As to the certainty of Scripture's Sense is Scripture in earnest so utterly obscure Will their Author say so of the Histories of Livie or Tacitus or of the Philosophical Writings of Plato and Aristotle or of Euclid's Elements Could not God speak clearly and intelligibly to Men as Men have done and that in matters of the greatest consequence to them or would he not do so The Assertion of the one would impeach his Wisdom of the other his mercy and kindness to Souls And if Scriptures leave us so quite in the dark why do they call themselves a Light a Lamp say Ps 119 105.13â— Ps 19.7 8. that they enlighten the Eyes and make wise the simple Were the Books of the Old Testament the Gospels Acts and Epistles of the New Testament in the respective times in which they were writ in themselves unintelligible by them to whom and for whose Souls health they were writ If they were so then they were useless and vain And Oral Tradition could not expound them which was not in Being when those Books were first written for That deals with the Ages following the first conveys what was at the first delivered unto Posterity Did God then write only to amaze his Church 'T is acknowledged that there are several 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things hard to be understood which it might please God should be partly to win the greater veneration to the Scriptures for what is obvious and presently seen through is in the more danger of contempt partly for the exercise of Christian's Industry Humility and Charity towards each other on occasion of dissent But howsoever the Scriptures are not so lock'd up but that a compâ—tent diligence and a Beraean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or readiness of mind may be a Key to them may open them in all Points necessary to Salvation And if in other things we remain ignorant or not so certain we may well bear with it while we are yet but in viâ and not comprehensores on our way unto but have not yet reach'd perfection That which makes the noise of Scriptur's obscurity the more loud is that Men are apt to look upon the many subtilties of the Schooles and Niceties of Polemick Writers as Articles of Faith and that men have more mind to fathom depths and to humour their curiosity for which end I believe the Scriptures were not intended and hence are ever racking the Scriptures and vexing the Sacred Text than to exercise themselves in a sober understanding of what is sufficiently plain and in a consciencious practise of the Holy Rules of Life which are evident enough If Christians would more seriously apply themselves to these two things they would find in the Scriptures employment enough and they would be more contented with their difficulties The Romanists have raised a cry of Scriptur's darkness upon another account and out of Policy For having embrac'd several Tenents and Practices which Scripture does condemn or not countenance either it is wholly silent of them or they are but meer appearances there which are snatch'd at and yet it is inconsistent with their grandeur or profit or the affected reputation of an infallibility to part with they are faine to press Tradition to serve in their Wars and for the defence of them Thus they have first made a necessity and then have invented a Remedy for it But when all is done the Remedy is more imaginary than real For how unsure a Conveyance and consequently how weak a Proof Oral Tradition is in matters of Christian Faith and Practice has been already evicted So that if we must be ignorant of Scriptures Sense unless Oral Tradition bless us with the Exposition of it and Scriptures no farther a Light than it is tinded at Tradition's Candle we must sit still in much ignorance or wander in great uncertainties for that cannot relieve us it is not that infallible Commentator it is pretended to be 2. To the upbraiding us with our Distractions I reply 1. Before the charge can be made good that the choice of Scripture for our Canon was the cause of our many Differences and that upon that pretence we should exchange Scripture for Oral Tradition it must be suppos'd that Oral Tradition is a sure and infallible clew to guide us out of the Labyrinth of Errors into the way of Truth and Peace the contrary to which has been sufficiently proved For otherwise to leave Scripture and to follow Tradition would be to relinquish a Guide or Rule which being indited by an unerring Spirit cannot mislead us and to chuse one which may and will carry us out of the way Nor will the pretence of Vnity make amends for this For true Christian Peace can't be otherwhere bottom'd than on Truth when and so far as it is a Cement of Men to the disservice of Truth it commences Faction Nor Reason nor Religion allow much less commend an Agreement of Persons to err together 2. They who have