in its proper place These Places of Scripture now mention'd are sufficient to shew that there are Doctrines in the Epistles that are required to be explicitely believed And the Apostles did certainly design this End in writing their Epistles as in the 2 Cor. 1.13 For we write none other things unto you than what you read or acknowledge and I trust you shall acknowledge even to the end And in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians Chap. 2. Ver. 15. Therefore Brethren stand fast and hold the Traditions which ye have been taught whether by Word or our Epistle All which Places with innumerable others which might be cited to the same Purpose undeniably prove that the Apostles enjoin'd the Belief of what they writ in their Epistles as necessary to Salvation And it would be absurd to imagine 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 And here it is not material whether the Epistles were written to those who were already Christians and whether design'd to teach them any Doctrines to instruct them in what was necessary to make them Believers but it is sufficient that they could not continue true Christians or Believers without acknowledging the Doctrines there deliver'd for fundamental Articles of Faith and necessary to be believed by all Christians But however the word Christians is often used ambiguously and is promiscuously given to all who are Baptized into the Christian Faith And therefore tho' most of the Epistles might be written to those who were called Christians yet they might not be throughly so i. e. They might not have a perfect knowledge of all the Articles of Faith As is particularly plain in the Thessalonians by St. Paul's first Epistle to them Chap. 3. Ver. 10. Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face and might perfect that which is lacking in your Faith So that our Author's Argument from the Epistles being written to those who were already Christians is also upon this account very insufficient to weaken their Authority But he farther urges That the Epistles were writ upon particular Occasions p. 295. and without those Occasions had not been writ and so cannot be thought necessary to Salvation But how can it be proved that all the Epistles were writ upon particular Occasions For the contrary seems plain in several of the Epistles For though they were directed to particular Churches yet were they design'd for whole Provinces as the Epistles to the Corinthians were intended for the Province of Achaia That to the Galatians for a whole Country and those directed to the Thessalonians and Philippians were design'd for the two Provinces of Macedonia It being usual with the Apostle to give such Preheminence to the Metropolis of any Province as to direct to that what he intended for the whole Which is sufficient to shew that those Epistles were not writ upon any particular Occasion to those Churches they were sent to since they obliged a great Number equally with them Nor can we suppose them to be design'd for those particular Provinces only tho' they should be known to others for if they only were obliged by them then no one could be required to observe them any longer than he continued in such a Province For if they affected none out of the Province then those who went from that to another must also be freed from all Obligations to them which is too absurd to imagine The like Observations may be made upon other Epistles The first Epistle of St. Peter is directed to the Strangers scattered throughout Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia His second Epistle is likewise General and so are the Epistles of St. James and St. Jude But there is nothing that can be more General than the first Epistle of St. John which tho' occasion'd by some new raised Heresies yet is directed to all Christians to give them true Notions of the Divinity and eternal Existence of the Son of God which are proved at large in that Epistle in Opposition to all Heresies that then were or that possibly might arise concerning them For all which reasons it is evident that a great many of the Epistles were design'd for all Christians in general Those indeed to the Romans and the Hebrews seem to have some things in them which particularly relate to those Churches But yet there are a great many Truths in them of general use and importance which seem to be design'd on purpose for all Christians in general But to look a little back upon the Epistle to the Hebrews which if well considered cannot be denied to contain some Doctrines absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation by all Christians if this may be granted that the same Faith was required after Conversion both from Jew and Gentile For the design of that Epistle was not only to convince the Jews that the Reason of the Ceremonial Law was ceased and consequently that they ought to discontinue their observance of it and that the Aaronical Priesthood was abolished by our Saviour's Entering upon his Priestly Office but also to obviate which the Author has done with very great care two Conceptions which Men might be tempted to have of our Saviour The one was to think him some Angelical Being the other some great Prophet like Moses or superior to him Now the Author of that Epistle does plainly deny our Saviour to be of that sort and order of Beings that either Angels or Moses was in the first second and third Chapters c. He does not only set him above them all in a Style that imports Superiority and Pre-eminence but does it in a set of Phrases that shew him to be of another Nature than they And to evince the Truth of this a great part of this Epistle was design'd For there was a Sect amongst the Jewish Converts to Christianity that were not