Reasonableness of Christianity p. 2. that Since these sacred Writings were designed by God for the Instruction of the illiterate Bulk of Mankind in the way to Salvation as well as others of larger Capacities they ought generally and in necessary Points to be understood in the plain direct Meaning of the Words and Phrases such as they may be supposed to have had in the Mouths of the Speakers who used them according to the Language of that Time and Country wherein they lived without putting any artificial and forced Senses upon them Now what we lost by Adam may indeed be seen as our Author urges from the second and third Chapters of Genesis and that was Bliss and Immortality and a perfect State of Righteousness which was without any of the Miseries of Life or fear of Death But what the Punishment of his Transgression was or more properly speaking would have been had not the Messiah been then promised to recover him from his lapsed State and had not the Merits of his future Satisfaction been imputed to him and all his Posterity from his Fall is not so clearly discovered by any part of that History The Sentence denounced against him if he sinned was only this In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Gen. 2.17 Now this indeed does threaten the Punishment of Death or Mortality to the Body and does not seem to imply any future Expectation of Eternal Misery for he was from that time subject to a state of Death and Mortality And this is a part of the Punishment which devolves on all his Posterity 1 Cor. 15.22 p. 4. In Adam all die i. e. to use our Author's words by reason of his Transgression all Men are mortal and come to die But though this may be admitted as the natural Meaning of those Words yet it cannot be infer'd from them that the Soul also should be subject to the same Death and Mortality with the Body as our Author contends or that the whole Man should cease to be p. 15. or that By the loss of Men's Souls in Scripture could only be meant the loss of their Lives For besides this Opinion seems wholly precarious and is no way countenanc'd by this other part of the Sentence Cursed is the Ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy Life in the sweat of thy Face shalt thou eat Bread till thou return unto the Ground for out of it wast thou taken for Dust thou art and to Dust shalt thou return Which words will by no means infer that Conclusion which our Author draws from them p. 7. viz. That his Life should end in the Dust out of which he was made and to which he should return and then have no more Life or Sense than the Dust had out of which he was taken For it is not possible that the Mortality of the Soul should be infer'd from hence Nay the directly contrary seems necessarily implied For the returning unto the Ground for Dust thou art and to Dust shalt thou return can relate only to that part of Man which was formed out of the Dust And therefore if the Soul was of a different Original and of a Divine Extract as we are told in Gen. 2.7 And God formed Man of the Dust of the Ground and breathed into his Nostrils the breath of Life and Man became a living Soul It is plain that the Soul could not be included in the Sentence And therefore by this Sentence of Death or that of to Dust shalt thou return cannot be understood a total ceasing to be or a losing of all Actions of Life and Sense p. 6. which the Reasonableness of Christianity so much contends for But moreover if we are to understand no more of the Nature and Extent of the Sentence than is to be found in the second and third Chapters of Genesis and may have no Recourse to the Gospel Dispensation especially to that part of it deliver'd in the Epistles I would desire to know by what Authority our Author includes the Posterity of Adam in the Punishment p. 6. and makes them subject to Death for his Disobedience since there is not the least mention of them in the Sentence For that seems directly level'd against him and not to include any others in it Indeed our Author proves it from Rom. 5.12 p. 4. By one man Sin entred into the world and Death by Sin But if he has no other Proof for it than from the Epistles this would be no sufficient Reason to make it an Article of our Faith since according to him we are not to fetch any Articles of Faith from the Epistles So that this is all would be left for us to believe as to this that all Men are subject to Death but that God has not indispensibly required us to believe that it was a Punishment due to all Men for Adam's Transgression From whence it appears that the full Extent even of Adam's Punishment cannot be gather'd from the Sentence denounc'd against him which in the plainest Sence of the Words could only threaten Death or Mortality to the Body and not a Death of the same kind to the Soul Nor that even this can be proved from the Nature of the Sentence as we find it recorded in the second and third Chapters of Genesis that Death was entail'd upon all Adam's Posterity for his Offence And therefore it must be from the New Testament where we have more Light and larger Discoveries to guide us that we must expect a clearer Account of the Nature of the Punishment that was due to Adam and what sort of Death it was that his Posterity was freed from by Christ's Coming into the World But by the way since his chief Argument for his Notion of Adam's Punishment is that nothing more is meant in the Sentence denounc'd against him I would desire to know why by Death in that place may not