satisfaction in all points as well as in some Ah how palpable is the folly of vain and proud man when he opposes the wisdom of God But when I seriously consider what this man writes of the Scriptures referring us for the rest of our Faith to the Church or universal Tradition I cannot but wonder at his confidence of your credulity if you were bound to take his word who offers no proof of what he affirms But we shall justly conclude him to bely the Scripture till he or some body for him produce some place of Scripture which expressely referrs us for some important points of Religion unwritten to the oral teaching of the Church or to the universal Tradition of Christendom If this Querist be asked the Question Where hath Scripture made the partition of the Faith into the Word of God written and the word unwritten and set up a Christian to stand as the Angel in St. John's vision stood with the right foot on the Sea and the left foot on the land with one foot on the unstable waters of Tradition and the other fixed on the firm ground of Scripture he must be as mute as the man without the wedding garment was But after all this pray observe how irreconcileable this mans allowance of Scripture to be a Rule clear enough for many weighty points of Religion is with his Conclusion That the sole Rule general for all persons and all points of Religion is universal Tradition 3. Whereas he spends time to oppose a Christians receiving and knowing what he is to believe what not by his sole perusal of Gods written word he fights not against any assertion of ours but against his own Jackstraw we advise Christians to make use of faithful guides as well as the light and to learn the use of the Rule by conferring with spiritual builders that can inform them in the application of it and not to neglect any meanes which God offers them for their conduct in the way of truth 4. The common Objections against the dignity and efficacy of Scripture which Papists repeat usque ad nauseam to the Scandal of Christianity and the advancement of Atheism are abundantly answered by the Champians of our Religion to which I would refer you if I did not know you able to discover their impertinency and impiety together But I will put you in mind that the unlearned Protestants if they depend upon the credit of others what are the words of Scripture when the Laick that cannot read hears the Minister that doth and may ask his neighbour that can read whether the Minister read right and the ignorant may ask the learned and the weak Christian may ask the strong and all men by some means or other may be satisfyed of the words of Scripture being faithfully delivered unto them are in no worse condition then unlearned Papists who depend upon the credit of surly and very often silly Priests or interested Bishops for knowing what is the universal Tradition of Christendome 5. As to the learned whom the Querist takes into consideration I pray observe whether the Scholars of both the opposite sides do not dissent as much about the universal Tradition of the points in dispute as about the sense of Scriptures urged on either side If so as you will be sure to find it then upon the same ground which this man layes as sufficient for the removal of Scripture from being a rule Tradition also must be cashiered Remember that the learned Papists who differ about the Conception of the blessed Virgin Mary do on either side urge for their defence universal Tradition If then it be not sufficient to determine this controversie why should it be set up to justle Scripture out of its Seat to make room for another means of determining controversies which is as uneffectual and indeed infinitely more unfit If a Papist say that the determination of this point is not necessary which is a gross absurdity because this remaining undetermined no small part of Popish worship of the Virgin Mary as the Feast of the Immaculate Conception hath no certain ground of Faith and by the Apostle St. Paul's sentence is Sin we may with more reason say that the determination of the points in controversie between us is not necessary Or if it be necessary that determination is to be regulated now as the decision of things in dispute was of old in the general Councils by the Scripture or written word of God by which Tradition it self is to be measured and judged as St. Paul made the Scriptures the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or measure of truth between the Tradition of the Jews on the one side and the Christians on the other side concerning the Resurrection of Jesus Christ 6. Because here is frequent mention of Tradition and the ambiguity of the word is apt to beget mistakes and confusion therefore give me leave to unfold the Senses of the word that we may have a clear apprehension of the matter in hand Tradition is sometimes put to signify the thing delivered whether the way of delivery be writing or speaking and Tradition thus taken materially is indifferent to the being written or unwritten for the same Tradition or Doctrine of the Gospel which was at one time unwritten might have been written and for certain was at another time writen And the Jewish Traditions which for many generations past by a successive conveyance without Book have been by the Rabbies committed at length to vvriting for their better Security And the Papists now make no scruple of vvriting their Traditions vvhich