suppos'd for private Interest to have dissembled their Religion either then or immediately before But if we look higher there is what is much more remarkable It is Famous there was a time when the (a) Tum haeresis Arrii prorupit totúmque Orbem invecto Errore turbaverat Etenim duobus Arriis acerrimishujus perfidiae Autoribus Imperator etiam depravatur Dúmque sibi Religionis Officium videtur implere vim persecutionis exercuit actique in Exilium Episcopi saevitum in Clericos animadversum in Laicos qui se ab Arrianorum communione secreverant Sulpic. Sev. Sac. Histor Lib. 2. World turn'd Arrian the Orthodox Profession being under Persecution After what has been said among such hazards such incident Biassings of the Affections and Judgment how unsafe must an Oral Tradition be i. e. the trusting of the great Concerns of Religion with Man's good Nature his Constancy and Faithfulness to Divine Truths through Ages But it may be it will be replyed to the mention of the Doctrines of Arrius and Pelagius and the bustle they made in the Christian world that yet the Catholick Doctrines did recover and pass to after-Ages And we are told that (a) Sure Footing p. 118 119. erroneous Opinions and absurd Practices tho' they may creep into the Church and spread there awhile yet can never gain any solid Footing in the Church Forasmuch as the Church is a Body of Men relying on Tradition or the Authority of Attesting Forefathers not on the Authority of Opinators c. In return to this 'T is confess'd that the Doctrines assaulted by Arrius and Pelagius were rescued and preserved But 1. In and about that time there was such a Constellation of Pious and Learned Lights of the Church as could scarce be parallell'd in the Ages before or afterwards This might be an especial Cause that those Truths out-liv'd their Opposition It may be questioned whether if the Errors of Arrius or Pelagius had been started and as vigorously manag'd in the Ignorant and Corrupt Ages which follow'd afterwards they might not have found as easy an Entertainment and have as generally prevailed as some other Errors did 2ly But how will it be prov'd that it was by the strength of Oral Tradition that these Truths were recovered and continued To speak only of the Divinity of Christ impugn'd by Arrius besides what has been said in the foregoing part 1. There was manifestly a Civil Cause interposing for the Restauration of a publick and free Profession of it For as the Frown of the Prince Constantius and his Party arm'd with force suppress'd the Orthodox Opinion So the contrary inclination and favour of succeeding Princes countenance from the secuâ—ular Power restor'd it So that this Resurrection of that Truth was not from Orel Traditions strength an impossibility of its sailure but was owed to Causes extrinsick and which might or might not have been For there was no necessity that the Emperers should be Orthodox or Favourers of the Orthodox Opinion and if they had continued still Arrian and Persecutors of the Orthodox and so there had been still the same Fears it is as likely that Arrianisme would still have been the general Profession as it is That the same Cause still existing and working after the same manner would produce the same Effect 2ly If we look after the Religious Cause why may we not ascribe the Revival of the Truth to Holy Scriptures For the Fathers had recourse to Them during it's Depression and after it (a) Vnum hoc ego per hanc dignationis tue sinceram audientiam rogo ut praesente Synodo quae nunc de fide litigat paucis me de Scripturis Evangelicis digneris audite Fidem Imperator quaeris audâ— eam non de novis chaâ—tulis sed de Dei libris Audi rogo ea quae de Christo sunt Scripta ne sub eis ea quae non Scripta sunt praediâ—entur Summitte ad ea quae de libris locuturus sum aures tuas In Libâ—o ad Constantium Augusâ—um propiùs â—â—em St. Hilary Truth 's great Champion against the Arrians is frequent in Citation of Scripture for it And in his Address to Constantius He entreats that Constantius would vouchsafe the Synod being present which debated about the Faith to hear him in a few words from the Evangelical Scriptures And soon afterwards Thou requirest my Faith O Emperor hear it not from new Papers but from the Books of God Where He opposes New Papers or Writings not to Antient Oral Tradition but to the Divine Books There is something more to the like Sense in the Margent After him (a) Nec ego Nicaenam Synodum tibi nec tu Arimenensem mihi debes tanquam praejudicaturus objicere Scripturarum authoritatibus res cum re causa cum causa ratio cum ratione concertet Contra Maxim Lib. 3 Cap. 14. St. Augustine tells the Arrian Maximinus He would not object to him the Synod of Nice nor should he urge to him that of Ariminum but he would have the dispute to be manag'd by Authority of Scriptures That which was thus us'd in Proof and Defence of this Article of Faith both under Persecution and after it why may not That deserve to have the honour of it's Preservation and Restitution viz. the Holy Scripture Especially when as Holy Scriptures being