A DISCOURSE ABOUT TRADITION Shewing what is meant by it AND WHAT TRADITION Is to be received AND WHAT TRADITION Is to be rejected LONDON Printed by Miles Flesher for Robert Horne at the South Entrance of the Royal Exchange and Fincham Gardiner at the White Horse in Ludgate Street 1683. A DISCOURSE ABOUT TRADITION AN obligation being laid upon us at our Baptism to believe and to doe the whole will of God revealed unto us by Christ Jesus it concerns every one that would be saved to enquire where that whole intire will of God is to be found where he may so certainly meet with it and be so informed about it that he may rest satisfied he hath it all And there would be no difficulty in this matter had not the worldly interests of some men raised controversies about it and made that intricate and perplexed which in it self is easie and plain For the Rehearsal of the Apostles Creed at Baptism and of that alone as a Summary of that Faith whose sincere profession intitles us to the Grace there conferred warrants the Doctrine of the Church of England in its VI. Article that the Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation But this strikes off so many of the Doctrines of the present Roman Church which are not to be found in the Scripture nor have any countenance there that they are forced to say the faith once delivered to the Saints mentioned by S. Jude is not intirely delivered in the Scripture but we must seek for the rest in the Traditions of the Church Which Traditions say they are to be received as a part of the Rule of Faith with the same Religious reverence that we do the Holy Scripture Now though this is not really the bottom of their hearts as will appear before I have done but they finally rest for their satisfaction in matters of Faith somewhere else yet this being plausibly pretended by them in their own justification that they follow Tradition and in their accusations of us that we forsake Tradition I shall briefly let all our people see who are not willing to be deceived what they are to judge and say in this business of Tradition About which a great noise is made as if we durst not stand to it and as if they of the Roman Church stedfastly kept it without any variation neither of which is true I shall plainly shew in this short Discourse The meaning of the word Which for clearness sake shall begin with the meaning of the word TRADITION which in English is no more than delivering unto another and by a Figure signifies the matter which is delivered and among Christians the Doctrine of our Religion delivered to us And there being two ways of delivering Doctrines to us either by writing or by word of mouth it signifies either of them indifferently the Scriptures as you shall see presently being Traditions But custome hath determined this word to the last of these ways and distinguished Tradition from Scriptures or writings at least from the Holy Writings and made it signifie that which is not delivered in the Holy Scriptures or writings For though the Scripture be Tradition also and the very first Tradition and the fountain of all true and legitimate Antiquity yet in common language Traditions now are such ancient Doctrines as are conveyed to us some other way whether by word of mouth as some will have it from one generation to another or by humane Writings which are not of the same authority with the Holy Scriptures How to judge of them Now there is no better way to judge aright of such Traditions than by considering these four things First The Authours of them whence they come Secondly The matter of them Thirdly Their Authority Fourthly The means by which we come to know they derive themselves from such Authours as they pretend unto and consequently have any authority to demand admission into our belief 1. For the First of these every body knows and confesses that all Traditions suppose some Authour from whom they originally come and who is the deliverer of those Doctrines to Christian people who being told by the present Church or any person in it that such and such Doctrines are to be received though not contained in the Holy Scriptures because they are Traditions ought in Conscience to inquire from whom those Traditions come or who first delivered them By which means they will be able to judge what credit is to be given to them when it is once cleared to them from what Authours they really come Now whatsoever is delivered to us in Christianity comes either from Christ or from his Apostles or from the Church either in General or in part or from private Doctours in the Church There is nothing now called a Tradition in the Christian World but proceeds from one or from all of these four Originals 2. And the matter which they deliver to us which is next to be considered is either concerning that Faith and godly life which is necessary to Salvation or concerning Opinions Rites Ceremonies Customs and things belonging to Order Both which as I said may be conveyed either by writing or without writing by the Divine writings or by humane writings though these two ways are not alike certain 3. Now it is evident to every understanding that things of both sorts which are delivered to us have their Authority from the Credit of the Authour from whence they first come If that be Divine their Authority is Divine if it be onely Humane their Authority can be no more And among Humane Authours if their credit be great the authority of what they deliver is great if it be little its authority is little and accordingly must be accepted with greater or lesser reverence Upon which score whatsoever can be made to appear to come from Christ it hath the highest authority and ought to be received with absolute submission to it because he is the Son of God And likewise whatsoever appears to have been delivered by the Apostles in his name hath the same Authority they being his Ministers sent by Him as He was by God the Father and indued with a Divine Power which attested unto them In like manner whatsoever is delivered by the Church hath the same Authority which the Church hath which though it be not equal to the foregoing the Church having no such Divine Power nor infallible judgment as the Apostles had yet is of such weight and moment that it ought to be reverenced next to theirs I mean the sense of the whole Church which must be acknowledged also to be of greater or lesser Authority as it was nearer or farther off from the times of the Apostles What was delivered by their immediate followers ought
