In any other case, I dare say, your Friend is not so ill natur’d, but that he would think it an unkind piece of Ingratitude, if some great and excellent Prince, having freely and transcendently obliged him, he should not concern himself to know what manner of Man his Benefactor is; and should not be solicitous to inform himself of those particulars, relating to the Person and Affairs of that obliging Monarch, which were not onely in themselves worthy of any mans Curiosity, but about which the Prince had solemnly declar’d he was very desirous to have men Inquisitive. And sure ‘tis very disingenious, to undervalue or neglect the knowledge of God Himself for a Knowledge which we cannot attain without him, and by which he design’d to bring us to that study we neglect for it: which is not onely not to use him as a Benefactor, but as if he meant to punish him (if I may so speak) for having oblieged us, since we so abuse some of his Favours, as to make them Inducements to our Unthankful Disregard of his Intentions in the rest. And this Ingratitude is the more culpable, because the Laws of Ingenuity, and of Justice it self, charge us to Glorifie the Maker of all things visible, not onely upon our own account, but upon that of all his other works. For by Gods endowing of none but Man here below with a Reasonable Soul, not onely he is the sole visible Being that can return Thanks and Praises in the World, and thereby is oblieged to do so, both for himself, and for the rest of the Creation; but ‘tis for Mans advantage, that God has left no other visible Beings in the World, by which he can be studied and celebrated. For, Reason is such a Ray of Divinity, that, if God had vouchsafed it to other parts of the Universe besides Man, the absolute Empire of Man over the rest of the World must have been shar’d, or abridg’d. So that he, to whom it was equally easie to make Creatures Superior to Man (as the Scripture tells us of Legions, and Myriads of Angels) as to make them Inferiour to him, dealt so obligingly with Mankind, as rather to Trust (if I may so speak) our Ingenuity, whether he shall reap any Celebrations from the Creatures we converse with, than Lessen our Empire over them, or our Prerogatives above them.

But I fear, that, notwithstanding all the Excellency of reveal’d Truths, and consequently of that onely Authentic Repository of them, the Scripture, you, as well as I, have met with some (for I hope there are not many) Virtuosi, that think to excuse the neglect of the study of it, by alledging, that to them who are Laymen, not Ecclesiasticks, there is requir’d to Salvation the Explicit knowledge but of very few Points, which are so plainly summ’d up in the Apostles Creed, and are so often and conspicuously set down in the Scripture, that one needs not much search or study it to find them there.

In answer to this Allegation, I readily grant,¹³ that through the great goodness of God, who is willing to have all men saved, and come to the knowledge of the Truth, that is necessary to be so, there are much fewer Articles absolutely necessary to be by all men distinctly believed, than may be met with in divers long Confessions of Faith, some of which have, I fear, less promoted Knowledge than impair’d Charity. But then it may be also consider’d, 1. That ‘tis not so easie for a Rational Man, that will trouble himself to enquire no farther than the Apostles Creed, to satisfie himself upon good grounds, that all the Fundamental Articles of Christianity are contain’d in it. 2. That the Creed proposes onely the Credenda,¹⁴ not the Agenda of Religion; whereas the Scriptures were designed, not onely to teach us what Truths we are to believe, but by what Rules we are to live; the obedience to the Laws of Christianity being as necessary to Salvation, as the belief of its Mysteries. 3. That besides the things which are absolutely necessary, there are several that are highly useful, to make us more clearly understand, and more rationally and firmly believe, and more steadily practise, the points that are necessary. 4. And since, whether or no those words of our Saviour to the Jews, ἐρευνᾶτε τὰς γραφάς,¹⁵ be to be rendred in the Imperative or the Indicative Mode; St. Paul would have the word of Christ to dwell richly in us, (by which, whether he mean the holy Scriptures then extant, or the Doctrine of Christ, is not here material;) thereby teaching us, that searching into the matters of Religion may become necessary as a Duty, though it were not otherwise necessary as a Means of attaining Salvation. And indeed ‘tis far more pardonable to want or miss the knowledge of Truths, than to despise or neglect it. And the goodness of God to illiterate or mistaken persons, is to be suppos’d meant in pity to our Frailties, not to encourage our Laziness; nor is it necessary, that he that pardons those Seekers of his Truths that miss them, should excuse those Despisers that will not seek them.

