judgment adding that he therefore embraced this Doctrine Because he chose not to follow Men or their Doctrines Pag. 306. but God and telling Trypho That if the Jews had met with any who did not confess this Pag. 307. but blasphemed the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob he was not to esteem them Christians though they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 called Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For I and all Christians that are entirely Orthodox do know there will be a Resurrection of the Flesh and a thousand Years in Jerusalem built adorn'd and enlarged as the Prophets Ezekiel Esaias and others have confessed Now by comparing of these words with what before was spoken by him of the Gnosticks and the following branches of that Heresie the Marcionites the Valentinians Basilidians and Saturnilians p. 253. it will be evident that Justin M. speaks here especially of them For 1. There you will find him saying of those Hereticks That they taught Men to Blaspheme the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. And here That some of them who did not own the Millennium were Men who dared to Blaspheme the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. 2. There you will find them expresly stiled the Marcionites Valentinians Basilidians and Saturnilians Here you will find them generally described by this character That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they say there is no Resurrection of the Dead but that as soon as they die 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Souls were received into Heaven as Irenaeus before noted of those deniers of the Millennium and as is certainly true of all the Hereticks here mentioned Danaeus in Aug. de Haeres c. 22. f. 100. b. Dan. ibid. c. 4. f. 60. b. Ibid. cap. 11. f. 79. a. for the Marcionites denied the Resurrection of the Flesh and held That the Soul only should be saved Basilides denied The Resurrection of the Flesh The Saturnilians said That there would be no Resurrection of the Flesh because the Body would not be saved The Valentinians denied the Resurrection of the Flesh saying That our Souls only not our Bodies were redeemed by Christ Moreover he promises to write a Book against these Deniers of the Millennium which what it should be except his Book against Heresie in general or against Marcion in particular I would gladly know 3. There he declares that true Christians did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in nothing Communicate with these Men as knowing they were Atheists i. e. wicked ungodly and unjust and here he forbids Trypho 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to account them Christians saying they no more deserved that Name than the Sadducees and other Hereticks amongst the Israelites deserved the Name of Jews Now let it be considered 1. § 4 That this Doctrine was owned in the first Ages of the Church by the greatest number of the Christian Clergy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 H. Eccl. l. 3 c. 39. In Jer. 19. Proem in lib. 18. Com. in Esa as is confessed by Euscbius that by the confession of St. Jerom Multi Ecclesiasticorum virorum Martyrum ista dixerunt Many Ecclesiastical Men and Martyrs had asserted it before his time and that even in his days it was the Doctrine quam nostrorum plurima sequitur multitudo which a great multitude of Christians followed that it was received not only in the Eastern parts of the Church by Papias Justin Irenaeus Nepos Apollinaris Methodius but also in the West and South by Tertullian Cyprian Victorinus Lactantius and Severus and if we may credit Gelasius Cyzicenus by the first Nicene Council 2. That these Men taught this Doctrine not as Doctors only but as Witnesses of the Tradition which they had received from Christ and his Apostles and which was taught them by the Elders the Disciples of Christ which pass among the Romanists for Authentick marks of Apostolical Tradition 3. That they pretend to ground it upon numerous and manifest Testimonies both of the Old and New Testament and speak of them as Texts which could admit no other meaning and which they knew to have this meaning and then let any Romanist shew any thing of a like nature for any Article pretended by the Church of Rome to be derived from Tradition to them Now if the Scriptures thus Interpreted for these Two Centuries with so much confidence and assurance § 5 if a Tradition of this early date delivered by Men of such great Reputation from the Disciples of our Lord and from the Seniors of the Church may yet be Scriptures falsly Interpreted Traditions falsly said to be received from the Apostles or the Rulers of the Church Semijudaei Hier. in Esa 60. f. 100. b. Praefat. in lib. 18. f. 107. Ridiculi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in cap. 66. v. 22. and they who thus Interpreted them might be looked upon as Judaizing as Men whose God was their Belly as Men who loved their Belly and their Lusts and as Ridiculous which Epithetes St. Jerom freely doth bestow upon the Assertors of the Millennary Doctrine how much more reason must we have to doubt of those Interpretations of Scripture and those Traditions which are now represented as true Traditions and true Interpretations of the Scripture by the Roman Church If that which once passed for the Doctrine of all Christians that were Orthodox A. D. 373. n. 14. Vitanda est istiusmodi explanatio imo Haeresis In Jer. 19. f. 137. b. may pass in after Ages for Heresie as saith Baronius the Doctrine of the Millennium was pronounced by Damasus and as St. Jerom seems in his invective stile to call it and that which Hereticks then chiefly held must be now held of all who would not be accounted Hereticks sure what is Orthodox in one Age may become Heresie in the succeeding Ages or else the Church of Rome can be no certain judge either of what is Orthodox or Heretical Sure they may be ashamed to ask us any more how Errors could come into their Church and no beginning of them known till they can tell us the beginning of this Error And lastly if the Fathers of the purest Ages could be so easily cozened by Papias a Man of no Judgment in this Matter as some of them assert why might they not be cheated by such half witted Men in Twenty other Matters why not by Twenty other Men of as weak Parts And what assurance can we have of any other thing in which Tradition is pretended on the account of Testimonies less Primitive less plain less numerous than these were If they who had matters at Second-hand from the Apostles could be thus mistaken in a Tradition on which they founded their future Hopes and Expectations must they not much more be subject to like mistakes in matters of meer Speculation and Opinion Moreover hence we have a demonstration of the Falshood of the pretended Tradition of the Church of Rome touching the Invocation of Saints Sess 25. for that according to the Trent Council
A TREATISE OF TRADITIONS PART I. Imprimatur Liber cui titulus A Treatise of Traditions Part I. June 5. 1688. Guil. Needham R R. in Christo P. ac D. D. Wilhelmo Archiep. Cant. a Sacr. Domest A TREATISE OF TRADITIONS PART I. Where it is proved That we have Evidence sufficient from TRADITION I. That the Scriptures are the Word of God. II. That the Church of England owns the true Canon of the Books of the Old Testament III. That the Copies of the Scripture have not been corrupted IV. That the Romanists have no such Evidence for their Traditions V. That the Testimony of the present Church of Rome can be no sure Evidence of Apostolical Tradition VI. What Traditions may securely be relyed upon and what not LONDON Printed by J. Leake for Awnsham Churchill at the Black Swan in Ave-Mary Lane MDCLXXXVIII THE PREFACE The Contents This Proposition That the Doctrines and pretended Traditions of the Western Church could not be introduced by her Members in following Ages but must be derived to them from the Fountain of Tradition is proved false 1. By plain Instances of matters of Fact § 1. 2ly From the false Doctrines and Traditions which generally obtained in the Jewish Church § 2. 3ly From the Prediction of a general Defection from the Faith in the times of Antichrist § 3. 4ly Because this Assertion doth oblige us to account the Fathers of the primitive Ages either Knaves or Fools § 4. 5ly Because it renders all our Search into Antiquity not only superfluous but dangerous § 5. Corruptions in Doctrine or Practice might take their Rise 1st From Mistakes touching the Sence of Scripture § 6. 2ly By leaving of the Scripture and setting up the Fathers as the Rule of Faith § 7. 3ly By flying to Miracles and Visions for the establishment of Doctrines and Opinions § 8. 4ly By reason of the great Authority and Reputation of those Men who first began or else gave Countenance unto them § 9. 5ly By reason of the corrupt Manners of the Clergy § 10. 6ly By reason of the great Ignorance both of the Clergy and the People § 11. 7ly By reason of the Violence and Persecution used to force Men to a Compliance with the prevailing Doctrines or a concealment of their Sentiments to the contrary § 12. This Corruption confessed by the Writers of the dark Ages of the Church § 13. THAT which the Romanists of late have chiefly urged in favour of their present Doctrines and Traditions is That the Traditions which they now embrace as such the Doctrines which they own as Articles of Christian Faith could never have obtained such Credit in the Church or been so generally received throughout the Western Churches as they were before the Reformation had they not been from the Beginning handed down to them as Apostolical Traditions and Doctrines received by the Universal Church of Christ Now the Vanity and Falshood of this Presumption is here shewed by many Instances of plain matter of Fact § 1 demonstrating that what they of Rome at present hold for Apostolical Tradition or as an Article of Christian Faith was generally rejected in former Ages by the whole Church of Christ or at the least by the prevailing and the major part of her Church Guides And whereas it is represented by them as a thing impossible That the Western Church or the prevailing Body of it should in one Age imbrace what they in the foregoing did reject or in this Age reject what in the former they embraced Examples are produced here demonstrating that this hath actually happened in the Instance of eating things strangled and Blood Chap. 2. §. 6. which the whole Western Church abominated in the Eleventh Century and yet did practise in the Twelfth and following Ages In the Instance of the immaculate Conception denyed by the Western Church till the Thirteenth Century Ibid. §. 9. and almost generally received in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries In the Instance of the Canonical and Apocryphal Books of the Old Testament in which the Learned of the Western Church accorded with us in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries Chap. 3. §. 2.11 and yet did Anathematize our Doctrine in the Sixteenth In the Instance of the Angels falling in love with Women Chap. 12. §. 8. asserted generally in the first Four Centuries and rejected in the Fifth to omit many other Instances sufficient to convince us that what the Romanists so confidently offer to prove their Church could not be guilty of such Innovations is only like to the Attempt of Zeno to prove against plain matter of Fact that there could be no Motion But for the farther manifestation of the Vanity of this new way of Arguing a facto ad jus from what they do at present practise and believe to what they ought to do and practise or from their present Faith to an Assurance that the same Faith was always held in all preceeding Ages of the Church I shall First Shew the evil and pernicious Consequences of this way of arguing Secondly I shall point out the Ways and Methods by which these Doctrines and Practices might have prevailed in the Church and yet be nothing less than Apostolical or truly Primitive The evil Consequences of this way of Arguing are First § 2 That it gives the Jews a great Advantage against the Truth and certainty of Christian Faith for they might have then argued and still may with as much Plausibility against our Lord 's Disciples and the first Christian Converts from this very Topick as do the Romanists against the Protestants For might they not say of the very Doctrines and Traditions which they had generally received at our Saviour 's Advent and which he did so peremptorily condemn and caution his Disciples to beware of That they received them from their Fore-Fathers who received them from theirs and who must either have joined in mistaking their Ancestors or in intending to deceive their Posterity of which two things neither is credible Might not they say That the Traditions which they had then embraced were derived from Moses and that their Fore-Fathers handed them down from him to them and that the then present general Reception of them was a sufficient Evidence that they were not Inventions of that or any of the preceeding Ages but Doctrines and Practices derived to them from the first Fountain of Tradition Might they not have asked in what Year and Age those false Traditions and Doctrines entered first among them and whether then their whole Church must not have conspired to tell a lye Might they not have bid them consider the Notoriousness of the Lye and the Damage ensuing from it to themselves and their dearest Pledges and how rare a thing it is to find a Man much less a considerable Number of them who would venture upon such a Wickedness Might they not have added that their Church and People were scattered about almost through every Nation
those Guides of Souls he had set over them Did all our Pastors fall asleep at once or could they all conspire to deceive Posterity Thirdly R. H. The Guide of Controversies cannot be ignorant That as he says God then permitted the Sanhedrim to be the greatest Enemies of Truth for the Accomplishment of the Prophecies of the Old Testament so do we also say That God permitted these pernicious Doctrines to obtain in the Church of Rome for the Accomplishment of those Prophecies of the New Testament touching a great and almost general Apostacy which was to happen in the Days of the great Antichrist and in the time when all Tongues and Nations were to worship the Beast Now hence ariseth a Second Demonstration of the Falshood of this vain Presumption § 3 That no such Change can happen in the Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Christ as we pretend to for the Testimony of the Holy Scriptures the Doctrine of the Fathers and the Confessions of many learned Catholicks assure us that this shall actually happen in the times of Antichrist and what will then become of all the pretended Demonstrations That this cannot happen or can never happen And First Rev. xj 7-xij 6. The Scripture speaks expresly of the Slaughter of the Two Witnesses the Flight of the Women into the Desart and of the Worship which the whole World shall pay unto the Beast Where note That the Witnesses which represent the Church or her true Pastors are but Two and they at last are slain and that the Dominion of Antichrist is represented as over all Kingdoms Tongues and Nations and he is said to cause the Earth Chap. xiij 7 v. 16. and him that dwells therein to worship him and both small and great rich and poor bond and free to receive his Mark. The Fathers also assert that the Apostacy will then be so great Basil Ep. 71. p. 115. That the Lord will seem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wholly to have left his Churches That there shall be then Totius mundi seductio Hippol. de Consum mundi p. 4. a Seduction of the whole World That Cuncti accedent P. 41. atque adorabunt eum all shall come and worship the Beast That the Saints shall hide themselves P. 43 49 59. in montibus speluncis cavernis Terrae in the mountains dens and caverns of the Earth That all shall fall off from God and believe that Impostor That there shall be nec oblatio P. 48. nec suffitus nec cultus Deo gratus neither Oblation nor Incense nor any Worship acceptable to God no Eucharist no Liturgy no singing of Psalms or reading of the Scripture That there shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodor. Tom 3. Ep. 63. p. 937. Hieron in Sophon c. 2. f. 97. F. a general Apostacy That Regnante Antichristo redigenda sit Ecclesia in solitudinem in the Reign of Antichrist the Church will be brought to Solitude so that Christ coming shall scarce find Faith upon the Earth That in the time of Antichrist ecclesia non apparebit Aust Ep. 80. ad Hesyc p. 364. the Church shall not appear being eclipsed by the Persecutions of ungodly Men That Men shall ask whether the Gospel doth any where continue upon Earth Ephr. Syr. de consum Sâ—eculi Antichristo Col. An. 1603. p. 219. responsumque iri nusquam and it shall be answered no where And in this Assertion the Fathers are generally followed by the Romish Doctors De Pontif. Rom. l. 3. c. 7. §. denique let one Bellarmine speak for them all saying that Daniel plainly saith That in the times of Antichrist by reason of the Severity of Persecutions the publick and daily Sacrifice of the Church shall cease ubi omnium consensu loquitur de tempore Antichristi where by the consent of all he speaketh of the time of Antichrist This being then so clear a Revelation or Prediction of the Holy Ghost and our great Prophet must some time or other happen or both our Saviour and the Holy Spirit must be charged with lying Prophecies And being so unanimously and without controll delivered by the Holy Fathers the constant Tradition and the received Doctrine of the Church of Christ throughout all those Ages must be a constant Refutation of this idle Dream and their Pretences to Tradition must evidently be confuted by Tradition Thirdly § 4 This Method and Proceeding of the Romanists for finding out and judging of primitive Doctrines and Traditions were it admitted would force us to condemn the Writers of the Church from the beginning to the Tenth Twelfth or Fourteenth Centuries as the worst of Fools or Knaves for seeing it is manifest from their plain Words produced in great Plenty throughout those Ages that they speak as plainly in Condemnation of the Latin Service Communion in one Kind the Veneration of Images the Seven Sacraments the Trent Canon of the Books of the Old Testament and of many other Articles of Romish Faith which they pretend to have received from Tradition as any Protestant can do either they must have spoken all these things unwittingly for want of knowledge of what the Church maintained to the contrary throughout those Ages and then it cannot be avoided but they must pass for the most ignorant of Men and such as did not know the necessary Articles of Christian Faith received in their Times or else they must have taught and conveyed to Posterity those things against their Knowledge and the conviction of their Consciences and then it cannot be denied but that they were the worst of Knaves and whichsoever of these things be said it cannot be denied but they of all Men were the most unfit to convey down Tradition to Posterity For to render any Person a credible Testator or Witness of the Churches Faith and Practice Two things seem absolutely necessary 1. That he should have sufficient Knowledge of the Truth of what he testifies And 2ly That he should have Honesty sufficient to assure us that he would not wittingly deceive us in his Testimony for if we have just Reason to suspect either his want of Knowledge or Sincerity we must have reason to suspect his Testimony So that if either such Simplicity and Folly or such apparent Knavery as hath been mentioned can justly be imputed to the Authors of the Testimonies cited against the Doctrines fornamed of the Church of Rome it is extreamly manifest we have just Reason to suspect the Truth of all they might deliver to future Ages either as Doctrines or Practices received from their Predecessors Fourthly § 5 This Method of proceeding must render it a vain and fruitless thing to search into Antiquity to find what was the Doctrine of preceeding Ages Sexta nota est conspiratio in doctrina cum ecclesia antiqua De notis Eccles cap. 9. Bellarm. de eccl milit l. 4 c. 9. and consequently it must assure us that the Church of Rome doth
evident from History and the Confessions of the Romish Doctors Com in Dan. 14. That as Lyranus saith In Ecclesia aliquando sit deceptio populi in Miraculis factis a Sacerdotibus The Priests of that Church sometimes deceived the People with Miracles Non obscurum est quot opiniones invectae sunt in Orbem per homines ad suum quaestum callidos confictorum miraculorum praesidio p. 188. Cap. 11. §. 11. De purg l. 1. c. 11. quarta Ratio De Sanctorum Beat. l. 1. c. 19. accedant l. 2. c. 12. Argument quartum De Sacr. Euch. l. 3. c. 8. postremum de poenit l. 3. c. 12. quarta Ratio done by them for temporal Advantage That according to the Passage cited by the Lord Faulkland from Erasmus or Sr. Thomas Moor many Opinions have been brought into the World by Men cunning to promote their Profit by the means of feigned Miracles I have already proved from the Testimonies of Romish Writers That by such Miracles they do endeavour to confirm their Doctrines we need no other Witness than their Bellarmine who proves Purgatory from the Apparition of Souls declaring they were in that Place That Saints are to be invoked and Images to be worshipped from the Miracles performed upon the Invocation of the First and the Worship of the Second The corporeal Presence of our Lord in the Sacrament and the jus divinum of Auricular Confession from the same Topick And yet some of their Writers have seen just Reason to confess that some of the Miracles produced to confirm these Articles In sum part 4. qu. 11. Art. 4. §. 3. were either humane or diabolical Impostures Thus Alexander of Hales saith That Flesh appeared in the Sacrament interdum humana procuratione interdum operatione Diabolica sometimes by humane Procurement and sometimes by Procurement of the Devil In Can. Miss lect 49. f. 127. b. And Gabriel Biel doth acknowledge that Miracles are done to Men who run to Images sometimes by the Operation of Devils to deceive those inordinate Worshippers God permitting it and their Infidelity exacting it And the same Verdict may with great Reason be passed upon all the rest they appearing in the World not only after that time when the Fathers tell us Miracles were ceased or not to be regarded and when they said the Power of working Miracles was to be given up to Satan but also after that the Goths the Vandals Longobards Franks and Saxons and other barbarous Nations had over-run the West and brought in a Deluge of most horrid Ignorance this dark and dubious Conjuncture was the very Season when these Romish Miracles began to swarm and fly abroad Then do we hear from Pope Gregory Gregory of Tours Bede and others of the Apparitions of sad Souls to acquaint others with their sad Condition underneath craving for Help from the Prayers Pilgrimages and Masses of the Living a Charity which neither Moses nor the Prophets Jesus Christ or his Apostles ever thought fit to mention or prescribe Then do we hear from the Second Nicene Council from Gregory of Tours and other later Writers of Images bleeding smiling or mourning as Occasion required Then do we read in Paulus Diaconus Paschasius and other Patrons of Transubstantiation of Flesh and Blood and of a little Child appearing in the consecrated Elements Now had such Miracles been truly wrought by divine Power and Assistance upon these Occasions they would have more especially been then performed when the Gift of Miracles continued in the Church and was confessedly common among Christians and done for Confirmation of the Faith and for Conviction of the Vnbeliever they being then more necessary for those great Ends for which they were at first designed nor would the Writers of the first Four Ages have been less careful to mention and appeal unto them than are the Romanists at present whose Histories are stuffed up with them especially they would have mentioned them in those Discourses and Apologies which were design'd on purpose to confirm the Christian Faith from the miraculous Operations done by Christians they being not less zealous to promote the Glory of their Lord the Interests of Christianity the Credit of their Institutions and the true Honour of their Saints than Romish Priests Whereas from the beginning of Christianity to the Days of Constantine we do not find in all the genuine Records of Antiquity one tittle of this Nature They are indeed very copious in relating the miraculous Cures and Operations then performed (a) Clem. Recogn l. 5. §. 36. Euseb Hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 13 p. 34. Iren. l. 2. c. 57. by Imposition of Hands (b) Tertull. ad Scap. c. 4. by anointing of the Sick with Oil (c) Just M. Apol. 1. p. 45. Dial. 247. Iren. l. 2. c. 56 57. Orig. in Cels l. 1. p. 7 20. by Prayer and invocation of the Name of Jesus (d) Just M. Dial. p. 302. Orig. l. 7. p. 334. Lact. l. 4. c. 27. by adjuration of evil Spirits by his Name but of miraculous Apparitions of Souls from Purgatory of Flesh and Blood appearing visibly in the Eucharist of Miracles performed at the Adoration of Images or at auricular Confession they speak not one Word these being Miracles designed for other Ends and reserved for times more worthy of them Thirdly Errors in Doctrine or in Practice Sect. 9 might exceedingly prevail by reason of the great Authority the Vogue and Reputation of those Men who either first began or else gave Countenance to them when begun by others St. Paul well understood what an Inlet to Schisms Contentions and Divisions it would be for Men to cry up Paul Apollo Cephas 1 Cor. i. 12. iv 6. and to be puffed up for one against another and therefore he endeavours to prevent that Evil in the Church of Corinth and in most of his Epistles he is constrained to magnify his Office 2 Cor. c. 10 11 12. and to commend himself in opposition to those false Apostles and deceitful Workers who made it their Business to depress his Authority and to procure Credit and Admiration to themselves It was the great Opinion which the Jews had both of the Scribes and Pharisees which caused them so readily to embrace and superstitiously to Reverence and stiffly to retain those Superstitions and Traditions by which they render'd vain God's Worship and made void his Law. Vide Cap. 11. §. 7. They saith Josephus had the popular Applause as being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most worthy of Credit in the Peoples Judgment and the best Interpreters of their Laws Mr. Wake 's Second Def. Part 1. p. 81. And we at present see how great a Grief it is to some that our Ministers are in the best Sence popular by living so as to deserve the good Opinion and preaching so as to deserve Attention from the People and gaining Reputation to their Doctrine by their Sincerity as well as Learning or in St.
