man a Christian. These, in his list, the unmasker tells us, are " necessary to constitute a Christian, and must, " IN SOME MEASURE, be known and assented to." I would now fain know of the reader, Whether he under stands thereby, that the masker means, that these his necessary articles must be explicitly believed or not? If he means an explicit knowledge and belief, why does he puzzle his reader, by so improper a way of speaking? For what is as complete and perfect as it ought to be, cannot properly be said to be " in some measure." If his, " in some measure/' falls short of explicitly know ing and believing his fundamentals, his necessary ar ticles are such as a man may be a Christian, without ex plicitly knowing and believing, i. e. are no fundamen tals, no necessary articles at all. Thus men, uncertain what to say, betray themselves by their great caution.
Having pronounced it folly in himself to make up the defects of my short, and therefore so much blamed collection of fundamentals, by a full one of his own, though his attempt shows he would if he could; he goes on thus, p. 22, " From what I [the unmasker] have " said, it is evident, that the vindicator is grossly mis- " taken, when he saith, * Whatever doctrines the " apostles required to be believed to make a man a " Christian, are to be found in those places of scripture " which he has quoted in his book.' " And a little lower, " I think I have sufficiently proved, that there " are other doctrines besides that, which are required " to be believed to make a man a Christian."
Answ. Whatever you have proved, or (as you never fail to do) boast you have proved, will signify nothing, until you have proved one of these propositions; and have shown either, X. That what our Saviour and his apostles preached, and admitted men into the church for believing, is not all that is absolutely required to make a man a Christian. Or, That the believing him to be the Messiah, was not the only article they insisted on, to those who acknow ledged one God; and, upon the belief whereof Reasonableness of Christianity, fyc.
they admitted converts into the church, in any one of those many places quoted by me out of the his tory of the New Testament.
I say, any one: for though it be evident, throughout the whole gospel, and the Acts, that this was the one doctrine of faith, which, in all their preachings every where, they principally drive at: yet, if it were not so, but that in other places they taught other things, that would not prove that those other things were articles of faith, absolutely necessarily required to be believed to make a man a Christian, unless it had been so said. Be cause, if it appears that ever any one was admitted into the church, by our Saviour or his apostles, without having that article explicitly laid before him, and with out his explicit assent to it, you must grant, that an ex plicit assent to that article is not necessary to make a man a Christian: unless you will say, that our Saviour and his apostles admitted men into the church that were not qualified with such a faith as was absolutely neces sary to make a man a Christian; which is as much as to say, that they allowed and pronounced men to be chris- tians, who were not Christians. For he that wants what is necessary to make a man a Christian, can no more be a Christian, than he that wants what is neces sary to make him a man, can be a man. For what is necessary to the being of any thing, is essential to its being; and any thing may be as well without its es sence, as without any thing that is necessary to its be ing: and so a man be a man, without being a man; and a Christian a Christian, without being a Christian; and an unmasker may prove this, without proving it. You may, therefore, set up, by your unquestionable au thority, what articles you please, as necessary to be be lieved to make a man a Christian: if our Saviour and his apostles admitted converts into the church, without preaching those your articles to them, or requiring an explicit assent to what they did not preach and expli citly lay down, I shall prefer their authority to yours, and think it was rather by them, than by you, that God promulgated the law of faith, and manifested what A Second Vindication of the that faith was, upon which he would receive penitent converts.
And though, by his apostles, our Saviour taught a great many other truths, for the explaining this funda mental article of the law of faith, that Jesus is the Mes siah; some whereof have a nearer, and some a more remote connexion with it, and so cannot be denied by any Christian, who sees that connexion, or knows they are so taught: yet an explicit belief of any one of them, is no more necessarily required to make a man a Chris tian, than an explicit belief of all those truths, which have a connexion with the being of a God, or are re vealed by him, is necessarily required to make a man not to be an atheist: though none of them can be de nied by any one who sees that connexion, or ackflow- ledges that revelation, without his being an atheist. All these truths, taught us from God, either by reason or revelation, are of great use, to enlighten our minds, confirm our faith, stir up our affections, &c. And the more we see of them, the more we shall see, admire, and magnify the wisdom, goodness, mercy, and love of God, in the work of our redemption. This will oblige us to search and study the scripture, wherein it is con tained and laid open to us.
