(a) Ioh. 20. uit written that we might believe and believing have life and which were (b) Rom. 15.4 written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope but how could they attain those ends if they should perish if this light were extinguish'd how much in the dark and forlorne would Man be This peculiar watchfulness of God over the Scriptures is acknowledged by the Romanists (c) Ita velente Deo ut verae lectionis â—ntegrâ—tas quam hominum velmalitia vel negligentia corâ—uperent in partibus in totâ saltem Ecclesiasticorum codi um universitate servâ—retur ne Ecclesia Christi per aliquod tempus divinarum Scripturaâ—um integritate careret Bibl. Sanct. p. 727. Sixtus Senensis attributes the preserved incorruptness of the sacred Text to the Will of God And Bellarmine (d) De verbo Dei L. 2. C. 2. Quintum ultimum argumentum argues from the Divine Providence for the preservation of the Old Testament from any injury by the Jews Indeed he entitles Tradition likewise to Gods special care as the (a) Cura ista non incumbit praecipue hominibus sed Deo Praeter-providentiam Dei quae est praecipua causa De verbo Dei non Scripto Lib. 4. C. 12. principal cause of its pretended safety And this is a Confession that God is in a particular manner the Guardian of that by which he communicates his Mind and Pleasure to Man for such a thing i. e. The unwritten word of God he held Tradition to be But certainly Tradition can't lay a just claim to such an interest in Divine Providence as the Scripture 1. For first besides what I have before prov'd to the just diminution of Oral Tradition there was a providential dismission of it and choice of Scripture to be the Conveyance of Gods revealed Will to his Church through successive Ages For whenas Oral Tradition had been in use for that purpose before the Flood and some while after it and great had been the untrustiness of it at the length God writ his Law Himself and commanded what was written to be kept with a great religious care Afterwards as Moses the Prophets and Hagiographers were inspir'd their Revelations were written so far as was necessary to the Church's Edification And when the People were in danger of seduction and it behoved them to seek to their God for instruction they were sent not Children to their Traditioning Fathers Is S. 19 20. but to the Law and to the Testimony and they were told that those who spoke not according to that word it was because there was no light in them Yes and when the Church was generally corrupted and therefore Tradition had not done its Duty the Churches relief was not from the living voice of testifying Fathers but from the Scripture according to whose Canon abuses were reformed And for this Reformation and because in it he perform'd the words of the Law which were written in the Book that Hilkiah the Priest found in the house of the Lord Josiah stands renowned in Sacred Story with this Character Like unto him there was no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might 2 Kin. 23 24 25. according to all the Law of Moses c. This way of securing Revelations by writing was continued under the Gospel as we have them in the Evangelists the Epistles the Acts and the Revelation And this course was as needful under the Gospel as under the legal Oeconomy if not more For it being intended by God that the Gospel should be propagated beyond the narrow Confines of Judaea where the Scriptures of the Old Testament had lodg'd for hundreds of years throughout the World and among so many Nations of such different Complexions Customs and Interests there was the more danger it should be disguis'd if it had been committed to the frailty of an Oral Tradition as we know that the more Mouths Relations pass through the more subject they are to alterations from their primitive truth through the ignorance mistakes prejudices prepossessions or wilfulness of the Relators Whereas a Writing being preserved is a perpetual standard by which to correct any such changes for in these Truth would be most likely still to appear in its first Integrity Thus I have shew'd how that after an experienc'd unsuccessfulness of Oral Conveyance God appointed another way and so ordered it that Law and Gospel should be written Now if after and notwithstanding such a Provision yet it should be God's intent that Oral Tradition only should have the prerogative to sense Scripture and that Faith should be lastly resolved into Oral Tradition and therefore that This not Scripture should be the only Rule of Faith it must needs seem strange and unaccountable to a-any rational Christian how it should come to pass that in the Sacred Scriptures there should be so many and such high (a) Ps 19.7 8 9 10 11. Ps 119. passim 2 Pet. 1.19 20 21. Eph. 6.17 Heb. 4.12 Encomiums of them that our Saviour should bid the Jews (b) Ioh. 5.39 search the Scriptures should tell them they (c) Matth. 22.29 err'd not knowing the Scriptures (d) Matth. 22.42 Ioh. 10.34 35 36. should dispute with and baffle them out of the Scriptures and by them (e) Luke 24.25 26 27. confirm his Disciples in the Truth that his Apostles should proceed in the same manner with the Jews That the (f) Act. 17.11 12. Beraeans should be commended for searching the Scriptures daily whereupon many of them believed that St. Paul should mention it to Timothy (g) 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. as an encouragement or engagement of him to continue in the things he had learned that he from a Child had known the holy Scriptures and that he should presently add a description of Scripture than which a more full one sure can't be us'd of the Rule of Faith viz. That it is able to make wise unto Salvation through the Faith which is in Christ Jesus that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnish'd unto all good works I say it is mighty strange that Scripture should be thus magnified and yet none of all this should be said there of Tradition Nay that either Tradition should be mentioned with disgrace as when our Saviour (a) Matth. 15.2 3. condemns the Jew's Traditions of their Elders and St. Paul (b) Col. 2.8 warns the Colossians to beware lest any Man spoile them after the Tradition of Men or where the word is found yet that the sense of it should not be useful to our Adversaries purpose which that it might be it must be sufficient to prove that there was more delivered by the Apostles than was written and that
