these passages so plainly proving their so superlative esteem of the Holy Scriptures do infer their most exact diligence and watchfulness for their conservation and safety And this is sufficient for my purpose in this Section But withal too I have gain'd an Argument for my main design viz. The Testimony of the Fathers forasmuch as between Holy Scriptures being the safest Conveyance of Divine Truths throughout all Ages and Scriptures being the sole Rule of Faith there is so necessary a Connexion And because the Romanists likewise allege the Fathers to give Countenance to Oral Tradition therefore the Testimony of the Fathers in our case shall be farther considered of And 1. I will appeal to any ingenious Reader of them whether the passages which the Romanists cite out of the Fathers on the behalf of Tradition and seemingly the most diminutive of Scripture do in any measure come near to such a course Character of it as that it is a Black Gospel an Ink Theology (a) Sure Footing p. 194. dead Characters Waxen-natur'd and pliable to the Daedalean Fancies of the ingenious Moulders of new Opinions If Mens thoughts may be judg'd of by their words sure the Fathers and Romanists Sentiments of the Scriptures were very divers 2ly Seeing there is a seeming contradiction of the Fathers to themselves because they are urg'd by both the disagreeing Parties it will be fitting to enquire whether there may not be a reconciliation of them to each other and of some of them to themselves For this end I suppose a good means would be 1. Seeing the Fathers sometimes speak of Scripture without mention of Tradion at other times speak of Tradition not mentioning Scripture to examine how they deliver their Sense when they express themselves of Scripture and Tradition jointly and comparatively of one with the other 2ly To see whether their appearingly most favourable expressions of Tradition may not be very well construed in a subordination of Tradition to Scripture very consistently with Scriptures Precedence to it 1. Of the Fathers speaking of Scripture and Tradition conjointly I will begin with St. Cyprian in his Epistle to Pompey Being prest with Tradition he answers Whence is this Tradition Descends it from our Lord's and his Gospel's Authority or comes it from the Commands of the Apostles and their Epistles God declares that those things should be done which are written saying to Joshua The Book of the Law shall not depart from thy Mouâ—h but thou shalt meditate in it day and night that thou mayest observe to do all things written in it Likewise our Lord sending his Apostles Commands all Nations to be Baptized and to be taught that they observe all things whatsoever he had Commanded What obstinacy what presumption is it to prefer humane Tradition to the Divine Dispose or Command and not to consider that God is angry and in wrath when humane Tradition disregards and dissolves Divine Commands As God warns and speaks by the Prophet Isaiah c. And toward the end of the Epistle And this it behoves God's Priests to do at this time keeping the Divine Commands that if Truth have declin'd and fail'd in any respect we go back to the source of the Evangelical and Apostolical Tradition and let the manner of our Actings take their rise thence whence their Order and Origin rose The preference of Scripture to Tradition by this antient Father is so plain and undeniable that it is reply'd St. Cyprian's Testimony was writ by him to defend an Error and therefore no wonder if as Bellarmine says more errantium ratiocinetur he discours'd after the rate of those that err that is assumes false grounds to build his Error on Letter of Thanks p. 124. But this is a mean Evasion For tho' Cyprian was indeed in an Error and did mistake in his discourse yet it can't be affirm'd with probability or Charity to such a Saint and Martyr that to gratifie a private Opinion he would affront so Sacred and Catholick a Principle as the Rule of Christian Faith and degrade Tradition from being such if he had indeed believed it to be so Yet if this should be granted to our Adversaries the consequence would be their inconvenience For why might not more do the same which St. Cyprian did and if some Fathers might desert Tradition and flye to Scripture meerly to serve a Turn for defence of an Opinion which they could not maintain otherwise why may it not be as well said that other Fathers might baulk Scripture and advance Tradition and for the same end viz. to support some Doctrine or Doctrines which else must have fallen And upon this it would follow beside the imputation of inconstancy and shifting to the Fathers that we must be at much uncertainty what truly was the Judgment of the Fathers concerning the Rule of Faith and that therefore the quotations out of