All that we find in the revelation of the " New Tes- " lament," being the declared will and mind of our Lord and Master, the Messiah, whom we have taken to be our king, we are bound to receive as right and truth, or else we are not his subjects, we do not believe him to be the Messiah, our Ring, but cast him off, and with the jews say, " We will not have this man reign over us." But it is still wrhat we find in the scripture, not in this or that system; what we, sincerely seeking to know the will of our Lord, discover to be his mind. Where it is spoken plainly, we cannot miss it; and it is evident he requires our assent: where there is obscurity, either in the expressions themselves, or by reason of the seeming contrariety of other passages, there a fair endeavour, as much as our circumstances will permit, secures us from a guilty disobedience of his will, or a sinful errour in faith, which way soever our inquiry resolves the doubt, Reasonableness of Christianity, 8$c. 229 or perhaps leaves it unresolved. If he had required more of us in those points, he would have declared his will plainer to us, and discovered the truth contained in those obscure, or seemingly contradictory places, as clearly, and as uniformly as he did that fundamental article, that we were to believe him to be the Messiah, our King.
As men, we have God for our King, and are under the law of reason: as Christians, we have Jesus the Mes siah for our King, and are under the law revealed by him in the gospel. And though every Christian, both as a deist and a Christian, be obliged to study both the law of nature and the revealed law, that in them he may know the will of God, and of Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent; yet, in neither of these laws, is there to be found a select set of fundamentals, distinct from the rest, which are to make him a deist, or a Christian. But he that believes one eternal, invisible God, his Lord and King, ceases thereby to be an atheist; and he that be lieves Jesus to be the Messiah, his king, ordained by God, thereby becomes a Christian, is delivered from the power of darkness, and is translated into the kingdom of the Son of God; is actually within the covenant of grace, and has that faith, which shall be imputed to him for righteousness; and, if he continues in his allegiance to this his King, shall receive the reward, eternal life.
He that considers this, will not be so hot as the un- masker, to contend for a number of fundamental ar ticles, all necessary, every one of them, to be explicitly believed by every one for salvation, without knowing them himself, or being able to enumerate them to an other. Can there be any thing more absurd than to say, there are several fundamental articles, each of which every man must explicitly believe, upon pain of damna- / tion, and yet not be able to say, which they be? The unmasker has set down no small number; but yet dares not say, these are all. On the contrary, he has plainly confessed there are more; but will not, i. e. cannot tell what they are, that remain behind; nay, has given a general description of his fundamental articles, by which it is not evident, but there may be ten times as many as 230 A Second Vindication of the those he had named; and amongst them (if he durst, or could name them) probably several that many a good Christian 5 who died in the faith, and is now in heaven, never once thought of; and others, which many, of as good authority as he, would, from their different sys tems, certainly deny and contradict.
This, as great an absurdity as it is, cannot be other wise, whilst men will take upon them to alter the terms of the gospel; and when it is evident, that our Saviour and his apostles received men into the church, and pro nounced them believers, for taking him to be the Mes siah, their King and deliverer, sent by God, have a bold ness to say, " this is not enough." But, when you would know of them, what then is enough, they cannot tell you: the reason whereof is visible, viz. because they be ing able to produce no other reason for their collection of fundamental articles, to prove them necessary to be believed, but because they are of divine authority, and contained in the holy scriptures; and are, as the un- masker says, " writ there on purpose to be believed; " they know not where toi stop, when they have once be gun: those texts that they leave out, or from which they deduce none of their fundamentals, being of the same divine authority, and so upon that account equally fundamental with what they culled out, though not so well suited to their particular systems.
Hence come those endless and unreasonable conten tions about fundamentals, whilst each censures the de fect, redundancy, or falsehood of what others require, as necessary to be believed: and yet he himself gives not a catalogue of his own fundamentals, which he will say is sufficient and complete. Nor is it to be wondered; since, in this way, it is impossible to stop short of put ting every proposition, divinely revealed, into the list of fundamentals; all of them being of divine, and so of equal authority; and, upon that account, equally ne cessary to be believed by every one that is a Christian, though they are not all necessary to be believed, to make any one a Christian. For the New Testament contain ing the laws of the Messiah's kingdom, in regard of all the actions, both of mind and body, of all his subjects; every Christian is bound, by his allegiance to him, to be lieve all that he says in it to be true; as well as to assent, that all he commands in it is just and good: and what negligence, perverseness, or guilt there is, in his mis taking in the one, or failing in his obedience to the other, that this righteous judge of all men, who cannot be deceived, will at the last day lay open, and reward accordingly.
It is no wonder, therefore, there have been such fierce contests, and such cruel havock made amongst Christians about fundamentals; whilst every one would set up his system, upon pain of fire and faggot in this, and hell- tire in the other world. Though, at the same time, whilst he is exercising the utmost barbarities against others, to prove himself a true Christian, he professes himself so ignorant, that he cannot tell, or so uncharit able, that he will not tell, what articles are absolutely necessary and sufficient to make a man a Christian. If there be any such fundamentals, as it is certain there are, it is as certain they must be very plain. Why then does every one urge and make a stir about fundamen tals, and no body give a list of them? but because (as I have said) upon the usual grounds, they cannot: for I will be bold to say, that every one who considers the matter, will see, that either only the article of his being the Messiah their King, which alone our Saviour and his apostles preached to the unconverted world, and re ceived those that believed it into the church, is the only necessary article to be believed by an atheist, to make him a Christian; or else, that all the truths contained in the New Testament, are necessary articles to be believed to make a man a Christian: and that between these two, it is impossible any-where to stand; the reason whereof is plain. Because, either the believing Jesus to be the Messiah, i. e. the taking him to be our King, makes us subjects and denizens of his kingdom, that is, chris- tians: or else an explicit knowledge of, and actual obe dience to the laws of his kingdom, is what is required to make us subjects; which, I think, it was never said of any other kingdom. For a man must be a subject before he is bound to obey.