be meant an Eternal Loss of God's Favour in a State of Existence as well as by never Dying in many other places is to be understood an Eternal Enjoyment of Happiness or a Freedom from Eternal Misery For by not Dying in such like places is not meant an Exemption from the common Fate of all Men but only not Dying after that manner which others do who believe not in Christ And if by this Joh. 11.26 He that believeth on me shall never dye or as in another place He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting Life and shall not come into condemnation Joh. 5.24 can only be interpreted of an Immortal State of Bliss and Immortality then I see no Reason why the Sentence of Death or Condemnation may not imply an Eternal Loss of that Happiness in a State of Misery especially since I have already shewn that the Mortality of the Soul could not be included in that Sentence of Death denounc'd against Adam And
And therefore those who deny that Christ died for us in that Sense do in effect deny that he properly died for us at all because they do not assign the true Reasons for it which are declar'd in Scripture But that those Arguments from Scripture of Christ's dying for us and in our stead follow from the easy and natural meaning of those Texts I shall evince from other Expressions in Scripture of the like Nature and from common Customs and Ways of speaking in the World Whereby it will appear that no other Interpretation can possibly be put upon them Thus in the Lamentations Our Fathers have sinned and are not and we have born their Iniquities i. e. Have suffered Punishment for their Sins So Christ's bearing the Sins of many can only be understood of suffering for them So in Ezekiel The Soul that sinneth it shall die Ch. 18. v. 20. the Son shall not bear the iniquity of the Father that is shall not suffer for his Sin And also by one Man's suffering for another is meant a transferring the Punishment upon himself as in the Words of St. Peter to our Blessed Saviour I will lay down my Life for thee i. e. Joh. 13.38 To save or redeem thine And the Expression of Caiphas does also import the same It is expedient for us that one Man should die for the people and that the whole Nation perish not i.e. It is necessary that One should die to free the rest from Destruction And therefore he advised that Christ should be sacrificed to prevent the Ruine of their Nation by the Romans And to the same sense are the words of John If any of the men escape 2 Kiâ—â— 10 2â— he that letteth him go his Life shall be for the Life of him i. e. He shall suffer the Punishment design'd for the other We may add to this the Expressions that occur in Profane Authors that signifie the suffering of one for another For by their expiare orimina or scelus piaculum fieri populum lustrare and the like they generally meant a freeing others from an impending Evil by suffering the Punishment in their stead And this is very plain by a great many Instances in History particularly in that noted one of the Decij who sacrificed themselves for the good of their Country or offered themselves for an Expiation of the rest And this Custom of sacrificing one for all was very common with the Heathens almost in all Ages And they have used such Expressions for it as are used in Scripture to denote the great Piacular Sacrifice for the Sins of the whole World As in the * Euripid. Erecht Tom. 2. p. 468. Ed. Cantab. Tragedian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That it was not lawful for him to suffer the Destruction of so many things when he might redeem them with the Sacrifice of one Life that of his Daughter And a little after he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That his Daughter would receive abundant Honour by offering her self for a Sacrisice or Expiation to save both the City her Mother Sisters and nearest Relations There might be brought innumerable Instances of this Nature out of the most Ancient Greek and Latin Historians to shew that by a Man's being a Sacrifice they meant a suffering for and in the stead of others to transfer the Faults of others upon himself Which are sufficient to vindicate our interpreting those places of Scripture that mention the Sacrifice of Christ to the sence of a Satisfaction for the Sins of the World since they cannot possibly bear any other Meaning So that the natural Result of all will be this That as the Scripture has in very many places assured us that Christ died for our Sins and in our stead by bearing our Sins in his own Body thereby to deliver us from the Wrath to come and that those are the true Interpretation and Sence of those places which the Words do most naturally import so is it most evident that the End of Christ's Coming into the World was for some other Design than to give us a Title to Immortality And that was to put us in a Condition of saving our selves from Everlasting Misery which we should otherwise most unavoidably have suffered And therefore if either Gospels or Epistles may be allowed to be true that cannot be the only End of Christ's Coming into the World which is assign'd by the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity For certainly that is the most true and most necessary to be believed which is most agreeable to Divine Revelation What we are to Believe concerning CHRIST I Come now to examine that part of the Reasonableness of Christianity which I proposed in the last place to consider And this relates to our Faith in Christ which