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
writing things especially Religious Doctrines and Practices should be preferr'd to the hazarding them under the Custody of Oral Tradition That rather than This being the surest means of their preservation For 1. It is much less difficult because there is much less requir'd to keep a Book safe and to hand it from one Generation to another than to preserve a great many of Opinions and Senses of that Book and to transmit them from Age to Age unalter'd To the former meer plain honesty and an easie care are sufficient Here 's no need of much Apprehension and Memory and of a constant Care and Diligence to teach Posterity here 's no necessity of Posterities scrupulous attention to teaching Fathers and of an happy docility or promptness to learn and all this through a long series of Ages But these Punctilios as has been shew'd before are necessary to a faithful and unerring communicating of Truths to after-Ages in the way of Oral Tradition therefore there is the more of difficulty and consequently the more likelihood of miscarriage 2ly Books if kept safe do faithfully preserve what is deposited with them Their Memory if I may so speak never fails them there 's no need of an operous care to teach them or rather to remember them what their Authors once told them committed to them They warp not with the Times in which they are extant tho' through several Generations They are not subject to levity and wantonness of Judgment nor to rebound from one extremity to another not to a sequaciousness after Men whose Parts render them remarkable They are not temptable by Hopes or Fears To be read and to be accepted of is their worst Avarice or Ambition Nor does the Paper or Parchment look the paler at a Rack or a Gibbet or the Characters fly thence upon Persecution A Prison can't scare them they are us'd to confinement to a Chain it may be in a Library Thus it is with Books But Oral Traditioners are expos'd to all those inconveniences as has been before manifested whence their Traditions are infected with an answerable craziness Therefore for this second together with the first reason Writings Books are the far less obnoxious the more safe Conveyance And what has been said of Writings in general is much more true particularly of the Sacred Scriptures Object Against what has been delivered there may lye some seeming prejudice It may be objected that Writings have their fates as well as their Authors They are not exempt from either a total perishing by the oscitancy and carelesness of the Owners or by violence from Enemies Or at least they are liable to corruption and that either wilful and out of design as speaking of Holy Scriptures by Hereticks or through the ignorance or negligence of Transcribers Whence it will follow that notwithstanding the comparative easiness of transmitting Writings and the Fidelity of them if preserv'd yet they may be ravish'd by violence from their Possessors how honest soever they be or they may be lost by them if they should prove careless or they may be adulterated upon one account or another And so Writings may not be preserv'd or not preserv'd sincere and entire Answ That losses and decays alterations and suppositiousness have been incident to Writings is confess'd Yet how many have escap'd injury through long tracts of time have arrived safe with us some plenty of them in Libraries does manifest for there have been more or less Lovers of Learning and Antiquity who have been Guardians to these Orphans And Learned Men have Methods as Trial by Chronology and the Customs and Modes of each Age insight into the Style and Genius of an Author Collation of Copies with others by which to distinguish the Spurious from the Genuine Works and to right the Genuine by requisite Emendations And of such kind of reliefs Scriptures are capable as well as other Writings But we shall see that they have a much greater advantage and are secur'd above all Writings else by peculiar Protections and have been blessed with a special safety SECT II. Sacred Scriptures may be suppos'd to have been in danger from 1. Malice and Design 2ly From Casualty and Neglect And to have been in danger 1. From Malice and Design of profest and publick Enemies 2ly Of pretended Friends I mean Heticks 1. The open and profess'd Enemies of the Holy Scripture design'd and labour'd for their extinction As no Professors of any Religion were ever so persecuted by the opposition and fury of the World as Jews first and then the Christians so the Scriptures in Sympathy with them have been expos'd to great hazards but yet have survived them When the Chaldeans had over-run Judea wasted and plunder'd the Towns ransack'd and destroy'd the Metropolis Jerusalem had rifled and ruined the Temple when they who had escap'd Slaughter were carried away Captive into a strange Land and the Captivity there lasted 70 years Whenas amidst all these hurries Vrim and Thummim the Ark the Pot of Manna the Rod of Aaron whenas these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy and choice Rarities of that People and all their Glory sunk in the Deluge of an universal devastation Yet the Holy Scriptures which then were triumph'd over all these Calamities tho' the Copies were then but few in comparison of what they were afterwards For soon after the return from Captivity and reedification of the Temple (a) Nehem. 