I grant this was more clearly proposed after, than in our Saviour's time: but in both of them it was all that was proposed to the believers of one God, to make them Christians. Let him show, that there were any other proposed in, or after our Saviour's time, to be be lieved to make unbelievers Christians. If he means, by " necessary articles published to the world," the other doctrines contained 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 proposed to those they were writ to, as necessary to make them Christians, for this demon strative reason; because they were Christians already.
For example, Many doctrines proving, and explaining, and giving a farther light into the gospel, are published 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 proposed or published to both the Corinthians and Thessalonians, to make them Christians was only this doctrine, " That Jesus was the " Messiah: " as may be seen, Acts xvii. xviii. This, then, was the doctrine necessary to make men Christians, in our Saviour's time; and this the only doctrine neces sary to make unbelievers Christians, after our Saviour's time. The only difference was, that it was more clearly proposed after, than before his ascension: the reason whereof has been sufficiently explained. But any other doctrine but this, proposed clearly or obscurely, in or after our Saviour's time, as necessary to be believed to make unbelievers Christians, that remains yet to be shown.
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 discovered, in our Saviour's time; and how far they were then discovered: and therefore he says, " Some of them were not then discovered, or at least, 348 A Second Vindication of the " not fully." We must here excuse the doubtfulness of his talking, concerning the discovery of his other ne cessary articles. For how could he say, they were dis covered, or not discovered, clearly or obscurely, fully or not fully; when he does not yet know them all, nor can tell us, what those necessary articles are? If he does know them, let him give us a list of them, and then we shall see easily, whether they were at all published or discovered in our Saviour's time. If there are some of them that were not at all discovered in our Saviour's time, let him speak it out, and leave shifting: and if some of those that were " not necessary for our Sa-" viour's time, but for the succeeding one only," were yet discovered in our Saviour's time, why were they not necessary to be believed in that time? But the truth is, he knows not what these doctrines, necessary for suc ceeding times, are: and therefore can say nothing po sitively about their discovery. And for those that he has set down, as soon as he shall name any one of them to be of the number of those, " not necessary for our Sa-" viour's time, but necessary for the succeeding one," it will presently appear, either that it was discovered in our Saviour's time; and then it was as necessary for his time as the succeeding; or else, that it was not disco vered in his time, nor to several converts after his time, before they were made Christians; and therefore it was no more necessary to be believed to make a man a Christian in the succeeding, than it was in our Saviour's time. However, general positions and distinctions without a foundation serve for show, and to beguile un wary and inattentive readers.
2. Having thus minded him, that the question is about articles of faith, necessary to be explicitly and distinctly believed to make a man a Christian; I then, in the next place, demand of him to tell me, XXXIX. Whether or no all the articles, necessary now to be distinctly and explicitly believed, to make any man a Christian, were distinctly and ex plicitly published or discovered in our Saviour's time?
Reasonableness of Christianity, $$c. 349 And then I shall desire to know of him, XL. A reason why they were not.
Those that he instances in, of Christ's death and re surrection, will not help him one jot; for they are not new doctrines revealed, new mysteries discovered; but matters of fact, which happen to our Saviour in their due time, to complete in him the character and predic tions of the Messiah, and demonstrate him to be the Deliverer promised. These are recorded of him by the Spirit of God in holy writ, but are no more necessary to be believed to make a man a Christian, than any other part of divine revelation, but as far as they have an im mediate connexion with his being the Messiah, and cannot be denied without denying him to be the Mes siah; and therefore this article of his resurrection, (which supposes his death,) and such other propositions as are convertible with his being the Messiah, are, as they very well may be, put for his being the Messiah; and, as I have showed, proposed to be believed in the place of it.