the Author makes to consist in the Belief of this one Article That he is the Son of God the Saviour of the World or the Messiah And for the Proof of this he cites very many places of Scripture As Joh. 3.36 He that believeth on the Son hath Eternal Life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see Life And in the next Chapter from the Belief of the Samaritans p. 25 26 c. who said to the Woman We believe not any longer because of thy saying for we have heard our selves and do know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the World And from the words of St. Peter Lord to whom shall we go Thou hast the words of Eternal Life and we believe and are sure that thou art the Messiah the Son of the Living God And from hence he gathers that this was the Faith which distinguisht them from Apostates and Unbelievers and was sufficient to continue them in the Rank of the Apostles And that it was upon the same Profession that Jesus was the Messiah the Son of the living God owned by St. Peter that our Saviour said he would build his Church Matth. 16.18 The Belief of this one Article as the only necessary one to Salvation in the New Covenant is the same with what is maintain'd by Mr. Hobbs and proved after the very same manner as may be seen by any one that will take the Pains to read the Eighteenth Chap. of his Book De Cive which treats of Religion Sect. 5. c. His words are Credere in Christum quid est Vel fidei in Christum quaenam propositio est objectum To which he answers Credere in Christum est nihil aliud quam credere Jesum esse Christum nimirum illum qui secundum Mosis Prophetarum Israelitorum vaticinia venturus erat in hunc mundum ad Instituendum Regnum Dei And then after he has brought very many Proofs out of the Gospels and Acts the very same which our Author has done he tells us that Alia fides ad vitam aeternam praeter
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
hereafter have more occasion to consider He that believeth that Jesus 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 upon the like Promise From whence it will follow that the bare Proposition is alone necessary to be Believed without any other Interpretation if any at all may be admitted than what is agreeable to the particular Humours of Men the unhappy Consequences of which will be endless Wranglings and Distractions For which reason it seems evident that all the Fundamental Parts of Faith cannot be comprehended in those Texts alone which are declared to be of that important Nature unless the full Extent and Meaning was there set down and delivered which I cannot find And therefore it can't be denied but that the other parts of Scripture which relate the Grounds and Reasons of such a Faith which is required to Salvation and that explain the Nature and Extent of it are to be looked upon as equally Obligatory whether exprest in Gospels or Epistles For besides 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 tho' 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 onely true God as well as Jesus Christ whom he hath sent Both of which places if they must be understood in their limited Sence will be almost found contradictory to each other Because the one proposes a larger Faith to Salvation than is required by the other Wherefore it seems more reasonable to understand these and other places of Scripture of the like nature in that Sence which is applied to Faith Fear of God Love Hope and the like when singly made use of to express the whole Duty of a Christian viz. That one that is endued with such a Faith or such Vertues cannot be defective in the Belief of all other Articles or in the Practice of all other Duties For as any of these Vertues when mention'd alone as sufficient to save us cannot be understood exclusively of all others so when Believing in Christ or any other Proposition of that nature is alone required to make a Man a Christian we ought either to understand it as spoken conditionally upon a supposition of the Belief of all other Articles of the Christian Religion or else as designed to denote that as the believing Jesus to be the Christ is the first step to Christianity so he that is once firmly and throughly convinc'd of that will not deny his assent to any other Article of Faith in the whole Christian Profession that shall be required of him From all which it is natural to infer that there must be other Articles of Faith in the Scriptures that are as absolutely necessary to be Believed to Salvation as those to which Eternal Life is expresly promised and that many of those Texts of Scripture which are required to be believed to Salvation are not of themselves exclusive of all others sufficient for that End So that though it should be granted that there are no Articles of Faith in the Epistles so expresly enjoined to be Believed to Salvation as some delivered in the Gospels and Acts yet it will not follow but that some of them may be of as important a Nature and as much to be thought Fundamentals But however it must be considered Secondly that if it should be granted that no Articles were absolutely necessary to be Believed but what were expresly so declared by the Inspired Writers yet there may be produced some Articles from the Epistles that are as much required to be actually believed to Salvation as any of those delivered in the Gospels or Acts as I shall shew in its proper place So that for both these Reasons some of the Doctrines delivered in the Epistles ought to be as