Paul 's Expression by commending themselves and their Doctrine to the Consciences of all Men. To shew the Prevalence of Men of Reputation in Matters of this Nature If as the Romanists do generally confess the Doctrine of the Millennium obtained almost generally in the Church from the Relation of one Papias a Man of very slender Intellectuals If as Eusebius informs us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eccl. Hist l. 3. c. 39. most of the Churchmen embraced that Sentiment by his Authority pleading 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Antiquity of the Man If one Agrippinus as they also tell us could prevail over all Africa to receive Hereticks by Baptism If Origen could deserve to be condemned in the Fifth and the Sixth Synods as an Heretick and yet whilst he lived Hieron in Verbo Origenes Socrat Hist Eccl. l. 4. c. 26. Hieron Prolog in l. 2. com in Micham Pamphil. Apol. Orig. praefat in libr. nom Hebr. T. 3. f. 12. could by his Learning and his Piety prevail to be had summo in honore in the highest Reputation to obtain after his Death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great Glory throughout all the Christian World insomuch that he was very grateful cunctis prudentibus to all wise Men and did for many Years obtain the Title of Magister Ecclesiae The Master or Teacher of the Church If the Authority of Jerom could prevail to have his Translation of the Old Testament received against the Judgment of the Universal Church If one St. Austin could introduce into the Church the Belief of the Ascension of the Blessed Virgin though none of the Fathers who had as good Opportunity to know and as much Reason to believe it spake one Tittle of it I say if all these things are so how can it be conceived a thing incredible That Popes Patriarchs and Councils and other Persons of great Authority and Vogue in their respective Ages should have had like Influence to introduce new Doctrines and Practices into the Church under pretence of Piety or the Authority of Scriptures or the Holy Fathers or some like plausible Account Theodor. Lector l. 2. p 566. Niceph. Hist Eccl. l. 15. c. 18. Why might not Petrus Gnaphaeus Patriarch of Antioch bring Invocation of Saints into the Prayers of the Church in the Fifth Century Pope Gregory introduce Purgatory in the Sixth Boniface the Third Paulus Diac. de Gest Longobard l. 4. c. 11. obtain from Phocas the Title of Caput omnium Ecclesiarum The Head of the Universal Church in the Seventh The Second Nicene Council introduce Image-Worship in the Eighth Paschasius give Rise to Transubstantiation in the Ninth Lombard and Hugo de S to Victore fix the Number of Seven Sacraments in the Twelfth And Pope Hadrian the Third introduce the Adoration of the Host in the Thirteenth Century Again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socr. Hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 12. Soz. H. Eccl. l. 1. c. 23. If one Paphnutius could by his Reason and Authority prevail with the First Nicene Council to rescind their intended Decree touching the Celibacy of Priests If Nectarius Bishop of Constantinople could abolish the Custom of repairing to an established Penitentiary for the disclosing secret Sins and that with the ensuing Approbation of almost all the Catholick Bishops of the Church In a Word if so many Practices and Customs relating to the Discipline and to the Sacraments of the Church could be entirely altered and rejected in the following Ages as is here partly proved and by the Learned on both sides confessed why might not other Practices and Doctrines which obtained in the more pure and early Ages of the Church run the same Fate and by the same Authority and Methods be discarded For as it is judiciously observed by the Lord Faulkland when the Reasons offered for or against a Practice have in them some Appearance of Truth or Probability as they may have to many Persons though they be not valid when the Persons Authorizing or Approving them are of great Authority or Credit in the Church as they may be especially in darker Ages and yet be subject to great Errors and when the People upon whom these Doctrines or Practices are pressed have either a great Veneration and Esteem for those that press them or a great Dread of them then meet together most of those things which tend to work Perswasion or prevail for an Assent unto the Doctrine and a Compliance with the Practice recommended Seeing then Not. in Concil Clar. Can. 28. conc To. 10. p. 582. as Petrus de Marca doth inform us the Approbation of the half Communion by Thomas Aquinas made others certatim amplecti hanc sententiam to embrace greedily the same Opinion why might not others of as good Authority and Credit be instrumental to produce like Changes in other Constitutions of the Church Fourthly § 10 Old Doctrines and Practices might easily be changed and new obtain by reason of the corrupt Manners of the Clergy and by their Example of the People And that 1. Because such evil Practices deprive the Clergy of that Spiritual Wisdom and Divine Assistance which is their best Conducter into the Way of Truth and is their chief Preservative from dangerous Delusions and pernicious Errors Wisd 1.4 For as the Book of Wisdom saith Into a malicious Soul Wisdom will not enter nor dwell in the Body that is subject unto Sin. St. De Judicio dei To. 2. p. 393. Basil grievously laments the Discords and Contentions the perverse Doctrines and Opinions which had prevailed in his time amongst 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Rulers of the Church of God by which they verified the Prediction of St. Paul Acts 20.30 That from Christians themselves should proceed Men speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them And this he doth resolve into their Rejection of God their true and only King their Departure from the Laws of Christ and chusing rather to rule others in contradiction to the Commands of Christ than to be ruled by him By which things saith he they have render'd themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 P. 394. unworthy of the Government of the Lord. Clemangis is still more express and Argumentative in this Particular Super Materia Conc. Gen. p. 71. For with them saith he is the Spirit those he directs and brings to a salutary End who have prepared for him within themselves an Habitation worthy of him and by good Works have render'd themselves worthy of his Inspiration and Visitation but how can he hear visit and enlighten them who are Adversaries to him and when they cannot do it in themselves endeavour to extinguish him in others and are inflamed not with the Fire of Love but with the Ardor of Ambition For with Hypocrites and self-Seekers the Holy Spirit is not wont to be present but to fly from them as his Enemies according to that saying of the Book of Wisdom the Holy Spirit of Discipline
not their Priests well paid for saying private Masses Do they not get well by the Shrines the Images the Relicks of the Saints they keep and shew to others and the Oblations offered by the People And must not therefore all these Doctrines be very grateful to Men of covetous and greedy Minds Must not such Persons strongly be inclined to broach abet and to promote them Do not the Doctrines of the Pope's Supremacy of the Priest's Power to make his God of the necessity of Priestly Absolution and Confession to him and of entire Obedience due to their Injunctions plainly tend to advance their Power and Reputation and to engage all Men to have them in the greatest Reverence Do not the Doctrines of the Necessity of the Priest's Intention to the Validity of a Sacrament of auricular Confession in order to Absolution and of the Power of this Absolution to procure Pardon for the Person who is only attrite tend most apparently to make the People think that their Salvation doth entirely depend on them and so create as great an Awe within them of such Priests as either the Hopes of their Salvation or the fear of everlasting Misery is able to produce Lastly Doth not the Doctrine of Infallibility give them full Opportunity to lord it over all Mens Consciences and keep them in an absolute Subjection to their Wills And can they not upon the pretence of being the sole Judges of the Sence of Scripture and of authentical Traditions obtrude upon the World whatsoever Doctrines will best suit with their Designs and Interests And must not Men be forced to submit to their Decisions and blindly follow their Directions as agreeable to Sacred Writ whilst it is kept with so great Care from their Perusal He must be blind who sees not that all those Doctrines must be very acceptable to Men of Pride and covetous Desires and who affect Dominion and Empire over the Consciences of others Let us see then whether from the Eighth Century when the Veneration of Images was first established to the Sixteen in which the Trent Council confirmed all these Doctrines we have not too much Reason to suspect the generality or the prevailing part of their Church Guides were Men strongly addicted to those corrupt Affections which render them unworthy of the Assistance of the Holy Spirit worthy to be given up to Delusions and very much disposed to broach maintain and to establish such Doctrines as directly tend to gratify their Ambition and their Avarice Whether such Changes might not reasonably be expected in the Eighth Century Carol. Magn. Praefat. ad libr. de imag when the Second Nicene Council met seeing the Priests then had laid aside all sound and wholesom Doctrine transgressed the Commandments of the Fathers and brought into the Church such Doctrines as were never known to Christ or his Apostles In the Ninth Century when Paschasius began to vent the Doctrine of Transubstantiation seeing then they buried in Contempt and Oblivion the Word of God Paulus Diac. made the Temple a Den of Thieves and instead of sweet Melody Luitpert Arch. Mogunt Epist ad Ludov. Regem Germ. sounded forth Blasphemy against God himself and the Captains and Rulers of the People endeavoured to preferr humane to divine things and the Governours of the Church having left the way of Salvation ran headlong opening the Pit of Perdition to those that followed them In the Tenth Century when as Baronius complains Ad A. D. 912. Art. 8. the Canons were silent the Decrees of Popes suppressed the ancient Traditions proscribed Lust armed with the secular Power challenged all things to it self when Christ was fast asleep in the Ship and which seemed worse all snorted with him and there were no Disciples to awaken their sleepy Lord with their Cries In the Eleventh Century when the Councils held at Rome Varseilles and Tours condemned Berengarius Ad An. 1001. Art. 1. 7. and decreed for the corporeal Presence of our Lord's Body in the Sacrament This being saith Baronius styled that Iron Age in which Iniquity abounded and many discoursed and believed that Antichrist was come and the Corruption of Manners which then was very great especially among the Ecclesiastics might easily perswade Men that it would be so When saith the same Baronius unhappy Brambles Thorns and Nettles which grew out of the Stench of the Flesh and the Dung of Corruption had wonderfully filled the Field of the Church Ad An. 1049. Art. 10. for all Flesh had corrupted their Ways so that not only the Flood seemed unsufficient to wash away this Filth but those horrid Wickednesses seem'd to call for that Fire which destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha When saith Hugo Flaviniacensis almost all the Clergy rather sought their own than the Things of Jesus Christ Concil T. 10. p. 375. and chose rather to adhere to the Discipleship of Simon than keep the Poverty of Christ Apol. An. 1066. apud Morn Myst iniq pag. 245. in the Unity of the Faith. When say the Clergy of Liege corrupt Manners through Ambition and Avarice prevailed Religion was dissembled and a Shew of Piety brought in When the Traffick of Holy Things crept in and the Holy Philosophy by the subtile Interpretation of Sycophants began to be corrupted polluted violated with humane Inventions and old Wives Fables In the Twelfth Century when first we hear of the fixed Number of Seven Sacraments which in another Sence were till then Mysteries Since then the Popes Cardinals and Prelates were all the Day intent on Evil and ever occupied without Satiety in the Works of Iniquity they made Port-sale of things sacred and laboured with all their Might that they might not descend to Hell alone The Clergy neglected God's Service were Slaves to filthy Lucre defiled their Priesthood by Uncleanness De praedest lib. Arbitr l. 2. versus finem Serm. 6. in Ps 90. p. 73. c. seduced the People by Hypocrisy and laid Snares by all manner of ways to ruin them saith Honorius Augustodunensis then the Offices of Ecclesiastical Dignity were turned into filthy Lucre and a Work of Darkness nor was the Welfare of Souls but the Luxury of Riches sought after in performance of them and the whole Race of Christians from the least to the greatest seemed to have conspired against God so that from the Sole of the Foot to the Crown of the Head there was no Soundness in them nor could Men say As is the People so is the Priest Serm. 1. de conv B. Pauli F. 2. d. for the People were not so bad as the Priest Saith St. Bernard In the Thirteenth Century when Transubstantiation was established in the Fourth Council of Lateran Since then Simony was committed without Shame In Hen. 3. A. 1237. p. 438. the Churches Liberty decay'd Charity expired Religion was trod under Foot and the Daughter of Sion was made like a brazen faced Whore that hath no Shame saith Matthew Paris Then
the Pride Haughtiness Perfidiousness Fraud Wickedness Luxury Avarice of the Clergy was not to be endured they being worse than Turks Saracens Tartars and Jews Apud Aventin l. 7. p. 720 721. and did more offend against Christian Simplicity than they saith Meinardus In the Fourteenth Century De planctu Eccl. l 2. c. 15. when Alvarus Pelagius complained of the Popes That many of them came into their Sees by Simony that they were exceedingly Covetous that they savoured of the things of the Flesh but were very careless of the good of Souls C. 16. Of the Cardinals That by their pernicious Examples they were commonly the Odor of Death unto Death that many of them were unworthily promoted and that they were insatiable Thirsters after Benefices C. 20. Of the Bishops That they were notoriously guilty of Simony Fraud Uncleanness Pride Envy Covetousness That the Prelates of the Church were an Army of Devils Companions of Thieves C. 5. and did nothing but for Gifts and Rewards Of the Priests C. 27. That they were commonly promoted by Simony lived incontinently and committed Fornication with the Women that came to Confession Of the Clergy in general C. 28. That they entered into Orders not out of Love to God but temporal Advantage that Drunkenness Gluttony and Incontineney were their common Vices that many of them were Sodomites that they gave ill Example to the Laity and commonly were worse than they In the Fifteenth Century when the Cup was taken away from the Laity by the Decrees of the Councils of Constance and Basil and Purgatory was established in the Council of Florence Ep. Synod de Con. Author Super Papam Bin. To. 8 p. 124. Bin. To. 9. p. 10. Since then all Ecclesiastical and Christian Discipline was in a manner extinguished in every Place saith the Council of Basil Then Oppression Rapine Adultery and Incest and all pestilent Vices did confound all sacred and prophane things saith Aegidius in the Fifth Council of Lateran to omit the Treatises written in this Age by Clemangis of the corrupt State of the Church by Gerson of the Defect of worthy Persons and by the Cardinal of Cambray of the Filthiness of the Church of Rome In the Sixteenth Century in which the Council of Trent was held when amongst the Primates of Religion there was either none or very little Service of God no good Life no Shame no Modesty Justice declined into Hatred or Favour Piety was turned into Superstition and by all Orders of Men Sin was openly committed and very often the Vertue of an honest Man was made his Crime Orat. ad Leon. 10. in Concil Lat. saith Picus Mirandula When all Flesh had corrupted their Ways and were become Citizens not of Rome but of Babylon saith Staphilaeus Orat. hab ad Auditores Rotae Concil To. 14. p. 993 994. When the Bishop of Bitonto in the Trent Council crys out with what Monsters of Filthiness what Sinks of Uncleanness what pestiferous Contagion is not both Priest and People defiled Begin at the Sanctuary of God and see if there be any Shamefacedness any Charity any Hope or Help of honest Life if there be not unbridled Lust notorious Boldness incredible Wickedness that the more powerful proceeded from the Worship of God to Impiety from the Defence of the Church to the Excision of it and fell with one Consent from Religion to Superstition from Faith to Infidelity from Christ to Antichrist from God to Epicurism I say in Ages and in times in which such Floods of all Impiety had overwhelmed the Clergy such Pride Ambition Covetousness and Luxury reigned uncontrolledly among them 't is easy to discern how Practices and Doctrines so well comporting with their vicious Inclinations might easily be introduced by them and difficult to believe it could be otherwise For if in the Fourth Century so great Defection was caused by the wicked Arians notwithstanding all the Opposition which the vertuous and learned Bishops made against them if then by reason of the abounding of Iniquity the Orthodox declared their Expectations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of an entire Apostacy Theodoret Ep. 63. Epist 10. If St. Basil 's Complaint That the Office of the Bishop was sunk down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to miserable Men Servants of Servants who reproached the Name of Bishop was attended with another that concerned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the corruption of the Faith. If Isidore Peleusiota 's Epist l. 3. Epist 223 259 408 410. sad and manifold Complaints of the Tyranny Soul-Murther Luxury Covetousness the Ignorance the Enmity to Vertue which reigned in the Clergy of his Age concludes in this These are the Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by whom the Affairs of the Church are turned topsy turvey If when Theodoret Ep. 134 135 142. saith the Clergy did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 labour under a general Impiety he also speaks more fully of their Declension from the Faith and their establishing a new Heresy what might not be expected in these last and worst of Ages which were the very Sinks of Wickedness the non ultra of Impiety Sure if ever Religion was or can be made to trucle unto Interest and Faith to Faction and Government to degenerate into Empire and Tyranny it must be in those Ages when Men were so unworthy of the Assistance or Direction of the Holy Spirit and were so worthy to be given up unto the Spirit of Delusion Fifthly These novel Practices and Doctrines might easily prevail by reason of the gross Ignorance and Negligence of Christian Knowledge both in the Clergy and the People For who sees not that Ignorance in the Clergy must render them unable to discern betwixt Truth and Falshood to chuse the Good and refuse the Evil and make it easy to impose upon them in those Matters by any specious Pretences whatsoever Thus when the Prophets erred in Vision Esa 28.7 15. and stumbled in Judgment then was it that they made Lyes their Refuge and under Falshood hid themselves When the Watchmen of Israel were all blind and could not understand then did the People become a Seed of Adulterers Esa 56.10.57.3 4. inflaming themselves under every green Tree with Idols When the Priests said not where is the Lord and they that handled the Law knew him not Jer. 2.8 13. then did the People commit two Evils forsaking the Fountain of living Waters and hewing them out Cisterns which can hold no Waters When the Pastors were become brutish and knew not the Lord Jer. 10.21 then was it that their Flocks were scattered When the Scribes and Pharisees had got the Government of Religion and religious things into their Hands Matth. 15.14 our Saviour informs us that the blind led the Blind and both were in the greatest Danger of falling down into the Ditch That the Key of Knowledge was then taken away and the People left as Sheep without a Shepherd Luke