All that is revealed in scripture has a consequential necessity of being believed by all those, to whom it is proposed; because it is of divine authority, one part as much as another. And, in this sense, all the divine truths in the inspired writings are fundamental, and ne cessary to be believed. But then this will destroy our unmasker's select number of fundamental articles; and " the choicest and sublimest truths of Christianity," which, he tells us, " are to be met with in the Epistles," will not be more necessary to be believed than any, which he may think the commonest or meanest truths in any of the Epistles or the Gospels. Whatsoever part of divine revelation, whether revealed before, or in, or after our Saviour's time; whether it contains (according to the distinction of our unmasker's nice palate) choice or common, sublime or not sublime truths, is necessary to be believed by every one to whom it is proposed, as far as he understands what is proposed. But God, by Jesus Christ, has entered into a covenant of grace with man- 350 A Second Vindication of the kind; a covenant of faith; instead of that of works, wherein some truths are absolutely necessary to be ex plicitly believed by them to make men Christians; and therefore those truths are necessary to be known and consequently necessary to be proposed to them to make men Christians. This is peculiar to them to make men Christians. For all men, as men, are under a ne cessary obligation to believe what God proposes to them to be believed; but there being- certain distinguishing truths, which belong to the covenant of the gospel, which if men know not, they cannot be Christians; and they being, some of them, such as cannot be known without being proposed; those, and those only, are the necessary doctrines of Christianity I speak of; without a knowledge of, and assent to which, no man can be a Christian.
To come therefore to a clear decision of this contro versy, I desire the un masker to tell me, XLT. What those doctrines are, which are absolutely necessary to be proposed to every man to make him a Christian?
XLII. 1.- Whether they are all the truths of divine revelation contained in the Bible?
For I grant his argument, (which in another place he uses for some of them, and truly belongs to them all,) viz. that they were revealed and written there, on pur pose to be believed, and that it is indispensably neces sary for Christians to believe them.
XLIII. 2. Or, whether it be only that one article, of Jesus being the Messiah, which the history of our Saviour and his apostles preaching has, with such a peculiar distinction, every- where proposed?
XLIV. 3. Or, whether the doctrines necessary to be proposed to every one to make him a Christian, be any set of truths between the two?
Reasonableness of Christianity, 8$c. 351 And if he says this latter, then I must ask him, XLV. What they are? that we may see, why those, rather than any other, contained in the New Tes tament, are necessary to be proposed to every man to make him a Christian; and, if they are not every one proposed to him, and assented to by him, he cannot be a Christian.
The unmasker makes a great noise, and hopes to give his unwary, though well-meaning readers, odd thoughts, and strong impressions against my book, by declaiming against my lank faith, and my narrowing of Christianity to one article; which, as he says, is the next way to reduce it to none. But when it is considered, it will be found, that it is he that narrows Christianity. The unmasker, as if he were arbiter and dispenser of the oracles of God, takes upon him to single out some texts of scripture; and, where the words of scripture will not serve his turn, to impose on us his interpretations and deductions, as necessary articles of faith; which is, in effect, to make them of equal authority with the unquestionable word of God. And thus, partly in the words of scripture, and partly in words of his own, he makes a set of fundamentals, with an exclusion of all the other truths delivered by the Spirit of God, in the Bible; though all the rest be of the same divine autho rity and original, and ought therefore all equally, as far as they are understood by every Christian, to be be lieved. I tell him, and I desire him to take notice of it, God has no-where given him an authority thus to garble the inspired writings of the holy scriptures. Every part of it is his word, and ought, every part of it, to be believed by every Christian man, according as God shall enable him to understand it. It ought not to be narrowed to the cut of the un masker's peculiar system; it is a presumption of the highest nature, for him thus to pretend, according to his own fancy, to establish a set of fundamental articles. This is to diminish the authority of the word of God, to set up his own; and create a reverence to his system, from which the several 352 A Second Vindication of the parts of divine revelation are to receive their weight, dignity, and authority. Those passages of holy writ which suit with that, are fundamental, choice, sublime, and necessary: the rest of the scripture (as of no great moment) is not fundamental, is not necessary to be be lieved, may be neglected, or must be tortured, to comply with an analogy of faith of his own making. But though he pretends to a certain set of fundamentals, yet to show the vanity and impudence of that pretence, he cannot tell us what they are; and therefore in vain contends for a creed he knows not, and is yet no-where. He neither does, and which is more, I tell him, he never can, give us a collection of his fundamentals gathered upon his principles, out of the scripture, with the re jection of all the rest, as not fundamental. He does not observe the difference there is between what is ne cessary to be believed by every man to make him a Christian, and what is required to be believed by every Christian. The first of these is what, by the covenant of the gospel, is necessary to be known, and conse quently to be proposed to every man, to make him a Christian: the latter is no less than the whole revelation of God, all the divine truths contained in holy scrip ture: which every Christian man is under a necessity to believe, so far as it shall please God, upon his serious and constant endeavours, to enlighten his mind to un derstand them.