in these things they have forsaken Traditions so in other cases they have perverted and abused them turning them into quite another thing As appears to all that understand any thing of ancient learning in the business of Purgatory which none of the most ancient Writers so much as dreamt to be such a place as they have now devised but onely asserted a Purgatory Fire through which all both good and bad even the blessed Virgin her self must pass at the great and dreadfull day of Judgment This was the old Tradition as we may call it which was among Christians which they have changed into such a Tradition as was among the Pagans 6. But it is time to have done with this else I should have insisted upon this a while which I touched before and is of great moment that the Tradition which now runs in that Church is contrary to the certain Tradition of the Apostles and the universal Church particularly in the Canon of Scripture In which no more Books have been numbred by the Catholick Church in all Ages since the Apostles time than are in the VI. Article of Religion in this Church of England till the late Council of Trent took the boldness to thrust the Apocryphal Books into the holy Canon as nothing inferiour to the acknowledged Divine Writings This hath been so evidently demonstrated by a late Reverend Prelate of our Church in his Scholastical History of the Canon of the Scriptures out of undoubted Records that no fair Answer can be made to it But I must leave a little room for other things that ought to be noted III. And the next is a consequence from what hath been now said That there being so little credit to be given to the Roman Church onely we cannot receive those Doctrines for Truth which that Church now presses upon our belief upon the account of Tradition For instance that the Church of Rome is the Mother and Mistress of all other Churches that the Pope of Rome is the Monarch or Head of the universal visible Church that all Scriptures must be expounded according to the sense of this Church that there are truly and properly seven Sacraments neither more nor less instituted by our blessed Lord himself in the New Testament that there is a proper and propitiatory Sacrifice offered in the Mass for the quick and dead the same that Christ offered on the Cross in short the half Communion and all the rest of the Articles of their New Faith in the Creed published by Pope Pius IV. which are Traditions of the Roman Church alone not of the Vniversal and rely solely upon their own Authority And therefore we refuse them and in our disputes about Traditions we mean these things which we reject because they have no foundation either in the holy Scripture or in Universal Tradition but depend as I said upon the sole Authority of that Church which witnesses in its own behalf For whatsoever is pretended to make the better shew all resolves at last into that as I intimated in the beginning of this Discourse Scripture and Tradition can doe nothing at all for them without their Churches definition Though their whole infallible Rule of Faith seem to be made up of those three yet in truth the last of these alone the Churches definition is the whole Rule and the very bottom upon which their Faith stands For what is Tradition is no more apparent than what is Scripture according to their principles without the Authority of their Church which pretends to an unlimited power to supply the defect even of Tradition it self In short as Tradition among them is taken in to supply the defect of Scripture so the Authority of their Church is taken in to supply the defect of Tradition but this Authority undermines them both because neither Scripture nor Tradition signifie any thing without their Churches Authority Which therefore is the rule of their Faith that is they believe themselves To which absurdity they are driven because it is made evident by us that there have been great diversities of Traditions and many changes and alterations made even in things called Apostolical c. and therefore they have no other way but to fly to the judgment of the present Roman Church to determine what are Traditions Apostolical and what are not by which judgment all mankind must be governed that is we must believe them and they believe themselves which they would have done well to have said in one word without putting us to the trouble of seeking for Traditions in Books and in other Churches But they would willingly colour their pretences by as many fair words as is possible and so make mention of Scripture Tradition Antiquity which when we have examined they will not stand to them but take fanctuary in their own Authority saying they are the sole judges what is Scripture and what Tradition and what Antiquity nay have a power to declare any new point of Faith which the Church never heard of before This is the Doctrine of Salmeron and others of his fellows that the Doctrine of Faith admits of additions in essential