these passages so plainly proving their so superlative esteem of the Holy Scriptures do infer their most exact diligence and watchfulness for their conservation and safety And this is sufficient for my purpose in this Section But withal too I have gain'd an Argument for my main design viz. The Testimony of the Fathers forasmuch as between Holy Scriptures being the safest Conveyance of Divine Truths throughout all Ages and Scriptures being the sole Rule of Faith there is so necessary a Connexion And because the Romanists likewise allege the Fathers to give Countenance to Oral Tradition therefore the Testimony of the Fathers in our case shall be farther considered of And 1. I will appeal to any ingenious Reader of them whether the passages which the Romanists cite out of the Fathers on the behalf of Tradition and seemingly the most diminutive of Scripture do in any measure come near to such a course Character of it as that it is a Black Gospel an Ink Theology (a) Sure Footing p. 194. dead Characters Waxen-natur'd and pliable to the Daedalean Fancies of the ingenious Moulders of new Opinions If Mens thoughts may be judg'd of by their words sure the Fathers and Romanists Sentiments of the Scriptures were very divers 2ly Seeing there is a seeming contradiction of the Fathers to themselves because they are urg'd by both the disagreeing Parties it will be fitting to enquire whether there may not be a reconciliation of them to each other and of some of them to themselves For this end I suppose a good means would be 1. Seeing the Fathers sometimes speak of Scripture without mention of Tradion at other times speak of Tradition not mentioning Scripture to examine how they deliver their Sense when they express themselves of Scripture and Tradition jointly and comparatively of one with the other 2ly To see whether their appearingly most favourable expressions of Tradition may not be very well construed in a subordination of Tradition to Scripture very consistently with Scriptures Precedence to it 1. Of the Fathers speaking of Scripture and Tradition conjointly I will begin with St. Cyprian in his Epistle to Pompey Being prest with Tradition he answers Whence is this Tradition Descends it from our Lord's and his Gospel's Authority or comes it from the Commands of the Apostles and their Epistles God declares that those things should be done which are written saying to Joshua The Book of the Law shall not depart from thy Mouâ—h but thou shalt meditate in it day and night that thou mayest observe to do all things written in it Likewise our Lord sending his Apostles Commands all Nations to be Baptized and to be taught that they observe all things whatsoever he had Commanded What obstinacy what presumption is it to prefer humane Tradition to the Divine Dispose or Command and not to consider that God is angry and in wrath when humane Tradition disregards and dissolves Divine Commands As God warns and speaks by the Prophet Isaiah c. And toward the end of the Epistle And this it behoves God's Priests to do at this time keeping the Divine Commands that if Truth have declin'd and fail'd in any respect we go back to the source of the Evangelical and Apostolical Tradition and let the manner of our Actings take their rise thence whence their Order and Origin rose The preference of Scripture to Tradition by this antient Father is so plain and undeniable that it is reply'd St. Cyprian's Testimony was writ by him to defend an Error and therefore no wonder if as Bellarmine says more errantium ratiocinetur he discours'd after the rate of those that err that is assumes false grounds to build his Error on Letter of Thanks p. 124. But this is a mean Evasion For tho' Cyprian was indeed in an Error and did mistake in his discourse yet it can't be affirm'd with probability or Charity to such a Saint and Martyr that to gratifie a private Opinion he would affront so Sacred and Catholick a Principle as the Rule of Christian Faith and degrade Tradition from being such if he had indeed believed it to be so Yet if this should be granted to our Adversaries the consequence would be their inconvenience For why might not more do the same which St. Cyprian did and if some Fathers might desert Tradition and flye to Scripture meerly to serve a Turn for defence of an Opinion which they could not maintain otherwise why may it not be as well said that other Fathers might baulk Scripture and advance Tradition and for the same end viz. to support some Doctrine or Doctrines which else must have fallen And upon this it would follow beside the imputation of inconstancy and shifting to the Fathers that we must be at much uncertainty what truly was the Judgment of the Fathers concerning the Rule of Faith and that therefore the quotations out of them must in a great part be insignificant for this purpose St. Basil in his Tract call'd Questions compendiously unfolded or answered says It is necessary and consonant to Reason that every Man learn that which is needful out of the Holy Scripture both for the fulness of godliness and lest they accustom themselves to humane Traditions 'T is acknowledged by (a) De amissi gratiae L. 1. C. 13. Bellarmine that this Author admits not Traditions unwritten but then he says it is not certainly manifest whether these Questions were the great Basil's or rather Eustathius's of Sebastia Yet the same (b) De Paenit L. 3. C. 8. Bellarmine confidently quotes them as St. Basils for Auricular Confession So that it may seem that the Questions were before scrupled at only because they spoke in behalf of Scripture against Tradition and against venial sins which is manifest Partiality But I shall bring a Testimony of St. Basil which Bellarmine himself would own to be St. Basils who in his Book of the true Faith thus Discourses If God be faithful in all his sayings his Words and Works they remaining for ever and being done in Truth and Equity it must be an evident signe of Infidelity and Pride if any one shall reject what is written and introduce what is not written This is a manifest Prelation of what is written i. e. Holy Scriptures to what is unwritten i. e. Tradition which Bellarm. calls the unwritten word of God in the Title to his 4th Book De verbo Dei When St. (a) Quid inquam Omousion nisi Ego Pater unum sumus Sed nunc nec ego Nicaenam synodum tibi nec tu Arimineusem mihi debes tâ—nquam praejudicaturus cbiitere Scripturarum Authoritatibus res cum re causa cum causâ ratio cum ratione concertet Contra Maxt Lib. 3. Cap. 14. August was willing to wave the Council of Nice to Maximinus and to retire to a Decision of the Catholick Cause by Scripture certainly that great Person judg'd Scripture without Tradion to be sufficient to prove an Article of Faith or
AN ENQUIRY WHETHER Oral Tradition OR THE SACRED WRITINGS Be the Safest Conservatory and Conveyance OF Divine Truths Down from their Original Delivery through all Succeeding Ages In Two PARTS London Printed for Robert Clavel at the Sign of the Peacock in St. Paul's Church Yard 1685. THE PREFACE DOubtless it would more conduce to the honour of Christ the Peace of Christendom and the Welfare of Souls if Christians would agree at the least in this rather to live as becomes the Gospel we all believe than curiously dispute Why we believe For nice tamperings with and eager contests about the Foundation of Religion are apt rather to shake than to strengthen the Superstructures It may prove a Snare to the profane or unstable who when they shall see the Ground of their Belief and Eternal Hopes not to be agreed on after so many Ages perhaps may be tempted to doubt whether their whole Profession be not aery and have no Basis at all Yet notwithstanding if some will attempt to displace the true One and to justle in a false and ruinous Ground of Christian Faith and Practice a due regard to a matter of so great Importance may justifie an appearance against so dangerous a Commutation The Basis of Christian Belief suffers from more than one sort of Adversaries The injuries done to the Sacred Oracles of God by the impious Drollings and perverse Disputings of Profane and Atheistical Men are too notorious The Foundation of Faith has no part in the Value and Care of those Men who scorn Believing But this Crew is abhorr'd by all who have any ordinary sense of Religion or have not debauch'd even their Reason Indeed the danger is more sly and spreading from those who seem to be more serious and Friends to Religion Among such the Enthusiasts undermine the Holy Scriptures by pretence to an extraordinary illuminating Conduct and Incitations by the Holy Spirit of God But the Mode of this Sect commonly suites but with the more Melancholy and Muzing Natures and the Experience of their follies and risques within a while exposes the Vanity of their Pretences The Romanists way is the more generally plausible and winning They present the World with a Conveyance of Religious Truths and a Rule of Faith Whose (a) Sure Footing in Christiaty Or rational discourses of the Rule of Faith p. 54. Virtue they say is grounded on a far stronger Basis than all material Nature Such they affirm the virtue to be by which Tradition regulates her Followers to bring down Faith unerringly And whereas as seems by Cardinal (b) De verbo Dei non Scripto L. 4. C. 3. In initio 1. dem Ibid. C. 12. Sect. Dico secundò Bellarmine they formerly divided the honour of being the Foundation of Faith between Holy Scripture and Tradition of later years Oral Tradition has quite carried away the Credit and has been by some Zealous Asserters cry'd up for the infallible Conveyance (c) Sure Footing p. 98. 