only for continuing the Observation of the Mosaick Institutions but who also opposed the Divinity of our Saviour and against these the Apostle seems professedly to argue in this Epistle Which if looked upon to be writ with this Design is as full a Proof for the Divinity of our Saviour and the necessity of believing it to Salvation or without which Church-Communion cannot be maintain'd as need be desired for any thing of that Nature But besides this Epistle to the Hebrews there is no question but the very first Christians thought almost all the Doctrines in every Epistle of general Concern by their constant reading them every Lord's Day in all their publick Assemblies which was done not only amongst those to whom they were written but also amongst all those who had Copies of them And that an Epistle which was writ to one Church should also be read amongst others which would never have been commanded if they were writ upon particular Occasions to any Church is enjoin'd expresly by St. Paul himself in his Epistle
the Apostles time 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 of these things First That the Authors were not Divinely Inspired But this is already granted us by our Author that they were Holy Writers inspired from above p. 297. who writ nothing but Truth But what sort of Truth he here means shall hereafter be enquired into Or Secondly That the Apostles had no Authority or Commission to deliver any thing for a necessary Article of Faith But there can be no pretence for such an Assertion since it is granted by our Author that their Doctrine as delivered in the Acts does require our actual Belief Since then what they taught in their Preaching was of so great Authority why should not their Writings be of the same Consequence especially since they are allowed by our Author to be of Divine Inspiration If then the want of sufficient Commission does not seem to be an Argument against the Doctrines contain'd in the Epistles it must be made appear in the Third Place before they should be rejected that none of the Doctrines were writ with any design that all Christians should be necessarily required to believe them to Salvation But how can this be proved Are there any such hints in the Epistles themselves or have we any foot-steps of a Tradition that informs us that the Apostles left them to be received with such an Indifference For if neither of these can be shewn or if the contrary is evident Namely that the Apostles did not submit their Doctrines to Mens choice whether they would Believe them or not without hazarding their Salvation and if it appear from the design of the Epistles and from many places of them which I shall hereafter mention that they did enjoin the explicite Belief of several of their Doctrines without which Men could not be saved then we have still the more reason to be confirmed in acknowledging them for Fundamentals of our Faith Fourthly Then there must be some Contradiction in the Epistles to the other parts of Scripture that can prevent their Doctrines from being as necessary to be Believed as any other the most important parts of Revelation But as this can never be made appear so it is not possible to suppose that the Epistles should contain Contradictions if we allow what our Author has granted p. 297. that they were Divinely inspired Then Fifthly and Lastly The only Plea remaining why the Doctrines delivered in the Epistles are not to be received with the same degrees of Assent with those in the Gospels and Acts or that particular Article so much insisted upon in the Reasonableness of Christianity must be because they are none of them of equal necessity to be known to make a Man a Christian But how does this appear Are there no great and fundamental Truths inserted in the Epistles as well as in the Gospels Vindic. p. 16. But it is urged That they are promiscuously set down and have no such Mark of Distinction as his Article is found to have in the Gospels and Acts. But this Objection seems too precarious For I question not but I shall make it appear that there are Doctrines in the Epistles that are as much distinguished by the great importance which they are declared to be of and by the necessity that is laid upon all Christians of actually Believing them by the Inspired Writers as any other universally acknowledg'd Article of our Faith Indeed they are mixt with other things which are not of such immediate concern to us but so are the Doctrines contain'd in the Gospels And therefore if this is a Prejudice to one it must be so equally to the other Indeed this seems objected That though the Apostles were Divinely Inspired in their Epistolary Writings and although they had a Divine Commission to teach what was necessary to Salvation yet their Commission did not extend to the making any other Article necessary to Salvation than what our Saviour had already declared to be sufficient for it And this is manifest from the whole Tenour of the Epistles where there are no Doctrines proposed to be Believed upon the absolute Promise of Salvation and nothing declar'd to be so much a Fundamental distinct from what is deliver'd in the Gospels or Acts as that we cannot be saved without an explicite Belief of it Since therefore the Apostles have not laid such stress upon any Doctrines in their Epistles we ought not to do it And therefore of what use soever the Epistles may be to us otherwise for the resolving Doubts and reforming Mistakes which are of great Advantage to our Knowledge and Practice p. 295.297 as also for the expounding clearing and confirming the Christian Doctrine and establishing those in it who had embraced it yet there can be no distinct Truths contain'd in them of so great Consequence in order to