The preaching of our Saviour, and his apostles, has sufficiently taught us what is necessary to be proposed to every man, to make him a Christian. He that believes him to be the promised Messiah, takes Jesus for his King, and repenting of his former sins, sincerely re solves to live, for the future, in obedience to his laws, is a subject of his kingdom, is a Christian. If he be not, I desire the unmasker to tell me, what more is requi site to make him so. Until he does that, I rest satisfied, that this is all that was at first, and is still, necessary to make a man a Christian.
This, though it be contained in a few words, and those not hard to be understood; though it be in one voluntary act of the mind, relinquishing all irregular Reasonableness of Christianity, &;c. 353 courses, and submitting itself to the rule of him, whom God hath sent to be our King, and promised to be our Saviour; yet it having relation to the race of mankind, from the first man Adam to the end of the world; it being a contrivance, wherein God has displayed so much of his wisdom and goodness to the corrupt and lost sons of men; and it being a design, to which the Almighty had a peculiar regard in the whole constitu tion and reconomy of the jews, as well as in the pro phecies and history of the Old Testament; this was a foundation capable of large superstructures: 1. In explaining the occasion, necessity, use, and end of his coming. 2. Next in proving him to be the person promised, by a correspondence of his birth, life, suffer ings, death, and resurrection, to all those prophecies and types of him, which had given the expectation of such a Deliverer; and to those descriptions of him, whereby he might be known, when he did come. 3. In the dis covery of the sort, constitution, extent, and manage ment of his kingdom. 4. In showing from what we are delivered by him, and how that deliverance is wrought out, and what are the consequences of it.
These, and a great many more the like, afford great numbers of truths delivered both in the historical, epis tolary, and prophetical writings of the New Testament, wherein the mysteries of the gospel, hidden from for mer ages, were discovered; and that more fully, I grant, after the pouring out of the Holy Ghost upon the apos tles. But could nobody take Christ for their promised King, and resolve to obey him, unless he understood all the truths that concerned his kingdom, or, as I may say, mysteries of state of it? The truth of the contrary is manifest, out of the plain and uniform preaching of the apostles, after they had received the Holy Ghost, that was to guide them into all truth. Nay, after the writing of those epistles, wherein were contained the unmasker's sublimest truths; they every-where pro posed to unbelievers Jesus the Messiah, to be their King, ordained of God; and to this joined repentance: and this alone they preached for the conversion of their unbelieving hearers. As soon as any one assented to 354, A Second Vindication of the this he was pronounced a believer; and these inspired rulers of the church, these infallible preachers of the gospel, admitted into Christ's kingdom by baptism. And this after, long " after our Saviour's ascension, " when (as our un masker expresses it) the Holy Ghost " was to be sent in an especial manner to enlighten " men's minds, and to discover to them the great mys-" teries of Christianity," even as long as the apostles lived: and what others were to do, who afterwards were to preach the gospel, St. Paul tells us, 1 Cor. iii. 11, " Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, " even Jesus the Messiah." Though upon this founda tion men might build variously things that would, or would not hold the touch, yet however as long as they kept firm to this foundation, they should be saved, as appears in the following verses.
And indeed, if all the doctrines of the gospel, which are contained in the writings of the apostles and evan gelists, were necessary to be understood, and explicitly believed in the true sense of those that delivered them, to make a man a Christian; I doubt, whether ever any one, even to this day, was a true Christian; though I believe the unmasker will not deny, but that, ere this, Christianity (as he expresses it) " is by certain steps ** climbed to its height."
But for this the unmasker has found a convenient and wise remedy. It is but for him to have the power to declare, which of the doctrines delivered in holy writ are, and which are not necessary to be believed, with an additional power to add others of his own, that he can not find there; and the business is done. For unless this be allowed him, his system cannot stand; unless his interpretations be received for authentic revelation, we cannot have all the doctrines necessary for our time; in truth, we cannot be Christians. For to this only what he says, concerning the " gradual discovery of the " doctrines of the gospel," tends. " We are not to think," says he, " that all the necessary doctrines of the chris-*• tian religion were clearly published to the world in " our Saviour's time: not but that all that were neces-" sary for that time were published; but some that Reasonableness of Christianity, 8$c. 355 " were necessary for the succeeding one, were not then " discovered, or, at least, not fully."
