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
the least as to priviledge Oral Tradition to be the Rule of Faith For 1. Were their writings the Conservatories of Tradition written by persons mov'd by the Holy Ghost or not If not and I suppose our adversaries will not affirm they were then these writings have a great disadvantage of the Holy Scriptures which we profess to be the Canon of our Faith as great a disadvantage as must be between Books written by them who could not err and those written by them who might err from whence it would follow that what is contain'd in the one must be true that the Contents of the other may be true yet too they may be false there may be that reported in them as deliver'd by Christ and his Apostles which yet was not delivered by them But 2. Were there Ecclesiastical Monuments of unquestionable credit and which did from Christ and his Apostles through each age exacty and fully declare to us the consentient Doctrines and Practices of the universal Church it would be very material and we should much rejoice in it but the case is otherwise For some while there were very few if any writings save the Holy Scripture which come to our hands Justin Martyr is said to be the first Father About 150 years after Christ whose works have survived to this day There are some Books which pretend to an early date which yet are judg'd to be supposititious some of them judged to be so by the Romanists themselves others proved to be such by the (a) Cook in censu â quorundum Scriptorum D. James's Bastardie of false Fathers Daille Protestants For the first 300 years as there was no compleat Ecclesiastical History so the Fathers now extant were but few and their Works too being calculated for the times in which they lived reach not the controversies which for many years past and at this day exercise and trouble Christendom This paucity of the Records of the first ages (a) Id autem esse tempus quo quatuor prima Concilia Oecumenica includantur a Constantino Imp. ad Marcianum Atque hoc vel propterea aequissimum esse quia primorum seculorum paucissima extant monumenta illius vero temporis quo Ecclesia praecipuè florebat longe plurima ut facile ex ejus aetatis Patribus eorum scriptis fides ac disciplina veteris Catholicoe possit agnosci Ita Perron Sequitur Responsio Regis Hoc postulatum parùm illis aequum videbitur c. Apud Is Casaubonum in Responsione ad Cardinalis Perronii Epistolam pag. 38 39 40 41 42. Card. Perron acknowledges and does imply their insufficiency for setling Catholick Faith when as he would have recourse made for this purpose unto the 4th and 5th Centuries because then there were most writers Tho against this the learned Is Casaubon excepts and justly forasmuch as it must be presum'd that the stream of Tradition ran purest nearest to its Fountain The Fathers after the first 300 years did often mix their own private sentiments with the Doctrines of the Church Nor do the Fathers express themselves so as that we may clearly distinguish when they writ as Doctors and when as Witnesses when they deliver their own private Sense and when the Sense of the Church and if of the Church whether it be of the Church universal or of some particular Church some who have diligently perus'd their Writings judge it not easy to find any such constant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is confess'd by (a) Rushworth Dial 3d. Sect. 13. a Romanist that the Fathers speak sometimes as Witnesses of what the Church held in their days and sometimes as Doctors and so it is often hard to distinguish how they deliver their Opinions because sometimes they press Scripture or Reason as Doctors and sometimes to confirm a known Truth So that he who seeks Tradition in the Fathers and to convince it by their Testimony takes an hard task upon him if he go rigorously to work and have a cunning Critick to his Adversary So then Tradition must in a good measure be at a loss for succour from the Fathers Writings I conclude then that Books Writings have not given such advantages to Oral Tradition as to render it the safest and most certain Conveyance of Divine Truths but this Dignity and Trust is due to Holy Scriptures only which having been at the first penn'd by Persons assisted by the Divine infallible Spirit are stamp'd with an Authority transcendent to all humane Authority Oral or Written which have been witness'd to by the concurrent Testimony of the Church in each intermediate Age since the Primitive Times and which are at this day generally agreed upon as the true Word of God by Christians tho' in other things it may be some of their Heads may stand as oppositely as those of Sampson's Foxes SECT IV. There remains a Cavil or two rather than Objections which shall have a dispatch also 1. We are told that by desertion of Oral Tradition and adherence to Scripture we do cast our selves upon a remediless ignorance even of Scripture (a) Sure Footing P. 117. Tradition establish'd the Church is provided of a certain and infallible Rule to interpret Scripture's Letter by so as to arrive certainly at Christ's Sense c. And e contrà (b) Ibid. p. 98. without Tradition both Letter and Sense of Scripture is uncertain and subject to dispute Again (c) Ibid. p. 38. As for the certainty of the Scriptures signisicancy nothing is more evident than that this is quite lost to all in the uncertainty of the Letter 2ly It is suggested that the course we take is an Enemy to the Churches Peace (d) Ibid. p. 40. The many Sects into which our miserable Country is distracted issue from this Principle viz. The making Scriptures Letter the Rule of our Faith By these passages it is evident that this Author will have it that Protestants have nothing but the Letter of Scriptures dead Characters to live upon and that upon this he charges their utter uncertainty in the interpretation of Scriptures and their distractions Answ But Protestants when they affirm That Scripture is the safest and most certain Conveyance of Divine Truths and that consequently it is the only Rule of Faith do mean Scriptures Letter and Sense both or the Sense notified by the Words and Letter And therefore the Author might have spar'd his Proof of this conclusion i. e. That Scriptures Letter wants all the properties belonging to a Rule of Faith It was needless I say to prove this to Protestants Well but let Protestants mean and affirm what they will have only the Letter of Scripture and not the Sense of it because they admit not of Oral Tradition to Sense it Scripture it seems is such a Riddle that there is no understanding it except we plough with their Heifer and likewise without Tradition's caement we shall always be a pieces and at variance amongst our selves But 1.
