and led others into errours in these matters we cannot with any safety trust to Traditions that have passed men pretend from one to another untill now but we can find no mention of in any Writer till some Ages after the Apostles and then were by some-body or other who had authority in those days called Apostolical Traditions merely to gain them the more credit Thus Andreas Caesariensis in his Commentaries upon the Book of Revelation p. 743. saith that the coming of Enoch and Elias before the second coming of Christ though it be not found in Scripture was a constant report received by Tradition without any variation from the teachers of the Church Which is sufficient to shew how ready they were to father their own private opinions upon ancient universal Tradition and how little reason we have to trust to that which was so uncertain even in the first Ages and therefore must needs be more dubious now Thus I have endeavoured to lay before the eyes of those who will be pleased to look over this short Treatise what they are to think and speak about Tradition It is a calumny to affirm that the Church of England rejects all Tradition and I hope none of her true Children are so ignorant as when they hear that word to imagine they must rise up and oppose it No the Scripture it self is a Tradition and we admit all other Traditions which are subordinate and agreeable unto that together with all those things which can be proved to be Apostolical by the General Testimony of the Church in all Ages nay if any thing not contained in Scripture which the Roman Church now pretends to be a part of God's word were delivered to us by as universal uncontrolled Tradition as the Scripture is we should receive it as we do the Scripture But it appears plainly that such things were at first but private Opinions which now are become the Doctrines of that particular Church who would impose her Decrees upon us under the Venerable Name of Apostolical Universal Tradition which I have shewn you hath been an ancient cheat and that we ought not to be so easie as to be deceived by it But to be very wary and afraid of trusting the Traditions of such a Church as hath not onely perverted some abolished others and pretended them where there hath been none but been a very unfaithfull preserver of them and that in matters of great moment where there were some and lastly warrants those which it pretends to have kept by nothing but its own infallibility For which there is no Tradition but much against it even in the Original Tradition the holy Scriptures which plainly suppose the Roman Church may not onely err but utterly sail and be cut off from the Body of Christ As they that please may reade who will consult the Eleventh Chapter to the Romans v. 20 21 22. Of which they are in the greater danger because they proudly claim so high a prerogative as that now mentioned directly contrary to the Apostolical Admonition in that place be not high minded but fear CONCLUSION I Shall end this Discourse with a brief Admonition relating to our Christian practice And what is there more proper or more seasonable than this While we reject all spurious Traditions let us be sure to keep close to the genuine and true Let us hold them fast and not let them go Let us not dispute our selves out of all Religion while we condemn that which is false Nor break all Christian Discipline and Order because we cannot submit to all humane impositions In plain words let us not throw off Episcopacy together with the Papal Tyranny We ought to be the more carefull in observing the Divine Tradition delivered to us in the Scripture and according to the Scripture because we are not bound to other While we contend against the half Communion let us make a Conscience to receive the whole frequently It looks like Faction rather than Religion to be earnest for that which we mean not to use In like manner while we look upon additions to the Scripture as vain let us not neglect to reade and ponder those holy Writings When we reject Purgatory as a fable let us really dread Hell fire And while we do not tye our selves to all usages that have been in the Church let us be carefull to observe first all the substantial duties of righteousness charity sobriety and godliness which are unquestionably delivered to us by our Lord himself and his holy Apostles and secondly all the Ordinances of the Church wherein we live which are not contrary to the word of God For so hath the fame Divine Authority delivered that the people should obey those that are their Guides and Governours submitting themselves to their authority and avoiding all contention with them as most undecent in it self and pernicious to Religion which suffers extremely when neither Ecclesiastical Authority nor Ecclesiastical Custome can end disputes about Rites and Ceremonies Reade 1 Thess V. 12. Heb. XIII 17. 1 Cor. XI 16. and reade such places as you ought to do all the other Scriptures till your hearts be deeply affected with them For be admonished in the last place of this which is of general use and must never be forgotten because we shall lose the benefit of that celestial Doctrine which is delivered unto us if we do not strictly observe it That as this Evangelical Doctrine is delivered down to us so we must be delivered up to it Thus Saint Paul teaches us to speak in VI. Rom. 17. where he thanks God that they who formerly had been servants of sin did now obey from the heart that form of Doctrine unto which they were delivered So the words run in the Greek as the Margin of our Bibles inform you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This is the Tradition which we must be sure to retain and hold fast above all other as that without which all our belief will be ineffectual This is the