand by Explication All those Doctrines which are delivered in the Holy Scriptures that either relate the Grounds and Reasons why we are to believe the Proposition he speaks of of such a Faith which is required to Salvation And that explain the Nature and Extent of it If this Author be of Opinion that the explicite Belief of all the Grounds and Reasons that are delivered in the Holy Scriptures why or upon which People ought to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and of every particular that is said in Scripture concerning Jesus Christ and every Branch of his Office is as absolutely necessary to make a Man a Christian or to Salvation as the belief that Jesus is the Messiah is I think it will require a considerable time to prove clearly the Truth of that Opinion and if we may introduce an account of our Fears in Discourses of this Nature I may take Liberty to declare I am afraid this Notion if it prevail will unavoidably fill the World with endless Wranglings and Distractions For I suspect all People will not presently agree how many the Texts be and which they are which relate all the things before spoken of not to say any thing of the improbability of their sudden Consent to understand every one of the Texts in the same Sense Or if they shou'd fall immediately into an Accord about all these Matters I suspect the Ground of their Consent will not be very intelligible It was never pretended that I know of that Eternal Life is promised to those who shall believe that this Proposition Iesus is the Messiah is true without understanding the Sense of the Terms of which it doth consist To believe a Proposition is not for a Person to believe he hears a Sound but to be satisfied of the Truth of what is affirmed or denied in the Proposition which a Man cannot be unless he understands the Sense of every part of the Proposition For a Man cannot possibly give his Assent to any Affirmation or Negation unless be understand the Terms as they are joyn'd in that Proposition and has a Conception of the Thing affirmed or denied as they are there put together But let the Proposition be what it will there is no more to be understood than is expressed in the Terms of that Proposition Second Vindic. of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. p. 99. This Proposition Jesus is the Messiah was first of all delivered to the Jews and consists of Terms which were very common and familiar amongst them which had a determined setled signification amongst them The one was the Proper Name of a Person the other ordinarily stood for the Description of a Person they lived in expectation of according to the Account Moses had given them of him a long time before See Deut. 18. 15 to the 20. and Act. 3 22 c. They did not need any Interpretation of the Proposition And People of another Language needed no other Interpretation of it than what was necessary
to make Men Christians and entitle them to Salvation when he shall set down a List of them and produce his Proof that every one of them is absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians c. a Judgment may be made of them But till this is done the distinction of Revealed Truths to be believed upon God's Veracity and Truths of a higher Nature will be of little or no use unto me I shall here further observe That 1. It is certain the Doctrines which relate what Christ hath done and suffered have not the same Relation to the Salvation of Mankind the Obedience and Sufferings of Christ had The Doctrine which instructs us what was paid to obtain Salvation for Mankind is not the Price it self with which that Salvation was purchased 2. The Belief of these Doctrines hath no Relation to the Salvation of Mankind The most that can be pretended with any Colour is only that the Belief of these Doctrines hath a Relation to the Salvation of the Person who doth believe them or to whom they are delivered and made known 3. The Relation the Belief of these Doctrines hath to his Salvation who doth know and believe them is the very same which the Belief of any other Doctrines delivered in the New Testament hath to his Salvation who doth know and believe them which consists in this That it is an Act of Submission and Obedience to Jesus whom he hath taken to be his Lord. Whatever those Matters be which notwithstanding they are revealed in the New Testament some are pleased to Term Indifferent Matters a sincere Christian is as much obliged to believe them when he knows they are revealed there as he is to believe any other Matters which are revealed there For 4. The Reason of my believing any Doctrine as I am a Christian is Divine Revelation and not the Nature of the Doctrine that is of the Matter taught And therefore my believing one Doctrine hath the same Relation to my Salvation that my believing another Doctrine Christ hath taught hath to my Salvation they being equally Acts of Obedience to Christ and the Ground and Reason of each Belief being the very same Yet I will acknowledge that if our Belief of these Doctrines this Author hath a respect to had the same Relation to our partaking of Salvation the Obedience and Sufferings of Christ which were the real Price and a proper purchasing of Salvation for Mankind had to the purchasing of Salvation for Mankind the Belief of them would be absolutely necessary to Salvation But then I must add we should hereby as properly purchase our own Salvation as Jesus Christ did Salvation for Mankind which is a Notion I cannot easily be reconciled to 5. If a Judgment is to be made from the Nature of Doctrines what Doctrines are absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians or to Salvation then this Necessity of believing them to this Purpose must be obvious to the Natural Reason of Mankind and every Man must judge for himself by considering the Nature of these Doctrines which and how many are absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation which is a Notion that as it lays