Bellarmine made more use of traditions then of the Scripture so the Papists plainly shew that they set more by them then they do by the written Word of God whilest they plead more earnestly for them and are more sedulous and copious in this controversie then in most do most rigorously presse them and more severely punish the neglect and transgression of them then of the expresse commands of God in Scripture as the profaning as they call it one of their Traditionary Saints dayes much more heavily then of the Lords own Day and a Priests marrying then the committing of fornication or adultery in this imitating not the true Israelites indeed but the degenerate Jews who made the word of God of none effect through their Traditions But Mat. 15. 3. ◠those who have been savingly taught as the truth is in Jesus abhor such blasphemies and by all their sweet words cannot be brought to relish their Traditions which as Irenaeus and other of the Ancients plainly shew have been all along the subterfuge of Hereticks and of which for many of them it is uncertain from whom in particular they first sprang and for all of them it is most certain that coming from men at best they are but fallible and that in continuance of time they may be much altered from what they were at first nor can Bellarmines four preservatives be able so to keep them in pickle as to prevent it And therefore although the Truth of God was delivered from hand to hand before Moses first writ the Law and that Christ delivered to his Apostles and they to others the Doctrine of the Gospel before the signing of the Canon of the New Testament which we grant and although the Apostle 2 Thes 2. 15. a place which the Papists much triumph in commandeth his Thessalonians to stand fast and to hold the Traditions which they had been taught whether by word or his Epistle yet for all that they must give us leave to hold fast to the Scripture till they shall be able fully and clearly to prove 1. That there is the same use and need of Traditions now that the Canon of the Scripture is perfected as there was before 2. That there are now as immediate and infallible inspirations and manifestations of Gods will as there was to the faithfull before the writing of the Old Testament and to the Apostles before the writing of the New viz. Infallibly to direct about these Traditions and to correct in case there should be any failure or corruption Such extraordinary Manifestations we for our parts do not pretend to and that we cannot think that they are made to the Romish Antichrist it is not from want of charity but of ground of faith to believe it and indeed from sense and evident experience of the contrary 3. That for the substantials of faith and life for of eternall circumstantials I now speak not there be any such Divine or Apostolicall Traditions which the Apostles vivâ voce preached and delivered from hand to hand which were not for substance written in the Old Testament before Acts 26. 22. or not in the New Testament afterwards Many indeed of their Traditions which they obtrude are not as holding forth not Apostolical divine Truth but partly such errors and superstitions and partly such ridiculous fooleries as are not fit to be much lesse in the sacred writings much lesse in the sacred Writ But for what ever is necessary to be known or practised in order to salvation we must believe Irenaeus saying Quod tunc praeconiaverunt postea per Dei voluntatem in Scripturis nobis tradiderunt till Lib. 3. cap. 1. they be able to prove the contrary and mean while we are confident that this expression of Irenaeus in Scripturis nobis tradiderunt and yet more evidently that place to the Thessalonians which they so much urge where they are exhorted to hold the Traditions which they had been taught whether by word or Epistles fully evinceth that what is written in Scripture may be and is there called Tradition Such traditions and so written we allow to be within the compasse of this Form of sound Words but not first Humane unwritten or Popish forged Traditions Nor 2dly The Enthusiasts feigned and Divine Revelations Feigned Revelations These the Papists decry as loud as we Non enim novis revelationibus Deverbo Dei non scripto cap. 9. nunc regitur Ecclesia saith Bellarmine though by their favour they cannot so easily wash their hands of them whilest according to their Doctrine the last resolution of matters of faith is to be made into the determination of the Pope and that as infallibly directed by Divine Revelation as his Sycophants would flatter him So that thereby he is made the prime and greatest Enthusiast An artifice which seducers in all ages have made use of to conciliate the more credit to their delusions by intituling them to Divine Revelation I do not here speak of Numae's Aegeria or Mahomets Dove or the practises of other Heathen Founders of Commonwealths who out of craft and policy to gain more reverence and obedience to their lawes and government have deluded their silly people into a belief of their being appointed by divine inspirations But even in the Church of God the Apostles in their times gave warning of such as pretended the Spirit 2 Thess 2. 2. As also charge and direction how to try them 1 Tim. 4. 1. 1 John 4. 1 2 3. 