The Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University

So many things are [conceived as necessary]This entry begins near the end of a page which is now badly frayed at the bottom, and some words were illegible to Dwight's scribe. Only a letter or two are now visible at the right margin where this lacuna begins. The scribe read "conceived" and left space for another word or two before "to be." Dwight supplied "as necessary," but the three words probably require more space than was available at the left margin. It is possible that "considered" was the word the scribe was trying to read and that Dwight's "as" was editorial. to be known and believed, as are necessary should be ever preached to a barbarous and heathen nation, and is necessary in [order to their conversion to Christianity],These words also were supplied by Dwight in space left by his scribe. The surviving remnants of the last word or two are too faint for checking his accuracy. whether there be one thing, or two, or three, or more.The words "or more," though now broken off, must have been legible to the scribe, for he inadvertently wrote them a second time. [There are those that say that in order to salvation there is no]The sentence up to this point constituted the last line of the MS page (the next page begins with "-cessity") and is now almost entirely illegible. Dwight's scribe found it so difficult that he left a long space, in which Dwight wrote, "There are those who deny the necessity, in order to salvation, of more." Some of this may be conjectural or editorial. It does not account for all the words that were probably on the line, it is rearranged in such a way as to move "necessity" to the middle of the line, and it does not harmonize with the syntax of the rest of the sentence. Little more than the tips of the letters is now visible in the last line. The location of the visible words, "those that," makes it likely that the remaining words of the line were "say that there is no ne[cessity]." But since other words Dwight supplied may be genuine readings of words occurring earlier on the line, his version has been retained with minimal alteration. necessity of more than one article of faith, that is, that Jesus Christ was a person sent from God, and that all the rest, holiness of heart and life, follows from that.John Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity (1695) is usually credited with having provided a focus for the deist attack on orthodox Christianity by stating that "the only Gospel-Article of Faith" is the proposition that Jesus is the Messiah, his mission being divinely attested by prophecy and miracles; see Locke's Works (3 vols. London, 1714), 2, 479–87, 516–17. They don't explain themselves at all, and they need somebody else to do it for them. That they may not be mistaken that hear or read this their opinion, I shall endeavor [so] to do.

When they say that [it] is necessary only to believe that Jesus Christ was a person come from God, they must be understood that it is necessary to believe that he was a person come from a true being, that is, from a being that would not send Jesus to tell the world nothing but a parcel of lies. For they themselves will own, that he that believesMS: "they that believe." that Jesus came from God on purpose to tell lies, is as bad as he that believes that he did not come from God at all. They also mean that he came from a merciful being, that did not send him to destroy mankind; for

they will own, that he that believes that Jesus came from God to destroy mankind is as bad as he that don't believe that he came from God at all. He must also [believe] that that God he came from is wise, and that he knows how to profit mankind by sending Jesus; for he that believes that Jesus came from God to no purpose, is as bad as he that don't believe he came from God at all. And so it will be found, that they mean that it is necessary to believe God's other perfections.

So that, although they say it is only necessary to believe Jesus came from God, therein is implied that it is necessary to believe all these things: God's all-sufficiency, God's wisdom and omniscience, God's omnipotence, God's truth and faithfulness, God's mercy, God's holiness, God's justice, etc. They mean all these must be believed, or else we must be damned; and in saying that it is necessary to believe these things, is implied, that it is necessary that we should not believe any that necessitate a man to disbelieve any of these, if there can be any such in the world—and I believe anybody can think of thirty or forty presently. So that according to these men, a pretty many articles are necessary to be believed.

Furthermore, in this article is implied, that it is necessary to be believed that he came to do some good to mankind, and that the good that he came to do was that that he said he came to do. And in order to believing this last, it is necessary to believe, that he said he came to do that which the Scripture saith he said he came to do; wherefore the divine authority of the Scriptures is one of their necessary articles. 'Tis also necessary to believe that what he did had a tendency to obtain his end; and so, in short, they say the gospel scheme is necessary to be believed. And so it will be found, that they own almost all the articles to be necessary which good Protestants all along have said to be necessary. So that the difference is, that one expresses all in one comprehensive article, and others divide it to give us the meaning and full understanding of it.