Sacramental Practice For in Religion and even the Agendis of it the things to be done Faith and Practice are interwoven with each other the former must guide the latter The understanding must be right in its Belief before the Actions can be regular Now that Christ did ordain the Sacrament and command the Administration of it in after Ages in such a way as he himself had ordain'd and administred it are Credenda things to be believed tho' the Execution of or Obedience to the Command be a Practical So then the Church of Rome denying the Cup to the People and avowing it disobeying a Divine Command and maintaining that disobedience doth offend in a matter of Practice and Faith both For they do not barely omit a Practice or Duty but also oppose and evacuate a Divine Command and the obligation from it which are Objects of Faith And that Faith has to do in this Affair was the Judgment of the Council of Constance whenas they denounc'd Concil Constant Ibid. that an Assertion of the unlawfulness or sacriledge in administring in one kind only should be sufficient for a Man's Conviction of Heresie After all which has been discoursed in this Section it must be concluded that the Church of Rome have in their Half-Communion and peremptory defence of it departed from primitive Institution divine command and the Church's ancient general Vsage that Posterity has deserted Fore-fathers and therefore that Oral Tradition has not done its Duty SECT VII Secondly let us examine what the Agreement is of the Romanists among themselves And if we find them at difference then Tradition has not been so faithful as to bring Truth whole and sincere to them for if Tradition were full and uniform it would keep them at Vnity with one another But even among them there may be observed Parties who tho' in Complement they acknowledge one first Mover yet have each their counter-motions tho' that Church boast of their Harmony yet they have their discords only they are not so loud perhaps as those are among their Adversaries Let account be taken of some of their Civil Wars The Contests between the Jesuits and Dominicans concerning Grace and Freewil Predetermination and Contingency as also between the Molinists and Jansenists are well known The (a) Les provinciales or the Mistery of Jesuitism pag. 92. Doctrine of Probable Opinions and many practical Doctrines of the Jesuites questionless please themselves and likewise the (b) pag. 194. polite Saints and Courtier-like Puritans Yet others mislike them and believe they never descended from Jesus nor from his Apostle St. Peter The difference between the Cassandrians and the Church in communion whereof they live is so great as that it seems to be as it were one State within another State and one Church within another Church as (c) Mr. Daille Of the right use of the Fathers Lib. 1. Cap. 11. one reports who had reason to know Some will have the (a) Bellarm. De Concil Auctor Lib 2. Cap. 14. Pope to be above a Council others a Council to be above the Pope Some affirm that the Pope (b) Bellar. de Romano Pontif. L. 4. C. 2. cannot err Others that he may Some are for the Pope's plenary Power over the whole world both in Ecclesiastical affairs and also Political but others allow him (c) Idem de Pont. Rom. L. 5. C. 1. only a Spiritual Power directly and immediately yet in virtue of that spiritual Power to have likewise a Power indirectly and that the highest even in Temporal matters Of this latter Opinion Bellarmin himself was yet it seems the French denied the Pope's power in Temporals whether directly or but indirectly when as Bellarmin's (a) Gold in Repl. pro. Imp. cited by Dr. Crakanthorp of the Popes Tempor Monarchy Chap. 11. Book against Barclay in which Bellarmin defends the Popes Power over Princes was so detested by that State that in their publique Assembly they did prohibit and forbid any and that under the Pain of High Treason either to keep or receive or print or sell that Book (b) Exomolog C. 40. H. P. de Cressy calls Infallibility to him an unfortunate word confesses that Chillingworth has combated it with too too great success will have it that the Church of Rome maintains no more than an Authority and says he has reason moving him to wish that the Protestants may never be invited to Combat the Authority of the Church under the notion of Infallibility And to shew that he is not alone in this he makes very bold with the Council of Trent Ibid. and Pope Pius 4th if they are not on his side for he shelters his Opinion under a Decision of the former and a Bull of the latter concerning the Oath of the Profession of Faith And likewise Dr. Holden in his (d) Quem Cathel cae Fidei consonum inveni c. Approbation of Cressy's Book without any Censure of this passage says He found it consonant to the Catholique Faith If this be so as Cressy would sain have it to be then the Romanists and we are not at so much distance as we thought we had been for of an Authority of the Church there 's no dispute between us and them But sure there 's more in the case than so For the Roman Catechisme set forth by decree of the Council of Trent and by the Command of Pope Pius 5th (e) Quemadmodum haec una Ecclesia errare non potest in fidei ac morum disciplinâ tradendâ cùm a spiritu S. gubernetur ita c. Catech Rom. Cap. 15. Quest 15. says that the Church cannot Err in delivering Faith and Manners forasmuch as it is govern'd by the holy Spirit cannot Erre i. e. is infallible And this Church thus inerrable is that of the Roman Communion for the same Catechism (f) Quid de Romano Pontifice visibili Ecclesiae Christi Capite sentiendum est De eo fuit illo omnium Patrum ratio c. Ibid. quest 11. says a little before that the Roman Pontife is the visible Head of Christ's Church And the great Defender of the Romish Faith Card. Bellarmin affirms that (a) Catholici verò omnes constanter dâ—cent Concilia generalia a summo Pontifice confirmata non posse errare nec in fide explicandâ nec in tradendis morum praeceptis toti Ecclesiae communibus Bellarm. de Conciliorum Autoritate L. 1. C. 2. circa initium all Catholiques do constantly teach that General Councils confirm'd by the Pope cannot Err in Faith or Manners in explicating the one or in delivering Precepts about the other And in the same Chapter he adds that (b) Tota Autoritas Ecclesiae fermaliter non est nisi in Praelatis ergo idem est Ecclesiam non posse errare in definiendis rebus fidei Episcopos non posse errare Idem Ibid. Sect. ex his enim locis manifeste colligitur the whole
Vntrustiness I shall proceed next to consider Tradition Oral Tradition more particularly and distinctly and as apply'd to Religion CHAP. II. Of Oral Tradition as it is apply'd to Religion and there what is allow'd to it what deny'd SECT I. I Come now nearer to the Question which being mov'd both of Oral Traditions and of the Sacred Writings Trustiness and Certainty of Conveyance of Divine Truths c. I shall give them a distinct Consideration And first I shall enquire How sure and safe an immediate Conservatory and Conveyance Oral Tradition is of Divine Truths more speculative or more immediately practical fundamental or others down from their first delivery to the Church through succeeding Ages And before further procedure it is granted that Oral Tradition is of use in Religion yet not so much solitary and by it self as in conjunction with Tradition Written 1. It is yielded that tho' there be many (a) Dr. Cosins the late Reverend Lord Bishop of Duresme in his Scholast History of the Canon of Scripture pag. 4 5. Ecclesia Testis est custos sacrarum Literarum Ecclesiae Officium est ut ver as germanas ac genuinas Scripturas a falsis supposititiis ac adulterinis dijudicet ac discernat D. Whitak de S. Script Controv. 1. Quest 3. Cap. 2. Article of Religion 20. internal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Arguments clear in the Scriptures themselves whereby we may be sufficiently assur'd that they were breath'd from a Divine Spirit and are truly the Word of God Yet as to the particular and just number of those Sacred Books every Verse and Sentence in them whether they be more or fewer we have no better External and Ministerial assurance than the Constant and Recorded Testimony of the Catholick Church from one Generation to another which is a Witness and Keeper of Holy Writ 2ly It is confess'd that there are many particular Truths which have had the universal continued Profession and Oral Attestation of the Christian Church from the Primitive to the present Times 3ly It is not deny'd but that if there had been no Scriptures yet Oral Tradition might have derived some Truths to Posterity 4ly Let any Points be recommended to us by so large an Approbation and Certificate from Tradition as Sacred Scriptures have and we shall receive them with all beseeming regard But then 1. We deny that Oral Tradition is sufficient to preserve to us and to ascertain us of the several particular Truths which concern Christian Belief and Practice together with the Sense of the Sacred Books 2ly Tho' there are several Divine Truths which have had the universal and continued Profession of the Church yet we deny it would have