as a Christian is to believe them does but repeat or re-act his Belief that Jesus is the Christ with a precise Determination of that Belief to those Doctrines as known and considered to be taught by Christ. Now if a Man cannot believe any of these Doctrines as they ought to be believed or for that Reason for which they are to be believed till he is a Christian with what consistency can it be pretended that the Belief of any of these Doctrines is absolutely necessary to make a Man a Christian Upon what Evidence upon what Authority must a Man believe any of these Doctrines to make him a Christian They are not parts of natural Religion Will a Man's believing them in Submission to humane Authority make him a Christian If it be said he must believe them upon Christ's Authority who hath revealed them then he must first of all believe that Jesus is the Messiah or Christ and so as to take him for his Lord. If it shall be said that is granted and therefore it is affirmed that that Belief is the first Act of Faith and the first Step to Christian Faith but that Faith doth not constitute or make a Man a Christian till it be compleated and grown up to a certain Size by additional Acts of Faith believing a precise Number of Articles more It may then be ask'd what we are to call or what we must understand by that Faith of which believing Jesus to be the Christ is the first Act It 's said It is not Christian Faith and if it be properly said to be an Act of Faith what Name soever shall be given to it it must be Antecedent to what is but the Act of it But how it can be an Act of Christian Faith and yet but a Step to Christian Faith has some more Difficulty in it But further it may be enquired if the due believing Jesus to be the Christ do not constitute a Man a Christian how can the limited exercising of this Faith with respect to a certain Number of Doctrines constitute him a Christian when all or the main Excellency of his believing those Doctrines is derived from his believing jesus to be Christ Does a Creature 's being endued with Reason make him a Rational Creature or his exerting and exercising his Reason to certain degrees about a precise Number of Objects Again it may be queried not only what are those additional Articles but upon whose Authority or for what Reason must they be believed to be absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians 5. Because it is only the due Belief that Jesus is the Christ which doth or can constitute a Person a true Disciple or Subject of Christ. The Belief of all the other Doctrines in the Bible taken separately from this will not make a Man a Christian For if it would a Man might be a Christian though he did not believe Jesus to be the Christ. And so believing Jesus to be the Christ could neither be the first Act as is said of Christian Faith nor an absolutely necessary Step to Christian Faith Add the Belief of all other Doctrines in the Bible to the Belief that Jesus is the Christ they cannot make the Man a Christian. The Additional Belief is but Evidence and Proof that he doth believe that Jesus is the Messias so as to take him for his Lord And if a due belief that Jesus is the Christ doth not constitute a Man a Christian all other Belief is so far from constituting him a Christian it will not amount to a Proof that he is a Christian. A due Believing that Jesus is the Messiah or Christ is the grand Principle of a Christian's Belief and Practice as to all the particular Doctrines of Faith and Rules of Good living laid down by Christ in the whole Scripture This brings the Person under an indispensable Obligation to endeavour seriously to know what Christ hath delivered both as to the one and the other This obliges him to believe whatsoever Doctrines he shall attain to know Christ hath taught and to perform and practice whatsoever he shall attain to know Christ hath made his Duty It is this that preserves to all the Doctrines of Faith and Rules of Practice delivered to us in the Holy Scriptures their full Force and Obligation Hereby we perceive them to be the Doctrines and Laws of him we have received for our Lord whom we are on that account to believe and obey in every thing we understand is his declared Will Secondly I will now consider what this Author propounds to be examined viz. 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 Here are Two Questions proposed as if they were but one differently worded I will say something in general touching this Matter and then speak more particularly to it In general I shall observe that there is a great difference between these Three Things 1. A Doctrine's being declared to be absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation 2. Salvation being promised to what is absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation 3. Salvation being promised to the Belief of something but not under this precise Consideration as absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation To believe in the only True God is declared to be absolutely necessary to Salvation and it is impossible that a Man should believe a right that Jesus is the Messiah without believing in the only True God For a Man cannot believe that Jesus was sent by the True God and is constituted King by him except he believe in that God who did send him c. Now notwithstanding this Belief is absolutely necessary to make a Man a Christian or to Salvation yet it doth not make him a Christian nor is Salvation promised to it Salvation is promised to that Faith which doth make a Man a Christian which is believing Jesus to be the Christ or Messiah so as to take him for our Lord. But Salvation was not proposed to any upon their believing Jesus to be the Christ but only those who first of all acknowledged their Belief in the True and Living God And therefore those who did not believe in the only True God were always instructed concerning the True God and called on to believe in him before Salvation was promised to them upon their believing Jesus to be the Messiah If Salvation is promised upon the believing of other Points or to any Matters of Practice it is not promised to those Matters as absolutely necessary to be believed c. unto Salvation but the Promise is made with respect to those Matters to them who do already believe Jesus to be the Messiah Some things are absolutely necessary to Salvation to which no Promise of Salvation is made And Salvation may be promised to some things which are not absolutely necessary to Salvation
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
