parts and members of the christian faith, which do no more occur in any one place of scripture, than the whole New Testament can be faid to occur in any one place of fcripture. For every propofition, delivered in the New Teftament for divine revelation, is "a part and "member of the chriftian faith." But it is not thofe

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parts and members of the chriftian faith," we are fpeaking of; but only fuch "parts and members of "the chriftian faith," as are abfolutely neceffary to be believed by every man, before he can be a chriftian. And in that fenfe, I deny his affertion to be true, viz. that they do not occur in any one place of the fcripture: for they do all occur in that firft fermon of St. Peter, Acts ii. 36, by which three thoufand were at that time. brought into the church, and that in these words: "therefore let all the houfe of Ifrael know affuredly, "that God hath made that fame Jefus, whom you have crucified, Lord and Christ. Repent, and be bap"tifed every one of you in the name of Jefus Chrift." Here is the doctrine of Jefus the Meffiah, the Lord, and of repentance, proposed to thofe, who already believe one. God which, I fay, are all the parts of the chriftian faith neceflary to be believed to make a man a chriftian. To fuppofe, as the unmafker does here, that more is required, is to beg, not to prove the queftion.

If he difputes this collection of mine out of that fermon of St. Peter, I will give him a more authentic collection of the neceffary parts of the chriftian faith, from an author that he will not queftion. Let him look into Acts xx. 20, &c. and there he will find St. Paul faying thus to the elders of Ephefus, whom he was taking his laft leave of, with an affurance that he fhould never fee them again: "I have kept back nothing that was " profitable unto you; but have fhowed you, and have "taught you publicly, and from houfe to houfe, teftifying both to the Jews, and alfo the Grecks, repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jefus Chrift." If St. Paul knew what was neceffary to make a chriftian, here it is: here he (if he knew how to do it, for it is plain from his words he defigned to do it) has put it together. But there is a

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greater yet than St. Paul, who has brought all the parts of faith neceffary to falvation into one place; I mean our Saviour himself, John xvii. 13, in thefe words: "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jefus Chrift, whom thou haft "fent."

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But the unmasker goes on: Therefore, when, in fome places, only one fingle part of the chriftian faith is made mention of, as neceffary to be embraced in order to falvation, we must be careful not "to take it alone, but to fupply it from feveral other places, which make mention of other neceffary and indifpenfable points of belief. I will give the reader a plain inftance of this, Rom. x. 9, "If thou shalt believe in thine heart, that God hath raifed him (i. e. the Lord Jefus) from the dead, thou fhalt be faved.' "Here one article of faith, viz. the belief of Chrift's

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refurrection (because it is of fo great importance in christianity) is only mentioned: but all the reft must be fuppofed, because they are mentioned in other places."

Anfw. One would wonder that any one converfant in holy writ, with ever fo little attention, much more that an expounder of the fcriptures, fhould fo miftake the fenfe and ftyle of the fcripture. Believing Jefus to be the Meffiah, with a lively faith, i. e. as I have fhowed, taking him to be our King, with a fincere fubmiffion to the laws of his kingdom, is all that is required to make a man a chriftian; for this includes repentance too. The believing him therefore to be the Meffiah is very often, and with great reafon, put both for faith and repentance too; which are fometimes fet down fingly, where one is put for both, as implying the other; and fometimes they are both mentioned; and then faith, as contradiftinguished to repentance, is taken for a fimple affent of the mind to this truth, that Jefus is the Meffiah. Now this faith is variously expreffed in fcripture.

There are fome particulars in the hiftory of our Saviour, allowed to be fo peculiarly appropriated to the Meffiah, fuch incommunicable marks of him, that to

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believe them of Jefus of Nazareth, was in effect the fame, as to believe him to be the Meffiah, and fo are put to exprefs it. The principal of thefe is his refurrection from the dead; which being the great and demonstrative proof of his being the Meffiah, it is not at all ftrange, that the believing his refurrection fhould be put for believing him to be the Meffiah; fince the declaring his refurrection, was declaring him to be the Meffiah. For thus St. Paul argues, Acts xiii. 32, 33, "We de"clare unto you good tidings, or we preach the gospel "to you, [for fo the word fignifies] how that the promife, that was made unto the fathers, God hath ful"filled the fame unto us their children, in that he hath

raifed up Jefus again." The force of which argument lies in this, that, if Jefus was raifed from the dead, then he was certainly the Meffiah: and thus the promise of the Meffiah was fulfilled, in raifing Jefus from the dead. The like argument St. Paul ufeth, 1 Cor. xv. 17., "If Chrift be not raifed, your faith is vain, you are yet "in your fins;" i. e. if Jefus be not rifen from the dead, he is not the Meffiah, your believing it is in vain, and you will receive no benefit by that faith. And fo, likewise, from the fame argument of his refurrection, he at Theffalonica proves him to be the Meffiah, Acts xvii, 2,3, "And Paul, as his manner was, went into the fynagogue, and three fabbath-days reafoned with the Jews out of the fcripures, opening and alleging, "that the Meffiah muft needs have fuffered, and rifen again from the dead; and that this Jefus, whom I preach unto you, is the Meffiah."