the most amorously espoused Tradition have also their many and great Differences as has been shew'd above only through Fear in some and Policy in the rest they are hush'd up more than amongst us and so do better escape the observation and talk of the World Nay that Church may be justly arraigned as the guilty cause of that which they call a great Schism viz. The Separation of so many Churches from them the Churches call'd Protestant by their imposition of unlawful and therefore impossible termes of Communion with them And (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nilus tells the World that their Imperiousness was the reason of the great Schism between the Greek and the Latin Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 21. 22. Thus as the Church of Traditioners have no few Dissentions among themselves so they have given a beginning and continuance to the quarrels between them and a considerable part of Christendom 3. Ther 's no need of fetching our Distractions from the Rejection of Oral Tradition there are are other true manifest Causes of them assignable Our Church once flourish'd with Peace and that without the aid of an Oral Tradition whil'st the Reverend Bishops were suffered to govern it and the Royal was able to countenance the Ecclesiastical Authority But when the pious King and blessed Martyr was engag'd in and diverted by the turmoils of a Civil War when Episcopacy was chang'd for Anarchy when the Golden reins of Government in Church and State were broken then begun and increas'd our Divisions and Calamities Unto which it may be there were some assisting Causes from without some who helped to kindle and to blow our Fires And if the Roman Church should chance into the like afflicted State with ours it would be obnoxious to the like Confusions If the Mitre should be forsaken by the secular Crowned Heads and a mutinying multitude should pull their Holy Father out of his infallible Chair then 't is not altogether improbable but that Children would less heavken
did decline so soon how much more probable is it that it should grow yet more feeble and corrupt at such a far greater distance of time As Waters which arise clear and of qualities agreeing with their Fountain the farther they run do the more contract a new relish and gather a foulness from the Chanels through which they travel SECT V. I proceed to the Christian Churches since the more Primitive times and as they are commonly divided into the Eastern and Western Churches so I shall begin with the Eastern and there speak of the Greek Church only In which I suppose none will question but that Christian Religion was planted in a very ample and punctual manner such as might have secur'd a perpetuity of Primitive Truths among the Professors of them as well as among any other Body of Christians This Church administers the Eucharist to the Laiety in both kinds allows Married Priests denys Purgatory-fire to add no more In these things the Roman Church differs from them One of them therefore must err and have receded from what was delivered at the first to them We believe the Roman Church to be guilty of the Recess and they to be sure will deny it But yet which soever it be of the Churches which is in the wrong and one of them must be so Oral Tradition is guilty of Mal-performance of its Duty But moreover this Church holds that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and not from the Son Which is a Tenent condemned by Protestants and Romanists both And the Grecians misbelief in this Article was judg'd by Card. Bellarmine so criminous that he counted it meritorious of the sacking of Constantinople which hapned accordingly in his calculation at the Feast of Pentecost Bellarm. de Christo lib. 2. cap. 30. as a Judgment of God upon them for this error about the Procession of his Holy Spirit And he adds That many compare the Greek Church to the Kingdom of Samaria which separated from the true Temple and for that was punish'd with perpetual Captivity How far charitable in his Censure and right in his (a) Vossius de tribus Symboli in Addendis Chronology the Cardinal was let others judge But this is clear that they of that Communion as they are very numerous so do generally consent in this Opinion that there has been an entail of it upon Posterity through hundreds of years and that though their Reduction has been more than once attempted yet endeavours have prov'd succesless the wound may have been skin'd over but it has not been heal'd (b) Idem Ibid. Though at the Councils of Lyons and Florence it is said there was something of a Closure yet as soon as the Greeks return'd home there was presently a Rupture again and the Churches remain'd at as great a distance as before And they retain their old Error (a) Ricaut of the Greek Church to this day and are observed