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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62581	The rule of faith, or, An answer to the treatises of Mr. I.S. entituled Sure-footing &c. by John Tillotson ... ; to which is adjoined A reply to Mr. I.S. his 3d appendix &c. by Edw. Stillingfleet.	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.; Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699. Reply to Mr. I.S. his 3d appendix.	1676 (1676)	Wing T1218; ESTC R32807	182,586	472

sense and explication thereof to have descended to them by Oral Tradition For just as the Traditionary Christians do now so Josephus tells us the Traditionary Jews of old the Pharisees did pretend by their Oral Tradition to interpret the Law more accurately and exactly than any other Sect. In like manner he tells us That all things that belonged to Prayer and Divine Worship were regulated and administred according to their interpretations of the Law And they both agree in this to make void the Word of God by their Tradition which the Pharisees did no otherwise than Mr. S. does by equalling Oral Tradition to Scripture nay preferring it above Scripture in making it the sole Rule of Faith and interpreting the Scripture according to it Hence are those common sayings in the Talmud and other Jewish Books Do not think that the written Law is the foundation but that the Law Orally delivered is the right foundation which is to say with Mr. S. that not the Scripture but Oral Tradition is the true Rule of Faith Again There is more in the words of the Scribes viz. the Testifiers of Tradition than in the words of the written Law Again The Oral Law excells the Written as much as the Soul doth the Body which accords very well with what Mr. S. frequently tells us That the Scripture without Tradition is but a dead Letter destitute of life and sense Hence also it is that they required the People as the Traditionary Church does now to yield up themselves to the dictates of Tradition even in the most absurd things as appears by that common saying among them If the Scribes say that the right hand is the left and the left the right that Bread is Flesh and Wine is Blood hearken to them that is make no scruple of whatsoever they deliver as Tradition though never so contrary to Reason or Sense And lastly The Doctrines of the Pharisees were many of them practical such were all those which concerned external rites and observances as washing of hands and cups c. So that these Pharisaical Traditions had also that unspeakable advantage which Mr. S. says renders their Traditions unmistakeable That they were daily practised and came down clad in such plain matters of Fact that the most stupid man living could not possibly be ignorant of them Therefore according to Mr. S's Principles it was impossible that any Age of the Jews should be perswaded that these things were commanded by Moses and ever since observed if they had not been so And yet our Saviour denies these Customs to have been of any such Authority as they pretended § 2. But I needed not to have taken all this pains to shew the agreement which is between the Traditionary Jews and Papists their own Writers so liberally acknowledging it Mr. White indeed says That the Faith of the Jews was not delivered to them Orally but by Writing than which nothing can be more inconsistent with his Hypothesis For if the Jewish Faith was conveyed to them not Orally but by Writing then either the Jewish Church had no sufficient Rule of Faith or else a Writing may be such a Rule But other of their Champions make great use of the Parallel between the Traditionary Jews and the Romish Church to confirm from thence their own Traditionary Doctrines Cardinal Perron hath a full passage to this purpose As this says he is to preserve a sound and entire respect to the Majesty of the ancient Mosaick Scripture to believe and observe not only all the things which are therein actually contained but also those things which are therein contained mediately and relatively as the Doctrines of Paradise c. which were not contained therein but mediately and by the authority which it gave to the deposition of the Patriarchal and Mosaick Tradition preserved by heart and in the Oral Doctrine of the Synagogue So this is to preserve a sound and entire respect to the Majesty of the Apostolical Scripture to believe and observe all the things which it contains not only immediately and by it self but mediately and by reference to the Apostolical Traditions to which in gross and generally it gives the Authority of Apostolical Doctrines and to the Church the Authority of Guardian and Depositary to preserve and attest them Voysin in his Observations upon Raymundus Martyn tells us That as in the Old Law the great Consistory at Jerusalem was the foundation of the true Tradition so says he the See of Rome is the foundation of our Traditions And as the continual succession of the High Priests and Fathers among the Jews was the great confirmation of the Truth of their Traditions so says he with us the Truth of our Catholick Doctrine is confirmed by a continual succession of Popes § 3. From all this it appears that the Pharisees