them must in a great part be insignificant for this purpose St. Basil in his Tract call'd Questions compendiously unfolded or answered says It is necessary and consonant to Reason that every Man learn that which is needful out of the Holy Scripture both for the fulness of godliness and lest they accustom themselves to humane Traditions 'T is acknowledged by (a) De amissi gratiae L. 1. C. 13. Bellarmine that this Author admits not Traditions unwritten but then he says it is not certainly manifest whether these Questions were the great Basil's or rather Eustathius's of Sebastia Yet the same (b) De Paenit L. 3. C. 8. Bellarmine confidently quotes them as St. Basils for Auricular Confession So that it may seem that the Questions were before scrupled at only because they spoke in behalf of Scripture against Tradition and against venial sins which is manifest Partiality But I shall bring a Testimony of St. Basil which Bellarmine himself would own to be St. Basils who in his Book of the true Faith thus Discourses If God be faithful in all his sayings his Words and Works they remaining for ever and being done in Truth and Equity it must be an evident signe of Infidelity and Pride if any one shall reject what is written and introduce what is not written This is a manifest Prelation of what is written i. e. Holy Scriptures to what is unwritten i. e. Tradition which Bellarm. calls the unwritten word of God in the Title to his 4th Book De verbo Dei When St. (a) Quid inquam Omousion nisi Ego Pater unum sumus Sed nunc nec ego Nicaenam synodum tibi nec tu Arimineusem mihi debes tâ—nquam praejudicaturus cbiitere Scripturarum Authoritatibus res cum re causa cum causâ ratio cum ratione concertet Contra Maxt Lib. 3. Cap. 14. August was willing to wave the Council of Nice to Maximinus and to retire to a Decision of the Catholick Cause by Scripture certainly that great Person judg'd Scripture without Tradion to be sufficient to prove an Article of Faith or
As to the certainty of Scripture's Sense is Scripture in earnest so utterly obscure Will their Author say so of the Histories of Livie or Tacitus or of the Philosophical Writings of Plato and Aristotle or of Euclid's Elements Could not God speak clearly and intelligibly to Men as Men have done and that in matters of the greatest consequence to them or would he not do so The Assertion of the one would impeach his Wisdom of the other his mercy and kindness to Souls And if Scriptures leave us so quite in the dark why do they call themselves a Light a Lamp say Ps 119 105.13â— Ps 19.7 8. that they enlighten the Eyes and make wise the simple Were the Books of the Old Testament the Gospels Acts and Epistles of the New Testament in the respective times in which they were writ in themselves unintelligible by them to whom and for whose Souls health they were writ If they were so then they were useless and vain And Oral Tradition could not expound them which was not in Being when those Books were first written for That deals with the Ages following the first conveys what was at the first delivered unto Posterity Did God then write only to amaze his Church 'T is acknowledged that there are several 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things hard to be understood which it might please God should be partly to win the greater veneration to the Scriptures for what is obvious and presently seen through is in the more danger of contempt partly for the exercise of Christian's Industry Humility and Charity towards each other on occasion of dissent But howsoever the Scriptures are not so lock'd up but that a compâ—tent diligence and a Beraean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or readiness of mind may be a Key to them may open them in all Points necessary to Salvation And if in other things we remain ignorant or not so certain we may well bear with it while we are yet but in viâ and not comprehensores on our way unto but have not yet reach'd perfection That which makes the noise of Scriptur's obscurity the more loud is that Men are apt to look upon the many subtilties of the Schooles and Niceties of Polemick Writers as Articles of Faith and that men have more mind to fathom depths and to humour their curiosity for which end I believe the Scriptures were not intended and hence are ever racking the Scriptures and vexing the Sacred Text than to exercise themselves in a sober understanding of what is sufficiently plain and in a consciencious practise of the Holy Rules of Life which are evident enough If Christians would more seriously apply themselves to these two things they would find in the Scriptures employment enough and they would be more contented with their difficulties The Romanists have raised a cry of Scriptur's darkness upon another