102 A CiHRISTIAN CHURCH. at once; and it opens so easily, that a child or a fool can tna- nage it. . SECT. V. A fourth argument against this test of commu- nion is this: If a mere assent to the express words of scripture he a sufficient test of christian knowledge to claim admission into a church, this opens the door for an endless variety of different and contrary opinions, and practices, to enter into the same church ; multitudes of heresies, that relate both to faith and practice, may swarm in the same communion ; truth and errors, fundamental, and not fundamental, will he mingled here ; errors; tolerable, and intolerable ; extremely dangerous, if not damn- able and destructive, will be admitted : For all that profess them in our age and day, in protestant nations, will subscribe to the bible as the sufficient rule of faith and practice; nay, all persons that are not heathens, deists, Jews or Mahometans, mayclaim a place in the churches of Christ. Now let us first recount some of those various doctrines that will hereby be encouraged in the sane communion, and then consider what will be the inconveni- ences attending such a mixed community. First, Let us recount the various doctrines and their pro- fessors, that will be encouraged in the same communion by this rule. 1. The Anthropomorphites say, that God bath proper parts, handsand feet, and eyes, and ears, and is really in the shape of a man, according to the express words of scripture taken in a plain literal sense. One of thisopinion, as I aminformed, lately proposed himself to christian communion. 2. The _1llegorists on the other hand, explain in a metapho- rical and figurative sense', whatsoever expressions they find in scripture, whose literal sense does not agree with their notions. Upon this principle some that deny the proper sacrifice and satis- faction of Christ say, that his atonement, redemption and sacri- fice, are but figurative expressions. Others believe salvation to be obtained only through Jesus Christ, but they mean Christ, or the light within them. 3. The .Arians say, that Jesus Christ was a mere creature, madeout of nothing, beforeall other creatures, and superior to angels, endued with divine power, and called God, and that he assumed flesh without a human soul. TheSabellians believe, that the blessed Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, doth by no means intend three proper distinctpersons,but is a mere trinity of names and manifestations, modes and relations in the godheador divine nature, and that the Son of, God was not properly a person before his incarnation. 5. The Socinzans derived from the old Samosatenians and Photinians say, that there is no such trinity of persons in the
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=