41 and only Rule of Faith That from which we are to receive the (d) Ibid. p. 117. Sense of Scripture which without This would be (e) Ibid. p. 38. quite lost to all in the uncertainty of the Letter That which is undertaken in the ensuing Papers is an Enquiry after the Nature of Oral Tradition and its best strength especially in Religious Affairs as also the full Force of Writings especially of the sacred Scriptures in point of Conservation and Conveyance of what is committed to them Vpon which Enquiry it will appear which of them is the most sufficient and sure for that purpose And that of the (a) There being only two grounds or Rules of Faith own'd viz. Delivery of it down by Writing or by Words and Practices Ibid. p. 52. two which after Examination shall be found to be so preserves to us and materially considered is the Rule of Christian Faith forasmuch as bringing down to succeeding Times the Christian Faith unvaried and entire which was primitively committed to the Church by the divinely inspir'd Planters of it it may satisfie and command our Belief secures us from assenting to any thing but what is true Whereas that which approves not it self to be such a faithful Depository and Convoy provides us not with a Rule of Faith deserves not that Authority over our Souls may betray us to believe a lie Hence therefore Oral Tradition's errability and defectiveness in Conveyance which shall be proved disables it for being the over-ruling Standard of Christians Belief and Practice in all Ages And on the other side the sureness and safety of Conservation and Transmission of Divine Truths by the Holy Scriptures which shall be prov'd likewise qualifies them for the Trust and Honour of being the Rule of Christian Faith through all Generations The Author is sensible that the Competition between Oral Tradition and Scripture has been already so excellently manag'd by Reverend and Learned Persons that this present Vndertaking by an obscure man may be judg'd Supernumerary or worse But he has observ'd that it was (a) Sancta Augustini sententia est nota multis digna quae ab omnibus cognoscatur optandum esse ubi Haereses vigent ut quicunque aliquâ scribendi facultate praediti sunt ii scribant omnes etsi non modo de rebus iisdem scriptur◠fint sed eadem etiam allis verbis fortasse scripturi Expedit enim c. Bellarm. in Praefatione ad Lectorem Tom. 1. Edit Ingolstadii 1588. Cardinal Bellarmine's Opinion and he quotes and commends St. Augustine wishing that in the Church's danger all who in some measure could should Write tho' they wrote not only of the same thing but also the same in other words Fas est ab hoste doceri It may be fit sometimes to take Advice from an Adversary especially when he has so great and pious a Second This the Author hopes may be an excuse of his Adventure into the Publick and that even his Gleanings after others plentiful Harvest their Learned Labours and Success may yet be not altogether unacceptable or useless to the Christian Church THE CONTENTS PART 1. CHAP. 1. Of Tradition in general Pag. 1. CHAP. 2. Of Oral Tradition and as apply'd to Religion what is allow'd and what denied to it Pag. 17. CHAP. 3. Reasons against the Certainty and Safety of Conveyance of Divine Truths by Oral Tradition Pag. 26. CHAP. 4. Experience against Oral Tradition's being a certain Conveyance of Divine Truths Pag. 46. CHAP. 5. The Arguments alleg'd for Oral Tradition answer'd Pag. 111. PART 2. CHAP. 1. Sacred Scriptures prov'd to be the safest and most certain Conservatory and Conveyance of Divine Truths Pag. 157. CHAP. 2. Objections answer'd Pag. 203. AN ENQUIRY Whether Oral Tradition or the Sacred Writings be the safest Conservatory and Conveyance of c. PART I. CHAP. I. Of Tradition in general SECT I. MAN is an active capacious Creature fitted for and desirous of knowledge and furnish'd
Vnity and Welfare of all the Churches and States in Christendom But Card. Bellarmine himself speaks high enough Says he (a) De quâ re agitur cùn de primâ—â—u pâ—ntificis agitur bâ—e issime dâ—cam de summà rei Christianâ—e Id enim quâ—eritur debeatne Fâ—â—lesia diutiùs consistâ—â—e 〈…〉 dâ—ssolâ—i con 〈◊〉 â—â—d eniâ— alâ—ud est 〈◊〉 an eporteat ab â—dificio fuâ—◠〈◊〉 nâ—uâ—nâ—r moâ—ere a greâ—e pasterem â—b exercitu imperatorem solâ—mâ—ab astris caput a corpore quà m an oporteat aedifictum ruere gâ—egem dissipari eâ—â—câ—um sued◠〈◊〉 obsâ—uâ—ari corpus iâ—cere Bellarm. In Praefatiâ—ne ad Libros de suâ—nmo pontifice habitâ in Gymnâ—sio Romano Anno. 1577. clica initium What Subject is treated of whilest the Primacy of the Roman Pontife is treated of I will tell you very briefly It is discours'd of the sum of Christianity For it is discuss'd whether the Church must longer remain entire or fall asunder and perish He goes on as in the Margent Why now if the Pope have a Power given him by Christ of Governing the Vniversal Church of Christ as was the definition of the Council of Florence apud Caranzam and the Christian Church be so infinitely concern'd in the Pope and his Government as is affirm'd then it can't be rationally questioned but that our Blessed Saviour and Lord the Head of the Church did declare his Pleasure concerning the true state of the Papal Office and Power to his Apostles and charg'd them to Communicate it to the Church to be preserved through all Ages The reason is because it can't be conceiv'd consistent with our Lord's Wisdom and Goodness to have established an universal Empire over Christians in Peter and his Successors and yet not to have determined and given a punctual Scheme of that Power and Jurisdiction and consequently of Christians due obedience and dependance seeing that as is pretended such a Power was design'd for the guidance and preservation of all Christians in Truth Holiness and Peace For the Papal Power without such a clear stating of it would be utterly insufficient for attaining such glorious Ends. That which was intended to prevent and to compose differences would be it self an unhappy occasion of the greatest ruptures as it proves to be at this day Forasmuch then as the Papacy is so transcendent an Interest of the Christian Church in the claim of our Adversaries and that in plain reason the fixation and certainty of the Pope's Inerrability and of the just latitude of his Power is so necessary to a fit discharge of the Papal Office for the behoof of the Church and that therefore Christ was not wanting in the Revelation and Communication of it to his Apostles and Church Hence it follows that because the Romanists are so uncertain disagree so much about it therefore they differ among themselves not in Theological Quodlibets or meer speculative niceties but in very grave and substantial Points let them call them Points of Faith or by what other names they please and which the Church was at the first instructed in 4ly Between the infallibility of the Church which the (a) Suprà Trent Catechism affirms in which are contain'd the (b) Sacrae Synodi decreto Catechismus consâ—ribitur certaque formula ratio Christiani populi ab ipsis fidei rudimentis instituendi In Epist dedicat grounds and principles of the Roman Faith and which (c) Bellarm. suprà all Catholicks teach and the Authority of the Church only which was (d) Suprà Cressie's belief in which he was confirm'd (e) Exomol Cap. 41. by very Learned Catholicks there is a very wide difference and there are consequent very divers obligations and effects For if the Church cannot err then what it proposes ought to be believ'd as soon as it is made known and understood But if the Church may err and have an Authority only then its Articles and Canons may be soberly examin'd by some standard which is infallible and accordingly as they shall be found to agree with it or to contrariate it to yield or to suspend Belief quietly and without more noise than what a meek submission to the Church's censure makes or also Obedience to the Church's Authority may be a disobedience to the higher and supreme Authority of God who commands Christians Orthodoxy of Belief as well as holiness of Life I must not omit that even about this so weighty Subject which we are now upon viz. Oral Traditions being the only Rule of Faith the Romanists are not at accord among themselves as I touch'd in the Preface (a) De verbo Dei non scripto Lib. 4. Cap. 12. Sect. Dico Secundò Bellarmine held that the Word of God or Revelation made by God was the whole and entire Rule of Faith And this he says is divided into two partial Rules Scripture and Tradition If Scripture be in Part a Rule and Tradition a Rule but in Part then in the judgment of Bellarmine Tradition is not the onely Rule of Faith And no question but still there are those who are of Bellarmines mind There 's a Confession of (b) The Title of the 9th Par. of the 3d Dialo is that the dissention of the Catholique Doctors concerning the Rule of Faith doth not hurt the certainty of Tradition Rushworth that there is a Dissension of the Catholique Doctors concerning the Rule of Faith but he says that this does not hurt the certainty of Traditions To clear which and to satisfy the Nephews Scruple grounded on this Dissension the Vncle says Truly Cousin your Objection is strong yet I hope to content you For I see no great matter in the variety of Opinions amongst our Divines c. See what follows in the Margent (c) For you see they seek out the Decider of Points of Doctrine i. e. by whose mouth we are to know upon occasion of dispute what and which be our Points and Articles of our Fà ith to wâ—t whether the Pope or a Council or both Which is not much Material to our purpose whatever the truth be supposing we acknowledge no Articles of Faith but such as have descended to us by Tradition from Christ and his Apostles Rushworth Ibid. But under savour this variety of Opinions is very Material For tho' suppose all Romanists should agree to acknowledge no Articles of Faith but such as have descended to them by Tradition from Christ and his Apostles should agree to acknowledge this in general yet if they are still to seek if it be still unresolved among them who is the decider of Points of Doctrine i. e. by whose mouth they are to know upon occasions of dispute what and which determinately be their Points and Articles of Faith then there must be an uncertainty among them about the Points and Articles of Faith For the belief of Articles of Faith can be no more certain no more fix'd and uniform than the Deciders and Mouths are by which
