SECTION IV.

There is nothing of necessity to be believed, which the apostolical Churches did not believe.

IN the first part of the Dissuasive,' it was said, that the two testaments are the fountains of faith: and whatsoever (viz. as belonging to the faith,) came in after these 'foris est,' is to be cast out;' it belongs not to Christ: and now, I suppose, what was then said is fully verified. And the church of Rome, obtruding many propositions upon the belief of the church, which are not in Scripture, and of which they can never show any universal or apostolical tradition, urging those upon pain of damnation, imposing an absolute necessity of believing such points, which were either denied by the primitive church, or were counted but indifferent, and matters of opinion, hath disordered the Christian religion, and made it to-day a new thing, and unlike the great and glorious founder of it, who "is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." The charge here then is double: they have made new necessities, and they have made new articles.

I choose to speak first of their tyrannical manner of imposing their articles; viz. every thing under pain of damnation: the other of the new matter, is the subject of the following

sections.

First then, I allege that the primitive church, being taught by Scripture and the examples apostolical, affirmed but few things to be necessary to salvation. They believed the whole Scriptures; every thing they had learned there, they equally believed: but because every thing was not of equal necessity to be believed, they did not equally learn and teach all that was in Scripture. But the apostles, say some,others say, that immediately after them the church,—did agree upon a creed, a symbol of articles which were, in the whole, the foundation of faith, the ground of the Christian hope; and that, upon which charity, or good life, was to be built. There were in Scripture many creeds; the Gentiles' creed, Martha's creed, the Eunuch's creed, St. Peter's creed, St. Paul's creed; "to believe that God is, and that he is the

a

rewarder of them that seek him diligently ":" "to believe b that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God," that "Jesus is come in the flesh;" that he "rose again from the dead;" these confessions were the occasions of admirable effects; by the first the Gentiles come to God; by the following, blessedness is declared, salvation is promised to him that believes; and to him that confesses this, "God will come and dwell in him, and he shall dwell in God ;" and this "belief is the end of writing the Gospel," as, having life through Christ, is the end of this belief: and all this is more fully explicated by St. Paul's creed; "This is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved d." This is "the word of faith;" which if we confess with our mouths, and entertain and believe in our heart; that is, do live according to it, we shall certainly be saved. If we acknowledge Christ to be our Lord, that is, our lawgiver, and our Saviour, to rescue us from our sins and their just consequents, we have all faith; and nothing else can be the foundation, but such articles which are the confession of those two truths, Christ Jesus our Lord,' Christ Jesus our Saviour;' that by faith we be brought unto obedience and love; and by this love we be brought to Christ, and by Christ unto God; this is the whole complexion of the Christian faith, the economy of our salvation. There are many other doctrines of Christianity of admirable use, and fitted to great purposes of knowledge and government; but "the word of faith" (as St. Paule calls it), that which the apostles preached, viz. to all, and as of particular remark, and universal efficacy, and absolute sufficiency to salvation, is that which is described by himself in those few words now quoted; "Other foundation than this, no man can lay, that is, Jesus Christ'." Every thing else is but a superstructure; and though it may, if it be good, be of advantage; yet if it be amiss, so the foundation be kept, it will only be matter of loss and detriment,

1 John, iv. 2. & 15. John, xx 31, & xi. 27.

d Rom. x. 8. Matt. x. 32. Marc. viii. 38. Luc. ix. 26. & xii. 8. 2 Tim. ii. 12. Apocal. iii. 5.

e Rom. x. 8.

1 Cor. iii. 11.

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but consistent with salvation. And therefore St. Paul * judged, that he would know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified." And this is the sum total of all; this is the Gospel-so St. Pauls most fully; "I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I have preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain :" and what is this Gospel, this word preached and received,' that by which ye stand,' and that by which we are saved?' It is nothing but this, "I delivered unto you first of all that which I received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures.”—This was the 'traditum,' the 'depositum,' this was the evangelium;' Christ died: " he died for our sins, and he rose again for us ;" and this being the great tradition by which they tried the spirits, yet it was laid up in Scriptures. That Christ died, was according to the Scriptures; that he rose again, was according to the Scriptures; and that St. Paul twice, and that so immediately, remarks this, is not without mystery; but it can imply to us nothing but this, that our whole faith is laid up in the Scriptures; and this faith is perfected, as to the essentiality of it, in the death and resurrection of Christ; as being the whole economy of our pardon and justification. And it is yet further remarkable, that when St. Paul, as he often does, renews and repeats this Christian creed; he calls upon us not to be wise above what is written; and to be wise unto sobriety. Which he afterwards expounding, says; "He that prophesies, let him do it according to the proportion of faith;" that is, if he will enlarge himself he may, and prophesy greatly; but still to keep himself to the analogy of faith; not to go beyond that, not to be wiser than that measure of sobriety. And if we observe the three sermons of St. Peter, the sermon of St. Philip and St. Silas, the sermons of St. Paul often preached in the synagogues; they were all but this: that 'Jesus Christ is the Son of God;' that he is the Lord of