an unvaried and permanent Standard in all alterations of the Church's State have an aptitude for such a Purpose whereas Oral Tradition has no probable Energy for it For they of that Age when Arrianism was generally regnant either really changed their Judgment about the Consubstantiality of the Son with the Father and then according to our Adversaries Principle they would teach their Children as they judg'd and believ'd themselves and so the Arrian Opinion would have continued Or they smother'd and dissembled their Opinion out of fear and profess'd contrarily to their Judgment And in this Hypocrisie either their Children discover'd them or not If not then much the same Effect would follow If they did know it then they would scruple to believe them even in other Truths as Witnesses and Traditioners are no more than such For Hypocrisie weakens the Credit of a Witness and gets him this disadvantage that he will be the more hardly believ'd even when he speaks truth And in this particular Truth Children would have been put at the least to the stand For tho' the Posterity might satisfie themselves that the Age before the last generally embrac'd the Tenent contrary to the Arrian yet they might be tempted to doubt whether as their immediate Fathers made shew of believing the Opinion they secretly condemn'd so in remoter Ages Forefathers might not publickly profess the Divinity of Christ rather out of compliance with the humour of the Times they liv'd in than from their Hearts and so the Tenent might have stoln down through following Ages the manner of it's old reception and Hypocritical Profession being lost For why might not
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
Vntrustiness I shall proceed next to consider Tradition Oral Tradition more particularly and distinctly and as apply'd to Religion CHAP. II. Of Oral Tradition as it is apply'd to Religion and there what is allow'd to it what deny'd SECT I. I Come now nearer to the Question which being mov'd both of Oral Traditions and of the Sacred Writings Trustiness and Certainty of Conveyance of Divine Truths c. I shall give them a distinct Consideration And first I shall enquire How sure and safe an immediate Conservatory and Conveyance Oral Tradition is of Divine Truths more speculative or more immediately practical fundamental or others down from their first delivery to the Church through succeeding Ages And before further procedure it is granted that Oral Tradition is of use in Religion yet not so much solitary and by it self as in conjunction with Tradition Written 1. It is yielded that tho' there be many (a) Dr. Cosins the late Reverend Lord Bishop of Duresme in his Scholast History of the Canon of Scripture pag. 4 5. Ecclesia Testis est custos sacrarum Literarum Ecclesiae Officium est ut ver as germanas ac genuinas Scripturas a falsis supposititiis ac adulterinis dijudicet ac discernat D. Whitak de S. Script Controv. 1. Quest 3. Cap. 2. Article of Religion 20. internal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Arguments clear in the Scriptures themselves whereby we may be sufficiently assur'd that they were breath'd from a Divine Spirit and are truly the Word of God Yet as to the particular and just number of those Sacred Books every Verse and Sentence in them whether they be more or fewer we have no better External and Ministerial assurance than the Constant and Recorded Testimony of the Catholick Church from one Generation to another which is a Witness and Keeper of Holy Writ 2ly It is confess'd that there are many particular Truths which have had the universal continued Profession and Oral Attestation of the Christian Church from the Primitive to the present Times 3ly It is not deny'd but that if there had been no Scriptures yet Oral Tradition might have derived some Truths to Posterity 4ly Let any Points be recommended to us by so large an Approbation and Certificate from Tradition as Sacred Scriptures have and we shall receive them with all beseeming regard But then 1. We deny that Oral Tradition is sufficient to preserve to us and to ascertain us of the several particular Truths which concern Christian Belief and Practice together with the Sense of the Sacred Books 2ly Tho' there are several Divine Truths which have had the universal and continued Profession of the Church yet we deny it would have been so happy if there had been no Scriptures 3ly Though there had been no Scriptures Oral Tradition might have sent down some Truths to Posterity But they would have been but few and those too blinded with erroneous Appendages most would have been lost as in Hurricanes and among Rocks and Sands some Vessels may weather it out yet shatter'd but how many Perish 4ly As to the last thing sure our Adversaries can't justly charge us with the contrary there being no Point maintained by them and deny'd by us which has so ample a Recommendation But I shall resume the first Concession and the annex'd Denyal and shall add That there is a great difference between Tradition's Testification concerning the Scriptures and Tradition's