Christian Tradition 4. And it was hearty obedience sincere compliance with the Divine will such obedience as became those who understood their Religion to be a great deliverance and liberty from the slavery of sin before spoken of into the happy freedom of the service of God 5. All which lastly he ascribes to the grace of God which had both delivered to them that Doctrine and drawn them to deliver up themselves to it made their hearts soft and ductile to be cast into that mould and quickned them to Christian Obedience and given them a willing mind to obey chearfully All this was from God's grace and not their merits and therefore the thanks was to be ascribed to him who succeeds and blesses all pious indeavours Now according to this pattern let us frame our selves who blessed be God have a form of Doctrine delivered to us in this Church exactly agreeable to the holy Scriptures which lie open before us and we are exhorted not onely to look into them but we feel that grace which hath brought them to us clearly demonstrating that we ought to be formed according to the holy Doctrine therein delivered by the delivery of our selves unto it By the delivery of our mind that is to think of God and our selves and of our duty in every point just as this instructs us And by the delivery of our wills and affections to be governed and regulated according to its directions And when we have consented to this we find the Divine grace representing to us the necessity of an hearty obedience to what we know and believe and have embraced as the very Truth of God To this we are continually drawn and mightily moved and if we would shew our thankfulness for it let us follow these godly motions and conform our selves in all things to the heavenly prescriptions of this Book being confident that if we do we need not trouble our selves about any other model of Religion which we find not here delivered For if you desire to know what form of Doctrine it is to which the Apostle would have us delivered it is certain it is a Doctrine directly opposite to all vice and wickedness For herein the grace of God was manifested he tells the Romans in that it had brought them from being slaves of sin heartily to obey the Christian Doctrine which taught that is vertue and piety Now to this the present Romanists can pretend to add nothing All the parts of a godly life are sufficiently taught us in the holy Scriptures And if we would seriously practise and follow this Doctrine from the very heart we should easily see there is no other but what is there delivered For whatsoever is pretended to be necessary besides is not a Doctrine according unto godliness as the Apostle calls Christianity but the very design of it is to open an easier way to heaven than that laid before us in the holy Scriptures by Masses for the dead by Indulgences by Satisfactions and the merits of the Saints and several other such like inventions which have no foundation in the Scriptures nor in true Antiquity That is a word indeed which is very much pretended Antiquity they say is on their side but it is nothing different from what hath been said about Tradition And if we will run up to the true Antiquity there is nothing so ancient as the holy Scriptures They are the oldest Records of Religion and by them if we frame our lives we are sure it is according to the most authentick and ancient directions of piety delivered in the holy Oracles of God So both sides confess them to be And if the old Rule be safe that is true which is first we are safe-enough for there is nothing before this to be our Guide and there can be nothing after this but must be tried by it According to another Rule as old as reason it self the first in every kind is the measure of all the rest And as sure as that there is a Gospel of God's grace they that walk after this Rule this Divine Canon peace shall be upon them and mercy they being the true Israel or Church of God THE END Books Printed for Fincham Gardiner AContinuation and Vindication of the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet's Unreasonableness of Separation in Answer to Mr. Baxter and Mr. Lob c. Considerations of present use considering the Danger Resulting from the Change of our Church-Government 1. A Perswasive to Communion with the Church of England 2. A Resolution of some Cases of Conscience which Respect Church-Communion 3. The Case of Indifferent things used in the Worship of God Proposed and Stated by considering these Questions c. 4. A Discourse about Edification 5. The Resolution of this Case of Conscience Whether the Church of England 's Symbolizing so far as it doth with the Church of Rome makes it unlawfull to hold Communion with the Church of England 6. A Letter to Anonymus in Answer to his Three Letters to Dr. Sherlock about Church-Communion 7. Certain Cases of Conscience resolved concerning the Lawfulness of joyning with Forms of Prayer in Publick Worship In two Parts 8. The Case of Mixt Communion Whether it be Lawfull to separate from a Church upon the Account of promiscuous Congregations and Mixt Communions 9. An Answer to the Dissenters Objections against the Common Prayers and some other Parts of Divine Service Prescribed in the Liturgy of the Church of England 10. The Case of Kneeling at the Holy Sacrament Stated and Resolved c. The first Part. 11. Certain Cases of Conscience c. The Second Part. 12. A Discourse of Profiting by Sermons and of going to hear where Men think they can profit most 13. A Discourse about the charge of Novelty upon the Reformed Church of England made by the Papists asking of us the Question Where was our Religion before Luther Printed for Robert Horne at the South Entrance of the Royal Exchange