6. The Nicholaitans of old Swenckfield and the Familists of Germany in the former age and their spawn both in Old and New England in this age have been all for immediate Revelations with a supine nay a most scornfull neglect not onely of other studies and learning but even of the holy Scriptures also which to them is but a dead Letter a Covenant of works c. And before their new lights such shadows must fly away They are but History to their mystery and as the Papists in their way and Castellio in his so these in theirs make account that the Spirit revealeth to them higher and more hidden mysteries then the Scriptures teach or contain such indeed as are not onely besides and as they think above it but sometimes nay oftentimes quite contrary to it a most proud and dangerous delusion and therfore Austins watch-word Prolog ad Doctrinam Christianam in regard of such is Caveamus tales tentationes superbissimas periculosissimas the direct inlet of all corruption into the Church and confusion into the Commonwealth as other places have felt and the Lord grant that we who in this kind have already found so much may not yet feel much more Purest Primitive times have been defiled with them The darkest and blindest times have talked much of such visions In the times of in-breaking light and Reformation still a great noise of Revelation But for our better settling in the Truth know that Revelation we acknowledge and humbly blesse God
forth and grow as calves of the stall and Mal. 4. ◠they are planted in the house of the Lord who flourish in the Courts Psal 92. 13 14. of our God and still bring forth fruit even in old age and are fat and flourishing As on the contrary it is but bad soile in which good plants are starved or cankered Is it likely to be wholesome diet which men otherwise well and healthfull do not thrive on But it is no other then heavens shine and showers that make the plants of righteousness grow and bud and flourish and bring forth fruit for I cannot in this respect assent to the Remonstrants dictates Ex fructibus aestimandi sunt homines non semper doctrina it 's a good tree our Saviour Mat. 7. 17. tells us which bringeth forth good fruit and the same may be said of good doctrin too and al though by the corruption of mens hearts good doctrine may not al wayes bring forth good fruit in their lives yet it 's bad doctrine which naturally bringeth forth what is bad and and abominable But wholsome food even the bread of life let us ever esteem that by which the man of God liveth and thriveth cheerfully doth and suffereth Gods will and constantly holdeth on in Gods way and in the strength of it with Elijah 1 King 19. 8. walketh 40. days and 40. nights through the wilderness of this world till he come to the mount of God In a word that is sound doctrine which a sound heart relisheth and thrives by But because man liveth not by bread only Matth. 4. 4. but by every word that cometh out of the mouth of God it is not sufficient that these sound words have mans approbation if not withall Gods institution that as they are acceptable words so also words of truth words of the wise Eccles 12. 10 11. but withall given by one Shepheard Which leads to the 3d. particular 3. Which thou hast heard of me in the Text viz. the Speaker by whom they were delivered in those words which thou hast heard of me Non à quocunque magistro as Lombard and Espencaeus paraphrase it not from every dogmatizing Master but from an Apostle of Christ infallibly directed by the Spirit of Christ Such truths as have been delivered to us by Christ himself the Prophets and Apostles immediately inspired by the Spirit of God and now recorded in the Scriptures of truth either expressed in them or plainly and directly by good and strong consequence drawn from them these are those words and formes of sound words which we are to hold fast and abide by as a light to our feet Psal 119. 105. 2 Pet. 1 19. the rule of our faith and life Gal. 6. 16. and therefore called Canonical the Foundation on which we are to build Ephes 2. 20. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that mould of doctrine into which we are to be cast Rom. 6. 17. that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Form of knowledge and truth by which we are to be informed No other fallible Land-mark but the holy Scriptures Card and Compass and Pole-star which we are to steer our course by if we would not make shipwrack of faith and a good conscience These these onely are the words of this life Act. 5. 20. what ever therefore either they expressely affirm or is from them soundly and directly gathered and commended to us whether by whole Churches or particular Persons although they be not expressed wholly in Scripture words yet if according to the Analogy of faith for the further clearing of Scripture sense and the better discovering of errors and heresies as they arise we willingly accept and carefully hold fast But what ever Creeds Canons Confessions Constitutions Catechismes c. either of private men or of whole Churches yea of that Church which now nameth it self Catholick shall obtrude upon us any thing directly or by good consequence contrary to the Scripture in any thing yea or but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 besides what the Gal. 1. 9. 