love of truth, he would not have passed over the twenty first pages of Mr. Bold's Animadversions in silence. The falsehoods that are therein charged upon him, would have required an answer of him, if he could have given any; and I tell him, he must give an answer, or confess the falsehoods.

In his 255th page, he comes to take notice of these words of Mr. Bold, in the 21st page of his Animadversions, viz. "That a convert to christianity, or a chris"tian, must necessarily believe as many articles as he "shall attain to know, that Christ Jesus hath taught."

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Which, says the creed-maker, wholly invalidates what " he had said before, in these words," viz. " That Jesus "Christ and his apostles did not teach any thing as necessary to be believed to make a man a christian, "but only this one proposition, That Jesus of Nazareth 66 was the Messiah." The reason he gives to show that the former of these propositions (in Mr. Bold) invalidates the latter, and that the animadverter contradicts himself, stands thus: "For, says he, if a christian must

give assent to all the articles taught by our Saviour "in the gospel, and that necessarily; then all those "propositions reckoned up in my late discourse, being "taught by Christ, or his apostles, are necessary to be "believed." Ans. And what, I beseech you, becomes of the rest of the propositions taught by Christ, or his apostles, which you have not reckoned up in your late

discourse? Are not they necessary to be believed, "if "a christian must give an assent to ALL the articles taught by our Saviour and his apostles?"

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Sir, if you will argue right from that antecedent, it must stand thus: "If a christian must give an assent to "ALL the articles taught by our Saviour and his apo

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stles, and that necessarily;" then all the propositions in the New Testament, taught by Christ, or his apostles, are necessary to be believed. This consequence I grant to be true, and necessarily to follow from that antecedent, and pray make your best of it: but withal remember, that it puts an utter end to your select number of fundamentals, and makes all the truths delivered in 2 D2

the New Testament necessary to be explicitly believed by every christian.

But, sir, I must take notice to you, that if it be uncertain, whether he that writ the Animadversions, be the same person that preached the sermon, yet it is very visible, that it is the very same person that reflects on both; because he here again uses the same trick, in answering in the Animadversions the same thing that had been said in the sermon, viz. by pretending to argue from words as Mr. Bold's, when Mr. Bold has said no such thing. The proposition you argue from here is this: "If a christian must give his assent to all the articles taught by our Saviour, and that necessarily." But Mr. Bold says no such thing. His words, as set down by yourself, are: "A christian must necessarily believe as many articles as he shall attain to know that Christ "Jesus hath taught." And is there no difference between "ALL that Christ Jesus hath taught," and "AS

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MANY as any one shall attain to know that Christ "Jesus hath taught?" There is so great a difference between these two, that one can scarce think even such a creed-maker could mistake it. For one of them admits all those to be christians, who, taking Jesus for the Messiah, their Lord and King, sincerely apply themselves to understand and obey his doctrine and law, and to believe all that they understand to be taught by him: the other shuts out, if not all mankind, yet nine hundred ninetynine of a thousand, of those who profess themselves christians, from being really so. For he speaks within compass, who says there is not one of a thousand, if there be any one man at all, who explicitly knows and believes all that our Saviour and his apostles taught, i. e. all that is delivered in the New Testament, in the true sense that it is there intended. For if giving assent to it, in any sense, will serve the turn, our creed-maker can have no exception against socinians, papists, lutherans, or any other, who, acknowledging the scripture to be the word of God, do yet oppose his system.

But the creed-maker goes on, p. 255, and endeavours to prove that what is necessary to be believed by every

christian, is necessary to be believed to make a man a christian, in these words: " But he will say, the belief "of those propositions makes not a man a christian. "Then, I say, they are not necessary and indispensable; "for what is absolutely necessary in christianity, is "absolutely requisite to make a man a christian.”

Ignorance, or something worse, makes our creedmaker always speak doubtfully or obscurely, whenever he pretends to argue; for here "absolutely necessary "in christianity," either signifies nothing, but absolutely necessary to make a man a christian; and then it is proving the same proposition, by the same proposition : or else has a very obscure and doubtful signification. For, if I ask him, Whether it be absolutely necessary in christianity, to obey every one of our Saviour's commands, What will he answer me? If he answers, No; I ask him, Which of our Saviour's commands is it not, in christianity, absolutely necessary to obey? If he answers, YES; then I tell him, by this rule, there are no christians because there is no one that does in all things obey all our Saviour's commands, and therein fails to perform what is absolutely necessary in christianity; and so, by his rule, is no christian. If he answers, Sincere endeavour to obey, is all that is absolutely necessary; I reply, And so sincere endeavour to understand, is all that is absolutely necessary: neither perfect obedience, nor perfect understanding, is absolutely necessary in christianity.