conserving the many Divine Truths and Sense of them and the safe transmitting them to all succeeding times We may rely upon Tradition for the former which is a more general thing and in which Tradition was less obnoxious to Error and yet not trust it for the latter which abounds in such a variety of Particulars in which there is the greater liableness to mistake and failance The difference I urge may be illustrated thus Suppose one informs me of a Guide in my Journey I credit and accept of that Information and thank the Informant But I rest no farther on him but follow the Guide in the several Stages of my Journey Or suppose one directs me to a very Honest Man and a very knowing Witness in my Cause When he has done so it is not He but the Witness on whom I must depend for a success in my Suit Nay if the Witness should chance to depose against him I may rationally believe him and he can't refuse the Evidence because he himself recommended him to me as a very credible Deponent The Application is obvious The Church's Tradition testifies 2 Tim. 3.15 16 17. Isa 8.20 that the Scriptures are the Oracles of God These Oracles of God are a Guide a Witness in the things of God and which belong to Man's Salvation They affirm so much of themselves and because they are Divine Oracles and testified by the Church so to be they must be believed by us in that Claim Why now tho' we owe and pay Thanks to the Church's Tradition for the Preservation of Holy Scriptures and Direction of Us to Them yet we are not therefore bound to resign our Faith universally to the Tradition of the Church but we may trust our selves with Scriptures Guidance and Testimony in all particular Matters of Faith and Practice Yes and if these Scriptures Witness against the Church's Tradition against some Opinions and Practices of it for which Tradition is pretended we ought to believe the Scriptures and Tradition can't fairly decline the Testimony tho' against it self SECT II. But against this it is urg'd That there can be no Arguing against Tradition out of Scripture The reason is Sure Footing in Christianity p. 10◠because there can be no certainty of Scripture without Tradition This must first be supposed certain before the Scripture can be held such Therefore to argue against Tradition out of Scripture is to discourse from what is Tradition being disallow'd uncertain which can't be a solid way of Argumentation To this I reply Omiting that Tradition is not the only means of our Certitude about Scripture That the Exception does not invalidate what I have said for thus it is We do confess to receive the Scriptures upon the Church's universal Tradition and we allow this Testimony to be in it's kind very useful and sufficiently certain and this certainty of Tradition quoad hoc for the Intelligencing us concerning Scripture is supposed by us But then we do and may argue from Scripture thus supposed certain against Tradition i. e. against what is uncertain or false in it viz. Any such Points of Faith or Practice or such Senses of Scripture as it would obtrude upon us when as yet they are perhaps contrary to Scripture and the Tradition is far short of being Vniversal it may be is very narrow or feigned rather than real So that we do not proceed upon an Vncertainty but upon what is certain by Vniversal Tradition i.e. That the Books of the Old and New Testament in the Number that we have them
things of God would hugely hazard their proficiency in so large and clear a knowledge as might fit them to be Authentick Trustees in the Delivery of the Christian Faith from Generation to Generation What I have writ in this Section proceeds not in the least from an humour of reproaching any not from any contempt of the Laiety or as if I expected they should be Divines I pay Acknowledgment and Honour to many of the Laiety for their singular Accomplishments in Religious Knowledge and Virtue And it is out of question with me as much as with any that the rest of them may with their lesser measures of knowledge for they have not generally advantages for higher Attainments and the merciful God will not expect to Reap where he has not Sow'd live good Christians and be saved for ever My only aim and that in prosecution of my undertaking has been to shew how incompetent and very casual Traditioners the Laiety who are exceedingly the greater part of the Body of the Faithful generally are of Divine Truths in so full and distinct a manner as may be for their preservation and security against the emerging encroachments of the contrary Errors through all Ages So that by far the greatest weight and strength of Oral Tradition must lye upon the Clergy whose proper business Religion is whose Lips should preserve knowledge and the People should seek the Law at their Mouth Yet in that very place where it is thus said of the Priests it immediately follows But ye Priests are gone out of the way Mal. 2.7 8. ye have caused many to stumble at the Law c. Their performance had not answered their Duty But to say no more of that how little Clergy and Laiety both are to be