things For all things were not taught by the Apostles but such as were then necessary and fit for the Salvation of Believers By which means we can never know when the Christian Religion will be perfected but their Church may bring in Traditions by its sole Authority without end Nay some among them have been contented to resolve all their Faith into the sole Authority of the present Roman Bishop according to that famous saying of Cornelius Mussus promoted by Paul III. to a Bishoprick upon the XIV Chapter to the Romans to confess the truth ingenuously I would give greater credit to one Pope in those things which touch the mysteries of Faith than to a thousand Hierom's Austin's Gregory's to say nothing of Richard's Scotus's c. for I believe and know that the Pope cannot err in matters of Faith Which contemptuous speech he would never have uttered to the discredit of those great men whom they pretend to reverence if he had not known more certainly that the Tradition which runs among the ancient Fathers is against them than he could know the Pope to be infallible There is no Tradition I am sure for that nor for abundance of other things which rest merely upon their own credit as is fairly acknowledged in two great Articles of their present Creed by our Country-man Bishop Fisher with whose words I conclude this particular Many perhaps have the less confidence in Indulgences because their use seems to have been newer in the Church and very lately found among Christians To whom I answer that it doth not appear certainly by whom they began to be first delivered For the ancients make no mention or very rare of Purgatory and the Greeks to this very day do not believe it nor was the belief either of Purgatory or of Indulgences so necessary in the Primitive Church as it
he delivered to Constantius I truly admire thee O Lord Constantius the Emperour who desirest a Faith according to what is written They pretended to no other in those days but as he speaks a little after look'd upon him that refused this as Antichrist It was onely required that they should receive their Faith out of God's Books not merely according to the words of them but according to their true meaning because many spake Scripture without Scripture and pretended to Faith without Faith as his words are and herein Catholick and constant Tradition was to guide them For whatsoever was contrary to what the whole Church had received and held from the beginning could not in reason be thought to be the meaning of that Scripture which was alledged to prove it And on the other side the Church pretended to no more than to be a Witness of the received sense of the Scriptures which were the bottom upon which they built this Faith Thus I observe Hegesippus saith in Euseb his History L. IV. C. 22. that when he was at Rome he met with a great many Bishops and that he received the very same Doctrine from them all And then a little after tells us what that was and whence they derived it saying that in every succession of Bishops and in every City so they held as the Law preached and as the Prophets and as the Lord. That is according to the Doctrine of the Old and New Testament I shall conclude this particular with a pregnant passage which I remember in a famous Divine of our Church D. Jackson in his Treatise of the Catholick Church Chap. 22. who writes to this effect That Tradition which was of so much use in the Primitive Church was not unwritten Traditions or customs commended or ratified by the supposed infalliblity of any visible Church but did especially consist in the Confessions or Registers of particular Churches And the unanimous consent of so many several Churches as exhibited their confessions to the Nicene Council out of such Forms as had been framed and taught before this Controversie arose about the Divinity of Christ and that voluntarily and freely these Churches being not dependent one upon another nor overswayed by any Authority over them nor misled by faction to frame their confessions of Faith by imitation or according to some pattern set them was a pregnant argument that this Faith wherein they all agreed had been delivered to them by the Apostles and their followers and was the true meaning of the holy Writings in this great Article and evidently proved that Arius did obtrude such interpretations of Scripture as had not been heard of before or were but the sense of some private persons in the Church and not of the generality of Believers In short the unanimous consent of so many distinct visible Churches as exhibited their several Confessions Catechisms or Testimonies of their own or Forefathers Faith unto the Council of Nice was an argument of the same force and efficacy against Arius and his partakers as the General consent and practice of all Nations in worshipping a Divine Power in all ages is against Atheists Nothing but the ingrafted notion of a Deity could have induced so many several Nations so much different in natural disposition in civil discipline and education to affect or practise the duty of Adoration And nothing but the evidence of the ingrafted word as Saint James calls the Gospel delivered by Christ and his Apostles in the holy Scriptures could have kept so many several Churches as communicated their Confessions unto that Council in the unity of the same Faith The like may be said of the rest of the four first General Councils whose Decrees are a great confirmation of our belief because they deliver to us the consent of the Churches of Christ in those great Truths which they assert out of the holy Scriptures And could there any Traditive Interpretation of the whole Scripture be produced upon the Authority of such Original Tradition as that now