Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n
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A56650
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A discourse about tradition shewing what is meant by it, and what tradition is to be received, and what tradition is to be rejected.
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Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing P787; ESTC R7194
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31,259
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57
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he delivered to Constantius I truly admire thee O Lord Constantius the Emperour who desirest a Faith according to what is written They pretended to no other in those days but as he speaks a little after look'd upon him that refused this as Antichrist It was onely required that they should receive their Faith out of God's Books not merely according to the words of them but according to their true meaning because many spake Scripture without Scripture and pretended to Faith without Faith as his words are and herein Catholick and constant Tradition was to guide them For whatsoever was contrary to what the whole Church had received and held from the beginning could not in reason be thought to be the meaning of that Scripture which was alledged to prove it And on the other side the Church pretended to no more than to be a Witness of the received sense of the Scriptures which were the bottom upon which they built this Faith Thus I observe Hegesippus saith in Euseb his History L. IV. C. 22. that when he was at Rome he met with a great many Bishops and that he received the very same Doctrine from them all And then a little after tells us what that was and whence they derived it saying that in every succession of Bishops and in every City so they held as the Law preached and as the Prophets and as the Lord. That is according to the Doctrine of the Old and New Testament I shall conclude this particular with a pregnant passage which I remember in a famous Divine of our Church D. Jackson in his Treatise of the Catholick Church Chap. 22. who writes to this effect That Tradition which was of so much use in the Primitive Church was not unwritten Traditions or customs commended or ratified by the supposed infalliblity of any visible Church but did especially consist in the Confessions or Registers of particular Churches And the unanimous consent of so many several Churches as exhibited their confessions to the Nicene Council out of such Forms as had been framed and taught before this Controversie arose about the Divinity of Christ and that voluntarily and freely these Churches being not dependent one upon another nor overswayed by any Authority over them nor misled by faction to frame their confessions of Faith by imitation or according to some pattern set them was a pregnant argument that this Faith wherein they all agreed had been delivered to them by the Apostles and their followers and was the true meaning of the holy Writings in this great Article and evidently proved that Arius did obtrude such interpretations of Scripture as had not been heard of before or were but the sense of some private persons in the Church and not of the generality of Believers In short the unanimous consent of so many distinct visible Churches as exhibited their several Confessions Catechisms or Testimonies of their own or Forefathers Faith unto the Council of Nice was an argument of the same force and efficacy against Arius and his partakers as the General consent and practice of all Nations in worshipping a Divine Power in all ages is against Atheists Nothing but the ingrafted notion of a Deity could have induced so many several Nations so much different in natural disposition in civil discipline and education to affect or practise the duty of Adoration And nothing but the evidence of the ingrafted word as Saint James calls the Gospel delivered by Christ and his Apostles in the holy Scriptures could have kept so many several Churches as communicated their Confessions unto that Council in the unity of the same Faith The like may be said of the rest of the four first General Councils whose Decrees are a great confirmation of our belief because they deliver to us the consent of the Churches of Christ in those great Truths which they assert out of the holy Scriptures And could there any Traditive Interpretation of the whole Scripture be produced upon the Authority of such Original Tradition as that now named we would most thankfully and joyfully receive it But there never was any such pretended no not by the Roman Church whose Doctours differ among themselves about the meaning of hundreds of places in the Bible Which they would not doe sure nor spend their time unprofitably in making the best conjectures they are able if they knew of any exposition of those places in which all Christian Doctours had agreed from the beginning V. But more than this we allow that Tradition gives us a considerable assistance in such points as are not in so many letters and syllables contained in the Scriptures but may be gathered from thence by good and manifest reasoning Or in plainer words perhaps whatsoever Tradition justifies any Doctrine that may be proved by the Scriptures though not found in express terms there we acknowledge to be of great use and readily receive and follow it as serving very much to establish us more firmly in that Truth when we see all Christians have adhered to it This may be called a confirming Tradition of which we have an instance in the Doctrine of Infant Baptism which some ancient Fathers call an Apostolical Tradition Not that it cannot be proved by any place of Scripture no such matter for though we do not find it written in so many words that Infants are to be baptised or that the Apostles baptised Infants yet it may be proved out of the Scriptures and the Fathers themselves who call it an Apostolical Tradition do alledge testimonies of the Scriptures to make it good And therefore we may be sure they comprehend the Scriptures within the name of Apostolical Tradition and believed that this Doctrine was gathered out of the Scriptures though not expresly treated of there In like manner we in this Church assert the authority of Bishops above Presbyters by a Divine right as appears by the Book of Consecration of Bishops where the person to be ordained to this Office expresses his belief that he is truly called to this Ministration according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ Now this we are persuaded may be plainly enough proved to any man that is ingenuous and will fairly consider things out of the holy Scriptures without the help of Tradition but we also take in the assistance of this for the conviction of gain-sayers and by the perpetual practice and Tradition of the Church from the beginning confirm our Scripture proofs so strongly that he seems to us very obstinate or extremely prejudiced that yields not to them And therefore to make our Doctrine in this point the more Authentick our Church hath put both these proofs together in the Preface to the Form of giving Orders which begins in these words It is evident unto all men diligently reading holy Scripture and ancient Authours that from the Apostles time there have been three Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church Bishops Priests and Deacons I hope no body among us is so weak as