Salvation as there are in the Gospels and Acts were all that is necessary to be Believed to make a Man a Christian is declared to be sufficient to that End and Eternal Life proposed upon such a Faith and Eternal Damnation denounced upon a Disbelief which are not annex'd to any of the Doctrines in the Epistles And therefore we must be very unwary Christians to lay a greater force upon any Doctrines than the Apostles have done or make any Terms of Salvation or Church-Communion absolutely necessary which were never by the Apostles so declared For an Answer to this it will 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 And this seems to be a Query of no small importance For if this is made the only Rule whereby to judge of Fundamentals viz. A Doctrine's being expresly declared to be necessary to be actually Believed to Salvation we should I fear by this means raise several Exceptions against a great part of Religion For if this must universally hold in matters of Faith it must also in those of Practice most of which would unavoidably lose their Force and Obligation if the Observance of no other Duties was required of us but such alone as the Scripture had declared to be absolutely necessary to Salvation In like manner if in matters of Faith nothing is to be required for a Fundamental but what is so proposed and to which Salvation is expresly annexed and promised it would very probably make way for a very unintelligible Faith in which Christians could not possibly agree For if nothing more is to be Believed as 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 which I shall
Revealed to us we are under a necessity to believe upon the Veracity of Him that Revealed it And here we are not so to divide our Belief as to confine it to one part of Revelation and deny it to another unless we are assured that it has different degrees of Evidence For this would destroy the force of Revelation and resolve all Religion into the Wills and Humours of Men. There are indeed as has been before observed different Acts of Faith required of us according to the different Matter of Revelation But where the Matter is of as great importance in one place as in another there also must our Assent be equal Unless we can prove that there is not the same certainty for the Revelation i e. That there is not the same Testimony of Divine Miracles to assure us of the Truth of it But here it is not material to examine Whether the Apostles work'd Miracles to evince the Truth of their Doctrines in the Epistles It is enough that their Miracles attested their Divine Mission and were sufficiently demonstrative that their Doctrines had a Divine Authority and Original and were confirmed by a Divine Power For the Design of their Miracles was not to give Authority to such a particular Doctrine only but to testify in general that they had a Commission from God to teach what was necessary to be believed or practiced to Salvation Now that the Apostles wrought many Miracles such as were before done by our Saviour for the Confirmation of their Mission and Doctrines is undeniably evident from the whole History of the Acts where they are said to heal the Sick raise the Dead and to be endued with all other supernatural Gifts which might be sufficient to convince the World that they received their Mission and Authority from God But to what End should the Apostles work Miracles if after all their Doctrines which they deliver'd for Fundamentals were not absolutely necessary to be believed Now Miracles are never wrought but to convince Men of some great Truths which would be of great Importance to them and which perhaps they would not otherwise be induced to believe If therefore the Apostles had such a Power of working Miracles committed to them to confirm the Truth of their Doctrines we are under as great Obligations to make them Articles of our Faith especially if they were designed for such as any other parts of Holy Writ Now what Reason have we to believe the Holy Gospels but only the undeniable Attestation of Miracles But are there not the same for the Confirmation of the Epistles too That is Were not the Authors Divinely Inspired and did they not work Miracles to shew that they were so If then it be granted that the Apostles had this supernatural Power given them to be an unquestionable Evidence of their Inspiration this alone is sufficient to enforce our actual Belief of the Doctrines in the Epistles as much as in the Gospels unless we can shew that the Apostles were not Inspired when they writ them or that their Power of working Miracles to convince the World that they were so was then ceased or else that they did not design any Doctrines in them to be necessary to be believed But if none of these can with any tolerable Reason be pretended there can be little excuse for our not admitting them as necessary and fundamental Parts of the Rule of Faith And this moreover ought to make us very cautious how we rejected them because if we deny such an Authority to the Epistles as requires an absolute necessity of believing any of the Doctrines as therein contain'd we shall have no very strong Arguments remaining whereby to defend those of the Gospels which have only the Authority of Inspirations confirmed by Miracles so that they must unavoidably stand or fall together For if it be granted that the Evidence for the Truth of both be the same and the same Divine Authority stampt upon both we cannot deny that the Measures of our Belief must be equally taken from them both where the Matter is of the same importance And this will necessarily lead us to these Conclusions First That whatsoever we are firmly assured is Revealed by God we are obliged to believe it upon his Veracity since he