named we would most thankfully and joyfully receive it But there never was any such pretended no not by the Roman Church whose Doctours differ among themselves about the meaning of hundreds of places in the Bible Which they would not doe sure nor spend their time unprofitably in making the best conjectures they are able if they knew of any exposition of those places in which all Christian Doctours had agreed from the beginning V. But more than this we allow that Tradition gives us a considerable assistance in such points as are not in so many letters and syllables contained in the Scriptures but may be gathered from thence by good and manifest reasoning Or in plainer words perhaps whatsoever Tradition justifies any Doctrine that may be proved by the Scriptures though not found in express terms there we acknowledge to be of great use and readily receive and follow it as serving very much to establish us more firmly in that Truth when we see all Christians have adhered to it This may be called a confirming Tradition of which we have an instance in the Doctrine of Infant Baptism which some ancient Fathers call an Apostolical Tradition Not that it cannot be proved by any place of Scripture no such matter for though we do not find it written in so many words that Infants are to be baptised or that the Apostles baptised Infants yet it may be proved out of the Scriptures and the Fathers themselves who call it an Apostolical Tradition do alledge testimonies of the Scriptures to make it good And therefore we may be sure they comprehend the Scriptures within the name of Apostolical Tradition and believed that this Doctrine was gathered out of the Scriptures though not expresly treated of there In like manner we in this Church assert the authority of Bishops above Presbyters by a Divine right as appears by the Book of Consecration of Bishops where the person to be ordained to this Office expresses his belief that he is truly called to this Ministration according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ Now this we are persuaded may be plainly enough proved to any man that is ingenuous and will fairly consider things out of the holy Scriptures without the help of Tradition but we also take in the assistance of this for the conviction of gain-sayers and by the perpetual practice and Tradition of the Church from the beginning confirm our Scripture proofs so strongly that he seems to us very obstinate or extremely prejudiced that yields not to them And therefore to make our Doctrine in this point the more Authentick our Church hath put both these proofs together in the Preface to the Form of giving Orders which begins in these words It is evident unto all men diligently reading holy Scripture and ancient Authours that from the Apostles time there have been three Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church Bishops Priests and Deacons I hope no body among us is so weak as
have been so delivered But know withall that this universal Tradition of the Books of Scripture unto which you have added several Apocryphal Writings which have not been constantly delivered as those we receive is no part of the Tradition or Doctrine delivered That is no Doctrine distinct from the Scriptures but onely the instrument or means of conveying that Doctrine unto us In short it is the fidelity of the Church with whom the Canon of Scripture was deposed but is no more a Doctrine not written in the Scripture than the Tradition or delivery of the Code or Book of the Civil Law is any opinion or Law not written in that Code And we are more assured of the fidelity of the Church herein than the Civilians can be assured of the faithfulness of their predecessours in preserving and delivering the Books of their Law to them because these holy Books were always kept with a greater care than any other Books whatsoever and in the acceptance of them also we find there was great caution used that they might not be deceived all Christians looking upon them to be of such importance that all Religion they thought was concerned in them Of which this is an Argument that they who sought to destroy the Christian Religion in the primitive times sought nothing more than to destroy the Bible Which they were wont to demand of those who were suspected to be Christians to be delivered up to them that they might burn it And according as men behaved themselves in this trial so they were reputed to be Christians or not Christians And the Traditours as they were called that is they who delivered the holy Scriptures into the hands of the Pagans were look'd upon by Christians as men that were content to part with their Religion For which there could be no reason but that they thought Christian Religion to be therein contained and to be betrayed by those who delivered them to be burnt By which I have proved more than I intended in this part of my Discourse that in the holy Scriptures the whole will of God concerning our Salvation is contained Which is the true Question between us and the Church of Rome Not whether the Scripture be delivered to us as the word of God or no in this our people ought to tell them we are all agreed but whether they have been delivered as the whole will of God And from that argument now mentioned and many more we conclude that Universal Tradition having directed us unto these Books and no other they direct us sufficiently without any other Doctrines unto God and to our everlasting rest And if they urge you farther and say that the very credit of the Scripture depends upon Tradition tell them that it is a speech not to be endured if they mean thereby that it gives the Scripture its authority and if they mean less we are agreed as hath been already