been said it is more than likely that there may have been Obreptions points of Faith and Religious Practice may have been materially changed and yet no great Tumult have been rais'd in the Christian Common-weal no Schisme because perhaps the Innovations rush'd not in the whole at once but convey'd themselves into the Church in a Climax insinuated themselves by sly and gradual Transitions therefore with the less if any observations especially might this surprize be undiscern'd in blind and irreligious Ages 2. Secondly as for notice of the changes of Opinions and Practices from Church-Histories So great is the use of Ecclesiastical Histories that we may with reason wish we could rather boast of a plenty than complain of their scarcity which yet Learned Men do especially considering the great extent of the Christian Church for Time and Place which necessarily afforded as huge a variety of Events and Revolutions (a) Is Casaub in Proleg ad Exercitat For above 200 years after the Apostles till Eusebius Pamphilus there was none who did more than begin to designe some History of the Church rather than seriously set about it For a considerable while after the six hundreth year that (b) Idem Ibid. Learned Man quoted in the Margent doubts whether to call those Ages 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Times of Portentiloquie or of Ignorance But there are those who say as much or more and were Sons of the Church of Rome The great (c) Nulla res ita hactenus negligi vis est ac rerum Ecclesiasticarum gestarum vera certa exactâ diligentiâ perquisita Narratio Baron in Praefatione ad Annal. Tom. prim Annalist confesses That nothing seem'd to have been so much neglected as a true and certain and exact History of Ecclesiastical Affairs And before Him it was acknowleg'd by (d) Maximum saepenumero dolorem cepi dum ipse mecum reputo quà m diligenter Acta verò Apostolorum Martyrum deinque Divorum nostrae Religionis ipsius sive crescentis Ecclesiae sive jam adultae opâ—rta maximix tenebris ferè ignorari Fuere qui magna pietatis loco ducerent mendacia pro religione confingere Lib. 5. de Trad. Discipl .. Ludovicus Vives That the Acts of the Apostles of the Martyrs and of the Saints and the Concerns of the Church both growing up and grown were unknown being conceal'd under very great darkness In this penury of Ecclesiastical History how much of the Changes in the Church with an abundance of other very memorable accidents must have perished In those Histories which were Written and are still extant we can expect no more than the most remarkable Occurrents in the respective Ages of which the Authors wrote if all those That a Change in the Church should be remarkable it was requisite that it should raise a Storm cause a Publick disquiet and Breach of Communion which yet might not have hapned tho' there were an Alteration in material Points as has been shewn above and therefore Church-Histories if we had more of them to speak might be silent of it And yet notwithstanding Protestants can say more viz. That Ecclesiastical Writings are not so wholly unintelligencing but that they do report when and how several Points of the Romanists controverted between them and us got into the Church how and by whom they were observ'd and resisted in the several Ages of the Church For which among others (a) Way to the true Ch. p. 195 196 c. Dr. J. White may be seen But I am not engag'd necessarily to insist on this having said what is sufficient before SECT V. Scriptures Councils and Fathers were (b) Sure Footing p. 126 c. once drawn into the Field to engage in the defence of Oral Tradition but upon after thoughts a Retreat is sounded to Two of them For the Author of Sure Footing says That he Discourses from his Scriptural Allegations but (c) Letter of thanks p. 106. Topically and that in Citation of them he proceeds on such Maximes as are ut'd in Word-skirmishes on which account he believes that those Texts he uses sound more favourably for him than for us But in Word-skirmishes i. e. Appearances ministred from Words which may afford to a pleasant Sophister an opportunity of making passages seem to favour his Hypothesis when really they do not so I have no inclination to deal and I conceive such a wordy velitation to be below the Gravity of the Cause depending between us and our Adversaries Next the Author disclaims his Quotations of (a) Ibid. p. 105. Councils to be intended against Protestants if so then I am not obliged to take notice of them As for the Fathers I know all Protestants do declare that they do highly value the Fathers to such a degree as can be justly demanded from them and as the Fathers themselves were they now living would require from them And concerning their Testimonies both of Holy Scripture and of Tradition something shall be said in the Second Part and there on a particular occasion I have now dispatch'd the First Part of my Undertaking and have evinc'd from the Nature of Oral Tradition from Experience or Event and also by Answer to the Defenses brought for it That it is a very unsafe and insufficient Conveyance of Divine Truths down from their Original Delivery unto us And here I might rest thinking that I had compleated my work if I might be allow'd to discourse after the manner of the * P. 52. Author of Sure Footing with the change only of a few words and to say There being only two grounds or Rules of Faith own'd namely delivery of it down by Writing and by Words and Practices which we call Oral and Practical Tradition 't is left unavoidably out of the impossibility that Oral and Practical Tradition should be infallible as a Rule that Sacred Scriptures must be such and therefore that they are the surest Conveyance of faith But I shall not so crudely conclude my enquiry but shall in a Second Part prove Holy Scriptures to be the most safe immediate Conservatory and Conveyance of Divine Truths down from their first Delivery unto all after Ages Only having been large in the First Part I suppose I may be the briefer in the Second PART II. Sacred Scriptures are the safest Conservatory and Conveyance of Divine Truths down from their Original Delivery through succeeding Ages CHAP. I. SECT I. IF we may collect the Judgment of Mankind from their Practice we may believe that in the Conveyance of Matters of Moment to Posterity they judge the Precedence due to Writings about Oral Tradition because they so commonly commit things of that nature to Books tho' they know the Books themselves must be trusted with Tradition and Providence How much more should this Practice take place in Religion which concerns Men as highly as their Blessedness does And besides common Practice there 's great reason why the
else he betrayed the Cause by appealing to a Medium which could not evince it For either the Nicene Council decreed the Consubstantiality of the Son with the Father by Scripture without Tradition and then we have above three hundred venerable Fathers on our side or if they defin'd it in the strength of Tradition without Scripture or by Tradition sensing Scripture then St. August parting with the Council of Nice proceeding upon Tradition only or upon Tradition sensing Scripture left himself nothing or but the Letter of Scripture which according to our Adversaries wants all the properties of a Rule of Faith Sure Footing p. 29 to manage his Cause with By these Testimonies it is plain it cannot be that the Fathers should express themselves (a) Tho' some Fathers speak highly of Scripture as that it contains all Faith c. It is first to be mark'd whether they speak of Scripture sens'd or as yet to be sens'd and if the latter by whom c. Sure Footing p. 140. so highly of Scripture only so far as help'd and sens'd by Tradidition because as to the Being a Rule of Faith the Fathers separate Tradition from Scripture and set Scripture by it self Much more it is far from being (a) 'T is impossible they i. e. the Fathers should bâ—ld Scripture thus interpretable i. e. by other means thâ—n by Tradition the Rulâ— of Faith it being notorious that mâ—st Hereticks against whom they writ held it theirs And so had they held Scripture thus interpreted the Rule of Faith They could not have hâ—ld the Hereticks since they adbered stifly to that Root or Rule of Faith however they might err in many particular Tenents Ibid. p. 141. impossible that the Fathers should hold Scripture not interpreted by Tradition to be the Rule of Faith which yet is affirm'd And the Reason given is as weak as the Affirmation is untrue For if the Scripture not interpreted by Tradition could not be held to be the Rule of Faith because Hereticks adhering stifly to it as the Rule or Root of Faith could not be held as Hereticks then nor could Tradition be held to be the Rule of Faith because Hereticks as the (b) See Irenaeus quoted a little after Gnosticks and others sticking to Tradition as their Rule could not be held as Hereticks There 's a manifest parity of these Discourses and the latter is as concluding as the former But it is to accumulate injuries upon Scripture because the mistakes and perversness of Men abuse it by false glosses and compell'd deductions therefore to judge it fit it should forfeit its Authority Our blessed Lord who so condemn'd the Jewish Traditions held the Scripture of the Old Testament to be the Jew's Rule of Faith and the Sadduces who denied the Resurrection sure were held by him to be Hereticks and yet they disclam'd Tradition and adher'd stifly to Scripture only as the Root or Rule of Faith Certainly it is the impress and appointment from God which constitute a Rule of Faith make it to be such and Men prove Hereticks when they wilfully wrong pervert and wrest it but 't is wonderful that Hereticks acknowledging it to be the Rule of Faith i. e. paying to it what is due to it or a pretence that it favours their Errors which is a slander of it should unmake it a Rule of Faith render it impossible to be held to be such 2ly In enquiry about the second thing propos'd it must be consider'd that the word Tradition has more acceptions than one And that Tradition may be used to different Persons at different times in a divers manner and to several ends 1. Tradition is taken sometimes both in Scripture and Ecclesiastical Writers not for Oral delivery of Opinions and Practices to Posterity but for what is deliver'd by Writing and even in the Sacred Scriptures The Jew's Law and Rites are said to be such (a) Act. 6.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Moses Tradition'd and yet they were a part of the Old Testament St. Paul (b) 1 Cor. 15.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delivered to the Christians which he had also received that Christ dyed for our Sins which was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Scriptures (c) De Spiritu Sto. St. Basil says that our Baptisme in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is according to the very Tradition of our Lord and yet this is (a) Matth. 28.19 written with St. (b) Si ergo aut in Evangelio praecipitur aut in Apostelorum Epistolis aut Actibus continetur observetur etiam haec sancta Traditio In Ep. ad Pompeium Cyprian that is an holy Tradition which is either commanded in the Gospel or is contained in the Epistles and Acts of the Apostles 2ly It is observed that some of the Fathers had to do with such Hereticks as denied the Scriptures some part of them at the least and set up other writings in stead of them In dealing with such those Fathers were forc'd to have recourse to Tradition that so they might dispute with their Advesaries on such a Principle as they would allow and this in way of condescention 'T was thus with (c) Cum enim ex Scripturis arguuntur in accusationem convertuntur ipsarum Scripturarum quasi non rectà habeant neque sint ex autoritate quia variè sint dictae quia non possit ex his inveniri veritas ab his qui nesciant Traditioneâ— Non enim per literas traditam illam sed per vivam vocem ob quam causam c. Adversus baereses Lib. 3. Cap. 2. Irenaeus in his Contest with the Gnosticks Who says he when they are argued against out of the Scriptures accuse the very Scriptures themselves as if they were not right nor were of Authority sufficient and because their Sense is various and uncertain and because the Truth cannot be found in them by those who are ignorant of Tradition This made Irenaeus in opposition to their fictitious Tradition and pretended living Voice express himself the more respectfully of such Tradition as had brought down the Orthodox Doctrine from the Apostles in the several Churches Not that he preferr'd Tradition to Scripture for what his Judgment was of Scripture we have seen before and 't is the observation of (a) In Epist nuncupatoriâ Irenaeo praefixâ Erasmus that he fights against the Hereticks solis scripturarum praesidiis by the sole aid of Scriptures i. e. Scriptures were his chief Weapons and that if he took up Tradition 't was but occasionally upon the froward impudence of his Adversaries 3. We must distinguish of Times The Gospel was Preached before it was Written It was written too one part after another And when the whole was written the Copies could not presently be many and dispersed to all Christians especially the more new and remoto Converts Nay and had the Gospel never been written then the Church