aside Christ's and his Apostles Authority to determine the Matter so it will not do the Church any great Service without pretending that one certain Man or a Number of Men is to make this Judgment from the Nature of the Doctrines Christ and his Apostles have taught and all others must rest satisfied with and depend wholly on his or their Determination This indeed may have a Tendency to raise humane Authority to a great height in the most important Business of Religion but then it will be no Advantage to the Nature of Doctrines for hereby People will be determined to take them for Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed not from their perceiving that such a necessity arises from their Nature but from bare humane Authority Nor can they be certain that he or those who have judged them to be absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation have been determined in their Judgment by the Nature of their Doctrines and not by their own arbitrary Pleasure till they have resolved the Matter themselves by exercising their own Reason about the Nature of the particular Doctrines which shall be recommended to rather imposed on them It plainly appears by what the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. hath writ that though he doth not think the Epistles the most proper parts of the New Testament to be consulted in order to our discerning which be the Doctrines Christ and his Apostles did require to be believed as absolutely necessary to make Men Christians or to Salvation yet that he thinks the Doctrines contained in the Epistles are Fundamental Articles to be actually believed by Christians now as they obtain the Knowledge of them And that they are to make such use of them as they shall understand they ought to make of them either by considering their Nature or what they find the Scripture doth instruct concerning the same See Reasonableness of Christianity c. p. 300. Second Vindic. of it p. 201. and 319. But saith this Author These Doctrines which have a Relation to the Salvation of Mankind are to be believed upon another Ground besides that of mere Revelation p. 19. Answ. Upon what Ground are they to be believed besides the Veracity of God who revealed them Is that Ground better or worse doth it lay a greater or less Obligation on People to believe them than Divine Revelation does I expect not to meet with a better Reason why I am to believe any of Christ's Doctrines than this that he taught them Those who will not acquiesce here may wander where they please for Satisfaction provided they will not go about to compel others to rove with them Moreover are not those places of Scripture where these Doctrines lie Historical declaring the Way and Method how Jesus obtained Salvation for Mankind And is there any way for People to know that what is declared in those Doctrines had a Relation to the Salvation of Mankind but Revelation It had no natural Relation to the Salvation of Mankind How is it possible then to know from its Nature that it was graciously appointed to have a Relation to that End We cannot know any thing more from the Nature of a thing than the Nature of the thing is fitted to discover If it be said that the Discourse is not concerning the Nature of the Thing treated of in the Doctrine but concerning the Nature of the Doctrine it self I answer we can learn no more from the Nature of the Doctrine than the Doctrine doth deliver Therefore if the Doctrine do not declare that the Belief of it is absolutely necessary to Salvation we cannot learn any such thing from the Nature of the Doctrine because the Nature of the Doctrine doth not deliver any such thing Besides the Doctrine it self being
this Author hath said that it cannot be better discerned by consulting the Gospels and Acts what are the Articles Christ and his Apostles propounded as absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians than the Epistles And if that do not follow from his Discourse nothing follows from it that is to the purpose against the Reasonableness of Christianity c. Nor will it follow The Apostles were unfaithful to their Trust or that they clog Mens Faith with unnecessary Points of Belief because they have taught several Doctrines which are not absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians but which Christians must labour to understand and which will then be necessary to be explicitely believed by them The Apostles Fidelity to their Trust is not to be judged of by Mens prejudicated Fancies and therefore Persons had need take heed of determining that The Apostles ought certainly to be blamed for Writing such Doctrines in their Epistles as are not absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians It is no Argument of an unwary Christian but the Duty of a good Christian to embrace the Doctrines delivered in the Epistles when he knows them and that they are delivered there as firmly as any other Doctrines whatsoever But saith this Author if it can be proved that the great and principal End of the Writing of their Epistles was to deliver several Doctrines that should be necessarily believed to Salvation by all who were converted to the Faith we are oblieged to believe them as such p. 35. Answ. Very true But then 1. If what you suggest here was the great and principal End of writing their Epistles the Cause is clearly given up to the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. For then the great and principal End of the writing of their Epistles was not to deliver several Doctrines absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians or Converts to the Faith 2. It will not be easy to prove that all that are Christians must necessarily explicitely believe every Doctrine delivered in the Epistles though the Doctrines are necessarily to be believed by all Christians who do understand them This Author then proceeds to prove what he hath declared to be the great and principal End of writing the Epistles was really so by producing many Places out of them All which I may pass over without any Observation because it is not pretended that they prove any thing more than that that those who are Christians must necessarily believe them But because this Author sometimes infers That the explicite Belief of them is absolutely necessary to Salvation I will briefly intimate what I conceive to be the proper import of those Places of Scripture he quotes 1 Cor. 14. 