of the writing of this Epistle without the Doctrine of the Gospel completely written because among the Thessalonians some Traditions or Doctrines were as yet unwritten Which can in reason be extended no farther than to themselves and to this Epistle which did not contain all the Evangelical Doctrine though other writings which it is possible were then extant in some other Churches did And I say as yet unwritten in that Church because the Thessalonians no doubt had afterward more communicated to them in writing besides this Epistle or the former either viz. all the Gospels and the Acts of Apostles and other Apostolical Epistles which we now enjoy Which writings we may be confident contain the Traditions which the Apostle had delivered to the Thessalonians by word concerning the Incarnation Birth Life Miracles Death Resurrection and Ascention of our blessed Saviour and concerning the coming of the Holy Ghost and the mission of the Apostles and all the rest which is there recorded for our everlasting instruction And therefore it is in vain to argue from this place that there are still at this day some unwritten Traditions which we are to follow unless the Apostle had said hold the Traditions which ye have been taught by word which shall never be written And it is in vain for us to enquire after any such Traditions or to rely upon them when they are offered unto us unless we were sure that there was something necessary to our Salvation delivered in their Sermons which was never to be delivered in writing and unless we knew where to find it as certainly as we do that which they have committed to writing And it is to no more purpose to shew us the word Tradition in other places of Saint Paul's writings particularly in the III. Chapter of the same Epistle v. 6. where by Tradition S. Chrysostome understands the Apostle's Example which he had given them and so it follows v. 7. for your selves know how you ought to follow us c. or it may refer to the commandment he had given them in his former Epistle IV. 11. which the Reader may be pleased to compare with this but cannot with any colour be expounded to signifie any Doctrine of Faith about which the Roman Church now contends with us For it is plain it hath respect to their good manners and orderly living for the information of which we need go no whither but to the holy Scriptures wherein we are taught fully enough how we ought to walk and please God in all things The same may be said of that place 1 Cor. XI 2. Now I praise you Brethren that you remember me in all things and keep the Traditions or Ordinances as we render it or Precepts as the Vulgar Latin it self hath it as I delivered them unto you For we are so observant of what he hath delivered that we are confident if Saint Paul were now alive and in this Church he would praise us as he doth the Corinthians for keeping the Traditions as he delivered them and on the contrary reprove and condemn the Roman Church for not keeping them as they were first delivered And we have good ground for this confidence there being an instance in that very Chapter which demonstrates our fidelity in preserving the very first Traditions and their unfaithfulness in letting them go For he tells us v. 23. that he had delivered to them what he had received of the Lord and that which he received and delivered was about the whole Communion as you may reade there and in the following verses 24 25. in both kinds the Cup as well as the Bread Thus he saith the Lord appointed it and thus he delivered it and this Tradition we keep intire as he received it of the Lord and delivered it to his Church in this Epistle which is a part of the holy Scripture whereas they do not keep it but have broken this Divine Tradition and give the Communion of Christ's Body and Bloud otherwise than Saint Paul delivered keeping the Cup from the people By which I desire all that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity to judge which Church keeps closest to the Apostolical Tradition for so Saint Paul calls this Doctrine of the Communion in both kinds that which he delivered or left as a Tradition with them they that stick to what is unquestionably the Apostolical Doctrine or they that leave it to follow those Doctrines or presumptions rather which at the best are very dubious and uncertain And farther I desire all that reade this Paper to consider whether it be reasonable to think that those Rites which have no Authority in the holy Scripture but were instituted perhaps by the Apostles have been kept pure and uncorrupted according to their first intention when those sacred Rites for instance the holy Eucharist are not preserved intire which are manifestly ordained in the holy Writings And so much may serve for the first thing for it would be too long to explain all the rest of the places of holy Scripture which they are wont to alledge though the word Tradition be not mentioned in them to give a colour to their present pretences How pertinently may be judged by these places now considered II. Secondly then That word of God which was once unwritten being now written we acknowledge our selves to be much indebted to the Church of God in all foregoing Ages which hath preserved the Scriptures and delivered them down to us as his word which we ought to do unto those that shall succeed us as our Church teacheth us in its Twentieth Article where the Church is affirmed to be a Witness and a keeper of holy Writ This Tradition we own it being universal continued uninterrupted and undenied Though in truth this is Tradition in another sense of the word not signifying the Doctrine delivered unto us but the manner and means of its delivery And therefore if any member of our Church be pressed by those of the Romish persuasion with this Argument for their present Traditions that Scripture it self is come to us by Tradition let them answer thus Very right it is so and we thank God for it therefore let this be no part of our dispute it being a thing presupposed in all discourses about Religion a thing agreed among all Christian people that we reade the word of God when we reade the holy Scriptures Which being delivered to us and accepted by us as his word we see no necessity of any other Tradition or Doctrine which is not to be found there or cannot be proved from thence for they tell us they are able to make even the men of God wise unto Salvation And if they press you again and say how do you know that some Books are Canonical and others not is it not by a constant Tradition Answer them again in this manner Yes this is true also and would to God you would stand to this universal Tradition and receive no other Books but what