they are to know what and which be their Points of Faith But that Decider and Mouth is yet confessedly unagreed on Hence it must follow that Tradition is hurt is sorely wounded in its certainty in that it does not either bring down primitive Truths so cleerly that there needs no dispute about them or at the least certainly determine who shall be the Decider and infallible Mouth from which to receive the Decision of them but leaves them when disputes arise to wrangle it out among themselves as well as they can From the account which has been given it is manifest that the Points in which the Romanists dissent from one another are Points of Faith or else that those about which Protestants differ are not such the Tenents disagreed about among the Romanists being as material and influential as those controverted among the Protestant formed Churches or rather much more considerable Thus in the foregoing pages Oral Tradition has been tryed by Reason and by Experience the few passages of Scripture quoted being not intended for Proof of the Thing in Controversie but only us'd incidentally and in a sense which is obvious and is found guilty of so much uncertainty and failure that it deserves to be judg'd too insufficient to be trusted with the Conveyance of divine Truths down from their first Delivery through all succeeding ages But it may happen sometimes that there may be Arguments against a Thing so plausible and which may have so strong a seemingness of Demonstration as to engage the Judgment against it and yet there may be Arguments too for it so far more cogent and convincing as upon a weighing both to preponderate the other and to determine the Understanding to the affirmative part Let us see then whether the like may fall out in Oral Tradition and having alleged the proofs against its sureness and safety of Conveyance let us next consider what and how rational the Pleas are on its behalf and whether they are weighty enough to turn the Scales CHAP. V. The Arguments alleg'd for Oral Tradition SECT I. THE Defences brought for the certainty and infallibility of Oral Tradition are such as follow 1. It is pleaded that Oral Tradition is a (a) Sure Footing p. 114. Principle Self-evident to all Mankind who use common Reason that (b) Ibid. p. 53. Man's Nature is the Basis of it according to those faculties in him perfectly and necessarily subject to the Operations and Strokes of Nature i. e. his Eyes his Ears handling c. that the (c) Letter of thanks c. p. 87. 88. way of Tradition is as efficaciously established in the very grain of Man's Nature as what seems most natural the propagation of their kind that (d) Sure Footing p. 54. the virtue by which Tradition regulates her followers to bring down Faith unerringly is grounded on a far stronger Basis than all material Nature Answ Indeed a Principle Self-evident deeply founded and radicated in Man's very Nature and more strongly grounded than all material Nature deserves to be heedfully attended to and preserved inviolate But let these high strains be considered of 1. As to Self-evidence First Principles most properly are Self-evident being indemonstrable not borrowing but shining by a light of their own Such are It is impossible for the same thing to be and not to be The whole is greater than any Part. But in this Sense Tradition tho' the Author of Sure Footing calls it a (a) p. 114. first Principle is confess'd not to be Self-evident for he undertakes to demonstrate it as well a (b) p. 57. Priori as a Posteriori Therefore he says that there are Principles (c) Letter of thanks c. p. 24 25 26. Self-evident in an inferior manner not as incapable of demonstration but because they need none being presently assented to by all who have the use of their faculties the notions of them stealing universally into Mens understandings and there gaining a fix'd entertainment undiscernibly The Instances given are That in a square space 't is a neerer way to go from one corner to that which is opposite by the Diameter than to go by the two sides Or that things look less afar off and bigger nearer hand 'T is affirm'd that Tradition is a Self-evident Principle of this latter kind But Tradition is not a Self-evident Principle even of this latter kind That Testimony and Authority and Oral Tradition which is one sort of (a) That vast Testification we call Tradition Sure Footing p. 54. Testimony has room among the Topiques and is a seat of dialectical argumentation is evident enough its use and necessity in some cases have been acknowledg'd But That Oral Tradition is a certain infallible Medium That (b) Sure Footing p. 115. Councils general and provincial nay particular Churches are infallible by proceeding upon it is deny'd by Protestants to be Self-evident evident or but true And tho' it is not material what Protestants affirm or deny in other Points disputed between them and the Romanists farther than they can prove yet in this business their very denial is much sufficient because the Question is driven up to this viz. whether they are Owners of so