said for it is to say that Man gives authority to God's Word Whereas in truth the holy Scriptures are not therefore of Divine Authority because the Church hath delivered them so to be but the Church hath delivered them so to be because it knew them to be of such authority And if the Church should have conceived or taught otherwise of these Writings than as of the undoubted Oracles of God she would have erred damnably in such a Tradition I shall sum up what hath been said in this second particular in a few words Christ and his Apostles at first taught the Church by word of mouth but afterward that which they preached was by the commandment of God committed to writing and delivered unto the Church to be the ground of our Faith Which is no more than Irenaeus hath said in express words L. III. C. 1. speaking of them by whom the Gospel came into all Nations which they then preached but afterward by the will of God delivered unto us in the Scriptures to be in time to come the foundation and pillar of our Faith III. And farther we likewise acknowledge that the sum and substance of the Christian Religion contained in the Scriptures hath been delivered down to us even from the Apostles days in other ways or forms besides the Scriptures For instance in the Baptismal Vow in the Creed in the Prayers and Hymns of the Church Which we may call Traditions if we please but they bring down to us no new Doctrine but onely deliver in an abridgment the same Christianity which we find in the Scriptures Upon this there is no need that I should enlarge but I proceed farther to affirm IV. That we reverently receive also the unanimous Tradition or Doctrine of the Church in all ages which determines the meaning of the holy Scripture and makes it more clear and unquestionable in any point of Faith wherein we can find it hath declared its sense For we look upon this Tradition as nothing else but the Scripture unfolded not a new thing which is not in the Scripture but the Scripture explained and made more evident And thus some part of the Nicene Creed may be called a Tradition as it hath expresly delivered unto us the sense of the Church of God concerning that great Article of our Faith that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Which they teach us was always thus understood the Son of God begotten of his Father before all worlds and of the same substance with the Father But this Tradition supposes the Scripture for its ground and delivers nothing but what the Fathers assembled at Nice believed to be contained there and was first fetch'd from thence For we find in Theodoret L. I. C. 6. that the famous Emperour Constantine admonished those Fathers in all their questions and debates to consult onely with these heavenly inspired Writings because the Evangelical and Apostolical Books and the Oracles of the old Prophets do evidently instruct us what to think in Divine matters This is so clear a Testimony that in those days they made this the complete Rule of their Faith whereby they ended Controversies which was the reason that in several other Synods we find they were wont to lay the Bible before them and that there is nothing in the Nicene Creed but what is to be found in the Bible that Cardinal Bellarmine hath nothing to reply to it but this Constantine was indeed a great Emperour but no great Doctour Which is rather a scoff than an Answer and casts a scorn not onely upon him but upon that great Council who as the same Theodoret witnesseth assented unto that Speech of Constantine So it there follows in these words the most of the Synod were obedient to what he had discoursed and embraced both mutual Concord and sound Doctrine And accordingly S. Hilary a little after extols his Son Constantius for this that he adhered to the Scriptures and blames him onely for not attending to the true Catholick sense of them His words are these in his little Book which
are imposed upon us by the sole authority of one particular Church assuming a power over all the rest And so I come to the Second Part. PART II. What Traditions we do not receive I. AND in the first place we do not believe that there is any Tradition which contains another word of God which is not in the Scripture or cannot be proved from thence In this consists the main difference between us and them of the Romish persuasion who affirm that Divine Truth which we are all bound to receive to be partly written partly delivered by word of mouth without writing Which is not onely the affirmation of the Council of Trent but delivered in more express terms in the Preface to the Roman Catechism drawn up by their order where we find these words towards the conclusion of it the whole Doctrine to be delivered to the faithfull is contained in the word of God which word of God is distributed into Scripture and Tradition This is a full and plain declaration of their mind with which we can by no means agree for divers unanswerable reasons 1. Not onely because the Scriptures testifie to their own perfection which they affirm to be so great as to be able to complete the divinest men in the Church of Christ in all points of heavenly wisedom 2 Tim. III. 15 16 17. but Secondly Because the constant Tradition of the Church even of the Roman Church anciently is that in the Scriptures we may find all that is necessary to be known and believed to Salvation I must not fill up this Paper with Authorities to this purpose but we avow this unto the people of our Church for a certain Truth which hath been demonstrated by many of our Writers who have shewn that the ancient Doctours universally speak the language of Saint Paul 1 Cor. IV. 7. not to think above that which is written I will mention onely these memorable words