very end for which all Divine Truth is delivered unto us that we may be delivered and make a surrender of our selves unto it Observe the force of the Apostles words which tell us first that there was a certain form of Christian Doctrine which the Apostles taught compared here to a mould so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 form may be translated into which metal or such like matter is cast that it may receive the figure and shape of that mould 2. Now he compares the Roman Christians to such ductile pliable matter they being so delivered or cast into this form or mould of Christian Doctrine that they were intirely framed and fashioned according to it and had all the lineaments as I may say of it expressed upon their souls 3. And having so received it they were obedient to it for without this all the impressions which by knowledge or faith were made upon their souls were but an imperfect draught of what was intended in the
of the writing of this Epistle without the Doctrine of the Gospel completely written because among the Thessalonians some Traditions or Doctrines were as yet unwritten Which can in reason be extended no farther than to themselves and to this Epistle which did not contain all the Evangelical Doctrine though other writings which it is possible were then extant in some other Churches did And I say as yet unwritten in that Church because the Thessalonians no doubt had afterward more communicated to them in writing besides this Epistle or the former either viz. all the Gospels and the Acts of Apostles and other Apostolical Epistles which we now enjoy Which writings we may be confident contain the Traditions which the Apostle had delivered to the Thessalonians by word concerning the Incarnation Birth Life Miracles Death Resurrection and Ascention of our blessed Saviour and concerning the coming of the Holy Ghost and the mission of the Apostles and all the rest which is there recorded for our everlasting instruction And therefore it is in vain to argue from this place that there are still at this day some unwritten Traditions which we are to follow unless the Apostle had said hold the Traditions which ye have been taught by word which shall never be written And it is in vain for us to enquire after any such Traditions or to rely upon them when they are offered unto us unless we were sure that there was something necessary to our Salvation delivered in their Sermons which was never to be delivered in writing and unless we knew where to find it as certainly as we do that which they have committed to writing And it is to no more purpose to shew us the word Tradition in other places of Saint Paul's writings particularly in the III. Chapter of the same Epistle v. 6. where by Tradition S. Chrysostome understands the Apostle's Example which he had given them and so it follows v. 7. for your selves know how you ought to follow us c. or it may refer to the commandment he had given them in his former Epistle IV. 11. which the Reader may be pleased to compare with this but cannot with any colour be expounded to signifie any Doctrine of Faith about which the Roman Church now contends with us For it is plain it hath respect to their good manners and orderly living for the information of which we need go no whither but to the holy Scriptures wherein we are taught fully enough how we ought to walk and please God in all things The same may be said of that place 1 Cor. XI 2. Now I praise you Brethren that you remember me in all things and keep the Traditions or Ordinances as we render it or Precepts as the Vulgar Latin it self hath it as I delivered them unto you For we are so observant of what he hath delivered that we are confident if Saint Paul were now alive and in this Church he would praise us as he doth the Corinthians for keeping the Traditions as he delivered them and on the contrary reprove and condemn the Roman Church for not keeping them as they were first delivered And we have good ground for this confidence there being an instance in that very Chapter which demonstrates our fidelity in preserving the very first Traditions and their unfaithfulness in letting them go For he tells us v. 23. that he had delivered to them what he had received of the Lord and that which he received and delivered was about the whole Communion as you may reade there and in the following verses 24 25. in both kinds the Cup as well as the Bread Thus he saith the Lord appointed it and thus he delivered it and this Tradition we keep intire as he received it of the Lord and delivered it to his Church in this Epistle which is a part of the holy Scripture whereas they do not keep it but have broken this Divine Tradition and give the Communion of Christ's Body and Bloud otherwise than Saint Paul delivered keeping the Cup from the people By which I desire all that love the Lord Jesus in sincerity to judge which Church keeps closest to the Apostolical Tradition for so Saint Paul calls this Doctrine of the Communion in both kinds that which he delivered or left as a Tradition with them they that stick to what is unquestionably the Apostolical Doctrine or they that leave it to follow those Doctrines or presumptions rather which at the best are very dubious and uncertain And farther I desire all that reade this Paper to consider whether it be reasonable to think that those Rites which have no Authority in the holy Scripture but were instituted perhaps by the Apostles have been kept pure and uncorrupted according to their first intention when those sacred Rites for instance the holy Eucharist are not preserved intire which are manifestly ordained in the holy Writings And so much may serve for the first thing for it would be too long to explain all the rest of the places of holy