in these things they have forsaken Traditions so in other cases they have perverted and abused them turning them into quite another thing As appears to all that understand any thing of ancient learning in the business of Purgatory which none of the most ancient Writers so much as dreamt to be such a place as they have now devised but onely asserted a Purgatory Fire through which all both good and bad even the blessed Virgin her self must pass at the great and dreadfull day of Judgment This was the old Tradition as we may call it which was among Christians which they have changed into such a Tradition as was among the Pagans 6. But it is time to have done with this else I should have insisted upon this a while which I touched before and is of great moment that the Tradition which now runs in that Church is contrary to the certain Tradition of the Apostles and the universal Church particularly in the Canon of Scripture In which no more Books have been numbred by the Catholick Church in all Ages since the Apostles time than are in the VI. Article of Religion in this Church of England till the late Council of Trent took the boldness to thrust the Apocryphal Books into the holy Canon as nothing inferiour to the acknowledged Divine Writings This hath been so evidently demonstrated by a late Reverend Prelate of our Church in his Scholastical History of the Canon of the Scriptures out of undoubted Records that no fair Answer can be made to it But I must leave a little room for other things that ought to be noted III. And the next is a consequence from what hath been now said That there being so little credit to be given to the Roman Church onely we cannot receive those Doctrines for Truth which that Church now presses upon our belief upon the account of Tradition For instance that the Church of Rome is the Mother and Mistress of all other Churches that the Pope of Rome is the Monarch or Head of the universal visible Church that all Scriptures must be expounded according to the sense of this Church that there are truly and properly seven Sacraments neither more nor less instituted by our blessed Lord himself in the New Testament that there is a proper and propitiatory Sacrifice offered in the Mass for the quick and dead the same that Christ offered on the Cross in short the half Communion and all the rest of the Articles of their New Faith in the Creed published by Pope Pius IV. which are Traditions of the Roman Church alone not of the Vniversal and rely solely upon their own Authority And therefore we refuse them and in our disputes about Traditions we mean these things which we reject because they have no foundation either in the holy Scripture or in Universal Tradition but depend as I said upon the sole Authority of that Church which witnesses in its own behalf For whatsoever is pretended to make the better shew all resolves at last into that as I intimated in the beginning of this Discourse Scripture and Tradition can doe nothing at all for them without their Churches definition Though their whole infallible Rule of Faith seem to be made up of those three yet in truth the last of these alone the Churches definition is the whole Rule and the very bottom upon which their Faith stands For what is Tradition is no more apparent than what is Scripture according to their principles without the Authority of their Church which pretends to an unlimited power to supply the defect even of Tradition it self In short as Tradition among them is taken in to supply the defect of Scripture so the Authority of their Church is taken in to supply the defect of Tradition but this Authority undermines them both because neither Scripture nor Tradition signifie any thing without their Churches Authority Which therefore is the rule of their Faith that is they believe themselves To which absurdity they are driven because it is made evident by us that there have been great diversities of Traditions and many changes and alterations made even in things called Apostolical c. and therefore they have no other way but to fly to the judgment of the present Roman Church to determine what are Traditions Apostolical and what are not by which judgment all mankind must be governed that is we must believe them and they believe themselves which they would have done well to have said in one word without putting us to the trouble of seeking for Traditions in Books and in other Churches But they would willingly colour their pretences by as many fair words as is possible and so make mention of Scripture Tradition Antiquity which when we have examined they will not stand to them but take fanctuary in their own Authority saying they are the sole judges what is Scripture and what Tradition and what Antiquity nay have a power to declare any new point of Faith which the Church never heard of before This is the Doctrine of Salmeron and others of his fellows that the Doctrine of Faith admits of additions in essential things For all things were not taught by the Apostles but such as were then necessary and fit for the Salvation of Believers By which means we can never know when the Christian Religion will be perfected but their Church may bring in Traditions by its sole Authority without end Nay some among them have been contented to resolve all their Faith into the sole Authority of the present Roman Bishop according to that famous saying of Cornelius Mussus promoted by Paul III. to a Bishoprick upon the XIV Chapter to the Romans to confess the truth ingenuously I would give greater credit to one Pope in those things which touch the mysteries of Faith than to a thousand Hierom's Austin's Gregory's to say nothing of Richard's Scotus's c. for I believe and know that the Pope cannot err in matters of Faith Which contemptuous speech he would never have uttered to the discredit of those great men whom they pretend to reverence if he had not known more certainly that the Tradition which runs among the ancient Fathers is against them than he could know the Pope to be infallible There is no Tradition I am sure for that nor for abundance of other things which rest merely upon their own credit as is fairly acknowledged in two great Articles of their present Creed by our Country-man Bishop Fisher with whose words I conclude this particular Many perhaps have the less confidence in Indulgences because their use seems to have been newer in the Church and very lately found among Christians To whom I answer that it doth not appear certainly by whom they began to be first delivered For the ancients make no mention or very rare of Purgatory and the Greeks to this very day do not believe it nor was the belief either of Purgatory or of Indulgences so necessary in the Primitive Church as it