account and out of Policy For having embrac'd several Tenents and Practices which Scripture does condemn or not countenance either it is wholly silent of them or they are but meer appearances there which are snatch'd at and yet it is inconsistent with their grandeur or profit or the affected reputation of an infallibility to part with they are faine to press Tradition to serve in their Wars and for the defence of them Thus they have first made a necessity and then have invented a Remedy for it But when all is done the Remedy is more imaginary than real For how unsure a Conveyance and consequently how weak a Proof Oral Tradition is in matters of Christian Faith and Practice has been already evicted So that if we must be ignorant of Scriptures Sense unless Oral Tradition bless us with the Exposition of it and Scriptures no farther a Light than it is tinded at Tradition's Candle we must sit still in much ignorance or wander in great uncertainties for that cannot relieve us it is not that infallible Commentator it is pretended to be 2. To the upbraiding us with our Distractions I reply 1. Before the charge can be made good that the choice of Scripture for our Canon was the cause of our many Differences and that upon that pretence we should exchange Scripture for Oral Tradition it must be suppos'd that Oral Tradition is a sure and infallible clew to guide us out of the Labyrinth of Errors into the way of Truth and Peace the contrary to which has been sufficiently proved For otherwise to leave Scripture and to follow Tradition would be to relinquish a Guide or Rule which being indited by an unerring Spirit cannot mislead us and to chuse one which may and will carry us out of the way Nor will the pretence of Vnity make amends for this For true Christian Peace can't be otherwhere bottom'd than on Truth when and so far as it is a Cement of Men to the disservice of Truth it commences Faction Nor Reason nor Religion allow much less commend an Agreement of Persons to err together 2. They who have the most amorously espoused Tradition have also their many and great Differences as has been shew'd above only through Fear in some and Policy in the rest they are hush'd up more than amongst us and so do better escape the observation and talk of the World Nay that Church may be justly arraigned as the guilty cause of that which they call a great Schism viz. The Separation of so many Churches from them the Churches call'd Protestant by their imposition of unlawful and therefore impossible termes of Communion with them And (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nilus tells the World that their Imperiousness was the reason of the great Schism between the Greek and the Latin Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 21. 22. Thus as the Church of Traditioners have no few Dissentions among themselves so they have given a beginning and continuance to the quarrels between them and a considerable part of Christendom 3. Ther 's no need of fetching our Distractions from the Rejection of Oral Tradition there are are other true manifest Causes of them assignable Our Church once flourish'd with Peace and that without the aid of an Oral Tradition whil'st the Reverend Bishops were suffered to govern it and the Royal was able to countenance the Ecclesiastical Authority But when the pious King and blessed Martyr was engag'd in and diverted by the turmoils of a Civil War when Episcopacy was chang'd for Anarchy when the Golden reins of Government in Church and State were broken then begun and increas'd our Divisions and Calamities Unto which it may be there were some assisting Causes from without some who helped to kindle and to blow our Fires And if the Roman Church should chance into the like afflicted State with ours it would be obnoxious to the like Confusions If the Mitre should be forsaken by the secular Crowned Heads and a mutinying multitude should pull their Holy Father out of his infallible Chair then 't is not altogether improbable but that Children would less heavken
the Divine Care in that tho' he believed the Septuagint Translation widely to differ from the Original Hebrew Text and had no Opinion of it as a ground even of (b) Haec mea sententia perpetua fuit Ex quibusdam veterum interpretationibus excerpi aliquas posse variantes teâ—tus Hebraici lectiones ex vulgatâ Graecâ versione nullas Idem Ibid. various Reaings yet there is no such material difference between the Hebrew Text and even that version as may injure the Faith necessary to Salvation Our Adversaries tho' they know of those numerous as they say variae lectiones yet notwithstanding scruple not to profess to have the Genuine Scriptures as was said before or if they have not if they have been careless in a matter of so