among the Jews made the same pretence to Oral Tradition which the Papists do at this day according to Mr. S. And if so then Mr. S's Demonstration a Posteriori is every whit as strong for the Jews against our Saviour as it is for the Papists against the Protestants For we find that in our Saviour's time it was then the present perswasion of the Traditionary Jews that their Faith and their Rites and the true sense and interpretation of their written Law was descended from Moses and the Prophets to them uninterruptedly which we find was most firmly rooted in their hearts But the Jews had a constant Tradition among them that the Messiah was to be a great temporal Prince And though the Letters of the Prophesies concerning him might well enough have been accommodated to the low and suffering condition of our Saviour yet they did infallibly know that their Messiah was to be another kind of person from sense written in their hearts from the interpretation of those Prophesies Orally brought down to them from the Patriarchal and Mosaick Tradition preserved by heart and in the Oral Doctrine of the Synagogue and from the living voyce of their Church essential that is the universal consent of the then Traditionary Jews If it be said That the Jewish Tradition did indeed bring down several Doctrines not contained in Scripture of Paradise of Hell of the last Judgment of the Resurrection c. as Cardinal Perron affirms but it did not bring down this Point of the Messiah's being a Temporal Prince Then as Mr. S. asks us so the Jew does him By what vertue Tradition brought down those other Points and whether the same vertue were not powerful to bring down this as well as those Then he will ask him farther Is there not a necessary connexion and relation between a constant Cause and its formal Effect So that if its formal Effect be Points received as delivered ever the proper Cause must be an ever-delivery whence he will argue from such an Effect to its Cause for any particular Point and consequently for this Point that is in Controversie between Jews

more necessarily than any natural causes now how they can do so upon voluntary Agents I desire Mr. S. to inform me § 3. He proceeds by a long Harangue to shew That not only these material Characters in themselves are corruptible but in complexion with the causes actually laid in the World to preserve them entire because either those causes are material and then they are also liable to continual alterations or spiritual that is the minds of men and from these we may with good reason hope for a greater degree of constancy than from any other piece of nature which by the way is a very strange Paradox that the actions of voluntary Agents have a greater certainty and constancy in them than those of natural Agents of which the fall of Angels and Men compared with the continuance of the Sun and Stars in their first state is a very good evidence § 4. But he adds a Caution That they are perfectly unalterable from their nature and unerrable if due circumstances be observed that is if due proposals be made to beget certain knowledg and due care used to attend to such proposals But who can warrant That due proposals will always be made to men and due care used by them If these be uncertain where 's the constancy and unerrableness he talks so much of So that notwithstanding the constancy of this spiritual cause the mind of man of preserving Scriptures entire yet in order to this as he tells us So many actions are to be done which are compounded and made up of an innumerable multitude of several particularities to be observed every of which may be mistaken apart each being a distinct little action in its single self such as is the transcribing of a whole Book consisting of such Myriads of words single letters and tittles or stops and the several actions of writing over each of these so short and cursory that it prevents diligence and exceeds humane care to keep awake and apply distinct attentions to every of these distinct actions Mr. Rushworth much outdoes Mr. S. in these minute Cavils for he tells us That supposing an Original Copy of Christs words written by one of the Evangelists in the same language let him have set down every word and syllable yet men conversant in noting the changes of meanings in words will tell us that divers accents in the pronunciation of them the turning of the speakers head or body this way or that way c. may so change the sense of the words that they will seem quite different in writing from what they were in speaking I hope that Oral and Practical Tradition hath been careful to preserve all these circumstances and hath deliver'd down Christ's Doctrine with all the right Traditionary Accents Nods and Gestures necessary for the understanding of it otherwise the omission of these may have so altered the sense of it that it may be now quite different from what it was at first But to answer Mr. S. We do not pretend to be assured that it is naturally impossible that the Scriptures should have been corrupted or changed but only to be sufficiently assured that they have not received any material alteration from as good Arguments as the nature of the Subject