37. speaks not barely of Christians but Persons who pretended at least to be inspired But take it of Christians all who did know what he had writ or that he had writ things were to believe explicitely or implicitely that the things he writ were the Commandments of God because they knew he had given full Proof of his Apostleship and in the same manner are Christians now to acknowledge the same 1 Cor. 15. 1. c. Is a very plain Account how he had preached to them that Jesus was the Messiah and what sorts of Proofs he had propounded for their Conviction and that they had believed this Gospel â—s also that this was the Faith by which they were saved and made Christians without the believing of which whatever else they believed would not avail them to Salvation Vid. Second Vindic. of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. p. 269. The Apostle in his Third Chapter of this Epistle had declared that Jesus Christ is the Foundation without borrowing other Articles to underprop it some proof of which he here minds them of and that all the other Articles of the Christian Religion are Superstructures erected on that Foundation Rom. 10. 9. hath been formerly considered Vid. Second Vindic. of the Reasonab c. p. 303 c. 1 Tim. 3. 16. Is a Motive to Timothy to take care to behave himself in the Church of God as he ought 1 Th. 4. 1. Is a Direction to Christians to take heed of entertaining the Doctrines which false Teachers would obtrude on them certifying they might justly conclude those to be false Teachers who did deny Jesus Christ to be real Man The 14th and 15th Verses are express that believing Jesus to be the Son of God or the Messiah doth make a Man a Christian. Whether believing him to be the Son of God be a distinct Act here from the believing him to be the Messiah may be considered when we come to the place where it is to be shewed 2 Cor. 1. 13. Doth not considered strictly declare any thing more than that they did know and own the Truth of what he had writ in the former Verse concerning his Conversation 2 Thes. 2. 15. shews that Believers or Christians must take care to hold fast whatever Doctrines they have been instructed in and fully assured are Christ's Doctrines Not one of these Places of Scripture considered by it self nor all of them considered together do prove that the Apostles enjoyned the explicite Belief of all that they writ in their Epistles as absolutely necessary to Salvation These and innumerable other Places of Scripture are of great use to those who are of the same Judgment with the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. to shew them that are Christians that they ought to set a very great value on the Writings of the Apostles that they ought to be very diligent in endeavouring to acquire as distinct a Knowledge as they can of the Doctrines they have delivered in their Epistles that they ought to take great care to retain and hold fast what Doctrines they have learned from their Writings and that they must not entertain any Doctrines for Articles of their Faith but what Christ and his Apostles have taught And saith this Author it would be absurd to imagin that the Apostles should fill their Writings with any of the Doctrines of Christianity if they did not impose a necessity upon Men of believing them p. 37. Answ. True if Christians when they know they have writ them should be at liberty not to believe them But would it be absurd to imagine they should fill their Epistles to Believers or Christians with Doctrines of Christianity if they did not impose an absolute necessity on Unbelievers to believe them all explicitely to make them Christians Is every particular Doctrine that is to be be believed to be explicitely known and believed by Unbelievers to make them Christians so that when once they are Christians there is nothing more for them to endeavour to know and believe And here adds this Author it is not material whether the Epistles were written to those who were already Christians and whether designed to teach them any Doctrines
Jews or Gentiles can be obliged to believe are laid down in the New Testament They are not limited to one particular part of those Sacred Writings And all Christians must endeavour to know as many of them as they can and then believe them But there is not a precise Number of Doctrines set down in any one Part of Scripture as absolutely necessary to be believed by any Christian or beyond which a Christian is not to endeavour to extend his Belief In p. 47. This Author by way of Reply to what he hath quoted out of the First Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. p. 14. where that Author declares the Reason why he did not go through the Epistles to collect the Fundamental Articles of Faith c. propounds certain Questions whereof the principal is this But how are these Fundamental Points to be found in the Gospels and Acts better than in the Epistles Answ. Though I think a very solid strong rational and invincible Answer is given to this and the other Questions in those very Lines this Author hath quoted out of the First Vindic. from which he hath taken occasion to propose these Questions yet because the same Author hath expressed himself more largely concerning this Matter in his Second Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. I shall refer the Reader to p. 141 142. of that Book where I think he may find as compleat Satisfaction to these Queries as can reasonably be desired But since this Author doth here as well as in several