to weigh so much with us as to have the greatest humane Authority and to be look'd upon as little less than Divine The Universal consent of the next Generation is an Authority approaching as near to the former as the Ages do one to another But what is delivered in latter times hath less humane Authority though pretending to come but without proof from more early days and hath no Authority at all if it contradict the sense of the Church when it was capable to be better acquainted with the mind of Christ and of his Apostles As for particular Churches their Authority ought to be reverenced by every member of them when they profess to deliver sincerely the sense of the Church Universal and when they determine as they have power to do Controversies of Faith or decree Rites and Ceremonies not contrary to God's word in which enery one ought to acquiesce But we cannot say the same of that which comes from any private Doctour in the Church modern or Ancient which can have no greater Authority than he himself was of but is more or less credible according as he was more or less diligent knowing and strictly religious 4. But to all this it is necessary that it do sufficiently appear that such Doctrines do really come from those Authours whose Traditions they pretend to be This is the great and the onely thing about which there is any question among sober and judicious persons How to be sufficiently assured that any thing which is not delivered unto us in the Scriptures doth certainly come for instance from Christ or his holy Apostles For in this all Christians are agreed that whatsoever was delivered by Christ from God the Father or by the Apostles from Christ is to be embraced and firmly retained whether it be written or not written that makes no difference at all if we can be certain it came from Him or them For what is contained in the Holy Scripture hath not its Authority because it is written but because it came from God If Christ said a thing it is enough we ought to submit unto it but we must first know that he said it and let the means of knowing it be what they will if we can certainly know He said it we yield to it But how we can be certain at this distance of time from his being in the world that any thing now pretending to it was said by Christ which is not recorded in the Holy Scriptures there is the business And it is a matter of such importance that it cannot be expected any man should be satisfied without very good evidence of it but he may very reasonably question whether many things be not falsly ascribed unto Him and unto his Apostles which never came from them Nay whether those things which are affirmed to be the Doctrines of the Primitive Church and of the whole Church be not of some later Original and of some particular Church or private Doctours in the Church unto whose Authority that reverence is not due which ought to be paid and which we willingly give unto the former Now according to this state of the matter any good Christian among us who is desirous to know the Truth and to preserve himself from Errour may easily discern what Traditions ought to be received and held fast and what we are not bound unto without any alteration and what are not to be received at all but to be rejected and how far those things are from being credible which the Roman Church now would obtrude upon us under the name of Apostolical or ancient Traditions without any Authority from the Holy Scriptures or in truth any Authority but their own and some private Doctours whose opinions cannot challenge an absolute submission to them But to give every one that would be rightly informed fuller satisfaction in this business I shall not content my self with this General Discourse but shall particularly and distinctly shew what Traditions we own and heartily receive and then what Traditions we cannot own but with good reason refuse These shall be the two Parts of this short Treatise wherein I shall endeavour that our people may be instructed not merely to reject Errours but also to affirm the Truth PART I. What Traditions we receive I. AND in the first place we acknowledge that what is now holy Scripture was once onely Tradition properly so called that is Doctrine by word of mouth In this we all agree I say that the whole Gospel or Doctrine of Christ which is now upon record in those Books we call the Scriptures was once unwritten when it was first preached by our blessed Saviour and his Apostles Which must be noted to remove that small Objection with which they of the Roman Church are wont to trouble some peoples minds merely from the Name of Traditions which Saint Paul in his Epistles requires those to whom he writes carefully to observe Particularly in that famous place 1 Thess II. 15. where we find this exhortation Therefore Brethren stand fast and hold the Traditions which ye have been taught whether by word or our Epistle Behold say they here are things not written but delivered by word of mouth which the Thessalonians are commanded to hold Very true should the people of our Church say to those that insist upon this but behold also we beseech you what the Traditions are of which the Apostle here writes and mark also when it was that they were partly unwritten For the first of these it is manifest that he means by Traditions the Doctrines which we now reade in the holy Scriptures For the very first word therefore is an indication that this verse is an inference from what he had said in the foregoing Now the things he before treated of are the grand Doctrines of the Gospel or the way of Salvation revealed unto us by Christ Jesus from God the Father who hath from the beginning saith he v. 13. 14. chosen you to Salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth whereunto he hath called you c. This is the sum of the Gospel and whatsoever he had delivered unto them about these matters of their sanctification or of their faith or of their salvation by obtaining the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ to which they were chosen and called through their sanctification and faith this he exhorts them to hold fast whether it was contained in this Epistle or in his former preaching for he had not occasion now to write all that he had formerly delivered by word of mouth Which afterward was put in writing for mark which is the second thing the time when some things remained unwritten which was when this Epistle was sent to the Thessalonians Then some things concerning their salvation were not contained in this Letter but as yet delivered onely by word of mouth unto this Church I say to this Church for it doth not follow that all Churches whatsoever were at the time
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