10. Scripture teacheth us in the parts and essentials of Gods worship or in any thing in doctrine or practise pretended as necessary to salvation eadem facilitate contemnitur Hieronym in Matth. qua probatur we stick not easily to reject it and being backed with the Apostles authority to pronounce him whether man or Angel Anathema who shall teach and impose it and in hoc sensu we particularly especially reject 1. All humane unwritten Traditions 2. All feigned Divine Revelations For humane unwritten Traditions Bellarmine indeed applieth Traditions De verbo Dei non scripto cap. 5. to them this Text and maketh them at least a part of that Depositum in the following verse nor can I deny but that Chrysostom upon the Text and other Greek Interpreters after their manner following him run their descant upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which thou hast heard as relating to what Paul had delivered to Timothy by word of mouth from which Canus loc com lib. 3. Corn. à Lapide Estius Alii in Textum Popish writers take a rise to cry up their unwritten Traditions which being the strongest stake in their rotten hedge they most highly cry up and most earnestly contend for In their Elogiums which they give them they are their Homericum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Antidote against all infections Lydius Lapis by which they will try all doctrines Sacrum Thesei filum safely to guide you in all Labyrinths and Meanders Gladius Goliath non est similis ei the sword of their Goliah Pope to offend and strike down all opposors Ajacis Clypeus to defend them and to ward off all blows from eheir enemies Nay Fidei fundamentum the very foundation of their Popish faith and the onely foundation of it so far as Popish which if overturned their Babel cometh down and take but away what partly we hold with them agreeable to Scripture and what they maintain only by Tradition and what is besides left of Popery would be a poor thin nothing and therefore here they fight tanquam pro aris focis or if you will we may leave out the tanquam Elabor andum est ut hic locus quà m diligentissimè Loc. com lib. 3. cap 6 ad fiuem explicaretur muniretur saith Canus and good reason when he had before cap. 3. said Traditiones majorem vim habere ad Haereticos refellendos quà m Scripturas good reason that they should so earnestly fight for Traditions because by them they can better confute us whom they call Hereticks then by Scriptures We kindly thank him for this fair acknowledgement they are not so much the Scriptures as their Traditions which they must knock us poor Hereticks down with By which they rather appear to be the Hereticks for of such Tertullian of old said Lib. de Resur carni nec stare se posse si de solis
for if rightly understood 1. It was a most happy revelation of God to the Prophets and Apostles when he made known to them his will and directed them to write the Scriptures one of the Books whereof bears the name of the Revelation But I pray know too that these Revelations were on purpose vouchsafed to give us a standard of Scripture by which we might discover the impostures of those other fained Revelations 2. The Scripture also calleth it a spirit of wisdom and revelation Ephes 1. 17 18. that shews and seals to us our Interest in Christ and the riches of the glory of the Inheritance of the Saints in light But now this Spirit is a spirit of promise v. 13. which onely sealeth that whch the Scripture writeth 3. I deny not but that sometimes possibly there may be some more then ordinary intimation of Gods will to some of his servants For their persons holy humble faithfull and Orthodox For the things declared â—t may be they may be helped to apply some generall word in Scripture to a partâ—cular case But never thereby put upon others either to believe or do any thing above much lesse contrary to the Scripture in all which our chief pretenders to Revelations are notoriously exorbitant but the Scripture remaineth the square and standing rule still which the more others slight and neglect and blaspheme the more let us honour and study and stick to And therefore take care that your otherwise well-furnished Libraries want not a Bible as it hath been with some that none of our Doctors may have cause with shame to confesse as some of the Popish Schoole-Doctors have done that when they were 50. years old they had never read any of the Scripture but what onely they met with in Hierom and the Canon-law See Voetii disp pag. 26. And as Carolostadius acknowledgeth that it was seven years after he was Doctor that he began to read the Bible Nay post galeros infulas after some have been Bishops and Cardinals Canus complaineth Non Prophetas Cani loc com lib. 9. non Apostolos non Evangelistas sed Cicerones Platones c. You should see in their hands not the Bible but Tully or Plato or Aristotle Quibus Averroes Paulus est Alexander Aphrodisaeus Petrus Aristoteles Christus Plato non Divinus sed Deus to whom Averroes is their Paul Aphrodisaeus their Peter Aristotle in stead of Christ and Plato no longer onely Divine but a Deity In all whose books some now adayes become so learned that although they cannot finde Christ in them yet they think they can spell salvation out of them Sure I am that Paul could not in them finde this Form of Sound Words in the Text for that Timothy had heard from him and so it was Apostolicall not Philosophicall and was in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus Which words contain the 4th particular in the Text which several In saith and love Interpreters refer several wayes Some to Pauls preaching viz. That he had preached them out of a principle of Faith and out of that love which he bare to him in Christ Jesus Others to Timothy receiving As telling him that if he would hold them fast as in the first words he exhorted him it must be by faith and love which is in Christ Jesus I as at first I said with most and best Interpreters rather refer this clause to the subject matter which these Sound Words hold forth It 's faith and love and that in Christ Jesus for quae circa alia sunt sanè sana non sunt as Espencaeus expresseth it Faith and love 1. A most lovely paire most loving sister Twins Egregia biga 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore are Grotius in Philem. 