historical Traditions shewed 1. In the Instance of our Lord's Birth Clauso utero § 4. Of his Age § 5. Of the penetration of his Body through the Doors and the Stone of the Sepulchre § 6. Of the Story of the Phoenix § 7. And of the Cells of the Seventy Interpreters § 8. Observe 3dly That we contend not with the Church of Rome touching Ecclesiastical Traditions concerning Ceremonials and unnecessary Observations but only touching necessary Rules of Faith and Manners § 9. FOR the right stating of this Question let it be considered 1. § 1 That we acknowledge That a Doctrine is neither more or less the Word of God for being written or unwritten for that Word which our Saviour spake unto the Jews was for a time unwritten and yet was nevertheless the Word of God because not written We also say there is no reason to dispute Whether the written or unwritten Word of God when equally known to be so is most to be relied on For the Word of God being therefore believed because known to us to be the Word of God must equally be believed in that Case whether it be written or unwritten Concil Trid. Sess 4. We do not therefore quarrel with the Church of Rome for saying That the Traditions which proceeded from the Mouth of Christ or his Apostles speaking by the Holy Spirit and preserved by a continual Succession in the Catholick Church are with the same Reverence and pious Affection to be received as what they writ But only desire them to prove the things which they affirm and we deny to have been thus delivered and then we promise to receive them as the Truths of Christ. And because Mr. M. hath the Confidence to say P. 397 398. That our Ministers usually so confound the Business that they make their Auditors even to startle when they tell them that we hold Tradition equal to Scripture whereas if they meant to deal really they should say what the Truth is that we do indeed equalize Tradition to Scripture and that we have all reason to do so To let him see how little reason he had to accuse us of corrupt Dealing in this Matter I will faithfully transcribe the Assertions of our most able Writers touching this Point Sect. 16. n. 20. Archbishop Laud declares That the Voice and Tradition of that Church which included in it Apostles Disciples and such as had immediate Revelation from Heaven was Divine and the Word of God from them is of like validity written or delivered Bishop Taylor owns Duct Dubit §. 2. c. 3. p. 484. That Tradition would be of the same use as Scripture is if the Tradition were from Christ and his Apostles and were as Certain as Vniversal as Credible as that is by which we are told that Scripture is the Word of God. We willingly grant saith Mr. Chillingworth Chap. 3. §. 45. vid. Chap. 2. §. 53 88. the Church to be as Infallible in her Traditions as the Scripture is if they be as Vniversal as the Tradition of the undoubted Books of Scripture is And again The Tradition of the Church you say must teach us what is Scripture and we are willing to believe it Answer to the Jes p. 35. Rat. p. 168 210 216. and now if you make it good unto us that the same Tradition down from the Apostles hath delivered from Age to Age and from Hand to Hand any Interpretation of any Scripture we are ready to embrace that also So also Bishop Vsher and Doctor Stillingfleet in his Rational Account frequently And therefore R. H. Guid. Disc 3. c. 11. p. 157. who was better acquainted with our Writings than Mr. M. declares That Protestants acknowledge a sufficient certainty of the Tradition concerning Scripture and consequently concerning all the Articles of Christian Faith that are built on Scripture upon which ground also they freely grant N. B. That if any other point wherein they dissent from Catholicks can be proved by as Universal a Tradition as that of the Scriptures they will subscribe to it We therefore manifestly do agree with Chrysostom Oecumenius and Theophylact when they say That the things delivered by the Mouth of the Apostles Oecum in 2. Thess ij 15. Chrysost ibid. Theophylact and by their Writings are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both worthy of Observation That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both equally deserve to be credited when we have equal certainty of both and therefore these passages are vainly cited against us by Mr. M. Let him once prove that the same Tradition tells us That the Apostles delivered the Points in Controversy betwixt us and the Church of Rome as Divine Verities by word of Mouth only and we are all his Humble Servants But alas he knows how vain and how impossible an attempt this would be § 2 and therefore thinks it better boldly to assert what he can never prove by saying P. 399. That our best and only assurance that the Scripture is the Word of God is that all the Christian world saith so but the same Tradition which tells us this tells us also that the Apostles delivered these and these Points to us as Divine Verities by word of Mouth viz. All the Traditions received as Apostolical in the Roman Church Now to reflect a little on this false Assertion and to expose this way of Arguing 1. Put it into the Mouth of a Jew and it thus pleads for those Traditions which our Lord condemned and by which they condemned him The best and only Assurance which you Jewish Christians can have that the Scripture of the Old Testament is the Word of God is that all the Jews say so but the same Tradition which tells us this tells us also That Moses and the Prophets delivered these and these Points to us as Divine Verities by word of Mouth which your Jesus rejected as vain Worship and as the Doctrines of Men 1 Pet. 1.18 and your St. Peter mentions as Traditions received from our Fathers though he stiles them vain you therefore must have equal Reason to receive those Traditions which condemn your Jesus and shew he could not be the true Messiah as to own those Scriptures of the Old Testament which say you Prophesied of him 2. Though we grant the Attestation of the whole Christian World to be a very good assurance of any necessary Article of Christian Faith yet have we more assurance that the Scriptures are the Word of God than so As 1. The necessity that the Christian Revelation should be preserved in some Records and the assurance that we have that it hath been preserved to us in no other The necessity I say that the Christian Revelation should be preserved in some Records for if St. Paul thought it necessary to write to the Church of Rome Rom. xv 15. 2 Cor. i. 13. to put them in remembrance of the Grace given to him as also to send in writing
to his Corinthians the things which they already read and did acknowledge and to write the same things which he had taught to his Philippians Phil. iij. 1 If St. Peter thought it needful to write unto the Jewish Converts to testify to them 1 Pet. v. 12. 2 Pet. iij. 1. 1 Jo. v. 13. that was the true Grace of God in which they stood and to stir up their sincere minds by way of Remembrance St. John that they might know they had eternal Life and might believe in the Son of God. Ver. 3. St. Jude to mind them of the Common Salvation If the Evangelist closeth his Gospel with these words These things were written that you might believe Joh. xx 31. and believing might have Life through his Name surely these persons would not but think it necessary that the essential Doctrines of Christianity should be written And who can think the Holy Spirit of God would have assisted them to indite these Gospels and Epistles had he conceived it needless that they should be written 2. We have the plain Assertions of the Authors of the New Testament that they were written by the Servants and the Apostles of the Lord by Men who declared that the things they writ were the Commandments of the Lord 1 Cor. xiv 37. 1 Pet. i. 18. by Men who preached the Gospel to them by the Assistance of the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven and proved the Truth of what they said by mighty Signs and Miracles owned even by Jews and Heathens as well as by their Christian Converts 3. We find the matter of them worthy of the God of Heaven to reveal 4. We find them generally received as such by those who bore the Name of Christians however differing in other matters read daily in their Assemblies cited in all their Homilies and Sermons called their Digests and their God-making Books by appealing to which they confirmed their Doctrines and confuted their Adversaries and which they offered to be perused to the very Heathens And hence we have just reason to presume that they had Cause sufficient to believe them such 5. We also have the concurrent Testimony of Jews and Heathens citing them as such and thence making Objections against the Christian Faith and attempting to wrest them out of the Hands of Christians that so Christianity might be destroyed out of the World. And lastly We have good reason to suppose that Providence of God which was so highly interested in propagation of the Christian Faith and making of it known unto the World would not permit false Records of that Faith to be so early and generally imposed upon the Christian World. Let us then see it proved by Mr. M. that the matter of those Roman Traditions contained in their new Creed is worthy the God of Heaven to reveal and that we have like reason to suppose his Providence concerned about them let us see plain Assertions of the like Primitive Authority that they were delivered by Men assisted by the Holy Ghost and equal Miracles performed in confirmation of that Assertion let us see a like necessity that Christian Revelations should be handed down by word of Mouth a like general Reception of these Traditions throughout all Ages a like appearance of them in the Christian Writings or Citation of them by Jews or Heathens and when this Evidence hath been produced by Mr. M. we shall be ready to Embrace and own them also as the unwritten Word of God. But whosoever undertakes this Task will find some of these things imply a contradiction viz. That an Oral Tradition should be necessary to be Recorded or daily read in the Assemblies of Christians That it is upon the Matter confessed by Du Pin in his Abridgment of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Three first Centuries P. 605.613 that scarcely any mention of these supposed Traditions can be found in the Homilies or Writings of those Ages Moreover we find not in those Primitive Ages any mention of the Divine Original of these Traditions any appeal to them as such any confirmation of Christian Doctrine or confutation of their Adversaries by them nor any thing objected from them either by Jew or Gentile against the Christian Faith tho' since the time that we confess they came into the Church both Jew and Gentiles have been very forward to object as against other things so especially against Transubstantiation and the Veneration of Images and the Adoration of the Host. Lastly there appears no such real Excellency in them no such tendency to the advancement of true Holiness and Goodness as may convince us they are things worthy of the God of Heaven to reveal and which his Providence should be concerned to preserve and propagate throughout all Ages Moreover we distinguish betwixt Historical Traditions of the Primitive and succeeding Churches § 3 Dist 2. such as are the Tradition concerning the perpetual Virginity of the Blessed Virgin the Birth of our Lord or his coming forth out of her Womb Clauso Vtero his coming to his Disciples the Doors being shut his Age the time of his preaching upon Earth and the like and Traditions touching Articles of Faith and Doctrines to be believed in Order to our being either sound Believers or good Christians Touching the first we say 1. That we have no occasion to dispute with them about some of these things and therefore what St. Basil saith of the perpetual Virginity of the Blessed Virgin That though it would not be offensive unto Piety to say That afterwards she did the works of Matrimony her Virginity being only necessary till the Birth of Christ yet the Mystery being not concerned in it we leave it unregarded and unsearched into We say of other matters of this nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De humana Christi Gener. Tom. 1. p. 509. In Matth. Ed. Huet p. 223. we think it best not to search curiously into them though that of Origen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They who say these things would preserve the perpetual Virginity of Mary seems to insinuate that this was once but the Opinion of some Men. And they who were most zealous for it as was St. Jerom against Helvidius Ut haec quae scripta sunt non negamus ita ea quae non sunt scripta renuimus natum deum esse de virgine credimus quia legimus Mariam nupsisse post partum non credimus quia non legimus Tom. 2. f. 6. a. do it upon this Ground because the contrary is not written for thus he speaks As we deny not those things which are written so we refuse those things which are not written we believe our Lord to be Born of a Virgin because we read it we believe not that Mary was Married after her delivery because we read it not 2dly We add That as for the pretended Tradition § 4 that our Lord came out of the Womb of the Blessed Virgin without opening of it though
Phoen. Tom. 4. f. 54. Synesius saith That by the coming of this Bird the Aegyptians measured 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Circuit of their Times he coming as the Story saith once only in Five hundred Years Ruffinus in his Symbol mentions this as a thing certain The Constitutions stiled Apostolical The Verses which pass under the Name of Lactantius The Epistle under the Name of Jerome to Praesidius say the same thing And yet this Story is deservedly now rejected by the best Writers of the Church of Rome Const Apost Lact. ubi sup Epiph. Hieron ibid. And whosoever considers the Heathenism mixed with it viz. That this Bird comes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Altar of the Sun and doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pray to the Sun and when she is to be consumed she goes to the Priest of Heliopolis and enters with him into the Temple that the new Bird which ariseth out of her Ashes Epiph. Phys c. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saluteth the same Pagan Priest and taking up the Bones of her Consumed Parent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lays them upon the Altar of the Sun. I say Whosoever well considers of these things Not. in Clem. P. 90. will find sufficient cause to say with Cotelerius Mirum cunctis Christianis non suboluisse fraudem ob Paganismum fabellae permistum It is to be wondered that the Paganism mixed with this Fable discovered not the Cheat unto all Christians The Second is the Story of the Cells of the Septuagint § 8 in which they are said to have been severally placed when they Translated the Old-Testament from the Hebrew into Greek and yet to have performed this Translation all in the same words This Justin Martyr having related useth these words Exhort ad Graec. p. 13 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These things we report to you Gentiles not as Fables or as seigned Stories but as a received Tradition delivered to us by the Inhabitants of the Place L. 3. c. 25. Irenaeus having told the same History concludes thus Firma est non ficta quae secundum nos est sides manifestam ostensionem habens ex his Scripturis Our Faith is firm and not seigned having manifest demonstration from these Scriptures Strom. 1. P. 342. Catech. 4. p. 37. De Mensur p. 160 161 163. Clemens Alexandrinus St. Cyril of Jerusalem and Epiphanius among the Greek Fathers expresly affirm the same thing touching these Cells or their Interpretation of Scripture in the very same words though separated one from the other Tertullian speaks De sententiae Communione Apol. c. 18. Of this conspiring in their Sentiments as an Evidence of a divine Providence assisting them And St. De C.D. l. 18. c. 42 43. Austin is express both for their separate Interpretation and their exact Agreement in the words And all these Fathers hence conclude that this Interpretation was performed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. Spiritu codem assistente qui in Prophetis erat quando illa dixerunt by divine Power and Inspiration by the same Holy Spirit which enabled the Prophets to indite these Scriptures And they who do not speak expresly of these Circumstances do notwithstanding generally acknowledge that their Interpretation was Prophetical and Divine Eusebius saith Praepar Evan. L. 8. c. 1. That it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Interpretation ordered by God it was done by them saith St. Hilary Prolog in Psalm p. 635. Spirituali Coelesti scientia with Spiritual and Heavenly Knowledge Praefat. in Psalm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not without Divine Inspiration saith Theodoret and that by reason of the great Symphony which was in their Interpretations And yet these things delivered with so great consent of Ancient Fathers and contradicted only by Saint Jerom who upon that account hardly escaped their Censure are now rejected by the most learned Romanists as false and incredible De verbo Dei l. 2. c. 6. §. haec sententia For as for the Story of the Cells Bellarmine saith That the Jews might easily impose on Justin Martyr Fabulam à se confictam a Fable feigned by themselves and it might as easily happen that aliqui posteriores fidem habuerint Justino Notae in Epiph de Mens Pond p. 378. That some succeeding Fathers should give credit unto Justin That Story of the Cells saith Petavius aegre admodum fidem obtinet is scarcely credible Mr. Du Pin declares Nov. Biblioth part 1. dissert praelim p. 82 88. This is une fiction des Juifs to which the Fathers above-named yielded their assent F. Simon saith That all which the Fathers have said of the Seventy Interpreters excepting some few things seigned afterwards by the Jews were taken out of Aristaeus Disq Crit. c. 15. p. 109. whom all judicious Criticks now judge Spurious and having objected against himself Patrum omnium Autoritatem the Authority of all the Fathers he answers That we are not so much in this matter to consider Ibid. quid a Patribus dictum fuerit what the Fathers said as what Reasons they had to say so and that Jerom did not scruple to oppose himself contra communem Patrum sententiam against the common Opinion of the Fathers about the Cells to Laugh at Justin for it as a simple Man and to say roundly Nescio quis primus auctor Septuaginta Cellulas mendacio suo exstruxit I know not who was the first Author of the Lye. As for the Second Point touching their Inspiration Parum abfuit quin ab Ecclesia tanquam Novator ejiceretur C. 16. p. 129 130. or Divine Assistance in this work he confesseth that Vossius in that Assertion that they were thus inspired Sibi consentientes habet Patres omnes si unum exceperis Hieronymum Had all the Fathers on his side excepting Jerom and as for him he narrowly escaped being cast out of the Church as an Innovator for denying it and yet saith he the Judgment of St. Jerom and the Grave Authors of our Age is to be preferred C. 14. p. 115. for the Fathers being only skill'd in Greek and Latin de rebus sibi incognitis quidquam certi definire non potuerunt could say nothing certain of things unknown to themselves indeed saith he in matters of Faith the consent of the Doctors of the Church hath in it something of Divine C. 16. p. 130. at ille cordatus non est nec religiosus but he is not sincere or Religious who in things which are not of Faith fears to depart from the Sentence of the Fathers and had rather believe other Mens Writings than his own Eyes and Experience And he concludes with these remarkable Words C. 14. p. 116. Censurae Hieronymi Patronam se praebuit Ecclesia Romana dum relicta Septuaginta Interpretum Versione quae per tot annos universum orbem catholicum sola occupaverat Hieronymianam recens cusam
she actually hath imposed false Doctrines and Practices as Apostolical Tradition 2. Because she hath no better Right to testifie in this Matter than the Eastern Churches § 2.3 Because her present Testimony contradicts the Testimony of the whole Church in general and of the Roman Church in particular in former Ages § 3. 1. Touching the number of the Canonical Books of the Old Testament 2. Of the Authority of the Epistle to the Hebrews 3. Of the number of the Sacraments 4. Of Concomitance 5. Of pronouncing part of the Mass in a low Voice 6. Of the Veneration of Images 7. Of Communion in one Kind 8. Of her Twelve new Articles 9. Of the no necessity of giving the Eucharist to Infants Ibid. 4. Because this Doctrine makes Scripture Reason and Antiquity not only useless but pernicious to us § 4. More Instances of the Contradiction betwixt the Decrees of the Ancient Catholick Church and of the present Church of Rome 1st In the Decree of the Trent Council touching the Freedom of the Blessed Virgin from Actual Sin § 5. 2dly In the permission that Church gives to eat things Strangled and Blood § 6. In punishing Men with Death for their Religion § 7. In not breaking the Bread they distribute not permitting the Communicants to carry it home not Consecrating it with a loud Voice § 8. In the Matter of the Immaculate Conception though not conciliarly defined § 9. Seven Corollaries from this Instance § 10. MOreover § 1 for farther Explication of this Question let it be noted Dist 4. That by the word Tradition when we allow what can be proved by it to be in Matters of Faith a Doctrine or a Revelation derived from the Apostles in matters of Government of Discipline or practice an Apostolical Ordinance or Institution we mean not the Tradition of the present Church and much less the Tradition of the Church of Rome and her Adherents Charity Maint ch 2. §. 14. but we mean with Mr. Knot Such a Tradition which involves an evidence of Fact and from Hand to Hand from Age to Age bringing us up to the Times and Persons of the Apostles Id quod in Ecclesia Universa omnibus retro temporibus servatum est merito ab Apostolis creditur institutum De verbo Dei non scripto l. 4 c. 9. and our Saviour himself cometh to be confirmed by all those Miracles and other Arguments by which they proved their Doctrine to be true or such a Practice as the Church hath observed in all past Ages according to the Third Rule of Bellarmine for the discerning Apostolical Traditions and such an Article of Faith as all the Doctors of the Church by common consent have always testified to have descended from Apostolical Tradition Such is the Tradition which St. Basil insists upon for the use of the Words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the Spirit in the Doxology of the Church viz. That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. de Spiritu Sancto c. 29. which was customarily used in the Churches from the first Preaching of the Gospel to that very time and of such Traditions we say with him Ibid. That it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 suitable to the Apostles Doctrine to continue in them Praefat. in libr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such is the Tradition of which Origen speaks when he saith That only is to be believed as Truth which in nothing disagreeth from the Tradition Ecclesiastical that is The praedicatio per successionis ordinem ab Apostolis tradita usque ad praesens in Ecclesiis permanens preaching delivered down by order of Succession from the Apostles and to this present time continued in the Churches This is the Tradition of which St. Cap. 8. Austin speaks in his Book De utilitate credendi viz. of the Tradition quae ab ipso Christo per Apostolos ad nos usque manavit Cap. 10. which came down from Christ by his Apostles to that present time which à Majoribus nostris tradita ad nos usque servata est being delivered by our Ancestors hath been preserved to our times and which is Cap. 14. celebritate consensione vetustate roborata strengthened with a general Fame Consent and Antiquity And this is also the Authority he meaneth when he saith I should not have believed the Gospel nisi me Catholicae Ecclesiae moveret Authoritas unless the Authority of the Catholick Church had moved me For he informs us That he speaks of that Authority which was Contr. Epist Man. quam vocant Fundament c. 4. Miraculis inchoata vetustate firmata begun by Miracles and confirmed by Antiquity And this must of necessity be meant by that Tradition which is the Foundation of an Article of Faith for Faith must be a matter of Divine Revelation and therefore must proceed from Christ or his Apostles from whom alone all Revelations of the Christian Faith have issued the Churches Business being to Believe to Preach and Testifie not to enlarge or shorten to alter or diversisie the Faith by them delivered to her and what they taught her as a thing necessary to be believed or practised by all Christians must consequently be so believed taught and practised through all future Ages provided that they walk according to their Rule Common c. ◠Hence saith Vincentius Lirinensis Hoc est vere proprieque Catholicum quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus That is truly Catholick Doctrine which was held in all places all times and by all Persons Sess 4. And accordingly the Trent Council and the Roman Doctors pretend to have received those Doctrines in which they differ from us partly from Scripture and partly from Tradition derived from the Apostles to their days But here begins the difference betwixt us § 2 1. That they will have the Testimony of the present Church to be an Evidence sufficient of the Tradition of the Church of former Ages and will maintain this way of Arguing to be good The present Church of Rome and they who hold Communion with her deliver such and such Doctrines as Traditions received from the Apostles and handed down from them thoughout all Ages and by all true Christian Churches to this present Age and therefore they undoubtedly are such We on the contrary say That we have clear unquestionable Evidence from Scripture and Church-History that many of the Doctrines imposed upon us by the Church of Rome as Apostolick Doctrines and Traditions were not received but rather were condemned and abhorred by the former Ages of the Church of Christ in general and in particular by that of Rome and this hath been already proved in the instance of their Latin Service the Veneration of Images and Communion in one Kind whence it demonstratively follows that this proposition is contrary to plain matter of Fact. Again What better reason can be given for this Consequence viz. The present Church of Rome with her Adherents deliver