Scripture which they are wont to alledge though the word Tradition be not mentioned in them to give a colour to their present pretences How pertinently may be judged by these places now considered II. Secondly then That word of God which was once unwritten being now written we acknowledge our selves to be much indebted to the Church of God in all foregoing Ages which hath preserved the Scriptures and delivered them down to us as his word which we ought to do unto those that shall succeed us as our Church teacheth us in its Twentieth Article where the Church is affirmed to be a Witness and a keeper of holy Writ This Tradition we own it being universal continued uninterrupted and undenied Though in truth this is Tradition in another sense of the word not signifying the Doctrine delivered unto us but the manner and means of its delivery And therefore if any member of our Church be pressed by those of the Romish persuasion with this Argument for their present Traditions that Scripture it self is come to us by Tradition let them answer thus Very right it is so and we thank God for it therefore let this be no part of our dispute it being a thing presupposed in all discourses about Religion a thing agreed among all Christian people that we reade the word of God when we reade the holy Scriptures Which being delivered to us and accepted by us as his word we see no necessity of any other Tradition or Doctrine which is not to be found there or cannot be proved from thence for they tell us they are able to make even the men of God wise unto Salvation And if they press you again and say how do you know that some Books are Canonical and others not is it not by a constant Tradition Answer them again in this manner Yes this is true also and would to God you would stand to this universal Tradition and receive no other Books but what
to weigh so much with us as to have the greatest humane Authority and to be look'd upon as little less than Divine The Universal consent of the next Generation is an Authority approaching as near to the former as the Ages do one to another But what is delivered in latter times hath less humane Authority though pretending to come but without proof from more early days and hath no Authority at all if it contradict the sense of the Church when it was capable to be better acquainted with the mind of Christ and of his Apostles As for particular Churches their Authority ought to be reverenced by every member of them when they profess to deliver sincerely the sense of the Church Universal and when they determine as they have power to do Controversies of Faith or decree Rites and Ceremonies not contrary to God's word in which enery one ought to acquiesce But we cannot say the same of that which comes from any private Doctour in the Church modern or Ancient which can have no greater Authority than he himself was of but is more or less credible according as he was more or less diligent knowing and strictly religious 4. But to all this it is necessary that it do sufficiently appear that such Doctrines do really come from those Authours whose Traditions they pretend to be This is the great and the onely thing about which there is any question among sober and judicious persons How to be sufficiently assured that any thing which is not delivered unto us in the Scriptures doth certainly come for instance from Christ or his holy Apostles For in this all Christians are agreed that whatsoever was delivered by Christ from God the Father or by the Apostles from Christ is to be embraced and firmly retained whether it be written or not written that makes no difference at all if we can be certain it came from Him or them For what is contained in the Holy Scripture hath not its Authority because it is written but because it came from God If Christ said a thing it is enough we ought to submit unto it but we must first know that he said it and let the means of knowing it be what they will if we can certainly know He said it we yield to it But how we can be certain at this distance of time from his being in the world that any thing now pretending to it was said by Christ which is not recorded in the Holy Scriptures there is the business And it is a matter of such importance that it cannot be expected any man should be satisfied without very good evidence of it but he may very reasonably question whether many things be not falsly ascribed unto Him and unto his Apostles which never came from them Nay whether those things which are affirmed to be the Doctrines of the Primitive Church and of the whole Church be not of some later Original and of some particular Church or private Doctours in the Church unto whose Authority that reverence is not due which ought to be paid and which we willingly give unto the former Now according to this state of the matter any good Christian among us who is desirous to know the Truth and to preserve himself from Errour may easily discern what Traditions ought to be received and held fast and what we are not bound unto without any alteration and what are not to be received at all but to be rejected and how far those things are from being credible which the Roman Church now would obtrude upon us under the name of Apostolical or ancient Traditions without any Authority from the Holy Scriptures or in truth any Authority but their own and some private Doctours whose opinions cannot challenge an absolute submission to them But to give every one that would be rightly informed fuller satisfaction in this business I shall not content my self with this General Discourse but shall particularly and distinctly shew what Traditions we own and heartily receive and then what Traditions we cannot own but with good reason refuse These shall be the two Parts of this