5. usually met going hand in hand together up and down in our Apostles writings Love with Faith Eph. 6. 28. And Faith with Love 1 Tim. 1. 14. 6. 11. 1 Thess 3. 6. And Faith working by love Gal. 5. 6. The work of Faith and labour of Love 1 Thess 1. 3. And what in Scripture are so joyned together let them not in our hearts or lives be put asunder All will prove Nothing if they be 1 Cor. 13. 1 2. 2. Of very large extent And therefore from this very Text made the two main parts of Divinity which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Theophylact. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Oecumenius paraphraseth the Text containing Credenda Agenda all things both concerning Doctrine and Conversation 3. Especially and most expresly containing the substantials of godliness whence to omit many things which I might observe I desire to hint to you what of all sound words we are to hold fastest Let Jet catch straws but let the Loadstone draw Iron let want on stomachs be greedy of trash but let more healthfull constitutions feed on more solid meat Let Nominals and Rationals dispute but let Reals beleeve and love let light heads and vain hearts busie their brains with Notions and Niceties the onely oyle which feeds the blaze of many of our Saints zeal but eateth out of them all the power of godliness but let Faith and Love be the exercise of every solid and serious Christian Oh had we more faith grounded on the word we should have less error founded for the most part on our own phansy and had we more love either we should have fewer breaches or they would be sooner healed and made up But we must be sure then that 5. In Christ Jesus this Faith and Love be in Christ Jesus which words contain the 5th particular of the Text and which some refer only to Love In love which is in Christ Jesus Grotius others to both Faith and Love and so In Christ Jesus is For Christ So some Which Christ hath taught and expressed so Erasmus sicut Christus instituit so Lombard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Oecumenius But yet so as that most conceive Sausbout Grotius this clause to adde a restriction telling us that it is not every kinde of faith and love that is to be held so fast as here is prescribed and so close stuck to for we have now adays a great variety of Creeds Religions and mishapen bodies of Divinity and of Families of love As in the Apostles times severall combinations of Hereticks as there were Sects and Fraternities enough of Heathen Philosophers and their followers whose books and disputes were often better then themselves and yet both by some now adays thought so good that their charity concludes for their Salvation and for every honest moral mans in every Religion or of what ever perswasion But shall we wrong God to gratify men or be so charitable to them as to be injurious to Christ by thinking that he would needlesly and lavishly shed his blood to purchase that Salvation which they could compass without him or at best only to set open a more convenient passage to life which they were able though
will not smart and we think Paul was a sufficient answer Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me I only here add Acts 24. 13 that whilest this liberty of conscience and Prophesying is so tendred in this particular by those honest holy men the Remonstrants spake of we may conclude that they themselves were those holy men they meant because as I shewed before they have impropriated this plea for this liberty to themselves and therefore we onely bring home these stray goods from the common to the true owners inclosure But to return from this digression the 3d danger of Schismes and Factions which they suggest wil be the fruit of those Formes and Confessions is that which in this particular I am especially to take notice of and all that I shall now say to it is that when they have put the pen into an Episcopius his hand He knoweth how to flant and flourish it make a great letter of it and make a terrible Gorgons head in it and his pen and tongue here runs riot To all which it will be sufficient onely to say Verba quid audio facta quum videam Whatever either He or any of His may in umbra Philosophare vel Rhetoricare either write in his study or talk to them that will believe him I suppose they that will believe him are such as are blinde and so cannot see what is done in the world and so cannot disprove him but that confessions breed Schismes and Divisions whilest that liberty and Toleration which they so much plead for will conjoyn all in peace and Christian union yet the sad experience of the whole Church in several Ages we might put them in minde of their own we are too sure that Ours in these wofully distracted times doth too sadly inform us of the contrary cryeth aloud that the not keeping more close to such Formes of sound Words which our Church was sometimes famous for in point of Doctrine but every one may speake and write the vain Phansies of his own heart and impunè spread foulest heresies and blasphemies hath miserably torn us in pieces and divided us in semper divisibilia The Lord in mercy speedily heal these gashes and ruptures Of which cure this will be one special meanes of holding fast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the form of sound and wholsome words for so 5. That is a further spiritual end and use of it that by the help thereof present controversies as they arise may be the better understood and determined So Acts 15. 