to set down only the one first and leading Article and omit all the rest in instances where more were not only propos'd but believed and imbraced and upon that the Hearers and Believers admitted into the Church 'T is not for Historians to put any distinction between leading or not leading Articles But if they will give a true and useful account of the Religion whose Original they are writing and of the Converts made to it they must tell not one but all those necessary Articles upon assent to which Converts were Baptized into that Religion and admitted into the Church Whoever says otherwise accuses them of falsifying the Story misleading the Readers and giving a wrong account of the Religion which they pretend to teach the World and to preserve and propagate to future Ages This if it were so no pretence of conciseness could excuse or palliate There is yet remaining one Consideration which were sufficient of it self to convince us that it was the sole Article of Faith which was preach'd And that if there had been other Articles necessary to be known and believed by Converts they could not upon any pretence of conciseness be supposed to be omitted And that is the Commissions of those that were sent to Preach the Gospel Which since the Sacred Historians mention they cannot be suppos'd to leave out any of the material and main Heads of those Commissions St. Luke records it Ch. IV. 43. that our Saviour says of himself I must go unto the other Towns to tell the good news of the Kingdom for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon this Errand am I SENT This St. Mark calls simply Preaching This Preaching what it contain'd St. Matthew tells us Ch. IV. 23. And Iesus went about all Galilee teaching in their Synagogues and preaching the good news of the Kingdom and healing all manner of Sickness and all manner of Diseases amongst the People Here we have his Commission or End of his being sent and the Execution of it Both terminating in this that he declar'd the good News that the Kingdom of the Messiah was come and gave them to understand by the Miracles he did that he himself was he Nor does St. Matthew seem to affect such conciseness that he would have left it out if the Gospel had contained any other Fundamental Parts necessary to be believed to make Men Christians For he here says all manner of Sickness and all manner of Disease when either of them might have been better left out than any necessary Article of the Gospel to make his History concise We see what our Saviour was sent for In the next place let us look into the Commission he gave the Apostles when he sent them to Preach the Gospel We have it in the X. of St. Matthew in these words Go not into the way of the Gentiles and into any City of the Samaritans enter ye not But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel And as ye go PREACH SAYING THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND Heal the Sick cleanse the Lepers raise the Dead cast out Devils Freely have ye received freely give Provide neither Gold nor Silver nor Brass in your Purses nor Scrip in your journey neither two Coats neither Shooes nor yet Staves for the Workman is worthy of his meat And into whatsoever City or Town ye shall enter enquire who in it is worthy and there abide till ye go thence And when ye come into any house salute it And if the house be worthy let your peace come upon it But if it be not worthy let your peace return to you And whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your words When ye depart out of that house or City shake off the dust of your feet Verily I say unto you It shall be more tolerable for the Land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment than for that City Behold I send you forth as Sheep in the midst of Wolves Be ye therefore wise as Serpents and harmless as Doves But beware of Men for they will deliver you up to the Councils and they will scourge you in their Synagogues And ye shall be brought before Governours and Kings for my sake for a Testimony against them and the Gentiles But when they deliver you up take no thought how or what ye shall speak for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak For it is not ye that speak but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you And the Brother shall deliver up the Brother to Death and the Father the Child and the Children shall rise up against the Parents and cause them to be put to Death And ye shall be hated of all men for my Name 's sake But he that endureth to the end shall be saved But when they persecute you in this City flee ye into another For verily I say unto you ye shall not have gone over the Cities of Israel till the Son of man be come The Disciple is not above his Master nor the Servant above his Lord. It is enough for the Disciple that he be as his Master and the Servant as his Lord. If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of his houshold Fear them not therefore For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed and hid that shall not be known What I tell you in darkness that speak ye in light And what ye hear in the ear that preach ye upon the house tops And fear not them which kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul But rather fear him which is able to destroy both Soul and body in Hell Are not two Sparrows sold for a farthing And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father But the very hairs of your head are all numbred Fear ye not therefore ye are of more value than many Sparrows Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men him will I confess also before my Father which is in Heaven But whosoever shall deny me before men him will I also deny before my Father which is in Heaven Think not that I am come to send peace on Earth I came not to send peace but a sword For I am come to set a man at variance against his Father and the Daughter against her Mother and the Daughter-in Law against the Mother in Law And a man's foes shall be they of his own houshold He that loveth Father and Mother more than me is not worthy of me And he that loveth Son or Daughter more than me is not worthy of me And he that taketh not his Cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me He that findeth his life shall lose it And he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall
strain in his Book Only to shew how well he understands or represents my sense I shall set down my Words as they are in the Pages he quotes and his Inferences from them Vindicat. p. 22. Socin Unmask'd p. 108. I know not but it may be true that the Antitrinitarians and Racovians understand those places as I do But 't is more than I know that they do so I took not my sence of those Texts from those Writers but from the Scripture it self giving Light to its own meaning by one place compared with another What in this way appears to me its true meaning I shall not decline because I am told that it is so understood by the Racovians whom I never yet read nor embrace the contrary though the generality of Divines I more converse with should declare for it If the sence wherein I understand those Texts be a Mistake I shall be beholding to you if you will set me right But they are not popular Authorities or frightful Names whereby I judge of Truth or Falshood The professed Divines of England you must know are but a pitiful sort of Folks with this great Racovian Rabbi He tells us plainly that he is not mindful of what the generality of Divines declare for p. 22. He labours so concernedly to ingratiate himself with the Mobb the Multitude which he so often talks of that he hath no regard to these The generality of the Rabble are more considerable with him than the generality of Divines He tells me here of the Generality of Divines If he had said of the Church of England I could have understood him But he says The professed Divines of England And there being several sorts of Divines in England who I think do not every where agree in their Interpretations of Scripture which of them is it I must have regard to where they differ If he cannot tell me that he complains here of me for a Fault which he himself knows not how to mend Vindicat. p. 18. Socin Unmask'd p. 109. The list of Materials for his Creed for the Articles are not yet formed Mr. Edwards closes p. 111. with these words These are the Matters of Faith contain'd in the Epistles and they are Essential and Integral parts of the Gospel it self What just these neither more nor less l. 4. If you are sure of it pray let us have them speedily for the reconciling of Differences in the Christian Church which has been so cruelly torn about the Articles of the Christian Faith to the great Reproach of Christian Charity and Scandal of our true Religion This Author as demure and grave as he would sometimes seem to be can scoff at the matters of Faith contain'd in the Apostles Epistles p. 18. l. 4 c. Does the Vindicator here scoff at the Matters of Faith contain'd in the Epistles Or shew the vain Pretences of the Unmasker who undertakes to give us out of the Epistles a Collection of Fundamentals without being able to say whether those he sets down be all or no Vindicat. p. 33. Socin Unmask'd p. 110. I hope you do not think how contemptibly soever you speak of the Venerable Mob as you are pleas'd to dignifie them p. 117. that the bulk of Mankind or in your Phrase the Rabble are not concerned in Religion or ought not to understand it in order to their Salvation I remember the Pharisees treated the Common People with Contempt and said Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him But this People who knoweth not the Law are cursed But yet these who in the censure of the Pharisees were cursed were some of the Poor or if you please to have it so the Mob to whom the Gospel was Preach'd by our Saviour as he tells Iohns Disciples Mat. XI 5. To Coakse the Mob he prophanely brings in that place of Scripture Have any of the Rulers believed in him Where the Prophaneness of this is I do not see Unless some unknown Sacredness of the Unmasker's Person make it Prophaneness to shew that he like the Pharisees of old has a great contempt for the Common People i. e. the far greater part of Mankind as if they and their Salvation were below the regard of this elevated Rabbi But this of Prophaneness may be well born from him since in the next words my mentioning another part of his Carriage is no less than Irreligion Vindicat. p. 25. Socin Unmask'd p. 110. He prefers what I say to him my self to what is offer'd to him from the Word of God and makes me this Complement that I begin to mend about the close i. e. when I leave off quoting of Scripture and the dull Work was done of going through the History of the Evangelists and the Acts which he computes p. 105. to take up three Quarters of my Book Ridiculously and irreligiously he pretends that I prefer what he saith to me to what is offer'd to me from the Word of God p. 25. The Matter of Fact is as I relate it and so is beyond pretence and for this I refer the Reader to the 105. and 114. Pages of his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism But had I mistaken I know not how he could have call'd it Irreligiously Make the worst of it that can be how comes it to be Irreligious What is there Divine in an Vnmasker that one cannot pretend true or false that he prefers what I say to what is oâ—â—er'd him from the Word of God without doing it Irreligiously Does the very assuming the Power to deâ—ine Articles and determine who are and who are not Christians by a Creed not yet made erect an Unmasker presently into God's Throne and bestow on him the title of Dominus deusque noster whereby Offences against him come to be Irreligious Acts I have misrepresented his meaning Let it be so Where is the Irreligion of it Thus it is The Power of making a Religion for others and those that make Creeds do that being once got into any one's fancy must at last make all Oppositions to those Creeds and Creed-maker's Irreligion Thus we see in process of time it did in the Church of Rome But it was in length of time and by gentle degrees The Unmasker it seems cannot stay is in hast and at one jump leaps into the Chair He has given us yet but a piece of his Creed and yet that is enough to set him above the state of Humane Mistakes or Frailties and to mention any such thing in him is to do Irreligiously We may further see says the Unmasker p. 110. how counterfeit the Vindicator's Gravity is whil'st he condemns frothy and light Discourses p. 26. Vindic. And yet in many Pages together most irreverently treats a great part of the Apostolical Writings and throws aside the main Articles of Religion as unnecessary Answ. In my Vindic. p. 19. you may remember these words I require you to Publish to the World those Passages which shew my contempt
Proposition be never so regular from them it is all lost Labour This Conclusion is not the Proposition you were to prove Your Questions were why this Article is so often proposed And in those frequent repetitions why sometimes urged alone and why always proposed alone viz. to those whom either our Saviour or his Apostles invited to imbrace Christianity And your Answer is because the believing Iesus to be the Messias was the first step to Christianity This therefore remains upon you to be proved XXXII That because the believing Iesus to be the Messias is the first step to Christianity therefore this Article is frequently proposed in the New Testament Is sometimes proposed without the mentioning any other Article and always alone to Vnbelievers And when you have proved this I shall desire you to apply it to our present Controversie His next Answer to those Questions is in these words p. 76. That though this one Proposition or Article be mentioned alone in some places yet there is reason to think and be perswaded that at the same time other Matters of Faith were proposed From whence it lies upon him to make out this reasoning viz. XXXIII That because there is reason to think and be perswaded that at the same time that this one Article was mentioned alone as it was sometimes other Matters of Faith were propos'd Therefore this Article was often proposed in the New Testament Sometimes proposed alone and always proposed alone in the Preachings of our Saviour and his Apostles to Unbelievers This I set down to shew the force of his Answer to his Questions Supposing it to be true not that I grant it to be true That where this one Article is mentioned alone we have reason to think and be perswaded that at the same time other Matters of Faith i. e. Articles of Faith necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian were proposed And I doubt not but to shew the contrary His Third particular in Answer to the Question proposed in his Objection stands thus p. 76. That though there are several Parts and Members of the Christian Faith yet they do not all occur in any one place of the Scripture which Answer lays it upon him to prove XXXIV That because the several parts of the Members of the Christian Faith do not all occur in any one place of Scripture Therefore this Article That Jesus was the Messias was often proposed in the New Testament sometimes proposed alone and always proposed alone in the Preachings of our Saviour and his Apostles through the History of the Evangelists and the Acts. The Fourth and last Particular which he tells us is the main Answer to the Objection is in these words Pag. 78. That Christianity was erected by degrees Which requires him to make out this Argument viz. XXXV That because Christianity was erected by degrees Therefore this Article that Jesus was the Messias was often proposed in the New Testament sometimes proposed alone and always proposed alone in the Preachings of our Saviour and his Apostles to Unbelievers recorded in the History of the Evangelists and Acts. For as I said before in these three Questions he has put his Objection To which he tells us this is the main Answer Of these four Particulars it is that he says p. 74. To clear this Objection and to give a full and satisfactory Answer to all doubts in this Affair I offer these ensuing particulars which will lead the Reader to the right understanding of the whole case How well they have clear'd the Objection may be seen by barely setting them down as Answers to these Questions wherein he puts the Objection This is all I have hitherto done Whereby is very visible how well supposing them true they clear the Objection and how pertinently they are brought to answer those Questions wherein his Objection is contain'd Perhaps it will be said that neither these nor any thing else can be an apposite Answer to those Questions put so together I answer I am of the same mind But if the Unmasker through ignorance or shuffling will talk thus confusedly he must answer for it He calls all his three Questions one Objection over and over again And therefore which of those Questions it does or does not lie in I shall not trouble my self to divine Since I think he himself cannot tell For which ever he takes of them it will involve him in equal Difficulties I now proceed to examine his particulars themselves and the truth contain'd in them The first pag. 74. stands thus 1. The believing of Iesus to be the promised Messias was the first step to Christianity It was that which made way for the imbracing of all the other Articles a Passage to all the rest Answ. If this be as he would have it only the leading Article amongst a great many other equally necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian This is a reason why it should be constantly preach'd in the first place But this is no reason why this alone should be so often repeated and the other necessary Points not be once mention'd For I desire to know what those other Articles are that in the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles are repeated or urged besides this In the next place if it be true that this Article viz. That Iesus is the Messiah was only the first in order amongst a great many Articles as necessary to be believed how comes it to pass that barely upon the Proposal and believing of this Men were admitted into the Church as Believers The History of the New Testament is full of instances of this as Act. VIII 5. 12. 13. IX and in other places Though it be true what the Unmasker says here That if they did not give Credit to this in the first place that Iesus of Nazareth was that Eminent and Extraordinary Person propheâ—ied of long before and that he was sent and Commissioned by God there could be no hope that they would attend to any other Proposals relating to the Christian Religion yet what he subjoins That this is the true reason why that Article was constantly propounded to be believed by all that looked towards Christianity and why it is mention'd so often â—n the Evangelical Writing is not true For First this supposes that there were other Articles joyn'd with it This he should have first proved and then given the reason of it And not as he does here suppose what is in the Question and then give a reason why it is so and such a reason that is inconsistent with the Matter of Fact that is every where recorded in Holy Writ For if the true reason why the Preaching of this Article that Iesus was the Messiah as it is recorded in the History of the New Testament were only to make way for the other Articles one must needs think that either our Saviour and his Apostles with reverence be it spoken were very strange Preachers Or that the