relyed on as to an Oral indefectible Conveyance of Divine Truths shall be seen on a second account in the next Section SECT II. 2ly To an exact and constant steadiness of Tradition there is requisite an Integrity a clearness of Spirit an unencumbrance of Christians through all Ages with any thing which might sway them to a Belief or Profession contrary to that of the first Age. Now if we look abroad into the World we shall see that commonly Men take up this or that Profession side with this or that Party in Religion more upon the score of Education Example or Interest upon some extrinsick Motive or upon some short and confuse Apprehensions than upon an explicite knowledge or at the least a truly solid Conviction of those Tenents by which those Parties are distinguished But to proceed more particularly Among others there are four things which have an usual and powerful Operation upon Mens Belief and Profession to the changing or smothering their Persuasions and the corruption of their Practice 1. A wantonness of Reason is very incident to Mankind Man loves Variety and conversing here below with little but what is mutable in an unhappy kind of imitation learns to affect change and is apt to be cloy'd with old Truths as with a wontedness to all things else The hankering after some New things was not peculiar to the Athenians and Strangers among them but is an itch natural to all And to cherish this affection for Novelty there have not wanted Broachers of new Opinions in most Ages of the Church 2ly There 's an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordinary enough a bending the stick too much the other way on pretence to make it streight a Recoile from one Extremity to another Out of keenness in contending for a Truth a Zeal for it it has not been unusual to over-do and to retreat from an Error too far on the contraty side Both (a) Illud interim cavenâ—um ne Erroris unius odio devolvamur in alium errorem Id si nullis fere veterum non accidit aliquâ ex parte equidem non deprecabor hominis ociosi notam qui haec admoneam Tertullianus dum nimis acriter pugnâ—t aaversus eos qui plus sat is tribuebant Matrimonio delatus est in alteram foveam Hieronymus tanto ardore pugnat adversus eos qui Matrimonium efferebant cum injuriâ Virginitatis ut ipse sub iniquo Judice vix possit suam tueri causam si reus fiat parum reverenter tractati Conjugis Digamiae Montanus dum ardentiùs oppugnat illâ—s qui passim dignis indignis aperiebant Ecclesiae fores plus satis taxatâ severitate disciplinae Ecclesiasticae in diversum incidit malum D. Augustinus advâ—â—sâ—s Pelagium toto studio dimicans aliâ—â—bi minus tribuit Libero arbitrio quà m tribuendum putant qui nunc in scholis regnant Theologicis Possem hujus generâ—s exempla permulta commemorare etiam ex recentioribus Sed praestat opinor in re odiosâ non esse admedum copiosum In Epistolâ praefatoriâ ad Opera Sti. Hilarti Erasmus and (b) Ardebant veteres Illi tanto sincerae pietatis Catholicae defensienis ardere ut dum unum errorem omnium virium conatu destruere annituntur saepe in alterum errorem oppositum deciderent vel quodammodo decidisse videantur Sic Dienysius Corinthiorum Antistes c. In Praefatione Lib. 5ti Bibliothecae Stae Sixtus Senensis have given us Instances of this in several of the Antients as may be seen in the Margent 3. It has not been uncommon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to have Mens Persons in admiration and that not alone for Advantage but for their Learning and Piety so highly to revere them as before Christians were aware to become over-credulous and to follow their Conduct Some Hereticks have been of sufficient Learning and appearing Sanctity and have been adhered to in the Church by no small number of Proselytes The Reputation for Virtue which once Pelagius had with St. Chrysostom and St. Augustine his several Works who were his Followers what noise his Opinions made in the Christian World and how the Relicks of them were continued among the Massilians or Semipelagians may be seen at large in (a) Historia Pelag. lib. 1. cap. 3.4 5 6 7. Vossius 4ly What a strong influence have Hopes and Fears upon Men Hopes of Ease Profit Preferment by their pleasing Insinuations gain great command over the Soul and are apt to bribe the Judgment Fear of Evil of Confiscations Imprisonments Gibbets and Stakes tho' they are no proper Topiques to convince the Reason yet work hugely upon the Passions And Men are often frighted from those Opinions out of which they could not have been fairly and quietly disputed It is the Observation of a Learned and Honourable (b) The Lord â—f Falkland in his Reply p 122. Person That in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth 's Reign of many thousand Livings which are in England the Incumbents of not an hundred chose rather to lose their Benefices for Popish Opinions than to keep them by subscribing to the Tenents of the Reformed Church of England All who for the greater part must be
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