But his proposition, being put in terms clear, and not loose and fallacious, should stand thus, viz, "What is "absolutely necessary to every christian, is absolutely

requisite to make a man a christian." But then I deny, that he can infer from Mr. Bold's words, that those propositions (i. e. which he has set down as fundamental, or necessary to be believed) are absolutely necessary to be believed by every christian. For that indispensable necessity Mr. Bold speaks of, is not absolute, but conditional. His words are, "A christian "must believe as many articles, as he shall attain to "know that Jesus Christ hath taught." So that he places the indispensable necessity of believing, upon the

condition of attaining to know that Christ taught so. An endeavour to know what Jesus Christ taught, Mr. B-d says truly, is absolutely necessary to every one who is à christian and to believe what he has attained to know that Jesus Christ taught, that also, he says, is absolutely necessary to every christian. But all this granted, (as true it is,) it still remains (and eternally will remain) to be proved from this, (which is all that Mr. Bold says,) that something else is absolutely required to make a man a christian, besides the unfeigned taking Jesus to be the Messiah, his King and Lord; and accordingly, a sincere resolution to obey and believe all that he commanded and taught.

The gaoler, Acts xvi. 30, in answer to his question, "What he should do to be saved?" was answered, "That he should believe in the Lord Jesus Christ." And the text says, that the gaoler "took them the

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same hour of the night and washed their stripes, and "was baptized, he and all his, straightway." Now, I will ask our creed-maker, whether St. Paul, in speaking to him the word of the Lord, proposed and explained to him all those propositions, and fundamental heads of doctrine, which our creed-maker has set down as necessary to be believed to make a man a christian? Let it be considered the gaoler was a heathen, and one that seems to have no more sense of religion or humanity, than those of that calling use to have: for he had let them alone under the pain of their stripes, without any remedy, or so much as the ease of washing them, from the day before, until after his conversion; which was not until after midnight. And can any one think, that between his asking what he should do to be saved, and his being baptized, which, the text says, was the same hour, and straightway; there was time enough for St. Paul and Silas, to explain to him all the creed-maker's articles, and make such a man as that, and all his house, understand the creed-maker's whole system; ' especially, since we hear nothing of it in the conversion of these, or any others, who were brought into the faith, in the whole history of the preaching of our Saviour and the apostles? Now let me ask the creed-maker, whether

the gaoler was not a christian, when he was baptized; and whether, if he had then immediately died, he had not been saved, without the belief of any one article more, than what Paul and Silas had then taught him? Whence it follows, that what was then proposed to him to be believed, (which appears to be nothing, but that Jesus was the Messiah,) was all that was absolutely necessary to be believed to make him a christian: though this hinders not, but that afterwards it might be necessary for him, indispensably necessary, to believe other articles, when he attained to the knowledge that Christ had taught them. And the reason of it is plain : because the knowing that Christ hath taught any thing, and the not receiving it for true (which is believing it,) is inconsistent with the believing him to be the Messiah, sent from God to enlighten and save the world. Every word of divine revelation is absolutely and indispensably necessary to be believed by every christian, as soon as he comes to know it to be taught by our Saviour, or his apostles, or to be of divine revelation. But yet this is far enough from making it absolutely necessary to every christian, to know every text in the scripture, much less to understand every text in the scripture; and least of all, to understand it as the creed-maker is pleased to put his sense upon it.

This the good creed-maker either will not, or cannot understand; but gives us a list of articles culled out of the scripture by his own authority, and tells us, those are absolutely necessary to be believed by every one, to make him a christian. For what is of absolute necessity in christianity, as those, he says, are, he tells us, is absolutely requisite to make a man a christian. But when he is asked, Whether these are all the articles of absolute necessity to be believed to make a man a christian? this worthy divine, that takes upon himself to be a successor of the apostles, cannot tell. And yet, having taken upon himself also to be a creed-maker, he must suffer himself to be called upon for it again and again, until he tells us what is of absolute necessity to be believed to make a man a christian, or confess that he cannot.