Evangelists and Author of the Acts were very strange Historians The first were to instruct the World in a new Religion consisting of a great number of Articles says the Unmasker necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian i. e. a great number of Propositions making a large System every one whereof is so necessary for a Man to understand and believe that if any one be omitted he cannot be of that Religion What now did our Saviour and his Apostles do Why if the Unmasker may be believed they went up and down with danger of their Lives and Preach'd to the World What did they Preach Even this single Proposition to make way for the rest viz. This is the Eminent Man sent from God to teach you other things which amounts to no more but this That Iesus was the Person which was to teach them the true Religion but that true Religion it self is not to be found in all their Preaching nay scarce a word of it Can there be any thing more ridiculous than this And yet this was all they Preach'd if it be true that this was all which they meant by the Preaching every where Iesus to be the Messiah And if it were only an Introduction and a making way for the Doctrines of the Gospel But it is plain it was called the Gospel it self Let the Unmasker as a true Successor of the Apostles go and Preach the Gospel as the Apostles did to some part of the Heathen World where the Name of Christ is not known Would not he himself and every body think he was very foolishly imploy'd if he should tell them nothing but this that Iesus was the Person promised and sent from God to reveal the true Religion But should teach them nothing of that true Religion but this Preliminary Article Such the Unmasker makes all the Preaching recorded in the New Testament for the Conversion of the Unbelieving World He makes the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles to be no more but this that the great Prophet promised to the World was come and that Iesus was he But what his Doctrine was that they were silent in and taught not one Article of it But the Unmasker mis-represents it For as to his accusing the Historians the Evangelists and Writers of the Acts of the Apostles for their shameful omission of the whole Doctrine of the Christian Religion to save his Hypothesis as he does under his next Head in these words That though this one Proposition be mention'd alone in some places yet there is reason to think and be perswaded that at the same time other Matters of Faith were proposed I shall shew how bold he makes with those inspired Historians when I come to consider that particular How ridiculous how senseless this bold Unmasker and Reformer of the History of the New Testament makes the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles as it stands recorded of them by infallible Writers is visible But taking it as in truth it is there we shall have a quite other view of it Our Saviour Preach'd every where the Kingdom of God and by his Miracles declar'd himself to be the King of that Kingdom The Apostles Preached the same and after his Ascension openly avowed him to be the Prince and Saviour promis'd But Preach'd not this as a bare Speculative Article of simple belief But that Men might receive him for their King and become his Subjects When they told the World that he was the Christ it was not as the Unmasker will have it Believe this Man to be a Prophet and then he will teach you his new Religion which when you have received and imbraced all and every Article thereof which are a great number you will then be Christians if you be not ignorant or incredulous of any of them But it was Believe this Man to be your King sent from God Take him for such with a resolution to observe the Laws he has given you and you are his Subjects you are Christians For those that truly did so made themselves his Subjects And to continue so there was no more required than a sincere endeavour to know his Will in all things and to obey it Such a Preaching as this of Iesus to be the Messiah the King and Deliverer that God Almighty had promised to Mankind and now had effectually sent to be their Prince and Ruler was not a simple preparation to the Gospel But when received with the Obedience of Faith was the very receiving of the Gospel and had all that was requisite to make Men Christians And without it be so understood no body can clear the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles from that incredible Impersection or their Historians from that unpardonable negligence and not doing either what they ought or what they undertook which our Unmasker hath so impiously charged upon them as will appear yet plainer in what I have to say to the Vnmasker's next Particular For as to the remainder of this Paragraph it contains nothing but his censure and contempt of me for not being of his Mind for not seeing as he sees i. e. in effect not laying that blame which he does either on the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles or on the inspired Writings of their Historians to make them comply with his System and the Christianity he would make The Unmasker 's Second Particular p. 76. tells us That though this One Proposition or Article be mention'd alone in some places yet there is reason to think and be perswaded that at the same time other Matters of Faith were proposed For it is confess'd by all intelligent and observing Men that the History of the Scripture is concise and that in relating of Matter of Fact many Passages are omitted by the Sacred Penmen Wherefore though but this one Article of belief because it is a Leading one and makes way for the rest be expresly mention'd in some of the Gospels yet we must not conclude thence that no other Matter of Faith was requir'd to be admitted of For things are briefly set down in the Evangelical Records and we must suppose many things which are not in direct terms related Answ. The Vnmasker here keeps to his usual custom of speaking in doubtful terms He says that where this one Article that Iesus is the Messiah is alone recorded in the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles We have reason to be perswaded that at the same time other Matters of Faith were propos'd If this be to his purpose by Matters of Faith must be meant Fundamental Articles of Faith absolutely necessary to be believed by every Man to make him a Christian. That such Matters of Faith are omitted in the History of the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles by the Sacred Historians this he says we have reason to be perswaded of Answ. They need be good Reasons to perswade a rational Man that the Evangelists in their History of our Saviour and his
as many as there be and yet find but one Or a Man may set himself to find but one and yet find two or more It is no Argument from what a Man has found to prove what was his main Work to find unless where his aim was only to find what there was whether more or less For a Writer may find the Reputation of a poor contemptible Railer Nay of a downright impudent Lyar and yet no body will think it was his main work to find that Therefore Sir if you will not find what 't is like you did not seek you must prove those many confident Assertions you have published which I shall give you in tale whereof this is the second viz. II. That the main Business I set my self about was to find but one Article of Faith In the following part of this Sentence he quotes my own words with the Pages where they are to be found The first time that in either of his two Books against me he has vouchsafed to do so concerning one Article wherewith he has made so much noise My words in pag. 192. of my Reasonableness of Christianity stand thus For that this is the sole Doctrine pressed and required to be believed in the whole tenor of our Saviour's and his Apostles preaching we have shew'd through the whole History of the Evanlists and Acts and I challenge them to shew that there was any other Doctrine upon their assent to which or disbelief of it Men were pronounced Believers or Unbelievers and accordingly received into the Church of Christ as Members of his Body as far as mere Believing could make them so or else kept out This was the only Gospel Article of Faith which was preached to them Out of this Passage the Unmasker sets down these words This is the SOLE Doctrine pressed and required to be believed in the whole tenor of our Saviour's and his Apostles preaching p. 129. this was the ONLY Gospel Article of Faith which was preach'd to them I shall pass by all other Observations that this way of citing these words would suggest and only remark that if he brought these words to prove the immediately preceding Assertion of his viz. That to find but one Article of Faith was the main Work I set my self about This Argument reduced into form will stand thus He who says that this is the sole Doctrine pressed and required to be believed in the whole tenor of our Saviour's and his Apostles Preaching upon their assent to which or disbelief of it Men were pronounced Believers or Unbelievers and accordingly received into the Church of Christ as Members of his Body as far as mere believing could make them so or else kept out sets himself to find out but One Article of Faith as his main Work But the Vindicator did so Ergo If this were the use he would make of those words of mine cited I must desire him to prove the major But he talks so freely and without book every where that I suppose he thought himself by the Privilege of a Declaimer exempt from being called strictly to an Account for what he so loosely says and from proving what he should be called to Account for Rail lustily is a good Rule something of it will stick true or false proved or not proved If he alledges these words of mine to answer my Demand Vind. p. 27. where he found that I contended for one single Article of Faith with the exclusion and defiance of all the rest which he had charged me with I say it proves this as little as the former For to say That I had shew'd through the whole History of the Evangelists and the Acts that this is the sole Doctrine or only Gospel-Article pressed and required to be believed in the whole Tenor of our Saviour and his Apostles Preaching upon their assent to which or disbelieving of it Men were pronounced Believers or Unbelievers and accordingly received into the Church of Christ or kept out is the simple Assertion of a positive Matter of Fact and so carries in it no defiance no nor exclusion of any othâ—r Doctrinal or Historical Truth contained in the Scripture And therefore it remains still on the Unmasker to shew where 't is I express any deâ—iance of any other Truth contain'd in the Word of God or where I exclude any one Doctrine of the Scriptures So that if it be true that I contend for one Article my Contention may be without any defiance or so much as exclusion of any of the rest notwithstanding any thing contained in these words Nay if it should happen that I am in a mistake and that this was not the sole Doctrine which our Saviour and his Apostles preached and upon their assent to which Men were admitted into the Church yet the Unmasker's Accusation would be never the truer for that unless it be necessary that he that mistakes in one Matter of Fact should be at defiance with all other Truths or that he who erroneously says that our Saviour and his Apostles admitted Men into the Church upon the believing him to be the Messiah does thereby exclude all other Truths published to the Jews before or to Christian Believers afterwards If these words be brought to prove that I contended for one Article barely one Article without any defiance or exclusion annext to that Contention I say neither do they prove that as is manifest from the words themselves as well as from what I said elsewhere concerning the Article of One God For here I say this is the only Gospel-Article c. upon which Men were pronounced Believers which plainly intimates some other Article known and believed in the World before and without the Preaching of the Gospel To this the Unmasker thinks he has provided a Salvo in these words Socinianism Unmask'd pag. 6. And when I told him of this one Article he knew well enough that I did not exclude the Article of the Deity for that is a Principle of Natural Religion If it be fit for an Unmasker to perceive what is in debate he would know that the Question is not what he excluded or excluded not but what Articles he charged me to have excluded Taking it therefore to be his meaning which it must be if he meant any thing to the purpose viz. That when he charged me so often and positively for contesting for one Article viz. that Iesus was the Messiah he did not intend to accuse me for excluding the Article of the Deity To prove that he did not so intend it he tells me that I knew that he did not Answ. How should I know it he never told me so either in his Book or otherwise This I know that he said pag. 115. That I contended for one Article with the exclusion of all the rest If then the belief of the Deity be an Article of Faith and be not the Article of Iesus being the Messiah it is one of the rest and if all the rest were
excluded certainly that being one of All the rest must be excluded How then he could say I knew that he excluded it not i. e. meant not that I excluded it when he positively says I did exclude it I cannot tell unless he thought that I knew him so well that when he said one thing I knew that he meant another and that the quite contrary He now it seems acknowledges that I affirmed that the Belief of the Deity as well as of Iesus being the Messiah was required to make a Man a Believer The Believing in one God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth is one Article and in Iesus Christ his only Son our Lord is another Article These therefore being two Articles and both asserted by me to be required to make a Man a Christian let us see with what truth or ingenuity the Unmasker could apply besides that above-mention'd these following Expressions to me as he does without any exception Why then must there be one Article and no more pag. 115. Going to make a Religion for his Mermidons he contracts all into one Article and will trouble them with no more pag. 117. Away with Systems away with Creeds let us have but one Article though it be with the defiance of all the rest pag. 118. Thus we see why he reduces all Belief to that one Article before rehearsed pag. 120. And all this without any the least Exception of the Article of a Deity as he now pretends Nor could he indeed as is evident from his own words pag. 121 122. To conclude This Gentleman and his Fellows are resolved to be Unitarians they are for one Article of Faith as well as one Person in the Godhead But if these learned Men were not prejudiced they would perceive that when the Catholick Faith is thus brought down to one single Article it will soon be reduced to none the Unite will dwindle into a Cypher By which the Reader may see that his Intention was to persuade the World that I reduced ALL BELIEF the CATHOLICK FAITH they are his own words to One Single Article and no more For if he had given but the least hint that I allowed of Two all the wit and strength of Argument contained in Unitarians Unite and Cypher with which he winds up all had been utterly lost and dwindled into palpable Nonsence To demonstrate that this was the sence he would be understood in we are but to observe what he says again pag. 50. of his Socinianism Unmask'd where he tells his Readers That I and my Friends have new-modell'd the Apostles Creed yea indeed have presented them with ONE Article instead of TWELVE And hence we may see what Sincerity there is in the Reason he brings to prove that he did not exclude the Article of the Deity For says he p. 6. That is a Principle of Natural Religion Answ. Ergo He did not in positive words without any exception say I reduced All Belief the Catholick Faith to one single Article and no more But to make good his Promise not to resemble me in the little Artifices of Evading he wipes his Mouth and says at the bottom of this Page But the Reader sees his the Vindicator's shuffling Whilst the Article of One God is a part of ALL Belief a part of the Catholick Faith ALL which he affirm'd I excluded but the one Article concerning the Messiah every one will see where the shuffling is And if it be not clear enough from those words themselves let those above quoted out of pag. 50. of his Socinianism Unmask'd where he says That I have new-modell'd the Apostles Creed and presented the World with ONE Article instead of TWELVE be an Interpretation of them For if the Article of One Eternal God Maker of Heaven and Earth be one of the Article of the Apostles Creed and the one Article I presented them with be not that 't is plain he did and would be understood to mean that by my one Article I excluded that of the One Eternal God which Branch soever of Religion either Natural or Revealed it belongs to I do not endeavour to persuade the Reader as he says p. 6. that he misunderstood me but yet every body will see that he mis-represented me And I challenge him to say that those Expressions above quoted out of him concerning One Article in the obvious sence of the words as they stand in his Accusation of me were true This flies so directly in his Face that he labours mightily to get it off and therefore adds these words My Discourse did not treat neither doth his Book run that way of Principles of Natural Religion but of the Revealed and particularly the Christian Accordingly this was it which I taxed him with That of all the Principles and Articles of Christianity he chose out but One as necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian. Answ. His Book was of Atheism which one may think should make his Discourse treat of Natural Religion But I pass by that and bid him tell me where he taâ—ed me That of all the Principles and Articles of Christianity I chose out but One Let him shew in all his Discourse but such a word or any thing said like one Article of Christianity and I will grant that he meant particularly but spoke generally misled his Reader and left himself a Subterfuge But if there be no Expression to be found in him tending that way all this is but the covering of one Falshood with another which thereby only becomes the grosser Though if he had in express words taxed me That of all the Principles and Articles of the Christian Religion I chose out but one that would not at all help him till he further declares that the Belief of One God is not an Article of the Christian Religion For of ALL the Articles of the Christian Religion he says I chose but One which not being that of a Deity his words plainly import that that was left out among the rest unless it be possible for a Man to chuse but One Article of the Christian Religion viz. That Iesus is the Messiah and at the same time to chuse Two Articles of the Christian Religion viz. That there is One Eternal God and that Iesus is the Messiah If he had spoken clearly and like a fair Man he should have said That he taxed me with chusing but One Article of Revealed Religion That had been plain and direct to his purpose But then he knew the Falshood of it would be too obvious for in the seven Pages wherein he taxes me so much with One Article Christianity is several times named though not once to the purpose he here pretends But Revelation is not so much as once mentioned in them nor as I remember in any of the Pages he bestows upon me To conclude the several Passages above quoted out of him concerning one sole Article are all in general terms without any the least limitation