esse potest the true Catholick Faith without which no man can be saved whereas it is here proved that the whole Church of Christ in general and in particular the Roman Church believed that the Apostles and the Nicene Creed contained all the Articles of the Christian Faith. 9. Concil Trid. Sess 21. can 4. The present Roman Church pronounceth an Anathema on those who say the Eucharist is necessary to Children before they come to Years of Discretion that is on Pope Innocent Chap. 12. Sect. 3 4 5. Pope Pelagius and the whole Church of Christ for Six hundred Years And truly if the Tradition or the Doctrine of the present Church of Rome § 4 must be the Rule by which alone we are to judge of the Tradition Practice and Doctrines of the whole Church of Christ throughout all Ages if we lie under any Obligation to determine thus That this is the Practice the Tradition the Doctrine of the present Roman Church therefore this was the Doctrine the Practice the Tradition of all former Ages of the Christian Church then all the Reason God hath given us and all the Learning which we can with all our industry acquire from Scripture and all the Testimonies of the Fathers and Church Writers could we shew them throughout Fifteen Centuries Canon of Script as Dr. Cousins hath done declaring themselves fully in opposition to the Church of Rome I say if the Declarations of the Church of Rome must wholly over-rule us in these matters all the knowledge we can acquire from Scripture Reason or the Fathers is not worth one Straw we may even burn all our Books of Antiquity our Fathers and Church History yea and our Bibles too and lay aside our useless Reason for whatsoever service these things may do to Holy Church they can do none to us The reading of these Authors the use of Reason to discern betwixt good and evil right and wrong true and false in Christian Practices and Doctrines must be the most pernicious things in which we can be exercised for sure I am no Man of honest Conscience and sound Judgment can read the Scriptures and the Fathers carefully but he must very strongly be tempted by his Reason to suspect and must in many things seem absolutely certain that Apostolical Tradition cannot be known by the Tradition of the present Church of Rome yea that many of her present Traditions Doctrines and Practices are evidently and unquestionably repugnant to the Traditions Practices and Doctrines of the Apostles and the whole Church of Christ for Six Eight Ten Twelve or Fourteen Centuries To add some farther Instances to these § 5 I have already mentioned Sess 6. can 23. Ecclesia tenet de Beata Virgine quod ex speciali Dei privilegio in tota vita peccata omnia etiam venialia vitaverit The Church of Rome now holds saith the Trent Council that the Blessed Virgin was through her whole Life free from venial Sin and yet such is the Evidence of Truth to the contrary that many Doctors of the Roman Church are even forced to confess that this Determination is contrary to the common Judgment of the Fathers In John ij Maldonate speaks thus Among the Ancient Fathers I find very few who either do not openly say or obscurely signifie that the Blessed Virgin was guilty of some Fault or Error And though some have endeavoured saith Petavius to mollifie the Sayings of the Fathers De Incar l. 14. c. 1. sect 7. yet their endeavour is vain Nam adeo disertam continent cujusque modi delicti significationem ut aliorsum detorqueri se minime patiuntur For their Sayings do so expresly import the signification of some guilt that they cannot be wrested to another sence and that they had good reason to make these Confessions will be apparent from these Citations following Our Lord saith Irenaeus L. 3. c. 18. p. 277. repellens ejus intempestivam festinationem repelling her unseasonable hastiness said to her Woman what have I to do with thee In the Third Century Tertullian expresly charges her with incredulity for he declares L. de came Christi cap. 7. That our Lord Christ therefore denied his Mother and his Brethren saying Who is my Mother and my Brethren because his Brethren did not believe in him and because Mater non adhaesit illi his Mother did not cleave unto him In this place saith he appears incredulitas eorum the unbelief of them that when he was Preaching the Word of Life and healing of Diseases and Sins his Relations stood without and were so far from harkening to him that they did rather interrupt and call him from so good a Work and will Apelles say That Christ unworthily used these words Ad percutiendam infidelitatem foris stantium To smite the incredulity of them who stood without Origen upon Luke asks what that Sword was which Simeon foretold of saying it should pass through her Heart and answers that it is manifestly written Hom. 17. s 102. b. That in the time of our Lord's Passion all the Apostles should be scandalized and saith he can we think that the Apostles being Scandalized Mater Domini a scandalo fuerit immunis the Mother of our Lord could be free from Scandal If she suffered no Scandal Jesus did not suffer pro peccatis ejus for her Sins but if all sinned and fell short of the Glory of God being justified freely by his Grace utique Maria illo tempore scandalizata est then doubtless Mary also at that time was scandalized And this is that which Simeon here Prophesieth saying Tuam ipsius animam pertransibit infidelitatis gladius ambiguitatis mucrone serieris the Sword of Infidelity shall pass through thy own Soul and thou shalt be smitten with the Sword of doubtfulness In the Fourth Century St. Basil saith That Simeon here prophesieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Mary her self thus Tom. 3. Ep. 317. p. 310. 311. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There shall be some fluctuation even in thy Soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some doubting touching the Lord this is the Sword but after this Scandal which shall happen to Mary and the Disciples of our Lord he presently will minister a Medicine and confirm their Hearts in the Faith of Christ Moveover he makes this Scandal of the Blessed Virgin necessary upon this account That Christ was to taste Death for all to be the propitiation for the World and to justifie all Men by his Blood. In Psalm 118. St. Hilary declares That at the Day of Judgment that incessant Fire is to be endured in quo subeunda sunt gravia illa expiandae a peccatis animae supplicia in which are to be suffered those heavy Punishments designed for the expiating of the Soul from Sin and that then the Sword shall go through the Soul of Mary and if saith he even Dei virgo illa in judicii severitatem ventura est that
Fathers exempting Christ alone from and consequently concluding the Virgin Mary under Original Sin which Argument must needs conclude if the Virgin Mary be not Christ Cardinal Turrecremata affirms De Consecrat dist 4 firmissime n. 11. That all the Doctors in a manner maintain the contrary to the Immaculate Conception and that he had gathered together the Testimonies of One hundred to that Effect noting the very places and words wherein they affirm it Dominicus Bannes saith Part. 1. qu. 1. Art. 8. dub 5. It is the general Opinion of the Holy Fathers that she was conceived in Sin. Becanus acknowledgeth That the ancient School-men L. de Incarn Christi cap. 28. qu. 1. n. 1. who were before Scotus held the Opinion of the Latin Fathers viz. That the Blessed Virgin was conceived in Original Sin. Estius saith It was the common and almost unanimous Opinion of the Schools for Thomas Bonaventure caeterique omnes hanc quaestionis partem In Sent. l. 3. dist 3. Sect. 3. sine ambiguitate amplectuntur and all the rest held it without doubting Canus declares Loc. com l. 7. c. 1. p. 412. That Sancti omnes qui in ejus rei mentionem incidere uno ore asseverarunt B. Virginem in peccato originali conceptam all the Holy Fathers who had occasion to speak of this matter do with one Voice assert that the Blessed Virgin was conceived in Original Sin and then he cites them from the Fourth to the Thirteenth Century Disp 51. in Epist ad Rom. Cajetan brings for it Fifteen Fathers in his Judgment irrefragable others produce 200. Blandellus almost 300 saith Salmeron Dogm Theolog Tom 4. part 2. l. 14. cap. 2. Petavius begins this Dispute with this Observation that Graeci originalis fere criminis raram nec disertam mentionem scriptis suis attigerunt the Greek Fathers scarce ever speak plainly of Original Sin Sect. 1. Sect. 2 7. and therefore undertakes only to tell us the Judgment of the Latin Fathers in this matter which he does by producing them from St. Austin to St. Bernard that is from the Fifth to the Twelfth Century plainly asserting That the Virgin Mary was conceived in Original Sin. But saith he quamvis antiquioribus opinio illa placuit Sect. 8 though this Opinion pleased the Ancients yet afterwards most Christians turned to the contrary Opinion and by the tacit and pious Consent of most it so prevailed as to break forth into a publick Profession so that a Holy-Day was by solemn and publick Rite appointed per totam Ecclesiam by the whole Church for celebration of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin viz. the Eight of December which Sixtus the Fourth confirmed by his Authority and Apostolical Decree A. D. 1476 in which universos Christi fideles invitat ut omnipotenti Deo de Immaculatae Virginis mira Conceptione gratias laudes referant he invites all Christians to give Thanks and Praises to Almighty God for the Immaculate Virgin 's wonderful Conception appointing a Mass and proper Canonical Office for it with the same Indulgences which Urban the Fourth had given to the Observers of the Feast of Corpus Christi He adds That he was the more enclined to this Opinion because it had communem consensum omnium sidelium Sect. 10 the common consent of all the Faithful upon whose concurrent Judgment it behoves us saith Paulinus Nolanus to depend quia in omnem fidelem Spiritus Dei spirat because the Spirit of God breaths upon all the Faithful And lastly he concludes That after this manner Sect. 11 Credendus est Deus Christianis integrum illum immaculatae Virginis Conceptum revelasse it is to be believed that God hath revealed to Christians this pure Conception of the immaculate Virgin that is he hath inspired into them the Knowledge and given them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the full assurance of it though it hath not yet passed into a Catholick Doctrine In which last words he speaks agreeably to the judgment of their Doctors for though the Council of Basil expresly decreed Sess 36. That the Doctrine of the immaculate Conception should be held and embraced tanquam pia consona cultui Ecclesiastico fidei Catholicae rectae rationi sacrae Scripturae as Pious and consonant to Ecclesiastical Worship the Catholick Faith right Reason and the Holy Scriptures though the University of Paris as Salmeron informs us admits none to their Degrees who do not take an Oath to defend it Apud Concil Trid. p. 19. Though the Bull of Paul the V. forbids any one in publick Sermons Lectures Conclusions and any publick Acts whatsoever to affirm that the Blessed Virgin was Conceived in Original Sin. And the Bull of Gregory the XV. to assert it in any private Conference or Writing yet the Bulls of Sixtus the IV. and Pius the V. having given liberty to all Men to hold or maintain either part Sess 5. the Trent Council hath decreed for the observation of the said Constitution made by Sixtus Hence then we learn § 10 1. That a Doctrine never heard of in precedent Ages yea fully contradicted and declared against by Eight whole Centuries may become afterwards the Doctrine of all or almost all the Faithful De gestis Scot. l. 3. c. 12. For Joannes Major doth inform us That Richardus de Sancto Victore who flourished in the middle of the Twelfth Century was omnium expresse primus qui Christiferam Virginem Originalis noxae expertem tenuit expresly the first who held the Virgin Mary free from Original Sin And in the Thirteenth Century In Sent. 3. dist 3. p. 1. A. 1. q. 1. In tertiam D. Th. dist 117. p. 148. P. 57. Bonaventure saith That almost all held the contrary But now saith Vasquez not only the unskillful Vulgar but the Doctors and Divines and all Catholicks with one consent fight for the immaculate Conception Now saith Petavius it hath obtained Consensum omnium fidelium The consent of all the Faithful Now saith Waddingus it is manifest that the oppugners of it do sentire aliter quam universa docet Ecclesia differ from the Doctrine of the Vniversal Church Whence 2. It follows that it is so far from being impossible that it is actually certain That what was never heard of yea what was generally contradicted in the former Ages of the Church may afterwards be owned by the general consent of learned and unlearned Romanists in spite of all the Treatises of the perpetuity of the Faith and of the lawful prejudices against the Calvinists 3. Hence it is evident that the Church of Rome doth not in all things follow the Doctrine of the Ancient Catholick Church for if so then would not they have given liberty to all their Members to oppose a Doctrine generally Believed and Taught in the whole Catholick Church and more assuredly in the whole Western Church for Eight whole Centuries 4. Hence it appears that all the
Doctrines of the Church of Rome are not received by Tradition from Father to Son since in this matter the Sons have generally entertained a Doctrine their Fathers either knew nothing of or plainly contradicted and that is now become pious and consonant to Ecclesiastical Worship which in St. Bernard's time was Ep. 174. praesumpta novitas Mater temeritatis soror superstitionis filia levitatis A bold Novelty the Mother of Rashness the Sister of Superstition the Daughter of Levity 5. Hence doth it follow that even by the Authority of the heads of the Vniversal Church men may be forbidden under pain of Damnation to Assert the Ancient Doctrine of the Church and may have liberty to contradict it Yea that in the judgment of a great R. Council received by the French as General and bearing that title in all Editions of the Councils that may be agreeable to the Catholick Faith to Reason and to Holy Scripture which is repugnant to the Ancient Doctrine of the Church Catholick for Eight whole Centuries 6. Hence is it manifest that the Trent Council hath given liberty to all her Members to hold that which is opposite to an universal constant unopposed Tradition of the Church for many Ages that is that she hath left them at their liberty to hold the Ancient Faith or hold the contrary 7. Hence it appears that in the Church of Rome Feasts may be instituted in which all men shall be exhorted to praise God for a thing which perhaps never was and of the truth of which none of her Members can be certain certitudine fidei with the certainty of Faith all of them being by this Church permitted to believe the contrary CHAP. III. Fifthly We distinguish betwixt Traditions which though not written in Scripture are left on Record in the Ecclesiastical writings of the first and purest Ages of the Church and such as are so purely Oral Traditions as that we find no footsteps of them in the Three first Centuries much less any assurance they had then any general Reception of the first kind is the Canon of Scripture of the Old Testament mentioned in our Sixth Article § 1. This is proved from the Jews § 2. From the Christians of the Second Century § 3. Of the Third Century § 4. From almost all the celebrated Writers of the Fourth Century § 5. Where also it is observed 1. That these Fathers profess to deliver that Catalogue of them which they had received from Tradition § 6. And that the Books which they rejected as Apocryphal were so reputed by the Church § 7. That the Catalogue they produced was that received not only by the Jews but Christians § 8. That they made it to prevent mistakes § 9. That they represent the Books contained in their Catalogue as the Fountain of Salvation the rest as insufficient to confirm Articles of Faith § 10. The same Tradition still continued to the Sixteenth Century § 11. What the Roman Doctors must do if they would shew a like Tradition for any of their Tenets § 12. The unreasonableness of their pretences to Tradition in this Article Ibid. The Attempts of Mr. M. and J. L. to prove their Canon from the Council of Carthage the Testimony of St. Austin the Decrees of Pope Innocent and Gelasius are Answered § 13. The Tradition touching the Books of the New Testament where it is proved 1. That the Four Evangelists the Acts the Thirteen Epistles of St. Paul the First of Peter and of John were always owned as Canonical by all Orthodox Christians § 14. 2. That it cannot be necessary to Salvation to be assured that the Books formerly controverted belong to the Canon § 15. 3. That we cannot be assured of the true Canon of the New Testament from the Testimony of the Latin Church § 16. 4. That there is not the like necessity that the controverted Books should have been generally received from the beginning as that all necessary Articles of Christian Faith and Manners should be then generally received § 17. That we have cause sufficient to own as Canonical the Books once controverted is proved 1. in the General § 18. 2. In Particular touching the Apocalypse § 19. And the Epistle to the Hebrews § 20. Touching the Epistle of St. James the Second of Peter the Second and Third of John the Epistle of St. Jude § 21. No Orthodox Persons dobuted of them after the Fourth Century § 22. The Romanists cannot prove their Doctrines by any like Traditions and in particular not by such a Tradition as proves the Apocalypse Canonical § 23. The Objection of Mr. M. Answered § 24. AGain § 1 the word Tradition may be applied to signifie either such things as are not written in the Scripture Dist 5. though they are left on Record in the Ecclesiastical writings of the first and purest Ages Vocatur Doctrina non scripta non ea quae nusquam scripta est sed quae non est scripta a primo Autore Bellarm. de verbo Dei non scripto l. 4. c. 2. and from them handed down unto us in the writings of succeeding Ages or else to signifie such things as are said only to be delivered by word of Mouth but cannot by the Records of preceding Ages be proved to have been received as Doctrines generally maintained or practices always observed in the Church of Christ of the first sort is the Tradition of the Canon of Scripture of the Apostles Symbol as a perfect Summary of Doctrines necessary to be believed the Observation of the Lord's Day the Superiority of Bishops over Presbyters the Ordination of Presbyters and Deacons by Bishops only and the like we having full and pregnant evidence from the first Records of Antiquity unto this present time of all these things and whatsoever can be proved by a like Tradition touching a necessary Article of Christian Faith we are all ready to receive but those pretended Traditions of the Roman Church which by no Records of Antiquity can be made appear to have been constantly received by the Church as Apostolical Traditions we have just Reason to reject as being without Ground so stiled For Instance First We receive the Canon of the Scriptures of the Old Testament mentioned in our Sixth Article because it is by written Tradition handed down unto us from the Jews from Christ and his Apostles and from their Successors in the Church and we reject the Canon of the Old Testament imposed upon us by the Fourth Session of the Trent Council partly because we find a clear Tradition both virtually by all who say the Canon of the Old Testament is only that we own and expresly by those who say the others which we stile Apocrypha belong not to the Canon And 1. § 2 We receive our Canon from the Ancient Jews to whom were committed the Oracles of God for their Josephus saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. 1. contra Apion