6. And so also they may be as memorials to posterity of their forefathers faith and be left as depositums as they are called in the verse following the Text to be kept as their legacies or inheritances and so to be intailed as to be transmitted from father to son ad natos natorum qui nascuntur Psal 78. 2 3 4. ab illis in all successions to the preventing of after innovations and corruptions But more particularly they are especially usefull 1. To weak ones it was in relief to such the Apostles that first framed their Cannons Acts 15. 24. whilest what is more diffusedly scattered up and down in the whole Scripture is gathered together in a Synopsis for their better view and what may be there by reason of some Words or Phrases which we now are lesse acquainted with more obscurely expressed is here more familiarly presented to their weaker understanding a right and fit closing of such weak infants heads as a Festuke in their hand to help them to spell and pronounce right Such fluid mettall hath need of a mould to bring it to a consistent forme such weak lambs and silly sheep need to be put into such inclosures which loose heads and hearts will call and esteem pinfolds which otherwise will be ready to wander and go astray in the broad Common 2. To discover and repulse Seducers and subverters of the souls of Gods people Acts 15. 24. As the same pale which keeps in the Deer keeps out the ravenous wilde beast and therefore although we do not make them either first or second rules of faith as the Remonstrants are ready to asperse us yet for Them to allow them ne quidem ullum quantumvis infimum in Ecclesia locum as their Vbi prius words are we cannot but think is too too illiberal at least in Clemens Alexandrinus his phrase with their good leave let them be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A fence to the vineyard and so they will be in some place in the Church and of some very good use too indeed of more then they would willingly have them and hinc illae lachrymae Because the foot is swoln it therefore complains of the shoo as too strait and so none more cry out of these Formes then they who have formed to themselves some deformed monsters in opinion or practise and then the crooked piece of timber would have the square and straight rule cast away as the painter drave away the true Cock that it might not discover the fillinesse of his painted one There are few but know what made the Remonstrants such enemies to Synods and their determinations whilest they cryed up the liberty of Prophesying And with us when times were fast hasting to Popery the word Institutions because Calvins was scorned as proud with more pride and of late since Church affairs have been in a confusion we here have had Confessions of Faith and such like Formes at every turn so taken up and flurted and all upon the same account which will make me like Formes never the worse because men of corrupt judgements and such as make Grace and Scripture yea Christ himself but Formes think and speak slightly of them but rather the better because they who would manifestly bring in corruption and all confusion are against them because indeed such Formes are against them The dam stops and checks the violent stream and that is it which makes it swell and murmur The eye is sore and therefore cannot endure the Light the wares they would put off are sophisticate and therefore like not too light a shop It 's a sign of the better physick and that it meets with the peccant humour if it makes the distempered Patient sick of it and the foul stomack ready to cast it up with loathing But then the Physick must in it self be wholesome Which is the second particular 2. Sound Words in the Text. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a form of words we would have but then they must be sound ones A word which our Apostle oft makes use of twice in the former Epistle Chap. 1. 10. and 6. 3. and twice in this here in the Text and Chap. 4. 3. and four times in that to Titus Chap. 1. 9. 13. and Chap. 2. 2. 8. in all which that we may be sound in the faith He calleth for sound words Sani and Sanantes Sound and
Scripturis cogantur quaestiones suas sistere Tradition is their Helena and Venus which they so paint and trim up They are modest men amongst them that will afford the Scriptures an equall share of dignity and respect with them for it 's as little as they can give them to be equall with the Scriptures Aequè sunt observandae saith Eckius and pari pietatis affectu In Enchiridio reverentia suscipit c. saith the Council of Trent like him in Nicephorus whom they call Beatus Lib. 16. cap. 33. Theodosius two names too good for such a blasphemer who getting into the Pulpit denounced an Anathema si quis quatuor Synodos quatuor Evangeliis non exaequet pronounced that man accursed who did not make the four first Synods equal with the four Gospels which yet he might better do then the Cardinal Julianus Fox Acts and Mon. Tom. 1. pag 863. in the Council of Basil exhort them to give no less credit to the Council then to the Gospel Or the Council of Trent anathematize all that did not thus equal their vain Traditions with the books of the Old and New Testament But they stay not here it is not enough with them to have