of his coming into the World I must not undertake to determine therefore I shall only ask Whether they had a true Knowledge of Christ and the End of his coming so far as was absolutely necessary to make them Christians If they had their not knowing any thing more than what was then revealed and made known to them in order to their being Christians cannot be a good Reason why what was sufficient to warrant their being denominated Christians should not be sufficient to warrant Persons being denominated Christians now unless together with the Proof that there are more Articles revealed now than were then there be also as clear Proof that all or some of these latter Articles are now required to be explicitely believed for that Purpose But saith this Author It is natural to infer from Act. 1. 6 7 8. that the Apostles had not yet attained to that clear Knowledge of him and the Design of his coming which it was necessary they should be endewed with p. 74. Answ. They had not all that Knowledge of Christ and of his Design which it was necessary they should be endowed with in order to their own Advantage and to their giving the World that entire and compleat Revelation Christ would make of his Will by them But it cannot be infer'd that they had not all that Knowledge which was absolutely necessary to make them Christians were there no Christians upon Earth after Christ's Ascention till after the Descent of the Holy Ghost or were not the Apostles Christians till they were endeued with a clear Knowlededge of all those things Christ would make known for the Benefit of his Church and which they were gradually to instruct People in and commit to writing for the use of future Ages Can no Man be a Christian till he hath an explicite Knowledge of every Particular in the fullest import of it which is delivered in the Scripture and hath a respect to Jesus as the Messias Which is the true Notion of believing Jesus to be the Messias absolutely necessary to make Men Christians that he is the Person God hath sent to be our King and Saviour whose Doctrines and Laws we are conscientiously to endeavour to learn and believe and observe as we attain to know them O That he is the Person sent from God c. who hath taught these and these particular Doctrines neither more nor fewer and so as touching his Precepts every one of which we do actually believe and practice Can no Person be a Christian now till he hath as explicite and full a Knowledge of every thing Christ hath taught and revealed as that Apostle ever had who was endowed with the largest measure of Revelation whatever he did know this way had a respect to Jesus as the Messiah And the very last Information he had this way acquainted him with something concerning the Messiah which he did not so clearly and fully know before so that he could not form a just and adequate Rule of Faith concerning him till he knew that It will not saith this Author alter the case by saying That those who died then in that Faith were undoubtedly saved for that would be no more an Argument than the proving that because a Jew was saved before Christ's coming into the World by Virtue of Christ's Mediation in the Observance of the Mosaick Law he might be equally capable of Salvation now in the Profession of that Religion p. 74. Answ. What this Author hath delivered in these Words would afford room for many Remarks But I shall only observe That believing that Jesus is the Messiah was not absolutely necessary to Salvation before he came into the World nor was any thing more absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation under the Mosaick Dispensation than God had made absolutely necessary to be believed for that purpose under it But at the coming of our Saviour a New Covenant being substituted in the Place of the Mosaick Dispensation it was under a New Condition viz. the believing and taking Jesus to be the Messiah our King and submitting to his Law If that Dispensation were not abrogated but did still continue the way of Salvation nothing more would now be absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation than what was made so by that Constitution And if the Christian Dispensation were to be abrogated and another to come into its room whereby something distinct from what is contained in the Gospel or Christian Dispensation should be made absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation the Belief of every thing delivered in the New Testament would not when the Gospel Dispensation was at an end be sufficient to Salvation But the adding of more Revelations which are to be studied and explicitely believed when known doth not alter the Dispensation or make more absolutely necessary to be believed to Salvation or to interest a Person in that Dispensation than was at first absolutely necessary to that Purpose any more than every new Law made in a Nation doth alter the Constitution of that Government and make something more absolutely necessary to be known and explicitely assented to to make a Person a Subject of that Government than was absolutely necessary to that Purpose before Will any serious considering Christian affirm that Jesus Christ will reject any Person who by the gracious Influence of the Holy Ghost is effectually brought to receive him with all his Heart to be his Lord and King and sincerely endeavours to fulfil that Engagement people are generally very willing to believe that Jesus has died for them and satisfied for their Sins and they can be contented to own him for a Prophet to furnish them with Notions but they are not so easily prevailed with to give Substantial Evidences that they do heartily take him for their King Were they generally brought to a sound Belief and Acknowledgment of his being their King they would make a much better Improvement of what he hath delivered in the Holy Scripture concerning his Priesthood and his being a Prophet than they commonly do notwithstanding the great Zeal they pretend to discover for those Offices The Courses they ordinarily allow themselves in are evidently and utterly inconsistent with their receiving Jesus unfeignedly for their King and their preserving a Sense of that Relation upon their Spirits whatever way they have got to reconcile them to the Notions they entertain concerning his other Offices For saith this Author we are to direct our Faith and Practice according to the most full and clear Revelation of God's Will and to believe that to be necessary to Salvation which appears from the full extent of Revelation to be requir'd in order to it p. 74. Answ. Those who are Christians are to direct their Faith and practice according to the fullest Measure of the Knowledge they can attain of what God hath revealed that is They must believe explicitely and actually perform whatsoever they can attain to know Christ hath taught and made their