8.6 7 8. Ezra also Joshua and Bani caus'd the People to understand the Law and the People stood in their place So they read in the Book of the Law of God distinctly and. Some time after this under the Tyranny of Antiochus The (b) 1 Mac. 1.56 57 58. Books of the Law which were found were rent in pieces and burnt with fire And wheresoever was found with any the Book of the Testament or if any consented to the Law the King's Commandement was that they should put him to Death Notwithstanding this Persecution the Holy Book out-liv'd this Scrutiny and Cruelty In the Times of Christianity in the Reign of (c) Petav. Ration p. 241 242. Dioclesian there was an Imperial Edict that the Churches should be demolish'd and the Holy Scripture should be burn'd and tho' some were so base as to betray the Divine Books to the Enemy who thence were call'd Traditores yet they weathered out this Storm also Next to an invisible Divine Hand defending them so many were the Copies of the Sacred Books especially after the Jews return from Babylon and more after the Gospel had been Preached and entertain'd in the World and likewise so zealously did both Jews and Christians concern themselves in them that the Enemies might as soon have rooted out of the World the whole Generations of Jews and Christians as the Bibles 2ly For the same reasons that there should be a Depravation of of Holy Scripture by Additions Substractions or Alterations in any thing material as to Faith and Life that there should be any
what was so delivered was a necessary Point of Faith But when St. Paul praises the Corinthians that they (c) 1 Cor. 11.3.23 kept the Ordinances or Traditions as he delivered them when he tells them he had received that which also he delivered to them when he exhorts the Thessalonians (d) 2 Thes 2.15 to hold the Traditions which they had been taught whether by word or says he our Epistle when he commands them (a) 2 Thes 3.6 to withdraw themselves from every Brother that walks disorderly and not after the Tradition which he received from the Apostle there is nothing I say in these places which will necessarily infer that more was delivered by the Apostles than was or is written and that what was so delivered was a necessary Point of Faith through all Ages Why now it is a wonder that if God tho' he provided his Church with the Holy Scriptures yet pleas'd to enstate Oral humane Tradition in the great Office of sensing Scripture and of being the only Rule of Faith He did not so order it that Scripture should modestly acknowledge its Superior but rather let Scripture carry away all the honour from it 2ly A second reason why Oral Tradition can't plead so strong a Title to a protection by the Divine Providence as Scripture is this God's Providence does ordinarily co-operate with and prosper means answerably to their comportment with and likelihood to reach the end intended Now it has been before demonstrated how weak and uncertain Tradition is how fix'd and able Writings are to conserve Truths once delivered and therefore 't is rational to believe that the Divine Aid does much rather assist to the preservation of Divine Truths by the Holy Scriptures than by Oral Tradition the former being much more servicable to the promoting such an end than the latter Hitherto I have prov'd the continued preservation of Holy Scripture from proper Causes of such an Effect causes ministerial and supreme humane care and vigilancy and Divine special Providence SECT V. 4ly Scripture's Preservation is manifest from the Event Such have been the happy success of Divine Providence's watchfulness and of humane Care and Diligence that Christians do generally consent in this that the Holy Scriptures are de facto continued safe and pure to us in all things which are necessary to be believed and to be practised for the obtainment of Everlasting Happiness The Church of Rome professes to have the Scriptures and the Trent Council has defin'd the Vulgar Latin to be those Genuine Authentick Scriptures How true that Determination was for the Authentickness of the Vulgar Latin Bibles is not necessary for me to enquire 't is enough for me that they acknowledge a preserved Integrity of the present Scriptures So that there is not a Tenent which we have more strong inducement to believe upon the account even of Tradition than that the Divine Books the Scriptures which we have are indeed the Word of God and have been faithfully derived to us from the beginning there being no Tradition more universal for any Point than for this great important Truth tho' Christians may run wide from each other in other matters yet they close in this Center I conclude then seeing that the Holy Scriptures are much more fit to keep the Truths committed to them safe than Oral Tradition if they be preserved as has been prov'd and likewise that the Holy Scriptures are preserv'd as is generally confess'd and even by our Adversaries it must follow that not Oral Tradition but the sacred Scriptures are the surest and safest way of Conveyance of Divine Truths down from their Original delivery unto us which to demonstrate was the scope of this Undertaking CHAP. II. Objections answer'd SECT I. THere remain some things which perhaps may be apprehended to reflect on the Prelation I have given to Scripture above Oral Tradition in the point of preservation which next shall be considered Obj. 1. The (a) Almost innumerable variae lectiones in it still controverted Sure Foâ—ting p. 32. many variae lectiones divers Readings may seem to some a reason to question Scripture's descent to us in a sufficient Purity But Answ 1. 