(a) Ioh. 20. uit written that we might believe and believing have life and which were (b) Rom. 15.4 written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope but how could they attain those ends if they should perish if this light were extinguish'd how much in the dark and forlorne would Man be This peculiar watchfulness of God over the Scriptures is acknowledged by the Romanists (c) Ita velente Deo ut verae lectionis â—ntegrâ—tas quam hominum velmalitia vel negligentia corâ—uperent in partibus in totâ saltem Ecclesiasticorum codi um universitate servâ—retur ne Ecclesia Christi per aliquod tempus divinarum Scripturaâ—um integritate careret Bibl. Sanct. p. 727. Sixtus Senensis attributes the preserved incorruptness of the sacred Text to the Will of God And Bellarmine (d) De verbo Dei L. 2. C. 2. Quintum ultimum argumentum argues from the Divine Providence for the preservation of the Old Testament from any injury by the Jews Indeed he entitles Tradition likewise to Gods special care as the (a) Cura ista non incumbit praecipue hominibus sed Deo Praeter-providentiam Dei quae est praecipua causa De verbo Dei non Scripto Lib. 4. C. 12. principal cause of its pretended safety And this is a Confession that God is in a particular manner the Guardian of that by which he communicates his Mind and Pleasure to Man for such a thing i. e. The unwritten word of God he held Tradition to be But certainly Tradition can't lay a just claim to such an interest in Divine Providence as the Scripture 1. For first besides what I have before prov'd to the just diminution of Oral Tradition there was a providential dismission of it and choice of Scripture to be the Conveyance of Gods revealed Will to his Church through successive Ages For whenas Oral Tradition had been in use for that purpose before the Flood and some while after it and great had been the untrustiness of it at the length God writ his Law Himself and commanded what was written to be kept with a great religious care Afterwards as Moses the Prophets and Hagiographers were inspir'd their Revelations were written so far as was necessary to the Church's Edification And when the People were in danger of seduction and it behoved them to seek to their God for instruction they were sent not Children to their Traditioning Fathers Is S. 19 20. but to the Law and to the Testimony and they were told that those who spoke not according to that word it was because there was no light in them Yes and when the Church was generally corrupted and therefore Tradition had not done its Duty the Churches relief was not from the living voice of testifying Fathers but from the Scripture according to whose Canon abuses were reformed And for this Reformation and because in it he perform'd the words of the Law which were written in the Book that Hilkiah the Priest found in the house of the Lord Josiah stands renowned in Sacred Story with this Character Like unto him there was no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might 2 Kin. 23 24 25. according to all the Law of Moses c. This way of securing Revelations by writing was continued under the Gospel as we have them in the Evangelists the Epistles the Acts and the Revelation And this course was as needful under the Gospel as under the legal Oeconomy if not more For it being intended by God that the Gospel should be propagated beyond the narrow Confines of Judaea where the Scriptures of the Old Testament had lodg'd for hundreds of years throughout the World and among so many Nations of such different Complexions Customs and Interests there was the more danger it should be disguis'd if it had been committed to the frailty of an Oral Tradition as we know that the more Mouths Relations pass through the more subject they are to alterations from their primitive truth through the ignorance mistakes prejudices prepossessions or wilfulness of the Relators Whereas a Writing being preserved is a perpetual standard by which to correct any such changes for in these Truth would be most likely still to appear in its first Integrity Thus I have shew'd how that after an experienc'd unsuccessfulness of Oral Conveyance God appointed another way and so ordered it that Law and Gospel should be written Now if after and notwithstanding such a Provision yet it should be God's intent that Oral Tradition only should have the prerogative to sense Scripture and that Faith should be lastly resolved into Oral Tradition and therefore that This not Scripture should be the only Rule of Faith it must needs seem strange and unaccountable to a-any rational Christian how it should come to pass that in the Sacred Scriptures there should be so many and such high (a) Ps 19.7 8 9 10 11. Ps 119. passim 2 Pet. 1.19 20 21. Eph. 6.17 Heb. 4.12 Encomiums of them that our Saviour should bid the Jews (b) Ioh. 5.39 search the Scriptures should tell them they (c) Matth. 22.29 err'd not knowing the Scriptures (d) Matth. 22.42 Ioh. 10.34 35 36. should dispute with and baffle them out of the Scriptures and by them (e) Luke 24.25 26 27. confirm his Disciples in the Truth that his Apostles should proceed in the same manner with the Jews That the (f) Act. 17.11 12. Beraeans should be commended for searching the Scriptures daily whereupon many of them believed that St. Paul should mention it to Timothy (g) 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. as an encouragement or engagement of him to continue in the things he had learned that he from a Child had known the holy Scriptures and that he should presently add a description of Scripture than which a more full one sure can't be us'd of the Rule of Faith viz. That it is able to make wise unto Salvation through the Faith which is in Christ Jesus that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnish'd unto all good works I say it is mighty strange that Scripture should be thus magnified and yet none of all this should be said there of Tradition Nay that either Tradition should be mentioned with disgrace as when our Saviour (a) Matth. 15.2 3. condemns the Jew's Traditions of their Elders and St. Paul (b) Col. 2.8 warns the Colossians to beware lest any Man spoile them after the Tradition of Men or where the word is found yet that the sense of it should not be useful to our Adversaries purpose which that it might be it must be sufficient to prove that there was more delivered by the Apostles than was written and that
what was so delivered was a necessary Point of Faith But when St. Paul praises the Corinthians that they (c) 1 Cor. 11.3.23 kept the Ordinances or Traditions as he delivered them when he tells them he had received that which also he delivered to them when he exhorts the Thessalonians (d) 2 Thes 2.15 to hold the Traditions which they had been taught whether by word or says he our Epistle when he commands them (a) 2 Thes 3.6 to withdraw themselves from every Brother that walks disorderly and not after the Tradition which he received from the Apostle there is nothing I say in these places which will necessarily infer that more was delivered by the Apostles than was or is written and that what was so delivered was a necessary Point of Faith through all Ages Why now it is a wonder that if God tho' he provided his Church with the Holy Scriptures yet pleas'd to enstate Oral humane Tradition in the great Office of sensing Scripture and of being the only Rule of Faith He did not so order it that Scripture should modestly acknowledge its Superior but rather let Scripture carry away all the honour from it 2ly A second reason why Oral Tradition can't plead so strong a Title to a protection by the Divine Providence as Scripture is this God's Providence does ordinarily co-operate with and prosper means answerably to their comportment with and likelihood to reach the end intended Now it has been before demonstrated how weak and uncertain Tradition is how fix'd and able Writings are to conserve Truths once delivered and therefore 't is rational to believe that the Divine Aid does much rather assist to the preservation of Divine Truths by the Holy Scriptures than by Oral Tradition the former being much more servicable to the promoting such an end than the latter Hitherto I have prov'd the continued preservation of Holy Scripture from proper Causes of such an Effect causes ministerial and supreme humane care and vigilancy and Divine special Providence SECT V. 4ly Scripture's Preservation is manifest from the Event Such have been the happy success of Divine Providence's watchfulness and of humane Care and Diligence that Christians do generally consent in this that the Holy Scriptures are de facto continued safe and pure to us in all things which are necessary to be believed and to be practised for the obtainment of Everlasting Happiness The Church of Rome professes to have the Scriptures and the Trent Council has defin'd the Vulgar Latin to be those Genuine Authentick Scriptures How true that Determination was for the Authentickness of the Vulgar Latin Bibles is not necessary for me to enquire 't is enough for me that they acknowledge a preserved Integrity of the present Scriptures So that there is not a Tenent which we have more strong inducement to believe upon the account even of Tradition than that the Divine Books the Scriptures which we have are indeed the Word of God and have been faithfully derived to us from the beginning there being no Tradition more universal for any Point than for this great important Truth tho' Christians may run wide from each other in other matters yet they close in this Center I conclude then seeing that the Holy Scriptures are much more fit to keep the Truths committed to them safe than Oral Tradition if they be preserved as has been prov'd and likewise that the Holy Scriptures are preserv'd as is generally confess'd and even by our Adversaries it must follow that not Oral Tradition but the sacred Scriptures are the surest and safest way of Conveyance of Divine Truths down from their Original delivery unto us which to demonstrate was the scope of this Undertaking CHAP. II. Objections answer'd SECT I. THere remain some things which perhaps may be apprehended to reflect on the Prelation I have given to Scripture above Oral Tradition in the point of preservation which next shall be considered Obj. 1. The (a) Almost innumerable variae lectiones in it still controverted Sure Foâ—ting p. 32. many variae lectiones divers Readings may seem to some a reason to question Scripture's descent to us in a sufficient Purity But Answ 1. 