neither can or will Reveal any thing but what is undeniably true Secondly That whatsoever is made by this Revelation a fundamental Article of our Faith we cannot be ignorant of without great hazard of our Salvation Thirdly and Lastly For the true Knowledge of any Article of Faith we must not judge of it from some particular Place but from the universal Consent and Harmony of Revelation And now since the Epistles must be granted to be a particular Revelation I would ask to what End there should be this Revelation and several Doctrines therein deliver'd which concern both our Faith and Practice if there was no necessity for them in order to Salvation 1 Cor. 14.37 Why should the Inspired Writers give any Instructions to a Church for the Commandments of God if yet without the least hazard of Salvation they might be ignorant of them For it does not seem consistent with the End or Nature of Revelation which under the Christian Dispensation was designed only for the eternal Advantage of Mankind that no parts of it deliver'd in the Epistles which are all of them of Divine Revelation should be absolutely necessary for that End and that those who had the Name and Benefit of Christians should not be indispensably obliged to form their Faith or govern their Practice according to its Directions Certainly any one that reads and considers the Epistles impartially must judge that the Authors did design some parts of them at least for Rules to guide Men in the way to Happiness without the Observance of which those to whom they should be known could not be saved For if all the Instructions in the Epistles might be safely disregarded then their Inspiration was in vain Since if Men might be as easily saved without them the Revelation must be confest to be superfluous If it be said that the Doctrines were only writ for the use of particular Churches yet that though it should be granted which there is no reason for will prove nothing unless it appears that there were no general Directions designed which are of the same importance to all Christians now that they could be of to any particular Church then for certainly what was necessary to be believed to Salvation by the Members of a Church in the Apostles days must be so now and to the end of the World If it be demanded that if there are any such Fundamentals in the Epistles as we contend for we should draw out a Scheme of them just so many and no more that are to be explicitely believed to Salvation and which will equally oblige all Mankind tho' we should not be able to satisfy this Demand yet it will be sufficient to our
present Purpose if we can produce any Doctrines that are absolutely enjoined to be believed by all Christians and that are either distinct from or more fully exprest than any of those contain'd in the Gospels or Acts as I shall hereafter endeavour to shew there are some 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 To instance in a like case None could any longer be called Christians or admitted into that Communion after that form of Baptism was requir'd in the Name of Father Son and Holy Ghost tho' they might have that Denomination before who did not acknowledge their Faith in the Holy Trinity since as none could be Baptized Christians without the Confession of that Faith so none could continue in the Number of Christians that denied it But of this more in its proper place And thus we may be convinced from the Nature of Revelation that all the parts of it have an equal Authority and that where the End of the Revelation was the Glory of God and the Salvation of Mankind as I shall hereafter shew was the Apostles Designs in writing their Epistles there the same Acts of Faith are required of us But before I proceed any farther in the Vindication of these sacred Writings it will be necessary to consider an Objection or rather an Evasion of our Author's in his Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity Vindic. p. 19. which may seem to render what has been hitherto urged superfluous since it intimates that he believes as much of the Epistles and in as true a sence as any man whatsoever And for the Proof of this he cites what he had before declared in the Reasonableness of Christianity it self p. 299. These Holy Writers viz. The Pen-men of the Scriptures inspired from above writ nothing but Truth and in most places very weighty Truths to us now for the expounding clearing and confirming the Christian Doctrine and establishing those in it who had embraced it And again p. 299. The other parts of Divine Revelation are Objects of Faith and are so to be received They are Truths of which none that is once known to be such i. e. Revealed may or ought to be disbelieved And if this as he goes on does not satisfy you that I have as high a Veneration for the Epistles as you or any one can have I require you to publish to the World those Passages which shew my contempt of them Indeed if he said no more concerning the Epistles than what is mention'd in these Passages there would not have been so much occasion for a Defense of them But however even these do not seem altogether unexceptionable for though these allow the Truths contain'd 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 reveal'd them For that this is all which the Author meant is very plain from what he maintains a little after Vindic. p. 31. viz. That all the rest of the Inspired Writings or if you please Articles are of equal necessity to be believed to make a Man a Christian with what was preacht by our Saviour and his Apostles by which he only means what is recorded in the Gospels and Acts that I deny So that it plainly appears that all the Respect which he professes for the Epistles consists only in this That