Christian Tradition 4. And it was hearty obedience sincere compliance with the Divine will such obedience as became those who understood their Religion to be a great deliverance and liberty from the slavery of sin before spoken of into the happy freedom of the service of God 5. All which lastly he ascribes to the grace of God which had both delivered to them that Doctrine and drawn them to deliver up themselves to it made their hearts soft and ductile to be cast into that mould and quickned them to Christian Obedience and given them a willing mind to obey chearfully All this was from God's grace and not their merits and therefore the thanks was to be ascribed to him who succeeds and blesses all pious indeavours Now according to this pattern let us frame our selves who blessed be God have a form of Doctrine delivered to us in this Church exactly agreeable to the holy Scriptures which lie open before us and we are exhorted not onely to look into them but we feel that grace which hath brought them to us clearly demonstrating that we ought to be formed according to the holy Doctrine therein delivered by the delivery of our selves unto it By the delivery of our mind that is to think of God and our selves and of our duty in every point just as this instructs us And by the delivery of our wills and affections to be governed and regulated according to its directions And when we have consented to this we find the Divine grace representing to us the necessity of an hearty obedience to what we know and believe and have embraced as the very Truth of God To this we are continually drawn and mightily moved and if we would shew our thankfulness for it let us follow these godly motions and conform our selves in all things to the heavenly prescriptions of this Book being confident that if we do we need not trouble our selves about any other model of Religion which we find not here delivered For if you desire to know what form of Doctrine it is to which the Apostle would have us delivered it is certain it is a Doctrine directly opposite to all vice and wickedness For herein the grace of God was manifested he tells the Romans in that it had brought them from being slaves of sin heartily to obey the Christian Doctrine which taught that is vertue and piety Now to this the present Romanists can pretend to add nothing All the parts of a godly life are sufficiently taught us in the holy Scriptures And if we would seriously practise and follow this Doctrine from the very heart we should easily see there is no other but what is there delivered For whatsoever is pretended to be necessary besides is not a Doctrine according unto godliness as the Apostle calls Christianity but the very design of it is to open an easier way to heaven than that laid before us in the holy Scriptures by Masses for the dead by Indulgences by Satisfactions and the merits of the Saints and several other such like inventions which have no foundation in the Scriptures nor in true Antiquity That is a word indeed which is very much pretended Antiquity they say is on their side but it is nothing different from what hath been said about Tradition And if we will run up to the true Antiquity there is nothing so ancient as the holy Scriptures They are the oldest Records of Religion and by them if we frame our lives we are sure it is according to the most authentick and ancient directions of piety delivered in the holy Oracles of God So both sides confess them to be And if the old Rule be safe that is true which is first we are safe-enough for there is nothing before this to be our Guide and there can be nothing after this but must be tried by it According to another Rule as old as reason it self the first in every kind is the measure of all the rest And as sure as that there is a Gospel of God's grace they that walk after this Rule this Divine Canon peace shall be upon them and mercy they being the true Israel or Church of God THE END Books Printed for Fincham Gardiner AContinuation and Vindication of the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet's Unreasonableness of Separation in Answer to Mr. Baxter and Mr. Lob c. Considerations of present use considering the Danger Resulting from the Change of our Church-Government 1. A Perswasive to Communion with the Church of England 2. A Resolution of some Cases of Conscience which Respect Church-Communion 3. The Case of Indifferent things used in the Worship of God Proposed and Stated by considering these Questions c. 4. A Discourse about Edification 5. The Resolution of this Case of Conscience Whether the Church of England 's Symbolizing so far as it doth with the Church of Rome makes it unlawfull to hold Communion with the Church of England 6. A Letter to Anonymus in Answer to his Three Letters to Dr. Sherlock about Church-Communion 7. Certain Cases of Conscience resolved concerning the Lawfulness of joyning with Forms of Prayer in Publick Worship In two Parts 8. The Case of Mixt Communion Whether it be Lawfull to separate from a Church upon the Account of promiscuous Congregations and Mixt Communions 9. An Answer to the Dissenters Objections against the Common Prayers and some other Parts of Divine Service Prescribed in the Liturgy of the Church of England 10. The Case of Kneeling at the Holy Sacrament Stated and Resolved c. The first Part. 11. Certain Cases of Conscience c. The Second Part. 12. A Discourse of Profiting by Sermons and of going to hear where Men think they can profit most 13. A Discourse about the charge of Novelty upon the Reformed Church of England made by the Papists asking of us the Question Where was our Religion before Luther Printed for Robert Horne at the South Entrance of the Royal Exchange
