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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	write_a	write_v	year_n	107	3	4.4301	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55387	The nullity of the Romish faith, or, A blow at the root of the Romish Church being an examination of that fundamentall doctrine of the Church of Rome concerning the Churches infallibility, and of all those severall methods which their most famous and approved writers have used for the defence thereof : together with an appendix tending to the demonstration of the solidity of the Protestant faith, wherein the reader will find all the materiall objections and cavils of their most considerable writers, viz., Richworth (alias Rushworth) in his Dialogues, White in his treatise De fide and his Apology for tradition, Cressy in his Exomologesis, S. Clara in his Systema fidei, and Captaine Everard in his late account of his pretended conversion to the Church of Rome discussed and answered / by Matthevv Poole ...	Poole, Matthew, 1624-1679.	1666 (1666)	Wing P2843; ESTC R202654	248,795	380

was impossible And so from hence forward let all Logitians take notice of it that Ab esse ad posse non valet consequentia Well some centuries after comes Moses and by Gods command delivers a Law in Writing and this law abides and the Jewes to this day retaine it in remembrance and veneration and for above 3000 years together have been thereby kept from those Pagan opinions and Idolatries which all the Scholars of Tradition almost in the whole World have fallen into and consequently writing is a sure and orall Tradition an unsafe and uncertaine way of conveyance and this principle hath had universall influence upon the actions of wise men in all ages and in all things Hence care hath been alwaies taken for the writing of Canons of Councels decrees of Courts Acts of Parliament though the importance of them were many times so great and evident that according to this new notion writing was superfluous and verball Tradition Infallible And if those wise men durst never trust unwritten Tradition with their estates and worldly concernments shall we be so mad as to venture our Souls upon it Let Papists do so who having given up their consciences to the Pope cannot say their soules are their own but let them not be displeased if we desire to make a wiser bargaine But our English Apostate hath a distinction to salve this grosse absurdity It is true saith he of Doctrines meerly speculative that the memory is not so safe a depository as VVritten records but not of such as may be made as it were visible by practise And he is pleased to give us an instance in the Doctrine of the Sacrament and Christs reall unfigurative presence in it which saith he was more securely and clearly delivered by the Churches practise then could be by books VVritten their prostrations and adorations demonstrated their assurance of his real presence where every mans saying Amen at the Priests pronouncing Corpus Domini nostri Jesu Christi expressed their confession of that presence with exclusion of all tropes and figures in the businesse Exomol § 1. c. 8. And are these the great and visible assurances of Doctrines to which all the security of Writings must strike saile Are these grounds so evident that the Doctrines could not possibly have been more securely propagated and more clearly and intelligibly delivered to posterity in Writing as Cressy daringly asserts See Exomolog Sect. 1. chap. 8. O the besotting nature of Popery O the tremendous judgment of God punishing Apostacy with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reprobate sence Dare this miserable man say these are clearer evidences of the reall presence then if it had been said in terminis This is my body in a proper and corporeall sence or this bread is converted into the very substance of this body which you now see These men may well say what they please for it appeares they can believe what they list May I with the Readers leave in few words discover the shamefull weaknesse and horrid impudence of this assertion Is it true indeed that the prostrations and adorations of Christians discover'd their assurance of the reall corporall presence And of all men living could Mr Cressy say this who had so oft seen others receive and himself received the Sacrament in England and Ireland in a posture of adoration viz. kneeling with an assurance of the falshood of that opinion of the reall corporall presence Why might not the speciall yet spirituall presence of Christ in the Sacrament occasion this prostration as well as the speciall and Spirituall presence of God in the Arke occasioned the Jewes to fall down and worship at his footstoole And must the poore Clarke come in with his Amen to help the lame priest over the stile Why there is not a Protestant but when he heares these words pronounced this is my body will say his Amen to it and acknowledge it so to be but still Christs words must be taken in Christs sence and that is though figurative yet very frequent in such cases In short since these are the practicall visible Arguments alledged as instances of the Infallible certainty of orall Tradition above all that can be said in writing I hope the Reader who concernes himselfe either in matters of credit