he believes them to be true but that the Doctrines contain'd in them are no more necessary to be actually believed or to be made fundamental Articles of Faith than any indifferent or Historical Matters in the Bible all which we believe to be true because they are contain'd in that Book which we are fully perswaded is the Word of God So that a bare Assent to them only as they are true is no higher an Act of Faith than the believing that there was such an Apostle as St. Paul and that he was the Author of such Epistles But if our Author does indeed believe that all is true which is contain'd in the Epistles why should he deny that any of the Truths therein mention'd are to be made Fundamentals For methinks it would be no great Imposition to be obliged to believe that as a necessary Article of Faith in order to Salvation which he is already perswaded is a real Truth But besides this is what we contend for that there are Doctrines contain'd in the Epistles that are of equal necessity to be believed to make a Man a Christian with those in the Gospels or in the Acts of the Apostles as being of as great Importance to us and therefore they are also to be believed upon another Ground besides that of meer Revelation And for the Proof of this it will be necessary to consider in the second place the Authority that our Saviour intrusted in his Apostles Which is exprest in their Commission given them by Christ immediately before his Ascension in these words Go and teach all Nations And elsewhere Mat. 28 19. Joh. 20.21 As my Father hath sent me even so send I you Which Commission as it invests them with as full a Power of Teaching whatsoever was necessary to Salvation so it lays as great a necessity upon others of Believing them as if Christ himself had taught in his own Person For whosoever acts by another's Commission acts in his Name and whatever he does by vertue of that Commission it is look'd upon to be his who gave him such Authority Now that the Apostles did not exceed this Authority or teach for Doctrines the Commandments of Men is very evident since it is granted they were Divinely Inspired and taught nothing as necessary to be believ'd but what they received from God So that all that can be here objected seems to be this That the Apostles had no Commission to write any fundamental Doctrines in the Epistles but only in their Sermons which are set down in the Acts of the Apostles If this indeed could be proved it would be a material Objection but if there is not the least shadow of Reason to countenance such a groundless Supposition without shewing that the Apostles did exceed their Commission though at the same time they were Divinely Inspired then we are bound to acknowledge that the Epistles as well as the Acts are an indispensible part of the Rule of our Faith for God himself has put no difference betwixt them But there is yet something more to be observed in the Epistles written by St. Paul which are much the greatest part and that is that he received his Doctrines therein contain'd by a more particular
Revelation than any of the other Apostles For he was neither instructed by Christ himself while on Earth as not being his Disciple nor had he any account of the Doctrines which he taught from those Apostles who had constantly heard him but he received all his Instructions immediately from Heaven as he himself hath told us in the first Chap. of Gal. 11 and 12. Ver. But I certifie you Brethren that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man For I neither received it of man neither was I taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ From whence 't is plain that his Doctrines were of equal Authority with what were taught by Christ himself and that the things which he writ as himself testifies of them in the 1 Cor. 14.37 were the Commandments of the Lord i. e. Were of as great necessity to be believed to Salvation as any other parts of Revelation which cannot in the least be doubted if we also consider that Men are to be Judg'd by that Gospel which St. Paul taught at the last Day As he assures us in Rom. 2.16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of Men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel which Gospel he must mean that Epistle to be part of for he had taught those at Rome no otherwise than by this Epistle for he never had been there when this was writ nor do we know that he had sent them any Epistle before it But besides the Doctrines which St. Paul has delivered in this Epistle to the Romans are no more than what he had before taught to others as is plain from his own words to the Elders of Ephesus Act. 20.27 That he had not shun'd to declare unto them all the Counsel of God Which he would not have said if he had a Commission to make any thing necessary to be believed to Salvation by others which was not revealed to them thro' his Ministry So that as both what he taught and writ in his Epistles are the same Doctrines so are they both equally Obligatory But Lastly There is this more remarkable of St. Paul that he was the Apostle of the Gentiles and for the most part the first that had preach'd the Gospel amongst them And therefore what he taught could be the only Rule of Faith to them especially till the Gospels were written which none of them were till some time after he had begun to preach the Gospel amongst the Gentiles From whence it follows that as what he taught was the only Rule of Faith to them before they could have the Gospels so neither would his Doctrines after the publishing the Gospels be less necessary to be believed since their Authority would be much rather increased than lessened by the assistance of so great a Foundation as the Gospels to support them What I have