much Reason as is common to all Mankind And let all judge who have had conversation with them whether as they are no inconsiderable part of Mankind so they have the use of Common Reason or no and as one Argument of this whether they deny such plain Propositions as were before instanc'd in or any the like which are the Sentiments generally of Mankind 2ly Which is of some kin to the former consideration forasmuch as the knowledge of first and Self-evident Principles is in some Sense natural Let Oral Tradition's Foundation in nature be examin'd 'T is confess'd that the Faculties of Seeing and Hearing the Memory Understanding Will and Affections are from Nature are natural to us that according to a Method of Nature outward Objects do excite the Faculties into Acts proper to each That they being in motion do influence upon one another The Senses inform the Understanding the Understanding trusts the Memory and gives impulses to the Will and Affections Suitable to this procedure in Nature I grant that Tradition strikes upon the Senses and those strokes are derived to the inward Faculties and cause variety of impressions there This is all which I can understand by the Faculties perfect and necessary subjection to the operations and strokes of Nature or by Traditions being grounded and engrain'd in Man's Nature But now how short is all this of a Proof that Tradition is infallible in the strength of any Basis it has in the Nature of Man Tho' our Faculties and their way of Operation be Natural yet the Operations or Exercises of them are not beyond a possibility of Error and mistake Sure all will allow that the very Senses are not undeceivable nor the Vnderstanding inerrable that the Memory is frail and leaky and that
else he betrayed the Cause by appealing to a Medium which could not evince it For either the Nicene Council decreed the Consubstantiality of the Son with the Father by Scripture without Tradition and then we have above three hundred venerable Fathers on our side or if they defin'd it in the strength of Tradition without Scripture or by Tradition sensing Scripture then St. August parting with the Council of Nice proceeding upon Tradition only or upon Tradition sensing Scripture left himself nothing or but the Letter of Scripture which according to our Adversaries wants all the properties of a Rule of Faith Sure Footing p. 29 to manage his Cause with By these Testimonies it is plain it cannot be that the Fathers should express themselves (a) Tho' some Fathers speak highly of Scripture as that it contains all Faith c. It is first to be mark'd whether they speak of Scripture sens'd or as yet to be sens'd and if the latter by whom c. Sure Footing p. 140. so highly of Scripture only so far as help'd and sens'd by Tradidition because as to the Being a Rule of Faith the Fathers separate Tradition from Scripture and set Scripture by it self Much more it is far from being (a) 'T is impossible they i. e. the Fathers should bâ—ld Scripture thus interpretable i. e. by other means thâ—n by Tradition the Rulâ— of Faith it being notorious that mâ—st Hereticks against whom they writ held it theirs And so had they held Scripture thus interpreted the Rule of Faith They could not have hâ—ld the Hereticks since they adbered stifly to that Root or Rule of Faith however they might err in many particular Tenents Ibid. p. 141. impossible that the Fathers should hold Scripture not interpreted by Tradition to be the Rule of Faith which yet is affirm'd And the Reason given is as weak as the Affirmation is untrue For if the Scripture not interpreted by Tradition could not be held to be the Rule of Faith because Hereticks adhering stifly to it as the Rule or Root of Faith could not be held as Hereticks then nor could Tradition be held to be the Rule of Faith because Hereticks as the (b) See Irenaeus quoted a little after Gnosticks and others sticking to Tradition as their Rule could not be held as Hereticks There 's a manifest parity of these Discourses and the latter is as concluding as the former But it is to accumulate injuries upon Scripture because the mistakes and perversness of Men abuse it by false glosses and compell'd deductions therefore to judge it fit it should forfeit its Authority Our blessed Lord who so condemn'd the Jewish Traditions held the Scripture of the Old Testament to be the Jew's Rule of Faith and the Sadduces who denied the Resurrection sure were held by him to be Hereticks and yet they disclam'd Tradition and adher'd stifly to Scripture only as the Root or Rule of Faith Certainly it is the impress and appointment from God which constitute a Rule of Faith make it to be such and Men prove Hereticks when they wilfully wrong pervert and wrest it but 't is wonderful that Hereticks acknowledging it to be the Rule of Faith i. e. paying to it what is due to it or a pretence that it favours their Errors which is a slander of it should unmake it a Rule of Faith render it impossible to be held to be such 2ly In enquiry about the second thing propos'd it must be consider'd that the word Tradition has more acceptions than one And that Tradition may be used to different Persons at different times in a divers manner and to several ends 1. Tradition is taken sometimes both in Scripture and Ecclesiastical Writers not for Oral delivery of Opinions and Practices to Posterity but for what is deliver'd by Writing and even in the Sacred Scriptures The Jew's Law and Rites are said to be such (a) Act. 6.