'T is a question whether all those which go under the name of Divers Readings do truly deserve that Title For I conceive that not every Translation of the Bible in whole or in part by whomsoever and from whencesoever as suppose by some very uncertain or justly suspected Author or not from the Originals but from some Versions of them no nor that every Copy of the Bible in the Original Languages found any where or whether of convenient Antiquity or not are sitting to Minister matter for various Readings of the Sacred Text i. e. are such as merit to be considered by Learned Men and may put them to the stand sometimes which is the truest Certainly none if any Translations at all but such as are immediately from the Originals have been perform'd by Authors of repute or if their Persons are not known who give in the work no jealousie of their Integrity none but Copies of sufficient Antiquity are considerable for such a purpose And if such a course and some other cations were us'd it may be a great part of the Army of almost innumerable variae Lectiones would be disbanded 2ly But let them stand as they are mustred by some they are not so formidable as to (a) Nay so many variae lectiones in the New Testament alone observed by one man my Lord Usher that he durst not print them for fear of bringing the whole Book into doubt Sure Footing Ibid. bring the whole Book into doubt and doubtless the excellent Lord Primate (b) Supposing he said so as the Author of Sâ—re Footing reports Vsher was more Good and Learned than to think so tho' perhaps he might judge the Printing of them to be less convenient not as if they were rationally conclusive of any thing really disadvantageous to Scripture but lest the Atheistical or the weak might take an occasion from them to disparage the Scripture which care to avoid the ministring occasion of scandal to others in Religious matters has ever been the wariness of the good and prudent But as for these divers Readings (c) Dr. Br. Walton late Lord B. of Ch. in Proleg 7. ad Biblia Polyglort Qui etiam citat in eundem sensum Lud. Capellum in Proleg 6. some of the most curious Collecters of them have not discern'd any alteration made by them in the Scripture which may wrong Faith or Manners (a) In quâ tamen tam longâ latâ a textu criginario discessione divinam tecum providentiam agnoscimus suspicimus quòd nulla extiterit tam damnosa inter utrosque textus differentia ut rectam fidem quae ad salutem est necessaria labefactaret aut laederet Jacobi Vsserii Armach ad Ludov. Cappellum Epist And the Reverend Arch-Bishop Vsher before named confesses and venerates
the least as to priviledge Oral Tradition to be the Rule of Faith For 1. Were their writings the Conservatories of Tradition written by persons mov'd by the Holy Ghost or not If not and I suppose our adversaries will not affirm they were then these writings have a great disadvantage of the Holy Scriptures which we profess to be the Canon of our Faith as great a disadvantage as must be between Books written by them who could not err and those written by them who might err from whence it would follow that what is contain'd in the one must be true that the Contents of the other may be true yet too they may be false there may be that reported in them as deliver'd by Christ and his Apostles which yet was not delivered by them But 2. Were there Ecclesiastical Monuments of unquestionable credit and which did from Christ and his Apostles through each age exacty and fully declare to us the consentient Doctrines and Practices of the universal Church it would be very material and we should much rejoice in it but the case is otherwise For some while there were very few if any writings save the Holy Scripture which come to our hands Justin Martyr is said to be the first Father About 150 years after Christ whose works have survived to this day There are some Books which pretend to an early date which yet are judg'd to be supposititious some of them judged to be so by the Romanists themselves others proved to be such by the (a) Cook in censu â quorundum Scriptorum D. James's Bastardie of false Fathers Daille Protestants For the first 300 years as there was no compleat Ecclesiastical History so the Fathers now extant were but few and their Works too being calculated for the times in which they lived reach not the controversies which for many years past and at this day exercise and trouble Christendom This paucity of the Records of the first ages (a) Id autem esse tempus quo quatuor prima Concilia Oecumenica includantur a Constantino Imp. ad Marcianum Atque hoc vel propterea aequissimum esse quia primorum seculorum paucissima extant monumenta illius vero temporis quo Ecclesia praecipuè florebat longe plurima ut facile ex ejus aetatis Patribus eorum scriptis fides ac disciplina veteris Catholicoe possit agnosci Ita Perron Sequitur Responsio Regis Hoc postulatum parùm illis aequum videbitur c. Apud Is Casaubonum in Responsione ad Cardinalis Perronii Epistolam pag. 38 39 40 41 42. Card. Perron acknowledges and does imply their insufficiency for setling Catholick Faith when as he would have recourse made for this purpose unto the 4th and 5th Centuries because then there were most writers Tho against this the learned Is Casaubon excepts and justly forasmuch as it must be presum'd that the stream of Tradition ran purest nearest to its Fountain The Fathers after the first 300 years did often mix their own private sentiments with the Doctrines of the Church Nor do the Fathers express themselves so as that we may clearly distinguish when they writ as Doctors and when as Witnesses when they deliver their own private Sense and when the Sense of the Church and if of the Church whether it be of the Church universal or of some particular Church some who have diligently perus'd their Writings judge it not easy to find any such constant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is confess'd by (a) Rushworth Dial 3d. Sect. 13. a Romanist that the Fathers speak sometimes as Witnesses of what the Church held in their days and sometimes as Doctors and so it is often hard to distinguish how they deliver their Opinions because sometimes they press Scripture or Reason as Doctors and sometimes to confirm a known Truth So that he who seeks Tradition in the Fathers and to convince it by their Testimony takes an hard task upon him if he go rigorously to work and have a cunning Critick to his Adversary So then Tradition must in a good measure be at a loss for succour from the Fathers Writings I conclude then that Books Writings have not given such advantages to Oral Tradition as to render it the safest and most certain Conveyance of Divine Truths but this Dignity and Trust is due to Holy Scriptures only which having been at the first penn'd by Persons assisted by the Divine infallible Spirit are stamp'd with an Authority transcendent to all humane Authority Oral or Written which have been witness'd to by the concurrent Testimony of the Church in each intermediate Age since the Primitive Times and which are at this day generally agreed upon as the true Word of God by Christians tho' in other things it may be some of their Heads may stand as oppositely as those of Sampson's Foxes SECT IV. There remains a Cavil or two rather than Objections which shall have a dispatch also 1. We are told that by desertion of Oral Tradition and adherence to Scripture we do cast our selves upon a remediless ignorance even of Scripture (a) Sure Footing P. 117. Tradition establish'd the Church is provided of a certain and infallible Rule to interpret Scripture's Letter by so as to arrive certainly at Christ's Sense c. And e contrà (b) Ibid. p. 98. without Tradition both Letter and Sense of Scripture is uncertain and subject to dispute Again (c) Ibid. p. 38. As for the certainty of the Scriptures signisicancy nothing is more evident than that this is quite lost to all in the uncertainty of the Letter 2ly It is suggested that the course we take is an Enemy to the Churches Peace (d) Ibid. p. 40. The many Sects into which our miserable Country is distracted issue from this Principle viz. The making Scriptures Letter the Rule of our Faith By these passages it is evident that this Author will have it that Protestants have nothing but the Letter of Scriptures dead Characters to live upon and that upon this he charges their utter uncertainty in the interpretation of Scriptures and their distractions Answ But Protestants when they affirm That Scripture is the safest and most certain Conveyance of Divine Truths and that consequently it is the only Rule of Faith do mean Scriptures Letter and Sense both or the Sense notified by the Words and Letter And therefore the Author might have spar'd his Proof of this conclusion i. e. That Scriptures Letter wants all the properties belonging to a Rule of Faith It was needless I say to prove this to Protestants Well but let Protestants mean and affirm what they will have only the Letter of Scripture and not the Sense of it because they admit not of Oral Tradition to Sense it Scripture it seems is such a Riddle that there is no understanding it except we plough with their Heifer and likewise without Tradition's caement we shall always be a pieces and at variance amongst our selves But 1.