been so happy if there had been no Scriptures 3ly Though there had been no Scriptures Oral Tradition might have sent down some Truths to Posterity But they would have been but few and those too blinded with erroneous Appendages most would have been lost as in Hurricanes and among Rocks and Sands some Vessels may weather it out yet shatter'd but how many Perish 4ly As to the last thing sure our Adversaries can't justly charge us with the contrary there being no Point maintained by them and deny'd by us which has so ample a Recommendation But I shall resume the first Concession and the annex'd Denyal and shall add That there is a great difference between Tradition's Testification concerning the Scriptures and Tradition's conserving the many Divine Truths and Sense of them and the safe transmitting them to all succeeding times We may rely upon Tradition for the former which is a more general thing and in which Tradition was less obnoxious to Error and yet not trust it for the latter which abounds in such a variety of Particulars in which there is the greater liableness to mistake and failance The difference I urge may be illustrated thus Suppose one informs me of a Guide in my Journey I credit and accept of that Information and thank the Informant But I rest no farther on him but follow the Guide in the several Stages of my Journey Or suppose one directs me to a very Honest Man and a very knowing Witness in my Cause When he has done so it is not He but the Witness on whom I must depend for a success in my Suit Nay if the Witness should chance to depose against him I may rationally believe him and he can't refuse the Evidence because he himself recommended him to me as a very credible Deponent The Application is obvious The Church's Tradition testifies 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. Isa 8.20 that the Scriptures are the Oracles of God These Oracles of God are a Guide a Witness in the things of God and which belong to Man's Salvation They affirm so much of themselves and because they are Divine Oracles and testified by the Church so to be they must be believed by us in that Claim Why now tho' we owe and pay Thanks to the Church's Tradition for the Preservation of Holy Scriptures and Direction of Us to Them yet we are not therefore bound to resign our Faith universally to the Tradition of the Church but we may trust our selves with Scriptures Guidance and Testimony in all particular Matters of Faith and Practice Yes and if these Scriptures Witness against the Church's Tradition against some Opinions and Practices of it for which Tradition is pretended we ought to believe the Scriptures and Tradition can't fairly decline the Testimony tho' against it self SECT II. But against this it is urg'd That there can be no Arguing against Tradition out of Scripture The reason is Sure Footing in Christianity p. 10◠because there can be no certainty of Scripture without Tradition This must first be supposed certain before the Scripture can be held such Therefore to argue against Tradition out of Scripture is to discourse from what is Tradition being disallow'd uncertain which can't be a solid way of Argumentation To this I reply Omiting that Tradition is not the only means of our Certitude about Scripture That the Exception does not invalidate what I have said for thus it is We do confess to receive the Scriptures upon the Church's universal Tradition and we allow this Testimony to be in it's kind very useful and sufficiently certain and this certainty of Tradition quoad hoc for the Intelligencing us concerning Scripture is supposed by us But then we do and may argue from Scripture thus supposed certain against Tradition i. e. against what is uncertain or false in it viz. Any such Points of Faith or Practice or such Senses of Scripture as it would obtrude upon us when as yet they are perhaps contrary to Scripture and the Tradition is far short of being Vniversal it may be is very narrow or feigned rather than real So that we do not proceed upon an Vncertainty but upon what is certain by Vniversal Tradition i.e. That the Books of the Old and New Testament in the Number that we have them
things of God would hugely hazard their proficiency in so large and clear a knowledge as might fit them to be Authentick Trustees in the Delivery of the Christian Faith from Generation to Generation What I have writ in this Section proceeds not in the least from an humour of reproaching any not from any contempt of the Laiety or as if I expected they should be Divines I pay Acknowledgment and Honour to many of the Laiety for their singular Accomplishments in Religious Knowledge and Virtue And it is out of question with me as much as with any that the rest of them may with their lesser measures of knowledge for they have not generally advantages for higher Attainments and the merciful God will not expect to Reap where he has not Sow'd live good Christians and be saved for ever My only aim and that in prosecution of my undertaking has been to shew how incompetent and very casual Traditioners the Laiety who are exceedingly the greater part of the Body of the Faithful generally are of Divine Truths in so full and distinct a manner as may be for their preservation and security against the emerging encroachments of the contrary Errors through all Ages So that by far the greatest weight and strength of Oral Tradition must lye upon the Clergy whose proper business Religion is whose Lips should preserve knowledge and the People should seek the Law at their Mouth Yet in that very place where it is thus said of the Priests it immediately follows But ye Priests are gone out of the way Mal. 2.7 8. ye have caused many to stumble at the Law c. Their performance had not answered their Duty But to say no more of that how little Clergy and Laiety both are to be relyed on as to an Oral indefectible Conveyance of Divine Truths shall be seen on a second account in the next Section SECT II. 2ly To an exact and constant steadiness of Tradition there is requisite an Integrity a clearness of Spirit an unencumbrance of Christians through all Ages with any thing which might sway them to a Belief or Profession contrary to that of the first Age. Now if we look abroad into the World we shall see that commonly Men take up this or that Profession side with this or that Party in Religion more upon the score of Education Example or Interest upon some extrinsick Motive or upon some short and confuse Apprehensions than upon an explicite knowledge or at the least a truly solid Conviction of those Tenents by which those Parties are distinguished But to proceed more particularly Among others there are four things which have an usual and powerful Operation upon Mens Belief and Profession to the changing or smothering their Persuasions and the corruption of their Practice 1. A wantonness of Reason is very incident to Mankind Man loves Variety and conversing here below with little but what is mutable in an unhappy kind of imitation learns to affect change and is apt to be cloy'd with old Truths as with a wontedness to all things else The hankering after some New things was not peculiar to the Athenians and Strangers among them but is an itch natural to all And to cherish this affection for Novelty there have not wanted Broachers of new Opinions in most Ages of the Church 2ly There 's an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordinary enough a bending the stick too much the other way on pretence to make it streight a Recoile from one Extremity to another Out of keenness in contending for a Truth a Zeal for it it has not been unusual to over-do and to retreat from an Error too far on the contraty side Both (a) Illud interim cavenâ—um ne Erroris unius odio devolvamur in alium errorem Id si nullis fere veterum non accidit aliquâ ex parte equidem non deprecabor hominis ociosi notam qui haec admoneam Tertullianus dum nimis acriter pugnâ—t aaversus eos qui plus sat is tribuebant Matrimonio delatus est in alteram foveam Hieronymus tanto ardore pugnat adversus eos qui Matrimonium efferebant cum injuriâ Virginitatis ut ipse sub iniquo Judice vix possit suam tueri causam si reus fiat parum reverenter tractati Conjugis Digamiae Montanus dum ardentiùs oppugnat illâ—s qui passim dignis indignis aperiebant Ecclesiae fores plus satis taxatâ severitate disciplinae Ecclesiasticae in diversum incidit malum D. Augustinus advâ—â—sâ—s Pelagium toto studio dimicans aliâ—â—bi minus tribuit Libero arbitrio quà m tribuendum putant qui nunc in scholis regnant Theologicis Possem hujus generâ—s exempla permulta commemorare etiam ex recentioribus Sed praestat opinor in re odiosâ non esse admedum copiosum In Epistolâ praefatoriâ ad Opera Sti. Hilarti Erasmus and (b) Ardebant veteres Illi tanto sincerae pietatis Catholicae defensienis ardere ut dum unum errorem omnium virium conatu destruere annituntur saepe in alterum errorem oppositum deciderent vel quodammodo decidisse videantur Sic Dienysius Corinthiorum Antistes c. In Praefatione Lib. 5ti Bibliothecae Stae Sixtus Senensis have given us Instances of this in several of the Antients as may be seen in the Margent 3. It has