or conscience will easily discerne and ingeniously confesse both the absurdity of their Arguments and assertion and the solidity of this second Answer and the advantage of writing above unwritten Tradition § 5. Ans. 3. If this assertion be true and solid and Tradition be an Infallible foundation of Faith as those men pretend no errour could come into the Church under pretence of Tradition from the Apostles That is evident in it selfe else an infallible Authoritie is liable to error which is a contradiction and it is granted by our Adversaries who therefore tell us that all Hereticks recede from the Tradition of their Fathers and broach new and unheard of Doctrines as we have seen But errors may come into the Church under pretence of Tradition Here all the doubt lies and therefore I shall indeavour to make it good a taske which would be wholly superfluous if the impudence of our Adversaries and the desperatenesse of their cause did not oblige them to require and us to give the proofe of the most evident verities I might insist upon the Doctrine of the Chiliasts which the Papists confesse to be false which was commended to the Church by Papias and Irenaeus too as an Apostolicall Tradition and so received by the generality of Orthodox Christians saith Iustin Martyr This Argument is renderd more considerable by the pitifull evasion wherewith M r VVhite shuffles it off saying That the Chiliasts were deceaved by Cerinthus who feigned he had this from the Apostles in private discourses not in publike Preaching For to say nothing of this that the Fathers derive its pedegree from another root whatever was the occasion and ground of this mistake in that Tradition it sufficiently proves what I intend viz. that many or most of the guides of the Church may receive false Doctrines as comming from the Apostles and so transmit them to their Posterity which is the thing now denied It was an old Observation of Irenaeus concerning the Hereticks of his time one would think the words were not onely Historicall of them but also propheticall of the Papists When Hereticks are reproved out of the Scripture they begin to accuse the Scripture as if truth could not be discovered by those that know not Tradition The Arrians pretended they had their Doctrine by Tradition from their Ancestors particularly they named Origen Dionysius Alexandrinus and Lucian the Martyr by whose hands their Doctrine had been conveyed to them as Baronius acknowledgeth Epiphanius tels us the Cajani pretended St Paul as the Author and founder of their Hereticall Doctrines The Pelagians boasted of their Doctrine That it had been alwaies celebrated by the Learning of Holy men The Doctrine of

rebaptisation which the Papists acknowledge to be erroneous was brought in by Cyprian and the African Bishops under a pretence of Tradition The words of Cyprian are these We do not now broach a new Doctrine but one long fince decreed by our Predecessors It is true Pamelius saith he meanes this of his immediate Predecessors Agrippinus and the rest and that will serve my turne if M r VVhites Argument will hold for then no Age and consequently not this could either be ignorant of or knowingly recede from the Doctrine of their Fathers nor they from their Fathers and so upward to the Apostles And indeed Cyprian carries it higher even to the Apostles whiles he calls it The Faith of the Catholick Church and reckons it amongst the Apostolicall and Evangelicall precepts And Firmilian expressely affirmes it was delivered by Christ and his Apostles b And will these mens confidence yet serve them to assert that no error could come into the Church by Tradition If all those Eminent African Bishops and Churches might either misunderstand their Ancestors or deceive their posterity as M r White cannot deny they did e●●●er the one or other why might not the Spanish or French or Romish do it If it be said there was a promise to the contrary at least for the Church of Rome To say nothing of the manifest weaknesse of that pretence I answer two things 1. That M r White expressely rejects this Infallibility by promise 2. However this Argument being of another nature and depending not upon the promise of God but the nature and evidence of the thing is by this instance irrefragably overthrown Answ. 4. That way of proving which was rejected by the Prophets and godly Jewes by Christ and by the Apostles is not to be approved much lesse preferred before that way which they approved and used but this way of proving the truth of a Doctrine by Tradition from their next Ancestours and the Testimony of the present Church was rejected by the Prophets c. and by Christ and the Apostles Ergo It is not now to be approved For the Minor in which all the doubt lies it consists of two Branches The first relating to the old Testament The second to the New The first is That this way was disowned by the Prophets and godly Jewes under the old Testament It is true some of the Jewes did owne this Popish opinion as you may read I●r 44.17 But the Prophets were of another perswasion Ezek. 20.18 Walke not in the Statutes of your Fathers And from Tradition they used to send their people to the Law and Testimony Isa. 8.20 And the godly Kings of Iudah did not make Tradition as the Papists do but the written Law as the Protestants do the rule of their reformation Thus David 1 Chron. 