Euseb H. Eccl. l. 3. c. 10. We have only Twenty two Books which deserve belief among us and then he reckons them up as doth our Article adding that the Books written from the time of Artaxerxes to their days were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not so worthy to be credited From Christ and his Apostles Luk. xxiv 27. for the Gospel of St. Luke informs us That Christ beginning from Moses expounded to two of his Disciples in all the Scriptures the things concerning him and also that all things concerning him were written in the Law of Moses vers 44. and in the Prophets and in the Psalms that is in those Books which by the Jews are stiled Hagiographa The Apostles in their Epistles teach 2 Tim. iij. 15. That all Scripture is of Divine Inspiration and that Timothy from a Child had known them and yet he doubtless only knew the Canon then received by the Jews 2 Pet. i. 21. they add That the whole Scripture was a word of Prophecy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apud Euseb l. 3. c. 10. Genebrard Chron. ad An. 3640. Jansen ad cap. 48. Ecclus the Prophecy of Men moved by the Holy Ghost Now Josephus doth inform us That after the Days of Artaxerxes the Jews had no certain Succession of Prophets and it is confessed by many Romanists That from Malachy to John they had no Prophets In the Second Century Onesimus requesteth of Melito § 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Eccl. Hist l. 4. cap. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. Bishop of Sardis a perfect Catalogue of the Books of the Old Testament whereupon this Bishop being to take a Journey into the East went to the place where those things were done and preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. ibid. and learning thence the exact number of them he sent their Names to Onesimus numbring them just as our Sixth Article doth And of this Catalogue Eusebius saith That it contained all the Books of the Old Testament which the Church owned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. and that he thought it necessary to preserve this Catalogue of them in writing to Posterity Here then we find upon the first enquiry after the Death of the Apostles a Catalogue exactly formed from the East and from Jerusalem agreeing with the Judgment of the whole Church of God and as exactly with the judgment of the Church of England In the Third Century Origen informs us § 4 That we must not be ignorant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Psal 1. Ed. Huet T. 1. p. 40 41. that the Canonical Books of the Old Testament are Twenty two according to the number of the Jewish Letters and then he reckons them exactly as we do adding That as these Letters are an Introduction to knowledge and divine Wisdom so these Twenty two Books are an Introduction to the Wisdom of God this saith he is the Tradition of the Jews The Tradition of the Church in the Fourth Century unanimously concurrs with the Article of the Church of England in all the Catalogues then given of the Books of the Old Testament § 5 Eusebius of Caesarea the Metropolis of Palestine who not only hath preserved the Catalogues of Melito and Origen but also doth approve them and saith They were the Books of the Old Testament received by the consent of all and of which he thought necessary to preserve the Catalogue in writing to posterity L. 4. c. 6. elsewhere saith That he is not able exactly to reckon the Governors of the Tribe of Judah that ruled the Jewish Nation after Zorobabel Demonst Evang l. 8. c. 2. p. 368. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because that from his time to that of our Saviour's there was no divine Book written Athanasius in his Festival Epistle gives the same Catalogue which we receive and having finished it he saith Ad Ruffinum Tom. 2. p. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In these are comprehended the Books of the Old Testament The same Archbishop of Alexandria in his Book stiled a Synopsis of the Holy Scriptures tells us the number of the Books of the Old Testament are Twenty two Ibid. p. 58. and he there reckons them up according to our Article St. Cyril Bishop of Jerusalem speaks to his Catechumen thus Know thou studiously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Church the Books of the Old Testament read the divine Scriptures the Twenty two Books of the Old Testament interpreted by the Seventy Interpreters Catech. 4. cap. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 36 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by all confessed to be divine Meditate upon these Twenty two Books of the Old Testament and be careful to remember them as I name them and then he reckons them up exactly as we do Epiphanius Bishop of Salamine in the Island of Cyprus in his Book of Weights and Measures Tom. 2. p. 161 162. doth in like manner inform us That the number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Canonical Books of the Old Testament is Twenty two and then he reckons them up as our Article doth St. Cap. 3. Basil Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia in his Philocalia puts this Question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Why are the divine Books Twenty two and answers it as Origen had done before him Gregory Nazianzen in his Treatise upon this very subject of the true genuine Books of Scripture Concil Oxon. Tom. 2. part 1. p. 179. declares That the Historical Books of the Old Testament are Twelve and the Metrical are Five and the Prophetical Five and then he names them all according to our Article Amphilochius in his Canonical Epistle to Selcucus gives us the same account of them Apud Balsamon p. 1083. with this only difference that the Book of Esther is said to be not so generally received for Canonical as the rest St. Jerom in several places of his works is so clearly for us that our Article is founded on his Judgment who often tells us That the Canonical Books of the Old Testament are Twenty two or if you will reckon Ruth and the Lamentations as distinct Books Tom. 3. f. 6. a. Ibid. f. 3. a. T. 1. f. 41. a. Apud Hieron Tom. 4. f. 51. they are Four and twenty In his Preface to the Book of Kings in his Epistle to Paulinus to Laeta and in divers places of his other works he is expresly of the same Judgment Ruffinus having numbered the Books of the Old Testament as we do adds That in these Books the Fathers did comprize tha◠number of the Books of the Old Testament St. Hilary saith Prolog Expla in Psalmos That the number of the Books of the Old Testament are Twenty two according to the number of the Hebrew Letters and having reckoned them up as we do saith These compleat the number of the Twenty two Books The Council of Laodicea Decrees Can. 59. That only the Canonical Books shall be read
de Sancto Victore excerpt l. 2. c. 9. That all the Books of the Old Testament are Twenty-two and that there are besides other Books as the Wisdom of Solomon the Book of Jesus the Son of Syrach Judith Tobias and the Books of Mâ—câ—abees sed non scribuntur in Canone but they are not written in the Canon and this he very frequently repeats Richardus de Sancto Victore saith in like manner That the Books of the Old Testament are Twenty-two alii non habentur in Canone others are not put into the Canon though they are read by us as are the Writings of the Fathers and these Books are Wisdom Ecclesiasticus Tobit Judith and the Maccabees John Beleth having reckoned up the Books of the Old Testament and told us they were Twenty-two he after saith expresly De div Officiis c. 60 62. That Tobit the Maccabees Philo and the Son of Syrach were Apocrypha and that hos quatuor quidem non recipit Ecclesia the Church receiveth not these four John of Salisbury in Answer to the Question put to him Ep. 172. Edit Paris 1611. p. 279. Quem credam numerum esse librorum V. N. Testamenti What he believed to be the number of the Books of the Old and the New Testament P. 281. saith That following Catholicae Ecclesiae Doctorem Hieronymum St. Jerom as the most approved Doctor of the Catholick Church in this matter he undoubtedly believed them to be Twenty-two And then of the Books of Wisdom Ecclesiasticus Judith Tobias and the Maccabees he saith Non reputantur in Canone They are not reckoned in the Canon and having added to this account the number of the Books of the New Testament he concludes of them both thus Et hunc quidem numerum esse librorum qui in S. Scripturarum Canonem admittuntur celebris apud Ecclesiam P. 282. indubitata traditio est And that this is the number of the Books which are admitted into the Canon of the Holy Scriptures is what the celebrated and undoubted Tradition of the Church declares The Ordinary Gloss received in this Cent. 13. De libris Bibliae Canonicis non Canonicis and in the following Ages with the general Approbation of the Schools and all the Doctors of the Western Church declareth 1. That the Canonical Books of the Old Testament are only Twenty-two and having reckoned them up in this order viz. Five Books of Moses Eight of the Prophets and Nine Hagiographa he adds That quicquid extra hos est ut dicit Hieronymus inter Apocrypha est ponendum What Books soever there be besides relating to the Old Testament they ought according to St. Jerom to be put among the Apocrypha particularly before the Books of Tobit Judith Wisdom Ecclesiasticus and the Maccabees he saith Here begins a Book qui non est in Canone or qui non est de Canone Ibid. which belongs not to the Canon And again Isti sunt libri qui non sunt in Canone These are the Books which are not in the Canon and which the Church admits as good and useful but not as Canonical He also giveth his Advertisement Ibid. That the Chapters added to Esther and to Daniel are not in the Canon so that in all things he perfectly accordeth with the Church of England 2. As for those Books which are not Canonical he informs us That Ecclesia eos legit permittit the Church reads and permits them to be read by the Faithful for Devotion and Information of Manners but she doth not think their Authority sufficient to prove what is doubtful or matter of dispute or to confirm Ecclesiastical Doctrines And this 3. because there is as much difference betwixt Books Canonical and not Canonical as betwixt what is certain and what is dubious betwixt Books written by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost and Books indited they knew not when or by whom And 4. He professes to have made this distinction and exact numeration of the Books which did and which did not belong unto the Canon because there were many who because they did not spend much time in studying the Scriptures existimabant omnes libros qui in Biblia continentur pari veneratione esse reverendos thought with the Trent Council all the Books contained in the Bible were to be received with a like Veneration not knowing how to distinguish betwixt Books Canonical and not Canonical In the Fourteenth Century Brito a Friar Minorite put forth his Exposition of the Prologues of St. Jerom upon the Bible which were usually joined to the Ordinary Gloss and are still extant in the Works of Nicholas Lyra and in his Exposition of the Prologue upon Joshua he informs us That according to the Hebrews the Books of the Old Testament are divided into the Law the Prophets and the Hagiographa the Law containing Five Books the Prophets Eight and the Hagiographa Nine that the Books of Judith the Maccabees of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus the Third and Fourth of Esdras and the Book of Tobit Apocryphi dicuntur Quia vero de veritate istorum librorum non dubitatur ab Ecclesia recipiuntur are called Apoorvphal because the Authors of them are not known though they are received of the Church as not doubting the truth of them In his Exposition on the Prologue upon Kings he tells us That the Prologue of St. Jerom was useful ut sciamus librorum Canonis Apocryphorum distinctionem that we might by it know the distinction betwixt the Canonical and Apocryphal Books and that it defends the Holy Scripture against them who introduce the Apocryphal Books for Hagiographa or sacred Writings And in his Exposition upon his Prologue before Daniel he saith Continet liber iste Apocrypham partem Historiam Susannae Hymnum puerorum Belis Draconisque fabulas This Book containeth something Apocryphal viz. The History of Susanna the Song of the Three Children and the Fables of Bell and the Dragon Now this being a work of so great Credit as to be joined to the Gloss and commonly received as Lyra saith must give us the prevailing Judgment of that Age. Nicholas Lyra in his Preface upon Tobit saith That by the favour of God he having writ super libros S. Scripturae Canonicos on the Canonical Books of Scripture from Genesis to the Revelations intended by the same Grace of God super alios scribere qui non sunt Canonici to write upon others which were not Canonical and which are only received in the Church for Instruction of Manners not being by her thought sufficient to confirm doubtful Matters Now these saith he according to St. Jerom in his Prologue on the Kings are Wisdom Ecclesiasticus Judith Tobias and the Maccabees Baruch and the Second of Esdras as he saith in his Prologues to those Books In the beginning of his Notes upon Esra he renews all this saying That he intended though Commenting upon the Historical Books of the Old
