That God, sent his Son, into the world, to be its saviour, the
author of eternal salvation, to all, that obey him;
9th. That he is the true Messiah;
10th. That he taught, worked miracles, suffered, died, and rose
again, as is related in the four gospels;
11th. That he will hereafter, make a second appearance on the
earth, raise all mankind from the dead, judge the world in
righteousness, bestow eternal life on the virtuous, and punish the
workers of iniquity.
In the belief of these articles, all Christians, the Roman Catholic, all
the Oriental churches, all the members of the Church of England, all
Lutherans, Calvinists, Socinians, and Unitarians, are agreed. In
addition to these, each division, and subdivision of Christians, has its
own tenets. Now, let each settle among its own members, what are the
articles of belief, peculiar to them, which, in their cool deliberate
judgment, they consider as _absolutely necessary_ that a person should
believe, to be a member of the church of Christ; let these articles be
divested of all foreign matter, and expressed in perspicuous, exact, and
unequivocal terms; and, above all, let each distinction of Christians,
earnestly wish, to find an agreement, between themselves and their
fellow Christians:--the result of a discussion conducted on this plan,
would most assuredly be, to convince all Christians, that the essential
articles of religious credence, in which there is, a real difference
among Christians, are not so numerous, as the verbal disputes, and
extraneous matter, in which controversy is too often involved, make them
generally thought.
Pages:
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299