Section 2: An Occasional Vindication of the Apostles from the Charge of Uncharitableness

But what shall we say to those who take the venerable Names of the sacred Writers, and charge them with the same scandalous Practice?

There is one Momus, who is well known in the World for a Person that is ready to find fault with the best of Men, and the best of Things, if he can suspect anything which he imagines worthy of Blame in them. This Man rather than not vindicate himself from the Charge of Uncharitableness, he will bring even the Apostles themselves into the Accusation, particularly Saint Paul and Saint John.

Paul, says he, must be a very uncharitable Man, for Hebrews 10, 25, 26. He tells us, that if we Sin willfully after we have received the Knowledge of the Truth, there remains no more Sacrifice for Sins. Thus it is plain, he will not suffer a Man to be guilty of any willful Sin, after his Profession of Christianity, but he damns him for it without Hope.

Answer. But I would have Momus consider that these are the very Words of Scripture and Inspiration, and not merely Saint Paul's Opinion. Nor is the Sense true which he puts upon these Words: it is by no means every willful Sin after we have received and professed Christianity, that will bring us under such an irreversible Condemnation; but this willful Sin, as stands in the Context, plainly refers to our entire quitting the Profession of our Christian Faith, verse 23, and forsaking all Christian Assemblies, without Repentance or returning to them, as verse 25. And it is no wonder if a Man who roundly renounces Christianity willfully, and without Persecution, or any Compulsion, should be laid under this dreadful Sentence.

Let it be also particularly remarked, that as these Verses come in just after the Apostle had been speaking of the atoning Sacrifice for Sin, which Christ himself offered, as a fulfilling of all typical Sacrifices and Atonements of the Jewish Law, chapter 9, 10, he expresses this condemning Sentence in this Language, there is no more Sacrifice for Sin, that is if a Man renounces the Sacrifice of Atonement which Christ has made for Sin, there remains no more Sacrifice for him to trust in, or to hope for, but a certain fearful looking for of Judgment and fiery Indignation, which shall devour the Adversaries. Thus it appears, that this willful Sinner is condemned for renouncing the only Method of Atonement provided for the Pardon of Sins, which it was one of the chief Glories of the Christian Religion to reveal and establish.

Saint Paul also is charged with high Uncharitableness by this Momus for what he says, Galatians 1, 8, 9. If any Man preach any other Gospel to you than that you have received, let him be accursed, and yet he owns verse 7, that it is not another Gospel, but merely a Perversion of the Gospel of Christ; and is this enough to be accursed for?

Answer. Let Momus consider how grossly the Gospel must be perverted, when it is turned into such a Sense as the Galatians seem to have been taught by these Troublers of their Church, verse 7. It is such an Error as would have carried them again into Judaism with all its Yokes of Bondage, would have obliged them to be Circumcised and to observe the Jewish Festival Days, Months and Years, Galatians 5, 2. Such an Error as shows them to have run back to the Ceremonies of the Jewish Law for Justification and Acceptance with God, verse 4. Such an Error as gave occasion to the Apostle to charge them, if you pursue it you are fallen from Grace, that is from the Gospel of Grace: And that Christ would profit them nothing, would become of no Effect to them, verse 2, and 4.

And after all it must be said these are the Words of Scripture, and of the Spirit of God, and not merely of Saint Paul himself as a private Writer; and will the Man deal thus with Scripture? You see to what Lengths this Temper will carry a Man.

But still he pursues his Accusation against the Apostles, and makes Saint John to be grossly guilty of want of Charity in his second Epistle verse 9, 10. If there come any unto you and bring not this Doctrine, that is The Doctrine of Christ mentioned in the foregoing Verse, receive him not into your House, nor bid him God Speed; for he that bids him God speed, is Partaker of his evil Deeds.

Now to answer the unreasonable Censure of this Momus, let us inquire what this Doctrine of Christ is; and where should we find the most important Parts of it but in the same Writer? Chapter 1, verse 7. The Blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all Sin. Chapter 2, verse 2. Jesus Christ the Righteous is not only our Advocate with the Father, but he is also the Propitiation for our Sins, Chapter 4, 10. God loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our Sins, and that every true Christian is born of God, Chapter 5, 1, 4, that is as other Verses of this holy Writer in his Gospel explain it, he is born of the Spirit of God, John 1, 13, and 3, 5, 6.