here said of St. Paul is not with a Design to lessen the Authority of the other Epistles for they are all Inspired by the same Holy Spirit and are therefore equally necessary to be believed but only as we have a greater Number of his transmitted to us than of all the other Apostles so I thought it most necessary to shew that the reason why we are obliged to believe them to Salvation was as great as can possibly be produced for any thing of that Nature And thus I hope I have made it fully evident that the Apostles had a sufficient Commission from God to make those Doctrines which they taught in their Epistles absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation And that they did declare some of their Doctrines to be of this Nature I shall come now in a little time to prove And Thirdly The End and Reason for which the Epistles were written will make this more fully appear For to make any thing more firmly believed and assented to there is not only required a certain knowledge of its being Revealed but also of the End for which it was Revealed Now nothing can be more worthy of God and more beneficial to Man than the revealing the Conditions which he has made necessary for our obtaining Happiness and this is fully done in the Covenant of the Gospel And as the Conditions are necessary to be known before we can perform them so God has taken sufficient care to give us a full Revelation of them First In a large History of the Method that Christ made use of for the purchasing our Redemption and the Miracles which he wrought for the Confirmation of his Mission and Doctrine And Secondly In a more full and clear Manifestation by the coming of the Holy Ghost of all those things which were required of us to be believed And this he intrusted to the Apostles who were to that End both Divinely Inspired and had the Power of working Miracles committed to them to establish and confirm the Truth of their Doctrines So that it may be no very great Absurdity to affirm that all things which are necessary to be believed to Salvation are not fully and clearly contain'd in the Gospels Indeed * Tota Religio Christiana omnia illius dogmata fidei praecepta vitae ad salutem necessaria quatuor Evangeliis imo unico Mathaei Evangelio continentur neque ex Epistolis Apostolorum imo nec Apostoli Pauli ullum dogma ad salutem creditu necessarium proferetur quod non antea in Evangelio clare expressum exstat Ausim itaeque dicere etiamsi sola quatuor exstarent Evangelian os perfectum habituros Canonem seu Regulam fidei ac Morum p. 189. Limborch in his Conference with a Learned Jew in his Book De Veritate Religionis Christianae seems to have granted more than he had Authority for in asserting that All the Doctrines of Faith and Practice necessary to Salvation are contain'd in the four Evangelists or even in St. Matthew only and that none of the Epistles of St. Paul or the rest of the Apostles contain any Doctrine necessary to be believed to Salvation which was not clearly and expresly set down before in the Gospels c. Whether all the fundamental Doctrines of Christianity were before laid down in the Gospels is indeed made by some a matter of Dispute but that many of them are not there so plain and intelligible as in the Epistles is none For it may be very justly question'd if the Epistles had not been written whether we should not have remained wholly ignorant of the true meaning of several things in the Gospels Particularly as to the Reasons of the Death and Resurrection of our Saviour for I much doubt whether we should so unanimously have believed that Christ's Death was a Sacrifice for our Sins or that by vertue of his Resurrection alone we should all be raised again at the last day from the alone Declaration of the Gospels Since neither of these can be so clearly proved from the Gospels as from the Epistles the latter of which is I think no where mentioned in
behind them some certain Measures of Belief since their Authority and the certain Evidence of their Inspiration would have very great Influence on those who were not yet Christians that they might be more easily perswaded to embrace Christianity and also might be of vast Importance for the preventing all Differences that might arise about the Meaning of the Gospels and lastly would be of perpetual use for the teaching all sorts of Christians more easily to comprehend the Method Reasons and Grounds of the great Work of our Redemption The two last of which are more fully laid down and explain'd in the Epistles than in any other parts of Holy Writ And if the Knowledge of them is necessary to Salvation then it will be as necessary to believe those places of Scripture where they are most fully stated and most clearly delivered For since there is no part of Scripture where we are told how we were Redeemed why Christ Redeemed us and from what so clearly and expresly as in the Epistles we must have Recourse to them for our right understanding of those Doctrines And therefore there both was an absolute necessity for the writing of the Epistles and also is for our firm Belief of them as necessary to Salvation And thus far I hope we have established the Divine Authority of the Epistles and the absolute necessity of believing several of the Doctrines deliver'd in them But it must yet be confessed that all that has been proved will be little to the Purpose if it can be shewn in the Fourth Place that the Doctrines deliver'd in the Epistles are contradictory to those in the Gospels But this I don 't find in the least pretended for it would be in vain to shew Contradictions in them after they are allowed to be of Divine Inspiration As for there being several things above our Reason in the Epistles the same Objection may be