not been uncommon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have Mens Persons in admiration and that not alone for Advantage but for their Learning and Piety so highly to revere them as before Christians were aware to become over-credulous and to follow their Conduct Some Hereticks have been of sufficient Learning and appearing Sanctity and have been adhered to in the Church by no small number of Proselytes The Reputation for Virtue which once Pelagius had with St. Chrysostom and St. Augustine his several Works who were his Followers what noise his Opinions made in the Christian World and how the Relicks of them were continued among the Massilians or Semipelagians may be seen at large in (a) Historia Pelag. lib. 1. cap. 3.4 5 6 7. Vossius 4ly What a strong influence have Hopes and Fears upon Men Hopes of Ease Profit Preferment by their pleasing Insinuations gain great command over the Soul and are apt to bribe the Judgment Fear of Evil of Confiscations Imprisonments Gibbets and Stakes tho' they are no proper Topiques to convince the Reason yet work hugely upon the Passions And Men are often frighted from those Opinions out of which they could not have been fairly and quietly disputed It is the Observation of a Learned and Honourable (b) The Lord â—f Falkland in his Reply p 122. Person That in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth 's Reign of many thousand Livings which are in England the Incumbents of not an hundred chose rather to lose their Benefices for Popish Opinions than to keep them by subscribing to the Tenents of the Reformed Church of England All who for the greater part must be
me morable and large Periods of Time I proceed to the Christian Church SECT IV. Being come to the Christian Church let us first take some account of the more early Ages of it As soon as the good Seed was sown the Enemy came and sow'd Tares among the Wheat Tradition was not so viligant but that many corrupt Doctrines and Practices quickly arose and spread in the Church Else St. August might have spar'd his Book of Heresies or the Catalogue would have been shorter But I shall insist on two or three Opinions only which have been antiently countenanced by great Names and have been of considerable continuance in the Church and are now generally rejected by the Church of Rome as well as by others 1. That after the Resurrection Jerusalem should be new built adorn'd and enlarg'd and that Believers in Christ should Reign with him there a thousand years was very early believed Papias the Scholar of St. John Irenaeus Apollinarius Tertullian Victorinus Lactantius Severus and a great multitude of Catholick Persons were of this Judgment St. Hierome tho' he did not hold yet neither would he condemn this Opinion because many Ecclesiastical Persons and Martyrs had own'd it And St. Augustine thought the Tenent tolerable if abstracted from any carnality of Pleasures and confesses that he himself once held it We have all this in (a) Bibl. Stae Lib. 5. Annot. 233. Lib. 6. Annot. 347. Sixtus Senensis But (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Contra Tryphonem p. 307. Justine Martyr Elder than either St. Hierome or St. Augustine speaks of the Millenarian Doctrine as that which was embrac'd by all thorough Orthodox Christians of his time which affirmation whatsoever is oppos'd out of him elsewhere to the diminution of it must mean that at the least a very great number of Christians were thus Opinion'd And though the Judgment of more sober Christians was more clean and inoffensive concerning the Millenarian Reign yet the apprehensions of many were more gross and sensual as were those of the Cerinthians as (a) Cerinthiani mille quoque annos post resurrectionem in terreno regno Christi secundum carnales ventris lihidinâ—s voluptates futuros fabulantur unde etiam Chiliastae sunt appellati De Haeres Cap. 8. St. Augustine tell us and that they were call'd Chiliasts According to (b) In Johan cap. 6. Maldonate St. Augustine's and Innocent's the first Opinion of the necessity of the Eucharist to Infants prevail'd in the Church about six hundred years This practice of Communicating of Infants is acknowledged by (c) Ut enim sanctissimi illi patres sui facti probabilem causam pro illius temporis ratione habâ—erunt ita certè ecs nullâ salutis necessitate id fecisse sine controversiâ credendum est Trid. Conc. Sess 5. Can. 4. Caranz Summa Concil the Council of Trent But they deny that the Practisers of it had any Opinion of its necessity but us'd it upon some probable Motive only And so they (d) Siquis dixerit parvulis antequam ad annos discretionis pervenerint necessariam esse Eucharistiae Communionem Anathema sit Sess 5. Can. 4. De Communione sub utraque specie parvulorum Caran Anathematize them only who shall affirm that the Eucharist is necessary to Children before they come to years of discretion Thus the Trent-Fathers But if Tradition Antient and even Apostolical and also Holy Scriptures can make a Practice necessary then particularly St. Augustine judg'd the Communicating of Infants to be necessary For he (a) Vnde nisi ex antiquâ ut existimo Apostolicâ Traditione Ecclesiae Christi insitum tenent praeter Baptismum participationem Dominicae Mensae non solum ad regnum Dei sed nec ad salutem vitam aeternam posse quenquam hominum pervenire And presently after two or three Quotations out of Scripture he adds Si ergo ut tot tanta divina testimonia concinunt nec salus nec vita aeterna sine Baptismo corpore sanguine Domini cuiquam spectanda est frustra sine his promittitur parvulâ—s Porro si a salute aâ— vitâ aeterna hominem nisi peccata non separant per haec Sacramenta non nisi peccati reatus in parvulis solvitur S. August De peccati merit remiss Contr. Pelag. L. 1. discours'd for it both from Tradition and Scriptures For when he had asserted upon the strength of both those Topiques that without Baptism and partaking of the Lord's Table none can be saved he concludes that therefore without these Salvation is in vain promis'd to Children Without these i. e. Baptism and the Eucharist also So that tho' the Sanctissimi Patres have good words given them yet the holy Augustine and the rest who were of his mind must fall under the Trent-Anathema And considering the clearness of the passage in St. Augustine it is strange it should be said There is an Objection That S. Austine and Innocentius with their Councils held that the Communion of Children was necessary for Salvation and their words seem to be apparent But who looks into other passages of the same Authors will find that their words are Metaphorical and that their meaning is that the Effects of Sacramental Communion to wit an Incorporation into Christ's Body which is done by Baptism is of necessity for Childrens Salvation Rushworth Dial. 3d. Sect. 13. What passages they are which do thus interpret those Authors meaning we are not told But 1. It is strange that if St. Aug. and Innoc. intended Baptism only and by that an Incorporation into Christ's Mystical Body to be necessary to Children for their Salvation They should at all mention the Communion of Christ's Body and Blood and the partaking of the Lord's Table to be necessary to Children for that purpose what needed such a disert and repeated conjunction of Baptism and of the Eucharist in expressing that necessity if there was no necessity of the Communion but of Baptism only What reason for it except they should be thought to have a mind to darken their Sense with Words Nay if they meant one of the Sacraments only to be necessary to Childrens Salvation tho' they explicitly mention both why may it not be said that they intended the Communion only and not Baptism to be necessary for that end seeing they are in words as express for the Communion as for Baptism 2ly As for St. Augustine his word in the Margent will not without extremity of injury admit of such a Construction as the Author above-named would in his commenting way obtrude upon them For certainly when he says That without Babtism and partaking of the Lord's Table and of the Body and Blood of the Lord no man can be saved he meant properly and without a figure why therefore when he adds in way of Inference si ergo if therefore both these Sacraments Baptism and the Body and Blood of the Lord be necessary to Salvation