Holy Spirit dwelling in their Hearts They also add that this written Law was given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Constit Apost ibid. p. 349. to supply the defects of the Law of â—â—ature by that God who would not suffer them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be seduced clearly insinuating that Tradition without this written Law was not sufficient to supply the defects of that of Nature or to preserve them from Error As will be farther evident if we consider That both the Antediluvians and they who lived after the Flood and before the Writing of the Law of Moses had generally corrupted their ways and deviated from that Tradition which they undoubtedly received from Adam and from Noah touching the Worship of the true and only God. For even whilst Adam was alive In Gen. 4.26 and had not passed half his days Men began saith the Chaldee Paraphrast to prophane the Name of the Lord Ainsw in Gen. 4. v. 26. by ceasing to pray to him The Hebrew Doctors tell us That in the Days of Enosh the Sons of Adam erred with great Error and the Counsel of the Wise Men of that Age became Brutish and their Error was this They said forasmuch as God hath Created these Stars and Spheres to govern the World and set them on high and imparted honour to them and they are Ministers that Minister before him it is meet that Men should Laud and Glorifie and give them Honour for this is the Will of God that we magnifie and honour whomsoever he magnifies and honoureth When this thing was come up into their Hearts they began to build Temples to Stars and to offer Sacrifice to them and to Laud and Glorifie them with Words and to Worship before them that they might in their evil Opinion obtain favour of the Creator and this was the Root of Idolatry Ibid. And hence in the ancient Commentaries of the Hebrews the Age of Enosh is represented as a wicked Age. In the time of Enoch and before the death of Adam wickedness had mightily prevailed even among the Sons of God or Members of the Church for Enoch is mentioned as the only Man who adhered perfectly to God and of him it is said Wisd 4.10 Vers 11 14. That he lived among Sinners and that God took him away from among the wicked least their evil Example should corrupt his Righteous Soul. After his Assumption we find that Men had generally declined to iniquity that all Flesh had corrupted their Ways Gen. 6.12 excepting Noah and his Family that they had forsaken God and given up themselves to Idolatry saying to God Job 22.17 Depart from us and what can the Almighty do for us About an Hundred Years after the Flood they set themselves with one Consent to build the Tower of Babel in opposition to God and in which say the Hebrews Ainsw ibid. they designed an Idol Temple Nahor and Tharah the Progenitors of Abraham were Idolaters Gen. 31.30 53. and after the Call of Abraham they continued so to be In the Family of Isaac Esau and his Wives were a bitterness of Spirit to Isaac and Rebecca because they served God with strange Service saith the Jerusalem Tergum that is with Idolatry In the Family of Jacob Gen. 31.22 Gen. 35.2 Rebecca steals her Fathers Images In his House were worshippers of strange Gods and Retainers of Idols When the Israelites lived in Aegypt they so complied with their Rites Praepar Evang. l. 7. c. 28. saith Eusebius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to forget the Piety of their Fore-fathers They learned in Aegypt Serm. 2. adv Graec. p. 492. saith Theodoret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to worship many Gods with them They committed Whoredom in Aegypt saith Ezekiel Ezek 23 2-19 they multiplied the Whoredoms they had committed in the Land of Aegypt Whence Joshua speaks thus unto them Josh 24.14 Put away the Gods which your Fathers served in Mesopotamia and in Aegypt Here then is Evidence sufficient First That the first Ages of the World were not abandoned only to the uncertainty of Tradition but were guided partly by the Light of Nature and partly by immediate Revelation Tradition being by Divine Wisdom judged a more imperfect Guide than the dim Light of Nature Secondly That when it pleased God to give his People Positive and ceremonial Laws he would by no means leave them to the uncertainty of Tradition but commanded that they should be written in a Book for a Memorial to and for a Testimony against them and should thence be read by and to them that they and the Generations to come might learn them And Thirdly That the Service of the one true God received by Tradition from Adam Enoch and others before the Flood from Noah Melchizedeck Abraham and the Patriarchs after the Flood was presently corrupted and utterly defaced by Idolatry to let us see how insufficient meer Tradition is since even in the Days and Lives of them who lived so long and who delivered this Fundamental Article of Worshipping the one true God unto their Off-spring they saw them running headlong to Idolatry and adding many corrupt Inventions and vain Imaginations of their own unto that Worship they had received by Tradition from them Secondly § 5 Object 2 Mr. M. adds That for above Two thousand Years more P. 415. P. 231. from Moses until Christ's time the Church was governed partly by Writing and partly by Tradition For the Jews had at least two undeniable Traditions For they knew only by Tradition what remedy was to be used to free their Female Children from Original Sin as also to free their Male Children in danger of Death before the Eighth Day This Remedy they knew and observed and were bound to know and observe and yet they infallibly knew it without having any Scripture expressing to them the knowledge of this Remedy or of their Obligation to use it or that it was so necessary for the Salvation of their Children whom they did believe to be in Original Sin and by that debarred from Salvation unless some Remedy were applyed Some Remedy surely was as necessary for the Female as Circumcision for the Male. Shew me this Remedy in Scripture 2. They truly believed some of those bloody Sacrifices to have been appointed to them by God for the expiation of their Sins but they could not believe truly that these Sacrifices could expiate their Sins by their own Virtue they believing then that these Sacrifices had their expiative Virtue from the Merits of Christ Shew me any Text in which this was then written 1. Reply That the Jewish Church until Christ's time was governed partly by Tradition or that Tradition was their partial Rule of Faith in reference to any necessary Doctrines or Rules of Manners will appear a vain Imagination if we consider that in the Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament they are still sent unto the written Word to learn their Duty
but never to Tradition the Prophets do exhort them for their direction to repair to the Law Esai 8.20.34.16 Mal. 4.4 and to the Testimonies to the Book of the Lord. To remember the Law of Moses which he commanded them in Horeb for all Israel with the Statutes and Judgments as their only certain Rule and Direction Now that the ordinary Succession of Prophets was to cease from the Days of Malachy to the Times of Christ whereas had Oral Tradition also been their Rule the Prophets must have had like reason to call upon them to remember that Moreover God only calls upon them by Moses To do all the Words of this Law which are written in this Book and promiseth his Favour and Acceptance of them upon that account saying If thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God Deut. 30.9 10. Vers 15. to keep his Commandments and Statutes which are written in this Book of the Law I will rejoice over thee for Good. See I have set before thee this day life and good and death and evil And David speaketh thus unto King Solomon 1 Kings 2.3 Keep the Charge of the Lord thy God to walk in his ways to keep his Statutes and his Commandments and his Judgments and his Testimonies as it is written in the Law of Moses that thou maist prosper in all that thou dost and whithersoever thou turnest thy self If then the Observation of what was written in the Law of Moses was sufficient to procure Life Favour Prosperity and Acceptance with God surely this written Law must be a perfect Rule and must sufficiently contain all that was needful to be believed or done unto those ends Hence is the King commanded to write him a Copy of this Law in a Book that he might learn to fear the Lord God Deut. 17.18 19. and to keep all the words of this Law and these Statutes to do them and to perform the words of the Covenant which are written in this Book 2 Chron. 34.31 is to keep God's Commandments his Testimonies and his Statutes with all the Soul and with all the Heart Whereas had Oral Tradition been any part of their Rule they must have been obliged equally to observe what was delivered by it and all God's Statutes and Commandments could not be written in this Book as it is so expresly and frequently declared that they were Our Saviour in like manner bids them Search the Scriptures Joh. 3.39 because they thought in them they had eternal Life in which apprehension had they been deceived as they must have been provided that there was another Law of Oral Tradition given to lead them unto Life eternal our Saviour doubtless would have informed them of this dangerous Error which yet he was so far from doing that when a Lawyer puts the Question to him What shall I do that I may inherit eternal Life Luk. 10.25 26. he Answers What is written in the Law how readest thou This do and thou shalt live Luk. 16.29 And sends the Jews to Moses and the Prophets that by hearing them they might avoid the coming to the Place of Torments but neither he nor his Disciples do ever send them to Tradition or speak one word in approbation of it which is sufficient Evidence that they knew nothing of this Rule of Mr. M. 2dly § 6 The Traditions concerning Doctrines generally believed and Practices needful to be performed among them after the Law was written by Moses and after God had given them a Charge upon the ceasing of the Succession of his Prophets to remember and stick close unto it I say the Traditions which obtained in the Jewish Church as far as we have any certain intimation of them were such as tended to the evacuating of the Law of Moses to the renouncing of the true Messiah and to the introduction of vain Worship and superstitious Observances whence it demonstratively appears that Oral Tradition was not then a certain Rule nor could the Jewish Nation be obliged by divine Precept to receive it as such To make this Evident consider 1. That our Saviour often sends the Jews to Scripture to Moses and the Prophets but never to Tradition 2. That he still represents the great Asserters of Tradition in the Jewish Nation Matth. 15.14.23.16 17 19. Mat. 15.10 11. to wit their Elders Scribes and Pharisees as blind Guides leading of the Blind as Fools and Blind confuteth their Traditions though generally received before all the People Mark 7. Mat. 12.7 Matth. 15.13 justifies his Disciples in the neglect and violation of them pronounces them Plants which his Father had not planted and therefore such as should be rooted up 3dly He plainly tells them That by these Traditions they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transgress make void Mark. 7.10 and null the Commandment of God. He shews this by plain Instances in their evacuating the Fifth Commandment by their Traditions in observing and enjoining such Traditions touching the Observation of the Sabbatick Rest Matth. 12.7 Matth. 12.12 Luk. 6.9 Mark 3.5 Luke 13.15 Matth. 23.16 23. as contradicted that great Law of God I will have mercy and not sacrifice and made it unlawful to do good and preserve Life upon that day and which sufficiently demonstrated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the blindness of their Minds and their Hypocrisie and in absolving them from their Oaths out of an ignorance so Gross as knew not they were virtually made to God. He also charges them that by thus teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men Matth. 15.9 they rendered God's Worship vain 4thly It is extreamly evident that by virtue of some of these Traditions they rejected the true Messiah and stood obliged by them so to do For First It is most certain that the Jews had a Tradition generally received among them That their Messiah should be a Temporal Prince that at his Coming he should restore the Kingdom to Israel he should subdue the Nations under them and should erect a Temporal Dominion in the Jewish Nation over all their Enemies Trypho the Jew declares to Justin M. That Dial. p. 249. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Scriptures do compel us to expect a great and glorious Messiah who shall receive as the Son of Man from the ancient of Days an everlasting Kingdom In Celsum l. 2. p. 78. not such a mean despised one as was your Jesus The Jews saith Origen say That their Prophets represent their Messiah to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great Person and a Potentate and Lord of the whole Earth and of all the Heathens and their Armies De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 31. Josephus confesseth there was an obscure Oracle found in their S. Books 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That about that time one of Judea should govern the World. Suetonius and Tacitus say In Vespas c 4. Hist l. 5. That it was in the whole East Vetus constans opinio ut