16. 40. to do according to all that is Written in the Law Thus Hezekiah 2 Chron. 31. he did all as it is Written in the Law of the Lord So Iosiah 2 Chron. 34.30 31. and 35.12 The like did Ezra long after Ezra 6.18 and Nehemiah chap. 8. They dwelt in Booths as it is Written Here Scripture recovers what Tradition had lost for though God had commanded this yet since the daies of Ioshua they had not done so vers 17. By all which we evidently discerne how different their opinion was from this of the Papists and how little confidence they put in Tradition Iosiah would not so much as make Hezekiahs reformation his rule nor Hezekiah take his patterne from Iehoshaphats reformation but still every one had immediate recourse to the written Word For it seems it was a Language that these Holy men understood not That Scripture was a corrupt writing a leaden rule a dumb master § 7. There is indeed one Objection against the consequence from the Jewes to the Christians and from the Old Testament to the New I shall give it you in the words of one of the acutest of our Adversaries i e. Mr White The Law of the Iewes was delivered in Tables of Stone and the volume of the Law to which it is expressely opposed that God will write the Law of Christians in their hearts I Answer 1. The words are not to be understood absolutely as they sound but comparatively not as if they did wholly deny that the Mosaicall Law was written in the Heart for that is affirmed in other places as Deut. 30.6 The Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy seed or as if they did affirme that the Christian Law was written only in mens hearts and not in Paper which the Papists themselves dare not assert but onely it is a comparative expression like that I will have mercy and not sacrifice Christ sent me not to baptise but to preach i. e. principally and primarily for else the one as well as the other was enjoyned by God And so it is here implied that the Christian Law should be written more eminently upon the hearts of Christians then it ordinarily was upon the hearts of the Jewes and that it should be writ in a more legible Character Answ. 2. If we examine in whose hearts this Christian Law is written we shall find it concernes not the Tradition of the Church by which all things are to be regulated For I demand of them was this promise made and performed to all that are called Christians or onely to the elect and sincere Christians or onely to the Pope and Bishops If they say the first then one Christian as well as another is furnished with this rule of all Controversies and consequently as able to judge of Controversies then lay-men and Ministers have this Law equally written in their hearts if they say the second That it is onely the elect and sincere Christians as indeed it is then it must be something else beside Tradition which is no lesse known to the hypocriticall pretender then to the sincere professor of Christianity If they say the third That this Law was written onely in the hearts of the Pope and Bishops met in Councell As what is there so ridiculous which some of our Adversaries will not say rather then confesse their errours and give glory to God They are evidently confuted by the words of the place Jer. 31.34 They shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every one his brother saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest for I will forgive their iniquity And besides Mr White himselfe saith This Law is written onely in cordibus sid lium in the hearts of the faithfull Now in what Dictionary we shall find fidelis to be translated Atheist Sodomite Magitian c. Epithetes not without cause given to Popes and Popish Bishops by their own Authors I would gladly be informed Answ. 3. If we enquire what this is which is here said to be written in their hearts we shall see Mr VVhites invention was better then his judgment or his

conscience with what Spectales do these men read this Writing in the heart that tell us this was the Doctrine of Transubstantiation Indulgences Invocation of Saints Popes Supremacy the Churches Infallibility But you must know though this Writing was from God yet the interpretation belongs to the Pope whose will stands for his reason and his word for a Law But if we consult the Prophet If with the Popes good leave God may be his own Interpreter He tels you this was the Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know the Lord. The knowledge of God Ier. 31.33 and the fear of God Ier. 32.39 40. And this Law written in the heart was so far from being appointed by God for a rule to walke by much less was it to justle out the word as the Papists now abuse it that the use of this was only to help them to make the word their rule Ezek. 26 27. I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes Hence that in Is. 59.21 My Spirit that is in thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depar● out of thy mouth So this objection being discharged the consequence remaines in full force and Traditions being disapproved under the old Testament cannot be approved under the new But I shall more fully prove that in the next branch which is this § 8. 