to imagine when he reads this that by admitting Tradition to be of such use and force as I have mentioned we yield too much to the Popish Cause which supports it self by this pretence But if any one shall suggest this to any of our people let them reply that it is but the pretence and onely by the Name of Tradition that the Romish Church supports it self For true Tradition is as great a proof against Popery as it is for Episcopacy The very foundation of the Pope's Empire which is his succession in Saint Peter's Supremacy is utterly subverted by this the constant Tradition of the Church being evidently against it And therefore let us not lose this Advantage we have against them by ignorantly refusing to receive true and constant Tradition which will be so far from leading us into their Church that it will never suffer us to think of being of it while it remains so opposite to that which is truly Apostolical I conclude this with the direction which our Church gives to Preachers in the Book of Canons 1571. in the Title Concionatores that no man shall teach the people any thing to be held and believed by them religiously but what is consentaneous to the Doctrine of the Old and New Testament and what the Catholick Fathers and ancient Bishops have gathered out of that very Doctrine This is our Rule whereby we are to guide our selves which was set us on purpose to preserve our Preachers from broaching any idle novel or popish Doctrines as appears by the Conclusion of that Injunction Vain and old Wives opinions and heresies and popish errours abhorring from the Doctrine and Faith of Christ they shall not teach nor any thing at all whereby the unskilfull multitude may be inflamed either to the study of novelty or to contention VI. But though nothing may be taught as a piece of Religion which hath not the forenamed Original yet I must add that those things which have been universally believed and not contrary to Scripture though not written at all there nor to be proved from thence we do receive as pious opinions For instance the perpetual Virginity of the Mother of God our Saviour which is so likely a thing and so universally received that I do not see why we should not look upon it as a genuine Apostolical Tradition VII I have but one thing more to add which is that we allow also the Traditions of the Church about matters of Order Rites and Ceremonies Onely we do not take them to be parts of God's Worship and if they be not appointed in the holy Scriptures we believe they may be altered by the same or the like authority with that which ordained them So our Church hath excellently and fully resolved us concerning such matters in the XXXIV Article of Religion where there are three things asserted concerning such Traditions as these First It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies they are the very first words of the Article be in all places one or utterly alike for at all times they have been divers and may be changed according to the diversities of Countries times and mens manners so that nothing be ordained against God's word But then to prevent all disorders and confusions that men might make in the Church by following their own private fancies and humours the next thing which is decreed is this Secondly that whosoever through his own private judgment willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church which be not repugnant to the word of God and be ordained and approved by common authority ought to be rebuked openly that others may fear to doe the like as he that offendeth against the common order of the Church and hurteth the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Consciences of the weak Brethren Lastly it is there declared that every particular or national Church hath authority to ordain change and abolish Ceremonies or Rites of the Church ordained onely by man's authority so that all things be done to edifying This is sufficient to shew what we believe concerning Traditions about matters of Order and Decency VIII As for what is delivered in matters of Doctrine or Order by any private Doctour in the Church or by any particular Church it appears by what hath been said that it cannot be taken to be more than the private opinion of that man or the particular decree of that Church and can have no more authority than they have that is cannot oblige all Christians unless it be conteined in the holy Scripture Now such are the Traditions which the Roman Church would impose upon us and impose upon us after a strange fashion as you shall see in the Second Part of this Discourse unto which I shall proceed presently when I have left with you this brief reflexion on what hath been said in this First Part. Our people may hereby be admonished not to suffer themselves to be deceived and abused by words and empty names without their sense and meaning Nothing is more common than this especially in the business of Traditions About which a great stir is raised and it is commonly given out that we refuse all Traditions Than which nothing is more false for we refuse none truly so called that is Doctrines delivered by Christ or his Apostles No we