of Tertullian who is as earnest an Advocate as any for ritual Traditions but having to deal with Hermogenes in a question of Faith whether all things in the beginning were made of nothing urges him in this manner I have no where yet read that all things were made out of a subject matter If it be written let those of Hermogenes his shop shew it if it be not written let them fear that woe which is allotted to such as add or take away The very same answer should our people make to those that would have them receive any thing as an Article of Faith which is not delivered to them by this truly Apostolical Church wherein we live If it be written let us see it if it be not take heed how you add to the undoubted word of God We receive the holy Scriptures as able to make us wise to Salvation So they themselves tell us and so runs the True Tradition of the Church which you of the Romish persuasion have forsaken but we adhere unto 3. And we have this farther reason so to doe because if part of God's word had been written and part unwritten we cannot but believe there would have been some care taken in the written Word not onely to let us know so much but also inform us whither we should resort to find it and how we should know it if it be absolutely necessary for us to be acquainted with it But there is no such notice nor any such directions left us nor can any man give us any certain rule to follow in this matter but onely this to examine all Traditions by the Scripture as the supreme Rule of Faith and to admit onely such as are conformable thereunto 4. For which we have still this farther reason that no sooner were they that first delivered and received the holy Scriptures gone out of the world but we find men began to add their own fancies unto the Catholick Truth which made it absolutely necessary to keep to the Tradition in the holy Scriptures all other growing uncertain This is observed by Hegesippus himself in Eusebius L. III. C. 32. that the Church remained a chast Virgin and the Spouse of Christ till the sacred Quire of the Apostles and the next generation of them who had had the honour to be their Auditours were extinct and then there began a plain conspiracy of impious atheistical errour by the fraud of teachers who delivered other doctrine Which was a thing Saint Paul feared even in his own life-time about the Church of Corinth 2 Cor. XI 3. lest the Devil like a wily Serpent should beguile them and corrupt their minds from the original simplicity of the Christian Doctrine wherein they were first instructed And if it were attempted then it was less difficult and therefore more endeavoured afterward as shall appear anon by plain History which tells how several persons pretended they received this and that from an Apostle Some of which Traditions were presently rejected others received and afterwards found to be impostures Which shews there was so much false dealing in the case that it was hard for men to know what was truly Apostolical in those days if it came to them this way onely and therefore impossible to be discerned by us now at this great distance of time from the Apostles who we know delivered the true Faith but we have no reason to rely upon mere Tradition without Scripture for any part of that Faith when we see what cheats were put upon men by that means even then when they had better helps to detect them than we have It is true the Fathers sometime urge Tradition as a proof of what they say But we must know that the Scriptures were not presently communicated among some Barbarous Nations and there were some Hereticks also who either denied the Scriptures or some part of them and in these cases it was necessary to appeal to the Tradition that was in the Church and to convince them by the Doctrine taught every where by all the Bishops But that mark this I pray you of which they convinced them by this argument was nothing but what is taught in the Scripture 5. With which we cannot suffer any thing to be equalled in authority unless we would see it confirmed by the same or equal Testimony This is the great reason of all why we cannot admit any unwritten Traditions to be a part of the word of God which we are bound to believe because we cannot find any truths so delivered to us as those in the holy Scriptures They come to us with as full a testimony as can be desired of their Divine Original but so do none of those things which are now obtruded on us by the Romish Church under the name of Traditions or unwritten word of God For the primitive Church had the very first Copies and authentick Writings of those Books called the New Testament delivered by the Apostles own hands to them And those Books confirm the Scriptures of the Old Testament and they were both
and led others into errours in these matters we cannot with any safety trust to Traditions that have passed men pretend from one to another untill now but we can find no mention of in any Writer till some Ages after the Apostles and then were by some-body or other who had authority in those days called Apostolical Traditions merely to gain them the more credit Thus Andreas Caesariensis in his Commentaries upon the Book of Revelation p. 743. saith that the coming of Enoch and Elias before the second coming of Christ though it be not found in Scripture was a constant report received by Tradition without any variation from the teachers of the Church Which is sufficient to shew how ready they were to father their own private opinions upon ancient universal Tradition and how little reason we have to trust to that which was so uncertain even in the first Ages and therefore must needs be more dubious now Thus I have endeavoured to lay before the eyes of those who will be