A Second Vindication of the Let us suppose it will be said here, that an obedience to the laws of Christ's kingdom, is what is necessary to make us subjects of it, without which we cannot be ad mitted into it, i. e. be Christians: and, if so, this obe dience must be universal; I mean, it must be the same sort of obedience to all the laws of this kingdom: which, since no body says is in any one such as is wholly free from errour, or frailty, this obedience can only lie in a sincere disposition and purpose of mind, to obey every one of the laws of the Messiah, delivered in the New Testament, to the utmost of our power. Now, believing right being one part of that obedience, as well as acting right is the other part, the obedience of assent must be implicitly to all that is delivered there, that it is true. But for as much as the particular acts of an ex plicit assent cannot go any farther than his understand ing, who is to assent; what he understands to be truth, delivered by our Saviour, or the apostles commissioned by him, and assisted by his Spirit, that he must necessa rily believe: it becomes a fundamental article to him, and he cannot refuse his assent to it, without renounc ing his allegiance. For he that denies any of the doc trines that Christ has delivered, to be true, denies him to be sent from God, and consequently to be the Messiah; and so ceases to be a Christian. From whence it is evi dent, that if any more be necessary to be believed to make a man a Christian, than the believing Jesus to be the Messiah, and thereby taking him for our King, it cannot be any set bundle of fundamentals, culled out of the scripture, with an omission of the rest, according as best suits any one's fancy, system, or interest: but it must be an explicit belief of all those propositions, which he, according to the best of his understanding, really apprehends to be contained and meant in the scripture; and an implicit belief of all the rest, which he is ready to believe, as soon as it shall please God, upon his use of the means, to enlighten him, and make them clear to his understanding. So that in effect, al most every particular man in this sense has, or may have, a distinct catalogue of fundamentals, each where of it is necessary for him explicitly to believe, now that Reasonableness of Christianity > 8$c. 233 he is a Christian; whereof if he should disbelieve or deny any one, he would cast off his allegiance, disfranchise himself, and be no longer a subject of Christ's kingdom. But, in this sense, no body can tell what is fundamental to another, what is necessary for another man to believe. This catalogue of fundamentals, every one alone can make for himself: no body can fix it for him; no body can collect or prescribe it to another: but this is, ac cording as God has dealt to every one the measure of light and faith; and has opened each man's understand ing, that he may understand the scriptures. Whoever has used what means he is capable of, for the informing of himself, with a readiness to believe and obey what shall be taught and prescribed by Jesus, his Lord and King, is a true and faithful subject of Christ's kingdom; and cannot be thought to fail in any thing necessary to salvation.
Supposing a man and his wife, barely by seeing the wonderful things that Moses did, should have been per suaded to put themselves under his government; or by reading his law, and liking it; or by any other motive, had been prevailed on sincerely to take him for their ruler and law-giver; and accordingly (renouncing their former idolatry and heathenish pollutions) in token thereof had, by baptism and circumcision, the initiating ceremonies, solemnly entered themselves into that com munion, under the law of Moses; had they not, thereby, been made denizens of the commonwealth of Israel, and invested with all the privileges and prerogatives of true children of Abraham, leaving to their posterity a right to their share in the promised land, though they had died before they had performed any other act of obedi ence to that law; nay, though they had not known whose son Moses was, nor how he had delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt, nor whither he was lead ing them? I do not say, it is likely they should be so far ignorant. But, whether they were or no, it was enough that they took him for their prince and ruler, with a purpose to obey him, to submit themselves en tirely to his commands and conduct; and did nothing afterwards^ whereby they disowned or rejected his au- 234 A Second Vindication of the thority over them. In that respect, none of. his laws were greater or more necessary to be submitted to, one than another, though the matter of one might be of much greater consequence than of another. But a dis obedience to any law of the least consequence, if it carry with it a disowning of the authority that made it, forfeits all, and cuts off such an offender from that com monwealth, and all the privileges of it.