are the Holy Scriptures and Oracles of God against what is affirm'd and can be prov'd by us to be uncertain or false in Tradition As in a like case Scholars argue from what is true and clear in Reason against what is false or dubious tho' it have Reason pretended for it Thus discoursing from Reason against Reason i. e. from what is really such against what is such but in name and appearance The sum and result of the Premises is this That as we do not take Tradition's Word for all the Doctrines or Practices and Senses of Scripture it would impose on us though we accept of Tradition's Evidence concerning the Scriptures as was in the beginning of this Chapter acknowledg'd So nor are we oblig'd to the former by acknowledgment of the latter Having stated what may be allow'd and what is denyed to Oral Tradition Next it shall be examin'd what Reason and Experience suggest against its sureness and safety of Conveyance and likewise after that what either can pretend on it's behalf CHAP. III. Reasons against the Certainty and Safety of Conveyance of Divine Truths by Oral Tradition SECT I. IT is asserted That the Body of the Faithful from Age to Age are the Traditioners of Divine Truths Sure Footing p. 60.100 101. that in reality Tradition rightly understood is the same thing materially with the living Voice and Practice of the whole Church essential consisting of Pastors and Laiety Now before Reason can acquiesce in a Tradition by Pastors and Laiety it must according to what has been premis'd be well satisfied in the fitness of the Testifiers The Qualifications of Persons for a due Testification especially in so weighty a matter as Religion are 1. Good knowingness of Fathers and Ancestors in Religion as also due care and diligence of Fathers in teaching their Children together with good Apprehensions Memory and Tractableness in the Children and Posterity 2ly Such a measure of Integrity through all descents as may secure the successive Testifiers against all temptations unto swerving from what they received from Fathers Let these Qualifications be farther considered of 1. The first Requisites are good Knowingness of Fathers together with Care and Diligence as also Apprehension Memory and Tractableness in Children let us examine how far these may be found in the Laiety I believe that the value and zeal for Religion in the first and golden Age of the Church made Fathers diligent to teach and Youth to learn But I doubt that this Temper as is incident to Religious Fervors might cool afterwards and that when Emperors became Christians Ease and Prosperity might beget a restiveness and neglect both in Ancestors and Posterity How well Fathers of Families did perform their part and how docile Children have been throughout the many hundred years before us is out of our Ken. But if we may guess at times past as there is often a likeness in some measure of the ways of Men in one Age to those in another by the times present and nearer to us it is to be wished I fear rather than it will be found that all or most Fathers and Governors of Families were such as Abraham Gen. 18.19 Josh 24.15 and Joshua Religion is too little minded in too many Families The use of a Catechisme is too rare and That when us'd is often little understood and less remembred Commonly Parents teach their Children the Lords Prayer Creed and Ten Commandments and that is well But these Rudiments are too slender a stock for Children to set up with as qualified Conveyers of the Body of the Christian Faith And if even these should pass down long by word of Mouth and not be Written they would be in danger of Maims or Corruptions But it may be thought Dr. James in his Manuduction to Divinity p. 108. Ex. Jo. Avent Conc. Bas M. S. that Spiritual Fathers instruct Young and Old both and capacitate them better for being Oral Traditioners Yet when the Priests were Fools Stocks and slothful Beasts when they had neither Scientiam nor Conscientiam neither Knowledge nor Conscience as it was complain'd in Old time it is not likely that then the Clergy were very careful to instruct the Laiety or that the Laiety should learn much from such a Clergy When of far later years some in Ireland (a) The reverend Arch-Bishop Usher in a Sermon Preached before the King June 20. 1624. on Eph. 4.13 who would be accounted Members of the Roman Church being demanded what they thought of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation not only rejected it with indignation but wondred also that it should be imagin'd any of their side should be so foolish as to give Credit to such a senseless thing When throughout a County in England (b) Dr. J. White in his Preface to The way to the true Church the Vulgar Papists were unable to render an account of their Faith or to understand the Points of the Catechism and utter'd their Creed in a Gibberish ridiculous to others and unintelligible by themselves Then the Priests fail'd in teaching the People or the People in teachableness But perhaps it has been otherwise since and was then in those Countries where the Publick and Authoriz'd Profession of the Roman Religion gave their Clergy more freedom of Access to and of Conversation with the Laiety Yet there 's an Opinion of the Romanists which will not much forward the diligent instructing of the Laiety in the Religion of Forefathers viz. That (a) The Author of Charity mistaken c. In Dr. Potter 's Answer to it pag. 183. 