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Moses Tradition'd and yet they were a part of the Old Testament St. Paul (b) 1 Cor. 15.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 delivered to the Christians which he had also received that Christ dyed for our Sins which was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Scriptures (c) De Spiritu Sto. St. Basil says that our Baptisme in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is according to the very Tradition of our Lord and yet this is (a) Matth. 28.19 written with St. (b) Si ergo aut in Evangelio praecipitur aut in Apostelorum Epistolis aut Actibus continetur observetur etiam haec sancta Traditio In Ep. ad Pompeium Cyprian that is an holy Tradition which is either commanded in the Gospel or is contained in the Epistles and Acts of the Apostles 2ly It is observed that some of the Fathers had to do with such Hereticks as denied the Scriptures some part of them at the least and set up other writings in stead of them In dealing with such those Fathers were forc'd to have recourse to Tradition that so they might dispute with their Advesaries on such a Principle as they would allow and this in way of condescention 'T was thus with (c) Cum enim ex Scripturis arguuntur in accusationem convertuntur ipsarum Scripturarum quasi non rectà habeant neque sint ex autoritate quia variè sint dictae quia non possit ex his inveniri veritas ab his qui nesciant Traditioneâ— Non enim per literas traditam illam sed per vivam vocem ob quam causam c. Adversus baereses Lib. 3. Cap. 2. Irenaeus in his Contest with the Gnosticks Who says he when they are argued against out of the Scriptures accuse the very Scriptures themselves as if they were not right nor were of Authority sufficient and because their Sense is various and uncertain and because the Truth cannot be found in them by those who are ignorant of Tradition This made Irenaeus in opposition to their fictitious Tradition and pretended living Voice express himself the more respectfully of such Tradition as had brought down the Orthodox Doctrine from the Apostles in the several Churches Not that he preferr'd Tradition to Scripture for what his Judgment was of Scripture we have seen before and 't is the observation of (a) In Epist nuncupatoriâ Irenaeo praefixâ Erasmus that he fights against the Hereticks solis scripturarum praesidiis by the sole aid of Scriptures i. e. Scriptures were his chief Weapons and that if he took up Tradition 't was but occasionally upon the froward impudence of his Adversaries 3. We must distinguish of Times The Gospel was Preached before it was Written It was written too one part after another And when the whole was written the Copies could not presently be many and dispersed to all Christians especially the more new and remoto Converts Nay and had the Gospel never been written then the Church
must have been satisfied if such the pleasure of God had been with an Oral Tradition Hence (a) Quid antem si neque Apostolâ— quidem Scripturas reliquissent nobis nonne oportebat c. Adversus haer L. 3. C. 4. Irenaeus might say what if the Apostles had not indeed left the Scriptures to us would it not have behoov'd us to follow the Order of Tradition which they had delivered to them to whom they committed the Churches to which Ordination do assent many Nations of Barbarians which believe in Christ having Salvation written in their hearts without Characters or Ink by the Spirit and diligently keeping antient Tradition This I say Irenaeus might with reason write especially against those (b) Evenititaque neque Scripturis jam neque traditioni consentire eos Idem L. 3. C. 2. who consented neither to Scriptures nor Tradition i. e. such as descended from the Apostles But when as the whole Scriptures were long since written and plentifully Communicated to the Christian world the Case is quite alter'd Besides the nearer things are to their Origin they are the more genuine and sincere but at the farther remove they are from it the more they are in danger of changes and decays Tradition must be conceiv'd to have been much more pure at the distance of an hundred or an hundred and fifty or two or three hundred years from the Apostles and therefore then might be more rationally argued from in some cases than after 7 8 or 9 hundred years in which revolution of so many more Ages and after intercurrencies of many more accidents Tradition may be more suspected of that consumptiveness and of those changes which Time brings upon all things and therefore an Argument from it would be much more infirm Farther yet besides Oral the Fathers of the more