I would advise him not to seek Preferment For Exclusions will happen and if every Exclusion be Defiance a Man had need be well assured of his own good Temper who shall not think his Peace and Charity in danger amongst so many Enemies that are at defiance with him Defiance if with any propriety it can be spoken of an Article of Faith must signifie a professed Enmity to it For in its proper use which is to Persons it signifies an open and declared Enmity raised to that height that he in whom it is challenges the Party defied to Battle that may there wreek his hatred on his Enemy in his Destruction So that my Defiance of all the rest remains still to be proved But Secondly There is another thing manifest from these words of his viz. That notwithstanding his great Brags in his first Paragraph his main Skill lies in â—ansying what would be for his turn and then confidently fathering it upon me It never enter'd into my Thoughts nor I think into any body's else I must always except the acute Unmasker who makes no difference between Useful and Necessary that all but the fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith were useless to make a Man a Christian though if it be true that the Belief of the Fundamentals alone be they few or many is all that is necessary to his being made a Christian all that may any way persuade him to believe them may certainly be useful towards the making him a Christian And therefore here again I must propose to him and leave it with him to be shew'd Where it is VI. I have represented all the rest as useless to the making a Man a Christian And How it appears that this is the design of my whole Undertaking In his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism he says pag. 115. what makes him contend for one single Article with the exclusion of all the rest He pretends it is this that all Men ought to understand their Religion This reasoning I disowned p. 26. of my Vindication and intimated p. 27. that he should have quoted the Page where I so pretended To this p. 26. he tells me with great confidence and in abundance of words as we shall see by and by that I had done so As if repetition were a Proof He had done better to have quoted one place where I so pretend Indeed p. 27. for want of something better he quotes these words of mine out of p. 301. of the Reasonableness of Christianity The all merciful God seems herein to have consulted the poor of this World and the bulk of Mankind THESE ARE ARTICLES that the labouring and illiterate Man may comprehend I ask whether it be possible for one to bring any thing more direct against himself The thing he was to prove was That I contended for one single Article with the exclusion of all the rest because I pretended that all Men ought to understand their Religion i. e. The Reason I gave why there was to be but one single Article in Religion with the exclusion of all the rest was because Men ought to understand their Religion and the place he brings to prove my contending upon that ground for one single Article with the exclusion of all the rest is a passage wherein I speak of more than one Article and say these Articles Whether I said These Articles properly or improperly it matters not in the present case and that we have examin'd in another place 't is plain I meant more than one Article when I said these Articles and did not think that the labouring and illiterate Man could not understand them if they were more than one And therefore I pretended not that there must be but one because by illiterate Men more than one could not be understood The rest of this Paragraph is nothing but a repetition of the same Assertion without Proof which with the Unmasker often passes for a way of proving but with no body else But that I may keep that distance which he boasts there is betwixt his and my way of writing I shall not say this without Proofs One instance of his repetition of which there is such plenty in his Book pray take here His Business p. 26. is to prove that I pretended that I contended for one single Article with the exclusion of all the rest because all Men ought to understand their Religion Pag. 27. of my Vindication I denied that I had so pretended To convince me that I had thus he proceeds Unmasker He founds his Conceit of one Article partly upon this thaâ— a multitude of Doctrines is obscure and hard to be understood Answer You say it and had said it before But I ask you as I did before where I did so Unm. And therefore he trusses all up in one Article that the poor People and bulk of Mankind may bear it Answ. I desire again to know where I made that Inference and argued so for one Article Unm. This is the scope of a great part of his Book Answ. This is saying again shew it once Unm. But his Memory does not keep pace with his Invention and thence he says he remembers nothing of this in his Book Vind. p. 27. Answ. This is to say that it is in my Book You have said it more than once already I demand of you to shew me where Unm. This worthy Writer does not know his own reasoning that he uses Answ. I ask where does he use that reasoning Unm. As particularly thus that he troubles Christian Men with no more but one Article BECAUSE that is intelligible and all people high and low may comprehend it Answ. We have heard it affirm'd by you over and over again but the question still is where is that way of arguing to be found in my Book Unm. For he has chosen out as he thinks a plain and easie Article Whereas the others which are commonly propounded are not generally agreed on he saith and are dubious and uncertain But the believing that Iesus was the Messiah has nothing of doubtfulness or obscurity in it Answ. The word For in the beginning of this Sentence makes it stand for one of your Reasons though it be but a repetition of the same thing in other words Unm. THIS the Reader will find to be the drift and design of several of his Pages Answ. This must signifie that I trouble Men with no more but one Article because one only is intelligible and then it is but a Repetition If any thing else be meant by the word This it is nothing to the purpose For that I said that all things necessary to be believed are plain in Scripture and easie to be understood I never denied And should be very sorry and recant it if I had Unm. And the reason why I did not quote any single one of them was because he insists on it so long together and spins it out after his way in p. 301. of his Reasonableness of
Christianity where he sets down the short plain easie and intelligible Summary as he calls it of Religion couch'd in a single Article He immediately adds The Allâ—merciful God seems herein to have consulted the Poor of this World and the Bulk of Mankind these are Articles whereas he had set down but one that the labouring and illiterate Man may comprehend Answ. If my insisting on it so long together was the cause why in your Thoughts of the Causes of Atheism you did not quote any single Passage methinks here in your Socinianism Unmask'd where you knew it was expected of you my insisting on it as you say so long together might have afforded at least one Quotation to your purpose Unm. He assigns this as a Ground why it was God's Pleasure that there should be but ONE POINT of Faith BECAUSE thereby Religion may be understood the better the generality of the People may comprehend it Answ. I hear you say it again but want a Proof still and ask where I assign that Ground Unm. This he represents as a great Kindness done by God to Man whereas the variety of Articles would be hard to be understood Answ. Again the same Cabbage an Affirmation but no Proof Unm. This he enlarges upon and flourishes it over after his fashion and yet he desires to know when he said so p. 29. Vindic. Answ. And if I did Let the World here take a Sample of the Unmasker's Ability or Truth who spends above two whole Pages 26 27. in repetitions of the same Assertion without the producing any but one place for Proof and that too against him as I have shewn But he has not yet done with confounding me by dint of repetition he goes on Unm. Good Sir let me be permitted to acquaint you that your Memory is as defective as your Iudgment Answ. I thank you for the regard you have had to it for often repetition is a good help to a bad memory In requital I advise you to have some eye to your own Memory and Iudgment too For one or both of them seem a little to blame in the reason you subjoyn to the foregoing words viz. Unm. For in the very Vindication you attribute it to the goodness and condescention of the Almighty that he requires nothing as absolutely necessary to be believed but what is suited to vulgar capacities and the comprehension of illiterate Men. Answ. I will for the Unmasker's sake put this Argument of his into a Syllogism If the Vindicator in his Vindication attributes it to the goodness and condescenssion of the Almighty that he requires nothing to be believed but what is suited to vulgar Capacities and the comprehension of illiterate Men then he did in his Reasonableness of Christianity pretend that the reason why he contended for one Article with the exclusion of all the rest was because all Men ought to understand their Religion But the Vindicator in his Vindication attributes it to the goodness and condescention of Almighty God that he requires nothing to be believed but what is suited to vulgar Capacities and the comprehension of illiterate Men. Ergo in his Reasonableness of Christianity he pretended that the reason why he contended for one Article with the exclusion of all the rest was because all Men ought to understand their Religion This was the Proposition to be proved and which as he confesses here p. 26. I denied to remember to be in my Reasonableness of Christianity Who can but admire his Logick But besides the strength of Iudgment which you have shew'd in this clear cogent reasoning does not your Memory too deserve its due applause You tell me in your Socinianism Unmask'd that in p. 29. of my Vindication I desired to know when I said so To which desire of mine you reply in these words before cited Good Sir Let me be permitted to acquaint you that your Memory is as defective as your Iudgment for in the very Vindication you attribute it to the goodness and condescention of the Almighty that he requires nothing as absolutely necessary to be believed but what is suited to vulgar Capacities and the comprehension of illiterate Men p. 30. Sure the Unmasker thinks himself at cross questions I ask him in the 29th Page of my Vindication WHEN I said so And he answers that I had said so in the 30th Page of my Vindication i. e. when I writ the 29th Page I asked the question when I had said what he charg'd me with saying and I am answer'd I had said it in the 30th Page which was not yet written i. e. I ask the question to day WHEN I had said so and I am answer'd I had said it to Morrow As apposite and convincing an Answer to make good his charge as if he had said to Morrow I found a Horse-shooe But perhaps this judicious Disputant will ease himself of this difficulty by looking again into the 29th p. of my Vindication out of which he cites these words for mine I desire to know WHEN I said so But my words in that place are I desire to know WHERE I said so a mark of his exactness in quoting when he vouchsafes to do it For Unmaskers when they turn Disputants think it the best way to talk at large and charge home in generals But do not often find it convenient to quote Pages set down words and come to particulars But if he had quoted my words right his Answer had been just as pertinent For I ask him WHERE in my Reasonableness of Christianity I had said so And he answers I had said so in my Vindication For where in my question refers to my Reasonableness of Christianity which the Unmasker had seen and charged with this saying and could not referr to my Vindication which he had not yet seen nor to a passage in it which was not then written But this is nothing with an Unmasker therefore what is yet worse those words of mine Vindic. p. 29. relate not to the passage he is here proving I had said but to another different from it as different as it is to say that because all Men are to understand their Religion therefore there is to be but One Article in it And to say that there must be nothing in Christianity that is not plain and exactly levell'd to all Mens Mother Wit Both which he falsly charges on me but 't is only to the latter of them that my words I desire to know where I said so are apply'd Perhaps the well-meaning Man sees no difference between these two Propositions yet I shall take the liberty to ask him again where I said either of them as if they were two although he should accuse me again of excepting against the formality of words and doing so foolish a thing as to expect that a disputing Unmasker should account for his words or any Proposition he advances 'T is his privilege to plead he did not mean as his words import and without any more ado
he is assoil'd and he is the same Unmasker he was before But let us hear him out on the Argument he was upon for his repetitions on it are not yet done His next words are Unm. It is clear then that you found your ONE Article on this that it is suited to the vulgar Capacities Whereas the other Articles mentioned by me are obscure and ambiguous and therefore surpass the comprehension of the illiterate Answ. The latter part indeed is now the first time imputed to me But all the rest is nothing but an unproved repetition though usher'd in with it is clear then words that should have a Proof going before them Unm. But yet you pretend that you have forgot that any such thing was said by you Answ. I have indeed â—orgot and notwithstanding all your pains by so many repetitions to beat it into my Head I fear I shall never remember it Unm. Which shews that you are careless of your words and that you forget what you write Answ. So you told me before and this repeating of it does no more convince me than that did Unm. What shall we say to such an oblivious Author Answ. Shew it him in his Book or else he will never be able to remember that it is there nor any body else bâ— able to find it Unm. He takes no notice of what falls from his own Pen. Answ. So you have told him more than once Try him once with shewing it him amongst other things which fell from his own Pen and see what then he will say That perhaps may refresh his Memory Unm. And therefore within a Page or two he confutes himself and gives himself the Lye Answ. 'T is a Fault he deserves to be told of over and over again But he says he shall not be able to find the two Pages wherein he gives himself the Lye unless you set down their Numbers and the words in them which confute and which are consuted I beg my Reader 's pardon for laying before him so large a pattern of our Unmasker's new fashioned Stuff his fine Tissue of argumentation not easily to be match'd but by the same Hand But it lay altogether in p. 26 27 28. and it was fit the Reader should have this one instance of the Excellencies he promises in his first Paragraph in opposition to my Impertinencies Incoherencies weak and feeble struglings Other Excellencies he there promised upon the same ground which I shall give my Reader a tast of in fit places Not but that the whole is of a piece and one cannot miss some of them in every Page But to transcribe them all would be more than they are worth If any one desires more plenty I send him to his Book it self But saying a thousand times not being proving once it remains upon him still to shew VII Where in my Reasonableness of Christianity I pretend that I contend for one single Article with the exclusion of all the rest because all Men ought to understand their Religion And in the next place where it is that I say VIII That there must be nothing in Christianity that is not plain and exactly level to all Mens Mother Wit Let us now return to his 8th Page For the bundling together as was fit all that he has said in distant places upon the Subject of One Articl has made me trespass a little against the Iewish Character of a well-bred Man recommended by him to me out of the Mishna Though I propose to my self to follow him as near as I can step by step as he proceeds In the 110th and 111th Pages of his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism he gave us a List of his Fundamental Articles Upon which I thus applied my self to him Vind. p. 5. Give me leave now to ask you seriously whether these you have here set down under the title of Fundamental Doctrines are such when reduced to Propositions that every one of them is required to make a Man a Christian and such as without the actual belief thereof he cannot be saved If they are not so every one of them you may call them Fundamental Doctrines as much as you please they are not of those Doctrines of Faith I was speaking of which are only such as are required to be actually believed to make a Man a Christian And again Vindic. p. 18. I asked him whether just these neither more nor less were those necessary Articles To which we have his Answer Socinianism Unmask'd p. 8 c. From p. 8. to 20. he has quoted near Forty Texts of Scripture of which he saith p. 21. Thus I have briefly set before the Reader those Evangelical Truths those Christian Principles which belong to the very Essence of Christianity I have proved them to be such and I have reduced most of them to certain Propositions which is a thing the Vindicator called for Answ. Yes But that was not all the Vindicator called for and had reason to expect For I asked whether those the Unmasker gave us in his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism were the Fundamental Doctrines without an actual Belief whereof a Man could not be a Christian just all neither more nor less This I had reason to demand from him or from any one who questions that part of my Book and I shall insist upon till he does it or confesses he cannot For having set down the Articles which the Scripture upon a diligent search seem'd to me to require as necessary and only necessary I shall not lose my time in examining what another says against those Fundamentals which I have gather'd out of the Preachings of our Saviour and his Apostles till he gives me a List of his Fundamentals which he will bide by that so by comparing them together I may see which is the true Catalogue of Necessaries For after so serious and diligent a search which has given me Light and Satisfaction in this great Point I shall not quit it and set my self on float again at the demand of any one who would have me be of his Faith without telling me what it is Those Fundamentals the Scripture has so plainly given and so evidently determin'd that it would be the greatest folly imaginable to part with this Rule for asking and give up my self blindly to the Conduct of one who either knows not or will not tell me what are the Points necessary to be believed to make me a Christian. He that shall find fault with my Collection of Fundamentals only to unsettle me and not to give me a better of his own I shall not think worth minding till like a fair Man he puts himself upon equal terms and makes up the Defects of mine by a compleat one of his own For a deficiency or error in one necessary is as fatal and as certainly excludes a Man from being a Christian as in an hundred When any one offers me a compleat Catalogue of his Fundamentals he does not unreasonably demand me