200 201. it suffices the Vulgar to believe implicitely what the Church teaches And that by virtue of such an implicite Faith a Cardinal Bellarmine and a Catholick Collier are of the same Belief This implicite Faith makes quick work and supersedes a distinct knowledge of Divine Truths and then what much need is there of a careful Teaching them They who speak not so broadly yet (a) Azor Instit Mor. Part 1. Lib. 8. Cap. 6. Sect. Tertiò quaeritur Et Sect. Sed mihi probabilius verius say it is the common Opinion of Divines that it is necessary to believe explicitely no more than the Apostles Creed or the fourteen Articles as they speak Nay some hold too that if this explicite Belief be only of the substance of the Articles confusedly and generally it is sufficient But by leave of these Authors such an explicite Belief of the Apostles Creed only much less a confus'd and general Belief cannot be sufficient howsoever sufficient it may be for other purposes to qualifie the Laiety for that great Purpose which in these Papers I am treating of But let the utmost be suppos'd viz. That the Clergy now do and formerly did discharge their Pastoral Duty as amply and faithfully as is requisite yet the Peoples usual immersion in secular business and distractions their oscitancy in Religious matters slowness of Understanding frailty of Memory in the
and this by virtue of the hopes of an Heaven and fears of an Hell For how strongly soever these might be applied to the minds of the first Believers yet that so strong and effectual an Application of them was made by all Fathers to all their Children through all after Ages so that the (a) Ibid. Cause should be always actually causing is uncertain nay very improbable for the Reasons before given 3ly If a less number may be a sufficient party to make a Tradition then meerly the comparative fewness of (b) Catal. Testium veritatis Aâ—rian Râ—gen in Histor Eccles Sâ—avonic Dr. Field in the Appendix to the 3d. Book of the Church those who through several former ages held some fewer some more of the Points in which we Protestants differ from the Romanists and that thy mov'd Eccentricks to the generality of Christians of their times is no rational Objection against them and their Tenents as if they were not truly Primitive nor in a parity of Reason did it justifie the Romanists Tenents that they had got so large a Possession of the Western World nor consequently did our Fathers deserve to be call'd Deserters of Tradition because they departed from some Tenents and Practices of the Roman Church which had stolen the general Vogue in some former blind Ages For 't is not affirm'd that the greatest number of Christians but only a great Part and a Body of them would be trusty Traditioners A great Party absolutely considered may be but little comparatively and the Minimum quod sic in the case we are not told Therefore the general Prevalency of certain Romish Tenents at and before the Secession did not conclude them to be therefore justified by Tradition properly so called nor did the bare comparative Paucity suffice to condemn them of Innovation who made the Secession SECT III. 3ly To assure Oral Tradition's infallibility it is press'd that there is an (a) Sure Footing p. 236 237. Author of Sure Footing Ibid. Obligation on Posterity to believe their Ancestors in a matter of Fact or a matter delivered to have been not thought or deem'd but done And 't is confidently added I make account there is not a Man in the World or ever was such is the goodness of rational Nature given us by God who in his natural thoughts could ever raise such a doubt or think he could possibly frame his thoughts to a belief of the contrary And it appears at first sight to be a strange distortion or rather destruction of humane Nature which can so alter it The Instances given in which Posterity is obliged to believe Ancestors are (a) Ibid. p. 217. Alexander's conquering Asia (b) Ibid. p. 236 237. William the Conqueror's Harry the Eights and Mahomet's Existence (c) Ibid. p. 219. 