will bear But if his Reason had not been very short and cursory he might easily have reflected that Oral Tradition is equally liable to all these contingencies For it doth as much prevent diligence and exceed humane care to keep awake and apply distinct attentions to the distinct actions of speaking as of writing And I hope he will not deny that a Doctrine Orally delivered consists of words and letters and accents and stops as well as a Doctrine written and that the several actions of speaking are as short and cursory as of writing § 5. Secondly He tells us Scripture formally considered as to its significativeness is also uncertain First Because of the uncertainty of the letter This is already answered Secondly Because the certain sense of it is not to be arrived to by the Vulgar who are destitute of Languages and Arts. True where men are not permitted to have the Scriptures in their own Language and understand no other But where they are allowed the Scriptures translated into their own Language they may understand them all necessary points of Faith and Practice being sufficiently plain in any Translation of the Bible that I know of And that eminent Wits cannot agree about the sense of Texts which concern the main points of Faith hath been spoken to already § 6. As for the Reverence he pretends to Scripture in the conclusion of his Fourth Discourse he might have spared that after all the raillery and rudeness he hath used against it It is easie to conjecture both from his principles and his uncivil expressions concerning them what his esteem is of those Sacred Oracles Probably it was requisite in prudence to cast in a few good words concerning the Scriptures for the sake of the more tender and squeamish Novices of their Religion or as Mr. Rushworth's Nephew says frankly and openly for the satisfaction of indifferent men that have been brought up in this verbal and apparent respect of the Scripture who it seems are not yet attained to that degree of Catholick Piety and Fortitude as to endure patiently that the Word of God should be reviled or slighted Besides that in reference to those whom they hope hereafter to convert who might be too much alienated from their Religion if he had expressed nothing but contempt towards a Book which Protestants and Christians in all Ages till the very dregs of Popery have been bred up to a high veneration of it was not much amiss to pass this formal complement upon the Bible which the wise of his own Religion will easily understand and may serve to catch the rest But let him not deceive himself God is not mocked SECT VI. § 1. SEcondly He comes to shew That the Properties of a Rule of Faith belong to Oral Tradition And First He gives a tedious explication of the nature of this Oral Practical Tradition which amounts to this That as in reference to the civil Education of Children they are taught their own and others names to write and read and exercise their Trades So in reference to Religion the Children of Christians first hear sounds afterwards by degrees get dim notions of God Christ Saviour Heaven Hell Vertue Vice and by degrees practise what they have heard they are shewn to say Grace and their Prayers to hold up their hands or perhaps eyes and to kneel and other postures Afterwards they are acquainted with the Creed Ten Commandments and Sacraments some common Forms of Prayer and other practises of Christianity and are directed to order their lives accordingly and are guided in all this by the actions and carriage of the elder faithful and this goes on by insensible degrees not by leaps from

either wholly or for the far greatest part of them take upan humour against propagating Mankind And yet both History and the experience of the present Age assures us that a great part of Asia and of Africk where the most flourishing Churches in the World once were are fallen off from Christianity and become either Mahometans or Heathens In Africk almost all those vast Regions which Christianity had gained from Heathenism Mahometanism hath regained from Christianity All the North-part of Afrique lying along the Mediterranean where Christianity flourish't once as much as ever it did at Rome is at this time utterly void of Christians excepting a few Towns in the hands of the European Princes And not to mention all particular places the large Region of Nubia which had as is thought from the Apostles time professed the Christian Faith hath within these 150 years for want of Ministers as Alvarez tells us quitted Christianity and is partly revolted to Heathenism partly fallen off to Mahometanism So that it seems that notwithstanding the Arguments of hope and fear the very Teachers of Tradition may fail in a largely extended Church As for Asia in the Easterly parts of it there is not now one Christian to four of what there were 500 years ago and in the more Southerly parts of it where Christianity had taken deepest root the Christians are far inferiour in number to the Idolaters and Mahometans and do daily decrease What thinks Mr. S. of all this Have those Christian Nations which are turn'd Mahometans and Pagans failed in their Faith or not If they have I expect from him