short Treatise wherein I shall endeavour that our people may be instructed not merely to reject Errours but also to affirm the Truth PART I. What Traditions we receive I. AND in the first place we acknowledge that what is now holy Scripture was once onely Tradition properly so called that is Doctrine by word of mouth In this we all agree I say that the whole Gospel or Doctrine of Christ which is now upon record in those Books we call the Scriptures was once unwritten when it was first preached by our blessed Saviour and his Apostles Which must be noted to remove that small Objection with which they of the Roman Church are wont to trouble some peoples minds merely from the Name of Traditions which Saint Paul in his Epistles requires those to whom he writes carefully to observe Particularly in that famous place 1 Thess II. 15. where we find this exhortation Therefore Brethren stand fast and hold the Traditions which ye have been taught whether by word or our Epistle Behold say they here are things not written but delivered by word of mouth which the Thessalonians are commanded to hold Very true should the people of our Church say to those that insist upon this but behold also we beseech you what the Traditions are of which the Apostle here writes and mark also when it was that they were partly unwritten For the first of these it is manifest that he means by Traditions the Doctrines which we now reade in the holy Scriptures For the very first word therefore is an indication that this verse is an inference from what he had said in the foregoing Now the things he before treated of are the grand Doctrines of the Gospel or the way of Salvation revealed unto us by Christ Jesus from God the Father who hath from the beginning saith he v. 13. 14. chosen you to Salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth whereunto he hath called you c. This is the sum of the Gospel and whatsoever he had delivered unto them about these matters of their sanctification or of their faith or of their salvation by obtaining the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ to which they were chosen and called through their sanctification and faith this he exhorts them to hold fast whether it was contained in this Epistle or in his former preaching for he had not occasion now to write all that he had formerly delivered by word of mouth Which afterward was put in writing for mark which is the second thing the time when some things remained unwritten which was when this Epistle was sent to the Thessalonians Then some things concerning their salvation were not contained in this Letter but as yet delivered onely by word of mouth unto this Church I say to this Church for it doth not follow that all Churches whatsoever were at the time
he delivered to Constantius I truly admire thee O Lord Constantius the Emperour who desirest a Faith according to what is written They pretended to no other in those days but as he speaks a little after look'd upon him that refused this as Antichrist It was onely required that they should receive their Faith out of God's Books not merely according to the words of them but according to their true meaning because many spake Scripture without Scripture and pretended to Faith without Faith as his words are and herein Catholick and constant Tradition was to guide them For whatsoever was contrary to what the whole Church had received and held from the beginning could not in reason be thought to be the meaning of that Scripture which was alledged to prove it And on the other side the Church pretended to no more than to be a Witness of the received sense of the Scriptures which were the bottom upon which they built this Faith Thus I observe Hegesippus saith in Euseb his History L. IV. C. 22. that when he was at Rome he met with a great many Bishops and that he received the very same Doctrine from them all And then a little after tells us what that was and whence they derived it saying that in every succession of Bishops and in every City so they held as the Law preached and as the Prophets and as the Lord. That is according to the Doctrine of the Old and New Testament I shall conclude this particular with a pregnant passage which I remember in a famous Divine of our Church D. Jackson in his Treatise of the Catholick Church Chap. 22. who writes to this effect That Tradition which was of so much use in the Primitive Church was not unwritten Traditions or customs commended or ratified by the supposed infalliblity of any visible Church but did especially consist in the Confessions or Registers of particular Churches And the unanimous consent of so many several Churches as exhibited their confessions to the Nicene Council out of such Forms as had been framed and taught before this Controversie arose about the Divinity of Christ and that voluntarily and freely these Churches being not dependent one upon another nor overswayed by any Authority over them nor misled by faction to frame their confessions of Faith by imitation or according to some pattern set them was a pregnant argument that this Faith wherein they all agreed had been delivered to them by the Apostles and their followers and was the true meaning of the holy Writings in this great Article and evidently proved that Arius did obtrude such interpretations of Scripture as had not been heard of before or were but the sense of some private persons in the Church and not of the generality of Believers In short the unanimous consent of so many distinct visible Churches as exhibited their several Confessions Catechisms or Testimonies of their own or Forefathers Faith unto the Council of Nice was an argument of the same force and efficacy against Arius and his partakers as the General consent and practice of all Nations