But are they excluded from the kingdom of
heaven, that is, the Christian Church? No;--but they must be regarded
as weak and injudicious members of it.
Chap. V. p. 140.
Accordingly it may be observed, how the unbelievers caress and
compliment those complying gentlemen who meet them half way, while
they are perpetually inveighing against the stiff divines, as they
call them, whom they can make no advantage of.
Lessing, an honest and frank-hearted Infidel, expresses the same
sentiment. As long as a German Protestant divine keeps himself stiff and
stedfast to the Augsburg Confession, to the full Creed of Melancthon, he
is impregnable, and may bid defiance to sceptic and philosopher. But let
him quit the citadel, and the Cossacs are upon him.
Ib. p. 187.
And therefore it is infallibly certain, as Mr. Chillingworth well
argues with respect to Christianity in general, that we ought firmly
to believe it; because wisdom and reason require that we should
believe those things which are by many degrees more credible and
probable than the contrary.
Yes, where there are but two positions, one of which must be true. When
A. is presented to my mind with probability=5, and B. with
probability=15, I must think that B. is three times more probable than
A. And yet it is very possible that a C. may be found which will
supersede both.
Chap. VI. p. 230.
The Creed of Jerusalem, preserved by Cyril, (the most ancient perhaps
of any now extant,) is very express for the divinity of God the Son,
in these words: "And in our Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son
of God; true God, begotten of the Father before all ages, by whom all
things were made" * *.
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