the Roman Church were in this case opposite to Scripture and the plainest Reason And as St. Basil doth to Amphilochius in the same case Can. 47. Eos qui Romae sunt non ea in omnibus observare quae sunt ab origine tradita Ep. 75. p. 220. Though you and the Romans hold the contrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet ought our Sentence to take place And as Firmilian expresly doth That 't is usual with them of Rome to vary from Apostolical Tradition Could so many Fathers so many Churches so many Councils have not only practised in opposition to the Doctrines and Customs of that Church but also have condemned them in such opprobrious Terms as they have done Cyp. Ep. 69. p. 185. Ep. 73. p. 206 208 210. Ep. 74. p 212 c. pronouncing the Assertors of them Prevaricators in matters both of Faith and Truth Betrayers of the Church Enemies to Christians Friends and Abettors of Hereticks Men who did plead their Cause and partake with them in their Sins Men who did null evacuate destroy the Baptism of the Church and give up the Spouse of Christ to Adulterers Fifthly § 25 Hence it is manifest That in that Age they verily believed that what had passed for Apostolical Tradition in the Church of Rome and her Adherents might be no such matter that both that Church and her Abettors might impose upon their fellow Christians in pretending to it and that there lay no Obligation on other Churches to comply with them in such matters as they delivered for Apostolical Tradition For otherwise how could it happen that so many populous Churches so many Councils so many famous Bishops that Athanasius Optatus St. Basil Cyril of Jerusalem all great Assertors of true Apostolical Tradition should declare so plainly and expresly against this practice of the Church of Rome that Firmilian should declare Neminem tam stultum esse qui hoc credat Apostolos tradidisse Ep. 75. p. 219. Nemo infamare Apostolos debeat quasi illi Haereticorum Baptisinata probaverint Ep. 74. p. 211. No Man could be so Foolish as to believe the Apostles had delivered any such thing that St. Cyprian should say That this pretence of Romanists was manifestly false and tended to blaspheme the Reputation of the Blessed Apostles that the Africans should not only reject this pretended Apostolical Tradition in the opprobrious Terms forementioned but should declare so oft in Council that the contrary Doctrine descended from Evangelical Authority and Apostolical Tradition Vid. Supra and was confirmed by the Divine Law and the Holy Scriptures How lastly could it happen that all the other Churches excepting that of Rome were all at Peace and still maintained Communion with these Opposers and Traducers of this pretended Tradition and did not blame them in the least on this account but rather interceded with the Roman Bishop to lay aside his Fury and entertain Communion and Friendship with these Churches as they did Sixthly Hence it appears that in that Age they thought not Custom or Tradition though practised by the Church of Rome and by the major part of Christians any certain Rule of Manners but thought themselves obliged sometimes to vary from it and that they might have Truth and Reason and Scripture on their sides against it that it concerned them to examine then whether the Custom they were required to follow had its rise from Christ and his Apostles and could be proved from their Writings and if not to reject it For in this matter they declare Non esse consuetudine praescribendum Cypr. Ep. 71. p. 194. sed ratione vincendum Their Adversaries were not to prescribe to them from Custom but to convince them by reason St. Paul having taught every one not to adhere pertinaciously to what he had once imbibed Pag. 195. but willingly to embrace any thing which he found better or more profitable That 't was in vain when Men were overcome by reason Ep. 73. p. 203. to oppose Custom to it as if Custom were better than Truth and that were not rather to be followed which was revealed for the better by the Holy Spirit that Non semper errandum Ibid. p. 208. quia aliquando erratum est We must not always erre because we once have done so Ep. 74. p. 215. that Custom without Truth was only old Error and vainly was preferred before it that the Truth being manifested Concil Carth. apud Cypr. p. 236 240 241. Custom was to yield to it that no Man ought to preferr Custom to Reason and Truth that Christ being Truth we ought rather to follow that than Custom that it was obstinacy and presumption Cypr. Ep. 74. p. 212. humanam traditionem divinae dispositioni anteponere to preferr humane Tradition to divine Orders and not to consider that God is angry when humane Tradition evacuates divine Precepts that when it was said to them let nothing be innovated Ibid. p. 211. but that which was delivered be observed it was to be enquired unde est ista traditio whence is that Tradition Whether from the Authority of Christ and the Gospel the commands and Epistles of the Apostles and if in Evangelio praecipitur Ib. p. 215. aut in Apostolorum Epistolis aut Actubus continetur it were commanded in the Gospel or contained in the Acts or Epistles of the Apostles then was it to be observed and that when Truth shook and staggered we were to have recourse to the Head and Original of Divine Tradition ad originem dominicam Evangelicam Apostolicam Traditionem to the Gospel and Apostolical Tradition Lastly Hence it is evident § 26 That in those early times Tradition Apostolical and from the beginning must falsly be pretended by Great Men and Churches even in a matter of continual practice and occurrence in the Church of God for here you see it was pretended for the Admission of Hereticks without Baptism by Pope Stephen and his Church and the fame Tradition Apostolical and from the beginning was pretended for the opposite Doctrine by Firmilian and St. Basil and their Party and yet the Church did in the following Ages declare against the Pretences of them both If then in these plain matters of Fact and of continual practice Tradition did so fail both the Pretenders to it must it not be more apt to fail in matters of meer Speculation If by Tradition these Churches could not truly tell what their Forefathers did how should they by it tell assuredly in all things what they held since that could only be made known unto them by their Words and Actions if actually they handed down unto posterity for a traditionary Practice that which was not truly so why might they not also hand that down to them as a traditionary Doctrine which was nothing less than so CHAP. V. Eightly We distinguish also betwixt Traditions which appear from Reason to be such as ought to be received and
than this John. Since then it is already proved that Elijah the Prophet in Malachy is the same person with the Messenger here mentioned it follows that he can beno other than the Baptist 3. Our Lord himself declares expresly that John the Baptist was that Elias who was for to come for when descending from the Mount Matth. xvij 9. he saith to his Disciples Tell no Man of the Vision till the Son of Man is risen from the dead they thinking suitably to their Tradition that this Elias who appeared in the Mount was visibly to appear among them to Anoint the Messiah in the sight of all the People and order all things belonging to his Advent ask this Question Seeing according to the Doctrine of the Scribes vers 10. Elias must first come and do these things why is it thou forbiddest us to speak of his Appearance To this Enquiry our Saviour Answers that it is very true there is a promise of an Elias to come and restore all things vers 11. But I say unto you the Elias promised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath come already and the Scribes knew him not but did unto him whatsoever they would vers 12 13. And then it follows that his Disciples understood that he spake to them of John the Baptist They therefore understood what the Fathers did not and others will not learn from Christ's plain words that John the Baptist was the Elias promised as the Fore-runner of the great and terrible Day of the Lord whence it doth plainly follow that they who do not think John Baptist and he only was the Elias mentioned by the Prophet must mistake for our Lord plainly saying That that Elias of whom the Scribes made mention as the Forerunner of his Advent was already come and giving them no intimation that any other was to be expected after the coming of this one there can be no pretence from the Tradition of the Scribes or from the Saying of the Prophet to expect any other Moreover our Lord as if he had foreseen and had designed to confute this Jewish Fable speaks still more plainly thus Matth. xi 14. All the Prophets and the Law Prophesied until John and if you will receive i. e. attend to and believe it this is that Elias which was for to come by which words he most plainly teacheth that that Elias of whom the Prophets spake as of one for to come Vid. Pocock in locum was come already and makes it manifest that all that was in Malachy or any other Prophet spoken of Elias Luk. i. 16. was made good in the Baptist who came in the Power and Spirit of Elias and was to be understood of him alone as muchas if he had in express words asserted that he only was the Elias that was to come and they were not by virtue of any Prophecy to look for or expect another For thus our Saviour speaks The Prophet Malachy saith Matth. xi 10. Behold I send my Messenger before my Face now I assure you the Baptist is the very Person of whom this is written The same Prophet saith Behold I will send you Elias the Prophet c. whence your Scribes teach you to expect the personal Appearance of Elias the Tisbite as the Fore-runner of your Messiah but if you will receive the true Interpretation of those words from me St. verse 14. John the Baptist is that Elias which according to that Prophecy was to be his Fore-runner But against this plain Assertion of our Lord it is objected Object That in the Translation of the Seventy the words run thus Behold I will send you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elias the Tisbite which denotes Elias in person and cannot be applied to St. John the Baptist To this I answer That this Argument is of no force Answ because it is founded not on the Original but only on a Translation which is not Authentick 2. From this Translation it may be probably collected that this Imagination of the Appearance of the Tisbite obtained among the Jews but hence it will not follow that it was true any more than that the Doctrine of the Millennium and of Christ's Temporal Kingdom must be true because they where received by that Nation as such 3. Pocock p. 99. By the same Reason and Figurative way of speaking the Baptist may as well be called Elijah the Tisbite as Elijah the Prophet that only shewing the Country of that Prophet as the other doth his Office so that if the Baptist deserved to be called Elijah the Prophet because he came in the Spirit and Power of Elijah he must deserve to be called Elijah the Tisbite on the same account seeing Elijah the Prophet was Elijah the Tisbite It further is Objected Object 2 That John expresly denies that he was Elias for when the Jews from Jerusalem and the Priests and Levites sent to him saying Art thou Elias He said John i. 21. I am not If this Objection be of any force Answ it will also prove that John the Baptist was no Prophet for to the following Enquiry Art thou a Prophet he still answers No whereas our Saviour attested That he was a Prophet yea and more than a Prophet Matth. xi 9. and all the People so accounted of him Dr. Pocock Ibid. His meaning therefore only is I am not that Elias in person whom you expect nor am I such a Prophet as in the days of the Messiah you expect to rise from the Dead And thus Expositors tell us he chose to answer out of Modesty that he might not commend or bear witness of himself thinking it more convenient that Christ should thus bear witness of him than that he should ascribe so great a Dignity to himself Thirdly Object 3 It is Objected That after St. John was Beheaded our Saviour saith Elias truly shall first come and restore all things now how say they can this be spoken as a thing future of John Baptist then This therefore must be understood of some other Elias to come hereafter This is the Ground on which this Doctrine is established by Justin M. Dial. cum Tryph. p. 268. That our Lord taught it saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That Elias shall come And in this he is followed by Theodoret and many of the Ancients After that our Lord had uttered these words Answ not in the future Matth. xvij 11. Mark ix 11. as the vulgar reads them but in the present Tense Elias cometh or Elias coming first restoreth all things He adds immediately of the same Elias Matth. xvij 12. of whom he had said He cometh or he shall come first that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is now come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he indeed was come And again if you will receive it this Baptist is the Elias Matth xi 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is for to come and when he had said these words then his
and vehement in declaring his and our freedom from the legal Ceremonies saith notwithstanding that to the Jew he became as a Jew 1 Cor. 9.20 that he might gain the Jews to them that were under the Law as under the Law that he might gain them that were under the Law and therefore his example in these cases will as much prove that we are to observe the Law of Moses and the Jewish Customs as that we are obliged to keep the Jewish Sabbath Mr. M. farther adds §. 17. Obj. 4. p 210. 1 Cor. 7.19 That St. Paul tells us that in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Uncircumcision but the keeping of the Commandments of God of which the Sanctification of the seventh day was one Answ To which I answer that here he plainly begs the Question which is only this Whether the Saturday under the Christian Oeconomy be still by God's Commandment to be observed as a day of Rest and contradicts the plainest declaration of our Lord and the whole Christian Church that it was Ceremonial a shadow of things to come a temporary precept which laid no obligation on the Christian Mr. M. closeth with the common Sabbatarian Objection §. 18. Obj. 5. p. 211. That Christ foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem which was to happen forty years after his Resurrection when all the Ceremonial Laws belonging to the Jews were abrogated bids his Disciples pray their flight might not be in the Winter or on the Sabbath-day Mat. 24.20 that they might avoid the profanation of that day whereas if that Commandment had been Ceremonial and then abrogated they might have fled upon that day as well as upon any other and could not by so doing have profaned it Answ 1. To this I Answer first That these words of Christ cannot be rationally deemed to import that he advised them to pray their flight might not be on the Sabbath because he thought such flying then a sinful action or a profanation of that day seeing he so expresly hath declar'd the contrary Mark 3.4 saying that it was lawful to save life upon the Sabbath-day and that in all such cases God would have mercy and not Sacrifice Mat. 12.7 that the Rest of that day might be violated to preserve the life of a Beast and much more to preserve the life of man that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath and therefore man might wave the Rest required on that day when it was for his good to do so Having then so oft and so expresly taught his Disciples that it was lawful to fly for saving of their lives upon that day he could not use these words to intimate the contrary 2ly Tho' it were lawful even when the Fourth Commandment was still in force to flee upon that day from danger and travel upon case of urgent necessity yet many of the Jews thought otherwise esteeming this an intolerable profanation of the Sabbath persecuting and condemning our Lord for teaching the contrary If therefore his Disciples or other Christians should have been compell'd to flee upon that day they might have been molested and persecuted by their own Superstitious Nation and so had cause to pray their flight might not be on the Sabbath-day And 3ly The believing Jews adhered stiffly to the observance of the Jewish Rites and consequently to the observance of the Rest commanded on the Jewish Sabbath till the destruction of Jerusalem and thought themselves obliged so to do and therefore Christ might well advise them knowing that they would still retain these apprehensions to pray their flight might not fall out upon that day And tho' it cannot be expected that we should know the Reasons of all his actions yet might he still permit the Christians to continue under this apprehension of their obligation to observe the Law of Moses that so the unbelieving Jews might be the less offended at them and so might be more ready to embrace the Christian faith and because he knew the time would shortly come when the Temple should be destroyed and they should thereby be convinced that the Rites confined to that Temple were abolished OF TRADITION CHAP. VI. That there is no Evidence of Traditions for the Doctrines of the Church of Rome is proved 1. Because there is no mention of them in the ancient Councils the Codex canonum Ecclesiae universalis the Discourses of the Ancients Church Government and Discipline or in their Rituals § 1. 2. Because we find no mention of their Articles of Faith in the Creeds Enchriidions Compendiums of Christian Doctrine and Ecclesiastical Opinions or in the catechistical Discourses of the ancient Fathers § 2. 3. Because the Fathers of the first Ages were very careful and concerned to preserve the Traditions of the Apostles truly so called and so esteemed by them and had occasion to mention them by reason of the pretences of the Hereticks of their Times to Tradition and yet they have not been concerned to preserve the pretended traditionary Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome § 3. HANING thus Stated the Question in these propositions I come now to shew that there is no Evidence of Tradition for any much less for all those Doctrines of the Church of Rome which she hath put into her Creed and hath required all her Clorgy to believe and teach as that true Catholick Faith without which no Man can be saved For First § 1 Had they this Evidence concerning the Exercise of the papal Jurisdiction over all Christians the practice of auricular Confession and Indulgences of Prayer to Saints and Angels of Veneration of Images of performing the publick Services of Prayer Singing Reading in a Tongue not understood by the People I say had they that evidence of Apostolical Tradition for these things it would be as notorious that these Doctrines were handed down by the Catholick Church throughout all Ages to this present as it is of other matters of continual practice viz. The Lord's Day Assemblies the Ordination of Presbyters and Deacons by Bishops the Government of the Church by them the Observation of the Easter Festival Baptizing by Trine Immersion the mixture of Wine with Water in the Sacrament c. For all these matters are therefore evident in the Tradition of the Church because being continually practised by her Members they had continual occasion to speak of them in their Discourses of Church Government and Church Assemblies and of the Sacraments of the Church and made numerous Constitutions about them they all appear in their most ancient Rituals in the Accounts they give us of their Assemblies and of their practice when Assembled and in their ancient Councils the Primitive Writers mention them upon all Occasions they draw Arguments and Conclusions from them and shew the Reasons why such establishments were made by the Apostles The like we see now practised in the Roman Church touching the Novelties now mentioned since they have
obtained in that Church we find them got into their Rituals and Books of S. Offices Their Councils do consult about them make Canons and Decrees in favour of them Having then so frequent mention of these matters in the Councils Liturgies the Canons and the Constitutions of the Western Church in these last Ages why is it we have nothing of them in the Canons or Constitutions Apostolical or in the Code of Canons of the universal Church or of the Church of Africk where we have so frequent mention of all the other received Practices and Customs of the Church when Tertullian sets himself on purpose to enumerate those things which had obtained in the Church De Cor. c. 3. Traditionis titulo consuetudinis patrocinio under the specious Titles of Custom and Tradition why is it that he doth not mention one of these Romish Practices De Sp. Sancto c. 25 27. When St. Basil if that be his Work which bears his Name doth professedly discourse of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unwritten Customs which had obtained in the Church why is he wholly silent as to all these practices if equally owned by the Church as Apostolical Surely these things give us just reason to suspect that they were not acquainted with them and knew nothing of them Again had they the Evidence of Tradition § 2 that those points of Faith which in their Councils have been established and imposed upon us under an Anathema were handed down unto them from our Lord's Apostles had the Apostles and their Successors still taught all Christians the Doctrine of Concomitance and the sufficiency of one Species to make an entire Sacrament and to conveigh the whole benefit of the Sacrament Of the necessity of the intention of the Priest to make a Sacrament Of the number of the Sacraments that they are neither more nor less than Seven Of Marriage that it is a Sacrament properly so called and that by virtue of our Lord's Institution Of the Transubstantiation of the Bread and Wine into the Body and Blood of Christ Of the Oblation of a true propitiatory Sacrifice for the Dead and Living in the Mass Of a Purgatory or place in which the Souls of Pious Men do suffer Punishment and from which being afterwards relieved by the Prayers and good Works of the Faithful upon Earth they go to Heaven before the Day of Judgment had they informed all Christians That a Power of Indulgences is left by Christ unto his Church That Saints departed are to be Invoked and Images to be Venerated That the Church of Rome is the Catholick Church the Mother and Mistress of all Churches and That the Pope is the Vicar of our Lord Jesus upon Earth and that without the Belief of this Faith Salvation cannot be obtained and consequently never was obtained by any Christian I say had all these Articles descended to them from the Apostles through all Ages of the Christian Church they must be as notorious as any which have thus descended and which we can run up from Age to Age till we come to the Apostles For Instance they must have been as obvious to be found in all the Writings of the Fathers as the Tradition of the Apostles Creed the Canon of the Scripture the Writing of the Four Evangelists c. They also must have been as diligently taught as frequently inculcated as those things were as being no less necessary to Salvation than any Doctrine contained in the Scriptures or in the Creed of the Apostles We must have met with them in all their Summaries of Christian Doctrine of Ecclesiastical Doctrines and their Discourses writ on purpose to instruct others in the Articles of Christian Faith they would have been inserted into their Creeds as other necessary Articles were taught their Catechumens required of their Clergy at their admission to Holy Orders sent by their Patriarchs and Bishops in their circular Letters included in the Paschal Cycles as were the Rule of Faith the Christian Symbol and yet by diligent perusual of all these we can find no such matter in the Creeds Enchiridions Compendiums of Christian Doctrine the catechistical Discourses the Treatises of Faith and ecclesiastical Doctrines so frequent in the Writings of the five first Centuries and therefore have good reason to believe they were not then received or owned as Articles of Christian Faith. The Wisdom of the present Church of Rome yields a strong confirmation of this Argument for since their latter Councils have defined these Articles we find them Inserted into her Creed and her Trent Catechism contained in all the Writings of her Doctors touching the Articles of Christian Faith and of ecclesiastical Tradition required to be believed professed and taught by all her Clergy What therefore shall we think of all the Fathers of the five first Centuries was it out of want of love to Souls or care of their instruction in the necessary Articles of Christian Faith that they were wholly silent in these matters Why then may we not fear that they neglected to hand down unto Posterity other necessary Articles of Christian Faith Or was it out of ignorance that they were then necessary how then came Romanists to know by Tradition that they are necessary now Or if they wanted neither knowledge to discern all necessary Articles of Christian Faith nor will nor care to teach all they conceived to be such must it not follow that those Articles which in their numerous Discourses and Instructions on these Subjects are not so much as touched upon were not then owned as necessary Articles of the Christian Faith and therefore ought not now to be imposed or received as such Add to this § 3 that the Fathers of the first Ages were very careful and concerned to preserve the Traditions of the Apostles truly so called or so esteemed by them and to commit them unto writing to be the Testimonies of their Faith against the importunity of Hereticks to whom it was peculiar for the three first Centurtes to refuse tryal by the Scriptures only and to pretend unto some secret Traditions not contained in the Scriptures For the Great Ignatius going to his Martyrdom confirmed the Churches he arrived at with his Discourses requesting them in the first place to avoid the Heresies which were then springing up He exhorted them also Lib. 3. c. 35. saith Eusebius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stand firm to the Tradition of the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which for the greater certainty he having testified concerning it thought necessary to leave in writing and so endited his Epistles Papias Ibid c. 38. often naming the Apostles saith the same Eusebius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 puts down their Traditions And Polycarp saith Irenaeus not only testified what was the truth which he received from the Apostles and by that testimony converted many of the Hereticks but he also writ an Epistle to the Philippians from which they who are willing and desirous of