refuse nothing at all because it is unwritten but merely because we are not sure it is delivered by that Authority towhich we ought to submit Whatsoever is delivered to us by our Lord and his Apostles we receive as the very word of God which we think is sufficiently declared in the holy Scriptures But if any can certainly prove by any Authority equal to that which brings the Scriptures to us that there is any thing else delivered by them we receive that also The Controversie will soon be at an end for we are ready to embrace it when any such thing can be produced Nay we have that reverence for those who succeeded the Apostles that what they have unanimously delivered to us as the sense of any doubtfull place we receive it and seek no farther There is no dispute whether or no we should entertain it To the Decrees of the Church also we submit in matters of Decency and Order yea and acquiesce in its authority when it determines doubtfull opinions But we cannot receive that as a Doctrine of Christ which we know is but the Tradition of man nor keep the Ordinances of the ancient Church in matters of Decency so unalterably as never to vary from them because they themselves did not intend them to be of everlasting obligation As appears by the changes that have been made in several times and places even in some things which are mentioned in the holy Scriptures being but customes suted to those Ages and Countries In short Traditions we do receive but not all that are called by that name Those which have sufficient Authority but not those which
in these things they have forsaken Traditions so in other cases they have perverted and abused them turning them into quite another thing As appears to all that understand any thing of ancient learning in the business of Purgatory which none of the most ancient Writers so much as dreamt to be such a place as they have now devised but onely asserted a Purgatory Fire through which all both good and bad even the blessed Virgin her self must pass at the great and dreadfull day of Judgment This was the old Tradition as we may call it which was among Christians which they have changed into such a Tradition as was among the Pagans 6. But it is time to have done with this else I should have insisted upon this a while which I touched before and is of great moment that the Tradition which now runs in that Church is contrary to the certain Tradition of the Apostles and the universal Church particularly in the Canon of Scripture In which no more Books have been numbred by the Catholick Church in all Ages since the Apostles time than are in the VI. Article of Religion in this Church of England till the late Council of Trent took the boldness to thrust the Apocryphal Books into the holy Canon as nothing inferiour to the acknowledged Divine Writings This hath been so evidently demonstrated by a late Reverend Prelate of our Church in his Scholastical History of the Canon of the Scriptures out of undoubted Records that no fair Answer can be made to it But I must leave a little room for other things that ought to be noted III. And the next is a consequence from what hath been now said That there being so little credit to be given to the Roman Church onely we cannot receive those Doctrines for Truth which that Church now presses upon our belief upon the account of Tradition For instance that the Church of Rome is the Mother and Mistress of all other Churches that the Pope of Rome is the Monarch or Head of the universal visible Church that all Scriptures must be expounded according to the sense of this Church that there are truly and properly seven Sacraments neither more nor less instituted by our blessed Lord himself in the New Testament that there is a proper and propitiatory Sacrifice offered in the Mass for the quick and dead the same that Christ offered on the Cross in short the half Communion and all the rest of the Articles of their New Faith in the Creed published by Pope Pius IV. which are Traditions of the Roman Church alone not of the Vniversal and rely solely upon their own Authority And therefore we refuse them and in our disputes about Traditions we mean these things which we reject because they have no foundation either in the holy Scripture or in Universal Tradition but depend as I said upon the sole Authority of that Church which witnesses in its own behalf For whatsoever is pretended to make the better shew all resolves at last into that as I intimated in the beginning of this Discourse Scripture and Tradition can doe nothing at all for them without their Churches definition Though their whole infallible Rule of Faith seem to be made up of those three yet in truth the last of these alone the Churches definition is the whole Rule and the very bottom upon which their Faith stands For what is Tradition is no more apparent than what is Scripture according to their principles without the Authority of their Church which pretends to an unlimited power to supply the defect even of Tradition it self In short as Tradition among them is taken in to supply the defect of Scripture so the Authority of their Church is taken in to supply the defect of Tradition but this Authority undermines them both because neither Scripture nor Tradition signifie any thing without their Churches Authority Which therefore is the rule of their Faith that is they believe themselves To which absurdity they are driven because it is made evident