to defend it with a particular dexterity The same Greek Church denies the Pope's Supremacy that (b) Summa Rei Christianae Bellar In Praef. ad lib. de summo Pontifice Diana of the Romanists They may have yielded the Bishop of Rome a (c) See Nilus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Primacy of Order and yet that too not as enstated on him by Divine Right but indulg'd him by the favour of Princes and Ecclesiastical Canon But they would never grant him a Superiority of Power and Authority They will not (d) Ricaut of the Greek Church yet allow it him These Opinions of the Greek Church cannot in the Judgment of the Romanists who hold contrarily to both and are so especially concern'd in the latter descend from Christ and his Apostles Therefore they must confess that Tradition has miscarried And Traditions miscarrying among so great and formerly renowned tho' now afflicted a Society of Christians for so very long a time and in Points of such moment must needs decry it much below that value to which its friends have enhans'd it SECT VI. Next shall succeed a consideration of the Western Church And what Church in the West would be more taken notice of than the Roman VVhere we are to find the most accurate Tradition or to despair of meeting with it any where They of that Communion having dress'd up and strengthned the Cause of Oral Tradition with the greatest advantages which their wit and learning can give it and claiming it as their (a) Sure Footing P. 116. Priviledge to be the most infallible Traditioners of any Church whatsoever Two things here may be considered 1. VVhat the Accord is of the Roman with the Antient Church 2ly VVhat her Harmony is with herself How well Oral Tradition has preserv'd her in both these respects First how little the Church of Rome comports in her Opinions and Practices with the most antient and purest Churches has been demonstrated by many Learned Protestants I shall insist but on one thing viz. The denyal of the Cup to the Laiety in the Eucharist by the Roman Church The Learned Cassander thought it could not be prov'd that (a) Non puto demonstrari posse totis mille ampliùs annis in ullâ Catholicae Ecclesiae parte sacrosanctum hoc Eucharistiae Sacramentum aliter in sacrâ synazi è mensâ Dominicâ fideli populo quà m sub utroque panis vinique Symbolo administratum fuisse De saerâ Comm. sub utrâque specie He is positive and large in this in his Consultation likewise Much to the same purpose Alphonsus a Castro Tit. Eucharistia Haeresi 13. For above a 1000 years the Sacrament of the Eucharist was otherwise administred to the faithful People than under the Elements of Bread and Wine both Several of our Adversaries give their suffrages with Cassander And the Greek Church administers to the Laiety in both kinds to the present Age. But let us come to that which will with our Adversaries be of more Authority The Council of (a) Praeterea declarat hane potestatem perpetuò in Ecclesiâ fuisse ut in Sacramentorum dispensatione salva illorum substantia ea statueret vel mutaret quae suscipientium utilitati seu ipsorum Sacramentorum venerationi pro rerum temporum locorum varietate magis expedire judicaret Quare agnoscens mater Ecclesia hanc suam in administratione Sacramentorum Anthoritatem licèt ab initio Christianae religionis non infrequens utriusque speciei usus fuisset tamen hanc consuetudinem sub alterâ specie communicandi approbavit pro lege habendam decrevit Sess 5. Can. 2. Apud Caran Trent confesses That from the beginning of Christian Religion the use of both Bread and Wine was not uncommon Yet licèt although such had been the Primitive and not uncommon usage the Council approv'd of Communicating under one kind and decreed it to be observed as a Law And this the Council did by virtue of a pretended Power of the Church to appoint and to
of such a Belief of Posterity concerning such an Obligation 'T is well known that antiently and in several Ages of the Church scarce a new Opinion could start up but it found Abettors 'T is strange if there were indeed such a persuasion as is pretended fix'd in the hearts of Christians that so often they should have left the Road and turn'd into an unbeaten Path in former Ages To come neerer to our own Times The Relinquishers of the Roman Tenents and Communion the Deserters as our Adversaries call them of Tradition were like the Croud in St. John's Vision a great Multitude which no man can number of many Nations and Kindreds People and Tongues People divided by diversity of Climates and vast spaces of Earth and Seas of various Complexions of Body and Dispositions of Soul of different Education manner of Life and Civil Interests This being undeniably true how utterly improbable is it that so many Myriads differenced by so many considerable Circumstances should so unanimously