220 221. The proof of the Obligation on Posterity not to believe contrary to Forefathers from Age to Age is thus proceeded in viz. The second Age after the first was obliged to believe the first Age because they saw with their Eyes what was done The third Age was obliged to believe the second tho' they saw it not because the second Age could not be deceived in what the first Age told them and they must be conceived so honest and withal such to be the disinteressedness of the position that they would not conspire to deceive the third Age and so those of the third Age have the first Ages Authority applied to them And by virtue of this same Argument the same effect will be upon the fourth fifth and five hundreth Age. This is the full substance to the best of my understanding of the Author's Argumentation Ans In reply to this If the matter of Fact be but some general thing such as the Author himself has given Example of there may be the more of Truth in this Procedure but then there 's little in it it comes not home enough to our business But if the things done or spoken at or about the same time were divers or if the thing tho' one were wrap'd in several circumstances then the first Eye or Ear-Witnesses might for want of a more close and steady attention mistake or forget some partitulars and so might misreport and therefore might justly be disbelieved or the second Witnesses from the first though suppose things were truly and punctually reported to them by the first yet might misunderstand or forget something if not much of what was related to them or if there should be no misinformation by the second Witnesses yet the third might misapprehend or not well remember what the second told them The same may be said of the Witnesses in the fourth remove or age with regard to the third and of those in the fifth with respect to these in the fourth and so unto the five hundredth till after a discent through so many hazards and chances what was done or spoken at the first be at length wholy altered or become very unlike to its Primitive self Seeing then there may be such failures in successive Testifyings how can a Man be bound to believe conformably to Forefathers especially when as perhaps he is distant hundreds of Successions from the speaking or doing the thing testified of I may confirm the uncertainty of successive Testifyings through Ages by a passage of an Adversary (a) Rushworth Dial 2. Sect. 7. He putting the Question whether the very rehearsing and citing anothers words do not breed uncertainty and variety resolves it in the affirmative 'T is true he aimes at the invalidating Scriptures certainty in conveying to after-Ages the mind of the Authors but what he writes is adaptable to words spoken as well as written For answerably to what he discourses (b) Let us suppose the writer himself play the Translator as for Example that our Saviour himself having spoken in Hebrew or Syriak the holy writer is to express his words in Greek or Latin And farther that this which we have said of Translations be as truly it is grounded in the very nature of divers Languages therefore unavoidable by any Art or Industry will it not clearly follow that even in the Original Copy written by the Evanlists own hand there is not in rigor the true and self-significant words of our Saviour but rather a Comment or Paraphrase explicating and delivering the Sense thereof Nay let him have written in the same Language and let him have set down every word and syllable yet men conversant in noting the changes of meaning in words will tell you that divors accents in the pronunciation of them the turning of the Speakers Head and Body this way or that way the allusion to some Person or to some precedent discourse or the like may so change the Sense of the words that they will seem quite different in writing from what they wree in speaking Rushworth Ibid. And the Title of the next the 8th par is The uncertainty of Equivocation which of necessity is incident
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
writing things especially Religious Doctrines and Practices should be preferr'd to the hazarding them under the Custody of Oral Tradition That rather than This being the surest means of their preservation For 1. It is much less difficult because there is much less requir'd to keep a Book safe and to hand it from one Generation to another than to preserve a great many of Opinions and Senses of that Book and to transmit them from Age to Age unalter'd To the former meer plain honesty and an easie care are sufficient Here 's no need of much Apprehension and Memory and of a constant Care and Diligence to teach Posterity here 's no necessity of Posterities scrupulous attention to teaching Fathers and of an happy docility or promptness to learn and all this through a long series of Ages But these Punctilios as has been shew'd before are necessary to a faithful and unerring communicating of Truths to after-Ages in the way of Oral Tradition therefore there is the more of difficulty and consequently the more likelihood of miscarriage 2ly Books if kept safe do faithfully preserve what is deposited with them Their Memory if I may so speak never fails them there 's no need of an operous care to teach them or rather to remember them what their Authors once told them committed to them They warp not with the Times in which they are extant tho' through several Generations They are not subject to levity and wantonness of Judgment nor to rebound from one extremity to another not to a sequaciousness after Men whose Parts render them remarkable They are not temptable by Hopes or Fears To be read and to be accepted of is their worst Avarice or Ambition Nor does the Paper or Parchment look the paler at a Rack or a Gibbet or the Characters fly thence upon Persecution