'T is a question whether all those which go under the name of Divers Readings do truly deserve that Title For I conceive that not every Translation of the Bible in whole or in part by whomsoever and from whencesoever as suppose by some very uncertain or justly suspected Author or not from the Originals but from some Versions of them no nor that every Copy of the Bible in the Original Languages found any where or whether of convenient Antiquity or not are sitting to Minister matter for various Readings of the Sacred Text i. e. are such as merit to be considered by Learned Men and may put them to the stand sometimes which is the truest Certainly none if any Translations at all but such as are immediately from the Originals have been perform'd by Authors of repute or if their Persons are not known who give in the work no jealousie of their Integrity none but Copies of sufficient Antiquity are considerable for such a purpose And if such a course and some other cations were us'd it may be a great part of the Army of almost innumerable variae Lectiones would be disbanded 2ly But let them stand as they are mustred by some they are not so formidable as to (a) Nay so many variae lectiones in the New Testament alone observed by one man my Lord Usher that he durst not print them for fear of bringing the whole Book into doubt Sure Footing Ibid. bring the whole Book into doubt and doubtless the excellent Lord Primate (b) Supposing he said so as the Author of Sâ—re Footing reports Vsher was more Good and Learned than to think so tho' perhaps he might judge the Printing of them to be less convenient not as if they were rationally conclusive of any thing really disadvantageous to Scripture but lest the Atheistical or the weak might take an occasion from them to disparage the Scripture which care to avoid the ministring occasion of scandal to others in Religious matters has ever been the wariness of the good and prudent But as for these divers Readings (c) Dr. Br. Walton late Lord B. of Ch. in Proleg 7. ad Biblia Polyglort Qui etiam citat in eundem sensum Lud. Capellum in Proleg 6. some of the most curious Collecters of them have not discern'd any alteration made by them in the Scripture which may wrong Faith or Manners (a) In quâ tamen tam longâ latâ a textu criginario discessione divinam tecum providentiam agnoscimus suspicimus quòd nulla extiterit tam damnosa inter utrosque textus differentia ut rectam fidem quae ad salutem est necessaria labefactaret aut laederet Jacobi Vsserii Armach ad Ludov. Cappellum Epist And the Reverend Arch-Bishop Vsher before named confesses and venerates
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
Deòrum cultu adversus Christianos Every People have their custome each their Rites Now if long time can give authority to Religions belief is to be given to so many ages and we ought to follow our Fathers who have happily follow'd Theirs Unto which the Christian Poet Prudentius replyes to this Sense If there be such a studiousness and care of Antique Custome and it pleases not to depart from old Rites There is extant in antient Books He means the Scriptures a Noble Instance that even in the time of the Deluge or before the Family or People who first inhabited the new Earth and dwelt in the empty World serv'd but one God whence our continued Race derives its pedigree and reforms the Laws of the Piety of the Native Country Si tantum sludium est cura vetusti Moris a prisco placet haud descedere ritu Extat in antiquis exemplum Nobile libris Jam tunc diluvii sub temporae vel priùs Vni Insâ—rvisse Deo gentem quae prima recentes Incoluit terras vacuoque habitavit in Orbe Vnde genus ducit nostrae porrecta propago Stirpis indigenae pietatis jura reformatis Aurel Prudentius contra Symmachum Lib. 2. SECT III. The State of Religion being so craz'd the world being so corrupt in Opinion and Practice God vouchsafed to reveal Himself to Abraham and the other Patriarchs and at the last singled out the posterity of Abraham for his peculiar People Ps 78.5.6.7 8. Deut. 6.6 17. and established a Testimony in Jacob appointed a Law in Israel which he commanded the Fathers that they should make them known to their Children That the Generation to come might know them even the Children which should be born who should arise and declare them to their Children that they might set c. Among these Laws God commanded the owning and Worship of himself exclusively of all pretended Deities whatsoever He prescribed in the greatest accuracy the Substance and very punctilio's of his worship And to fence these sacred Injunctions the better to preserve them from violation at the first delivery of them God strook an holy dread into the People by Thundrings and Lightnings and a thick Cloud so that all in the Camp trembled Exod. 19.16 nay so terrible was the sight that Moses himself said I exceedingly fear and quake Heb. 12.21 And to make all the more sure there was superadded an explicite and formal Covenant between God and the people solemniz'd with the sprinkling of Blood part of it on the Altar Exod. 24.3 4.5 and part on the People and all the People answered with one Voice and said All the words which the Lord hath said will we doe What a large and exact Provision was here made for the safe descending of what God had committed to the People unto all Generations and for the making them trusty Traditioners yet how strangely were they ever and anon declining from the purity of what had been delivered to them Fathers and Children prophaning the Divine Worship and dishonouring God by the mixtures of Heathenish Rites and Idolatrous Abominations In the Chain of Tradition the first Link broke That very People who had so lately trembled at Mount Sinai yet tho' still so near that Mount danced before a Golden Calf saying These be thy Gods Exod. 32.4 O Israel which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt If this fall out so early how much more likely was it that the conveyance of Religion in its purity to after Ages should fail And the event was answerable The Books of Judges Kings and Chronicles and of several of the Prophets so abound in examples of almost perpetual and general defections from the Ancient Faith and Practice that many quotations are needless two will be enough 1. In the Reign of Ahab Elijah mourn'd to God that he only was left of the true Worshippers in Israel at the least of the true Prophets 1 Kings 19.10.18 and that even his life was in danger And tho' the All-seeing God comforted him by the account of seven thousand who had not bow'd the knee to Baal Yet as it seems this was to Elijah an invisible Church so what were these seven thousand to the multitudes of the rest of Israel 2ly In Judah so great and criminous was the Falling off from what God had antiently ordain'd that good Josiah