in vain without these is Salvation promised to Children sure he means not metaphorically but properly likewise Else his discourse would not be homogeneous the Inference would not be suitable to the Premisses From what has been said it is plain that St. Augustine's words are to be understood in the most obvious sense and unstrain'd by a Trope And I am perswaded St. Augustine does not contradict Himself disagree in other places from what he clearly means in this and several others I shall add that the necessity of Communicating of Infants continued to be maintained in the Greek Church in the days of (a) Notandum quòd ex hoâ— quod dicitur hic Nisi manducaveritis c. Dicunt Graeci quòd hoc Sacramentum est tantae necessitatis quod pueris debet dari sicut Baptismus In Johan Cap. 6. p. 53. Liranus and much later in the time of (b) Graeci Eucharistiam parvulis etiam infantibus praebâ—nt Instit Mor. parte 1. L. 5 C. 11. Azorius and 't is in use with the (c) Ricaut of the Armenian Church Armenian Church to this Age. And of this usage among the Christians in Habassia in Egypt and some others (d) Enquiries touching c. Cap. 22 23 25. Brerewood may be seen 3ly That the Souls of the Saints departed enjoy not the beatifique Vision of God till after the Resurrection was a belief of the Church for some ages (e) Bib. Stae Lib 6. Annot 345. Sixtus Senensts gives us a long Catalogue of Persons of Note who enclin'd this way as James the Apostle Irenaeus Justin Martyr Tertullian Clemens Romanus Origen Lactantius Victorinus Prudentius St. Ambrose St. Chrysostome St. Augustin Theodoret Arethas Oecumenius Theophylact Euthymius Bernard and Pope John the 22d Of all these he says that They seem'd to give Authority to the Opinion by their Testimony Tho afterwards he endeavours to interpret some of them to a commodious sense and excuses Others of them by this that the Church had not then determined any thing certainly in this Article (f) M. Daille of the right use of the Fathers Lib. 2. Cap 4. Vossii Theses Histâ—rico-Ecclesiasticae de slatu Animae Separatae Luc. 2. Th s 1.2.3 Authors have observed the stream of Antiquity to have run much this way and that if it be not now it was believed (g) Daille Ibid. propiùs finem Brerewood Enquiries Cap. 15. and defended by the whole Greek Church till of later years But the contrary to this was defined by a (h) Definimus Illorum etiam animas qui in caelum mex recipi intueri clarè ipsum Deum trinum Vnum sicuti est Conc. Flor. apud Caran Council call'd first at Ferrara but afterwards removed to Florence not yet 250 years ago And (i) De Beatit Canon Sanctorum Lib. 1â— Cap. 1. In initio Bellarmine calls the Denying to Souls who need no purifying by a Purgatory Fire the clear sight of God immediately upon their departure an Opinion of Ancient and Modern Heretiques and he names with much reverence to the Fathers Tertullian as Primum ex Haereticis the first of the Heretiques who maintain'd it That which made the Cardinal so fierce it may be was because he conceiv'd the (k) Haec quaestio fundamentum est omnium altarum nam idcirco aute Christi adventum non ita colebantur neque invocabantur Spiritus Patriarcharum Prophetarum quemadmodum nunc Apostolos Martyres colimus invocamus quòd Illi adhuc inferni carceribus clausi detiner entur Ordo disputationis subnexas Praefationi ad septimam Controversiam generalem de Ecclesiâ triumphante Beatifical vision of God by the Saints departed before the day of Judgment to be a Foundation of the present Worship and Invocation of them But howsoever he was more civil to John 22d because a Pope whom he brings off thus (l) Respondeo imprimis ad Adrianum Joannem hunc reverâ sensisse animas non visuras Deum nisi post resurrectionem â—aeterùm hoc sensisse quando adhuc sentire licebat sine periculo Haeresis nulla enim adhâ—c praecesserat Ecclesiae definitio Bellarm. de Romano Pontifice Lib. 4. Cap. 14. John he says was really and might be of this Opinion without danger of Heresie because there had been no determination as yet by the Church concerning it This necessarily implies that if the point had been determined before John's time his Tenent would have been Heretical therefore an Error in Faith and that it must so fare with those whosoever have denyed or shall deny it since the Definition of it and so a Tenent may be in one Age an Article of Faith which was not so in a former Age. But I cannot conceive how this should be how an Opinion should be coin'd an Article of Faith in the Mint of Oral Tradition which yet is affirm'd to be the sole Rule of Faith and which is the thing I have undertaken to disprove For 1. Neither can an Opinion advance into an Article of Faith ex parte sui in its own Nature which was not so before by virtue of Oral Tradition because that is but a Witness does not enact Articles anew but only conveys down to us such as were stampt Articles of Faith by Divine Authority and deliver'd to the first Churches Custody Nor 2ly Can an Opinion improve into an Article of Faith ex parte nostri come to be known to us as such if it were not known to be such in times past Because every later Age depends for Intelligence on the Age foregoing and can know no more than what that Age informs of and the foregoing Age could not teach the following one more than it self knew So that the Opinion of Pope John must have always been the same as much an Heresie if at all an Heresie before the Church's Determination as after it or as little an Heresie after the Church's Determination as it was before And here by the way Sure Footing p. 116. it may be observ'd that tho' it is boasted that the chief Pastor of the See of Rome has a particular Title to Infallibility built on Oral Tradition above any See or Pastor whatsoever Yet the chief Pastor John did err in a material and consequential point of Faith a very Learned Adversary being Judge And this is but one Instance among many To draw toward an end of this Section By a view of the two or three Opinions which had once no small countenance from the antient Church yet have been since turn'd out of favour and two of them been vtigmatizâ—d we may perceive that Oral Tradition has not been so even and regular in its Conveyance as is asserted And if the Antient Church so much nearer to the Apostles days nearer by so many hundreds of years than we are now or our Fathers were at the first secession from the Roman Communion did mistake as is yielded by the Romanists and Oral Tradition
did decline so soon how much more probable is it that it should grow yet more feeble and corrupt at such a far greater distance of time As Waters which arise clear and of qualities agreeing with their Fountain the farther they run do the more contract a new relish and gather a foulness from the Chanels through which they travel SECT V. I proceed to the Christian Churches since the more Primitive times and as they are commonly divided into the Eastern and Western Churches so I shall begin with the Eastern and there speak of the Greek Church only In which I suppose none will question but that Christian Religion was planted in a very ample and punctual manner such as might have secur'd a perpetuity of Primitive Truths among the Professors of them as well as among any other Body of Christians This Church administers the Eucharist to the Laiety in both kinds allows Married Priests denys Purgatory-fire to add no more In these things the Roman Church differs from them One of them therefore must err and have receded from what was delivered at the first to them We believe the Roman Church to be guilty of the Recess and they to be sure will deny it But yet which soever it be of the Churches which is in the wrong and one of them must be so Oral Tradition is guilty of Mal-performance of its Duty But moreover this Church holds that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and not from the Son Which is a Tenent condemned by Protestants and Romanists both And the Grecians misbelief in this Article was judg'd by Card. Bellarmine so criminous that he counted it meritorious of the sacking of Constantinople which hapned accordingly in his calculation at the Feast of Pentecost Bellarm. de Christo lib. 2. cap. 30. as a Judgment of God upon them for this error about the Procession of his Holy Spirit And he adds That many compare the Greek Church to the Kingdom of Samaria which separated from the true Temple and for that was punish'd with perpetual Captivity How far charitable in his Censure and right in his (a) Vossius de tribus Symboli in Addendis Chronology the Cardinal was let others judge But this is clear that they of that Communion as they are very numerous so do generally consent in this Opinion that there has been an entail of it upon Posterity through hundreds of years and that though their Reduction has been more than once attempted yet endeavours have prov'd succesless the wound may have been skin'd over but it has not been heal'd (b) Idem Ibid. Though at the Councils of Lyons and Florence it is said there was something of a Closure yet as soon as the Greeks return'd home there was presently a Rupture again and the Churches remain'd at as great a distance as before And they retain their old Error (a) Ricaut of the Greek Church to this day and are observed to defend it with a particular dexterity The same Greek Church denies the Pope's Supremacy that (b) Summa Rei Christianae Bellar In Praef. ad lib. de summo Pontifice Diana of the Romanists They may have yielded the Bishop of Rome a (c) See Nilus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Primacy of Order and yet that too not as enstated on him by Divine Right but indulg'd him by the favour of Princes and Ecclesiastical Canon But they would never grant him a Superiority of Power and Authority They will not (d) Ricaut of the Greek Church yet allow it him These Opinions of the Greek Church cannot in the Judgment of the Romanists who hold contrarily to both and are so especially concern'd in the latter descend from Christ and his Apostles