A Prison can't scare them they are us'd to confinement to a Chain it may be in a Library Thus it is with Books But Oral Traditioners are expos'd to all those inconveniences as has been before manifested whence their Traditions are infected with an answerable craziness Therefore for this second together with the first reason Writings Books are the far less obnoxious the more safe Conveyance And what has been said of Writings in general is much more true particularly of the Sacred Scriptures Object Against what has been delivered there may lye some seeming prejudice It may be objected that Writings have their fates as well as their Authors They are not exempt from either a total perishing by the oscitancy and carelesness of the Owners or by violence from Enemies Or at least they are liable to corruption and that either wilful and out of design as speaking of Holy Scriptures by Hereticks or through the ignorance or negligence of Transcribers Whence it will follow that notwithstanding the comparative easiness of transmitting Writings and the Fidelity of them if preserv'd yet they may be ravish'd by violence from their Possessors how honest soever they be or they may be lost by them if they should prove careless or they may be adulterated upon one account or another And so Writings may not be preserv'd or not preserv'd sincere and entire Answ That losses and decays alterations and suppositiousness have been incident to Writings is confess'd Yet how many have escap'd injury through long tracts of time have arrived safe with us some plenty of them in Libraries does manifest for there have been more or less Lovers of Learning and Antiquity who have been Guardians to these Orphans And Learned Men have Methods as Trial by Chronology and the Customs and Modes of each Age insight into the Style and Genius of an Author Collation of Copies with others by which to distinguish the Spurious from the Genuine Works and to right the Genuine by requisite Emendations And of such kind of reliefs Scriptures are capable as well as other Writings But we shall see that they have a much greater advantage and are secur'd above all Writings else by peculiar Protections and have been blessed with a special safety SECT II. Sacred Scriptures may be suppos'd to have been in danger from 1. Malice and Design 2ly From Casualty and Neglect And to have been in danger 1. From Malice and Design of profest and publick Enemies 2ly Of pretended Friends I mean Heticks 1. The open and profess'd Enemies of the Holy Scripture design'd and labour'd for their extinction As no Professors of any Religion were ever so persecuted by the opposition and fury of the World as Jews first and then the Christians so the Scriptures in Sympathy with them have been expos'd to great hazards but yet have survived them When the Chaldeans had over-run Judea wasted and plunder'd the Towns ransack'd and destroy'd the Metropolis Jerusalem had rifled and ruined the Temple when they who had escap'd Slaughter were carried away Captive into a strange Land and the Captivity there lasted 70 years Whenas amidst all these hurries Vrim and Thummim the Ark the Pot of Manna the Rod of Aaron whenas these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holy and choice Rarities of that People and all their Glory sunk in the Deluge of an universal devastation Yet the Holy Scriptures which then were triumph'd over all these Calamities tho' the Copies were then but few in comparison of what they were afterwards For soon after the return from Captivity and reedification of the Temple (a) Nehem. 8.6 7 8. Ezra also Joshua and Bani caus'd the People to understand the Law and the People stood in their place So they read in the Book of the Law of God distinctly and. Some time after this under the Tyranny of Antiochus The (b) 1 Mac. 1.56 57 58. Books of the Law which were found were rent in pieces and burnt with fire And wheresoever was found with any the Book of the Testament or if any consented to the Law the King's Commandement was that they should put him to Death Notwithstanding this Persecution the Holy Book out-liv'd this Scrutiny and Cruelty In the Times of Christianity in the Reign of (c) Petav. Ration p. 241 242. Dioclesian there was an Imperial Edict that the Churches should be demolish'd and the Holy Scripture should be burn'd and tho' some were so base as to betray the Divine Books to the Enemy who thence were call'd Traditores yet they weathered out this Storm also Next to an invisible Divine Hand defending them so many were the Copies of the Sacred Books especially after the Jews return from Babylon and more after the Gospel had been Preached and entertain'd in the World and likewise so zealously did both Jews and Christians concern themselves in them that the Enemies might as soon have rooted out of the World the whole Generations of Jews and Christians as the Bibles 2ly For the same reasons that there should be a Depravation of of Holy Scripture by Additions Substractions or Alterations in any thing material as to Faith and Life that there should be any