Duty And in order to their attaining to the clearest and fullest Knowledge of their Lord's Will they must take care they do not confine themselves to a certain Number of Articles and Precepts of Mens collecting but must diligently read and study the entire and compleat Revelation Christ hath made of his Fathers Pleasure in the Holy Scriptures Yet we are not to believe any Article is absolutely necessary to Salvation but what he hath revealed to be so for if we do we transgress our Bounds and go further than the utmost extent of Revelation reaches as to that Matter and consequently do that which we have no warrant for in Divine Revelation It doth not follow that because Christians are not to believe any thing as an Article of the Christian Faith but what is taught in the New Testament and must endeavour to know as many of the Doctrines which are taught there as they can and believe every one as they attain to know them therefore every Doctrine delivered in the New Testament is absolutely necessary to be believed to make Men Christians But saith this Author if all that was absolutely necessary to Salvation or to denominate Men truly Christians was the bare believing Jesus to be the Messiah the believing Jesus to be the Messias so as to take him absolutely for their King why should our Saviour promise the Mission of the Holy Ghost to instruct them viz. his Disciples farther in what they ought to believe concerning him p. 75. Answ. Our Saviour did not promise the Holy Ghost to instruct them in what they were to believe to make them Christians for they were Christians when the Promise was made to them or how could they be his Disciples but in such Matters as they must believe when instructed in by Virtue of their having received him for their Lord and as other Christians must endeavour to understand and then believe on the same Account To what purpose did they oblige themselves in taking Jesus for their Lord to believe whatever he should teach them if they knew and believed before all that they should ever be obliged to believe This Author thinks he hath Reason to conclude from Act. 10. 43. c. That we are to understand by believing Jesus to be the Messiah in this and almost all other Places the full extent and meaning of those Words as they are explained by this and other Apostles in all Parts of Scripture because they were all of them inspired by the same Holy Ghost and therefore must all have the same Meaning And that therefore the believing Jesus to be the Messiah as it is now required for a Fundamental of our Faith must comprehend the full Sense that is given of it in Scripture p. 76 77. Answ. If I comprehend the Force of this Author 's arguing here it is thus The Apostles by the Term Messiah did understand all those particular Doctrines they have delivered throughout the Holy Scriptures concerning that Jesus of whom they preached so that by Peoples believing Jesus to be the Messiah they meant their believing explicitely every one of those Doctrines This Notion now is built upon this Supposition that the Apostles when they preached Jesus to any they did particularly acquaint them with every one of those Doctrines and then promising them Pardon c. if they did believe Jesus to be the Messiah they declared to them that by believing Jesus to be the Messiah they meant the explicite believing of every one of those Doctrines they had proposed to them The Reason given for this Supposition is as I apprehend this They were all inspired by the same Holy Ghost and therefore must all have the same Meaning that is I suppose they must all understand the Term Messiah in the same Sense viz. as signifying precisely every one of those Doctrines Many Remarks might be made on this Occasion I will only observe 1. That the Supposition is perfectly precarious without any warrant at all from Scripture Several of these Doctrines might be propounded as very proper Inducements to believe Jesus to be the Messiah but that is not the Point in Discourse but whether the Term Messiah did with the Apostles signify just such a set of Doctrines 2. The Holy Ghost was not given to the Apostles to teach them the Meaning of the Term Messiah for they understood it very well before nor did they in preaching to the Jews use the Term Messiah in a Sense they never heard of before and which would therefore need a particular Explanation but as a Term so common and so distinctly understood amongst them as the Term in any Nation is commonly understood by the Inhabitants which expresseth and signifieth their Supream Governour All the Apostles understood the Term Messiah in the same Sense and used it in the same Sense in which those who heard them did commonly understand it Their Business was not to preach and explain New Terms nor to tack New Meanings unto Old Terms 3. In their preaching to Unbelievers they insisted on such Considerations as were most proper to convince them that Jesus was the Messiah according to the known and common Meaning of the Term and not such as did immediately prove the Truth of a certain Number of New Doctrines which they were Strangers to and which must make up a New Sense for an Ancient Word 4. We have good Warrant from the Scripture to believe that the Apostles were not instructed at once but gradually in the Doctrines concerning Jesus which are delivered in the several Parts of Scripture and therefore they could not mean every one of these Doctrines constantly by the Term Messiah for they could not acquaint their Hearers at first with any more of these Doctrines than they were at that time instructed in and if they added more Doctrines when they were instructed in more as the Sense in which they understood the Term Messiah they used it then in a New Sense and Meaning It may be said but now we have a full Account in the Scripture of the full Meaning in which the Term Messiah is to be used and consequently what is to be understood by believing Jesus to be the Messiah taking the Term Messiah to signify every one of the Doctrines delivered in the Scripture concerning Jesus and therefore these are to be collected out of the Scripture and Persons must now explicitely believe every one of them in order to their believing Jesus to be the Messias in the full Sense given of it in Scripture 'T is very true all the Doctrines we are to believe concerning Jesus are set down in the Scripture But it may be ask'd seeing all these Doctrines are not set down in any one place of Scripture together for this End to whom is the Office of collecting them for this purpose committed And what assurance shall People have if uninspired Men may undertake it that their Collection is compleat For if any one Passage be omitted distinct from what shall be in