earnestly pressed and enjoined to be explicitely Believed upon hazard of Salvation as any found elsewhere in Scripture There are indeed a great many Truths both in the Gospels and Epistles which are only to be Believed upon the general Ground of Faith which is the Veracity of God But those of a higher Nature which have an immediate Tendency to the Salvation of Mankind and the Method by which our Saviour has obtain'd it for us are to be explicitely Believed by all in order to their Salvation So that in both Gospels and Epistles there is a twofold Faith requir'd the one depends upon the general Ground of our Belief which relies upon the Veracity of God that every thing which he has Revealed is true The other respects the End for which he has Revealed any thing to us and that is only the Eternal Benefit and Happiness of Mankind So that whatsoever in Scripture relates to this End is of more absolute necessity to be Believed to Salvation And this may serve for a General Direction whereby to distinguish fundamental Truths either in Gospels or Epistles or any other parts of Divine Revelation For whatsoever is proposed to our Belief as a necessary Condition in order to our Happiness must be included under this saving Faith And therefore I shall now proceed to shew that the Epistles have as much Right and Title to our Faith as it may be considered in this last sence as any other parts of Revelation since they equally treat of the Covenant of Grace and the Means of Salvation For whatsoever it is that is required of us to be actually believed as a Condition upon which our Happiness depends must be made a Fundamental of our Faith And therefore if the Epistles contain in them any Doctrines of this Nature they cannot be disbelieved without great hazard of our Salvation But First that the Epistles are to be made part of the Rule of Faith by which alone we are to be saved as well as the Gospels or Acts of the Apostles is evident from the Nature of Revelation For if it can be proved that the Epistles are as much a part of Divine Revelation as the other it will be no easy Task to demonstrate that they are not equally to be received especially if it can be made appear that the End of their Revelation was the Eternal Happiness of Mankind which I shall speak to hereafter Now this is the very Reason and Foundation of our Belief of the Christian Religion first that it is Revealed by God and secondly that it has the Attestation of Miracles to confirm it such as can be done by no other Power but Divine For without this we could have no Obligations upon us to believe it because we could have no certain assurance that it came from God But whatsoever is thus
besides if there have been different degrees of Happiness or Misery in the other World from the very beginning as is evident from the whole Tenour of Scripture and if the Souls of Men have been immortal as may be easily evinc'd from Scripture and Philosophy unless we can prove that any of them have been annihilated by God then we have reason to believe that the Punishment due to Adam and all his sinning Posterity was to have been Eternal Misery From all this it is evident that Adam's Punishment does not appear from Scripture to consist only in a Temporal Death but that as he fell from a State of perfect Obedience as our Author has granted p. 3. and was consequently uncapable of pleasing God so the nature of his Punishment and that which all Mankind should have undergone for all were Sinners will be best known from what the Scripture declares concerning the Reason of Christ's coming into the World And that was to make Satisfaction for the Sins of the whole World and to restore Mankind to the Favour of God by suffering in our stead and being made Sin for us And that this was the true End of his Coming into the World and of his Sufferings is evident from the Predictions concerning him and from the Consent of both Gospels and Epistles The Prophesy of Isaiah is very full and express in assigning the End of Christ's Coming Surely he hath born our Griefs and carried our Sorrows He was wounded for our Transgression Isa 53. and was bruised for our Iniquities He was numbred with the Transgressors and he bore the sin of many and made Intercession for the Transgressors All which are so very plain and intelligible that the Force of them cannot be evaded So that the true End of Christ's Coming was not only to obtain for us Bliss and Immortality which we lost by Adam but also in order to effect that to redeem us from our Sins and the Guilt of them and to deliver us from the Wrath to come by the Propitiatory Sacrifice of himself for us We have also this End of Christ's Coming to save Sinners often mention'd in the Gospels Thou shalt call his Name Emanuel Mat. 1.21 for he shall save his people from their sins And Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the World Joh. 1.29 And our Saviour himself hath assured us if we can believe his own Words That God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish i. e. Should not Die eternally or be for ever Miserable but have everlasting Life For God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World Joh. 3.16 17. but that the World through him might be saved For would not the Condition of all Mankind have been eternally miserable without Christ's coming into the World but their only Punishment have been only a ceasing to be after Death I think it is neither an Absurdity or Heresy to say That it would have been