grand moment as the Conservation of Holy Writ entire how should we trust to their fidelity in other things of less Consequence who yet claim to be the most credible Traditioners in the world SECT II. Ob. 2. If it should be thought a Ground to suspect the care of the Church and of Providence over Scripture that (d) The Epistle to the Hebrews Of St. Jam. 2. Ep. of St. Peter 2d and 3d. Ep. of John the Ep. Ju. the Revelation 1. some Books of the New Testament are accounted now Canonical which Anciently were not reputed so 2. That some Books commonly called the Apocrypha are controverted whether they belong to the Canon of the Old Testament or not it is answered 1. That it is no wonder if all the Books of the New Testament were not presently generally received by all Christians who in especially after the Apostles days had multiplied into very great numbers and liv'd dispers'd in divers places and very remote from each other Time was required for all Christendom truly to inform themselves of a business of so great weight but the reception of these Books never doubted of by all Christians rather doubted of than rejected by some was early enough to satisfy any sober expectation The Council of Laodicea which was had in so much reverence and esteem by those of elder ages that the Canons of it were received into the Code of the Universal Church was held Anno Dom. 364. The Bishops then assembled together (e) Apud Caranzam declare in the last Canon what Books of the Old and New Testament were to be read publickly and to be held as Canonical and they only And among those of the New Testament are reckoned the Epistles before mentioned in the Margent The Apocalypse indeed is omitted but it was omitted only not rejected it was forborn to be named because their Custom was not usually to read it in publick for the special Mysteriousness of it (a) More may be seen of this in the learned Dr. Cosins late Bishop of Duresme in his Scholastic l History of the Canon of Scripture pag. 60. 61. (a) De Verbo Dei Lib. 1. c. 17 18 19. also Cap. 16. concerning some little portions of Holy Writ formerly controverted Bellarmine giv's a large account of the Attestations yielded to all these Books and to each of them not alone by the Laodicean Council but some others also and by several Fathers likewise both before and after that Council Indeed after some Debates about them by some in the early days of Christianity they were entertain'd by the Church without contradiction 2. The Controversy between us and the Romanists about the Canon of the Old Testament has in it no great difficulty it seems to be a plain case Those Arguments by which (b) De Verbo Dei L. 2. c. 2. Bellarmine proves that the Jews did not corrupt the Hebrew Text do as strongly conclude that they did not shorten the Hebrew Canon for this latter would have been as great a fault in them as the former rather a greater and would have been more difficult for them to have effected Also (c) De Verbo Dei Lib. 1. c. 8 9 10. Bellarmine acknowledges that the Book of Baruch is not found in the Hebrew Bibles that the fragments of Daniel i. e. The Hymn of the three Children the History of Susanna and of Bell and the Dragon that the Books of Tobit Judith the Wisdom of Solomon Ecclesiasticus and of the Macchabees are not own'd by the Jews Or if he had not confessed so much there is evidence sufficient from the (a) Josephus contra Apion Lib. 1. p. 1036. 1037. Jews themselves that (b) Primis Ordinis Canonica Volumina quae sola apud Hebraeos in authoritate hahentur Judaei c. Sixt. Senens Bibl. Sanct. pag. 2. Certum est Libros hosce Apocryphos sc ab Ecclesià sive Synagogâ Judaicà nunquam in Canonem censitos fuisse tam ante Christi tempora quà m post in hunc usque diem Sim. Episcopii Inst Theolog. 226. P. Ricaut Of the Greek Church they never owned more Books as Divine and Canonical than the Protestants do and likewise the Greek Church agree with the Protestants in rejecting the Apocrypha How then the Roman great Propugnators of Tradition consistently even with that very Principle adopt more Books into the Canon than the Jews ever own'd is not by me conceiveable For to the Jews were committed the Oracles of God they above all in the world best knew what was committed to them they did carefully preserve as is seen before and deliver to Posterity and Posterity could honestly come by no more than what was delivered to them I do not foresee what exception can justly lie against this procedure Therefore that Bellarmine should say tho' the Jews rejected these Books yet the (a) Ecclesia Catholica Libros istos ut caet ros pro Sacris Canonicis habet De verbo Dei Lib. 1. C. 10. Catholick Church he means the Christian and particularly the Trent Council received them as part of the Canon