agree in a departure from the Roman Church i. e. in the Style of our Adversaries in a defection from Tradition if there had really been such a common Charm and great Principle regnant among them and uniting them in an Obsequious adherence to their Fathers Faith and in an opposition to any alteration of their Belief Especially it is yet the more improbable if it be remembred that many of these adventur'd on a change through the sharpest Persecutions And the Successors of those first Reformers have maintain'd the Secession toward two Centuries of years and are so well fatisfied in it that they are generally averse from a return to the Roman Communion unto which nothing but force is likely to reduce them if even That can do it By this it appears how highly improbable that Position is viz. That it is impossible that Men should not think themselves obliged to believe (a) Sure Footing p. 216. and to do as their Predecessors did Or if a very great improbability be suppos'd and that the Secessors from Rome had such a Belief of a Tye upon them unto the Faith and Practice of Ancestors then for certain they acted contrarily to that Belief But howsoever Act they did and Counter to the Age then and some Ages before And even this will weaken Oral Tradition's indefectibility For what hapned in this alteration may have hapned in the Ages before Tho' Children suppose did conceive an Obligation upon them to the same Faith with that of their Fathers and because it was their Fathers yet if they might move contrarily to them notwithstanding such a believed engagement there might be a Rupture in Tradition as surely as if they had had no sense of such Obligation So that I do not see if it should be granted that there had been and were still in all Generations such a persuasion of Posterities Obligation to believe and to practice just as Forefathers did how such a Concession would quite do Oral Tradition's business For tho' it may be well argued negatively if Posterity did not conceive themselves oblig'd to believe and to do as their Fathers did there can be no certainty of Oral Tradition yet it does not necessarily follow on the other side and affirmatively if successive Generations do believe themselves engag'd to believe and to practise just as the foregoing did therefore it will be sure that they will so believe and practise The reason is because Men do not always nay too seldom what they know it is their Duty to do And tho' they who first departed from Tradition might proceed against conviction of their Obligation to the contrary yet their Successors not discerning the manner of the first departure might continue it as the 200 Men followed Absalom in their simplicity till continuance grew into a Prescription and gain'd the Port of Tradition But notwithstanding that the so numerous Relinquishers of Rome render it very improbable that there was or is a belief generally rooted in the minds of Men that they are bound to believe and to do conformably to Fathers yet it may be perhaps said to counterballance this that they who keep still constant to Rome and to Tradition are remarkably numerous And it is confess'd they are too many But it may rationally be questioned whether all or the greatest part of them do stay in that Communion out of a fix'd belief that they are bound to believe as their Fathers did I am sure their Being of that Church does not evince such a Belief in them because there are divers other Causes which may detain them on that side besides such a persuasion As Ignorance Education Prepossession and Wontedness to it variety of great Preferments and Grandure secular Pomp and Splendor the profitableness and pleasingness of some Doctrines fear from the Princes who are Popish and of Civil Penalties dread of Ecclesiastical Censures and of the Inquisition Were they of the Roman Party more free the Rod not so held over them were Punishments not so severely threatned and executed on Revolters we should better understand how devoted submitters they were to Oral Tradition and how much they were convinced of it as a necessary Duty not to let their Faith alter from that of Ancestors The summ of this Section is this 1. That it has not been proved that there is an Obligation on Posterity to believe Forefathers nay the contrary has been proved 2ly That if there were such an Obligation yet it is not necessary that Posterity should conceive themselves to be under such an Obligation 3ly That if they did conceive themselves to be so obliged yet it does not necessarily follow that they would move according to their Sense of such an Obligation Therefore on this third Head there is not sufficient security given for Oral Tradition's infallibility SECT IV. 4ly The Author of the Answer to the Lord Falkland's Discourse of the Infallibility of the Church of Rome says P. 