clear Instances of more that have failed in propagating their kind § 7. But besides those who have totally Apostatized from Christianity hath not the whole Greek Church with the Jacobites and Nestorians and all those other Sects which agree with and depend upon these and which taken together are manifoldly greater than the Roman Church I say have not all these renounced Tradition for several Ages And here in Europe hath not a great part of Poland Hungary both Germany's France and Switzerland Have not the Kingdoms of great Brittain Denmark Sweden and a considerable part of Ireland in Mr. S's opinion deserted Tradition If I should once see a whole Nation fail because no body would marry and contribute to the propagation of Mankind and should find this sullen humour to prevail in several Nations and to overspread vast Parts of the World I should then in good earnest think it possible for Mankind to fail unless I could shew it impossible for other Nations to do that which I see some to have done who were every whit as unlikely to have done it So that whatever cause he assigns of Heresie as Pride Ambition Lust or any other vice or interest if these can take place in whole Nations and make them renounce Tradition then where 's the efficacy of the causes to preserve Faith indeficiently entire in any For the Demonstration holds as strongly for all Christians as for any § 8. Secondly From these grounds it would follow that no Christian can live wickedly because the end of Faith being a good life the arguments of hope and fear must in all Reason be as powerful and efficacious causes of a good life as of a true belief And that his Demonstration proves the one as much as the other will be evident from his own reasoning for he argues in this manner Good is the proper object of the will good propos'd makes the will to desire that good and consequently the known means to obtain it Now infinite goods and harms sufficiently proposed are of their own nature incomparably more powerful causes to carry the will than temporal ones Since then when two causes are counterpoised the lesser when it comes to execution is no cause as to the substance of that effect it follows that there is no cause to move the wills of a World of Believers to be willing to do that which they judge would lose themselves and their Posterity infinite goods and bring them infinite harms c. in case a sufficient Proposal or Application be not wanting which he tells us is not wanting because Christianity urged to execution gives its followers a new life and a new nature than which a nearer Application cannot be imagined Doth not this Argument extend to the lives of Christians as well as their Belief So that he may as well infer from these grounds that it is impossible that those who profess Christianity should live contrary to it as that they should fail to deliver down the Doctrine of Christ because whatever can be an inducement and temptation to any man to contradict this Doctrine by his practice may equally prevail upon him to falsifie it For why should men make any more scruple of damning themselves and their Posterity by teaching them false Doctrines than by living wicked Lives which are equally pernicious with Heretical Doctrines not only upon account of the bad influence which such examples of Fathers and Teachers are like to have upon their Scholars but likewise as they are one of the strongest arguments in the World to perswade them that their Teachers do not themselves believe that Religion which they teach for if they did they would live according to it Why should any man think that those arguments of hope and fear which will not prevail upon the generality of Christians to make them live holy Lives should be so necessarily efficacious to make them so much concerned for the preserving of a right Belief Nay we have great reason to believe that such persons will endeavour as much as may be to bend and accommodate their Belief to their Lives And this is the true source of those Innovations in Faith for which we challenge the Church of Rome which any man may easily discern who will but consider how all their new Doctrines are fitted to a secular Interest and the gratifying of that inordinate appetite after riches and dominion which reigns in the Court of Rome and in the upper part of the Clergy of that Church SECT IV. § 1. SEcondly The main grounds of his Demonstration are apparently false For First This Demonstration supposeth that the generality of Christian Parents in all Ages perfectly understood the Doctrine of Christ and did not mistake any part of it that they remembred it perfectly and that they were faithful and diligent to instruct their Children in it which is as contrary to experience as that the generality of Christians are knowing and honest It supposeth likewise that this Doctrine and every substantial part of it was received and remembred by the generality of Children as it was taught and was understood perfectly by them without the least material mistake So he tells us That the substance of Faith comes clad in such plain matters of Fact that the most stupid man living cannot possibly be ignorant of it But whether this be