in the Church and then this Council reckons up the Canonical Books as we do leaving out of their account those which we call Apocryphal Now this Canon being received into the Codex Canonum-Ecclesiae universalis or the Code of the Canons received by the whole Church it must have the force of an Oecumenical Synod and give us the concurring judgment of the whole Church of God on our side And yet for farther confirmation of this matter let these few things be noted First That these Fathers generally say § 6 they deliver these Catalogues as they received them by Tradition and as they were delivered to them by the Fathers and as they were received by the whole Church of Christ * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanasius in his Pascal Epistle speaks thus Because some dare to mix Apocryphal Books with the divine Scriptures of which we are fully assured from the Tradition of them to the Fathers by them who were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word It seemed good to me being exhorted to it by the Orthodox Brethren and having learnt them from the beginning in order to declare which are the Canonical Books delivered as such by Tradition and believed to be of divine Inspiration St. Hilary saith Prolog Expla in Psalmos That they were thus computed secundum Traditiones veterum according to the Traditions of the Ancients These saith St. Cyril are the Books you learn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Church and which we read publickly in the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Catech. 4. p. 37. The Apostles and the ancient Bishops and Governors of the Church who delivered these as the Canonical Books were much wiser than you thou therefore being a Son of the Church do not transgress her Laws or go beyond her Rules Quae secundum majorum Traditionem Ecclesiis Christitradita What are the Volumes of the Old and the New Testament which according to the Tradition of the Ancients are believed to be inspired by the Holy Ghost and delivered to the Churches of Christ It seems convenient saith Russinus here evidently to declare as we have received them from the Monuments of the Fathers and having reckoned up the Books of the Old Testament proceeding to the Books of the New Testament he adds Haec nobis a patribus tradita sunt Apud Hieron Tom. 4. f. 51. a. These are the Books which the Father 's comprized in the Canon these things are delivered to us by the Fathers Note § 7 Secondly That of the Books which we reject and call Apocryphal they also teach that as such they were rejected by the Church that though the Church permitted them to be read yet did she not receive them into the Catalogue of the Holy Scriptures or use them to confirm any Article of Christian Faith and that they spake of them as Books without the Canon Thus Athanasius in his Paschal Epistle saith That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for more exactness sake Apud Balsam p. 921. I add this necessary advertisement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That besides these Books of the Old and New Testament now mentioned as divine Scripture there be other Books which are not put into the Canon which are yet appointed by the Fathers to be read to those who first come to be Catechized in the way of Piety to wit The Wisdom of Solomon the Wisdom of Syrach and Esther and Judith and Tobias and the Book called the Doctrine of the Apostles and Pastor these are read and not to be despised the others are put into the Canon Tom 2. p. 58 59. The very same words he repeats in his Compendium of the Holy Scripture where also afterwards he reckons the Four Books of Macchabees and the History of Susanna among the Books contradicted Baruch and the additions to Daniel among the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Apocryphal Books of the Old Testament Catech. 4. p. 38. St. Cyril having cited the Canon we receive as that which was delivered to the Church by the Apostles and ancient Governors of the Church adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let all the rest which are extro-canonical be placed in a second Order Gregory Nazianzen having given an account of Twenty two Books of the Old Testament saith You have them all Ubi Supra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that all besides them are not Genuine After his Catalogue delivered from the Tradition of the Fathers Sunt alii libri non Canonici sed Ecclesiastici a majoribus appellati Quae omnia legi quidem in Ecclesia voluerunt non tamen proferriad authoritatem ex his fidei confirmandam Apud Hieron Tom. 4. f. 51. Ruffinus saith You must know that there be other Books which are not Canonical but called by our Ancestors Ecclesiastical as the Wisdom of Solomon the Wisdom of the Son of Syrach Tobit Judith and the Books of Macchabees which they were willing to have read in the Church but not to have produced to confirm Doctrines of Faith the rest they called Apocryphal and would not have read in the Church These things are delivered to us by the Fathers Praefat. in librum Regum Tom 3. f. 6. St. Jerom saith he made his Catalogue ut scire valeamus quicquid extra hos est inter Apocrypha esse ponendum that we might know that all besides these Twenty two are to be deemed Apocryphal He adds Praef. in Esdr Neh. ibid. f. 7 8. That the Books which are not received by the Hebrews are to be rejected by us Christians and that the Church indeed Reads them but receives them not into the Canons Note Thirdly § 8 That they declare not only that these are the Books received into the Canon by the Jews but by the Christians also that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synops Tom. 2. p. 55. the entire Scripture of us Christians saith Athanasius All the Books delivered by the Apostles and ancient Governors of the Church and by the Church to others saith St. Cyril Ubi Supra All the Books delivered to the Church of Christ saith Ruffinus That as for others which we stile Apocryphal Ecclesia nescit Apocrypha Tom. 3. f. 7. a. f. 9. a. the Church owns them not Ecclesia inter Canonicas Scripturas non recipit The Church receives them not among the Canonical Scriptures saith St. Jerom. Note Fourthly § 9 That they declare that they made this Enumeration of these Books 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of necessity to prevent mistakes in this Matter and for the good of the Church and that Men might know out of what Fountains they were to draw the Waters of Life Having made mention of the Hereticks saith Athanasius as of Dead persons Apud Balsam p. 920 921. and of our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as having the Holy Scriptures for Life and because I fear least some harmless Men through their Simplicity and Ignorance may be deceived by
the subtile Craftiness of Men and being deceived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the ambiguity of the word true Books which signifies either only such as are read in the Church or such as also are put into the Canon may begin to be conversant in others therefore I intreat you to bear with me if by way of remembrance I write of those things which you know already because of the necessity of so doing and the Benefit of it to the Church Amphilochius and Nazianzen say Ubi Supra It behoves the Christian to learn this that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every Book is not safe which has the venerable Name of Scripture for some are False and Adulterate some of a middle Nature and some Canonical and therefore say they will we number every one of the inspired Books 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that you may clearly learn which they are These saith Ruffinus are the Traditions of the Fathers touching the Canonical Books Ad instructionem eorum qui prima sibi Ecclesiae ac fidei Elementa suscipiunt ut sciant ex quibus sibi fontibus verbi dei haurienda sunt pocula Apud Hieron Tom. 4. f. 51. those are the Books which are read in the Church though not Canonical nor sufficient to confirm any Doctrine of Faith and the other are Apocryphal Scriptures which she would not have read and these things I thought fit in this place to signifie for the instruction of those who receive the first Rudiments of Faith Ut scire valeamus quicquid extra hos est inter Apocrypha esse ponendum Tom. 3. f 6. a. that they may know out of what Fountains they must receive the word of God. This Catalogue I have made saith Jerom that you may be able to know that the rest are Apocryphal Note § 10 Fithly That they represent these as the Fountains of Salvation which are diligently to be read and studied by all and as for the rest some of them say that though they were read in the Church not for confirmation of Faith but instruction of Manners yet private Persons should not read them Thus Athanasius having given us the Protestants Canon both of the Old and New Testament he adds These are the Fountains of Salvation so that he who thirsteth let him be satiated with the Oracles contained in them Apud Balsam p. 922. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in these alone is contained the Doctrine of Godliness let no Man add any thing to them nor take any thing from them of these our Lord spake when he said to the Pharisees You erre not knowing the Scriptures and when he exhorted the Jews to search the Scriptures P. 36 37. Learn of the Church saith Cyril to his Catechumen which are the Books of the Old and the New Testament and read none of the Apocrypha for why shouldst thou trouble thy self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about controverted Books who knowest not those which are by all acknowledged read these Twenty two Books of the Old Testament study them only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and have nothing to do with the Apocrypha and having given us the same Catalogue of the Books of the New Testament excepting only the Revelations he saith Whatsoever is not read in the Church do not thou read St. Jerom in his Epistle to Paulinus having reckoned up the Books of the Old and the New Testament as we do saving that he saith The Epistle to the Hebrews is by many not reckoned as St. Paul 's saith I intreat thee dear Brother Tom. 3. f. 3. b. to be conversant among these to meditate of them nihil aliud nosse nihil quaerere to know to enquire after nothing else In his Epistle to Laeta touching the Education of her Daughter he gives this Admonition let her shun all Apocryphal Books Caveat omnia Apocrypha c. Tom. 1. f. 21. and if at any time she will read them not for the truth of Doctrine but for Reverence of the Signs let her know they are not their Books whose Titles they bear that there be many ill things in them that it requireth great Wisdom to seek Gold among Dirt. Thus have we in one Century Eusebius of Caesarea the Metropolis of Palaestine Cyril Bishop of Jerusalem § 11 Amphilochius Bishop of Iconium the Metropolis of Lycaonia Nazianzen and St. Basil in Cappadocia Athanasius Patriarch of Alexandria Ruffinus Priest of Aquileia in Italy Hilary of Poictiers in France Jerom who lived in Rome France Dalmatia Syria Palaestine who travelled into Cyprus Aegypt Alexandria conversed with all the learned Persons of his Age and lastly the Council of Laodicea received generally through the Christian World deposing their plain Testimonies for the Canon of the Old Testament received by Protestants and as unanimously condemning that of the Trent Council since owned by the Church of Rome And confident I am that the greatest searchers into Ecclesiastical Antiquity cannot produce one Council nor one Testimony of any Father throughout these Four Centuries who purposely treating of or declaring the exact number of the Canonical Books of the Old Testament doth not either expresly exclude or at least omit all or most of all those Books which we stile Apocryphal and which by the New Canon made at Trent Sess 4. are pronounced Canonical and that with an Anathema to every Christian who pro sacris Canonicis non susceperit receives them not as Sacred and Canonical And if all this be not sufficient whosoever will peruse Doctor Cousin's Canon of Scripture will find the same Tradition still continued to future Ages And that the number of the Books of the Old Testament were either expresly or equivalently declared to be those and those only which we receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 4. in Gen. p. 20. For Century the Fifth St. Chrysostom lays it down as a thing confessed by lla that all the divine Books of the Old Testament were from the beginning writ in the Hebrew Tongue Theodoret twice mentions the sacred and saving Scriptures of the Old Testament In Cant. Cantic p. 985 1077. Cous p. 132. P. 142. P. 145. P. 151 152. P. 154. P. 158 159 161 163. without addition of one of the Apocryphal The number of them is declared to be Twenty two Century the Sixth by Anastasius in the Seventh Century by Isidore in the Eighth Century by Damasus in the Ninth Century by Nicephorus and Agobardus in the Eleventh Century by Giselbertus in the Twelfth Century by Hugo de Sancto Victore Richardus de Sancto Victore by Petrus Comestor John Belith and by John of Salisbury P. 166. P. 174 178. P. 179 188 192 197. in the Thirteenth Century by the Ordinary Gloss in the Fourteenth Century by Nicephorus Calistus and Joannes Armachanus in the Fifteenth Century by Thomas Waldensis Dionysius Carthusianus and Erasmus Others numbring Ruth and Lamentations as Two Books distinct from Judges and Jeremy Prol. Gal. in