in worshipping a Divine Power in all ages is against Atheists Nothing but the ingrafted notion of a Deity could have induced so many several Nations so much different in natural disposition in civil discipline and education to affect or practise the duty of Adoration And nothing but the evidence of the ingrafted word as Saint James calls the Gospel delivered by Christ and his Apostles in the holy Scriptures could have kept so many several Churches as communicated their Confessions unto that Council in the unity of the same Faith The like may be said of the rest of the four first General Councils whose Decrees are a great confirmation of our belief because they deliver to us the consent of the Churches of Christ in those great Truths which they assert out of the holy Scriptures And could there any Traditive Interpretation of the whole Scripture be produced upon the Authority of such Original Tradition as that now named we would most thankfully and joyfully receive it But there never was any such pretended no not by the Roman Church whose Doctours differ among themselves about the meaning of hundreds of places in the Bible Which they would not doe sure nor spend their time unprofitably in making the best conjectures they are able if they knew of any exposition of those places in which all Christian Doctours had agreed from the beginning V. But more than this we allow that Tradition gives us a considerable assistance in such points as are not in so many letters and syllables contained in the Scriptures but may be gathered from thence by good and manifest reasoning Or in plainer words perhaps whatsoever Tradition justifies any Doctrine that may be proved by the Scriptures though not found in express terms there we acknowledge to be of great use and readily receive and follow it as serving very much to establish us more firmly in that Truth when we see all Christians have adhered to it This may be called a confirming Tradition of which we have an instance in the Doctrine of Infant Baptism which some ancient Fathers call an Apostolical Tradition Not that it cannot be proved by any place of Scripture no such matter for though we do not find it written in so many words that Infants are to be baptised or that the Apostles baptised Infants yet it may be proved out of the Scriptures and the Fathers themselves who call it an Apostolical Tradition do alledge testimonies of the Scriptures to make it good And therefore we may be sure they comprehend the Scriptures within the name of Apostolical Tradition and believed that this Doctrine was gathered out of the Scriptures though not expresly treated of there In like manner we in this Church assert the authority of Bishops above Presbyters by a Divine right as appears by the Book of Consecration of Bishops where the person to be ordained to this Office expresses his belief that he is truly called to this Ministration according to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ Now this we are persuaded may be plainly enough proved to any man that is ingenuous and will fairly consider things out of the holy Scriptures without the help of Tradition but we also take in the assistance of this for the conviction of gain-sayers and by the perpetual practice and Tradition of the Church from the beginning confirm our Scripture proofs so strongly that he seems to us very obstinate or extremely prejudiced that yields not to them And therefore to make our Doctrine in this point the more Authentick our Church hath put both these proofs together in the Preface to the Form of giving Orders which begins in these words It is evident unto all men diligently reading holy Scripture and ancient Authours that from the Apostles time there have been three Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church Bishops Priests and Deacons I hope no body among us is so weak as
delivered to posterity by that primitive Church witnessing from whom they received them who carefully kept them as the most pretious Treasure so that this written word hath had the general approbation and testimony of the whole Church of Christ in every age untill this day witnessing that it is Divine And it hath been the constant business of the Doctours of the Church to expound this word of God to the people and their Books are full of citations out of the Scripture all agreeing in substance with what we now reade in them Nay the very enemies of Christianity such as Celsus Porphyry Julian never questioned but these are the writings of which the Apostles were the Authours and which they delivered Besides the Marks they have in themselves of a Divine Spirit which indited them they all tending to breed and preserve in men a sense of God and to make them truly vertuous Not one word of which can be said for any of those unwritten Traditions which the Roman Church pretend to be a part of God's word For we have no testimony of them in the holy Scriptures Nor doth the primitive Church affirm she received them from the Apostles as she did the written word Nor have they the perpetual consent and general approbation of the whole Church ever since Nor are they frequently quoted as the words of Scripture are upon all occasisions by the Doctours of the Church Nor do we find them to be the Doctrine which was constantly taught the people Nor is there any notice taken of them by the enemies of our Faith whose assaults are all against the Scriptures In short they are so far from having any true authority that counterfeit testimonies and forged writings have been their great supporters Besides the plain drift of them which is not to make all men better but to make some richer and the manifest danger men are in by many of them to be drawn away from God to put their trust and confidence in