to testifying Fathers but that there would be more Alumbrados and the like Freaks might be acted among our Adversaries which tore our Church But withal I think it seasonable to let my Reader know that those Men so call'd i. e. Alumbâ—ados in Spain were no other in most of their Tenents and Practises than these our Quakers are now in England â— câ—nfess I am very destitute of Books at this time to â—â—ve the Readeâ— so gâ—od an account of this bâ—â—ness as I could wâ—sh All I can say of thâ— at nâ—w is out of some Fâ—â—â—â—ch Books where I find a lâ—rge â—â—dict against them containing their several Tenents and â—â—rers whereâ—f c. 〈◊〉 â—lumbradoâ— of Sâ—ain 〈…〉 to be known and talk'd 〈◊〉 the year of our Lord 162â— Dr. Meric Caâ—aâ—bon Tâ—â—â—tise of Euthusiasme p. 17â— 174 175. and speaking in general Christians are too apt to fail in holy prudence meekness charity and such pacifique virtues thence arise too many breaches among them and a want of these virtues is incident to our Adversaries as well as to Protestants for they are Sons of Adam too only they are wiser in their Generation To conclude the Reply to the two last little Objections and the whole Treatise Eternal Blessedness is our end the means to attain to that great end are right Believing and holy Living That which gives the Regulation to Christian Belief and Life is the revealed will of God But because the Divine Revelations were delivered at the distance of many Ages from us therefore there is need of somthing which may conduct them safe and entire to us and that which is the safest and most certain Conveyance of them to us is that fixed Standard or Rule whence we are to take the measures of our Christian Faith and Practices Such a Conveyance and consequently such a Standard or Rule I have prov'd not Oral Tradition but Holy Scripture to be This being first establish'd there may then then be consider'd the Perspicuity of this Rule which is Scripture and the Agreement or Vnity of those who adhere to it Here 1. We may be sure that this Rule is very sufficiently intelligible and clear in all things necessary for our direction to our Blessedness But then it must be left to Gods Pleasure what difficulties and dubiousness he would mix with that sufficient plainness and we ought to be thankful for what is plain in it and not quarrel at the obscurities 2ly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arâ—â—t Eth. â— 1 C. 8. We may be certain that this Rule and Conveyance of Divine Truths to us there being so much Harmony in Truth must be very apt it must be its most genuine effect to harmonize Christian 's Judgments and Affections and to beget a peaceableness of mutual Conversation yet too it must be judg'd very possible or rather more that the folly and corruptions of Men may too much frustrate this its most natural issue So that now to conclude a thing this great Standard and Rule of Faith and Manners because it pretends to be the most plain and also to make meer Vnity a Demonstration of the Truth would be a crude way of Discourse For first a wrong way may be smooth and easy enough perhaps more plain than that which leads a Man to his Home Next not Truth only but likewise Interest may hold Men very fast together and the Conscience of its own guilt and feebleness may prompt to Error to strengthen it self by the closest Confederacies FINIS Some Books Printed for and Sold by Robert Clavel at the Sign of the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-yard THe Annals of King James and King Charles the First The Compleat Conformist Or seasonable Advice concerning strict Conformity and frequent Celebration of the Holy Communion In a Sermon Preached Jan. 7. Being the first Sunday after the Epiphany in the year 1682. At the Cathedral and in a Letter written to the Clergy of the Archdeaconry of Durham By Denis Grenville D. D. Arch-Deacon and Prebendary of Durham London Printed for Robert Clavel and are to be Sold by Hugh Hutchenson in Durham A Sermon Preached at Windsor before His Majesty the Second Sunday after Easter 1684. By John Arch-Bishop of Tuam Published by His Majesties special Command Both sold by Robert Clavel at the sign of the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-yard 1684. 3. King James not so much influenced by Gondamore as is related by Mr. Rushworth 4. The Three Estates in Parliament who they were in King James 's Speech in Parliament 1620. 5. An Authentick and Impartial Account of the beginning of the Troubles in Scotland and the Wars which ensued 6 The True State of our late Civil Wars their Beginnings Causes who the Aggressors c. The rest are too large to take notice here but may be seen in the Preface Varenius's Geography in Folio English Illustrated with many Copper Cuts Dr. Willis 's Works in Folio English The History of the Irish Rebellion traced from many precedings Acts to the grand Eruption the 23d of Octobers 1641. and thence pursued to the Act of Settlement 1662. Tracts Written by John Selden of the Inner-Temple Esq and Translated by the Eminent Dr. A. L. The 1st Jani Anglorum facies altera with large Notes thereupon 2ly Englands Epinomis 3ly Of the Original of Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions of Testaments The 4th of the Disposition or Administration of intestate Goods Mr. Scrivener 's Body of Divinity Dr. Cumber on the Liturgy in Folio Mr. Sam 's Britannia Ogleby's History of Africa Asia and America Bishop of St. Davids 's Vindication of the Bishops Rights to Vote in Capital Cases his seasonable Corrective The Compleat Catalogue to the end of Easter Term 1684. Newly Published Short Discourses upon the whole Common-Prayer designed to inform the Judgment and excite the Devotion of such as dayly use the same by Tho. Comber D. D. The Laver of Regeneration and the Cup of Salvation Two plain and profitable Discourses upon the two Sacraments The 1. laying open the Nature of Baptism and earnestly pressing the serious Consideration and Religious Observation of the Sacred Vow made by all Christians in their Baptism The other pressing as earnestly the frequent renewing of our Baptismal Vow at the Lords Holy Table Demonstrating the indispensible necessity of receiving and the great sin and danger of neglecting the Lords Supper with Answers to the chief Pretences whereby the Absenters would excuse themselves The General Catalogue of Books Printed in England since the Dreadfull Fire of 1666 to the end of Trinity Term 1684. To which are added a Catalogue of Latin Books Printed in Foreign Parts and in England since the year 1670. Printed for Rob. Clavel at the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-yard ERRATA PAg. 4. l. 1. r. is or involves in it Testimony l. ult for witnessed to r. tradition'd p. 5. l. 16. for the Application r. this Application p. 8. l. 7. for the use r. this use p. 9. l. 1. r. where there is p. 19. l. ult for blinded r. blended p. 35. in marg l. 21. for taxata r. laxata p. 40. l. 10. for part r. paragraph p. 49. l. 9. and 11. r. Methuselah l. 12. del very near p. 50. l. 23. for though r. through p. 53 p. 65. in marg l. ult del p. p. 67. l. 4. for Authors r. Others l. 7. after this way add or at least uncertainty which way p 94. in marg l. 12. 13. r. Cap. 10. Quaest 15. P. r. p. 96. in marg l. 5. for 82. r. 43. p. 105. l. 26. r. Christians are to yield p. 106. for or also r. else p. 107 l. 3. for Traditions r. Tradition p. 149. in marg l. 6 after p. 108. add Of this Cressy also may be seen During those worst times thereof i. e. the Church when ignorance worldliness pride tyranny c. reigned with so much scope I mean during the time of about six Ages before Luther Exom Cap. 68. p. 151. l. 2. del above l. 4. r. Pamphilius p. 154. l. 15. for all Protestants do declare r. I have the leave of all Protestants to declare p. 157. l. 15 for Writings about r. Writings above p. 162. l. 10. r. the holy Scriptures l. 24. r. Or 2ly p. 168. in marg l. 9. r. His igitur p. 172. in marg l. ult del Evangel nigrum Atram Thool p. 178. l. 5. del would r. owns p. 179. l. 19. for p. 29 r. 39. p. 211. l. 2. after semi-colon r. what was committed to them they did carefully preserve p. 218. l. 15. for their r. those p. 224 l. 20. r. they have only p. 225. l. 3. for their r. this p. 229. l. 3. r. is no farther
Dissimulation be incident to one to a former Age as well as to another a latter And all this would be much more true when an Error should possess the Church longer than the Arrian did Having now examin'd by Reason's Test the two necessary Qualifications of the Testifiers and Guardians of Christian Faith through Centuries of Years and having prov'd that the Dove can find no rest for the sole of her foot that they are too fluid and sinking for Divine Truth to fix on to conside in for safety in her passage through the many hazards of Time I go on to Experience and to consider what the actual performance of Oral Tradition has been how faithfully it has acquitted it self CHAP. IV. Experience against Oral Traditions being a safe and certain Conveyance of Divine Truths SECT I. IF Oral Tradition be a certain and infallible Conveyance of Divine Truths which is the ground of it's pretended Supreme Authority in Religion then there has been an Vniformity a constancy of the same Belief of the Church from the first through following Ages The Divine Scriptures indeed may retain their Integrity and Authority though They who own them as the only certain Conveyance and Rule of Faith swerve from Them and vary from one another because they do not attend to or misunderstand them as tho' some things in St. Paul's Epistles 2 Pet. 3.16 and other Scriptures were wrested by the unlearned and unstable to their own destruction who also differ'd from those who truly understood them yet notwithstanding those passages in St. Paul and those other Scriptures remain'd still Canonical But Oral Tradition does so intimately and necessarily include in it a successive Harmony of Forefathers and Posterities Belief it being a continued Testification of the one to the other that if this Co-herence fails if after Ages Belief contrariate that of the Primitive Age if one Church's Belief opposes that of another contemporaneous with it or perhaps agrees not well with it self at the same time or else with what it was in times precedent then the Conveyance breaks and so Oral Tradition forfeits its claim to Infallibility and consequently its arrogated Authority Let us then observe what the harmony and agreement of the Church's Belief has been through the several Ages of the World from the first Delivery of the Truths believed SECT II. When God made Man he endow'd him with such a rectitude of Nature as might enable him to glorifie his great Maker and to attain to his own Happiness And when Man had by eating of a forbidden Fruit contracted a general Ataxie of Soul and particularly a great dimness of Understanding God was pleased to relieve him and to repair the decays of his Knowledge of what concern'd him for Spiritual and Eternal purposes Especially doubtless God instructed him so far as he wanted supernatural Information about his Nature and Unity and how he would be Worshipped And questionless the first Father of Mankind and the succeeding Patriarchs did diligently teach their Children what they themselves had received from God And their exceeding long Lives gave them a peculiar opportunity to Catechise their Posterities through several Generations and to recover them upon any revolt from primitive belief or practice and the extraordinary length of their lives was also equivalent to a greater number of Traditioners Adam after the birth of Seth liv'd 800 years with his Children and Childrens Children and above 200 of those 800 years with Methusalah whose death was but a very little before the period of the old World Methusalah was Noahs Contemporary very near 600 years Noah that Preacher of Righteousness surviv'd with his descendents 350 Years after the Flood And before their dispersion and Plantation in remote places They especially the Heads of the Colonies had been educated and influenced by Noah that just Man and whom Gods familiarity with him and special care over him ought to have rendered most venerable and Them very dutifully sequacious of Him So likewise the two first Traditioners were incomparably considerable Adam and Eve were the greatest Miracles that ever were They could assure the World that they had a Being when as yet there was none of their own Kind besides them That they had near converse with the God that made them the Man of the Dust the Woman of a Rib of the Man They could truly relate to their Children many strange things of the World its State before and presently upon Sin And 't is likely there was such an Impress of Majesty upon the First Father of Mankind and a Prophet as Josephus calls him as might and doubtless did much awe his Children into an obsequious Regard to what he told them Then too in the days of Noah the drowning of the World in stupendious Waters and the Confusion of Tongues at the building of Babel were so rare and astonishing Wonders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Jos Antiq. Jud. Lib. 1. Cap. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Joseph Ibid. as the world never since saw and the memory of them so continued and spread though the following Ages that the Flood and the a Ark were mentioned by all Barbarian Historians and that b confusion at Babel was spoke of by a certain Sibyl and by (c) Hago Grotius ex Eusebio in Annotatis ad Lib. de Veritate Religi Christ pag. 244. Abydenus One would think that here was Defence enough of Tradition from miscarriage yet notwithstanding all this as the general Practice of Mankind was so vile All Flesh had so corrupted his way upon Earth which is all the account that Scripture egives that God was provok'd to wash the Earth clean in a Deluge so not long after the Flood there was a great defection in Practice and Opinion also from what had been deliver'd from Pious Fathers concerning God and the true Worship of Him those Fathers who were very qualified Testifiers and who reported to their Children such Divine Wonders as both might answer for the want of a greater Number of lesser Miracles and likewise make the Children to dread to reject what was delivered from God by Them Yet for all this I say corrupt Notions of God and of his Worship crept in Polytheism and Idolatry entred the World Even (d) Josh 24.2 Terah who lived with Noah 127 years and other Fathers of the Holy Abraham served other Gods And how widely Polytheism Idolatry and Superstition afterwards spread in the World and what a long possession they kept of it is notorious Thus the world apostatiz'd and past a Recovery by Oral Tradition which rather confirm'd it in it's Apostacy for thus Symmachus pleads for Heathenisme (e) Suus cuique mos suus cuique ritus est Jam si longa aetas â—â—thoritatem religionibus faciat servanda est tot Seculis fides et sequendi sunt nobis Parentes qui faeliciter sequuti sunt suos Symmachi V. C. Relatio ad Valent. Theodos Arcad. Augustos pro veteri
design'd and successful Adulteration of them by Hereticks is not well conceivable For so many were the Scriptures in their Originals so very numerous were their (a) Qui Script in Graecam linguam verterunt numerari possunt Latini autem Interpretes nullo modo c. August De Doctrinâ Christianâ L. 2. C. 11.5 Translations diffus'd throughout the World where there were Christians that if Hereticks did raze out some passages or foist in others in any way corrupt the Text they could do so but in some Copies and in the Places where they came But that they should succeed in a corruption of all the Books or of the greater part of them is not imaginable Especially whenas the Scriptures were so continually and diligently read by all Christians So that such Impostures must needs have been soon discover'd and warning been giuen to Christians to beware of the Cozenage For this purpose we have the Suffrages of Card. Bellarmine and of Sixtus Senensis Although says the (a) Eisi multa depravare conati sunt haeretici tamen nunquam defuerunt Catholici qui eorum corruptelas deteâ—erint non permiserint Libros sacrâ—s corrumpi c. De verbo Dei Lib. 2. Cap. 75. Et verò Cardinal the Hereticks have endeavoured to deprave many things he means in the Scriptures yet there were never wanting Catholicks who detected those Adulterations and permitted not the Sacred Books to be corrupted (b) Quoniam ut Augst inquâ—t licèt omnes Fatres in hoc conspirâssent ut seipsos atque alios Scripturarum veritate privarent qâ—od imaginari non potest non tamen potuissent omnes undique codices falsare c. Biblioth Sanct. p. 727. And Sixtus Senensis quoting St. August tells us that though all Fathers had conspir'd to deprive themselves and others of the Truth of the Scriptures which none can imagine yet they could not have corrupted all the Books every where How hard it was to corrupt the Holy Scripture without detection and an Alarm to the Christian world perhaps some guess may be made by the unsuccessfulness of such an Attempt on Books much inferior to them For when the Papists had set a design on foot and proceeded some way in it of Purging the Writings of the antient Fathers and of some moderate Authors the Dishonesty soon appeared and was complain'd of SECT III. It can't be thought that through Casualty or supine negligence the Scriptures should expire should be suffered to be a Prey to Moths Mould and Worms to linger away in a Consumption or to be embezeled in Vulgar and Sordid uses such as (a) Ne thuris piperisve sis cucullus Lib. 3. Epig. 2. Martial warns his Book against For that which doth most envigor Mens Care and Industry for the preservation of a thing is their high value especially Religious Veneration for it and such Jews and Christians have had for the Scriptures because known by them to be Sacred to be the Divine Oracles and the Contents of them to be of Eternal Consequence to them The Jews to whom pertaineth the giving of the Law were most accurately diligent in keeping the Revelations given to them most entire (b) De verbo Dei L. 2. C. 2. Hi Sigitur omissis Card. Bellarmine quotes Philo affirming That for above 2000 years even to his Time not one word had been chang'd in the Law and that any Jew would dye an hundred times rather than consent to any such change He adds out of Johannes Isaac that the latter Jews adore the Law ut Numen as a Deity and if it chanc'd to fall on the ground bid a Fast for expiation of the mischance This Bellarm. relates and this is one of his five Arguments why it is not to be conceiv'd that ever the Jews should have corrupted the Old Testament out of Malice to the Christians as the mistake of some is The admirable and stupendious Care and Industry as Heinsius calls it of the Masorites is known who numbred every Verse Word and Letter In Proleg ad exercit in novum Testam And this they intended as Sepimentum Legis a Mound or Fence of the Law against Alterations The Jews had not a greater and more Sacred Estimation of the Law than the Christians had for both Law and Gospel particularly the Fathers 1. Their great laboriousness in the Study and Explication of the Sacred Writings in their many Comments and Homilies is an indication of their incomparable Honour for them In which work they did so abound that suppose the Bibles should be lost which is suppos'd only not granted far the greater part rather the whole might be recovered out of their Comments Homilies and occasional Citations in their other Writings As this is an Argument of their singular Honour for the Scriptures so it is a providential relief and supernumerary way of retrieve of them supposing the loss of them 2ly The Fathers high estimation and reverence for the Scriptures are legible in Expressions concerning them and Deferences to them Irenaeus thus begins his third Book We have not known the disposition of our Salvation by others than those by whom the Gospel came unto us which indeed they then preach'd but afterwards by the Will of God delivered it to us in the Scriptures as the future Foundation and Pillar of our Faith Afterwards in the end of the 66th Chap. of his 4th Book He bids all Hereticks and principally the Marcionitâ—â— and those who were like them saying That the Prophecies came from another God read diligently the Gospel which was delivered by the Apostles to us and read diligently the Prophets and you will find every Action every Doctrine and every Suffering of our Lord delivered in them Tertullian against Hermogenes C. 23. I adore the fulness of the Scripture Let Hermogenes and his shew that it is written If it be not written let him dread the Woe which pertains to them who add or detract Athanasius in his Oration against the Gentiles says That the Scriptures are enough for manifestation of the Truth St. Jerom. on Ps 98. Every thing that we assert we must shew from the Holy Scripture All things which concern Faith and Manners are found in the plain places of Scripture according to St. Augustine in the 9th Chap. of his 2d Book of Christian Doctrine These are some amongst others of the Father's reverential acknowledgments their full and clear depositions for Holy Scriptures sufficiency for and Prerogative of being the sole Rule of Faith and in this Point they speak like as very Protestants as those who form'd the (a) The words of the Article are these Holy Scripture contains all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be prov'd therby is not to be requir'd of any Man that it should be believ'd as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation Evangel nigrum Atram Theol. 6th Article of the Church of England And
must have been satisfied if such the pleasure of God had been with an Oral Tradition Hence (a) Quid antem si neque Apostolâ— quidem Scripturas reliquissent nobis nonne oportebat c. Adversus haer L. 3. C. 4. Irenaeus might say what if the Apostles had not indeed left the Scriptures to us would it not have behoov'd us to follow the Order of Tradition which they had delivered to them to whom they committed the Churches to which Ordination do assent many Nations of Barbarians which believe in Christ having Salvation written in their hearts without Characters or Ink by the Spirit and diligently keeping antient Tradition This I say Irenaeus might with reason write especially against those (b) Evenititaque neque Scripturis jam neque traditioni consentire eos Idem L. 3. C. 2. who consented neither to Scriptures nor Tradition i. e. such as descended from the Apostles But when as the whole Scriptures were long since written and plentifully Communicated to the Christian world the Case is quite alter'd Besides the nearer things are to their Origin they are the more genuine and sincere but at the farther remove they are from it the more they are in danger of changes and decays Tradition must be conceiv'd to have been much more pure at the distance of an hundred or an hundred and fifty or two or three hundred years from the Apostles and therefore then might be more rationally argued from in some cases than after 7 8 or 9 hundred years in which revolution of so many more Ages and after intercurrencies of many more accidents Tradition may be more suspected of that consumptiveness and of those changes which Time brings upon all things and therefore an Argument from it would be much more infirm Farther yet besides Oral the Fathers of the more Primitive Times might have written Traditions such Records to prove that such a Doctrine or Doctrines were