necessary to be believed till there be some other way found to distinguish them than that they are in a Book which is all of Divine Revelation Though therefore Doctrines of Faith and Rules of Practice are very distinguishable in the Epistles yet it does not follow from thence that Fundamental and not Fundamental Doctrines Points necessary and not necessary to be believed to make Men Christians are easily distinguishable in the Epistles Which therefore remains to be proved And it remains incumbent upon him XVIII To set down the Marks whereby the Doctrines deliver'd in the Epistles may easily and exactly be distinguished into Fundamental and not Fundamental Articles of Faith All the rest of that Paragraph containing nothing against me must be bound up with a great deal of the like stuff which the Unmasker has put into his Book to shew the World he does not imitate me in Impertinencies Incoherences and trifling Excursions as he boasts in his first Paragraph Only I shall desire the Reader to take the whole Passage concerning this Matter as it stands in my Reasonableness of Christianity p. 295. I do not deny but the great Doctrines of the Christian Faith are dropt here and there and scatter'd up and down in most of them But 't is not in the Epistles we are to learn what are the Fundamental Articles of Faith where they are promiscuously and without distinction mixed with other Truths and Discourses which were though for Edification indeed yet only occasional We shall find and discern those great and necessary Points best in the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles to those who were yet Strangers and ignorant of the Faith to bring them in and convert them to it And then let him read these words which the Unmasker has quoted out of them It is not in the Epistles that we are to learn what are the Fundamental Articles of Faith they were written for the resolving of Doubts and reforming of Mistakes With his Introduction of them in these words He commands the Reader not to stir a jot further than the Acts. If I should ask him where that Command appears he must have recourse to his old shift that he did not mean as he said or else stand Convicted of a malicious Untruth An Orator is not bound to speak strict Truth though a Disputant be But this Unmasker's Writing against me will excuse him from being of the latter And then why may not Falshoods pass for Rhetorical flourishes in one who hath been used to popular Haranguing to which Men are not generally so severe as strictly to examine them and expect that they should always be found to contain nothing but precise Truth and strict Reasoning But yet I must not forget to put upon his Score this other Proposition of his which he has p. 42. and ask him to shew XIX Where it is that I command my Reader not to stir a jot farther than the Acts In the next two Paragraphs p. 42. 46. The Unmasker is at his natural Play of Declaiming without Proving 'T is pity the Mishna out of which he takes his good breeding as it told him that a well-bred and well-taught Man answers to the first in the first place had not given him this Rule too about Order viz. That Proving should go before Condemning Else all the fierce Exaggerations ill Language can heap up are but empty Scurility But 't is no wonder that the Iewish Doctors should not provide Rules for a Christian Divine turn'd Unmasker For where a Cause is to be maintain'd and a Book to be writ and Arguments are not at hand yet something must be found to fill it Railing in such cases is much easier than Reasoning especially where a Man's Parts lie that way The first of these Paragraphs p. 42. he begins thus But let us hear further what this Vindicator saith to excuse his rejection of the Doctrines contained in the Epistles and his putting us off with one Article of Faith And then he quotes these following words of mine What if the Author designed his Treatise as the Title shews chiefly for those who were not yet throughly and firmly Christians purposing to work upon those who either wholly disbelieved or doubted of the Truth of the Christian Religion Answ. This as he has put it is a downright Falshood For the words he quotes were not used by me to excuse my rejection of the Doctrines contained in the Epistles or to prove there was but one Article But as a reason why I omitted the mention of Satisfaction To demonstrate this I shall set down the whole Passage as it is p. 6. of my Vindication where it runs thus But what will become of me that I have not mention'd Satisfaction Possibly this Reverend Gentleman would have had Charity enough for a known Writer of the Brotherhood to have found it by an Innuendo in those words above quoted of laying down his Life for another But every thing is to be strained here the other way For the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. is of necessity to be represented as a Socinian Or else his Book may be read and the Truths in it which Mr. Edwards likes not be received and People put upon examining Thus one as full of happy Conjectures and Suspitions as this Gentleman might be apt to argue But what if the Author designed his Treatise as the Title shews chiefly for those who were not yet throughly or firmly Christians Proposing to work on those who either wholly disbelieved or doubted of the Truth of the Christian Religion To this he tells me p. 43. that my Title says nothing for me i. e. shews not that I designed my Book for those that disbelieved or doubted of the Christian Religion Answ. I thought that a title that professed the Reasonableness of any Doctrine shew'd it was intended for those that were not â—ully satisfied of the Reasonableness of it unless Books are to be writ to convince those of any thing who are convinced already But possibly this may be the Unmasker's way And if one should judge by his manner of treating this Subject with Declamation instead of Argument one would think that he meant it for no body but those who were of his Mind already I thought therefore The Reasonableness of Christianity as deliver'd in the Scripture a proper Title to signifie whom it was chiefly meant for And I thank God I can with satisfaction say it has not wanted its effect upon some of them But the Unmasker proves for all that that I could not design it chiefly for Disbelievers or Doubters of the Christian Religion For says he p. 43. How those that wholly disregard and disbelieve the Scriptures of the New Testament as Gentiles Iews Mahometans and Atheists do I crave leave to put in Theists instead of Atheists for a reason presently to be mention'd are like to attend to the Reasonableness of Christianity as deliver'd in the Scripture is not to be conceived
And therefore we look upon this as all meer Sham and Sophistry Answ. Though the Unmasker teaches good breeding out of the Mishna yet I thought he had been a Minister of the Gospel and had taught Christianity out of the Scripture Why Good Sir would you teach Iews and Mahometans Christianity out of the Talmud and Alcoran because they are the Books that at present they attend to and believe Or would you laying by the Authority of all Books Preach Religion to Infidels in your own Name and by your own Authority laying aside the Scripture Is it not to be conceived no not by a Christian Divine that the way to make Unbelievers Christians is to shew them the Reasonableness of the Religion contained in the Scripture But it seems the Unmasker has a peculiar way of Preaching and propagating Christianity without the Scripture as some Men have a peculiar way of disputing without Reason In the beginning of this Paragraph p. 43. the Unmasker that is always a fair Interpreter of my meaning and never fails to know it better than I do tells me That by those that wholly disbelieve I must mean Atheists Turks Iews and Pagans and by those that are not firmly Christians a few weak Christians But did our Unmasker never hear of Unbelievers under a denomination distinct from that of Atheists Turks Iews and Pagans Whilst the Pulpit and the Press have so often had up the Name of Theists or Deists has that Name wholly scaped him 'T was these I chiefly designed and I believe no body of all that read my Vindication but the Unmasker mistook me if he did But there at least p. 9. he might have found the Name as of a sort of Unbelievers not unknown amongst us But whatever he thought it was convenient and a sort of Prudence in him when he would perswade others that I had not a Design which I say I had to lessen as much as he could and cover the need of any such Design and so make it that I could not intend my Book to work upon those that disbelieved or did not firmly believe by insinuating there were few or none such amongst us Hence he says that by those that are not throughly and firmly Christians I mean a FEW weak Christians as well as under those who wholly disbelieve he left the Theists out of my meaning I am very glad to hear from the Unmasker that there are but few weak Christians few that have Doubts about the Truth of Christianity amongst us But if there be not a great number of Deists and that the preventing their increase be noâ— worth every true Christian's Care and Endeavours those who have been so loud against them have been much to blame and I wish to God there were no reason for their Complaints For these therefore I take the liberty to say as I did before that I chiefly designed my Book And shall not be asham'd of this Sophistry as you call it if it can be Sophistry to alledge a Matter of Fact that I know Till you have Arguments to convince me that you know my intention in publishing it better than I do my self And I shall think it still no blameable Prudence however you exclaim against Prudence as perhaps you have some reason that I mention'd only those Advantages that all Christians are agreed in And that I observed that command of the Apostle Rom. XIV 1. Him that is weak in the Faith receive ye but not to doubtful Disputations without being a Socinian I think I did not amiss that I offer'd to the belief of those that stood off that and only that which our Saviour and his Apostles preach'd for the reducing the Unconverted World And would any one think he in earnest went about to perswade Men to be Christians who should use that as an Argument to recommend the Gospel which he has observed Men to lay hold on as an Objection against it To urge such Points of Controversie as Necessary Articles of Faith when we see our Saviour and the Apostles urged them not as necessary to be believed to make Men Christians is by our own Authority to add Prejudices to Prejudices and to block up our own way to those Men whom we would have access to and prevail upon I have repeated this again out of the 7th Page of my Vindication where there is more to the same purpose That the Reader may see how fully the Unmasker has answer'd it Because I said Would any one blame my Prudence if I mention'd only those Advantages which all Christians are agreed in The Unmasker adds p. 44. Socinian Christians and then as if the naming of that had gained him his Point he goes on victoriously thus He has bethought himself better since he first Publish'd his Notions and as the result of that he now begins to resolve what he writ into Prudence I know whence he had this Method and 't is likely he has taken more than this from the same hands viz. from the Missionary Iesuits that went to Preach the Gospel to the People of China We are told that they instructed them in some Matters relating to our Saviour they let them know that Iesus was the Messias the Person promised to be sent into the World But they conceal'd his Sufferings and Death and they would not let them know any thing of his Passion and Crucifixion So our Author their humble Imitator undertakes to instruct the World in Christianity with an omission of its Principal Articles and more especially that of the Advantage we have by Christ's Death which was the prime thing design'd in his coming into the World This he calls Prudence So that to hide from the People the main Articles of the Christian Religion to disguise the Faith of the Gospel to betray Christianity it self is according to this excellent Writer the Cardinal Virtue of Prudence May we be deliver'd then say I from a Prudential Racovian And there ends the ratling for this time not to be outdone by any Piece of Clock-work in the Town When he is once set a going he runs on like an Alarm always in the same strain of noisy empty Declamation wherein every thing is suppos'd and nothing prov'd till his own weight has brought him to the Ground And then being wound up with some new Topick takes another run whether it makes for or against him it matters not he has laid about him with ill Language let it light where it will and the Vindicator is paid off That I may keep the due distance in our different ways of Writing I shall shew the Reader that I say not this at random but that the place affords me occasion to say so He begins this Paragraph with these words p. 42. Let us hear farther what this Vindicator says to excuse his rejection of the Doctrines contain'd in the Epistles This rejection of the Doctrines contain'd in the Epistles was the not mentioning the Satisfaction of Christ amongst those Advantages
I shew'd that the World received by his coming This appears by the words he here quotes as my excuse for that omission In which place I also produced some Passages in my Book which sounded like it some words of Scripture that are used to prove it But this will not content him I am for all that a Betrayer of Christianity and Contemner of the Episâ—les Why Because I did not out of them name Satisfaction If you will have the truth of it Sir there is not any such word in any one of the Epistles or other Books of the New Testament in my Bible as Satisfying or Satisfaction made by our Saviour and so I could not put it into my Christianity as deliver'd in the Scripture If mine be not a true Bible I desire you to furnish me with one that is more Orthodox or if the Translators have hid that main Article of the Christian Religion they are the betrayers of Christianity and Contemners of the Epistles who did not put it there and not I who did not take a word from thence which they did not put there For truly I am not a Maker of Creeds nor dare add either to the Scripture or to the Fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion But you will say Satisfaction though not named in the Epistles yet may plainly be collected out of them Answ. And so it may out of several places in my Reasonableness of Christianity some whereof which I took out of the Gospels I mention'd in my Vindication p. 5. and others of them which I took out of the Epistles which I shall point out to you now As p. 74. I say the Design of our Saviour's coming was to be OFFERED up And p. 158. I speak of the Work of our REDEMPTION words which in the Epistles are taken to imply Satisfaction And therefore if that be enough I see not but I may be free from betraying Christianity But if it be necessary to Name the word Satisfaction and he that does not so is a Betrayer of Christianity you will do well to consider how you will acquit the Holy Apostles from that bold Imputation which if it be extended as far as it will go will scarce come short of Blasphemy For I do not remember that our Saviour has any where named Satisfaction or implied it plainer in any words than those I have quoted from him And he I hope will scape the Intemperance of your Tongue You tell me I had my Prudence from the Missionary Iesuits in China who conceal'd our Saviour's Suffering and Death because I undertake to ininstruct the World in Christianity with an omission of its Principal Articles And I pray Sir from whom did you learn your Prudence when taking upon you to teach the Fundamental Doctrines of Christianity in your Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism you left out several that you have been pleased since to add in your Socinianism Unmask'd Or if I as you say here betray Christianity by this Omission of this Principal Article What do you who are a Professed Teacher of it if you omit any principal Article Which your Prudence is so wary in that you will not say you have given us all that are necessary to Salvation in that List you have last published I pray who acts best the Jesuit whose humble Imitator you say I am you or I when pretending to give a Catalogue of Fundamentals you have not reduced them to direct Propositions but have left some of them indefinite to be collected as every one pleases and instead of telling us it is a perfect Catalogue of Fundamentals plainly shuffle it off and tell me p. 22. If that will not content me you are sure you can do nothing that will If I require more it is Folly in you to comply with me One part of what you here say I own to you savours not much of the Skill of a Jesuit You confess your inability and I believe it to be perfectly true That if what you have done already which is nothing at all will not content me you are sure you can do nothing that will content me or any reasonable Man that shall demand of you a compleat Catalogue of Fundamentals But you make it up pretty well with a Confidence becoming one of that Order For he must have rub'd his Forehead hard who in the same Treatise where he so severely condemns the Imperfection of my List of Fundamentals confesses that he cannot give a compleat Catalogue of his own You publish to the World in this 44 and the next Page that I hide from the People the main Articles of the Christian Religion I disguise the faith of the Gospel betray Christianity it self and imitate the Iesuits that went tâ— Preach the Gospel to the People of China by my Omission of its principal or main Articles Answ. I know not how I disguise the Faith of the Gospel c. in imitation of the Jesuits in China unless taking Men off from the Inventions of Men and recommending to them the Reading and Study of the Holy Scripture to find what the Gospel is and requires be a disguising of the Faith of the Gospel a betraying of Christianity and an imitating of the Iesuits Besides Sir if one may ask you in what School did you learn that prudent warineâ—s and reserve which so eminently appears p. 24. of your Socinianism Unmask'd in these words These Articles meaning those which you had before enumerated as Fundamental of Faith are such as must IN SOME MEASURE be known and assented to by a Christian such as must GENERALLY be received and imbraced by him You will do well the next time to set down how far your Fundamentals must be known assented to and received to avoid the suspicion that there is a little more of Jesuitism in these Expressions in some measure known and assented to and generally receiv'd and imbraced than what becomes a sincere Protestant Preacher of the Gospel For your speaking so doubtfully of knowing and assenting to those which you give us for Fundamental Doctrines which belong as you say to the very essence of Christianity will hardly scape being imputed to your want of Knowledge or want of Sincerity And indeed the word General is in familiar use with you and stands you in good stead when you would say something you know not what as I shall have occasion to remark to you when I come to your 91 Page Further I do not remember where it was that I mention'd or undertook to set down all the principal or main Articles of Christianity To change the â—â—rms of the Question from Articles necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian into principal or main Articles looks a little Jesuitical But to pass by that The Apostles when they went to preach the Gospel to People as much Strangers to it as the Chineses were when the Europeans came first amongst them Did they hide from the People the main Articles of the Christian
