babes in Christ. Among articles clearly contained in the Scriptures, however, we must include not only those which they teach in express words, but also those which, to all who apply their minds to the subject, are obviously deducible from them by necessary consequence. Our Lord and his Apostles very frequently confirmed even fundamental articles of faith by consequences deduced from Scripture.-This criterion, too, must not be understood to intimate, that fundamental articles are propounded wherever they are taught in holy writ, in words thus clear and intelligible to all; or that nothing is to be deemed fundamental, which is exhibited in any passage in a manner calculated to exercise the industry even of the learned. It has pleased God to reveal the same truth in the Scriptures" at sundry times and in divers manners." Sometimes he propounds a doctrine, the faith of which is necessary to salvation, so clearly, that no reader that is attentive, and is enlightened by the Holy Spirit, can be ignorant of it, and none but a contentious person can call it in question; and sometimes he so involves the same doctrine in obscurity, that it becomes necessary for the studious to compare the more obscure with the more perspicuous passages. The knowledge of a fundamental article consists not in understanding this or the other passage of the Bible; but in an acquaintance with the truth, which in one passage, perhaps, is more obscurely traced, but is exhibited in other places in a clear, nay, in the clearest possible light. In fine, we do not concur with the Remonstrants,7 in requiring so high a degree of d 1 Cor. i. 26. Matth. xi. 25. • Πολυμερώς και πολυτρόπως. Heb. i. 1. 7 See NOTE VII. clearness, as to consider those articles alone fundamental, which are acknowledged and maintained amongst all Christians as of the most unquestionable authority, and which neither are, nor can be controverted. According to this rule, hardly any thing will remain to distinguish the Christian Religion, from the Pagan morality, and the Mahometan theology. There is much truth in the remark of Clement of Alexandria; "No Scripture, I apprehend, is so favourably treated, "as to be contradicted by no one."* VII. 3dly, Another mark of a fundamental article is, that it be of such a nature, that neither faith in Christ, nor true repentance, can subsist without it; for, as without faith it is impossible to please God, so without holiness no man shall see the Lord. For example; since it is impossible for any one to believe in God, unless he know that he is, and that he is faithful in all his sayings; and since it is impossible also for any one to love and serve him, unless he believe that he is the Rewarder of those that seek him,-it must be confidently affirmed, that the articles which respect the existence and the veracity of God, and also the gracious rewards which he confers on his people, are clearly fundamental. Further, as salvation is unattainable without Christ;s as no grown-up person can be saved through Christ, but by faith;h and as faith supposes know ledge; the knowledge of Christ is necessary to salvation. Besides, since God will honour them only that honour him,' and he who honours not the Son, honours * Stromat. Lib. i. Heb. xi. 6. xii. 14. h Mark xvi. 16. k John xvii. 3. xx. 31. 8 Acts iv. 12. i Rom. x. 14. 11 Sam. ii. 30. not the Father;m and since the Son cannot be rightly honoured, unless he be recognised as, what he really is, the true God, of the same substance with the Father," and on that account, of equal dignity† with the Father; we boldly maintain that the article respecting the true Divinity of Christ, is fundamental. VIII. 4thly, It cannot be doubted that every article is fundamental, to the denial of which, God, notwithstanding the grace and benignity of the Gospel, has annexed a threatening of destruction. I say, notwithstanding the grace of the Gospel; for according to the rigour of the law, all culpable ignorance of any truth which God has revealed, is damnable. In conformity to this rule, we conclude that the article relating to the incarnation of Christ is fundamental; for John says, "Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is "come in the flesh, is not of God." The reason of this rule is, that no person is saved, in whom any thing is found, for which, notwithstanding the intervention of the Gospel, God declares that he excludes men from the kingdom of heaven. IX. Some have added, that an article, to which a promise of eternal life is annexed, is fundamental. But this rule does not hold universally. For instance; it is said in reference to the prophecies of the Apocalypse, "Blessed is he that readeth, and blessed are they that "hear, the words of this prophecy." It would be rash, however, to conclude from these words, that the prophecies of the Apocalypse are fundamental articles. The reason is, that those attainments, with which the promise of salvation is connected, are not universally so momentous and indispensable, that the absence of any one of them, inevitably subjects a person to a state of condemnation. Such attainments always suppose that which is essential to salvation, though they are not its necessary or inseparable concomitants. "He that believeth and is baptized," says our Lord, "shall be saved." Yet from this it by no means follows, that baptism is so essential, that without it none can obtain salvation. Our Lord himself, when he converts this affirmative into a negative proposition, drops the mention of baptism, saying only, "he that believeth not, shall be damned;" for it is impossible that an adult can be rightly baptized, unless he is a believer; although it is very possible that a true believer may not be baptized. x. 5thly, That also is to be regarded as a fundamental article, which the Scriptures call a foundation ;whether this be done in express terms, or in words of equal force. Thus the doctrine respecting the Lord Jesus, his person and offices, is denominated by Paul a foundation. "Other foundation can no man lay than "that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." The meaning is, that no man can teach another fundamental doctrine, separate from the doctrine concerning Christ. To this, also, may be referred the following words of our Saviour to Peter, Upon this Rock, will I build my church :" that is, either upon myself, whom thou hast confessed; or upon this doctrine of which thou hast made a profession, by declaring that I am the Son of God. The learned Cameron, an ingenious inter 9 Mark xvi. 16. Matth. xvi. 18. 66 r 1 Cor. iii. 11. VOL. I. K 3. preter of Scripture, remarks, that the words of Paul in 66 1 Tim. iii. 15, 16. may be connected thus: " "The pil"lar and ground of the truth, and without controversy great, is the mystery of godliness; God was mani"fested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit," &c. With this passage, he also compares the following sentence, which occurs at the beginning of a certain celebrated work of Maimonides; "The foundation of the foun"dation, and the pillar of wisdom is, to know that "there is some First Being." James Cappel, a man of profound erudition, approves of this construction, and affirms that it also met the approbation of Andrew Melville, and of John Fabricius. He adds a quotation from Irenæus, from which he gathers, that that Father, too, seems to have read the passage in this manner. The third book of Irenæus begins thus; "We have learned the method of our salvation, from "no other persons than those who imparted to us the 66 66 Gospel; which, in the first instance, they preached, "and afterwards delivered down to us in writing ac'cording to the will of God, to be the FOUNDATION "AND PILLAR of our faith." Much to the same effect, is the following expression of Basil of Seleucia, in a discourse on Matth. xvi. 16. respecting the confession of Peter: "This is, indeed, the Rock of religion; "this, the basis of salvation; this, the bulwark of "faith; this, the foundation of the truth." Schultet acknowledges, in his Notes, that these observations are equally pious and learned: nor is John Henry Ursin of a different opinion.† And truly, provided these writers were supported by the authority of ancient co יסוד היסוד ועמוד החכמות: + Analect. Lib. vi. cap. 35. |