Therefore they must confess that Tradition has miscarried And Traditions miscarrying among so great and formerly renowned tho' now afflicted a Society of Christians for so very long a time and in Points of such moment must needs decry it much below that value to which its friends have enhans'd it SECT VI. Next shall succeed a consideration of the Western Church And what Church in the West would be more taken notice of than the Roman VVhere we are to find the most accurate Tradition or to despair of meeting with it any where They of that Communion having dress'd up and strengthned the Cause of Oral Tradition with the greatest advantages which their wit and learning can give it and claiming it as their (a) Sure Footing P. 116. Priviledge to be the most infallible Traditioners of any Church whatsoever Two things here may be considered 1. VVhat the Accord is of the Roman with the Antient Church 2ly VVhat her Harmony is with herself How well Oral Tradition has preserv'd her in both these respects First how little the Church of Rome comports in her Opinions and Practices with the most antient and purest Churches has been demonstrated by many Learned Protestants I shall insist but on one thing viz. The denyal of the Cup to the Laiety in the Eucharist by the Roman Church The Learned Cassander thought it could not be prov'd that (a) Non puto demonstrari posse totis mille ampliùs annis in ullâ Catholicae Ecclesiae parte sacrosanctum hoc Eucharistiae Sacramentum aliter in sacrâ synazi è mensâ Dominicâ fideli populo quà m sub utroque panis vinique Symbolo administratum fuisse De saerâ Comm. sub utrâque specie He is positive and large in this in his Consultation likewise Much to the same purpose Alphonsus a Castro Tit. Eucharistia Haeresi 13. For above a 1000 years the Sacrament of the Eucharist was otherwise administred to the faithful People than under the Elements of Bread and Wine both Several of our Adversaries give their suffrages with Cassander And the Greek Church administers to the Laiety in both kinds to the present Age. But let us come to that which will with our Adversaries be of more Authority The Council of (a) Praeterea declarat hane potestatem perpetuò in Ecclesiâ fuisse ut in Sacramentorum dispensatione salva illorum substantia ea statueret vel mutaret quae suscipientium utilitati seu ipsorum Sacramentorum venerationi pro rerum temporum locorum varietate magis expedire judicaret Quare agnoscens mater Ecclesia hanc suam in administratione Sacramentorum Anthoritatem licèt ab initio Christianae religionis non infrequens utriusque speciei usus fuisset tamen hanc consuetudinem sub alterâ specie communicandi approbavit pro lege habendam decrevit Sess 5. Can. 2. Apud Caran Trent confesses That from the beginning of Christian Religion the use of both Bread and Wine was not uncommon Yet licèt although such had been the Primitive and not uncommon usage the Council approv'd of Communicating under one kind and decreed it to be observed as a Law And this the Council did by virtue of a pretended Power of the Church to appoint and to
Authority of the Church is formally in the Prelates and therefore that the Church cannot err in defining matters of Faith and that the Bishops cannot Err are the same Thing From what has been quoted it seems that Dr. Cressy and whosoever else may be on his side are considerably oppos'd by others Indeed the Infallibility of the Roman Church and the great usefulness of it to them is better understood by them than to be parted with Upon a survey of the forementioned Dissentions among Romanists themselves the clear inference is that either Tradition is full and plain enough in the things disagreed about and if so then the Romanists themselves do not believe Tradition rest not in what their Fathers taught them and so transgress their own Rule of Faith or Tradition comes down so divided that it cannot unite them shines so dimly that they cannot see their way by it as (c) In the points of immaculate Conception and the Controversies between the Jesuits and the Dominicans c. Exomolog Ch. 82. Dr. Cressy says some learned Catholiques are of Opinion and so wander each Party in a Path by it self And this evinces Traditions impotency want of a sufficient plainness and certainty But here is a retreat to which our Adversaries must be followed There is a (a) Enchirid of Faith p. 17. 113. Some what to this purpose likewise Cressy speaks Exom Ch. 28. distinction made between the Faith and the Doctrine of the Church between Points which are de fide absolutè and such as are de fide sub Opinione Points of Faith strictly so call'd the denial of which would amount to Heresie and Points of Opinion rather than of Faith and Theological speculations only Now it will be said by our Adversaries that the Subject of their Home-differences are not of the former but of the latter kind matters of meer Opinion and therefore that their differences do not disparage Traditions care and sufficiency that being maintain'd to be a Rule of Faith only But to make such an Evasion useless a strict and close dispute about Points of Faith which are such and which not is with the more difficulty manageable betwixt our Adversaries and us because we differ about the Rule of Faith Accordingly they account of a Point as a (a) Enchirid of Faith p. 113. and to the like purpose Cresly Ibid Point of Faith or of meer Opinion as it is attested to or not attested to by a sufficient Tradition which they assert to be the rule of Faith but this is the thing in question between us Therefore as things stand the way will be to review the aforenamed Tenents controverted among the Romanists and to see what their tendency and importance is in Religion in the Judgment of any sober and unbïassed Christian as also what our Adversaries own Sentiments are concerning them Then 1. The freedom of the will in corrupted Nature the assistance of Divine Grace Predestination to an Eternal State the extent of the Redemption by the Death of Christ perseverance in Grace look like material concerns in Religion and the respective statings of the Questions arising on these Subjects are judg'd momentous by the controverting Parties (b) Les Provincia les Or the c. p. 45. 41. The Jansenists complain of sharp usage from the Molinists that a Proposition of theirs viz. That the Fathers shew us a just Man in the Person of St. Peter to whom the grace without which a Man cannot do any thing was wanting was censur'd by their Antagonists to be temerarious impious blasphemous worthy to be Anathematiz'd and Heretical and that their Persons have been traduc'd and defam'd in Books and Pulpits openly and publickly accus'd as Hereticks The Controversies between the Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants some of the principal also between the Lutherans and the Calvinists are much of the same kind with them contended about between the Jesuits and Dominicans the Jansenists and Molinists and yet sure the Romanists will have them to be more than matters of meer Opinion and Theological speculations only in us Protestants because they take occasion from these and some other differences of no higher a Complexion at the least can't be accus'd to be such by a Romanist to upbraid us with the (a) Câ—arity mistaken apuâ—â— Pâ—tter want of Charity 〈◊〉 charged c. p. 58. darkness and confusion of our Condition and that our bitter Contentions and Speeches declare us to be of different Churches and Religions But if these differences in Judgment and Heats be of so high a nature and of so desperate effects in us why not so in them also For suppose that some Protestants passions are more warm in these disputes yet there are also many moderate Men on both sides and to make them of different Religions there must be a contrariety of Judgments and even in matters of Faith and if these be Points of Faith in Protestants what just reason can be given why they should not be such in Romanists likewise 2ly (a) Les Previn 〈◊〉 Letâ—e◠〈◊〉 p. 92. The Doctrine of probable Opinions and That an Opinion is then call'd probable when it is grounded upon some reasons of consideration whence it sometimes comes to pass that the Opinion of one grave Doctor may render an Opinion probable Much of the Casâ—â—stical Divinity of the Jesuits their (b) Ibid. Lâ—tter 9. 186 c. easie Devotions their knack of (c) Ibid. Let. 7. p. 131 132 c. directing the Intention their Doctrine of (d) Ibid. Let. 9. p. 202 203 c. mental Reservation and of the sufficiency of (e) Ibid. Let. 10. p. 231 c. Attrition their Salvo's for (a) Ibid Let. 6. p. 115 and Let. 13. p. 285 286 c. Simony (b) Ibid. Let. 7. p. 134 c. Revenge and (c) Ibid. Let. 8. p. 171 c. Stealing with several Practiques of the like stamp certainly will be doom'd by any who are seriously Christians to be destructive of that fixedness and soundness in the Faith which is opposite to the levity of Children toss'd to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine c. Eph. 4.14 and of the Doctrine which is according to godliness 1. Tim. 6.3 3ly If Tenents may be thought to be de fide points of Faith by their influence on other Credenda and Agenda things to be believed and done and on the Peace of the Christian World then certainly those Tenents which relate to the Pope and were even now touch'd on must be Points of Faith and that of the first Classis For whosoever can see through things will judge that they are of vast inference that on the determination of them must depend the direction of the Pope in the exercise of his Power and of Christians in what and how far to obey him and his Commands as to belief and practice Prince's Crowns and their Subject's Loyalty are deeply concern'd in them and consequently the