pertinent Now what can there be more impertinent than to confess the Matter of Fact upon which the Objection is grounded but instead of destroying the Inference drawn from that Matter of Fact only amuse the Reader with wrong Reasons why that Matter of Fact was so No considerate Man he says doth wonder that the Articles and Doctrines he mentioned are omitted in the Apostles Creed Because that Creed is a form of outward Profession Answ. A Profession of what I beseech you Is it a Form to be used for Form's sake I thought it had been a Profession of something even of the Christian Faith And if it be so any considerate Man may wonder necessary Articles of the Christian Faith should be lest out of it For how it can be an outward Profession of the Christian Faith without containing the Christian Faith I do not see unless a Man can outwardly profess the Christian Faith in words that do not contain or express it i. e. profess the Christian Faith when he does not profess it But he says 't is a Profession chiefly to be made use of in Assemblies Answ. Do those solemn Assemblies privilege it from containing the necessary Articles of the Christian Religion This proves not that it does not or was not designed to contain all Articles necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian unless the Unmasker can prove that a From of outward Profession of the Christian Faith that contains all such necessary Articles cannot be made use of in the Publick Assemblies In the Publick Assemblies says he when Prayers are put up by the Church and the Holy Scriptures are read then this Abridgment of Faith is properly used or when there is not generally time or opportunity to make an Enlargement Answ. But that which contains not what is absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian can no where be properly used as a form of outward Profession of the Christian Faith and least of all in the solemn Publick Assemblies All the sense I can make of this is That this Abridgment of the Christian Faith i. e. imperfect Collection as the Unmasker will have it of some of the Fundamental Articles of Christianity in the Apostles Creed which omits the greatest part of them is made use of as a form of outward Profession of but part of the Christian Faith in the Publick Assemblies when by reason of reading of the Scripture and Prayers there is not time or opportunity for a full and perfect Profession of it 'T is strange the Christian Church should not find time nor opportunity in Sixteen hundred Years to make in any of her Publick Assemblies a Profession of so much of her Faith as is necessary to make a Man a Christian. But pray tell me has the Church any such full and compleat form of Faith that hath in it all those Propositions you have given us for necessary Articles not to say any thing of those which you have reserved to your self in your own Breast and will not communicate of which the Apostles Creed is only a scanty form a brief imperfect abstract used only to save time in the Croud of other pressing Occasions that are always in hast to be dispatch'd If she has the Unmasker will do well to produce it If the Church has no such compleat form besides the Apostle's Creed any where of Fundamental Articles he will do well to leave talking idlely of this Abstract as he goes on to do in the following words But says he we are not to think that it expresly contains in it all the necessary and weighty Points all the important Doctrines of our Belief it being only designed to be an Abstract Answ. Of what I beseech you is it an Abstract For here the Unmasker stops short and as one that knows not well what to say speaks not out what it is an Abstract of But provides himself a Subterfuge in the generality of the preceding terms of necessary and weighty Points and Important Doctrines jumbled together which can be there of no other use but to cover his Ignorance or Sophistry For the Question being only about necessary Points to what purpose are weighty and important Doctrines join'd to them unless he will say that there is no difference between necessary and weighty Points Fundamental and important Doctrines And if so then the distinction of Points into necessary and not necessary will be foolish and impertinent And all the Doctrines contain'd in the Bible will be absolutely necessary to be explicitly believed by every Man to make him a Christian. But taking it for granted that the diction of Truths contain'd in the Gospel into Points absolutely necessary and not absolutely necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian is good I desire the Unmasker to tell us what the Apostles Creed is an Abstract of He will perhaps answer that he has told us already in this very Page where he says it is an Abridgment of Faith and he has said true in words but saying those words by rote after others without understanding them he has said so in a sense that is not true For he supposes it an Abridgment of Faith by containing only a few of the necessary Articles of Faith and leaving out the far greater part of them And so takes a part of a thing for an Abridgment of it Whereas an Abridgment or Abstract of any thing is the whole in little and if it be of a Science or Doctrine the Abridgment consists in the essentâ—al or necessary Parts of it contracted into a narrower compass than where it lies diffus'd in the ordinary way of delivery amongst a great number of Transitions Explanations Illustrations Proofs Reasonings Corollaries c. All which though they make a part of the Discourse wherein that Doctrine is deliver'd are lest out in the Abridgment of it wherein all the necessary parts of it are drawn together into a less room But though an Abridgment need to contain none but the essential and necessary parts yet all those it ought to contain Or else it will not be an Abridgment or Abstract of that thing but an Abridgment only of a part of it I think it could not be said to be an Abridgment of the Law contain'd in an Act of Parliament wherein any of the things required by that Act were omitted which yet commonly may be reduced into a very narrow compass when strip'd of all the Motives Ends Enacting Forms c. expressed in the Act it self If this does not satisfie the Unmasker what is properly an Abridgment I shall referr him to Mr. Chillingworth who I think will be allow'd to understand sense and to speak it properly at least as well as the Unmasker And what he says happens to be in the very same Question between Knot the Jesuit and him that is here between the Unmasker and me 'T is but putting the Unmasker in the Jesuit's place and my self if it may be allow'd
great Business And yet the good Unmasker in a fit of Zeal displays his Throat and crys out p. 59. Hear O ye Heavens and give ear O Earth judge whether this be not the way to introduce Darkness and Ignorance into Christendom whether this be not blinding of Mens Eyes c. For this mighty Pathos ends not there And all things consider'd I know not whether he had not reason in his want of Arguments this way to pour out his concern For neither the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles nor the Apostles Creed nor any thing else being with him the Faith of a Christian i. e. sufficient to make a Christian but just his set of Fundamental Articles when he himself knows what they be In fine nothing being Christianity but just his System 't is time to cry out Help Neighbours hold fast Friends Knowledge Religion Christianity is gone if this be once permitted that the People should read and understand the Scripture for themselves as God shall enlighten their Understandings in the use of the means and not be forced to depend upon me and upon my choosing and my Interpretation for the necessary Points they are to believe to make them Christians If I the great Unmasker have not the sole Power to decree what is or is not Fundamental and People be not bound to receive it for such Faith and the Gospel are given up Darkness and Barbarism will be brought in upon us by this Writer's Contrivance For he is an underhand Factor for that Communion which cries up ignorance for the Mother of Devotion and Religion i. e. in plain English for Popery For to this and nothing else tends all that sputter he makes in the Sections before mention'd I do not think there was ever a more through-paced Declaimer than our Unmasker He leaves out nothing that he thinks will make an affrighting noise in the Ears of his Orthodox Hearers though all the blame and censure he pours out upon others light only on himself For let me ask this Zealous Upholder of Light and Knowledge does he think it reasonable that any one who is not a Christian should be suffer'd to be undisturb'd in his Parish Nay does he think fit that any such should live free from the Lash of the Magistrate or from the Persecution of the Ecclesiastical Power He seems to talk with another Air p. 65. In the next place I ask whether any one is a Christian who hath not the Faith of a Christian Thirdly I ask whether he has the Faith of a Christian who does not explicitly believe all the Fundamental Articles of Christianity And to conclude I ask him whether all those that he has set down are not Fundamental necessary Articles When the Unmasker has fairly answer'd these Questions it will be seen who is for Popery and the Ignorance and Tyranny that accompanies it The Unmasker is for making and imposing Articles of Faith But he is for this Power in himself He likes not Popery which is nothing but the Tyranny and imposing upon Mens Understandings Faith and Consciences in the hands of the old Gentleman at Rome But it would he thinks do admirably well in his own hands And who can blame him for it Would not that be an excellent way to propagate Light and Knowledge by tying up all Men to a bundle of Articles of his own culling Or rather to the Authority of Christ and his Apostles residing in him For he does not nor ever will give us a full view of Fundamentals of his Christianity But like the Church of Rome to secure our Dependance reserves to himself a Power of declaring others and defining what is Matter of Faith as he shall see occasion Now therefore vail your Bonnets to the Unmasker all you that have a Mind to be Christians Break not your Heads about the Scriptures to examine what they require of you Submit your Faith implicitly to the Unmasker he will understand and find out the necessary Points for you to believe Take them just so many as he thinks fit to deliver them to you This is the way to be knowing Christians But be sure ask not whether those he is pleas'd to deliver be every one of them Fundamental and all the fundamental Articles necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian Such a capricious Question spoils all Overturns Christianity which is intrusted to the Unmasker's sole keeping to be dispensed out as he thinks fit Iâ— you refuse an implicit Faith to him he will presently find you have it for the whore of Babylon he will smell out Popery in it immediately For he has a very shrewd Scent and you will be discover'd to be an Underhand Factor for the Church of Rome But if the Unmasker were such an Enemy as he pretends to those Factors I wonder he should in what he has said concerning the Apostles Creed so exactly jump with Knot the Jesuit If any one doubt of this I desire him to look into the Fourth Chapter of Knot 's Charity maintain'd and there he will see how well our Unmasker and that Iesuit agree in Argument nay and Expressions too But yet I do not think him so far guilty as to be imployed as an Underhand Factor for Popery Every Body will I suppose be ready to pronounce him so far an Innocent as to clear him from that The Cunning of his Design goes not beyond the laying out of his preaching Oratory for the setting up his own System and making that the sole Christianity To that end he would be glad to have the Power of interpreting Scripture of defining and declaring Articles of Faith and imposing them This which makes the absolute Power of the Pope he would not I think establish at Rome but 't is plain he would have it himself if he could get it for the Support of the Christianity of his System An implicit Faith if he might have the Management of it and the taking Fundamentals upon Trust from his Authority would be of excellent Use. Such a Power in his Hands would spread Truth and Knowledge in the World i. e. his own Orthodoxy and Set of Opinions But if a Man differs nay questions any thing of that whether it be absolutely necessary to make one a Christian 't is immediately a Contrivance to let in Popery and to bring Darkness and Barbarism into the Christian World But I must tell the Innocent Unmasker whether he designs it or no That if his calling his System the only Christianity can bring the World to receive from him Articles of Faith of his own chusing as Fundamentals necessary to be believed by all Men to make them Christians which Christ and his Apostles did not propose to all Men to make them Christians he does only set up Popery in another Guise and lay the Foundatians of Ignorance Darkness and Barbarism in the Christian World For all the Ignorance and Blindness that Popery introduced was only upon this Foundation And if
in pieces by one another whilst every Sect assumes to it self a Power of declaring Fundamentals and severally thus narrow Christianity to their distinct Systems He that has a mind to see how Fundamentals come to be fram'd and fashion'd and upon what Motives and Considerations they are often taken up or laid down according to the Humours Interests or Designs of the Heads of Parties as if they were things depending on Mens pleasure and to be suited to their convenience may find an Example worth his notice in the Life of Mr. Baxter Part II. p. 197. 205. Whenever Men take upon them to go beyond those Fundamental Articles of Christianity which are to be found in the Preachings of our Saviour and his Apostles where will they stop Whenever any Set of Men will require more as necessary to be believed to make Men of their Church i. e. in their sense Christians than what our Saviour and his Apostles propos'd to those whom they made Christians and admitted into the Church of Christ however they may pretend to recommend the Scripture to their People in effect no more of it is recommended to them than just comports with what the Leaders of that Sect have resolv'd Christianity shall consist in 'T is no wonder therefore there is so much Ignorance amongst Christians and so much vain outcry against it whilst almost every distinct Society of Christians Magisterially ascribes Orthodoxy to a select Set of Fundamentals distinct from those proposed in the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles which in no one Point must be question'd by any of its Communion By this means their People are never sent to the Holy Scriptures that true Fountain of Light but hood-wink'd A Veil is cast over their eyes and then they are bid read the Bible They must make it all chime to their Churches Fundamentals or else they were better let it alone For if they find any thing there against the received Doctrines though they hold it and express it in the very terms the Holy Ghost has deliver'd it in that will not excuse them Heresie will be their lot and they shall be treated accordingly And thus we see how amongst other good effects Creed-making always has and always will necessarily produce and propagate Ignorance in the World however each Party blame others for it And therefore I have often wonder'd to hear Men of several Churches so heartily exclaim against the implicit Faith of the Church of Rome when the same implicit Faith is as much practised and required in their own though not so openly professed and ingenuously owned there In the next Section the Unmasker questions the Sincerity of mine and professes the greatness of his concern for the Salvation of Mens Souls And tells me of my Reflection on him upon that account in the 9th Page of my Vindication Answ. I wish he would for the right Information of the Reader every where set down what he has any thing to say to in my Book or my Defence of it and save me the Labour of repeating it My words in that place are Some Men will not bear that any one should speak of Religion but according to the Model that they themselves have made of it Nay though he proposes it upon the very terms and in the very words which our Saviour and his Apostles preach'd it in yet he shall not escape Censures and the severest insinuations To deviate in the least or to omit any thing contained in their Articles is Heresy under the most invidious Names in fashion and 't is well if he escapes being a downright Atheist Whether this be the Way for Teachers to make themselves hearken'd to as Men in Earnest in Religion and really concern'd for the Salvation of Mens Souls I leave them to consider What Success it has had towards perswading Men of the truth of Christianity their own Complaints of the prevalency of Atheism on the one hand and the number of Deists on the other sufficiently shew I have set down this Passage at large both as a confirmation of what I said but just now as also to shew that the Reflection I there made needed some other Answer than a bare Profession of his regard to the Salvation of Mens Souls The assuming an undue Authority to his own Opinions and using manifest Untruths in the defence of them I am sure is no mark that the directing Men right in the way to Salvation is his chief aim And I wish that the greater Liberties of that sort which he has again taken in his Socinianism Vnmask'd and which I have so often laid open had not confirm'd that Reflection I should have been glad that any thing in my Book had been fairly controverted and brought to the touch whether it had or had not been conâ—uted The matter of it would have deserved a serious debate if any had been necessary in the words of Sobriety and the Charitable temper of the Gospel as I desired in my Preâ—ace And that would not have mis-become the Vnmasker's Function But it did not consist it seems with his Design Christian Charity would not have allow'd those ill-meant Conjectures and groundless Censures which were necessary to his purpose and therefore he took a shorter course than to confute my Book and thereby convince me and others He makes it his business to rail at it and the Author of it that that might be taken for a confutation For by what he has hitherto done arguing seems not to be his Talent And thus far who can but allow his Wisdom But whether it be that Wisdom that is from above first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie I shall leave to other Readers to judge His saying nothing to that other Reflection which his manner of expressing himself drew from me would make one suspect it favoured not altogether of the Wisdom of the Gospel nor shew'd an over great Care of the Salvation of Souls My Words Vindic. p. 25. are I know not how better to shew my Care of his Credit than by intreating him that when he takes next in hand such a Subject as this wherein the Salvation of Souls is concerned he would treat it a little more seriously and with a little more Candour lest Men should find in his Writings another Cause of Atheism which in this Treatise he has not thought fit to mention Ostentation of Wit in General he has made a Cause of Atheism p. 28. But the World will tell him That frothy light Discourses concerning the serious Matters of Religion and Ostentation of trifling mis-becoming Wit in those who come as Ambassadors from God under the title of Successors of the Apostles in the great Commission of the Gospel is none of the least Causes of Atheism But this advice I am now satisfied by his Second Part of the same Strain was very improper for him and no more reasonable than if one should