rent his Clothes when he heard the words of the Books of the Law read 2 Kings 22.11 and compar'd former and present Practice with what was there commanded Such were the Apostasies of the Jewish Church from Primitive Doctrine and instituted Worship and for a long time and without any relief and restitution from Oral Tradition the intervening Reformation in Josiah's Reign was ow'd to the Holy Scriptures 2 Kings 23.2 3. Till God reveng'd those miscarriages sharply but very righteously first upon the ten Tribes and afterwards upon the remaining two The two Tribes after seventy years Correction return'd home re-built their City and Temple But in time they split into several Sects which were so many degeneracies from the first Purity of their Religion Our Blessed Lord reprov'd them for their corrupt Traditions as being a vain Worship Math. 15.3.9 and Evacuations of the Commandments of God The Jews have amongst them an Oral Tradition expository of the Law Written and given as is said by them by God to Moses intrusted by Moses with Joshua and the seventy Elders and by them transmitted down from one Generation to another This that People have in (a) Video Hebraeos omnes Legem quae per os tradita est tanti facere ut eam non modò aequent Legi Scriptae sed longe anteferant tanquam animam corpori quò sine eâ impossibile sit ut ipsis videtur Legem Scriptam intelligere aut observare adeoque sine eâ Lex tota non sit nisi corpus â—ine Spiritu c. Episcopii Instit Theol. L. 3. C. 4. very high estimation preferring it to the very Scriptures and honouring it with room in their Creed of which one Article is (a) Leo Modena History of the present Jews c. Translated by Mr. Chilmead p. 248. I believe that the Law which was given by Moses was wholly dictated by God and that Moses put not in one Syllable of himself And so likewise that that which we have by Tradition by way of Explication of the Precepts of the other hath all of it proceeded from the Mouth of God delivering it to Moses Yet Learned Men judge this fardle of Traditions to be a very (b) Episcop Ibid. Cap. 6. per toâ— Figment and that in some Age or other Ancestors have impos'd on the Credulity of their Posterity that Tradition has recommended to them That as deriving from God which never had so sacred and infallible an Author After the foregoing Observation of the Church and how little agreeingly with it's first Model Tradition preserv'd it for two
me morable and large Periods of Time I proceed to the Christian Church SECT IV. Being come to the Christian Church let us first take some account of the more early Ages of it As soon as the good Seed was sown the Enemy came and sow'd Tares among the Wheat Tradition was not so viligant but that many corrupt Doctrines and Practices quickly arose and spread in the Church Else St. August might have spar'd his Book of Heresies or the Catalogue would have been shorter But I shall insist on two or three Opinions only which have been antiently countenanced by great Names and have been of considerable continuance in the Church and are now generally rejected by the Church of Rome as well as by others 1. That after the Resurrection Jerusalem should be new built adorn'd and enlarg'd and that Believers in Christ should Reign with him there a thousand years was very early believed Papias the Scholar of St. John Irenaeus Apollinarius Tertullian Victorinus Lactantius Severus and a great multitude of Catholick Persons were of this Judgment St. Hierome tho' he did not hold yet neither would he condemn this Opinion because many Ecclesiastical Persons and Martyrs had own'd it And St. Augustine thought the Tenent tolerable if abstracted from any carnality of Pleasures and confesses that he himself once held it We have all this in (a) Bibl. Stae Lib. 5. Annot. 233. Lib. 6. Annot. 347. Sixtus Senensis But (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Contra Tryphonem p. 307. Justine Martyr Elder than either St. Hierome or St. Augustine speaks of the Millenarian Doctrine as that which was embrac'd by all thorough Orthodox Christians of his time which affirmation whatsoever is oppos'd out of him elsewhere to the diminution of it must mean that at the least a very great number of Christians were thus Opinion'd And though the Judgment of more sober Christians was more clean and inoffensive concerning the Millenarian Reign yet the apprehensions of many were more gross and sensual as were those of the Cerinthians as (a) Cerinthiani mille quoque annos post resurrectionem in terreno regno Christi secundum carnales ventris lihidinâ—s voluptates futuros fabulantur unde etiam Chiliastae sunt appellati De Haeres Cap. 8. St. Augustine tell us and that they were call'd Chiliasts According to (b) In Johan cap. 6. Maldonate St. Augustine's and Innocent's the first Opinion of the necessity of the Eucharist to Infants prevail'd in the Church about six hundred years This practice of Communicating of Infants is acknowledged by (c) Ut enim sanctissimi illi patres sui facti probabilem causam pro illius temporis ratione habâ—erunt ita certè ecs nullâ salutis necessitate id fecisse sine controversiâ credendum est Trid. Conc. Sess 5. Can. 4. Caranz Summa Concil the Council of Trent But they deny that the Practisers of it had any Opinion of its necessity but us'd it upon some probable Motive only And so they (d) Siquis dixerit parvulis antequam ad annos discretionis pervenerint necessariam esse Eucharistiae Communionem Anathema sit Sess 5. Can. 4. De Communione sub utraque specie parvulorum Caran Anathematize them only who shall affirm that the Eucharist is necessary to Children before they come to years of discretion Thus the Trent-Fathers But if Tradition Antient and even Apostolical and also Holy Scriptures can make a Practice necessary then particularly St. Augustine judg'd the Communicating of Infants to be necessary For he (a) Vnde nisi ex antiquâ ut existimo Apostolicâ Traditione Ecclesiae Christi insitum tenent praeter Baptismum participationem Dominicae Mensae non solum ad regnum Dei sed nec ad salutem