have been so delivered But know withall that this universal Tradition of the Books of Scripture unto which you have added several Apocryphal Writings which have not been constantly delivered as those we receive is no part of the Tradition or Doctrine delivered That is no Doctrine distinct from the Scriptures but onely the instrument or means of conveying that Doctrine unto us In short it is the fidelity of the Church with whom the Canon of Scripture was deposed but is no more a Doctrine not written in the Scripture than the Tradition or delivery of the Code or Book of the Civil Law is any opinion or Law not written in that Code And we are more assured of the fidelity of the Church herein than the Civilians can be assured of the faithfulness of their predecessours in preserving and delivering the Books of their Law to them because these holy Books were always kept with a greater care than any other Books whatsoever and in the acceptance of them also we find there was great caution used that they might not be deceived all Christians looking upon them to be of such importance that all Religion they thought was concerned in them Of which this is an Argument that they who sought to destroy the Christian Religion in the primitive times sought nothing more than to destroy the Bible Which they were wont to demand of those who were suspected to be Christians to be delivered up to them that they might burn it And according as men behaved themselves in this trial so they were reputed to be Christians or not Christians And the Traditours as they were called that is they who delivered the holy Scriptures into the hands of the Pagans were look'd upon by Christians as men that were content to part with their Religion For which there could be no reason but that they thought Christian Religion to be therein contained and to be betrayed by those who delivered them to be burnt By which I have proved more than I intended in this part of my Discourse that in the holy Scriptures the whole will of God concerning our Salvation is contained Which is the true Question between us and the Church of Rome Not whether the Scripture be delivered to us as the word of God or no in this our people ought to tell them we are all agreed but whether they have been delivered as the whole will of God And from that argument now mentioned and many more we conclude that Universal Tradition having directed us unto these Books and no other they direct us sufficiently without any other Doctrines unto God and to our everlasting rest And if they urge you farther and say that the very credit of the Scripture depends upon Tradition tell them that it is a speech not to be endured if they mean thereby that it gives the Scripture its authority and if they mean less we are agreed as hath been already said for it is to say that Man gives authority to God's Word Whereas in truth the holy Scriptures are not therefore of Divine Authority because the Church hath delivered them so to be but the Church hath delivered them so to be because it knew them to be of such authority And if the Church should have conceived or taught otherwise of these Writings than as of the undoubted Oracles of God she would have erred damnably in such a Tradition I shall sum up what hath been said in this second particular in a few words Christ and his Apostles at first taught the Church by word of mouth but afterward that which they preached was by the commandment of God committed to writing and delivered unto the Church to be the ground of our Faith Which is no more than Irenaeus hath said in express words L. III. C. 1. speaking of them by whom the Gospel came into all Nations which they then preached but afterward by the will of God delivered unto us in the Scriptures to be in time to come the foundation and pillar of our Faith III. And farther we likewise acknowledge that the sum and substance of the Christian Religion contained in the Scriptures hath been delivered down to us even from the Apostles days in other ways or forms besides the Scriptures For instance in the Baptismal Vow in the Creed in the Prayers and Hymns of the Church Which we may call Traditions if we please but they bring down to us no new Doctrine but onely deliver in an abridgment the same Christianity which we find in the Scriptures Upon this there is no need that I should enlarge but I proceed farther to affirm IV. That we reverently receive also the unanimous Tradition or Doctrine of the Church in all ages which determines the meaning of the holy Scripture and makes it more clear and unquestionable in any point of Faith wherein we can find it hath declared its sense For we look upon this Tradition as nothing else but the Scripture unfolded not a new thing which is not in the Scripture but the Scripture explained and made more evident And thus some part of the Nicene Creed may be called a Tradition as it hath expresly delivered unto us the sense of the Church of God concerning that great Article of our Faith that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Which they teach us was always thus understood the Son of God begotten of his Father before all worlds and of the same substance with the Father But this Tradition supposes the Scripture for its ground and delivers nothing but what the Fathers assembled at Nice believed to be contained there and was first fetch'd from thence For we find in Theodoret L. I. C. 6. that the famous Emperour Constantine admonished those Fathers in all their questions and debates to consult onely with these heavenly inspired Writings because the Evangelical and Apostolical Books and the Oracles of the old Prophets do evidently instruct us what to think in Divine matters This is so clear a Testimony that in those days they made this the complete Rule of their Faith whereby they ended Controversies which was the reason that in several other Synods we find they were wont to lay the Bible before them and that there is nothing in the Nicene Creed but what is to be found in the Bible that Cardinal Bellarmine hath nothing to reply to it but this Constantine was indeed a great Emperour but no great Doctour Which is rather a scoff than an Answer and casts a scorn not onely upon him but upon that great Council who as the same Theodoret witnesseth assented unto that Speech of Constantine So it there follows in these words the most of the Synod were obedient to what he had discoursed and embraced both mutual Concord and sound Doctrine And accordingly S. Hilary a little after extols his Son Constantius for this that he adhered to the Scriptures and blames him onely for not attending to the true Catholick sense of them His words are these in his little Book which