advise a Buâ—â—oon to talk gravely who has nothing left to draw attention if he should lay by his scurrility The remainder of this 4th Chapter p. 61. â—67 being spent in shewing why the Socinians are for a few Articles of Faith being a Matter that I am not concern'd in I leave to that forward Gentleman to examine who examined Mr. Edwards's Exceptions against the Reasonableness of Christianity and who as the Unmasker informs me p. 64. was chosen to vindicate my attempt c. If the Unmasker knows that he was so Chosen it is well If I had known of such a choice I should have desired that somebody should have been chosen to Vindicate my attempt who had understood it better The Unmasker and Examiner are each of them so full of themselves and their own Systems that I think they may be a fit match one for another And so I leave these Cocks of the Game to try it out in an endless battle of wrangling till Death them depart which of them has made the true and exact Collection of Fundamentals And whose System of the two ought to be the prevailing Orthodoxy and be received for Scripture Only I warn the Examiner to look to himself For the Unmasker has the whiphand of him and gives him to understand p. 65. that if he cannot do it himself by the strength of his Lungs the vehemency of his Oratory and endless attacks of his Repetitions the Ecclesiastical Power and the Civil Magistrates lash have in store demonstrative Arguments to convince him that his the Vnmasker's System is the only true Christianity By the way I must not forget to mind the Unmasker here again that he hath a very unlucky hand at guessing For whereas he names Socinus as one from whom I received my Platform and says that Crellius gave me my Kue it so falls out that they are two Authors of whom I never read a Page I say not this as if I thought it a fault if I had for I think I should have much better spent my time in them than in the Writings of our learned Unmasker I was sure there was no offending the Unmasker without the guilt of Atheism only he here p. 69. very mercifully lays it upon my Book and not upon my Design The tendency of it to Irreligion and Atheism he has proved in an Eloquent Harangue for he is such an Orator he cannot stir a foot without a Speech made as he bids us suppose by the Atheistical Rabble And who can deny but he has chose a fit Imployment for himself Where could there be found a better Speech-maker for the Atheistical Rabble But let us hear him For though he would give the Atheistical Rabble the Credit of it yet 't is the Unmasker speaks And because 't is pity such a pattern of Rhetorick and Reason should be lost I have for my Reader 's Edification set it all down verbatim We are beholding to this worthy Adventurer for ridding the World of so great an Incumbrance viz. That huge Mass and unweildy Body of Christianity which took up so much room Now we see that it was this bulk and not that of Mankind which he had an eye to when he so often mention'd this latter This is a Physician for our turn indeed We like this Chymical Operator that doth not trouble us with a parcel of heavy Drugs of no value but contracts it all into a few Spirits nay doth his business with a single drop We have been in bondage a long time to Creeds and Catechisms Systems and Confessions we have been plagued with a tedious Beadroll of Articles which our Reverend Divines have told us we must make the Matter of our Faith Yea so it is both Conformists and Nonconformists though disagreeing in some other things have agreed in this to molest and Crucifie us But this noble Writer we thank him hath set us free and eas'd us by bringing down all the Christian Faith into one Point We have heard some Men talk of Epistolary Composures of the New Testament as if great Matters were contain'd in them as if the great Mysteries of Christianity as they call them were unfolded there But we could never make any thing of them and now we find that this Writer is partly of our Opinion He tells us that these are Letters sent upon occasion but we are not to look for our Religion for now for this Gentleman's sake we begin to talk of Religion in these places We believe it and we believe that there is no Religion but in those very Chapters and Verses which he has set down in his Treatise What need we have any other part of the New Testament That is Bible enough if not too much Happy thrice happy shall this Author be perpetually esteemed by us we will Chronicle him as our Friend and Benefactor It is not our way to Saint People Otherwise we would certainly canonize this Gentleman and when our hand is in his pair of Booksellers for their being so Beneficial to the World in publishing so rich a Treasure It was a blessed day when this hopeful Birth saw the Light for hereby all the Orthodox Creed-Makers and Systematick Men are ruined for ever In brief if we be for any Christianity it shall be this Author's for that agrees with us singularly well it being so short all couch'd in four words neither more nor less It is a very fine Compendium and we are infinitely obliged to this great Reformer for it We are glad at heart that Christianity is brought so low by this worthy Pen-man for this is a good presage that it will dwindle into nothing What! But one Article and that so brief too We like such a Faith and such a Religion because it is so near to none He hath no sooner done but as it deserved he crys out Euge Sophos And is not the Reader quoth he satisfied that such Language as this hath real truth in it Does not he perceive that the discarding all the Articles but ONE makes way for the casting off that too Answ. 'T is but supposing that the Reader is a civil â—entleman and answers Yes to these two Questions and then 't is Demonstration that by this Speech he has irrefragably proved the tendency of my Book to Irreligion and Atheism I remember Chillingworth somewhere puts up this Request to his Adversary Knot Sir I beseech you when you write again do us the favour to write nothing but Syllogisms For I find it still an extream trouble to find out the conceal'd Propositions which are to connect the parts of your Enthymems As now for Example I profess to you I have done my best endeavour to find some Glue or Sodder or Cement or Thread or any thing to tie the Antecedent and this Consequent together The Unmasker agrees so much in a great part of his Opinion with that Jesuit as I have shew'd already and does so infinitely out-doe him in spinning Ropes of Sand and a
course Thread of Inconsistencies which runs quite through his Book That 't is with great justice I put him here in the Jesuits place and address the same Request to him His very next words give me a fresh reason to do it For thus he argues p. 72. May we not expect that those who deal thus with the Creed i. e. Discard all the Articles of it but one will use the same Method in reducing the ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer Abbreviate the former into one Precept and the latter into one Petition Answ. If he will tell me where this Creed he speaks of is it will be much more easie to answer his Demand Whilst his Creed which he here speaks of is yet no where it is ridiculous for him to ask Questions about it The Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer I know where to find in express words set down by themselves with peculiar marks of distinction Which is the Lord's Prayer we are plainly taught by this Command of our Saviour Luk. XI 1. When we pray SAY Our Father c. In the same manner and words we are taught what we should believe to make us his Disciples by his Command to the Apostles what they should Preach Mat. X. 7. As ye go preach SAYING What were they to say Only this the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Or as St. Luke expresses it IX 2. They were sent to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the Sick Which what it was we have sufficiently explain'd But this Creed of the Unmasker which he talks of where is it Let him shew it us distinctly set out from the rest of the Scripture If he knows where it is let him produce it or leave talking of it till he can 'T is not the Apostles Creed that 's evident For that Creed he has discarded from being the Standard of Christian Faith and has told the World in words at length That if a Man believes no more than is in express terms in the Apostles Creed his Faith will not be the Faith of a Christian. Nay 't is plain that Creed has in the Unmasker's Opinion the same tendency to Atheism and Irreligion that my Summary has For the Apostles Creed reducing the Forty or perhaps Four hundred Fundamental Articles of his Christian Creed to Twelve and leaving out the greatest part of those necessary ones which he has already and will hereafter in good time give us does as much dispose Men to serve the Decalogue and the Lord's Prayer just so as my reducing those Twelve to Two For so many at least he has granted to be in my Summary viz. The Article of one God Maker of Heaven and Earth and the other of Jesus the Messiah though he every where calls them but ONE Which whether it be to shew with what love and regard to truth he continues and consequently began this Controversie or whether it be to beguile and startle unwary or confirm prejudiced Readers I shall leave to others to judge 'T is evident he thinks his Cause would be mightily maimed if he were forced to leave out the charge of ONE Article and he would not know what to do for Wit or Argument if he should call them two For then the whole weight and edge of his strong and sharp reasoning in his Thoughts concerning the Causes of Atheism p. 122. would be lost There you have it in these words When the Catholick Faith is thus brought down to one single Article it will soon be reduced to none the Unit will dwindle into a Cypher And here again it makes the whole Argument of his Atheistical Speech which he winds up with these convincing words We are glad to hear that Christianity is brought so low by this worthy Pen-man for this is a good Presage that it will dwindle into nothing What! ONE Article and that so brief too We like such a Faith and such a Religion because it is so near NONE But I must tell this Writer of equal Wit Sense and Modesty That this Religion which he thus makes a dull Farce of and calls near none is that very Religion which our Saviour Iesus Christ and his Apostles preach'd for the Conversion and Salvation of Mankind no one Article whereof which they propos'd as necessary to be received by Unbelievers to make them Christians is omitted And I ask him whether it be his Errand as one of our Saviour's Ambassadors to turn it thus into Ridicule For till he has shewn that they Preach'd otherwise and more than what the Spirit of Truth has recorded of their Preaching in their Histories which I have faithfully collected and set down all that he shall say reflecting upon the Plainness and Simplicity of their Doctrine however directed against me will by his Atheistical Rabble of all kinds now they are so well enter'd and instructed in it by him be all turn'd upon our Saviour and his Apostles What tendency this and all his other trifling in so serious a cause as this is has to the propagating of Atheism and Irreligion in this Age he were best to consider This I am sure the Doctrine of but one Article if the Author and finisher of our Faith and those he guided by his Spirit had Preach'd but one Article has no more tendency to Atheism than their Doctrine of one God But the Unmasker every where talks as if the Strength of our Religion lay in the number of its Articles and would be presently routed if it had but a few And therefore he has mustered up a pretty full band of them and has a reserve of the Lord knows how many more which shall be forthcoming upon occasion But I shall desire to mind this Learned Divine who is so afraid what will become of his Religion if it should propose but one or a few Articles as necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian that the Strength and Security of our Religion lies in the Divine Authority of those who first promulgated the terms of admittance into the Church and not in the Multitude of Articles suppos'd by some necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian And I would have him remember when he goes next to make use of this strong Argument of ONE dwindling into a Cypher that One is as remote as a Million from none And if this be not so I desire to know whether his way of arguing will not prove Pagan Polytheism to be more remote from Atheism than Christianity He will do well to try the force of his Speech in the Mouth of an Heathen complaining of the tendency of Christianity to Atheism by reducing his great number of Gods to but one which was so near none and would therefore soon be reduced to none The Unmasker seems to be upon the same Topick where he so pathetically complains of the Socinians p. 66. in these words Is it not enough to rob us of our God by denying Christ to be so But must they
Apostles if they were but ordinarily fair and prudent Men did in an History publish'd to instruct the World in a new Religion leave out the necessary and Fundamental parts of that Religion But let them be consider'd as inspired Writers under the Conduct of the infallible Spirit of God putting them upon and directing them in the writing of this History of the Gospel and then it is impossible for any Christian but the Unmasker to think that they made any such gross Omissions contrary to the design of their Writing without a Demonstration to convince him of it Now all the reason that our Unmasker gives is this That it is confessed by all intelligent and observing Men that the History of the Scripture is concise and that in relating Matters of Fact many Passages are omitted by the Sacred Penmen Answ. The Unmasker might have spar'd the Confession of intelligent and observing Men after so plain a Declaration of St. Iohn himself Chap. XX. 31. Many other things did Iesus in the presence of his Disciples which are not written in this Book And again XXI 25. There are also many other things that Iesus did the which if they should be written every one I suppose the world could not contain the Books that should be written There needs therefore no opinion of intelligent and observing Men to convince us that the History of the Gospel is so far Concise that a great many Matters of Fact are omitted and a great many less material Circumstances even of those that are set down But will any intelligent or observing Man any one that bears the Name of a Christian have the Impudence to say that the inspired Writers in the relation they give us of what Christ and his Apostles Preach'd to Unbelievers to convert them to the Faith omitted the Fundamental Articles which those Preachers proposed to make Men Christians and without a belief of which they could not be Christians The Unmasker talks after his wonted fashion seems to say something which when examin'd proves nothing to his Purpose He tells us That in some places where the Article of Iesus the Messiah is mention'd alone at the same time other matters of Faith were proposed I ask were these other matters of Faith all the Unmasker's necessary Articles If not what are those other matters of Faith to the Unmasker's Purpose As for Example in St. Peter's Sermon Act. II. Other matters of Faith were proposed with the Article of Iesus the Messiah But what does this make for His Fundamental Articles Were They all propos'd with the Articles of Iesus the Messiah If not Unbelievers were converted and brought into the Church without the Unmasker's necessary Articles Three Thousand were added to the Church by this one Sermon I pass by now St. Luke's not mentioning a Syllable of the greatest part of the Unmasker's necessary Articles and shall consider only how long that Sermon may have been 'T is plain from v. 15. that it began not till about Nine in the Morning and from v. 41. that before Night Three Thousand were converted and Baptized Now I ask the Unmasker whether so small a Number of Hours as St. Peter must necessarily imploy in Preaching to them were sufficient to instruct such a mixed Multitude so fully in all those Articles which he has propos'd as necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian as that every one of those Three Thousand that were that day Baptized did understand and explicitly believe every one of those his Articles just in the sense of our Unmasker's System Not to mention those remaining Articles which the Unmasker will not be able in twice as many Months to find and declare to us He says That in some places where the Article of Iesus the Messiah is mentioned alone at the same time other matters of Faith were proposed Let us take this for so at present yet this helps not the Unmasker's case The Fundamental Articles that were propos'd by our Saviour and his Apostles necessary to be believed to make Men Christians are not set down but only this single one of Iesus the Messiah Therefore will any one dare to say that they are omitted every where by the Evangelists Did the Historians of the Gospel make their relation so concise and short that giving an account in so many places of the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles for the Conversion of the Unbelieving World they did not in any one place nor in in all of them together set down the necessary Points of that Faith which their Unbelieving Hearers were converted to If they did not how can their Histories be called the Gospels of Iesus Christ Or how can they serve to the end for which they were written Which was to publish to the World the Doctrine of Iesus Christ that Men might be brought into his Religion Now I challenge the Unmasker to shew me not out of any one place but out of all the Preachings of our Saviour and his Apostles recorded in the four Gospels and the Acts all those Propositions which he has reckon'd up as Fundamental Articles of Faith If they are not to be found there 't is plain that either they are not Articles of Faith necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian or else that those inspired Writers have given us an account of the Gospel or Christian Religion wherein the greatest part of Doctrines necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian are wholly omitted Which in short is to say that the Christianity which is recorded in the Gospels and the Acts is not that Christianity which is sufficient to make a Man a Christian. This as absurd and impious as it is is what our Unmasker charges upon the Conciseness as he is pleased to call it of the Evangelical History And this we must take upon his word Though these inspired Writers tell us the direct contrary For St. Luke in his Preface to his Gospel tells Theophilus that having a perfect knowledge OF ALL THINGS the Design of his Writing was to set them in order that he might know the certainty of those things that were believed amongst Christians And his History of the Acts begins thus The former Treatise i. e. his Gospel have I made O Theophilus of ALL that Iesus began to do and to teach So that how concise soever the Unmasker will have his History to be he professes it to contain ALL that Jesus taught Which ALL must in the narrowest sense that can be given it contain at least all things necessary to make a Man a Christian. 'T would else be a very lame and imperfect History of ALL that Jesus taught if the Faith contained in it were not sufficient to make a Man a Christian. This indeed as the Unmasker hath been pleased to term it would be a very lank Faith a very lank Gospel St. Iohn also says thus of his History of the Gospel Ch. XX. 30 31. Many other signs truly did Iesus in