other places speak of Truths revealed or delivered or taught in the New Testament Which he saith have no respect to Man's Salvation and which are things indifferent I shall take leave to ask a few Questions For what End were those Truths taught in the New Testament which have no respect to Man's Salvation Which be those Truths Christ hath taught which have no respect to those Peoples Salvation who do believe them purely because they know he-hath taught them Is it indifferent whether Christians believe or do not believe any thing which they know Jesus Christ hath taught Are they to govern themselves in their Submission to and believing of what Christ hath taught by the Apprehensions they or other Men shall be pleased to cherish of the Respect or no Respect his Doctrines have to Man's Salvation Will not such a Notion if it take place make shrewd Work when dexterously managed both with the Truths which are taught and the Rules of Practice which are laid down in the New Testament As for those Truths which have a nearer or more remote Connexion with what is absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to make Men Christians the Reader may advance himself much both in Knowledge and Piety by an attentive serious perusing what the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. hath writ concerning the same in his Second Vindic. of the Reasonab c. p. 74 75. The Terms of Salvation saith this Author are as plainly and clearly set down in the Epistles as in the Gospels p. 47. Answ. Those Doctrines which are absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation may be as plainly and clearly set down in the Epistles as in the Gospels and yet not be as clearly distinguished in the former as in the latter from other Doctrines which are not absolutely necessary to be explicitely believed to Salvation This Author hath I think in his 50th Page overturned all that he hath writ against the Reasonableness of Christianity c. in this First part of his Book especially if he will allow that the Persons he speaks of before he comes to the middle of that Page were Christians before they explicitely believed every particular Truth they were taught during their Lives For if they were the Question will not be how many Articles they did believe in all But what those Articles were the Belief of which made them Christians If they were not Christians till they did explicitely believe the very last Articles which were taught them during their Lives their Belief of those Articles joyn'd to those they had learned before whatever they were made them Christians And if they did not every one happen to learn and believe the very same Article in the last place or one that made each Man's Faith exactly the same the explicite Belief of one Article made one Man a Christian and the explicite Belief of another Article made another Man a Christian which is utterly impossible For no Man can be a Christian without that which is absolutely necessary to make a Man a Christian. Could I meet with a Passage in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. which I could justly think to have a Tendency to impair the Divine Authority of the Epistles or lessen Peoples Esteem for them I hope I should as heartily dislike it and be as ready to caution People against it as another Person notwithstanding I make so great account of the Book it self And though I have writ so many Pages in order to the clearing some Mistakes as I conceive in this First part part of the Animadversions on the Reasonableness of Christianity c. yet I fully concur with the worthy Author of them in what I apprehend was his principal Design There are many very excellent and useful things in this part of his Book He writes very well and like a very good Man and had not his misapprehending the Reasonableness of Christianity c. led him out of his way and somewhat bewildred him his Discourse according to my Judgment would have been without a Blemish unless his using sometimes a greater Latitude in his Expressions than is rigidly justifiable may be reckoned one notwithstanding it is but a keeping Pace with the most Applauded and Learned Writers Our enjoying the Epistles as well as the Gospels and Acts is a Mercy for which we can never be sufficiently thankful May we all set a just Value on them read them attentively study them diligently and make that Improvement we ought of our being favoured with so inestimable a Blessing then we shall reap singular Benefit from them and one End aimed at in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. will be greatly advanced Observations on the Reason of Christ's coming into the World THE Title this Author hath given to the Second Part of his Animadversions is Of the Reason of Christ's coming into the World I will pass over this Part very briefly because this Author seems to find fault with some Passages in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. on purpose to take Occasion to discourse of Christ's Satisfaction whereas the Author of the Reasonableness c. hath laid down very good Reasons I think why he did not think it proper for him to insist on that point in his Book I do not find that the Author of the Reasonableness c. hath declared it was his Design to discourse of the Reason of Christ's coming into the World