libr. Regum Tom. 3. f. 6. a. say That the Canonical Books of the Old Testament are Twenty four which say they from St. Jerom St. John in his Revelations introduceth under the Name of the Twenty four Elders Dr. Cous p. 131 133. P. 147. P. 152. P. 164 178 196. so in the Sixth Century Primasius and Leontius in the Eighth Century Venerable Bede in the Ninth Century Ambrosius Ausbertus in the Twelfth Century Peter Abbot of Celle in the Fifteenth Century Thomas Anglicus and in the Sixteenth Frances Georgius Now manifest it is even from the very number here assigned of Twenty two or Twenty four Canonical Books that all these Authors must exclude those Books we call Apocrypha from the Canon and it is still more evident from their own Words in which they expresly say P. 133. These are the Books received the Books put into the Canon by the Church P. 151. P. 157 194. P. 197. the Books received by the Church and Canonized The whole Canon which the Church receives and which was handed down unto them by the Authority of the Ancients And of those which we stile Apocryphal they say Ibid. P. 151. These are the Books which are contradicted and not received by the Church The Books of the Old Testament which are not received by the Church P. 152 162 177. P. 158 159 163 169 175 The Books which are read indeed sed non scribuntur non habentur in Canone sed leguntur ut scripta patrum as are the Writings of the Fathers but are not put into the Canon non reputantur in Canone are not reputed to belong unto it The Books which the Church reads and permits for Devotion and the instruction of Manners but thinks not their Authority sufficient ad confirmandam Ecclesiasticorum dogmatum Authoritatem P. 166 173 176 191 193. to confirm the Authority of Ecclesiastical Doctrines The Books which are not to be received ad confirmandum aliquid in fide to confirm any Article of Faith. The Contents of which she obligeth no man to believe P. 189 190. nor doth she judge him guilty of disobedience or infidelity who receives them not Concerning which the Church receives the Testimony of St. Jerom as most Sacred P. 194. who did undoubtedly exclude them from the Canon To whom say they the Church Catholick is much indebted upon this account P. 199. and to whose sence the sayings both of Councils and Fathers are to be reduced Books with whose Authority no Man was pressed Books P. 202. P. 174 188. Lastly which were not genuine but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spurious and Apocryphal which the Christian Church doth not receive P. 166 201. pari Authoritate or pari veneratione with the like Authority or Veneration with which she doth receive the Holy Scriptures Now hence the Doctors of the Church of Rome may learn what it is they are to do § 12 if they would prove any of their Doctrines to have descended to them by a like Tradition with that of the Canonical Books of the Old Testament viz. they must prove they were owned in the New Testament were delivered as Traditions by the Apostles and all the Ancient Bishops and Governors of the Church They must produce express Testimonies of Christian Writers in all Ages asserting That the Church received such a Doctrine and that they in delivering of it followed the Tradition of the Church and their Fore-Fathers and saying That the contrary Doctrine was not received by the Church They must shew That even from the first Ages of the Church Christians were solicitous to enquire what were the Apostolical Traditions not left in writing to the Church that upon this enquiry they found that these Traditions were of such a certain number neither more nor less that they thought it necessary to preserve them by writing Catalogues of all such Traditions as were received or owned as such by Christians That this Catalogue of Traditions was delivered to them by the Primitive Fathers as they had been received by the whole Church and that they had received them from Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word That they took care to leave this Catalogue of Traditions because some persons dared to mix Apocryphal Traditions with Divine and that they made it out of necessity to prevent mistakes in this matter and for the Instruction of those who received the first Rudiments of the Faith that they might know out of what Fountains to draw the Waters of Tradition They must produce from the first Four Centuries Testimonies of this nature from Fathers living in most places where there were any Christians and Testimonies uncontrouled throughout those Centuries And seeing one of these Traditions viz. that which concerneth the Canonical Books of the Old Testament is expresly contrary to a Tradition delivered and handed down to us with all these circumstances they must prove that in this matter Tradition hath plainly delivered Contradictions throughout Four whole Centuries which being done we cannot chuse but think her Testimony is Infallible Hence also we may see what an unparallell'd confidence they shew when in their Disputations the Romanists are bold to say and lay the stress of their whole certainty of Faith upon this Proposition That they hold the same Doctrine to day which was delivered yesterday and so up to the time of our Saviour seeing it is as clear as the Sun that the Books of the Old Testament which they now hold for Sacred and Canonical were for Fifteen whole Centuries together declared not to belong unto the Canon but excluded from it by the Church And this will be still more apparent by considering what the Authors of the Question of Questions § 13 and of The Papist Misrepresented and Represented say touching this matter Mr. M. saith Sect. 19. n. 6. p. 410. That when it was grown doubtful in the Church whether such and such Books were part of the Canon of Scripture the Tradition which recommended these Books was examined in the Third Council of Carthage and there all the Books of the R. Canon were found to be recommended to the Church by a true and Authentical Tradition and therefore we embrace them as the Word of God. And again Sect. 3. n. 12. p. 84 85 86. As yet the Church of Christ had not defined which Books were God's true word which not wherefore then it was free to doubt of such Books us were not admitted by such a Tradition of the Church as was evidently so universal that it was clearly sufficient to ground an infallible belief but in the days of St. Austin the Third Council of Carthage A. 397. examined how sufficient the Tradition of the Church was which recommended these Books for Scripture about which there was so much doubt and contrariety of Opinion and they found all the Books contained in our Canon of which you account so many Apocryphal to have been recommended by a Tradition sufficient
to ground Faith upon For on this ground they proceeded in defining all the Books in our Canon to be Canonical Pope Innocent the First A. D. 402. St. Austin P. Gelasius A. D. 492. confirm the same Canon and the Sixth General Council celebrated A. D. 680. confirms the Council of Carthage and the true Canon is again set forth in the Council of Florence A. 1438. And after these Declarations of the Council of Carthage and Pope Innocent no one pertinaciously dissented from the Canon but such as Protestants themselves confess to be Hereticks J. L. adds That Gregory Nazianzen acknowledged them Canonical and St. Ambrose Lib. de Jacob vitâ beatâ and that since the Churches Declaration no Catholick ever doubted of them Now for Answer to these things let it be noted First That whereas they are pleased to say that it was till the time of the Third Council of Carthage that is till the Fifth Century doubtful and undetermined in the Church whether these Books were Canonical or not because the Church had not then declared them so they by just consequence must grant that the Apostles and all the Ancient Bishops of the Church for Four Centuries knew nothing of the Roman Canon for had they known the Books contested to be Canonical we cannot doubt but they would have delivered them to the Church as such as well as those which we receive and which saith Eusebius were received by the consent of all Lib. 4. c. 26. We therefore are contented to be no wiser than they were and rather chuse to hearken to that advice of Cyril of Jerusalem Read the Twenty two Books of the Old Testament and have nothing to do with the Apocrypha 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Apostles and ancient Bishops the Rulers of the Church who delivered these Twenty two Books as the Canon were wiser than those that came after them we therefore being Sons of the Church in compliance with his advice will not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 break over the bounds which they have set us especially considering they so expresly have informed us that they delivered this Catalogue of the Twenty two Canonical Books of the Old Testament as they received them from Tradition Obs 1. That they made this Enumeration of them to prevent mistakes in this matter for the good of the Church and that Men might know out of what Fountains to draw the Water of Life and might clearly learn which were Canonical Obs 4. And as the Canon received and owned not only by the Jewish but the Christian Church Obs 3. Secondly The falshood of these bold Assertions hath been shewed sufficiently in what hath been discoursed upon this subject for had the Authority of the Books we stile Apocryphal been undetermined had the true Canon of the Books of the Old Testament been doubtful in the Church till the Fifth Century why did Athanasius think it necessary to advertise Christians that the Books which we reject were not Canonical St. Cyril That they were out of the Canon Nazianzen That they were not Genuine Ruffinus That our Ancestors held them not Canonical not sufficient to confirm Doctrines of Faith St. Jerom That the Church deemed them Apocryphal and received them not into the Canon Why do they add that these things we delivered to them by the Fathers and by them recorded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for more exactness sake and to prevent mistakes Had the Canon of the Books of the Old Testament been till then doubtful and undetermined in the Church why was the Canon produced by Melito Bishop of Sardis judged so exact a Canon of the Books of the Old Testament why do the Fathers of the four first Centuries with one accord declare that the number of the Canonical Books of the Old Testament if Ruth were added to Judges and the Lamentations to Jeremiah Can. 59. were but Twenty two if reckoned separately Twenty four why is it that the Council of Laodicea having said that Christians in the Church ought to read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only the Canonical Books of the Old and the New Testament reckons up the Cononical Books of the Old Testament as we do excluding all that we call Apocrypha as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 books not contained in the Canon Moreover this Canon was received into the Code of Canons of the Vniversal Church both by the East and West the Canons of this Council were confirmed by the fourth General Council of Chalcedon Can. 1. Can. 2. Novel 131. by the Sixth General Council of Trullo by the Imperial Law of the Emperor Justinian and so must give us the Sence and Definition of the whole Church touching this matter Thirdly If that may be doubtful and undetermined in the Church which is so positively asserted so expresly and frequently declared in a matter of Fact as this hath been for the first Four Centuries then I hope we may be permitted to pronounce all those New Articles which the Church of Rome hath added to the Creed doubtful and undetermined in the first Four Centuries at least till they can give us better proof that they were then received than hath been here produced for this Canon and then I think they will be no great Gainers by this false Assertion And sure I am they cannot here pretend Tradition handed down from Father to Son from all the Christians of one Age to all the Christians of the next unless it be asserted that all those Fathers and this whole Council spake these things in a flat opposition to what they had been taught by their Fore-fathers touching the Canonical Books of the Old Testament so that this instance is a full confutation of that idle Dream Fourthly Whereas these Authors have produced some few Testimonies from the Fifth Century in favour of their Canon Let it be noted first That J. L. hath been told already Answ p. 82 83. that neither Gregory nor St. Ambrose have any thing pertinent to his purpose in the places cited and this he by his silence seemeth to confess As for the pretended Definition of Pope Innocent the First made saith J. L. A. D. 370. Cap. 11. p. 22. Schol. Hist p. 118 180 188. though he was only made Bishop of Rome A. D. 402. Bishop Cousins hath proved it to be Spurious as he hath also fully proved the pretended Decree of the Council of Florence to be Bishop Pearson Vindiciae Epist Ignat. part 1. c. 4. a p. 44. ad p. 54. And another Bishop of our Church of unquestionable Credit among all learned Men hath proved beyond all possibility of Contradiction that the Decree ascribed to Gelasius is also Spurious so that we have nothing left to consider but the judgment of St. Austin the Council of Carthage and the pretended confirmation of it Now to these I say Fifthly That were these Testimonies exactly for the Canon of the Church of Rome yet here is neither a Decree of any General Council