vitam aeternam posse quenquam hominum pervenire And presently after two or three Quotations out of Scripture he adds Si ergo ut tot tanta divina testimonia concinunt nec salus nec vita aeterna sine Baptismo corpore sanguine Domini cuiquam spectanda est frustra sine his promittitur parvulâ—s Porro si a salute aâ— vitâ aeterna hominem nisi peccata non separant per haec Sacramenta non nisi peccati reatus in parvulis solvitur S. August De peccati merit remiss Contr. Pelag. L. 1. discours'd for it both from Tradition and Scriptures For when he had asserted upon the strength of both those Topiques that without Baptism and partaking of the Lord's Table none can be saved he concludes that therefore without these Salvation is in vain promis'd to Children Without these i. e. Baptism and the Eucharist also So that tho' the Sanctissimi Patres have good words given them yet the holy Augustine and the rest who were of his mind must fall under the Trent-Anathema And considering the clearness of the passage in St. Augustine it is strange it should be said There is an Objection That S. Austine and Innocentius with their Councils held that the Communion of Children was necessary for Salvation and their words seem to be apparent But who looks into other passages of the same Authors will find that their words are Metaphorical and that their meaning is that the Effects of Sacramental Communion to wit an Incorporation into Christ's Body which is done by Baptism is of necessity for Childrens Salvation Rushworth Dial. 3d. Sect. 13. What passages they are which do thus interpret those Authors meaning we are not told But 1. It is strange that if St. Aug. and Innoc. intended Baptism only and by that an Incorporation into Christ's Mystical Body to be necessary to Children for their Salvation They should at all mention the Communion of Christ's Body and Blood and the partaking of the Lord's Table to be necessary to Children for that purpose what needed such a disert and repeated conjunction of Baptism and of the Eucharist in expressing that necessity if there was no necessity of the Communion but of Baptism only What reason for it except they should be thought to have a mind to darken their Sense with Words Nay if they meant one of the Sacraments only to be necessary to Childrens Salvation tho' they explicitly mention both why may it not be said that they intended the Communion only and not Baptism to be necessary for that end seeing they are in words as express for the Communion as for Baptism 2ly As for St. Augustine his word in the Margent will not without extremity of injury admit of such a Construction as the Author above-named would in his commenting way obtrude upon them For certainly when he says That without Babtism and partaking of the Lord's Table and of the Body and Blood of the Lord no man can be saved he meant properly and without a figure why therefore when he adds in way of Inference si ergo if therefore both these Sacraments Baptism and the Body and Blood of the Lord be necessary to Salvation
and this by virtue of the hopes of an Heaven and fears of an Hell For how strongly soever these might be applied to the minds of the first Believers yet that so strong and effectual an Application of them was made by all Fathers to all their Children through all after Ages so that the (a) Ibid. Cause should be always actually causing is uncertain nay very improbable for the Reasons before given 3ly If a less number may be a sufficient party to make a Tradition then meerly the comparative fewness of (b) Catal. Testium veritatis Aâ—rian Râ—gen in Histor Eccles Sâ—avonic Dr. Field in the Appendix to the 3d. Book of the Church those who through several former ages held some fewer some more of the Points in which we Protestants differ from the Romanists and that thy mov'd Eccentricks to the generality of Christians of their times is no rational Objection against them and their Tenents as if they were not truly Primitive nor in a parity of Reason did it justifie the Romanists Tenents that they had got so large a Possession of the Western World nor consequently did our Fathers deserve to be call'd Deserters of Tradition because they departed from some Tenents and Practices of the Roman Church which had stolen the general Vogue in some former blind Ages For 't is not affirm'd that the greatest number of Christians but only a great Part and a Body of them would be trusty Traditioners A great Party absolutely considered may be but little comparatively and the Minimum quod sic in the case we are not told Therefore the general Prevalency of certain Romish Tenents at and before the Secession did not conclude them to be therefore justified by Tradition properly so called nor did the bare comparative Paucity suffice to condemn them of Innovation who made the Secession SECT III. 3ly To assure Oral Tradition's infallibility it is press'd that there is an (a) Sure Footing p. 236 237. Author of Sure Footing Ibid. Obligation on Posterity to believe their Ancestors in a matter of Fact or a matter delivered to have been not thought or deem'd but done And 't is confidently added I make account there is not a Man in the World or ever was such is the goodness of rational Nature given us by God who in his natural thoughts could ever raise such a doubt or think he could possibly frame his thoughts to a belief of the contrary And it appears at first sight to be a strange distortion or rather destruction of humane Nature which can so alter it The Instances given in which Posterity is obliged to believe Ancestors are (a) Ibid. p. 217. Alexander's conquering Asia (b) Ibid. p. 236 237. William the Conqueror's Harry the Eights and Mahomet's Existence (c) Ibid. p. 219. 