their Traditions equalled with the holy Scriptures if they be not much preferred before them 1. For their Antiquity as being Bellarmine de Verbo Dei non Scripto cap. 4. before any Scripture was written and therefore as first born must have the preheminence of primogeniture 2. Hereupon in point of necessity as though the Church had more need of Traditions then of the Scriptures and accordingly Bellarmine in that chapter whose title is Ostenditur Necessitas Traditionum in which he should prove Traditions to be necessary doth take a great deal of more pains to prove that the Scriptures are not necessary 3. In point of authority which they say the Scripture hath onely from the Tradition of the Church without which some of them are not afraid to say it would be of no more authority then Aesops Fables and the same Pighius who durst call it a nose of wax when over shoos over boots and therefore durst go on and say haec Scripta non praeesse nostra religioni sed subesse and as Caranza adds that the Scripture is to be regulaby the Church and not the Church by the Scripture 4. In point of extent Traditions according to them containing much more of the word and will of God then the Scriptures for although Andradius be so modest and that is a wonder for he is not usually wont to be found in that fault as to grant that maxima pars the greatest part of Gods revealed will is contained in Scripture yet others of his Fellows cannot but account him herein to have been over liberal for on the quite contrary Hosius saith that multò maxima pars that the greatest part of it by far is contained in Traditions and others of them say that minima particula it is the very least part of all that is contained in Scripture whilest Traditio omnem veritatem in se habet containeth all the mysteries of faith and Religion if you will beleeve Coster 5. For point of continuance The same Author would have you beleeve that this unwritten word is more safely kept in their hearts and not to be rased out of the Popes their high Priests breast-plate whilest moths and worms may soon consume these written papers and parchments 6. And so also in point of incorrupted certainty whilest the written word is but a dumb letter speaks not its own sense is a nose of wax and leaden rule which every heretick may bend to his purpose on the contrary their Mufti is a live Judge and the Tradition of the Church is safely lockt up in his breast he gives the true authentick sense of it and so preventeth both the Catholicks error and the Hereticks depravation 7. In point of transcendent worth and usefulness The unwritten word is of more moment say some of them and multis partibus superat scripturas saith Coster as much as the fleshly tables of Beleevers hearts in which no doubt their Traditions are written exceed the Tables of stone or papers or parchments in which the Old and New Testament are written And for use Corn. à Lapide from those words of the Covenant of Gods writing his Law in our hearts Jer. 31. 33. would make such weak men and silly Novices as we are beleeve that Traditions are more proper for the N. T. then the Scriptures Hoc si animadverterent Haeretici magis proprias esse N. Testamento Traditiones quà m Scripturas intelligerent Euge Jesuita en pietatem Romanam In this his bold and blasphemous expression we hear the voice of the Beast and see the whores brasen forehead that blusheth not to prefer their own dreams before the visions of God and their lying Cabala before that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Scripture of truth which alone is able to make us wise to Salvation 2 Tim. 3. 15. 8. In particular Canus and most of them hold and say that although things of more common nature and concernment were written by Moses and other Pen-men in Scripture yet the Arcana Imperii the higher mysteries those holy things were not to be cast to dogs for so they speak when they mean these rarities of their should not be exposed to publick view as it was with the Heathen with their Abdita in Adytis and as Pythagoras and some other Philosophers and the Dryades would not have their Dictates written for all but onely communicated to their Scholars such mysteria to their Mystae So Christ and his Apostles besides their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their more ordinary and common doctrine which they either spake or wrote to all had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their more secret mysteries of So also our Enthusiasts Castellio vide Beza in 2 Tim. 3. 17. more high and abstruse nature which were onely delivered by word of mouth to their greater Intimates and Confidents To which purpose Canus feareth not blasphemously to apply that 1 Cor. 2. 2. but I determined to know or make known nothing but Christ Jesus and him crucified i. e. to you vulgar and ordinary hearers howbeit we speak wisdome amongst them that are perfect No doubt their high-flown perfectionists Profane Blasphemer as though Christ crucified whom in the foregoing Chapter v. 23. he had said was the wisdome of God and the power of God were but his ordinary and course every day doctrin which he preached to the meaner vulgar but that he had higher speculations which he imparted to those of an higher Form or as our new minted word is dispensation and attainment which our Enthusiasts boast of in their Revelations and the Papists as it seemeth promise us in their Traditions 9. And therefore accordingly Lib. 4. de verbo Dei c. 4. in their practice as the Jewes if you will believe