by us that there have been great diversities of Traditions and many changes and alterations made even in things called Apostolical c. and therefore they have no other way but to fly to the judgment of the present Roman Church to determine what are Traditions Apostolical and what are not by which judgment all mankind must be governed that is we must believe them and they believe themselves which they would have done well to have said in one word without putting us to the trouble of seeking for Traditions in Books and in other Churches But they would willingly colour their pretences by as many fair words as is possible and so make mention of Scripture Tradition Antiquity which when we have examined they will not stand to them but take fanctuary in their own Authority saying they are the sole judges what is Scripture and what Tradition and what Antiquity nay have a power to declare any new point of Faith which the Church never heard of before This is the Doctrine of Salmeron and others of his fellows that the Doctrine of Faith admits of additions in essential things For all things were not taught by the Apostles but such as were then necessary and fit for the Salvation of Believers By which means we can never know when the Christian Religion will be perfected but their Church may bring in Traditions by its sole Authority without end Nay some among them have been contented to resolve all their Faith into the sole Authority of the present Roman Bishop according to that famous saying of Cornelius Mussus promoted by Paul III. to a Bishoprick upon the XIV Chapter to the Romans to confess the truth ingenuously I would give greater credit to one Pope in those things which touch the mysteries of Faith than to a thousand Hierom's Austin's Gregory's to say nothing of Richard's Scotus's c. for I believe and know that the Pope cannot err in matters of Faith Which contemptuous speech he would never have uttered to the discredit of those great men whom they pretend to reverence if he had not known more certainly that the Tradition which runs among the ancient Fathers is against them than he could know the Pope to be infallible There is no Tradition I am sure for that nor for abundance of other things which rest merely upon their own credit as is fairly acknowledged in two great Articles of their present Creed by our Country-man Bishop Fisher with whose words I conclude this particular Many perhaps have the less confidence in Indulgences because their use seems to have been newer in the Church and very lately found among Christians To whom I answer that it doth not appear certainly by whom they began to be first delivered For the ancients make no mention or very rare of Purgatory and the Greeks to this very day do not believe it nor was the belief either of Purgatory or of Indulgences so necessary in the Primitive Church as it
is now And as long as there was no care about Purgatory no body sought for Indulgences for all their esteem depends upon that If you take away Purgatory to what purpose are Indulgences Since therefore Purgatory was so lately known and received in the Catholick Church who can wonder that there was no use of Indulgences in the beginning of our Religion Which is a full confession what kind of Traditions that Church commends unto us things lately invented their own private opinions of which the ancient Christians knew nothing In one word their Tradition is no Tradition in that sense wherein the Church always understood it IV. And what hath been said of them must be applied to other particular Churches though some have been more sincere than they None of them hath any authority to commend any thing as an Article of Faith unto posterity which hath not been commended to them by all foregoing Ages derived from the Apostles For Vincentius his Rule is to guide us all in this that is Catholick and consequently to be received which hath been held by all and in all Churches and at all times V. Which puts me in mind of another thing to be briefly touched that the Ecclesiastical Tradition contained in the Confessions or Registers of particular Churches in these days wherein we live is not received by us nor allowed to have the same Authority which such Tradition had at the time of the Nicene Council for the conviction of Heresie The joint consent I mean of so many Bishops as were there assembled and the unanimous Confessions of so many several Churches of several Provinces as were there delivered hath not now such a force to induce belief as it had then The reason of which is given by the same Vincentius who so highly commends that way which was then taken of reproving Heresie but adds this most wise caution in the last Chapter but one of the first Part of his Commonitorium but you must not think that all Heresies and always are thus to be opposed but onely new and fresh Heresies when they first rise up that is before they have falsified the rules of the ancient Faith c. As for inveterate Heresies which have spred themselves they are in no wise to be assaulted this way because in a long tract of time many opportunities may have presented themselves to Hereticks of stealing Truth out of ancient Records and of corrupting the Volumes of our Ancestours Which if it be applied to the present state of things it is evident the Roman Church hath had such opportunities of falsifying Antiquity ever since the first acknowledgment of the Papal Supremacy that