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
who unprovoked mix with the management of their Cause Injuries and ill Language to those they differ from This at least I am sure Zeal or Love for Truth can never permit Falshood to be used in the Defence of it Your Mind I see prepar'd for Truth by resignation of it self not to the Traditions of Men but the Doctrine of the Gospel has made you more readily entertain and more easily enter into the meaning of my Book than most I have heard speak of it And since you seem to me to comprehend what I have laid together with the same Disposition of Mind and in the same Sence that I received it from the Holy Scriptures I shall as a mark of my respect to you give you a particular Account of the Occasion of it The Beginning of the Year in which it was Published the Controversie that made so much noise and heat amongst some of the Dissenters coming one Day accidentally into my Mind drew me by degrees into a stricter and more through Enquiry into the Question about Justification The Scripture was direct and plain that 't was Faith that justified The next Question then was what Faith that was that justified What it was which if a Man believed it should be imputed to him for Righteousness To find out this I thought the right way was to Search the Scriptures and thereupon betook my self seriously to the Reading of the New Testament only to that Purpose What that produced you and the World have seen The first View I had of it seem'd mightily to satisfie my mind in the Reasonableness and Plainness of this Doctrine But yet the general Silence I had in my little Reading met with concerning any such thing awed me with the Apprehension of Singularity Till going on in the Gospel History the whole tenour of it made it so clear and visible that I more wonder'd that every body did not see and imbrace it than that I should assent to what was so plainly laid down and so frequently inculcated in Holy Writ though Systems of Divinity said nothing of it That which added to my Satisfaction was that it led me into a Discovery of the marvellous and divine Wisdom of our Saviour's Conduct in all the Circumstances of his promulgating this Doctrine as well as of the necessity that such a Law-giver should be sent from God for the reforming the Morality of the World Two Points that I must confess I had not found so fully and advantageously explain'd in the Books of Divinity I had met with as the History of the Gospel seem'd to me upon an attentive Perusal to give Occasion and Matter for But the Necessity and Wisdom of our Saviour's opening the Doctrine which he came to publish as he did in Parables and figurative ways of speaking carries such a Thread of Evidence through the whole History of the Evangelists as I think is impossible to be resisted and makes it a Demonstration that the Sacred Historians did not write by concert as Advocates for a bad Cause or to give Colour and Credit to an Imposture they would Usher into the World Since they every one of them in some place or other omit some Passages of our Saviour's Life or Circumstances of his Actions which shew the Wisdom and Wariness of his Conduct and which even those of the Evangelists who have recorded do barely and transiently mention without laying any Stress on them or making the least remark of what Consequence they are to give us our Saviour's true Character and to prove the Truth of their History These are Evidences of Truth and Sincerity which result alone from the Nature of things and cannot be produced by any Art or Contrivance How much I was pleased with the growing Discovery every Day whilst I was employed in this search I need not say The wonderful Harmony that the farther I went disclosed it self tending to the same Points in all the parts of the sacred History of the Gospel was of no small Weight with me and another Person who every Day from the beginning to the end of my search saw the Progress of it and knew at my first setting out that I was ignorant whither it would lead me and therefore every Day asked me what more the Scripture had taught me So far was I from the thoughts of Socinianism or an Intention to write for that or any other Party or to publish any thing at all But when I had gone through the whole and saw what a plain simple reasonable thing Christianity was suited to all Conditions and Capacities and in the Morality of it now with divine Authority established into a legible Law so far surpassing all that Philosophy and humane Reason had attain'd to or could possibly make effectual to all degrees of Mankind I was flatter'd to think it might be of some use in the World especially to those who thought either that there was no need of Revelation at all or that the Revelation of our Saviour required the Belief of such Articles for Salvation which the settled Notions and their way of reasoning in some and want of Understanding in others made impossible to them Upon these two Topicks the Objections seemed to turn which were with most Assurance made by Deists against Christianity But against Christianity misunderstood It seem'd to me that there needed no more to shew them the Weakness of their Exceptions but to lay plainly before them the Doctrine of our Saviour and his Apostles as delivered in the Scriptures and not as taught by the several Sects of Christians This tempted me to publish it not thinking it deserved an Opposition from any Minister of the Gospel and least of all from any one in the Communion of the Church of England But so it is that Mr. Edwards's Zeal for he knows not what for he does not yet know his own Creed nor what is required to make him a Christian could not brook so plain simple and intelligible a Religion But yet not knowing what to say against it and the Evidence it has from the Word of God he thought fit to let the Book alone and fall upon the Author What great Matter he has done in it I need not tell you who have seen and shew'd the Weakness of his Wranglings You have here Sir the true History of the Birth of my Reasonableness of Christianity as delivered in the Scriptures and my Design in publishing it c. What it contains and how much it tends to Peace and Union amongst Christians if they would receive Christianity as it is you have discovered I am SIR Your most humble Servant A. B. My Readers will pardon me that in my Preface to them I make this particular Address to Mr. Bold He hath thought it worth his while to defend my Book How well he has done it I am too much a Party to say I think it so sufficient to Mr. Edwards that I needed not have troubled my self any further about him on the account