they call the unvvritten Word of God let them justify the presumption as vvell as they can Novv as the Traditions of the Elders mentioned in Scripture signify the doctrines and Ceremonies that vvere delivered by the Fathers but vvere distinct from the Law vvritten So when vve speak of Traditions in the Christian Church vve do now in these latter ages commonly understand some particular doctrines or Rites or matters of fact delivered with a pretence of divine or at least Apostolical Authority for their reception which are not expressed in the written word of God These Traditions once accepted and commended by the present Church of Rome the Conventicle at Trent hath very severely enjoyned to be received and embraced with an equal affection of holy reverence wherewith we entertayn the sacred Scriptures themselves But to keep up the mystery of iniquity with the liberty of laying aside old Traditions and giving credit to new inventions as their interest and occasions may require they who determined the Canon of Scriptures and numbred the Books yet would not reckon up and determine the Traditions of the Church that Christians might know what is the perfect and fixed Rule of Faith Thus Romanists though they have a larger Object of Faith then we have yet they have no certain measure because the Traditions of the Roman Church are like the Moon subject to decreases
as the giving of the Eucharist to Infants was once held by D. Innocentius 3. as a Doctrine of Faith and a Tradition of the Church but after 600 years practise wore out insensibly and hath been condemned by the Councils of Constance and Trent with an Anathema and to increases also and therefore their Religion is indeed Irregular But concerning Traditions as the word signifies particular points of beliefe or practise in Christian Religion these 3 Rules are worth Observation 1. Whatsoever is offered to us or enjoyned to us in belief or practise under colour of being a Tradition if it be repugnant to the written word of God or destructive of Gods precepts ought to be rejected by Christians Christs reason together with the refutation of Pharisaical Traditions confirms the Truth of this Rule 2. Whatsoever is obtruded upon us under the pretext of being a Tradition that is neither clearly delivered in nor fairly by good consequence deduced out of Gods written word needs not and ought not to be received as a matter necessary to Salvation The manner of conveniency or necessity wherein things which are strangers to Scripture are held is carefully to be taken notice of For several practises have been in early times introduced under shew of conveniency as the Apostle says some bodily exercises carry a plausible shew of wisdome which having once obtained credit by the favourable commendation of eminent persons and custome have been in succession of time adorned with the Title of Tradition and grown up from being thought convenient to be accounted and prest as necessary to Salvation This danger is to be prevented by circumspection And the perfection of Scripture as it is a compleat Rule of Religion proves the truth and usefulness of this second Rule 3. Doctrines of Faith and divine Worship being secured by Gods written word from intrusions of humane inventions if any Rites or Ceremonies can be proved by fair Testimonies of Antiquity to have been practised by the Church universal of primitive times and are still continued by the Authority of Church Governors as tending to edification or the free and open profession of our Faith whether they be called Traditions or no are not lightly to be rejected much less violently opposed by private Christians Thus much for Traditions as meaning Matters of Religion delivered down from former times to posterity But Tradition often bears another sence and is taken formally for the manner of conveyance of matters that concern Religion which is partly oral partly practical The joynt agreement of Doctrine and practice continued by succession of one Age after another whilst one generation derives to another the whole body of Religion is now called Tradition and of late is asserted by Papists in this Kingdom to be the only Principle and Rule of Faith and affirmed to be of its own nature infallible and incorruptible and to be evident by its own light And thus the order of inquiring for the ancient dayes and old wayes is quite inverted for now we need only as they teach mark what the present Church of Rome doth and because Tradition cannot fail nor vary therefore the Popes Court at this day with the Church Altars Pictures Wafers mangled Eucharist adoration of the Virgin Mary Invocation of Angels and Saints offering of a real Sacrifice for Souls in Purgatory and offering of the Masse to God for the honour of Saints is a true Glasse wherein you may see the face of the Church when St. Peter sate Bishop of Rome This is the aim of the Querists Discourse to set up this Tradition instead of Scripture If you will not believe him you may choose because he tels you plainly it is not his work to prove any thing But I will give you a little touch of proving the vanity of this pretence The experience of all Ages before the flood after the flood in the Jewish Nation and in the Christian Churches doth manifestly shew that the derivation of Religion from mouth to ear from hand to hand from Fathers to children from Priests to Successors from Age to Age