much more advantagious for Mankind that Christ should never have come into the World since it would have been much better that all Men should have had an End put to their Beings by Death than that part of Mankind only should be saved as it now will be and the rest be Condemned to Eternal Misery though it be by their own Defaults For the Punishment of even all Mankind by such a Death does not seem to bear a sufficient Proportion to the Eternal Misery of but one Soul So that we must allow that Christ's coming into the World was to save those that believe and repent from Eternal Torment in another World or else that his Coming to save us was a general Disadvantage But moreover we have several other Expressions in Scripture Rom. 5.8 of Christ's Dying for us while we were yet Sinners That he was a Propitiation for our Sins He was made Sin for us who knew no Sin 1 John 4.10 2 Coâ— 5.21 Hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us who his own self bare our Sins in his own Body on the Tree with innumerable others to the same Purpose which do undeniably evince the true End of Christ's Satisfaction viz. That the suffering for our Sins and the Substitution of himself in our stead 1 Thess 1.10 was to deliver us from the Wrath to come Which Expression can signify no otherwise than that Christ by his Meritorious Oblation and Sacrifice of himself hath delivered us from the Eternal Misery which we must otherwise have suffer'd in the World to come For there is no other Wrath which Good Men are exempted from for they are still as much expos'd to the Troubles and Miseries of this Life as before and as much and in the same manner as before subject to Mortality Nor can this mean a Freedom from an eternal ceasing to be after Death for that would make no sense of the word Wrath or the fiery Indignation of God which very emphatically denotes a future Punishment after this Life But was it possible to wrest the Scriptures to any other sence or to make it appear that they do not signify what we pretend they do yet were not Christ's Suffering a Satisfaction for our Sins his manner of Dying can be no way accounted for wherein he seem'd to shew much less Courage and Resolution than either any of his Disciples or the lower Rank of Martyrs They suffer'd Joyfully and with the greatest Resolutions but he felt in himself dreadful Agonies and endured bloudy Sweats and seem'd almost like One in Despair when he cry'd out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me All which can have no good Reason assign'd for them unless we allow that he suffer'd in our stead to satisfy God's Justice and bore our Sins in his own Body and became a Propitiation for us which is what we mean by Satisfaction But we do not hereby mean that Christ suffered the same Punishment which we should have done but only that the Dignity of his Person made his Sufferings equivalent to the Eternal Punishment of a whole World of Sinners Nor will this Notion of Christ's Satisfaction take away the Belief of God's freely forgiving Sinners as some late Socinian Writers have pretended for as Christ freely offer'd himself to suffer for us so God freely without any Desert of ours accepted of his Satisfaction which he was no way obliged to But besides the Types and Representations of our Saviour's Sacrifice for us by the Goat that was slain for a Sin-offering Lev. 16. to make an Attonement for the People and by the Sins of the People being transferr'd upon the Scape-Goat clearly prove that Christ's Satisfaction must be also for our Sins And thus was God's Justice satisfy'd by the Punishment of Sin not in the Persons offending but in the Eternal Son of God who paid the Ransom for them with his own Bloud
Reasoning as indeed it seems to be it must be sufficient to inforce the necessity of believing Christ to be GOD to make a Man a Christian But again as we cannot deny that we are obliged to believe Christ to be the Son of God because it is required in several places of Scripture and St. John tells us that his Gospel was written for this End that we should believe Jesus to be the Christ and the Son of God so we must also confess him to be GOD because as I have already proved his Divinity is understood by that Expression the ancient Jews both applying it to their expected Messiah and also meaning a Divine Person by it All which seem as fully to require us to believe him to be GOD if we would be Christians as we are in other Passages enjoin'd to acknowledge him to be Christ And Lastly it is most evident that the explicite Belief of Christ's being God is requir'd to make a Man a Christian from the Form of Baptism at our Admission into Christianity in the Name of Father Son and Holy Ghost Where an equal Belief in all is required as being equally partakers of the same Divine Nature and we may as well say that the Father's Divinity as the Son 's is not here implied But this I have spoken to already And here we may add for a great Confirmation of this Truth of Christ's being God that the Vniversal Church as may be gather'd from the most Primitive Writings and the first General Councils hath always asserted His Divinity as being most undoubtedly expressed in Scripture How comes it therefore to pass that if the Belief of Christ's Divinity was not thought clearly Revealed and necessary to Salvation all those that opposed it from the first Ages of the Church to this present time have been Condemn'd and Censur'd for Hereticks * Vid. Bishop Stillingfleet's