2. This way of proving the truth of Doctrines by verbal tradition is disallowed by Christ and the Apostles He knowes nothing of the Pharisees and indeed but little of the New Testament that knowes not that this was the great Doctrine of the Pharisees And from their school the Papists had this Doctrine of the certainty of Tradition So little reason had Du. Moulin to write a book about the novelty of Popery when diverse of their Doctrines have such a venerable Antiquity that they are as old as the Pharisees No wonder the Church of Rome hath diverse Doctrines that Christ never delivered to them for they had a great part of the leaven of the Pharisees left them for a legacy And from them they had their bold expressions by which they advance Tradition above the Scripture The Author of the book called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath this saying think not that the written law is the Foundation of our Faith but the law of orall Tradition And again in the book Iuchas p. 158. Without this orall law of Tradition the whole law would be in darknesse and again all those things which our Rabbins taught us we are equally to believe as the Law of Moses But this is so known that it is frivolous to multiply testimonies of this kind The footsteps of this principle you may discern in diverse places of the New Testament They made the Tradition of the fathers the rule of their Faith Mat. 15.2 VVhy do thy Disciples transgresse the Tradition of the Elders S t Paul mentions it as one of his Pharisaicall errours that he was exceedingly zealous of the Traditions of his Fathers Gal. 1.14 And S t Peter speaks of it as a part or effect of their redemption by Christ that they were delivered from a vain conversation received by Tradition from their Fathers 1. Peter 1. this sufficiently shews what their opinion was Now let us hear what reflection Christ and the Apostles made upon it And there you shall find that which would end the controversy with ingenious adversaries viz. That whereas the Romanists tell us that the deserting of Tradition is the true cause and spring of all errours on the contrary our Saviour makes this the Fountain of their errours their forsaking the Scripture not their receding from the Tradition of their Ancestors Mat. 22.29 Ye do erre not knowing the Scriptures we are beholden to the Papists that they do not say there is a corruption in the Text and Scripture is put in for Tradition For surely if Christ had been of the mind of those Gentlemen he never had a fitter opportunity to utter it then now for the Sadduces were noted as enimies to Traditions And the Doctrine of the resurrection was but darkely delivered in Scripture at lest in the Pentatuch and more plainly by Tradition So now or never was the time for Christ to say to the Sadduces as doubtlesse M r White would if he had been present and Christ should if M r Whites Argument be good you erre because you take no heed to the Traditions of your Ancestors But here is not a syllable about that but all is cast upon their not knowing the Scriptures Thus in the resolution of that great controversy concerning the Messias Christ doth not confute the Jewes nor stablish the Truth from Tradition though there was eminent occasion for it at that time there being such a Tradition then rise amongst them that the time of the coming of the Messias was at hand Daniels week being nigh exspired and with it a general expectation of him but from ●cripture Christ proves himself to be the true Messias by several Arguments by the Testimony of Iohn who was a Prophet yea and more then a Prophet by his Fathers voice from heaven by his miracles and above all by the Scripture how came Christ to omit that which if those men do not deceive us was more considerable then all the rest viz. Tradition and the Testimony of the present Church A strange oversight you will say but it seemes it was a discovery denied to Christ and all the Apostles and reserved to these last times Answerable to this was the practise of the godly Bereans who did examine S t Pauls Doctrine not by Tradition as the Papists do but by the Scripture Acts 17.11 And St Paul himself evidenceth the soundnesse of his Doctrine not by its conformity with Tradition which our Adversaries lay such stresse upon that S. Clara with severall others affirme that they receive the Scripture onely so farre as they agree with Tradition but by its consonancy to the Scriptures saying That he witnessed none other thing then what was in Moses and the Prophets Act. 26.22 and Act. 24.14 15. So then the question now is which is the more rationall way to resolve a Christians doubts and ground his Faith whether that which hath had the approbation of all the Holy-men of God in both Testaments or the ingenious devise of these witty Doctors that come with their quintum Evangelium into the World that is whether Scripture or Tradition I know one thing will be said That the Apostles did urge Traditions as well as Scriptures to this purpose we oft heare of that 2 Thes. 2.15 Hold the Tradition which ye have been taught whether by word or our Epistle To which I Answer briefly 1. That if the Papists can demonstrate any of their Traditions to be indeed Apostolicall as these were we shall receive them if conformable to Scripture but if they be dissonant from Scripture we have commission from S t Paul to renounce them