of such a Belief of Posterity concerning such an Obligation 'T is well known that antiently and in several Ages of the Church scarce a new Opinion could start up but it found Abettors 'T is strange if there were indeed such a persuasion as is pretended fix'd in the hearts of Christians that so often they should have left the Road and turn'd into an unbeaten Path in former Ages To come neerer to our own Times The Relinquishers of the Roman Tenents and Communion the Deserters as our Adversaries call them of Tradition were like the Croud in St. John's Vision a great Multitude which no man can number of many Nations and Kindreds People and Tongues People divided by diversity of Climates and vast spaces of Earth and Seas of various Complexions of Body and Dispositions of Soul of different Education manner of Life and Civil Interests This being undeniably true how utterly improbable is it that so many Myriads differenced by so many considerable Circumstances should so unanimously agree in a departure from the Roman Church i. e. in the Style of our Adversaries in a defection from Tradition if there had really been such a common Charm and great Principle regnant among them and uniting them in an Obsequious adherence to their Fathers Faith and in an opposition to any alteration of their Belief Especially it is yet the more improbable if it be remembred that many of these adventur'd on a change through the sharpest Persecutions And the Successors of those first Reformers have maintain'd the Secession toward two Centuries of years and are so well fatisfied in it that they are generally averse from a return to the Roman Communion unto which nothing but force is likely to reduce them if even That can do it By this it appears how highly improbable that Position is viz. That it is impossible that Men should not think themselves obliged to believe (a) Sure Footing p. 216. and to do as their Predecessors did Or if a very great improbability be suppos'd and that the Secessors from Rome had such a Belief of a Tye upon them unto the Faith and Practice of Ancestors then for certain they acted contrarily to that Belief But howsoever Act they did and Counter to the Age then and some Ages before And even this will weaken Oral Tradition's indefectibility For what hapned in this alteration may have hapned in the Ages before Tho' Children suppose did conceive an Obligation upon them to the same Faith with that of their Fathers and because it was their Fathers yet if they might move contrarily to them notwithstanding such a believed engagement there might be a Rupture in Tradition as surely as if they had had no sense of such Obligation So that I do not see if it should be granted that there had been and were still in all Generations such a persuasion of Posterities Obligation to believe and to practice just as Forefathers did how such a Concession would quite do Oral Tradition's business For tho' it may be well argued negatively if Posterity did not conceive themselves oblig'd to believe and to do as their Fathers did there can be no certainty of Oral Tradition yet it does not necessarily follow on the other side and affirmatively if successive Generations do believe themselves engag'd to believe and to practise just as the foregoing did therefore it will be sure that they will so believe and practise The reason is because Men do not always nay too seldom what they know it is their Duty to do And tho' they who first departed from Tradition might proceed against conviction of their Obligation to the contrary yet their Successors not discerning the manner of the first departure might continue it as the 200 Men followed Absalom in their simplicity till continuance grew into a Prescription and gain'd the Port of Tradition But notwithstanding that the so numerous Relinquishers of Rome render it very improbable that there was or is a belief generally rooted in the minds of Men that they are bound to believe and to do conformably to Fathers yet it may be perhaps said to counterballance this that they who keep still constant to Rome and to Tradition are remarkably numerous And it is confess'd they are too many But it may rationally be questioned whether all or the greatest part of them do stay in that Communion out of a fix'd belief that they are bound to believe as their Fathers did I am sure their Being of that Church does not evince such a Belief in them because there are divers other Causes which may detain them on that side besides such a persuasion As Ignorance Education Prepossession and Wontedness to it variety of great Preferments and Grandure secular Pomp and Splendor the profitableness and pleasingness of some Doctrines fear from the Princes who are Popish and of Civil Penalties dread of Ecclesiastical Censures and of the Inquisition Were they of the Roman Party more free the Rod not so held over them were Punishments not so severely threatned and executed on Revolters we should better understand how devoted submitters they were to Oral Tradition and how much they were convinced of it as a necessary Duty not to let their Faith alter from that of Ancestors The summ of this Section is this 1. That it has not been proved that there is an Obligation on Posterity to believe Forefathers nay the contrary has been proved 2ly That if there were such an Obligation yet it is not necessary that Posterity should conceive themselves to be under such an Obligation 3ly That if they did conceive themselves to be so obliged yet it does not necessarily follow that they would move according to their Sense of such an Obligation Therefore on this third Head there is not sufficient security given for Oral Tradition's infallibility SECT IV. 4ly The Author of the Answer to the Lord Falkland's Discourse of the Infallibility of the Church of Rome says P. 10 11 12. That a deeper root which greatly strengthens and reduces into action the efficacity of Tradition is that Christian Doctrine is not a speculative knowledge but it is an Art of living a practical Doctrine The consequence of which is that it is not possible that any material Point of Christian Faith can be changed as it were by obreption whilest Men are on sleep but it must needs raise a great scandal and tumult in the Christian Common-weal We remember in a manner as yet how Change came into Germany France Scotland and our own Country Let those be a signe to us what we may think can be the creeping in of false Doctrine specially that there is no point of Doctrine contrary to the Catholick Church rooted in any Christian Nation that the Ecclesiastical History does not mention the times and combats by which it entred and tore the Church in pieces Here 's another Argument for the great Efficacy of Tradition in that it prevents Obreptions so that the Church can't be assaulted by
any material Error but it is strait Alarum'd and then stands upon its guard and consequently is in a capacity to defend and to preserve it self And this is one reason more why the Church receiving her Faith by Tradition and not from Doctors Ibid. p. 44. hath ever kept her entire Answ 1. But first to wave a consideration how little an alteration some Doctrines cause in Christians Practice whether they are held pro or con it is deny'd that it was not possible that any material Point of Faith can be chang'd as it were by Obreption but it must needs raise a great Scandal and Tumult in the Christian Common-weal For that there should be a noise and tumult in the Church it was requisite that there should be a Breach of Communion a separation of one part from another Thus it hapned in the Arrian controversie and some others there was a manifest siding a departure of the Dissenters from each other Such was the Case too in Germany England c. Several Corruptions had possess'd the Church of Rome for a long time and that Church made the Profession and Practice of those corruptions a Condition of Communion with her upon which the Protestants withdrew from her Communion which occasion'd the notice of the World and the Guilt lies on them who were the cause of the Breach who gave the Offence But there may have been Innovations in Doctrine and Discipline too and yet the Members of the Church have still continued mutual Communion and therefore no cry have been rais'd little if any notice been taken not because of the little consequence of the Doctrine or Practice but tho' it might be considerable by reason of its surprizing manner of entrance Some things in their first beginnings because small and in their progresses because stealing on sensim sine sensu by invisible steps are often little if