by the Tradition of the Church present to all Believers in every Age in which those Believers lived That the whole World was governed by Tradition only for the first Two thousand Years And he is so exact as to enumerate the very Tenets which they held by Tradition viz. The fall of Adam and their Conception in Original Sin. The means to be used to free themselves and their Children from it The immortality of the Soul and that the Rewards and Punishments of the next Life lasted for ever What Repentance they were to use That they were to stand fast to their Traditions and account it a damnable Sin to forsake them The Observation of the Sabbath the Precept of not eating Blood obliging all the World the distinction betwixt clean and unclean Meats and Beasts the Precept of Circumcision observed Four hundred Years by Abraham 's Posterity by Tradition the Covenant God made with Abraham that he should be the Father of many Nations Disc p. 91. and that the Messiah should be born of his Seed R. H. informs us of other Positive Divine Laws viz. Those of Sacrifice Firstlings Holocausts Peace-Offerings Birds in Sacrifice not divided mention of the Holy Times Places Persons Prophets of Tythes paid to the Priest Purifyings Cleansings changing their Garments Vows Prohibition of Polygamy contracting Marriages with Vnbelievers Excommunication And these Laws saith he we may presume were received from an external infallible Proponent and were preserved by the Ecclesiastical Superiors and Teachers of these Laws in such a manner as those delivered since and for the certainty of their Religion there seems an Infallibility in these as necessary if not more for solving the great doubts arising therein before as after the times of a written Law. Such Arguments as this and those that follow are not worthy of any consideration by reason of their great impertinency were it not upon this account that it is easie to evince they are so far from being Arguments for that they are certain Demonstrations against the certainty and the Infallibility of the Traditions disputed betwixt us and the Church of Rome and plainly overthrow the Cause they were designed to maintain To make this evident let it be noted First That the Controversy betwixt us and the Church of Rome is not this Whether any thing may be derived down to Posterity by Tradition for this we have confessed in many Cases and where Tradition from the beginning can undoubtedly be had we own it But the Question is Whether they who own or have Tradition for their Rule may not add many things to that which truly was received by Tradition pretending falsly that they also were derived by Tradition to them For if this may be so the Church of Rome may also own at present Tradition for her Rule and yet with the like falshood may pretend that many Doctrines and Practices descended by a Primitive Tradition to her and the Traditions here enumerated may also truly bear that name and yet the very same persons may have handed down at the same time many other Practices and Doctrines under the same pretence which tended to corrupt the Faith and Manners of those very Ages Secondly The great Enquiry is Whether in tract of time viz. the space of Sixteen hundred Years such Doctrines and practices may not be admitted and owned as Primitive Traditions by a prevailing party of Gentiles Jews or Christians which were nothing less than so For if this hath been actually so before and after the writing of the Law of Moses and also since the publication of the Gospel then may the Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome in so long tract of time be thus admitted and yet be nothing less than Primitive Traditions And Thirdly Whether Pretences to Tradition may not justly be suspected when ancient Records which had equal reason to take notice of them and could not have condemned what the whole Church received as a Divine Verity not only do say nothing of but plainly contradict them Having premised these things I answer Fourthly § 2 That these great Pretenders to Tradition in this Assertion contradict both the Tradition of the Jews and of the Ancient Fathers The Tradition of the Jews Selden de jure Nat. l. 1. c. 8. p. 102. c. 10. p. 116. ad p. 126. who unanimously declare That the Law given to the World after the Fall of Adam was only that of the Precepts of Noah against Idolatry 2. Blasphemy 3. Murther 4. Vnlawful Copulation 5. Theft 6. The Law concerning Civil Government all which are Laws of Nature And 7. The Law forbidding to eat Blood. The Fathers also generally assert Vid. Seld. ib. l. 1. c. 8. p. 98 99. Apol. 2. p. 83. That before the written Law men lived according to the Law of Nature So Justin Martyr That God admonished them Per naturalia praecepta quae ab initio infixa dedit hominibus nihil plus ab iis exquisivit by the natural Precepts from the beginning implanted in their Hearts and required nothing more of them So Irenaeus That it was Reason L. 4. c. 28. or Philosophy which before the coming of our Saviour was necessary to make them Righteous and that it was their Schoolmaster to bring them to Christ Strom. 1. p 282. So Clemens of Alexandria That they were guided by the Law written In Naturalibus tabulis De Cor. Milit. c. 6 Adv. Jud. c. 2. in the Tables of their Heart which was the common Law of the World and that it was this Law of Nature which à Patribus custodiebatur was observed by the Fathers and by which Noah Abraham and Melchizedeck were Righteous Praepar Evang l. 7. c. 7. So Tertullian That before the written Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they were adorned with the Virtue of Piety by right Reason so Eusebius That God led the Heathens to Piety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Law of Nature Serm. 1. Contr. Graec. ad Sylberg p. 20. and of the Creation so Theodoret. Particularly they inform us That before Moses the Patriarchs observed not the Sabbath That without the Observation of it all the just Men forenamed viz. Adam Abel Enoch Lot Noah and Melchezedeck Dial. cum Tryph. p. 236.245 L. 4. cap. 30. Adv. Jud. c. 2. 4. Hist Eccl. l. 1. c. 4. Praep. Evang l. 7. c. 6. Demonstr Ev. l. 1. c. 6. pleased God and after them Abraham and his Posterity till Moses so Justin Martyr That Abraham was justified Sine observatione Sabbathi without the Observation of the Sabbath so Irenaeus Non Sabbatizabant The Patriarchs did not keep the Sabbath saith Tertullian They took no care of Circumcision or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Observation of the Sabbaths saith Eusebius Secondly of Sacrifices they affirm that Abel Noah Qu. Resp ad Orthod qu. 83. Const Apost l 6. c 20 p. 284. and others offered them not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Divine
1. p. 474. De Nat. Deor. l. 3. ab initio p. 243. those that were before us and were as they affirmed the Progeny of the Gods though they give no necessary Demonstration of what they say nor shall any Man's Reason be he never so learned saith Cicero move me from that Opinion of the Worship of the immortal Gods Quam a Majoribus accepi which I received from my Ancestors See here Popery in the Foundation of it borrowed from Heathanism see how exactly they comply in the same Plea. Moreover the Answer which the Christians then returned unto this Plea of Pagans from Tradition § 11 is a sufficient Justification of the Protestants against the same Pretences in the Mouths of Roman Catholicks and a full Evidence that they were not Assertors of the Roman Doctrine in this Matter For First They represent it as the great Folly of the Heathen World that they followed Custom against Reason objecting it to their Reproach that they did what they saw done not what their Reason told them should be done That among them Arnob. l. 7. p. 236. L. 2. c. 6. p. 172. Plus valet nullam habens consuetudo rationem Custom without Reason prevailed more than the weight of Things examined by the Nature of Truth What will you do saith Lactantius to them Majoresne potius quam Rationem sequaris Would you follow your Ancestors rather than Reason esteeming this the greatest of Absurdities He farther adds That they who were led like Beasts by others Et qui sine ullo judicio inventa Majorum probant sapientiam sibi adimunt and who did without Judgment approve of the Inventions of their Ancestors P. 173. deprived themselves of Wisdom Now if it be so great a Folly and Absurdity and such a brutish renouncing of all Wisdom to comply with Custom against Reason and without exercising of our Judgments must it not much more be so to comply with it against Scripture Reason and the whole Stream of Primitive Antiquity as we must do if we do yield a blind Submission to the Doctrines of the Roman Church Secondly They prove their Ancestors were not to be followed without the use of Reason and Discretion because they were so prone to receive Fables and even Monsters of Opinions P. 21. We are not to be drawn into Error by consenting to our Ancestors saith Octavius Majoribus enim nostris tam facilis in mendaciis fides fuerit ut temere crediderint etiam alia monstrosa mira miracula for our Ancestors were so easily imposed upon by Lyes that they believed rashly many other monstrous Wonders L. 1. p. 34. You plead Antiquity saith Arnobius as an Argument of Truth Quasi vero errorum Antiquitas plenissima Mater non fuerit as if Antiquity were not the pregnant Mother of Errors and as if she had not brought forth all those Things which in their ignominious Fables impute such filthy Characters to their Gods. De Civ Dei l. 22. c. 6. St. Austin also saith That Antiquitas recepit fabulas fictas nonnunquam incondite Antiquity received Fables feigned sometimes incongruously And is it not evident from the Confessions of the Romish Doctors and Historians that in the dark and ignorant Ages of the Church from the Tenth to the Fifteenth Century their Church abounded with idle Monks who made it their whole Business to fill Church History with lying Legends and Tales as Foolish and Ridiculous as those of Heathens Locor Theolog l 11. c. 6. p. 652. For Melchior Canus doth ingenuously confess Res Gestas Sanctorum falsis commentitiis fabulis contaminari That the Histories of the Saints were defiled with false and counterfeit Fables That most of their Writers have feigned so many things either in compliance with their Affections or on set purpose That he was not only ashamed P. 650. but even weary of them their whole Narration being invented either for gain or Error Ibid. p. 658. And speaking of their Golden Legend he saith Praefat. ante Homil. de fest Sanctorum In illo miraculorum monstra saepius quam vera miracula legas Royardus adds That such Writers weakened the truth it self Insertis passim fabulis ac meris nugamentis by the Fables and meer Fooleries they frequently inserted Cornelius Agrippa saith De vanit scient cap. 97. That lying piously they counterfeited Relicks framed Miracles Confinguntque vel plausibiles vel terribiles Fabulas and feigned plausible or terrible Tales In lib. Confess August Erasmus saith They studied to commend them whom they favoured Fabulis vanis miraculis fictis with vain Fables and feigned Miracles Cap. de Reliquiis l. 1. c. 11. p. 156. Lib. 5. p. 565. The like complaints you may read in Cassander's Consultation in Espencaeus's Commentary upon Timothy and in Lyranus on the Fourteenth Chapter of Daniel Aventinus informs us That in the days of Hildebrand many false Prophets Fabulis Miraculis à veritate plebem Christi avertunt did turn away the People from the Truth by Fables and Miracles Then saith he arose false Prophets false Apostles false Priests P. 591. Qui simulata Religione populum deceperunt magna signa prodigia ediderunt who deceived the People with feigned Religion and wrought great Signs and Wonders The Clergy of Liege add That then were those Stories feigned concerning Sylvester and Constantine no less ignorantly than impudently and falsly and many others which say they Christian Modesty will not permit us to tell then crept in the traffique of Holy Things Concil To. 2. Edit Colon. apud Quiritel p. 809. and the Holy Philosophy by the subtile interpretation of Sycophants began to be corrupted polluted and violated with humane Inventions and old Wives Fables John Gerson speaks thus Enquire if there be not Apocryphal Scriptures De Defect Viror Eccles Consid 16. c. Hymns and Prayers brought into the Church in process of time either of purpose or of ignorance to the great hurt of the Christian Faith. He also saith There is very much Superstition in the Worshipping of Saints innumerable Observations without all Ground or Reason vain credulity in believing things concerning the Saints reported in the uncertain Legends of their Lives Thirdly The Fathers tell them That this was the rise of all their Errors Minuc p. 26. Quod inconsulte gestiant parentibus obedire That they would without consulting follow their Fore-fathers Et fieri maluerunt alieni erroris accessio quam sibi credere and that they chose rather to follow the Errors of other Men than believe themselves Clem. Alex. Adm. p. 57. That they had never fallen into such impiety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if being carried away with Custom they had not shut their Eyes against Reason And it is also our perswasion that this adhering to the Customs of the present R. Church and to the Customs which crept in or advanced into Articles of her Faith
of Antiquity ascribed by some to Athanasius by others to Theodoret to Maximus to Etherius we have one brief but full Discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against them who judge of Truth only by multitude Athanas Tom. 2. p. 293. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where the Author first tells us that he is to combat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against a false Assertion that the Authors of it are Objects of Pity or Commiseration that they fled to this miserable Refuge only for want of Reason on their side and even confessed their being vanquished that multitude was proper to fright a Man but by no means to perswade him that in the concernments of this World we do not much regard it and much less should we be moved by it in heavenly Matters to recede from the Testimonies of the Scriptures and the agreeing Sentiments of the Ancients that our Lord had told us That many are called but few chosen That streight was the Gate which leadeth unto Life and few there be that find it And that every wise Man would rather be of the number of those few P. 291. than of that number which goes in the broad way For had any Man lived in the days of Stephen would he not rather have been of his side alone than of the side of the multitude which rose up against him Had not Phineas boldly opposed himself to the prevailing multitude the Plague had not ceased nor had the rest been saved Was it not better to fly with Noah to the Ark than with the multitude to perish in the deluge to go alone with Lot from Sodom than with the multitude to perish there We indeed venerate the multitude but then it is a multitude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which flies not examination but which affordeth demonstration 2dly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apud Athanas To. 2. p. 325. They add That they ought not to be called upon to yield a blind assent to the Dictates of other Men without using their own Judgments to consider and enquire What is possible what is suitable or unsuitable what acceptable to God what is congruous to Nature what consonant to Truth what accords with the Mystery what is agreeable to piety They have accordingly left us a Discourse in opposition to those Men who required them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 simply to believe their Dictates without considering what was fit or unfit to be embraced informing us That this was of many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pag. 326. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 horrible Doctrines the worst which Satan had invented to lead Men into dangerous Deceits That it was the Doctrine of Men who imperiously commanded all Men to follow their Dictates and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to believe without Reason and called that Faith which was an assent without trial to things unstable and undemonstrated That it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the rise of Error and of all Evils the Doctrine of all Hereticks who declined the Examination that they might avoid the consutation of their Doctrines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That according to it no Man could find the way of Truth or avoid the precipice of Error That according to it we being asked to yield assent to the unproved Doctrines of Hereticks and Heathens should consent to do so P. 327. Whereas if we examine what we are required to believe we shall have full assurance of the Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither believing without reason nor speaking without Faith. Ninthly They say that it must be acknowledged that they had rationally cast off the Customs and Traditions of their Fore-fathers because they could discover wherein they had generally erred Praepar Evang l. 4. c. 4. For thus Eusebius speaks If we can shew that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the Heathens and Barbarians which were before our Saviours time did not know the true God but either worshipped those which were no Gods or evil Spirits it must be then confessed that we acted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a true and righteous Judgment when we became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Revolters from the Superstition of our Fore-fathers If therefore we not only can but actually have shewed in the forementioned particulars that the Church of Rome hath generally erred then must it also be acknowledged that our Separation from her was the result of Truth and Righteousness Tenthly They lastly say Arnob. l. 2. P. 95. That their Religion must be Ancient because it consisted in the Worship of the Supream God Quo non est antiquius quicquam than whom nothing is more Ancient And in like manner we declare our positive Religion must be Ancient because it consists of the Articles delivered in the Scriptures of the New Testament and in the Symbol of the Apostles and taught by the Four first Centuries we therefore in like manner do conclude with them as to all the positive Articles of our Religion Non ergo quod sequimur novum est sed nos sero addicimus quidnam sequi oporteat That what we follow is not New though 't was but lately that we learned that it was that and that alone we ought to follow Now by impartial consideration of these particulars I leave any Man of Reason to judge whose Religion is most suitable in the general Grounds of it to the Sentiments of Antiquity whether we Protestants plead any thing against those of Rome which the ancient Christians did not also plead against the Heathens and whether the most plausible Objections of the Romanists against us be not fully answered by what these Fathers say in the defence of common Christianity against the Hereticks and Heathens 4thly Mr. M. adds Object 4 That all those who had been instructed by the Apostles before Scripture was written P. 322 340. converted and instructed Thousands who never had heard any Apostle preach and all these believed on the Authority of the then present Church P. 415. That from the preaching of Christ unto the finishing of the Canon and the divulging of the same in such Languages as all Nations understood very many Years passed and all the true Believers in Christ's Church were governed by Tradition only R. H. doth also tell us That God besides Guide of Controv Disc 2. ch 5. §. 44. and before the New Testament Scriptures left these Doctrines sufficiently revealed to the then appointed Ecclesiastical Guides from whom both the present People and the future Successors of those Guides both were and might rationally know they were to learn them and so had there been no Scriptures might to this Day by meer Tradition have learn'd them sufficiently for their Salvation First Reply 1 To this I answer That Mr. M. is much out when he talks of Seventy or Eighty Years before those Scriptures were written which were to be the future Rule of Christians for the Gospel of St.