have Suffer'd and risen again from the Dead and that Iesus was the Messiah Act. XVII 2 3. At Corinth That he REASON'D in the Synagogue every Sabbath and PERSWADED the Iews and the Greeks and TESTIFIED that Iesus was the Messiah XVIII 4 5. That Apollos mightily convinced the Iews SHEWING BY THE SCRIPTURES that Iesus was the Messiah XVIII 27. By these and the like places we may be satisfied what it was that the Apostles Taught and Preach'd even this one Proposition that Iesus was the Messiah For this was the sole Proposition they reason'd about this alone they testified and they shew'd out of the Scriptures and of this alone they endeavour'd to convince the Iews and the Greeks that believed one God So that it is plain from hence that St. Luke omitted nothing that the Apostles Taught and Preach'd none of those Doctrines that it was necessary to convince Unbelievers of to make them Christians Though he in most places omitted as was fit the Passages of Scripture which they alledg'd and the Arguments those inspired Preachers used to perswade Men to believe and imbrace that Doctrine Another convincing Argument to shew that St. Luke omitted none of those Fundamental Doctrines which the Apostles any where propos'd as necessary to be believed is from that different account he gives us of their Preaching in other places and to Auditors otherwise dispos'd Where the Apostles had to do with Idolatrous Heathens who were not yet come to the knowledge of the only true God there he tells us they propos'd also the Article of the one Invisible God Maker of Heaven and Earth And this we find recorded in him out of their Preaching to the Lystrians Act. XIV and to the Athenians Act. XVII In the later of which St. Luke to convince his Reader that he out of conciseness omits none of those Fundamental Articles that were any where propos'd by the Preachers of the Gospel as necessary to be believed to make Men Christians sets down not only the Article of Iesus the Messiah but that also of the one invisible God Creator of all things which if any necessary one might this of all other Fundamental Articles might by an Author that affected brevity with the fairest excuse have been omitted as being implied in that other of the Messiah ordained by God Indeed in the Story of what Paul and Barnabas said at Lystra the Article of the Messiah is not mention'd Not that St. Luke omitted that Fundamental Article where the Apostles taught it But they having here begun their Preaching with that of the one living God they had not as appears time to proceed farther and propose to them what yet remain'd to make them Christians But they were by the instigation of the Iews fallen upon and Paul stoned before he could come to open to them this other Fundamental Article of the Gospel This by the way shews the Unmasker's Mistake in his first Particular p. 74. where he says as he does here again in his second Particular which we are now examining that believing Iesus to be the Messiah is the first step to Christianity and therefore this rather than any other was propounded to be believed by all those whom either our Saviour or the Apostles invited to imbrace Christianity The contrary whereof appears here Where the Article of one God is proposed in the first place to those whose Unbelief made such a proposal necessary And therefore if his Reason which he uses again here p. 76. were good viz. That the Article of the Messiah is expresly mention'd alone because it is a leading Article and makes way for the rest this Reason would rather conclude for the Article of one God And that alone should be expresly mentioned instead of the other Since as he argues for the other p. 74. if they did not believe this in the first place viz. That there was one God there could be no hopes that they would attend unto any other Proposal relating to the Christian Religion The Vanity and Falshood of which reasoning viz. That the Article of Jesus the Messiah was every where propounded rather than any other because it was the leading Article we see in the History of St. Paul's Preaching to the Athenians St. Luke mentions more than one Article where more than one was propos'd by St. Paul though the first of them was that leading Article of one God which if not received in the first place there could be no hope they would attend to the rest Something the Unmasker would make of this Argument of a leading Article for want of a better though he knows not what In his first particular p. 74. he makes use of it to shew why there was but that one Article propos'd by the first Preachers of the Gospel and how well that succeeds with him we have seen For this is Demonstration that if there were but that one propos'd by our Saviour and the Apostles there was but that one necessary to be believed to make Men Christians Unless he will impiously say that our Saviour and the Apostles went about Preaching to no purpose For if they propos'd not all that was necessary to make Men Christians 't was in vain for them to Preach and others to Hear if when they heard and believ'd all that was propos'd to them they were not yet Christians For if any Article was omitted in the Proposal which was necessary to make a Man a Christian though they believed all that was proposed to them they could not yet be Christians unless a Man can from an Infidel become a Christian without doing what is necessary to make him a Christian. Further if his Argument of its being a leading Article proves that that alone was propos'd It is a Contradiction to give it as a Reason why it was set down alone by the Historian where it was not proposed alone by the Preacher but other necessary matters of Faith were propos'd with it unless it can be true that this Article of Iesus is the Messiah was propos'd alone by our Saviour and his Apostles because it was a leading Article and was mention'd alone in the History of what they preach'd because it was a leading Article though it were not propos'd alone but jointly with other necessary matters of Faith For this is the use he makes here again p. 76. of his leading Article under his second Particular viz. To shew why the Historians mention'd this necessary Article of Iesus the Messiah alone in places where the Preachers of the Gospel propos'd it not alone but with other necessary Articles But in this latter case it has no shew of a Reason at all It may be granted as reasonable for the Teachers of any Religion not to go any farther where they see the first Article which they propose is rejected where the leading Truth on which all the rest depends is not received But it can be no reason at all for an Historian who writes the History of these first Preachers
Christ's Death and Resurrection of those Substantial Articles i. e. that he should die and rise again But we read in the Acts and in the Epistles that these were formal Articles of Faith afterwards and are ever since necessary to compleat the Christian belief So as to other great Verities the Gospel increased by degrees and was not perfect at once Which furnishes us with a reason why most of the choicest and sublimest truths of Christianity are to be met with in the Epistles of the Apostles they being such Doctrines as were not clearly discover'd and open'd in the Gospels and the Acts. Thus far the Vnmasker I thought hitherto that the Covenant of Grace in Christ Jesus had been but one immutably the same But our Vnmasker here makes two or I know not how many For I cannot tell how to conceive that the Conditions of any Covenant should be changed and the Covenant remain the same Every change of Conditions in my apprehension makes a new and another Covenant We are not to think says the Vnmasker That all the necessary Doctrines of the Christian Religion were clearly publish'd to the World in our Saviour's time not but that all that were necessary for that time were publish'd But some which were necessary for the Succeeding one were not then discover'd or at least not fully Answ. The Unmasker constant to himself speaks here doubtfully and cannot tell whether he should say that the Articles necessary to Succeeding times were discover'd in our Saviour's time or no And therefore that he may provide himself a retreat in the doubt he is in he says they were not clearly publish'd they were not then discover'd or at least not fully But we must desire him to pull off his Mask and to that purpose 1 o. I ask him how he can tell that all the necessary Doctrines were obscurely published or in part discover'd for an obscure publishing a Discovery in part is opposed to and intimated in not clearly published not fully discover'd And if a clear and full Discovery be all that he denies to them I ask XXXVII Which those Fundamental Articles are which were obscurely publish'd but not fully discovered in our Saviour's time And next I shall desire him to tell me XXXVIII Whether there are any Articles necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian that were not discover'd at all in our Saviour's time and which they are If he cannot shew these distinctly it is plain he talks at random about them But he has no clear and distinct conception of those that were publish'd or not publish'd clearly or obscurely discover'd in our Saviour's time It was necessary for him to say something for those his pretended necessary Articles which are not to be â—ound any where propos'd in the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles to their yet Unbelieving Auditors And therefore he says We are not to think all the necessary Doctrines of the Christian Religion were clearly published to the World in our Saviour's time But he barely says it without giving any Reason why we are not to think so It is enough that it is necessary to his Hypothesis He says we are not to think so and we are presently bound not to think so Else from another Man that did not usurp an Authority over our Thoughts it would have requir'd some Reason to make them think that something more was requir'd to make a Man a Christian after than in our Saviour's time For as I take it it is not a very probable much less a self-evident Proposition to be received without Proof That there was something necessary for that time to make a Man a Christian and something more that was necessary to make a Man a Christian in the succeeding time However since this great Master says we ought to think so let us in obedience think so as well as we can till he vouchsafes to give us some Reason to think that there was more requir'd to be believed to make a Man a Christian in the succeeding time than in our Saviour's This instead of removing does but increase the Difficulty For if more were necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian after our Saviour's time than was during his life how comes it that no more was propos'd by the Apostles in their Preaching to Unbelievers for the making them Christians after our Saviour's Death than there was before Even this one Article that he was the Messiah For I desire the Unmasker to shew me any of those other Articles mentioned in his List except the Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour which were intervening Matters of Fact evidencing him to be the Messiah that were propos'd by the Apostles after our Saviour's time to their Unbelieving Hearers to make them Christians This one Doctrine that Iesus was the Messiah was that which was propos'd in our Saviour's time to be believed as necessary to make a Man a Christian The same Doctrine was likewise what was propos'd afterwards in the Preaching of the Apostles to Unbelievers to make them Christians I grant this was more clearly propos'd after than in our Saviour's time But in both of them it was all that was propos'd to the Believers of one God to make them Christians Let him shew that there were any other propos'd in or after our Saviour's time to be believed to make Unbelievers Christians If he means by necessary Articles published to the World the other Doctrines contain'd in the Epistles I grant they are all of them necessary Articles to be believed by every Christian as far as he understands them But I deny that they were propos'd to those they were writ to as necessary to make them Christians for this demonstrative Reason Because they were Christians already For Example many Doctrines proving and explaining and giving a farther Light into the Gospel are publish'd in the Epistles to the Corinthians and Thessalonians These are all of Divine Authority and none of them may be disbelieved by any one who is a Christian But yet what was propos'd or publish'd to both the Corinthians and Thessalonians to make them Christians was only this Doctrine that Iesus was the Messiah As may be seen Act. XVII and XVIII This then was the Doctrine necessary to make men Christians in our Saviour's time And this the only Doctrine necessary to make Unbelievers Christians after our Saviour's time The only difference was that it was more clearly propos'd after than before his Ascension The Reason whereof has been sufficiently explain'd But any other Doctrine but this propos'd clearly or obscurely in or after our Saviour's time as necessary to be believed to make Unbelievers Christians That remains yet to be shewn When the Unmasker speaks of the Doctrines that were necessary for the succeeding time after our Saviour he is in doubt whether he should say they were or were not discover'd in our Saviour's time and how far they were then discover'd And therefore he says some of them were
will in that one place be reasonable Till then this ridiculous Cant will be a Foundation too weak to sustain that Usurpation that is raised upon it 'T is not that I do not think every one should be perswaded of the Truth of those Opinions he professes 'T is that I contend for And 't is that which I fear the great Sticklers for Orthodoxy often fail in For we see generally that Numbers of them exactly jump in a whole large Collection of Doctrines consisting of Abundance of particulars as if their Notions were by one common Stamp printed on their Minds even to the least Lineament This is very hard if not impossible to be conceived of those who take up their Opinions only from Conviction But how fully soever I am perswaded of the Truth of what I hold I am in common Justice to allow the same Sincerity to him that differs from me And so we are upon equal Terms This Perswasion of Truth on each side invests neither of us with a right to censure or condemn the other I have no more reason to treat him ill for differing from me than he has to treat me ill for the same cause Pity him I may inform him fairly I ought but contemn malign revile or any otherwise prejudice him for not thinking just as I do that I ought not My Orthodoxy gives me no more Authority over him than his for every one is Orthodox to himself gives him over me When the Word Orthodoxy which in effect signifies no more but the Opinions of my Party is made use of as a pretence to domineer as ordinarily it is it is and always will be ridiculous He saith I hate even with a deadly hatred all Catechisms and Confessions all Systems and Models I do not remember that I have once mentioned the Word Catechism either in my Reasonableness of Christianity or Vindication But he knows I hate them deadly and I know I do not And as for Systems and Models all that I say of them in the Pages he quotes to prove my Hatred of them is only this viz. p. 8. of my Vindication Some Men had rather you should write booty and cross your own Design of removing Mens Prejudices to Christianity than leave out one Title of what they put into their Systems Some Men will not bear it that any one should speak of Religion but according to the Model that they themselves have made of it In neither of which places do I speak against Systems or Models but the ill use that some Men make of them He tells me also in the same place p. 104. that I deride Mysteries But for this he hath quoted neither words nor place And where he does not do that I have reason from the frequent Liberties he takes to impute to me what no where appears in my Books to desire the Reader to take what he says not to be true For did he mean fairly he might by quoting my Words put all such Matters of Fact out of doubt and not force me so often as he does to demand where it is as I do now here again LI. Where it is that I deride Mysteries His next Words p. 104. are very remarkable They are O how he the Vindicator grins at the Spirit of Creed making p. 18. Vind. the very thoughts of which do so haunt him so plague and torment him that he cannot rest till it be conjured down And here by the way seeing I have mention'd his rancour against Systematick Books and Writings I might represent the Misery that is coming upon all Booksellers if this Gentleman and his Correspondents go on sucâ—essfully Here is an effectual Plot to undermine Stationers-Hall for all Systems and Bodies of Divinity Philosophy c. must be cashier'd Whatever looks like System must not be bought or sold. This will fall heavy on the Gentlemen of St. Paul 's Church-yard and other places Here the Politick Unmasker seems to threaten me with the Posse of Paul's Church-yard because my Book might lessen their Gain in the Sale of Theological Systems I remember that Demetrius the Shrinemaker which brought no small gain to the Crafts-men whom he called together with the Workmen of like Occupation and said to this purpose Sirs Ye know that by this Craft we have our Wealth Moreover ye see and hear that this Paul hath perswaded and turned away much People saying that they be no Gods that are made with hands so that this our Craft is in danger to be set at naught And when they heard these Sayings they were full of wrath and cried out saying Great is Diana of the Ephesians Have you Sir who are so good at Speech-making as a worthy Successor of the Silver-smith regulating your Zeal for the Truth and your writing of Divinity by the Profit it will bring made a Speech to this purpose to the Craftsmen and told them that I say Articles of Faith and Creeds and Systems in Religion cannot be made by Mens Hands or Fancies But must be just such and no other than what God hath given us in the Scriptures And are they ready to cry out to your content Great is Diana of the Ephesians If you have well warm'd them with your Oratory 't is to be hoped they will heartily join with you and bestir themselves and choose you for their Champion to prevent the Misery you tell them is coming upon them in the loss of the Sale of Systems and Bodies of Divinity For as for Philosophy which you name too I think you went a little too far Nothing of that kind as I remember hath been so much as mention'd But however some sort of Orators when their hands are in omit nothing true or false that may move those that they would work upon Is not this a worthy Imployment and becoming a Preacher of the Gospel to be a Sollicitor for Stationers-Hall and make the Gain of the Gentlemen of Paul's Church-yard a Consideration for or against any Book writ concerning Religion This if it were ever thought on before no body but an Unmasker who lays all open was ever so foolish as to Publish But here you have an account of his Zeal The views of Gain are to measure the truths of Divinity Had his Zeal as he pretends in the next Paragraph no other aims but the defence of the Gospel 't is probable this Controversie would have been managed after another fashion Whether what he says in the next p. 105. to excuse his so oâ—ten pretending to know my Heart and Thoughts will satisfie the Reader I shall not trouble my self By his so often doing it again in his Socinianism Unmask'd I see he cannot write without it And so I leave it to the Judgment of the Readers whether he can be allow'd to know other Mens thoughts who in many Occasions seems not well to know his own The Railing in the remainder of this Chapter I shall pass by as I have done a great deal of the same