pleased to look over this short Treatise what they are to think and speak about Tradition It is a calumny to affirm that the Church of England rejects all Tradition and I hope none of her true Children are so ignorant as when they hear that word to imagine they must rise up and oppose it No the Scripture it self is a Tradition and we admit all other Traditions which are subordinate and agreeable unto that together with all those things which can be proved to be Apostolical by the General Testimony of the Church in all Ages nay if any thing not contained in Scripture which the Roman Church now pretends to be a part of God's word were delivered to us by as universal uncontrolled Tradition as the Scripture is we should receive it as we do the Scripture But it appears plainly that such things were at first but private Opinions which now are become the Doctrines of that particular Church who would impose her Decrees upon us under the Venerable Name of Apostolical Universal Tradition which I have shewn you hath been an ancient cheat and that we ought not to be so easie as to be deceived by it But to be very wary and afraid of trusting the Traditions of such a Church as hath not onely perverted some abolished others and pretended them where there hath been none but been a very unfaithfull preserver of them and that in matters of great moment where there were some and lastly warrants those which it pretends to have kept by nothing but its own infallibility For which there is no Tradition but much against it even in the Original Tradition the holy Scriptures which plainly suppose the Roman Church may not onely err but utterly sail and be cut off from the Body of Christ As they that please may reade who will consult the Eleventh Chapter to the Romans v. 20 21 22. Of which they are in the greater danger because they proudly claim so high a prerogative as that now mentioned directly contrary to the Apostolical Admonition in that place be not high minded but fear CONCLUSION I Shall end this Discourse with a brief Admonition relating to our Christian practice And what is there more proper or more seasonable than this While we reject all spurious Traditions let us be sure to keep close to the genuine and true Let us hold them fast and not let them go Let us not dispute our selves out of all Religion while we condemn that which is false Nor break all Christian Discipline and Order because we cannot submit to all humane impositions In plain words let us not throw off Episcopacy together with the Papal Tyranny We ought to be the more carefull in observing the Divine Tradition delivered to us in the Scripture and according to the Scripture because we are not bound to other While we contend against the half Communion let us make a Conscience to receive the whole frequently It looks like Faction rather than Religion to be earnest for that which we mean not to use In like manner while we look upon additions to the Scripture as vain let us not neglect to reade and ponder those holy Writings When we reject Purgatory as a fable let us really dread Hell fire And while we do not tye our selves to all usages that have been in the Church let us be carefull to observe first all the substantial duties of righteousness charity sobriety and godliness which are unquestionably delivered to us by our Lord himself and his holy Apostles and secondly all the Ordinances of the Church wherein we live which are not contrary to the word of God For so hath the fame Divine Authority delivered that the people should obey those that are their Guides and Governours submitting themselves to their authority and avoiding all contention with them as most undecent in it self and pernicious to Religion which suffers extremely when neither Ecclesiastical Authority nor Ecclesiastical Custome can end disputes about Rites and Ceremonies Reade 1 Thess V. 12. Heb. XIII 17. 1 Cor. XI 16. and reade such places as you ought to do all the other Scriptures till your hearts be deeply affected with them For be admonished in the last place of this which is of general use and must never be forgotten because we shall lose the benefit of that celestial Doctrine which is delivered unto us if we do not strictly observe it That as this Evangelical Doctrine is delivered down to us so we must be delivered up to it Thus Saint Paul teaches us to speak in VI. Rom. 17. where he thanks God that they who formerly had been servants of sin did now obey from the heart that form of Doctrine unto which they were delivered So the words run in the Greek as the Margin of our Bibles inform you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the Tradition which we must be sure to retain and hold fast above all other as that without which all our belief will be ineffectual This is the very end for which all Divine Truth is delivered unto us that we may be delivered and make a surrender of our selves unto it Observe the force of the Apostles words which tell us first that there was a certain form of Christian Doctrine which the Apostles taught compared here to a mould so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 form may be translated into which metal or such like matter is cast that it may receive the figure and shape of that mould 2. Now he compares the Roman Christians to such ductile pliable matter they being so delivered or cast into this form or mould of Christian Doctrine that they were intirely framed and fashioned according to it and had all the lineaments as I may say of it expressed upon their souls 3. And having so received it they were obedient to it for without this all the impressions which by knowledge or faith were made upon their souls were but an imperfect draught of what was intended in the