220 221. The proof of the Obligation on Posterity not to believe contrary to Forefathers from Age to Age is thus proceeded in viz. The second Age after the first was obliged to believe the first Age because they saw with their Eyes what was done The third Age was obliged to believe the second tho' they saw it not because the second Age could not be deceived in what the first Age told them and they must be conceived so honest and withal such to be the disinteressedness of the position that they would not conspire to deceive the third Age and so those of the third Age have the first Ages Authority applied to them And by virtue of this same Argument the same effect will be upon the fourth fifth and five hundreth Age. This is the full substance to the best of my understanding of the Author's Argumentation Ans In reply to this If the matter of Fact be but some general thing such as the Author himself has given Example of there may be the more of Truth in this Procedure but then there 's little in it it comes not home enough to our business But if the things done or spoken at or about the same time were divers or if the thing tho' one were wrap'd in several circumstances then the first Eye or Ear-Witnesses might for want of a more close and steady attention mistake or forget some partitulars and so might misreport and therefore might justly be disbelieved or the second Witnesses from the first though suppose things were truly and punctually reported to them by the first yet might misunderstand or forget something if not much of what was related to them or if there should be no misinformation by the second Witnesses yet the third might misapprehend or not well remember what the second told them The same may be said of the Witnesses in the fourth remove or age with regard to the third and of those in the fifth with respect to these in the fourth and so unto the five hundredth till after a discent through so many hazards and chances what was done or spoken at the first be at length wholy altered or become very unlike to its Primitive self Seeing then there may be such failures in successive Testifyings how can a Man be bound to believe conformably to Forefathers especially when as perhaps he is distant hundreds of Successions from the speaking or doing the thing testified of I may confirm the uncertainty of successive Testifyings through Ages by a passage of an Adversary (a) Rushworth Dial 2. Sect. 7. He putting the Question whether the very rehearsing and citing anothers words do not breed uncertainty and variety resolves it in the affirmative 'T is true he aimes at the invalidating Scriptures certainty in conveying to after-Ages the mind of the Authors but what he writes is adaptable to words spoken as well as written For answerably to what he discourses (b) Let us suppose the writer himself play the Translator as for Example that our Saviour himself having spoken in Hebrew or Syriak the holy writer is to express his words in Greek or Latin And farther that this which we have said of Translations be as truly it is grounded in the very nature of divers Languages therefore unavoidable by any Art or Industry will it not clearly follow that even in the Original Copy written by the Evanlists own hand there is not in rigor the true and self-significant words of our Saviour but rather a Comment or Paraphrase explicating and delivering the Sense thereof Nay let him have written in the same Language and let him have set down every word and syllable yet men conversant in noting the changes of meaning in words will tell you that divors accents in the pronunciation of them the turning of the Speakers Head and Body this way or that way the allusion to some Person or to some precedent discourse or the like may so change the Sense of the words that they will seem quite different in writing from what they wree in speaking Rushworth Ibid. And the Title of the next the 8th par is The uncertainty of Equivocation which of necessity is incident
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
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.
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
to testifying Fathers but that there would be more Alumbrados and the like Freaks might be acted among our Adversaries which tore our Church But withal I think it seasonable to let my Reader know that those Men so call'd i. e. Alumbâ—ados in Spain were no other in most of their Tenents and Practises than these our Quakers are now in England â— câ—nfess I am very destitute of Books at this time to â—â—ve the Readeâ— so gâ—od an account of this bâ—â—ness as I could wâ—sh All I can say of thâ— at nâ—w is out of some Fâ—â—â—â—ch Books where I find a lâ—rge â—â—dict against them containing their several Tenents and â—â—rers whereâ—f c. 〈◊〉 â—lumbradoâ— of Sâ—ain 〈…〉 to be known and talk'd 〈◊〉 the year of our Lord 162â— Dr. Meric Caâ—aâ—bon Tâ—â—â—tise of Euthusiasme p. 17â— 174 175. and speaking in general Christians are too apt to fail in holy prudence meekness charity and such pacifique virtues thence arise too many breaches among them and a want of these virtues is incident to our Adversaries as well as to Protestants for they are Sons of Adam too only they are wiser in their Generation To conclude the Reply to the two last little Objections and the whole Treatise Eternal Blessedness is our end the means to attain to that great end are right Believing and holy Living That which gives the Regulation to Christian Belief and Life is the revealed will of God But because the Divine Revelations were delivered at the distance of many Ages from us therefore there is need of somthing which may conduct them safe and entire to us and that which is the safest and most certain Conveyance of them to us is that fixed Standard or Rule whence we are to take the measures of our Christian Faith and Practices Such a Conveyance and consequently such a Standard or Rule I have prov'd not Oral Tradition but Holy Scripture to be This being first establish'd there may then then be consider'd the Perspicuity of this Rule which is Scripture and the Agreement or Vnity of those who adhere to it Here 1. We may be sure that this Rule is very sufficiently intelligible and clear in all things necessary for our direction to our Blessedness But then it must be left to Gods Pleasure what difficulties and dubiousness he would mix with that sufficient