at all discern'd till arriving at some maturity and a size much exceeding what they had in their Infancy and sly growth they then manifest themselves and awaken other's Observation Is it not thus frequently in Nature Are there not some latent Diseases which make secret attempts upon the Life and undiscover'd till by more sensible effects and rudeness to Nature they warn the Patient of his danger Let us enquire whether the like may not have hapned in Religion also It has not been uncommon for Persons of busie Parts and good Credit for Virtue and Learning in their times to have mov'd in a little Sphere of their own to have held some Opinions against or beside the general Vogue of the Age. Now suppose one such Person in Preaching or Writing to have started a Doctrine This coming into the Church commended by the Reputation and plausible Arguments of the Author wins the good liking of many and is passable as a probable Opinion for some years Till in the next Generation through a wontedness to it and a forgetfulness in what degree of assent it was at the first entertain'd it comes to be believ'd as necessary Which advance would be the more facile and likely if the Doctrine were such as had not been expresly defin'd against in any general Council for then it would pass with the greater shew of Modesty or were very advantageous and particularly were such to the governing Party in the Church as suppose the Doctrine of the Supreme and Universal Domination of the Bishop of Rome or that of Pardons and Indulgences c. for then Interest would cast another weight into the Scale and it might be judg'd convenient to be believ'd as necessary By a zealous straining of Expressions and Practices there might in time be a slip from the Mean to an Extremity The high and deserv'd Veneration for the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper might occasion some lofty expressions of it and reverential Gestures at the Celebration of it And then from the Hyperbolies of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. might arise Transubstantiation and Adoration of the Host There may have been very antiently a Solemn and Publick Commemoration of them who dyed in the Lord in way of Thanksgiving to God for such holy useful Persons and of recommendation of them as Religious Exemplars to the People It may be some too might pray for the Dead out of a superabundant Charity yet not for a release of them from Pains but for a more speedy consummation of their begun blessedness And hence in time might creep in an Opinion of a middle state of the departed and Prayers for the deliverance of Souls out of a Purgatory fire As the first Ages of the Church were Blessed with a multitude of Glorious Martyrs so the Christians of those Ages had a very high and fitting esteem of them Sometimes it was an use to pray at the Monuments of the Martyrs to address them also with Rhetorical Apostrophes till at the last the Saints departed came to be prayed to and to be Worshipped Thus it is intelligible enough how there might be alterations in the Church's Doctrine and Practice by stealth and unobservedly and this is sufficient to oppose to the Authors whom I quoted at the beginning of this Section it is not possible that any material Point should be chang'd as it were by Obreption c. But this secret and little notic'd Intrusion of Opinions and Practices into the Church will be found to have been the more feasible if we look back upon former Ages in it and the Genius of them For a great while Learning was very scarce and Piety likewise The Ignorance Irreligion and Debaucheries of the Laiety and Clergy also were so notorious in the eleventh and following Centuries that they occasion'd the great and loud (a) The Authors and the Collections out of them may be seen in Dr. J. White 's Way to the trâ—e Church p. 113 114 115. In Dr. James his Manuduction 103 104 105 106 107 108. And in Dr. Whitby's Absurdity and Idolatry of Host Worship the Appendix from p. 70 to p. 108. complaints of many who liv'd in the Roman Communion and in the respective Ages and may provoke to wonder and grief Those who shall read them This being adverted to 't is so far from being impossible that Changes should invade Religion that rather 't is impossible but that Doctrines and Practices should be corrupted and alter'd from their first Purity in their passage through so long and foul a sink as those dark and impure Ages are represented to have been For as good Knowledge and Piety are great defensatives against Error 's seizure of the Judgment so Ignorance in the Understanding lewdness and depravedness of the Will and Passions make Men indifferent for Religion and unwary in the matters of it dispose Men to a reception of Opinions and Practices precipitantly and without a due Examination of them whence they come and what they are without a discreet prospect whether they tend and what their issue may be at the last So that from what has
been said it is more than likely that there may have been Obreptions points of Faith and Religious Practice may have been materially changed and yet no great Tumult have been rais'd in the Christian Common-weal no Schisme because perhaps the Innovations rush'd not in the whole at once but convey'd themselves into the Church in a Climax insinuated themselves by sly and gradual Transitions therefore with the less if any observations especially might this surprize be undiscern'd in blind and irreligious Ages 2. Secondly as for notice of the changes of Opinions and Practices from Church-Histories So great is the use of Ecclesiastical Histories that we may with reason wish we could rather boast of a plenty than complain of their scarcity which yet Learned Men do especially considering the great extent of the Christian Church for Time and Place which necessarily afforded as huge a variety of Events and Revolutions (a) Is Casaub in Proleg ad Exercitat For above 200 years after the Apostles till Eusebius Pamphilus there was none who did more than begin to designe some History of the Church rather than seriously set about it For a considerable while after the six hundreth year that (b) Idem Ibid. Learned Man quoted in the Margent doubts whether to call those Ages 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Times of Portentiloquie or of Ignorance But there are those who say as much or more and were Sons of the Church of Rome The great (c) Nulla res ita hactenus negligi vis est ac rerum Ecclesiasticarum gestarum vera certa exactâ diligentiâ perquisita Narratio Baron in Praefatione ad Annal. Tom. prim Annalist confesses That nothing seem'd to have been so much neglected as a true and certain and exact History of Ecclesiastical Affairs And before Him it was acknowleg'd by (d) Maximum saepenumero dolorem cepi dum ipse mecum reputo quà m diligenter Acta verò Apostolorum Martyrum deinque Divorum nostrae Religionis ipsius sive crescentis Ecclesiae sive jam adultae opâ—rta maximix tenebris ferè ignorari Fuere qui magna pietatis loco ducerent mendacia pro religione confingere Lib. 5. de Trad. Discipl .. Ludovicus Vives That the Acts of the Apostles of the Martyrs and of the Saints and the Concerns of the Church both growing up and grown were unknown being conceal'd under very great darkness In this penury of Ecclesiastical History how much of the Changes in the Church with an abundance of other very memorable accidents must have perished In those Histories which were Written and are still extant we can expect no more than the most remarkable Occurrents in the respective Ages of which the Authors wrote if all those That a Change in the Church should be remarkable it was requisite that it should raise a Storm cause a Publick disquiet and Breach of Communion which yet might not have hapned tho' there were an Alteration in material Points as has been shewn above and therefore Church-Histories if we had more of them to speak might be silent of it And yet notwithstanding Protestants can say more viz. That Ecclesiastical Writings are not so wholly unintelligencing but that they do report when and how several Points of the Romanists controverted between them and us got into the Church how and by whom they were observ'd and resisted in the several Ages of the Church For which among others (a) Way to the true Ch. p. 195 196 c. Dr. J. White may be seen But I am not engag'd necessarily to insist on this having said what is sufficient before SECT V. Scriptures Councils and Fathers were (b) Sure Footing p. 126 c. once drawn into the Field to engage in the defence of Oral Tradition but upon after thoughts a Retreat is sounded to Two of them For the Author of Sure Footing says That he Discourses from his Scriptural Allegations but (c) Letter of thanks p. 106. Topically and that in Citation of them he proceeds on such Maximes as are ut'd in Word-skirmishes on which account he believes that those Texts he uses sound more favourably for him than for us But in Word-skirmishes i. e. Appearances ministred from Words which may afford to a pleasant Sophister an opportunity of making passages seem to favour his Hypothesis when really they do not so I have no inclination to deal