for not knowing them why do you fill your Books with such variety of Invectives as if you could never say enough nor bad enough against me for having left out some of them And if it be so dangerous so criminal to miss any of them why is it a folly in me to move you to give me a compleat List If Fundamentals are to be known easie to be known as without doubt they are then a Catalogue may be given of them But if they are not if it cannot certainly be determin'd which are they but the doubtful knowledge of them depends upon guesses why may not I be permitted to follow my guesses as well as you yours Or why of all others must you prescribe your guesses to me when there are so many that are as ready to prescribe as you and of as good Authority The pretence indeed and clamour is Religion and the Saving of Souls But your Business 't is plain is nothing but to over-rule and prescribe and be hearken'd to as a Dictator and not to inform teach and instruct in the sure way to Salvation Why else do you so start and fling when I desire to know of you what is necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian when this is the only material thing in Controversie between us and my Mistakes in it has made you begin a quarrel with me and let loose your Pen against me in no ordinary way of reprehension Besides in this way which you take you will be in no better a case than I. For another having as good a claim to have his guesses give the rule as you yours or to have his System received as well as you yours he will complain of you as well and upon as good grounds as you do of me and if he have but as much Zeal for his Orthodoxy as you shew for yours in as civil well-bred and Christian-like Language In the next place pray tell me why would it be folly in you to comply with what I require of you Would it not be useful to me to be set right in this Matter if so why is it folly in you to set me right Consider me if you please as one of your Parishioners who after you have resolv'd which Catalogue of Fundamentals to give him either that in your Thoughts of the Causes of Atheism or this other here in your Socinianism Unmask'd for they are not both the same nor either of them perfect asked you are these all Fundamental Articles necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian and are there no more but these would you answer him that it was folly in you to comply with him in what he desired Is it of no moment to know what is required of Men to be believed without a belief of which they are not Christians nor can be saved And is it folly in a Minister of the Gospel to inform one committed to his Instruction in so material a Point as this which distinguishes Believers from Unbelievers Is it folly in one whose Business it is to bring Men to be Christians and to Salvation to resolve a Question by which they may know whether they are Christians or no and without a resolution of which they cannot certainly know their Condition and the state they are in Is it besides your Commission and Business and therefore a folly to extend your care of Souls so far as this to those who are committed to your Charge Sir I have a Title to demand this of you as if I were your Parishioner You have forced your self upon me for a Teacher in this very Point as if you wanted a Parishioner to instruct and therefore I demand it of you and shall insist upon it till you either do it or confess you cannot Nor shall it excuse you to say it is capriciously required For this is no otherwise capricious than all Questions are capricious to a Man that cannot answer them and such an one I think this is to you For if you could answer it no body can doubt but that you would and that with confidence For no body will suspect 't is the want of that makes you so reserved This is indeed a frequent way of answering Questions by men that cannot otherwise cover the Absurdities of their Opinions and their insolence of expecting to be believed upon their bare words by saying they are capriciously asked and deserved no other Answer But how far soever Capriciousness when proved for saying is not enough may excuse from answering a material Question yet your own words here will clear this from being a capricious Question in me For that those Texts of Scripture which you have set down do not upon your own Grounds contain all the Fundamental Doctrines of Religion all that is necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian what you say a little lower in this very Page as well as in other places does demonstrate Your words are I think I have sufficiently proved that there are other Doctrines besides that Jesus is the Messiah which are required to be believed to make a Man a Christian why did the Apostles write these Doctrines was it not that those they writ to might give their assent to them This Argument for the necessity of believing the Texts you cite from their being set down in the New Testament you urged thus p. 9. Is this set down to no purpose in these inspired Epistles Is it not requisite that we should know it and believe And again p. 29. They are in our Bibles to that very purpose to be believed If then it be necessary to know and believe those Texts of Scripture you have collected because the Apostles writ them and they were not set down to no purpose And they are in our Bibles on purpose to be believed I have reason to demand of you other Texts besides those you have enumerated as containing Points necessary to be believed because there are other Texts which the Apostles writ and were not set down to no purpose and are in our Bibles on purpose to be believed as well as those which you have cited Another reason of doubting and consequently of demanding whether those Propositions you have set down for Fundamental Doctrines be every one of them necessary to be believed and all that are necessary to be believed to make a Man a Christian I have from your next Argument which join'd to the former stands thus p. 22. Why did the Apostles write these Doctrines Was it not that those they writ to might give their assent to them nay did they not require assent to them Yes verily for this is to be proved from the Nature of the things contained in those Doctrines which are such as had immediate respect to the Occasion Author Way Means and Issue of their Redemption and Salvation If therefore all things which have an immediate respect to the Occasion Author Way Means and Issue of Mens Redemption and Salvation are
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