A DISCOURSE ABOUT TRADITION Shewing what is meant by it AND WHAT TRADITION Is to be received AND WHAT TRADITION Is to be rejected LONDON Printed by Miles Flesher for Robert Horne at the South Entrance of the Royal Exchange and Fincham Gardiner at the White Horse in Ludgate Street 1683. A DISCOURSE ABOUT TRADITION AN obligation being laid upon us at our Baptism to believe and to doe the whole will of God revealed unto us by Christ Jesus it concerns every one that would be saved to enquire where that whole intire will of God is to be found where he may so certainly meet with it and be so informed about it that he may rest satisfied he hath it all And there would be no difficulty in this matter had not the worldly interests of some men raised controversies about it and made that intricate and perplexed which in it self is easie and plain For the Rehearsal of the Apostles Creed at Baptism and of that alone as a Summary of that Faith whose sincere profession intitles us to the Grace there conferred warrants the Doctrine of the Church of England in its VI. Article that the Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation But this strikes off so many of the Doctrines of the present Roman Church which are not to be found in the Scripture nor have any countenance there that they are forced to say the faith once delivered to the Saints mentioned by S. Jude is not intirely delivered in the Scripture but we must seek for the rest in the Traditions of the Church Which Traditions say they are to be received as a part of the Rule of Faith with the same Religious reverence that we do the Holy Scripture Now though this is not really the bottom of their hearts as will appear before I have done but they finally rest for their satisfaction in matters of Faith somewhere else yet this being plausibly pretended by them in their own justification that they follow Tradition and in their accusations of us that we forsake Tradition I shall briefly let all our people see who are not willing to be deceived what they are to judge and say in this business of Tradition About which a great noise is made as if we durst not stand to it and as if they of the Roman Church stedfastly kept it without any variation neither of which is true I shall plainly shew in this short Discourse The meaning of the word Which for clearness sake shall begin with the meaning of the word TRADITION which in English is no more than delivering unto another and by a Figure signifies the matter which is delivered and among Christians the Doctrine of our Religion delivered to us And there being two ways of delivering Doctrines to us either by writing or by word of mouth it signifies either of them indifferently the Scriptures as you shall see presently being Traditions But custome hath determined this word to the last of these ways and distinguished Tradition from Scriptures or writings at least from the Holy Writings and made it signifie that which is not delivered in the Holy Scriptures or writings For though the Scripture be Tradition also and the very first Tradition and the fountain of all true and legitimate Antiquity yet in common language Traditions now are such ancient Doctrines as are conveyed to us some other way whether by word of mouth as some will have it from one generation to another or by humane Writings which are not of the same authority with the Holy Scriptures How to judge of them Now there is no better way to judge aright of such Traditions than by considering these four things First The Authours of them whence they come Secondly The matter of them Thirdly Their Authority Fourthly The means by which we come to know they derive themselves from such Authours as they pretend unto and consequently have any authority to demand admission into our belief 1. For the First of these every body knows and confesses that all Traditions suppose some Authour from whom they originally come and who is the deliverer of those Doctrines to Christian people who being told by the present Church or any person in it that such and such Doctrines are to be received though not contained in the Holy Scriptures because they are Traditions ought in Conscience to inquire from whom those Traditions come or who first delivered them By which means they will be able to judge what credit is to be given to them when it is once cleared to them from what Authours they really come Now whatsoever is delivered to us in Christianity comes either from Christ or from his Apostles or from the Church either in General or in part or from private Doctours in the Church There is nothing now called a Tradition in the Christian World but proceeds from one or from all of these four Originals 2. And the matter which they deliver to us which is next to be considered is either concerning that Faith and godly life which is necessary to Salvation or concerning Opinions Rites Ceremonies Customs and things belonging to Order Both which as I said may be conveyed either by writing or without writing by the Divine writings or by humane writings though these two ways are not alike certain 3. Now it is evident to every understanding that things of both sorts which are delivered to us have their Authority from the Credit of the Authour from whence they first come If that be Divine their Authority is Divine if it be onely Humane their Authority can be no more And among Humane Authours if their credit be great the authority of what they deliver is great if it be little its authority is little and accordingly must be accepted with greater or lesser reverence Upon which score whatsoever can be made to appear to come from Christ it hath the highest authority and ought to be received with absolute submission to it because he is the Son of God And likewise whatsoever appears to have been delivered by the Apostles in his name hath the same Authority they being his Ministers sent by Him as He was by God the Father and indued with a Divine Power which attested unto them In like manner whatsoever is delivered by the Church hath the same Authority which the Church hath which though it be not equal to the foregoing the Church having no such Divine Power nor infallible judgment as the Apostles had yet is of such weight and moment that it ought to be reverenced next to theirs I mean the sense of the whole Church which must be acknowledged also to be of greater or lesser Authority as it was nearer or farther off from the times of the Apostles What was delivered by their immediate followers ought