But whether or no by this design’d neglect of Theology the persons, I deal with, do sufficiently consult their own safety, I doubt they will not much recommend their Ingenuity. For to have received from God a greater measure of Intellectual Abilities than the generality of Christians, and yet willingly to come short of very many of them, in the knowledge of the Mysteries and other Truths of Christianity, which he often invites us, if not expresly commands, to search after, is a course that will not relish of over-much gratitude. Is it a piece of That, and of Ingenuity, to receive ones Understanding and ones Hopes of Eternal Felicity from the Goodness of God, without being sollicitous of what may be known of his Nature and Purposes by so excellent a way as his own Revelation of them? To dispute anxiously about the Properties of an Atome, and be careless about the Inquiry into the Attributes of the great God, who formed all things;¹⁶ to investigate the spontaneous generation of such vile Creatures as Insects, than the Mysterious Generation of the Adorable Son of God; and, in a word, to be more concern’d to know every thing that makes a Corporeal part of the World, than the Divine and Incorporeal Authour of the whole?

And then, is it not, think you, a great piece of respect, that these men pay to those Truths, which God thought fit to send sometimes Prophets and Apostles, sometimes Angels, and sometimes his onely Son himself to reveal, that such Truths are so little valued by them, that rather than take the pains to study them, they will implicitly, and at adventures believe, what that Society of Christians, they chance to be born and bred in, have (truly or falsly) delivered concerning them? And does it argue a due regard to points of Religion, that those, who would not believe a Proposition in Staticks, perhaps about a meer Point, the Centre of Gravity, or in Geometry, about the Properties of some nameless curve Line, or some such other things, (which to ignore, is usually not a blemish, and about which, to be mistaken, is more usually without danger,) should yet take up the Articles of Faith, concerning matters of great and everlasting Consequence, upon the Authority of Men, Fallible as themselves, when satisfaction may be had without them from the Infallible Word of God? In this very unlike those Bereans,¹⁷ whom the Evangelist honours with the Title of Noble, that when the Doctrines of the Gospel were proposed to them, they searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

Again, if a man should refuse to learn to read any more, than just as much as may serve his turn, by intituling him to the benefit of the Clergy, to save him from hanging, would these men think so small a measure of Literature, as he had acquir’d on such an account, could prove that man to be a Lover of Learning; and yet a neglecter of the study of all not absolutely necessary-Divine Truths, during ones life, because the belief of the Articles of the Creed may make a shift to keep him from being doom’d to Hell for Ignorance after his death, will not by (what in a Learned man must be) so pitiful a degree of knowledge be much better intitled to that Ingenuous Love of God and his Truths, that becomes a Rational Creature and a Christian.

The antient Prophets, though honour’d by God with direct Illuminations,¹⁸ were yet very solicitous to find out and learn the very Circumstances of the Evangelical Dispensations, which yet they did not know. And some of the Gospel Mysteries are of so noble and excellent a nature, that the Angels themselves desire to look into them.¹⁹ And though all the Evangelical Truths are not precisely necessary to be known, it may be both a Duty not to despise the study of them, and a Happiness to employ our selves about it. It was the earnest Prayer of a great King,²⁰ and no less a Prophet, that his eyes might be opened to behold (not the obvious and necessary Truths, but) the wondrous things of Gods Law. He is pronounced Happy in the beginning of the Apocalypse,²¹ that reads and observes the things contain’d in that dark and obscure part of Scripture. And ‘tis not onely those Truths that make Articles of the Creed, but divers other Doctrines of the Gospel, that Christ himself judged worthy to be concluded with this Epiphonema, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear; on which the excellent Grotius makes this just Paraphrase,²² Intellectus nobis à Deo potissimum datus est, ut eum intendamus documentis ad pietatem pertinentibus

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Footnotes

1. Gen. ij.16, 17. ↩

2. Seraph. Love. ↩

3. Psal. xxxij.9. ↩

4. Deut. viij.10, 11, 12, ↩

5. 13, 14, ↩

6. 18, ↩

7. Job xxxviij.5, 6, 7. ↩

8. Psa. L.23. ↩

9. Hos. xiv.2. ↩

10. Psal. civ.24. ↩

11. Psal. xix.1. ↩

12. Psal. cxxxix.14. ↩

13. 1 Tim. ij.4. ↩

14. Joh. xiij.7. Heb. v.9. ↩

15. Joh. v.39. Search, or, You search the Scriptures. Coloss. iij.16. ↩

16. Prov. xxvj.10. ↩

17. Acts xvij.11. ↩

18. 1 Pet. j.10, 11. ↩

19. 1 Pet. j.12. ↩

20. Psal. cxix.18. ↩

21. Revel. j. ↩

22. Matth. xj.15. Mark iv.9, 23. Luke viij.8. ↩