of the Old Testament is exceeding strange and a Riddle to me Seeing that they have no countenance from the most Primitive general and long-liv'd Tradition of the Jewish Church And this is enough to satisfie a rational Christian and to refute our Adversaries even by their own Principle But yet nor is it true that there has been a truly Catholick reception of those Books as Canonical even by the Christian Church It is (a) This deduction of Testimonies is largly and satisfactorily made by the late Reverend Bishop of Duresme Dr. Cosins in his Scholastical History of the Canon of Scripture evinc'd by a continued series of sufficient Testimonies from the first Ages of the Christian Church thro' the several Centuries unto the Council of Trent that the Books which the Protestants call Apocryphal were judg'd to be such by Christians Now that the Council of Trent above 1500 years after Christ and a fragment of Christendom should vote the Apocryphal Books to be entertain'd with a veneration equal to what Christians have for the unquestionable Scriptures was a boldness which
was great enough but can lay no Obligation upon Christians The result of the Discourse foregoing concerning the Books of the Old and New Testament is this 1. Seeing the Books of the New Testament were never doubted of much less rejected by all were so early receiv'd by all 2ly Seeing the Jewish Church never for so many hundred years admitted more Books into the Canon than Protestants do likewise that the Christian Church did from the beginning distinguish between the Canonical and Apocryphal Books as has been the concurrent Testimony of the most considerable Members of it in its several Ages Forasmuch I say that so it is there can lie no rational Objection against the sufficient care of the Divine Providence or the Churches diligence in the preservation of the Holy Scriptures upon supposal of which it can justly be pretended that Christians must be uncertain about the Integrity of the Scripture Canon I might add that supposâ— there were a much more considerable uncertainty concerning the truly Canonical Books of Scripture both of the Old and New Testament than there is yet there would be a fair Salvo for the care of Divine Providence and for the security of Christians necessary Belief and Practice For I humbly conceive that if 1. The Books of the New Testament at the first not generally receiv'd were still as controversible yet we should not be at a loss for any Article of Faith there being in the Books never disputed of enough to establish it Or 2ly Were it so that it were altogether doubtful whether the Books call'd Apocryphal were not as truly the word of God as those styl'd Canonical perhaps yet there is no Doctrine which can be prov'd from those Apocryphal Books contrary to what we maintain against our Adversaries But this is Supernumerary After the Author had confuted by several Testimonies of the Antients the Canonicalness of the Books called Apocryphal he adds Etsi in hac re longè superior est causa nostra nullam tamen satis gravem causam video cur acriter de numero Canonicorum librorum cum Pontificiis digladiemur Apocryphos quos illi in Canonem referre volunt usque adeò aver semmr quasi Fides Religio Christiana propterea vacillatura sit si illi in Canonem admittantur Eisi enim non nego esse in iis quaedam quae vel contradictionem vel falsitatem vel absurditatem manifestariam prae se ferant difficulter aut cum iis quos Canonicos esse utrinque in confesse est conciliari aut cum historiae veritate aut cum recta ratione in gratiam reduci possunt tamen non modò nulla esse in t is credo per quae dogmatis alicujus ad salutem necessarii veritas labefactari possit sed non pauciora esse in iis mihi persuadeo quae convellendis Pontificiorum erroribus faciunt quam quae iis aut fulciendis aut stabiliendis servire possunt Sim. Episcopii Instit Theol. p. 227. Afterwards speaking of the Books of the New Testament antiently questioned says he Sive admittantur sive non admittantur Certissimum nihilominus manet caeteris qui extra controversiam omnem positi sunt abundè satis contineri universam doctrinam religionem istam quam Revelationem tertiam intelligit Religionem Christianam esse dicimus Nullus enim in istis omnibus controversiis est apiculus qui singulare aliquid habet inse quod in aliis indubitatis desideratur imò non abundè iis continetur ad Religionis doctrinae Jesu Christi tum perfectionem tum integritatem pertinens Idem Ibid. pag. 229. and might be untrue without any prejudice to what I have discours'd in this Section SECT III. Obj. 3. Whereas I have said that the safe descent of Divine Truths is so greatly provided for because they are treasur'd up in the Holy Writings it may be perhaps reply'd that Oral Tradition is not