h

1 Cor. ii. 2. h1 Cor. iv. 6. k Acts, ii. 24, & iii. 12. 31. & xvii. 2, 18, 20, 31,

Rom. xii. 3.

1 Cor. xv. 3, 4.

i Rom. xii. 6.

Acts, viii. 12, 37, 38. Acts, ix. 20. & xvii. 2. & xvi.

all;' that he is the Christ of God,' that God anointed him,' that he was crucified, and raised again from the dead;"' and that 'repentance and remission of sins was to be preached in his name.'

But as the spirit of God did purpose for ever with strictness to retain the simplicity of faith, so also he was pleased so far to descant upon the plain ground, as to make the mystery of godliness to be clearly understood by all men. And, therefore, that we might see it necessary to believe in Jesus, it was necessary we should understand he was a person to be relied upon, that he was infinitely credible, powerful, and wise, just, and holy; and that we might perceive it necessary and profitable to obey him, it was fit we understood why; that is, what good would follow him that is obedient, and what evil to the refractory. This was all; and this, indeed, was the necessary appendage of the simple and pure word of faith; and this the apostles drew into a symbol, and particular minute of articles. Now, although the first was sufficient; yet, they,-knowing it was fit we should understand this simplicity, with the investiture of some circumstances; and yet, knowing that it was not fit the simplicity of faith should be troubled with new matter,-were pleased to draw the whole into a scheme, sufficient and intelligible, but nothing perplexed, nothing impertinent: and this the church hath called the apostles' creed; which contains all that which is necessary to be inquired after, and believed by a universal and prinie necessity.

True it is, other things may become necessary, by accident, and collateral obligations; and if we come to know what God, in the abundance of his wisdom and goodness, hath spoken to mankind, we are bound to believe it: but the case is different. Many things may be necessary to be believed, that we may acknowledge God's veracity; and so also many things are necessary to be done, in obedience to the empire and dictates of the conscience, which oftentimes hath authority, when she hath no reason; and is a peremptory judge, when she is no wise counsellor. though these things are true, yet nothing is a necessary article of faith, but that which ministers, necessarily, to the great designs of the gospel, that is, a life conformable to God, a God-like life, and an imitation of the Holy Jesus.

But

To believe, and to have faith in the evangelical sense, are things very different. Every man is bound to have faith in all the proper objects of it. But only some men are bound to believe truths, which are not matters of faith. This obliges upon supposition of a manifest discovery, which may, or may not happen; but in the other case we are bound to inquire; and all of us must be instructed, and every man must assent: and without this we cannot be Christ's disciples; we are rebels, if we oppose the other, and no good man can or does.

For if he be satisfied, that it is the word and mind of God, he must and will believe it; he cannot choose; and if he will not confess it, when he thinks God bids him, or if he opposes it when he thinks God speaks it, he is malicious and a villain; but if he does not believe God said it, then he must answer for more than he knows, or than he ought to believe, that is, the articles of faith: but we are not subjects or children, unless we consent to these. The other cannot come into the common accounts of mankind, but as a man may become a law unto himself, by a confident, an unnecessary, and even a false persuasion (because, even an erring conscience can bind), so much more can God become a law unto us, when we, by any accident, come into the knowledge of any revelation from God: but these are not the Christian faith, in the strict and proper sense; that is, these are not the foundation of our religion; many a man is a good Christian without them, and goes to heaven, though he know nothing of them; but without these, no Christian can be saved.

Now, then, the apostles, the founders of Christianity, knowing the nature, design, efficacy, and purpose of the articles of faith, selected such propositions, which in conjunction did integrate our faith, and were therefore necessary to be believed unto salvation; not because these articles were, for themselves, commanded to be believed; but because, without the belief of them, we could not obtain the purposes and designs of faith; that is, we could not be enabled to serve God, to destroy the whole body of sin, to be partakers of the divine nature. This collect or symbol of propositions is that which we call the apostles' creed, which I shall endeavour to prove, to have been always in the primitive church, esteemed a full and perfect digest of all the necessary