are plainly opposite to the Doctrines Practices and Traditions formerly received and approved in the Church of Christ and this they do believe so firmly that they rather chuse to suffer loss of Life and all the Comforts of it than own these Doctrines of the Church of Rome as Apostolical Traditions Moreover whereas it is no Man's Interest to make the World believe there was such a City as London if there was no such place in being it is the Interest of the whole Church of Rome to set up this pretence to Infallibility in the General that finding it disclaimed by other Churches she with some Colour may pretend unto it and 't is the Interest of the Roman Clergy as much to stickle for the Truth of her pretended Traditions as it was the Interest of Demetrius and his Fellow Artists to avouch to the Ephesians They might be truly Gods which were made by Hands and that the Image of Diana truly fell down from Jupiter since otherwise their Craft would be set at nought And as it was the Interest of the Master of the Pythonisse to be angry with St. Paul for casting out the Evil Spirit from her because thereby his Hopes of Gain was gone For if Men will not receive their Traditions as the Truths of God they cannot Lord it over their Consciences nor drain their Purses nor give Laws at pleasure to the Christian World but must be put to the hard task of proving what they would have us take upon their Words And Fourthly Whereas he that doubteth whether there be such a City as London may repair unto it to be convinced by ocular demonstration whither shall he repair who doubteth of the Truth of the Traditions of the Church of Rome for Satisfaction in that Matter Will you send him to Scripture You have already told him he cannot know what is Scripture what Copies and what Texts are uncorrupted what Translation of it is Authentick but by the Church and also that when he knows all this he cannot understand the meaning of the Scriptures in places disputable and variously sensed as you know those are by which you prove both the Churches Infallibility and the Pretences of the Roman Church to be Infallible Will you send him with Mr. P. 360. M. To the unanimous Consent and Tradition of our Church that is the Church of Rome what is this but to bid him believe that Self-evident which he thinks evidently false to believe the Church of Rome to be Infallible in her Traditions and then he will not doubt of her Infallibility or to turn Roman Catholick and then he will no longer be a Protestant Will you add with him That what is proposed by the Tradition of such a Church is evidently credible Ibid. and sufficient to beget an infallible assent Is it not then matter of Amazement that so many Millions of Persons throughout the World endowed with intellectuals as piercing and accomplished with all Abilities which their Adversaries can boast of yea who many of them have strong temporal motives to incline them to embrace the Romish Traditions and all the miseries which Papal Tyranny can inflict to awaken them into a serious consideration of all the Evidence that can be offered for them and who are Men seriously industrious to attain Salvation and Men who know they must perish everlastingly if they resist the Truth clearly propounded to them I say is it not matter of Amazement that so many persons so qualified should from Generation to Generation so unanimously reject what is evidently credible and able to beget within them an infallible assent yea that they should dispute and write many Books against it though they could never do so but they must contradict what is self-Evident What is this but in effect to say All Protestants always were are and must be whilst they continue Protestants resolved to be damned and as obstinate as the very Devil in doing what they know must tend to their eternal Condemnation Will you send him to the Vniversal Church either by it you mean only the R. Church and her Adherents or you do not if you do you again send him to the Church of Rome if you do not you must renounce that Article of Faith which all your Clergy stand by Oath obliged to defend viz. the Roman Catholick Church and with it your Pretences to Infallibility on the account of any of these Promises which do confessedly belong only unto the Vniversal Church of Christ CHAP. XII Mr. M ' s. Fifth Assertion That all Catholicks ever held that for true which was owned by the Vniversal Church of their times and rejected the contrary as an Error answered by way of Concession § 1. First That this is absolutely true in reference to Doctrines and Practices truly necessary to the Being of a Church But Secondly That this is with Lirinensis to be restrained to the Fundamentals of Faith is proved 1st from Scripture 2dly from Reason § 2. Thirdly From Instances as First That of the Administration of the Sacrament to Infants which they generally practised both in the Eastern and the Western Churches § 3. They declared this Practice to be necessary § 4. That they speak not this of such a participation of the Body and Blood of Christ as may be had in Baptism but plainly of the Puriticipation of the Eucharist § 5. Inferences hence 1. To prove the Definition of the Trent Council touching this Matter actually False 2ly That the Practice or Doctrine of the Church in any Age is no true Evidence of Tradition or the right Interpretation of Holy Scripture 3ly That Mr. M ' s. Argument for Prayer for the Dead from Tradition is not convincing § 6. 2. From the Opinion of the Fathers That it was not lawful for a Christian to swear at all § 7. 3ly From their Opinion That good Angels were transported with the Love of Women and got Gyants of them § 8. 4ly From their Opinion That it was unlawful for any Clergyman to engage himself in Secular Affairs § 9. Or to go from one Church or Diocess to another § 10. 3ly When whole Churches and Nations differ and Heresies prevail the Fathers say we are for finding out the Truth to have Recourse only to Scripture and to primitive Tradition § 11. A full Answer to Mr. M ' s. Argument for Tradition from the Ancient Custom of praying for the Dead shewing on what Accounts the Ancients did it what Reason we have not to do it That the Prayers for them used by the Church of Rome are Novelties and that those used by the Ancients were perfectly destructive of the Roman Purgatory § 12. MR. § 1 M. saith That whatsoever was held by the Vniversal Church P. 367 368. was without farther Question held for true and the contrary to it was ever rejected as an Error Neither will you ever find a Catholick who ever had the Boldness to say that the Church of
his Days did universally hold any thing that was an Error nor shall you ever read of any Catholick who refused to conform himself to the Vniversal Belief and Practice which was current in the whole Church of their times Now to this I answer That the Vniversal Church may be considered Two ways 1. In a State of Vnity within her self so that her Members do universally agree in the same Doctrine and Practice few or none dissenting from the common Doctrine of the Church or in that State in which her Members are unhappily divided by reason of the different Sentiments of many great and famous Churches which yet exclude not either Party from being Members of the Church Catholick as she hath always been since the great Rupture betwixt the East and West and as the West hath often been divided by reason of the great and lasting Schismes which have happened betwixt contending Popes and Emperors and betwixt Popes and Councils contending for Superiority 2. I add That this Agreement of the present Vniversal Church may either be in Doctrines and Practices necessary to the Being of a Church or else in Doctrines and Practices unnecessary on which the Being or the Welfare of the Church doth not depend Having premised these Distinctions I answer First That in Doctrines and Practices truly necessary to the Being of a Church the Agreement of the Vniversal Church is a sufficient Evidence that all such Doctrines and Practices derived from the Apostles because they were as necessary to be held throughout all formen Ages as in this And therefore in such Doctrines as were rejected by the Vniversal Church as Heresies Austin saith truly That it was sufficient Cause to reject them because the Church held the contrary De Haer. c. 90. they being such as did Oppugnare Regulam veritatis oppose her Rule of Faith or Symbol universally received And that it was sufficient to perswade any Man he ought not Aliquid horum in fidem recipere to embrace any of the Doctrines of Hereticks as Articles of Faith because the Church who could not be deficient in any point of necessary Faith did not receive them This way of Arguing negatively we therefore with St. Austin do allow The Vniversal Church knows no such Doctrine ergo it is no Article I am obliged to receive as any part of Christian Faith. The Vniversal Church of Christ knows no such Practice therefore it is no Practice necessary to be done by Christians But Secondly In Reference to such Doctrines or Practices on which the Being and the Welfare of the Church doth not depend I say the Agreement of the present Church can be no certain Argument either of the Truth of the Doctrine or of the Derivation either of the Doctrine or Practice from Apostolical Tradition And this seems very suitable even to the Rule of Lirinensis who having advised us to embrace that Sence of Scripture and those Tenets which were Ecclesiastical and universally received he saith this is especially to be observed in iis duntaxat Common c. 41. quaestionibus quibus totius Catholici dogmatis fundamenta nituntur In those Questions only on which depend the Foundations of the Catholick Faith. And this is also evident from Scripture Reason and Tradition First From Scripture which plainly doth inform us that the Rulers of the Jewish Church had taught for Doctrines the Commandments of Men and such Traditions as made void the Law of God and by which they taught others to transgress it and by which they deserved the Title of blind Guides leading the Blind And these Traditions were received and observed by all the Jews Mark 7.3 Gal. 1.14 Traditions of the Elders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Traditions received from their Fathers Customs which they who did not walk according to were thought to teach Apostasy from Moses Now if the whole Jewish Church of that Age might thus mistake in what she taught as Doctrines of the Scripture or Practices and Doctines received from Moses by Tradition why may not the Christian Church of this present Age or any other be subject to the like Mistakes in Doctrine or in Practice Again That the Doctrines of the Millenium of the Day of Judgment being nigh at hand of the Reservation of good Souls in some place different from the highest Heavens were very prevalent in the first Ages of the Church I have already proved Chap. 4. §. 1 2 3 4 5 6. though now they do as generally pass for Errors And the like may be easily proved of many Practices now wholly laid aside Quod autem instituitur praeter consuetudinem ut quasi observatio Sacramenti sit approbare non possum etiamsi multa hujusmodi propter nonnullarum vel sanctarum vel turbulentarum personarum scandala devitanda liberius improbare non audeo sed hoc nimis doleo quia tam multis praesumptionibus plena sunt omnia Epist ad Jan. 119. cap. 19. St. Austin in his Time complained That all things or places were filled with manifold Presumptions and that these Corruptions had so generally obtained that albeit he thought they ought to be redressed yet durst he not freely disprove them and if so many Superstitions were so publickly avowed and practised in his time and urged upon others by the greatest part of the Church and if so many Doctrines prevailed in the greatest part of the Church in former Ages which now pass for Errors why might they not generally do so What Reason can be given why the whole might not continue the true Church of Christ and hold these Doctrines and espouse these Practices as well as so great Parts of the Church continue true Parts of the Church and do so Thirdly It is evident from Church History that Doctrines and Practices have generally obtained in some Ages of the Church and passed for Apostolical Traditions which have in after Ages been discarded as v. g. First The Administration of the Eucharist to Infants and the principle upon which they did it viz. That without Baptism and the Supper of the Lord no Man could have Life eternal The Punick Christians saith St. Austin call Baptism Salvation To. 7. li. de pecc Merit Remiss c. 24. and the participation of Christs body Life Whence is this Nisi ex antiqua ut existimo Apostolica Traditione qua Ecclesiae Christi insitum tenent but from an Ancient and as I suppose Apostolical Tradition by which the Churches of Christ have this deeply setled in them That without Baptism and the Participation of the Lord's Supper no Man can attain to the Kingdom of God or to Life Eternal Whence he concludes That it is in vain to promise the Kingdom of God or Life Eternal to Children without both these Sacraments and that with the plainest Evidence provided that his Principle hold good Now of this Matter let it be considered That it was certainly the Practice of the whole Church of Christ for many Ages § 3
Remensis saith These are the Sacraments of the Church Sine quibus ad vitam quae vera vita est non intratur without which we cannot enter into true Life Albinus in his Book of Divine Offices Cap. de celebr Miss p. 88. Cap. 26. De instit Cler. l. 1. c. 31. and Amalarius in his Third Book of Ecclesiastical Offices do in like manner say That sine his Sacramentis nemo intrat in vitam aeternam without these Sacraments none enter into Life eternal Rabanus Maurus saith Men may have temporal Life without this Food and drink Aeternam omnino non possunt eternal Apud Baron Tom. 10. p. 1007. they can never have Christ testified with an Oath Saith Humbert That without this refection that Life which is Christ cannot be had saying Verily except you eat c. By which Testimonies we may see what Reason Austin had to say this was a Doctrine deeply settled in the Churches of Christ and thence to inferr that Infants ordinarily could not have Life without participation of the Eucharist they speaking thus without exception of any Persons or of any case but that of sudden Death in which case also some of them allow that Salvation may be had without actual Baptism 3. They apply this general Doctrine to the Case of Infants and say the Sacrament of the Eucharist is to be received by them for Remission of Sins or that they may obtain Life both which are necessary causes of the Administration of it In the Fourth Century Theodorus Antiochenus writ a Book against some Hereticks in the Western Church Apud Phot. Cod. 177. p. 396. who asserted That Man doth Sin by Nature and not by Choice And who 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Confirmation of their Opinion urged That Infants were baptized and received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Communion of the immaculate Body for the Remission of Sins P. 400. In Answer to these Men saith Photius Theodorus broached a new and strange Opinion of Remission of Sins perhaps not willingly but that he might satisfie their inquiry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why do Infants partake of the immaculate Mysteries Why are they Baptized if they sin not by Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for these Sacraments are given for Remission of Sins Whence it appears that the Custom of giving the Eucharist to Infants was then generally practised and allowed of both in the Western and the Eastern Churches In the Western because these Western Hereticks do from this approved Custom argue against the Doctrine of the Church in the East because Theodorus of Antioch thought himself obliged to own the Practice nor is any question made whether the thing ought to be done but it is plainly owned that it was done and that for the Remission of Sins and therefore for a necessary Reason Against the Pelagians who denied that Infants were guilty of Original Sin and that they were obnoxious to Death eternal the Fathers dispute from this very Custom and the Foundation of it on the words of the Evangelist saying That according to the Practice of the Church the Blood which was shed for the Remission of Sins was ministred to them and therefore they had Sin to be remitted and that our Lord had said Vnless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood you shall have no Life in you and therefore Infants wanted these things in order to their having Life and were partakers of them that they might obtain it The places in St. Austin to this effect are innumerable For why saith he Contr. Julian Tom. 7. l. 2. c. 30. is that Blood ministred to the Infant to drink which was shed for the Remission of Sins that he may have Life if by reason of no Original Sin he be obnoxious to Death Christ saith he is the Saviour of Infants Ibid. l. 1. p. 949. and unlevs they redeemed by him they will utterly perish seeing without his Flesh and Blood they cannot have Life this St. John thought and believed learned and taught When Christ saith Vnless you eat my Flesh and drink my Blood you have no Life in you can I say the Child shall have Life who ends his Life without that Sacrament Hypognost c. 5. Tom. 7. p. 1405. And again He having said Vnless you eat c. and He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood hath eternal Life how is it that you Pelagians promise the Kingdom of Heaven to Children not born of Water and the Spirit not fed with the Flesh of Christ nor having drunk his Blood which was shed for the Remission of their Sins Behold he that is not Baptized and he that is deprived of the Vital Cup and Bread is divided from the Kingdom of Heaven And of what Sacrament he conceives our Saviour to have spoken in these words he more expresly tells us saying Tom. 7. de peccat merit remiss l. 1. c. 19. p. 666. Let us hear our Lord speaking not of the Sacrament of Baptism N. B. but of the Sacrament of his holy Table to which none cometh who is not rightly Baptized Except you eat and drink c. What do we farther seek for dares any body say this Sentence belongeth not to Children or that they can have life in them without the participation of the Body and the Blood of Christ But he that saith this doth not attend That if that Sentence comprehends not all so that they cannot have Life without the Body and the Blood of Christ those of riper Years are not obliged to regard it From these and many other Passages of a like Nature his Conclusion is this Lib. 1. de peccat merit remiss c. 24. p. 670. Nec pro eis fusus est sanguis qui fusus esse in remissionem legitur peccatorum Apud Aug. Ep. 90. Apud August Ep. 92. If then so many Divine Testimonies accord in saying That neither Salvation nor Life eternal is by any to be hoped for without Baptism and the Body and Blood of our Lord they are in vain promised to Children without them The Council of Carthage in their Epistle to Pope Innocent the First complain that the Pelagians durst assert That little Children needed not Baptism Propter salutem that they might have Life and that the Blood shed for the Remission of Sins was not shed for them The Council of Mela in their Letter to him complain that they asserted Pueros quoque parvulos si nullis innoventur Christianae gratia Sacramentis habituros vitam aeternam That Infants might have Life eternal though they were not renewed by the Christian Sacraments Ibid. Ep. 93. p. 424. To these complaints Pope Innocent returns this Answer Whereas your Brotherhoods assert that the Pelagians say that Infants may be saved without Baptism this is a very fond Opinion Nisi enim manducaverint for unless they eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood they have no Life in them
13. de Habit. virg p. 99. ed. Oxon. P. 29. Apud phot cod 234. That they fell from their heavenly Vigor Ad terrena contagia devoluti being debased to earthly Contagions They fell saith Minutius Terrenis cupiditatibus degravati being depressed by earthly Lust Methodius That they conversed with the Daughters of Men being taken with the Love of Flesh In the Fourth Century Lactantius saith L. 2. c. 14. p. 216 217. That the Devil tempted them to Vice Et Mulierum congressibus inquinavit and defiled them by Converse with Women and so being excluded from Heaven they became his Ministers and they who were begotten by them became terrestrial Daemons De praep Evang l 5. c. 4. de Noah Arca c. 4. Hi sunt immundi Spiritus malorum quae geruntur Auctores These saith he are the unclean Spirits which are the Authors of all Evil. The same Assertions may be found in Eusebius in St. Ambrose in Epiphanius Num. 21. L. 4 c. 26. Hist l. 1. c. 3. or some Author cited by him in his Sixty fourth Heresy by Pseudo Clemens in his Recognitions and by Sulpitius Severus Petavius in his Notes upon Epiphanius saith Fuit haec vetustissimorum Patrum fere omnium Sententia filios illos Dei qui Gen. 6. silias hominum adamasse dicuntur Angelos fuisse This was the Opinion of almost all the most Ancient Fathers That the Sons of God who are said in Genesis the Sixth to have loved the Daughters of Men were Angels Vetus fuit multorum gravissimorum Authorum opinio It was the ancient Opinion of many and very grave Authors saith Fevardentius on the forecited place of Irenaeus And yet First It deserves to be considered De C.D. l. 15. cap. 23. That they grounded this whole Fancy and Exposition partly upon that spurious Book of Enoch which saith St. Austin Continet istas gigantum fabulas contains those Fables of the Gyants and where In Joh. To 8. Ed. Huet p. 132. d. saith Origen it is said That Jared was begotten in the Days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Descent of the Sons of God upon the Daughters of Men and partly upon the concurring Tradition of the Jews who had entertained the same Notion and Exposition of the Place as we may learn from their own Josephus and Philo Antiq. l 1. c. 4. p. 8. Philo de Gigant p. 284 285. who from the said Traditions tell us That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many Angels of God conversing with Women begot insolent Children and Despisers of everything that was good as trusting to their own Strength Secondly Consider that in the very next Century this Fancy was run down in Terms very opprobrious and much reflecting upon the Ignorance and Oscitancy of the former Fathers That which makes most Men thus Ignorant saith Theodoret Quaest 47. in Gen. on the place is their careless reading of the Scriptures And there he also represents the Authors of the former Opinion In locum as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men very stupid and such as had a Knock in their Cradles Chrysostom adds That they who affirm that these things were spoken not of Men but Angels were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speakers of Blasphemy and then he proceeds Edit Sichardi p. 52 53. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to overturn or to confute the Fables of these Men. And in the very next Century Philastrius Brixiensis put this very Doctrine into the Catalogue of his Heresies saying Alia est Haeresis quae de gigantibus adserit quod Angeli miscuerunt se cum faeminis ante diluvium inde esse natos gigantes There is another Heresy which asserts touching the Gyants That Angels before the Flood conversed with Women and that of them were these Gyants begotten If then the Jewish Church received by Tradition a Doctrine so contrary to the very Nature of Angels and consequently to Truth it self If the Fathers of the first four Centuries were so easily imposed upon by their Traditions and their spurious Books as to embrace the same Opinion not only against Reason but as Theodoret St. Chrysostom and Austin have demonstrated against the Evidence of that very Text on which they grounded their Opinion which so expresly saith The Wickedness not of the Angels or their Off-spring but of Men was great and that all Flesh had corrupted their Ways and that God therefore had determined to punish not Daemons or the Ghosts of Gyants but the whole Earth by bringing of a Flood upon them If they I say could read so carelesly this Chapter as generally to interpret one Verse of it in Opposition to the plain Import of the whole If Lastly an Exposition so long and generally received till the beginning of the Fifth Century could in that very Century by by the greatest Fathers of the Church utterly rejected as Fabulous Blasphemous Heretical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and guilty of the utmost Folly then must it be extreamly evident 1. That Tradition in this matter could be no certain Rule unto the Jewish Church and therefore could not be Infallible 2. That the Fathers of the Christian Church have been imposed upon for some whole Centuries in this Affair by spurious Authors and by Jewish Fables and therefore they and the Fathers of any other Age must also be supposed subject to the like Mistakes in other Matters of like Nature 3. That they were prone on these Accounts to interpret Scriptures contrary to the plain Import of them and so cannot be owned as the Authentick Interpreters of Holy Writ 4. Hence also it is clear that what hath generally been received without any apparent Opposition in one Age may in the very next Age be as generally rejected with the greatest Scorn and Ignominy and pass for Blasphemy and Heresy Fourthly § 9 It anciently was held Unlawful for any Clergy-Man to engage himself in Secular Affairs For amongst the Sins which provoked God to Anger St. Cyprian reckons this De lapsis p. 123. Episcopos procuratores rerum secularium fieri That Bishops became Proctors in secular Affairs The Sixth Canon of the Apostles decrees That a Bishop Presbyter or Deacon shall be deposed if he take upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worldly Cares The General Council of Chalcedon forbids all Bishops Clerks Can. 3. or Monks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to intermeddle with worldly Businesses Can. 11. The Second General Council of Constantinople having said That the sacred Canons deposed those Presbyters or Deacons who took upon them secular Governments or Cares ratifies the said Canons declaring That if any of them did thus imploy himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concil Trull Can. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conc. Nic. 2. can 1. he should be expelled from the Clergy for according to the most true Words of our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No Man can serve Two Masters and yet what Church at present doth observe these Canons though they