made against the Gospels but this cannot be sufficient to invalidate the Authority of either of them The Gospels and Epistles both teach the same Christianity And tho' some Points of Faith are more fully and clearly laid down in one than the other and some things requir'd to be believed in the Epistles which are not mention'd in the Gospels yet they do not disagree in any one Particular But both tend to one and the same End the advancing the Happiness of Mankind And this leads me to consider the Fifth Argument whereby it may appear whether or no the Epistles are necessary to be believed and that is the Matter they contain For this is the only Plea remaining why they should be rejected because the Matters which they treat of are of no Concern to us that they have no relation to the Salvation of Mankind and therefore cannot be thought necessary to be believed upon that account which is the great End of Revelation For here the great stress of the Controversy lies whether the Doctrines deliver'd in the Epistles are of such Importance as will make them necessary to be believed or to be an indispensible part of the Rule of Faith But I hope I have already made it appear that there are several Doctrines of this Nature in the Epistles from the Apostle's Design in writing them and from those Texts I have before produced from them and therefore I shall not insist any more upon this Head But our Author objects that if there are any fundamental Articles in the Epistles yet they are so promiscuously deliver'd with other Truths that they are not to be distinguished from them And this he now tells us was the reason why he did not go through the Writings in the Epistles Vindic. p. 14. to collect the fundamental Articles of Faith as he had through the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles because those fundamental Articles were in those Epistles promiscuously and without distinction mixt with other Truths And therefore we shall find and discern those great and necessary Points best in the Preaching of our Saviour and the Apostles to those who were yet ignorant of the Faith and unconverted But how are these Fundamental Points to be found in the Gospels and Acts better than in the Epistles Are there in them nothing but Fundamentals Or are not these Fundamentals mixt with other Truths of a quite different Nature that have no respect to Man's Salvation And if so as is very apparent what mighty Advantage have the Gospels beyond the Epistles upon this account Matters of Faith and Matters of Practice Fundamentals and Things indifferent are promiscuously mixt together in both But yet there is no great difficulty in discerning one from another in them For the meanest Capacity can easily apprehend a difference between those things which are proposed to our Belief and those to our Practice what are those which have a near respect to the Covenant of Grace and the Means of Salvation and those which are more forreign to that End And this difference is as easily perceived in the Epistles as in the Gospels because the Terms of Salvation are as plainly and clearly set down in one as the other But it is objected that several Things in the Epistles are differently interpreted and consequently cannot be absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation because Men are not agreed in their Opinions concerning them To this it may be answered first That some Men are of different Opinions in their Interpretations of several places of the Gospels as well as of the Epistles But secondly it may be observed that the great and fundamental Truths in both have been always understood in one and the same Sence by the whole Catholick Church and those who have dissented from the universally received Interpretation have been accounted Enemies to the true Christian Faith For in these Cases Mistakes are generally wilful and it is not easy to interpret any Doctrines in Scripture differently from what the Church has already done if we take the most easy and natural Meaning of it For the Sense of Fundamentals is not so obscure but a willing Mind may easily apprehend it But Lastly We may add to all this the Consent of the Universal Church in all Ages for the necessity of believing the Epistles and several Articles delivered in them as necessary to Salvation For they have been hitherto esteemed by all Orthodox Christians as part of the Canon of Scripture or Rule of Saving Faith and received and believed accordingly And if this Argument will be of no Force to convince us of the necessity of believing them to Salvation we must at the same time part with one very good Reason for our belief of the Holy Gospels For this is alleged for an Argument by our Church in the Sixth Article for our belief of all the received parts of Scripture that there has never been any doubt of their Authority in the Church And if this universal Consent will be an Argument for the Gospels it cannot also be denied to be a very great