10 11 12. That a deeper root which greatly strengthens and reduces into action the efficacity of Tradition is that Christian Doctrine is not a speculative knowledge but it is an Art of living a practical Doctrine The consequence of which is that it is not possible that any material Point of Christian Faith can be changed as it were by obreption whilest Men are on sleep but it must needs raise a great scandal and tumult in the Christian Common-weal We remember in a manner as yet how Change came into Germany France Scotland and our own Country Let those be a signe to us what we may think can be the creeping in of false Doctrine specially that there is no point of Doctrine contrary to the Catholick Church rooted in any Christian Nation that the Ecclesiastical History does not mention the times and combats by which it entred and tore the Church in pieces Here 's another Argument for the great Efficacy of Tradition in that it prevents Obreptions so that the Church can't be assaulted by
any material Error but it is strait Alarum'd and then stands upon its guard and consequently is in a capacity to defend and to preserve it self And this is one reason more why the Church receiving her Faith by Tradition and not from Doctors Ibid. p. 44. hath ever kept her entire Answ 1. But first to wave a consideration how little an alteration some Doctrines cause in Christians Practice whether they are held pro or con it is deny'd that it was not possible that any material Point of Faith can be chang'd as it were by Obreption but it must needs raise a great Scandal and Tumult in the Christian Common-weal For that there should be a noise and tumult in the Church it was requisite that there should be a Breach of Communion a separation of one part from another Thus it hapned in the Arrian controversie and some others there was a manifest siding a departure of the Dissenters from each other Such was the Case too in Germany England c. Several Corruptions had possess'd the Church of Rome for a long time and that Church made the Profession and Practice of those corruptions a Condition of Communion with her upon which the Protestants withdrew from her Communion which occasion'd the notice of the World and the Guilt lies on them who were the cause of the Breach who gave the Offence But there may have been Innovations in Doctrine and Discipline too and yet the Members of the Church have still continued mutual Communion and therefore no cry have been rais'd little if any notice been taken not because of the little consequence of the Doctrine or Practice but tho' it might be considerable by reason of its surprizing manner of entrance Some things in their first beginnings because small and in their progresses because stealing on sensim sine sensu by invisible steps are often little if at all discern'd till arriving at some maturity and a size much exceeding what they had in their Infancy and sly growth they then manifest themselves and awaken other's Observation Is it not thus frequently in Nature Are there not some latent Diseases which make secret attempts upon the Life and undiscover'd till by more sensible effects and rudeness to Nature they warn the Patient of his danger Let us enquire whether the like may not have hapned in Religion also It has not been uncommon for Persons of busie Parts and good Credit for Virtue and Learning in their times to have mov'd in a little Sphere of their own to have held some Opinions against or beside the general Vogue of the Age. Now suppose one such Person in Preaching or Writing to have started a Doctrine This coming into the Church commended by the Reputation and plausible Arguments of the Author wins the good liking of many and is passable as a probable Opinion for some years Till in the next Generation through a wontedness to it and a forgetfulness in what degree of assent it was at the first entertain'd it comes to be believ'd as necessary Which advance would be the more facile and likely if the Doctrine were such as had not been expresly defin'd against in any general Council for then it would pass with the greater shew of Modesty or were very advantageous and particularly were such to the governing Party in the Church as suppose the Doctrine of the Supreme and Universal Domination of the Bishop of Rome or that of Pardons and Indulgences c. for then Interest would cast another weight into the Scale and it might be judg'd convenient to be believ'd as necessary By a zealous straining of Expressions and Practices there might in time be a slip from the Mean to an Extremity The high and deserv'd Veneration for the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper might occasion some lofty expressions of it and reverential Gestures at the Celebration of it And then from the Hyperbolies of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. might