nor a Decree received into the Code of Canons by the Vniversal Church as was the contrary Decree of the Council of Laodicea nor were the men that made it likely to judge better what were the Books of the Old Testament received as Canonical than all the Writers now produced for our Canon they whom we have produced as our Witnesses being either men who lived upon or near the place where the Canon of the Old Testament was published and known or travelled many of them thither and one of them on purpose to learn exactly the number of those Books And surely it is too ridiculous to imagine that it should in the Fifth Century be better known in Africa what Books of the Old Testament were Canonical than at Jerusalem Caesarea Alexandria or any of the Eastern Churches Moreover This Canon of the Council of Carthage in the Roman Code lately set forth by Paschasius Quesnel hath only Tobit and Judith and two Books of Esdras of all the Apocryphal Books now Canonized at Rome nor in the Collection of Cresconius Can. 299. an African Bishop is there any mention of the Books of Macchabees or Baruch nor in the Edition of it by Balsamon so that this cannot be a proof that the Trent Canon was received then And lastly 't is true they stile the Books there mentioned Canonical but this may only be in that large Sence in which those Books were sometimes called so which were read in the Church though they were not sufficient to confirm matters of Faith as may be argued from the Reason which they give us why they stiled them Canonical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Balsam in can 27. Concil Carthag viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Because we have from the Fathers received these Books to be read in the Church and from the Gloss of Balsamon upon it who to know what Books were Canonical in the strict Sence sends us to the Council of Laodicea Athanasius Nazianzen and Amphilochius who all declared against the Apocrypha and to the last Canon of the Apostles which leaves out most of them And whereas it is added that the Canons of the Council of Carthage were established in the Sixth General Council held in Trullo let it be noted First That at other times the Romanists will by no means admit this Council Can. 36. Can. 13. Can. 55. because it equals the Bishop of Constantinople with him of Rome forbids Priests to be separated from their Wives condemns the received Customs of the Church of Rome and prescribes contrary Laws to her but now because they hope their Forlorn Cause may have some small advantage by it they give it the Title of a General Council Note 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 2. That this Synod in the same Canon in which it confirms the Council of Carthage confirms also the Canons of the Council of Laodicea together with the Canonical Epistles of Athanasius Nazianzen and Amphilochius which number the Canonical Books of the Old Testament as we do rejecting the rest with us as Apocryphal when therefore the Fathers in the Synod confirm the Canons of the Council of Carthage they must either contradict themselves by contradicting the Council of Laodicea and these Canonical Epistles now mentioned and by them equally confirmed or else they must believe that this Canon of the Council of Carthage did not declare these controverted Books to be properly Canonical or divine Scripture but only in that larger sence in which that Name was given to Ecclesiastical Books thought worthy to be read in the Church Fifthly Whereas Mr. M. and J. L. farther assert That after these Books were declared Canonical by Pope Innocent and the Council of Carthage all cited these Books as Scripture none pertinaciously dissented from this Decree no Catholick ever doubted of them we are bound to thank them for their kindness to us in these words in which they plainly have renounced their Title to almost all the best Writers of the Christian World who as the Reverend Dr. Cousins hath demonstrated through every Century till the very Year of the Session of the Trent Council not only doubted of but plainly did reject these Books as uncanonical in the strict acceptation of the Word declaring that they read and cited them indeed as Books containing good instruction but not as properly Canonical or as sufficient to confirm any Article of Christian Faith. Lastly The Testimony of St. Austin in his Book of Christian Doctrine is so inconsistent with his other works and so fully answered by the Reverend Dr. Consins Can. 7. that it is needless to say any thing distinctly to it To proceed therefore to the Books of the New Testament § 14 observe First That the four Gospels the Acts of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Eccl. Hist l. 3. c. 25. l. 6. c. 25. the Thirteen Epistles of St. Paul the First Epistle of St. Peter and the First of St. John were always 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confessed by all true Christians to be sacred Books of the New Testament and their Authority was never questioned by any person of the whole Church of God. Now sure we have unquestionable certainty of such Books as have been handed down to us by the Tradition of all Ages of the Church inserted into all her Catalogues cited by all her Writers as Books of a Divine Authority and of which never any doubt was made by any Member of the Church of God. Secondly § 15 Observe That it cannot be necessary to Salvation to have an absolute assurance of those Books of the new Testament which have been formerly Controverted by whole Churches as well as private Doctors of the Church for either these Churches had sufficient certainty that the Books which they rejected were Canonical or they had not if they had how could they be true Churches who rejected part of their Rule of Faith when known to be so If they had not it seems not necessary that we at present should be certain of them for why may not we go to Heaven without this assurance as well as they of former Ages Thirdly § 16 There can be no assurance of the true Canon of the Books of the New Testament from the Testimony of the Romish or the Latin Church in any Age because she in some Ages hath rejected from the Canon that Epistle to the Hebrews Euseb Hist Eccl. l. 6. c. 20. which she now receives It was rejected in the Third Century by Cajus Presbyter of Rome by Tertullian in the same Century who also in his Book Cap. 20. de pudicitia insinuates that it was not received as Canonical by some other Churches Origen in his Epistle to Africanus having cited a passage from the Eleventh Chapter of this Epistle adds That it is probable some being pressed with it Pag. 232. may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 embrace the Sentence of them who reject this Epistle as
And amongst these he reckons the Seven Catholick Epistles of the Apostles Pag. 59. comprised in one Volume which he calls the Sixth Volume of the New Testament Fourteen Epistles of St. Paul comprised in the Seventh Volume and in the Eighth the Revelation of St. John of which he testisieth that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pag. 60. shewed and judged to be his by the Ancient and holy Fathers led by the Spirit of God And then concludes Pag. 61. These are the Canonical Books of the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as it were the first fruits Anchors and supports of our Faith. St. Cyril is another who professeth to write his Catalogue from the Church and to hand down the Canonical Books as she received them from the Apostles the Ancient Bishops and Governors of the Church and he among the Canonical Books of the New Testament reckons the Seven Catholick Epistles and Fourteen Epistles of St. Paul leaving out only the Apocalypse The Council of Laodicea reckons them exactly as St. Cyril doth leaving out with him the Apocalypse not that they question its Authority but because they reckon up only the Books 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which ought to be read in the Churches Cyril Catech. 4. p. 38. Concil Laod. Can. 60. among which the Apocalypse was not because it is so very Mystical and accordingly the Council concludes their Canon thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These Books we have received from the Fathers to be read in the Church and yet they do command that nothing should be read there but Canonical Scripture Apud Hieron Tom. 4. f. 51. Ruffinus declares he reckoned the Volumes of the New Testament as they were delivered to the Church of Christ secundum majorum Traditionem and according to the Tradition of the Ancients and then he accounts Fourteen Epistles of St. Paul Seven Catholick Epistles and the Apocalypse saying Haec sunt quae patres intra Canonem concluserunt These are the Books which the Father 's put into the Canon Can. 27. The Council of Carthage undertaking to reckon up the Canonical Books of the New Testament enumerates Fourteen Epistles of St. Paul Two of Peter Three of John One of James and One of Jude and the Apocalypse of St. John as received from the Fathers St. Jerom reckons the Canonical Books of the New Testament after the same manner only saying That the Epistle to the Hebrews was by most shut out of the number of the Epistles written by St. Paul that is some in his time conceived St. Barnabas others St. Clemens either did interpret it from the Hebrew or write it either from the Mouth or from the Notions of St. Paul but then he adds Ep. Tom. 3. f. 13. That the whole Greek Church and some of the Latins did receive it That all the Eastern Churches and all the Churches which used the Greek Tongue did Anciently own it as the Epistle of St. Paul and that he also owned both that and the Apocalypse not respecting the Custom of his present Age but following the Authority of the Ancient Writers who cited Testimonies from both not as sometimes they are wont to do from Apocryphal Books but as from Canonical Scripture And good reason had he to say 1. § 19 Lib. 3. c. 24. That he received the Apocalypse on the Authority of the Ancients when Eusebius expresly declares That a judgment might easily be passed of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Testimony of the Ancients Athanasius that it was determined Synop. p. 60. and demonstrated to be his by the Ancient and Holy Fathers led by the Spirit of God. And indeed Ep. ad C. §. 34. Dial. cum Tryph p. 308. Pag. 373 477 128 347 376 480 486 500 503. Lib. 5. c. 30. p. 485. Pag. 201. 528. Tom. 5. in Joh. Hom. 7. in Jos pag. 269 270 411 510 c. De opere Elem p. 202. de bono pat p. 219. Hist Eccl. l. 4.24 Ibid. c. 26. Lib. 5. c. 18. p. 186. Lib. 7. c. 25. it is cited in the First Century by Clemens Romanus as a Prophetical Writing In the Second Century by Justin Martyr as a Book writ by John one of Christ's Twelve Apostles By Irenaeus in the same Century as the Revelation of John the Disciple of the Lord the Revelation of St. John and he declares it was written by him pene sub nostro saeculo almost in our Age at the end of the Reign of Domitian It is mentioned in the Third Century as holy Scripture and a Prophetick Vision by Clemens of Alexandria as the Revelation of that John who lay in the bosom of our Lord by Origen it is mentioned by Tertullian as the Prophecy the Revelation the Vision of the Apostle John in above Twenty places by St. Cyprian as that Revelation in which we hear our Saviour's Voice and in which he speaks to us Eusebius informs us That Melito Bishop of Sardis writ upon the Revelation of St. John that Theophilus Bishop of Antioch owned it and cited from it many Testimonies Now both these flourished in the middle of the Second Century That Hippolitus the Disciple of Irenaeus did the same And that Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria professed That he durst not reject it by reason of the multitude of Christians who had a veneration for it and that he owned it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be the work of an holy Man inspired of God. And judge now whether he had not sufficient ground to say this matter might be decided by the Testimonies of the Ancients That this Book was refused by Marcion the Heretick Contra Marcion l. 4. c. 5. Haer. 51 54. Haer. 30. we learn from Tertullian that it was rejected by the Alogians and Theodosian Hereticks we learn from Epiphanius and St. Austin and that when some Orthodox Christians began to dislike the Doctrine of the Millennium they began also to dispute some the Author of this Book ascribing it to another John Presbyter at Ephesus and others the Authority of it because they could not answer the Testimony produced from the Twentieth Chapter in favour of the Saints Reign on Earth a Thousand Years But then their Arguments against it are only taken from some vain and weak Imaginations of their own Brains as v. g. That St. John here names himself which in his Gospel and Epistles he never doth by which Argument we must reject either the Lamentations or the Book of Jeremy 2. Because he doth not use the same Expressions here as he did there that is in a Prophetick Stile as in a Doctrinal on which account Ecclesiastes and the Canticles cannot be writ by the same Author And 3. Because he writes here better Greek than elsewhere which if so may be because he writes not to the Jews but to the Asiaticks or after he had more conversed with them who spake that Language in its Purity As for those who ascribe