proceeds from God it is in vain to say there are Contradictions in it for that is as impossible as that God should not be true But Secondly Why all this Concern for the illiterate and Men of weak Capacities as though it would be so very Prejudicial to them to be obliged to believe what they cannot comprehend For they do not seem to receive any Disadvantage by it more than others For if they are able to search the Scriptures they may know what they are obliged to believe and may as easily believe as Men of greater Reaches and stronger Reasons For the Mysteries of Religion which are incomprehensible are equally so to all Indeed had God made a difference in the necessary Parts of Faith between the Learned and Illiterate and requir'd such particular Articles to be believed to Salvation by all sorts of Men which only the Wisest could understand then the Poor of the World would have just Reason to complain But since he has placed all Men on the same Level and has requir'd no harder Terms of the one than the other we have all the Reason in the World to admire his infinite Wisdom in that he has reveal'd himself as much to the Unlearn'd Bulk of Mankind as to the Wise and Prudent For he that reads may understand may know what God has made necessary to Salvation tho' he can understand what he believes but in part Were we to draw our Belief from a long Train of Deductions and infer every Article of Faith from some one Principle though there might be a Mathematical Certainty for the Truth of such a Religion yet the Men of great strength of Judgment and Intenseness of Thought could only reach the perfect Knowledge of it and the poor labouring and illiterate Man must then most unhappily perish through his Ignorance But as now it is all parts of our Belief are equally intelligible by all and what we cannot comprehend as to the Manner of it we can believe to be true upon the Veracity of him that reveal'd it So that how mysterious soever some things may be which are proposed to our Faith they are not more difficult to the weak than those of stronger Capacities But there is yet in the Third Place more to be said in Defence of our common Faith if we consider the Extent and Limits of it For though we are obliged to believe what in its own Nature is a Mystery yet our Faith does not require us to go into the mysterious Parts of it that is We have no Obligations upon us to believe it as a Mystery As for Instance We are obliged to believe that the Three Divine Persons in the Trinity are one GOD but how they are One or how Three what is the adequate Meaning of their Personal Distinction or how consistent with their Unity Revelation has not made necessary to be believed And so as to the Creation of the World and the Hypostatick Vnion of God-Man we are to believe as Scripture has reveal'd but as to the manner of them by what distinct Act of Omnipotence God made the one or how he united the other our Faith is not to determine And in this Sence it may be granted that we are not obliged to believe farther than our Reason can carry us that must determine us how far and what we are to Believe that is It must decide what is required by Revelation to be Believed and what is to be the Extent of that Belief For we are only enjoin'd to believe Articles of Faith as they are delivered in Scripture without any particular Explanations of the Modes how they may be conceived For though the Articles themselves are necessary to be Believed to Salvation yet any particular Explication of them is not because as we can have no just Idea of them our selves so we have no certainty that any Body else can have And therefore it is a meer Scandal cast upon us that we Believe we know not what for we have a perfect Understanding of what is required to be Believed and the Grounds of our Belief are as cogent as any Evidence of Sense For it is as easy to Believe what God has certainly Reveal'd as what we can apprehend by our Senses We may without any great difficulty understand what we are to Believe but as to the Manner or particular Modes of Existence of those things which are required to be Believed as they are above our Comprehensions so are they not made any Parts of our Faith But lastly Since our Author is of Opinion that it would be so very Advantageous to Mankind in general to have only such a Religion as is very easy to be understood by all sorts of Men we ought to consider how very Intelligble his Rule of Faith is if compared with that of our Church and how Agreeable his One Article is to the Comprehension of vulgar Capacities For he that advances a new Scheme of Faith should take great care that it may not labour under any of those Imperfections for which the other is Condemned Now let us suppose with our Author that the believing Jesus to be the Messiah the Saviour that was to come into the World to be alone necessary to Salvation and let this be proposed to an inquisitive labouring Man that would desire to know a Reason for his Faith Now indeed he might acknowledge that this Proposition Jesus is the Messiah is easy to be remembred but not so easily understood It is then very probable he would enquire what is meant by his being the Messiah If we should tell him that he was the Saviour promised the Question would again recurr What is meant by his being our Saviour or how or from what did he save us If we should say that he was our Saviour by those excellent Precepts which he taught to reform Mankind this would not satisfy because we had most of those Precepts before tho' not so fully explain'd and because this is not consistent with the general Sence of Scripture which tells us that he was our Saviour by suffering for us and in our stead If we should reply that he was indeed put to Death because of our Sins and that we should by the Death of so innocent a Person learn to reform our Lives and follow his Doctrine This would be yet more unintelligible for why should God suffer an innocent Person to be put to Death because the rest of Mankind were Sinners This indeed would be the only Means to encourage Men in their Impieties since there was no safety in a Religious Life And this Reason would also prevent the success of his Doctrine for if all his Design was to prevail with Mankind to receive his Doctrine it would have been much more for his Advantage to have saved himself by a miraculous coming down from the Cross for then there is no question but all Men would have believed what he taught was from God Since this would have been a greater