arise Transubstantiation and Adoration of the Host There may have been very antiently a Solemn and Publick Commemoration of them who dyed in the Lord in way of Thanksgiving to God for such holy useful Persons and of recommendation of them as Religious Exemplars to the People It may be some too might pray for the Dead out of a superabundant Charity yet not for a release of them from Pains but for a more speedy consummation of their begun blessedness And hence in time might creep in an Opinion of a middle state of the departed and Prayers for the deliverance of Souls out of a Purgatory fire As the first Ages of the Church were Blessed with a multitude of Glorious Martyrs so the Christians of those Ages had a very high and fitting esteem of them Sometimes it was an use to pray at the Monuments of the Martyrs to address them also with Rhetorical Apostrophes till at the last the Saints departed came to be prayed to and to be Worshipped Thus it is intelligible enough how there might be alterations in the Church's Doctrine and Practice by stealth and unobservedly and this is sufficient to oppose to the Authors whom I quoted at the beginning of this Section it is not possible that any material Point should be chang'd as it were by Obreption c. But this secret and little notic'd Intrusion of Opinions and Practices into the Church will be found to have been the more feasible if we look back upon former Ages in it and the Genius of them For a great while Learning was very scarce and Piety likewise The Ignorance Irreligion and Debaucheries of the Laiety and Clergy also were so notorious in the eleventh and following Centuries that they occasion'd the great and loud (a) The Authors and the Collections out of them may be seen in Dr. J. White 's Way to the trâ—e Church p. 113 114 115. In Dr. James his Manuduction 103 104 105 106 107 108. And in Dr. Whitby's Absurdity and Idolatry of Host Worship the Appendix from p. 70 to p. 108. complaints of many who liv'd in the Roman Communion and in the respective Ages and may provoke to wonder and grief Those who shall read them This being adverted to 't is so far from being impossible that Changes should invade Religion that rather 't is impossible but that Doctrines and Practices should be corrupted and alter'd from their first Purity in their passage through so long and foul a sink as those dark and impure Ages are represented to have been For as good Knowledge and Piety are great defensatives against Error 's seizure of the Judgment so Ignorance in the Understanding lewdness and depravedness of the Will and Passions make Men indifferent for Religion and unwary in the matters of it dispose Men to a reception of Opinions and Practices precipitantly and without a due Examination of them whence they come and what they are without a discreet prospect whether they tend and what their issue may be at the last So that from what has
suppos'd for private Interest to have dissembled their Religion either then or immediately before But if we look higher there is what is much more remarkable It is Famous there was a time when the (a) Tum haeresis Arrii prorupit totúmque Orbem invecto Errore turbaverat Etenim duobus Arriis acerrimishujus perfidiae Autoribus Imperator etiam depravatur Dúmque sibi Religionis Officium videtur implere vim persecutionis exercuit actique in Exilium Episcopi saevitum in Clericos animadversum in Laicos qui se ab Arrianorum communione secreverant Sulpic. Sev. Sac. Histor Lib. 2. World turn'd Arrian the Orthodox Profession being under Persecution After what has been said among such hazards such incident Biassings of the Affections and Judgment how unsafe must an Oral Tradition be i. e. the trusting of the great Concerns of Religion with Man's good Nature his Constancy and Faithfulness to Divine Truths through Ages But it may be it will be replyed to the mention of the Doctrines of Arrius and Pelagius and the bustle they made in the Christian world that yet the Catholick Doctrines did recover and pass to after-Ages And we are told that (a) Sure Footing p. 118 119. erroneous Opinions and absurd Practices tho' they may creep into the Church and spread there awhile yet can never gain any solid Footing in the Church Forasmuch as the Church is a Body of Men relying on Tradition or the Authority of Attesting Forefathers not on the Authority of Opinators c. In return to this 'T is confess'd that the Doctrines assaulted by Arrius and Pelagius were rescued and preserved But 1. In and about that time there was such a Constellation of Pious and Learned Lights of the Church as could scarce be parallell'd in the Ages before or afterwards This might be an especial Cause that those Truths out-liv'd their Opposition It may be questioned whether if the Errors of Arrius or Pelagius had been