Creatures As might be shewn if this Paper would contain it in their Doctrines of Papal Supremacy Purgatory Invocation of Saints Image Worship and divers others Concerning which we say as S. Cyprian doth to Pompeius about another matter If it be commanded in the Gospels or in the Epistles of the Apostles or in their Acts that they should not be baptised who return from any Heresie but onely be received by imposition of hands LET THIS DIVINE and HOLT TRADITION BE OBSERVED The same say we if there be any thing in the Gospels in the Epistles in the Acts concerning Invocations of Saints concerning the praying Souls out of Purgatory c. let that divine that holy Tradition be observed But if it be not there what obstinacy is this as it follows a little after in that Epist LXXIV what presumption to prefer humane Tradition before the Divine disposition or ordinance A great deal more there is in that place and in others of that holy Martyr to bring all to the source the root the original of the Divine Tradition for then humane errour ceases which original Tradition he affirms to be what is delivered in the holy Scriptures which delivering to us the whole will of God concerning us we look after no other Tradition but what explains and confirms and is consonant to this For we believe that what is delivered to us by the Scriptures and what is delivered by true Tradition are but two several ways of bringing us acquainted with the same Christian Truth not with different parts of that Truth And so I have done with the first thing the sum of which is this We do not receive any Tradition or Doctrine to supply the defect of the Scripture in some necessary Article of Faith which Doctrines they of Rome pretend to have one and the same Authour with the Scripture viz. God and therefore to be received with the same pious affection and reverence but cannot tell us where we may find them how we shall discern true from false nor give us any assurance of their Truth but we must take them purely upon their word Now how little reason we have to trust to that will appear in the second thing I have to add which is this II. That we dare not receive any thing whatsoever merely upon the Credit of the Roman Church no not that divine that holy Tradition before spoken of viz. the Scripture Which we do not believe onely upon their testimony both because they are but a part of the Church and therefore not the sole keepers of Divine Truth and they are a corrupted part who have not approved themselves faithfull in the keeping what was committed to them Let our people diligently mark this that Traditions never were nor are now onely in the keeping of the Roman Church and that these things are widely different the Tradition of the whole Church or of the greatest and best part of it and the Tradition of one part of the Church and the least part of it and the worst part also and most depraved What is warranted by the Authority of the whole Church I have shewn before we reverently receive but we cannot take that for current Tradition which is warranted onely by a small part of the Church and we give very little credit to what is warranted onely by that part of it which is Roman Because 1. First This Church hath not preserved so carefully as other Churches have done the first and original Tradition which is in the Scriptures but suffered them to be shamefully corrupted Every one knows that there is a Latine Vulgar Edition of the Bible which they of that Church prefer before the Original none of which they preserved heretofore from manifest depravations nor have been able since they were told of the faults to purge away so as to canonize any Edition without permitting great numbers in their newest and most approved Bibles Isidore Clarius in his Preface to his Edition complains that he found these holy Writings defaced with innumerable errours Eight thousand of which that he thought most material he saith he amended and yet left he knew not how many lesser ones untouched After which the Council of Trent having vouched this Vulgar Latine Edition for the onely authentick Pope Sixtus the Fifth published out of the several Copies that were abroad one which he straitly charged to be received as the onely true Vulgar from which none should dare to vary in a tittle And yet two years were scarce passed before Clemens the Eighth found many defects and corruptions still remaining in that Edition and therefore published another with the very same charge that none else should be received Which evidently shews they have suffered the holy Books to be so fouly abused that they know not how to amend the errours that are crept into them nor can tell which is the true Bible For these two Bibles thus equally authorised as the onely authentick ones abound not onely with manifest diversities but
is now And as long as there was no care about Purgatory no body sought for Indulgences for all their esteem depends upon that If you take away Purgatory to what purpose are Indulgences Since therefore Purgatory was so lately known and received in the Catholick Church who can wonder that there was no use of Indulgences in the beginning of our Religion Which is a full confession what kind of Traditions that Church commends unto us things lately invented their own private opinions of which the ancient Christians knew nothing In one word their Tradition is no Tradition in that sense wherein the Church always understood it IV. And what hath been said of them must be applied to other particular Churches though some have been more sincere than they None of them hath any authority to commend any thing as an Article of Faith unto posterity which hath not been commended to them by all foregoing Ages derived from the Apostles For Vincentius his Rule is to