this course of Tradition which is opposed unto and preferred before the Scriptural way of preserving and propagating and recovering of Religion hath been and may be quickly corrupted often interrupted and hath suffered notorious changes and may do at any time when sloth and sensuality and neglect of the light and vanity of mind set forward by the Devils malice and cunning make men weary of the true Religion But I will add another Argument to another purpose St. Paul by word of mouth taught the Thessalonians what he thought not expedient to write to wit what hindered the Man of sin from being revealed Here was a matter of consequence that concerned the Church delivered by word of mouth which if it had been written as well as that Character of the Man of sin the fame Scripture which preserved and conveyed the one would have also secured the knowledge of the other to posterity If now an eminent Church failed in deriving one point of Doctrine to after Ages which with little difficulty might have been kept and taught but is now lost for not being recorded in Scripture what likelihood is there that the whole body of Christian Religion was or could be traduced entire and pure meerly by oral Tradition without dependance on the Scripture for 1600 years For my part I think still that as the Church of the Jews were either more or less pure and their Religion more or less Hourished in truth and sincerity as the Governors gave heed more or less to the light of the Law written in like manner according to the degrees of Pastors attendance to the holy Scriptures the Tradition of Christianity hath varied Therefore the Scriptures are the only fixed and stable Rule of Religion 7. Lastly Let us allow the Rule of Vincentius Lirinensis Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus non est erratum sed traditum That which hath been taught every where always and by all Pastors of the Church is not an error but a true Tradition If we make Antiquity Universality and Consent twisted together the measure of our faith for certain we shall have a very short Creed and that large Assumentum that new piece of Italian stuff which was woven in the Shop at Trent and by the Popes stitching is added to the old garment of the Church the Constantinopolitan Creed must of necessity be pared off and thrown away But the main thing to be considered at present is the difficulty of applying this Rule for the examination of the Doctrines which pretend to Tradition and the tryal of the Spirits even of all Doctrines before we trust any Teacher is alwayes an act of Christian prudence so long as the world is pestered with false Prophets For can you or any reasonable man imagin that Universal Tradition of the Catholick Church is more evident in it self and more conspicuous to learned
hand down to posterity the holy Scriptures without any falsification since the Church of Rome at this day doth both accept and impose upon her own Children and would but cannot upon others Apocryphal Books for Canonical I have now shewed that these Queries are not unanswerable by Protestants adhering to their own principles or Axioms I desire you to consider the result of the whole design Except you allow him at first that the Roman Church is in propriety of speech the Catholick Church this disquisition can advance you not an hairs-breadth to a better opinion of the Roman Church for a Guide then you had before For after all the clamour made for resolution of these Queries concerning the Catholick Church the main Question stands as it did Whether the Church of Rome at this day be to be subjected unto as an infallible Guide and to be communicated with all other Churches being abandoned and particularly the Church of England whereof you are now a setled member Till this be resolved you that know the frame of our Church and the module of our Religion may stay safely where you are It remains now that I examine his Answer to my conclusive Querie And I shall briefly note what you may by your own reason or experience discover either absurd or false in it He doth not require you to desert the Reformed Church of England for adhering to the Scriptures as the Rule of Faith For the Roman Church doth that as well as the Protestant as he says If this Querist do not pretend to Infallibility and Authority over you he will out of modesty allow you to examine whether Papists do as well that is as fully and firmly adhere to the Scriptures as English Protestants Certainly they do not well own them for a Rule who accuse them of obscurity and imperfection and make it a point of faith that the defectiveness of Scriptures must be supplied with unwritten Traditions And as certain it is that we who maintain the fulness of Scriptures in delivery of all things necessary to salvation and the perspicuity in that delivery and therefore admit of no point of Religion that is a meer stranger unto the Scripture do more closely stick to that Rule then the Papists But because you are free to examine the adherence of Papists to the Scriptures in particulars by comparison with the English Protestants try whether a mangled Eucharist the real Sacrifice of Christ by a Priest that makes his Maker and eats his God The publick service of God in a forreign and unknown language to the generality of the people that must say Amen to all Pictures of God used in Religious worship the superlative worship of the Virgin