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The neceffary connexion of thefe two, that if he rofe from the dead, he was the Meffiah; aud if he rofe not from the dead, he was not the Meffiah; the chief priest and pharifees, that had profecuted him to death, underftood very well who therefore "came together unto Pilate, faying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver

faid, whilft he was yet alive, After three days I will "rife again. Command therefore, that the fepulchre "be made fure unto the third day, left his difciples

come by night, and fteal him away, and fay unto the people,He is rifen from the dead:"" fo the laft

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errour shall be worse than the firft." The errour they here fpeak of, it is plain, was the opinion, that he was the Meffiah. To ftop that belief, which his miracles had procured him amongst the people, they had got him put to death; but if, after that, it fhould be believed, that he rofe again from the dead, this demonstration, that he was the Meffiah, would but establish what they had laboured to destroy by his death; fince no one, who believed his refurrection, could doubt of his being the Meffiah.

It is not at all therefore to be wondered, that his refurrection, his afcenfion, his rule and dominion, and his coming to judge the quick and the dead, which are chracteristical marks of the Meffiah, and belong peculiarly to him, fhould fometimes in fcripture be put alone, as fufficient defcriptions of the Meffiah; and the believing them of him put for believing him to be the Meffiah. Thus, Acts x, our Saviour, in Peter's difcourse to Cornelius, when he brought him the gospel, is defcribed to be the Meffiah, by his miracles, death, refurrection, dominion, and coming to judge the quick and the dead.

Thefe, (which in my "Reasonablenefs of Chriftiani"ty," I have upon this ground taken the liberty to call concomitant articles) where they are fet alone for the faith to which falvation is promifed, plainly fignify the believing Jefus to be the Meffiah, that fundamental article, which has the promise of life; and fo give no foundation at all for what the unmafker says, in these words: "Here one article of faith, viz. the belief of "Chrift's refurrection, (because it is of fo great impor

tance in chriftianity) is only mentioned; but all the "rest must be fuppofed, because they are mentioned in "other places,"

Anfw. If all the reft be of abfolute and indispensable neceffity to be believed to make a man a chriftian, all the reft are, every one of them, of equal importance, For things of equal neceffity, to any end, are of equal importance to that end. But here the truth forced its way unawares from the unmafker; Our Saviour's refurrection, for the reafon I have given, is truly of great importance

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importance in christianity; fo great, that his being, or not being the Meffiah, ftands or falls with it: fo that thefe two important articles are infeparable, and in effect make but one. For, fince that time, believe one, and you believe both; deny one of them, and you can believe neither. If the unmafker can fhow me any one of the articles in his lift, which is not of this great importance, mentioned alone, with a promife of falvation for believing it; I will grant him to have fome colour for what he fays here. But where is to be found in the fcripture any fuch expreffion as this: if thou fhalt believe with thy heart the corruption and degeneracy "of human nature," thou shalt be faved? or the like. This place, therefore, out of the Romans, makes not for, but against his lift of neceffary articles. One of them, alone, he cannot thow me any where fet down, with a fuppofition of the reft, as having falvation promifed to it: though it be true, that that one, which alone is abfolutely neceffary to be fuperadded to the belief of one God, is, in divers places, differently expreffed.

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That which he fubjoins, as a confequence of what he had faid, is a farther proof of this: " And confequently, fays he, if we would give an impartial account of our "belief, we must confult thofe places: and they are

not all together, but difperfed here and there. Where"fore we must look them out, and acquaint ourselves "with the feveral particulars, which make up our be"lief, and render it intire and confummate.”

Anfw; Never was a man conftanter to a loose way of talking. The queftion is only about articles neceffary to be believed to make a man a chriflian: and here he talks of the feveral particulars which make up our

belief, and render it intire and confummate;" confounding, as he did before, effential and integral parts, which, it feems, he cannot diftinguith. Our faith is true and faving, when it is fuch as God, by the new covenant, requires it to be: but it is not intire and confummate, until we explicitly believe all the truths contained in the word of God. For the whole revelation of truth in the fcripture being the proper and intire object