were all confirmed and even ascribed to the Holy Spirit by the general Council held in Trullo and by the Second Nicene Council or who now thinks himself obliged by that Text to do so Fifthly Who knows not that anciently it was esteemed § 10 by the whole Church a thing unlawful for a Bishop Presbyter or any of the Clergy to go from one Church or Diocess to another The first Nicene Council declares That some Can. 15. who before their sitting had done this did it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against the Canon and decrees That for the future neither Bishop Priest or Deacon shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 go from City to City Can 21. The Council of Antioch approved by the whole Church renews the same Decree The Council of Sardica represents the Attempt of such a Change as Can. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a most pernicious Custom to be pulled up by the Roots and as a Wickedness which deserved Translationes ab Ecclesia ad Majores apud Hilar. Frag. p. 437. Can. 1. Apud Athanas Apol. p. 744. Ep. 84. c. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodoret Hist Eccl. l. 5. c. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be severely punished and therefore they declare That they who made such Changes should be excluded even from Lay-Communion and they object these Translations to the Arians as their great Crime The General Council of Chalcedon confirms all the Canons made touching this Matter by these Councils Pope Julius not only condemns this Transmigration but saith That he who practiseth it doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 despise the Station God hath given him Pope Leo adds That he who doth so shall not only be expell'd from the Chair he had invaded Sed carebit propria but shall be deprived of his own Pope Damasus declares That he will have no Communion with such Persons Moreover this Practice they condemn as Spiritual Adultery declaring That the Church to which the Bishop or the Priest is chosen is his Wife which therefore he cannot dismiss and take another without Adultery Thus the Synod of Alexandria accuse Eusebius of Nicomedia for going from Berytus to that City as having forfeited his Bishoprick and committed Adultery against the Import of that Precept Apud Athanas Apol. 2. p. 727. Art thou bound to Wife seek not to be loosed which if it be said of a Woman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how much more of a Church of the same Bishoprick to which one being tied ought not to seek another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apud Binium Tom. 4. p. 9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 15. That he may not be found also an Adulterer according to the Holy Scriptures In the Synod under Mennas it was also laid to the Charge of Anthimus That having been Bishop of Trabisond he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adulterously snatch that of Constantinople against the Ecclesiastical Laws and Canons Apud Regin de Eccles discipl l. 1. c. 250. Pope Calixtus from the same Scripture determines That if a Bishop or Priest leave his Church or Parish which is his Wife bound to him whilst he lives he commits Spiritual Adultery And suitably to the Determinations of so many Councils they who refused to be thus promoted were highly commended as observing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb de vita Constant l. 3. c. 61. the Commands of God and the Canons of the Apostles and the Church Thus when upon the Deposition of Eustathius Bishop of Antioch they would have preferred Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea to that See he refused the Offer Sozom. Hist Eccl. l. 2. c. 19. because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law of the Church forbad it and this Fact Constantine commended as acceptable to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb ibid. and agreeable to the Tradition of the Church But they who did transgress this Canon were removed from that See they were translated to though never so well deserving of the Church Thus Gregory Nazianzen though removed from Sasima to Constantinople by the Emperor though he had laboured so much in that Church to convert the Heathens he found there and hinder the Endeavours of the Hereticks yet the General Council of Constantinople observing saith Sozomen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hist Eccl. l. 7. c. 7. the Laws of the Fathers and the Ecclesiastical Order took his Bishoprick from him no ways regarding the great Merits of the Person But who now in the Church of Christ regards these Canons of so many General Councils or looks upon it as a Crime to admit of or even sue for a Translation from a less Bishoprick to a greater It were easy to shew the like Difference betwixt the Practice and Judgment of the present Church and that of former Ages touching the corporal and pecuniary Punishments of Men for difference in Religion which they of former Ages most plainly disapproved of touching the Suffrage of the People being requisite to the Election of their Bishop which they expresly did assert disowning such pretended Bishops as wanted the Consent and Suffrage of the People to omit many other Instances which might be easily produced to shew that Doctrines and Practices have passed for currant and even Apostolical in former Ages which are now utterly rejected and disapproved of in this present Age. But Lastly though when the whole Church is unanimous § 11 nd all her Members do agree in the asserting any Doctrine as an Article of Christian Faith necessary to be owned by all Christians the Plea from the concurring Judgment of the Church is highly plausible and never ought without the clearest Evidence of Reason or of Scripture to be gainsaid nor hath the Church of England ever disowned any such Doctrine yet when whole Churches or Nations are divided in their Sentiments concerning any Doctrine and Number may be pleaded by both Parties then say we with the Fathers That we must have Recourse unto the Scriptures This is at present visibly the State and the Condition of the Church of Christ she agrees now in nothing but the Apostles and the Nicene Creed there is East against West and West against East Protestant against Papist and Papist against Protestant Now in this case the ancient Fathers of the Church declare it is our only safe and prudent Course to fly as doth the Church of England to the Holy Scriptures and to primitive Antiquity and say That a Necessity is laid upon us so to do Thus Hippolytus or whosoever is the Author of that Book which bears his Name having given an Account of the Prevalence which Antichrist shall have clearly insinuates That the best Preservative against him is P. 60. Scripturas audire to hear the Scriptures and that Christ will pronounce them Blessed who have done so And that they who do not Diligenter legere Scriptures P. 13. diligently read the Scriptures shall run up and down saying Where is Christ and shall not find him The
Author of the imperfect Work upon Matthew which passeth under the Name of Chrysostom speaking of the Times in which Heresy prevails Hom. 49. p 174. saith Then let them who are in Judaea fly to the Mountains that is Qui sunt Christiani conferant se ad Scripturas Let them who are Christians have Recourse to the Scriptures to the Writings of the Apostles and Prophets And why saith he doth Christ at this time command Omnes Christianos conferre se ad Scripturas all Christians to fly to the Scriptures Because saith he in this time since Heresy hath got the Churches there can be no Proof of true Christianity Neque refugium potest esse Christianorum aliud volentium cognoscere fldei veritatem nisi scripturae divinae the Christians who are desirous to know the true Faith can have no other Refuge but the Holy Scriptures Before there were many Ways of shewing which was the Church of Christ but now if Men be willing to discern her Nullo modo cognoscitur quae sit vera Ecclesia Christi nisi tantummodo per Scripturas the true Church of Christ can by no other way be known but only by the Scriptures for now all those things which are properly of Christ in truth these Heresies have in Schism they in like manner have Churches the Divine Scriptures Bishops the other Orders of the Clergy Baptism the Eucharist all other things and even Christ himself Now in the Confusion of so great Similitude he that is willing to know which is the true Church of Christ Unde cognoscat nisi tantummodo per Scripturas Whence can he know it but only by the Scriptures P. 175. Before it was known by Miracles who were true Christians and who false but now Signorum operatio omnino levata est the working of Miracles is intirely diminished and the working of feigned Miracles magis apud eos invenitur qui falsi sunt Christiani is chiefly found amongst those who are false Christians for the full Power of working Miracles is to be given to Antichrist The Church of Christ was formerly known by her Manners the Conversation of all or most of her Members being Holy but now Christians are like to or even worse than Hereticks He therefore who would know which is the true Church of Christ Unde cognoscat nisi tantummodo per Scripturas Whence can he know her but only by the Scriptures Whence our Lord knowing that there would be such a confusion of things in the last Days commands Ut Christiani qui sunt in Christianitate volentes firmitatem accipere fidei verae ad nullam rem fugiant nisi ad Scripturas That Christians who are willing to remain firm in the true Faith should fly to nothing but the Scriptures The true Chrysostom gives exactly the same Advice in the like Case for to that Enquiry What shall we say to the Greeks Hom. 33. in Act. Tom. 4. p. 799. There comes one of them and saith I would be a Christian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but I know not to whom I should join myself for there is much Contention Controversy and Tumult among you Christians What Opinion shall I chuse every one saith Truth is on my Side Whom shall I credit who know nothing of the Scriptures and hear them all pretending to them To this Inquiry Chrysostom answers This is much for us for did we say you must believe our Discourses thou had'st reason to be troubled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but since we say you must believe the Scriptures and they are plain and true 't is easy for you to pass your Judgment if any Man consents with them he is a Christian if he contradicts them he is far from this Rule Behold here the Heathen sent by St. Chrysostom to pass Judgment betwixt the Orthodox and all sorts of Hereticks from Scripture alone and told that it is easy for him so to do because the Scriptures are a plain Rule whereby to judge in Matters of this Nature But saith the Heathen one of you affirms That the Scripture saith thus the other That it speaketh otherwise interpreting it to another Sence But what of all this saith Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for hast thou not an Vnderstanding and a Judgment Where again the Heathen is supposed able by his own Judgment to discern who wrests who rightly doth interpret Scripture But how can I do this saith the Greek I know not how to judge of the Doctrines I come to be a Learner and you make me a Teacher If any one object thus saith Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we should ask him whether this be not Dissimulation and Pretence for if your Reason taught you to condemn Heathenism it may also teach you to judge betwixt us and Hereticks do not therefore dissemble or make Pretences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all things are easy Thou knowest what to do and leave undone do therefore what thou oughtest and with right Reason seek of God and he will fully reveal this to thee for he is no respecter of Persons it is not possible that he who heareth without Prejudice should not be perswaded P. 800. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for as if there were a Rule to which all things were to be adapted it would be easy to perceive who takes wrong Measures so is it here To this Rule you see viz. the Holy Scriptures even the Heathen is sent as to that which is sufficient to direct him to Christian Truth when there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much Controversy and Contention amongst Christians concerning it Lastly Commonit c. 6. Vincentius Lirinensis lays down the same Rule For if the Contagio◠saith he though new endeavour to infect the whole Church as in the case of the Arians then whosoever would discern the Catholick Faith from Heretical Pravity must be careful to adhere to Antiquity C. 3 4 8 25 33 39 41. viz. To that Sence of Scripture which it is manifest our Ancestors held and must believe that without Doubtfulness which all in like manner with one consent held writ and taught openly frequently and perseveringly he being only firm in Faith who determines Id solum sibi tenendum credendumque quicquid universaliter antiquitùs Ecclesiam Catholicam tenuisse cognoverit That alone is to be held and believed by him which he knows the Catholick Church anciently held But when Schisms and Heresies have grown ancient in the Church and the Poison of them hath spread largely which say we is the present Case of the Church then saith he Nullo modo oportet nos nisi aut Sola si opus est Scripturarum Auctoritate convincere we ought only if need be to convince them by the Authority of Scripture or to shun them as being condemned Cap. 41. Jam antiquitus by ancient general Councils of Catholick Priests and when our Adversaries assault us with either of these two Weapons they will find us ready and able to defend
Whereas the Church declared against Pope Stephen That in this matter of the Rebaptizing Hereticks the various Customs which had obtained were to be permitted without breach of Communion and Christian Peace that the Custom of every Region was to be followed and the obtaining practice to be submitted to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Orders sake that it was to be done or left undone suitably 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to what should generally be ordered concerning it Hence in all matters of this indifferency and obscurity Ad Amphil. can 1. De unit fidei c. 19. in which saith Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing plainly is declared we admit that saying of St. Austin That Hereticks must be received as the Church receives them there being as he adds no clear Example to be produced from Scripture either way and with him we acknowledge Contr. Crescon l. 1. c. 33. That the Truth of Scripture is held by us when we do that which doth please the Church because we know from Scripture that God is the God of Order not of Confusion and that in matters of this indifferency that of the Apostle 1 Cor. xiv 33. 1. Cor. xi 16. We have no such Custom neither the Churches of God must cut off farther matter of Contention but then in Articles of Christian Faith we with the same St. Austin say De peccat mer. remiss l. 2. c. 36. Credo quod hinc divinorum eloquiorum clarissima Authoritas fuisset si homo illud sine dispendio salutis ignorare non possit We believe that the Authority of the Divine Oracles would have been most clear had the matter been such of which we could not have been ignorant without loss of Salvation Moreover though St. Austin doth acknowledge that no Example could be produced from Scripture in this Case yet he pretendeth Scripture for the right and lawfulness of the said Practice For saith he That I may not seem De Bapt. contr Donatistas l. 10. c. 6. Tom. 7. p. 379. humanis Argumentis id agere to prove the Right of receiving Hereticks without Baptism only by humane Arguments ex Evangelio profero certa documenta I produce certain proofs out of the Gospel to shew how rightly this was determined by the Church And again having said Ibid. l. 4. c. 7. p. 419. We follow that which the Custom of the Church always held and a plenary Council hath confirmed he adds That bene perspectis ex utroque latere Scripturarum Testimoniis potest etiam dici quod veritas declaravit Tot tantisque S. Scripturarum testimoniis l. 5. c. 4. Divinarum Scripturarum d◠cumentis l. 6. c. 1. hoc sequimur weighing well the Testimonies of Scripture on both sides it may also be said that we follow that which Truth hath declared From whence and many other places of his works it is evident that even in hae obscurissima quaestione in this most obscure Question as he often stiles it he recurrs for matter of Right to Scripture and weighs it in the Balance of the Sanctuary Thirdly § 24 Hence it is evident beyond all doubt that the Church of that Age in which this Controversie happened knew nothing or at least believed nothing of the New Rule of R. H. That in Judges subordinate dissenting all Christians must adhere to the Superior in those of the same Order and Dignity to the major part since all these Africans and Orientals not only take the liberty to dissent from what the Pope and all the Churches which adher'd to him held as Apostolical Tradition but also to condemn it as a thing contrary to the plain evidence of Scripture and to decree the contrary should be observed and practised For had such a Rule been then received and owned by the Church of Christ could all the Christian Churches besides that of Rome have still maintain'd Communion with those Southern and those Eastern Churches who did so resolutely oppose and flatly contradict this Rule Could they have thus condemned Pope Stephen of violating the Churches Peace and unity for acting consonantly to this Rule by renouncing Communion with them who were provided that this Rule be true manifest Schismaticks Could St. Denys of Alexandria have told the Pope he durst not by acting contrary to the Decrees made at Iconium and Synnada provoke those Churches to Contention if doing so had only been to act according to a Rule always received and owned by the Church of Christ Could St. Basil have judged it best for every one to follow herein the Custom of their own Country in opposition to this Rule Could Firmilian have charged the Pope with Schism Could Cyprian and the Council of Carthage have charged him with Tyranny for pressing a received Rule in the whole Church These sure are demonstrations that this pretended Rule is like the rest of Popish Doctrines a Rule with which the Ancient Church of Christ was not acquainted Fourthly Hence evident it is That all the Churches of that Age knew nothing of the Pope's Supremacy nothing of any Obligation laid upon them to conform to the Doctrines Decrees and Customs of the Roman Church and her adherents and lastly nothing of that pretended Law that Synods were not to assemble and make Canons without consulting of his Holiness Since all these Synods made these Canons either without his Knowledge or else in opposition to Unusquisque Episcoporum quod putat faciat c. Ep. 73. p. 210. and condemnation of the Decrees and Customs both of the Pope and Church of Rome and others told him They thought themselves obliged notwithstanding all his Threats to act according to their Sentence and durst not rescind it Had they believed the Pope's Supremacy in that Age would they have declared so freely as St. Cyprian doth Neque enim quisquam nostrum Episcopum se Episcoporum constituit aut tyrannico terrore ad obsequendi necessitatem collegas suos adigit Apud Cypr. p. 229. Apud Cypr. Ep. 75. p. 217 218 225 227 228. for the Liberty of every Bishop to act as he saw fit in this matter and said that he was only to give account to God of his proceedings Could they with the Council of Carthage have esteemed it such a tyrannical Matter for the Pope to act as Bishop of Bishops Could Firmilian have accused him so pertly of Inhumanity Insolence and Boldness in this Case Could he have judged him a downright Schismatick for acting as he did Could all the forementioned Bishops so freely have reproved him and dissented from him and judged it their Duty rather to adhere to the decisions of Provincial Synods than to his Determination Could they have thought themselves obliged to adhere to the Decrees Ubique a S. Scripturis declaratum est Baptisma Haereticorum non esse verum Ep. 7. the Doctrines or Customs of the Roman Church and yet declare as doth St. Cyprian and his Africans That the Decrees and Practice of