This is the case, in respect of other matters of faith, to those who believe Jesus to be the Messiah, and take him to be their King, sent from God, and so are already Christians. It is not the opinion, that any one may have of the weightiness of the matter, (if they are, without their own fault, ignorant that our Saviour hath revealed it,) that shall disfranchise them, and make them forfeit their interest in his kingdom: they may still be good subjects, though they do not believe a great many things, which creed-makers may think necessary to be believed. That which is required of them is a sincere endeavour to know his mind, declared in the gospel, and an ex plicit belief of all that they understand to be so. Not to believe what he has revealed, whether in a lighter, or more weighty matter, calls his veracity into question, destroys his mission, denies his authority, and is a flat disowning him to be the Messiah, and so overturns that fundamental and necessary article whereby a man is a Christian. But this cannot be done by a man's ignorance or unwilful mistake of any of the truths published by our Saviour himself, or his authorized and inspired mi nisters, in the New Testament. Whilst a man knows not that it was his will or meaning, his allegiance is safe, though he believe the contrary.
If this were not so, it is impossible that any one should be a Christian. For in some things we are ignorant, and err all, not knowing the scriptures. For the holy inspired writings, being all of the same divine autho rity, must all equally in every article be fundamental, and necessary to be believed; if that be a reason, that makes any one proposition in it necessary to be believed. But the law of faith, the covenant of the gospel, being a covenant of grace, and not of natural right, or debt 5 Reasonableness of Christianity, §c. 235 nothing can be absolutely necessary to be believed, but what, by this new law of faith, God of his good pleasure hath made to be so. And this, it is plain, by the preach ing of our Saviour and his apostles, to all that believed not already in him, was only the believing the only true God, and Jesus to be the Messiah, whom he hath sent. The performance of this puts a man within the cove nant, arid is that, which God will impute to him for righteousness. All the other acts of assent to other truths, taught by our Saviour, and his apostles, are not what make a man a Christian; but are necessary acts of obedience to be performed by one, who is a Christian; and therefore, being a Christian, ought to live by the laws of Christ's kingdom.
Nor are we without some glimpse of light, why it hath pleased God of his grace, that the believing Jesus to be the Messiah should be that faith which he would impute to men for righteousness. It is evident from scripture, that our Saviour despised the shame and en- j| \y dured the cross for the joy set before him; which joy, it is also plain, was a kingdom. But, in this kingdom, which his Father had appointed to him, he could have none but voluntary subjects; such as leaving the king dom of darkness, and of the prince of this world, with all the pleasures, pomps, and vanities thereof would put themselves under his dominion, and translate themselves into his kingdom; which they did, by believing and owning him to be the Messiah their King, and thereby taking him to rule over them. For the faith for which ^ God justifieth, is not an empty speculation, but a faith joined with repentance, and working by love. And for this, which was, in effect, to return to God himself, and to their natural allegiance due to him, and to advance as much as lay in them, the glory of the kingdom, which he had promised his Son; God was pleased to declare, he would accept them, receive them to grace, and blot out all their former transgressions.
This is evidently the covenant of grace, as delivered in the scriptures: and if this be not, I desire any one to tell me what it is, and what are the terms of it. It is a law of faith, whereby God has promised to forgive all 236 A Second Vindication of the our sins, upon our repentance and believing something; and to impute that faith to us for righteousness. Now I ask, what it is by the law of faith, we are required to be lieve? For until that be known, the law of faith is not distinctly known; nor the terms of the covenant upon which the all-merciful God graciously offers us salvation. And, if any one will say, this is not known, nay, is not easily and certainly to be known under the gospel, I desire him to tell me, what the greatest enemies of Christianity can say worse against it? For a way pro posed to salvation, that does not certainly lead thither, or is proposed, so as not to be known, are very little different as to their consequence; and mankind would be left to wander in darkness and uncertainty, with the one as well as the other.
I do not write this for controversy's sake; for had I minded victory, I would not have given the unmasker this new matter of exception. I know whatever is said, he must be bawling for his fashionable and profitable orthodoxy, and cry out against this too, which I have here added, as socinianism; and cast that name upon all that differs from what is held by those he would re commend his zeal to in writing. I call it bawling, for whether what he has said be reasoning, I shall refer to those of his own brotherhood, if he be of any brother hood, and there be any that will join with him in his set of fundamentals, when his creed is made.
Had I minded nothing but how to deal with him, I had tied him up short to his list of fundamentals, with out affording him topics of declaiming, against what I have here said. But I have enlarged on this point, for the sake of such readers, who, with the love of truth, read books of this kind, and endeavour to inform them selves in the things of their everlasting concernment: it being of greater consideration with me to give any light and satisfaction to one single person, who is really concerned to understand, and be convinced of the religion he professes, than what a thousand fashion able, or titular professors of any sort of orthodoxy shall say, or think of me, for not doing as they do; i. e. for not saying after others, without understanding Reasonableness of Christianity, &$c. £3?
what is said, or upon what grounds, or caring to un derstand it.