we cannot rely merely upon any written testimonies or unwritten Traditions which never so great a number of their Bishops met together shall produce which amount not to so much as one legal Testimony but they are to be look'd upon or suspected as a multitude of false Witnesses conspiring together in their own cause How then may some say can Heresies of long standing be confuted The same Vincentius resolves us in this in the very next words We may convince them if need be by the sole authority of the Scriptures or eschew them as already convicted and condemned in ancient times by the general Councils of Catholick Priests The Tradition which is found there must direct all future Councils not the opinions of their own present Churches VI. I will add but one thing more which is That the Tradition called Oral because it comes by word of mouth from one Age to another without any written record is the most uncertain and can be least relied upon of all other This hath been demonstrated so fully by the Writers of our Church and there are such pregnant instances of the errours into which men have been led by it that it needs no long discourse Two instances of it are very common and I shall add a third 1. The first is that which Papias who lived presently after the Apostles times and conversed with those who had seen them set on foot His way was as Eusebius relates out of his Works not so much to reade as to inquire of the Elders what Saint Andrew or Saint Peter said what was the saying of Saint Thomas Saint James and the rest of the Disciples of our Lord. And he pretended that some of them told him among other things that after the resurrection of our Bodies we shall reign a thousand years here upon Earth which he gathered saith Eusebius from some saying of the Apostles wrong understood But this fancy was embraced very greedily and was taught for two whole Ages as an Apostolical Tradition no body opposing it and yet having nothing to say for it but onely the antiquity of the man as Eusebius his words are L. III. Cap. ult who delivered it to them yet this Tradition hath been generally since taken for an imposture and teaches us no more than this that if one man could set a going such a Doctrine and make it pass so current for so long a time upon no other pretence than that an Apostle said so in private discourse we have great reason to think that other Traditions have had no better beginning or not so good especially since they never so universally prevailed as that did 2. A second instance is that famous contention about the observation of Easter which miserably afflicted the Church in the days of Victor Bishop of Rome by dividing the Eastern Christians from the Western One pretending Tradition from Saint John and Saint Philip the other from Saint Peter and Saint Paul Concerning which I will not say as Rigaltius doth in his sharp note upon the words of Firmilian who pretended Tradition for the rebaptizing of Hereticks that under the Names and Persons of great men there were sottish and sophistical things delivered for Apostolical Traditions by fools and sophisters But this I affirm that there are many more instances of mens forwardness and they neither fools nor sophisters but onely wedded to the opinions of their own Churches to obtrude things as Apostolical for which they had no proof at all For when they knew not how to defend themselves presently they flew to Tradition Apostolical 3. A third instance of whose uncertainty we have in Irenaeus L. II. C. 39. concerning the age of our blessed Saviour when he died which he confidently affirms to have been forty if not fifty years and saith the Elders which knew Saint John and were his Scholars received this relation from him And yet all agree that he beginning to preach at thirty years of age was crucified about three years and an half after The like relation Clemens makes of his preaching but one year which he calls a secret Tradition from the Apostles but hath no more Truth in it than the other Now if in the first Ages when they were so near the fountain and beginning of Tradition men were deceived nay such great men as these were deceived
and led others into errours in these matters we cannot with any safety trust to Traditions that have passed men pretend from one to another untill now but we can find no mention of in any Writer till some Ages after the Apostles and then were by some-body or other who had authority in those days called Apostolical Traditions merely to gain them the more credit Thus Andreas Caesariensis in his Commentaries upon the Book of Revelation p. 743. saith that the coming of Enoch and Elias before the second coming of Christ though it be not found in Scripture was a constant report received by Tradition without any variation from the teachers of the Church Which is sufficient to shew how ready they were to father their own private opinions upon ancient universal Tradition and how little reason we have to trust to that which was so uncertain even in the first Ages and therefore must needs be more dubious now Thus I have endeavoured to lay before the eyes of those who will be pleased to look over this short Treatise what they are to think and speak about Tradition It is a calumny to affirm that the Church of England rejects all Tradition and I hope none of her true Children are so ignorant as when they hear that word to imagine they must rise up and oppose it No the Scripture