profess'd by Apostolical Men by Holy Martyrs and Confessors successively to that present Age as were then extant but are perish'd since (a) Age jam qui voles curiositatem melius exercere in negotlo Salutis tuae percurre Ecclesias Apostolicas apud quas ipsae adhuc cathedrae Apostolorum suis locis praesidentur apud quas ipsae Authenticae eorum literae recitantur sonantes vocem repraesentantes faciem uniuscujusque Tertul. de Praescrip Tertullian speaks of the very Authentick Letters of the Apostles which were even then preserved in the Churches So that the Fathers might with the more safety trust and allege Tradition's suffrage than we can who live so incomparably farther off from the Apostles Days than they did it being very likely that in such a far longer space of time the more contingencies have interpos'd to disturb the clearness of Commerce between them and us 4ly Proofs may be brought in a divers manner and for different uses St. Paul quoted Heathenish Poets as well as the Law and the Prophets 'T is usual where the Subject is properly manageable upon the stock of Reason yet to argue likewise from Testimony to call in the concurring Judgment of others In Religion Protestants do not believe the Fathers to be infallible and yet it has been usual with them to cite them both in Homiletique Discourses and in Polemique Writings Testimony tho' it be not apodictical yet it is plausible Example in point of Opinion as well as of Practice is much gaining upon many is not alone commonly better understood but more prevalent too than Reason with many Capacities And when 't is the Testimony of many as Tradition is it causes those of an opposite Opinion to appear the more singular in their Persuasion and singularity is not of the best Credit So then the Fathers might on some occasions use Tradition's Authority the general consent of Christians in some Truth for one or more Ages yet not demonstratively but topically somewhat the more to repress or to disparage in other's Opinion the importunity of a petulant Adversary to shame a contumacious Heretick not as is said Sure Footing p. 140 to declare that the rejecting Tradition and adhering to Scripture made him an Heretick or they might urge it to the more tractable as a probable motive to assent tho' not as a Rule of Faith yet as such a persuasive as might be an occasion of Belief and the better dispose the Soul toward Faith and Assurance Yet still supposing Holy Scriptures to be the proper and ultimate basis of Christian Faith and that such Traditions were consonant to them and not over-ruling of them I believe that these considerations may be useful for the construction of the Fathers in such passages wherein they make the most honourable mention of Tradition and to shew that notwithstanding such a mention of Tradition yet they might yield to Scripture the Supremacy in the regulation of Christian Faith especially whenas they speak so reverently of Scripture in other places of their Works nay and give them the Precedence when they compare the one with the other And thus if after a digression yet I think not an impertinent one I have proved the Father's unquestionable Care and Diligence in preservation of the Holy Scriptures by their Religious and unparallell'd esteem and veneration for them SECT IV. 3ly The Holy Scriptures are secur'd by God's especial Protection of them Reason suggests that as there is a God a Supreme and first Cause who made the world and also provides for the welfare of his great Workmanship so that the Divine Providence does mainly watch over those Creatures on which God has imprinted the fairest Characters of his Power Wisdom and Goodness Such a Creature is Man And this Divine Providence is the Catholick Sanctuary of Mankind After all Mens own projectings and labours here is their last and surest repose They can't with a rational comfort Trade Travel Eat Sleep but with a sober hope of the Divine help and benediction For if Divine Providence smile not all Mens wisest Counsels and stoutest Endeavours will be successless They may go forth and never return home their Table may be a Snare and their Sleep Death more than in a Metaphor Next Religion tells us that God has designed and prepar'd for Man an everlasting Blessedness and determin'd of the due Qualifications of Man for that Blessedness and it is agreed that in the Sacred Scriptures God has revealed Himself concerning both These Scriptures are the lively Image of God the faire Copy of his Will a bright Express of his Truth and Holiness a Perspective into his Mind and into many of his secret Counsels authentick Records of the many and glorious manifestations of the Divine Wisdom Power Goodness Mercy and Justice in making governing all things and in the Salvation of Sinners From the dictates of Reason then and much more of Religion it is consequent that God has an especial Care that the Scriptures be safe on which he has impressed so much of himself which were
As to the certainty of Scripture's Sense is Scripture in earnest so utterly obscure Will their Author say so of the Histories of Livie or Tacitus or of the Philosophical Writings of Plato and Aristotle or of Euclid's Elements Could not God speak clearly and intelligibly to Men as Men have done and that in matters of the greatest consequence to them or would he not do so The Assertion of the one would impeach his Wisdom of the other his mercy and kindness to Souls And if Scriptures leave us so quite in the dark why do they call themselves a Light a Lamp say Ps 119 105.13â— Ps 19.7 8. that they enlighten the Eyes and make wise the simple Were the Books of the Old Testament the Gospels Acts and Epistles of the New Testament in the respective times in which they were writ in themselves unintelligible by them to whom and for whose Souls health they were writ If they were so then they were useless and vain And Oral Tradition could not expound them which was not in Being when those Books were first written for That deals with the Ages following the first conveys what was at the first delivered unto Posterity Did God then write only to amaze his Church 'T is acknowledged that there are several 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things hard to be understood which it might please God should be partly to win the greater veneration to the Scriptures for what is obvious and presently seen through is in the more danger of contempt partly for the exercise of Christian's Industry Humility and Charity towards each other on occasion of dissent But howsoever the Scriptures are not so lock'd up but that a compâ—tent diligence and a Beraean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or readiness of mind may be a Key to them may open them in all Points necessary to Salvation And if in other things we remain ignorant or not so certain we may well bear with it while we are yet but in viâ and not comprehensores on our way unto but have not yet reach'd perfection That which makes the noise of Scriptur's obscurity the more loud is that Men are apt to look upon the many subtilties of the Schooles and Niceties of Polemick Writers as Articles of Faith and that men have more mind to fathom depths and to humour their curiosity for which end I believe the Scriptures were not intended and hence are ever racking the Scriptures and vexing the Sacred Text than to exercise themselves in a sober understanding of what is sufficiently plain and in a consciencious practise of the Holy Rules of Life which are evident enough If Christians would more seriously apply themselves to these two things they would find in the Scriptures employment enough and they would be more contented with their difficulties The Romanists have raised a cry of Scriptur's darkness upon another account and out of Policy For having embrac'd several Tenents and Practices which Scripture does condemn or not countenance either it is wholly silent of them or they are but meer appearances there which are snatch'd at and yet it is inconsistent with their grandeur or profit or the affected reputation of an infallibility to part with they are faine to press Tradition to serve in their Wars and for the defence of them Thus they have first made a necessity and then have invented a Remedy for it But when all is done the Remedy is more imaginary than real For how unsure a Conveyance and consequently how weak a Proof Oral Tradition is in matters of Christian Faith and Practice has been already evicted So that if we must be ignorant of Scriptures Sense unless Oral Tradition bless us with the Exposition of it and Scriptures no farther a Light than it is tinded at Tradition's Candle we must sit still in much ignorance or wander in great uncertainties for that cannot relieve us it is not that infallible Commentator it is pretended to be 2. To the upbraiding us with our Distractions I reply 1. Before the charge can be made good that the choice of Scripture for our Canon was the cause of our many Differences and that upon that pretence we should exchange Scripture for Oral Tradition it must be suppos'd that Oral Tradition is a sure and infallible clew to guide us out of the Labyrinth of Errors into the way of Truth and Peace the contrary to which has been sufficiently proved For otherwise to leave Scripture and to follow Tradition would be to relinquish a Guide or Rule which being indited by an unerring Spirit cannot mislead us and to chuse one which may and will carry us out of the way Nor will the pretence of Vnity make amends for this For true Christian Peace can't be otherwhere bottom'd than on Truth when and so far as it is a Cement of Men to the disservice of Truth it commences Faction Nor Reason nor Religion allow much less commend an Agreement of Persons to err together 2. They who have the most amorously espoused Tradition have also their many and great Differences as has been shew'd above only through Fear in some and Policy in the rest they are hush'd up more than amongst us and so do better escape the observation and talk of the World Nay that Church may be justly arraigned as the guilty cause of that which they call a great Schism viz. The Separation of so many Churches from them the Churches call'd Protestant by their imposition of unlawful and therefore impossible termes of Communion with them And (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nilus tells the World that their Imperiousness was the reason of the great Schism between the Greek and the Latin Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 21. 22. Thus as the Church of Traditioners have no few Dissentions among themselves so they have given a beginning and continuance to the quarrels between them and a considerable part of Christendom 3. Ther 's no need of fetching our Distractions from the Rejection of Oral Tradition there are are other true manifest Causes of them assignable Our Church once flourish'd with Peace and that without the aid of an Oral Tradition whil'st the Reverend Bishops were suffered to govern it and the Royal was able to countenance the Ecclesiastical Authority But when the pious King and blessed Martyr was engag'd in and diverted by the turmoils of a Civil War when Episcopacy was chang'd for Anarchy when the Golden reins of Government in Church and State were broken then begun and increas'd our Divisions and Calamities Unto which it may be there were some assisting Causes from without some who helped to kindle and to blow our Fires And if the Roman Church should chance into the like afflicted State with ours it would be obnoxious to the like Confusions If the Mitre should be forsaken by the secular Crowned Heads and a mutinying multitude should pull their Holy Father out of his infallible Chair then 't is not altogether improbable but that Children would less heavken