and I conceive such a wordy velitation to be below the Gravity of the Cause depending between us and our Adversaries Next the Author disclaims his Quotations of (a) Ibid. p. 105. Councils to be intended against Protestants if so then I am not obliged to take notice of them As for the Fathers I know all Protestants do declare that they do highly value the Fathers to such a degree as can be justly demanded from them and as the Fathers themselves were they now living would require from them And concerning their Testimonies both of Holy Scripture and of Tradition something shall be said in the Second Part and there on a particular occasion I have now dispatch'd the First Part of my Undertaking and have evinc'd from the Nature of Oral Tradition from Experience or Event and also by Answer to the Defenses brought for it That it is a very unsafe and insufficient Conveyance of Divine Truths down from their Original Delivery unto us And here I might rest thinking that I had compleated my work if I might be allow'd to discourse after the manner of the * P. 52. Author of Sure Footing with the change only of a few words and to say There being only two grounds or Rules of Faith own'd namely delivery of it down by Writing and by Words and Practices which we call Oral and Practical Tradition 't is left unavoidably out of the impossibility that Oral and Practical Tradition should be infallible as a Rule that Sacred Scriptures must be such and therefore that they are the surest Conveyance of faith But I shall not so crudely conclude my enquiry but shall in a Second Part prove Holy Scriptures to be the most safe immediate Conservatory and Conveyance of Divine Truths down from their first Delivery unto all after Ages Only having been large in the First Part I suppose I may be the briefer in the Second PART II. Sacred Scriptures are the safest Conservatory and Conveyance of Divine Truths down from their Original Delivery through succeeding Ages CHAP. I. SECT I. IF we may collect the Judgment of Mankind from their Practice we may believe that in the Conveyance of Matters of Moment to Posterity they judge the Precedence due to Writings about Oral Tradition because they so commonly commit things of that nature to Books tho' they know the Books themselves must be trusted with Tradition and Providence How much more should this Practice take place in Religion which concerns Men as highly as their Blessedness does And besides common Practice there 's great reason why the
the least as to priviledge Oral Tradition to be the Rule of Faith For 1. Were their writings the Conservatories of Tradition written by persons mov'd by the Holy Ghost or not If not and I suppose our adversaries will not affirm they were then these writings have a great disadvantage of the Holy Scriptures which we profess to be the Canon of our Faith as great a disadvantage as must be between Books written by them who could not err and those written by them who might err from whence it would follow that what is contain'd in the one must be true that the Contents of the other may be true yet too they may be false there may be that reported in them as deliver'd by Christ and his Apostles which yet was not delivered by them But 2. Were there Ecclesiastical Monuments of unquestionable credit and which did from Christ and his Apostles through each age exacty and fully declare to us the consentient Doctrines and Practices of the universal Church it would be very material and we should much rejoice in it but the case is otherwise For some while there were very few if any writings save the Holy Scripture which come to our hands Justin Martyr is said to be the first Father About 150 years after Christ whose works have survived to this day There are some Books which pretend to an early date which yet are judg'd to be supposititious some of them judged to be so by the Romanists themselves others proved to be such by the (a) Cook in censu â quorundum Scriptorum D. James's Bastardie of false Fathers Daille Protestants For the first 300 years as there was no compleat Ecclesiastical History so the Fathers now extant were but few and their Works too being calculated for the times in which they lived reach not the controversies which for many years past and at this day exercise and trouble Christendom This paucity of the Records of the first ages (a) Id autem esse tempus quo quatuor prima Concilia Oecumenica includantur a Constantino Imp. ad Marcianum Atque hoc vel propterea aequissimum esse quia primorum seculorum paucissima extant monumenta illius vero temporis quo Ecclesia praecipuè florebat longe plurima ut facile ex ejus aetatis Patribus eorum scriptis fides ac disciplina veteris Catholicoe possit agnosci Ita Perron Sequitur Responsio Regis Hoc postulatum parùm illis aequum videbitur c. Apud Is Casaubonum in Responsione ad Cardinalis Perronii Epistolam pag. 38 39 40 41 42. Card. Perron acknowledges and does imply their insufficiency for setling Catholick Faith when as he would have recourse made for this purpose unto the 4th and 5th Centuries because then there were most writers Tho against this the learned Is Casaubon excepts and justly forasmuch as it must be presum'd that the stream of Tradition ran purest nearest to its Fountain The Fathers after the first 300 years did often mix their own private sentiments with the Doctrines of the Church Nor do the Fathers express themselves so as that we may clearly distinguish when they writ as Doctors and when as Witnesses when they deliver their own private Sense and when the Sense of the Church and if of the Church whether it be of the Church universal or of some particular Church some who have diligently perus'd their Writings judge it not easy to find any such constant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is confess'd by (a) Rushworth Dial 3d. Sect. 13. a Romanist that the Fathers speak sometimes as Witnesses of what the Church held in their days and sometimes as Doctors and so it is often hard to distinguish how they deliver their Opinions because sometimes they press Scripture or Reason as Doctors and sometimes to confirm a known Truth So that he who seeks Tradition in the Fathers and to convince it by their Testimony takes an hard task upon him if he go rigorously to work and have a cunning Critick to his Adversary So then Tradition must in a good measure be at a loss for succour from the Fathers Writings I conclude then that Books Writings have not given such advantages to Oral Tradition as to render it the safest and most certain Conveyance of Divine Truths but this Dignity and Trust is due to Holy Scriptures only which having been at the first penn'd by Persons assisted by the Divine infallible Spirit are stamp'd with an Authority transcendent to all humane Authority Oral or Written which have been witness'd to by the concurrent Testimony of the Church in each intermediate Age since the Primitive Times and which are at this day generally agreed upon as the true Word of God by Christians tho' in other things it may be some of their Heads may stand as oppositely as those of Sampson's Foxes SECT IV. There remains a Cavil or two rather than Objections which shall have a dispatch also 1. We are told that by desertion of Oral Tradition and adherence to Scripture we do cast our selves upon a remediless ignorance even of Scripture (a) Sure Footing P. 117. Tradition establish'd the Church is provided of a certain and infallible Rule to interpret Scripture's Letter by so as to arrive certainly at Christ's Sense c. And e contrà (b) Ibid. p. 98. without Tradition both Letter and Sense of Scripture is uncertain and subject to dispute Again (c) Ibid. p. 38. As for the certainty of the Scriptures signisicancy nothing is more evident than that this is quite lost to all in the uncertainty of the Letter 2ly It is suggested that the course we take is an Enemy to the Churches Peace (d) Ibid. p. 40. The many Sects into which our miserable Country is distracted issue from this Principle viz. The making Scriptures Letter the Rule of our Faith By these passages it is evident that this Author will have it that Protestants have nothing but the Letter of Scriptures dead Characters to live upon and that upon this he charges their utter uncertainty in the interpretation of Scriptures and their distractions Answ But Protestants when they affirm That Scripture is the safest and most certain Conveyance of Divine Truths and that consequently it is the only Rule of Faith do mean Scriptures Letter and Sense both or the Sense notified by the Words and Letter And therefore the Author might have spar'd his Proof of this conclusion i. e. That Scriptures Letter wants all the properties belonging to a Rule of Faith It was needless I say to prove this to Protestants Well but let Protestants mean and affirm what they will have only the Letter of Scripture and not the Sense of it because they admit not of Oral Tradition to Sense it Scripture it seems is such a Riddle that there is no understanding it except we plough with their Heifer and likewise without Tradition's caement we shall always be a pieces and at variance amongst our selves But 1.