destitute of this 〈◊〉 Advantage also For one means which Bellarmine alledges of the preservation of Oral Traditions is Scriptura writing them in the antient Records of the Church Therefore he says that (a) De Verbo Dei non Scripto L. 4. C. 12. a Doctrine is called unwritten (b) Idâ—m Ibid Ch. 2. not because it is no where written because it was not written by the first Author but Ans 1. The Adversaries I have to deal with talk of Oral Tradition as a Plenipotent thing which is a support to itself and needs not the prop of a Pen is it self a spring of perpetuity to itself and therefore that the being written must be an accidental and no necessary Preservative of it This sure is the importance of several passages concerning it viz. (a) Sure Foot pag. 115. Christian Tradition rightly understood is nothing but the Living voice of the Catholick Church essential as Delivering (b) Ibid. pag 101. None can in reason oppose the Authority of Fathers or Councils against Tradition (c) Ibid. pag. 103. No Authority from any History or Testimonial writing is valid against the force of Tradition So that Oral Tradition is it seems so far from a want of assistance from any writings whatsoever that it is their strength and over-rules them There is yet more said (d) Ibid. pag. 56. Oral Tradition is a Rule not to the learned only but also to the unlearned to any vuloar enquirer therefore it must not rest on Books for its Authentickness for the unlearned and vulgar enquirers have not ability to read to examine to understand Books accordingly 't is said that the Tradition of the (a) Ibid. pag. 203 204. present Church is to be believ'd There is something to the same purpose in another (b) Enchirid of Faith pag. 14 15. Author who has form'd his Book Dialogue-wise After the Master had read his Scholar a Lecture about Tradition the Scholar asks him Sir It seems a matter of great study not easily to be overcome except by very learned men to know or to find out a constant Tradition as to read all the Fathers Liturgies or Councils Is it not therefore sufficient Testimony of this if the present Catholick Church universally witnesses it to be so To this the Master after some premises answers It must by necessary consequence be concluded the Testimony of any age he means any present age to be sufficient And after a while he closes thus This surely convinces the Testimony of any age to be sufficient Thus whatsoever just exception this Divinity is expos'd unto yet it appears by the Authors quoted that there are some such as I have to do with in this work who maintain a self-sufficiency in Oral Tradition and that though it may have yet it can sustain it self without the aid of Books 2. Let it be that Oral Tradition has help from Scripture from writing yet upon a Scrutiny it will be found that in the last issue this relief will be insufficient so far at
the least as to priviledge Oral Tradition to be the Rule of Faith For 1. Were their writings the Conservatories of Tradition written by persons mov'd by the Holy Ghost or not If not and I suppose our adversaries will not affirm they were then these writings have a great disadvantage of the Holy Scriptures which we profess to be the Canon of our Faith as great a disadvantage as must be between Books written by them who could not err and those written by them who might err from whence it would follow that what is contain'd in the one must be true that the Contents of the other may be true yet too they may be false there may be that reported in them as deliver'd by Christ and his Apostles which yet was not delivered by them But 2. Were there Ecclesiastical Monuments of unquestionable credit and which did from Christ and his Apostles through each age exacty and fully declare to us the consentient Doctrines and Practices of the universal Church it would be very material and we should much rejoice in it but the case is otherwise For some while there were very few if any writings save the Holy Scripture which come to our hands Justin Martyr is said to be the first Father About 150 years after Christ whose works have survived to this day There are some Books which pretend to an early date which yet are judg'd to be supposititious some of them judged to be so by the Romanists themselves others proved to be such by the (a) Cook in censu â quorundum Scriptorum D. James's Bastardie of false Fathers Daille Protestants For the first 300 years as there was no compleat Ecclesiastical History so the Fathers now extant were but few and their Works too being calculated for the times in which they lived reach not the controversies which for many years past and at this day exercise and trouble Christendom This paucity of the Records of the first ages (a) Id autem esse tempus quo quatuor prima