I must ask the unmasker a short question or two; as, first, XLVI. Are not all the doctrines, necessary for our time, contained in his system?
Next, XLVII. Can all the doctrines, necessary for our time, be proposed in the express words of the scripture?
When he has answered these two plain questions, (and an answer to them I shall expect,) the world will then see, what he designs by " doctrines necessary for our " Saviour's time, and doctrines necessary for succeeding " times; " whether he means any thing else by it, but the setting up his system, as the exact standard of the gospel, and the true and unalterable measure of Chris tianity, in which " it has climbed to its height."
Let not good and sincere Christians be deceived, nor perplexed, by this maker of another Christianity, than what the infallible Spirit of God has left us in the scrip tures. It is evident from thence, that whoever takes Jesus the Messiah for his King, with a resolution to live by his laws, and does sincerely repent, as often as he transgresses any of them, is his subject; all such are Christians. What they are to know, or believe more concerning him and his kingdom, when they are his subjects, he has left upon record in the great and sacred code and constitutions of his kingdom; I mean in the holy scriptures. All that is contained therein, as coming from the God of truth, they are to receive as truth, and embrace as such. But since it is impossible explicitly to believe any proposition of the Christian doctrine, but what we understand, or in any other sense, than we understand it to have been delivered in; an explicit belief is, or can be required in no man, of more than what he understands of that doctrine. And thus, 356 A Second Vindication of the whatsoever upon fair endeavours he understands to be contained in that doctrine, is necessary to him to be believed: nor can he continue a subject of Christ upon other terms.
What he is persuaded is the meaning of Christ his Ring in any expression he finds in the sacred code; that, by his allegiance, he is bound to submit his mind to receive for true, or else he denies the authority of Christ, and refuses to believe him; nor can be excused, by calling any one on earth master. And hence it is evidently impossible for a Christian to understand any text, in one sense, and believe it in another, by whom soever dictated.
All that is contained in the inspired writings, is all of divine authority, must all be allowed for such, and re ceived for divine and infallible truth, by every subject of Christ's kingdom, i. e. every Christian. How comes then the unmasker to distinguish these dictates of the Holy Spirit, into necessary and not necessary truths? I desire him to produce his commission, whereby he hath the power given him to tell, which of the divine truths, contained in the holy scripture, are of necessity to be believed, and which not. Who made him a judge or divider between them? Who gave him this power over the oracles of God, to set up one and debase an other, at his pleasure? Some, as he thinks fit, are the choicest truths: and what, I beseech him, are the other? Who made him a chooser, where nobody can pick and choose? Every proposition there, as far as any Christian can understand it, is indispensably necessary to be believed: and farther than he does understand it, it is impossible for him to believe it. The laws of Christ's kingdom do not require impossibilities; for they are all reasonable, and good.
Some of the truths delivered in the holy writ are very plain: it is impossible, I think, to mistake their mean ing; and those certainly are all necessary to be expli citly believed. Others have more difficulty in them, and are not easy to be understood. Is the unmasker appointed Christ's vicegerent here, or the Holy Ghost's interpreter, with authority to pronounce which of these Reasonableness of Christianity, 8$c. 357 are necessary to be believed, and in what sense, and which not? The obscurity, that is to be found in several passages of the scripture, the difficulties that cover and perplex the meaning of several texts, demand of every Christian study, diligence, and attention, in reading and hearing the scriptures; in comparing and examining them; and receiving what light he can from all manner of helps, to understand these books, wherein are con tained the words of life. This the unmasker, and every one, is to do for himself; and thereby find out what is necessary for him to believe. But I do not know that the mi masker is to understand and interpret for me, more than I for him. If he has such a power, I desire him to produce it. Until then, I can acknowledge no other infallible, but that guide, which he directs me to himself, here in these words: " according to our Sa-" viour's promise, the Holy Ghost was to be sent in a " special manner to enlighten men's minds, and to dis-" cover to them the great mysteries of Christianity."