was done 2. We shall be more convinced that this was not performed by Conspiracy or by a joint consent of Christians to make so great an alteration in that form of Government which the Apostles had established if we consider 1. The general agreement of all Churches in this matter since not one single Church or Corner of the world can be produced in which this Government did not obtain For how can we imagine that in a time when no General Council could meet to appoint it and when there was no Christian Prince to set it forward on a political Account and when by reason of the heat of Persecution and the distance of Christian Churches there was so little commerce and intercourse between them from the Churches of Armenia and Persia in the East to those of Spain in the West from the African Churches in the South to our British Churches in the North this constitution should have been universally received and submitted to if it had not been established by the Apostles or the first Founders of those Churches 2. If we consider how much it did concern all Christians that such an Innovation should not obtain among them and tamely be submitted to For all the people were obliged to know the Governors to whom they were by Scripture commanded to submit and so they could not yield to this supposed Innovation without the greatest danger to their Souls The Presbyters if they had by the Apostles been advanced to the highest Power would not so meekly have submitted to an Authority usurped over them but either out of a just Zeal for asserting their Freedom or out of Indignation at the insolence of the usurping Bishops or out of an unwillingness to submit and obey which is natural to most Men they would have asserted their Equality 3. This will be farther evident if we consider that even the persons thus exalted could have then no motive or temptation to accept of this advancement for Men do not usually desire a change but upon prospect of some ease or temporal Advantage much less when they perceive the Change is only like to add to their trouble and encrease their danger now this was really the case of the first Christian Bishops they being still exposed to the sharpest fury of their Persecutors and commonly begun with first in any storm that was raised against the Church their Labours also were very great for the care of the Flock lay on them and they were unwearied in the discharge of their Pastoral Care can we then reasonably think that they should be so fond of so much toil and peril as to violate the Institution of the Blessed Jesus or his Apostles to obtain it Let any reasonable Person duly weigh these things and ask his Conscience whether it can be really perswaded that such an early Innovation could generally have prevailed in the Church of God. Such also is the Evidence that we pretended to § 8 touching the Canon of Scripture and that those Books have not been so corrupted or depraved as not to be sufficient Rules of Christian Faith or Manners Concerning this matter let it be considered First That we have the true Canon of the Old Testament and that the Books of the Old Testament are not corrupted we cannot know from the Infallibility of the Jewish Church or her Traditions for when she handed down these Scriptures to the Christians as the pure word of their inspired Prophets she was not Infallible but actually had renounced her true Messiah and judged him an Impostor and had embraced such false Traditions as did engage her so to do So that if Chap. 14. p. 29. according to the Author of Popery Misrepresented As the Jews received the Books of the Old Testament from the Jewish Church and the Christians also so also were they to receive from her the sence of them the Jews if not the Christians also were obliged to reject our Saviour as an Impostor and one who taught and acted contrary to their Law and their Traditions Secondly § 9 That the Books of the New Testament are not corrupted or forged we cannot know from the Infallibility of the Christian Church The Reason is because the Infallibility of the Church is so far from being a proof of Scriptures incorruption that no proof can be pretended for it but uncorrupted places of Scripture For if any man should attempt to prove the Scriptures uncorrupted because that Church says so which is Infallible I would demand of him seeing the Infallibility of the Church is not self-evident and seeing Infallibility is a Prerogative which no Man can pretend to but from God's Assistance and therefore no Man can be sure of that Assistance but from God's free Promise how shall I be assured of her Infallibility If he say from Scripture promising it unto her I would ask how shall I be assured that the Scriptures are not corrupted in those places and if to this it be answered From the Church's Infallibility is it not evident that he runs in a Circle proving the Scripture's incorruption by the Church's Infallibility and the Church's Infallibility by the Scripture's incorruption Moreover this is further evident from the Tradition Practice and Acknowledgment of the whole Church of Christ for to inform us in any controverted Text which is the Reading to be owned as true her Doctors never have sent us to Oral Tradition or the infallible Assistance of the Church but always to the readings of former Ancient Authors and to the Inspection of ancient Manuscripts and Versions and have declared what in it self is manifest and owned by all that ever treated on this Subject That there is no other way whereby we can attain to any knowledge or assurance in this matter Thus Sixtus Quintus in his Preface to his Bible In hac Germani Textus pervestigatione satis perspicue inter omnes constat nullum esse certius ac firmius Argumentum quam Antiquorum probatorum codicum Latinorum fidem tells us That in Pervestigation of the true and genuine Text it was perspicuous to all Men that there was no Argument more firm and certain than the Faith of ancient Latin Books Let any Man peruse all Commentators Ancient and Modern of what Perswasion soever and he will be convinced of their unanimous concurrence in this Assertion Thus St. Austin tells us That the Latins have need of Two other Tongues for obtaining the knowledge of the Divine Scriptures viz. De Doctr. Christ l. 2. c. 11. de Civ Dei l. 15. c. 13. the Hebrew and the Greek Ut ad exemplaria praecedentia recurratur si quam dubitationem attulerit Latinorum Interpretum infinita varietas That if any doubt should arise from the great variety of Latin Versions they might recurr to the Greek or Hebrew Originals That the Latin Versions of the Old Testament where it is necessary Chap. 14 15. Graecorum Authoritate emendandi sunt are to be corrected by the Authority of
by Jew and Gentile Heretick and Orthodox even in those times in which and in those places where they first appeared and by those Persons who immediately before received others as the true and genuine Copies of the Word of God. Lastly § 14 That these Records of the Will of God have not been so corrupted as to cease to be a certain Rule of Faith and Manners we argue from the Providence of God inducing us to judge that the Books thus delivered to us by the Church as genuine are truly so for nothing seems more inconsistent with divine Wisdom and Goodness than to inspire his Servants to write the Scripture as a Rule of Faith and Manners for all future Ages and to require the Belief of the Doctrines the practice of the Rules of Life plainly contained in it and yet to suffer this divinely inspired Rule to be insensibly corrupted in things necessary to Faith or Practice who can imagine that God who sent his Son out of his Bosom to declare this Doctrine and his Apostles by the Assistance of the Holy Spirit to indite and preach it and by so many Miracles confirm it to the World should suffer any wicked Persons to corrupt and alter any of those terms on which the Happiness and Welfare of Mankind depended This sure can be conceived Rational by none but such as think it not absurd to say That God repented of his good Will and Kindness to Mankind in the vouchsafing of the Gospel to them That he so far maligned the good of future Generations that he suffered wicked Men to rob them of all the benefit intended to them by this Declaration of his Will. For since those very Scriptures which have been received for the Word of God and used by the Church as such from the first Ages of it pretend to be the terms of our Salvation Scriptures indited by Men commissionated from Christ and such as did avouch themselves Apostles by the Will of God and his Command for the delivery of the Faith of Gods Elect and for the knowledge of the Truth which is after Godliness in hopes of Life eternal they must be what they do pretend to be the Word of God or Providence must have permitted such a Forgery as rendereth it impossible for us to perform our Duty in order to Salvation for if the Scripture of the New Testament should be corrupted in any essential requisite of Faith or Manners it must cease to make us wise unto Salvation and so God must have lost the end which he intended in inditing of it Again when we consider that in the Jewish Church the Scriptures were until the coming of Christ in very corrupt Times and amongst very corrupt Persons preserved so entire that Christ sends the Jews to them to learn Religion declares that they have Moses and the Prophets and both our Lord and his Disciples confuted and instructed the Scribes and Pharisees and Jews out of them without the least intimation of any corruption that had happened to them we have still greater reason to judge the New Testament sincere since we cannot rationally suppose Providence less careful of the New Testament than of the Old. If against this Argument it be Objected Object that we find by the Citations of the Ancients and by Old Manuscripts that there was a difference betwixt their Copies of the Scripture and those we now use I answer 1. That this is no certain Argument of any such difference seeing the Citation of the Ancients might differ thus by the failure of their Memory it being frequently their Custom to cite the Scriptures from their Memory without inspection of the Book moreover we find by Ocular Demonstration that these various Lectures make no considerable variation in matters of Faith or Manners or if one Text which asserts a substantial Doctrine be variously read so that the matter is thence dubious there are others which assert it without that Variety If then no Writing whilst the Apostles lived could pass for Apostolical and yet destroy or contradict the Faith they taught if their immediate Successors could not be ignorant of what the Apostles committed to them to be read and taught us the Records of their Faith and Doctrine nor would they be induced to deliver that for such which they believed not to be so if neither they could universally conspire to effect this thing nor can it rationally be thought that Providence would suffer them to do so 'T is morally impossible these Writings should be forged or corrupted in matters of Concern or Moment If therefore Mr. § 15 M. will make good his Assertion that they have the same means to shew that their Traditions are true that is truly descended from the Apostles that we have to shew the Copies of the Scripture which we use are not corrupted in substantials he must first own what we have proved of these Copies to be true of his Traditions viz. That they cannot be proved to be true from the Infallibility of the Church and that in any doubt concerning the Truth of them we must have recourse to the Original and Fountain of Tradition not to the Judgment of the present Age as in the proof of the true Copies all Parties are agreed that we must have recourse to Ancient Manuscripts And to the Fountains of the Greek and Hebrew Secondly He must shew what we have done touching the Scriptures concerning his pretended Traditions viz. That these Traditions were owned cited read and received as Apostolical Traditions from the Apostles Days that Jews and Heathens were acquainted with them that they were attested to by the Sufferings of the Primitive Martyrs that they were such as the Apostles desired to leave in writing and which they did so leave according to the Will of God and consequently were not oral Traditions that they were universally acknowledged and consented to by Men of different perswasions preserved in their Originals to succeeding Ages transcribed by Christians for their private and their publick use esteemed by them as their Digests and as deifying Traditions believed by all Christians to be divine and as the Records of their Hopes and Fears that they were carefully sought after and riveted in their minds and constantly rehearsed in their Assemblies by Men whose work it was to read and preach them and to exhort to the performance of those Duties they enjoined that they were frequent in the Writings and often cited in the Confessions and Apologies the Comments Homilies Discourses and Epistles of the Ancient Worthies as also in the Objections of their Adversaries to whose view they still lay open And lastly he must prove they were Traditions which the good Providence of God was as much concerned to keep entire and uncorrupt as to preserve those Scriptures so which by the Will of God were written to be the Pillar and Foundation of the Christian Faith and when we see this task performed we shall be more enclined to admit of the pretended Traditions