Concilia Oecumenica includantur a Constantino Imp. ad Marcianum Atque hoc vel propterea aequissimum esse quia primorum seculorum paucissima extant monumenta illius vero temporis quo Ecclesia praecipuè florebat longe plurima ut facile ex ejus aetatis Patribus eorum scriptis fides ac disciplina veteris Catholicoe possit agnosci Ita Perron Sequitur Responsio Regis Hoc postulatum parùm illis aequum videbitur c. Apud Is Casaubonum in Responsione ad Cardinalis Perronii Epistolam pag. 38 39 40 41 42. Card. Perron acknowledges and does imply their insufficiency for setling Catholick Faith when as he would have recourse made for this purpose unto the 4th and 5th Centuries because then there were most writers Tho against this the learned Is Casaubon excepts and justly forasmuch as it must be presum'd that the stream of Tradition ran purest nearest to its Fountain The Fathers after the first 300 years did often mix their own private sentiments with the Doctrines of the Church Nor do the Fathers express themselves so as that we may clearly distinguish when they writ as Doctors and when as Witnesses when they deliver their own private Sense and when the Sense of the Church and if of the Church whether it be of the Church universal or of some particular Church some who have diligently perus'd their Writings judge it not easy to find any such constant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is confess'd by (a) Rushworth Dial 3d. Sect. 13. a Romanist that the Fathers speak sometimes as Witnesses of what the Church held in their days and sometimes as Doctors and so it is often hard to distinguish how they deliver their Opinions because sometimes they press Scripture or Reason as Doctors and sometimes to confirm a known Truth So that he who seeks Tradition in the Fathers and to convince it by their Testimony takes an hard task upon him if he go rigorously to work and have a cunning Critick to his Adversary So then Tradition must in a good measure be at a loss for succour from the Fathers Writings I conclude then that Books Writings have not given such advantages to Oral Tradition as to render it the safest and most certain Conveyance of Divine Truths but this Dignity and Trust is due to Holy Scriptures only which having been at the first penn'd by Persons assisted by the Divine infallible Spirit are stamp'd with an Authority transcendent to all humane Authority Oral or Written which have been witness'd to by the concurrent Testimony of the Church in each intermediate Age since the Primitive Times and which are at this day generally agreed upon as the true Word of God by Christians tho' in other things it may be some of their Heads may stand as oppositely as those of Sampson's Foxes SECT IV. There remains a Cavil or two rather than Objections which shall have a dispatch also 1. We are told that by desertion of Oral Tradition and adherence to Scripture we do cast our selves upon a remediless ignorance even of Scripture (a) Sure Footing P. 117. Tradition establish'd the Church is provided of a certain and infallible Rule to interpret Scripture's Letter by so as to arrive certainly at Christ's Sense c. And e contrà (b) Ibid. p. 98. without Tradition both Letter and Sense of Scripture is uncertain and subject to dispute Again (c) Ibid. p. 38. As for the certainty of the Scriptures signisicancy nothing is more evident than that this is quite lost to all in the uncertainty of the Letter 2ly It is suggested that the course we take is an Enemy to the Churches Peace (d) Ibid. p. 40. The many Sects into which our miserable Country is distracted issue from this Principle viz. The making Scriptures Letter the Rule of our Faith By these passages it is evident that this Author will have it that Protestants have nothing but the Letter of Scriptures dead Characters to live upon and that upon this he charges their utter uncertainty in the interpretation of Scriptures and their distractions Answ But Protestants when they affirm That Scripture is the safest and most certain Conveyance of Divine Truths and that consequently it is the only Rule of Faith do mean Scriptures Letter and Sense both or the Sense notified by the Words and Letter And therefore the Author might have spar'd his Proof of this conclusion i. e. That Scriptures Letter wants all the properties belonging to a Rule of Faith It was needless I say to prove this to Protestants Well but let Protestants mean and affirm what they will have only the Letter of Scripture and not the Sense of it because they admit not of Oral Tradition to Sense it Scripture it seems is such a Riddle that there is no understanding it except we plough with their Heifer and likewise without Tradition's caement we shall always be a pieces and at variance amongst our selves But 1.