Christian Tradition 4. And it was hearty obedience sincere compliance with the Divine will such obedience as became those who understood their Religion to be a great deliverance and liberty from the slavery of sin before spoken of into the happy freedom of the service of God 5. All which lastly he ascribes to the grace of God which had both delivered to them that Doctrine and drawn them to deliver up themselves to it made their hearts soft and ductile to be cast into that mould and quickned them to Christian Obedience and given them a willing mind to obey chearfully All this was from God's grace and not their merits and therefore the thanks was to be ascribed to him who succeeds and blesses all pious indeavours Now according to this pattern let us frame our selves who blessed be God have a form of Doctrine delivered to us in this Church exactly agreeable to the holy Scriptures which lie open before us and we are exhorted not onely to look into them but we feel that grace which hath brought them to us clearly demonstrating that we ought to be formed according to the holy Doctrine therein delivered by the delivery of our selves unto it By the delivery of our mind that is to think of God and our selves and of our duty in every point just as this instructs us And by the delivery of our wills and affections to be governed and regulated according to its directions And when we have consented to this we find the Divine grace representing to us the necessity of an hearty obedience to what we know and believe and have embraced as the very Truth of God To this we are continually drawn and mightily moved and if we would shew our thankfulness for it let us follow these godly motions and conform our selves in all things to the heavenly prescriptions of this Book being confident that if we do we need not trouble our selves about any other model of Religion which we find not here delivered For if you desire to know what form of Doctrine it is to which the Apostle would have us delivered it is certain it is a Doctrine directly opposite to all vice and wickedness For herein the grace of God was manifested he tells the Romans in that it had brought them from being slaves of sin heartily to obey the Christian Doctrine which taught that is vertue and piety Now to this the present Romanists can pretend to add nothing All the parts of a godly life are sufficiently taught us in the holy Scriptures And if we would seriously practise and follow this Doctrine from the very heart we should easily see there is no other but what is there delivered For whatsoever is pretended to be necessary besides is not a Doctrine according unto godliness as the Apostle calls Christianity but the very design of it is to open an easier way to heaven than that laid before us in the holy Scriptures by Masses for the dead by Indulgences by Satisfactions and the merits of the Saints and several other such like inventions which have no foundation in the Scriptures nor in true Antiquity That is a word indeed which is very much pretended Antiquity they say is on their side but it is nothing different from what hath been said about Tradition And if we will run up to the true Antiquity there is nothing so ancient as the holy Scriptures They are the oldest Records of Religion and by them if we frame our lives we are sure it is according to the most authentick and ancient directions of piety delivered in the holy Oracles of God So both sides confess them to be And if the old Rule be safe that is true which is first we are safe-enough for there is nothing before this to be our Guide and there can be nothing after this but must be tried by it According to another Rule as old as reason it self the first in every kind is the measure of all the rest And as sure as that there is a Gospel of God's grace they that walk after this Rule this Divine Canon peace shall be upon them and mercy they being the true Israel or Church of God THE END Books Printed for Fincham Gardiner AContinuation and Vindication of the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet's Unreasonableness of Separation in Answer to Mr. Baxter and Mr. Lob c. Considerations of present use considering the Danger Resulting from the Change of our Church-Government 1. A Perswasive to Communion with the Church of England 2. A Resolution of some Cases of Conscience which Respect Church-Communion 3. The Case of Indifferent things used in the Worship of God Proposed and Stated by considering these Questions c. 4. A Discourse about Edification 5. The Resolution of this Case of Conscience Whether the Church of England 's Symbolizing so far as it doth with the Church of Rome makes it unlawfull to hold Communion with the Church of England 6. A Letter to Anonymus in Answer to his Three Letters to Dr. Sherlock about Church-Communion 7. Certain Cases of Conscience resolved concerning the Lawfulness of joyning with Forms of Prayer in Publick Worship In two Parts 8. The Case of Mixt Communion Whether it be Lawfull to separate from a Church upon the Account of promiscuous Congregations and Mixt Communions 9. An Answer to the Dissenters Objections against the Common Prayers and some other Parts of Divine Service Prescribed in the Liturgy of the Church of England 10. The Case of Kneeling at the Holy Sacrament Stated and Resolved c. The first Part. 11. Certain Cases of Conscience c. The Second Part. 12. A Discourse of Profiting by Sermons and of going to hear where Men think they can profit most 13. A Discourse about the charge of Novelty upon the Reformed Church of England made by the Papists asking of us the Question Where was our Religion before Luther Printed for Robert Horne at the South Entrance of the Royal Exchange