It appears then that the Errors of such whom the Apostle would here exclude from our Friendship, are such as do not acknowledge Jesus Christ to be the Messiah, or not to be a propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of Men, nor allow that every true Christian is regenerated and born of God, or of his Spirit, that is by the powerful, renewing and sanctifying Influences thereof as other Scriptures explain it, particularly John 1, 12, 13, John 3, 3, 5, and as Saint Paul expresses it, Ephesians 1, 19, 20. By such a mighty Power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the Dead.

Again, I would ask Momus, why are the Names of Christ and the Holy Spirit appointed so generally to be used in Baptism, which is the Ordinance which initiates us into Christianity? Is it not to put us in Mind that when we profess Christianity we profess the chief Articles that relate to him as our Savior, namely Jesus Christ to be the Propitiation for our Sins, we profess to be born of the Spirit, or regenerated and renewed to Holiness by the Spirit of God? Now if a Man asserts himself to be a Christian, when he believes and professes neither of these Doctrines, then Saint John may be to blame indeed in denying the Benefit of common Christian Friendship to such a Man.

But where would this Momus lead us? What? Would he make a Christian out of such Adversaries to the Name and Gospel of Christ, as neither trust in him as a Propitiation for their Sins, nor hope to be renewed and made holy by the Holy Spirit of God?

Let us learn of the Heathen Poet, Est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines.

There must be some Measures and Bounds set to every general Virtue, and even to Christian Charity itself. This does not extend to Infidels in the same Sense. Surely, there must be due Limits set to everything of this kind: They can scarcely be justly called Christians, and treated as such, let their Profession be what it will, who renounce Jesus Christ in his chief Design of coming into the World, as a Propitiation for Sin, and who renounce the Spirit of God as the effectual Spring of our Regeneration and Holiness. If all Deists and Infidels may be received into the Christian Church, into our good Esteem and Friendship, those may also be our fellow Christians who deny the most important Principles of Christianity: But let us take heed that we do not give that which is holy to such who have no claim to it, and give Charity and Christian Friendship to those, who seem, according to the Word of God, to have no Pretence to it.

It has been objected indeed against this second as well as against the third Epistle of Saint John, that they have not sufficient Proof of their divine Origin: Now it would be too large in this Place to enter into a discussion of that Question: But there is nothing said in this Epistle that is disagreeable to the Sense of other holy Writers in other parts of Scripture; and by our Protestant Writers these Epistles have been generally represented as part of the Word of God in the New Testament: Nor can I find sufficient Reason to reject it, merely because some Persons that need a more abundant Measure of Indulgence and of Charity than the Scripture seems to allow, will not allow it this post of Honour, and that is because it excludes them from our Good Esteem, from Christian Communion and Friendship.

Yet after all this Censure of Momus and his Followers, if any such there be, I would still hope and persuade myself, there are some serious and pious Souls who have been honestly seeking after the Truths of Religion, and searching the Word of God to find them, who may have indulged some incautious and unhappy Hour, wherein they have suffered themselves to be led away into this great Snare and Temptation of the evil One; so that they have begun to doubt of this blessed Doctrine of the atoning Sacrifice for Sin by the Blood of Jesus Christ, though it is so strongly, so expressly, and so often asserted by several of the Apostles in their Writings.

It is my sincere and earnest Desire, that God would speedily break these unhappy Snares, whatsoever they are, by which their Thoughts have been captivated into so dangerous a Mistake, 2 Timothy 2, 25, 26. That he would please to open the Eyes of their Mind by his enlightening Grace, that they may not run on so far in this way as to be exposed to the Loss of the Benefit of this only Propitiation for Sin, and lay themselves open to that severe Sentence of the Word of God, that there remains no further propitiatory Sacrifice for them, but a certain fearful Expectation, and so forth Hebrews 10, 26, 27. Forgive me, blessed Jesus, if any of the softer Influences of animal Nature have warped me aside, while I am treating of this glorious Virtue of Charity, to indulge these milder Sentiments, and depart in any Measure from the stricter Sense and Sentence of thy holy Word.