the Messiah since if they once firmly believed that they must necessarily believe him to be God p. 78 79. I shall only observe 1. That the Sense of the Term Messiah is here acknowledged to be very different from what this Author has before declared the Apostles meant by it 2. That here is no Supposition that the People did not know what was meant by Messiah and therefore must have it either interpreted or explained to them but an Acknowledgment that our Saviour and his Apostles did use the Term according to the familiar and commonly known meaning of it amongst the Jews 3. That supposing the Jews did generally believe the Messiah should be God yet they must believe that Iesus of Nazareth was the Messiah before they could believe him to be God And it being this only that he was the Messiah which was propounded to be believed to make them Christians it must be a right believing of this that did make them Christians how near a Connection soever their believing any thing else which they knew and believed concerning him who should be the Messiah might have with their believing Jesus to be the Messiah Supposing they did generally believe that their expected Messiah should be God yet those who believed other Persons to be the Messiah and consequently believed them to be God too were not Christians So that it was not the believing a Person to be the Messiah nor a believing that Person to be God that made People Christians but a believing him to be the Messiah who really was the Messiah But as we are obliged to know who was the Author of our Being so also must it be equally a Crime not to know clearly who and what he was that could be the Author of our Salvation p. 87. In answer to this I shall only say That we are obliged to endeavour to know as much as we can of that God who is the Author of our Being This holds true as to all Men and so Christians are obliged to endeavour to know as much as they can of him who is the Author of their Salvation It is a Crime to be wilfully Ignorant of any thing that is revealed of him who is the Author of our Salvation There could be no Reason saith this Author for the defending his Divinity viz. our Saviour's with so much Care and Concern as St. Iohn did defend it if it was not absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian or if there was no Danger in believing him to be only Man p. 87. Answ. 1. The Reason we have to defend Divine Truths when opposed and denied by Persons is not to be taken barely from the End for which they are to be believed but also from their Nature viz. because they are Divine Truths and therefore Truths to be believed and which may by no means be denied 2. He that believes Jesus to be the Messiah does not therein believe him to be only Man he believes him to be Man but not only Man for that is not propos'd to his Belief when it is proposed to him to believe that Jesus is the Messiah And by believing him to be the Messiah he obliges himself to believe whatsoever he shall attain to know is revealed concerning him Believing in Christ saith this Author if it mean any thing must be interpreted of every thing that Scripture has required to be believed concerning him So that this we may be certain is a Fundamental that as Christ is the Author of our Salvation So that Revelation is the just Measure of our belief in him and that we must not believe either more or less of him than we are warranted by Scripture p. 92. Answ. Revelation is the just Measure of what we are to believe concerning Christ. So that a Christian let his Advances in Knowledge be ever so great must no believe any thing concerning him but what he is warranted or at least apprehends upon mature Consideration he is warranted by Scripture But that a Man cannot be a Christian till he doth explicitely believe every thing the Scripture doth warrant People to believe concerning Christ is a Notion the Scripture doth not any where warrant Were this Notion true no Man can be a Christian whose Knowledge of every thing relating to Christ is not every way equal to that of the most learned sagacious and understanding Person in the whole Christian World or that ever was or ever will be in the World Nay according to this Notion it may be justly questioned whether ever there was a Christian since the Apostles Days For there may be Ground to question whether any uninspired Man did or will attain to a just and adequate Knowledge of every thing the Scripture doth reveal concerning Christ. But it will probably be objected saith this Author to all this that though it is granted that there are several Articles to be believed by those who are throughly Christians yet there was no more required by our Saviour himself or his Apostles to make a Man a Christian or in order to his Admission into Christianity than the believing Jesus to be the Messiah and that this is all which the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. contends for The Objection is not proposed in its full weight but that I need not insist on for if the Answer reach it as it is here laid down it will serve the turn In answer to this saith this Author it may be observed First That the forementioned Articles as well as others that might be named are of the same Nature with that one Article of believing Jesus to be the Messiah and are a Repetition of it in all its Branches p. 92 93. Answ. This Answer is not at all satisfactory because it is wholly concerning another matter than that treated of in the Objection The Objection is concerning what our Saviour and his Apostles have required to be believed to make Men Christians The Answer is concerning the Nature of Articles Moreover it is not easy to understand what is meant here by several distinct Articles being of the same Nature with this That Iesus is the Messiah This Author hath formerly distinguished betwixt the Nature of several Doctrines and their being Divine Revelations Now consider several particular Doctrines singly in themselves and abstractedly from their being Divine Revelations they are not of the same Nature one with another how can they then be every one of the same Nature with this that Jesus is the Messiah I agree with this Author that a Person 's believing explicitely certain particular Doctrines Jesus hath taught for this Reason because he knows that Jesus who is the Messias hath taught them is a Repetition of his Belief of that Article the Ground and Reason of his believing every one of the other Doctrines But if his believing certain particular Doctrines be but a Repetition of his believing that Jesus is the Messiah how can the repeated or rather limited exercise