Primitive Times might have written Traditions such Records to prove that such a Doctrine or Doctrines were profess'd by Apostolical Men by Holy Martyrs and Confessors successively to that present Age as were then extant but are perish'd since (a) Age jam qui voles curiositatem melius exercere in negotlo Salutis tuae percurre Ecclesias Apostolicas apud quas ipsae adhuc cathedrae Apostolorum suis locis praesidentur apud quas ipsae Authenticae eorum literae recitantur sonantes vocem repraesentantes faciem uniuscujusque Tertul. de Praescrip Tertullian speaks of the very Authentick Letters of the Apostles which were even then preserved in the Churches So that the Fathers might with the more safety trust and allege Tradition's suffrage than we can who live so incomparably farther off from the Apostles Days than they did it being very likely that in such a far longer space of time the more contingencies have interpos'd to disturb the clearness of Commerce between them and us 4ly Proofs may be brought in a divers manner and for different uses St. Paul quoted Heathenish Poets as well as the Law and the Prophets 'T is usual where the Subject is properly manageable upon the stock of Reason yet to argue likewise from Testimony to call in the concurring Judgment of others In Religion Protestants do not believe the Fathers to be infallible and yet it has been usual with them to cite them both in Homiletique Discourses and in Polemique Writings Testimony tho' it be not apodictical yet it is plausible Example in point of Opinion as well as of Practice is much gaining upon many is not alone commonly better understood but more prevalent too than Reason with many Capacities And when 't is the Testimony of many as Tradition is it causes those of an opposite Opinion to appear the more singular in their Persuasion and singularity is not of the best Credit So then the Fathers might on some occasions use Tradition's Authority the general consent of Christians in some Truth for one or more Ages yet not demonstratively but topically somewhat the more to repress or to disparage in other's Opinion the importunity of a petulant Adversary to shame a contumacious Heretick not as is said Sure Footing p. 140 to declare that the rejecting Tradition and adhering to Scripture made him an Heretick or they might urge it to the more tractable as a probable motive to assent tho' not as a Rule of Faith yet as such a persuasive as might be an occasion of Belief and the better dispose the Soul toward Faith and Assurance Yet still supposing Holy Scriptures to be the proper and ultimate basis of Christian Faith and that such Traditions were consonant to them and not over-ruling of them I believe that these considerations may be useful for the construction of the Fathers in such passages wherein they make the most honourable mention of Tradition and to shew that notwithstanding such a mention of Tradition yet they might yield to Scripture the Supremacy in the regulation of Christian Faith especially whenas they speak so reverently of Scripture in other places of their Works nay and give them the Precedence when they compare the one with the other And thus if after a digression yet I think not an impertinent one I have proved the Father's unquestionable Care and Diligence in preservation of the Holy Scriptures by their Religious and unparallell'd esteem and veneration for them SECT IV. 3ly The Holy Scriptures are secur'd by God's especial Protection of them Reason suggests that as there is a God a Supreme and first Cause who made the world and also provides for the welfare of his great Workmanship so that the Divine Providence does mainly watch over those Creatures on which God has imprinted the fairest Characters of his Power Wisdom and Goodness Such a Creature is Man And this Divine Providence is the Catholick Sanctuary of Mankind After all Mens own projectings and labours here is their last and surest repose They can't with a rational comfort Trade Travel Eat Sleep but with a sober hope of the Divine help and benediction For if Divine Providence smile not all Mens wisest Counsels and stoutest Endeavours will be successless They may go forth and never return home their Table may be a Snare and their Sleep Death more than in a Metaphor Next Religion tells us that God has designed and prepar'd for Man an everlasting Blessedness and determin'd of the due Qualifications of Man for that Blessedness and it is agreed that in the Sacred Scriptures God has revealed Himself concerning both These Scriptures are the lively Image of God the faire Copy of his Will a bright Express of his Truth and Holiness a Perspective into his Mind and into many of his secret Counsels authentick Records of the many and glorious manifestations of the Divine Wisdom Power Goodness Mercy and Justice in making governing all things and in the Salvation of Sinners From the dictates of Reason then and much more of Religion it is consequent that God has an especial Care that the Scriptures be safe on which he has impressed so much of himself which were