Rational Ac. of the Prot. Relig. Not as though the sence of the Catholick Church is pretended to be any infallible Rule of interpreting Scripture in all things which concern the Rule of Faith But that it is a sufficient Prescription against any thing that can be alledged out of Scripture that if it appear contrary to the sence of the Catholick Church from the beginning it ought not to be looked upon as the true meaning of Scripture So that if the denying Christ to be GOD is contrary to the received Interpretation of Scripture in the Catholick Church and also inconsistent with the plain meaning of the Words we must conclude that either his Divinity must necessarily be believed even to make a Man a Christian or that the Revelation is not to be regarded But Secondly We must also believe the Incarnation of Christ For every Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God 1 Ep. Joh. 4.3 and therefore we must acknowledge that he was Man as well as God and that he was made like unto his Brethren that he might be a merciful and a faithful High-Priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people Heb. 2.17 And that this is part of the Mystery of Godliness which is necessary to be believed by all Christians that God was manifest in the flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 And that though he was in the form of God and thought it not Robbery to be equal with God yet made he himself of no Reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of Men and being found in fashion as a Man he humbled himself and became obedient unto Death even the death of the Cross Phil. 2.6 7 8. All which plainly denote to us both his Divine and Humane Nature which we must believe to be united in one Person Agreeable to which are those Words of St. Paul Feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own Blood which could only be done by taking the Manhood into God I need not multiply Texts to prove that our Saviour was Man this I suppose none of the Vnitarians will dispute But the difficulty lies in this that he was both God and Man But this also is very frequently and fully asserted in Scripture But Thirdly We must also believe That he died for us and in our stead to free us from the Wrath to come That his Death was a propitiatory Sacrifice for us and That his was the blood of the New Testament as himself testifies of it which was shed for many for the remission of sins Mat. 26.28 And that this is part of the Christian Faith according to St. Paul that he died for our Sins as the Scriptures foretold of him And for this End he saith He was ordained a Preacher to testify that Christ gave himself a ransom for all 1 Tim. 2.6 7. But this I have insisted upon so largely already and shewn that this was the true Reason of his Death from so many Instances in Scripture that I need say no more upon it It is sufficient to shew that this is necessary to be believed since our Salvation depends on the Knowledge of the New Covenant and the Conditions of it and how far we are concern'd both in Faith and Practice In short as the Scripture hath assured us that Christ was the Mediator of the better Covenant and that we must believe in him so must our Belief of him be measured by what is revealed concerning him For Christ himself hath told us That is Life Eternal to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent i.e. The Knowledge of Christ is as much a Condition of Salvation as that of God the Father And the most certain Knowledge of both is to be drawn from Revelation And therefore as we are obliged to believe concerning the Nature of God whatsoever the Scripture has revealed so also we must believe of Christ as the Scripture has made him known to us So that the adequate Measure of our Faith in both must be taken from Scripture For if upon a Supposition of no Revelation we must believe all that of God which Right Reason could dictate to us then certainly since we have a Revelation from God and that Revelation has also obliged us to believe in Christ in order to Salvation we must believe upon the hazard of our Salvation every thing concerning him which is asserted by that Revelation And as in the general Confession of Faith when we say We believe in God the Father c. we are to understand all the other Attributes of God which are made known to us either by Reason or Revelation as that he is Just Good Merciful that he governs all things by his Providence or whatever else can be conceived in a Being infinitely Perfect so when we say We believe in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord we must also mean by it whatsoever else we can find in Scripture in reference to our clearer understanding that Article as that