contained in the Apostles or the Nicene Creed or that the Church of Rome must be Schismatical in excluding from her Communion those who do not believe or yield assent unto them And thus I hope I have sufficiently shewed how this Tradition overthrows and fully doth confute the New Doctrines of the Church of Rome It now remains to shew how it confirms the Cause of Protestants and clears up the Objections which are made against it Now First § 5 Seeing according to this Tradition these Symbols as they are a perfect Summary of Christian Faith so are they fully and perspicuously contained in Scripture hence it demonstratively follows that according to the Doctrine and Tradition of the whole Church of Christ the summ of all the necessary Articles of Christian Faith must fully and perspicuously be contained in Holy Scripture and may be proved thence to the satisfaction of the meanest Catechist And consequently the Holy Scripture was by them esteemed a full and perspicuous Rule of Faith according to our Sixth Note in reference to all things necessary to be believed which is the Fundamental Article of Protestants But doth not Tertullian speak in General Object NB. of never disputing with Hereticks out of Scriptures only Q. of Quest p. 258 259. because this Scripture combate availeth for nothing but to the making either ones Stomach or ones Brains to turn and conclude generally We must not therefore appeal to Scriptures nor in our combate rely upon them in which either no Victory is to be obtained or a very uncertain one Tertullian here proposeth this Objection Answ That the Hereticks spake of the Scriptures V. c. 7. §. 8. and perswaded their Doctrines from the Scriptures and this he is so far from reprehending that he holds it a thing absolutely necessary to be done by all who would discourse of divine Matters It being impossible saith he aliunde de rebus fidei loqui De praescript cap. 15. quà m ex literis fidei to speak of Matters of Faith but from the Scriptures And therefore he not only owns that the Rule of Faith he pleaded for was first delivered by word of Mouth and after by the Writings of the Apostles but also to that Objection of the Hereticks Seek and ye shall find Cap. 9. he answers by granting that the Scriptures are to be searched and sought into for finding out the Truth contained in the Rule of Faith and that then nothing more respecting Faith is needful to be sought because they had found what they sought for then he proceeds to shew non admittendos eos ad ullam de Scripturis disputationem that the Hereticks were not to be admitted to dispute from Scriptures and that non sit cum illo disputandum he was not to be disputed with from Scripture for these following Reasons 1. Because ista Haeresis non recipit quasdam Scripturas those Hereticks received not some Scriptures viz. Iren. l. 1. c. 26. the Ebionites and Encratites rejected all St. Paul's Epistles and embraced only the Gospel of the Nazarens L. 3. c. 11. p. 258 259. Cerinthus allowed only the Gospel of St. Mark. Valentinus only that of St. John Marcion only that of Luke Ebion only that of Matthew 2. Because si quas recipit non recipit integras those Scriptures which they owned they received not entire but with additions and detractions as their cause required cutting off from them what most clearly made against then Heresies Thus of the Marcionites and the Lucianists and the Valentinians Origen confesseth That they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Contra Celsum l. 2. p. 77. change and pervert the Gospel 3. Because if they admitted any Scriptures entire yet they corrupted them per diversas expositiones by adulterating the Sence of them and miserably distorting them to the upholding of their idle Dreams for saith Irenaeus they said their Doctrines were not perspicuously revealed in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. 1. c. 1. p. 14. but by our Lord were mystically couched in Parables even so mystically that as you may see from the first to the Nineteenth Chapter of the First Book of Irenaeus it is enough to turn a Man's Stomach to read such Fooleries as v. gr They prove their thirty Aeones because our Saviour was Baptized when he was Thirty Years Old and from the Parable of the Labourers sent into the Vineyard some at the 1st 3d 6th 9th 11th C. 1. p. 10. hour of the Day which numbers put together make up Thirty Thus saith Irenaeus they endeavoured to adapt some of our Lord's Parables Pag. 32. and some Prophetical Expressions to their Doctrines that they might not seem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any Testimony from Scripture but then saith he they miserably pervert the Order and the Series of Holy Scripture and deal with it as if one should take the Image of a King excellently made in Jewels and should deform it into the Face of a Dog or a Woolf. They pretended also that some of their Doctrines were received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from unwritten Traditions C. 1. p. 32. and to prove them they produced a multitude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Apocryphal and adulterated Scriptures which they had feigned Lib. 1. c. 17. pretending for their recourse unto Tradition this Accusation of the Holy Scriptures Lib. 3. c. 2. That they were not right nor of Authority sufficient because they were spoken variously and that from them the Truth could not be found out by such as were ignorant of Tradition non enim per literas traditum illum sed per vivam vocem it being not delivered in writing but by Oral Tradition that is they were plain Papists as to this pretence Against such Men as these saith Tertullian the most skilful in the Scriptures will dispute in vain from Scripture cum nolunt agnoscere ea per quae revincuntur his nituntur quae falso composuerunt quae de ambiguitate coeperunt since they will not own that for Scripture by which they are refuted they will insist upon their Apocryphal Writings and those things which they ambiguously have conceived Ergo non ad Scripturas provocandum est and therefore we are not to provoke them to dispute out of Scriptures nor place our combate in those things in which no victory is to be obtained or a very uncertain one Let now any indifferent Reader judge whether Tertullian speaks in general against disputing with Hereticks out of Scripture as Mr. M. here confidently saith and not only of disputing against hanc Haeresin that very Heresie which had these Arts to delude what was brought against them from Scripture and appealed from it with the Papists to Oral Tradition And yet against these slippery Men Irenaeus and other of the Fathers first argued from Scriptures cum ex Scripturis arguebantur and when they had baffled them there and made them fly as Romanists now do unto
Truth of Faith is sufficiently explained In the same Article our Church having reckoned up the Books of the Old Testament which she esteemed Canonical Art. 6. and which by both Churches are recieved as such she adds the other Books as Hierom saith The Church doth read for Example of Life and Instruction of Manners but yet doth not apply them to establish any Doctrine Such are these following The Third Book of Esdras The Fourth Book of Esdras The Book of Tobias The Book of Judith The rest of the Book of Esther The Book of Wisdom Jesus the Son of Syrach Baruch the Prophet The Song of the Three Children The Story of Susanna Of Bell and the Dragon The Prayer of Manasses The First Book of Maccabees The Second Book of Maccabees Of all which excepting only the Third and Fourth Books of Esdras and the Prayer of Manasses the Council of Trent saith Whosoever shall not receive them as Sacred and Canonical Sess 4. let him be Anathema And yet this Determination is so apparently repugnant to the Doctrine of the Ancient Church that Mr. Du Pin a Doctor of the Faculty of Divinity in Paris and his Majesty's Professor Royal in Philosophy hath entirely given up this Cause unto the Protestants For 1. Whereas it is confessed by all the Learned of both Churches that we in this distinction betwixt Books of the Old Testament Canonical and Apocryphal or not Canonical exactly follow the Canon and the Judgment of the Jews Tom. 1. dissert praelim p. 51. from whom the Christians received the Books of the Old Testament He also saith The Christian Antiquity for the Books of the Old Testament hath followed the Canon of the Jews that no others were cited in the New Testament but those which belonged to the Canon of the Jews That the first Catalogues of Canonical Books made by Ecclesiastical Authors both Greek and Latin comprehend no others in the Canon P. 612 613. In his Abridgment of the Doctrine of the Three first Centuries he saith expresly That the Christians of those times owned no other Canonical Books of the Old Testament but those which belonged to the Canon of the Hebrews and that they sometimes cited the Apocryphal Books but never put them in the number of Canonical Books And whereas Mr. M. and J. L. have had the confidence to say Mr. M. p. 85 86. That after the Declarations of the Council of Carthage Pope Innocent and Gelasius c. no one ever pertinaciously dissented from it but such as Protestants themselves do confess to be Hereticks J.L. c. xi p. 23. until the days of Luther Or that no Catholick after the Church's Declaration in the Year 419. ever doubted of them Qui depuis les decisions des Conciles de Carthage de Rome la Declaration d'Innocent I. n'ont compte que vingt deux ou vingt quatre livres Canoniques de l'Ancien Testament Tom. 1. Diss praelim p. 60. Mr. Du Pin having produced the express words of Gregory the Great after that time to the contrary adds in flat contradiction to them these ensuing words We ought to make the same reflection on all the other Ecclesiastical Authors Greek and Latin which we have produced who After the Decisions of the Council of Carthage and of Rome and the Declaration of Innocent the First have counted only Two or Four and twenty Books of the Old Testament which makes it evident that these Definitions were not yet followed by all Authors and by all Churches till such time as this Matter was fully determined by the definition of the Council of Trent And indeed § 3 the Truth of this Confession is as clear as the Light For as Mr. M. and J. L. confess Vid c. 3. §. 13. Lib. 1. de verbo Dei. c. 20. S. ad alterum That the Canon of Scripture was not defined till the Fifth Century As Bellarmine acknowledgeth That Melito Epiphanius Hilarius Hieronymus Ruffinus in expounding the Canon of the Old Testament followed the Hebrews not the Greeks De locis Theol. l. 2. c. 11. Sect. Quid Ecclesiâ—sticum As Canus excuseth Ruffinus for rejecting with us the Apocrypha because he did it in eo tempore quo res nondum erat definita when this thing was not defined on which account saith he we also do excuse the rest and so all these men virtually confess that there was no Tradition of the Church against us during those Ages So in the following Centuries even till the time that the Trent Council met approved Authors do declare the Doctrine of the Church to have been still according to the Doctrine of this Article and contrary to the Definition of the Trent Council For In the Western Church Primasius a Bishop of the African Church saith Cent. 6. In Apocalyps cap. 4. The Books of the Old Testament of Canonical Authority which we receive N. B. are Twenty-four which St. John insinuated by the Twenty-four Wings Leontius Bizantinus having said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Sectis Act. 2. Let us reckon up the Books received by the Church he adds That the Books of the Old Testament are Twenty-two and concludes thus These are the Books Canonized in the Church of which they that belong to the Old Testament are all received by the Hebrews In the Ninth Century Nicephorus Patriarch of Constantinople Cent. 9. undertakes to reckon up the divine Scriptures which were received and Canonized in the Church and of these in the Old Testament he numbers only Twenty-two as we do Canon Scrip. Chron. p. ult Quibuscontradicitur non recipiuntur ab Ecclesia Bibl. H. Eccl. de vitis Pontif. and among the Books contradicted and not received in the Church he puts the Maccabees Wisdom Ecclesiasticus Esther Judith Susanna and Tobit Anastasius the Keeper of the Library of the Church of Rome among the Books which are contradicted and not received by the Church reckons the Maccabees Wisdom Ecclesiasticus Susanna Judith and Tobit In the Twelfth Century Peter Mauricius Cent. 12. Abbot of Clugny in his Epistle against the Petrobusians tells them they ought of necessity to receive the whole Canon which is received by the Church and then having reckoned up the Canonical Books of the Old Testament as we do he adds That after these Authentick Books of the Holy Scripture Restant post hos Authentiâ—os sex non reticendi libri sapientia c. Pag. 25. c. de Autor Vet. Test there be Six not to be concealed viz. the Books of Wisdom Ecclesiasticus Tobit Judith and both the Books of Maccabees Hugo de Sancto Victore saith Sunt praeterea alii quidem libri ut sapientia Solomonis c. Qui leguntur quidem sed non scribuntur in Canone de scripturis scriptoribus Sacris Cap 6 Prolog in l. de Sacram c 7 And the division he says is made Authoritate universalis Eccl. Didasc l. 4. c. 1.2 Richardus