plainness and we ought to be thankful for what is plain in it and not quarrel at the obscurities 2ly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arâ—â—t Eth. â— 1 C. 8. We may be certain that this Rule and Conveyance of Divine Truths to us there being so much Harmony in Truth must be very apt it must be its most genuine effect to harmonize Christian 's Judgments and Affections and to beget a peaceableness of mutual Conversation yet too it must be judg'd very possible or rather more that the folly and corruptions of Men may too much frustrate this its most natural issue So that now to conclude a thing this great Standard and Rule of Faith and Manners because it pretends to be the most plain and also to make meer Vnity a Demonstration of the Truth would be a crude way of Discourse For first a wrong way may be smooth and easy enough perhaps more plain than that which leads a Man to his Home Next not Truth only but likewise Interest may hold Men very fast together and the Conscience of its own guilt and feebleness may prompt to Error to strengthen it self by the closest Confederacies FINIS Some Books Printed for and Sold by Robert Clavel at the Sign of the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-yard THe Annals of King James and King Charles the First The Compleat Conformist Or seasonable Advice concerning strict Conformity and frequent Celebration of the Holy Communion In a Sermon Preached Jan. 7. Being the first Sunday after the Epiphany in the year 1682. At the Cathedral and in a Letter written to the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Durham By Denis Grenville D. D. Arch-Deacon and Prebendary of Durham London Printed for Robert Clavel and are to be Sold by Hugh Hutchenson in Durham A Sermon Preached at Windsor before His Majesty the Second Sunday after Easter 1684. By John Arch-Bishop of Tuam Published by His Majesties special Command Both sold by Robert Clavel at the sign of the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-yard 1684. 3. King James not so much influenced by Gondamore as is related by Mr. Rushworth 4. The Three Estates in Parliament who they were in King James 's Speech in Parliament 1620. 5. An Authentick and Impartial Account of the beginning of the Troubles in Scotland and the Wars which ensued 6 The True State of our late Civil Wars their Beginnings Causes who the Aggressors c. The rest are too large to take notice here but may be seen in the Preface Varenius's Geography in Folio English Illustrated with many Copper Cuts Dr. Willis 's Works in Folio English The History of the Irish Rebellion traced from many precedings Acts to the grand Eruption the 23d of Octobers 1641. and thence pursued to the Act of Settlement 1662. Tracts Written by John Selden of the Inner-Temple Esq and Translated by the Eminent Dr. A. L. The 1st Jani Anglorum facies altera with large Notes thereupon 2ly Englands Epinomis 3ly Of the Original of Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions of Testaments The 4th of the Disposition or Administration of intestate Goods Mr. Scrivener 's Body of Divinity Dr. Cumber on the Liturgy in Folio Mr. Sam 's Britannia Ogleby's History of Africa Asia and America Bishop of St. Davids 's Vindication of the Bishops Rights to Vote in Capital Cases his seasonable Corrective The Compleat Catalogue to the end of Easter Term 1684. Newly Published Short Discourses upon the whole Common-Prayer designed to inform the Judgment and excite the Devotion of such as dayly use the same by Tho. Comber D. D. The Laver of Regeneration and the Cup of Salvation Two plain and profitable Discourses upon the two Sacraments The 1. laying open the Nature of Baptism and earnestly pressing the serious Consideration and Religious Observation of the Sacred Vow made by all Christians in their Baptism The other pressing as earnestly the frequent renewing of our Baptismal Vow at the Lords Holy Table Demonstrating the indispensible necessity of receiving and the great sin and danger of neglecting the Lords Supper with Answers to the chief Pretences whereby the Absenters would excuse themselves The General Catalogue of Books Printed in England since the Dreadfull Fire of 1666 to the end of Trinity Term 1684. To which are added a Catalogue of Latin Books Printed in Foreign Parts and in England since the year 1670. Printed for Rob. Clavel at the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-yard ERRATA PAg. 4. l. 1. r. is or involves in it Testimony l. ult for witnessed to r. tradition'd p. 5. l. 16. for the Application r. this Application p. 8. l. 7. for the use r. this use p. 9. l. 1. r. where there is p. 19. l. ult for blinded r. blended p. 35. in marg l. 21. for taxata r. laxata p. 40. l. 10. for part r. paragraph p. 49. l. 9. and 11. r. Methuselah l. 12. del very near p. 50. l. 23. for though r. through p. 53 p. 65. in marg l. ult del p. p. 67. l. 4. for Authors r. Others l. 7. after this way add or at least uncertainty which way p 94. in marg l. 12. 13. r. Cap. 10. Quaest 15. P. r. p. 96. in marg l. 5. for 82. r. 43. p. 105. l. 26. r. Christians are to yield p. 106. for or also r. else p. 107 l. 3. for Traditions r. Tradition p. 149. in marg l. 6 after p. 108. add Of this Cressy also may be seen During those worst times thereof i. e. the Church when ignorance worldliness pride tyranny c. reigned with so much scope I mean during the time of about six Ages before Luther Exom Cap. 68. p. 151. l. 2. del above l. 4. r. Pamphilius p. 154. l. 15. for all Protestants do declare r. I have the leave of all Protestants to declare p. 157. l. 15 for Writings about r. Writings above p. 162. l. 10. r. the holy Scriptures l. 24. r. Or 2ly p. 168. in marg l. 9. r. His igitur p. 172. in marg l. ult del Evangel nigrum Atram Thool p. 178. l. 5. del would r. owns p. 179. l. 19. for p. 29 r. 39. p. 211. l. 2. after semi-colon r. what was committed to them they did carefully preserve p. 218. l. 15. for their r. those p. 224 l. 20. r. they have only p. 225. l. 3. for their r. this p. 229. l. 3. r. is no farther