guide us all in this that is Catholick and consequently to be received which hath been held by all and in all Churches and at all times V. Which puts me in mind of another thing to be briefly touched that the Ecclesiastical Tradition contained in the Confessions or Registers of particular Churches in these days wherein we live is not received by us nor allowed to have the same Authority which such Tradition had at the time of the Nicene Council for the conviction of Heresie The joint consent I mean of so many Bishops as were there assembled and the unanimous Confessions of so many several Churches of several Provinces as were there delivered hath not now such a force to induce belief as it had then The reason of which is given by the same Vincentius who so highly commends that way which was then taken of reproving Heresie but adds this most wise caution in the last Chapter but one of the first Part of his Commonitorium but you must not think that all Heresies and always are thus to be opposed but onely new and fresh Heresies when they first rise up that is before they have falsified the rules of the ancient Faith c. As for inveterate Heresies which have spred themselves they are in no wise to be assaulted this way because in a long tract of time many opportunities may have presented themselves to Hereticks of stealing Truth out of ancient Records and of corrupting the Volumes of our Ancestours Which if it be applied to the present state of things it is evident the Roman Church hath had such opportunities of falsifying Antiquity ever since the first acknowledgment of the Papal Supremacy that we cannot rely merely upon any written testimonies or unwritten Traditions which never so great a number of their Bishops met together shall produce which amount not to so much as one legal Testimony but they are to be look'd upon or suspected as a multitude of false Witnesses conspiring together in their own cause How then may some say can Heresies of long standing be confuted The same Vincentius resolves us in this in the very next words We may convince them if need be by the sole authority of the Scriptures or eschew them as already convicted and condemned in ancient times by the general Councils of Catholick Priests The Tradition which is found there must direct all future Councils not the opinions of their own present Churches VI. I will add but one thing more which is That the Tradition called Oral because it comes by word of mouth from one Age to another without any written record is the most uncertain and can be least relied upon of all other This hath been demonstrated so fully by the Writers of our Church and there are such pregnant instances of the errours into which men have been led by it that it needs no long discourse Two instances of it are very common and I shall add a third 1. The first is that which Papias who lived presently after the Apostles times and conversed with those who had seen them set on foot His way was as Eusebius relates out of his Works not so much to reade as to inquire of the Elders what Saint Andrew or Saint Peter said what was the saying of Saint Thomas Saint James and the rest of the Disciples of our Lord. And he pretended that some of them told him among other things that after the resurrection of our Bodies we shall reign a thousand years here upon Earth which he gathered saith Eusebius from some saying of the Apostles wrong understood But this fancy was embraced very greedily and was taught for two whole Ages as an Apostolical Tradition no body opposing it and yet having nothing to say for it but onely the antiquity of the man as Eusebius his words are L. III. Cap. ult who delivered it to them yet this Tradition hath been generally since taken for an imposture and teaches us no more than this that if one man could set a going such a Doctrine and make it pass so current for so long a time upon no other pretence than that an Apostle said so in private discourse we have great reason to think that other Traditions have had no better beginning or not so good especially since they never so universally prevailed as that did 2. A second instance is that famous contention about the observation of Easter which miserably afflicted the Church in the days of Victor Bishop of Rome by dividing the Eastern Christians from the Western One pretending Tradition from Saint John and Saint Philip the other from Saint Peter and Saint Paul Concerning which I will not say as Rigaltius doth in his sharp note upon the words of Firmilian who pretended Tradition for the rebaptizing of Hereticks that under the Names and Persons of great men there were sottish and sophistical things delivered for Apostolical Traditions by fools and sophisters But this I affirm that there are many more instances of mens forwardness and they neither fools nor sophisters but onely wedded to the opinions of their own Churches to obtrude things as Apostolical for which they had no proof at all For when they knew not how to defend themselves presently they flew to Tradition Apostolical 3. A third instance of whose uncertainty we have in Irenaeus L. II. C. 39. concerning the age of our blessed Saviour when he died which he confidently affirms to have been forty if not fifty years and saith the Elders which knew Saint John and were his Scholars received this relation from him And yet all agree that he beginning to preach at thirty years of age was crucified about three years and an half after The like relation Clemens makes of his preaching but one year which he calls a secret Tradition from the Apostles but hath no more Truth in it than the other Now if in the first Ages when they were so near the fountain and beginning of Tradition men were deceived nay such great men as these were deceived