Evidence for the Truth of his Doctrine than his Death could possibly be But if we should say that he Died to gain us an Immortality which we lost by Adam yet this would not put a stop to his Enquiry for if this was all he Died for what should be the Meaning of those places in Scripture where he is said to be made Sin for us to free us from the Wrath to come For the frequent Repetition of his suffering for our Sins necessarily supposes that there was some severe Punishment due to them which we should otherwise have suffered But if upon his farther Enquiry why this one Article should only be required necessarily to be believed we should inform him that this is all that is required in the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles and that we are not obliged to an explicite Belief of any Doctrines delivered in other parts of the New Testament yet this would never satisfy because as he would easily perceive the Falsity of the former so it would be difficult to convince him of the other if he was perswaded that the Epistles had as great an Authority stampt upon them by being Divinely Inspired as any other parts of Scripture and that the Apostles had the same Commission from God in the writing their Epistles as in any other parts of their Ministry And Lastly If this Illiterate Man should demand Whether this Messiah is Man or God and whether we are not obliged to believe him to be God because Scripture has in divers places asserted his Divinity and because in the Form of Baptism by which we are made Christians He is represented as equal to God the Father if he should be answered That if those places meant any thing it must be some other Sence than we generally understand by them or at least that they do not require an actual Belief of that Doctrine to Salvation or that it is not material what we believe our Saviour to be so long as we acknowledge him to be the Messiah yet this would run him still into greater Perplexities and make him throw aside all in general rather than take up with such a Partial Religion For whatsoever is irreconcilable with all the parts of Revelation will never perswade any Considering Man to Embrace it that believes there is an Equal Authority from God for the whole Such a Scheme of Faith which our Author has drawn up I am afraid will give no better Satisfaction to those who are for searching the Scriptures to see whether these things are so The Holy Bible especially the New Testament is not so very large but that the Knowledge of it particularly where our Salvation is concern'd may be easily attain'd by the meanest Capacities Nor are there such Intricacies in the Matters of Faith but that a willing Mind may see sufficient Reason for assenting to them not because he can comprehend the Depths of them but because he perceives it is his Duty to Believe them since God that cannot Lie has assuredly Reveal'd them and made them necessary to be Believed in order to Salvation And why may not Almighty God that has contrived such a Salvation for us as our greatest Wisdom could never have discovered oblige us to the Belief of some things which our deepest Reasons cannot now comprehend Indeed we might with very great Reason complain if God had laid a necessity upon us of clearly Understanding whatsoever he has required of us to Believe I mean as to the Manner of it because he has not been pleased to explain the Manner But since all that he has enjoin'd us is only a firm Belief of whatsoever he has Reveal'd we ought in all Humility to submit our selves to his Wisdom and wait for a fuller Intuition into those Mysteries in the other World which we must be Ignorant of in this And there is no Question to be made but that a great many Things are hid from our present Views and which yet are required of us to be Believed on purpose to heighten our Desires after those higher Degrees of Knowledge which are particularly reserv'd for the next Life It seems indeed very plain that we are under an Obligation to make nothing more necessary to be Believed than what is clearly laid down in Scripture or necessarily to be drawn from it But this also is as certain that we ought not to deny any thing to be an Article of Faith which the Scripture has made such especially if it be clearly delivered For it is God's Word alone that must guide us in those Cases and it is as dangerous to detract from it as to add to it And thus I have Examined those Parts of the Reasonableness of Christianity which seem'd to me to be Erroneous as for those that treat of the Necessity of Revelation the Conditions of Repentance Good Works c. they seem to carry an Air of Piety along with them and to be writ with such strength of Judgment as may be suppos'd that the Author had thought more upon them than upon any other Parts of that Treatise FINIS POSTSCRIPT WHen these Papers were just coming Abroad there appear'd a Second Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. by the Author of it I was under Apprehension that some Arguments might be there propounded which ought to be consider'd But since I find they are chiefly directed against Mr. Edwards Reflections which tho' I have not Read I presume are different from these Observations by the Passages cited from them I did not think my self concern'd to examine them especially since they required more Time than the Press would allow If I have urged any Arguments that have been manag'd already by Others it is more than I knew What I have mention'd of Mr. Hobbs was with no Design to possess the Reader with Prejudices against the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity but only to shew that the same Doctrine had been maintain'd before our Author appear'd for it Tho' I don't believe he Borrow'd it from thence since he hath declared the contrary If in that or any thing else I have fall'n upon the same Notion with the Ingenious Author of the Occasional Paper Numb I. it is more than I did or could design since these Remarks were Drawn up long before that came Abroad ERRATA PAg. 4. lin 7. read in the Gospels p. 14. l. 28. r. reject them ibid. l. 33. r. Inspiration p. 20. l. 5. del it p. 35. l. 10. del the p. 44. in Not. r. commata p. 62. l. 1. r. Crimina p. 63. l. 12. for those are r. that is p. 69. l. 24. r. Apostle