Mary Invocation of Saints Purgatory the ease of departed souls by offering of Masses the baptizing of Bels the treasury of superabundant merits of Christ and holy persons c. be as agreeable to the Scriptures as our Liturgy and the 39 Articles agreed on in our Church If you find it otherwise and Papists do not so much as pretend to make Scripture the Rule of these Doctrines and practices what credit can be given to such an impudent boaster But the ground of deserting us he pretends to be this That we will have the sole Rule of faith to be the Scriptures in exclusion of Universal Tradition and the voice of the Catholick Church 1. Suppose the chief Pastors and Doctors of England should dispute in the Schools about the Rule of faith and exclude Tradition and the voice of the Church from that honour which they think due only to the Word of God in Scriptures now since the decease of the Apostles and the unhappy divisions of Christians that make it difficult if not impossible to know assuredly what is delivered by Universal Tradition or taught by the Catholick Church why must you upon that account or any man desert the Church of England where the worship of God through Christ Jesus is celebrated without any mixture of superstition and the means of salvation are offered to you in a sufficient measure for your conduct in the way of truth and peace Let a Papist if he can prove that our making Scriptures the sole Rule of faith makes the communion with our Church unsafe Must you needs run out of our Church as if it were a House visited with the Plague meerly because it relyes only upon the Scriptures for a Religion And if you must do so must you needs then at the next step run into a Roman Assembly that as my Lord Falkland speaks keeps her children from Scripture as a Mother would keep her children from Rats-bane Think of both these because the Gentleman will not be pleased if you desert us but will not come to them He will think himself still a loser if any water go besides his Mill. 2. This calumny thus impudently fastned upon our Church shews this Querist to drive the Devils trade several wayes in tempting by impostures and in falsly accusing the brethren For I challenge any Papist to quote if he can and will cite an Author faithfully and fairly any Article of Religion or Writing of a Bishop or sentence of an Academy wherein we disclaim Universal Tradition or the voice of the Catholick Church For mine own part I do openly profess that if any point in controversie between us and Papists can be proved to have been taught by the Primitive Church as a matter of faith and derived by the voice of the Catholick Church from age to age and this Universal Tradition be manifested by as good evidence as is usually produced for the divine original of the Scriptures which we receive for Canonical I will embrace that Doctrine as the Word of God 3. SIR you cannot but know that we constantly reject many of the Popish opinions obtruded upon the Christian world as Novelties which not only want a sufficient warrant from the Scriptures but also cannot be made credible and acceptable by Universal Tradition Such are the Popes Universal Bishoprick or Occumenical Headship which Pope Gregorie the great called the character of Antichrist the Infallibility of the Church of Rome and many other points of Popish Religion some whereof I recited above and need not repeat We have incessantly required the Advocates for the Papacy to prove the consent and conformity of the present Roman Church in these particulars with the Primitive Church whose voice is the Precentor in the Quire and the first circle in the diffusion of Universal Tradition Thus let due esteem and credit be given to Universal Tradition but you see how little it is in earnest valued by Papists or how far they are from making use of that Rule which they extol so zealously as you hear thereby to prove the truth of their religion In fine you may apprehend the No reason to desert the Reformed Church of England therefore because she makes the Holy Scripture the sole Rule of Religion when indeed she knows no other given
23 Chapter of St. Matthew throughout wherein our Saviour sets out those blind Guides and abominable Hypocrites who had the Key of knowledg as the Pope pretends to the custodie of St. Peter's Keys in such detestable characters as are inconsistent with Infallibility But some will say their corruption in manners doth not infer their erroneousness in Doctrine and therefore Pope Alexander the 6 th though a Devil incarnate might be infallible in the Chair as a learned Lady of the Romish side whom you knew once told me I answer that it will be hard to perswade a sober Christian that hath reverent apprehensions of Gods holy Spirit that the Spirit of Discipline will abide with such unrighteousness and uncleanness or that persons immersed in worldly lusts should enjoy the constant presence and influence of that Spirit which leads humble and holy men into all truth But he that can perswade you that they whom Christ calls blind Guides were not only fit but also infallible Directors may with the same confidence and arguments make you believe that the Sun shines in our Horizon at midnight I do not forget that it is not the Pope's Infallibility but a Councils which the Querist pleads for by the example of the Scribes and Pharisees albeit they were perhaps Doctors of the Law but few of them