it self is a Tradition and we admit all other Traditions which are subordinate and agreeable unto that together with all those things which can be proved to be Apostolical by the General Testimony of the Church in all Ages nay if any thing not contained in Scripture which the Roman Church now pretends to be a part of God's word were delivered to us by as universal uncontrolled Tradition as the Scripture is we should receive it as we do the Scripture But it appears plainly that such things were at first but private Opinions which now are become the Doctrines of that particular Church who would impose her Decrees upon us under the Venerable Name of Apostolical Universal Tradition which I have shewn you hath been an ancient cheat and that we ought not to be so easie as to be deceived by it But to be very wary and afraid of trusting the Traditions of such a Church as hath not onely perverted some abolished others and pretended them where there hath been none but been a very unfaithfull preserver of them and that in matters of great moment where there were some and lastly warrants those which it pretends to have kept by nothing but its own infallibility For which there is no Tradition but much against it even in the Original Tradition the holy Scriptures which plainly suppose the Roman Church may not onely err but utterly sail and be cut off from the Body of Christ As they that please may reade who will consult the Eleventh Chapter to the Romans v. 20 21 22. Of which they are in the greater danger because they proudly claim so high a prerogative as that now mentioned directly contrary to the Apostolical Admonition in that place be not high minded but fear CONCLUSION I Shall end this Discourse with a brief Admonition relating to our Christian practice And what is there more proper or more seasonable than this While we reject all spurious Traditions let us be sure to keep close to the genuine and true Let us hold them fast and not let them go Let us not dispute our selves out of all Religion while we condemn that which is false Nor break all Christian Discipline and Order because we cannot submit to all humane impositions In plain words let us not throw off Episcopacy together with the Papal Tyranny We ought to be the more carefull in observing the Divine Tradition delivered to us in the Scripture and according to the Scripture because we are not bound to other While we contend against the half Communion let us make a Conscience to receive the whole frequently It looks like Faction rather than Religion to be earnest for that which we mean not to use In like manner while we look upon additions to the Scripture as vain let us not neglect to reade and ponder those holy Writings When we reject Purgatory as a fable let us really dread Hell fire And while we do not tye our selves to all usages that have been in the Church let us be carefull to observe first all the substantial duties of righteousness charity sobriety and godliness which are unquestionably delivered to us by our Lord himself and his holy Apostles and secondly all the Ordinances of the Church wherein we live which are not contrary to the word of God For so hath the fame Divine Authority delivered that the people should obey those that are their Guides and Governours submitting themselves to their authority and avoiding all contention with them as most undecent in it self and pernicious to Religion which suffers extremely when neither Ecclesiastical Authority nor Ecclesiastical Custome can end disputes about Rites and Ceremonies Reade 1 Thess V. 12. Heb. XIII 17. 1 Cor. XI 16. and reade such places as you ought to do all the other Scriptures till your hearts be deeply affected with them For be admonished in the last place of this which is of general use and must never be forgotten because we shall lose the benefit of that celestial Doctrine which is delivered unto us if we do not strictly observe it That as this Evangelical Doctrine is delivered down to us so we must be delivered up to it Thus Saint Paul teaches us to speak in VI. Rom. 17. where he thanks God that they who formerly had been servants of sin did now obey from the heart that form of Doctrine unto which they were delivered So the words run in the Greek as the Margin of our Bibles inform you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the Tradition which we must be sure to retain and hold fast above all other as that without which all our belief will be ineffectual This is the very end for which all Divine Truth is delivered unto us that we may be delivered and make a surrender of our selves unto it Observe the force of the Apostles words which tell us first that there was a certain form of Christian Doctrine which the Apostles taught compared here to a mould so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 form may be translated into which metal or such like matter is cast that it may receive the figure and shape of that mould 2. Now he compares the Roman Christians to such ductile pliable matter they being so delivered or cast into this form or mould of Christian Doctrine that they were intirely framed and fashioned according to it and had all the lineaments as I may say of it expressed upon their souls 3. And having so received it they were obedient to it for without this all the impressions which by knowledge or faith were made upon their souls were but an imperfect draught of what was intended in the