Testament to pass by the History of Tobit Judith and the Maccabees quia non sunt de Canone apud Hebraeos nec apud Christianos because they neither are esteemed Canonical by Jews nor Christians yea St. Jerom saith in his Prologue That inter Apocrypha cantantur the Church Chants them among the Apocrypha I therefore saith he first intend to write on the whole Canonical Scripture and then super istos alios qui communiter ponuntur in bibliis quamvis non sint de Canone upon those and other Books which are commonly put in our Bibles though they belong not to the Canon Moreover the Third and Fourth of Esdras he passeth over without Notes for the same Reason On the Thirteenth of Daniel he Notes thus The History of Susanna ought to be put inter libros Bibliae non Canonicos among the Books of the Bible which are not Canonical and in his Notes on the Fourteenth Chapter he saith of the History of Bell and the Dragon ponitur inter Scripturas non Canonicas it is put among those Scriptures which are not Canonical after the History of Susanna Now had not Lyra mentioned the Judgment of the Church touching these Books yet these Expressions in Comments of so great Credit in the Church sufficiently shew that this was then a Doctrine well received in the Church of Rome Antoninus Florentinus in his Historical Summs acknowledgeth only Twenty-two Canonical Books of the Old Testament Cent. 15. Sum. Hist part 1. Tit. 3. c. 4. c. 6. §. 12. saying in General of Wisdom Ecclesiasticus Tobit Judith and the Maccabees that Ecclesia recipit the Church receives them as true and profitable though not as of force in matters of Faith Unde forte habent Authoritatem talem qualem habent dicta istorum doctorum approbata ab Ecclesia Sum. Theol. part 3. Tit. 18. c. 6. §. 2. and in particular of Ecclesiasticus that it is receptus ab Ecclesia ad legendum non tamen Authenticus est ad probandum ea quae veniunt in contentionem fidei received by the Church to be read but is not Authentical to prove things doubtful in the Faith. Alphonsus Tostatus saith of the Six debated Books Praefat. in Matth. qu. 2. That they are not put into the Canon by the Church nor doth she regularly command them to be read or to be received or judge them disobedient who do not receive them For Ecclesia non est certa de Auctoribus eorum the Church is not certain of the Authors of them yea she knoweth not an spiritu sancto inspirati whether they were indited by Men inspired of the Holy Spirit and so she obliges no Man ad necessariò credendum id quod ibi habetur to yield necessary assent to what they do contain Enarrat praefat in l. paralip q. 7. And elsewhere Though saith he these Apocryphal Books be joined with others of the Bible and read in the Church none of them is of such Authority ut ex eo Ecclesia arguat ad probandam aliquam veritatem quantum ad hoc non recipit eos that the Church proves any truth out of them for as to that she doth not receive them Dionysius Carthusianus saith Praefat. in Gen. Art. 4. The Books of the Old Testament are Twenty-two as saith St. Jerom in his Prologue before the Kings and having reckoned them up Five Legal Eight Historical Nine Hagiographa he adds Hos libros vocant Canonicos alios vero Apocryphos These Books are called by Divines Canonical the rest Apocryphal In the Sixteenth Century Franciscus Ximenius reckons those Books of the Old Testament which were extant only in Greek Cent. 16. as Bibl. Complut Praef. ad Lect. Libri extra Canonem quos Ecclesia potius ad aedificationem populi quam ad auctoritatem Ecclesiasticorum dogmatum confirmandam recipit Books out of the Canon which the Church receives rather for Edification of the People than for confirmation of Ecclesiastical Doctrines Erasmus having numbered the Canonical Books of the Old Testament as we do In expos Symb. Apost Decal Catech. 4. vers finem Ed. Antver 1533. concludes thus Intra hunc numerum conclusit priscorum Authoritas Vet. Test volumina The Authority of the Ancients comprized the Volumes of the Old Testament of whose Truth it was not lawful to doubt within this number Johannes Ferus having told us that the Apocryphal Books were Nine In exam Ordinand he adds That olim in Ecclesia Apocryphi publicè non recitabantur nec quisquam Authoritate eorum premebatur anciently the Apocryphal Books were not read publickly nor was any Man pressed with their Authority Sebastian Munster in his Preface to the Old Testament and in the Chapter of the Canonical Books of the Old Testament numbers them exactly as we do and then he saith Intra hunc numerum concluserunt Hebraei prisci Christiani volumina veteris Testamenti Both the Hebrews and the ancient Christians comprized the Volumes of the Old Testament within this number but now the other which he reckons as we do excepting only the Song of the Three Children are received in usum Ecclesiasticum into the use of the Church Moreover from the Ninth Century in which the Ordinary Gloss upon the Bible was begun by Strabus to the Sixteenth they did not only number the Canonical and reject the Apocryphal Books as we do but they did it chiefly for the very reason that is assigned in our Article viz. among others the Authority of St. Jerom Card. Cajetan Praefat. super Josuam ad Clem. 7. declaring That Sancto Hieronymo universa Ecclesia Latina plurimum debet propter discretos ab eodem libros Canonicos à non Canonicis The universal Church is very much beholding to St. Jerom not only because he noted what Parts where added to the Books of the Old Testament or were but doubtful Appendixes but also for separating the Canonical from the uncanonical Books That the Church received those Books which he received and rejected those which he rejected That Consonat Hieronymus cus maxima habetur fides in Ecclesia is inquam Hieronymus in Prologo Galeato inter Canonicos libros V. Testamenti hosce duntaxat enumerat Firmiter tamen haerendum credo sententiae Hieronymi Cujus Autoritas me movit ne multo altius quam a suo tempore de librorum horum ordine disputarem cum illis floruerit temporibus quae doctis hominibus abundabant multa ex Gestis veterum Theologorum legerit quae nunc periere peritissimus quoque suit Graecae Hebraicae literaturae demum ejus testimonium ab Ecclesia pro sanctissimo habeatur Picus Mirand de fide ordinc credendi Theorem 5. Com. in libr. Hist V. Test In primum cap. Matth. ad v. 12. Testimonium Hieronymi quoad hoc ut Sacrosanctum habetur in Ecclesiâ as to this Matter the Church held his Testimony to
Command but being moved to it by the Light of Nature by which although they could not judge them necessary yet might they think them apt Testimonies of their Acknowledgment of God's Goodness to them and of their gratitude to him Now either in these Traditions the Fathers were mistaken or they were not if in these things delivered by them so unanimously they were mistaken this is a farther Argument of the uncertainty of Tradition if they were not mistaken then the Patriarchs before and since the Flood till Moses in their Religious Service were not led by Tradition much less by that alone but rather guided by the Light of Nature And to this Holy Scripture seems plainly to accord declaring That the Heathens had no positive Laws that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Knowledge of God was so revealed Rom. 1.19 20. by the Light of Nature to them That they became inexcusable in that they did not glorify him as God That the Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of Men was so revealed by the Light of Nature to them that they knew that they who did the evil Actions mentioned in the First of Romans were by God's righteous Judgment worthy of Death and that they were condemned in their own Consciences when they committed Sin V. 32. and were obnoxious to Tribulation Rom. 2.15 Wrath and Anguish from God's Justice for so doing though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Iniquity was by no positive Law forbidden V. 9 12. V. 15. Rom. 12.17 Rom. 2.10 15. That they had the Work of the Law written in their Hearts directing them to what was good teaching them what was honest in the Sight of all Men testifying to them that they did well in the Observance of those things and promising Glory Honour and Peace to them who did them That albeit they were Gentiles V. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having no Law positive or written to direct them yet were they by this Light of Nature a Law unto themselves and did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 keep the righteous Precepts of the Law. Now is it likely V. 26. if God had given to the heathen World so many positive Laws as are here mentioned And if they had been then so to be guided by Tradition and bound under the pain of Damnation to receive such Traditions as the positive Laws of God and to conveigh them still as such to Posterity they should be represented still as without Law As for the Instances here mentioned § 3 and not yet considered some of them vainly are affirmed to be Traditions as V. G. The Doctrine of Original Sin imputed and the Means to be delivered from it The Eternity of Rewards and Punishments The Prohibition of Polygamy Birds in Sacrifice not divided Cleansing and changing of their Garments Some of them might be learned by the Light of Nature as far as it was needful they should know them as What Repentance they were to use viz. That which consisted in ceasing to do Evil That the Soul had a Subsistence when separated from the Body That they who would not submit to the Laws of their Society should be excluded from it or not admitted to the Privileges of that Society which is Excommunication That it was fit to have Times and Places set apart for God's Worship and to tender to him the First Fruits and Tythes of our Encrease to make and pay our Vows to God not to marry with Idolaters Some of them being Matters of continual Practice might very easily be preserved by Tradition to Posterity as v. g. Circumcision not eating of Blood Oblation of First Fruits paying of Tythes though it is certain that they had then no Law for Tythes or offering of First Fruits the Distinction betwixt Clean and Vnclean Meats and Beasts And lastly most of those things which R. H. reckons up as positive Divine Laws are by the learned Dr. Spencer proved to be Customs received from the Gentiles into the Family of Abraham and taken up as things consonant to Reason though not commanded by it It is true also as R. H. observes That Abraham obeyed the Voice of God and kept his Charge his Commandments or moral Precepts Gen. 26.5 his Statutes touching the Service of the True God the Circumcision of his Family and his Laws or Judgments touching the doing Justice and Judgment and that he taught his Children so to do according as God himself had foretold of him Gen. 18.19 saying I know Abraham that he will command his Sons and his House after him to keep the Way of Jehovah to do Justice and Judgment But then it is as true In locum that Chrysostom referrs this Praise of Abraham to his Obedience to God's Voice in leaving of his Fathers House Custodia viae domini dictitur tempore Abrahae id quod cuique ex officio praestandum erat Seld. de jure Nat. l. 1. c. 8. p. 100. going he knew not whither and sojourning in a strange Land in offering his Son Isaac and in casting forth his Son Ismael and not to his observance of any positive and ceremonial Precepts delivered to him by Tradition The things which he conceives he was to teach his Children excepting Circumcision were likewise not of this nature but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do no Injury to preferr nothing before Justice things taught them by the light of Nature Moreover it well deserves to be observed § 4 That when it pleased God that these and many other Precepts of like nature should be observed by the Jews knowing how little Tradition was to be trusted and how quickly the Progeny of Adam and of Noah had deviated from it in the highest Matters he very exactly prescribes these things in Writings still to be perused by or read unto his People that they might learn to do the things he had commanded The Apostolical Constitutions teach That when Men had corrupted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 8. c. 12. the Law of Nature God gave the Jews the written Law. St. Chrysostom informs us That God gave not his Law in writing to Noah Abraham and Job but finding their Minds pure gave them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Grace of his Holy Spirit instead of Books but when the People of the Jews fell into the Gulf of Wickedness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Matth. p. 1. then was it necessary for them to have the Tables and the written Law to keep them in remembrance of their Duty Theophylact in like manner saith Proem in Matth. That when Men became unworthy to be taught and guided by the Holy Spirit then God the lover of Mankind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gave them the Scriptures that by them they might be made mindful of his Will Declaring that they knew nothing of the derivation of God's positive Worship by Tradition only but thought it necessary that it should be made known unto them either by Writing or the immediate dictates of the