members of the great Council But I touch this briefly because it may be the next Papist that creeps into your familiarity will be for the Pope or perhaps this person who hath in his second Paper resolved the Catholick Church into a Council will in his next Paper melt down a Council into the Pope which is the more likely to be a Guide because a living person to be consulted with if many reasons did not hinder our acceptance of him for an infallible one But that the Scribes and Pharisees were guilty of teaching for Doctrines obligatory of conscience the traditions of men and did by their devices annul the Commandements of God and encourage men under pretence of Religious Vows to disobey their parents and by false Doctrines involved souls in the guilt of perjury is evident by our Saviours convicting and condemning them Can you now be of the opinion that this ungodly fraternity of Villains could make up an infallible Consistory by possessing the Chair of Moses If you can entertain such a conceit you bless whom Christ hath cursed and put darkness for light and call blind Guides the Seers and so draw down the woe upon your self Indeed such Guides are sit for them who wilfully wink against the light and make themselves slaves to the enemies of true Religion who put out the eyes of their captived Proselytes that they may with quiet grind in their Mills I will conclude my Reply to this Paragraph with one Proposal This Querist defers such honour to the Jewish Priesthood that the Priests ought to be simply believed upon their word till Shiloh came because they or at least a Council of them could not erre in faith I will not instance in the Council that condemned our Saviour because although some plead for Caiphas by vertue of his Priesthood to have been inspired by the Holy Ghost which alwayes assisted the Chair yet perhaps this Querist will not extend the continuance of Infallibility thus far And yet he that hath feigned Christ to assign it to the Scribes and Pharisees cannot give a good and solid account how Caiphas and his Confederates came in that critical hour to lose it or why the people without a manifest Declaration of God to abrogate their Authority should not then also be bound to believe their sentence though it were blasphemy and tended to the murder of the Son of God or how Joseph of Arimathea could be absolved according to this mans principles from being an Heretick and Schismatick for not consenting to the counsel and practice of the High Priest with his Assembly for which very thing the Gospel commends him to be a good and a just person since at that very time the whole Nation of the Jews were obliged according to this mans assertions by Christs own injunction to rest in the Doctrine and Determination of the Council of Jerusalem as infallible in matters of Religion and consequently to deny Jesus to be the Christ Think of this seriously But there is another instance which I aim at It is well known that in the degenerate estate of the Jews there started up a powerful Sect of the Sadducees These though pretending to adhere unto the Law of Moses yet are noted to have been infected with pernicious errors in Religion for they believed not any world of Spirits present or to come and therefore denied the existence of Angels or Spirits departed and the resurrection of the body by the return of souls to resume their earthly tabernacles repaired The heads of this Heresie were the chief of the Nation and as it fell out in the vicissitude of Priests whose office was made venal by the Court the High Priest himself was sometimes a Sadducee Read Act. 4. 1. and 5. 17. when such an Heretick possest the Chair of Moses or Aaron who understood not Moses aright as our Saviour ascribes the error of the Sadducees to their ignorance of the Scriptures you may be sure that men of the same judgement made up the greater part of the Sanhedrim For the an mosity of the Sadducees against the Pharisees together with their interest in the Nobility was such that they would not allow many birds of another feather to pearch upon the same branch of Authority though one Pharisee Gamaliel once was permitted to be of the Council Now then if a Jew loth to rely on his own understanding should desire to be instructed in this main Article of Religion which is the chief root of obedience and supporter of patience to whom should he repair and whom should he believe If you will take the Querists word The High priest with his Council was the true visible Church to be hearkned unto But if they declared their own sense and no body can reasonably imagine that they would contradict themselves or as Balaam once was so they all being met together in Council should by a powerful Enthusiasm be constreined to speak contrary to their own mind and deliver that Truth which they did not approve in their own consciences and should in speaking Truth lye by the power of the Holy Ghost the inquisitive Jew was bound contrary to the general sentiment of the 12 Tribes which did in the Expectation of a Resurrection called the hope of Israel serve God day and night to become a Sadducee to disbelieve Moses and to condemn himself to an everlasting death which should swallow up his person and his piety and separate him for ever from having any communion with the God of Abraham Isaac Jacob. If the Council it self should happen to be divided by factions and interrupted by