as well as great Impudence of putting his Name in Print to what is not his or taking it away from what he hath set it to whether it belongs to his Bookseller or Answerer Onely I cannot pass by the palpable falsifying of Mr. B d's Words in the beginning of his Epistle to the Reader without mention Mr. B d's Words are Whereby I came to be furnished with a truer and more just Notion of the main Design of that TREATISE and the Good Creed-maker set them down thus The main Design of MY OWN TREATISE OR SERMON A sure way for such a Champion for Truth to secure to himself the Laurel or the Whetstone This irresistible Disputant who silences all that come in his way so that those that would cannot answer him to make good the mighty Encomiums he has given himself ought one would think to clear all as he goes and leave nothing by the way unanswered for fear he should fall into the Number of those poor baffled Wretches whom he with so much scorn reproaches that they would answer if they could Mr. B d begins his Animadversions with this Remark that our Creed-maker had said That I give it over and over again in these formal Words viz. That nothing is required to be believed by any Christian Man but this That Iesus is the Messiah To which Mr. B d replies p. 4. in these Words Though I have read over the Reasonableness of Christianity c. with some Attention I have not observed those formal Words in any part of that Book nor any Words that are capable of that Construction provided they be consider'd with the Relation they have to and the manifest Dependance they have on what goes before or follows after them But to this Mr. Edwards answers not Whether it was because he would not or because he could not let the Reader judge But this is down upon his Score already and it is expected he should answer to it or else confess that he cannot And that there may be a fair Decision of this Dispute I expect the same Usage from him that he should set down any Proposition of his I have not answer'd to and call on me for an Answer if I can And if I cannot I promise him to own it in Print The Creed-maker had said That it is most evident to any thinking and considerate Person that I purposely omit the Epistolary Writings of the Apostles because they are fraught with other Fundamental Doctrines besides that which I mention To this Mr. B d answers p. 5. That if by Fundamental Articles Mr. Edwards means here all the Propositions delivered in the Epistles concerning just those particular Heads he Mr. Edwards had there mentioned it lies upon him to prove That Jesus Christ hath made it necessary that every Person must have an explicit Knowledge and Belief of all those before he can be a Christian. But to this Mr. Edwards answers not And yet without an Answer to it all his Talk about Fundamentals and those which he pretended to set down in that place under the Name of Fundamentals will signifie nothing in the present case Wherein by Fundamentals were meant such Propositions which every Person must necessarily have an explicit Knowledge and Belief of before he can be a Christian. Mr. B d in the same place p. 6 and 7. very truly and pertinently adds That it did not pertain to my undertaking to enquire what Doctrines either in the Epistles or the Evangelists and the Acts were of greatest moment to be understood by them who are Christians but what was necessary to be known and believed to a Person 's being a Christian. For there are many important Doctrines both in the Gospels and in the Acts besides this That Iesus is the Messiah But how many soever the Doctrines be which are taught in the Epistles if there be no Doctrine besides this That Iesus is the Messiah taught there as necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian all the Doctrines taught there will not make any thing against what this Author has asserted nor against the Method he hath observed Especially considering we have an Account in the Acts of the Apostles of what those Persons by whom the Epistles were writ did teach as necessary to be believed to Peoples being Christians This and what Mr. B d subjoins That it was not my design to give an Abstract of any of the inspired Books is so true and has so clear Reason in it that any but this Writer would have thought himself concerned to have answered something to it But to this Mr. Edwards answers not It not being it seems a Creed-maker's Business to convince Mens Understanding by Reason but to impose on their Belief by Authority or where that is wanting by Falshoods and Bauling And to such Mr. Bold observes well p. 8. that if I had given the like Account of the Epistles that would have been as little satisfactory as what I have done already to those who are resolved not to distinguish BETWIXT WHAT IS NECESSARY TO BE BELIEVED TO MAKE A MAN A CHRISTIAN AND THOSE ARTICLES WHICH ARE TO BE BELIEVED BY THOSE WHO ARE CHRISTIANS as they can attain to know that Christ hath taught them This Distinction the Creed-maker no where that I remember takes any Notice of unless it be p. 255. where he has something relating hereunto which we shall consider when we come to that place I shall now go on to shew what Mr. Bold has said to what he answers not Mr. Bold farther tells him p. 10. That if he will prove any thing in Opposition to the Reasonableness of Christianity c. it must be this That Jesus Christ and his Apostles have taught that the Belief of some one Article or certain Number of Articles distinct from this That Iesus is the Messiah either as exclusive of or in Conjunction with the Belief of this Article doth constitute and make a Person a Christian But that the Belief of this that Jesus is the Messias alone doth not make a Man a Christian But to this Mr. Edwards irresragably answers nothing Mr. Bold also p. 10. Charges him with his falsly accusing me in these words He pretends to contend for one single Article with the exclusion of all the rest for this reason because all Men ought to understand their Religion And again where he says I aim at this viz. That we must not have any Point of Doctrine in our Religion that the Mob doth not at the very first naming of it perfectly understand and agree to Mr. Bold has quoted my express words to the contrary But to this this answerable Gentleman answers nothing But if he be such a mighty Disputant that nothing can stand in his way I shall expect his direct Answer to it among those other Propositions which I have set down to his Score and I require him to prove if he can The Creed-maker spends Five Pages of his Reflections in a great stir
venture upon Mr. Edwards who is so very quick-sighted in these matters and knows so well what villainous Man is capable of I should not here in this my Vindication have given the Reader so much of Mr. Bold's Reasoning which though clear and strong yet has more Beauty and Force as it stands in the whole Piece in his Book Nor should I have so often repeated this Remark upon each Passage viz. to this Mr. Edwards answers not had it not been the shortest and properest Comment could be made on that triumphant Paragraph of his which begins in the 128. page of his Socinian Creed wherein amongst a great deal of no small strutting are these Words By their profound silence they acknowledge they have nothing to reply He that desires to see more of the same noble strain may have recourse to that eminent Place Besides it was fit the Reader should have this one taste more of the Creed-maker's Genius who passing by in silence all these clear and apposite Replies of Mr. Bold loudly complains of him p. 259. That where he Mr. Bold finds something that he dares not object against he shifts it off And again p. 260. That he doth not make any offer at Reason there is not the least shadow of an Argument As if he were only hired to say something against me the Creed-maker though not at all to the purpose And truly any Man may discern a Mercenary Stroke all along with a great deal more to the same purpose For such Language as this mixed with Scurrility neither fit to be spoken by nor of a Minister of the Gospel make up the remainder of his Postscript But to prevent this for the future I demand of him That if in either of his Treatises there be any thing against what I have said in my Reasonableness of Christianity which he thinks not fully answer'd he will set down the Proposition in direct Words and note the Page of his Book where it is to be found And I promise him an Answer to it For as for his Railing and other Stuff besides the Matter I shall hereafter no more trouble my self to take notice of it And so much for Mr. Edwards THere is another Gentleman and of another sort of Make Parts and Breeding who as it seems ashamed of Mr. Edwards's Way of handling Controversies in Religion has had something to say of my Reasonableness of Christianity c. And so has made it necessary for me to say a Word to him before I let these Papers go out of my Hand It is the Author of The Occasional Paper Numb 1. The 2 3 and 4 Pages of that Paper gave me great hopes to meet with a Man who would examine all the Mistakes which come abroad in Print with that Temper and Indifferency that might set an exact Pattern for Controversie to those who would approve themselves to be sincere Contenders for Truth and Knowledge and nothing else in the Disputes they engaged in Making him Allowance for the Mistakes that Self-Indulgence is apt to impose upon Humane Frailty I am apt to believe he thought his Performances had been such But I crave leave to observe That good and candid Men are often misled from a fair unbiassed pursuit of Truth by an over-great Zeal for something that they upon wrong Grounds take to be so And that it is not so easie to be a fair and unprejudiced Champion for Truth as some who profess it think it to be To acquaint him with the Occasion of this Remark I must desire him to read and consider his 19th Page and then to tell me 1. Whether he knows that the Doctrine proposed in the Reasonableness of Christianity c. was borrowed as he says from Hobbs's Leviathan For I tell him I borrowed it only from the Writers of the Four Gospels and the Acts and did not know that those words he quoted out of the Leviathan were there or any thing like them Nor do I know yet any farther than as I believe them to be there from his Quotation 2. Whether affirming as he does positively this which he could not know to be true and is in it self perfectly false were meant to encrease or lessen the Credit of the Author of the Reasonableness of Christianity c. in the Opinion of the World Or is consonant with his own Rule p. 3. of putting candid Constructions on what Adversaries say Or with what follows in these words The more Divine the Cause is still the greater should be the Caution The very Discoursing about Almighty God or our Holy Religion should compose our Passions and inspire us with Candour and Love It is very indecent to handle such Subjects in a manner that betrays Rancour and Spite These are Fiends that ought to vanish and should never mix either with a Search after Truth or the Defence of Religion 3. Whether the Propositions which he has out of my Book inserted into his 19th Page and says are consonant to the words of the Leviathan were those of all my Book which were likeliest to give the Reader a true and fair Notion of the Doctrine contained in it If they were not I must desire him to remember and beware of his Fiends Not but that he will find those Propositions there to be true But that neither he nor others may mistake my Book this is that in short which it says 1. That there is a Faith that makes Men Christians 2. That this Faith is the Believing Iesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah 3. That the Believing Iesus to be the Messiah includes in it a receiving Him for our Lord and King promised and sent from God And so lays upon all his Subjects an absolute and indisble necessity of assenting to all that they can attain the Knowledge that he taught and of a sincere Obedience to all that he commanded This whether it be the Doctrine of the Leviathan I know not This appears to me out of the New Testament from whence as I told him in the Preface I took it to be the Doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles And I would not willingly be mistaken in it If therefore there be any other Faith besides this absolutely requisite to make a Man a Christian I shall here again desire this Gentleman to inform me what it is i. e. to set down all those Propositions which are so indispensibly to be believed for 't is of simple Believing I perceive the Controversie runs that no Man can be a Believer i. e. a Christian without an Actual Knowledge of and an Explicit Assent to them If he shall do this with that Candour and Fairness he declares to be necessary in such Matters I shall own my self obliged to him For I am in earnest and I would not be mistaken in it If he shall decline it I and the World too must conclude that upon a review of my Doctrine he is convinced of the Truth of it and is satisfied that I am in the
Religion disguise the Faith of the Gospel and betray Christianity it self If they did not I am sure I have not For I have not omitted any of the main Articles which they Preached to the Unbelieving World Those I have set down with so much care not to omit any of them that you blame me for it more than once and call it tedious However you are pleased to acquit or condemn the Apostles in the case by your Supream Determination I am very indifferent If you think fit to condemn them for disguising or betraying the Christian Religion because they said no more of Satisfaction than I have done in their Preaching at first to their Unbelieving Auditors Iews or Heathens to make them as I think Christians for that I am now speaking of I shall not be sorry to be found in their Company under what censure soever If you are pleased graciously to take off this your censure from them for this omission I shall claim a share in the same Indulgence But to come to what perhaps you will think your self a little more concerned not to censure than what the Apostles did so long since for you have given instances of being very apt to make bold with the Dead Pray tell me does the Church of England admit People into the Church of Christ at hap-hazard Or without proposing and requiring a Profession of all that is necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian If she does not I desire you to turn to the Baptism of those of riper Years in our Liturgy Where the Priest asking the Convert particularly whether he believes the Apostles Creed which he repeats to him Upon his Profession that he does and that he desires to be baptized into that Faith without one word of any other Articles Baptizes him and then declares him a Christian in these words We receive this Person into the Congregation of Christ's Flock and sign him with the sign of the Cross in token that he shall not be asham'd to CONTINUE Christ's faithful Soldier and Servant In all this there is not one word of Satisfaction no more than in my Book nor so much neither And here I ask you whether for this omission you will pronounce that the Church of England disguises the Faith of the Gospel However you think fit to treat me yet methinks you should not let your self loose so freely against our first Reformers and the Fathers of our Church ever since as to call them Betrayers of Christianity it self because they think not so much necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian as you are pleased to put down in your Articles but omit as well as I your main Article of Satisfaction Having thus notably harangued upon the occasion of my saying Would any one blame my Prudence and thereby made me a Socinian a Iesuit and a Betrayer of Christianity it self he has in that answer'd all that such a Miscreant as I do or can say and so passes by all the Reasons I gave for what I did without any other notice or answer but only denying a Matter of Fact which I only can know and he cannot viz. My design in Printing my Reasonableness of Christianity In the next Paragraph p. 45. in answer to these words of St. Paul Rom. XIV 1. Him that is weak in the Faith receive ye but not to doubtful Disputations which I brought as a reason why I mention'd not Satisfaction amongst the Benefits receiv'd by the coming of our Saviour Because as I tell him in my Vindication p. 5. My Reasonableness of Christianity as the title shews was designed chiefly for those who were not yet throughly or firmly Christians He replies and I desire him to prove it XX. That I pretend a design of my Book which was never so much as thought of till I was sollicited by my Brethren to Vindicate it All the rest in this Paragraph being either nothing to this place of the Romans or what I have answer'd elsewhere needs no farther Answer The next two Paragraphs p. 46. â—49 are meant for an Answer to something I had said concerning the Apostles Creed upon the occasion of his chargeing my Book with Socinianism They begin thus This Author of the New Christianity Answ. This New Christianity is as old as the Preaching of our Saviour and his Apostles and a little older than the Unmasker's System Wisely objects that the Apostles Creed hath none of those Articles which I mention'd p. 12 13. Answ. If that Author wisely objects the Unmasker would have done well to have replied wisely But for a Man wisely to reply it is in the first place requisite that the Objection be truly and fairly set down in its full force and not represented short and as will best serve the Answerers turn to reply to This is neither wise nor honest And this first part of a wise Reply the Unmasker has failed in This will appear from my words and the occasion of them The Unmasker had accused my Book of Socinianism for omitting some Points which he urged as necessary Articles of Faith To which I answer'd That he had done so only to give it an ill Name not because it was Socinian for he had no more reason to charge it with Socinianism for the Omissions he mentions than the Apostles Creed These are my words which he should have either set down out of p. 12. which he quotes or at least given the Objection as I put it if he had meant to have clear'd it by a fair Answer But he instead thereof contents himself that I object that the Apostles Creed hath none of those Articles and Doctrines which the Unmasker mention'd Answ. This at best is but a part of my Objection and not to the purpose I there meant without the rest join'd to it which it has pleased the Unmasker according to his laudable way to conceal My Objection therefore stands thus That the same Articles for the Omission whereof the Unmasker charges my Book with Socinianism being also omitted in the Apostles Creed he has no more reason to Charge my Book with Socinianism for the Omissions mention'd than he hath to charge the Apostles Creed with Socinianism To this Objection of mine let us now see how he answers p. 47. Nor does any considerate Man wonder at it i. e. That the Apostles Creed hath none of those Articles and Doctrines which he had mention'd For the Creed is a form of outward Profession which is chiefly to be made in the Publick Assemblies when Prayers are put up in the Church and the Holy Scriptures are read Then this Abridgment of Faith is properly used or when there is not generally time or opportunity to make any Enlargement But we are not to think it expresly contains in it all the necessary and weighty Points all the important Doctrines of Belief it being only designed to be an Abstract Answ. Another indispensible requiquisite in a wise Reply is that it should be