started and as vigorously manag'd in the Ignorant and Corrupt Ages which follow'd afterwards they might not have found as easy an Entertainment and have as generally prevailed as some other Errors did 2ly But how will it be prov'd that it was by the strength of Oral Tradition that these Truths were recovered and continued To speak only of the Divinity of Christ impugn'd by Arrius besides what has been said in the foregoing part 1. There was manifestly a Civil Cause interposing for the Restauration of a publick and free Profession of it For as the Frown of the Prince Constantius and his Party arm'd with force suppress'd the Orthodox Opinion So the contrary inclination and favour of succeeding Princes countenance from the secuâ—ular Power restor'd it So that this Resurrection of that Truth was not from Orel Traditions strength an impossibility of its sailure but was owed to Causes extrinsick and which might or might not have been For there was no necessity that the Emperers should be Orthodox or Favourers of the Orthodox Opinion and if they had continued still Arrian and Persecutors of the Orthodox and so there had been still the same Fears it is as likely that Arrianisme would still have been the general Profession as it is That the same Cause still existing and working after the same manner would produce the same Effect 2ly If we look after the Religious Cause why may we not ascribe the Revival of the Truth to Holy Scriptures For the Fathers had recourse to Them during it's Depression and after it (a) Vnum hoc ego per hanc dignationis tue sinceram audientiam rogo ut praesente Synodo quae nunc de fide litigat paucis me de Scripturis Evangelicis digneris audite Fidem Imperator quaeris audâ— eam non de novis chaâ—tulis sed de Dei libris Audi rogo ea quae de Christo sunt Scripta ne sub eis ea quae non Scripta sunt praediâ—entur Summitte ad ea quae de libris locuturus sum aures tuas In Libâ—o ad Constantium Augusâ—um propiùs â—â—em St. Hilary Truth 's great Champion against the Arrians is frequent in Citation of Scripture for it And in his Address to Constantius He entreats that Constantius would vouchsafe the Synod being present which debated about the Faith to hear him in a few words from the Evangelical Scriptures And soon afterwards Thou requirest my Faith O Emperor hear it not from new Papers but from the Books of God Where He opposes New Papers or Writings not to Antient Oral Tradition but to the Divine Books There is something more to the like Sense in the Margent After him (a) Nec ego Nicaenam Synodum tibi nec tu Arimenensem mihi debes tanquam praejudicaturus objicere Scripturarum authoritatibus res cum re causa cum causa ratio cum ratione concertet Contra Maxim Lib. 3 Cap. 14. St. Augustine tells the Arrian Maximinus He would not object to him the Synod of Nice nor should he urge to him that of Ariminum but he would have the dispute to be manag'd by Authority of Scriptures That which was thus us'd in Proof and Defence of this Article of Faith both under Persecution and after it why may not That deserve to have the honour of it's Preservation and Restitution viz. the Holy Scripture Especially when as Holy Scriptures being an unvaried and permanent Standard in all alterations of the Church's State have an aptitude for such a Purpose whereas Oral Tradition has no probable Energy for it For they of that Age when Arrianism was generally regnant either really changed their Judgment about the Consubstantiality of the Son with the Father and then according to our Adversaries Principle they would teach their Children as they judg'd and believ'd themselves and so the Arrian Opinion would have continued Or they smother'd and dissembled their Opinion out of fear and profess'd contrarily to their Judgment And in this Hypocrisie either their Children discover'd them or not If not then much the same Effect would follow If they did know it then they would scruple to believe them even in other Truths as Witnesses and Traditioners are no more than such For Hypocrisie weakens the Credit of a Witness and gets him this disadvantage that he will be the more hardly believ'd even when he speaks truth And in this particular Truth Children would have been put at the least to the stand For tho' the Posterity might satisfie themselves that the Age before the last generally embrac'd the Tenent contrary to the Arrian yet they might be tempted to doubt whether as their immediate Fathers made shew of believing the Opinion they secretly condemn'd so in remoter Ages Forefathers might not publickly profess the Divinity of Christ rather out of compliance with the humour of the Times they liv'd in than from their Hearts and so the Tenent might have stoln down through following Ages the manner of it's old reception and Hypocritical Profession being lost For why might not