For whether by men, he here means those on whom the Holy Ghost was so eminently poured out, Acts ii. or whether he means by these words, that special assist ance of the Holy Ghost, whereby particular men, to the end of the world, are to be led into the truth, by open ing their understandings, that they may understand the scriptures, (for he always loves to speak doubtfully and indefinitely,) I know no other infallible guide, but the Spirit of God in the scriptures. Nor has God left it in my choice to take any man for such. If he had, I should think the unmasker the unlikeliest to be he, and the last man in the world to be chosen for that guide: and herein I appeal to any sober Christian, who hath read what the unmasker has, with so little truth and decency, (for it is not always men's fault if they have not sense,) writ upon this question, whether he would not be of the same mind?
But yet, as very an unmasker as he is, he will be ex tremely apt to call you names, nay, to declare you no Christian; and boldly affirm, you have no Christianity, if you will not swallow it just as it is of his cooking, You must take it just as he has been pleased to dose it 358 A Second Vindication of the no more, nor no less, than what is in his system. He hath put himself into the throne of Christ, and pretends to tell you which are, and which are not the indis pensable laws of his kingdom: which parts of his di vine revelation you must necessarily know, understand, and believe, and in what sense; and which you need not trouble your head about, but may pass by, as not ne cessary to be believed. He will tell you, that some of his necessary articles are mysteries, and yet (as he does, p. 115, of his " Thoughts concerning the causes of " atheism") that they are easy to be understood by any man, when explained to him. In answer to that I de manded of him, " Who was to explain them? The " papists, I told him, would explain some of them one " way, and the reformed another; the remonstrants " and anti-remonstrants give them different senses; " and probably the trinitarians and Unitarians will pro-" fess, that they understand not each other's explica-" tions." But to this, in his reply, he has not vouch safed to give me any answer; which yet I expect, and I will tell him why; because, as there are different ex plainers, there will be different fundamentals. And therefore unless he can show his authority to be the sole explainer -of fundamentals, he will in vain make such a pother about his fundamentals. Another explainer, of as good authority as he, will set up others against them.
And what then shall we be the better for all this stir and noise of fundamentals? All the effect of it will be just the same it has been these thousand years and upwards; schisms, separations, contentions, animosities, quarrels, blood and butchery, and all that train of mischiefs, which have so long harassed and defamed Christianity, and are so contrary to the doctrines, spirit, and end of the gospel; and which must still continue as long as any such unmasker shall take upon him to be the dispenser and dictator to others of fundamentals; and peremp torily to define which parts of divine revelation are ne cessary to be believed, and which Christians may with safety dispense with, and not believe.
To conclude, what was sufficient to make a man a Christian in our Saviour's time, is sufficient still, viz. the Reasonableness of Christianity) §c. 359 taking him for our King and Lord, ordained so by God. What was necessary to be believed by all Christians in our Saviour's time, as an indispensable duty, which they owed to their lord and master, was the believing all di vine revelation, as far as every one could understand it: and just so it is still, neither more nor less. This being so, the un masker may make what use he pleases of his notion, " that Christianity was erected by degrees," it will no way (in that sense, in which it is true) turn to the advantage of his select, fundamental, necessary doc trines.
The next chapter has nothing in it but his great bug bear, whereby he hopes to fright people from reading my book, by crying out Socinianism, Sociriianism! Whereas I challenge him again, to show one word of sociniaiiism in it. But, however, it is worth while to write a book to prove me a socinian. Truly, I did not think myself so considerable, that the world need be troubled about me, whether I were a follower of Socinus, Arminius, Calvin, or any other leader of a sect among Christians. A Christian I am sure I am, because I be- / lieve " Jesus to be the Messiah," the King and Saviour promised and sent by God: and, as a subject of his kingdom, I take the rule of my faith and life from his will, declared and left upon record in the inspired writings of the apostles and evangelists in the New-Testament; which I endeavoured to the utmost of my power, as is my duty, to understand in their true sense and meaning. To lead me into their true meaning, I know (as I have above declared) no infallible guide, but the same Holy Spirit, from whom these writings at first came. If the un masker knows any other infallible interpreter of scripture, I desire him to direct me to him: until then, I shall think it according to my master's rule, not to b3 called, nor to call any man on earth, Master. No man, I think, has a right to pre- j scribe to me my faith, or magisterially to impose his; interpretations or opinions on me: nor is it material to any one what mine are any farther than they carry their own evidence with them. If this, which I think makes me of no sect, entitles me to the name of a papist, or a